Living With Messy People

My poor husband. I’m messy, you see. I’m not talking about dirty or unclean. It’s just… I thrive best in organized chaos. You should see my desk. It’s piled with papers, notepads, post-its, books, an ornament of Ganesh (no idea), a calculator, sunglasses, hand sanitizer, unopened mail, stray jewelry that I take off and never [...]

Does the dating world need a Daters Lemon Law?

Yay or Nay?

The Proposal: Part 1

It occurs to me that Den and I have been doing some spouse-bashing on this blog lately, what with our airing of bad habits and petty annoyances! It’s all in good humor of course… that’s just the way we are with each other. We’ve faced reality about our differences and are happy to air them [...]

In Pursuit of Healthiness

I’ve taken up Pilates, which has been a long time coming for me. I have kind of an… aversion… to exercise. In that I hate it.
Well, mostly I hate it. You could call it a like-hate relationship, I suppose. My newfound okayness with Pilates makes for a Very Pleased Husband. Den is somewhat of [...]

My Wife is a Petty Thief!

How many guys out there have woman who loves your stuff?
Emma says using my things makes her feel closer to me – from my daggy clothes, to my pyjamas (yes I love pyjamas!) to my socks and worst of all – my pens! “I feel closer to you when you’re not around…” [...]

Things I Wish My Husband Would Let Me Throw Out

Bringing two people’s belongings together into one house was never going to work. Lifetimes of memories, sentimentality and just plain bad taste will always haunt us… here is a comprehensive list of things I wish Denis would let me throw out… or at least move to some ‘man room’ – which we don’t have in [...]

In Defense of Marriage

In my recent web-travels, I stumbled across Sandra Tsing Loh’s “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” article, complete with subheading ‘The author is ending her marriage, isn’t it about time that you did too?’ I am deeply disturbed, and I’m trying to put my finger on why. I’m not usually a ‘I’m-going-to-write-a-letter-about-this!’ kind of person. [...]

6 Other Ways You Can Hang Out With Your Sweetie

Date night isn’t the only way to spend time with your sweetheart! We give you 6 more great ways to make sure you get some quality time together instead of getting caught up in the humdrum of daily life. These six ideas are great if you find yourselves pressed for finding time.

1. Do the [...]

What About a Little Mystery?

I’m an old-fashioned kind of gal… one who still believes in ladylike manners, in never belching at the dinner table and certainly never farting in the company of others. Others, including my own husband.
I also under no circumstances leave the bathroom door open and I flat-out refuse to undertake any kind of hair removal [...]

Denis, NAKED TWISTER is not a first date! Part 2

If Naked Twister doesn’t work, then what will get her into bed?
Emma and I had this push and pull friendship. We would flirt to a point and then one of us (usually Emma) would put on the brakes and BOOM we would stop talking.
At the time I was not aware – Emma had [...]

Is ‘Happily Married’ Unfashionable?

I just stumbled across this wonderful article by Aaron Traister: It’s hot! It’s sexy! It’s… marriage!
Traister writes:
My wife and I have been married anywhere from seven to 150 years (I’m not good with dates). During those years we have moved six times, and each move was like an exotic gift that happened to be covered [...]

Excerpts from 365 Ways To Say ‘I Love You’

I found this vintage book in my mother’s collection just recently… 365 Ways To Say I Love You was written in 1968 by a young, fanciful woman named Jani Gardner who had oodles of helpful wifely advice for any woman out there looking to show her husband how much she cares… assuming she has nothing [...]

How to Be Romantic in Modern Times

I don’t know about you, but I find these days that romance can be so clichéd. True, some elements of romance will never go out of fashion. Candles will always be beautiful, the right music will always set the mood… flowers will always soften hearts.
But modern times come with a heavy lashing of cynicism. [...]

Top 8 Reasons Smart Girls Should Date Diggers Geeks

We get a lot of great feedback about our date ideas site. But one comment that keeps coming up in particular from some of our dear internet-savvy readers who are self-professed nerds and geeks, is that while they love the ideas, they find it hard-pressed to FIND a girl to date in the first place!
This [...]

Collection of the Best Wedding Dances Ever!

Weddings should be a fun celebration of life, of friends, of family and of course of love. We love these three couples who went out of their way to deliver some fun into their wedding day and shirk off the staid traditions that can threaten to make the day far too serious! Kudos to you [...]

5 Goals You Can Work Towards Together as a Couple

Working towards goals as a couple is a great way to engender a team spirit, gives you something to look forward to and keeps you focused in life. Discussing your own personal goals with your partner is a great way to start, but setting some major goals as a couple is also very important in [...]

Nesting.

Something strange has happened to me since our wedding. I’m not sure how much it’s affecting Denis, apart from the fact that two days after our wedding he turned to me and said ‘Let’s have a baby now!’
Now, we have a four year plan. A plan that doesn’t involve children or even our [...]

My Friends are BANANAS!!!

I don’t get it… I spent the better part of last night having a discussion about relationship problems with a friend of mine.
One comment made was that his partner actually said “you never do anything spontaneous or take me out anywhere anymore – simple things like going for a hike!”
I almost fell off [...]

Follow Their Lead: The Obamas Do Date Night!

The world has been abuzz with the scandal of the Obamas’ fantastic, expensive date nights – from a Broadway show in New York to dinner by the Eiffel Tower in Paris the next, the President and First Lady are setting an amazing example to couples everywhere.
Politicians, the media and dating ‘experts’ are all weighing [...]

Tame the Bear and Lame Date Ideas

Last night I watched some talk show with Kevin Bacon in it discussing master-googling or google-bating, whichever you want to call it. Basically – its where you google yourself to see what comes up.
And so, I’ve just googled ThirtyDollarDateNight.com to check out who’s talking about our date ideas site and what’s being said. And [...]

Cutest Little Old Couple Ever

Video after the jump of the most adorable little old couple, playing a piano duet they’ve clearly been rehearsing together for 62 years…

Thank You, Nurse Denis

Date night this week was postponed, due to unforeseen illness…

I woke up Saturday convinced I was dying of the swine flu. You might think I’m saying that to be funny, but quite honestly – I had all the right “flu like symptoms”, and was packing a migraine in just for good measure. My throat was [...]

Our Wedding

Our wedding photos have arrived… we were married on 5 March this year… these breathtaking images are courtesy of Xsight Photography… they made us look GOOD!

Can Morning Larks and Night Owls Share a Nest?

I’ve just found out I’m what the sciencey people call a “Night Owl”. Den is most definitely a Morning Lark. This means that most nights around 10pm, you can find Den happily snoring away on the couch in front of the television, while I potter around winding myself down for a few more hours before [...]

Michelle Obama Talks Date Night

NB: Video after the jump!
The Obamas are undoubtedly the busiest couple in the entire world, with the weight of global responsibility squarely on their shoulders… we’re sure that their weekly schedules would be enough to put us mere mortals to shame. And yet…
And yet they still find time for regular date nights (and not just [...]

The 5 Top Reasons NOT to do Date Night

Den and I have been doing our weekly date nights for about a year now. It did take awhile to get into the swing of things, but once we hit our stride, we didn’t look back. A week without date night feels strange… we are disconnected, we get snippy at each other, we don’t get [...]

Whats Love Got to do With it?

I’m no expert in love… it’s difficult to feel like I have anything to contribute when I look into my past and all I see is massive relationship meltdowns with previous partners.

Maybe after all these years Tina Turner has found the answer for us? “Does love actually have anything to do with it?” If [...]

How to Do Date Night Right

How Date Night works …

“Rules of Date Night”

For us… (as in Denis and Emma) date night is simple, keep it cheap and have some fun.
We do stick to some fundamental rules: here we go…

Do it weekly, and take it in turns!
If Emma took me out on a date last week, then this week it’s [...]

Denis, NAKED TWISTER is not a first date!

So I’m introduced to this sexy semi-blonde girl at a Hotel convention, “Denis, you must meet this person… she could possibly send some business your way…” I’m thinking ‘$$$’ brilliant!

Like seriously, how f-u-c-k-i-n-g hard is it to run a start up and feed yourself at the same time!?!?!?! It’s mid 2004, I’m living in [...]

What’s your HOTTEST date night?

Share your most exciting date night you can remember… let us know what worked for you and the reasons why it turned you on. Click the title “What’s your HOTTEST Date Night?” and give us your secrets!

To blog or not to blog…
the Bourne Identity exposed

For the first post I can say I’m a little nervous of how much to give away… laying out my thoughts in an open forum for the world to see, significantly diminishes my fantasy of being “Australia’s top government assassin,” you know… something that resembles that of Jason Bourne.

Shhh! … it’s a secret.

I admit [...]

Why $30 Date Night?

 
Den and I had our first date together … oh, let’s see… around 8 months into our actual relationship! Because what we had was something that evolved naturally from a friendship to a friendship with benefits to a proper, grown-up relationship, it never once occurred to either of us to go on a proper date. [...]