But that's the least of your problems, you should really be concentrating on memorizing Shakespeare's sonnet "How do I love thee, let me count the ways" blah, blah, blah, and trying to create a chivalrous love-infested moment for your love slave to gather up all the brownie points you can get... But no, you have to be male and turn this into a battle!  You got her hopes up when you asked her to marry you, but you neglected to mention your competitive urge to conquer the world diamond market and arise victoriously with the deal of the century.

The reality is that you guys have messed up the whole engagement process. Now pay attention, it's supposed to work like this... You buy a diamond in a solitaire setting, in a price range you can afford, and then you're supposed to propose in some romantic fashion that she will remember forever... Duh!

Then after she bawls her eyes out and screams "!!! Yes !!!" in such a way as to disrupt everybody around you and ravages you in public, you're supposed to go hopping off together to select the mounting of her dreams. This way you have managed to control the major portion of the purchase (the diamond) and create a moment she'll remember forever.  Get it?

You're not supposed to be dragging your fiancé all over town, tormenting her with dreams of diamonds and mountings you can't afford or are too cheap to actually buy.  Being a man of the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's or even the new millennium, and not a direct descendant of Errol Flynn, we know it's too late and you've already flubbed this up beyond all recognition (that’s PC “FUBAR” for our military friends), especially if you're an engineer like our dear old dad.  Mom waited twenty five years for her diamond, she finally gave up and bought it for herself and it took him six months to notice it (!) and we’re not kidding.  Back to you… Your fiancé probably doesn't even want to hear the word diamond anymore and has probably stopped answering your phone calls.  We know you've been cut off from sex.  So here you are, alone at night, cuddled up with your monitor and manila folder stuffed with: