Anybody mention the importance of sex yet?
Don’t cry for us, lindsaybluth. 
I’d go with either (a) sex in an unusual place for the two of you (particularly outdoors, if he’s into that), or (b) sex in a kinky way that you two haven’t tried yet, but that you’ve got reason to believe he’d like.
If you don’t know what kinky things he might like but that you haven’t tried yet, just ask him. 
Not just sex, but vulgar, raunchy, porn star like sex. And, of course, with your sister and/or bestfriend.
For me it’d be this:
Plan two meals (lunch and dinner), both at really nice places where we can order multiple courses and hang around a while. Don’t plan anything else specific (including sex. Sex that happens because you planned it as part of a “perfect date” is about the least sexy sex I can imagine). Other than the meals, we’ll wing it and do whatever moves us.
Spontanaiety - except when it comes to food, because good meals are an essential part of a perfect date for me and you can’t get those without pre-planning - is much more fun to me than any given planned activity would be.
I rest my case. With the exception of LindsayBluth and some teenage lesbians pretending to be 40 year old men, the answer is sex.
Is it really THAT hard for you to get laid?
I’m guessing he’s a married man, in which case, yes.
It isn’t hard to get laid. But it isn’t hard to eat a nice steak for dinner either. That doesn’t mean a steak and wine isn’t enjoyable. Or that sex isn’t fun just because you think your nerdy SO doesn’t care about it.
It’s like getting a guy NASCAR racing school tickets:
Sure, he likely drives every single freaking day! He probably sits in traffic, drives to the store, runs errands in his car. It’s monotanous and boring. But buy him lessons at one of those Indy or NASCAR racing schools where he can haul ass in a high performance machine around the track at 200mph. He’s going to have the time of his life and remember it forever. And have a story to tell, and a lasting memory.
Sex is the same way. I don’t care if you have sex every day. I don’t care if the girls instigates “a third of it”. It doesn’t matter. It can (and should) still be part of the birthday experience. Just make sure you give him some Indy track sex, and not Commute-to-work sex.
An educational film that everyone should see. What do men want? The video explains all.
I understand your point, and it’s fair enough. My objection really isn’t to the idea that sex should be part of the equation, though, it’s to the idea that it’s all that actually matters.
Though, personally, I’m weirded out by sex that clearly is happening because it’s a “special day” or because it was inserted onto a schedule at 10:00AM (“well, at 9:30PM we’ll commence with the foreplay…”) rather than because it’s an organic part of what happens. My entire life is conducted according to calendars and clocks; damned if my sex life is going to be that way, too.
Great another teenage lesbian.
I’ve been married for centuries. I have more sex than almost everybody, with tons of variety, except in who the woman is. Given a choice between sex and anything else, the answer is almost always sex. The only time the choice wouldn’t be sex is when the alternative would lead to more sex. And I can multi-task. So there are plenty of other things I can do while I’m having sex. Not all the time when I’m having sex. Lots of times there isn’t anything else I can do while I’m having sex. But that has never bothered me either.
That’s what men do. We are the active propagators of the species. My genes are the kind that survive.
Wow, you sure showed me.
Joke, much? 
Meh. I’m crabby today.
Not all the time, no, but it can also be very exciting when you know what’s waiting for you at the end of the work day, or going out to dinner fully knowing you’re going to boink like monkeys as soon as you get home. That sort of anticipation makes things that much hotter.
Okay, I laughed.
I don’t get this. I mean, I think food is essential rather than a treat, and I eat (at least) three times a day, but I also really like to go out to eat and think it’s special to go to a nice restaurant. So I’m not really getting your point here.
Speaking of food, OP, does your guy have a special food that maybe you don’t eat all that much? My husband loooooves pizza and can’t get enough of it. And although we get delivery from the local place a fair amount, we don’t go out to get it very often. So on his birthday I make sure that we go to the best pizza place in town, even if there are (lots of) other restaurants I prefer.
Hmm. Pizza is kind of like sex, I guess… not fancy, but the more the better! (He could seriously eat pizza every day… I would get tired of it in two days!)
Good for you.
mimes Diogenes blowing out his lamp and quitting the market square
These days, I’d just like a firm massage and an hour to myself to take a nap.