One thing I have never outgrown is my love of toys. From my first pedal-powered red convertible to the GPS-equipped XM-radio-jammin' four-wheel-steerin' seven-seater Behemoth that's sitting in my driveway right now, I've gotta have the newest and bestest. Which also portends the fact that I'll likely die penniless buried under a bonecrushing pile of obsolete computer equipment.

Luckily, my chosen profession has finally kept pace with my gadget cravings. After years of last decade's technology and fewer color choices than a Model-T, I now revel in the fact that I can shower myself with tax-deductible geekware. For those of you who saw me lurking around the exhibitor hall in Chicago, American Express in hand, thought I'd give you a month-in-the-field take on some of my purchases.

Amazingly, the cheapest doohickey I bought is my runaway favorite, Stenograph's self-inflating back rest (about $30). This thing is a godsend. When deflated, it's about the size of a chimichanga (a large burrito for you yankees), but with a twist of the valve it fully inflates in about 20 seconds to more than adequately fill the gap between your low back and those cavernous conference room chairs attorneys insist on purchasing in warehouse club quantities. I've used it on every depo since, on plane flights, long commutes, you name it.

Another home run by the folks in Mt. Prospect is their new machine case, the Executive Traveler. I know everyone has their own particular size requirements for the ever-growing myriad of crap we must schlep through our daily grind, but this is by far the best designed writer case I've seen, particularly for paperless writers, which frees up the paper tray area for auxiliary storage. It gets a little hefty when hauling both a laptop and writer, but heck, most days the only exercise I get is hucking my machine into my vehicle.

Now I'm just waiting for the guys who were advertising the custom hooptie paintjobs for Stenturas to get certified to do Miras as well. I'm thinking purple metallic flake with The Last Supper airbrushed on the sides.

"Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation." - Rosabeth Moss Kanter