Well, it's happened. Diane and I are now engaged. I popped the question last night. It was Diane's birthday yesterday, so I was more than happy to take Diane out. It gave me a chance to be a little more secretive about plans for the evening. I took her for dinner at the Creperie - a place we've been to before, but only in a large group. We both said we needed to come back at some point, so I figured this was a good time to do so. Dinner was very nice. The Creperie even gave Diane a little candle in some whipped cream with a chocolate dipped strawberry next to it for her birthday. They also gave her a coupon for future use at the restaurant. We'll probably be back!

After dinner, I had it in my mind to go visit a Louise McKinney Park. We had stopped at this park a couple years ago after an event we attended, so it had some historical value to us. I kinda had in my mind the idea to pop the question there. But there was a large number of people around, and the mosquitoes made everything rather distracting, so we instead just wandered around and I took a few photographs (including the one above which I am very happy with!). It's quite a nice park actually - there's a Chinese theme setup there with a pagoda that's under construction, a bridge, and some of those Chinese lion statues. There's also a meandering path with plants lining both sides. When we were there last, there was a ton of flowers blooming, but it's still too early for them when we were there last night.

So after our walk through the park, we returned back to Diane's apartment. I knew there were some flowers awaiting her there from her family, so I wanted to make sure she got to see those. I then popped the question there, presenting her with the ring I had carefully chosen a little more than a week ago. More on the ring in a moment. She said yes! (not that it was a big surprise). We even put on some music after that and shared a waltz together (for those who don't know, we met in ballroom dance class -- waltz is kind of our thing).

The ring: I have an aversion to diamonds. In particular, an aversion to engagement diamonds. I find it rather disturbing that a company (De Beers) can manufacture a tradition that never really existed in the first place. There are a lot of other things I find disturbing about the diamond industry, and these facts all made me want to just avoid the whole diamond thing altogether. Luckily, Diane knew about this aversion and she seemed happy with an alternative gemstone. So when I went shopping, I went looking for an emerald. Diane's birthday is in May, and the emerald is the birthstone for that month. So I found it rather appropriate that I would propose to her on her birthday with her birthstone!

So that's my story. I must say that I am quite happy, and Diane is as well. We're looking at a June wedding - so the planning should probably start soon!

Heraldk