So . . .

It's been about six weeks. Time to check in here again, I'd say.

Firstly, Happy Holidays to all of you (if you're still here) for all the holidays that recently transpired. Hope yours were good; mine were very nice. Things were a lot more hectic this year than usual, but nearly everything was great and the things that went wrong didn't mess everything up too badly.

What went wrong, you say? Oh, where to begin . . . how about beginning with what went right? Yes, a much better plan.

After dating for eight months, then breaking up for nine months, then dating again for 12 months, Elliott and I became officially engaged on January 12. That was our one year anniversary after getting back together again, and the whole evening was a great success. We had been discussing getting married for a while, and I had even picked out a ring, so I knew it was coming. However, Elliott wanted to make it an occasion and had a Secret Plan for a couple months on how he was going to propose, so I didn't know when or how it was going to happen. On the 12th, we went out to dinner at Cafe Trio (site of our first first date) and then to the Gateway theaters to see Valkyrie. (It was pretty good but dragged in the middle.) This continues our theme of not really going to see "date" movies for momentous dates.

• First date: Pirates of the Caribbean 2
• First Valentine's Day: Blood Diamond
• Second first date-ish type evening: Sweeny Todd
• Engagement night: Valkyrie

So anyway, as we were walking back to the car at about midnight, Elliott steered us over to the Olympic fountain, got down on one knee, and proposed. It was really sweet. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket - the directions I gave him in August 2006 to get to my house to pick me up for our first date! Wrapped in the paper was a ring. Not the ring I had picked out, as it was not ready, but a stand-in that he purchased (appropriately) from the zoo gift shop. It's a very nice stand-in. The wedding is scheduled for August 1st; mark your calendars!

So this year Christmas and New Year's were very busy, trying to do everything with both families for the first time. We went to Elliott's aunt and uncle's house in Heber for Christmas Eve, then he came over to our house for Christmas dinner, and then we went to his grandparents' for Christmas More Dinner. New Year's Eve (also his birthday) we party-hopped to three different parties, ending up with his friends from high school before midnight.

The only real thing that went wrong and was directly related to the holidays was that Elliott's car was totalled on Christmas night. A big blizzardy storm struck up while we were at his grandparents' house, and once he got me home and then headed back to his house the roads were quite slick. His car was doing great in the snow, but some idiot in a Lincoln Navigator was foolishly going the posted speed limit and smashed into the back of him at a stoplight. Elliott was pretty much fine, but the car was not.

After having to miss work and go without a car for a few days, not to mention a few weeks of insurance headaches (insurance adjusters don't work much between 12/25 and 1/1), he now has a new, used Saturn to drive without paying much of anything out of his pocket. All's well that ends well, but dealing with the mess of a totalled car really takes it out of you for those weeks [ed. note: see the gazillions of posts by me in the fall of 2006].

Pictures will be posted soon of the stand-in ring, the "real" ring, and other stuff.

Up next: the saga of the broken finger!