Olga and Anton met in the fall of 2001 when both were first-semester graduate students at the University of Chicago. When a mutual friend introduced the two of them at a Domestic Problems concert, nobody had any clue that the two of them would eventually get married. Their conversation consisted of one word from Olga ("Hi.") and the usual rambling from Anton (who, it should be noted, was talking to Olga and to their friend Tami, not just to himself). Anton came away from the evening thinking Olga was quiet, while Olga thought Anton was loud. (As you all probably know by now, only one of them was right.)

They went their separate ways after the concert and didn't really see one another again until the following semester, when they wound up sitting together at a Super Bowl party. The only detail that either Olga or Anton remembers from their first actual conversation, which took place that day, was that Olga expressed the opinion that sporting events should have more female announcers to better explain the game to women who might be watching. Anton thought the idea was kind of ridiculous ("kind of" is an understatement), but he was impressed that Olga actually enjoyed watching sports and understood them, too, so he talked to her anyway. As they discovered that they shared some common interests, namely:

• 1. Sports
• 2. Spending nights doing anything but homework

the two quickly became good friends and were virtually inseparable for the remainder of the semester. Soon after the school year ended, in a move that surprised absolutely nobody who knew them, Olga and Anton began dating. Their first date, on May 12, 2002, consisted of a lavish dinner at Chili's and a couple of rounds of miniature golf. Let the record show that Olga won both games of miniature golf and that Anton, in a typical show of sportsmanship and grace in defeat, has refused to play that game with her ever since.

Over the next three and a half years, Olga and Anton shared a lot of good times, a lot of drives between Kalamazoo (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo) and Ann Arbor, and a lot of complaints about their favorite "cursed" baseball teams. They spent a football season sitting in the 96th row of Michigan Stadium--the best seats they ever had, because they weren't surrounded by stupid undergrads. They learned the joys of taping their favorite TV shows and watching them later without the commercials. They ate too much together, and then they went on a diet together. Anton convinced Olga to pick up ultimate frisbee; Olga convinced Anton to occasionally pick up the clothes in his apartment. When the evil pharmaceutical mega-giant Pfizer (note to the good people at Pfizer: I'm just kidding; my mother owns some of your stock, for crying out loud) acquired the company for which she worked, Olga moved back to Ann Arbor, allowing the couple to spend even more time together.

At some point during the summer of 2005, Olga and Anton finally figured out that they weren't going to get sick of each other any time soon. Naturally, they began talking about marriage, and when the idea caused neither of them to run away screaming, they knew they were on to something. Once they decided to get married, they quickly began making arrangements for the wedding. For the first time in recorded history, neither one of them procrastinated--they set a date and time and found sites for the ceremony and reception in practically no time. Only one minor detail remained to formalize their engagement: they had to actually get engaged. Anton was unwilling to propose without an engagement ring, and the ring Olga wanted was apparently hand-crafted by elves living in a remote region of Albania, so it took a little while to get the ring to Michigan.

The ring finally arrived, and on September 12, 2005, Anton finally found the courage required to propose. (Of course, it doesn't require much courage to ask a question to which you already know the answer.) During the winter semester of 2002, Olga had often visited Anton's Friday afternoon office hours so that Anton could ignore his students and the two of them could work together on the daily crossword puzzle. With that little bit of history in mind, Anton designed a crossword for Olga as part of the proposal. Several of the clues referred to their relationship and their shared interests, including, "A perfectly good place for a first date" (answer: Chili's), "The one team we can agree on" (answer: Michigan), "The greatest baseball team in the world" (answer: Red Sox), and "The greatest baseball team in the world ... in your slightly misguided opinion" (answer: Cubs). Anton hid the ring, along with a pair of roses, in Olga's closet.

When Olga got home that day, Anton was waiting with the puzzle and asked her to solve it. Ironically, Olga really just wanted to eat dinner, as it was fairly late and she was hungry, but she played along and finished the whole puzzle. When she was done, Anton gave her a highlighter and pointed out four words for her to highlight: "Look," "in," "the," "closet." When she opened the closet, Anton picked up the ring, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry him. Olga, having been rendered speechless, simply nodded. (To this day, she still hasn't actually said yes.)

Anton and Olga aren't sure what the future holds for them. (Well, as of this writing, there's a wedding in a few weeks, but what comes after that is a little uncertain.) Will they find fame? Fortune? The Holy Grail? (No, not Red Sox season tickets--that's merely Anton's personal Holy Grail. And as for Olga's personal Holy Grail--a Cubs World Series win--we're not going to hold our breath.) Nobody knows for sure. But they'll have fun while they figure it out. And, maybe one day, they'll even return to the miniature golf course.