Get it Together, Girl
Editor-In-Chief Leslie Ayers

You might be surprised to hear that I don’t have as much time in a typical workweek to play around with nearly as many Apple-friendly gadgets as I’d like to. In fact, if there’s any theme unifying the gifts I plan to give and hope to get this year, it’s a theme of getting more done in less time and getting and staying organized at home, so I can do everything I want to do Monday through Friday—and have more time on the weekends to enjoy life that much more.

Leslie's gifts for giving...

Touch it all you want

For my friends and family members who ogle my iPhone 3G when I reach for it to tap out an email message or squeeze in a quick game, I’m wrapping up an iPod touch ($229 and up, www.apple.com) for each. It can’t dial out, but they’ve got cell phones already—and the touch doesn’t come with any of AT&T’s strings or monthly bills attached.

 

I always say Lew has selective hearing when I’m talking—so why am I encouraging this behavior by gifting him the Sennheiser PXC350 ‘phones? Why ask why?

My husband, Lew, is getting a sweet set of noise-canceling earmuff-style headphones from Sennheiser. He can take the PXC 350 ’phones ($299.95, www.sennheiserusa.com) with him on his next flight, to block out the sounds he doesn’t want to hear and listen to the ones he does, in luscious hi-fi. These cans work just as beautifully plugged into our Mac, his iPod nano, or our home stereo, so he can blast the Stones or Stevie Ray Vaughan as loud as he wants after dinner without me nagging him to “turn it down—the baby’s sleeping!”

 

Leslie's gifts for getting...

Even though I already know an iMac ($1,199 and up, www.apple.com) isn’t going to fit into our household budget for 2008—maybe we should have foregone that family vacation to Maui?—I’m still putting one on my wish list, with a caveat for Santa that it doesn’t have to be brand-spanking-new. There are plenty of refurbished iMacs available online from the Apple Store (store.apple
.com), with prices generally starting around $999. Even if I can’t persuade Santa’s elves to build one for me this holiday season, my birthday’s in February, so hopefully I don’t have to wait too long—and when Feb. 8 rolls around and I see that iMac, new or refurbished, next to my birthday cake (though not too close; it’ll be a fire hazard), the first thing I’ll do after making a wish and trying to blow all those candles out at once is head over to Other World Computing (macsales.com) to buy more RAM for my new baby ($21.95 and up for SO-DIMM modules).

 

In 2009, Leslie resolves to...

Mother’s little helper.

Stop making excuses and clean out my closets. Simplify and organize. I’ll start by loading Home Inventory ($22, binaryformations.com) onto my iMac. (Lew, are you reading this? The iMac will do more than just look awesome in our home office!) I’m also going to sock away a few bucks each week, after I blow my holiday shopping budget in early December, to buy the IntelliScanner Mini ($299, intelliscanner.com), a handheld bar-code scanner that comes with software for managing my junk, ahem, assets—from wine to books to shoes. And I’ll take a cue from Susie and load Bento 2 ($99, www.filemaker.com) on the iMac too, so I can stay on top of our family’s belongings, contacts, grocery lists, vacation plans, and other details.