My mom’s encouraging me to drink. At least, that’s the message I got when she sent my household a recent gift: a Margaritaville DM1000 Frozen Concoction Maker, otherwise known in some circles as a blender. But this is no ordinary blender.

According to the makers, this device “takes the guesswork out of frozen beverages.” To be honest, I can make a smoothie with the best of them. You add a banana, some fresh or frozen berries, some orange juice, some apple juice, a bunch of ice cubes, and you have it. (Yes, you probably shake in all kinds of healthy additives and energy boosters too, but I’m a simple country girl.)

When it comes to alcoholic beverages, I’m like the bartender who graduated last in his class. People notice my cocktails too much. And a cocktail isn’t meant to be noticed. It’s to be enjoyed, sipped, lingered over, slurped up to the last drop, but not noticed. When I’m making cocktails, my friends’ lips pucker and their eyeballs pop out.

My margaritas always end up tasting like the worm from the bottle got in there too. My daiquiris are watery. Why, oh, why can’t they taste like the ones you get at those happy hour places?

Now, that’s going to change. Because this machine will do almost all of it for me. It’ll actually shave the ice in the right proportions, then blend the ingredients consistently. Now, if it only had hands so those glasses could be perfectly salted…

Just caught this one in the PriceGrabber newsletter: The Eye-Fi Explore. (Of course, it’s also made appearances on several network morning news shows and in every major technology publication since its launch at the beginning of the year, but I missed all of that.) What a great idea. This little card does “geotagging” and wireless uploads.

Here’s how the Eye-Fi works. You activate the Eye-Fi card and plug it into your SD-compatible digital camera. When your camera is on, the photos will instantly transfer to your computer when you’re in range of your wireless network. And they can be automatically uploaded to the photo sharing or social networking site of your choice via your home wireless connection or from one of 10,000 wi-fi hotspots around the United States. The card also automatically geo-tags your photos, which means it identifies them by location. The storage capacity is two gigabytes.

How often have you taken some great shots, only to let them gather dust on a memory card stashed in your camera bag? If you’re a blogger or you just like to share the pictures of your latest trip (at least the domestic travel), this little tool and its related services might well be worth the investment.

Another CD mini system has bitten the dust. Finding replacements is getting harder.

There’s always the possibility of eliminating the CD player altogether and just running music through the iPod hooked to speakers, of course; but that requires loading the music first, and sometimes do you really want to bother?

Yet current bookshelf systems seem to come in one of two flavors: ultra pumped up to appeal to 13-year-old boys…

 …and retro to appeal to your maiden aunt…

Then there’s Denon. Started in the early part of the last century by a group of Japanese engineers, this company has a system that — while not the cheapest model on the lot — seems to offer a lot. The Denon D-M33S includes a CD player (that can hold a single CD) but also plays from other sources, including MP3 and WMA sound files. Components include a tuner with 40 station presets, two speakers with 22 watts per channel, subwoofer and remote.

The back side of the receiver has enough ports to fascinate a true audiophile…

…but reviewer ferg62 likes the “listening experience.” “The speakers are topnotch as well,” ferg writes. “Even at low or high volume the sound so clear with no distortion…” The radio is classified as “good, not great.” And the antenna is “useless.” But, concludes ferg, “Hands down this is the best one out there for around $500.” That Diana Krall never sounded so good.

Took my first camping trip of the summer, and I have to say, it astonishes me to discover how presumably respectable and mature adults will spend their time in the great outdoors. That’s right. I’m talking about war. As in water war. As in fought with the gnarliest water gun you can get your hands on. I mean, some of these weapons surely came out of ultra-secret Department of Defense labs, intended to reduce their victims to quivering masses of Michelob Light-seeking deserters, ready to turn on teammates with merely a whisper of the words, “Ha! Gotchya!!”

Take the Waterball 100 Water Gun. Thirteen bucks will buy you a launcher built to shoot 40 balls of water a minute from a range of six to 20 feet. As the seller proclaims, “With that kind of firepower, there’s little chance anyone within the range of these pool toys will stay dry!” Or, I might add, that you’ll ever be invited back to that particular pool party.

Here’s the Double Barrel Water Gun, that, because it can shoot up to 50 feet, is “perfect for a sneak attack.”

Finally, I present the Stream Machine Water Gun. This one is two feet long, holds up to 16 ounces of water and fires up to 70 feet. Plus, it’s easy to reload. Just put the barrel into water and pull back.

All I can say is, a person’s gotta do what a person’s gotta do. Ha! Gotchya!!

Apparently, there’s been a wave of buying activity for hands-free headsets in California to ensure that we can continue talking while driving but without facing the wrath of the California Highway Patrol.

Recently, I wrote about the Aliph Jawbone, but I realized that not everybody has a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. An article in the Sacramento Bee listed a favorite, inexpensive headset for people who need it to be wired, as recommended by Elliot Darvick, the editor of MyRide.com. He likes the Jabra C250.

This one sells for under $15 from a number of vendors and sits behind the ear. It includes a microphone boom to optimize voice pick-up.

Reviewer bluepigs26 from CA reports that the headset is designed in such a way that it “doesn’t fall out easily at all, which is a problem I had with some other hands-free headsets.” That said, after a couple of hours, bluepigs’ ear begin to feel a bit uncomfortable.

A slew of reviewers love the sound quality, both for listening and speaking. kkelli2u does report having a bit of a problem with the cord hanging up on doorknobs and drawer pulls, but that’s because kk is using it primarily in an office environment. (That said, watch that stick shift when you get out of your car!) Also, kihiu says that there’s no mute or volume control on the unit, but considers this  a “great headset for a reasonable price.” Several people report buying replacements for it when it wore out and was lost, because they loved it so much.

So there you have it. A great, cheap headset that won’t put you on the side of the road when your kid calls from the nurse’s office or your spouse needs you to pick up a carton of something on the way home from work.