Shop With Bob

I finally have my new Bob jogging stroller! My shop-o-holic husband broke down and bought it after looking at strollers for six months which seems to be the minimum shopping requisite at our house. I got my new stroller several weeks ago but it has taken me this long just to snap a photo of it. I can’t blog it without a photo! Let me tell you though, it is wonderful! It’s lightweight, yet it can hold up to 70 pounds so I don’t worry when Persistence wants to climb in with Lovely. Even with both of them in there it is a breeze to push with its front swivel wheel. Thank you for all your diligent shopping Stranger!

Lovely can’t wait for me to buckle her in it with all the fancy rings and straps and pockets for her drinks. The peek-a-boo window is fun for her too. She can keep her eye on me to make sure I don’t transform into a 6 year old maniac driver who doesn’t know how to watch for cars and might ditch her to chase a bug that’s skittering across the street. It’s funny how babies can tell who’s holding them and who’s at the wheel. Big people just feel better.

I decided last spring that I wanted a new jogging stroller. Stranger thought this was a frivolous idea. The jogger that we bought used at a garage sale 5 years ago for $20, that’s falling apart, is perfectly good enough for us. Somehow I convinced him that a new one was in order. (Just because he lives in Louisiana doesn’t mean he’s too far away to nag.) I wanted to spend $100. Stranger decided Bob was the best and he wasn’t going to settle for anything less. It was Bob or nothing. I think he could just imagine himself skating the Bob across the floor during dollar night at the roller rink. All the other Daddies would see the Bob and hang their heads in shame. It would be Daddy’s Roller Rinkapade Heaven.

Since I couldn’t get that ONE place to give me the sale price on a Bob, Stranger turned to E-Bay. Oh, you were thinking we’d get a good deal there were you? Think again. Let me just tell you that Stranger bought our jogger on-line for $285 with free shipping and no taxes. Regular price is $360 so he saved more than $75 and that was the cheapest we could find it anywhere.

Take a look at what someone paid for one a few weeks ago on E-Bay. $330 + $40 shipping. $370. That’s $85 more than we paid for it and $10 more than you can get it anywhere else on-line since everyone else offers free shipping! While we were watching the strollers on E-Bay I saw people pay even more than that.

This is just to show you how crazy people are on e-bay. It used to be a place to find good deals but no more. People pay more for stuff there than they can pay anywhere else. If you are shopping on-line, definitely look at E-Bay but don’t stop there. Here is a search I did the other day.

Can your brain even comprehend what you are looking at? (Or can your eyes even see it?) $112, $135, $152 for hot rollers!!!! I get that they are a discontinued style. And maybe they would complete that Roller Rinkapade look you’re going for but come on people! They’re not ten year old toasted cheese sandwiches! They’re hot rollers!!!

Which leads me to my next discovery. First of all I want to say congratulations to all of you out there who get to go grocery shopping without your whining children. I’m so happy for you. Really. I don’t feel resentful in the slightest. Really. Unfortunately I get to take three ornery children with me each and every time I go to the store. As if the fighting weren’t enough, the last several month Persistence and Lovely have gotten too much for me to push around in a shopping cart full of food, if there is even room for food with both of them in there. Yet Persistence hasn’t been ready to give up her shopping cart royalty crown. Another problem is that Lovely likes to lie down. She is a very lazy baby and will snuggle up to a blanket/jacket/piece of fluff any chance she gets. A shopping cart isn’t a very comfortable place to get cozy.

Our solution? We take Bob shopping with us! It’s wonderful! Lovely can relax all she wants without touching all those nasty cart germs, Persistence has something to amuse herself with as she pushes Lovely through the store and I actually have room for groceries in my cart now. Yay!!!

Guess what we had for dinner tonight? You guessed it didn’t you? We really need to eat toasted cheese sandwiches more often. Not only are they tasty but our salvation might be on the line.