JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Hiding a ring in a bouquet just wasn’t enough when a computer programmer decided to pop the question.

Bernie Peng reprogrammed Tammy Li’s favorite video game, “Bejeweled,” so a ring and a marriage proposal would show up on the screen when she reached a certain score.

Li reached the needed score – and said yes.

The word of the romantic feat last December filtered out after Peng, a financial software programmer, posted details on his blog.

“I thought it was pretty cool, in a nerdy way,” Peng told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

The couple plan to marry over Labor Day weekend, and PopCap, the Seattle company that makes “Bejeweled,” will fly the couple to Seattle as part of their honeymoon.

“Most video game companies would frown on people manipulating their games,” said Garth Chouteau, a spokesman for PopCap.

“But it won him a woman. As a bunch of geeks we have to say, ‘Bernie, hats off to you.'”

The company is also supplying copies of “Bejeweled” to hand out as favors to the wedding guests. In the hugely popular game, players score points by swapping gems to form vertical and horizontal chains.

Boy attempts to set record for nostril balloon-blowing

BLAINE, Wash. – A 13-year-old boy hopes to win a balloon-blowing record by a nose.

Blowing through one nostril at a time, Andrew Dahl inflated 213 balloons within an hour Friday – a feat that has been submitted for review by Guinness World Records.

His father, Doug Dahl, measured the balloons to make sure each was at least 20 centimeters, the minimum diameter, and his mother, Wendy Dahl, kept the tally.

At one point he asked, “Does this count as practicing my trumpet?” His mother replied, “Only if you can play that with your nose.”

Andrew’s first attempt – 184 balloons in February – was rejected because his father tied the balloons. This time he tied them off himself.