Updated as new pumpkins are carved. Enjoy. :)
Tribute to Michael Jackson
If you are not in the practice of visiting woot.com on a daily basis, you need to start. Like right now. Here, I’ll even make it easier : click here.
I recently bought this Acu-Rite Wireless Digital Cooking and Barbeque Thermometer for $12.99. The thing retails for $20.99 – $28.57.
But what’s even more amazing is their most recent development, kids.woot.com. Papa just bought us a diaper backpack for about 20 bucks that retails on Amazon for $102!!!
In case you’re already a fan of woot! and I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, you should also check out BabySteals. It’s kind of a woot!-type deal-a-day for babies and mommies. (Also check out the secret archive at babysteals.com/archive where, unlike woot, you can buy leftover goodies from past steals.)
Happy wooting. :)
Looks like I have a new Kindle quest…
Today, it was announced that the Kindle 2 is taking another price cut. Forty bucks. And I want it back.
(I just realized I said $60 in my e-mail to Amazon customer service. Oops.)
(And yesterday I said the first price cut was $100 and it was really $60. Oops x2.)
The following story is from Market Watch.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Amazon.com Inc. cut the price of its Kindle electronic-book reader for the second time this year, as competition continues to grow in the fledgling e-book space.
Late Tuesday night, Amazon /quotes/comstock/15*!amzn/quotes/nls/amzn (AMZN 93.11, +2.20, +2.42%) announced that it cut the price of the Kindle by $40 to $259. The move comes just three months after the company slashed the price tag of the device by $60 — equating a total price reduction of 28% during that period. See full story.
“In our view, the price cut is Amazon’s response not only to economies of scale but also to growing competition,” Sandeep Aggarwal of Collins Stewart wrote in a note to clients Wednesday morning.
The company also announced that it would sell an international version of the device — one that can purchase and download books in more than 100 countries. Previous versions of the Kindle could only be bought and used on wireless networks inside the U.S.
In a statement, the company said the international version of the Kindle will sell for $279 and will be available for shipping on Oct. 19.
The price cut and new international version are likely part of Amazon’s efforts to get in front of the growing competition in the e-reader market. Sony Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!sne/quotes/nls/sne (SNE 28.00, +0.37, +1.34%) has updated its line of e-reader devices, with at least one model priced at $199 — lower than the Kindle.
Also over the next few months, new devices from Netherlands-based iRex and U.S. startup Plastic Logic are set to hit the market.
Shares of Amazon were up 2.6% at $93.27 in early trading Wednesday.
The company does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle, but analysts believe the company has sold more than 1 million units since its original debut in the fall of 2007.
The Kindle allows readers to buy and download books through a wireless connection and read them on the screen. More than 350,000 books — plus magazine and newspaper subscriptions — are available at Amazon’s Kindle store.
One drawback for rivals has been their inability to match the number of new titles that are purchasable through Amazon. Yet they say they are working with publishers and other booksellers, including book-seller Barnes & Noble, to match Amazon’s offering.
Dan Gallagher is MarketWatch’s technology editor, based in San Francisco.
This is pretty poopy…
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, I’m pretty sure you remember my Kindle obsession from preceding posts. All my efforts to tell the world of my need for one did not result in a Kindle shipped to my book-nerd hands, free of charge, as planned. Same goes for the 17 contests I entered. My luck does not cover Amazon, I guess. However, given the ole $100 price drop and new circumstances leading me to create a “last things before baby” list, I just purchased one.
My list was very good. I’m closing the book now (ha irony) and I won’t spend any more money on myself. Probably ever.
But here’s the list of last things I wanted to do (for myself) before Luke arrives, including a short description of whether or not each item was completed:
Get a short haircut. Done. It’s not the most manageable of haircuts since I can’t put it up into a ponytail anymore, but I like it because I can just shake water off it and walk out of the house if I wanted. Headbands will be a godsend in the coming year, I’m sure. Perhaps by the end of November, it’ll be long enough for a pony tail and bobby pins.
Sign up for a yoga studio membership. Done. I regularly attend classes at the Southern Star Yoga Center here in Oxford. It’s small and humble and I absolutely love it. I’m a little bitter that they’re planning a yoga retreat a week before my due date. I don’t think I’ll be attending, which is why I had to take the retreat off my list. I’m sure my time will come. Luke has to move out eventually, and — lucky me! — I won’t be too old to still do some of these things I’ve wanted to do since middle school.- Buy a Kindle. Done, as of this hour. I imagine it’ll save a lot of space in our little 2br condo, too, because now I can get rid of some dead-tree books and download the Kindle edition. I don’t think I have many more text books in my future, but if I do, maybe there will be Kindle editions so I don’t have to carry them all over the place. I think it’s a good investment, and if you don’t … well … keep that to yourself.
Travel overseas. Done. Although this was on the “last things to do before I get married” list, I think it applies more here. I went to China the summer after my junior year of high school and it was incredible. Of course, it was a band function, so we didn’t get the freedom to just get lost in the culture like I wanted, but I got dangerously close and I’m satisfied. Too bad I wasted parts of that trip chasing after a boy, huh?Learn how to drive a car with manual transmission. Kind of done. I dated a guy who tried to teach me, but it didn’t work out so well. My brain knows what to do, but my coordination won’t cooperate. I’m sure it just takes practice, but now, I don’t want to ruin Andy’s clutch. I’ll let him handle the driving in that vehicle. After all, it is the 21st century; I have my own car, and when that fails, I’m pretty enough to find other means of transportation. Sad, but true.
- Write at least one book. Kind of done as well. I nearly had a book of poetry and soliloquies published when I was in high school, then I almost finished a short story collection when I started college, but nothing really fell through, and that’s ok. Maybe my first book will be autobiographical, resulting from my unique pregnancy story? Who knows. You’ll see my name one day though.
And I’ll definitely publish Kindle editions. - Learn a programming language. Ha! Yeah right.
That’s all I can remember off the top of my head. I think I did pretty well.
Moms, did you have a list of last things? Moms-to-be, what do you want to do before your little one arrives?
Luke, I’m almost ready for you. Hang tight buddy.
Dear Oxfordian friends and family,
The first person (or persons) to come to my house and paint this dresser will receive one meal (prepared by myself) and one batch of your very own Oreo balls. All supplies provided, some conditions may apply.
Love,
Mandi
p.s. If you knew anything about my Oreo balls, you‘d be paying me to come over and paint this dresser. For reals.
