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Other (non-academic) Interests:

First, some history of the ring: It was my grandmother's engagement ring that she gave to my Mom before she passed away, and my Mom has always told me that when I found the right girl, she would give it to me to give to her. So it's a very sentimental family heirloom, in addition to being a really nice ring.

Now let me tell you the proposal ideas that I didn't use.

Idea #1: Buy the Lord of the Rings DVD box set and then slip the ring into there. Sort of like a "one ring to rule them all" kind of pun. I didn't do this for a number of reasons, not least because it required finding a way to re-shrink-wrap something without looking like I'm trying to commit fraud

Idea #2: Give her a teddy bear under the pretense that Ranger Bear (my stuffed teddy that I've had since I was born) had reached the point in his life where he wanted someone to share his days with... And of course the new teddy would be somehow holding the ring. There are some major problems with this plan as well, not least of which that it requires a ring AND a new teddy bear, which is a lot of work.

Here's what I finally did do: Helen was working late in the lab one night (she's a chemist so this is a regular occurrence) so I tagged along to keep her company. She works in a "glovebox", which is a large tank with a nitrogen atmosphere inside, and to access anything in the glovebox you need to use these rubber gloves that stick out of it. Hence the name glovebox.

While she was out of the lab, I slipped in and put the ring into the glove of the glovebox, and when she returned, I asked, "Honey, can you show me how this thing works again?" Of course she had already demonstrated the glovebox for me a few weeks earlier, but she obliged me anyway. Of course I put the ring too far into the glove for her dainty hands to find, so then I was all, "Um, can you do it again?", and then finally, "Just, like, um, feel around in there maybe?" Then she finally found the ring, and we're planning the wedding!

I've gotten mad props from other chemists on this one, while the computer scientists have mostly been hung up on what the hell a glovebox is. The joys of being a nerd!

Ths is us in NYC in June 2009: