Your squeeze is special because they wouldn't want a dozen red roses on Valentine's Day--they want something from the heart, dammit. Which makes Valentine's Day shopping especially stressful, because now on top of making dinner reservations and not burning down the apartment while creating a candlelit love den, you have to find a super-special gift to commemorate your love immemorial. If you're dreading Saturday because you know your honey would sneeze at stuffed teddy bears and Hallmark cards, never fear: thanks to the miracle of the internet, there are tons of neat gifts that will have your SO all a-twitter.
Non-Obnoxious Gift Sets
Save the His and Hers towels for your yuppie friends' wedding shower. The folks at BoldLoft have documented the butterflies of romance with cute stick figures who populate the sets of mugs, pillow cases and t-shirts that you can share with your honey. When paired together, each set tells a little story about the characters' romance. We recommend the pillow cases, the perfect way to say "Let's have sleepovers as often as possible."
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Personalized Bottle of Champage
Maybe you wouldn't mind your boyfriend ordering the services of that chesty waitress if she had a personalized bottle with his name on it, all picked out by you. Signature Wines offers a range of personalizing services ranging from printed labels, engraved bottles, and printed pictures of you and your inamorata. The site offers customers the opportunity to design the entire bottle themselves. With this personalized flourish, your Valentine's Day toast is pretty much taken care of. Prices range from $12.60-$75.
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Bacon Chocolate Bar
If your date has a foodie blog, or gets a-flutter everytime the TV lands on the Food Network, then you know that shrink-wrapped chocolates are tantamount to emotional infidelity. Woo your gormand with Mo's Macon Bar from Vosges ($7.50). Smoked applewood bacon is embedded in rich, dark chocolate. For an extra foodie kick, get the Bacon Bar and the Shakespare Oatmeal Stout ($42)
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The Countertop Beer Cooler
So maybe you skipped the Super Bowl because you heard it'd be boring, and now your boy is bummed that you missed everything but Jennifer Hudson singing the National Anthem? Make sure he's the envy of all the guys at poker night by wrapping up the Countertop Beer Cooler ($300), the awesome-est (and least practical) beer tool ever. This baby will drawn from a 5-liter keg with all the expertise of a real bar tap, while an LCD monitors the exact temperature of the liquid to ensure a professional-looking foam. Really beats pouring a bottled brew into a chilled glass.
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Lovopoly
If the capitalist in you couldn't even take off work an hour early to find the perfect gift, at least you can design your very own Monopoly ($40-$75) commemorating the high and low points of your relationship. The possibilities are endless here: Broadway becomes the bar where you guys first met, jail is wherever someone sleeps when they're in the doghouse. Game cards include "get lucky" draws, "get therapy" deductions, and memory cards.
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