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WFMW: Amazon.com

Jenny and I thought long and hard about the assignment for this week’s Works for Me Wednesday – writing about our favorite online store. We kept coming back to our first thought, though – Amazon.com.

It’s just hard to beat Amazon! The prices are great and shipping (on most things) is free with a purchase of $25 or more.

There’s a lot more to Amazon than just books! They pretty much have everything… from plumbing fixtures to diapers, treadmills to iPods. I just placed an order last week that contained “Baby Bargains” (had to have the updated edition!), a Hannah Montana t-shirt, and a set of Fred Bombed Beer Bands (a Valentine’s gift for my husband. Romantic, eh? Thanks to Pinks & Blues for finding these!) Random, huh? But like I said, they have everything! And did I mention the prices are great?

The everyday prices rock, but there are real deals to be found on Amazon as well. Before Christmas, Jenny & I stumbled upon their toy clearance section and pretty much bought everything they had for our kids and spent like $30. They have a page called “Deals of the Day,” where they have random products on a great sale, but only limited quantities for a limited time. AND, Amazon frequently drops prices, and if you find that something you’ve bought in the last 30 days listed for less than your purchase price, all you have to do is email their customer service department and they’ll credit you with the difference! Pretty sweet, especially during holiday sales.

Amazon is also a wealth of information. As I may have mentioned before, I am addicted to reading user reviews, and there is no better place to find them than Amazon. Even if I’m not planning to purchase whatever I’m looking for from Amazon, you can bet that I’m on there reading about what everyone else has to say about that product.

Even though Amazon is more than books, it is still a great place to find and buy them. Again, the prices are great. I don’t generally buy a lot of books, but I’ll go on Amazon and search for a book that I liked, click on the “more like this” button, and instantly have a new reading list. Then I just head over to my library’s website and put them all on hold! Books are the one thing that I don’t read user reviews for, though – that is, until I’ve read the book. I’ll look at the user star rating, sure, but I often find that the reviews are full of spoilers.

This is Jenny now, putting in my two cents. One of the big reasons I love Amazon is that they sweeten their deals with FREE SUPER SAVER SHIPPING on orders over $25 much of the time. As Emily said, she and I did a lot of our Christmas shopping on Amazon. Thanks so the great prices and free super saver shipping, I got presents for 7 of my nieces and nephews, Sophie, and Emily’s little girlie Kate for about $60 shipped. And the kids all really liked their presents and some of them were even unique and educational!!

You can also find nice name-brand stuff at Amazon for less. I love, love, LOVE Robeez shoes. I usually get Sophie’s Robeez used on ebay, but last week I decided to see if they had any on Amazon. I was thrilled to find that they had brand new Robeez for 40% less than retail!! Woohoo! The selection is a little more limited, but since all Robeez are SO DARN CUTE, it wasn’t really an issue. 🙂 I even picked up these for my friend Andrea’s baby boy who is due in June (sorry to reveal the price Andrea but I KNOW you’ll be happy that I got such a good deal):

Anyway, Amazon is pretty awesome. Take some time to look around – I’m sure you’ll find things on there you didn’t know existed!

Amazon.com works for me! For more WFMW online store reviews, visit Rocks in my Dryer.

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Indecent Exposure

One of my general life policies is that I don’t wear pants that encroach upon my belly button. (My others are that I don’t dance and I don’t trust people who don’t eat. But I digress.) I don’t like how high-waisted pants feel and I certainly don’t like how they look – I’m seriously short-waisted and that just exaggerates the problem.

So the first time I was pregnant, I was pretty excited to see that I could get maternity pants that were “under the belly.” Not knowing any better, that’s pretty much all I bought.

I’m guessing these pants drove me nuts the first time around, but maternity clothes must be like childbirth – you forget how awful they are in order to do it all over again.

But these pants are seriously going to be the death of me. They will NOT stay up! I am forever hitching up my pants. It’s awful. The best part is when I feel a breeze on my stomach and know that my pants have fallen so low that my mid-rif is showing. And believe me, that is not a good look.

Sure, the theory of low-rise maternity pants is good. They don’t have an awful panel, and they really look pretty normal, other than the elastic waistband. But looking cute on the hanger and looking cute on a veeeery pregnant woman are two different things. Yet-to-be-pregnant women be warned.

If you think about it, it’s got to be like a basic law of physics or something – if you put a rubber band around the bottom 1/3 of an egg, it would probably slide right off.

However, I am not about to go buy new pants at this late date, so I will spend the next 10 weeks trying to keep myself from getting arrested for indecent exposure.

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Me want candy.

My office is an evil, evil place.

You see, each night about 25 college students come to work here in the basement. And what’s the only way to get college students to show up? Well, bribe them, of course. And since promoting keg-stands to student employees is somewhat of a no-no, we use pop and candy.

So this means that I am forced to work within one flight of stairs of unlimited pop and candy. I’m talking everything from Coca-Cola to Pepsi Jazz, Reese’s Cups to Laffy Taffy. It’s just not right. At times, the temptation overwhelms me.

This afternoon was one such occasion.

It was 4:50, almost time to leave, and I was SO hungry. I couldn’t help it; I ran downstairs and stuffed three Starbursts into my mouth. My sugar craving fulfilled, I headed back up the steps.

That’s when I came face-to-face with a student worker. She looked so cute in her pea coat and headband, and there I was hauling my pregnant arse upstairs, teeth glued together with sugar. I smiled at her as politely as I could, and she asked me if our graduate assistant was in her office. My mouth was still stuffed with the three said Starbursts and the best I could do was mumble “I habn’t seen ‘er toway” and continue waddling back to my cubicle.

The most embarrassing part? She surely knew what I was up to, being well aware of the abundant supply of calories to be found in the basement. I can practically hear her telling her anorexic sorority sisters the story of the huge pregnant lady with a mouth full of candy.

And then, not having found the person she was looking for, she came to my cubicle. “Um, excuse me, ma’am?”

Ma’am? Kick me while I’m down.

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