Handwarmers 3

This is my third post about these things...kind of an obsession I guess.

See first post here.

See 2nd post here.

Yesterday, I received an envelope from Hong Kong, containing some of the new mini aluminum hand warmers. To express it mildly, I'm impressed. They come packaged like this:

 Inside is the warmer, a little faux fur bag, and a little cup for measuring out the proper amount of lighter fluid:

 These things are tiny:

 The construction is very similar to the Zippo and the other knock-offs, and bonus, the burner fits the bigger models too.

But here's the kicker: with less than an ounce of fuel, my first "test" burned for almost 15 hours. That's less than 25 cents worth of fluid for 15 hours of heat. The aluminum is too hot to the touch so it's necessary to keep it in the bag. Four of these can be acquired for the price of just one of the Zippo units. A better alternative than those hideous disposable things. The lighter fluid is readily available, $4.49 at Princess auto for 12oz:

Quick Dessert, saw it on Facebook

Saw this on a friend's Facebook page today...had to come home and try it out...

Start with a bunch of frozen berries in a 9x13 pan

Cover with a (dry) white cake mix

Carefully pour a can of lemon lime, sprite etc on top.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350F

and it's almost gone...

Except for a few powdery spots where the cake mix didn't dissolve, it turned out great !! 

Hand Warmers Revisited...

A couple of years ago, I had something to say about my appreciation for those old traditional hand warmers, the ones that burn lighter fluid. I have a couple of the ZIPPO ones ($28 at MEC), as well as some knock-offs from Ebay. Frankly, the knock-offs are just as good, and can be had for about 1/4 of the price. Recently, I discovered new mini aluminium versions available on Ebay and of course they are on their way to me as I type. I'll test them and report as soon as I can. Meanwhile see a review HERE. They cost me $7.50 each with free shipping (from Hong Kong). Bring on the biting cold...

They are considerably smaller than the other models. It'll be interesting to see how effective they are.
Incidentally, these take the same burner as the Zippo. Assuming the burner is ok, and considering MEC wants $10 for a replacement burner, it's kind of hard to lose (famous last words)...

Old Netbook, New Life...

Almost 4  years ago, I picked up a new Netbook, the original Acer Aspire One. The small 3-cell battery was adequate, but after the first couple of years, its life began to dwindle. Lately, with diminished usage, it wouldn't take or hold a charge at all. As usual, Ebay to the rescue. For about $25 I picked up a 9-cell beast that triples the original battery life. It's a bit bulky and raises the back of the Netbook up a little, but all well worth it. It gives over 8 hours of juice  :)

Additionally, and as you might expect, a machine this old is also a bit slow. To compensate as best I could, I installed Lubuntu, a lightweight Ubuntu Linux OS. I think I'm getting my $249 worth out of this machine.

A nice clean interface easy on the limited resources...