The Chronic Consumer

The Kindle 3 that I bought as a gift for my mom was delivered to her last week. But the unit was defective, as the Page Turn buttons didn’t work at all. I was a bit bummed that my gift ended up being a lemon, but I have to say that Amazon customer service was exemplary. They gave my mom a number to call so a tech could walk her through some steps to make sure the unit was indeed defective (it was), and then emailed her a shipping label so she could send it back to Amazon. Moreover, they sent a new unit by next-day air, so she wouldn’t have to wait long for the replacement. Fortunately, the new unit works like a charm! Yay for Amazon!

It might not be Christmas or my birthday or Mother’s Day, but I don’t care. I’m treating myself to a spa day! I haven’t had one in ages, so I’m due. I’m going to make an appointment as soon as they open at 9am. Hopefully I can get in today or tomorrow! I plan on getting a massage, a mani and pedi, and maybe a salicylic acid peel for my hopeless face, which is breaking out again after being sort of OK during the summer (maybe it has to do with those Angus Wraps I ate yesterday!).

I know I’ll feel guilty about spending $100 or $150 on this, but I seriously need to pamper myself. It’s been a long time and I’ve been working so hard lately!

I haven’t been to McDonald’s in ages because I’ve been trying to watch what I eat, but I ventured out to one today to meet a friend for a quick bite. I decided to try one of the new(ish) Angus Snack Wraps that they now offer. I went with the Bacon & Cheese version, though they also have Deluxe and Mushroom & Swiss.

I wasn’t expecting much out of this wrap, but wow!! It was actually quite tasty!! It felt like a substantial food item instead of the “snack” that it purports to be. Still, I ended up buying an extra one because it tasted so good. Is it any wonder that I’m constantly looking for appetite suppression products? Sigh.

I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll be heading back to McDonald’s once a week or something like that. The last thing I need is to get hooked on another artery-clogging, waistline-expanding fast food product!

I just read a Wall Street Journal article about how parents can deal with their kids’ “pricey tastes”. The author says that just telling kids you can’t afford something is not likely to put the issue to rest. So when your pre-teen or teen suddenly wants a $150 pair of Diesel jeans, what can you do?

The author recommends making kids pay for the purchase themselves somehow. This could either be through an after school job (for older kids) or by selling old or unwanted games, CDs, clothes, etc.

In all likelihood, this is going to be an issue for me later on. Chances are, my son will want some expensive name-brand item at some point, and I’m going to have to figure out what to do. Currently, I’m torn about what to do. On the one hand, I think it’s outrageous to pay $150 for jeans. On the other, I can clearly remember being in high school and desperately wanting the same kind of name-brand clothes that all the popular kids had. My family was not rich, so I had like one pair of Calvin Klein jeans (what? Those were in back then!) instead of 4 or 5 like other girls. In other words, I would certainly be able to empathize with my son.

If he came to me begging me to buy him the best acne products to clear up his skin, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But buying name-brand clothes is a whole different ballgame. Fortunately, I still have a few years before I have to deal with this kind of thing!

I love condiments of all kind, and can’t really eat anything without drowning it in some kind of sauce. That goes for steak (Heinz 57), chicken (ranch dressing, bleu cheese dressing, BBQ sauce), turkey (gravy, of course), and just about any other kind of meat. Some people think that’s childish or disgusting, but whatever. I like the way I eat — even if it does mean having to use cleansonix every once in a while!

Anyway, back to my point. I just discovered Kona Coast Aloha Sweet Onion BBQ sauce a couple weeks ago — and I’m in love! This stuff is totally amazing! I think sweet BBQ sauce is awesome, and Kona Coast does it right. This sauce tastes like a very mild barbecue sauce, with a distinct taste of sweet onions. It’s totally amazing on chicken, and can be used as a marinade or a dipping sauce. I’ve used it as both, with terrific results.

This by far my new favorite sauce. I’m to the point where I’m planning my meals around it and cooking stuff that I think would best be complemented by Kona Coast. Love it, love it, love it — highly recommended!!!

So this post is an update on how well my exercise ball has been working. I bought it in January as part of my New Year’s resolution to shape up. I used the ball very consistently for 8 months, doing lots of core exercises. After reading about how to lose belly fat fast, I thought I was on the right track.

But after all this time, I haven’t seen any kind of decent results from my exercise ball. I don’t feel stronger, and I certainly haven’t lost any inches from my waistline. So I finally just released all the air from the ball and stuffed it in my closet. I need to find something that will work for me!!! Dieting (I’ve tried low-fat, low-carb, low-calorie, high-protein, etc.) and exercise (running 3 miles 3x per week, walking 3 miles 4x per week, weightlifting) have NOT helped. I still have a bulge in my belly. What else can I do?? I am totally frustrated here!

I do not like to play video games very much, and don’t really get into all the complicated, high-tech stuff that saturates today’s market. When I do play games, I want something extremely simple — which is why I love the Angry Birds iPhone/iPad app from Rovio. The premise of this game is that pigs have stolen and eaten some birds’ eggs, so now the birds are angry and are out for revenge. The game then presents you with numerous “levels” where the pigs are behind various barriers. The object of the game is to shoot the birds out of a slingshot and eliminate all the pigs before running out of birds.

My explanation doesn’t do the game justice. The game is really quite clever in its use of physics, and it is extremely addictive. Plus, it’s a total bargain at just $.99. I totally recommend Angry Birds for your iPhone or iPad!

I recently did some minor things, like switch my car insurance and cell phone plans yet again, in order to save about $50 per month. With that savings I decided to treat myself to a few new things since I haven’t really been shopping in a while. I bought a Kindle book, some Missouri Tigers t-shirts, and the first season of Modern Family on Blu-ray. Yes, this all added up to more than $50, but whatever. I need to indulge myself every once in a while!