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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Favorites from 2009

Most everyone I know is eager to wrap this year up. Out with the bad, in with hopes for the new, better, best yet, best ever! Amen to that. To close the year out, I’d like to share my favorite discoveries from the last 12 months, in no particular order:

LoseIt! This free and handy little iPhone app helped me to lost 35 pounds in the last year by letting me track what I was eating each meal, each day. New items not already in the database are easy to enter into the program, and the last version (still free) has a web interface, as well as the ability to track/encourage friends who are also using LoseIt! to, well, lose it.

Ad Hoc at Home. I’ve been cooking out of Alice Waters’ Art of Simple Food for awhile now, and one of the many things about that book I appreciate is that fact that she makes good food so accessible--every recipe I’ve made works out wonderfully, and I feel like she communicates in everything she writes that “I can.” Thomas Keller’s book says to me “I could.” A home cook can definitely execute his recipes with great success, but there’s something aspirational about the way the book is written and illustrated. I read through it and think to myself, with a little more attention to detail, a little more planning, I could make this dish extraordinary. And Thomas tells you how, and that’s cool.

Subaru Forester XT. I test-drove the previous version of this car roughly four years back and was disappointed by the stiff, underpowered, distinctly boring experience it offered. The newest evolution, with turbo, is altogether a different beast. The car’s got more room, significant punch, an updated sense of style, and a bunch of new features incorporated in elegant, understated fashion. I love driving this thing so much, I’ve started to pass up frequent flier miles in favor of solitary road trips--just me, my Subaru, my iPod, and my triple shot short Americano.

Evernote. My own electronic shoebox, accessible via a browser, desktop application, and iPhone app. Evernote collects text, electronic files, audio recordings, pictures--any little snippet I don’t want to lose track of--and allows me to sort and tag this information easily and sensibly. And it synchronizes all of this stuff in real time, so however I pull up my information, I’m up-to-date. I keep my project notes, recipes, ideas for blog posts, and important PDFs in Evernote for easy, instant access. Ooh, and I can share notebooks with others as well. Nice.

Dumb Little Man. I love their intro text: each week we provide a handful of tips that will save you money, increase your productivity, or simply keep you sane. Thank you, I’ll take more of each, please.

Managing Thought. My life coach recommended this book to me, and it’s transformed the way that I work and live. Check it out.

Glee. What a great show. I could watch them sing “Don’t Stop Believing” or “Bust a Move” again and again. Oh, wait, I have. Thank you, Hulu!

Kindle 2.0. I somewhat covet Honey P.’s Kindle DX, with its oversized screen, but I’m plenty pleased with my own Kindle--a gift from Buck and Jeff for my 40th, and an upgrade from the original Kindle I bought when it first came out. The changes in form and function in the newest edition are worth the new investment, and I continue to love the “read a sample” function that allows me to check out a book without committing to it. Best yet, I can shop, sample, and purchase books from the comfort of my living room.

Lululemon Athletica. Yes, yes, it’s pricey, but it’s wonderfully well made, feels good to wear, and makes me want to be a stronger, leaner person than I already am. A dear friend once said that spandex is a privilege, not a right--if you’ve earned it, you deserve a little Lulu.

Burt’s Bees Hand Salve. All of the time I spend in the kitchen takes a toll on my hands. This stuff has been fantastic in healing cracks and cuts. And it’s under $10.

So that’s my list! May 2009 leave gracefully, and may 2010 bring more healthy, wealthy, wise, and happy than any of us know what to do with. Sante.