The Olive Garden Project - Finance Update

On November 10, I made a post about a great idea Meelyn had, a plan to collect everyone's spare change, put it in a little bank, and save up for a New Year's Eve dinner for four at the Olive Garden or somesuch. I know that some of you reading this think that the Olive Garden, the Outback and all chain restaurants are déclassé, but will you tell me where else we're supposed to go, living here in the Chain Restaurant Capital of the United States? Listen, they serve decent food and I don't have to prep it, cook it, serve it or clean it up, so it truly doesn't matter to me if their marinara sauce comes in big plastic bags that they heat up in kettles of water on a stove. Or however they do it. And someone brings me all the Diet Coke I care to drink.

The little bank started out with about $3.50 and now, just eight days later, we're already up to $16.00. We'd really like to save up an amount that would allow us an appetizer, entrées, a dessert to share and money for the tip, and it looks like we're well on our way, just with the spare change we collect during the course of a day.

This will be a very nice treat for us, because thinking back, I don't think we've all four been to a restaurant together in almost a year. Wow.