1. Well, I guess I’ll cut to the chase with this one… If you haven’t heard, I took the plunge and asked Nicole to marry me! I proposed at sunset on a pier over the Currituck Sound on the grounds of the Currituck Beach Light in Corolla, NC (on the Outer Banks). Thankfully, she said yes! After nearly 8 months of searching for a setting and diamond, I finally found this one, designed by Gebrueder Schaffrath of Germany. Thanks, Adam (from I. Gorman Jewelers) for all of your help!

2. And speaking of the Outer Banks, what a vacation! We had an absolutely awesome, awesome time in a great big house with a whole bunch of our friends drinking, playing cards, beaching, swimming, and generally hanging out. It was definitely tough to come back to work yesterday, I can tell you that much.

3. And more: On the drive back to DC from Corolla, Nicole and I had a bit of car trouble. Nothing serious in the end (a heat shield from under the car, which I was eventually able to break off, had started to fall of and was dragging on the ground), as we found an Advance Auto Parts store nearby in Jockey’s Ridge State Park while on the Outer Banks, but that never happened. However, I did take a slew of digitals with the point-and-shoot. You can find that set here, or a slideshow here. Be warned though, as of today, captions are only partly complete.

5. Nicole and I spent the weekend parading her ring around town… despite a long, 8 hour, drive home from OBX, we mustered up the energy to see some friends at a birthday party nearby. Though we were planning to go home shortly thereafter, we hit up our two regular spots in Adams Morgan for a little while and got to show off the ring a bit more.

6. All of this showing off, well, it’s partly due to the fact that I had ordered the ring about 3 sizes too large (boo!). So tomorrow, we’ll be returning to the jeweler to have them size the ring and send it back to Germany to be resized.

7. I’m quite proud of myself, concerning this whole engagement ring process. I kept it a complete secret from all friends and family, save a select few that knew only out of necessity. Needless to say, everyone was completely shocked, surprised, and excited. I gave myself a pat on the back for that one…

8. Since it had been a few weeks since we last say Ryan, Blythe, and the boys, we spent a few hours Sunday afternoon just hanging out with them. They wanted to hear the whole story about the engagement and about how I found the ring. I guess I should get used to telling that story…

9. My pool league team, the Ballbreakers, kicks back into gear tonight for the first time in two weeks since we last swept the finals of the previous season in a 3-0 drubbing. Though we are dropping our top-ranked player and adding one who has barely played pool at all, I think we are still the team to beat. We shall see…

10. And finally, Nicole and I have two baseball games this week. Suffice it to say, I don’t think I’ll reach 30 games this year like I had hoped… money is just too tight and we are trying to kind of tighten the purse sttrings as much as we can. Nonetheless, I’m hurtin’ for a ballgame!