The one where she said yes - AGAIN.

After weeks of agonizing waiting, the ring was finally finished, courtesy of the craftsmanship available at Barnes Jewelers of Oconomowoc. For those of you that don't know the whole story... In short, it took longer than expected for the ring to get done, and due to extenuating circumstances, I couldn't wait any longer. Barnes was nice enough to lend us a loaner until they finished (thanks, John!).

Christina came up Saturday after a meeting she had for work. She was patient in watching me reassemble the clutch and later helped bleed the brakes on the Venture. I had a little something up my sleeve.

Mid week, she had called, very excited that the weather was going to be so nice this weekend - a beautiful 80 degrees. Wow. Strange October. Unbeknownst to her, I had just gotten off the phone with Barnes, getting the exciting news that the ring would be done Friday. We talked a bit, and decided it'd be a great time to go check out Lapham Peak, one of the numerous stops on our first date, back on November 17th (yur Mom). I was super excited to have another excuse to ride around on the Venture and enjoy the beautiful weather while enjoying the beauty of my home state.

I got up bright and early Saturday to start the project on the Venture - replacing the clutch. I knew there was no chance we could make another "2 up" ride for a day on that old clutch. I got new pads and upgraded springs for the pressure plate. It's like a dream now.

Half way through, I cleaned up as best I could to run across town to pick up the ring. It was stunning. I was speechless - hopefully, they don't think I wasn't impressed due to my lack of words and praise. I called up Mom and met her and OC to show them - I was very excited :-).

So, Christina arrives and was very patient in waiting for me to finish up getting the bike ready. I knew that it was entirely likely that it wouldn't get finished - it's just the way things work when us Quick boys get going on a project. "It'll only take 2 hours or so." By golly, I think this one was actually right about on par with the plan. I spent some time working on the brakes and wiping down the engine with Engine Degreaser too since there was still plenty of time and daylight left.

So, I took a quick shower, and sneakily threw the ring box in a little carry on bag. In honorary tradition, I packed a bottle of wine for us to drink there at the park (as we did on our first date). This was the "cover" for the bag. I'm so sneaky.

Since it was so beautiful, I took us on a very roundabout way to get there... lounging around the beautiful highways of Washington, Dodge, and Waukesha Counties. The colors aren't all quite out yet for fall, but it was still stunning. God's hand in the beauty of the Creation He's given us is simply incredible.

After arriving to the park, we climbed the top of the tower. Looking out over Nagawica Lake, standing behind her, I clumsily swept my hand back into the bag to dig out the ring. And again, got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. Had there not been a dozen other people on the tower with us, it probably would have been a bit more romantic... oh well.






After we got back home...

These were supposed to be some "better" shots with my "good" camera. Well, they're more detailed anyway...

This is a design that I came up with after browsing around a few stores with Christina back in May. I took some of the basic concepts from a few that she really liked and ran with it. Barnes took my ideas to 3D CAD and had custom castings made for this. It's a work of art - thanks to John @ Barnes for helping my ideas come to reality.

So - what's it like? There's a round, Brilliant cut stone in the center, set in a pendant style perimeter (top and outer edge) of melee stones. The top sides of the four bands are lined with the same melee stones. The side "cross" bands are lined with alternating standard clear/white and a "Caribbean blue" melee diamonds. The pictures just don't do it justice. Or her, obviously. Duh.