The Chronic Consumer

We’re currently working on remodeling our living room. It’s actually kind of a small project that consists mainly of buying new furniture and rearranging everything to try to get a bit more space in there.

We’re buying a smaller couch, getting rid of a couple of wing chairs that we never use, and are going to buy a flat panel mount to get our TV up on the wall. Once the TV is out of the way, we can remove the entertainment center and hopefully end up with more room to lounge around or play board games.

The new couch is coming in next weekend, and we hope to have someone come in to mount the TV at that time as well. Hopefully the room turns out the way we envision it!

I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but I think I have a good chance of winning one of my fantasy football leagues this year. It’s a college league and I have a huge lead with just a couple weeks left to play. I would basically have to get amnesia and forget to submit my picks in order to lose, so I’m already thinking about the prizes I’m going to receive.

I play in a “donate what you can” league where everyone tries to chip in a prize (no cash) worth at least $20. Most people offer to buy t-shirts or other gear featuring the winner’s favorite team, but a couple of the participants own stores and offer gift certificates. There’s a golfing store, a fishing store, and a motocross store in the mix, which means I can get some pretty good stuff.

I’ll probably walk away from this fantasy football league with several Notre Dame and Wisconsin tees, plus some Cobra golf equipment, a fishing rod, and some MX gloves. Not a bad haul just for picking the right teams to win!

Anyway, I hope I didn’t just jinx myself here! I’ll be sure to post some photos after I get all of my swag in. Until then, wish me luck!

I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to germs, so Wireless Wipes seem like the perfect product for me. These are antibacterial wipes that are specifically designed to clean cell phones, iPods, PDAs, handheld game systems, and other electronic gadgets with corroding their surfaces.

I don’t know about you, but I hate letting other people talk on my cell phone because it invariably gets returned to me with makeup, oil residue, or other nasty crap on it. I mean, it’s pretty disgusting!!

Right now, I just wipe down the surfaces with eyeglass cleaner and a soft cloth, but I know that’s not doing anything to the germs. You better believe I’ll be ordering a bunch of Wireless Wipes just as soon as I can!

What’s your favorite kind of souvenir to buy when you go on vacation? When I was younger, I used to love getting t-shirts from nearly every place I went to. But then I discovered that I had a very hard time throwing away my souvenir shirts even after they were clearly worn out, leaving me with overflowing dresser drawers and a closet full of old clothes.

So now I just buy magnets wherever I go, and slap them on my refrigerator when I get home. Magnets are fun to look at, don’t take up much space, and are easy to get rid of if I tire of them.

Problem solved!

I’ve been taking my fitness regimen a lot more seriously this year, and am pleased with the results thus far. I’m thinking of going a step further by purchasing MBT shoes, which are specially designed to help you burn extra calories and alleviate back, knee, ankle, and joint pain associated with walking on hard surfaces.

I’ve been reading about these shoes and have heard some really positive things about them. Apparently, it takes a little while to get used to walking in them because they have a curved sole that keeps you off balance (one of the reasons you burn extra calories is from continually trying to balance yourself), but after that, they’re pretty good.

MBT shoes are a bit more expensive than traditional footwear, but I think the expense would be worth it. I have to start saving now!

I was reading through some blogs today when I came across a post about a new clothing line called W-41. What makes W-41 unique is that the apparel, which the maker refers to as “techfashion”, features barcodes that can be read by cell phones, thereby directing people to a URL that you specify. This could be your personal website, Facebook profile, or anything else.

The idea is to make it easier to exchange information with new people that you meet.

I think this is kinda cool, but there are a few problems with W-41 at this point. For one thing, your new contacts obviously have to have cell phones capable of scanning the barcodes. For another, what’s to stop some random freak standing behind you at Starbuck’s or on the subway from surreptitiously scanning your info and stalking you?

Anyway, right now W-41 has short-sleeve tees, long-sleeve tees, and sweatshirts available. I wonder if anyone is using this stuff and if it works the way it’s supposed to.

I was a huge fan of the Moonlighting TV series when it was on in the late ’80s, and have wanted to grab the DVD collection for quite a while now. I picked up Seasons 1 and 2 when the combo set was first released a couple years ago, but I was so disappointed in the result that I took my time buying Season 3. Unfortunately, the disappointment continues with this box set as well.

First of all, this isn’t going to be a review of the episodes themselves. I’m just talking about the DVD collection here. For such a beloved, popular show that did some really cutting-edge stuff on primetime television two decades ago, this is a pretty cheesy box set. From the cheap packaging to the distinct lack of worthwhile extras, I can’t believe that this is the way I’ll be forced to remember Moonlighting .

There were only 16 episodes produced in Season 3, so this collection consists of four discs in plastic holders within a flimsy cardboard shell. Each disc is printed with the face of a main character against the backdrop of a gray moon: Maddie Hayes on Disc One, David Addison on Disc Two, Anges DiPesto on Disc Three, and Herbert Viola on Disc Four. There’s also a scant two-page printed guide telling you which episodes are on each disc.

There are just a couple of extra features included in this collection: audio commentary for four episodes (”Big Man on Mulberry Street”, “Atomic Shakespeare”, “The Straight Poop”, and “Sam and Dave”) and a 28-minute segment called “Memories of Moonlighting”.

I haven’t listened to the commentaries yet, so I won’t say anything about those, but I did see the “Memories of Moonlighting” featurette. That was pretty good, except that I wish Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd had had more to say. As it is, creator/producer Glenn Gordon Caron and other execs dominate the segment — and they mostly just talk about how the show was constantly plagued by production delays and how the network was constantly on their butts to get more episodes out. Kind of boring, really.

Anyway, as a Moonlighting fan, I’m glad that I have all these episodes at my fingertips and can relive Maddie and Dave’s adventures whenever I want. But at the same time, I can’t help but be a little sad that there wasn’t a lot more to this collection. Hell, I’d pay up for a really nice Moonlighting box set with all five seasons and tons of extras, and I think many other people would too. I guess it’s just too bad that we’ll never have that option!

Now that my son is learning to read, I’ve been trying to accumulate a small library of books that he can call his own. That’s why I thought it would be fun to buy him the “65 Years of Little Golden Books” box set, featuring six favorites from the classic collection. I grew up with Little Golden Books myself, so this can also fall under the heading of Nostalgia Purchase.

Anyway, the six books in this collection are: The Poky Little Puppy, Tootle, The Saggy Baggy Elephant, Tawny Scrawny Lion, Scruffy the Tugboat, and The Shy Little Kitten. In addition, the box set includes a blank book so kids can create their own story.

I was a bit surprised at how cheap these Little Golden Books looked and felt. They’re not even cut properly, so the pages end up sticking out beyond the covers, which is kind of annoying. I don’t think they were like this when I was a kid!

Otherwise, however, the stories and illustrations are just as interesting as ever, and I’m glad to say that my son loves all of the books already. We’ve read through them several times, and he always picks up something new on each pass through.

Overall, I think the 65 Years of Little Golden Books collection is a decent value. You get six books plus the blank one (which, frankly, I don’t think we’re going to use) for around $20, and they come in a box that helps keep them organized. I recommend buying this set — and as long as you don’t expect anything fancy in return, you won’t be disappointed!

I’m not much of a fan of animal crackers, as I think they taste far too bland to be one of my snacks of choice. However, I recently decided to try something called Stauffer’s Chocolate Chip Animal Cookies, as they appeared to be slightly more healthy (in terms of calorie content, transfat content, and calcium content) than other chocolate chip cookies out there — and now I’m completely hooked on these things!

Obviously, Stauffer’s Chocolate Chip Animal Cookies are intended for kids, as the cookies come in animal shapes and all that. But I like them because they’re satisfying and they actually taste good — just sweet enough to satisfy my cravings for a snack, yet not overly sweet so that I feel guilty after eating them. There are just 140 calories in a serving (10 cookies, which is a good amount), with about 13 servings in each 14oz. bag, making them a pretty good value all around.

As someone who is not enough of a chocolate chip fan to eat, say, Chips Ahoy on a regular basis, Stauffer’s Chocolate Chip Animal Cookies are a great alternative. These things contain just the right amount of chocolate and are delicious! Try them out for yourself if you haven’t already!

The Body Shop is having another terrific sale that I want to share with you. For a limited time only, you’ll get a free full-sized Body Butter moisturizer product (a $20 value) when you spend $20 in the store or online.

To get your free Body Butter in the store, you need to print out a voucher (drop me an email and I’ll send you one), and to get one while shopping online, you have to enter the code FALLTREAT at checkout.

This offer ends very soon, so if you like to pamper yourself with soothing, luxurious Body Shop products, start shopping right now!