New Toy Review: Baby biOrb

In one of my first posts to this site, I mentioned my new fish tank, the Baby biOrb. I thought now that I've had it for a while, I'd post a review. I have mentioned a lot of my new toys and hope to be able to review them all--because I have definitly got some opinions!

I'm a little disapointed with the biOrb. I had this vision of fish swimming in a cool little orb, free of confining corners. I pictured something interesting and fun for my dining room.

What I failed to consider was the way the curve of the bowl would affect the ability to see the fish. More often than not, the fish is hidden behind the tricks of the light (much to the puzzlement of my kitten, Dempsey).

Further, the size and shape of the biOrb make it difficult to insert a heater without losing the whole effect, and without a heater most fish are out of the question.

And one final complaint (one which is no fault of the biOrb makers), is that mine seems to grow a lot of green algea. So much so in fact, that at our recent housewarming party, one guest commented on the "cool green ball" in my dining room.

Overall, I have learned a lot about fish and aquariums from the biOrb, so it has not been a complete waste. But, I could have had the same lesson for a lot less money had I just bought an old aquarium off of craigslist (my husband was right).

I give the Baby Biorb 3 out of 5 stars

New Gadgets: IRoast2 and TomTom GO 720

Exciting news this weekend...we've added new gadgets to our collection! Anyone who knows me and E knows we love to tinker with new gadgets. We're very excited about our new toys so I thought I'd share.

After last week's fiasco in San Diego, I decided I needed my very own GPS system that I could take on the road, because apparently you can't rely on Hertz to have one available (even if you reserve in advance). After hours of research, I decided on the TomTom GO 720. It has a lot of really cool features, including the ability to make edits to the map if you find errors and then upload them to a community of other users, live traffic and weather updates using your cell phone's data plan, and a variety of voices. I haven't had a chance to test it fully yet, but I did run errands yesterday and enjoyed it very much!

E's new gadget is the IRoast2. After months of trying to roast our own coffee beans in the garage, E finally broke down and bought a real coffee roaster. For those of you not in the know, coffee beans actually start losing their freshness from the time they are roasted, and they will last for a very long time in their green, unroasted state. So roasting them at home gets you the freshest beans available. I'm pretty sure that most coffee shops (and definitly Starbucks) all use pre-roasted beans. Previously we were using a jury rigged device made mostly from an old popcorn maker. E blew up several popcorn makers before finally deciding to buy the IRoast.

We haven't roasted coffee yet with it because FedEx didin't deliver it till 10:30 last night, but it is also loaded with cool features.

Maybe I'll post reviews when we've fully had a chance to play with both toys.