By: GateHouse News Service

Tip of the Week

Valentine’s Day is coming, and that means there might be romance in the air at your workplace. Here are five tips from business etiquette expert Barbara Pachter, author of the book “NewRules@Work: 79 Etiquette Tips, Tools, and Techniques to Get Ahead and Stay Ahead,” to help you and your significant other share a copier by day and a bedroom by night without hurting your professional image:

1. Do not broadcast your relationship on any social media sites. Keep the relationship private. Your co-workers do not need to know the intimate details of your romance. No posting information or photos about your latest love interest on Facebook or sending tweets about it. You never know who will see them.

2. No giant billboards in Times Square! If the relationship fails, be professional and adult about it. A recent billboard in New York publicly announced the affair between Charles Phillips, co-president of Oracle Corporation, and his mistress. Even if you have been jilted and the relationship ends badly, you cannot vent your negative feelings in public. This is the risk of office relationships. They sometimes don’t work out and then you have to continue to see or work with the person.

3. No physical contact in the office. No romantic displays. No secret kissing, caressing, hand holding or sex in the office. This also includes your behavior at office parties.

4. Don’t e-mail X-rated Valentine’s Day cards. E-mail is not private. Do not mail an unsigned Valentine’s Day card to a co-worker. Being a secret admirer is not a corporate concept.

5. Your boss shouldn’t be your valentine. Relationships are tricky enough without your boss or subordinate being your valentine. If you are dating your boss, have your reporting relationship changed.

Source: McPhersonSentinel.com

By: Living it Up / Carolin Vesely

Remember when your relationship was fresh and exciting and you and your beloved couldn’t keep your hands off each other? Just seeing him or her was enough to set your heart aflutter and give you butterflies in the pit of your stomach.

Ottawa sex therapist Sue McGarvie calls that feeling the “squoogies,” and if you haven’t had it for a long time, you’re not alone.

Modern life, with its endless distractions and to-do lists, has a way of pushing passion so far down the priority list that eventually it becomes just another thing to get done — if it makes the list at all.

“In my practice, I hear it over and over again from clients who say they’re just going through the motions, that their relationship isn’t as fulfilling as it once was,” says Thomasina Charney, a life coach living in rural Manitoba.

So Charney, a busy mom who also runs Rossman Yurts & Retreats with her husband, decided to do something to help couples bring the squoogies back.

The Valentine Weekend Great Sex for Life retreat takes place Feb. 12-14 at Elkhorn Resort & Spa in Riding Mountain National Park. McGarvie will be co-facilitating the event, along with her life partner and co-therapist Blaik Spratt.

Winnipeg standup comic Dan Licoppe will break the ice Friday evening following a meet-and-greet chocolate fondue, and there’ll be a ’50s/’60s-style dance and social on Saturday night.

The rest of the time, it’s all about sex — everything from building intimacy to improving technique to “keeping it hot.”

“This workshop is about the best fun, funny, adrenaline kick-starting ideas to keep your relationship from slipping into the ho-hum, ‘Do we really have to, I have a headache,’ pattern,” says McGarvie, a syndicated radio and television sex-show host and author of Quivering Jello: How to Have Mind-Blowing, Toe-Curling Orgasms and Lean and Lusty: The Libido Diet.

“Everyone wants to have that close relationship, to be that couple who hit their 60th anniversary still goosing each other and chasing each other around the cake, but the daily minutiae can make it really difficult.”

Never mind that men and women tend to have different ideas about intimacy — or at least how to get there.

“I try to explain to men why not doing the dishes can affect their sex life,” McGarvie says. “Because if you’re not feeling close to your partner, the last thing you want to do is have sex with them. And for men, that’s how they feel close.”

Any adrenaline-boosting activities that couples do together — paintball, whitewater rafting, etc. — will help them bond, she says, especially if it’s out of their comfort zone. The five things that great marriages have in common? Regular date nights, stopping the fight before it gets ugly, putting the other person’s needs first, sense of humour and inventive sex life.

Regarding the latter, McGarvie says it’s important that couples keep it hot with integrity.

“We’re not saying that you need leather and Crisco; it has to be suited to your relationship,” she says. “We call it being an ethical hedonist.”

As for the retreat, McGarvie says there are no lectures, and although it will be “very interactive,” it’s not group therapy — and no one will be put on the spot. Discussion topics will be determined by the results of a questionnaire that participants will fill out the first night.

“Maybe you’ll learn something, hopefully you’re going to feel closer,” she says. “I’m expecting you to bust a gut laughing and I’m expecting you to feel connected at the end of it — and that you did something for your relationship.”

(The anatomically correct puppets should help with the laughs.) continue reading

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Flowers and chocolates are expected — but wait until you hear what cringe-worthy V-Day gifts these women received!

By The Nest Editors

Let’s be honest: As much as we love Valentine’s Day, it’s hard to ignore all the tacky teddy bears, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, roses, and (gag) lacy red lingerie. Even worse is being on the receiving end of a gimmicky V-Day gift. So, which items fall on the ultimate cheese list? TheNest.com readers share their most cringe-worthy Valentine’s presents.

“One of those big cards from the gas station.” —calle28

“My boyfriend got me a bikini (top only, he didn’t know you had to order the bottoms separately). He intentionally bought it a size too small.” —cherryblossom_bride

“My husband bought me one of those teddy bears in a straitjacket that was called ‘Crazy for You Bear.’ I have a couple of psychology degrees, so I found it kind of funny.” —psyck

“A guy I used to date gave me a plush, red pillow, trimmed with lace and a ribbon across it saying, ‘Will you be my valentine?’” —ootmother2

“One guy gave me a box of chocolates from the dollar store. Too bad I don’t eat chocolate.” —alabaster_angel

“How about a stuffed animal that dances to “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”? The dancing really upped the cheese factor.” —Mel_23

“My ex kept hinting about this awesome surprise he had for Valentine’s Day. Then he took me to Safeway and bought me a red mug that said ‘Kiss.’ Score!” —charisan

“Last year, my hubby gave me a tackle box filled with used lures and fishing worms that he no longer wanted but didn’t want to throw away, plus a Frisbee so he could take me to the park to play (like I was a puppy or something!). Needless to say, it wasn’t well received!” —Dondine

“I got a poem from an ex boyfriend where he went on and on about how beautiful my black hair was, and how he could look into my brown eyes for all of eternity. Too bad my hair is brown, and my eyes are blue.” —tiffwins

“I dumped a guy who gave me an ID bracelet — with his name on it. What, like in case I forgot his name? So ridiculous.” —ktrumpatori

“My husband once bought one of those coupon books full of IOUs (as in, ‘one free massage’ or ‘dinner on me’). He didn’t get it though, and thought he kept the tickets and gave them to me when he wanted to redeem them. I had to explain that he didn’t get to give me a coupon for his massage; I get the coupon and redeem it when I want!” —m+j

Source: lifestyle.msn.com