Chris's Side:First of all, the background: May and I have been talking about getting married for a while. We agreed that we should go through May's mom (Marguerite) to get the engagement ring, as she has fabulous contacts in the gem industry and has impecible taste. May knew that she wanted a color-change sapphire, but after that point Marguerite and I took over.
I knew that I had to figure out how to make it so that May would have some level of surprise at being proposed to, so I kept the illusion that the ring wouldn't be ready until at least Christmas. After all May's mom is in the middle of launching a new business! But in fact, Marguerite had sent me the ring by mid-August. The ring is a heart-shaped color-change sapphire surrounded by diamonds. It is amazing! I can't believe what Marguerite was able to wrangle for us. But as she said, May is her daughter and she wants the best she can do for her.
So I kept telling May that the ring (and therefore the proposal) would not be ready before Christmas. I kept up the charade, hoping she would believe me. May wanted to have dinner at the Herb Farm for her birthday, so I planned to propose to her then. I called the restaurant and they became part of my devious plan.
The big Night:
We arrived at the Herb Farm in time to go on the tour of the gardens. The Herb Farm uses only local produce and grows a large portion of their own herbs and produce on site and at another location. The rest is locally sourced. Carrie, the owner (and my accomplice) let us sample some of the herbs that would be used in our 9-course meal for the evening. All the while I was pondering how I was going to get the ring to Carrie so she could have is brought to May before dessert. Finally, the opportunity presented itself. Carried seated us and took our coats. I excused myself to go to the bathroom and caught up with Carrie.
"Carrie?"
She didn't miss a beat. "There's something in your pocket?"
"Yep. Inside jacket pocket."
"When do you want it delivered?"
"Just before dessert."
"So late? Are you sure?"
"Yep. I want her to have her guard way down."
And so the plot was laid.
May will describe the meal in much more modest terms, but it was truly an amazing experience. They change the themes throughout the year as different local food is available. This year the theme was called, "The Iron Sommelier", which pitted their two amazing sommeliers against each other to come up with the best wine-food pairings. Needless to say there was no bad wine served that night, and some were absolutely astounding.
We shared a table with three other couples, very kind and friendly people. A couple from Dallas, Texas, and a mother-daughter pair from southern California. The evening went on and we talked on all sorts of subjects, revelling in great food and wine.
Finally, Carrie came by to clear some dishes. As she leaned over she whispered in my ear, "it's coming up next." Ah. The big moment is nigh upon me!
The conversation carried on normally. Then Tysan, one of the sommeliers, came by with a beautiful plate with a silver domed bowl. They set it down in front of May. She looked around wondering where everyone else's was. The rest of the table was guessing that it had something to do with her birthday. At this point, she just sat there, ever the queen of ettiquette, refusing to open the bowl until others were served.
"It's just for you, Hon. Open it."
"But what about everyone else."
"It's just you. Open it."
"But-?"
"OPEN IT!" (She is far too polite in her version)
She reached out and opened the lid. Inside is the red box with the ring in it. She gasped. She just sat there with her hands over her mouth. I reached in took the box out and opened it. "Ohmygod!Ohmygod!Ohmygod!" she said as I opened the box and revealed the ring. I took it out and put in on her finger.
"For 3.5 years you have been my friend, my companion and my love. I want you to be my friend, my companion and my love for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?"
For a few seconds all she could say was, "Ohmygod!Ohmygod!Ohmygod!"
"Um...Does that mean yes?"
"Oh yes! Of course!"
At that moment the whole restaurant erupted in applause and a standing ovation. We eventually stood up and gave our thanks to all, and were given glasses of Dom Perignon to go with the event. WOW!
May was totally stunned, her mouth was wide open. The whole table was a-flutter with chatter. I apparently gave no signs of being nervous. Cool as a cucumber!
But I must admit I was a little bit off kilter. You see, May is a crier. She cries at commercials and anything remotely sentimental. But not a tear had yet been shed. However, after the meal was over and we gave our thanks to the staff at the Herb Farm, and were driving home, then she started to cry. Luckily, she just kep saying how happy she was along with the tears.
The next morning she woke up and just stared at the ring on her finger...By noon (about the time her hangover wore off...after all we had tried more than 15 wines by the time the night was over) she was already getting her wedding planning spreadsheets up and going...EEK! :D
May's Side:We drove to the Herbfarm on Saturday for a dinner that was going to start at 7PM. We got there before 6:30PM and had a chance to join the garden tour.
Everything was so beautiful! Dinner was exquisite. The food was phenomenal and the wine was spectacular. We were having a great time chatting with other guests seated at our table.
After the main course was over, one server came by and placed a plate on the charger in front of me. It had a small domed silver container with a slide-open lid in the center of it (the kind you’d expect caviar to be served in…on ice). I thought that we probably were going to have some ice cream for dessert.
However, I looked around and noticed that no one else at the table was served. I sat there and stared at it until Chris said, “Open it.”
I objected by saying, “But other people haven’t been served their dessert yet!”
By this point, Chris was a bit more adamant. He said, “No, I suggest you open it.” I pushed the lid open and there was a small red box inside. My jaw dropped.
While I was still in shock, Chris opened the box, revealing a beautiful sapphire ring inside. He took the ring and placed it on my left ring finger then uttered the most beautiful-sounding words to me (that I am having a slightly difficult time recollecting since I was in such as state of shock). The last sentence that I will never forget was, “Will you marry me?” I paused for a brief moment, letting it all sink in and replied, “Of course. Yes!” All the guests in the restaurant stood up and clapped their hands.
Everything else that happened afterwards that night was sort of a blur. The whole thing finally hit me during our car ride home and I began to shed my tears of joy. It could not have been more perfect. A wonderful dinner in a beautiful environment on my birthday, but most of all… The best birthday present I could ever asked for is to have Chris in my life, now and forever
Yesterday I spent a few hours working on the patio, and with May's help made good progress. I was so happy that May wanted to help. She ended up with a fairly arduous job. It turns out that the stones are off by about 1/2" to the edge of the stairs. Instead of trying to cut the stones that amount, I'm just chipping the concrete at the stair lip back 1/2". May did a great job, but it's slow going and pretty demanding on the upper arms.
I focused on laying moving and laying down stones. I think there's a couple days work left doing that.
Once the stones are down I will rent a masonry saw to cut the odd size stones I need in a few places. From there it's just a matter of putting in the sealing sand and tamping it down. Then I can finally enjoy the fruits of my labor. Of course there will be more to do, for the clean-up, but that I can take at a slower pace.
Uff. A lot of work. I got in about 3 hours of work tonight and made good progress. I wanted to keep working, but I bonked and needed to take a break. I'm not going to get much done the next few days because I have the Seattle 100 charity event on Saturday (http://www.seattle100.org/) and need to prep the bike for that tomorrow. So I will probably only have an hour or so between now and Sunday.
Woo-Hoo! I put down the first stone yesterday!
Today I only got about 1-1/2 hours of work in...This is going to take a while. I had a little trouble with some of the pavers lining up properly, but I seem to have solved that problem. There are a few areas where there might be some issues, but I'll be dealing with those as they arise. So far so good! :D
Are you kidding me? Of course I could use the help! Poor Victor had no idea what he was in for. But thanks to him we managed to complete laying down the base layer in just 1 day! It would have taken me at least two days without him.
As I sit on my front porch this evening, freshly showered and surrounded by neglected yardwork (mow the lawn, cut back dead flowers, weed, fertilize, and on and on) and as a sip of wine (Horizon's Edge Bone Dry Gewurtztraminer) washes down the last layer of dust coating my mouth. I notice for the first time that it was a perfect day in Seattle. Not a cloud in the sky, perfect temperature (about 80 or so).
Therefore, tomorrow will be a day of rest. I will go celebrate the holy festival of the Sunday Ride at the church of The Great Twisties where I will practice the ritual of Scraping a Knee. After which we will gather in Paul's woodland retreat to observe the holy saints of MotoGP demonstrate miracles at the Sachsenring Cathedral and partake of the feast of St. BBQ. Twisted be the throttle, Amen.
I hope to be done with the excavation by the end of this week (ever the optimist). It will take me another day or two to level and tamp the ground, then I'll have the 1/4-minus delivered and the sand. That will take another week to move, level and tamp down. Then the simple matter of installing the pavers! No problem...Yuh.
