So many shops, so little time. After all, St. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. My better-half and I have made it a habit to buy each other funny gifts each year. To us, humor has been the glue of our existence, the bond that has held us together through the best and worst of times. We love to celebrate our 20 years, sometimes rocky, often pleasant, with a funny Valentine’s Day gift.

So I’ve scoured the Internet to decide what kinds of gifts we would exchange if we were other couples with different goals and dreams.

I recently read a blog from a mother-to-be, who happens to be a humor gift enthusiast. One shop she visited has incredibly funny maternity and infant wear, Mirth Girth Birth www.mirthgirthbirth.com which offers funny maternity wear and infant wear and a small inventory of gifts and collectibles by the cartoonist whose work appears on the products. The categories are in “Future Professions” such as “Future Physicist” and “Future Veterinian” etc. One of the most delicious is in the Future Musician category which is Beethoven-themed. To explain it in such an article is a bit difficult, but the image shows a giant beet (vegetable) at a piano, with a face that has a striking resemblance to Beethoven. It’s a very unique mirthful comic gift. And the caption simply says, “Beethoven”. You have to see it to appreciate it. You will laugh.

Of course anything from any of Rick London’s stores are worth seeing. The majority of the funny gift stores I found on the net were from the Rick London collection, not surprisingly. He is the master of that kind of product.

One of my all-time favorites is is from the Rick London Collection main store, www.ricklondoncollection.com. It is a cartoon coffee mug called “Starbuck’s Is Everywhere”. (the London Collection offers dozens of other gifts of this cartoon from women’s track suits to infant wear), but I particularly like this mug. It is called Starbucks Is Everywhere, and shows an astronaut on the planet Mars, where he is surprised to see a Starbuck’s. He is on his radio telling Houston to forget the freeze-dried coffee on the next journey there. It’s an image so funny, it will be stuck in my psyche forever, not unlike early Steve Martin with the arrow through his head.

If you are into greeting cards, note cards, or post cards (and I love to buy them by the box), I love to visit Just Funny Greeting Cards www.justfunnygreetingcards.com One of my favorites, and maybe favorite cartoons of all time, is on one of the sets of cards called Easter Island which can be found in the “Holidays” section of the store. It shows the giant metaphysical rock beings of Easter Island gathering colorful Easter eggs and a great caption (which I forgot at this time but is very Far Side like to me).

Veteran couples want to feel sexy too, and there’s a new store just for us called A Thong In My Heart www.athonginmyheart.com . One of my favorites is Dr. Rorschach Walking His Dog “Spot” which is in the psychiatry section of the store . The store is brand new, and not a huge inventory yet, but what is in there is well worth the visit. The cartoons are on women’s thongs and men’s boxers, which happen to be quite sensual too.

Rick Londonwear www.ricklondonwear.com and his Londons Times Superstore www.LTSuperstore.com, two supergift stores run by London carry a huge plethora of merchandise. Funny tees, sweats, beer steins, coffee mugs, keepsake boxes, aprons, and you name it They even have gourmet cartoon coffee gift baskets and the coffee is incredibly good (in the LTSuperstore) at the top of the page.

But I don’t just cheerlead for the London-owned stores. Some other stores have fared well in my search as well such as www.stupid.com (that is, if you really go for weird); and sometimes not that funny. If you are into politics and other social issues, this is a good one to visit.

Though not much romance here, there’s some funny stuff at Hipster Gifts, with the address www.hipstergifts.com. There’s some nifty sections and products. Not a huge selection but some good quality things.