Men, has a woman ever enraptured your attention to the point of making your head spin? It's a feeling hard to describe. How do I know? Because women feel it too with men. The feeling of both hope and discomfort simultaneously isn't fun for either of us. I think the discomfort must come from having absolutely no information about the person your mind is running wild about. One thing I have learned about men is that they don't like heading into battle without their roadmaps. Wouldn't it feel just awful to be wearing your favorite cologne, and having it turn out to be the scent of her ex, whom she totally can't stand?

Let me say that such fears are well founded. Men seem to say and do the wrong thing somewhere between second 15 and 45, almost every time. Yes, it can happen that fast—and the air of self-confidence men are usually still wearing won't help at this point—because, to us, the "confidence" is coming off as pure stupidity. I would always think, "Hasn't he figured out that he's blown it yet?"

So here I offer a recipe of suggestions on how "not to blow it"—any of which would have absolutely worked with me. Actually, Tip # 19 worked a little too well… because I started my family with man that got it right.