This page makes more sense if you know how Jan saw it. I built it up over a week or so, adding one or two photos every couple of days, systematically notching up the tease.
It started in Amsterdam, with the shop where I bought the ring:
Then I added the card to make it clear that she does sell jewelry there.
Ms. Hemke-Kuilboer and I conceal the ring—
Even though in the next two shots the ring is too small to see, I blocked it out then with a question mark.
Then I added the really taunting shots with the ring blurred severely and then slightly. The tiny Delft shoes in the first shot prove especially confusing for Jan (exactly as I planned).
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Jan expressed a bit of (pleased) exasperation particularly about what she called "some sort of floaty red thing." I hadn't planned nor even anticipated that, but to capitalize on it I created and uploaded this:
(It's the birha, maybe
nine inches wide,
for one of my tabla drums.
Ask Jan about Barbara's response.)
Monday, October
9:
A couple of weeks earlier I'd suggested to Jan
that we have dinner on October 10 at Fleming, a nice restaurant
she likes very much. I dropped just enough
of a hint of this as a "special dinner," hoping she'd
stay focused on the assumption that I'd present the ring there.
It pretty well worked, though she did partly suspect
my real plan: to present it at our usual Monday lunch, at Daily
Bread.
Just before entering the restaurant today, I found a wifi hot spot to upload the final picture and page update, so Jan could see it all when she got back to her office.
Note the actual "floaty red thing."
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A few minutes later, the first person to see Jan wearing the ring was our friend Yusmeli, who was always so pleased to see us ("¡Novios!").
The next few months brought scads of work, as we did virtually everything ourselves.
Jan's coworkers at Fellowship House threw her a party, including a surprise gift.
Shopping for the "centerpieces."
And finally, dealing with the State of Florida.
