And fine, artisan chocolate is really unlike anything else. It's certainly better than the yellow boxes we got as kids from our grandparents on Valentine's Day. There are a few wonderful places in town that craft their own treats in-house and spice them up with unusual concoctions that make them a perfectly acceptable dessert all on their own. Plus, they go great with wine.

At Eclipse Chocolat in North Park, I go for anything with salt. You could get a bag o' mini bars (nothing like the minis of Halloween) for your sweet love. How does Basil Mint, Gingerbread Crumb or Salty Dulce de Leche sound? They also make Sea Salt Caramels and this thing they call Rococo—think very fancy rocky road. The one I crave is studded with the classic marshmallows, but also burnt caramel toffee and cayenne spiced candied pecans. 

Chuao Chocolatier is available at most grocery stores these days, but they started here and they still have several cafes including ones in Del Mar, UTC and Encinitas. Their specialty this season is a port-wine drenched strawberry enrobed in dark chocolate. Sign me up! This week they're selling like hotcakes. Or, chocolate strawberries. They have other V-Day inspired treats, like marzipan or praline hearts. But I always look for the Gingerette: caramelized ginger coated in dark chocolate and sprinkled with a smoky chipotle chili. 

Chi Chocolat in Liberty Station do truffles and they do them well. I'm partial to the ones infused with Jasmine Tea and am dying to try their Curry Truffle that's dipped in coconut. My kid wasn't too into trying that one, so we passed. But Valentine's Day is but four days away... definitely better than nothing.

For some additional spots to pick up chocolates, check out last week's Wandering Appetite column.

Subscription-based services are all the rage right now. Think: Bacon of the Month Club. These types of things have been around for some time. My in-laws used to get regular monthly deliveries of cheese from Hickory Farms. But, lately, entrepreneurs are looking at new things to sell monthly and by mail.

Want to start juicing but don't want to do the work of actually pressing your own veggies? There is a subscription for that.

Want to try out new beauty products but can't be bothered with a trip to Sephora? There is a subscription for that. There is even a subscription for strictly manly products. This is a sub-group of subscription services dubbed "tryvertising"

There are two different companies that could be referred to as "panty of the month" clubs—Me Undies and Panty by Post.

Here are a few more that have caught my eye:

Man Packs will deliver socks, underwear, razors, condoms, shaving cream, toothpaste and more, every three months.

Trunk Club is a personal stylist for the fashion-challenged man. They pack a trunk of new clothes in your sizes. And like Garanimals, they will tell you what to wear with what.

Citrus Lane, a Cali-based company, will deliver new parents "care packages" of tested products each and every month for $25, based on the age of the child.

Little Passports is an educational subscription service for the kiddles that sends them "adventure kits" from a different country each month that include a letter, genuine souvenirs, "passport stickers" and more.

Craft Coffee will send you coffee (duh) from various artisan coffee companies from around the globe.

Threadless, the art collective, has a T-shirt of the month club that features a different artist's tee each month. 

Winner of the most random is NotAnotherBill, a U.K. company that sends you a surprise gift! Past gifts have included hand-made leather key fobs, Swedish-crafted dustpans (!) and tattooed-knuckle oven mitts.

But my favorite, and I think the most genius of them all, is another English-based subscription service. Trinkets delivers natural cotton tampons every month in pretty little packages. Is there any other product that we need each and every month, like clockwork? OK, maybe just us women, but still, that's 50 percent of the population. Can someone start this in the U.S.? Please?

And if not that, then can we get a Soup Cycle here in San Diego?

Earlier in the week I went to check out the Mid-Century Minx store on Adams, but it’s only open on Friday and Saturdays, so I have to go back (have to!) but since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I'd duck in an old stand-by: Resurrected Furniture (2814 Adams Ave., University Heights, 619-283-3318). With antique stores, the stock can be hit or miss, depending on when you drop in, but this visit yielded some interesting finds: A stack of Heller plates & mugs (like they use at Influx Cafe), a couple of very dainty white china cake plates, a cabinet full of blue and white china (I love the mix of patterns, while the shade of blue barely varies). There was a mid-century plant print in the back stacked among the framed fake colonial paintings.

But it was the shelves of steins that truly caught my attention. I know, it’s not October, but that’s when it’s hard to find those things—you've got to stock up now, in January, for your future Oktoberfest festivities. There are classic and genuine German steins, there are American-beer branded steins, there are conical hinged-lid steins, there are minis and giants and everything in between. There are dozens of steins!

Where there was once 20 dresses for thousands of dollars each, there now sits 1,000 dresses for $20 each. Irony?

It’s official, Forever 21 has taken over the site that used to house Saks Fifth Avenue in Fashion Valley. And while I know I should not care about Forever 21—seeing as I’m not even close to 21 and maybe I shouldn't write about such a behemoth mega-chain on my small-store, shop-local blog—I cannot help myself. Because it’s good shopping. Not every week. Not even every month. But I can’t stay away for too long.

That being said, more isn’t always betta. The size and scope of the new outpost is just too overwhelming. They’ve had to fill this giant space up with product and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but: it only highlights the crap.

The Good: The jewelry is always interesting, if not disposable; the accessories—I swear I saw the same exact hat at Nordstrom for about eight times the price of it here; the new kid department that features trendy mini-wear for the sub-12 set and at prices that make sense (kids grow, fast).

The Bad: Everything else. The overabundance of neon is frightening, the fake-Pendelton wear is so frighteningly faux it screams “Run for the woods!” and, um, who deemed sailor suits back in style? Yuck.

Since I'm on the topic of The Mall (dun, dun, dun) it should be noted that Lush Handmade Cosmetics has opened an outpost at Fashion Valley, as well (upstairs, near Macy's.) These are the folks who owned the company that originally made a lot of the products for The Body Shop and later sold their first company to TBS. About 16 years ago, they re-formed and created Lush, which now has more then 650 stores around the world—this is no small company. Yet, they endeavor to use organic ingredients, don't test on animals, save sharks, stop tar sands (?!) use BPA-free plastics and recycled papers and have about a zillion initiatives to reduce their footprint on this green earth. In all honesty, I do love that a lot of their products simply have no packaging (that's the greenest of all packaging, right?) and their solid shampoos, particularly the "Ultimate Shine" one, are kind of genius. It's a fun store to browse, too—lots of things to smell and touch.

Is it Tab-le? Ta-ble? Or just plain Table? They said it all French-like on Top Chef last week, but it’s such a common word it feels mega-weird saying it with an accent I don’t truly possess.

No matter. This is an awesome store, however the hell you pronounce it. Years ago, my father, a good cook, took me to the Sur la Table in Berkeley and I remember perilously tall shelves packed with oodles of weird cooking utensils and gadgets I’d never seen before. It was so intriguing. And inspiring. The store in Carlsbad’s Forum is no different, really. I have no idea why the company has decided to put their only San Diego store in the far nether reaches of our landscape, but I’d say it’s worth the effort to get there. They have Le Creuset in every color and size, including purple (nay, "Cassis") braisers. They have a large assortment of the paper baking molds that the French employ so beautifully in their cafes.

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The Japanese grocery stores in the Kearny and Clairemont Mesas are all pretty wonderful places to get sugar-filled treats with adorable and modern graphics. I used to prefer the sizable and very clean Mitsuwa Market, but recently my allegiances have switched to Nijiya, and not just because it's next door to my most favorite Japanese restaurant in all of San Diego (and maybe my favorite restaurant, period) Okan.

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Even I, who shops for a (paltry) living, have people on my list that I have yet to get gifts for. There is no shame. But, still, there's only one and maybe a half a day left of shopping till Christmas. You can, in fact, get everything for everyone left—young and old, hipster and old-fashioned, intellectual and dumb—at one lovely place: Balboa Park.

The museum stores are some of the greatest shopping locales this town has. Here are my favorites and what I bought today!

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More gifts, less time. Or, where I tell you how to get the rest of your gifts in just a few blocks with nary a Westfield in site.

Start at Bazaar del Mundo. It's on the outskirts of Old Town and it’s easier to park anyway. Plus, they have a lot. Go up, go down, go in, go out, and go back in again and within the walls of the Bazaar you will find adorable kitschy aprons and tea towels, handmade napkins and tablecloths, gorgeous glassware—both decorative and useful—paper flowers and pinatas, Indian art and tapestry, crosses and altars. You’d expect to find all that here, right? But you can also find the unexpected: Wooden birds with such expressive detail in their faces, plastic woven bird cages, hand-felted stuffed animals that while probably intended for children, would look stunning on a bookshelf. And you know you have a crazy cat lady in your life: there is a whole cat room at the Bazaar. Everything adorned with the signs of the Cat Lady of all time, Laurel Burch. There are books on making tamales and Mexican art but also on endangered animals and birds watching. The kids books have been chosen so very well. But it was the belts—the basket of belts, hand-embroidered in amazingly vivid colors and I’m saying right here and right now, I want one. Or three.

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Let’s get right to this: you’ve put off your shopping because there is always tomorrow but tomorrow is now. You need some presents and you need them fast. There's no more time to be choosy. Or is there?

I spied those tall slender Stanley green thermoses—in a few sizes—at the Rite Aid on Adams Avenue. Maybe they have them at other Rite Aids, too? They’re great for hipsters or grandpas, for the desk jobber or the construction worker; they are old school but seriously modern. They are perfect for toting coffee to work or beer to the movies.

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