2001-04-02 - 5:34 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "What is Love?" by Howard Somebody. Guy with blond hair. 80s song.

OK, so.

Longtime readers know that I have tried to be careful about the people I talk about on here. You won't, for instance, hear me talking shit about people. It helps, of course, that I never get mad at anybody (the occasional crazy driver aside).

Nevertheless, of late I have been thinking seriously about the privacy issue. Even though I don't think I'm saying anything negative, perhaps the person of whom I'm speaking does, or maybe they just plain don't want me telling you about them here on the web.

To that end, I have resolved not to divulge any more details that could be perceived as "personal". That means no discussing the details people's weddings, revealing their professions, or anything else that is unique and could reveal who they are if you know them but not me. I have also gone back through 131 entries -- a painful process, really -- and gotten rid of a lot of possibly personal references to my family and friends.

Interestingly enough, Poindexter often disagreed with me -- he thought that most of what I had written was okay to leave up -- but I'm going to err on the safe side.

Happily, Poindexter is still quite unconcerned about what the world knows about him, and is happy with my ground rules in talking about him, so you will still hear lots of stuff about us. I still don't care if the whole world knows I have hairy legs and laugh at fart jokes, so you'll continue to get TMI from me.

I will still talk about what we do when people visit and funny things that they may say. What you won't be hearing so much about are detailed descriptions of people's entertaining idiosyncrasies (only mine and Poindexter's, sorry) or anything else that they might consider personal.

Something Gnomeloaf said on the Gnomeboard reminded me to tell you something I haven't gotten around to yet:

I don't believe in diamonds.

That is to say, I don't believe in spending my money on a pretty rock when I'm just as happy with the cheap imitation: cubic zirconia.

I do like how diamonds look. I'm a girly-girl about the sparkliness and the reflection of all the colors, etc. etc. But the price! Christ!

When we were looking for a stone for my engagement ring, the jeweler showed me a CZ and a diamond of similar size so I could compare. Now, I can appreciate that the diamond has a much deeper, truer color reflection (CZ's reflect pastels where a diamond reflects primary colors). Also, I noticed that the diamond was more clear where the CZ is sort of whitish.

But are those differences worth $3000 to me? No. Your mileage may vary. Certainly the jeweler probably thought I was nuts.

My stone cost a whopping $10, and nobody can tell the difference. Everyone is surprised when I tell them it's not a diamond. I also went to KMart and got little half-carat CZ earrings, and went to Imposters at Pentagon City and got a one-carat pendant. So I look like I'm dripping in diamonds. My aunt Marianne gaped when she saw the pendant, before I told her it was fake.

My mom was worried that I wouldn't be happy with a CZ. A lot of people said, "Well, you can always buy a diamond later."

I can't see that happening. Too many other things that I'd rather do with the money. And I love my CZ. I keep it clean -- a must with CZ, since it dulls very easily from soap and skin oils -- and I love going to Safeway because the lights make it all sparkly. I stand under our recessed lights and play QVC saleswoman, holding my hand out and angling it to catch the light.

One of the best ten bucks I ever spent.

Also, Poindexter's "engagement ring" was a 32" Sony television. I didn't think it was fair that only the guy gets something out of getting engaged. So his ring cost more than mine. At least we can share his.

We went to Plinker's Day yesterday and it was a blast, but I'm out of time for today. Look for something tomorrow.

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