My Boyfriend's Birthday is Coming Up...

And I'm at a loss for what to get him.

The good news is that with the raise, I'll be able to spend a decent sum of money on his gift without feeling like the expenditure is a completely irrational budget departure.

The bad news is that my raise won't kick in until March 20, a few weeks after his birthday. I get paid once a month, fyi. I will get one more paycheck before his birthday for $3300. But $1050 of that has to go to rent, and $600 must go to my "for tax" ING account. That still leave me with about $1500 for the month. Even with my various bills, I could try to keep spending down really low and figure his birthday gift is worth more than any splurges I might partake in over the month.

However, that doesn't change the fact that I still don't know WHAT to get him.

I feel like I need to get him something amazing. I totally flaked on Valentine's Day this year and got him, well, nothing. For Christmas I gave him a $100 gift certificate to a rollerblading store so he could buy a pair of Blades (he did and he seems to like them).

How do I get him something better than last year's gift? Last year, I got him a Nintendo Wii. Without spending a zillion dollars, well, what do I get the boy?

He's gotten me such great gifts over our dating tenure. An ipod nano and a Wacom digital drawing tablet. He got me a smaller gift for Hannukah... a food scale... I figure it cost $30 or something. But for Valentine's Day he bought food for a home cooked dinner... fish and champagne. Again, I got him noting. Absolutely nothing.

So what do I get him this year? I have less than a month to figure this out. I love him more than anything and I know he'd be fine with me getting him dirt in the shape of a heart, but I want to give him more than that. I want to get him something he wouldn't normally buy for himself. But what would that be? He's so hard to shop for.

What do nerdy boys like?