This gave us a geniune WTF. Toe ties.

What are toe ties? Well, after some Google-image searching, we discovered they have something to do with hockey skates. And yet, friends, we do not recommend you bring these into the locker room with you.

It's springtime. Sunny. Getting hot. Even the most hardcore lads and ladies are sick of buckling and lacing up big, heavy shoes.

Yes, goths enjoy sandal season, too. But how to enhance goth feet?

The black mani/pedi is now terribly mainstream. The stripper clique really owns the red and black combo, as well as most graphic embellishments.

We need a fresh look: voila, the black with white tip pedi, aka the Joy Division.

Ask for it by name at your local nail salon. Or use that art school degree for something better than making coffee and do it yourself. Find all the necessary ingredients for an at home goth pedi in the gallery.

Some people have tender heads. We have very soft, tender tootsies, so we're always searching for cute shoes that won't cut our feet to shreds.

We expect high heels and strappy sandals to be tough on feet, but the surprise villain in this story is flip flops. They can be the cruelest of footwear to delicate toes.

In case you've been in a coma and missed the five million "Strappy Sandal Roundup!" articles in the March issue of everything, it's toe time again.

And while you'll see tons of advice about pedicures, the glaring omission in all of these shopping guides is the very important -- medically necessary, if you ask me -- precaution: Foot lube.

Spring is right around the corner, and I bet you're already eying those summery sandals. But are your tootsies terrific yet? Are your piggies perfect? Are your feet fabulous?

Now, if you have the means, getting a professional pedicure is a fun and easy way to get your feet ready for those strappy sandals. Of course, there are the basic rules for the ladies, like making sure you have no visible toe hair, but you also want to try to get the bottoms of your feet smooth and ready for sandal season.

Check out the above gallery for seven tips and trends to get your tootsies ready for a close up this spring:

Check out the picture at right, this is the new Lancome Magnetique nail polish. Over at Blogdorf Goodman, where I nabbed the picture from, the have the breakdown on how the polish works. Apparently the nail polish contains iron oxides, you apply the polish and then hold the nail up to a magnet that slips over the bottle. The magnet activates the iron and creates the sunburst pattern. The polish is new for fall (doesn't seem to be widely available yet) and sells for $17, which is a lot for an effect that is probably really fun the first time and then less so. More pics can also be found at All Lacquered Up. I think it's a cool idea but I can barely paint a couple of basic coats of red without messing things up so I think this is probably beyond my nail skill set. I wonder if nail salons will offer it and if they will dream up new ways to create different patterns.

Ah, air travel.

Unless you are traveling a fairly short distance, you have pretty much a whole day devoted to the skies. Of that whole day, half will be spent waiting -- waiting in line, waiting during a layover, or even worse, waiting due to a canceled flight. Instead of eating crappy airline food or reading InStyle magazine for the hundredth time, why don't you pamper yourself with a manicure?

Three working mothers from Florida were so sick of the constant waiting that they took matters into their own hands and opened up 10 Minute Manicure, a chain of airport based express salons.

So far there are over eight salons in American and and the newest location in JFK is a step away from the new American Airline's 1.3 billion dollar terminal. They aren't stopping there; five more 10 Minute Manicures will open this summer including Newark, Dulles, Miami and a second salon at JFK.

Ladies the salon even sells FAA approved mini bottles of nail color so you can touch up any oops that may come from unexpected turbulence. And fellas, the salons are gender neutral so you can get a mani/pedi too.

Marshall G. Wolbers was enjoying the good life -- pedicures, spa treatments, the works. Only, he wasn't willing to pay for it. In at least 20 different spas over the past month, when it came time to settle the bill, Wolbers would claim to need "something from his car," then split, leaving the salon sans payment.

Authorities had been circulating a description of Wolbers throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois -- where he'd been operating his scam. Police finally spotted the pedicure-fanatic driving through the Chicago suburbs -- but he refused to pull over, instead evading the cops after a reckless chase.

Two days later, he was arrested later at a local train station.

Finally, the spa is safe again.

When I saw these boots, my first thought was "Oh no, not pedicure Uggs." My second thought was that they looked a bit like a walking cast. However, having once lived in Boston and worn sandals to and from the nail salon in the winter months in order to keep freshly polished toes pristine, there may be a market for Bootie Pies.

The way these boots work is that they have a separate front flap. You wear them with the flap up to the salon. At the salon, you have your toes rubbed and scrubbed. Right before polish time, you press the front flap down and put your foot back in with your toes on top of the flap. You get your toes polished and then head out with most of your foot safely warm and only your toes exposed.

Cool idea, but a bit pricey at $128.

A Bay Area woman died because of an infection that she contracted after getting her nails done at a salon in Mountain View, CA. In November 2004, another woman contracted an infection at a nail salon that grew into a 4-by-6-inch lesion on her leg; she eventually died from it. These are rare, extreme cases, but bacteria related to TB and staph infections can grow in pedicure and manicure baths and tools that are not properly sanitized.

However, these cases have brought about AB409, under which health inspectors can shut down a nail salon on the spot for violating health and safety regulations. The rules went into effect on September 22. Hopefully it will push all salons to maintain sanitary conditions.

Still, I think I might just do mine at home for now to be on the safe side.