Saturday, January 17, 2009

What to buy?

Thanks to the holidays and my recent birthday, I have a stash of cash to burn through at Amazon.com. Elvi is going to California in February, so I'll have stuff shipped there and she can bring it home.

I'm stumped on what to buy, though.

I don't need any books. I'm all stocked up thanks to other redeemed gift certificates. I'm reading Stephen King's "On Writing" and have some David Mamet on the on-deck shelf. I have all the music I need, and I don't see the point in ever buying DVDs so long as they may be rented (except for "Futurama", that is, and then only the original series. As far as my psyche is concerned, there is no "Futurama" after the final holophone concert. Well, I'll make an exception for all 22 minutes of "Everyone Loves Hypnotoad" (check out the comments here).

Leaving aside media, I'm left with clothes, home furnishings, sporting goods, and consumer electronics, the last also known as toys.

I can't fathom buying clothes over the Net. What fun is that? There's always the risk that it will make my butt look big. Or that it will make me look short, which most of my clothes do. Strike that as an option.

Home furnishings... seriously? Next!

I did look at sporting goods. Child Three is always in need of goalie-equipment upgrades, but we do live in Hockey Freaking Central and a 20-minute drive beats Amazon.com's selection and prices. Every so often, I think of buying a decent pair of running shoes and of getting back to running (I was on my high school's pathetic cross-country team for the one race we participated in) but that's not really gonna happen, is it?

So, we're left with toys. At the top of the family's wish list is a Wii Fit. Elvi's sister brought hers over the holidays and we all enjoyed using it. All the vendors at Amazon.com, including Amazon.com, charge US$130 plus shipping, however, and MSRP is US$90, about what we'd pay locally. That 50% mark-up is tough to stomach.

Elvi suggested I get a cell phone. I am the last adult in the Northern Hemisphere without one. Thing is, I don't need one. I might if I ever left the house, but I work from home and the landline works fine with better quality. I can think of an occasion every month or two during which I'd like to have a mobile phone, but I can't justify the monthly expense for an account, at least not for now.

Other ideas that popped into my head were an Apple TV or Time Capsule, but I don't stream enough media to make the first useful and I don't have OS 10.5 to make any benefit from the second not a pain in the ass. (I currently back up via a RAID.)

What's left? Some Wii games, I guess. I'm thinking NHL 2K9 and Boom Blox, but that still leaves a lot of cash on the table. Elvi suggested a Webkinz samoyed, but we already have something like that, with the added bonus that it pees in the hall.

Do you have any suggestions?

2 Comments:

Blogger quibbler04 said...

Here's a radical idea; put it away for a rainy day or an eureka moment.

January 18, 2009 4:17 AM  
Blogger Naila J. said...

Hoggin' All the Covers by Band from TV:
http://is.gd/gHUe

And other random music choices you've always wanted to try (and have potentially downloaded for that purpose).

Also, favourite movies or books that you'd like to own but just haven't gotten around to purchasing.

January 21, 2009 10:04 AM  

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