Product rants and raves

Today's cautiously optimistic product rave is in support of Head On, a new headache medication that is applied directly to the forehead, Chapstick-style. I saw a crappy commercial for it, and was intrigued. I got a really bad tension headache today, the kind that sticks with me for two days, and figured I'd give it a try. They've got three flavors -- extra strength, migraine, and tension headache. The box said "Homeopathic!" which made me want to put it right back down. But the scientific-looking glowing grid head on the box had little snowflakes around it, which spells tension headache relief in any language. I figured that as a white, middle-class American, it was my duty to spend $8.99 on this space-age technology.

I felt kind of dumb smearing it across my forehead, but you know what? It works. At least a little bit. My forehead feels tingly and cold, kind of like when using IcyHot or something, but it doesn't smell and is only about a 3 on the greasy residue scale of 1-10. If it reduces my tension headache discomfort by half, which it does, then I'm a fan. The best part is that I can apply it as much as I want. The box says I can. Because it's homeopathic. Which is possibly Latin for "placebo." Don't care.

Now, for today's product rant: bubble lights. Chris' parents thoughtfully supplied us with a couple of strands for our tree. I've always loved bubble lights, but never had any myself, and I've certainly never had to install them on a tree by myself before. Bubble lights can go straight to hell. They're a bitch to put on a branch, they're hot, and a half hour later, half the damn things still aren't bubbling. I'm going to let Chris mess with them if he wants, but I'm over them.