What pattern do I need to jQuery Validate a value less than a particular number?

I have two options in a drop-down menu with corresponding numeric values on my product detail page:
Dimmable (1)
Non-Dimmable (2)

When the user first opens the product detail page I want the drop down menu to say "Please select". I initially set this to have a blank value and for the jQuery Validation to require a value - so it would fail if the user left if on "Please select". However, I have an onchange function on the page that HAS to have a value in order to carry out a lookup for a product code so that it can display the correct price. So, it occurred to me that since "Non-dimmable" is the default value for any product I could use "2" for the value of the "Please select" option but, of course, the jQuery Validation accepts it as a value.

So, my solution (and please let me know if you think this is nuts!), is to set the value of the Please select option to a 3 and make the jQuery Validation check for a value less than 3.

What pattern do I need to achieve this? I don't see an option, in the list of validations, for "is less than".
Thank you
NJ