Usually, my dental hygienist and I have conversations that sound like a couple of pals getting together in a coffee shop to chat. But yesterday, our conversation sounded more like a poorly scripted television commercial from the 1970s or ’80s.

Usually, we talk about dogs and crafts and fitness, or whatever music’s being piped in to the dental office in the half-hour I’m there, or she tells me about the fall-out when her in-laws gave her 16-year-old a brand new car without consultation, that kind of thing…

Yesterday — wonder of wonders — we actually talked about clean teeth and healthy gums. Dental health, in fact — go figure!

Do you remember those TV ads where the uber-annoying Madge kept sticking her ditzy friend’s hand in a bowl of dishwashing liquid, while disclaiming about its virtues? A fly on the wall (not that there was one, but if there was — and if it could understand English — do flies even have ears?) would have heard something like this:

Me: You probably won’t have much cleaning to do this time.

She [with one dubious eyebrow raised]: Why’s that?

Me: I’ve been trying out an electric toothbrush for the past month, and my teeth seem pretty clean to me…

She: What kind of electric toothbrush are you using? Is it the Oral-B Vitality? We usually keep some of those around here, for sale.

Me: Actually, I’ve been testing two different Oral-B toothbrushes. One’s the Vitality with a ProWhite head. The other one’s that super-dooper Triumph brush that does everything but pour the mouthwash for you…

[Dental hygienist nods knowingly]

Me: …the one with the wireless unit to monitor your brushing time and tells you when to move on to another quadrant, makes a smiley face when you brush your teeth properly?

[Dental hygienist nods knowingly]

Me: It’s got two different brush heads with it — ProWhite and Floss Action — they sound like dorky superheroes, don’t they? And different brushing modes for polishing and sensitive teeth and like that, base station, recharger that works in different countries with different power systems for when you travel, and a travel case, too… The flippin’ toothbrush has a bigger instruction manual than the one that came with my blender!

She: You do have a thing for gadgets, don’t you?

Me: Um, yeah…

She: My husband, too. He would probably be more fussy about brushing if he had one of those… but he just went out and bought himself a new phone, so he’s going to have to wait until Father’s Day to get a Triumph.

Me [mumbling because the dental hygienist has her hands in my mouth, poking about the molars with a pointy metal thing]: Mhmmphh.

She: You know, your teeth really are pretty clean — I really don’t have too much work to do here. Actually, I think we can skip your next appointment, if you’re going to keep using a power toothbrush.

Me: Mmm-hm-hmm-huh!

She: What’s that?

Me: I just saved 75 bucks!

She: Yeah, you can’t go wrong with Oral-B. Did you know that they’re the only ones who have that patented thing where the head of the brush oscillates and pulses, both at the same time? It oscillates and pulses! [I swear, those were her exact words -- told you, our conversation sounded a whole lot like a vintage TV ad!] And the small head on the brush makes it easier to get in there and do a good job on your back teeth, like this spot right here… see?

Me: Mhmm-hee!

She: Rechargeable, right?

Me: Mhmm. Yes, both of them.

She: What do you think about the vibration? Some people find it feels weird.

Me: The Vitality’s just got a nice little hum, kind of nice. But the Triumph has, I don’t know, the vibration is stronger or deeper or something…

She: Too much?

Me: No, not bad… but you wouldn’t want to use it with a wicked hangover.

She: Just a guess, but if someone’s that hungover, their dental hygiene may not be right at the top of their list, right at that moment. Coffee, more likely. Lots of coffee!

Me: At least they’d be able to get the coffee stains off their teeth. You know, later, when they felt up to it…

I’m pretty sure we’ll be back to the normal frivolous non-product-oriented chit-chat, next time I’m hanging with the dental hygienist — but here’s the bit that’s vitally important here, in case you glazed over and missed it:

I just saved $75 — being able to skip my next appointment for a professional cleaning, with the dental hygienist’s blessing — because the power toothbrushes do a better job of cleaning teeth than the old-faithful manual units that I grew up with.

Yes — like you — I laughed myself silly at the super-dooper Triumph when I first read about it — and rolled my eyes at the hefty price tag, too! (The suggested retail price is $179.99 — yikes! — but you can do much better if you shop around: Amazon has about the best prices I’ve seen, around US$107.)

Love gadgets as I do… honestly, I thought it was a case of Oral-B going mad with the microchips and accessories, trying to find a new-and-improved product that no one really needs all that badly. It seems that I may have been a tad hasty in that opinion, however… because it’s really quite something.

On a budget, however, or for those whose very souls revolt at the idea of over-the-top technological wizardry in the bathroom cabinet, the modestly priced and lightweight Oral-B Vitality Pro-White is the winner. It runs about $25 in stores in Canada; I’m not sure if this exact model of Vitality is available in the US yet, but I think you might be able to fake it quite nicely with the Precision Clean model and just sub in the Pro-White replacement heads for that spiffy tooth-polishing effect. For my money, it’s effective, efficient, and not too self-indulgent a personal-care tool for this thrifty gal to face down in the mirror each morning.

In short, Triumph rocks for sheer macho gadgety-goodness, and I’m irresistably attracted to that for some reason; but the low-key Vitality was simply electric love at first brush.

You know how at the start of each year we all seem to resolve to be better? (For some reason — although some of us really don’t like resolutions! — it just happens!) We’re going to be greener, more frugal, more efficient, free of clutter and confusion, and just generally a better human being?

Yeah.
Well.

I’ve got something like a Museum of Home Computing up in the back bedroom, and still haven’t found a solution. What do you do with an old 386 Acer, anyway? And that monitor that’s got a weird green glow. Oh, and the dot-matrix printer… In these parts, there’s no recycling depot for such stuff, and there’s no way I’m dumping them in the local landfill… so I’m still working on that issue.

But I did just come across a solution for all those smaller dead electronics that drift in odd corners of our lives. Sell them!

BuyMyTronics (I found it listed recently as one of the perky new business startups in trend-spotting Springwise‘s newsletter) will buy a whole bunch of your broken, used, and otherwise unwanted gadgets.

Anyone in the world can send ‘em in, gadgets in any condition, and get cold hard cash. Doesn’t that sound appealing?

I know, I know what you’re wondering:

What do you do with the broken electronics I send you?
Many wonderful things. We are actually building a utopian society and sanctuary for electronics from around the globe. Actually, if you must know, we take your broken electronics and swap out parts to fix others, then resell your gadgets…

And by gadgets they mean most kinds of cell phones, and every kind of iPods, iPhones, and Game Consoles. And did I mention, they’ll buy electronics in any condition? Drop your cell off a 6th floor balcony and watch your neighbour’s SUV drive over it? Well, it probably won’t be worth a mint, but these guys say they want to buy it anyway.

You get rid of crap. You get a bit of cash — or you can have it donated to the charity of your choice. The landfill gets to live a little longer. And the useful electronic thingummies get recycled and reused to make spiffy refurbished gadgets, bringing pleasure and convenience to others.

Perfect.

Well, maybe not quite perfect.

I have a GPS device, Laptop, digital camera and/or other electronic device. Do you take those too?
Soon, very soon. Keep checking out our site. We plan a steady and continued expansion into everything, then world domination. We will probably be adding a new gadget every month or so. So check back soon, and often.

So a lot of those wired retirees up in my back bedroom may have to wait a while before they’re back in demand — but I’ve got hope!

It just feels wrong to criticize, when someone does something nice. In this case, the folks at Best Buy sent along a little REDI mp3 player for my Aged Mother to take with her when she went into the hospital, back at the end of June.

Great idea, eh?

Well, it was… sort of…

My mother (yes, same one; I’ve just got the one) always said, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” — and, fortunately, I do have some nice things to say about the player. But it’s not all good, so I’ve been really stalling here, not much wanting to write about it…

Okay, here goes:

Basically, it’s a $40 1GB mp3 player, pre-loaded with music so you can start using it right away — or as soon as you get another battery to replace the highly questionable one that comes in the package. When you do want to change the selection, it comes with the USB cable to glom right on to your computer and go to it. And the screen isn’t too hard to read, as these tiny LED screens go. Oh, and there’s an FM tuner, too — essential for we who are avid fans of public radio.

And I’m sure, as a $40 mp3 player goes, it’s about as good as one can expect to get. In fact, the sound is surprisingly clear and true.

The problem is in getting the damn (sorry, Mum!) thing to work.

I’m not even talking about the little wheel-thingie button that sometimes you have to push down on and sometimes you have to turn, or the fact that if you bite your fingernails you’re going to have a hard time pushing some of the other dainty little buttons — my brother gave up in no time.

No, the big stumbling block is those incomprehensible instructions! You’d think that a nice diagram, showing all the bits and buttons, all nicely labelled, would be helpful — no? Well, no. Because the nicely labelled bits and buttons had completely different names in the (translated from an Asian language?) instruction text.

Counting the helpful night-shift nurse on her coffee break, at one point there were 6 of us, with an age range of 16 to 79 years old and a total of 7 university degrees, trying to figure out how Mum could distract herself with a bit of CBC radio on that sleepless night before surgery. Music, yes, got that, no problem — and she liked the music selection just fine. (“Be sure to say that,” she told me: “I like the music.”) But to switch from music to tuner, following the instructions provided? Eh. We gave up, and I brought my own mp3 player in the next day. For the rest of her hospital stay, she kept my Kix tuned to the radio station, and her REDI all ready for music.

Maybe one of these days we’ll take some time and sit down and figure the thing out. It can’t really be that confusing, can it? I guess the big disappointment here was a result of the way the player is marketed. The idea is that the music’s pre-loaded so Dad and Grannie don’t have to wade into the big scary world of iTunes until they’re good and ready, right? So we all had expected much greater ease of use — both in a physical sense, what with the tiny buttons and strange wheelie-thing and all — and as a result of the poor instructions.

But hey, it was nice of you guys to send it, anyway — and Mum told me to be sure to say “Thank you”; she appreciated the thought.

And speaking of good taste… finally, here’s the egg separator of my dreams.

I usually go one of two ways with the task of separating eggs: either avoid egg-separating recipes as much as possible, or do a little finger-dance routine with a wooden spoon and two measuring cups. The latter method takes great skill and dexterity, neither of which are guaranteed on any given day. And you’ve got to do one egg at a time, that way, so an accidentally broken yolk won’t spoil the whole batch of whites.

So for years I’ve been meaning to pick up a conventional egg separator gadget, to make that cooking task easier. But, well, you know how that goes…

And now — here’s a truly crave-worthy egg separator, cunningly handcrafted as a big-nosed pottery person. What a perfectly useful gadget, and a great fit for my own whimsical kitchen decor, hint hint! Or maybe pick one up to keep on hand for a hostess gift, or for the next time someone invites you to a kitchen-themed bridal shower?

Just break the eggs into the ceramic container, tilt it forward, and voila! Your egg whites will stream, oh so elegantly, out of those pottery nostrils — whites all nicely separated from the yolks — no fuss, no mess, if perhaps a few giggles from your kitchen crew.

(And, why might we want to be able to separate the yolk from the egg white? Don’t all answer at once — but hands up, everyone whose first thought was of light-as-air meringues to impress your mother-in-law? Okay, now, and who says souffle? Omelet? Sponge cake? Waffles? Well, you get the idea.)

Peter Petrie Egg Separator is $12.99 at Stupid.com
(Hat tip to Tal Siach)

Last Monday I announced a giveway contest for an Insignia Kix mp3 player, courtesy of the fine folks at Best Buy.

Tonight, I want to thank everyone who entered — and tell you about the highly scientific method by which the winner was chosen.

The Draw

At the end of the day on Friday, when the contest closed, I collected all the entries and wrote each email address on a separate piece of paper (recycled junk mail, so no worries, no trees were harmed in the drawing of our winner).

All the pieces of paper were folded up, and dropped into a decorative Mexican basket.

Then I stood on the coffee table, so as to be able to hold the basket up over the head of He Who Hogs The Power Tools — and he was the one who closed his eyes, reached into the basket, stirred around, and drew out the winner.

The Winner

And the lucky winner of the Insignia Kix mp3 player is… Cath, who lives somewhere waaaay down there in Maryland, USA.

Congratulations, Cath!

The Consolation

Now, don’t be too disappointed if you entered and didn’t win this time — your friendly neighbourhood Domestik Goddess has a whole lot of other goodies coming up for grabs in the next little while.

And also, you might want to bop over to Jo Brooks’ blog and check out her giveway for stunning lampwork beads — I’ve got two gorgeous little bee beads she made, and you won’t believe the kind of work this woman can do with glass!

Meanwhile, back to Domestik Goddess…
Here’s a little reward for anyone who troubled to read this whole post, long-winded though it may be! I’ll be quietly collecting comments through the rest of February, and will award a surprise prize to one commenter to be chosen at random on the first day of March. ;) Shhhh, don’t tell anyone! It’ll be our little secret…


Technorati Tags: mp3 player, giveaway, contest

Okay, gang, here we go!

It’s time to give away the Insignia Kix mp3 player I wrote a review about on Friday…

You know, that fun little 1Gb USB mp3 player that would be perfect for a kid… or for someone like me who frankly just doesn’t want the headache of trying to learn her way around a fancy-schmancy gadget…

There are 2 ways to enter for your chance to win:

1. subscribe by email to DomestikGoddess.com

or

2. leave a comment on this post, being sure to put in a valid email address on the comment form.

No worries, your email address won’t be used for any nefarious purpose — I’ll just need a way to get in touch with you if you happen to be the lucky winner, so as to make arrangements to get your Kix delivered, courtesy of Best Buy.

I’ll be making the draw at 10pm AST Friday, 8 February 2008 by the highly scientific process of putting all the entries on little slips of paper, dropping them into a hat, and making He Who Hogs The Power Tools close his eyes to pull one out.

So that’s it — go ahead now and drop a comment or sign up for your Domestik Goddess email updates, your choice — and we’ll announce the winner here on Friday evening.

__________________________________

Friday 10:05 p.m. update:
Contest is closed now — All the entries have been scribbled on squares of recycled junk mail and dropped into a lovely Mexican basket, ready for He Who Hogs The Power Tools to make the draw. I’ll be emailing the happy winner this evening, and announce it as soon as I get a reply… stay tuned! :)

Technorati Tags: gadgets, affordable, mp3 player, giveaway, contest

Could you use a new mp3 player? Stay tuned — on Monday I’ll let you know how to enter the Domestik Goddess Get Your Kix mp3 player giveaway for a chance to win the gadget I’m raving about right now…

Cheap but Good

I’m a simple soul, as you may know.

There are only 4 things I ask from an mp3 player:

1. It must be simple — easy enough for a small child to use (or a woman who hasn’t had her morning coffee);



2. It must let me drag-and-drop files from my computer to the mp3player without needing to use any weird proprietary software;
3. It must be tiny — that is, if I put it into the front pocket of my jeans, I want to be able to bend over and tie my shoes without breaking the player or causing myself any pain;
4. It must take rechargeable batteries — and if I can charge it up with a USB to my laptop, all the better!

Oh, and I want it to be affordable and sturdy, too. Not that I’m a total klutz (not exactly) but what’s the point of an mp3 player that you’re afraid to take with you? So, a cheap mp3 player that works, that’s what I want — you know, in case it gets lost, stolen, or accidentally dropped in a hot tub (could happen!) apres-ski…

The Swag Fairy must have been reading my mind:

Insignia, part of Best Buy’s internal brand, recently launched a new Kix MP3 player. It’s a small, portable player that features 1GB of space, interchangeable USB color caps and a built-in FM radio.

Never mind the pink colour — it’s got two other options (blue and green) for the little swivel-up piece that covers the USB plugin thingie. I just chose the pink to discourage He Who Hogs The Power Tools from “borrowing” my Kix.

Anyway, I am well pleased with this little gadget.

It hits all the features on my wishlist — plus it has an FM tuner with decent reception and 20 pre-sets. Yeah, I forgot to put FM radio on the list, but it’s great to be able to catch the news and weather while out walking the dog.

Audio books, too. See, this is one of the whole big reasons I need an mp3 player in the first place – so I can listen to audio books (right now, coincidentally, it’s Getting Things Done by David Allen) and feel just super-productive and efficient in the use of dog-walking time!

Okay, to review:

• Simple to operate? Check.
• Drag and drop? Check.
• Compact? Check.
• Rechargeable? Check.

And by the way, I’m really quite impressed with the battery in this baby — a couple of hours plugged into my USB port and it’s got about 30 hours of listening power in store.

It almost embarrassses me to say this, but the Insignia Kix would be a really great choice for an mp3 player for a kid. I’ve been taking it everywhere in my pocket for a full week now — off-roading in a snowstorm, even — and haven’t managed to screw it up yet.

Bottom line: Maybe not for the serious music geek or gadget freak, or for those who want to carry a life-time supply of tunes with them at all times. But for those of us who are just a tad rough on our portable toys… at well under 50 bucks, it’s hard to find a better little mp3 player.

Get your Kix

Check out the specs on the Best Buy or Insignia sites… then drop back in to Domestik Goddess here on Monday when I’ll open it up for your chance to win a Kix Insignia mp3 player, courtesy of the Swag Fairy and the fine folks at Best Buy.

Technorati Tags: gadgets, affordable, mp3 player, giveaway, contest

Imagine — it’s 1927, and newsboys are shouting the word on the street: Charles Lindbergh has mastered the impossible. In that frail aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, he made the first non-stop solo trans-Atlantic flight…

Got a vintage 1920s home, lovingly restored to reflect that breathless era of glamour, adventure and invention?

The period home deserves more than a mod iPod dock on the side table to pump out your mood music, or even a discreet black box with speakers.

Posh Prezzies’ Spirit of St. Louis collection of home technology products is crafted to replicate the style of Lindbergh-era gadgets, all fascinating knobs and shiny dials and rich wood details.

Each CD player or clock radio in the collection is an evocation of the Golden Age of romance — when Old Hollywood reigned — when luxury ocean liners and velvet-cushioned ralway cars were the height of travel style — and when a human voice carried across the airwaves was still as miraculous as man’s ability to take flight across the Atlantic.

Technorati Tags: 1920s, retro, gadgets

So there I was, quietly minding my own business, scoping out the official licensed Disney character Halloween costumes for dogs (don’t ask!)… and what did I stumble upon?

Costumes for cell phones!

Madness…

And I believe this makes it official — the world’s going to hell in a handbasket!