Now, don't get the wrong idea--Natalie is a very warm, friendly, outgoing person. So it's not her demeanor I'm referring to (hey, we're newlyweds here ... I'm not that stupid!). No, it's got nothing to do with her personality, but it has everything to do with her feet! And I'm sure every married guy in the world knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Not that I'm an expert on the subject of women (what man is?), but I do know a little about this particular subject. For some reason, women's feet make the feet of the penguins walking around in the snow at the North Pole seem cozy in comparison. (Penguins do have feet, don't they? But maybe they're at the South Pole?). And, while I'm not sure why this is, they are the coldest when the climb into bed at night. So what do they do to defrost those little icebergs? That's right.

"YEEOOWW!" I screamed, probably loud enough to wake the neighbors, when Natalie's frozen tootsies made their way to my side of the bed the other night.

All I heard were giggles as the icicles burrowed into the backs of my legs. No matter how far away I moved, those feet stuck to me like a tongue to a frozen lamppost.

"What were you doing? Soaking your feet in ice water before you came to bed?" I asked.

Again, all I heard in response were giggles--a little louder now.

"Seriously," I said. "How is it possible for you to get your feet so cold ... and what makes you think you can warm them up on me?"

She must not have believed that it was a serious question--she just kept giggling.

So where did I ever find this woman with the very cold feet? OK, eyebrows up ... I met her on the Internet.

I'm not sure what it is, but there seems to be some sort of stigma related to online dating. Almost every time someone asks me where I met my new wife, as soon as I explain, "We met on Match.com," they're very polite when they say, "Oh, is that right?" but they can't hid their surprised expression that includes, yes, raised eyebrows.

Actually, to me it seems like a very safe and very modern way to meet members of the opposite sex.

When my wife died more than two years ago, I was devastated. I was surrounded by family and friends, yet I was still overcome with loneliness. Time passed, and one night while visiting my friends Jim and Sue I casually said, "You know, I think I should start dating. What do I do?"

"Why don't you try to the Internet," Jim suggested.

"Yeah, right," I snapped. "What kind of loser do you think I am ... wait, don't answer that."

"No, really," said Sue. "I think that's what a lot of people are doing."

We left it at that. Then, a couple of days later, I received an email from Match.com. (Coincidence? I think not!)

"Well, maybe I am a loser after all," I thought, and (much to the disappointment of my mother who actually called me a loser) I became a member. I entered my profile and waited for a response. Nothing (hey, maybe Mom was right!).

Since that approach wasn't working, I decided to scan the profiles of a few women and send out some messages. To my surprise, some wrote back.

I met a few for coffee or drinks and I was pleasantly surprised--they were pretty normal and they weren't losers at all (except for the one who seemed to be more interested in free martinis than she was in me). And then there was Natalie.

Her profile was intriguing and she looked good in her picture. When we met for coffee at Starbucks, I knew instantly that she was different than the others. She was special, and we talked for three hours. We dated, then dated again ... and again. Match.com, it seems, had made a match.

The "L" word didn't come up again until our wedding day on Aug. 7 of last year when my eldest son was, of all things, toasting the bride and groom.

"When my dad started dating, being the modern guy that he is, he logged onto Match.com," said Mike, whose words were greeted by laughter from the crowd of onlookers. "I thought, 'What a loser!' " And the laughs grew louder (did those people know who was paying for those Mai Tais they were drinking?).

"But after a few weeks I noticed that he was going out on almost a nightly basis," he added. "So one night when he went out, I went in and logged on myself to Match.com."

That's good, but I need to share with him some fatherly advice. There's more to women that what appears in their profile. Case in point: Natalie's didn't say anything about her iceberg feet!

We're looking for other couples from Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga who met through an online service for a story we have planned for Valentine's Day. If you have a story about your online dating experiences, hopefully with a happy ending, that you would like to share with our readers, please contact me at dsparrer@svcn.com. Happy online dating!

Want to talk? Give me a call at 408.354.3110, or write to dsparrer@svcn.com.