Category: Shopping

Apple Watch

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It probably comes as no surprise that I ended up getting an Apple Watch.

Friday (12/16) Joe came home work and told me he had gotten some American Express gift cards, and between that and finally selling the coffee table he had restored over a year ago, it would cover the watch and I should get it. He wanted to surprise me, but he knew I wasn’t sure which one I wanted (SE or Series 8), nor what color/size case.

He mentioned Target had them on sale through Saturday the 17th which put me into a bit of a panic since I needed to make a decision quickly. Needless to say, I spent the entire evening looking at options and using the Apple Store app on my phone to compare the watch case to the Amazfit Bip 3 to get an idea of how it would look on my wrist.

I finally settled on this one:

Apple Watch Series 8 GPS 41mm Silver Aluminum Case with White Sport Band – S/M

Initially, I thought I wanted a black one, but I didn’t care for the fact that the midnight case isn’t truly black, but instead a very deep blue. I briefly considered the Starlight color, but I tend to wear cool tones, so silver seemed to match better and would be more versatile with different color bands.

As for size, I felt the 45mm one was a bit too large for me and would be heavier than the watch I was currently wearing. The 41mm one is 1 gram lighter. I excitedly ordered the watch and then had to painstakingly wait until Wednesday (12/21) for UPS to deliver it.

It arrived with a nearly dead battery so the first thing I did after letting it come to room temperature was charge it. Luckily, I was aware of the absence of a power brick, so I had ordered one from Amazon which, in a stroke of perfect timing, arrived a half hour after the watch did.

Small rant: I think it’s shitty of Apple to not include everything you need to actually charge the watch. Imagine buying the watch as a gift for someone and not knowing this. Here’s something you can’t use until you buy something else. It’s pretty presumptuous of them to think someone getting a watch already has the appropriate plug when they recently changed from lighting to USB-C. I owned exactly zero USB-C compatible plugs until now.

First Impressions

The silver case is even nicer looking than I pictured, as is the white sport band. White is not a color I ever really wear so I was kinda bummed I couldn’t get a black band, but I’m actually really digging the white after all.

It’s heavier than the Amazfit and hurt my arm at first. This is because the band has more heft to it. It also takes getting used to with the way it fastens and then loops back into the side of the band against your arm. Initially I really didn’t like that, but now that I’m used to how it feels it’s not bad, and the bonus is the band cannot not get caught on anything since there’s no exposed excess.

The screen quality is stunning and even though I chose the smaller case, I can see everything quite well even with my bad eyes (I need progressive lenses ASAP).

Pros

I love how easy it is to customize watch faces and switch between them on the fly. You can store a bunch of them in memory.

Watch faces are interactive & offer at least one, but usually many, Complications (Apple’s term for small interface elements that users place on the clock face). For instance, if you add a weather complication that shows the temperature, tapping on it with your finger will bring you to more detailed weather data.

Notifications are intelligent – if your iPhone is locked, notifications will only make noise/vibrate on your watch. If you’re actively using your phone, they won’t bother you on the watch since you’d see them there immediately.

You can make/answer calls from the watch.

You can control media from the watch such as Spotify, podcasts, YouTube, etc. although you cannot actually listen to that media directly from the watch’s speaker.

I can keep better track of my hydration with the water app I have installed. Spoiler alert – I never drink enough.

The Activity app helps motivate me to move around more during the day and exercise at a higher intensity in order to complete my goals.

Cons

Audible notifications on the watch all sound the same regardless of which app they come from (with the except of phone calls). I wish you could mirror the same sounds as the phone since some notifications are more time sensitive than others.

There’s no Complication for steps as Apple doesn’t think they are as important as how much overall activity you have per day. I really don’t like Apple telling me what to do. I have just gotten into step counting and don’t like I need to install a 3rd party app to see that information at a glance. Apple tracks it, but I have to click on Activity and scroll down to see my steps. That is obnoxious and the 3rd party app wasn’t syncing the data correctly, so I ended up uninstalling it.

Conclusion

Despite some of the frustrations I have, I really love this watch! It’s very functional, and looks great too.

Retail Therapy

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This weekend we decided to get out and do a little fun shopping which we haven’t done much of in the last few years. What I mean by that is we go out specifically looking for stuff to buy without an exact item in mind. Perfect places for this are used media stores, so we headed to an area that has both a Half Price Books and a Disc Replay within steps of one another.

Unfortunately we didn’t find much at either, but that’s to be expected since their inventory is always changing. The HPB by us is much bigger but our Disc Replay closed several years ago which is a shame as it’s really fun to browse there. They had two huge bins of Atari games that we rifled through, but no copies of Seaquest were found. I am well aware I can buy it on Ebay, but I like the thrill of the hunt. I’m still looking for seasons 5 & 8 of Scrubs as well. I found every single season except those two recently. What are the chances? We ended up with a $1 copy of The House Bunny but the entertainment value was worth much more.

I was craving soup on the way home so we stopped at Bulldog Alehouse to get a bowl of cream of chicken & rice. Despite it having a cheesy flavor, I really liked it. Price wasn’t bad either.

Gorillas & Monkeys on TV

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We don’t go shopping just to look for stuff very often anymore, but we were bored recently so on Saturday (08/20) we went to Half Price Books and actually found a few things.

I had no idea Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 even existed so it was a cool find. Unfortunately, we were unable to test it out when we got home because my Atari (from my childhood in the mid 80’s) decided to stop working. But no worries – Joe did some research, ordered an Atari repair kit, and was able to bring it back to life!

This game is so lame haha!

DK looks more like Oogie Boogie than a gorilla, but I still think it’s cool to have the game. I added it to my collection. I still want to get SeaQuest and a few other games that I think my brother still has in the depths of my parents’ house, but no one can seem to find (Jungle Hunt, Keystone Kapers, and Pitfall).

We also saw Code Monkeys on DVD but I was leery about getting it as they wanted $8 and it said made in Mexico on the back. I checked Amazon and they were selling a new copy for $11 so I ordered that instead.

I hope they end up releasing the second season on DVD too. It’s so funny! You can stream it on Peacock if you want to check it out.

Saturday (08/27) we stopped at Kiss The Sky record store. I love that place! We didn’t end up buying anything, though. Saw some interesting things, though, including a Cure record which was really songs of side projects which I ended up listening to on Spotify. So glad I didn’t get it! I’m not against collecting stuff, but I’ve grown more intentional about what we bring into the house. I don’t want to end up with a ton of stuff that never gets touched.

Bath & Body Works

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Sometimes I want to buy all of the things, which is counter to my desire to own less stuff in general. And sometimes it makes me really happy to get new stuff even though I really don’t want to be that way.

In any case, here’s what I got at Bath & Body Works today after I learned their rewards program is changing on Wednesday, July 20th. Instead of getting a free item after spending $75, you’ll now have to spend $100, and I was only $7.50 away from $75 so I wanted to snag my free item before they moved the goal post.

Therefore, last night I placed an order online for in-store pickup since the soaps were on sale for $3.25 each (and it’s a good thing I did since the sale ended yesterday). I got two White Tea & Sage and one Kitchen Lemon since both scents are neutral ones that can be used any time of the year. I also had a coupon for a free body care item $15.50 or less. Of course one of my favorite scents, Marshmallow Pumpkin Latte, was $16.50 so I couldn’t get that. Warm Vanilla Sugar will have to do, then.

I got a text this morning at 8:39 saying my order was ready for pickup. That didn’t seem right to me, so I called the store. Surprisingly, an employee picked up, but they confirmed what I already suspected – they weren’t open yet. Luckily I thought to confirm that or I’d have been pissed showing up to a closed store. I guess they prepped the pickup orders early which prompted an automated text/email. They really should add some verbiage to them saying to check to make sure the store is open first, or program the system to delay sending the notification until the store is open.

I got there at 10 am when they opened and saw that Halloween stuff just came out. After picking up my order, I refreshed my app a few times until it updated with my free item reward so I could get this cute glow-in-the-dark skulls candle holder.

Skulls Candle Holder

I’m pretty sure this is the first home décor item I’ve purchased this year. Wow, I made it an entire six months without buying a decorative item. Halloween stuff always gets me, though!

I also picked up a new wallflower scent – wicked vanilla woods – to try. I hope it’s good! I had to smell the body lotion to get an idea of the scent and sometimes the wallflowers don’t end up smelling the same. I already have two wallflowers I want to take back and exchange for a better scent once the fall ones are completely out.

Here’s my total “haul”.

I spoke to a very nice employee who helped me with the free reward situation (I wasn’t sure if it would appear immediately or whether I could use it right away) and let me know my favorite scent, Honeycrisp Apple, should be showing up in stores next month.

This place really knows how to drive demand. Every single day it seems there’s a new limited-time sale, and they restrict scent availability to certain times of the year so you can’t stock up on your favorites in a single shopping trip. If you like seasonal scents they have a guarantee you’ll be shopping there at least 3-4 times annually. Who else does this? I’m pretty sure you can get any Yankee Candle scent at any time of the year.

It’s my fault for giving them my business, though. I can’t help myself, especially when everything I get is actually free thanks to gift cards I get via Discover’s cashback bonus rewards. I have a problem.

Craving A New Camera

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Over the past 3-4 years I’ve rarely picked up my DSLR camera. I kinda lost my passion for photography and defaulted to using my iPhone to take photos. It actually does a great job for closeups and wide angle shots, but where if falls short is wildlife photography. You need an actual camera with a long telephoto lens for that.

With my growing interest in birding this year, I’m feeling unfulfilled with my camera equipment. My DSRL is 14 years old and my newest/largest telephoto lens is 7 years old and not the best piece of glass. I think it’s time to upgrade to something more robust. Cameras have come a long way and I’ve been drooling over the idea of having more than 9 auto-focus points. The newer Canons have an animal tracking feature that would really be helpful as well.

Here’s the problem – I don’t even know whether I should stick to DSLR or go for the newer mirrorless cameras which are quieter, but go through batteries far quicker. The shutter on my current camera scares the hummingbirds so a mirrorless camera is tempting, but I’d need to buy an adapter if I want to still make use of my current lenses. That’s assuming I stick with Canon and don’t move to an entirely different system. It also doesn’t solve the issue that I want a better telephoto lens anyway.

On top of that, there are too many choices! Canon’s site alone lists too many camera bodies and even when comparing them I’m having a hard time figuring out the differences that would matter to me. I’ve been perusing DP Review but it’s not been helping much. Information overload!

Another problem is I don’t want to spend a lot of money. The older I get, the harder it is to spend money. Which is ironic, because thanks to saving & investing, we have more money now than we did back when I was buying $1000+ cameras every few years. To get the kind of shots I crave, I’d probably have to spend $4000 between a camera body, high quality telephoto lens (the ones I’m interested in are in the $2000 range), and a better tripod. I could save money buying used, but even then I’d still be looking at $1000 or more depending on the lens.

Another drawback besides money is the big lenses are heavy! Like 4 lbs before you even add the camera. It can get annoying real quick.

I feel like I’m at an impasse here. I’d like to visit a camera shop to take a look at inventory in person, and speak to an expert who might be able to steer me in the right direction, but the local ones have very limited hours. I wish they were open on the weekends since Joe is at work during the week. One shop in particular even lets you rent cameras and lenses, and while it’s not cheap, it could potentially save me money if I were to find out I didn’t like something before investing in it.