Isn’t it great to think about going back to work? Imagine it: Searching and searching until you find a really bad parking space, getting smashed in the elevator, wandering the maze to your cozy cubicle. It’s a good thing that your loved ones thought about the place you spend (waste?) the majority of your adult life and gave you some fun items for your desk. (And if they didn’t, go ahead and buy them for yourself.) Start at the big boy of all office toy sites, OfficePlayground.com. There is so much to pick from: to calm yourself, that familiar device where chrome steel balls suspended on strings bang against each other (with a new twist), or perhaps a mesmerizing slow-moving-liquid device, or the ever-popular tiny Zen garden. One of their popular items is the Slingshot Flying Monkey, which you can shoot through the air while it makes monkey sounds ($3.99). The always popular ThinkGeek site has a page of geek toys for your desk that are fiendishly fun. They have cubicle playsets (there are many pieces you can buy for these playsets), the 3-piece Cubicle Alarm System (a steal at $34.99) or the popular LED Jellyfish Mood Lamp. Here’s a blog called On My Desk that features pictures of the stuff on the desks of creative, artistic and designer types (like their stuff is more interesting than our stuff). Want to get in shape while sitting at your desk? Consider the Pedal Exerciser, which lets you ride a hidden, small stationary-cycle type device for $40. Surprise.com has fun stuff for every occasion, and there’s a category for office toys, too. If all you want is something funny to say to your buddies when you get to work, check out the list of “5 Best Things to Say When Caught Sleeping at Your Desk.”

Most of us know there are professional organizers: people who you pay to come and get rid of your clutter and organize your life. If you are a messy person, you may have wondered about the musings of such people. Perhaps you can glean some organizing insight from their words. You should, because they’ve designated January as “Get Organized” month. We’ve come across some blogs written by professional organizers. White Space is written by Cynthia Ivie, the owner of an organizing business. She started her business in ‘98 and now has 100s of clients and 7 professional organizers on staff, her website says. Her blog is nicely designed (of course) and offers thoughtful ideas on the advantages of time management and a simpler life. Jeri Dansky just began her career as a professional organizer, and on her blog she offers advice on an array of ways to store your Christmas ornaments, new and interesting staplers and 7 gentle alarm clocks. Living an Organized Life is a blog by professional Cyndi Seidler. Her blog has some interesting ideas, although at first glance it doesn’t give one a sense of her personal thoughts. This blog has some fun ideas in it, although you’d never guess it from the name: Professional Organizing - Custom Living Solutions. But author Joshua Zerkel has interesting tidbits about new products, chronically late people and references to other articles. Organized with Style is the name of both business and a blog. They offer whimsical posts, such as a suggestion to photograph all your Christmas decorations that you really liked this year, or to bring all your spare change to a Salvation Army kettle instead of your bank. An Organized Existence is written by Michelle Lynn Goodfellow, a organizing pro from Canada. Her site has a easy-going, casual feel to it, like this recent post about organizing piles of paper “and other stuff”. She has lots of wisdom under the category of “coaching” and answers the universal question we wonder about professional organizers: “Have you always been this way?” Her answer: “Yes. Eat your heart out.”

Oh, I remember. It was to tell you about ways to improve your memory - from little reminder devices to help you take your medicine on time to books and websites and devices that promise to improve your brain function. BIndependent is a website that offers a host of devices to remind you or a loved one to take medicine, from a pill-box timer with 37 daily alarms for $29.95 to the Med-Ready Plus, which is not just a pill-dispenser: It moniters dispensing times and can alert you and others on a secure website if a loved one hasn’t taken their medicine (it’s $227). They also have a variety of watches which sound alarms, vibrate or even display a message at the right time. APH Products has a motion sensor called MotionPAD ($34) which you attach to a wall, and, when you walk by it, you’ll hear a recording reminding you of something (or it can just chime). GrandInRoad has a personalized reminder pad that you can hang on doorknobs, so you can’t open the door without seeing it. From there, we move into an arena that is, well, not universally embraced: brain- and memory-enhancing pills or supplements, which are all over the web. For example, Mind-Power-RX promises to improve mental alertness and stamina for $30 a bottle. Let’s just say the FDA doesn’t approve of these things, and the medical journal Lancet said supplements do not enhance memory. So, buyer beware. We could go on and on. Slate.com had a writer experiment with all manner of brain-improvement techniques and things. They found CDs (like a selection of “Brain Enhancing” CDs - one reportedly uses white noise and random irritating sounds to increase your focus and attention), books (like The Memory Pack, which was written by a winner of the World Memory Championship, or The Einstein Factor) and even online options (such as My Brain Trainer or Brain Builder - both of which charge a fee). All of this is supposed to make you sharper mentally or just help you remember things. If you don’t think any of that will work, there’s the Mind Spa - which Slate.com also rated - that is supposed to put you in different brain states by way of unusual-looking glasses that flash lights and a headset to listen to an assorment of pulsing sounds - all of which costs upwards of $200. But can you really put a price on a better brain?

Sneakers have become so popular, so cool that they are status objects that pop up even at high brow and red-carpet events. We know they are worn by people in every walk of life because we’ve been to Groovyline, where brand new dress and casual sneakers by Prada and Gucci can be purchased at a substantial discount. Some are from past seasons, but there are plenty of shoes from the Winter 2008 collections. If you don’t mind wearing last winter’s Prada, check out the Men’s America’s Cup Brown Crocodile Patent High Top Sneakers ($199; list $439). Like all of Groovyline’s shoes they come with a sleeper bag, box, and authenticity card, so you know you aren’t getting cheap knock-offs. Also for men, there are Gucci Double Velcro Brown Monogram Sneakers ($149; list $369) Women can shimmer as they shimmy in Gucci Silver All Leather Shoes ($159; list $389), from the Fall/Winter 2008 colletion. And fresh for Winter ‘08 are women’s Prada Sport Linea Rossa Black Silver Velcro Sneakers ($149; list $369). But if all this calfskin and designer monograms and metallic flash isn’t your thing, check out the pages and pages of playful, colorful sneakers at Balance Lifestyles. For men, we like the Cesario Black White ($100) from Creative Recreation. They aim to incorporate “the comfort of an athletic sneaker with the materialization of a dress shoe to create the ultimate crossbreed.” For women, there’s the whimsical Cesario Khaki Skylight Fern ($105).

It’s that time of year. Rain, snow, hail and all kinds of gunk are blowing through your yard, and will be for the next few months. There’s nothing worse than discovering dirt and mildew when spring - the season for outdoor entertaining - returns. So be sure that your patio furniture is well protected from the elements with the right covers. They should be secure and watertight, durable but not an eyesore. At Koverroos, there are four types of material to select from—to go with your climate and budget–and a great selection of covers for every need. They’ll also create custom covers for nonstandard furniture and they’ll special order Sunbrella fabric for folks in sun-drenched climes. At Patio Experts, the large selection of covers includes those for chimeneyas, lawn mowers/snow blowers, bicycles, and outdoor heaters. The Cover Store manufactures CoverMates Classic and Elite grade products and sells them factory direct to you. Classic is more affordable, constructed from 12 gauge PVC and laminated with an inner polyester lining. Elite is a high grade, polyester material designed to make moisture bead up. These covers include built-in vents. Take care of your patio furniture now and find it all looking unblemished this spring.

Many couples become engaged over the holidays, and if you are part of one such happy pair, there are a wealth of online resources to help you plan your wedding. Getmarried.com, based on the “Get Married” series which airs on the cable channel Lifetime, offers wedding-planning tips and advice on honeymoon travel. It also has planning tools including a budget manager, seating manager and guest list. WeddingSolutions.com also has information on vendors, beauty salons, reception sites and many other wedding-related topics. It has a useful function where you can type in your zip code to learn more about bridal-related businesses in your area. The Knot is a classy site with many links to areas of interest to brides and grooms. Based on the magazine of the same name, the information about wedding attire here is particularly thorough. One Stop Wedding Planner aims to appeal to brides-to-be who are proud of their organizational skills. Their online tools will “enable you to keep track of every wedding detail,” the site claims, including party favors, hotels and catering menus. If your best friends are already helping you plan for your big day, have them look at Alfred Angelo’s web site. This is one of the most popular sites for outfitting bridesmaids (as well as brides, mothers, mothers-in-law and flower girls). There are 55 different color options for these dresses. With all of those online resources at your disposal, you’ll be miles ahead of brides of days gone by, who had to rely on heavy bridal magazines and a box full of index cards to keep track of all their plans.

You don’t have the mega-money to buy all those wonderful designer party dresses or high-end shoes? There’s still a way you can make a strong fashion statement: earrings. There are so many at so many price points, you can be the envy of your friends with an earring collection that defies predictability. Have them leaning in to take a closer look. Get them wondering which pair you’ll wear next. Most importantly, have fun! A versatile earring collection doesn’t take long to build, and Shopperati has plenty of ideas for getting started. You’ll need some silver or gold (or a little of both, depending on your other jewelry). In gold, we like Secret Heart Earrings by Ed Levin ($410). These reveal the shape of a heart when viewed from above, an X from the front, and an O from below. (Get it? XO means a kiss and a hug.) Less expensive because they are 24K gold plated are Riva Shifrin’s delicate Yemenite Circles drop earrings ($80). Stellar in sterling Pianegonda’s Dangling Circles Earrings from Neiman Marcus ($315). For more casual, less expensive but no-less-attractive ear ornaments we recommend oversized wooden Fleur de Lis Earrings from Mod Life ($4.99) or Recycled Leather Earrings from Wildflower ($37). The teardrop shaped leather is from Indonesia, where it is recycled, carved, and refined into these polished pieces. Speaking of recycled materials, check out the earrings made from old Typewriter Keys and Scrabble Tiles at Eco-Artware. And there are frosted glass hoops in great colors (think of beach glass), made from recycled bottles, at Biome ($10.95). Finally, when you’re ready to sparkle and glitter, try these triple play jeweled drop earrings from Ice.com (and they’re on sale for $47.50, down from $95.

The stockings are unstuffed, the wrapping paper picked up, the books and toys and sweaters are still on display all over the living room. And you, once again, blew it and failed to get a gift for someone important in your life. Don’t dispair. Yes, you’ll be a little late, but you can act quickly and get them something they can appreciate immediately. Consider an appropriate magazine subscription: Sign a loved one up for The New Yorker, say (at $47 a year), and the recipient will get an email card announcing the year-round bounty to come. You can even go the extra mile by grabbing a current copy off the newsstand and gift-wrapping that. Another brilliant subscription-type idea is Netflix, the online DVD-rental service that’s a godsend for film buffs who don’t live near a well-stocked video store. (Yearly plans range between $100-$200; shorter terms are available.) More specialized movie clubs, like Film Movement, send pre-selected movies to fans with a taste for alternative cinema (terms available from $35.95 to $131.95). There’s also the charity option — chances are good that any non-profit you favor has some sort of e-card gift promotion available, from targeted plans like this plant-a-tree service to umbrella sites like Redefining Christmas that aim to provide givers and recipients with a broad range of charitable options. You may have just salvaged Christmas with just a few mouseclicks (and a credit card number).