May 29th, 2018

This little notebook and pen was one of the gifts in my Christmas stocking this year.  I think it's just the cutest little thing. And even more handy than I'd ever anticipated.   The case is a very lightweight metal, so it's sturdy.  I cannot speak to your experience with carrying a notebook around, but I find that those little paper spiral notebooks curl and tear and basically disintegrate in my purse.   And finding a pen when I need one is something akin to seeking the golden fleece.   Here, the pen is attached,  It acts like a lock for the notebook. As soon as the pen is removed, it's springs open, ready to go. When I'm done, I slide it right back into place and the notebook is locked shut once again.  It's very small as you can see so thin it actually can slide into my back pocket.   Somebody thought that up.  I so admire clever people.

Still, I'm not one to fall for the latest new gadget out there.  Most of it is either unnecessary, rediculous or a rehash of an existing idea.  And just because something is new doesn't automatically make it better.  I can be a curmudgeon that way.  And if you have ever watched seriously late night (so late that it's actually early morning) TV infomercials, you know what I mean.  But every once in awhile, something comes along that is just a doggone good idea!  


An example of a badly rehashed idea is plastic clothespins.  Originally clothespins were wooden pegs, hand whittled.  They did the job and they lasted for a long time. Usually at least one persons lifetime, often passed down a generation or two.  Then someone came up with the spring loaded wooden clothespins. Well,  honestly I was never a fan.  The spring part often went awry and it would take a lot of patience to put one back together again.  Never having been long on patience,  this wasn't a good choice for me personally, but a lot of people prefer them.  Then someone decided to make colourful plastic spring loaded clothespins. Bad. Very bad.  They looked darned cute out there on the clothesline but they weren't strong enough to hold a wet towel.  I also found issues with the fact that they broke so easily.  I am clumsy and often drop things.  If I dropped a plastic clothespin and then accidentally stepped on it (not out of the realm of possibility) I now had a broken clothes pin. A wooden one would laugh at being trod upon.  My boys, as toddlers, used to love to drop wooden clothes pegs into a clean plastic milk jug and then shake them back out, over and over and over.  And if by chance one of them decided to chew on a clothes peg for a moment, it was no big deal.  A few teeth marks in a wooden clothes peg is nothing.  I would never have allowed them the chance too chew on a plastic one for fear of the spring  or broken chewed upon pieces of plastic being swallowed.  Nope, the original wooden clothes pegs were definitely better.

Here are a couple of others examples.  Two things that I found in my kitchen drawers while rummaging around.  One got thrown away as soon as I unearthed it.  The other went right back into the drawer:
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The item that looks like a black trowel is a pie server, only a "superdooper special" one.  Upon being presented with it at a home show (it was a freebie giveaway or I wouldn't own it, I promise) I was told that the serrated edge was to cut the pie and then you simply slide it under the  slice and lift that first slice right out, easy peasy.  Ummm no.  First of all, the serrated edge doesn't cut worth a crap and the hard plastic doesn't slide, simply or otherwise,  under the first slice with smashing up the pie on the other side of the server.  I was told I could also bake the server into the pie so the first slice just lifts out. What? I'm suppose to bake plastic into my beautiful pie?  I think not. And of course the pie would still need to be cut even if I wanted to taint my pie with plastic before lifting it out so I'd need to use a knife regardless.  I see no gain here.  Buncha liars.  I do not know why this item moved from Colorado to Florida with us but it now lives in the garbage can and will go away forever on the next garbage pick up day.

By contrast, the thing that looks like an ice cream scoop is one of my favourite inventions EVER!  It's a cookie dough scoop.  I don't actually know what it's real name is, but it honestly does work like a very good ice cream scoop.  I dip the ball part into a batch of my yummy home made cookie dough (hey, it ain't braggin' if it's true!) and then deposit it on the cookie sheet by squeezing the handle.  The dough is released onto the cookie sheet and is a perfect little cookie dough ball. Each cookie dough ball is the same exact size so they bake evenly and look adorable.   I actually have several of these in different sizes.  If one ever breaks, it will be replaced before I bake my next batch of cookies I promise you that.

And now that I've started going through the kitchen drawers  and I realize how much worthless crap is in there, I guess I will continue sorting through with an eye to identifying other mystery items and throwing out unnecessary things.  I know a lot of the stuff I intend to keep is specific to me.  Like my potato masher.  This is the real deal. I mean a real old fashioned hand held potato masher with nothing electric or battery powered about it.  I love that thing.  I bought it in a second hand shop years ago and use it all the time. But not everybody would want one or use one.  So this item, though a definite keeper, is very Sam-specific.  But it stays.  A lot of the other gadgets are going to go. 

 Gadgets and gizmos make me think of my father. One of my dad's nicknames was Gadget Man.  Sounds like a super hero name doesn't it.  I do not honestly know if he was aware that we called him that, but my sister and I often did.  I doubt that there was ever a gadget created that he didn't immediately fall in love with.  It was an endearing quirk and made shopping for him fun and easy.  A quick visit to any gadget aisle in a store and voila, Dad related shopping, done!  Well either a new gadget or a deep dish pecan pie.  I think he loved both equally.  He knew that on Father's Day or his birthday or even Christmas, somebody would come through with one or the other for him and then he was a happy guy.

In this case I guess the acorn fell pretty far from the tree.  I'm not so into gizmos and gadgets  and in fact, I was dragged kicking and screaming into the work of technology. Says the lady who uses a computer on a daily basis now. Hah!  So I will end with the truth.  I am always a little dubious about newfangled gizmos, but I won't automatically turn up my nose at a doo-ma-thingie that is useful to my life.  Love my cookie scoop.  Love my little notepad.  And who knows what my next favourite do-dad will be.