I always learn something when others bloggers post their menu bar icons and what they are so in the interest of sharing I thought I would do the same.

From left to right:

Skitch - my favorite screenshot tool, dead simple and dead useful

Growl - now that Growlmail no longer crashes with Safari 4, I'm using all of Growl again.  I love that all my messages across apps show up in one spot via growl, and the level of control I have over them.

Growltunes - growl plug-in for itunes

SizeUp - Just found this one this week, I forget where.  But I love it.  Using shortcuts, this tool allows me to place apps in quadrants or halves of either screen (I have a monitor and laptop screen).  MUCH MUCH better than constantly resizing my apps.

Dropbox - great tool for backing up specific documents of folders in the cloud.  Great for uploading a document or folder and sharing with others, especially useful for documents that are too big for certain corporate email restrictions.

typeit4me - Another favorite.  I use this in two ways.  I have  a mental block for some words that I just cannot remember how to spell, opportunity and canceled are two that come to mind; or there are words that I mistype because of the keyboard layout and how fast I type.  So I plug in the wrong spelling into typeit4me and the proper spelling so that when I mistype it auto-corrects without me having to go back and do it.  I use it for even two-letter words (if I am going to fast I often type if backwards) and if I fail to capitalize the letter "I" when it is by itself it does it for me.  I also have created shortcut words. Rather than have to type out my street address I just type m-y-s-t for 'my street' (without the hypens) and it plugs in my street address.  I love this application!

Hazel - found this via Merlin Mann.  Great little tool to move files around automatically.  I drop a lot of files to my desktop.  Hazel looks to see if I haven't opened the file in a week and if so moves the file away.

Amnesty - takes widgets from the dashboard and allows you to have them on your desktop.  I have certain widgets that I like up more often and don't like having to go to dashboard.

choosy - a tool for selecting providing a choice for multiple browsers and setting up advanced rules.  I may want links from tweetie to open in firefox, links in mail to open in safari, or want the option to choose which browser.  

spirited away - makes applications that you are using 'disappear'.  You can set this up for all applications, or exclude certain applications if you choose.

evernote - I'm not 100% on the evernote bandwagon as far as using it a lot.  But when I need to drop a note in somewhere that I can find easily, I use this service.  As a sidenote, I really like the iphone app for this and appreciate the synchronization between the two.

caffeine - another dead simple service.  Rather than adjusting all your settings for a screensaver, sleep, and dimming of your laptop, caffeine temporarily turns the laptop into always on, no screensaver, no sleep mode.  You click on the cup of coffee, when it is filled, caffeine is on, when it is empty it is off.

time machine - I dumped a liter of water on my keyboard and had to get new internal organs for my laptop.  I had everything backed up via time machine.  When the Apple person asked me if I backed up my computer and I said 'yes' he looked ecstatic.  When I got my laptop back in a couple days and restored via time machine, and it was perfectly restored, I was even more ecstatic.