Wind Up

Ok, so apparently the economy isn't rebounding after all, the rise in house prices is only temporary, Glen Beck is set to develop a "plan" for the country and meanwhile, here in Providence, my neighbors still haven't figured out that they need to recycle to get the city to take their (three-week old!) trash.  
I'm escaping from it all with early Christmas shopping at RISDWorks, sinceI get a lot of gift-exchanging over with at Thanksgiving, when I see family members who aren't around in December. There's a ton of cute stuff there, including these, which are a quirky steal at $14.  There are tons of different designs, doing different things (not sure why they don't show more on the web site), with the cogs and wheels all visible. They'll be doing double duty as toys for my mechanically minded nephews, as well as concentration stealers for friends who spend the day at a desk. I might get one for myself, come to think of it, because they make me laugh. That's something to feel grateful for in Thanksgiving 2009.