I’m a huge proponent of date nights (as you all know) because it is far too easy to get caught up in your daily lives that are full of work and routine and activities and kids and stuff. A reader of mine sent me the link to The National Marriage Project and their report called The Date Night Opportunity.

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As we all know, Valentine’s Day (or Love Day, for the old school Simpsons fans) is next week. The merchandise has been out since the day after Christmas and it’s all you hear about on t.v. or online. Gift guides and date ideas and giveaways, oh my!

I’ve mentioned before that my husband and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day. It started out because we didn’t want to buy into the commercialism, and we went on regular date nights as it was. There has been the occasional Valentine’s Day where we’ve surprised the other with something, but we usually have the “We’re not buying presents, RIGHT?” conversation and we both stick to it. Usually.

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The economy is still limping along like an weakened zombie, which means that we all need to be creative with our date nights. By “creative”, I mean “inexpensive” and also, “fun.” Auntie Becky had a great post on Cafe Mom about 10 Awesome Date Ideas That Won’t Make You Go Broke. Yes, yes, and yes! (Add seven more “yeses” for the other seven suggestions.)

I have a few more to add.

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This post in the Daily Mail with photos showing the resemblances between celebrity husbands and their wife’s Dad is pretty crazy. And maybe a little bit spooky. I mean, I love my Dad and all, but I wouldn’t want to kiss a guy who looked like him. *shudder*

While my husband (6′2″, dark blonde, blue eyes) may not look anything like my Dad (5′10″, black/grey hair, brown eyes), they do have some similarities. They are both “handy” men and can fix/renovate/do almost anything with the tools in their shop. They both have a green thumb and work wonders in the garden. They both are good with animals and have even both raised chickens.

Is your husband/boyfriend similar to your Dad?

This is what I read over at The Stir this week. They refer to a study by the Australian Family Institute that has found that cohabitating couples are three to five times more likely to split up then married couples living together. While it might not be surprising — couples dating but living together have less commitment therefore making it easier to leave — I think there’s something to it. If 25 to 38 percent of cohabitating couples split while only 7 to 9 percent of married couples cut it off, maybe Mom was right. Maybe we shouldn’t rush into playing house without first a ring.

This is a touchy subject, I know. I’m just interested as to what worked/didn’t work for you.

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While driving to work yesterday morning I heard about the former LOST actor (age: 51) who married a girl (age: 16). All together now: EWWWWW.

I mean, really. THIRTY-FIVE years apart in age? In the article it states that the girl’s father is younger than his new son-in-law. I can see why the husband is in for it (Duh) but why would a sixteen-year-old girl want to marry him? Why would her parents sign off on the marriage documents? HOW DID THEY EVEN MEET?

I’m locking my daughter in a tower. STAT.

The craziness of the story aside, I don’t think that people have to be the same age to be compatible. Back in the day I dated guys three to five years older than I was. A friend’s husband is seven years older than her and they have been married for ten years, with three kids, happily. I have family members who have an even greater age gap. But nowhere close to THIRTY-FIVE YEARS.

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I read this article over at The Stir and had a decent smirk on my face while reading it: 25 Worst Pet Names for your lover. Snuggleufagus? Thunder Chunk? Really?

My husband and I both call each other Honey, or Hon. I call him Honey about 75% of the time and his given name the rest of the time. It usually goes something like this:

“Honey? Honey! Hon! MATTHEW!”

I’m a treat to live with, I know.

As for me, he calls me Honey about 95% of the time. If he ever addresses me as Angella it startles me because it’s so rare that I hear him say it. And all three of our kids thought that my real name was Honey until they were about three. Yes, really.

So how about you guys? Do you have pet names for each other?

So, it turns out that if you vent on the Internet about missing your husband and wishing for a date night, those wishes come true, even though he doesn’t read this column unless you tell him to (which I did not).

An anonymous couple who attend our church dropped off a bunch of restaurant gift certificates for the staff and volunteers. My husband was given one for our favorite lakeside restaurant, which saw me doing a fist pump. My brother offered to watch our kids for us, which then saw me doing a Happy Dance.

We got gussied up, ate good food and got the chance to really talk about where we were (work-related) and where we wanted to go. We tossed around some scenarios for me, especially, and agreed on one that makes us both happy. We also had our usual banter of jokes and innuendo and, man. I really like that guy.

These last few weeks of tax season (with a side of hosting Easter dinner this weekend) are going to be RIDICULOUSLY BUSY, and I’m so glad that we took the time to go and to hang and to have conversations that went beyond the daily “getting stuff done.”

How do you guys make time for date night?

I have a half an hour commute each way to work and I often listen to the radio during the drive in order to catch up on some news/have a dance party during my drive. One of the segments of the morning show is where they take a question from their Facebook page and ask people to chime in. Up for discussion yesterday was when a girl called in about a guy who knew his ex-girlfriend’s Facebook login details and would periodically log in and check out what she was up to.

1. Why on Earth would he know her login details in the first place, and

2. Why has she not changed them?

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I could talk about my first kiss EVER but it happened in the middle of a party when I was in ninth grade. I’d had a crush on Stephen for, oh, ever and we were talking and then he leaned in and kissed me and I thought it was so nice and fun and WAIT, I’ve NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE and WHAT IF I’M DOING IT WRONG? I pulled away, turned on my heel and ran home.

I clearly did it wrong.

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