Share the most (surprisingly) useful thing you've bought recently

Lately I’ve been getting some nasty blisters that pop on their own, so I’ve been going through band-aids and moleskin and the like. Band aids never stay on me, I guess I’m just a sweaty mess. On a whim I bought Band Aid tough strips (the box on the left) to try out. Since it went on my foot last night, this puppy is on the arch of my foot and has been subjected to three kinds of footwear today, including several miles of sweaty walking in the afternoon heat. And it has not become gummy and it appears to have the adhesive power of ten men.

So what have you bought recently that’s surprisingly useful?

A $70 water dish for our 3 cats.

I was rather dubious about whether it would work or not, but !hallelujah! no more stampede on the bathroom counter when I want to brush my teeth.

Thorlo Socks. I was dubious that a $12 pair of socks would perform as good as a $12 pair of gel inserts, and fearful that I would be losing them all the time, but I bought them anyway.

I can’t say they are as good as gel inserts at absorbing shock, but they are almost as good and it is more than made up for by the lighter weight and moisture performance.

Plus, when your socks cost $12 you keep track of them better than < $1 pairs.

The fountain? I had to upgrade to the, sigh, “Big Dog” when I got the dog, because even the upsized reservoir couldn’t keep up. They love it.

A Survivor Corvair Flash drive. Lots of people have flash drives and many of them are smaller but this one comes in aluminum military grade case and attaches to your key chain. You can’t hurt by dropping it in deep water or even running over it with a truck. It is with my keys so I always have it with me. The 16 gb version isn’t huge but it will hold a lot of stuff if you restrict it to things that are actually important to keep with you and safe although it holds a lot of frivolous things as well. I use it many times a day for work and personal use. It just plugs straight into virtually any computer no matter where you are so you always have important data, photos, music, installer programs, and videos with you. There are fancier ways to keep your data safe but it gets its mega-bonus points by being durable and accessible no matter where you are.

A brand new pair of Fiskars garden pass-by cutters with the titanium blade.

** thock **

Since we’re talking about pets, I give you…

The FURminator!!!

It’s not cheap, but it’s worth every dang penny.

mmm

Do you use these for everyday stuff, or specifically for working out? If the latter, you must try Drymax. I’m partial to the sport lite mesh. Honest to god these puppies make it a joy to pour out hideous amounts of foot sweat. They also have this y-stitching on the inside corner of your foot that fits snug and flat like I’ve never seen even in expensive compression hoisery. I think I’ve tried every other pair of socks they rank against in their graphs. They run $10/pair. Full disclosure, I bought 4 pair on a whim (on a student’s budget) a few years ago and I loved them. I was terrified that I’d screw them up in the wash, and I’d already thrown away the packaging. So I emailed them via their website explaining that I wanted to make 'em last, what was the best way to wash/dry them (if dry them at all), and sincerely gushed. They asked if they could list my gushing under their testimonials (well sure!) and thanked me by sending me 4 pairs for golf which I promptly turned over to my mom.

Shagnasty, I hope you have that thing password protected!

I paid $3 for a pocket LED penlight, and in just 3 days of work has become my 2nd favorite accessory I always carry(Its great but NOTHING will ever top my beloved 9/16" ratchet wrench).
Almost as awesome is the Virgin Mobile wireless 3g internet card I got for my laptop. $40 a month, unlimited access, zero bandwidth cap. Speed isn’t insane, but pretty damned good considering its being beamed across empty space a mile or two.

For working out, and they work pretty good for that, including the padding. For everyday stuff, I bought some generic dry socks (which were still around 2$ a pair or more), and I take them on vacations. Every time I take off cotton socks I can’t put them on again because they always seem like their stinky and sweaty, and I don’t have enough room on vacation to drag dozens of pairs of cotton socks, but the generic dry socks do the job in that situation since I can even re-use them in a pinch and they don’t get my other clothes stinky if I mix them in with the clean ones.

I just wrote about this awesome avocado slicer on another thread here. It’s flexible and adjusts to any size avocado by squeezing it, and it works absolutely beautifully.

I don’t buy much stuff, so I don’t have much to write about.

See, I don’t get why people need an avocado slicer. You just run a knife inside it, invert the skin, voila!

Mushroom slicer, on the other hand, I don’t use often but when I do use it I love it.

[quote=“lindsaybluth, post:8, topic:553776”]

I don’t but that is an excellent point that I have thought about. I am going to install TrueCrypt on it now and probably even order a bigger version of the drive. It is great to be electronically organized and many of your most important things on your keychain.

I’m pathetically easily suggestible, so I’m seriously rethinking the need for an avocado slicer. I too laugh at them as silly, but you mention it bends to accommodate various avocado slices? And I always get goop on my hands slicing avos the regular way…

I heartily endorse MMM’s Furminator. I have a cat version, and it also works on bedspreads, carpet etc. to really remove all the fur that gets lodged in those places.

My submission is eye makeup remover from MAC, to go with the effing indelible liquid eyeliner I bought from them. Regular eye make up remover doesn’t even smudge this stuff, so their remover is all that remains between me and Janitor in a Drum/paint thinner. Glad I bought it!