Man, this writing thing has become quite difficult to keep up with. There was supposed to be a birthday update on Thursday, but despite having a very light workload during the day, it just didn't materialize, probably because Heather and I have spent a lot of time cracking jokes online and discussing the Notre Dame football team.

... Speaking of which, the season kicks off tonight. So it's now what would've been two seperate entries rolled into one on this pleasantly sunny, comfortable summer-to-fall transitional Saturday morning. Wow, Labor Day weekend already.

I managed to escape the fuss at work. We had a double birthday celebration (read: two cakes for two people) for two weekend birthdays, and when someone mentioned that mine was coming up on Thursday, I difused the planning by saying we already had two cakes this week. That seemed to do the trick, as Thursday included some well wishes, but no standing around in the conference room while four people sing "Happy Birthday" and 20 more mumble off-key while I can't wait to eat the damn cake already.

After work, I drove down to Hoboken and circled a six-block, four-avenue area for 40 minutes looking for parking while Casey, Jaime, Dan and Nate made it to Ted & Jo's long before me. Just when I was ready to give up and find a parking garage or pay lot somewhere in the vicinity of the pub, I took a different route and found a spot not 50 feet from the corner where the restaurant is. It may have been the best gift of the day.

(Which it really wasn't. Mom and Dad contributed to the New Computer Fund; Jess bought me a nice "weekend watch," a sporty, stopwatch-enabled Timex that I can use to give my nice Notre Dame graduation present a rest; and Casey got me a set of cufflinks in my initials (a D and a C) made from old typewriter keys -- likely an Underwood -- to go with the blue Ralph Lauren shirt her mother gave me.)

One of the things we talked about at the bar after eating was just how exactly does a guy explain to his co-workers when he's become engaged. For women, it's easy -- and hard to hide -- when you've got some sparkly new bling on the left hand. As Jaime once joked, it's not fair that an engaged woman is now marked as Off The Market, while her beau continues to appear available.

I wasn't sure how to bring it up. I decided at some point on Monday that if anyone asked me what I did over the weekend, I'd tell them, but that question never came. Days went by, and on Friday, yesterday afternoon, Matt, Sarah and I are sitting in our cubicle pod shooting the shit about my birthday events the day before when Sarah gets on the right track. First she asked what presents I got, and when I described Casey's gift, she asked how long we'd been dating again.

"Three years," I said.

"So ... " she began.

"Oh, here it comes!" Matt exclaims. "You're putting him on the spot!"

"Well!" she said. "It's a legitimate question."

I play dumb. "What?? What do you mean?"

"Well ... " she continued. "Is this going to go the next step?"

"Yeah, it will," I said.

"When?"

"Um ... five days ago."

Her mouth drops open in shock. Matt turns in his chair, wide-eyed, and shouts, "NO WAY!"

And that's all I needed to do. Word spread around the office and I spent the last two and a half hours of the workweek receiving congratulations and explaining the time and place of The Moment.

Glad that's out of the way.

Now we turn our attention to the impending college football season, which begins in earnest today. I'm cautiously optimistic about the Irish this year -- though I'm as stoked as ever at the start of the season in general. I can't say it enough: I love the fall, and nothing announces the start of autumn -- of cooler days, of changing leaves, of apple cider and decorative gourds -- like college football. We'll be at a party tonight, but I'm assured by the hosts that there are two TVs in the house and I'm hoping that one of them's got the cable. Good for Notre Dame for working out an agreement to move the BYU game up to this weekend to have a test before the home opener against Michigan next week, but damn that ESPN for making it a 9 p.m. kickoff on the East Coast. But I'll live ...

... Because yesterday I got an e-mail from a friend in Chicago.

"Dan - Refresh my memory - did you need a Michigan ticket? Because I may have an extra."

Basically, here's how the process then unfolded:

Well, no, but thanks Steve. I was looking for Stanford tickets (Oct. 9).

Why don't I check out the airfares, just for the heck of it. Finding nothing better than a $400 flight will make my decision easy.

Woah! Only $240 from Newark to Chicago, and I can leave Saturday morning at 6 a.m. and come back Sunday at 10.

Yeah, but then I have to get to South Bend, which would probably mean renting a car ...

"Steve, when are you going down to South Bend? Friday?"

"Most likely early Sat.; I was planning to leave around

8."

Ooh. That's practically perfect. The 6 a.m. flight gets into Midway at 7:20.

"So when would you go back to Chicago?"

"Late Saturday night."

!!! Even better! I won't have to drive from South Bend to Chicago butt-early Sunday morning for my 10 a.m. flight home. And I'll get in at 1 or 2 p.m., so my day's not shot.

The airfare remained steady while I resevered the flight and mulled it over some more. (Of course, Saturday is Sept. 11, which probably accounts for the low airfares and what I imagine might be a less-than-full plane, but should also mean light traffic at the security checkpoint.) When I got home, it was still $240, so I booked it.

Notre Dame-Michigan. Notre Dame Stadium. First home game of the year. It doesn't get much better than that.