Investing Time

Even though my hubby calls me "Sneaky Liz," I'm not very sneaky. Typically, he finds out his gifts months in advance of his birthday. Typically my secret date ideas are shared within days of thinking of them (or researching them).

In short,  I'm notoriously bad at keeping my date ideas secret and horrible at asking secretive questions.

So I hatched a plot. I collected over 50 dates from the "Dating Divas" site. I saved the websites and summarized what each date was and what would be needed for it. Then I created a questionnaire (I was in teacher mode at this point). I made a 55 question survey for my hubby to answer, so I would be armed with his likes and dislikes as I planned these dates. My theory was if I ask all the questions at once, I'll be armed with the knowledge, so I could so plan the dates without spilling the beans each time. The large amounts of questions should throw my hubby off each specific date, since he won't be able to trace each question to each date.

(I was planning on just giving him the 5 pages of questions I came up with and having him answer them via writing, but he preferred that I interview him). 

He *LOVED* the interview. So much, that every time I finished a page, he checked to see if there were more questions for me to ask.

He felt spoiled and loved and attended to.

Sometimes, I get into "efficient Liz mode" and I forget to invest time in those I love. My goal was noble: verify my hubby's preferences before planning dates, but my method was too time-oriented and not enough person-oriented.

We spent over an hour with my survey and I severely enjoyed "studying" my hubby.

Somethings I knew (like he loves brownies).
Other things, I didn't know (like he had such a stringent ranking of the best types of pizza).

That was a date in and of itself.