Monday, August 31, 2009

Motorcycling

The mileage started at 24,342 and on my first tank of gas, I got 62 miles to the gallon. Sweet! But it's already getting so cold out . . . I need to find warmer morning clothes to wear (and figure out a solution for helmet hair). Still, what a contrast to the Suburban! (I went 154.7 miles on 2.49 gallons of gas.) Filling the tank cost me $6.47. Nice, nice!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

My Ring

Louie made me cry today. He gave me a box of chocolates from Abdallah's. Inside was a fabric envelope with my re-made wedding ring! After a year and a half (almost) of wearing costume jewelry, I finally have my ring again. It's beautiful!

Here's what I learned in this odyssey:
FL = flawless (extremely rare & expensive) / IF / VVS1 / VVS2 / VS1 / VS2 / SI1 / SI2 / I (imperfect)
This shows the range between a perfect stone, minor defects that can be seen with a microscope, defects that can be seen with the naked eye, etc.

Clarity of AB or C is top-quality. These stones are extremely clear. DEF is quite good. GHI is medium (most mall-store stones). JKL are poorer. Hmmm. My notes are confusing. Maybe this is the color range, not clarity. All I know is that A is best and it ranges down to L. The bottom of the color range means that you can see some tinting in the diamond.

I guess I didn't really learn a lot . . . but I love my ring!