Holiday Gifts

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes. If I was going to get a tat--this would be a contender. Another Tattoo offers it on shirts, hoodies and cards. Nice, huh?

I wanted you to know that you and your many Angels are doing a great job. I would mail my son magazines and cookies every Saturday. He has told me several times how much he appreciated the mail I sent him and when he was home on leave in June he told me of the letters your Angels were sending to him.

Nothing that interesting� There are some gift certificates like a $25,000 luxury package for a resort in Hawaii, a card for the Cornelia Day Resort and one for the Carlyle in New York. There's some other gadget stuff but nothing that hot.

received a early birthday gift via ups today. frrrozen hot chocolate mix. package says one delectable drink for two. hmmmmmm the for two makes me sad. maybe adding some kahlua will make me forget about the two part! well anyway it was very thoughtful. what do you get a girl who has everything?- besides a husband!!! the re-order form enclosed says “as seen on oprah”. oprah knows food! i’ll let you know how goes it……..

Cat Bejeweled Clothing: Not happy with anything you’ve seen so far? Well, there’s always a t-shirt, sweatshirt, apron or socks accented with a cat or two. You can find gifts like these just about anywhere.

Finally, I’m very interested in TerraPass. The premise is that you buy a TerraPass to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of your car. TerraPass invests the money in projects that “reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions.” Clearly not a long-term solution, but it’s an interesting stopgap solution to deal with an existing transportation-dependence problem. Seems like a good Christmas gift idea.

I don’t have time for a huge post, but I’ve just completed a new Phissh and wanted to share. This one is called “The Maude-Puppy”, and is intended as a birthday gift for Les’ mother.

Luckily, I have friends with skills, and Miss Sarah Tracy was generous enough to construct a funkier more awesome case for me as a birthday gift (brown cuorduroy, wacky zippers, Mountain Goats quote sewn onto the pocket). I assure you, as always, that you are quite jealous.

I just don't know where to start with this one, it's just a little bit too weird. But I owe it to my faithful and devoted followers to to at least try to tell this story. The problem is that it's beyond exaggeration, so I guess I just have to blurt it out and get it over with.

Well, today, I carried the roasted head of a pig into a prison as a birthday gift.

If you're a diaper bag fanatic like I am, then you'll love these very unique handmade diaper bags. I recently purchased one as birthday gift for myself, and I was NOT disappointed! Well made, beautiful, durable, and it was delivered to my door within 4 days of my buying it! Definitely, a BIG thumbs up!

Amanda liked her birthday gift a knitted hotwater bottle cozy. If you like the idea, email Rachel for the pattern.

Here are a couple of DVDs that are loaded with all sorts if vintage rocket launch/abort footage, some with audio commentary. I’m thinking that this would make a nifty birthday gift for anyone that likes the historic side of space exploration. Better yet, buy one and donate it to your local library!

Oscar® Gift Baskets go to the show’s celebrity presenters, but Academy Award® winners will also have the privilege to experience a number of exclusive hideaways courtesy of Luxury Travel Magazine’s ‘A-List of Travel’. 2005 Oscar® winners will be among the first to visit the newest luxurious Western destination, Paws Up Resort, opening this summer in Montana. Dunton Hot Springs is another ultimate Western hideaway situated in an extraordinary alpine valley with natural hot springs, near Telluride, Colorado.

Unfortunately, after I pointed out the item to eBay officials, they stopped the auction. I still think it would make a great gag gift. Like that 1972 fruitcake that keeps being regifted, it could be the Christmas gift that wouldn’t die.

Every time we come up with something we think is *so* cool, our trusty tipsters trump us. Today’s tip: the Vortex hand-crank blender, which some believe is a better product than the Lehman’s one we featured yesterday. We’ll leave that up to you to decide, but here are the Vortex’s vitals: compact add lightweight (it’s base stores in the pitcher for convenience), made of Lexan, two-speed gear system works as an ice crusher or a food processor, and an ergonomic hand-crank. Hee haw. Thanks for the tip Brian B! At $69.95, it’s cheaper, too.

What Bentley's new two-door delivers is a blend of top-line luxury and incredible performance. With its twin-turbo, 6-liter W-12 pumping out a thrilling 551 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque, the Continental GT is among the dozen or so fastest and most powerful vehicles on the road.

Yet for those who expect Bentley to be synonymous with bespoke, the new car won't disappoint. Like the massive Arnage, it boasts some of the most elegant woodworking ever put on the road, each car requiring 20 hours of skilled craftwork to complete the carefully honed and polished matching pieces. That's more time than it takes many mass manufacturers to build an entire car. All told, each GT involves 200 man-hours of labor. Equal care goes into preparing the car's leather, which uses as many as 17 matched hides. Even the steering wheel cover is hand-finished, a task requiring no less and no more than 234 eye-crossing stitches.

After moving to new house in Mountain View, I have to put heavy investment on Sony DVD Recorder, a boom box, toaster, vacuum cleaner, clothes iron and a thermometer for the house. I did not have the chance to research all the various thermometer & hydrometer sensor but I was at a sports shop and they are selling the Oregon Scientic Standard Thermo-Hygrometer with Clock for $39.90. It monitor indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity using wireless sensor. It has atomic clock with 2 alarm and display the min and max temperature and humidity.

I am waiting for our composter to be delivered this week - the Soilmaker (scroll down one). I love the name, it sounds "Arnoldesque." Don't worry, faithful reader(s), there won't be any "Compost Blogging." Well, maybe not much anyway.

Odors associated with bowling traditionally include smelly feet, cigarette smoke and beer. But what about grape, amaretto and cherry? One bowling ball manufacturer — Storm Products Inc. — is putting fruit and other popular scents into its mid- to high-end bowling balls, resulting in a steady increase in sales.

More than half the bowlers on the Professional Bowlers Association tour last year used them, including four-time PBA champion Ryan Shafer.

Shafer, who has a contract with Storm, said he may have won a match two years ago in Kansas City because an opponent was distracted by his black licorice-scented ball.

So yesterday was my birthday and Camille organised a surprise birthday party for me. I have no idea how she managed to get in touch with some of the people she did, but I had people turn up from all over the place. I had a magnificent time!

There are three parts to every cooking experience:
1. The planning.
2. The cooking.
3. The result.

It is during the planning stages (1) that you anticipate the result (3). During my planning stages (1) for the Pan-Fried Onion dip (see title) I expected that it would come out tasty. In fact, the actual result (3) far surpassed my expectations during (1). Thus 3 > 1.

But first (2). The cooking. I took ...

This and many other weird household items from Vice Versa.

At Scottish Heirloom Company, we have been making Scottish Clan Crest rings for over a decade. Until now, we have only ever produced these in solid Gold. Recently we have had an increasing number of requests to produce the Clan rings in Sterling Silver. We have listend and are now producing the Clan Crest rings in this metal. Silver is an attractive metal and a very nice material to work with. It is the choice of many and is more affordable.

It’s not a pretty picture (look left), but it is a pretty cool product. A new system form the Sharp Corporation can dramatically reduce kitchen about 92% of your kitchen waste in just 24 hours. How? This energy-efficient composter breaks down and “digests” organic food waste at room temp with its proprietary Composting Bio Mix--a blend microbes and yeast cells, which conveniently also suppress odors while they work via Plasmacluster Ions that inactivate airborne mold and effectively clean the air in kitchen spaces. We know that sounds like science fiction, and here’s why: These suckers are yet only available in the land of the rising sun. Ah-ha. That explains it.

Essential oils are extremely concentrated and must always be diluted, otherwise they can sting and even cause allergies. To use them during a massage, you need to dilute them in a carrier oil. The most commonly used carrier oils are almond, olive, soya, grape-seed, avocado, hazelnut, peach and wheat-germ oils. Many of these are very expensive. Wheat germ oil is rich in vitamin E and acts as an antioxidant but it is a bit thick and heavy, so add just a little to a light carrier oil to prevent your massage oil from turning rancid. To dilute an essential oil, mix one to three drops with a 5 ml teaspoon of carrier oil. (Most essential oils will have directions on their label). If you want to make up a larger quantity, add 15 to 30 drops to 2 fluid oz. (50 ml) or carrier oil. Use a more diluted mixture on sensitive skin and on the face

Do you have a friend who wants to be published? A musician who can't figure out how to distribute a new CD? This article tells you how to sell a book or CD on Amazon. What a special gift! Publish your friend's book or CD for them. Here are the eight easy steps. Click on the link for more details.

In 8 easy steps, here is how to get your book, CD, or DVD listed on the long tail of Amazon:

1 Get an ISBN (for a book), or a UPC (for a CD or DVD). For one book it costs $125, for one CD, $55, for one DVD, $89.
2 Get a bar code based on the ISBN or UPC. Costs $10, or may be included in UPC.
3 Sign up with Amazon, $30 per year.
4 Duplicate your stuff; include the bar code on the outside.
5 Ship two copies to Amazon
6 Send cover scan
7 Track sales
8 Resgister it (optional)

Know someone who wanted to go to the Oscars, but wasn't invited. Well, invite them over to watch the Oscars and then make them a gift of all the items below that the celebrities receive. They'll be instantly trendy and star-like. Make Oscar night into a holiday gift night!

girlhacker has tossed together her yearly list of all the stuff celebs are going to be scooping up at the Academy Awards, and as usual, the people who can best afford to pay full price for stuff are getting a bunch of freebies. Here are all the slick new gadgets they’re getting:

* A year free year of VoIP phone service from Vonage.
* The black version of Motorola’s RAZR V3.
* An iXi collapsible bike.
* A Dyson DC11 vacuum.
* Sprint is offering some unreleased “multimedia” phone from Samsung, maybe the SCH-5600?
* A Krups kitchen set that includes a toaster and an electric kettle.

For a unique gift, try a special experience, something out of the ordinary. For instance, lots of people have the "need for speed," the desire to drive a car fast, fast, fast. Here's a link to a driving course in Las Vegas where you can learn to drive a race car. Most metropolitan areas have a race track nearby where you can learn to drive like a pro. This is a gift that no one will forget.

Drive the dream! Supercharge your productivity with incentive travel to the Richard Petty Driving Experience in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada! Seating is limited, click now to Drive the Dream!

Andy Goldsworthy is hot, hot, hot in the art world right now. He documents his environmental art through photographs and now on this DVD. Of course, there are lots of other DVDs you might give as a holiday gift, too. For a great selection of used DVDs (and CDs), check out Spun.com. Classic films are wonderful gifts, too. Either way, a DVD impress the recepient of your gift with your knowledge of art or the cinema.

Goldsworthy rules. Plain and simple. He makes amazing art out of natural materials, vision and a whole lotta patience. There are great photo books of his work but TreeHugger really recommends seeing his documentary "Rivers and Tides". Time is an important element in his work which can't really come across unless you are there while he is making the piece or you watch this most excellent doc. See if you can convince one of your rich friends to let ...

Many people have to take prescription drugs throughout the day. This article talks about a simple SMS application that would send a reminder to your cell phone every time you needed a Paxil or a Vioxx (are you still taking that?). Unfortunately, this service isn't available yet. Until then, what to do for a friend who has lots of prescription drugs to take (and a cell phone)? Hire a programmer to email reminders to your medicated friend's cell phone.

The Growth of SMS Text Messages Capacity for Learning: Outside of the U.S., SMS is a highly and widely used feature of mobile phones. People can use their phones as network devices to be notified of restaurant reservations, pharmaceutical reminders, just in time content notifications and other elements. Watch for SMS to extend to a wider set of self-service transactions for workers and consumers. Hopefully, the U.S. will catch up.

No, you cant' really give the Nobel Prize as a gift. There's a committee in Sweden that does that. But, here is a unique gift for your scientist friends: a water glass used by a Nobel Prize winner. Unfortunately, it's already been sold at eBay.

Here's the point. If it's still a couple weeks before you plan to give a holiday gift or other gifts, check out eBay for something unique that matches your lover or friend perfectly.

One small step for blogging, one giant surprise for the blogger: check out this "Unique Nobel Prize Winner 2004 Memorabilia" I'll tell you more later, but for now, please just go there to help make their click-counter go up. Of course, if you happen to feel like bidding on what would indeed make a truly unique gift for that special someone....

Here are some wild holiday gifts. Try Cooking with a Serial Killer: Recipes From Dorothea Puente by Shane Bugbee. Maybe too macabre, but there are others if you click above.

Lulu storefronts of the day for Thursday, December 16, 2004: Unique gift ideas--books you won't find anywhere else. In the interest of coming up with a little something for everyone, here are a few unique gift ideas for the booklover in your life, all fruits of the Lulu marketplace for independently published books (& such):

Finding great gifts online makes shopping so easy. Click on link above to see the top 5 sites. I'll give away one: it's Blue Nile, the online diamond store.

Internet Retailer's December issue cites the Top 50 Retailing Sites on the Web. Jane was pleasantly surprised to see a few names in there that she wasn't aware of previously. Since there is still plenty of time to find that special, unique, one-of-a-kind gift we know you plan on giving to your most cherished friends and relatives...via the net..., dear reader, Jane would like to highlight the Five Best Web sites, out of the 50 in IR's list, that ...

Need a unique holiday gift or birthday present? Here's a satellite antenna for your car.

Just got this press release about a mobile satellite TV antenna that you can install in your car. One of the problems with moving a satellite antenna is losing the “lock” onto the satellite. Ever tried installing DirecTV yourself? I did, and it was a pain in the ass to get it to get a continuous tone, hold onto the dish, and drill it into my deck all at the same time. The slightest angle variation and the lock was ...