If you've read earlier blog entries, you know I'm a sucker for "Mission Style" furniture and lamps.

I found this lamp at Bellacor (they have a great selection of Mission-style floor lamps and table lamps)... and had to have it. This particular lamp is from the "San Gabriel Mica" collection (which has other table lamps and matching floor lamps) and features a metal base and frame for the mica shade. The lamp requires two bulbs and has a separate pull chain for each bulb.

The lamp is a good solid weight and of good construction. Now, if you despise "faux" finishes, you may want to hesitate before buying this lamp. The "warm rust finish" is actually a combination of the metal color and black paint. It's the one weakness of this lamp. I was bothered by this at first, but in truth I don't notice it when the lamp is turned on -- and the ultra-warm glow from the mica shade, IMO, outweighs the negatives of the "faux" finish.

I've ordered several lamps from Bellacor -- all of them have arrived extremely well-packaged (lots of cushion) -- a major concern when ordering something as breakable as a lamp.

(X-Files Fans: I know, I know -- it's the lamp in Scully's apartment. ;-) )

"Mission Style" furniture originated in the mid-1890's in the United States. Several design movements in and around that time were an anti-industrial rebellion against mass manufacturing and design of furniture, "Mission Style" was one such movement.

Resources

• Mission Table Lamps at Bellacor

I admit it. I love retro, I love deco, I love chrome, and I love gadgets. Face it, I am awash in the love.

This nifty little gadget is a retro ice crusher -- remanufactured exactly from the 1939 Ice-o-Matic design (even includes the Ice-O-Mat name on the ball top). Not only is this all metal cutie a fabulous piece of home bar decor, the hardened steel blades still produce fabulous fine or coarse crushed ice.

Price (at the time of this posting)
$45.95

Resources

• Ice-O-Matic at KegWorks

Owning a bubble machine is like owning a pickup truck -- all your friends want to borrow it.

And who can blame them? I bought this mini-bubble machine (from Cool Stuff Cheap) for my office -- that's right, my office. Think about it -- stress is mounting, the phone is ringing, nothing is going your way, and then <click> ... <whir> ... <rainbow bubbles floating through the air> ... ...la-la-la...

The worst part of owning a bubble machine is having to turn it off and get back to work.

The mini-bubble machine is $28.99 -- but add in the cost of a quart of bubble juice for $5.99. The mini-bubbler comes with a small bottle of juice, but it's only enough for one fill-up. The mini runs on standard electric (adapter included) or pop-in two AA batteries and it's a battery operated blowing machine -- great for moving around from room-to-room (or cubicle-to-cubicle). The downside of the mini-bubbler is the motor for the blower does make enough noise to be a bit distracting in a quiet office.

The mini-bubbler is perfect for bubbling up small areas, but if you're looking for lots of bubbles for a larger room, you'll want to move up to one of Cool Stuff Cheap's larger machines ($75 - $129) and more juice. Cool Stuff Cheap has lots of great stuff at discount prices... me? I'm looking at fog machines.

The next time you're asked to share in getting party supplies, tell them you'll bring the bubbles.

Resources

• Bubble Machines at Cool Stuff Cheap

• Birthstone: Garnet
• Birth Month Flower: Carnation
• Astrological Sign:
  • January 1-19: Capricorn
  • January 20-31: Aquarius
• 2004 January Holidays:
  • New Year's Day, January 1st
  • Martin Luther King Day, January 19th
  • Chinese New Year, January 22nd
• Famous People Born In January: Minnie Driver, Justin Timberlake, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mel Gibson, Horatio Alger, Katie Couric, Stephen W. Hawking, Jim Croce, Charles Nelson Reilly, Eartha Kitt, Elijah Wood, Oprah Winfrey, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Resources

• Birth month flowers information
• Astrology.com
• January Birthstone information
• More famous people born in January

If you're like me, the thought of "discount software" sends shudders through every fibre of your being. You worry about pirated software, "great" prices for outdated versions, generic CDs with photocopied manuals (or worse, no manuals), astronomical "shipping & handling" charges, etc... and you wonder if you're handing over your credit card number to some pimply-faced 14-year old geek/thug running a scam out of his Star Trek bedecked bedroom.

Recently, in spite of my nervousness, I decided to look for "discount software." Why was I wandering into such uncharted scary territory? From the manufacturer, the software I wanted cost $1,140. And I didn't want to pay that much. I started with the notable "Big Chain" stores, but their prices weren't much better and none of them had all the programs I wanted to purchase in one store.

I went slumming to the discount houses. I found prices of $941 and $823 -- an improvement, no doubt, but enough to get me past cheesy web sites and the hardball sales pitch ("You're an idiot if you don't BUY HERE NOW!")?

Not really. I kept looking. Then through some fluke click I ended up at Vio Software. It's a tastefully designed site, no hardball pitch, and not at all cheesy.

I found the software I wished to buy (all of it) and the total price was... wait for it: $753 -- that's a 34% savings over the manufacturer's price and a 9 - 20% savings off the "Cheesy-Cheap-Software-Here" sites.

After reviewing their return policies, I placed the order. The software arrived in a timely manner, was well-packaged, and, praises be, was legit software complete with original manuals.

That's it -- I'm not paying retail any more.

Resources

• Vio Software

From Ragdoll Ltd., the UK company that brought us Teletubbies, now comes Boohbah -- a new show for toddlers with brightly colored non-human characters ... this sounds vaguely familiar. ;)

But there are reported differences. Boohbah is "interactive" television for 3-6 year olds. According to the PBS site:

Boohbah is different from most educational TV. It is intended to foster a style of active viewing in which the things that children learn from viewing are not determined primarily by the content of the program, but rather by the ways that young viewers (and the grown-ups who care about them) engage with the program. Woven into the design of Boohbah are opportunities to help children build skills in five different learning areas:

• Movement
• Mathematics
• Problem Solving / Science
• Language
• Imagination

Boohbah launches in the US on January 19th on PBS. Boohbah toys and merchandise won't be available in the US until mid-2004, but there are UK shops with these "five colorful atoms of energy" (Humbah, Zumbah, Zing Zing Zingbah, Jumbah, and Jingbah) in various toy forms.

On a final note -- is it just me, or do the Boohbahs look like the result of an unnatural union between a Teletubby and an Overlooker (alien on Star Trek)?

Resources

• Boohbah at PBS Informative site for Parents and teachers
• Boohbah at PBS Activity Site for Kids
• BoohbahToys.com (a UK company that ships worldwide)
• Boohbah Toys and Merchandise on eBay

Some of the most exquisite scents come from the plants of the mid-east. Arabian attars (both "essential oils" and "perfume oils") are these scents in wearable (and diffusible) form.

Isn't the web are a marvelous place? Prior to the web, unless you lived in the Middle-East, you would be hard-pressed to find these fantastic scents, but now you can buy Arabic perfumes online. Other difficult to find items available are Oudh and Bakhoor (Arabic Incense Tablets).

Most Attars are unisex -- scents to be worn by both men and women. If you're new to Arabian attars, I recommend these two popular Attars as the perfect introduction:

• Musk Al Haramain
• Mukhallat Maliki

Also available at Arabian Bazaar: Essential Oil Holders, Oil Burners, Oil Burner Candles, Aroma Dispensers, and Aromatherapy Candles.

Resources

• Arabic Attars and Perfume Oils at Arabian Bazaar