Yeti Coolers Rambler Colster - 5 stars

September 13, 2015 by Omar Shahine in newsletter

Do you like beer? Do you drink it out of a can? Do you like beer to stay cold when you drink it? Do you have $30 bucks to spare? Read on.

On our annual trip to REI to purchase unecessary items for our car camping trip, I spotted the Yeti Rambler Colster. It’s a Koozie for a beer. If you live somewhere with lots of bumper stickers you’ve probably seen one of these things. The Koozie was actually invented in Texas in 1980. I didn’t actually know that before looking at Wikipedia, but I had suspected Texas is a popular Koozie state. And interestingly enough the Australians (Reuben and Angus) call them "stubby holder”. I don’t know, but that seems kind of offensive.

It’s a sweater for your can of beer. The theory is that you are keeping it colder.

Usually they have clever sayings like this one

Well we all know that a Vacum sealed stainless steel solution will work better than a sleeve. This is why we drink coffee out of vacuum selaed mugs and water out of vacuum sealed bottles.

Beer is no different. It’s meant to be enjoyed at 40 degrees! Keep it that way please!

Enter the Yeti Cambler Colster. Perhaps the most expensive beer Koozie.

I would shower you with my scientific testing (yes the beer stayed cold for the duration of my consumption both indoors and outdoors) but Gizmodo has done all the heavy lifting in this review.

Need I say more?

They even have a nice decision tree to help you out

You can pick one up at REI for $29.99 or Amazon for a bit more since it appears there is a lot of demand.

★★★★★ Exceptional. A spectacular product.

Patagonia Lightweight Travel Tote - 5 stars

September 06, 2015 by Omar Shahine in newsletter

One of my rituals in visiting the island of Oahu is to make a trip out to the North Shore beach town of Hale’iwa. For a long time this was the home of the only Patagonia store on any of the Hawaiin Islands. If you buy Patagonia stuff, it’s worth the visit. Also if you have never visited the North Shore, well, you should. It’s a charming part of the island and home of a number of amazing surf beaches, green sea turtles and monk seals (endangered).

Here is a monk seal that stayed at our resort for 2 days:

There are some unique products that the Patagonia Hale’iwa store carries, such as Surf boards, fly fishing rods, Pataloha shirts (all out of stock when I visited). On this trip I discovered an incredible beach bag, the Lightweight Travel Tote. It’s the perfect travel bag, beach bag, airplane bag or just grocery bag. My wife liked it so much we ended up getting her one as well.

This bag has so many nice features

It is a backpack
It is a tote
It has an inside pocket for keys
It has an outside pocket for your phone and other small items
It has two water bottle holders
It has two straps to stabilize the backpack
It’s nicely padded

backpack:

tote:

and best of all…. It zips up into a tiny little pouch for packing:

There are really few products that are this versatile and useful. I highly recommend you get one for your next vacation.

You can pick this gem up from Patagonia for $79 in 4 colors.

★★★★★ Exceptional. A spectacular product.

Chamberlain myQ Smart Garage Door Opener - 5 stars

August 16, 2015 by Omar Shahine in newsletter, home

Chances are, you have a garage door opener. Chances are it’s made by Chamberlain or Liftmaster (same company). Well if you want to catapult your garage door into the future of phone automated wonder, read on. This past week I have entered the marvelous world of simple phone based home automation with the purchase of a Wink (more on that in a future article) and the Amazon Echo (Alexa - turn on the Kitchen Lights). Wink plus Echo is an incredible, in-expensive, way to connect all the mish mash of different home automation technologies (locks, lights, sprinklers, garage door, motion sensors, security, thermostat and so on). One product that Wink integrates with is the Chamberlain myQ system for controlling a garage door. This immediately set off a pavlovian response to acquire this device.

For reference, there are three different ways to gain home automation of your garage for the purposes of:

Opening the garage door
Closing the garage door
Checking status of the garage door
Setting alerts on open/close

The first way is the most expensive. Get a new Garage Door Opener. I did not pursue this since there is no reason to.

The second way, is to get the Chamberlain MYQ Garage Door Controller. This device basically works with any garage door opener but is less preferred to the next option. The reason being is that it’s harder to install, and is not really as integrated.

The third way, which is the approach I took, was to replace the existing wall control unit for my current Liftmaster Garage Door Opener with the Chamberlain myQ Connectivity Kit. That thing on the right there basically replaces the button thingy you use today to open and close your garage door. The thing on the left is the thing that connects the thing on the right to the internet, which allows for your phone to open and close the door (with an app).

This solution has the added benefit that:

It’s the cheapest of all options
It’s the same benefit of getting a new garage door opener
It’s hard wired to my garage
It has the new Security 2.0 wireless standard which means that I can get remotes with much better range than my old ones (another side benefit of this upgrade). I can now open the door from my car (via HomeLink) from down the street. Before I would have real challenges on occasion due to wireless interference and poor range.

Install took me 5 min. I removed the old control panel, wires, connected to the new one and attached to the wall. Then I downloaded the app, created an account and connected the ethernet dongle to my network. Voila.

Now I have smart garage door with a lot of upgraded capabilities.

★★★★★ Exceptional. A spectacular product.

Griot’s Garage Car Care Products - 5 stars

August 02, 2015 by Omar Shahine in newsletter

If there is one difference between California and Washington it’s the sheer lack of nice places to get your car washed. Also, if you own a black car, you’ve hopefully figured out that the surest way to surprise yourself is to take it to a car wash (especially non-touchless) as you’ll drive out with paint swirls. A few years ago, I took to the internet and discovered an incredible (and local to Washington) company - Griot’s Garage - that makes some of the best car washing / caring products I’ve used. It’s the same product that Park Place Auto Salon uses (and they sell all their stuff). If you live on the East Side (or work there), Park Place is the best car wash.

In my experience with their products, I will say they are top notch. The micro-fiber towels, each custom designed for a specific purpose, are excellent at what they do. They are easily washable and will last years. The reviews on Amazon for all of these products back up my claims.

The way to get into Griot’s garage products is first to recognize that you don’t need to wash your car with water. You can do it in your own garage, and all year round.

Griot's Garage 11285 Spray-On Car Wash Kit

Griot’s spray on kit is a waterless cleaning system. You basically soak parts of your car with this high volume bottle sprayer and then you wipe with the plush green micro fiber. Then after a minute you buff with the micro fiber. It takes 10-15 min to wash a car depending on how dirty it is. If you have kids, you can shave off some time!

The key with this kit is being very generous with your spray and working in small sections out of the sun. I've purchased an extra set of towels since they do get pretty wet and soaked.

Griot's Garage 11262 Interior Kit

For the inside of your car, the interior kit is great. Doesn’t smell bad and won’t ruin any synthetic or leather products.

Griot's Garage 11345 Speed Shine Quick Detailing Kit

The speed shine kit is a bit different than the wash. This is meant as a quick “wax” application to use after your have washed a car (either in an auto wash) or due to some dust and dirt that’s accumulated. Much faster than the Spray-On wash it’s even great to use after a wash. Your car will look detailed.

Griot's Garage 11224 Wheel Cleaning Kit

For cleaning your wheels, this stuff makes brake dust melt.

Griot's Garage 67255CSTBUC Ultimate Car Wash Bucket

However, now that it’s summer in Seattle, I’ve been enlisting my kid in washing the cars which they seem to enjoy. For this reason I got the Griot’s car was bucket. It is very fast and easy to wash your car the traditional way with about 4 gallons of water (between bucked and rinsing).

The Ultimate Car Was Bucket is really well designed. It has a tray on the bottom to keep the dirt under the wash towels and a special designed measuring system that makes it easy to dole out car was soap. Finally it has an upper shelf that’s good for a wheel brush or cloth. Also it has wheels and a big handle that make movement around the car easy.

Griot's Garage 11102 Car Wash

This stuff is amazing. If you use the Micro Fiber wash mit and drying cloth you will have a spotless shine. Simply pour into the small little reservoir in the bucked and fill with a hose.

Griot's Garage 10268 Micro Fiber Wash Mitt - Set of 2

I have the pads (Amazon doesn’t seem to carry them) but the mitts are the same concept. These are super plush, super absorbent and required to get clean / and shine without spots. No swirl marks.

Griot's Garage 11117 Micro Fiber Drying Towel

For drying your car, nothing beats having a huge absorbent towel. This towel is amazing. it has 4 hand pockets that let you cover a lot of the car in a short amount of time. I have 2 of these and I keep 1 in the car at all times in case I do go to a touch-less car wash.

Griot’s makes a TON of other products too which you can explore. For example, bug removal spray, glass cleaner (I just use micro fiber and water). The stuff above will go a long way to improving your car look.

★★★★★ Exceptional. A spectacular product.