Archive for January 2010
Valentine’s Day 2010: 10 Gifts for Him
With Valentine’s Day three weeks away, it’s time to think outside of the chocolate box for guy gifts. Women may be tempted to give sentimental tokens on February 14, but most men prefer playful or practical gifts. (See the Seven Guidelines for Guy Gifts.) Consider these 10 guy gifts to celebrate Cupid’s big day.
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Victorinox Swisscard. Arm your guy’s wallet with a credit-card-sized multi-tool. The SwissCard includes a letter opener, scissors, tweezers, a magnifying glass, 3mm and 5mm flat-head screwdrivers, two Phillips screwdrivers, a LED mini light and an integrated ruler ($20 from Amazon.com). | |
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Mr. Beer Premium Edition Home Microbrewery System. Have your Valentine home brew and bottle his own batch of beer. With just four steps, this kit is great introduction to the craft of beer making ($40 from Amazon.com). | |
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6-month Netflix Gift Subscription. Introduce your guy to Netflix (or extend his current subscription). He gets DVDs in the mail or he can instantly stream movies to computers, game consoles and other devices ($54 to $102 depending on the plan, from Netflix). | |
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Buckyballs. Rolling Stone’s 2009 Toy of the Year. This set of 216 magnetic spheres can forms countless shapes. Give your Valentine this highly addictive gadget/puzzle ($26.31 from Amazon.com). | |
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Popcorn Palace. Send him a Valentine’s Day one-gallon tin filled with Chocolate Drizzle Caramel Corn and Gourmet White Cheddar Popcorn ($25 from Popcorn Palace). | |
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Gigantic Sweet Hearts Fortune Cookie. Create your personalized fortune message in a Nerf-football-sized fortune cookie. This treat is dipped in chocolate and coated with candy hearts. I loved the cookie received as an eighth wedding anniversary gift ($30 from Good Fortunes). | |
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Coffee Tote. Make sure he has java on his next junket. This black canvas tote holds a stainless steel vacuum flask for piping hot coffee, two insulated mugs, a small container for cream, two stainless spoons, and a napkin ($56 from Uncommon Goods). | |
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Cricket Laptop Stand. Make life with his laptop easier with this ergonomic stand. The Cricket props up any laptop computer nine inches for more comfortable viewing ($40 from Relax the Back). | |
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Slingbox PRO-HD. Set the TV free. Slingbox allows your guy to watch his DVR, cable or satellite TV on the go. This nifty device streams his favorite shows to a laptop or smart phone ($264 from Amazon.com). | |
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Personalized Steak Branding Iron. The mark of a real grill master. Order your guy’s initials for this iron, seared into a wooden gift box ($47 from Texas Irons). |
Tags: chocolate+candy, coffee, food, gadgets, games, guy gifts, movies, tools, valentine's day
John Hodgman audio books are no longer my favorite thing on the iTunes Store. Apple just simplified donations to the American Red Cross to help the Haiti relief effort. If you have an iTunes account, you can give $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 or $200, and Apple will charge the credit card you have on record. You’ll find a contribution link on the iTunes Store Home or click here to launch iTunes and access the donation page. Your monetary gift is anonymous, and 100% goes to the American Red Cross to provide food, water, shelter and emergency services to disaster victims in Haiti. It’s the best transaction I’ve made on the iTunes Store.
Tags: charitable gifts
Haiti needs our help. If you can, give to a reputable charity online. Or simply visit Amazon.com to make a donation for Haiti earthquake relief.
Consider the charities below that meet the Better Business Bureau’s 20 Standards for Charity Accountability.
- Action Against Hunger
- American Friends Service Committee
- American Jewish World Service
- American Red Cross
- AmeriCares Foundation
- CARE
- Catholic Relief Services
- Compassion International
- Concern Worldwide
- Direct Relief International
- Episcopal Relief and Development
- Food for the Hungry
- Friends of the World Food Program
- International Medical Corps
- Lutheran World Relief
- Medical Teams International
- Mercy Corps
- Operation USA
- Oxfam America
- Physicians for Peace Foundation
- Project Concern International
- Save the Children Federation
- United States Fund for UNICEF
- World Relief
- World Vision
Tags: charitable gifts
I’m overdue on my annual bookkeeping for this blog. In 2009, I made five resolutions for Gift Giving Guy. Let’s check the ledger and see whether I was on time, within grace or past due.
Resolution #1: Publish 100 posts in 2009.
Past Due. I posted 75 times in 2009, three quarters toward the goal.
Resolution #2: Introduce six new gadgets, design revisions or other blog improvements.
On Time. I started using Twitter on March 22, adding a follow link and the latest tweet to the right column. I embedded a ShareThis link on each post. Two new hub pages, Guy Gift Ideas and Gifts by Occasion, made their debut. And I included two new Blogger gadgets: recent comments and a poll.
Resolutions #3 and #4: Create an online quiz. Offer a guide on gift giving by personality traits.
Within Grace. I’m counting my post, “Selecting Gifts by Personality Quiz,” toward both of these resolutions.
Resolution #5: Blog about gift giving and e-commerce insights discovered in my MBA classes.
On Time. I matched my graduate school experience with gift giving six times in 2009:
- A Gift Deferred: The Wii for Christmas
- Brand-name Gifts
- A Perfect Gift from Buckle
- Irreverent References: Gifts for MBA, Law and Medical Students
- When Gift Retailers Fail
- Keeping Workplace Gifts Respectful
Tags: blog
In our home, my wife is the hostess-in-chief. If I were running hospitality, I’d be tempted to follow the advice of comedienne/actress Amy Sedaris: fill the medicine cabinet with marbles. (“Nothing announces a nosey guest better than an avalanche of marbles hitting a porcelain sink,” Sedaris suggests.) So for my wife’s birthday, I gave her gifts that affirm her as the entertaining hostess.
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Any event needs a plan. Notepad maker Knock Knock packages a menu list, a shopping list and a cooking prep list in The Chef’s Planning Kit |
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Two of my wife’s favorite crooners are Michael Bublé and Harry Connick, Jr. I gave her their new albums (Crazy Love |
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Instead of pitchers, we’ll be serving from Artland Simplicity Eight-Piece Punch Bowl Set. |
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I think her favorite is the Waring Professional Buffet Server and Warming Tray. |
respectively) as lively music for our party prep. Tags: birthday, dining, for her, for hosts, gift ideas, music
