excellent news

Alex called me late the other evening and asked, politely, if she woke me up, which she hadn't, and then told me that she had some news. She and Josh are now officially engaged, ring and all. She said that Josh told her he had a gift for her, as she was sitting there, exhausted after a ten hour day, then he proceeded to give her the dog, then the cat,  etc, but finally, after the typical Josh goofiness, had her shut her eyes and when she opened them he was holding out an opened ring box. Her response was, "Really?" "Seriously?" 

As we talked on the phone, she was describing the ring to me, and he was in the background saying that he was going to email a pic to me, then he said they were coming over, which they did. In short order they were over and Alex showed me the ring, which description and photos would not have done justice to. It's just beautiful. It's a brilliant cut, carat and a half total weight, traditional style with a large (and I do mean large) diamond in the center with three (I think) .2 carat diamonds the band on each side, and there are chips in there somewhere, too, but I don't remember where. I just remember being surprised to find there were even more diamonds when I looked at it close up. This is not a ring that you have to use a magnifying glass to find the stone. Ohhhhh no. This is a very beautiful ring. Oh, and 14 k white gold. Alex has very graceful hands and the ring really looks beautiful on her hand. They had gone shopping together, and Alex and her sister had gone together without Josh, but Josh bought it alone, and he did really well. 

We talked for quite a while, especially considering they both had to be exhausted after working long days and having the adrenaline of the moment, but the time did finally come for them to leave. When we were at the door, the subject came up about if he put the ring on her finger or not, and it turned out that he hadn't put it on her finger, but he had Googled which hand and finger was the right one, so he was ready. I thought that was so cute, and so she took it off and he put it back on her finger himself. They are so cute. I'm so happy for them. I know Kathy is thrilled that Alex finally has a ring. She's been calling Josh Alex's fiance for years and now it's official. They called her first and woke her up and told her, and her response was "really?" then "Really?!? " when it finally sank it. This is going to make Thanksgiving a lot more fun. 

I had to wait until Josh called mom and dad before I could blog about it. I asked him to let me know when he told her (he called her the next day) but he was working so hard he forgot to call. I called him, and her (mom)last night, so we're good now. 

As for me, I woke up yesterday I'm sure with a smile on my face. I realized I woke up happy. I had so much fun playing online with Michele the day before, and we were going to do it again, easier this time cause we had the logistics figured out. I called her and told her I was up, and when we were ready we played some. She had played some on her own so we had some more songs to play and she had moved up to medium. The plan was that we would play and then take a break in between to run errands that we both needed to do and then come back and play until we were tired. And that's just what we did. And it was great. At one point, we took a break to give our arms and hands a rest and just chatted through the headsets so long that we had to refresh the game. It was great. Just great. So easy and so fun. I know how hard it is on your hands and arms so it's a good thing she has work and can't spend the hours that I do or it might be really bad for her elbow. But she's catching on quick. I just can't tell you how much fun I'm having doing this with her. I'm so glad she finally got it. She told me Kathy (Portland Kathy, obviously) had to tell her to stop talking about getting an XBox and finally "pull the trigger." Thank you, Kathy!

Today, I'm kinda tired, but I think it's from the shopping at Wal Mart, which I did pretty fast, like I always do when Ozzy is in the car. I don't like to leave him there too long alone. But, at least I have food in the house. So, I will chill today, and may or may not play with Michele again tonight. That will be up to her. Either way is fine with me. I know we'll be doing it again, so I have it to look forward to. By the way, anyone out there who buys Guitar Hero World Tour and wants to get in on the band, let me know. It just makes it more fun. We need a singer and a drummer. At least for now. Michele is natural drummer and I think when she finds a drum set she'll move over. As for me, I'll stick with guitar, but I'm really enjoying bass right now.