No engagement ring and matching plain gold bands for wedding rings. The DH never wears any jewelery but a watch and told me he'd buy the ring for himself but didn't dig the symbolism and didn't think he would wear it. He has not only worn it every day since but I found out that when he has been doing labor around the house, he puts it on a chain and wears it around his neck. He's a cutiehead, that one.

Vortex, did you see this NY Times article? Condo developers may be promising more than they can deliver. Shocking, isn't it?

Not really. That's why I had a housing inspector at my walkthrough. He measured water temp and pressure, etc.

Needless to say, Barney is now Paul's forever.

Awww, you're going to be Paul's favorite teacher ever for ever and ever.

As JZ notes we decided against diamonds because (a) she thinks the diamond business is evil and (b) we couldn't afford it. But the alternative was the very nice gold ring with a Hebrew inscription from the Song of Solomon which, frankly, is cooler for us anyway.

Plus, Nilly then went and pointed out the double meaning in the quote so it was extra good.

But (a) would have trumped everything else even if (b) hadn't been a factor. I would, however, not be at all averse, should (b) ever cease to be a factor, to lab-created diamonds. The DeBeers people have been flailing about wildly over the last couple of years about how lab-created diamonds don't count, but I could frankly not possibly give less of a shit about what the DeBeers people say.

Unless they were to say it at a joint conference joined by Messrs. Vick and Gonzales; then I might give an exponentially tinier shit what they say. But only then.

{{{Jessica}}}

Shoe post! I think these are the last of my flats. They are just okay. I'm not so into the slide-on these days: [link] Side: [link]

GRONK! One too many Boston Cream Pie martinis last night. It seemed like a good idea at the time. t clutching vat of vanilla latte to breast

NOT "just okay," GC. Those are pure sugar.

In re: wedding rings: I've been making noises lately about wanting one. I don't want a diamond though. I'd really like the Cartier Love ring, but I can't justify the $$$. And, yes, that sweet GF of mine has offered to buy it for me.

My engagement ring has a sort of weird history. Joe was engaged before and there was a big fight over getting the ring back from her. Anyway, his dad went and got it back and took it to Joe's friend who was a jeweler and got a different ring - I guess to just hold onto until Joe, presumably, wanted to get engaged again.

Now, when I first heard this story, it sort of irritated me because a) my husband is normally very romantic and b) I would like to have thought that the ring was meant for me and not just the next girl that came along. Also, while it's a very pretty ring, it does stick up a lot and I have scratched Ellie (or myself or my clothes) many times with it.

Then, Joe and I were going through a rough patch almost 9 years ago. He was in Korea and I was in the States. He had his brother give me the ring as a way of showing me that he was serious about us getting married eventually and that I should keep the ring until we actually got engaged as a sort of promise.

I kept the ring, things got better, and eventually we moved in together. Then, he took it back without me knowing and surprised me in a rather romantic proposal on the dance floor at a ball. That part was nice. Despite the sort of weird history, I like the ring very much because it has history to it.

I am no more enamoured with the idea of engagement rings than I was before, but I am charmed by the sweetness of the individual tales told here.

For a long time people have been telling me that I'll get more traditional when I am about to get married. What they neglected to factor in is the likelihood that I'd have to get more traditional in order to even get started with the engagement thing.

So all bets are off.