What he secretly loves about you: he gripes about these girlie things, but guess what? He's a big fat faker. (Man manual: his point of view).

* The average guy (heck, even a chest-thumping alpha male) has a soft spot for some of your most girlie habits, though many won't admit it. Those idiosyncrasies are what separate you from our barbaric gender. So the next time your boyfriend bitches about any of the following female practices, know that he's full of BS.

your long beauty rituals

Yep, we'll twiddle our thumbs and roll our eyes as you laboriously primp for a big night out, but we understand that if we want to date a well-groomed girl, we have to grow some patience. Inevitably, when we see other guys' heads turn as you walk by, we're reminded of how damn lucky we are to have stored such a beautiful woman. Says Jack *, 28: "I bust Ann's chops when she takes an hour to get ready, but the results are so stunning, it's hard to argue."

Plus, it gives us a chance to park our asses on the couch and watch hoops. But that's just a small part of it. Really.

your photographic memory

While we hate that you can spit back--verbatim--every word we pledged while crawling out of the doghouse, we can't help but marvel at that steel trap you call a memory. More often than not, it saves our butts. "Recently, I picked Gina up to go to my parents' place for dinner," says Robert, 27. "She had a present for my mom because she remembered that I was going to miss her birthday the following Saturday since I'd be away on business. If ...