Drinking wine is a top priority for me, and I’ve increasingly enjoyed learning about different varieties (particularly of the red persuasion) in recent years. Discovering the world of zinfandels was something of a revelation, and Hullabaloo has become my label of choice. It’s full-bodied, versatile, and at around $13 (in New York) relatively inexpensive. I go out of my way to buy it, and strongly suggest that you do the same.

Drummond trivia: I grew up in the same Canadian city as Tegan and Sara, and their mom was my therapist in middle school. I spent a lot of time in her office, staring at framed photos of the twins, and imagining myself as the third sister. If only. They remain my favorite band to this day, and although I set out to spurn their latest release — because admit it, they did the sell-out thing — it’s undeniably awesome. "Now I’m All Messed Up" is the best track, and that’s not really up for debate.

My dad always told me, "when you find the right running shoe, buy in multiples." I took his advice when I got my first pair of these Asics last year, and now have four pairs in various stages of sweaty-and-dirty decay. I can’t promise these shoes will address your own athletic needs, but for someone with a high arch and relatively neutral pronation, they’re perfection. Bonus points because they don’t have the obnoxious orange-and-purple color vibe that tends to ruin otherwise decent women’s running shoes.

I’ll get crap for this one, but the iPod Shuffle remains my favorite gadget, even after all these years. Yes, the battery sucks. Yes, it breaks relatively easily. Yes, I’ve lost at least three of them. But the Shuffle still fulfills important requirements for me: lightweight, clips onto clothing, is a separate entity from my phone (because the buzz of texts, emails, and calls is really annoying when I’m trying to listen to music). Oh, and it syncs with my iTunes account, which, because I’ve amassed an enormous library of iTunes music, has become extremely important.

Yes, this book is a few years old. But when I was gearing up to launch Verge Science, I picked it up again for some inspiration. If you’re not familiar with the book, a primer: Carl Zimmer compiled the best, most awe-inspiring tattoos from science lovers around the world, and used those tattoos to explain the scientific concepts that informed them. A book that manages to celebrate science and tattoos in equal measure? That’s an awesome damn book.