Last year I learned to appreciate mug warmers! My friend had one that was getting neglected and so I stole it and gave it a better home. They really do work! Eventually your drink will get less hot, the longer you leave it. But even I only had warm tea at worst. (Note: It’s *much* better than unintentionally cold tea.)

Now to dig it out and dust it off. It’s getting to be that season again!

A few months ago I went out with my musclehead friends who originally convinced me to start taking steroids. I wore a tight T-shirt so I could show off my newly sculpted physique. Yes, I admit I wanted other guys to check me out, but in a manly way really. Like showing off your new Mustang with a 950 horsepower turbo charged whatchamagigger engine or what ever it is real guys show off to each other. My friend Scott did indeed take notice.

“Hey man, you’re looking pretty good.” he said, “You need to do something about that hair though.” Dumbfounded I looked at my arms and realized they were now covered with a light coat of fur. Worst of all, my hands were now monkey paws! I asked what could be done. He recommended getting a goatee trimmer. “Trust me dude, everything looks better without body hair.” he told me. This conversation seemed perfectly natural at the time.

Although I was now effectively self conscious about my caveman arms, the weather cooled down and long sleeves hid my shame. It wasn’t till I realized that steroid induced hair growth was not confined to my arms, that I decided to take action. I was drying off after a shower, when I noticed my little forest below had mutated into a sprawling jungle reaching all the way up to my belly button. Dismayed, I showed my girlfriend. “Oh, you have a happy trail!” she said. A happy trail?? Why would anyone be happy about having Bigfoot belly? This was the last straw.

I went to Wal-Mart in search of a goatee trimmer. Apparently they are a hot item because they were locked behind a glass case. I asked a blue vest to unlock it, praying she wouldn’t ask why my bald chin needed a goatee trimmer. Thankfully she didn’t and I quickly reviewed my options. The selection ranged from a small battery operated $10 model up to an $80 weedwacker. I went with the $10 goatee trimmer by ConAir.

I can’t say how the ConAir would work as goatee trimmer, but as for removing hair everywhere else, it is quite effective. Turn trimmer on, hair comes off. I started with my hobbit hands, moved on to my arms, and then my chest, before tackling the happy trail and the amazon below. The whole process was quick and painless. The only mild drawback was being covered in stubble which is a truly odd sensation. A small price to pay though for a non-neanderthal look

I did not trim everything though. When I got to my legs, I stopped. That is where I draw the line. I mean seriously, what real man would shave his legs? I will wait until shorts season for that.

(Conair goatee trimmer review)

3 microwaveable pouches of Premium Pasta Sauce and a General Electric microwave to go with them!

Go check it out! The deadline to enter is November 25.

1. Lush:

Christmas Party Bath Bomb – I love this bomb! It’s orangey and lovely and full of stars and confetti. I admit I put mine in a stocking before dropping it in the bath. But I’m lazy and don’t like to clean stuff out of my tub.

Ma Bar Bubble Bar

And for a relaxing time *after* the bath, try a Soft Coeur Massage Bar!

2. Mason Pearson – Everyone should have one of these hair brushes.

You can buy them on Amazon!
Mason Pearson Hairbrushes

This is the one I have: Mason Pearson Junior Bristle & Nylon Brush – I’ve had it for 14 years and I LOVE it. I also have the pocket version.

3. Bunny slippers! – I previously wrote about my awesome bunny slippers.

This is where you can buy the slippers I have: BarefootParties.com

For a similar but less pricey version:
try this

or:
try this

4. For fans of Too Faced Cosmetics and Kipling bags:

Kipling Loves Too Faced cosmetic sets! Each comes with Too Faced cosmetics tucked in a Kipling bag!

From Kipling’s Site:

Primp & Party Set: Starry Eyed Liner, Lash Injection Pinpoint Mascara (which I sampled recently – look for an upcoming post about that!), Foiled Liner

Kiss & Run Set: Mood Swing Emotionally Activated Lip Gloss
Diamond Gloss

Envy Me Set: Lash Injection Mascara, Lip Injection Lip Plumper, Pink Leopard Bronzer, Refresh Blotter Papers

Charmed & Glamorous Set: Beauty Balm

From Too Faced:
Too Faced Loves Kipling Set: Lovey Dovey Duo Eye Shadow, Mini Ooh & Aah Starry Eyed Liner, Mini Black Lash Injection, and Mini Colorless Application Shadow Insurance

5. Hello Kitty!

Hello Kitty Toaster

Hello Kitty Necklace

Hello Kitty Waffle Maker

Hello Kitty Hair Dryer

Hello Kitty Computer Keyboard

6. Escada Moon Sparkle – This is one of the very few non Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfumes that I have ever liked. I *love* this. It’s sort of fruity, sort of floral. I am terrible at describing scents. But this one is lovely. I just keep sniffing myself and sniffing myself.

7. Flowering Tea with Teapot and Warmer - This is so pretty. I would love to have one of these. I have a lot of tea so I haven’t been able to justify buying it. One of these days!

Another fine tea place, Adagio Tea, has all sorts of great stuff. And you can get smaller sizes to sample or mix and match. Bonus!

So there you have it! What are you thinking about buying this year?

Now that it’s been a week and half since I was laid off from my $65,000 a year corporate job, and five days since I worked as an unpaid production whelp on a short film in Detroit, I feel it is finally time to start writing. Specifically writing about headphones of course. Trying to capture everything that’s happened in the last few months would be on par with trying to solve a Rubik’s cube after several shots of vodka, but headphones? Yes I can deal with that.

The quest for new headphones started when I figured out after a mere eleven months how to work my MP3 player. Note to self – loading MP3 player with 180000 gigabyte files that don’t even contain music data will make your device a little sluggish. That minor glitch corrected I plugged in my headphones and started jamming. I bopped along till I caught site of myself in the mirror. The giant mounds of foam perched on my ears made me look like a complete dork. Um…which is really hard to do.

They were also too noisy to wear in public, especially if I plan on doing any writing at the library. It was clear I would need to acquire headphones of the earbud variety. My experience with earbuds up this point has not been good. I had yet to have a pair fit comfortably and the sound quality has been poor. All tin and no thump. So I asked Best Buy lady what was the most comfortable, best sounding earbuds I could buy. Her response was unexpectedly passionate.

“Skullcandy!!!” she said.

She told me how her teenage daughter had tried a gazillion headphones before discovering Skullcandy and will now use nothing else. She claimed that “the guy that worked for Bose” left the company to form Skullcandy and developed $20 earbuds that outperform their $100 Bose counterparts. I would later determine after several seconds on Wikipedia that Skullcandy was formed by snowboarding megamogul Rick Alden, who as far as I can tell has never set foot in Bose. That’s not to say he didn’t hire someone who did though and besides, it’s a cool Stick It To The Man story.

The other distinguishing feature of the Skullcandy earbuds is that they come with multiple ear fittings. The rubber fittings come in small, medium and large, and snap on easily. I sampled all three. The large would not squeeze in and the small felt too loose, but the default medium size worked great, fitting comfortably but securely.

But how would it sound? I pressed play on my MP3 player, expecting the tinny noise I was used to with small headphones. “I LOOVE YOUUU!!!” belted out Nickelback. Far from tinny, Chad Kroeger’s voice was deep and soulful and totally made me want to love him back were it not for him being a dude. I actually worried that such a powerful sound would be heard by others. Not easy to test when you are alone, but when I lightly pressed one earbud to the palm of my hand, the music disappeared completely. I am fairly confident the same thing happens when I put them in my ear, giving me and Chad complete privacy. Which is really for the best.

I am therefore happy to report that Skullcandy lived up to Best Buy lady’s hype. They feel great, sound great, and won’t cheese off any bystanders at the library. More importantly they make me look cool. Well cool in a no mounds of black foam sticking on my ears kind of way at least. Now if only I can resist singing along to the latest sultry Nickelback ballad, I will be all set.

Where to buy: There is a store locater on the skullcandy website, and a pretty good selection of products available online through amazon.com.

Skullcandy website
skullcandy products on amazon.com

(skullcandy ear buds review)

So anyway, back to the frost. I find that it’s very hard to scrape this frost. I see a good amount of winter so I have a nifty scraper. It even has a snow brush on one end. But when I try to scrape that thin layer of frost I manage to get tiny little lines cleared. They’re about the width of spaghetti. No they’re not even that wide. They’re like angel-hair width. Certainly not good enough for adequate sight when driving. Not that I’ve tried. *ahem*

Eventually, with the car running and the vents on full blast, the frost will start to clear. But this takes time! Time that I don’t have since usually I’m leaving late for work. Wait. No, I , uh, don’t do that either. It’s also cold sitting out there waiting for it. I’ve found myself wishing for an ice scraper that would actually scrape it off with ease, perhaps something heated. I wished that someone out there would make such a thing so I could buy it and make my morning easier.

Someone did!

I was paging through a catalogue, looking for some Christmas ideas and there it was. I Gasped. I squealed. And then I ordered one. An early Christmas present for myself. I’ve used it several times now and I really have been pleased. I’ve been meaning to test it against the regular scraper and see how it compares but so far I’ve been using it when I’m out in the cold, uh, not leaving late for work. It has been getting the frost off, though, and that’s what matters. I’ll post an update when I get around to the real scientific testing.