A holiday shopping tip

If you don't have Amazon Prime, amazon.com will often give you free shipping on orders of $25 or more. But, if you use this service, you know that you often end up with a total like $23.87, and then they want to charge $6 or so for shipping.

Amazon Filler Item Finder lets you type in the exact difference between your order total and $25, and they'll find you some cheap item you can add to your order to make up the difference. So instead of paying $6 for shipping, you pay $1.26 for a cat toy you don't really care about. Or something like that.

Gorgeous christmas ornaments

I found a shop in Georgia that had some of the most exquisite christmas ornaments I've seen. Really gorgeous. I was going to buy one as a gift for a friend, but I was going to do a lot of walking around and didn't want to carry it and so I decided I'd go back for it, and then I did a lot of stuff that day and I managed to forget about it until it was too late.

After a bit of googling, I found their web site. There are several pages of ornaments in the "merchandise" menu. They're really more amazing in person, in my opinion. They look as if they're enameled in regions defined with gold wire... I have no idea what the actual materials are, but it's made to look like a technique Faberge used.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this in case anyone is looking for a fabulous ornament or two.

Learn to bowl

My friend Bob has started a terrific new blog on Learning to Bowl. It's designed for completely inexperienced bowlers or to help experienced bowlers who would like to improve their score.

Phone services

Please allow me to point out two services which you may find useful if you have a cell phone:

Jott

Jott provides free transcription and messaging services. You sign up with them and provide to them your phone number(s) and (optionally) a copy of your address book (which is kept private). Then, when you dial their toll-free number from one of your phones, it asks, "who do you want to jott?". You say the name of the person you want to send a message to, or "myself". It then repeats the name of the person whose name it thinks you said, and beeps. You can leave up to a 30 second message. This message is transcribed into text and emailed to the appropriate person. This means if you have a cell phone, you can make notes at any time without having to have paper and pen handy.

Grand Central

Grand Central's service is useful if you have more than one number at which you can be reached. You sign up with their service, and provide to them your phone numbers, and (optionally) a copy of your address book (which is kept private). They give you a new phone number, which you give out to your friends, family, and coworkers as your phone number. The services it then offers are many:

• When someone calls, it can ring all your phones at once, and you can take the call at whichever one is convenient to you.
• If you're on one phone with a call you received through the service, you can press * and all your other phones ring, allowing you to pick up the call on a different phone and hang up the first. For example, if you get a call on your cell phone, then arrive home, you can transfer the call to your home phone so you aren't using your cell plan minutes.
• The service can screen your calls for you. If the number of the caller isn't in your address book, it can ask them to record their name, and then when you answer it tells you who is calling and asks you if you'd like to take the call or send it to voice mail. (It does this anyway, but if they're in your address book they don't have to record their name.)
• You can listen in on calls you send to voice mail like you used to be able to listen in on an answering machine, and pick up the call if you want to.
• You can categorize your address book listings as friends, family, work, and other. Then, you can direct the system to handle such calls differently. For example, I have the system set to not send "other" calls to my cell phone, so I don't spend my cell minutes on talking to people I don't know.
• You can give specific individuals custom ring tones or custom voice mail greetings.

Both of these services are free.

Fresh summery fruit cocktail

What could be more welcome at the height of a New England winter than a fresh fruit cocktail of summery fruits?

My fruit cocktail recipe couldn't be easier: it's made of equal parts pineapple, strawberry, and seedless watermelon. Cut the fruit into small slices or chunks so that you and your family or guests can get a little bit of each fruit in each bite. I mix the fruit cocktail up and place it into the hollowed out pineapple (see my remarks on the pineapple slicer). If I'm taking it to a party, I put the excess fruit cocktail in a sealed bag in my fridge, put the top back on the pineapple, spear it with toothpicks to hold the top on, wrap it in plastic wrap, and I'm off to the party with it. If I'm serving it at home, I place the hollowed pineapple bottom (filled with fruit) at one end of a china platter shaped like a banana leaf, lay the (rinsed) top of the pineapple next to it, and pour the excess fruit around that. I then stick a number of toothpicks in the fruit for my guests to useas utensils to nab pieces of fruit.

It's a dramatic dish, delicious, and always a hit.

Spin dryer

I just bought a spin dryer (the larger one on the bottom) from "The Laundry Alternative". I'm very happy with it.

What's a spin dryer? Well, you take your clean, wet clothes from the washing machine and put them in the spin dryer, and it spins them up to 3200 RPM (less for the smaller model). This causes the water in your clothes to escape to the outsides of the spinning drum, where it pours through and exits the machine. In other words, it centrifuges your clothes dry. Spin dryers are more popular in other countries, but in the US they're mainly only used at gyms, to quickly dry swimsuits.

How do you use it? It couldn't be easier. You place your clean wet clothes from the washer into the spin dryer, making sure to distribute them evenly so it won't be unbalanced. You then close the lid and turn it on. (The one I bought is turned on by sliding a large latch over the lid so it can't be opened while on.) Water starts to come out of a spout on the device 20 or 30 seconds later, and you let it run until the steady stream of water levels off to occasional droplets, about 3 or 4 minutes total.

How well does it work? Well, it's not intended to be your only drying device, so it should be evaluated as what it is: a supplement. 100% cotton garments come out about half dried, and need to either be machine dried or air dried further. My 50% cotton, 50% polyester T-shirts come out about 90% dry, and simply placing them on a clothes hanger and hanging them up to air out resulted in them being dry to the touch in about 5 to 10 minutes. (I'd let them air longer before putting them away to ensure that excess moisture won't cause problems in the closet, but if I needed something to wear in a hurry, that'd do the job.) A similarly 50/50 button-down shirt got similar results. A 100% nylon shirt I placed in the machine came out dry to the touch - I would have been willing to put it on at once.

So why should you bother, when you have a perfectly good dryer already? Firstly, it saves energy. Because your clothes come out of it much dryer than they came out of the washer, they spend much less time in your gas or electric dryer, so you use less energy running it. Secondly, it saves time: When things dry faster, you get them out of the dryer sooner. And third, if you have some fully synthetic clothes, you might not need to do any further drying after running them through the spin dryer. And finally, if you have a pool, it really is ideal for quickly drying swimsuits after swimming - particularly if you have guests, so they can have their suits dry in minutes instead of having to carry them home wet in a plastic bag.

Spin dryers are a great idea for saving energy and time, and the one I bought is, so far, just wonderful. It has a nice big drum (it can take about half a load from my washer), it's fairly quiet (It's by no means silent but I could easily talk over it without shouting and it's hard to hear from the next room), and it's very easy to use.

I am not compensated in any way to endorse this product, I am a satisfied customer.

Pineapple slicer

One of my favorite kitchen widgets is my pineapple slicer. It's very easy to use. You chop the top off of the pineapple, and then the slicer is simply pressed into the pineapple and turned. It corkscrews its way down into the pineapple (although it's easier than an actual corkscrew) and slices as it goes along. When you near the bottom of the pineapple, simply pull, and it removes the sliced pineapple as it slides out of the body of the fruit. Then detatch the handle and slide the spiral-cut pineapple off of the slicer. One quick chop with a knife and you have cut pineapple rings ready to be eaten.

But the magic isn't over: you've also got a hollowed out pineapple (with a core in the middle, easily removed with a knife). I fill it with freshly made fruit cocktail, put the top back on, stick in a few toothpicks to hold it together, and bring it to parties. It's always a hit.