text: On Saturday, December 17th, 2005, I proposed to Katrina, my girlfriend of five years.
  
  This storygame is based off of my actual proposal to Katrina. I've tried to keep thisas close to how it happened / was planned as possible. Since this is a choose-your-story, you will probably have a slightly different experience, but all paths will lead to the same place, since it was planned that way.
  
  You will be reading this story from the perspective of Katrina.
  > oK, you've got it!
  It's Thursday night, a little after 9:00PM, and you just returned home from a twelve-hour workday. But it's all good -- this is the start of a long weekend --  your Birthday weekend -- and you've got five days before you have to return to the daily grind.
  
  You see that Alex's friends are over, feasting on Chinese food, and have ordered your favorite dish: General Tso's Chicken. You chow down while they finish up judging some $100 make-a-game contest for their website. They wrap things up after an hour or so, leaving just you, Alex, and a quiet house.
  
  You're a bit tired, but are a bit anxious about tomorrow. It's your birthday, and you're dying to know what Alex got for you. He's been talking about it for a few weeks and seems to have been having some shady dealings with some strange people. You have a good idea of what it is (an artifact of some sort) but really want to know what it is ...
  > say "Alex, can you give me my gift tonite?"
  You ask Alex if he can give you the gift tonite, but he denies, insisting it will have to wait.
  > say "Pleeeaaassee ... I'm sooo curious ...."
  You beg and plead, but Alex still insists that you wait tomorrow. Phooey.
  > oh well, off to bed
  After such a long work day, it's great to finally get to bed. You fall asleep without any problems and sleep in for a long time. A verrrry long time. A verrrrrryyyyy looooong time.
  > Twelve Noon
  You wake up and do the morning thing, rushing a bit because you're just dying to know what Alex got for you for your birthday. Alex tells you to sit down at the kitchen table and close your eyes. He runs off and retreives your gift, placing it down right in front of you.
  
  "Happy Birthday, Katrina" he says.
  > open Your Eyes
  You open your eyes and see a medium-sized Shabti statuette enclosed in a glass case. The artifact is 7.5" long and is in pristine, museum-quality condition. Compared to the small (1cm) sized bead from last year's gift, this thing is huge -- and in great condition.  How could Alex have gotten this?
  
  You also see a piece of paper under the case ...
  > what's The Paper Say?
  Wow, it's the accompanying Certificate of Authenticity. It says that the piece is an Anubis Shabti and is from the  Twelfth Dynasty (Approx 1908 BCE). It was discovered by Miriam Lichtum in 1967. That's pretty neat!
  
  You absolutely love the gift. Being a huge fan of Egyptian things -- especially artifacts -- this is more than you could ever want for your birthday! You are a bit curious how Alex was able to obtain such a nice piece, though ...
  > ask Alex how he got this
  Alex explains ...
  
  Strange thing, really. I called the Cleveland Museum of Art to see if they knew a reputable artifact dealer and they refered me to the Egyptian Antiquities Society in Chicago. I gave them a call and they kinda laughed at me, saying they really only work in the tens-of-thousands of dollars.
  
  A few weeks later, this one guy from the Society, Dr. Evans, called me back and said that he found something that would fit my profile perfectly. Since these artifacts cannot be shipped, he brought it to Cleveland from Chicago.
  > interesting ...
  The rest of your Birthday isn't too eventful. You do the normal birthday stuff: go to your family's house for cake, go out to dinner, and relaxed for the rest of the night.
  
  Throughout the day, you can't stop thinking of how cool the artifact is. It does seem a bit creepy -- after all, this was buried with some guy almost four thousand years ago. But it is so neat to own such an amazing piece of history.
  > The Next Day ...
  The rest of the weekend was fun and relaxing, but nothing to write an adventure game about. You did find a few hours of free time while Alex was busy at work. During those few hours, you ...
  > ... Watched some television
  It's amazing how much time flies while you're watching TV. It's not like you really find anything new, but it's always entertaining. Before you know it, it's Sunday night, and time for bed.
  
  As you and Alex get ready for bed, Alex complains that two of the fish died.
  > Monday
  Monday was a pretty relaxing day: sleeping in, shopping, and just hanging out. Nothing notable happened, although as you get ready for bed, Alex mentioned that some more fish died.
  > on to Tuesday ...
  Another day of rest and relaxaction. Might as well, it's been a long year -- you've been going to classes at night after work for the past five years, so it feels really great to finally have a break and nothing to worry about.
  
   
  > off to work tomorrow ...
  Yicch -- nothing like going back to work after a small vacation. But it's all good, it's a short week and was a normal day. No staying late required. Woo!
  
  After work, you and Alex stop and do a little bit of shopping. You arrive home and notice that the cat must have completely gone insane. All of the statues and trinkets on the shelf that the the Artifact sat on were knocked over. Some books and magazines were on the floor, fallen from another shelf. It's almost as if a small earthquake happened.
  
  You're not quite sure how she could have possibly gotten up on the shelf to knock all those artifacts and trinkets over. It also is a little weird that the door on the glass case was open. Oh well, those are cats for ya.
  > on to Thursday ...
  Another uneventful day at work. After getting home and eating dinner and watching TV, you get ready for bed. You fall asleep and are a ....
  > ... Light sleeper
  As you're sound asleep, you are jarred awake by a loud noise ....
  
  SLAM!
  
  Alex awakes too, and you are both completely dazed. You look across the room and see that the door is closed. it must have slammed shut. This wasn't the first time you've been awoken in the night by a slammed-shut door. In the summer, when all the windows are open, a bit of wind will cause the doors to slam shut.
  
  But of course, it is the middle of the winter, and no windows are open ...
  > that's weird ... Back to sleep
  Finally it's Friday! After a long day of work, you decide to just stay home and watch a movie tonight. You have a big day tomorrow: shopping with your friend and a girls-night-out for your Sister's birthday. Plus, Alex has to go to work early tomorrow morning; he's been complaining about that for weeks.
  
   You end up watching Sahara, an action movie about Treasure Hunters and Africa. It was a pretty fun movie.
  > off to bed ...
  The alarm goes of bright and early at 7:00AM and Alex jumps out of bed, rushing to get to work. He was supposed to be there at 7:00 .... whoops!
  > Back to sleep ...
  After falling back to sleep, you're rudely awaken by the telephone ...
  
  RING! RING! RING!      RING! RING! RING!
  
  Who on earth could be calling at 8:30 in the morning on a saturday? Probably a telemarketer ...
  > pick up the phone
  It's Alex.
  
  Sorry to wake you hun, but Dan* just called. His harddrive crashed last night and needs another one for his MP3s so he can do his DJ gig. It's in Akron tonite, so he needs to stop by and pick it up around 10:30AM or so.
  
  You're not too happy about this. You actually sayed up till about 3:00 AM watching another movie, so you need some serious sleep!
  
  * or, as some know him, march5th00
  > No way, you're too tired
  You tell Alex that you're too tired ...
  
  He reallllly needs the drive. He has no music and needs to try to retreive it from his hard drive ...
  > can't he buy a hard drive?
  You ask if he could go to Best Buy and pick up a hard drive. They sell them for fairly cheap, afterall.
  
  He is completely over the limit on his credit card. Besides, why spend $100 when I have one I'm not even using. He'll only stop in and out.