The Chronic Consumer

At the end of last year, I wrote how I wanted the Seinfeld — The Complete Series DVD box set. The price at the time was the only thing stopping me, and I said I would wait for it to drop down to around $150. Well, I didn’t quite get that deal, but I did manage to make the purchase for $159, which wasn’t bad at all.

After spending a few months with the box set, I can tell you that it was money well spent! I love these DVDs! Of course I got every single episode that aired during the nine-season run, plus a ton of bonus features. I think each disc has some bonuses, including deleted scenes and commentary for featured episodes. In addition, there was a bonus disc of a cast reunion with Larry David, while everyone reminisced about some of the highlights of the show. That was a ton of fun!

Plus, the box set came with a nice coffee table book that gives a synopsis and photos from each episode. Again, this is a very cool extra that makes the purchase well worth the money.

If you’re a fan of Seinfeld, then there’s no question that you just have to get this complete series box set for yourself. Wait for it to go on sale if you have to, but just make sure you get it!

I’m in need of a good gadget pack to carry all my electronic devices when I go out. I usually have to bring my cell phone, iPod, netbook, Kindle, and maybe my Nintendo DS with me, which is quite a lot of stuff. I currently use a backpack that was intended for full-size laptops instead of netbooks, so my netbook kind of swims around in there and is not very secure at all. Consequently, it knocks against my other stuff constantly and seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

So anyway, if anyone has any recommendations, I’d be open to hearing about them. In the meantime, I’ll continue looking on my own for a padded pack that’s just the perfect size for all my stuff.

This is going to sound crazy, but I totally want a new iPod Nano right now! I currently have two of them that are in perfect working order, but Apple just released the newest generation of ipods and they’re completely different from the old ones. The Nano in particular is way different, as they now come with a video camera and voice recorder built in. These things are not available on my old Nanos.

The new generation was just unveiled at the Apple event about a week and a half ago, and I’ve been salivating over them ever since. I think the red Nano looks particularly sharp, so I if I do end up getting a new one, it’ll be red. As a bonus, part of the purchase price will be donated to help fight AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease takes a massive toll every single day. Social responsibility FTW.

Now that the weather is turning cooler by the day, I’m looking forward to breaking out the winter gear that I purchased along with my fall semester books back in August. I needed some new gloves, so I decided on this Columbia Sportswear pair.

The gloves are black and are made of very soft fleece. They feature a Tiger head logo on the back, as well as the Columbia name and logo. In addition, the left glove has the word “Missouri” stitched into the index finger and the right glove has the word “Tigers” stitched into the index finger. There is also a patch of faux leather across the palm and thumb of each glove in order to improve your grip when you’re carrying books or shoveling snow or whatever. And finally, there’s a clip on one glove and a hook on the other so they can be attached together when you’re not wearing them.

I don’t know how warm these gloves are because it hasn’t been cold enough to wear them yet, but I’ve tried them on and love the way they fit. They’re very soft and comfortable, and though they’re not the kind of gloves to use in a snowball fight, I think they’ll be perfect for me. The only thing I don’t like about them so far is that they had HUGE tags sewn into them. There’s no way I could have been comfortable with those things poking at me, so I had to cut them off straightaway.

Actually, another thing I didn’t like about the gloves was the price. They set me back $25, which is quite a bit for fleece. Plus, I recently checked the store where I bought them from and saw that they’re now on sale for $18-something — which didn’t improve my mood at all. I hate when that happens!

I also bought this matching fleece headband, which is also made by Columbia. The headband is black and gold with the word “Mizzou” stitched at an angle across the front. I’m not much of a knit cap/beanie kind of person, so I’m hoping this headband will serve to keep my ears warm when I go out for my daily walk in the winter.

I know I’ll look like a total Mizzou rah-rah girl, but I don’t care. I’m excited to be part of this great institution and want to show off my affiliation!

I recently ordered a book from an online store, but never received it — even after the package tracking information indicated that it had been delivered right to my door. The store was very gracious about sending out another package right away after I informed them about the situation, so I thought the matter was resolved.

Fast forward three weeks. Guess what showed up at my doorstep this morning? If you said the original book that I ordered a month ago, you’d be right. What the hell happened to it? Did the warehouse guys throw it into a truck for cross country movers instead of the one for local deliveries or something. But even that wouldn’t explain why the freakin’ tracking information said it was delivered on time. What was the driver thinking and why did he lie about the delivery?? And where had the original package been during its month-long journey to my house?

Now I have to go through a whole rigmarole about returning the second copy of this book. Sigh. I remember when online shopping used to be a relatively smooth, convenient experience. Things have been going downhill for me recently, though. What’s the deal here???

I bought a box of Hershey’s 100 Calorie Pretzel Bars a little while ago as part of my ongoing quest to satisfy my sweet tooth without expanding my waistline too much. I figured that getting a bit of Hershey’s chocolate in a convenient 100-calorie serving size would be perfect, and since I liked the Wafer Bars so much, I thought the pretzel variety would be equally appealing.

But that wasn’t the case. Chocolate covered pretzels aren’t really my thing, I guess, because it was odd to bite through the sweet chocolate only to hit the saltiness of the pretzel. The combination simply doesn’t work for me, so I won’t be buying this snack again anytime soon. Wafer Bars, yes. Pretzel Bars, no. But I’m glad I at least tried these things.

The details: Each 100-calories serving has 4.5 grams of fat (that means fat calories account for a whopping 40% of the total), of which 2.5 grams is saturated fat. There are no trans fats in the snack.

To be honest, the serving size just isn’t big enough. I didn’t feel satisfied after eating one package of these things, and immediately reached for other snacks as well.

Have you ever wondered what the most popular football jerseys are? The NFL occasionally releases such data, but I hardly ever see it unless I remember to look for it. I got lucky this time around and happened to stumble across an article that listed the bestsellers of the summer. Here they are, with the only real surprise on the list being Michael Vick in 4th place. I can understand letting the guy have another chance and all, but why anyone would openly support him by wearing his jersey is a mystery to me.

1. Brett Favre, Vikings
2. Jay Cutler, Bears
3. Troy Polamalu, Steelers
4. Michael Vick, Eagles
5. Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers
6. Tony Romo, Cowboys
7. Mark Sanchez, Jets
8. Tom Brady, Patriots
9. Adrian Peterson, Vikings
10. Eli Manning, Giants

I went over to my uncle’s house today for the last barbecue of the season. It was a good chance to see most of my extended family before we settle into the frantic couple months before Thanksgiving and Christmas. The food was terrific, too, which is something I can always count on when I go over there.

But what impressed me even more than the food and fun was the fact that my uncle recently had a central vacuum system installed. This thing is very cool! There’s a huge canister that sits in the garage, and then every room and hallway has a port where you plug the vacuum cleaner hose in. Then you switch it on and vacuum as usual. It works great, and there’s no need to lug around a heavy, awkward, unwieldy base unit around.

I really want one of these things for my house! A central vacuum system just seems so much more convenient and easier to use. I wonder how much it would cost for a decent one plus installation? How would they connect all the ports to the canister in the garage? They’d probably have to do some serious duct work for that…!