5:30 p.m.: LET THE FUN BEGIN

Once the workday comes to an end, the fun starts in earnest - especially when it comes to good times with your Mac.

26. Find a place to eat.

Life can be so random. Iconfactory acknowledges this fact with Dine-O-Matic (free), a widget that lets you click to spin through a list of choices when you can't decide where to eat.

Spend a few minutes adding your favorite

restaurant names to Dine-O-Matic,

and then click the plate.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

27. Keep track of your recipes.

If you don't want to eat out, your Mac can't cook you dinner. But it can help you keep track of your go-to recipes. MacGourmet ($24.95) lets you link recipes that pair nicely, such as a seafood souffle and a fudge-brownie dessert. To keep your MacBook from getting covered in butter and flour, print your recipes on paper cards to keep in the kitchen.

The sample recipes are worth the price of admission.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

28. Watch TV on your Mac.

Not that you need another excuse to watch TV, but we've got one. Sony's savvy LocationFree device hooks into your cable or satellite signal and transmits the video feed to your Mac over a wired or wireless home network. You can tap into your favorite shows - live or recorded - using software called the LocationFree Player Pak ($39.95). Before you dive in with RCA cables waving, consider this caveat: Your home broadband connection must support fast upload speeds of around 500Kbps or more. Call your provider to find out what speed you're using, or perform a quick self-test (click the Uploadlink).

Sony's LocationFree system links your home TV signal to the Internet, with a Mac software client.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

29. Take your iPod for a swim.

If you're a deep-sea diver or professional shark wrestler, you should probably leave your iPod at home. The rest of us can use the Otterbox iPod Nano case ($39.95), which makes our favorite gadget waterproof - at least for casual swims up to 3 feet underwater. (Go deeper and you might experience some seepage.) SwimMan Waterproof Headphones ($100) complete the package. (Or you can opt for a 2G iPod shuffle that's been waterproofed by SwimMan for $250, including headphones.)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

30. Pretend your Mac is a Nintendo Wii.

So addicted to your Wii that you want to play all the time? Make your Mac and Wii "talk" with DarwiinRemote (free), a utility that allows you to replace your mouse with the Wii remote control. Proceed with caution: The software author admits that it is "unstable" and "experimental." But we just couldn't resist.

More...