Gadgets that work

I was home alone last Friday afternoon when I heard a loud man's voice blaring away over and over. At first, I thought someone had broken in the house but the voice sounded so authoritative, I figured it had to be something else. It was this device--the MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio-- that Glenn had purchased a while back letting me know about a tornado warning. I kind of laughed about the device when he bought it but I must say, it came in handy. It gave the exact time the tornado might hit and what towns it might come through. I was able to get on the phone and warn a friend coming into town to watch the weather and pull into a shelter or safer area than the car, if it got too bad. After seeing in the news that two people--one an infant-- had died during this tornado, I wished that they had been using this device. It might have saved their lives--although the news story said they were in the hallway, perhaps the best place they could find.

Afternoon Snack

Well, I finally have some results from my Earth Box garden kit. As I mentioned here, I grew strawberries and tomatoes, without much hope of success due to my black thumb. Although the produce is small and a bit funny looking, I think I did pretty well. At least I have an afternoon snack that I grew myself and am pretty sure won't give me salmonella (even if it is a bit unattractive). Maybe if the outbreak gets worse, I could sell my fresh tomatoes on ebay to the highest bidder. I don't think the tiny strawberry will make the cut on the open market but it is really cute--don't you think?

Amazon Kindle

I am debating whether or not to buy an Amazon Kindle. There is a thorough review over at Pajamas Media that may just sway me to purchase one. The price is a bit too high for my taste but my house is overflowing with books and the extra closets and bookshelves that I need to hold them all is much more costly than this device. If anyone has experience with the Kindle, let me know what you think and whether it is worth getting.

My Black Thumb

Now that it's spring, I have decided to try to grow something. Glenn ordered me this EarthBox Garden Kit weeks ago and it has been sitting in the garage where I feel guilty every time I step over the big box to get to the car. He ordered it because I am always talking about wanting to "live off the land" and grow things on my own in case of a famine but I had no idea he took me seriously.

Anyway, today I had the morning off and decided that come hell or high water, I was putting this thing together and planting something in it--preferably strawberries or some kind of vegetable. No, it was not hard to put together. It was easy. I am just mechanically challenged as screwing a few casters into a tub and putting a plastic screen and water tube in place for the plants is pushing the limits of my abilities.

But enough about that. This box looks kind of neat. It is described as a:

maintenance-free, high-tech growing system makes it easy to control soil conditions for less guesswork and more yields. In fact, the patented EarthBox more than doubles the yield of conventional gardens its size, with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort! With no digging or weeding to do, vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers grow bigger, tastier and faster in the EarthBox!

I have always wanted to grow strawberries and everyone in my family loves them. I will let you know if I can get anything to grow in this contraption --believe me, it will be a miracle if I do. If I don't blog about it at all in the next six months, it probably means something really bad happened to my plants and I am too embarrassed to let you all know that the curse of my black thumb continues.

If you have any tips on growing vegetables or strawberries etc., please drop a line in the comments.

UPDATE: Here's a picture of the finished product!

The Gadget of my Dreams?

I was poking around on Amazon.com this morning and found the gadget of my dreams--okay, I was actually going there to buy some books--but a recommendation popped up for the Garmin Forerunner 305 Wrist-Mounted GPS Navigator and Personal Training Device with Heart Rate Monitor and I had to take a look. Why? Because I have both a bad heart and a lousy sense of direction and I had to see what kind of technology was available that would address both of these shortcomings. Here is what I found out:

Just when you thought Garmin had cornered the market on powerful, affordable, and effective wrist-mounted GPS devices, here comes the Forerunner 305. The release of this device is a major achievement from a design and technology perspective. This isn't just marketing-speak; the Forerunner 305 is the most accurate, most reliable wrist-mounted performance and GPS tracking tool we've ever tested. Yes, it's that good.

So for runners and for me--a walker--it apparently tracks one's heart rate and other exercise stats and also marks one's location and provides a simple map that displays your current direction and path. That sounds pretty amazing if it really works. I would love to have one of these devices for traveling or when I am not familiar with an area I want to walk in.

Before I spend a couple of hundred dollars on such a device, has anyone out there used this thing or something like it, or do you have any other suggestions for GPS gadgets?

Update: What I really need is a GPS system for my car--does anyone know a good one they can recommend that is easy to use?