Con from page 29
3. PLACE A BET
You and your husband have $20 on Hootenanny to win in the
sixth race. He rounds the far turn three back from the lead, but
he's closing in fast. The horses thunder past you down the
stretch, and Hootenanny wins by a nose! You jump into your
husband's arms and suddenly realize you're having a blast. The
adrenaline rush, the decadence of throwing caution (and a few
bucks) to the wind, and the slightly sleazy atmosphere of the
track or your average casino all make gambling a great way to
inject a little pizzazz into your relationship. Of course, you don't
have to wager your hard-earned cash to get the same effect:
Try playing strip poker in your living room after the kids go to
bed or going to a pool hall and betting on who has to make dinner for the next week.
( Pastor Balladeer and Charltiscene of that first crime can bring back some of those old
goosebumps. Sharon Alex, 38, of Lake Mary, FL, suggests you
plan the evening exactly as you did the first time — same perfume, same innocent looks, everything. You can even dress separately and meet each other there, as Alex did: "I met my husband at a nightclub, and we danced and flirted. His arm around
my waist made everything seem just right."
6. CYBER-ROMANCE EACH OTHER
These days it's far too easy for a chasm of cyberspace to grow
between a husband and wife. He can spend hour after hour
playing a computer game, and she can't seem to get enough of
the Women.com chat rooms. But with a few quick clicks, you
can use t his very same technology to hot-wire your marriage.
"With the accessibility of e-mail," says Michele Weiner-Davis, a
4. BE A LITTLE DARING
marriage and family therapist in Woodstock, IL, and author
of Divorce Busting, "we can take the time to do things we
When I was in high school the "in" thing to do during the wee
wouldn't ordinarily do, like sending love letters." One woman
hours of a warm summer night was to sneak into the local pool
she knows decided that if her husband was going to spend all of
and go skinny-dipping. Fear of getting caught in a compromising
his time surfing the Internet, she would express her feelings
position is guaranteed to evoke some thrills and chills, and you
online. She e-mailed him a very personal romantic poem and
can bring back that feeling as adults in small ways that won't
got an amazingly romantic response.
get you thrown in the slammer. How, you ask? The next time
the two of you go to a movie, hide in the last row of the theater
and fool around. Valerie Gordon, 35, of Santa Clara, CA, ups the
excitement factor by showing (more than) a little skin: "When
the mood hits and the weather permits, my husband and I take
naughty photos of each other in public places like parking garages."
5. RELIVE YOUR FIRST DATE
Your first date was a mystery that had yet to be solved. There
were several juicy clues — the look in your date's eyes, the way
he kissed you — and plenty of nervous tension. But even
though you know how that mystery turned out, returning to the