Summer Walking Tools

Now that warmer weather is here, I can shed my jacket and do my morning walks in gym shorts and a t-shirt. That means I also lose the pockets which held my iPhone and car keys.

I have owned a gazillion armbands for my iPods and iPhones. None of them were very impressive. Most were awkward and broke in short order. My latest, however, is an absolute gem. It's made by TuneBand. The case that holds the iPhone is a stretchable silicone. It fits the iPhone perfectly and holds it securely to the velcro band. The entire band is made of hook and loop velcro, so you get an absolutely perfect fit on your arm every time. The TuneBand retails for $19.99. Check it out here and don't miss the reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Tuneband-Grantwood-Technologys-Silicone-Protector/dp/B003ZZKL6U.

I used to have a small wristband that held my car keys. However, I recently switched cars and the new key fob that came with the car was too large to fit in my wristband. So I went shopping for a new wristband and came across the En Route wrist wallet.

There are three pockets total on this wrist wallet. The first is a large pocket secured by a velcro flap (see above photo). That pocket is large enough to hold my big key fob, along with my driver's license and a credit card or two.

The other two pockets are on the back side and these are both secured by zippers. These are large enough to hold a house key or coins for a parking meter. The En Route wrist wallet retails for $17.99 and is available here:  http://www.enroutetravelware.com/hanfrearmpoc.html.

Warm weather is here, so get outside. And you don't need pockets!

Casio GW-530A

I own 10 watches, but this is my hands-down favorite. It's the one I wear 99% of the time. It has earned that status for two simple reasons. First, it's solar powered and never needs a battery. Second, it's the most accurate watch on the planet as the time is radio-controlled by the atomic clock in Colorado.

There's nothing I hate more than reaching into my drawer for a watch and finding out it's dead because the battery has ceased to function. Huge friggin' nuisance. Not so with this solar powered Casio G-Shock watch. Light keeps the battery charged...any sort of light. In the 3 years I have owned it, it has never run out of a charge. Doesn't matter if I spend hours on end indoors, the ambient light is sufficient to charge the battery. And once the battery is fully charged, it can run for 11 months without any light whatsoever.

Knowing that my watch always has the exact and precise time is a great feeling...especially since I am the most anal person on earth about being on-time.  It synchs to the atomic clock in Colorado four times each day.

The watch is loaded with features. It works in all 29 time zones. It's got 4 different programmable alarms. It's waterproof and shockproof. It's got a backlight that you can either turn on manually or automatically with a tilt of your wrist. There's a handy stopwatch function and the auto-calendar is pre-programmed through the year 2038.

My boys gave me this watch for father's day three years ago. Here's the best part...it cost a whopping $90 at Costco. To me, that's the bargain of the century for a solar powered, atomic watch that keeps perfect time and never needs a battery.

My Three Favorite iPad Accessories

I am a huge Apple fanboy. I shamelessly love all things Apple. This holds true for my iPad, which is possibly the greatest device of all time for consuming media. Before the iPad, there was print, there was TV, there was film...each medium had it's own niche. Not any more. Steve invented the iPad and it became  the great equalizer. Now the Wall Street Journal competes with Netflix and HBO Go and Zite and the NewYork Times and Lady Gaga and electronic books...all on one device. It's simply amazing.

The iPad really shines when you travel. All of your favorite books, newspapers, films, TV shows and music are contained in a single piece of hardware. It sure makes traveling easy. The first thing I reach for when I travel is my iPad carrying case.

My case of choice is a Belkin Grip Sleeve. It's padded, made of neoprene and has a reinforced panel that protects the screen. It has a large pocket on the side which I use to hold my portable easel and charger. The case sells for $14.95 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F8N278tt091-Grip-Sleeve-iPad2/dp/B003CFB19Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326045268&sr=8-1

My portable easel of choice is the Compass stand from Twelve South. This is a piece of art that is also a marvel of engineering. It folds down into a small little package: 7" long by 1" wide and 3/8" deep. When used as an easel, like the photo above, it makes it easy to read books and watch movies in either landscape or portrait mode. The Compass also has a small fold-away secondary leg (visible on the middle leg in the above photo) which transforms the product from easel to portable workstation. It elevates the rear of the iPad by 1 1/2 inches and makes it incredibly comfortable for typing. The Compass retails for $39.99 and you can check it out here: http://twelvesouth.com/products/compass/

My very favorite iPad accessory are the Bower & Wilkins P5 headphones. For anyone who has tried to watch a movie on a plane with earbuds, they simply don't work. They let in way too much outside noise. The P5's fit over the ears and isolate the listener from the environment. The padded headband and ear cups are made from New Zealand sheep leather...quite possibly the softest leather I have ever felt. The sound is absolutely astounding. When I listen to my music with these headphones, I hear instruments and sounds that I never knew existed on the recordings. These are amazing headphones...the most amazing I have ever used. But you don't have to take my word for it....go to an Apple store and try them out. You'll be blown away. The Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphones retail for $299:  http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Headphones/Headphones/P5/Overview.html

Kahtoola MICROspikes

Last night it started raining then it flipped over to snow. Then the temperature dropped, which turned the 2-mile walking path around Lake Normandale into a giant skating rink. While it would be nice to stay inside, drink a cup of coffee and read the paper, Zorro must have his morning walk.

Last year I got caught walking in regular trail shoes when a snowstorm swooped in. The visibility was every bit as horrible as the traction and I slipped and fell, breaking a rib. While that was painful, I hated that it kept me out of the gym (my beloved CrossFit) for 2 months. I vowed never again.

I tried a number of winter traction devices and Kahtoola MICROspikes outperformed them all. And they outperformed them on two fronts. The first is the all-important traction on ice and snow. There are 10 spikes on each foot...8 on the forefoot and 2 on the heel. These babies dig in like nothing I have ever seen. I don't even think about slipping.

The second area where they outperformed the others is longevity. I tried the industry leading YakTrax, but they wore out after about 10 outings. They have a nice concept but they are poorly engineered. Hit a stretch of dry asphalt and the YakTrax are ruined.

Kahtoola MICROspikes retail for $59.95 and are worth every single penny. I put them on an old pair of Nike trail shoes that I had laying around. I throw those in the back of my car, that way they are always ready should conditions require their appearance. And Zorro was very grateful for their appearance this morning at Lake Normandale. As was I.

 This is a great product and you can check it out here: http://www.kahtoola.com/

Fire Stone

We have a lot of fires in the fireplace in the Gruggen household. As in every single night. We start burning in September and go through until early May. We burn 10 full cords of wood every season with maybe enough wood left over at the end to make a couple of boxes of toothpicks. We only burn oak as it burns the longest and gives off the most heat.

I am particularly anal about building my fires. Each fire is built with precisely 13 logs. That makes a huge fire. When the boys were little, they called them "roar fires" for the enormous rushing sound the logs make when they all catch fire. The fire is built with 2 large logs across the bottom of the grate, then layered with 3-2-3-2-1 in ascending order. I build it so that the logs tip back at an angle. That ensures that the fire collapses backwards as it burns, away from the fireplace screen.

Way back in antiquity I received a fire stone as a gift. Once you've had one, you can't imagine going back to newspaper and kindling to start a fire. It's essentially a small cast iron box with a porous, ceramic stone inside. You pour some kerosene on the stone, wait 5 minutes, then light it and slide it under your logs. Within 5 minutes you will have achieved "roar fire". Just leave the fire stone under your fire and retrieve it the next day when it has cooled.

A fire stone lasts forever...the one I have is nearly 30 years old. They only cost about $17. Here's an example of one that is available on Amazon.com:   http://www.amazon.com/Cast-Iron-Firestarter-Tray-FS-C1137/dp/B000WCCB8U. Instead of kerosene, I use a product called Klean Heat. It has no odor and gives off no smoke or soot. I buy mine at Home Depot:  http://www.homedepot.com/buy/outdoors-garden-center-animal-pest-control-insect-mosquito/klean-strip-klean-heat-odorless-fuel-gallon-192853.html

Tonight's "roar fire" in-waiting with my fire stone.

gowatchit.com

This post isn't so much about gear as it is about software...brand new software that makes it incredibly easy to keep track of movies you want to see. I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool Netflix fanboy. I was one of their very first customers when they launched back in 1998...that's when they used to rent by the disc...before they created the subscription model. Heck, my company did a lot of the advertising for Netflix for 7 years. So as a client and a marketing partner, I loved Netflix.

When I read about a movie I liked, I'd go to the Netflix site and put it in my queue, knowing full well that at some point in would be out on Blu-Ray, DVD or streaming. Hubris got the better of Netflix and the wheels came off in 2011. Now I get most of my movies elsewhere.....a lot of different places, actually. Direct TV, Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Prime Instant Video, iTunes, Xbox, Netflix Streaming, etc. But what I miss most was that consolidated queue that would keep track of all of my movies on my "must see" list.

Fortunately, the Internet abhors a vacuum. I guess it would be better said that Plexus Entertainment abhors a vacuum. They have gone and created a web site where you can keep track of all of the movies that you want to see. The website is gowatchit.com. The real beauty of the site is that tracks your "must see movies" across all of the major distribution channels and notifies you when it becomes available on each. When your movie is in the theaters you'll get an email. Ditto when your movie is released on DVD or Blu-Ray or streaming or online. As your movie launches on each new distribution channel, you get notified.

I was reading the review in today's Wall Street Journal about an extraordinary film called "A Separation". It's an Iranian film that I knew I wanted to see after reading the review and I was bummed that I no longer had my Netflix tracking capability except for Netflix "streaming only". Then I remembered that I had just signed up with gowatchit.com yesterday. I went there, found the film and clicked off every distribution notification I could. What great software. Elegant, easy and you can track down virtually every movie ever made.

The site is in beta right now, but it is as polished and finished as they come. The service is free...no strings attached. You can get a private account that just communicates with you by email. If you're a fan of social media and sharing, there's a Facebook version that lets you share your queue with friends. That lets you see what movies are on each of your friends' lists and hook up to see them together if you choose (my son Patrick and his friends often watch movies together over Xbox Live).

This is a fabulous web site that I think is going to become  a real force. Get in on the ground floor during the beta and enjoy what I will think be one of the web's great sites: gowatchit.com

Columbia Heat Elite II Fleece Jacket

When you spend as much time outdoors as I do  in winter, you are always concerned with having the right outerwear to go with the weather conditions. When it's hovering around 0º F, I always reach for my 700 fill-power down jacket. The down fill-power number translates to warmth...the higher the number the warmer the jacket (900 being the warmest). As the number increases, the weight of the jacket decreases as there is more air in the jacket, but bulk actually increases. When you get a really warm down jacket, you end up looking like the Stay Puft marshmallow monster from Ghostbusters.

When the air temp is around 40º F, I grab my fleece jacket. It's just enough to keep out the weather. If it gets an colder than that, the fleece doesn't work so well. It's neither windproof nor water repellent and I end up suffering as a result.

I was looking for a new jacket this fall...to keep me protected in that 0º to 40º range. I do like fleece...not too bulky, not too heavy...but it had to be warmer and water repellent. Enter the new Columbia Heat Elite Fleece jacket. It's a combination nylon-fleece jacket that really fit the bill. The nylon portion uses Omni-Shield®, which actually repels water. But the best part is that the jacket is lined with Columbia's latest technological innovation, Omni-Heat®.

Omni-Heat is a metallic looking, polyester reflective lining. It helps regulate your temperature by reflecting and retaining warmth, while small dots in the lining dissipate moisture and excess heat to keep you comfortable. It has the highest heat retention factor of any synthetic insulation, which puts it right next to down for warmth. In addition to making the jacket incredibly warm, Omni-Heat also makes the jacket 100% windproof.

It's a really well designed jacket. It's got an external zipper pocket on the breast...just the perfect size for my iPhone. There are two huge pockets on the outside with zippers that run from the top of the chest to the waist. There is one small, zippered security pocket inside. The elbows are 2-way stretch and articulated for freedom of movement. A hem drawcord at the waist keeps out cold air. And there are two huge zippered openings under each armpit that can be used to modulate heat.

I'm really happy with jacket. It is incredibly warm and achieves that warmth without a lot of bulk. The jacket is pricey at it's MSRP of $180. However, I did a lot of comparison shopping online and found it on sale at backcountry.com for $123. Since I bought it, I've seen it as low as $119 on a few sites. If you are in the market for a nice looking jacket with a lot of warmth and functionality, I strongly recommend this jacket. You can check it out here: http://www.columbia.com/Men%E2%80%99s-Heat-Elite%E2%84%A2-II-Jacket/WM6692,default,pd.html