It’s close to Valentine’s Day.
Well, make that painfully close to Valentine’s Day, if your a guy without a gift for your special someone.
There are still easy gifts to snag. Here are some easy picker-uppers:

• Flowers
• Picture frames
• Chocolates and candies
• Restaurant reservations

It’s not necessarily the timing that matters for Valentine’s Day… it’s the availability. If you don’t move on things early, you’re left with the scraps left by other guys, who move a little quicker than you.
On Valentine’s Day, it’s survival of the fastest.

True Love Dozen Roses Vased This popular vased bouquet features one dozen beautiful roses arranged with greens and accents. A sure-fire way to make any heart skip a beat. When ordering simply click on your color preference.

Amazon Unbox is a really cool service that sells movie downloads that would make a really high tech Valentine’s gift. Sure, there is something cool about having the movie in your hand, wrapped and ready to be opened. However, for those people interested in being a little more green this Valentines, you might consider giving the gift of a downloaded movie. Same great gift, but no wasted paper or other packing materials. Check out some of the hot movies Amazon Unbox has available for this Valentines:

We previously wrote about giving the Amazon Kindle as a gift. It turned out to be very popular with our readers and many people were able to give their loved one the very unique Amazon Kindle as a gift this year. The problem was that back in December the Amazon Kindle was quickly sold out and so many people had to wait over a month to get their Kindle actually shipped to them.

Well, no need to worry about that problem for Valentine’s Day. The Amazon Kindle is a great gift for the readers in your life. That turns out to be most people. Add in the incredible battery life, free wireless connection to download books and you have a very unique gift for that person you love. One review I read of the Kindle even described how the user was able to download for free the first couple chapters of a book and decide whether it was worth purchasing before doing so. Ended up saving him a bunch of money.

Buy the Amazon Kindle for the love of your life this Valentine’s Day. You’ll be glad you did.

As we all know, roses come in different colors and, for guys, they better be coming to the doorstep of your special lady’s house on Valentine’s Day, or there will be problems.)

But, did you know that the colors of roses indicate certain emotional attachements (or lack thereof)? So, review the following Valentine’s Day flower guide to make sure the arrangement you send your sweetie isn’t undoing the arrangement, so to speak.

Red Roses… love (naturally) and also passion.
Yellow Roses… friendship and domestic happiness.
Pink Roses… elegance and poetry (You can mix these with the red roses for romance.)
White Roses… flowers for brides.
Purple Roses… eternal love (Or, you’re in love with Prince.)
Black Roses… death, as in you’re sleeping with the fishes.

So, when you’re ordering your bouquet, you can add the right combination of roses to make sure your message is coming in loud and clear… well, maybe not loud… that would be a neon green or paisley rose.

You barely have the confetti vacuumed out of the carpet and the hype for Valentine’s Day has already started.
Don’t shrug it off. This could be the most important spoiling day of the year: the one critical time to spoil your wife or girlfriend; the one day you have to totally spoil your husband or boyfriend.
And your significant other will be watching you, especially in mid-February, for the following signs:

• Perspiration and shortness of breath
• Bad hair
• Crazed, harried look in the eyes
• Phone calls at odd hours

All these signs indicate that you haven’t done your Valentine’s Day shopping and that you haven’t made reservations for your special dinner.

To avoid this suspicion, shop early… and shop often!

It hasn’t been easy, but you’re almost there. You made it through pre-season.
And then the regular season.
And dozens of odd-sounding college bowls. (The Humanitarian Bowl? What the heck is that?)
Now it’s time for the NFL playoffs???
Football season may seem endless for you, but it can also be the source of endless spoilings. Take a little interest in the sport and watch a game with your husband or boyfriend.
Football isn’t the easiest sport to understand, but the female intellect is more than capable of grasping a game. Still, ask him a few informed questions and you’ll earn his undying love and respect.
To prepare for the games, there are a few great guides to the sport that aren’t written in “Man-eese”; they’re football guides written by women, for women.

New Year’s Eve is a great time for popping the question… or for considering the idea of popping the question.
After all, New Year’s is a time for thinking about the future… that and experimenting with hangover remedies.
So, if you are ready to get engaged, or just want to see what options are out there, check out some local jewelers, or do a search online to see what types of engagement rings are out there and what the relative costs are.
You can even take your sweetie to a shop and have her get some feedback. If you’re afraid of spoiling the surprise, you can try this maneuver. Have her friend… or one of your female friends… take her to a jewelry shop. The friend can tell her that they’re boyfriend is looking for rings for them. Then, have her gather some info on what types of rings your sweetie likes and dislikes.
If you’re not ready, consider a promise ring.
For the ladies, this is a great time to start dropping some hints. Send the guy in your life a few links, or strategically place a jewelry advertisement in between his Sports Illustrated and Fly Fishing magazine. Hey, it might work.

Remember last year’s resolution?
Wait. I’ll dig it up for you… Here it is (you had it all crumpled up under the old junk mail): I will not procrastinate in making the love-of-my-life happy.
So, why haven’t you made reservations for this year’s New Year’s celebration?
You don’t necessarily have to go all out with noisemakers, party favors, limos, and crowds of inebriated revelers. In fact, a nice quiet dinner for just the two of you is the perfect way to emphasize your special relationship.
(If you have kids, make sure you line up a sitter as soon as you can.)
One more thing: save yourself some money with a certificate from Restaurant.com. They have a special that lasts until New Year’s eve. You can get a $25 gift certificate for three bucks.

70% off sale at Restaurant.com. Purchase $25.00 Gift Certificates for only $3.00 with savings code COUNTDOWN

This may help you with your 2006 New Year’s Resolution… save money!
Happy new year!

Did you make out pretty good this Christmas?
Good.
You may want to leverage this holiday bounty into some new year cheer by engaging in what I call Spoiling Arbitrage.
I’m not suggesting re-gifting. What I am suggesting is using those gift cards and gift certificates to purchase something your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife might like. Or, you might want to purchase something you both can share or an item that the whole family can use!
The cool thing is that stores are FULL of great deals right now. After Christmas sales are in full swing. You should be able to get the item you want for a lot cheaper than your expecting… so you’ll have a little money left over to pick up something for yourself. (And you won’t feel like Scrooge doing it!)

We previously told you about the various chocolate gifts under $15. Of course, those of you with a little extra cash will enjoy World’s Finest® Chocolate’s variety of gifts from $15-$25.

One can never get enough chocolate. Of course, don’t forget about the personalized chocolate gift we told you about earlier too.