Things I need recommendations on:

[conuly]

1. Reusable shopping bags of decent quality - no stretching at the seams after a reasonable load of groceries. Quality tends to decline in bag companies after the first few years, so brands that were excellent five years ago are probably crap now. They need to be able to go over the shoulder and fold up into a pouch so I can go into stores with overzealous security guards.

2. Card holders for playing cards. My mother's dexterity is not as bad as right after chemo or the stroke, but she's getting older. It would be useful to get something now so we can all continue to play Rummy 500 together.

3. Dice trays. Eva is sure to get less enthusiastically clumsy with her dice, but as I recall it took me a while so.... She's game to using the lid, but not if the lid is pretty small.

Comments

Try this ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

2. We found simple, very cheap woodblock card holders at the mall. Look for woodworkers in your area. You just set the block on the table and stick your cards in the slot -- nothing to hold in your hand so you can't drop it. Ours are similar to this but without the angled front and I think they have more slots. You can buy these things online but they cost more.

3. I bought a heavy-duty divided plastic travel plate with a lid for rolling gaming dice. This gives me a place to store dice that aren't in use and to roll active dice. The sections are deep enough to keep the dice in place, and the lid makes it a storage device when not playing. It won't tip like a tall dice cup, either. Available for a buck or two at Wal-Mart or a dollar store.

Re: Try this ...

[conuly]

A travel plate! Now that's a great idea! You're a genius, you know that?

Re: Try this ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

*laugh* I'm lazy, I'm a cheapskate, and I think outside the box. I couldn't stand the idea of paying more for a dice cup that I knew I'd keep knocking over. So I went to the store and looked around at containers they had, to see what seemed plausible. And there were the travel plates. :D

Genius, sure, I blow the top off tests. But most of my ingenuity comes from Depression-era scrounge lessons from my grandparents.

If it weren't for smart people, we never would have discovered fire. But if it weren't for lazy people, we'd still be making it by rubbing two sticks together. ;)