During this holiday season, we will feature our employees’ selections of the best gifts.

Nicole (Seattle Retail Store Warrior) recommends:
Toys for Tots. Or Childhaven. I have a friend who works for
Childhaven and they always need as much help as they can get, whether that be money donations, gift donations, or just an extra hand or two to
volunteer with some help!

Darcy (VP of Marketing):
Gift adoptions from Defenders of Wildlife or Pasado’s Safe Haven.
Two of my favorite animal organizations. When you give a gift adoption of a wolf, horse, cat, dog, whale, or bear, the recipient
will receive a beautiful color photo of the animal being sponsored along with their life story. Recipients of a gift adoption from Pasado’s Safe Haven will even receive an invitation to visit the animal you ‘adopt’ for them.

Tom (President/CEO):
Unicef. There are a number of ways you can give your friends or family a gift that also supports the work of Unicef — giving a gift donation, shopping in their holiday store, or even buying an album of Bjork remixes, the proceeds of which will be donated to Unicef.

Sunga (VP of Sales & Administration):
The Humane Society or Habitat for Humanity.

As a company, we have donated over $20,000 to the Seattle Vet Center, where they provide our homeless veterans with food, clothing, and support.

The Medium Cafe Bag is back in stock in every color with the exception of colors Cocoa/Steel and Cocoa/Wasabi, which will be available in February 2006. Colors in stock now are: Black/Steel, Black/Wasabi, Crimson/Steel, Plum/Steel, Plum/Wasabi, Steel/Deep Blue, and Steel/Crimson.

Splashproof. Shockproof. Made of semi-rigid plastic. Limited edition black opaque finish. The Jimi Stealth Wallet. $16.00.

The Jimi

Take a first look at the Aeronaut, our up-and-coming maximum carry-on bag, modeled Tom’s friend Greg Madill (of The Ecclestons.

See more pictures of the Aeronaut in our forums.

The Aeronaut features backpack straps that can be hidden, splash-proof zippers, and various genius compartments designed to make your life easier. We expect it to be available in early 2006.

Designed to protect your laptop against scrapes and scratches, the
Soft Cell
has an exterior made of durable 500 Denier Cordura and an interior of super-soft
brushed nylon. The Soft Cell protects your laptop with little bulk added and
is ideal for those who don’t want their laptop case to make their loads heavier
or take up a lot of space.

alt="Soft Cell" width="100" height="159" />

The Soft Cell
is now available in vertical sizes 2, 2XL, 3, 4, and 5. Size 1 will be available
early next year, as will horizontal versions of the Soft Cell in these
same sizes.

If you haven’t discovered Audible.com
yet, the time has come. This is an amazing service. Audible sells down loadable books,
magazines, and radio programs. No reading here. Everything is ‘audible’, hence the name.
I love to listen to books. I started out doing it because I have to drive a couple of
hours twice a week. Now I listen to books when I’m running, working in the garden, cooking,
doing really mindless busy-work, riding the bus…. You get the idea.

The selection at Audible is great. Books for all kinds of taste. Every genre of fiction,
loads of non-fiction, your favorite radio programs, even the New York Times. All read to
you by professional readers. You can buy programs individually or purchase a monthly
subscription. I have the Audible Basic subscription which provides me with one book and
one subscription (magazine or radio) per month for $14.95. Every once in a while I’ll buy
an additional book when there is a good sale, but generally what I get with the subscription
is enough (I do still read books, as well).

If you join Audible and commit to a one-year subscription, they have all kinds of
special offers for different mp3 players. I chose to get $100 off of and iPod, since I
wanted one anyway. I won’t even start in on how much I love my iPod! You can also live
stream the books on your computer, of course. Oh yeah, and anything you purchase from
Audible stays in your Audible library, so you can delete things from your computer once
you’ve listened to them – no need to take up lots of precious hard drive space.

Some important tips for using Audible:

• Never buy anything that isn’t available in Format 3 or higher. The
  couple of things I tried to listen to in Format 2 were terrible.
  Really poor sound quality.
• Always preview the book before buying it. The reader can make or
  break your listening experience.
• Lots of things on Audible are abridged, so look carefully. I
  always go for unabridged books.
• I have three favorite readers. Check them out: Jonathan Davis,
  Campbell Scott, and Jennifer Wiltsie.
• Be sure to get your books and subscriptions before the next months
  renewal date. They don’t carry over. It’s a use it or lose kind of thing.

Well, I could go on and on, but I think that about covers it. Join Audible.
You won’t regret it.

alt="Tilley hat" width="198" height="155" />
I’ve been wearing broad-brimmed hats for many years, preferring them to
sunglasses and sunscreen, or alternately, skin cancer. Mostly I’ve worn
Akubra hats because
they reek of quality and they are easy on the eyes. But Akubra hats are
made of rabbit fur, which is less than politically correct,
plus they don’t travel well, IMHO.

I bought a hat from one of Tilley’s
competitors, and while it is quite useful, everyone agrees it scores high on the
"dorky old man" scale. I still use it for gardening, but it officially
does not go out in public. Out of frustration, I finally went to a Tilley store and
tried on some hats, and decided try the
target="-blank">"Lighterweight LT6 Hat".

It’s made of a very light weight nylon fabric, yet it holds its shape
quite well; though it is a light tan color it seems to resist stains
very well too. The thing is so light weight I often forget I have it on
my head, plus it protects the back of my neck like no baseball cap ever
could. I’ve used it in a light rain and it kept my head dry, which is
important up here in the Pacific North Wet. I can put it in my pack
without really worrying much about it, and when I take it out it looks
pretty much like it did when I put it away. Which brings me to the
aesthetics: while perhaps not as ultimately chic as an Akubra, it is so
much more practical that I am wearing it far more often than I ever wore
the Akubras. In terms of utility, the only hat that might compete with the
target="-blank">Lighterweight LT6 Hat is one of those ball-cap-with-tails affairs,
which, let’s face it, are either a cry for help or a measure of the
wearer’s disdain for society.

At somewhere in the neighborhood of US$70, the Lighterweight LT6 Hat is
an investment for sure. But consider the cost of one visit to the
dermatologist and this hat is cheap, and in my opinion worth every penny.

Buy one – the rabbits will thank you.

target="-blank">Tilley Lighterweight LT6 Hat

This website is pretty interesting. From their
mission statement: “We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit,
‘consumer advocate’ for voters that aims to reduce the level
of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual
accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form
of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.
Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship,
and to increase public knowledge and understanding.”
Go here to make sure you are getting the facts straight!

www.factcheck.org

Nicole is our Seattle Store Sales Associate. If you visit our Seattle store,
you’ll find Nicole, ready to answer all of your questions. She’s super cool.

width="68" height="104" />The
LUX is as you like it: a sophisticated tote, an elegant laptop
carrier, or a chic diaper bag.

A customizable bag with optional zip-in inserts, the LUX is a tote bag
with graceful curves and streamlined design. There are no outside pockets or
zippers to distract from its clean lines. The padded handles are easy on
the hands, and the straps are the right length to ride comfortably on
the shoulder. A zippered inside pocket is sized to fit wallet,
checkbook, and/or iPod, and has two points to attach a key snap
(included). The inside bottom of the LUX features a separating zipper
that allows you to zip in one of our still-in-development optional
inserts to customize the function of the LUX to suit your needs. Of
course, without any insert, the LUX is still an easy-on-the-eyes and
ever-so-useful bag for town and market. The LUX is $50.00 and is available
for pre-order now with a ship date of late September. Inserts for the LUX
will be available in late September.

Planned inserts include:

The Parental Unit:
A diaper bag insert designed and tested by parents.
No bunnies or teddy bears, just clean lines, tough materials and
thoughtful features.

Laptop insert:
A padded insert for your 12 laptop, as well as
accessories, a few files, and maybe even lunch.

Knitting insert:
When we decided to make a knitting insert for the LUX,
we turned to our friends at Knitty Magazine for their input,
and that’s how the the Knitty/Tom Bihn contest came to be.
Visit Knitty.com to fill out the survey on the LUX knitting bag insert.
Should it have three pockets or five? What colors would you like to see
it in? You tell us through the survey and we’ll make the knitting bag
of your dreams. When you fill out and submit the survey, you’ll be
entered in the contest.

The Grand Prize (1) is 1 LUX tote with knitting insert and a $100 TOM
BIHN gift certificate. (Approximate value of prize is $200.00). 2nd and
3rd place prizes (1 each): 1 LUX tote with knitting insert.

Visit Knitty
for all the rules and details.

Enter the
Knitty/Tom Bihn contest

The LUX

Do
you remember the Hippity Hop jumping ball you had when you were a
kid? You know, the round rubber ball with a handle on top that you could
bounce all over the yard? Well the fun is not over just because you’re
all grown up and you sit in front of a computer all day long.

The BalanceBall Chair by Gaiam is like a grown up version of the old Hippity Hop.
Sort of. Okay, I don’t get to go bouncing all over the office in it and it doesn’t
have a handle, but it sure does turn heads. Not a day goes by that a customer doesn’t
notice it and say something like “Wow, I’ve never seen a chair like that.”
And I suspect that my co-workers steal it away from my desk when I’m on vacation.
It is essentially a Balance Ball in a wheeled chair base.
You’ve probably heard that sitting on a Balance Ball instead of a chair is good for
your back and hips and all-over alignment.

Ever tried that? It’s hard! You have to balance it all day. That’s why it’s called
a Balance Ball. The BalanceBall Chair is basically the a wimpy variation.
You get a lot of those same benefits without having to keep the ball balanced.

When I first got my chair I could really feel my lower back starting to
get stronger. In other words, it ached. Now it is totally natural for me
to sit in this chair every day, and it is sooo comfortable. The chair
comes with a desktop exercise book that you can set on your desk and
look at every day. Some more ambitious folks might even do some of the
exercises. The chair is made by a cool company called Gaiam and is sold on their website
as well as some other online dealers such as Drugstore.com.

Happy Bouncing!

The BalanceBall Chair

About Sunga