Who is Valentine’s Day for?

Valentine's Day card - vintage, 04It’s Valentine’s Day again, and you know what that means.  This is one of those holidays with certain expectations, and it can cause great distress and disappointment in the relationship if those expectations aren’t met.  Let’s take a lighter look at that…

If you’re a man with a wife or girlfriend, you’re typically expected to buy her a nice (sappy) card, give her chocolates and roses (which are inconveniently greatly inflated in price during February), and take her on a romantic date.  These aren’t all bad things.  I’m not anti-Valentine’s Day or anything like that.  It’s good to show appreciation to your significant other, and we tend to take our loved ones for granted.  I don’t particularly like the idea of it being “forced” on a certain day, but it’s a good reminder.

So the woman in the relationship gets showered with nice stuff, like she deserves, because we cherish her.  What are the expectations going the other way?  Well, guys typically get a card, which may not mean as much as it would to a woman.  Now before you accuse me of being selfish, it’s not about that.  I don’t care about getting more gifts.  I just wonder who created these expectations and how many people are aware of how it is.  Why are they this way?  That topic is beyond the scope of this discussion, but it’s a good thinking exercise if you’re interested.

Maybe we should start some new traditions, for the guys.  What kind of affordable stuff would guys want to receive every year and which would also make them feel loved and appreciated?  (That “affordable” modifier limits the ideas, so no monster trucks or flamethrowers or tanks.  But we need to be practical, I suppose.)  For starters, how about cheese dip?  Either homemade or Stoby’s cheese dip would suffice (plus no comments about how it’s not healthy or that a tub of cheese dip is not a meal by itself).  Bacon should probably be included in this.  Maybe chicken-fried bacon for dipping in the cheese dip?  Just imagining that probably makes you gain weight…

I figure most guys would like a time of playing video games, since that time typically gets dramatically reduced when in a relationship (and more when married and even more when you have children).  This may not seem practical, since the day is about quality time in the relationship, and that’s fair.  It could be applied the next day.  Or the woman could join him in the games, if they can find something they both enjoy.  That would probably count as quality time, to him anyway.

These ideas might not fly, but that’s okay.  I can dream, right?  🙂  If you have any ideas, I’m open to suggestions.  (Your comments can be anonymous if you’re scared of getting in trouble for speaking out on this.)

Pizza Hut perfume

pizza-hut-perfume-colognePizza Hut has released their own brand of perfume, just in time for Valentine’s Day.  Pizza Hut’s CMO said, “Eau de Pizza Hut is one of the most sought-after and rarest of scents available.”  I’ll give him rare, but “one of the most sought-after” seems somewhat embellished.  I like eating their pizza, but I’m not sure if it would be good for my wife to smell like cheese, dough, and tomato sauce all day…

When I first saw the headline, it seemed like April Fools Day — has it moved up this year?  🙂  Of course this is a promotional gimmick, and if you manage to acquire the free giveaway, it comes with a $20 gift card, which would be sought-after.  You have to tweet something specific to enter, so it will get lots of attention.  Who wouldn’t want free pizza?

By the way, if I win this, would it make an acceptable Valentine’s Day present to my wife?  She likes Pizza Hut…  🙂

it happens to the best of us

Recently a professional tennis player hit a serve that not only missed the court, but it went into the crowd, about 20 rows deep.  This is professional tennis, at one of the biggest tournaments of the year.  And this was not just some no-name tennis player, it was Li Na, who is ranked #5 in the world, and made it to the final of the Australian Open.  It’s kinda refreshing that a great player can have an amateur-like moment… it made me feel better about my game.  It also goes along with one of my favorite sayings while playing sports: “It happens to the best of us”.  (And it’s ironic, because the next time I played tennis, I went for a full-power backhand winner with topspin, but the ball hit the frame instead, sending it really high in the air and sailing over the fence.)

I like how the crowd cheered when it happened.  And the camera had to zoom way out to see where the ball landed.  At least she has a good sense of humor and could joke about it afterward.

you put WHAT in a dishwasher?

woman-loading-dishwasher-with-cocoa-pebblesThe other day I had a really random dream.  That in itself is not surprising, because I really enjoy randomness (hence why I write on this blog).  But what’s odd about it is that it featured a scenario I had never thought of before.

In my dream, I was at someone’s house, and the woman was loading the dishwasher, but instead of standard dishwashing detergent / soap, she poured in a chocolatey cereal, something like Cocoa Pebbles.  Unfortunately I woke up and didn’t get to see how the dishes turned out, but I expect it would be the opposite of clean.  (A quick glance on Google didn’t find any images to go with this… maybe I just didn’t spend enough time, because supposedly you can find anything on the Internet.  So you’ll just have to use your imagination to picture it, old-school style.)  [Edit: Mango-Man sent in a picture to go with the post, so here it is.]

I don’t know how or why my brain created that scenario.  I’ve never wondered what else you could put in a dishwasher besides soap.  Although this does remind me that I heard someone once joke about putting their underwear / drawz in the dishwasher instead of dirty dishes, but I don’t think that’s a recommended usage, especially if there are dishes in there also.