Valentine's Day suggestions for men....by a total studmuffin

Me, SJR and LL were having a discussion today about Valentine's Day. Frankly, I kinda hate V-day. Bah-Humbug. Too much pressure. Too many expectations. Blah. I hate it.

Well.....unless I get a reallllllly mushy card, and then I melt. ;)

SJR (he used to write a yummy blog called "In a nutshell") sent this to us, and I thought it might be helpful to you Men. He's got this stuff down to a science.

Read what SJR has to say here, and then click here to visit LL's response.

The secret is for the guy to not make it look like its formulaic, because the bottom line is, guys hate VDay more than girls do. But we are required to perform. We all know this. So we have to come up with something. This works for me :)

Valentines Day. I have learned through years of experience and have a patented formula for it. Why? Because you two being women know that on Valentines Day, if you have a man, that you are expecting something from him. For me, it's way too soon after Christmas to really be able to put any creative energy into it. I mean c'mon, I just spent 2 months trying to decipher what the wife wanted for xmas and coming up with plausible gifts. Come Feb. I'm still recuperating from it. Hence my formula:

SJR's guide to Vday:

A) 1 dozen long stem red roses in a vase, to her place of work. 1 Dozen. Red. Long Stem. Vase. Do not deviate. This accomplishes several things: 1) That you didn't forget and are not a lame ass. 2) Almost every girl in creation swoons over longs stem red roses. Don't give me the BS that you all don't like roses. 3) All the other girls at work see that she got flowers. Huge Bonus Points if they comment on the fact her man is such a sweet guy and their man is a scumbag for not sending them flowers. Validation of her choice of me as a mate.

B) Dinner. Either in or out. I prefer to cook it myself and have it in, but sometimes that isn't feasible, so then you go out to a nice place to eat. It's a plus to have nice casual conversation, especially bringing up things that make you feel good about being a couple and the things that she does that make you smile when you think about her at work. Not a good time to start a fight about money. (I Knooooooooooow this from experience)

C) Card. Present a very nice card with a well-thought out message written inside. Preferably more than two lines. Appropriate to the relationship of course. Not good to give the wife a card that says : "Hey Office Hottie, be my super secret Valentines Day quickie"

D) Chocolate. Old Skool yes. Maybe a bit corny as well. But give her a small box of very good chocolate and you are in. Godiva is a good selection. I also like See's. No Whitmans Samplers or Cherry Cordials. Spend the extra bread.

Anyway, these 4 things combined won't break your bank and will add up to making you look like a fucking champ instead of a chump.

The secret is to make it all seem planned out and thought in advance. But all this can be done in about 4 days in advance. Less than that if you don't go out. Reservations are usually pretty booked on Vday.

One word of advice: do not overdo it. Keep it simple. No proposing on Vday, no giving of lavishly expensive gifts, stay away from that. Because, how the hell you gonna top that next year?