Most people don't buy pregnant women kitchen gadgets, but it's just a matter of time before a mom needs them. And, I'm not talking about bottle steamers and sippy cups, but the tools that make a parent's life easier when meal time rolls around and the kiddos are hungry. Here are five items that are used (and reused) for years.
Sure, following Tweets secretly through your RSS allows a special, stalkerish pleasure, but watching your friend's Internet activity doesn't have to be all about surreptitiousness. When a pal shares a link to her Flickr account or I run across a photographer whose work I find inspiring I stick it in my RSS reader so I can keep up with their activity.
Flickr offers an RSS feed for photostream pages, which you select and add to your reader. You'll find it in the toolbar of your browser if you use Firefox (see previous link for other browser tips). Flickr also offers a convenient "bookmark on delicious" link at the bottom of each photostream page, so you can save a friend's stream in your bookmarks and have access to it from any computer.
Oh Delicious, I almost (I said almost) forgot about you, and then you go and do something brilliant — you get a very much needed makeover! I was seriously considering walking away from all of my favorite bookmarks, or at least moving them to a much more user-friendly site, but alas, you pull though with a fresh new name (minus all the . and . 's), a slick new UI and a much faster search engine — nice work! And the best part about the new look? The big and beautiful notes fields that you can either change to reveal more bookmark info or compact their display with a single click on the Tag Bar!
Do you like chocolate? Well you're soaking in it...ahhh doesn't that sound nice - a chocolate bath.
A Japanese spa in Hakone offers them. Incorporating chocolate into natural hot springs, the bath contains cacao extract and trehalose, a kind of natural sugar. These ingredients promote beautiful skin by trapping the moisture.
For the rest of us, there are hot chocolate bath salts. They're also available in white chocolate, for only $9.00.
Of course, baths in general are very soothing and relaxing. And there are health benefits and happiness associated with chocolate. I never would have thought to put the two together - but I bet some of you have!
Spending time in the enveloping warmth and the delicious aroma of chocolate must have an amazingly calming effect.
