Category: Shopping

New Shark Cordless Vacuum

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I’ve been wanting a cordless vacuum that could covert into a handheld vacuum for awhile now. I’m tired of using the attachment hose on our upright and having it fall and hit me. Usually it hits me in the head, but a couple of weeks ago it fell on my foot and bruised it, so that was it; I decided it was time to find something new. Our old Dustbuster’s battery hadn’t worked in years, and while we have two stickvacs that convert to handhelds, they are both corded and a pain to deal with.

I really didn’t want to spend $400 on a Dyson, however. We also don’t have a spot in the house to mount it to the wall. I did a little research and people seem really happy with the Shark cordless vacuums, so I started looking at those. Some models can be just as expensive as a Dyson, but I found one in the $250 range I liked. Plus it can stand freely by detaching the handheld part and hanging it on a hook on the larger section.

We’ve racked up a pretty large cashback balance with our Discover card. We usually cash it in for restaurant cards or Bath & Body Works, but haven’t used it much lately so it had gotten into the $300 range. Even better, they give you a discount on the card. I started looking at which retailers carried the vacuum I wanted that also had gift cards available through Discover. I settled on Kohls and wouldn’t you know it, not only was the vacuum on sale for $229, but there was a one-day only 35% off coupon on Sunday, bringing the total, with tax, to $183.27. I snagged a $180 Kohl’s gift card for $162 in cashback and paid the balance of $3.27 for the vacuum, which I received two days later.

After it was fully charged (which takes 2-3 hours), I used it to vacuum the area rug in the workout room, the laminate floor in all the rooms upstairs (it gets into tight corners in handheld mode), and to suck up dead ants in the dining room (they are the bane of my existence every spring).

This morning I used it to clean up the laundry room, foyer, and guest bathroom downstairs. It is so much easier to use than the regular vacuum with hose attachment. Quicker too. Best yet, it cleans the throw rugs without trying to eat them. I love it! I’ll probably only use the big vacuum for the wall-to-wall carpeting and the Shark for everything else.

The suction is really good, and for particularly stubborn spots there’s a boost option which gives it even more powerful suction. It’s really upped my cleaning game. I keep a pretty clean house as it is, but my laziness keeps me from keeping up with the crumbs and whatnot. With the Shark I don’t mind cleaning that stuff up on the daily.

There’s 3 bars that light up on it to keep track of the battery power left and it’s still on the second one after two days of cleaning which is good. I didn’t track the actual total time I’ve used it, but it’s supposed to last up to 40 minutes on a single charge. I told my friend that my only worry is that the battery will go bad quickly and stop holding a charge (like it did in my Dustbuster) but I hope that’s not the case for a $200 vacuum because a replacement battery is $75. Only time will tell, I guess.

Right now I’m keeping it in the office closet with the attachments in a small plastic trashcan. It doesn’t weigh much so it’s easy to move it between floors, unlike the Bissell vacuum. If it wasn’t for the wall-to-wall carpeting, it would be the only vacuum we need.

New Years Day 2022

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Despite waking up late and not wanting to do anything, we hauled our butts over to Kohl’s this morning since they are notorious for being dead on New Year’s Day. Snow was due later in the day so putting off a trip would have been unwise. I had two blankets to return and Joe returned two of my Christmas presents via their Amazon return desk (the box for the letterboard letters was too small and the tray for my Crosstrek, while very nice, actually made it harder to organize the middle console).

I wasn’t expecting to spend an hour there, but my return yielded $15 in Kohl’s Cash and Joe’s got $5, so we walked around the store looking for something worthwhile to spend the free $20 on. Let me tell you, it’s crazy how long it took to find something!

I finally found a grey Tek Gear pull-over hoodie and grabbed some Godiva chocolate near the register.

I used a 20% off coupon and was surprised that we still had to pay $1.37 since the hoodie was $14 and the chocolate was $4. Even with tax it should have been under $20, but I noticed on the receipt the cashier rang up the Kohl’s Cash before the discount. Now, I don’t know if that is how they are supposed to do it, so I wasn’t about to argue over a process I’m not familiar with. I don’t shop at Kohl’s very often, and I rarely use the Kohl’s Cash when I do. Bottom line: I got two nice things for less than $2 so I consider it a win.

We’ve spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing and I’m sure tomorrow will be more of the same.

Hulu & Bath & Body Works

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My cousin has been letting me log into her streaming services so we don’t have to subscribe to them ourselves. She insisted, by the way, I would never ask! She said no one is really using them so it made sense to share. I have discovered SO many great shows on Hulu, in particular. Who knew? We cancelled it almost a year ago now because we weren’t really watching it but now they’ve stepped up their game significantly.

Some of the shows we’ve been watching:

Black Jesus – Does the title character just think he’s the messiah or is he really? It’s never clear, but the show is funny nonetheless.

Dave – About a white guy who’s convinced he’s destined to be one of the greatest rappers of all time, but no one takes him seriously because his songs come across as comedy. Dave’s character is funny, but I love GaTa even more. That guy is intriguing and I hope he shows up in more stuff soon.

Only Murders In The Building – I was hesitant to watch this because of Martin Short, who typically plays characters I absolutely hate, but luckily he wasn’t insufferable and the who done it aspect of the show kept me intrigued.

Shrill – Starring Aidy Bryant (SNL), I feel so-so about this one. I like it enough to watch, but there’s a lot of cringe behavior too. Reminds me of how I felt about Michael Scott from The Office which makes it tough to watch sometimes.

What We Do In The Shadows – If you enjoyed the movie, you’re going to like the show even more. Nandor is my favorite, followed by Colin Robinson, the energy vampire.

As a small token of my gratitude, I sent my cousin a gift from Bath & Body Works, and luckily she tagged me on Facebook when she received it because it never told me it was delivered.

So what does she do? Send ME a gift like a week later! Funnily enough, she didn’t order the purple wallflower, so I guess they threw in a free one. I don’t care for lavender, so I’ve been putting off trying it.

Now I have to think of a way to send her something without triggering her to send me something back.

May Wrap-Up

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Happy Memorial Day? I dunno, does that sound weird considering what it represents?

Abandoned Golf Course

In any case, we started our day with a bike ride at an abandoned golf course and I once again was reminded that I’m not in that great of shape even though I walk on my treadmill multiple times a week (more days than not lately). I always think biking is going to be fun until I hit that first incline and then I’m guessing whose bright idea that was. Needless to say, we made it around one lap (approximately 15 minutes) and came back home. Definitely need to stick to flatter terrain like the park we sometimes take Wookie to for walks.

Memorial Day Lunch

I wish it was just a little warmer out today. It’s overcast (but not rainy) and in the 60’s which would be fine if we had some sunshine. But it wasn’t meant to be. We made some hot dogs for lunch and watched Sofi Tukker on their last scheduled live DJ set. They won’t be able to commit to a schedule now that they’re vaccinated and doing shows in real life. I’m sad that I won’t be able to count on seeing them weekly, or in person since they play either clubs (too loud indoors for my ears) or festivals (very expensive and unappealing). Oh well. I am looking forward to their new album which I suspect is being released very soon. Plus I’ve discovered a lot of other DJs on Twitch to listen to, some of which seem to have similar tastes to SF.

Oh, speaking of DJs, Moby did a live set right after Sofi Tukker the other night and I was so excited, but then let down. It was rather boring. Plus I’ve read some not so nice things about Moby so while I like some of his music he isn’t as appealing as he used to be.

In other music news, I don’t think I wrote about the Cure t-shirt I bought (online) back in March!

New Cure T-Shirt

A fan made it to commemorate the weekly Cure watch parties we’ve gathered to watch on Twitch. It’s my official 2020 concert t-shirt and not only is the design awesome (anything Wish-inspired always is), but it’s very soft and fits nicely, unlike pretty much all of my Cure shirts. Most of them were made with thick stiff cotton shirts that do not fit well (either too small or too large). I’m wearing the shirt today, in fact, since the colors seem fitting. I painted my nails red, white, blue (with a glitter overlay) too. I’m so fashionable!

Excursions & Food Stuff

Earlier this month we went to Lilacia Park in Lombard to check out the lilacs and tulips. I’m not going to bother posting any photos from that little trip because we missed peak bloom thanks to the rainy weather the week before so nothing was looking it’s best. It was nice walking around outside, however. Plus afterwards we stopped at the new The Original Rainbow Cone location for a treat.

Rainbow Cone

(This is what was left of my cone by the time I realized I should get a picture)

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about five flavors (orange sherbet, pistachio, palmer house, strawberry, and chocolate) of ice cream in one cone but I was pleasantly surprised – it was delicious! One thing I would change, though, is the size of the cone I got. I tried the baby one but for just $1.12 more you get a lot more ice cream in the small size. I’d definitely skip the baby size and go straight to the small. Or even better, I’d be tempted to buy a quart (currently priced at $12.49) and get some cones from the grocery store.

After earning TWO free drink coupons from Dunkin, I decided to try their new peach lemonade refresher yesterday and I won’t be getting that again.

DD Peach Lemonade

It smelled weird, like a tomato plant. I later realized that was the green tea which I forgot was in it. I’m bummed; I wanted to find a more affordable replacement for Starbucks’ shaken tea lemonade but unfortunately that was not it. So far other than the regular iced coffee, I do not like Dunkin’s drinks. Probably for the best since there is 320 calories in the large lemonade (32 oz). Interestingly enough, Starbuck’s trenta (large) is only 170 calories. I might have to treat myself to one at least once this summer. I have yet to try the peach.

Since Culver’s was across the street from Dunkin I snagged an order of their pretzel bites (a now permanent addition to their menu) and then we headed to the food truck near Walmart to snag a couple of corn dogs. We brought everything home and ate out on the patio. Those pretzel bites are sooo good! I’m glad they are $4.19 because otherwise I’d be ordering them far more often than I should.

I’m back up to 138 lbs btw. Shocking with all the eating I’ve been doing, right? I think I tend to top off at 140 lbs, or at least I hope so! I’ve actually been cutting back a bit. For instance, after all that food at lunch I had a very light dinner several hours later.

Retail Therapy & Shopping

We recently went to At Home to look for new folding patio chairs but didn’t have any luck. We also stopped at Bath & Body Works since I have a $5 gift card to spend but I didn’t see anything I wanted. Then a few days ago we went to Target for a few groceries and I had zero desire to even look at their Bullseye Playground section. I think this pandemic has soured me on shopping for the fun of it. It’s completely lost it’s appeal. I’ve moved into get what you need and get out territory.

That being said, we did go to Savers last Monday so I could look for a plain black t-shirt. I didn’t find one, but I did find two tank tops that cost under $4 total. Luckily they fit perfectly since the dressing rooms are still closed and they don’t offer refunds, only exchanges. The next day at Walmart I found a pair of capri leggings that would go perfectly with a grey tank top I had gotten at Savers a year or two ago. I love when that happens! I also snagged a vibrant pair of bike shorts that will be perfect for when I walk on the treadmill.

New Clothes

As I was photographing my new finds I realized the bike shorts have a pocket in them that is actually large enough for my iPhone. Not that I need it, but I’m sure it would come in handy for a lot of people. Oh, and when I was trying on my Savers tank tops at home Joe pointed out the black one still had the original Old Navy tag on it. Sweet! I got a brand new tank for $2.25.

So I guess you could say while I’m not about shopping much, I am not going to pass up getting a few new clothing pieces occasionally.

Misc Stuff

The other day my computer started installing updates and then stopped because I had ran out of space. You see, my computer has a solid state drive with a small capacity (250 GB). I have all my actual files on a regular hard drive, but unfortunately Apple is a bitch about installing iTunes anywhere but the main drive. While the actual MP3s are on that secondary drive, when iTunes backs up my phone it puts the backup on the main drive. My phone has a 256 GB capacity, and while it’s not full, it’s just a little under half full. You see where this is going, right? If I could just easily direct the backup elsewhere I would be ok, but it doesn’t seem to be that easy. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it requires messing with settings I’m not comfortable with. Plus these days my brain just doesn’t seem to be at the level it was pre-2019 sickness. Seriously, I have trouble with words sometimes and in general I feel like my processor is slow. Oh well. So Joe installed a new SSD today with twice the amount of space. All is right again with the world.

IZZE & Comforter Update

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I never heard back from IZZE after providing feedback about their customer service response. I recently checked their website and according to them only two stores in the entire tristate area carry the cherry lime flavor now – one in the city and one up north closer to where my friend lives.

Yesterday we stopped at Party City and I decided to check Mariano’s just in case. I truly wasn’t expecting them to have any in stock, but there was an entire row of them (about eight 4-packs) so I grabbed four. And they were still on sale for $4 instead of $5! $1 per bottle is a bit high, but I only plan on drinking one a week so it’ll last me a long time.

IZZE

I popped one in the fridge and ended up drinking it with my lunch and I have to say – it tastes better in the cans. Oh well, it’s not like I have a choice. I’m not buying a multipack of different flavors just to get 4 of the flavor I actually want.

Also I guess their website doesn’t really accurately track what they have in stock and where because it was listing my local store as being in stock when it wasn’t and now it’s not listed when it is in stock. That makes a whole lot of sense!

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Shortly after returning the comforter we bought from Home Depot, Target had a white comforter on sale for even less. It’s thinner, but it’s actually white, so it worked out nicely since we don’t sleep under the comforter anyway.