The Chronic Consumer

With my son’s birthday coming up shortly, Jerry and I have decided to go retro with the gift. Instead of getting him some video game that he’ll get tired of playing in two weeks, we’ve been looking at kids wagons. We think this would be a great choice because it will get our son outside and moving around instead of glued to the television. Plus, wouldn’t it be absolutely adorable to see him pulling our dogs or his friends from the neighborhood in that thing?

I think there are a few classic toys that every child should have. A little red wagon is definitely one of them. I had one when I was a kid, and clearly remember how much I loved to play with it. Will a child of the digital age feel the same way about such a low-tech toy? We’ll see!

I was talking to a friend last night, and she told me that she heard of an cell phone app that allows people to comparison shop right on their phone. Basically, you have to use the camera as a barcode scanner to get the product/price information, and then the app can tell you of any better deals on the same item. Pretty neat, huh?

The problem is my friend didn’t have any details at all about this app, so I don’t know which phones it can work on or how to even get it. I want to do more research though, as this is definitely something I’d be interested in!

I’d known for a long time that the Wii Fit was one of the most popular titles for the Wii video game console, but I never looked into it much because I was under the impression that the whole thing was built around stretching and yoga. While I know that those two activities do indeed have fitness value, I’m not really into them myself.

But I changed my mind when a friend bought the Wii Fit and told me that there are actually a bunch of other games and activities that you can do as well. The whole thing sounded fun, so I decided to buy it. Smart move!

I purchased my Wii Fit about a month ago. At $89.99, it’s one of the more expensive titles in the Wii catalog, but that price includes the Wii Balance Board, which is essential for a majority of the exercises. The balance board was easy to set up and sync, and from there it was time to pop the game in and do some exercises.

The first thing you do is have a weigh-in to check your weight and BMI. The Wii Fit tells you if you’re underweight, normal, or overweight, and then asks for your weight-loss goals. I wanted to lose 2 pounds in one month. Surprisingly, however, the Wii Fit doesn’t do much more than keep track of this goal and show your progress towards it. It would be much better if the game could make suggestions about which activities to do (and for how long) in order to reach the goal.

After the weigh-in, you can then choose from a variety of yoga, strength training, and cardio activities, as well as some games that improve your balance. Yoga and strength training are done with a virtual trainer leading the way, while the cardio and balance games are performed with your Mii avatar on the screen.

The yoga and strength training activities feature clear instructions, and it’s pretty easy to just follow along with what the trainer is doing. You start with just a couple of activities available to you, and then as you rack up credits in the form of minutes of exercise done, you unlock more yoga poses or different strength activities.

The same thing happens with the balance games and cardio activities. Play them enough times or rack up enough minutes, and you’ll soon unlock either harder levels or new activities altogether.

Thus far, I’ve been using the Wii Fit four days per week — the days that I don’t go to the gym for my regular workouts. My favorite Wii Fit activities are the Soccer Heading game, the Ski Jump game, Snowboarding, Ski Slalom, and Step Dancing. The hula hoop game is great for really working up a sweat, and the rhythm boxing would be fun, but my wiimote doesn’t seem to register my punches, so it’s just frustrating more often than not. In addition, I’ve discovered that I actually do like some of the yoga poses in the game. They’re hard, but definitely beneficial.

The game is not without its shortcomings, however. First, you can’t customize a workout, which means that you’re always scrolling through menus to find the activity that you want to do next. This wastes time and makes your workout take a bit longer than it should. Second, I wish there was a circuit training option where you do a series of activities successively with just a short pause between each. This would force me to do some of the activities that I hardly ever choose on my own instead of allowing me to gravitate to my favorites all the time.

Overall, though, the Wii Fit is very impressive. I actually look forward to using it on the days that I don’t go to the gym, and think it’s a terrific complement to my regular workouts. I anticipate using this game for a long, long time!

I’m not a big dessert person. Yes, I have a sweet tooth, but I’m perfectly satisfied with a piece of candy or bubble gum and don’t usually have to go in for a full-blown dessert. But I’ve recently started eating Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond, and I’m hooked!

Häagen-Dazs is great ice cream to begin with. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad flavor from them. But the Vanilla Swiss Almond is by far my favorite because it just had the perfect amount of chocolate and almonds in every bite. I like chocolate, but not when it’s the predominant taste, so things like fudge brownies and chocolate ice cream are out for me. In this ice cream, though the chocolate covered almonds are absolutely divine! And the vanilla is so smooth and creamy that it’s delicious on its own as well.

Anyway, if you haven’t tried Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond, pick some up the next time you go shopping. You won’t be disappointed!

I told you last week that I purchased a Mighty Bright Book Light from Amazon.com to use with my Kindle. The package delivery info shows that the product was delivered to my house on Feb. 10, but I never received it.

Since I do a lot of online shopping, I am very vigilant about my orders, and try to make sure that I’m home throughout the day when I’m expecting something. If that’s not possible, I make sure to check the porch as soon as I come back in order to scoop up any packages left by the post office or UPS.

I did the same thing this time, so I know for a fact that the package was not delivered — or was stolen while I was away. In either case, this would be the first time in 8 years of online shopping (including eBay) that I’ve been the victim of a missing or stolen package.

I didn’t panic, though. I waited through Wednesday and Thursday too in order to see if the package would turn up then. Finally, this morning, I emailed Amazon.com to let them know that I never received the product.

Their response was to ask me to check with my post office first, and they gave me a delivery confirmation number to use when dealing with the P.O.

I called the post office earlier this afternoon, and was simply told to call again tomorrow morning “before 8am” to talk with the delivery supervisor about the situation. Why so early? So the supervisor can catch the carrier before he goes out on his rounds to see if he remembers the package in question.

Anyway, I have no problem jumping through these initial hoops to try to find out what happened. I know that I’ll eventually get a refund or get the product that I ordered, so I’m not worried. In fact, I’m just thankful that this happened on a $14 item and not on, say, my $359 Kindle!!!

The backyard looks just terrible now, but once spring comes, I’m going to try to do some landscaping work out there. I originally was planning to hire a crew, but I don’t think I can afford that now, so I’m going to just do what I can on my own. Towards that end, I’ve been reading a lot of books and magazines to get a few ideas.

For example, I totally want to have a koi pond out there. That might be a bit difficult to pull off by myself, but from what I understand, there are DIY kits that make things a bit easier.

I also want to put in some exotic trees, shrubs, and flowers back there to make the yard as unique and beautiful as possible. Roses are a must, of course, but I was also thinking of something like Japanese Magnolia trees to add vibrant colors all summer long.

When the days are dark and dreary like they are now, I can’t help but think of a time when everything is in full bloom. I would love to get my backyard in shape this spring and summer because I’ve been putting it off for far too long as it is!

As you might expect, discount stores are doing well in the troubled economy — at least comparatively speaking. Places like Wal-Mart and Target, stores that sell discount bedroom furniture and sofas, warehouse clubs and other members-only outlets are still generating positive sales figures even as other stores are going out of business.

But will there come a point in time when even these types of stores start to falter? I recently read that Wal-Mart is slashing jobs at its corporate headquarters and will reduce the number of new stores opened in 2009. That points to cash flow problems, but doesn’t necessarily mean that the company as a whole is in straits. Perhaps they’re just exercising caution — which is a good move these days.

Anyway, I know that my family has been hitting the discount shops a lot more than usual lately. We just feel we have to scrimp and save at every turn because the future is so uncertain.

I love to write in my journal, do stuff on my laptop, or read when I’m in bed, but finding a comfortable position to do these things is sometimes pretty difficult. That’s why I would really love to be able to get a lapdesk similar to the one pictured here.

It’s not anything fancy, just something that can keep the laptop off my legs or the mattress so I can work for longer periods without hurting my neck or back from hunching over so much. The LED light would come in handy when I’m reading or writing, and hopefully can be removed when I don’t need it.

Of course, at $39.99 this lapdesk isn’t exactly high up on my list of urgent purchases, so who knows when I’ll be able to get it. It definitely would come in handy though, so I’m putting it on my Wish List as a reminder to buy it when I’m rolling in dough, lol.