Andy's 7th Annual Online Gift Guide

Black Friday is in the rear-view mirror, but hopefully you were able to save a few dollars in anticipation of my 7th Annual Online Gift Guide. (I know I did.) I've spent hours scouring the internet looking for fun and interesting things you can buy for people like me. Let's dive right in with ...

A Supercar Driving Experience

Ever wanted to drive a Ferrari or Lamborghini, but haven't quite pinched your pennies hard enough to afford that new set of wheels? Well, you're in luck! For as little as $238 you can hop in someone else's sports car and go 0-60 faster than you can wet your pants. Tack-on packages include photos and videos of you wetting your pants driving really fast, and pit passes for your family and friends to watch you do it. Catch a ride at locations in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis and more.

Branding Irons

Maybe fast cars aren't your speed. If so, slow things down with this branding iron for the grillmaster in your life. Texas Irons offers these specialized tools in a variety of options. You can pick from irons with 1-3 letters; pictorial irons with images like the Marine Corp logo or a football; and classic blacksmith irons (like this one). For a little extra, you can get your iron with a pre-branded, bandana-lined cedar box to store it in.

Bluetooth Beanie

How about a gift for those angsty teens? Look no farther than this Bluetooth beanie. This hat comes in a variety of colors (as long as you like black or gray!) and is compatible with smartphones and tablets. Believe it or not, you can make phone calls, adjust volume levels and find songs, all from the top of your head. The rechargeable battery lasts as long as 12 hours and recharges in 2 hours or less.

EZ Ice Rink

And if you give a teen a beanie, they'll need a place to wear it. So build them their own backyard hockey rink. This do-it-yourself system can be built on any flat surface in 60 minutes without any tools (ice not included). The rinks range in size from 15-by-30-feet to 60-by-100-feet. Or, get a quote for a custom size. And when spring rolls around, just disassemble and store for use next winter (or turn it into a swimming pool!).

Pillbox Bats

Speaking of sports, check out these neat bats from Pillbox Bat Co. in Minnesota. They are so pretty you won't want to use them, but maybe that's the point. You can get the maple bats with sharks painted on them, pinstripes, famous players, team logos and more. They also make short, 17-inch bats, and bats with the old-school mushroom knobs. Can't find one you like? Order a custom stick, or a wood pennant, or a wallet, or earrings.

Wood Resin Rings

Speaking of gifts made of wood, check out these amazing rings marrying wood and resin. The concept seems to be popular around the internets, but these rings from Secret Woods defy reality. How do they make the resin look like a mountaintop or a waterfall or the aurora borealis? They're probably a bit chunky to wear, but man would they make a statement.

SwitchBot Curtain

In the "tech that makes my life easier" category we have the SwitchBot Curtain. You can "make your curtains smart in seconds," so no more stupid curtains for you (phew). Now, the SwitchBot Curtain won't actually be ready until April 2020 (the Kickstarter campaign is just wrapping up), so you'll have to gift an IOU. But once that sucker is in production, you can forget about ever having to waste time closing your curtains by hand again.

Sense

In other home tech, we have the Sense home energy monitor. The device installs inside your electrical panel (as you can see above) and provides insight into your energy use and home activity. Sense identifies patterns in your energy use to help you be more efficient with your electricity. By taking current and voltage measurements (more than 1 million times every second!), it helps identify individual devices in your home as they cycle on and off. That's smart and cool.

Lunar Land

For the hard to shop for loved one in your life, we have one out-of-this-world gift idea: Moon land. That's right! For the low, low price of just $29.95 you can buy 1 acre of land on the moon complete with lunar deed, a map showing where your new property is located, and Lunar Land's pledge that "outlines the functions and basic structure of the International Association Of Human Planetary Exploration" (shuttle to the moon not included). Land is also available on Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars.

Indlovu Gin

And last but not least, alcohol (ages 21 and older). For those unable to afford a safari to Africa, there's Indlovu Gin, which "encapsulates the essence of Africa." Literally. "Indlovu" is the word for elephant in several African languages. No, Ibhu doesn't make its gin out of elephants, that would be cruel ... they make it with elephant dung (that's fancy for poop!). The ingredients in the gin are derived from washed, dried dung (yum), and the extracted botanicals are then infused into the gin, which provides (I'm not kidding, this is actually on their website) "unique African flavours." Bonus points if you can get your loved one to drink it before you tell them where it came from.