A Surprise for Him this Valentine's Day

I am not as romantic as my husband. Generally the onus of celebrating special days like anniversary, birthdays, Valentine's Day and arranging gifts lie on him. I remember two years back I was struggling alone in a new city with a new job ( Hubby was in UK), he sent me a very pretty 22 carat gold necklace on Valentine's Day. I have always worn it since.
I have been thinking about what to gift him on 14th, and a lot of gift ideas have come to my mind. I have zeroed in on buying him an ipod. He is a real movie and music buff, and like 99.9 percent of the young generation, he also likes to listen to music while traveling to his office and back home.He had his cell for this purpose, but I have hijacked the cell for taking and uploading pictures for my blogs. ( The digital camera is without a data cable for the time being). It was very difficult for him to part with the only means of entertainment he has while traveling, but he did it for me. So I have gone and bought him an ipod. I will put it under his pillow later. I am also secretly knitting an ipod cosy. It will be ready in a by Sunday.
That was about me. Now tell me what you are going to gift him? An aftershave or a pair of sneakers?
Here is my list of cool gifts for men:
1. A baby: Announce that you are pregnant. Note the reaction on his face. If he is thrilled, it shows that he is ready for fatherhood and you two can begin thinking about creating your herd. If he is impassive or worried, tell him it was a joke and the relief he will feel on this disclosure is nothing compared to a thousand bucks tux you get him.
2. Video games: Most men are grown up kids. Make your kid happy by gifting him the latest video games in the market.
3. Plan a holiday: You don't have to worry about calling is office to check if he can take two days off this Valentine's Day. The Saturday gives you perfect opportunity for a romantic getaway. If you haven't had the time to make bookings, no need to worry. Get a room in a local hotel and spend the whole two days in bed with him.
4. Make him a tasty treat: Instead of buying that Valentine's Day cake, make it at home. I know it will be a lot of work and result may not be that gratifying ( you are the best judge of your culinary skills), but simply the effort on your part will make him go over the moon. And as they say, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so try it out and tell me.

A Struggling Writer? Try Triond

I have been with Triond since September 2007. Triond is a site that pays you to write original articles. They pay according to the number of page views your article gets. The pay is miserably low ( I am talking about my articles, you can earn a lot if you are talented:), but they are very punctual in their payments. Every 15th of the month I get whatever pennies I earned the previous month. You can upload original photos too and you will get paid if somebody do look at those pictures.
I had long forgotten about Triond, didn't even care to check paypal whether they are paying, because I know they are. But I had stopped writing for them. Simply because I thought if I have to write an original article and get pennies for it, then better write it on my blogs so that I get rich, original content here, and eventually a good page rank.
But I was so wrong in not writing on Triond. Today, out of the blue I remembered about Troind, and logged into my account. I checked the money earned. It never crossed four dollars any month for those fourteen articles and photos that I have there. But I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that one of my articles had a total earning of $10.49! It got me thinking. This article is written on an unusual topic, Skeleton Leaves,it has a niche audience, the people interested in crafts. There is very little information on it. That's why those who searched information regarding skeleton leaves, they landed on my article. ( I later used this article for my crafts blog and get a lot of visitors there too).
When I look for writing jobs in different forums or job boards, I feel disappointed and disheartened. The clients are willing to pay $0.5 for a 500 hundred words original article! I can't sell myself so cheap.
If you are going to write and give away 500 words article to get $0.50 ,its better to write on Triond. You will earn money from your articles throughout your life or as long as the site is around.
I am off to write some interesting stuff and getting it published once again at Triond.