I promised you an update about something I did last Friday, but have't come through yet, thanks to the European warm milk syndicate and a certain baseball team I refuse to mention. So here it is.

My girlfriend, the Sarah I keep referring to, doesn't read these pages. Well, she did once, but announced a boycott given my contention that she has a small but serious issue when it comes to driving directions. All of this is unfortunate, as my little story here is directly related to another of her little character traits.

With increasing frequency over the last few months (and not unrelated to the weddings we've attended and my brother's engagement), Sarah continues to inquire as to when she may get a diamond ring of her very own. Now while in many men this would induce some sort of low grade fever and hives, I'm very comfortable with the idea of marriage. I mean, we've been dating for over 2 years, living together for four or five months, and we've both pretty much admitted that we are beyond the point of no return as far as commitment goes.

Still, there's one issue at hand where engagment is concerned: money. I don't have any. Or, more specifically, I don't have any that isn't already earmarked for one of my various creditors, rapacious bloodsuckers one and all. This makes buying such an item difficult, especially when you add in a beleaguered credit history (those rapacious bloodsuckers again).

But on the financial plus side, my sibs and I are in the process of selling the family home. Not that many bites, given the current economic and social clime, but it would be a big chunk of change. Certainly enough for a ring.

Thus, off to the jewelry store we went. Oddly enough, Sarah was the more resistant of the two of us. All of her talk melted in the face of actually going to look, due to some non-specific "embarrasment." As I have noted before, Sarah is not one for speaking up, and I think this qualified. I made some noises about her perhaps not really wanting to do this, which cleared up her problems. Off to the Natick Mall!

We didn't have a specific plan, outside of going to a jewelry store, looking at some rings, and getting a definite ring size. We happened into Kay Jewelers, and after a little standing around looking, a very friendly woman came over and took us through things.

The good news, for me, is that anything over .75 carats looks really odd on Sarah's petitie hands. I don't mean to be a cheapskate about things, but this cleared a pretty big hurdle. The only problem we had is that they were pushing their own uncertified diamonds, which I'm not too crazy about. You have insurance issues there, and I'm not sure I trust their in-house grading.

Side note: if anyone reading this is able to take the "Gemstones" class the BU offers through the geology department, do it. It actually comes in handy in times like this.

Then came the expected "would you like to sign up for a Kay Card blah blah blah," which I figured would be a good out, as my credit causes card applications to burst into flames and wail in anguish. So you can imagine my surprise when I qualified for an amount just enough to purchase a ring. Hmm.

But I passed, saying I wanted to surprise Sarah. Which I do, but I also didn't want to commit right then to a ring I wasn't fully comfortable with. Kind of funny to think I'm the one doing most of the worrying here, but caveat emptor and all that.

All in all, it was a surprisingly calm experience. The sales person did make the assumption that we were going to buy then and there a little quick, but I suppose that's one of those sales things. I didn't plan to buy the actual ring there, but with the card I just may do so, at least to spread things out. Is it a trap? Probably. But outside of bubble gum machines, this is probably the best way I'm going to have to do this.

Unless someone wants to buy a house?