It ain't just a river in Egypt
I wanted to get a little bauble for my sweetie for our 11th wedding anniversary. She conveniently and oh-so-subtly left a Tiffany & Co. catalog laying around the house, with dog-eared pages on some items that caught her eye.
Kathleen took Jack on an overnight kayaking trip down the Colorado River a few nights a go. They went from the "969 Bridge" to Bastrop and left me with Ben and Anna. That gave me a chance to "sneak" away to our local Tiffany & Co., which is located in Austin's new premium mall - the Domain. I'm not really going to comment on the Domain - nice place, but not really part of my middle-aged husband with three kids lifestyle.
I took Ben and Anna to Tiffany & Co. and found the bauble. The sales associate tied it up in a pretty bow and put it in the famous Tiffany & Co. blue box (did you know that "Tiffany Blue" is color trademarked by Tiffany & Co., and has its own Pantone color definition? Neither did I). They gave me an empty bag so that Anna could carry something around (I let Ben carry the bag with the bauble - yikes!).
Our anniversary rolled around and I presented my sweetie with the present. She was very excited and happy. We went out on the town and had a great time.
The next morning, she sheepishly told me that she loves the bauble, but wants something else. Now, this may have been a touchy subject for many couples, but not us. I know how my wife thinks. Generally, jewelry is not something to be used as a surprise. Kathleen wants to be part of the process. My going to Tiffany & Co. was meant to provide her with the motivation to actually get what she wanted. And what she wanted was most cost-effectively found at BlueNile.com.
BlueNile is an awesome website (and I sort of "do" websites for a living). It is very user friendly, if the user (a) trusts BlueNile and (b) has does a bit of research on shopping for diamonds. Basically, there are FIVE C's for diamonds: clarity, cut, color, carat AND cost. Fix any four C's and you'll get a good deal on the 5th C at BlueNile.com (relative to Tiffany & Co.). Presumably, one can get even better deals, but at the expense of not shopping online. I was quite happy with what we selected and would shop again.
But I'm a bit concerned about what she wants next. Diamond earrings. Yikes!
Posted at 11:01AM Dec 04, 2007 by schnee in General |