They go together like Unicorns and GLITTER!

Early this year, Gene had been shopping. He was determined that he was going to buy me a band to go on my wedding ring.

Why am I complaining right?

I'm not, but really, a band wasn't a huge priority for me. You see, I had a pretty nice wedding ring as it was. It really didn't *need* band with it, and I was happy with it. It's a long story, but basically, he bought me the ring and it originally had a smaller trillion cut tanzanite in the center.

Pssst....
I really don't like tanzanite. Gene does. Because he likes it, I think he got it stuck in his head that *I* liked it. He's kinda pretty like that. Well, many years ago, he had a security job, and one of his co-workers was a gems dealer on the side. Scratch that. Actually, he was a security guy on the side. Apparently, he had been dealing his gems and got rolled. That's not the bad part. The worst of the story is that he bought his gems from the mob! Oh, and he believed that the mob was the one that rolled him.

He cut a deal to the mob - that he owed $250,000 (yes 4 zeros) to, and he had to get a job on the side just to make ends meet. So that's how he and Gene met. One day, as a gift to Gene he gave him a gem, it was a rare pink topaz.

We had found out from a gemologist that it was a gem that was so rare he'd never seen one in person. Basically it's two parts that get superheated twice giving it the by-color. So he thought anyway.

One day I held it up to my ring, and we both went "ohhhhh" and it was decided that the ring would be altered to hold the bigger pink stone, which is MUCH more me and my style.

It's beautiful. I'm happy, I get tons of compliments. Everything's cool right?
Well kinda.

So Gene ends up buying me a band for Mother's day. We get it - it's sparkly -I'm happy and we go off to our regular jeweler to have the band custom fit to my wedding ring. Gene goes to pick it up a week later, and when he looks at it closer, he notices that it looks strange.

The topaz in the center stone is broken!!
In three pieces!!

I was so upset when I got that call. Understandably so. The jeweler felt horrible and it was determined that it HAD to have happened in the sonic cleaning. We think there may have been a minute fissure that caused a break.

Nothing could be done. The stone was gone forever. That *super rare* stone. The one that everyone over 20 years had agreed was an unusual topaz. The stone that a gemologist traveled to see, and had never seen one before.

Jeweler offered a replacement.
Yeah, replace something so rare it's never been seen. Good luck.

He needed to determine what it was, so we agreed to let him send it off to a gem lab. The report came back about a week later. Not what we expected at all!
*it was a CZ*

W.T.H?

The jeweler started talking about CZ's and getting one painted to match and I stopped him right there. Um.. no. We wouldn't be doing that. I decided that *I* would pay for a new stone myself, which for the record is easier said than done. Because of it's shape and size, it was nearly impossible to find all this in one stone:
1. someone you can trust
2. right shape
3. right size
4. right color

It took almost TWO MONTHS but finally. FINALLY... I find something in thailand, from a reputable dealer that only deals in the finest quality gems. I purchased a tourmaline (my fave) in a pretty bubble gum pink color.

Another couple weeks for delivery.
Another 10 days to set the stone, resize, and add a little cosmetic touch up piece of gold to fill a little gap and ...

Yay.. SpArklY!

Now, do I get kicked out of the girl club if I say that Gene can't buy anything else for this ring?

Just wondering.