These diamonds aren't "brown"...they're cognac. Which sounds WAY prettier.

When I took my engagement ring into the jeweler a couple of weeks ago, we played around with some different ideas for what to do with it. I knew I didn't want to just replace the missing diamond - at the very least, I wanted all three stones to be the same size, which none of them were - but ended up deciding that I wanted to replace the three little diamonds with something more...interesting. I also knew I wanted to deal with the ugly black spots that had popped up on it, and had resigned myself to dipping it in a fresh coat of gold (thereby eradicating the tiny 1950s-era handmade etches all over its surface).

The jeweler shook a few colored gemstones out onto the countertop, but none of them seemed right; all the colored stones felt too...sweet. Like I'd get sick of them. So I started flipping through a book, and landed on a page covered in pictures of brown diamonds. "Those," I said. "I love them."

There are so many good things in this photo. First, see that wine bottle? It was designed by a friend of mine, Leslie Bruce, in collaboration with Speak Wines, and the inside is as delicious as the outside is witty. (You have to check out the entire line; the bottles are gorgeous and clearly super fun to bring to a party, and the entire business is run by women - no small feat in the male-dominated world of wine.)

 Second thing in that photo that deserves mention: An American Girl In London is by another friend of mine, Marissa (who you may know from the Bravo show Ladies Of London), and it is as sweet and funny and lovely as she is - and she is one of the sweetest and funniest and loveliest people around. She grew up in SoCal and later moved to London with her husband, and so the book is full of British classics with a California twist (Baked Brown Butter French Toast, Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie, Bubble & Squeak, etc.).

 Third and final thing in that photo that I need to tell you: I put on nail polish (this color) specifically to take it, which was annoying at the time because "self-care" hasn't been high on my priority list for a couple of months. Except now I remember what it feels like to have pretty nails, and am going to have to keep this up. (At least until June.) (Maybe.)

Just FYI: Finding PG-13 (or R)-rated images to accompany a post on polyamory presents quite the challenge.

I have this friend. We'll call her Charlotte. Charlotte is one of my closest friends, actually - someone whom I've known for years and years, and who I trust enormously, like family. We met when she was single, and over the years I watched her date around, then find a long-term partner, then move in with him. One night, sitting at their kitchen table over sushi and wine, Charlotte and her partner told me - in the same tone of voice you'd use to tell someone about a cool new restaurant - about a party they'd gone to the other night where they'd both had sex with other people.

Oh, really?

"Screen time" in our house has officially become a problem. We restrict it to what feels, to me, like a normal-ish amount - half an hour of TV at night, maybe an hour of educational-type computer games over the course of the day, and a half an hour of garbage (Angry Birds, etc) - but it's getting to the point where we're talking about (and fighting about) iPads and phones and TV shows upwards of twenty times a day.

This is not tenable. Not only because it's making me crazy, but also because while I'm generally of the opinion that all this "screens are the devil"-speak doesn't take into account the enormous educational benefits associated with them (seriously, YouTube just taught my five-year-old the concept of photosynthesis, and he can now explain it better than either of his parents), I hate the fact that they've become the default, the thing we reach for when our kids are fighting or tired or just bored. It's such a quick and easy solution, but it's also not exactly teaching our kids to look to the world around them to find fun.

The other day a friend of mine brought up the concept of a Bored Jar, and it's completely brilliant. (Apparently it's also a thing that parents everywhere - or at least parents on Pinterest - know about, but it's new to me, so I figured it may be new to you, too.) You literally just fill a jar with a zillion pieces of paper with activities written on them (popsicle sticks work especially well), and every time your kid comes to you and says "UGH I'M BORED," you're all "Here you go." I filled ours with a mix of chores, activities that I thought would be a little out-of-the-box for our kids, and a bunch of things I knew they'd just love ("watch your favorite movie," etc).

My present to you on this Tuesday morning: A link roundup with not one single post about politics. You're welcome.

 Here are 100 photos so funny you might pee.

 Ummmm I did not know it was possible to want to hug a night-light, but hello.