Details...

Wasn't feeling too good this morning...left ear is completely clogged, and I generally feel like crud, so I stayed home today. No need to pass this on to anyone else. Netted a total of 11 hours in bed, and I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Since I now find myself with a bit of time, here are some more details about how the whole engagement thing went down. Alison and I were technically engaged a week before the ring was purchased. Originally, the plan was to covertly locate and purchase the ring, then wait until New Years for the presentation/question. However, after some unfortunate e-mails being left open, my cover was blown. This turned out to be a good thing though, since the ring I was going to get wasn't neccessarily her first choice.

Instead, we decided to go up to Grand Marais on Friday, where the artist who I was looking into was having a gallery showing at Sivertson's. We rolled into town about 5pm, and went over to the gallery. We sought out Mr. Hoglund, and he told us that most of the jewelry on display at the show were his art pieces, and that his wedding/engagement pieces were at his shop. We agreed to meet him the next day, and had an excuse to get the super-fancy room at the Best Western.

The next day we headed to his shop, and after chatting for a bit, he showed us a ring on display in the window. Amazingly, it fit perfectly and was stunning. So we got to go home with it, which was awesome. It looks like this:

(click on image for larger picture)

The stone in the center is Isle Royal Greenstone, and it is surrounded by 6 small diamonds on each side. The band is a design that depicts the Sawtooth Mountains, as seen from the shoreline of Lake Superior heading up the arrowhead in Minnesota. Very appropriate for a person who spent 3 summers and a fall up north.

I'll let you know wedding details as they happen, but we're waiting a bit, so don't expect anything concrete soon.