GERI

When seller tnbettyboop went on a 5-state yard sale tour to see what she could find, it’s doubtful that she imagined finding this.

“My partner and I both spotted this beauty at the same time,” she says in the auction description. “She was sitting on a saddle, draped in a red Matador’s cape, SO INTRIGUING! No wig, a man’s face and grandma’s boobs.”

While she looks like she should be a prop in some esoteric independent film, “GERI” is, in fact, a learning device for nursing students who work with geriatric patients. She has bedsores, cancerous (and noncancerous) moles, injection panels on her arms, differently sized pupils and real genitalia for catheter practice (this one has female parts, but a full, new model can apparently be switched out for male bits).

A “Simulaid” in the tradition of Rescue/CPR Annie, Geri is proof that medical education prop makers don’t like to sugar coat  the nature of the human body. Other products on their web site include “Fat Old Fred,” “ALS trauma head,” “EVA the Gynecologic Manikin,” and even the all-new “CasPer the CPR dog.”

Visit the “GERI: The Complete Nursing Skills Manikin” auction

What kinds of productive things do you do if you have a free afternoon? Gardening? Cleaning? Canning? A little woodworking, perhaps?

If you’re in Alaska, like eBay seller ak_drummer, apparently you scan your environs for things you can recycle in an unorthodox way, like this iMac hamster cage. Or a Nintendo GameCube that’s been converted into a hidden storage spot. Or components of something called a potato spud gun cannon.