Paraphernalia

Parking Balls

I saw a commercial for Parking Balls when I was last visiting Texas. It's a classic  "As Seen on TV" pitch.

The basic idea is a tennis ball, strategically hung from the ceiling of your garage so that it hits your windshield when you've pulled in enough. Apparently, "Parking your car in the garage can be a real problem. Pull in too far and you could cause alot of damage. Don't pull in far enough and you could have a real problem in the rear end."

I LOVE commercials like these. With the people dramatically demonstrating how hard life is without the genious product and the voice over expounding on the endless benefits you'll get for the very low price of $14.99. BUT WAIT! there's more! Order now and you get 2 balls for the price of one!

People, I couldn't make that up, you get 2 balls. The whole thing has a certain dirty undertone which they don't seem to consciously play up to. (pulling in and out, balls coming toward your face.)

I would love it if they made a late night version of this commercial. Maybe some drunken teenage couple is necking and she makes him go to the store to get condoms. He's returning from the drug store and it's dark, he's tipsy, and way too horny to pay attention to parking the car. Thank God he's got parking balls!
Or maybe they need a guy in a white coat with a clipboard to talk about the loss of depth perception as we're exposed to too much oxygen.

Gay Texan Boy Loves Christan Jewelry

You know how it goes - born again Christian war vet starts Christian jewelry company in the '50s - flash forward 50 odd years and you can spot gay hipsters sporting the unique charms and pendandts.

James Avery is a Texas based jewelry designer who specializes in charms. I think they are meant for bracelets but this guy I work with wears the Texas charm as a necklace and I love it. Their design philosophy says, "Each piece of jewelry should pass the tests of Simplicity, Integrity, Meaning and Universality."

The hard part is deciding which one to get. Some of my faves are the flip flops, microphone, pizza slice, tractor, pineapple and the cup cake. They are about half an inch and cost about $30 and make great gifts.

Aberzombie 2.0

I was walking from work to the uptown Bloomindales (for market research) the other day and suddenly realized I was walking in front of Abercrombie and Fitch. It wasn't the blaring music that tipped me off. Nor was it the beautiful dark stained wood facade without windows, the scores of scraggly tweens and froshes filing past with enormous branded bags, or even the half naked model with 1% body fat. I smelled it.

It's a common marketing/brand development tactic to use smells as memory triggers and such. But this is the first time it's literally stopped me in my tracks.

I decided to stop in for some "market research". I ended up buying the Keene Valley knit cap. The first thing that caught my eye was the heather grey/ eggshell colors together. Probably my favorite color combo. Then I realized that it's reversible and I like the heather charcoal/heather grey interior as well. The tag says it's 80% cotton and 20% wool (the website claims it's 100% cotton) so it should keep my noggin warm. It's got a nice solid fit without being too tight. It's soft and comfy and looks damn good too.

I Heart My Robot

Roomba Rocks. It gives the phrase, "Set it, and forget it!" new meaning. Don't call it a vacuum, it's a robot. No really, the company that makes them is a robot company called iRobot (of course), not a vacuum company. And I hear they get touchy about that point.

We have 2 lovely cats (see video) and as anyone who lives with cats knows, that means piles of fur congregating in all recesses of the apartment. Pulling out the vacuum is not only obnoxious but fairly passé since the arrival of our kick ass Roomba. I took pictures of it's booty after a recent pre-party run. What's crazy is you don't actually see all that on the floor, it's just there, well it was there.

There are some mixed reviews online. We give it 4 thumbs and 2 kitty tails up. (And maybe some snaps for dramatic flair).

In touch with the ground, I'm on the hunt I'm after you

Recently, I'm really into t-shirts with animals. Maybe it's because I have a crush on Brett on Flight of the Conchords and he's always wearing a t-shirt or sweatshirt featuring animals. And who doesn't love Duran Duran? In any case, I just bought this "Hungry like the wolf" tee from Defunker and can't wait for it to get here!

Fantastic Plastic!

I'm such a soccer mom sometimes. I was on a slow cooker binge for while which meant tons of leftovers. I happened across these ultra-nifty Ziploc Twist 'n Loc containers at the grocery store and bought a few, then went back for more, and then more.

They come in S (2 cups) and M (4 cups). The small are perfect for individual sized leftovers . I froze most of the slow cooker recipes (and some of Autumn's famous chicken tortilla soup) so Michael and I could take them to work for lunch over the next couple of months. They can go from the freezer right to the microwave (remove the lid, duh). Also, they are leak proof!

For 10 great uses, see the soccer mom link above.

Fabulously Fragrant

I'm not usually a big fan of smelly things (soap, cleaning products, room freshener, candles, etc.). So when I do purchase something scented, I'm very particular. You're probably thinking, "yeah, duh, you're gay." Touché.

Anyway, I was upstate visiting our friend Giovanni recently and he had this hand soap by Cucina at his kitchen sink that I fell in love with. He took me to the store where he bought it and I spent a good 20 minutes smelling all the flavors before I finally decided on the Coriander and Olive Oil purifying hand wash and the Ginger and Sicilian Lemon fragrant kitchen spray. A purchase I have yet to tire of.

Other flavors include Lime Zest & Cypress, Fig & Fresh Herbs, Zuchini Flower & Truffle. The line is available at eBubbles and other places too. I suggest buying more than you need because these would make great gifts. Can't wait till iMac comes with a scratch and sniff screen. Oh, it will happen and it will be good.

My Small Part

NO NOT THAT - get your mind out of the gutter.

My sister Miriam gave me a Nalgene bottle for Christmas a couple of years ago. Until recently it sat largely unused. My habit for a while now has been to pick up a Smart water bottle on my way to work every morning.

But there's been all this hubub about how water bottles are the new pariah for the environment. Some cities have gone as far as banning the sale of water bottles at government funded locations.

There are much stricter regulations by the EPA on our tap water than are placed on water bottles by the FDA. Really tap water is a better bet (and many of the bottled waters are just tap water anyway.) I could go on and on about the environmental impact but what I really wanna talk about is the alternative.

I decided to start using my Nalgene instead of getting bottles or using disposable cups at the office when I forget to buy the bottle. It's one way that I can contribute to lessening our impact on the environment.

Function and Form

This must be the most well thought out laundry basket ever.
It features a sturdy construction, big robust wheels, handles to pick it up and a mesh top with drawstring closure for overflow. It holds a surprising amount of laundry but has a footprint of only 10.5" x 14.5" (conserving precious floor space in NY apartments.) It's also quite attractive, at least as far as laundry solutions go.

Available at Solutions

Mojito Party : 3 Ways

Party to Go : My default gum of choice is spearmint. Spearmint gum is always in the green package. A couple of months ago I grabbed the green package and popped a piece in my mouth before I realized it was not spearmint. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise, it was Orbit's new Mojito Mint. It's my new fave.

Sober Party : I don't drink iced tea but I imagine if I did, Rachel Ray's Moji-tea would be yum-ee and refreshing

1 quart water plus 1 cup, divided
4 tea bags, either Irish or English breakfast tea
1 cup sugar
12 sprigs fresh mint
3 limes, juiced

Bring 1 quart of water to a boil, turn the heat off and add the tea bags and let steep until cool. Place the sugar and 1 cup of water in a sauce pot over high heat, bring up to a boil to dissolve the sugar and then turn off the heat, allow to cool.

Place the mint springs in a large pitcher, add the cooled sugar water and cooled tea along with the lime juice, stir to smash around the mint in the liquids. Pour over ice and serve.

Mojito Party : There's some disagreements online about the exact recipe for a mojito. The ingredients however are all basically the same - lime, sugar, mint, rum, soda and ice.
I had a taco-night birthday party and put all the ingredients out on a table with instructions and found that people basically figured out how to make them to their own taste.

When you throw a party, at least one with good friends, they are all going to ask you what they should bring. I know it's tempting to say "whatever" or "nothing." Well, you can do that or you can take advantage of the situation and assign people everything you're going to need (doesn't hurt to have some back up in case people can't make it.) Make a list of what you tell people to bring so you don't forget and tell 5 people to bring mint and end up without any rum (you'll need many limes).

Mojito recipe : (more or less)

-Squeeze 1-2 limes into the glass and then put the pieces in
-Break off a couple sprigs of mint and add to glass
-Put 2 teaspoons sugar (some recipes call for powder sugar or simple sugar because it dissolves better but our guests decided good old granulated sugar because it assisted the mashing process)
-Mash up with a pestal
-Add 2 oz rum (or more) *note: we ran out of rum and raided the vodka and it was nearly as good
-Top off with ice and soda, to taste

With a little planning ahead and enough people showing up, the work is minimal and it's a BIG hit.