More Holiday Gift Ideas

As promised in my Ramblin' column in today's Gazette, here are more suggestions for holiday gifts.

At Mid America Hobbies north of North Liberty and online here you can find a wonderful array of gift ideas. I loved playing with Real Flight R/C Flight Simulator ($179.99) that hooks up to your computer and provides you with a real remote control device to practice your remote control flying skills. You can chose from dozens of airplanes and it doesn't matter if you crack up. In a matter of seconds the plane is whole again, sitting on the runway ready for another flight.

Owner Bill Kiesel took a chance five years ago to open a hobby shop in North Liberty in a 700-square-foot storefront. It has gone better than expected, expanding to 1,400 square feet, 2,800, 5,400 and now 8,000 square feet in a great hobby building with a 32-foot high ceiling. It's the perfect place to fly the new battery operated lightweight airplanes and helicopters that are all the rage. At one time 10 planes and a helicopter were flying at once, causing the grown men at the controls to shriek at the excitment like little kids.

That's what Christmas gifts are all about isn't it? The excitment of anticipation.

Ah, yes, as I mentioned in today's column, this is the 25th anniversary of "A Christmas Story," the movie that gave us the line "You'll shoot your eye out!" for little Ralphie who constantly dreamed about getting a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. While you can buy one of those BB guns at Sheels for $24.99, you can also buy "A Christmas Story" Monopoly game there for $29.99.

As I searched through newspaper flyers and mail order catalogs for ideas to include in this year's column, I was amazed at all of the electronic gizmos you can buy for $100 or less including tiny digital camcorders, diital picture frames, portable DVD players and even a 10-inch LCD TV if you shopped at the right time.

Some other interesting gift ideas:

• A remote-control tarantula at Target (on sale for $15) that's 6 inches long and an inch high with light-up eyes and furry body that can make your skin crawl as it crawls over flat surfaces.
• A Sharper Image entertainment projector (regularly $300 but as low as $99.97 during a doorbuster sale at Younkers) that appears to be a great substitute for a big screen TV. The information says it connects to your DVD player or gaming consoles to project a large image on a wall.
• A radio-controlled tank with spy camera (advertised for $79.83 at Sam's Club) allows kids to sneak up on each other (or on adults) to see and listen to what's going on.
• One of those new little laptop computers -- this an 8.9-inch Acer Mini Netbook -- could be purchased for $350, also at Sam's Club. While lacking the features of regular laptops, it allows you to surf the Web and store pictures.
• The "beyond" at Bed Bath & Beyond includes some really cool gizmos that can transfer slides and film negatives to your computer ($99.99), let you take digital photos in your wallet ($14.99) and ultrasonic jewelry cleaner ($49.99) that also cleans DVDs, CDs, games disks, watches and eyeglasses.
• If you fly, you've no doubt picked up a copy of Skymall (www.SkyMall.com) and perused its unusual gift ideas from a variety of vendors. It's a great place to dream.
• But, one of my favorite catalogs is Think Geek (www.thinkgeek.com) for it's strange and innovative ideas. In the latest catalog I've seen, it has a remote controlled car that climbs walls ($29.99), a multitude of animated toys that plug into the USB port of your computer and come crazy T-shirts including one with a real speaker on the front ($39.99) to play background music and another that lights when it detects a WI-Fi signal, growing brighter as the signal grows stronger.

  If you've found other interesting, unusual gifts you'd like to give or receive, let me know. Others might be interested, too.