It's Super Bowl time. Which means any company that has anything to do with toilets is jumping for joy. (I guess tens of millions of people consuming beer and greasy barbecue is cause for excitement.) Case in point: Scott Tissue.

According to Scott, on Super Bowl Sunday 90 million toilets will be flushed at halftime, because most guys watching on TV wait until then to use the bathroom. (And since this year's halftime show features Prince, I don't blame them. But more on that in a later post.) That mass flush, dubbed The Great Halftime Flush, will use as much water as flows over Niagara Falls in seven minutes. As legend has it, this causes some pipe systems to overload and explode. Others clog. Meaning instead of watching the third quarter, you're plunging and mopping.

In the interest of preventing this (and selling toilet paper) they have created an online "clog clinic" with tips from experts on how to prevent clogs. Spokesperson for this year? Mike Ditka. Because when I think of Mike Ditka, I think of clogged toilets. (Watch Ditka's video on the site. It's off the charts on the Unintentional Comedy Scale.)

If that isn't bizarre enough, they have games, like the "Know Your Flush Game" (no, I'm not kidding), 10 uses for the plunger you'll apparently never need again, and the "Share Your Cloggiest Moment" contest where you tell them your most traumatic clog story and you could win $25,000. Imagine the poor bastard who has to read those entries. "I had just finished my fourth Jumbo Bean Fiesta Burrito, when I felt this strange rumbling..."

Scott Clog Clinic

If you're looking to add a little something extra to your Valentine's gift this year... something really unique and personal that she won't forget... click over to zazzle.com and get some custom stamps made.

Imagine sending her a card and the stamp has a picture of you holding a dozen roses. Or something equally as sappy. We're talking pure gold.

And there are no minimums, buying just one is fine with them. Which is perfect, because I'd hate to think of having to use up the leftovers by sending out my mortgage payment with a stamp of me looking like some love-sick sap on it for the next few months.

If you don't want to send a pic of yourself, (and after meeting some of you, I can understand why), Zazzle has limited edition "Sealed With a Kiss" stamps you can buy by the sheet. Available through Feb 28, they feature the lip prints of several celebs, including Jessica Alba, Kristen Bell, Jessica Biel, Jeri Ryan, and Amy Smart. And part of the proceeds go to the Humane Society, so you'll make an even bigger impression.

www.zazzle.com

One of my favorite sites is Cool Tools, run by Kevin Kelly, former executive editor of Wired Magazine and publisher of the Whole Earth Review.

Kelly describes a "cool tool" as "any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true." And his site features a ton of them.

One of my favorite parts of the site is the Tips. Cool Tool readers regularly send in their best tips for repairing, fixing, creating, whatever.

Here are some of the best from his most recent posts:

When a couple of the little rubber feet (LRF) came off the bottom of my laptop, I tried without success to re-attach the small bits of rubber with "super glue", rubber cement, and a hot-glue gun. After the last attempt, I realized that the rubbery material used with the hot-glue gun could by itself serve as an LRF replacement. This worked so well I ended up ripping out the still-attached LRFs. By now the hot-glue replacements have served longer than the original LRFs.

-- Preston L. Bannister

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I had a white board with old old writing on it - I tried Windex, alcohol, etc, to little avail, then my girlfriend suggested using a whiteboard marker - they are full of the correct solvent! Just color over what you want to erase and wipe it away.

-- David Spargur

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When your container of shaving oil is empty, try filling it with olive oil from the kitchen instead of spending $15 on a new stuff. I discovered that when I ran out a few years ago & I haven't looked back since. Olive oil does just as good a job and costs almost nothing per shave. People have been shaving with olive oil for thousands of years, there's no reason not to continue doing so.

-- Mark James

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When I need to solder a connection to a leaky pipe, I just stick a piece of bread into the pipe to sop up the drips while I fire up the blowtorch.

-- RW

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To track whether the dishes in your washer are clean, use a wet erase marker to write "Dirty" or make a fancy "D" on the inside door of your dishwasher when loading dirty dishes. When you run the dishwasher the mark washes away, so you'll know they are clean.

-- Carl DeCesare

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Don't pay for a anti-fogging bathroom mirror! The mirror fogs because the glass temperature is colder than the air causing the moisture dissolved in the air to condense. Just wipe the off the excess condensation and lightly blowdry the mirror and it will stay fog-free. Don't overdo it with the blow-dryer -- you don't want the mirror to crack from uneven expansion.

-- David Spargur

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Wintergreen oil (methyl salicylate) is the most penetrating of all penetrating oils. It is available at most drugstores at minimal cost. If you work on old machinery that is anywhere near saltwater (or salted highways) it's an essential weapon in tackling otherwise hopelessly rusted/frozen threads. It smells good, and though toxic and not to be kept within reach of children, is intended for topical application to human skin.

-- George Dyson

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Here is a much simpler way to keep paintbrushes soft, especially between coats: Don't clean them, put them in a plastic bag, and put them in the freezer. You can start painting with them right away, and when you are done, just put them in again. Eventually, you want to clean them (if you are changing colors, for instance) but I have had paintbrushes in the freezer for months and they are just fine when you take them out again.

-- Espen Andersen

For more tips from Cool Tools click here.

Working out. Getting back in shape. It's the most common resolution right after "quit smoking" and somewhere above "move out of my parents' basement and get a job."

Usually you do great at the beginning. Slack off a little in February. And by March you're off to Houston for a sales convention for two weeks. And since your "routine" was interrupted, you figure why bother going back.

I travel a lot and that's always been the hardest part for me, finding a good place to work out while on the road, to keep the momentum going. Most hotels have gyms - if you consider a treadmill and a multi-unit machine stuck in a corner a "gym". But it's better than nothing, if it's all you've got to work with.

To give you a heads-up on where the best hotel gyms are, the website AthleticMindedTraveler.com did some in-depth research of over 3,000 hotels and came up with their list of the Best Hotel Gyms in the US. The list criteria included facility size, equipment quantities, multi-sport options, and overall ambiance/atmosphere. Here's their recommendations:

1 - Houstonian - Houston
2 - Park Hyatt at Bellevue - Philadelphia
3 - Four Seasons - San Francisco
4 - Embassy Suites Lakefront - Chicago
5 - Venetian - Las Vegas
6 - Bellevue Club - Bellevue, WA
7 - Inn at Ponte Vedra - Florida
8 - Grand Hotel - Minneapolis
9 - JW Marriott - Orlando
10 - Ritz Carlton Boston Common
11 - Le Parker Meridien - New York

You can get a more detailed profile of each hotel gym on their website www.athleticmindedtraveler.com

Sorry I didn't get this posted sooner. Our NYE party ended a few hours ago. And I've been dealing with my own hangover. And strange people on my couch.

To effectively battle the morning after, it helps to know what causes a hangover. The brief answer is dehydration and toxins. (If you want a more detailed explanation click here.)

One of the things you can do to help is to eat a fried or greasy meal before drinking. The grease slows the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream, giving your system a little extra time to deal with the byproducts of your boozing. (Hence the popularity of late night "border runs" to Taco Bell.) Keep in mind your body can only process three quarters of an ounce of alcohol per hour. That's about half a shot or mixed drink. So figure it takes about 2 hours to clean out each drink.

Let's assume you didn't hit a grease pit last night, and now you're hurting. Here's some things you can do:

• Hair of the Dog. One word of advice: Don't. Part of what makes you feel so shitty is the effects of your liver battling to clean the flood of toxins out of your polluted bloodstream. Adding more alcohol may make you feel better briefly. But eventually your liver is going to have to clean the new toxins out, prolonging the misery.

• Water and Sports Drinks. Part of why your head is pounding is dehydration. You need fluid. And you need to dilute some of what may be left in your stomach. Sports drinks also refill you with sodium, which you were losing all night.

• Fruit Juice. Besides supplying you with much needed vitamins, the fructose helps speed your body's ability to rid the toxins.

• Eggs. Hitting a 24 hour diner for some late night breakfast before heading home? Good. Skip the pancakes and order the eggs. Cysteine in the eggs helps break down acetaldehyde, a toxin that contributes to hangovers.

After that, all you can do is ride it out. You did some damage last night. Your liver is pissed. And rightfully so. Give your body the time it needs to heal. You can use the downtime to plan this weekend's party.