The Ring and I

I don’t have many pieces of really good jewelry. I have my share of nice stuff, the obligatory gold ring earrings and a birthstone ring that hasn’t fit in a very long time. And I inherited my mother’s good jewelry. My wedding ring fell off my finger years ago and other things always were more pressing than replacing it. I knew I was married.

Dirtman has never made jewelry purchases a priority, mostly because I’ve made it rather difficult to do so. First of all, we go to very few places where I felt the need to hang a bunch of metal from various appendages. My mother used to say the overuse of jewelry (and pronouncing it “jew-ler-ree”) gave you away as someone who more interested in quantity rather than quality. And then there’s my thing against diamonds, which I never wear. Nor will I wear diamond wanna-bes such as cubic zirconia, glass or clear crystal. Read about it here and here and then we’ll move on with the point of all this.

So Dirtman’s choices are very limited in the jewelry category and subtle hints regarding what I do like merely served to confuse him.

My favorite stone is jade. My birthstone is pearl. How hard can this be?

So, what to do, what to do?

Ah hah!

Dirtman’s mom and I were combing through a local antique emporium when, voila, there it was: a ring with jade surrounded by pearls.

“If he ever asks,” I said wistfully, “direct Chuck to this ring for a gift.”

And so….

Valentine's Day, the day I had pretty much given up on Dirtman remembering. Our usual form of celebration consists of us sticking to our usual schedule, except he waits until he has to pay for something, then turns to me and says, "By the way, this is your Valentines Day present." Sometimes it is actually appropriate, like we're eating dinner somewhere other than McDonalds that night or I happen to need to buy underwear. Sometimes it really bites like when we have to go to the hardware store or the vet. One year it was Salt's flea dip.

So imagine my surprise when my Valentines Day gift turned out to be perfect. It only took me 20 years, but now I know how it's done. I tell his mother.

Needless to say, I'm just tickled and haven't taken the ring off since I got it. So we do everything together, the ring and I:





First we cleaned Salt's eyes of optigoops;



Then we drove Heir 2 to his orthodontist appointment;






Did some laundry (neither the Ring nor I appreciate Heir 2's sock);















Choppa the garlic to maka da sauce;












Opened our surprise from the post office and admired our new candy tin (thanks, Leslie. We -- er -- I love it!);




Cleaned the bathroom;








Tried to get Topper to finally stay; and













considered an all new profile shot featuring some of our favoite things.






The irony is, while I always get Dirtman and the Heirs Valentines Day gifts, this year what I ordered did not come in time. So it was all about moi.

Editor's Note: Yes, we know. She did it again. Started out fine, but then all those ridiculous pictures. But we understand the weather has kept Dirtman home and on the computer. And the last two days have been the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. We expect Sisiggy to return to her usual wordy self in the days ahead. Providing she doesn't look like that last picture too early in the day...