paulo
sounds like a fair swap to me.

 

 

craigb
I may have limited knowledge in this area (being a single guy and all), but I've been told I have this part down correctly.
 
NEVER buy something practical for your wife's (or girlfriend's) birthday or Christmas.  It will only cause years of grief (they never, ever forget).
 
You need to get something impractical like jewelry, stuffed animals, fine candy, purses, shoes or a new Jaguar (or a stuffed animal wearing the jewelry while holding the candy next to a nice purse and shoes all in the front seat of a new car).

Be extremely careful when following this advice as he left out a key part known as "Female Unforgivable Gifting of Unmatched Precedent syndrome (aka FUGUP syndrome). 
 
You see, for us guys if we get an especially nice gift from our lovely lady it's like, "Cool! Great!", and then that's that.
 
But for our fairer sex, it doesn't end there! They file away this lovely gift information and all gifts given in the future will be compared to this new standard. If, by chance, a future gift seemingly does not measure up to the standard this will be taken by them as an indication that your relationship now "has problems".
 
And there is almost nothing worse than being in a relationship with a fine lady who is constantly examining and wanting to discuss said relationship.

I am going to second the Blendtec/Vitamix. I have a Blendtec but both are good. My wife destroyed our fairly expensive blender trying to blend frozen fruits. I realized we were going to go through a lot of them so I decided to get the Blentec. We have put 500+ cycles on it and it takes everything you throw at it. If you don't believe me, go to youtube and search for "will it blend". If nothing else, it will be entertaining.

Ok, fine.  Back to the blender then.  I have the following Kitchenaid blender which can definitely be recommended.  It's tough enough for just about anything and Kitchenaid's customer service is excellent.  The first blender I bought had an electrical issue and the company immediately sent me a replacement and asked me to return the defective unit in the same box - all at their expense.  None of this "return the old one first and we'll send you a new one stuff." 
 

craigb
I may have limited knowledge in this area (being a single guy and all), but I've been told I have this part down correctly.
 
NEVER buy something practical for your wife's (or girlfriend's) birthday or Christmas.  It will only cause years of grief (they never, ever forget).
 
You need to get something impractical like jewelry, stuffed animals, fine candy, purses, shoes or a new Jaguar (or a stuffed animal wearing the jewelry while holding the candy next to a nice purse and shoes all in the front seat of a new car).
 
Of course, you've already started making the garage liveable, so you have a fall-back plan I guess...

 
This reminds me of something that happened when I was a kid, maybe around 1981 or so. We were visiting my aunt down in Torquay and it was her birthday. My uncle's present to her was a new vacuum cleaner. So while she was at work, my uncle had us all mess up the living room carpet as much as we could. We flung rice around and emptied ashtrays all over the floor. Of course when she got back from work she was furious at the mess....at which point my uncle wheeled in the new vacuum (with a bow around it) and said "Happy Birthday darling." She seemed completely over the moon and immediately set about vacuuming up the mess with a big smile on her face. 
 
I cringe when I think of this now. Just goes to show how times have changed since then. It would be a brave man indeed to pull off something like that on his wife's birthday nowadays. 

sharke

craigb

 This reminds me of something that happened when I was a kid, maybe around 1981 or so. We were visiting my aunt down in Torquay and it was her birthday. My uncle's present to her was a new vacuum cleaner. So while she was at work, my uncle had us all mess up the living room carpet as much as we could. We flung rice around and emptied ashtrays all over the floor. Of course when she got back from work she was furious at the mess....at which point my uncle wheeled in the new vacuum (with a bow around it) and said "Happy Birthday darling." She seemed completely over the moon and immediately set about vacuuming up the mess with a big smile on her face.  I cringe when I think of this now. Just goes to show how times have changed since then. It would be a brave man indeed to pull off something like that on his wife's birthday nowadays. 

Man .....that's serious!

The blender might not be the most romantic gift, but practical, and you get to use it too!

Throw in some flowers with it (include a rose) and you are good to go.

Get her a vacuum and an iron while you're at it ...
 
Heee
 
J

Of course she wants you to get a blender Mooch.
 
She's seen what you secretly do with the vacuum cleaner so it's going to be hilarious for her when she catches you trying to do the same thing with a blender.
 
Who among us hasn't fallen for that one before?

 Well how did it go Mooch? Are you still in the main living area?