iPhone Backup Battery Pack, $15
It’s not the sexiest gift, but it’ll give you peace of mind. This is by far the cheapest battery backup I’ve found.

If you buy one, you might as well throw a few $1 iPhone/iPod cables or USB cables for your camera on your order, too. Can’t have too many laying around, right?

from MonoPrice.com

1. My new library cabinet. Two hours before the eBay auction ended, I put in a max bid for $300 and snapped my laptop shut to avoid temptation of over-bidding. Out of 18 bids, mine was the highest, and I snagged it for $225 which is nothing short of completely ridiculous. I could easily turn around and sell this for $500. It took $160 to get it here; I hired two hipster guys off of Craigslist who would have been even cheaper if they didn’t get stuck in traffic. They drove from Brooklyn to Long Island, loaded it up and dropped it off at our apartment. I’m slowly filling the 60 drawers up. (Well, 57. Three of the drawers are still full of the Dewey decimal system cards.) We went to pick it up ourselves, but it didn’t fit in the car. It is way bigger than I realized when I was bidding; five feet tall and three feet wide. We’ll be filling the drawers for years to come.

2. Realizing I know my chocolate chip cookie recipe by heart. I made cookies from scratch this weekend with minimal measuring and entirely from memory. I didn’t get to take photos before they got hoovered.

3. Throwing a party and having lots of people come. My house was filled with new friends this weekend, and older ones, too. We discovered an application called Remote that lets guests request songs in my iTunes library from their iPhones. It made for a cool mix of music all night.

Some of my photos from the party are below. Normally I’m not a “post tons of photos of my friends” kind of blogger, but flipping through I realized that everyone I had photos of are “internety people” (they started a Twitter hashtag for our party, which is so nerdy and fun), so I figured it was fair game. I didn’t get everyone, though! I quit taking pictures early in the night and someone grabbed my camera for part of it, but there are people missing from the photos. If you have links to them, send them to me!

We had people sleeping on our air mattresses and couch. Having overnight guests is a tiny bit stressful (mostly because of the dogs), but I have a religious-like devotion to hosting houseguests. I think it is very important to open one’s home up and share your space with friends in the intimate, overnight-stay sense, even if it disrupts your schedule a bit, and to do it well. The reward is making close friends with people, because you really bond when everyone is sitting around drinking coffee and eating pancakes in their PJs.

PS – Dave, you left your underwear here. Phase one is complete!

Yesterday was a series of circumstantial bell curves.

I got an appointment last minute with an optometrist. Rock! Three minutes before, I was 1000 feet away from the entrance of the door (according to my GPS), and an access-a-ride truck decided that the middle of the street was a great place to unload slow-moving seniors. Suck.

I drove around and couldn’t find a good parking spot. More suck. I was late.

I finally found a spot, and the guys who worked in the shop I parked in front of told me that, yes, this too-good-to-be-true parking spot is valid. Rock!

I was late for my appointment and had to reschedule after lunch, in an hour. Suck.

I simultaneously discovered a crumpled twenty in my purse, and a diner three doors down from my appointment. I ordered a grilled cheese and coffee. Both were perfect. Rock.

My appointment went well; the doctor was nice and, after two minutes of me being a baby about it, didn’t make me suffer through the glaucoma test [for the unfamiliar: you stick your head in a machine and have to get your eye just right, and then the machine poof!s air on your eyeball, and no matter how much you're prepared for it, you nearly pee yourself every time.] I picked out glasses I love. Awesome.

I stepped out onto the street, looked out, and panicked; then rolled I my eyes at myself. I am forever thinking my car has been towed.

“Not this time!”, I thought. “The parking gods have given me a gift, and I double checked with a guy from a shop. A guy from a shop! He’s a guy! He’s local! He knows what’s going on. My car is just behind that garbage tr… Oh.”

My car had been towed. My cell phone was broken, too, and the pay phone ate about three bucks worth of quarters before I got a connection, in what I call you-should-have-fixed-your-cell-phone-earlier tax. It has to be called something; a phenomenon with a name is not as bad as plain old “robbed by a piece of machinery”.

The cop on the street had given me the wrong number for the tow company, and it took me three minutes on the phone with a bewildered receptionist at a Spanish-speaking nursing home to figure this out. Someone else had their last quarter eaten by the pay phone, and, in an effort to reverse my karma, I gave him one of mine. (Not that I believe in that stuff, but it couldn’t hurt, right?) The cabbie I managed to flag down refused to drive to my neighborhood. I had to take a convoluted subway ride home. Suck.

I finally got home and Rob wasn’t mad, because he’s awesome. I was somehow able to shower, dress, and get out the door again in time to keep my iPhone appointment and see John Hodgeman’s Apple Store talk. (They only let ONE hot girl go ahead of me this time. It’s an improvement.) John was taking questions from the audience, and he answered my question, which was “Who inspires you?”; a total high note way to end the day.

Rock.

Official. Worst. Day. Ever.

Rob and I spent over an hour at IKEA trying to get a refund for something I bought back in August. This was attempt number four. It’s a lot of paperwork (and a fuck-ton of incompetent sales people trying to help me), and in the end, I left empty handed, again. Grrr.

Then I went to the Apple store tonight because my iPhone had given up the ghost. You’re supposed to make an appointment online in advance, which I did, and then when you get there, you check in. That part I didn’t know (nor, may I huffily point out, was there any sign indicating such need to check in). My name was on the list of people waiting to be helped, so I was like, “Cool! I’m three people away!” and then suddenly it vanished. I squealed and ran to the nearest employee all “ZOMG! My name! It’s gone! I’m still here! iPhone! Broken! Need help!”

He told me in an icy tone [sidenote: no one says "icy tone" anymore, and it really is a great phrase, cliche or not] that the appointment had been canceled by the system because I hadn’t checked in, and I was on “standby”. Add to that the fact that they were short-staffed and the line was going slow anyway, plus the fact that there were a ton of people waiting at that moment, and it was going to be about (I’m guessing) a three hour wait for me.

Oh hell no.

“I want back into the line!” I said, my voice cracking. “I’ve been waiting and waiting!” (I had wasted dinero on a taxi, too, so I would make it on time!)

“There’s nothing I can do. You’re on standby.”

“How long is that going to take?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I would hate to give you a time and have it be longer.”

“Can you give me an ‘-ish’?”

“No.”

“Then put me next.”

“I can’t.”

I’m a pretty mellow person; I don’t snap easily, but it had been a long day, and we’re kind of stressed at my house anyway these days, so I don’t have the patience I usually do. I wanted to wrap my hands around his stupid, needle-thin hipster neck and coke him. I took a deep breath. I made my “Don’t fuck with me” face.

“I. Want. To. Be. Next. I watched you tell those HOT GIRLS over there that they needed to check in. I watched [famous television star who waltzed in with his dog] get helped right away. I want to go next!”

He made me next, and my iPhone is better (well, it’s brand new. they replaced it.)

Hot girls and TV stars have nothing on me and my “Don’t fuck with me face”.

1. Keep steadfast in your hunt for the perfect purse. It will be worth it in the end.

2. If you don’t read the paper, cancel your subscription.

3. Irish car bombs are fun! But only once.

4. Meeting people in real life from flickr is fun and not creepy! (Happy anniversary, G!)

5. You have to let bread rise twice, or it won’t be as pretty. If you can’t wait, though, it’ll still taste good having risen only once. Also, if you need it to keep for several days, undercook it a little bit. When you’re ready for a slice, cut off your slightly doughy portion and finish it in the toaster over. Fresh bread for days! Make sure you keep it wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, though, or it will mold.

6. Tow truck drivers really do say “ten four!”

7. Seriously, don’t buy hard to register cars, like, say, vintage Volkswagons you can’t drive. Really. Really. Just don’t.

8. I build pretty snazzy shelves!

9. It’s fun to get up the day after Thanksgiving if you have fun guys to hang out with. And totally worth it if you want to score a Wii.

10. Speaking of Wii’s, you really do need to respect that they are “physical activity”.

11. I don’t need an expensive bed.

12. I don’t need two Thanksgiving dinners.

13. Photography is not too hard to learn. You should get a book, though, to help.

14. To clean vomited calamari out of your car: 1. Make your husband do it. 2. Be smug in the fact that you have something with which to mock certain friends with for a good long while.

15. There are a lot of REALLY amazing people in Puerto Rico who will help you should you find a dirty hurt dog and want to adopt them.

16. Dogs > diamonds.

17. 50mm lenses are AWESOME!

18. The iPhone is NOT over-hyped. It is awesome.

19. The only marriage anyone should ever have an opinion on is their own.

20. Rainbow Christmas > White Christmas.

21. Bringing your own shopping bags to the grocery store isn’t too hard once you get into the habit, and so much nicer than lugging gross, bad-for-the-earth plastic bags that cut into your hands.

22. When you are too sick to decorate your Christmas tree, it is wonderful to have friends come over and do it for you.

23. When you are part of a family, you can make up silly phrases, words, and songs and then use them on a regular basis. (In our family, some of them are, “Happy Dog Face”, “Happy Dog Foot”, “Uncertain Foot”, “Kind Words”, “Furminating”, “Snearaly”, “Sweetie Ears” and “Puppy Pile”. Also, the “Mountain Laurel Song” and the Song for Chubby Dogs.)

24. Rob and I have nearly the same political views. I honestly didn’t check before I married him, but I’m glad that worked out.

25. Bring your camera everywhere.

26. You can’t split a White Castle Crave Case three ways without risking a horrible stomach ache.

27. I learned a lot about the real estate and geography of western Brooklyn. In fact, I’m pretty much an expert on western Brooklyn neighborhoods.

28. Keep your eye on Tino. He’ll escape.

29. Ask tons of “stupid” questions if you’re confused about your health insurance. It will save you hundreds of dollars.

30. Dogs get colds! Who knew?!

31. Peeps are fun!

32. The dogs like goldfish, and so do I.

33. My husband makes breakfast in bed for me on my birthday. SCORE!

34. Good photography comes from the heart and soul and eyes. It does not come from the camera.

35. If you’re feeling blue, throw a dinner party with true friends who don’t care that you threw it together last minute. It will be good for your soul.

36. Margarine is the devil.

37. It’s ok to make $350,000 impulse purchases for sentimental reasons. Wait, hang on, this one I’m not sure about yet.

38. Ehhhhhh, you can cut your own hair. Well, I can.

39. If you have no dishwasher, you need to just buckle down and handwash on a regular basis, otherwise you will be stuck with Mount Dishmore.

40. Podcamp people are cool.

41. Living in Brooklyn suits me.