I don't know why I still fly across the room -- endangering life, limb and dog -- when the phone rings, even though 95% of the time I end up not picking it up because the caller is someone I don't even know or someone I do know and don't want to hear from. And everyone else has my cell phone number, so what's the emergency? Maybe it's a generational thing; my daughter has no trouble ignoring the sound of the landline phone, it's just white noise to her.

This color-coded caller ID device, available at Brookstone for $29.99, lights up to give you fair warning of who may be calling. By pushing a button, you can assign a color to the caller. The device holds 100 phone numbers, which is more than enough for me. My ID signals would work like this:

Red: family & close friends -- could be an emergency, answer day and night;
Blue: don't know you, go away;
Green: business colleagues, doctors, daughter's school -- put on serious voice;
Purple: hmm, could be someone I want to talk to.

Now, if I could make this work with the Shower ID, then I'd avoid all potential dangers from jumping to answer the phone.

Picked up from bookofjoe.