UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Quick-hitters:

- How come I never realized how addictive graham crackers can be?

Damn graham crackers. Good thing I don’t have any chocolate and marshmallows lying around…

- Current rebate-o-meter: ~$1,400. Apparently I forgot to enter about $400 in rebates that I almost completely forgot about!

And by “enter” I mean “I completely forgot about these items I ordered, and therefore I’m not even close to thinking about filing these rebates.”

I’m lazy.

- Hey Sprint! Did you loan out some of your CSRs to Sirius?

I was shopping through Sirius’ web site via AAA for a radio and subscription service. The site had a pretty nice deal: $14.99 for the Stratus 4 Dock & Play Kit, plus a free month of service and free activation. After notifying my sister of the deal, she quickly told me to order it for her.

When I got to the checkout, though, I saw the $15.00 activation fee in my shopping cart. I looked back at AAA’s website, and made absolutely sure that everything looked good. Free shipping? Check. Free month of service? Check. One year subscription? Check. So where’s my free activation?

I called the Sirius/AAA hotline, and almost immediately, a guy with a thick accent answered. He asked me for my name, phone number, and address, but I pointed out that I was not yet a subscriber, and just had a question or two about a AAA promotion. I pointed out that AAA members get free activation when ordering online, adding the fact that I did sign up for a one year contract.

The moron asked me to read the serial number off the back of my radio. Strike one.

I reminded him that I was not yet a subscriber, and wanted to sign up for service. I stated again that I was supposed to get free activation as a AAA member.

The moron, matter-of-factly, stated that it was “policy” to charge the $15.00 activation fee. Strike two.

At this point, I was furious, so I decided to speak in my one-word-at-a-time, near-the-top-of-my-voice voice (which will, from now on, be known as the “IVR voice”), pointing out again that I was signing up through AAA’s site, and the site clearly mentions that AAA members get free shipping AND free activation.

The moron told me that he would research it with “somebody,” and he put me on hold. When he came back, he acknowledged an error on the site, and that I should only be charged $10 for activation. Foul tip…

I screamed, “TEN DOLLARS IS NOT FREE!” That’s when the rep dropped this bomb on me: he said that his coworker insisted that the activation charge was correct!!!

(Now I’m assuming “coworker” != “supervisor.” For all I know, maybe he did mean supervisor. For now, though, I am not giving him the benefit of the doubt.)

One final time, I adamantly pointed out that I should be getting free activation. That’s when I heard his “coworker” in the background utter “It’s right! It’s right!”, to which the trained seal stupid rep responded with something to the effect of “There is a $15.00 activation fee, which is policy to charge for new subscriptions.”

*click*

Strike f**king three.

EDIT: Wanting my sister to share my pain, I had her call back and try to get a supervisor on the line. “Jay” answered her call, and while he wouldn’t transfer her to a supervisor, he did append our order for free activation. There were some issues getting the radio she wanted for $14.99, but he eventually fixed the pricing of the kit as well. He was ready to put the order through, and he asked my sister if it was OK to put her on hold.

She did. And, in-freaking-explicably, she “accidentally” hung up on him.

She immediately called back, and tried to find “Jay.” The first rep explained that she couldn’t do so without his extension. The second rep she spoke to wouldn’t put the order through, insisting that the price of the radio was wrong. While being on hold with a third rep, and she inexplicably hung up while on hold a third time!

(Apparently the rep I dealt with cursed us.)

When she called yet again, she again demanded a supervisor. Tired of waiting being placed on hold for so long, she hung up and called again. Finally, she got a rep that spoke English!

This rep instructed my sister to order the service through sirius.com, and once the order was in the system, the rep was going to manually waive the activation fee. How do you suppose that went?

After the order was submitted, the rep put my sister back on hold, and attempted to manually credit her account. When she came back on the phone, naturally, she told us that she could not credit the account. Instead, she told my sister to call back when she receives the radio, and request the credit upon activation.

Hey, stupid rep: if you couldn’t credit the account right now, what makes you think one of your fellow morons reps is going to be able to credit the account when my sister calls in to activate the radio?

Several calls, zero supervisors, two headaches…and we aren’t even customers yet. Awesome.

- Paul Pierce went 2 for 14. Kevin Garnett went 6 for 21. The Lakers held a double digit lead in the first half. Kobe Bryant shot 18 foul shots. Sasha Vujacic scored 20 points.

And after all that, the Lakers still had to fight for a Game Three win? That can’t bode well for the Lakers’ chances in the series. Then again, Lamar Odom was non-existant for three quarters, Pau Gasol got a couple key offensive rebounds, and Derek Fisher had another ineffective game. So did the Lakers really win, or did they just not lose?

Speaking of Sasha, what a great game he had. Killer treys, irritating defense, but not a single shot of him adjusting that thing he had in his head that keeps his hair manageable? And I loved the little tussle between PJ Brown and Jordan Farmar.

If Pierce and Garnett give Boston anything decent in Game Four, and Odom and Gasol rebound as well, who wins Game Four. You have to give the Lakers a slight edge, all things considered, don’t you? Then again, a dominant Pierce might be all Boston needs to win Game Four and end the series in six games at the most.

Note to Phil Jackson: Trevor Ariza does not belong on the court, much less checking Paul Pierce or Ray Allen.

Until next time!

Tags: boston celtics, free activation, incompetent csr, kevin garnett, kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, paul pierce, sasha vujacic, satellite radio, sirius, stratus 4 by Peter
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I’m going to go sports-free today.

In other words, I’ve got tons to rant (and a little bit of raving) regarding customer service issues.

(Warning: L O N G blog entry today!)

Quick-hitters:

- So I just signed up for a free seven day trial of Sirius Internet Radio.

(I know…I’m WAY late to the party).

So far, I like the idea of commercial free radio, though I was hoping that the stations were COMPLETELY interruption-free (every now and then, the DJs insist on interjecting their thoughts between songs).

You could say that I’m testing out Sirius to try to convince my sister to sign up. With her AAA card, she should be able to get a decent deal on service + a radio, though nothing close to the $0 deal that was posted on SlickDeals recently, which even included a $30 gift card!

- I understand that credit worthiness is as understood as Mars, but I gotta wonder why Discover card is willing to offer me a promotional 0% balance transfer rate for a year, Chase is offering the same—as well as 2.99% for life (and that check is still sitting on my desk just in case)—but Citibank insists that their 0% for 4 months or 7.99% for life offers are worth my time.

Worse, while Discover only offers me this when I log into my online account, and Chase sends me balance transfer checks about once a quarter, Citibank insists on sending me these checks 2-3 times a week. I guess that’s why I bought a Staples MailMate shredder.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,049, with at least $200 “cut” (check written, and en route to me.)

Current unfiled-rebate-o-meter: $500 or so

(I’m so lazy.)

- Screw you DHL, and you too, idiot driver! I had a package scheduled for delivery on Wednesday, but I was not available to sign for the package (it was signature required). I got the notice on the door that night, and the next day, my sister was around to sign for the package.

That evening, the driver never came around! I checked the status of the package, and it said that a delivery attempt was made at 2:54pm! Ok…then where’s the second notice, remarking that Friday would have been DHL’s third and final delivery attempt?

I was around all day on Friday, awaiting the package, and around 7:00pm that night, I checked the status of the package again, and it appeared that the package never made it into the hands of the driver! WTF???

I called DHL earlier today, and the rep flatly told me that it was returned to sender. When I asked him why only two delivery attempts were made—by my count, there was only one delivery attempt, but whatever—the rep told me that the first delivery attempt was made on Tuesday.

(WRONG! Look at the status page! And I’m completely ignoring the fact that the package went to the wrong shipping facility on 6/2, a day before the supposed first delivery attempt!)

The rep asked me if I received a notice, and I pointed out that I received one on Wednesday. I then explained that, if the second delivery attempt was made on Wednesday, then why did I not get a notice on Tuesday? In addition, if this was the second delivery attempt, then wouldn’t I have been notified that the next delivery attempt would have been my last?

That’s when the rep dropped this bomb: he said that the driver scanned the package three consecutive days, and that the third scan was done on the sixth.

(If that’s the case, then wouldn’t the first scan have come on the fourth, and not the third as the rep mentioned earlier?)

The rep added that, regardless of what the online tracking says, three scans = three delivery attempts. I pointed out that the driver might have been at my front door once out of the three attempts, and the rep would not budge on his three scans = three delivery attempts argument.

I’m almost 100% convinced that, after Wednesday’s delivery attempt—regardless of which delivery attempt that was—the driver didn’t even try to contact me via the intercom on Thursday, and didn’t even bother to attempt a delivery on Friday. Good thing the package contained nothing of great importance.

I suppose DHL guy still isn’t as bad as the FedEx driver, who really loves to throw packages against my front door. And as much as I think the UPS guy is not at all funny, at least he cares enough to leave me notices every day that he attempts a delivery.

And I don’t want to hear, “Well, if the package was important, then why didn’t you sign the back of the notice?” One, even if I did so, I’m not even sure that the driver made a second or third delivery attempt! How can he leave a package without stopping by my front door? Two, I still live in the complex where an LCD was stolen from my front door, and someone’s boxed up broken tuba (!!!) was stolen from their front door!

Screw you, DHL.

- After all that ranting, I think it’s time to switch gears. I submitted a $30 rebate for Windows Live OneCare, which, according to my records, was mailed out on 5/6/08.

The rebate check showed up in my mailbox today.

(In a world where rebates takes 8-12 weeks, usually from the date of receipt, but sometimes from the date of the end of the promo, or even 30 days after the end of the promo, a rebate that takes four weeks to receive is awesome.)

I checked my email inbox and noticed that I had only gotten notification that the rebate processor got my submission on 5/27 (the email itself arrived 6/3). Thirteen days—nine business days—from receipt to a check? Wow!

Even funnier is the fact that, when I checked out my online rebate status, it says this:

Date received: 05/27/08

Date checked mailed: 06/19/08 (est.)

Estimated check arrival date: 06/29/08

In other words, the rebate processor still thinks the check is only in the processing stages!

Incidentally, Microsoft rebates are handled by Young America, the same company that processes TrendNet rebates (rejection rates = Ray Allen’s free throw shooting percentage; really really high, in other words), Corel and Office Depot rebates (really really slow), and Sony software rebates, which leads me to my last story…

(Young America also used to handle Kaspersky rebates, and while I had no real problems with Kaspersky rebates handled by these guys, many people on SD weren’t so lucky).

- Three days ago, I checked the status of a pair of Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 rebates at web-rebates.com. One rebate was good to go, but the second rebate had this little remark attached to it:

Submission did not include an original UPC from Movie Studio 8

Now, the UPC was a sticker, which I stuck smack dab on the top edge of the rebate form. Certainly you can see how a moron could miss that, right?

(Unless the piece of invisible tape I used to further stick the UPC to the rebate form yellowed in transit, and thus blocked the UPC from plain sight, I guess…)

Naturally I did what I do best: I sent a hate-filled email to their customer service desk, using the webform found here. This morning, I got this reply:

Dear Mr. Ung,

Thank you for your interest in the Sony rebate offer.

We have reviewed your request and find the UPC was submitted. Your $30.00 rebate has been processed.

Please allow 10-14 days to receive your rebate check.

We apologize for the error and the inconvenience incurred.

It’s good to know that these rebate processors don’t mis-see (:P) UPCs, and then immediately trash the rebate submission afterwards, which begs the question: why don’t they? If a rebate submission is clearly invalid, then why keep them?

Perhaps it has something to do with rebate companies trying adhere to a strict quota of only processing a select percentage of rebates…

(Nah.)

Tags: balance transfer checks, chase, citibank, dhl, discover card, frys, idiot driver, internet radio, microsoft, missing UPC, rebates, return to sender, satellite radio, sirius, tracking, web-rebates, windows live onecare, young america by Peter
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I didn’t watch much of the Detroit-Boston game, partially because I watched the Dodgers choke away another lead against the Cubs, and partially because the game kinda bored me to tears :P.

Quick-hitters:

- Oh dear…for the fifth time today, I’ve seen that stupid McDonald’s commercial that insists on telling me what the ingredients are in their new Southern Chicken Sandiwch…in Spanish.

Pan. Pepinillo. Pollo. Phuck off.

(Yeah, I’ve got issues.)

McDonalds needs to take note of the latest DQ commercial, where the dad refuses to share his ice cream with his kid until the kid repeats a really long word (EDIT: antidisestablishmentarianism), which the kid does. Now THAT’s funny.

- Backache update: it was really stiff this morning, but loosened up dramatically as the day went on.

I’m guessing that the 8 Tylenol I’ve popped throughout the day helped, though it might be time for me to think about buying a new mattress…

The real crappy thing about the backache is that I haven’t been able to lift weights lately. Argh…

- So Bobby Petrino couldn’t find a better way to resign from the Atlanta Falcons, eh? I heard this story on The Jim Rome Show earlier today, and Petrino’s quote, if accurate, is borderline stupid:

When asked if he could have handled it any differently, he said, ‘Not that I know of. Because of the timing of it and both sides of the fence, that is kind of how it worked out. It was a situation where you have no other choice.’

Pardon me for being repetitive (as in, repeating what Rome said), but you couldn’t find a better way to resign than leaving non-personalized cards in each player’s locker? You had no other choice but to quit on your team without even a face-to-face talk with them? And timing??? There were four games left in the season! You couldn’t stick around that much longer?

(Obviously not, as he was in Arkansas doing their team cheer not long after “resigning.”)

Idiot.

- Speaking of idiots, when will Joakim Noah figure things out? Days after being arrested for marijuana possession and having an open container of alcohol, he then proceeded to commit a pair of traffic violations on the University of Florida campus. Well done, genius. Why not go for the trifecta and commit petty theft? I don’t know about most people, but if I get busted once for something, I’m going to make damn sure that I don’t get busted doing something else for, at the very least, the foreseeable future!

I love this quote by Noah’s father:

“I don’t understand all that fuss for just drinking a beer on the street,” Yannick Noah said Tuesday at the French Open.

All that fuss? It’s freaking illegal! Maybe if your son didn’t commit a crime, there wouldn’t be any fuss!

Idiots.

- Let’s lay off the idiots for a while and talk about my Memorial Day weekend.

The short-short-short version: CVS, food, food, and lots of food.

Yep, I spent an hour or two of the weekend at CVS. Hey, I couldn’t resist more free stuff, including Sobe Life Water bottles for better than free after rebate!

(Off topic note to self: Never, ever, buy MetRX protein bars again, even if they’re better than free after rebate! When I chew on a “Chocolate Roasted Peanut” bar, I expect the filling to be of a different color than the chocolate coating.)

I also hit up another Ross, and to my amazement, I found a sweater I had returned a few weeks ago. I checked the tag, and noticed that the sweater was marked for clearance at $9.99, or half what I originally paid for it! Naturally, I re-purchased it :P.

As far as food is concerned, I think I ingested 10,000 calories on Sunday. For lunch, my dad made some steamed pork dish that was awesome. My mom, not to be outdone, made this crepe dish filled with ground chicken, chopped long beans, bean sprouts, and shredded coconut. I wish I knew how to make that.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, my mom and aunt decided that they wanted to BBQ that night. They bought several New York Steaks, which they were going to cube and use for kebabs. I managed to snag two steaks (one for me, one for my sister), seasoned them with kosher salt and black pepper, sprinkled them with some melted butter, and grilled them to medium rare. Damn…I’m not sure why I never thought of using butter on my grilled steaks before! I’ve always done so when I pan-fry a steak, but now I know how well butter works on a BBQ’ed steak!

The kebabs were made with cubed steaks marinated in Korean BBQ marinade (why???), and arranged with mushrooms, green and red bell pepper, tomatoes, and Italian squash. Have I ever mentioned how BBQing makes veggies so damn tasty? As if that wasn’t enough, we also had chicken wings and drumettes, marinated in the same Korean BBQ marinade.

We also had grilled pineapple, which was amazing, and I think I ate the equivalent of half a pineapple. I couldn’t resist! Between the pineapple, the three or twenty kebabs I managed to inhale, the few chicken wings that happened to find its way onto my plate, and the steak, dinner had to be somewhere around 5,000 calories :P.

If the weather permits, I might BBQ again this weekend.

Tags: atlanta falcons, backache, bbq, bobby petrino, chicken wings, idiots, joakim noah, kebabs, marijuana, memorial day, new york steak by Peter
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Quickie blog tonight. Expect tomorrow’s blog to have two Office reviews, both last week’s episode, and the season finale.

(Tangent: Season finale??? Don’t the writers and producers owe us a few extra weeks of television shows after the writer’s strike? And what about the DVD sets for this season’s TV shows? There’s no way that these shows can charge us full price for a half-season’s worth of episodes, right?)

(Tangent #2: Dwight Schrute just announced that he is running for VP on John McCain’s ticket on The Tonight Show! He’s got my vote :P)

(Tangent #3: Howard Dean just offered Dwight Schrute two flamethrowers. I sense a change in loyalty.)

One quick-hitter:

- I can’t believe I have not seen this video before, but check out the curve on this curveball!

Clayton freaking Kershaw. Let’s hope he’s closer to the next Sandy Koufax than the next Darren Dreifort.

BTW, Andruw Jones got two hits today??? CRAZY!

- Ross is officially evil. I went back there today to return a few items of clothing, and got ~ $50 returned to my credit card. That’s when I decided to do some quick shopping.

After browsing through the clearance racks, I ended up buying two pairs of shorts and a cheap T-shirt, and I almost walked out with a $55 jacket marked down to $10.

I’ve been to Ross five times in the last two weeks now, and even though I’ve made returns three times, I haven’t walked out of the store without purchasing anything. Grrrrrrr.)

(Tangent: Speaking of evil stores, my sister walked into Target last night to look for one item.

She walked out with a nalgene water bottle and a copy of SingStar Rocks with two microphones (clearanced to $24.99 from $49.99). The hilarious thing about the trip to Target was the fact that we thought the store closed at 9:30. It was 9:15 or so when we got to the store, and we made a pact to bee-line towards the one item she needed.

Once we found out that Target closed at 10, the spending spree began :P).

(Wow. Four tangents in a single blog? This must be a record!)

- I could easily flip over my assessment of Game Four of the Lakers-Jazz series on its head, and it would be wholly appropriate. There were some pretty questionable calls—Gasol practically ran over Harpring in the fourth quarter, and Odom was barely touched on his dunk that was assisted by Gasol.

(By the way, Okur completely flopped on the critical offensive rebound and dunk by Gasol. As if Gasol could shove a seven-footer, 250+ pounder six feet with his left arm.)

It’s easy to blame the refs for bad calls, but that would ignore the real reason by the Jazz probably blew their best chance to steal the series: the third quarter. How many chances did Utah have to take the lead in the third quarter? Missed layups, bricked jumpers, and TOs…THAT’s the reason why Utah gagged away Game Five. Add a dash of Pau Gasol, and Utah has to be kicking themselves right now. Was he huge or what down the stretch of Game Five?

And has anybody seen Carlos Boozer? How has he disappeared in the three games at Staples?

One quick comment about the Celtics-Cavs game: I almost pulled off an unprecedented double Ung-hex. Early in the game, the Cavs were up by double digits, and I declared the Cavs the winner of the game, going so far as to say that the Cavs were going to win the series in six games.

Late in the fourth quarter, I switched over to the Dodger game, figuring that the Cavs were done. When I switched back to Cavs-Celtics, the Cavs got within four points. Too bad the Cavs couldn’t pull off my double Ung-hex the victory.

Until next time!

Tags: clayton kershaw, clothes, curve ball, double ung-hex, evil, jazz, lakers, mehmet okur, pau gasol, ross stores, target by Peter
2 Comments »

Sorry, no Office review tonight! I really didn’t expect the Spurs-Hornets game to be THAT entertaining!

Quick-hitters:

- Does anybody own a Treo 700 series, specifically the 755p? My sister’s 755p is in a never-ending reboot loop, no matter how many times I soft- or hard-reset the damn thing. What the hell is causing this, and how the hell do you fix it?

The last I heard, she took the PDA to the Sprint store. Hopefully Sprint stores are not as clueless as their phone reps can be.

- Best Buy sent me this email earlier today:

Dear Peter,

In an ongoing effort to improve our services, we’d like to hear about your experience of having BestBuy.com products shipped. Please click the button below to fill out a brief survey about your recent purchase on 05/01/2008, including [items purchased]. It should only take a few minutes.

Thanks for helping BestBuy.com serve you better!

Usually, I have zero desire to fill out these surveys. However, in this case, I have less than zero desire to fill out this survey. You see, this order is currently on backorder!

Nice job, Best Buy!

- I get a balance transfer (BT) offer from either Chase or Citibank (boooooooo!) practically every day.

(Who doesn’t?)

Normally, these checks find their way immediately into my shredder. Most of the time, I get BT checks on my lowest-limit credit cards—$1,200 and $2,000—or on my primary credit card. If I’m going to take out a BT, I’m not going to “waste” my time on a small balance like $1,000, nor am I going to take out a big BT on a credit card that I use everyday. (Why? So I can pay 12% on my purchase balance?)

Today, though, I found a very interesting offer in the mail from Chase on my second-highest limit card, on which I already have a low-interest (3.99% for life) BT. I’ve received BT checks on this account before, but usually the offers range from weak—4.99% for life—to pathetic—1.9% for six months, and then the purchase APR applies. However, I got two different offers today:

• 0% until 2/09 (yawn)
• 2.99% fixed for life

2.99% for life? Considering that the existing BT on the card is at 3.99%, it would be reasonable to expect future offers to have a higher interest rate, especially when you consider that payments apply to balances with lower interest rates first.

I wonder what my credit score is if I’m being offered a 2.99% balance transfer rate. I know people with good-to-excellent credit card scores that are offered 3.99% rates for life.

- (from Consumerist…just spotted a minute or so ago, that is) I normally don’t shop at Walgreens, usually because CVS deal hunting takes up most of my time as it is :P. However, if one of my local Walgreens pulled crap like this, I’d boycott all the Walgreens in the area for sure.

Cliffs: woman falls into diabetic coma near the checkout register, two nurses and an officer nearby administer OJ and sugar, someone pulls a glucometer off the shelf, woman is rushed to hospital, manager runs out in a hissy fit and demands that somebody pay for all the items.

Seriously? Mr. Manager got pissed off over the loss of an EIGHTEEN DOLLAR GLUCOMETER, as well as some OJ and sugar? From the way he acted (according to the nurse and officer), they used his Gluco-tech 5000 series Professional Blood Glucose counter (accurate to 0.0001%!), went to the appliance section, grabbed a high-end juicer, stole an orange that the manager was saving for a snack, juiced the orange, and gave the patient the juice.

Walgreens’ statement was priceless:

“We’re sorry for the misunderstanding. The store manager didn’t arrive on the sales floor until after the paramedics have left, so he didn’t realize a medical emergency had taken place.”

So the two frantic nurses, the officer, the missing glucometer, and the sirens in the distance, not to mention the obvious commotion in the store, weren’t enough of a clue that a medical emergency had taken place? Not to mention, I think a “misunderstanding” is a slight understatement. At least Walgreens was nice enough to offer a refund on the glucometer…

Question: if the store manager insisted that the accounts of the nurse and officer were wrong, why did he not attempt to explain what really happened?

I hate to imagine what would have happened if the woman had bled on the carpet. Would the manager have demanded compensation for the carpet shampooer he would have needed to clean up the stains?

- Quickly…

It’s about time the Spurs’ Big 3 finally showed up for a game in this series. For three quarters, it sure looked like the Hornets were well on their way to a monumental sweep. I still think the Hornets will win this series, and I like their chances in Game 4. Manu’s got a bum ankle, and Duncan hasn’t been nearly as effective as he has in years past. If the Hornets find a way to slow down Tony Parker, the Spurs are cooked.

For the first time all series, we saw the fluidity that the Spurs offense possesses at times: quick passes down low to Duncan, forcing the double team, followed by several passes to open shooters or cutters. And was that a Michael Finley sighting?

For years, the Spurs were called “boring” and “unwatchable,” but I became a passive fan of the team.

(I know, I know. BLASPHEMY! And BLAS-for-you! BLAS-for everybody in the world…)

I just loved how professional the team was—a Robert Horry hip check notwithstanding—and I became quickly impressed by how easily they were able to reload their teams to contend for championships each year. Of course, it helps to be able to build around a cornerstone like Duncan. As far as their boring offense is concerned, sure, running their offense through Duncan could be considered boring, but it was damn effective, was it not? And now that Tony Parker has flipped the switch and is utterly dominating games with his speed and ridiculous finishing ability, how can anyone call this team “boring” any more? Who wouldn’t like Parker v. Paul to go a full seven games?

As far as the other game tonight is concerned, how about them Cavs and the greatest player in the history of the NBA? Is it bad Cavs offense, or excellent Celtics defense? I refuse to say a little of both, and I’m giving credit where credit is due: to the Celtics’ defense. I know that the C’s had a highly rated defense, but after watching bits and pieces of these two games against the Cavs, I know see why. It’s not that LeBron’s settling for jumpers; it’s that LeBron has no choice but to take jumpers!

Should the Cavs lose this series (I actually had them winning in six, and would now like a mulligan :P), we can’t pin this one on LeBron. Cavs fans can start blaming the Celtics’ D, and I hope this doesn’t cost Cavs’ coach Mike Brown his job.

Until next time!

Tags: balance transfer, best buy, cavs, celtics, chase, chris paul, hornets, reboot loop, sprint, spurs, survey, tony parker, treo 755p by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- Cavs v. Celtics thoughts: I missed the game completely (more on that later), but I was astonished to find that “King” James only went 2-for-18. As soon as I heard that, I assumed that he had to have been fouled several times w/o getting calls.

Apparently that was not the case. “King” James will have to wait another game to earn his moniker.

- I picked myself up a Linksys WRT54GS from Staples for ~ $5 after some FAR items and a $20/100 coupon. Now I gotta decide whether or not I want to hack and flash it with some third party firmware, or just use the stock firmware.

One key deciding point: this router is for use at my parents’ place, not here. I’ll probably just leave it as-is :P.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1450. I got a ton of rebates in the past week or so—about $300 worth of Symantec Rebate debit cards alone!

I know have over $400 in unspent Amazon.com gift certificates.

(Every time I receive a Symantec Rebate debit card, I immediately convert it to an Amazon.com GC, which I add to my Amazon.com buyer account.)

- Sprint’s customer service is awesome. Don’t believe me? Read on!

Back in January, I extended my contract in exchange for a 10% discount on service. The Sprint rep I spoke to told me that I would see the 10% discount on my account effective within the next two statements.

In April, the 10% still didn’t show up, so I called Sprint, and the rep I spoke to assured me that the 10% would show up on the next statement.

Fast forward to yesterday, and the 10% was still nowhere to be found. I called Sprint again, and here is our conversation (paraphrased):

Me: My 10% discount still hasn’t shown up on my account!

CS: Ok…well…it’s there, and I can’t do anything about it. It will probably show up next month.

Me: Probably? And what if it doesn’t show up next month?

CS: (laughs) Then you can call back and yell at me.

I love Sprint.

- So I swung by Ross today with my sister to return a shirt I bought over the weekend.

That’s when I found a really nice golf polo (Adidas ClimaCool something or another) for $20, marked down from $70. I couldn’t resist, though I’d say it’s 50-50 that I return the shirt sometime in the next week or so.

Anyway, when I got to the checkout line—single line, but multiple registers—I noticed three people in line, followed by a little gap, followed by a shopping cart full of stuff. I looked at the cart, wondered if it actually belonged to somebody, and before I could make up my mind, the owner of the cart came up to it—she had been looking through a rack of clothes near the line—nudged it forward, and gave me a death stare, as if to say “Yes, this is my cart, and yes, I’m in line, a$$hole.”

So I stood behind the lady’s cart, and she went back to her shopping. The line moved some more, and I just stood behind her cart, like an idiot. A guy was behind me, wondering what the hell the idiot in front of him (me) was doing just standing there, and the gap between the cart and the person in front widened. I seriously contemplated just shoving the cart out of the way, but the woman came back, nudged her cart forward again, and walked off.

I told myself, “If I’m the next person in line, and the woman doesn’t return, I’m cutting in line no matter what.” Unfortunately, the woman came back right when one of the cashiers shouted “next in line!”

One other bit of shopping cart ridiculousness: later, when another cashier called for the next person in line, two older ladies went to the register. One of the cashiers asked the trailing lady, “Were you in line?” The lady responded, “Of course! I was with this woman (pointing to her friend) all the time!”

That’s fine and dandy…HAD THE TWO WOMEN COMBINED THEIR PURCHASES AS A SINGLE TRANSACTION! But nope, the second woman waited for her friend to finish checking out, and then started emptying her cart in front of the register, expecting the cashier to start checking her out! And yes, the cashier reluctantly started scanning the second woman’s stuff.

Oh how I hate stupid people.

- Fifteen dollar ($50 retail) box seats. Chicken nachos, Dodger Dogs, and peanuts. Not-so-obnoxious fans (and if they were obnoxious, it was in a funny way). Blake DeWitt hitting his second career HR in inside-the-park fashion. A couple of B-level celebrity sightings (twice!). What could have ruined tonight’s Mets-Dodgers game?

Answer: the possible existence of an even more powerful, faster-acting Ung-hex!

The Dodgers were up, 5-4, in the bottom of the ninth inning, with two outs: a long fly out to center by Moises Alou, and a hard ground out by Carlos Delgado on a great play by 1B James Loney. The crowd stood up, and my sister and I joined them. That’s when I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, my sister putting her backpack on. I immediately told her, “Take that off!” She didn’t listen.

Single by Angel Pagan.

I told her again to take off the backpack. Instead, she handed me my sweater.

Single by Brian Schneider.

I grabbed her backpack, and slammed it on her empty seat. I tossed my sweater on the seat as well.

Strike three, looking, to Luis Castillo.

As we celebrated, I told my sister, “You lucked out. If I hadn’t removed your backpack, we would have lost!” She denied the existence of her own Ung-hex, but who could deny it after what happened above? Never has my Ung-hex worked THAT quickly, and THAT effectively.

The seats themselves were pretty decent—aisle 44, next to the right field foul pole, and row T, just underneath the overhang of the Loge section—and thank goodness that there were no really obnoxious fans near us. The concession stands were a heck of a lot nicer than in other sections, and there was a much larger variety of restaurants. Also, the bathrooms were really nice! Instead of a trough, there were actually urinals :P. Also, while there were paper towel dispensers, the bathrooms also had Dyson Airblades! Awesome!

The game was excellent, although it was clear that Dodgers’ pitcher Hideki Kuroda was going to have a rough game. Thank goodness for the play of one Blake DeWitt (who?): 3-4, 4 RBI (2-run single with the bases loaded, and what proved to be a game-winning inside-the-park home run that had the home crowd demanding a curtain call with a “We want Blake!” chant.

(Who needs Andy LaRoche? Nomar who? BLAKE DE-WITT! BLAKE DE-WITT!!!)

As for the celebrity sightings, it was nothing much to write home about. Once we found our seats, we immediately got up and visited the concession stands. A few seconds into our walk, and I noticed three men walking the opposite way. I caught a glance of one of them, and thought he looked familiar. My sister immediately chased me down, and exclaimed some gibberish that I don’t quite recall.

(She LOVES the show.)

Turns out that Detective Don Flack (Eddie Cahill) and CSI Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) were the two celebs she spotted. On the way out of the stadium, we spotted them near the Field level exit (I was 99.999% positive that that was them, and my sister confirmed it, muttering “OMG OMG that’s them!”). I quickly told her that I would walk past them, and then bend over and tie my shoelaces, to give her an opportunity to go bother them.

She chickened out. By the time she gathered herself to do something, they walked away.

(If this is how we act in front of B-level celebs, what would have happened if we saw Gary Sinise?)

Until next time!

Tags: blake dewitt, box seats, carmine giovinazzo, cavs, celtics, checkout, csi new york, customer service, Dodger Stadium, dodgers, eddie cahill, firmware, inside-the-park home run, mets, rebates, ross, shopping cart, sprint, wrt54gs by Peter
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Long post today, so let’s get right to it.

- I decided that it was time to update my wardrobe (read: buy new clothes). On Saturday, armed with a pair of coupons—30% off at Foot Locker and 20% off at Macy’s—my sister and I went to Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks.

After a quick browse through Macy’s, our first stop was Foot Locker. After about five minutes of browsing, and thirty seconds of trying out one pair of shoes, I decided on the Nike Air Max Tailwind 2008. I just loved how the shoes looked, and the fact that they were comfortable as hell was all the convincing I needed. I wasn’t really looking for a pair of running shoes; I really wanted just a pair of cross-trainers or something similar.

The re-visit to Macy’s was fruitless, so on Sunday, we swung by Ross. Normally, Ross has quite a few sections for me to browse through, so much so that I get sick and tired of looking after several racks’ worth of clothes, and just give up. The Ross I visited, however, had only one small section of athletic shirts, so I was able to finish shopping in a few minutes. I scored a couple Reebok PlayDry shirts, as well as a really ugly (but really nice!) T for $4.

We had to go on a food run, so we went to 99 Ranch, Costco, and JONS Supermarket for a ton of food. I had a hankering for some salsa—it might have been influenced by Cinco de Mayo—so I mixed up a quick tomato salsa (chopped tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped cilantro, chopped roasted Jalapeño peppers, fresh lime juice, and Pico de Gallo seasoning).

While at Costco, I couldn’t resist one of their take-n-bake pizzas; I forget what it’s called, but it has fresh tomato, basil, and globs of mozzarella cheese on it. That was seriously the best take-n-bake pizza I’ve ever had.

Sunday night, I decided to bake some chicken coated with seasoned flour (AP flour, kosher salt, and some Mrs. Dash). After 50 minutes in a 400 degree oven, the chicken came out super-juicy, although the skin was a bit bland. I should probably have coated the chicken in egg first, before applying the flour, but I was lazy :P.

I also bought some frozen Buffalo Wings from Costco; that will probably be my dinner, along with the leftover pizza. Damn…now I’m super hungry again.

- So after watching the MVP do what MVPs do, I gotta say that the Lakers are in serious trouble despite pulling out a Game 1 victory. Certainly the rest helped, coupled with the fact that the Jazz played two tough playoff games in 48 hours, but clearly there was some rust to knock off as well.

At least, Laker fans better hope it was rust, and not a thorough domination by the Jazz on the offensive glass. Twenty-five offensive rebounds??? Plus-seventeen in total rebounds? Was that Memhet Okur or a in-his-prime Dennis Rodman crashing the glass? With Games 3 and 4—and the Jazz’s 37-4 home record—looming, the Lakers better shore up the defensive glass, or the series could easily end in six games.

It’s a good thing that the Lakers have the MVP, who apparently owns an annual pass to the free throw line. I’m actually surprised that Kobe missed two freebies! Anyway, the Lakers better hope for better rebounding, better shot selection, and more solid defense on Utah’s two stars. I have a feeling that Deron Williams will not shoot 5-for-18 in Game 2, and Boozer likely will not commit seven turnovers again.

Something tells me that Utah will pull out Game 2, win Game 3 handily, and lose Game 4 in a nailbiter. If all that happens, I don’t expect a home team to lose again, and the Lakers will win the series in seven games. Then again, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Jazz win in six.

One other NBA thought: the hard foul that Hawks’ F Marvin Williams committed on Celtics’ G Rajon Rondo was an extremely harsh foul, and it did warrant a Flagrant-2. However, I did not think Williams intended on injuring Rondo at all. What Williams did was extremely dangerous, but Jeff Van Gundy hit it right on the head: 1) it looked like Williams tried to grab Rondo, but Rondo was already airborne, and an attempted grab ended up being a near-clothesline; and 2) if Williams really had a play on the ball—one criterion required to deem a foul a flagrant-1 at worst—why didn’t he attempt to go for a block instead? Was the play dirty? Yeah. Was it with intent to injure? I don’t believe so.

Until next time!

Tags: baked chicken, clothes, costco, flagrant foul, foot locker, jazz, kobe bryant, lakers, macys, marvin williams, mvp, nike air max tailwind 2008, pizza, rajon rondo, rebounds, ross, salsa by Peter
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This blog was supposed to be posted last night, but in typical UngsungBlog fashion, I misremembered :P.

(Because of that, I went ahead and added a few thoughts, if that’s OK with my loyal readers.)

Quick-hitters:

- So I got my Columbia sunglasses yesterday from Campmor.com, and after trying them on for a bit, I really like them. I haven’t tried them out in sunlight yet, to see if I could tell the difference between polarized and non-polarized lenses, but I’m most likely going to keep them. They feel a heck of a lot more comfortable than my Oakleys, even though the wire frames bend at a pretty severe angle, no thanks to my big head.

- Boy was it HOT the last two days! Real-Feel temps in the low-100s on Sunday in MPK, followed by a much more bearable mid-90s here in the Valley on Monday. I think I drank about ten gallons of iced tea these last few days alone.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1900, and that includes the $250 in checks I received since my last update.

- Armed with a $25 Amazon.com GC (courtesy of my Amazon.com VISA), and a half-off coupon on select chocolate snacks (CHAWCLAT), I decided to purchase some snacks.

I think I went a bit overboard with what I bought:

• 8 8oz. tubs of Good Sense Dark Chocolate Pretzels
• 12 8.5oz. bags of Harmony Foods Yogurt Raisins
• 24 3.5oz. bags of Harmony Foods Yogurt Pretzels

I just hope the heat doesn’t ruin my snacks.

Total cost, after the GC: < $10. Now let’s hope I have the willpower to not polish off the entire order in a few days :P.

- After watching the conclusion of the Nuggets-Lakers series last night, one thing was evident to me:  if the two teams played ten times, the Lakers would win nine, and Denver would win the 10th on a couple of bad calls, lucky bounces, and Laker rim-outs.  Anyone watching the game could have sensed that Kobe was going to explode in that fourth quarter, so I wasn’t surprised when he did.  Look at the sequence that ESPN’s John Hollinger so eloquently described:

Not that he can’t do it — the final six minutes Monday were a tour de force at both ends. In that time he scored 14 points, blocked a shot, stole a pass and drew two offensive fouls.

He made a 3-pointer and a driving layup basket to break open a tie game, then hit a jumper over Kenyon Martin when the Nuggets briefly took a one-point lead. He turned his attention to defense and drew the fifth and sixth fouls on Martin by charging out hard and drawing illegal screens, knocking his primary defender out of the game.

Back on offense, he drew the fifth and sixth fouls on his next defender, Carmelo Anthony, by attacking off the dribble to draw blocking fouls — removing the Nuggets’ best scoring threat. His runner in the lane with 40.7 seconds left sucked the air out of Denver’s final charge, and his physical D on J.R. Smith and subsequent steal with 18.2 seconds left sealed it. And just for good measure, he rejected Linas Kleiza’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer.

Personally, I thought that one or two of those fouls were ticky-tack at best, but you know what they say about superstars and fouls in the playoffs.

So did the Lakers steamroll Denver, or did Denver roll over?  I’m going to cop out and say it’s a little of both.  The Lakers were just playing way too well to lose the series, but Denver had their chances to win Game 4.  At least they didn’t commit any absurd technical fouls.

(Tangent:  Why is it that when one is confronted with a “Is it A or B [that caused something to happen] question, 99.9% of the time, the person will say it’s a little bit of both?)

A couple other quick playoff thoughts:

1) Is it just me, or is Mavs F Josh Howard playing like he’s high?  I was watching parts of Game 5 of the Mavs-Hornets series, and I saw him miss a few jumpers BADLY.

(Note to any player who is going to come out and admit marijuana use:  you might want to play well in the game(s) following the admission.)

2) I expect the rest of the Western Conference first round to end tonight (NO over DAL, SA over PHX, UTA over HOU), and after tonight, we can officially declare the two big “panic” trades in the West—Shaq to PHX; Kidd to DAL—failures, leading to the firing of both coaches.  I do hear Pat Riley is available, though (more on that later).

(As far as Shaq is concerned, note that his teams have never done well in Year One of his stay at each stop.  I actually expect the Suns to be pretty damn good next year.  Now if they could only avoid SA or LAL next year…)

3) Is Boston doing a little looking ahead to Cleveland, or is Atlanta really that talented?  I’ll say a little of both :P.  But seriously, I thought Boston was going to mow over everyone en route to the NBA Finals.  Now, Doc Rivers might not get his team out of the first round.  Joe Johnson looked like freaking Michael Jordan in the fourth quarter of Game 4; why did Rivers not make a defensive switch?

And finally,

4) Is Washington really trying to prove that they are the dumbest team in the history of the world?  First, DeShawn Stevenson ran his mouth, then Arenas, and now Brendan Haywood???  Apparently, Haywood and the rest of the Wizards are sick and tired of LeBron’s whining:

“Awww,” Haywood said, in a whiny, high-pitched voice to mock James. “They are trying to hurt me.”

“I mean, come on, man, this is the playoffs,” Haywood said following yesterday’s practice. “He wears 23, he wants to be Michael Jordan, I can respect that, he’s a great player. You saw what Mike went through. Mike got fouled way worse than this. No one is trying to hurt him, everybody is trying to play basketball, trying to play tough. Play basketball and leave it alone.”

Look, I understand that playoff intensity translates into harder fouls, but that does not give you the right to hammer LeBron with flagrant-2s!  I’m not saying this as a LeBron fan; personally, I turn off the TV when I see him on SportsCenter (I can’t stand the hype for the guy!), but even LeBron doesn’t deserve to be treated as a punching bag.

By the way, Haywood, why don’t you heed your own advice and play basketball?  Last I checked, you guys are trailing 3-1.

- So Pat Riley doesn’t want to coach anymore?  Larry Brown wants to coach again, and so he took a job with Charlotte?

In other news, water is wet.

Riles, I’m pretty sure ANYONE would be tired of coaching after tanking games to earn extra ping-pong balls enduring a 15-67 season.  Then again, should the NBA freeze some envelopes to give Miami the #2 pick (behind New York’s #1, of course) which they would use to draft Derrick Rose, and then somehow trade for an impact big, who would be surprised to see Riley abruptly end his retirement yet again?

I will neither confirm nor deny that I suggested that the NBA has fixed the lottery in the past.

I wonder if Riles would be willing to move to Phoenix; I hear they may need a coach.  And who wouldn’t want to coach a pair of MVPs and one of the most dominant power forwards in the league?

As for Larry Brown…bored again, eh?  I’m about ready to dub Brown the Paris Hilton of coaches.  Is he just trying to coach every team in the league?  Charlotte?  What is so enticing about Charlotte, other than its proximity to Chapel Hill?

If (when?) the Bobcats stink up the joint next year, how much do you want to bet that Brown will take some “recruiting trips” down to Chapel Hill?

Until next time (later tonight?).

Tags: amazon, campmor, chocolate, coaching, columbia, heat, lakers, larry brown, lenses, nba playoffs, nuggets, oakley, pat riley, polarized, pretzels, raisins, rebates, snacks, sunglasses, sweep, yogurt by Peter
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No quick-hitters tonight; I’ll save them for next time.

- While it was fun to see my three-year-old (not four yet, as I said earlier!) nephew this past weekend, I also got a headache from seeing him.

I constantly had to remind myself that he was a three-year-old.  Whining, crying, bitching…and that was just my reactions to his behavior!

It was good to see the kid again, though, even though he is much too smart for his own good.

(Tangent:  I found out, this weekend, that my laptop’s lid could support the weight of a small child!

How did I find out?  Well, my nephew thought it would be fun to crawl over my laptop—it was laying on the carpet, in front of me.  As soon as I heard the lid buckle, I instinctively shoved the kid off my laptop (I might have shoved him a good three feet; I forget how strong I am at times), fired it up, and was relieved to see it boot up.

Who needs a Panasonic toughbook? :P)

- I can’t believe nobody took my bet regarding the XG/MGE fiasco I’ve been dealing with over the past year:

I’ll lay 2-1 odds to anybody who is willing to bet that I will, within the next four weeks, receive the second rebate check.

Anyone who would have taken the bet would be counting his/her money right about now.  On Thursday, I got the second XG/MGE Company check for $19 that was owed to me!

Finally, I can close this dark chapter of my life :P.

- Time Warner keeps advertising on my television that they do not nickel-and-dime like the phone companies do.  I can attest to that!  I don’t think Time Warner has ever nickel-and-dimed me.

Case in point:  my Time Warner bill has gone up from $61, to $65, to $72, in a span of three months!  That’s no nickel-and-diming; that’s a pretty significant rate hike, no?

Kudos, Time Warner, for keeping your word and not nickel-and-diming customers.

By the way, on my most recent bill, there was this gem:

“This statement reflects your new 2008 pricing as previously communicated.  Please see the next page for the new pricing.”

Either Time Warner “communicated” this new pricing scheme via telepathy, or they issued a statement regarding these price increases via television…during the latter part of last week, when my TV signal and internet connection were flaky as hell.  By “flaky,” of course, I mean “works for ten minutes, and then goes out for two hours.”  Of course, there’s also the possibility that Time Warner NEVER SENT ME ANYTHING REGARDING THESE PRICE INCREASES.

All I know for sure is that Road Runner (Time Warner’s HSI) used to cost me $34.99 a month, then it went up to $39.99 a month last month, and now it’s costing me $44.99 a month.  Remember, though:  Time Warner doesn’t nickel-and-dime, and they certainly didn’t do so here!

I’ll update my List soon.

- Finally, I’ve been hearing all NBA season that this year’s playoffs were going to be the most competitive playoffs of all time.  The Eastern Conference first-round didn’t look compelling, save the Washington-Cleveland series, but wasn’t the Western Conference first-round supposed to be all potential seven-game series?  Weren’t we supposed to see at least one “upset” in the making?  Wasn’t Denver’s 1-2 scoring duo of Melo and AI supposed to push the Lakers?  Weren’t the Hornets supposed to be too young to contend against the Mavs?  Weren’t the new-look Suns supposed to push around the suddenly-aging Spurs (save for tonight)?

I see three 3-1 series leads for the favorites, and a series heading for a four game sweep.  Yes, I’m burying the Nuggets right now.  What a horrible performance by the Nuggets’ stars on Saturday!

BTW, Melo, “we” didn’t quit…at least, not all at the same time.  It sure looked like YOU quit first, and then your team followed suit.  I guess coach George Karl better start updating his resume, and either AI or Melo better start packing their bags.  Clearly the Melo/AI experiment is NOT working.

Other random NBA playoff thoughts:

1) What took so long for the Suns to show something against the Spurs?  Could they be working a miracle comeback?

(Nah.)

2) T-Mac, enjoy your vacation.  Maybe you and Gilbert Arenas could go fishing together or something.  They could take coaches Karl, D’Antoni, and Avery Johnson with them!

(Tangent:  Is D’Antoni really on the chopping block if the Suns get eliminated?  Last I checked, he wasn’t the one that traded for Shaq!)

3) Anyone see Al Horford smack-talking the Celtics after Atlanta’s Game 3 victory?  I thought Joakim Noah was the “vocal” one of Florida’s two championship teams of not so long ago.

4) Raise your hand if you didn’t know that Toronto and Orlando were facing each other.

The NHL playoffs couldn’t find the Tor-Orl series on TV.

I’m tired, so that’s all I’ve got for tonight.  No NFL Draft thoughts, by the way, for no reason in particular.

Tags: AI, melo, mge company, nba, nephew, nuggets, playoffs, rate increase, rebate, time warner, western conference, xgbox by Peter
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I’ll be splitting up today’s blog into two parts. On with part 1!

Quick-hitters:

- I am so mean. On Sunday night, my mom got a call from my 3yo nephew up in Elk Grove, and according to her, the kid wanted to talk to me (”I WANT TO TALK TO PETER!”).

What did I do? I turned him down, because I was playing poker.

Boooooooooooo to me.

(I’m hanging my head in shame as we speak.)

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,910; I added $30 to the -o-meter, but got a $19 rebate check (more on that later). Current toothpaste-o-meter: unchanged (25).

At the rate I’m going, though, I may need to add other -o-meters to this blog (more on that later) :P.

- I’ve owned a pair of Oakley Bottlecap sunglasses for about two years now, and the one thing I regret about the purchase is the fact the lenses are not polarized.

(To be fair, I didn’t really purchase these sunglasses; my sister allowed me to pick out a pair from Sunglass Hut for my birthday two years ago, and I chose not to spend too much of her money.)

No thanks to this thread, and the unnamed individual who showed it to me, I went ahead and purchased a pair of Columbia Tigertooth 3030 Polarized sunglasses (black/gray; link points to Dick’s Sporting Goods because Campmor is out of stock of the Tigertooth). For $26, I figured that I could easily give them away if I don’t like them, if they don’t fit well, or if I’d rather wear my Oakleys.

Hopefully they arrive this week.

- Here’s yet another update to the ongoing XG/MGE fiasco that I’m dealing with: I actually received a check from these guys on Friday!

It was for $19 (half of what I’m owed), but I guess that’s a hell of a lot better than nothing, right?

I’m probably going to fire off another email to these guys tomorrow, and see what the deal is with my other $19 rebate check. I’ll lay 2-1 odds to anybody who is willing to bet that I will, within the next four weeks, receive the second rebate check.

- After hitting up several Ralphs, CVSes, and Rite Aids, with the assistance of my two sisters, I ended up with the following loot:

• ~50 Pure Protein bars for my sister’s full body nutritional makeover; it helped that I bought ~ 30 $1.50 off 2 coupons on eBay. At $1 per bar, 2 bars would cost -$0.50 ($2.00 - $1.50 coupon - $1.00 double). I’d usually buy 4 per transaction, and get all four bars for free ($4.00 - $1.50 coupon - $1.00 double - $1.50 coupon; neither Ralphs nor VONS doubles more than one coupon per transaction).
• ~ 20 ZonePerfect protein bars. I had a ton of $1/1 coupons that I also got from eBay, and I would buy 2 bars at a time, even though buying just one bar would generate a $1 overage per bar ($1 - $1 coupon - $1 double). Unfortunately, I could only use one coupon per transaction.
• Ten Adidas 3 Deodorant sticks, all free after coupon; again, with assistance from eBay, I scored ten free deodorant coupons. I’m actually not sure why I bought these coupons; after all, who pays for deodorant?

(Tangent: There is a deal hunter’s adage that says that one should always target a cashier that appears to be not paid enough to care when attempting to bend the rules of a promotion. In my case, the free deodorant coupons state “only one coupon is redeemable per purchase.” Now, I consider a “purchase” a single item in a transaction; by that definition, buying two deodorants would be considered two “purchases,” which would allow me to use two coupons. In contrast, the ZonePerfect bar coupons specifically state “limit 1 coupon per transaction,” and thus I won’t even try to use two coupons on a single transaction.

Between me and my sisters, we made a total of five transactions, each purchasing two free (after coupon) sticks of deodorant, at two different stores. For four of the five transactions, the cashier was able to scan both coupons without much difficulty. The fifth and final transaction, however, which I paid for, was problematic. The cashier, a stern-looking middle aged woman, immediately took both of my coupons, waved one at me, and said “I can only accept one coupon. Do you want me to void the other purchase?”

I later found out that CVS also carried the deodorant for the same price as Rite Aid, and they had several different flavors! The Rite-Aids, by comparison, only had two different flavors. I should have just gone to my favorite CVS—in Encino—and found my favorite cashier; I know she wouldn’t have given me a problem at all using several of the coupons at once.)

• Three Speed Stick 24/7 deodorants (-$1 a pop after ECBs). I now have over 20 unused sticks of deodorant…again, why the heck did I buy those free Adidas deodorant coupons???

At the rate I’m going, I better start selling some of this stuff to my neighbors

(And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I am trying to find ways to get rid of some of this stuff. I’m sure I’ll find some takers eventually.)

Until next time!

Tags: columbia, cvs, deodorant, mge, oakley, rite aid, sunglasses, tigertooth 3030, xgbox by Peter
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