What do we like this week? How about a cold beer or two and low prices on gas ... just for starters.
Shirt.Woot.com -- I realize this is the second week in a row that I'm accessing my browser history to bestow my recommendation, but Shirt.Woot is definitely worth a mention. The site offers a new t-shirt every day for only $10. Not only are the shirts almost always emblazoned with some kind of entertaining graphic, every once in awhile they're worth buying. The $10 price tag is good for that day only (it usually jumps to $15 or $20 afterward) and shipping is free, if you don't mind the wait. If you're the impatient type, you're better off springing for the $5 overnight shipping. Either way, the t-shirts are good quality and the sassy designs are always good as a day-brightener. -- Renee Lorenz
Hinterland Winterland -- I ordered this beer at the suggestion of bartender Kenny Siebert at Blackbird Bar in Bay View a few weeks back and it's been my go-to winter brew ever since. This handsomely packaged dark porter packs a lot of flavor into its pint-sized bottle. Coffee and chocolate are a couple of the pronounced tastes, along with the distinct flavor of juniper berries that linger longer than grocery store holiday music. -- Bob Purvis
La Playa Lager from Trader Joe's -- This summer I grabbed a sixer of La Playa -- which is Spanish for "the beach" -- to throw in the cooler when I was on my way to go camping. It became one of my favorite camping beers because it's light and watery -- with a hint of grain and sweetness -- making it perfect for day drinking, something that tends to happen when I travel via my VW Vanagon into the deep woods. I realized, recently, that La Playa makes a decent winter swill, too. I'm not always up for a hoppy or nutty microbeer and simply want a refreshing beer-esque experience. It beats my usual Miller 64, and the price is quite drinkable as well: $2.99 for a six-pack of cans. -- Molly Snyder
Hanger Hampers -- A simple idea can help you recycle and also clean up your closet and laundry room. If yours are like ours, hangers are everywhere, getting tangled up in one another. The hanger is a fold-flat triangular hanger holder, with handles, that lets you pop your hangers in and out as storage. But you can also fill it with the wire hangers you get from your dry cleaner and periodically use it to bring them back for the dry cleaner to reuse, thus saving more hangers from going into landfills, where 3.5 billion wire hangers end up each year. It's an astonishingly simple idea that can help organize one small area of your life. They come in four different patterns and sell for about $10. -- Bobby Tanzilo
Chaheati All-Season Heated Chair -- The Chaheati is a brilliant idea, especially in climates like ours in which we fool-heartedly tailgate outside when we have no business sitting in the cold. A heated camping chair, the Chaheati features a rechargeable power unit that plugs into the foldable unit. Its settings range from 98 to 145 degrees, and one charge can last as long as six hours. It’s water resistant and heats up in less than a minute. The Chaheati is quite large and features a cup holder, yet folds into its compact carrying case. It’s a wonder someone didn’t think of this a long time ago. Suddenly, sitting outside in the dead of winter doesn’t seem so bad. The Chaheati, which comes in red/black or camo (of course) is $89.99 at chaheati.com. -- Andy Tarnoff
MilwaukeeGasPrices.com -- The best part about spending two years without a car easily was never having to worry about the price of gas. Sadly, for me, those days are over. When I am looking to fill the tank (which fortunately only happens once every week and half or so), I like to look for a good deal so I make a habit of checking MilwaukeeGasPrices.com when I know the tank is getting low. I won't drive miles out of the way to save a few cents (defeats the purpose, don't you think?), but I will check and see which stations nearest where I am -- or where I'm heading -- have the best prices. -- Andrew Wagner
