Gift that keeps giving
Impress your sweetie on Valentine’s Day with a monthly flower arrangement. Not only is it a fabulous present, but it also will make you look like a hero every 30 days or so.
To make arrangements, contact a florist and pay for several months of flowers; be sure to have the delivery charge included in the purchase. Each month, your love can simply call the florist, select the colors and type of flowers she wants, and sit back and relax.
You can decide on how much to spend, but generally $40 a month will pay for a nice-size arrangement. On Valentine’s Day, give her a single rose or carnation with a card, telling her about her surprise.
Reserve your table
Thursday is Valentine’s Day and restaurants will be celebrating straight through the weekend with dinner deals and romantic specials. But you can’t enjoy any of them if you don’t make a reservation.
Now is the time to call your favorite spot and reserve your seat, because waiting in the lobby for two hours for a table doesn’t say “I love you” to anyone.
Have ‘A Good Day’
If your sweetie wants some action with her valentine, keep in mind that A Good Day to Die Hard opens Thursday. It’s the fifth film in the series starring Bruce Willis as tough guy John McClane, following Die Hard; Die Hard 2: Die Harder; Die Hard With a Vengeance; and Live Free or Die Hard. This time, McClane is up against bad guys — and paired with his adult son — in Russia. (At least one teaser for the film says it has McClane on foreign soil for the first time. What about the Canadian scenes in Die Hard With a Vengeance?)
By the way, the first film premiered almost exactly 25 years ago — on July 15, 1988. There’s no dying, hard or easy, for this franchise yet. Look for Rich Heldenfels’ review of A Good Day to Die Hard in Thursday’s Enjoy.ohio.com section.
Think spring at home show
Today is your last chance to catch the Great Big Home + Garden Show at Cleveland’s I-X Center.
Highlights of this year’s show are the Idea Home, the Dream Basement, 17 indoor gardens and celebrity designer rooms. Matt Fish of Melt Bar and Grilled will be onstage at 1 p.m.
Stick around after the show to pick up plants used in the gardens at a discount price.
The show is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the plant sale starts at 6:30. Show admission is $14; children 6 to 12 pay $5; and younger children are admitted free. Parking is $8.
Details are at www.greatbig homeandgarden.com.
Get tickets now
Pop rock band Matchbox Twenty took a few years off from touring and a full decade off from recording.
Now the quartet has reunited, released a new album called North and hit the road including a show at the Akron Civic Theatre at 8 p.m. Feb. 17. Tickets are $49.50-$99.50. Call 330-253-2488 or visit www.akroncivic.com.
On stage
Summit Artspace presents Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones through Feb. 17 on the second floor, 140 E. Market St., Akron. The play follows Brutus Jones, an African-American who kills a man and escapes from prison to a Caribbean island, where he becomes emperor. Cost is $10, $7 for students. Call 330-376-8480 or see www.akronareaarts.org.