Words are inadequate

uilos and I started dating close to eleven years ago. Even by the shortest count (from "officially started dating, this time") it's been over a year and a half. And we seem to fit pretty well together, so we figured we'd do something official-like.

Trouble is, neither of us like diamonds, and neither of us like the overtones of the whole 'buying a bride with an engagement ring' thing. So after a lot of discussion and saying "no that just looks dumb" (heart-shaped gems are simply ridiculous), we came up with designs for a semi-matched set of rings that we were happy with. And found a jeweler in Alexandria that was willing to work with us for a reasonable price.

We weren't really expecting it to take two and a half months, but Real Life appears to have intervened on the part of the jeweler. The results are definitely worth the wait, though.

(As to when we're getting married, eh. We'll probably be engaged for less time than we were dating. Probably.)

I know way too many people that have had the zombie plague this year. I'm still impressed that I managed to avoid it. I'm going on the theory that it's actually The Flu and my The Flu Shot has blocked it. Well, that and chugging Tang like an astronaut-in-training a couple weeks ago.

It felt good to take half a day off. It would have felt better to take half a day off yesterday, since this morning I actually managed to get into the rhythm of what I was writing about and figure out what the shape of it needed to be (hey look, another section of the thousand-page manual that needs to be rewritten from the ground up!) and didn't particularly want to interrupt that, but whatever.

After a false start, Secret Project Rock is at 50% completion, and likely to be unveiled . . . hm. Will have to discuss this further. Certainly before T-con. (The Rocker had been in for major surgery and was hopped up on Percoset for several days, during which time she misplaced some of the initial SPR work. I guess that makes SPR a casualty of the drug war.)

That, however, was only the second most awesome part of the afternoon.

There's a smart dealership in Tysons, out Route 7 towards the toll road. uilos and I went out for a test drive today, because we could. The smart is tiny on the outside, but feels gigantic inside. I think it has more space in the front seat than Straylight. It definitely sits up higher. (Climbing back into Straylight to go home felt like the car was eating me.) The "automatic manual transmission" is a bit jerkier than Dad's old truck, and the brakes are stiff. There's more trunk space than you think there is; you could totally do grocery shopping for a couple in one of these. The entire roof is smoked glass. There are little pods on the dashboard with a tachometer and a clock. And the turn radius . . .

"You'll need to make a U-turn here."

"I bet I can make a U-turn into the left lane."

". . ."

She could, too.

Sadly they're sold out for the next sixteen months. Which is honestly okay; I do not need a new car, Straylight is still perfectly functional, and not having a car payment is really nice for my budget. Plus there's talk of a new model design for 2010 anyway, so I can wait 'til then and perhaps they'll clean up some of the rougher edges in the design.