Scenario #1

In a romantic moment be whispering endearments to your girlfriend who is snuggled up to your chest. Then in the same romantic tone add, “The gas bill went down this month.” When she pulls back to give you a quizzical look lovingly whisper to her, “It isn’t your fault that winter was cold.”

Scenario #2

Let the aforementioned girlfriend plan a continuing education trip in a foreign place that you both have been wanting to visit. Let her work out a romantic vacation that is now tax-deductible since it is work related. Then announce that you can’t go because you are fighting with the tax assessors and got a hearing scheduled in the middle of the vacation.
Don’t be surprised that your girlfriend is going to the conference that she already paid for by herself and that she has decided that your penance is to take her on another foreign vacation during this calendar year. This gives her an extra vacation without feeling guilty for the time she spends at the conference when you would have been sitting in the hotel.

So, where should I go on my extra vacation. I’ve been dying to go to Iceland. Why? Hot springs and Icelandic Horses. Hot water and furry ponies make me happy. Timing issues say that this vacation may happen in the fall so that may not be the best time to go there.
Amsterdam? That always seems like a spring trip to me.
I’ve told him that it has to require passport stamping but obviously it can’t require huge amounts of money.