Doughnuts make such curious little snacks. They’re the alpha impulse-nosh food. So few ever really venture forth on an errand specifically seeking the lone pastry most people consume in one sitting; that’s probably why they’re so well-suited for convenience stores and quick, in-and-out eateries where people can get a snack and be on their way in a hurry. We’re almost never looking for them, but we want one when we see one.
But sometimes, we do. Coffee’s poured on a Sunday morning, the comfy sweats have been donned, the DVR awaits and suddenly, THIS MAN NEEDS COFFEE AND CRULLERS, STAT! Alas, nobody delivers doughnuts – and as we’ve well established, driving around the corner for a lone sweet treat uses gas that costs more itself these days than my snack. Doughnuts, like this conundrum itself, are a perfect, vicious circle. One vicious, tasty, irresistible circle.
This Sunbeam Doughnut Maker not only bakes the dunkable, frostable morsels, it actually prepares them healthier than most state fairs and even some swanky bakeries! Whereas they’re so often fried in more fat and grease than you probably care to ponder, the Sunbeam Doughnut Maker bakes up to five doughnuts in the style of a George Foreman Grill on its non-stick surface in about five minutes. From there, it’s your world. Frost them, sprinkle them, sugar them, glaze them, or just scarf your delicious home-baked doughnuts straight down.
Best of all, with so many people exploring gluten-free, vegan and dairy-free lifestyles, this is your chance to continue embracing one of the ultimate indulgent sweets with your own preferred tweaks and treats. Doughnuts needn’t mean the death of a diet ever again! [Source]
Ah, the Slurpee/Slushee. It’s so unique to the juvenile American experience. Someway, somehow, I grew into loving much simpler adult beverages with ingredients I could actually name and pronounce. Coffee contains coffee … and sometimes Bailey’s. Diet soda? Easy: aspertame, caffeine and if drinking Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, 42 flavors of WIN. But there was a time during my junior high and high school years in South Dakota when I didn’t know what was actually in my neighborhood 7-11′s slush beverage of choice, and I couldn’t have cared less. When I finished mowing that store’s lawn once every couple weeks for $20, it tasted like victory.
This slush maker mug packs nearly a pound of “super-freezing refrigerant” into a patented 12 ounce Glaciercore that will freeze a sugar-sweetened beverage of choice into a slurpy, slushy, mushy brain-icing treat inside an insulated mug. No hurry, either: this better-drinking-through-science mug will chill your cool beverage down to 34°F for up to two hours while crystalizing the ingredients. And better news still? It easily fits inside most freezer doors.
Try a few flavors and find your best fit. Coke? Root beer? Sunkist? Nestle Quik? Cream Soda? Perhaps go bold and ice some strong coffee or espresso. Or for those moments when your inner child has come of age, grown hair in awkward places, and started having funny feelings toward the girls (or guys … maybe both?), pour in a White Russian.
Some little slices of adolescence never really leave. They just get better – and slushier – with age.
Straight things are just too … I don’t know, straight. Flat. And dare I say, untrue to life.
There’s no arguing a level surface’s practicality. Fragile nick-knacks and bric-a-brac probably shouldn’t tilt like a three-legged pinball machine, especially suspended over an unsuspecting house guest’s noggin. But where one can, I don’t believe anyone should bypass displaying books and such at an askew, rakish angle.
Each set of these decorative angled wall shelves includes three medium-density particleboard shelves in a trio of sizes, as well as all the needed mounting hardware. Their beauty is in the infinite potential for making form and function one’s own. The shelves can be left their original stark white, or come ready for a splash of paint at your leisure. The trapezoidal shelves’ uniform angle measurements make nesting the units together a bottomless sea of geometric possibilities; a designer’s puzzle where there is no one right place for any piece.
The more sets one uses, the deeper the options and the greater the potential mosaic becomes. Paint them or not, nest and fit them as you wish, but what ultimately creates the shelves’ accents will be whatever angle the items inside take.
Face it: life is no straight line. Things level off when they can, but nothing holds everything perfectly steady and level forever more. So take your storage space and make a statement that reminds the world how things ultimately really end up. The ground isn’t perfect, things slide about, but ultimately everything fits into place – even when some things remain just a little askew. [Source]
Sure, some great creations take intricate planning before moving toward a finished product that one can appreciate. Other times, simply the creative process of watching something appear from veritable nothing by one’s hand is more than enough.
The water painting Buddha Board will take you away from the normally sensible practice of beginning with an end in mind, and teach the lesson of living in the moment and appreciating it for what it is, exactly because it’s gone quickly like drying water.
Every stroke of the bamboo brush against the 12″x9.5″ white board will reveal a vision seemingly in black ink. Paint whatever your spirit shows you, paying no mind to an ultimate, masterpiece vision – for as the water dries, your vision gently fades away. Ideally, it is only putting brush to board that should matter. For results that last a prolonged moment longer, use more water with more intense brush strokes, so that evaporation takes more time. But whether painting with fine, thin strokes that disappear within 5-10 seconds, or thick, intense strokes that endure for 5-15 minutes at a time, the Buddha Board will never wear out, but will instead always stand ready for you to enjoy an inspiring, creative moment.
However, if you’d like to capture your final image for posterity … take a picture. It’ll last longer.
Well, that’s it, fellow gamers: the portable, interactive 3D gaming race ended before some even knew it had begun in earnest. Sorry, Microsoft and Sony, but your next console gimmick is in another product R&D think-tank.
As with the Wii before it, Nintendo’s latest licensed system has leaped beyond the pack and redefined “interaction” with the Super Mario Bros Crystal Maze Game. Portability? Play it anywhere you can hold the “console” fairly steady! Play it on a desk-top – literally, atop any desk with a little unused space. Try it on your “lap-top” anywhere; whether you’re sitting in a car, on a bus or just getting comfy in an easy chair, if you have a lap, you can set this atop it and go nuts for hours!
Did we mention it’s also very, very energy-conscious? It runs on an awesome, clean-burning energy that recharges easily without a single A/C adapter or outlet. When energy starts running low, charging up for more gaming takes one simple step. We recommend a nap!
What about the visual resolution, though? Well, getting over the Nintendo DSi’s “Augmented Reality” 3D technology didn’t take long. Reach out a hand and try touching the maze’s clear, colored walls. Oh my stars, you say – you can actually feel them? That’s because they’re really there! Really!
But what of gameplay? With responsive controls that tilt the maze with your hand’s every move atop the joystick, you’ll navigate a small ball through three castles en route to the one where Bowser holds your Fair Lady captive. Incredible sound engineering augments the reality – you’ll hear the ball “clack” against the plastic walls with every turn as if it were happening in your very lap. And as you clear each castle, a flag actually rises from each one in tribute to the winner that is you.
Augmented reality? Fad. This sort of technology Nintendo has just now harnessed and licensed needn’t be next-gen, because it’s proven in previous “generations.” Hands-on, challenging gaming that any gamer young or old could handle and find entertaining? The Super Mario Maze Game is it, friends. Your future is now.
Sunbeam Donut Maker ($34)
