Gentlemen,

It occurred to me that it may be productive to have a discussion about V-day plans here before we implement them...a kind of focus group to stop any stupidity before it happens. I'll go first:

My wife doesn't get to go shopping very often because we are up to our eyeballs in student loans and I have our money on pretty strict lockdown (there's room for improvement here, but that's a topic for another day). So, part one of my plan is to give her some cash - Athol says that cash is sexier because it's tangible - and send her shopping for something hot to wear for our date to a nice restaurant that evening. I haven't decided whether to leave it at that or if I'm going to find a picture of what I want her to look like and tell her to do so.

My parents are taking our daughter for the night, so childcare is taken care of. I'm probably going to send her to the mall in the early afternoon, then we can take the kiddo to my parents together. From there, I'm taking her out for pre-dinner drinks and then to a nice restaurant for dinner. Probably post-dinner drinks too, though I haven't decided yet. Not trying to spend too much.

After that, it's home for a healthy pounding.

Thanks for the feedback, and good luck to all with this most aggravating of holidays.