Happy Valentine's Day!

OK I'm late. I actually forgot that yesterday was Valentine's Day until R hugged me from behind and asked what I wanted to do with the evening.

'I thought I'd work on my article,' I responded, distracted by all my cutting edge thoughts about talent management.

Yes, I write real articles sometimes for HCM trade journals. Occassionally they are even published.

Ralf: 'It's Valentine's Day. You shouldn't work tonight. How about you cook us a delicious dinner and we watch a movie?'

Not a bad opening bid - after nearly 7 years of marriage it's finally sunk in that inviting a bunch of friends over to watch an FC Bayern game isn't romantic.

Me (upping the ante): 'OK but I want to watch The Women.'

I had no expectation of The Women being any good - and it wasn't - but I still wanted to see it.

Ralf (hasty counter offer): 'I was thinking we could watch 'Die Maenner.'

Translation: 'The Men.' Some classic German movie about men. A half-hearted counter bid he knew had no chance.

Me: 'So. . . I cook dinner and we watch your movie? Where's my diamond tennis bracelet?'

Let the backpedaling begin.

Ralf (magnanimously): 'Tell you what - since Valentine's Day's a chick holiday you can choose the movie.'

I couldn't resist a determined romantic overture like that so that's what we did.

It was nice, especially the loud, expressive snorting sounds Ralf kept making during the movie.

Think about it - would you want to be married to a man who enjoyed The Women? The whole point is that he hated it but watched it for me.

He loves me. :-)

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day!