The North American Solar Challenge is a great race in which college students from all over the US & Canada build highly aerodynamic and efficient solar cars, then race them thousands of miles across North America.
I'm watching a bit of the race on INHD right now, and something ridiculous struck me: each solar car is trailed on the road by five or so gasoline powered cars! Irony in the extreme.

Okay, my family doesn't know me very well, and they tend to get rather lame gifts (with the exception of my mom...she gets great clothes). So, here's a little help for you guys. This list is roughly in "most-desirable" order.

• Tori Amos' version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I believe it to be from the album Spark, but amazon doesn't list that song among the ones for Spark parts 1 & 2. I don't know where to find it. The only online link was broken.
• Freescale ZigBee Dev Kit, $209, OR Chipcon Zigbee Eval Kit, $140
• Agilent MSO6034A Mixed-signal Oscilloscope, $9,729.20.
  
• A machine shop, with a CNC Bridgeport Mill and lathe
• Agilent E3630A Benchtop Power Supply
• My Amazon Wishlist has more reasonable items on it, and yes, I really do want those books on the list! :-)
• Apple Intel MacBook Pro 15", ~$2500

I'll update this post as I think of more things to add.

I thought the A-10 was cool, but this beats it: An R/C A380, with four microturbine engines.

Thanks, Alice. You had to go put it there, so I would click it, and learn the depressing truth.

I'm chatting with my friend Amanda, describing my sudden Haiku kick. She makes me laugh. You probably had to be there, and since you weren't you probably won't laugh. Here's a transcript anyway: