UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

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
No Comments »

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
3 Comments »