Stressful days of holiday shopping

I would maintain that holiday shopping is more stressful for boyfrends, husbands and otherwise male part of population. No, I'm just kidding. Just because I am so attentive to detail and so unforgiving, so mistrusting towards merchants does not mean all males are the same. I can actually think of a good strategy that I might want to pick up: set the budget, and grab the first thing that matches it. That would be retailer's dream if all people were buying gifts according to this scheme... But there are benefits for buyer as well: that removes stress and emotional desperation of looking for a best deal. It saves a lot of time too.

So, we agreed that me and my beautiful wife would go shopping for her present together. This year, she's into white gold and diamonds. I can guess where the influence could have come from, but why bother. She desrves that and so much more anyway. But yesterday while I was working, she went to the mall and got enamored with this ring. No problem, ~$800 for 1/3ct solitaire in 18 karat white gold. It's just that when I came home and took a good look at the stone, ther was this big crack in it. Damn! And the sales person told her this is SI2 which stands for "Slightly imperfect"? Of course, lighting in the store is such that even with a magnifying glass such defects are hardly seen. So, a bit of advice to whoever reads this: get the stone under diffuse light to look for imperfections. Halogen lights create so many bright reflections that our eye is incapable of seeing inhomogenities...

Here, the stone is shot under halogen table lamp. Seeing defect is possible after you've seen it under diffuse light, but it is quite hard if this is your first look.



Here, stone shot in diffuse daylight. Crack is the blurry stripe stretching horisontally across the middle...




Pictures taken using our new Canon S80 camera. We love this one, but I'll keep this for another story.