i know that i was your favorite

Every year, Oprah Winfrey says a few things are her favorite things, and all those things become enormously popular. But, let's say you can't buy a Kindle or a ton of electronics and you don't like Oprah's taste anyway. Well, maybe this post will appeal to you, because it features some of my current favorite things. I'm not giving any of them away, like Oprah, but I am giving you my knowledge about these tremendous products, and I think that should be enough. However, should any of the makers of these fine products want to contact me, I think that would be good.

First off, do you ever wear slip-on shoes, the kind that don't allow you to wear socks without looking unfashionable? But you don't want your shoes to get all smelly, the way they sometimes do when you go around wearing shoes with no socks? Then you will absolutely love the first product I am about to recommend. These are little shoe liners made by the fine folks at Wal-Mart. Egads! you may be thinking if you are a raging liberal. How tacky to recommend something made by Wal-Mart. And yet, I tell you, these are the best sock liners I have found. They stay in place, and they are not made out of the same material that pantyhose is made out of. I really really hate pantyhose, and I don't want sock liners made out of it. And anyways, this my favorite things list. If you don't want to buy from Wal-Mart, then make your own favorite things list.

Here are my feet. Sorry for the veins. On the left, you can see a sock liner, but on the right, you see how it's completely invisible once I slip my foot into the shoe. MAGIC. Sweet, non-odorous magic.

And here is another view of my sock-lined foot. I find myself doing laundry just to have clean foot liners.

Now, my next thing has to do with my recent adventures in the kitchen. Suddenly, I have a lot more dishes, and I find that my dishwasher can't cut it when there is actually real food on the plates to be scraped off. So now I have to do the dreaded pre-wash of dishes. For this task, I recommend Ultra Palmolive Oxy plus Odor Eliminator, because it really does eliminate odors!

And let's not forget that it's hot pink! Which, I will admit, is the whole reason that I picked this product over all others available to me in the detergent aisle. I mean, look how well it goes with my decor:

I know, it's like that detergent was made for my kitchen! If your kitchen also has lots of bright colors, then I think you should get this product.

Now, a product that you should get, no matter the color of your kitchen, is Delallo Dipping Spices. Here is how this works. It's a cannister filled with four delicious spice combinations. On this side, you are getting a peek of "Rosemary and Garlic" and "Roasted Garlic and Cheese."

And on this side, you see "Sundried Tomato and Basil" and "Garlic and Tomato":

So you select a spice combo that suits your fancy, and you put it in a bowl. Then you put olive oil on top, and get out some bread that you bought at a nearby store. Then you pretend that you are in a nice restaurant where they bring you bread and oil with spices, except you are really in your apartment watching Letterman. That's essentially how this product works, and I have to tell you, I think it's genius. All the flavor combinations are absolutely delicious, though it looks like I've consumed the most of the Sundried Tomato and Basil section, so perhaps that is my favorite. Now, I'm not saying that it's a good thing for my waistline and overall health that I come home in the evenings craving olive oil and bread, but for now, I'm going with it.

And now, in a very un-Oprah like move, I'd like to tell you my three least favorite things right now:

--people who don't use blinkers when they're switching lanes, as well as people who leave their blinkers on despite the fact that they have no plans to change lanes.

--people who spit on sidewalks where people have to walk, leaving giant gobs of spit in their wake

--tornadoes and rain storms that create massive traffic and power problems, in combination with local media that doesn't mention these problems, so that you get horrible surprise detours on your commute home.