... and while I've already got more than a few ideas of shiny things to buy and neato things to do, I'm always open to suggestion

Flowers are out because of the aforementioned travel - I can't send them to her office and keeping them at home just leads to chewed up flowers and kitty puke. There are no useful plays/musicals going on in the area in the next few months. My poetry tends to be doggerel, so I'm not even going to try

I've got a puzzle box coming in the mail, and a set of earrings that match the first necklace I bought for her. A ballroom dance class is scheduled. Dinner is challenging, but I'm going to get her out of the house one of these weekends and cook something up. Candles and a bubblebath are going to be set up for one of the times she doesn't get home at 11 at night.

As I said, other ideas are welcome. I may not use them exactly, but they may jog my thought process

For the record, since I'm sure someone will say it sooner or later, "stick your dick in her" is not wooing.

@Thucy - no, I don't do games of less than a 24 hour phase, and I can always enter moves after the boy goes to sleep, earlier if I'm rotting in a hotel

Darn. I was so going there!

Dude, you're going to _dance class_ with her. What else could she conceivably hope for?

Dude, if you do the things on that list you'll be more than fine. If she'll have a mailing address while she travels you could go old-fashioned and write a physical letter. I dunno what kind of travel you're talking about, though, I suspect business (which may not be conducive to mailing letters...).

@Philalethes - I used to work Ren Faires, so I've set a pretty high bar for myself in the past ;)

@Eden - yup, business. She just got back from Provo, UT and will be hitting Munich, London, Warsaw, and San Fran over the next month

Ah. Yeah, not very conducive to letters. Maybe while you're traveling and she's home, if that's coming up anytime soon.

strat, if you are a true nerd, you must definitely get her a collector's edition lego set and make her watch you and strat junior muck around with it on the floor.

But if you're looking for something a little more normal, you're probably looking for a bottle of nice gin, a lifetime subscription of cosmo, and a pink digital camera...or something like that.

@Eden - I can write a letter and leave it in her luggage ;)

@ava - we *already* do that, although the latest obsession is hot wheels

@strat

Rent a cherry-picker. Take her out to see the sunset. Then, when the sun sets, go up in the cherry-picker bucket and watch it set a second time.

@ strat - What about learning how to massage? I imagine after a really really long day at work, or worse a business trip, something relaxing and yet affectionate like that would go over well.
And I have to say, despite some of the sillier suggestions this thread is adorable. I'm sure your wife will appreciate you doing this. = )

@mafia: carpel tunnel :/

Good ideas all around.

There is also the simple things.. things that don't really take much effort but (I'm told) mean a lot.

Like maybe write a list of positive adjectives that she embodies and give it her, no frills.

I wrote for my gf, 31 things, one for each day of the month ostensibly.

Little things like that.

Also: think hard. Is there something she always wishes you would do but you don't want to do? Something she gave up asking you to do a long time ago? Whatever it is, try to remember it and put aside your reason for not wanting to do it.

Surprise her by learning it or suggesting it or whatever it is.

Also... abge... the cherry picker thing is ridiculous lol


Oh btw strat you might want to try writing her a song. I KNOW that sounds cliche but... if you're not like a "songwriter" then it will mean a lot. Even if it's just sheet music or something.

I know it sounds a bit naff but maybe if you made her a little book with places of interest etc to visit/see in the cities she is travelling to, that way she could make the most of her business trips?
To make it make it even cheesier you could insert quotes that you would say if you were there with her, examples: Munich: "Hitler drove a Merc!" London: "Spurs won't make it out of the group stages of the Champions league, Darling!"

Like the luggage letter idea, just hope the NSA doesn't go through it like they did my stuff >_>

Mind if I borrow some of these?

Feel free, Eden

Send a fax to each hotel she will be staying at saying something sweet/personal

I mean so that she receives if when checking in

I am reminded of a colleague soon to depart on a trip to Russia. Another colleague decided to shove a load of condoms into his suitcase. At the last minute the trip was delayed so my colleague returned home where his wife unpacked the suitcase ....

This is possibly the least helpfully titled thread, I'm afraid.

@abgemacht, I did some rough calculations, and you'd need a high-spec cherry picker to see the sun set twice. We're talking a 50m gain in height.

I think the solution is to make like St. Exupery's Petit Prince and own a smallish planet -- then, all you'd have to do is move your chair!

Small planet => little atmosphere => crappy sunsets.

Or, you have a really dense, small planet, in which case => death

Yeah, I'm thinking having your body ripped apart by tidal forces doesn't really offer what I'm looking for ;)

Having a surprise dinner for her is a good idea. My gf did it to me a few weeks ago, I thought we were going out for dinner and I walk into her house to pick her up and see candles and a fire going with some buble playing in the background. Was awesome.

If you do cook dinner make something which you can share too like an antipasto platter, with cheeses, crackers, salami, olives, dips etc. Also make sure you pick her favourite thing for desert (duh).

I'm not sure how good a cook you are, but definitely make sure you can cook what you plan to cook (maybe practise it first?). The mood gets slightly spoiled when you make something which really does not taste great but you're both pretending its really good.

Might I suggest a mix-tape? Which last decade would have been called a mix-CD maybe and now would be a bunch of MP3s and a playlist? In any case, hopefully you get the idea. They would be for listening to while traveling and she'll keep thinking of you because of them.

Wow strat, your wife is one lucky gal! Sounds like she is really loved and appreciated, which is the real gift after all.

Thinking more about the whole sunset/cherrypicker idea, I think it would be far better to find a big iconic building, preferably near a river or something so that you can see the sunset from the ground without other buildings getting in the way, and then to use a lift (trans. to american: elevator) to get to the top and watch it again.