Angus Snack Wraps: Mmmmm

At the Cheese-Burg-Her party at BlogHer '10, I got to try the new McDonald's Angus Snack Wraps, which are based on the Angus Burgers.

Husband and I really enjoy the Angus burgers -- well, we did, before we found out he can only have beef like, once a month due to his gout -- especially the Deluxe. So I was psyched to try the Angus wraps, and they did not disappoint. I especially liked the Mushroom & Swiss.

I also had a traditional Cheeseburger at CheeseburgHer; how could I not? Consequently I was a little full. But, I digress. Or, more precisely, I do not get to my point.

Which is FREE Angus Wrap coupons!! I have 5 (five) to give away, courtesy of Mickey D's, and I strongly encourage you to enter my giveaway before I run to McDonald's and use them myself which I said I wouldn't do. (It actually was an option on the survey.)

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Giveaway Details:

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment (yes, Sisagain, that means you, too, otherwise it's not fair...) telling me your most memorable McDonald's moment or your favorite McDonald's food item. Leave your comment or comments (as many as you like -- tell me the faves or McD's moments of family members, too) by 11:59 pm EST Sunday, September 5th, 2010, and I'll use random.org to pick the winners on or around Monday, September 6th. [Dates edited on August 26.]

Be sure I have, or can get, your email address!

I'll pick 5 comments ... and if some of the coupons go to the same person, that's OK with me. (Because, um, the 2 of you that I know read this blog, I know you can use more than one coupon.)

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Here are my stories (no, I'm not entering my own contest -- just sharing). I've told both these stories (plus the Banana Splits story, which is tangential at best) to DuckyBoy, so now they're immortalized here.

My most memorable McDonald's moment was actually not AT a McDonald's. It's also kind of a non-moment ...

Back in Erie when I was little, they had a local Ronald TV program on once a week or once a month, and if you sent in your name and birthday they'd read it on the air during that week/month. (It's all kind of a blur.)

So, late February rolled around, we'd sent in my name, and I was awaiting. Watched the whole episode, and they'd read the names at the end. I waited. And waited. You know how things always take longer when you're waiting for them?? Well. For those of you who don't know, it's coooold in Erie in February. I was only wearing a slip. (Remember those? The things you'd wear under a dress?)

I wanted to run upstairs and get my dress. (Or I was in my underwear and wanted to get the slip. Something about the slip.)

Long story short: yep, I missed my name. *Le sigh.*

Interestingly, I still liked Ronald and the restaurant -- unlike my other favorite TV show's fall from grace, which occurred when The Banana Splits sent me a super-cheesey fan packet instead of whatever deluxe stuff I was eagerly anticipating, expecting, and otherwise daily running to the mailbox for. (I remember getting that envelope, tearing it open and, with bitter tears of disappointment, running upstairs and vowing to never, ever watch the show again.)

My favorite McD's food was, for decades, their French fries; in fact, my family swears it was the first solid food I ate.

Now that I've spent time on Atkins and the like, and have read Women, Food and God, I can actually get a meal for DuckyBoy and leave his fries alone. My favorite item now is the McGriddle... mmm, sweetness plus sausage ... with the Angus Mushroom & Swiss.

Colgate Wisp

Check my post about DuckyBoy's first day of school for my reasons for loving the new Colgate Wisp mini toothbrushes.

My thanks to someone at BlogHer's BowlHer party who put freebies in the ladies' room, so I got to try them for free -- because honestly, at 50 cents (on sale) a brush, I might not have tried them otherwise.

I mean, in theory it's a ridiculous concept. I have so many toothbrushes for this kid that I could practically use them as disposables; once I bought a dozen, yes a dozen, of a style he liked. We still have most of them, because we can Never.Throw.One.Away -- they have a face, you see. So they're not just a worn-out brush, they're a friend.

But now? We have a saying around here: "Luxuries, once sampled, become necessities."

These fit. DB loves the flavor, I love they're small and disposable and require no water. And he lets me throw them away.

McDonald's Angus Third Pounder

One of my BlogHer goodies was a coupon (I ended up with 2, actually -- probably Sara's) good for a free Angus Third Pounder.

Now, I'd be all over anything free from McDonald's, since I'm there oh, once a week or so anyway. But I've been wondering about these new burgers and was happy to give them a chance.

Husband and I agree: Yum! We both went for the deluxe, and were really happy with it. I thought it was diner worthy; Husband liked that it didn't seem skimpy, whereas sometimes fast food burgesr seem like they're trying to give the minimum for the minimum. Lots of cheese, lettuce, good tomato, and Husband said he's heard of a special spice added. Whatever was on there, it was good.

Husband said what I was thinking in that we probably wouldn't have tried it without the freebie -- we tend to stick with our usuals at places like McDonalds and take our food risks at higher-end places or cooking at home -- but now have a new favorite.

Pantene Pro-V Moisture Renewal Shampoo and Conditioner

Pantene was supposed to be at BlogHer this weekend, so a month or so ago I'd signed up, via commenting, to be considered for a makeover at their booth.

For some reason, they're not going to be at the event, but when they pulled out they emailed everyone who'd commented and offered to send product if I'd provide my snail mail address.

Now, I love swag as much as the next blogger, so I promptly (ok, it wasn't so prompt) emailed back to get my freebies, with no particular intention of writing a review.

But I like the product so much I have to talk about it.

They sent me a full-size bottle apiece of the Pro-V Moisture Renewal Shampoo and the Pro-V Moisture Renewal Conditioner.

I have alternately been using drugstore-brand dandruff shampoo and V05, which do OK. Just OK. I can't really tell shampoos part very well. I do see that the Pantene does foam up nicer and seems to give me more coverage more easily. How about that -- maybe spending an extra couple of bucks makes a difference!

For conditioner I have some of the purple-bottle Aussie stuff that doesn't work so well now that my hair is long AND regularly colored. I've mostly been using two Moroccan Oil products that Benny my hairdresser (ok, he's a barber but he's good) recommended; I mix together the oil and the cream and my hair comes out really, really soft. But it's expensive and a bit of a pain to mix together things from an open jar and a glass bottle in a shower.

The Pantene conditioner works as good as the Moroccan Oil products, maybe better --not even factoring in the hassle factor. My hair is less flyaway, dries smooth and sleek.

Can you tell how happy I am?

Discovering a Discover Card Tool

This is a paid review from BlogHer and Discover.

I have been really happy with my Discover Card, from the American-flag card design I switched to after 9/11 to the way they handled it when someone stole my card number online a couple of years ago. And even recently, when I called to dispute a charge, it was handled quickly and just the way I'd expect. In these days of outsourcing to the lowest bidder, I'm happy to deal with a company that I feel has customer service that's holding up under the pressure.

My Dad turned me on to Discover Card years ago when it was still the "replacement for a Sears card" -- I think he liked the no-fee and also the cashback bonus. Which I like too, especially since we have no income yet DuckyBoy insists on growing out of his clothes on a regular basis. In fact, I just bought him some sorely needed new socks and sweats with my latest cashback bonus.

So when BlogHer asked for reviewers for Discover’s new online spending analysis tool, the "Spend Analyzer," I was happy to throw my hat into the ring.

I use my Discover primarily for my online purchases, which I always think are purely educational stuff for DuckyBoy, so I was interested to check out how the reality stacks up.

My first and overall reaction is, What a neat tool!

When your information loads, you get a colorful pie chart with your purchases for the current month broken down into various categories, such as Travel/Entertainment, Services, Merchandise/Retail, Supermarkets, and so on. Then you can look at spending by 1,3, or 6 months, year-to-date, or by 1 or 2 years. You can click on a category, and even a vendor you shopped with, to see further details of what you spent when and where.

So for example, in the "Merchandise/Retail" cetegory, all my Netflix payments were already added together and shown in a pretty blue, next to the 2nd biggest recipient of my "Merchandise/Retail" dollars, which was FTD.com, shown in green.

I'd never even given a thought to how much those 2 bouquets cost -- who knew they were almost as much as a year's worth of movies? Very helpful for putting those movies we don't even always watch into perspective of how much we spend for them. (Does anyone else find the maintenance of the family Netflix queue a constant source of contention? "Why'd you pick THAT?" "Well, if you'd just log in once in a while you could pick something you haven't seen!")

I love graphs and charts anyway, so this is right up my alley. And it saves me from doing all the math and putting everything into categories. It worked really quickly in IE and with our wireless Internet access.

Turns out I spent $1,000 last year, mostly on stuff I can't remember. I paid parking tickets, and bought a few gifts and goodies in addition to the stuff for the smart boy I live with. Hmm. Build-a-Bear Workshop? That's not very educational. (OK, but that was in December, so it was for Christmas.)

I only shopped at 4 educational-sounding companies, including Amazon and Scholastic. And the biggest payment to Scholastic was for the rest of a Care Bears book-and-toy installment series they had the audacity to cancel halfway through. (Didn't they know I was using it as an incentive for DB to sleep through the night? Didn't they care how addicted to sets of things he is? But that's a post for another day.)

I like clicking on a single vendor to get the specific amount of each transaction with them. (Netflix makes the prettiest pie chart since it's the same amount every month! See, I warned you I like charts.) And within that vendor-specific chart, I can click on the timeframe tabs to see how much I spent at that company or story in a certain time frame. Cool.

To the right of the pie chart is a section called "Spending History" which averages out my spending for the previous 2 years in bar chart and number format. Mousing over the month-by-month chart for the past 8 months brings up total spending, biggest expense amount and category, and average transaction amount for each month. If I was really trying to budget and/or track where my money was going, that would be really helpful. Though it was hard to tear my eyes away from the colorful pie chart on the left! Oooo, pretty wedges... (My Dad would approve, by the way. His favorite dessert is pie.)

Makes me wish I had a kid at college ... Believe me, I'm in no hurry for DuckyBoy to be college-age, I just could totally see using this to see how he was spending my money.

I may switch my business card to a Discover just so I can use this ... though then I'd want the categories to be the ones the IRS uses. (Yes, I want it all done for me! I hate doing my business taxes!) On the existing tool, it would be nice if the nonprofit donations I made with my card were separated out from the "Services" category... but I've never seen that done, so maybe the way online donations get processed just doesn't flag nonprofits as such.

Actually, the only way I could imagine this tool being any better is if it told me what I bought ... but really, in the long run I don't want that much information stored anywhere anyway.

All in all, I'm looking forward to using this tool again. You can check it out at http://www.discovercard.com/spendanalyzer/

To read more BlogHer reviews of it, click here.