Thanks to evereyone for the Ring advice...

I just wanted to thank evereyone for their imput and advice, both from the fellas and the ladies. If I were giving prizes for best use of engagement ring funds advice, Daniel wins, hands down. I had to sell my '69 shovel to pay for my surgerey and have been Jonesin' for new a ride ( a bike Rhonda... ) ever since. I've decided to go with a smaller ( .73 ct ) stone that has less color and better clarity than the bigger rock I was looking at. This wasn't an easy thing for me. As Jay said, the diamond industry is a damm near criminal racket, which sucks, but...On the other hand, it'll make my baby happy, and that's what's most important to me

and I bet if you make her happy... she'll wanna make you happy.. and get or help you get that "bike" it's a win.. win situation..

look at this way, your wedding ring will be mostly gold or platinum and those have real value. seriously, it's worth the $ to put the smile on her face. Even if it does mean some ripoff oppressive slave master will put more bucks in his pocket for succeeding in duping the public into thinking those blood diamonds are rare. "Conflict-free" diamonds are kind of iffy (they may be, they may not be) but you can insist on Canadian diamonds.