Proud Geek

For his birthday, I got my true love a … Baker’s Edge Edge Brownie Pan!

(Yes, if you watch this graphic long enough on my blog’s homepage, it changes from one recipe to another.)

But just what is the Edge Brownie Pan?

Ah, some people — like me — love brownies with edges. The middle portions (without edges) are often too dry to satisfy me, while brownies with an edge is a lot more satisfying. (Now, brownies with middles that are simply melting — now that’s heaven. But that’s not the point of this blog post.) The people behind Baker’s Edge were innovative enough to create a baking pan that makes it easy to have brownies where each portion has at least two, count ‘em, TWO edges to it. Yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The webpage even comes with a list of yummmy recipes, from regular dense brownies to rocky road brownies to different types of bars. My mouth’s salivating.

Now, some of you might be wondering — how can it be a birthday gift to my partner when it’s actually to satisfy myself? Well, he’s going to make some brownies using this pan later this week. He’s happy baking, I’m happy eating, we’re happy together.  Our kids?  Always happy to have some chocolate.

And it only costs $34 to achieve domestic tranquility. Worth it.

(Note: when I first tried to order it, several months BEFORE my partner’s birthday, it was sold out. A new shipment was finally ready several weeks before the birthday date, and I only just got the package a day or two before his birthday. Whew. That’s how popular it is.)

Want little fishes swimming around watching you while you do your business with the toilet? No, I don’t mean little fishes in the toilet bowl. I meant little fishes in your toilet’s tank. Yes, WATCHING you do your business; how disconcerting.

With an Aquariass by Elseware, Inc., you get a toilet with a glass aquarium tank built in. And no, when you flush, the water that the fishes does NOT go down. I’m sure there’s a separate and smaller chamber behind the fish tank for the actual toilet water, but I can’t figure it out.

Let’s hope you don’t get performance anxiety. Would hate to stand there trying to take a whizz, and having all the fishes look at you.

The website doesn’t say how much the Aquariass is, but I think it goes for $1100 or so. Fishes not included.

Elseware, Inc. also makes an ingenious water door. I’ve heard of running into screen or glass sliding doors, and so I’m kinda leery of getting one of those doors. Wonder if you can just jump through the water, or if there’s a glass partition in between. Water door comes cheap at $2000. Fishes not included.

I love staying at Marriott hotels — especially their Residence Inn properties. Plenty of room for my kids and my partner and myself, plus a kitchenette and a small living room (sometimes separate from the bedroom, sometimes not).

And now here’s a reason for me to like Marriott even more.

The plug-in panel pictured above will eventually be made available in all Marriott properties, along with elegant flat-screen televisions capable of split-screen video (especially useful for showing your laptop screen on one side and the latest Desperate Housewives episode on another side).

Very, very useful. Four electric outlets for me to plug in and recharge my Palm Treo, my work Blackberry, my partner’s personal Blackberry, and our kids’ portable DVD player. (Of course, that means we still need more plugs to plug in our laptop, our flashing baby cry alert device, etc., etc. But, ah, four right there without having to crawl along on the floor looking for those.) An Ethernet outlet for those wifi-less hotels. Several video / audio in jacks to hook up that camcorder or digital camera to the television. More jacks to hook up a laptop or gaming system to the TV, an MP3 device to the TV’s sound system, or a high-quality connection with your portable DVD player.

Nice. Now, I need to go see my boss about that raise so I can afford to visit even more nice Marriott hotels that has got those plug-in panels …

Just because I’m a Proud Geek doesn’t mean household construction products don’t get me all excited. Here’s a prime example: Telesteps! We have three different types of ladders in our garage — a medium-height step-ladder, a W-shaped ladder that can take on any shape, and a double-ladder that can be extended to dizzy heights. All three are heavy and bulky, though. Every time I bring one of these ladders into the house, I end up leaving scuff marks wherever I brush the ladder against the wall. Ugh. And they take up so much space in the garage. (I know, I should put them onto hooks on the walls — but that’s a project for another time.)

Telesteps seem to be the perfect solution. They’re light-weight and collapsible. They’re easy to carry, and take up very little space when collapsed. They’re artistic to the point of looking like a cool geek gadget. Heck, even the guy in the pictures looks like a happy Proud Geek in his red suspenders!

Telesteps are being sold in various configurations. There’s the straight-up ladder, the step-ladder configuration, and the combiladder which’s good for tall areas where you can’t prop the ladder against a wall. All three types of Telesteps ladders can be collapsed, and take up very little space when stored.

My friend (who also has a H3) has a Telesteps ladder (the straight-up type), and I’m sooo jealous of her. I think she got it because the H3 doesn’t leave her much space otherwise in the garage. Yeah yeah. Maybe I’ll swap my big W-shaped ladder for her Telesteps ladder …