Bottom's up!

Drinking those cool Krispy Kremes

Doughnut retailer unveils frozen beverage line, including a glazed-flavored drink.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Once the fried dough embodiment of hot and fresh, Krispy Kreme has transformed its original glazed doughnut into a new frozen beverage for summer.

The chain introduced a new line of frozen drinks Wednesday, including frozen original kreme -- a drinkable version of the company's signature doughnut -- raspberry, latte and double chocolate.

Customers can also add coffee to the kreme and double chocolate.

"Just as we did with our new signature coffees, our team took great care in developing four new, great-tasting frozen blended beverages, designed to offer customers an even greater variety of choices and taste experiences," President and CEO Scott Livengood said in a statement.

"We feel our expanded beverage offerings will provide tremendous growth opportunity for both the company and the Krispy Kreme brand," he added.

 
The drinks are available in 3 cup sizes -- 12-ounce, 16-ounce and 20-ounce -- and the suggested retail prices vary from $2.79 for the small size drink to $3.99 for the large size.

The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company said it currently does not have plans to introduce low-carb versions of the new drinks.

This year Krispy Kreme's stock has fallen more than 45 percent, hurt by the growing popularity of the low-carb diet fad, and Wall Street's concerns about the company's aggressive pace of new store openings.

Wednesday's announcement sent Krispy Kreme (KKD: Research, Estimates) shares up as much as 3 percent in early trading.  

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And please feel free to visit my other "company takes tasty solid food product and makes disgusting beverage out of it" thread, right here:

"How do you like your turkey and gravy?" On the rocks, for me, please.

Are you like me?  Are you an iPod virgin?

Alright--I was kind of toying with getting one of these, anyway, and then over the weekend, I saw that Apple was rolling out a new model:



20GB: 5000 Songs
$299.99 (down from $399.99 last year)

40GB: 10,000 Songs
$399.99 (down from $499.99 last year)

Evidently, the new, fourth-generation (4G) models are smaller, cheaper, and have 50% more battery life, as well.

They've gotten rid of their 15GB models, and they still have the iPod Minis, too (4GB, $249.99).

So apparently, these things are already for sale over at Apple's site ( www.apple.com ), so while I'm not quite ready to pull the trigger, I am loading the bullets.

But (and there's always a big but, isn't there, Pee-wee?), while surfing around for info, I found out that my computer may be a little out of date for the iPod.  I'm not computer savvy at all, but my computer's almost five years old, and may lack some of the hookups (like Firewire and what-not) that are recommended for transferring music from the computer to the iPod.  What's more, I was browsing around Apple's site, and caught something that said that their music system (iTunes) would only work with computers on Windows 2000 and XP--I've got Windows 98.  No good.

So I'm wanting to order one of these, but I'm a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to do anything with it once it got here, thanks to my dinosaur of a computer. 

I'm thinking I should probably worry about upgrading my computer first, and then do the iPod--but somehow I'm more excited about spending $400 on something I may not even be able to use, than $1500 or so on a new computer.

What about you guys?  Anyone have an iPod, or a similar portable musical hard-drive thing, like an iRiver?  Anyone going to upgrade to the new 4G iPod?

(By the way, while researching this weekend, I found a nice iPod site which has a pretty slick buyer's guide (which I guess has just been outdated, effective today):  www.ipodlounge.com )

They're my favorite band; they gotta new album out tomorrow; they're on tour this summer; they deserve their own thread.

My 57-year-old dad left me a voicemail today, asking how he could go about getting a copy of "Spiders" from the new record.  Blew my f--king mind.  I guess he read a review of the record somewhere or heard about it on NPR or something, and decided he needs it for himself.

Wow.  A few years ago, I would have been mortified if my dad listened to the same stuff I did, but now I think that was the coolest thing in the world.

Don't know if I should just pick up an extra copy of AGIB tomorrow, or if I should make him a cool little Wilco/Tweedy compilation disc.

As for as the new record, it's out in stores tomorrow.  Looks like both Best Buy and Circuit City are the places to beat for it, at $11.99.



Also found out that there's a new Wilco book (!) that just came out:



Amazon page

Think I'm gonna order it sometime this week.

So, it's about that time.  Looking at getting an Accord in the next couple of weeks--just kind of trying to find out if any of you guys have one, and how much you like it if so.

Looking at one of the 1998-2002 EX two-door Coupe models (like the body style a little more than the new ones).

Any advice/thoughts/recommendations/pontifications/remembrances/suggestions/insults/jokes/money you can send my way?

So, say you were to have a car.  Pretend this car was a 1991 Toyota Celica on it's last legs, that you were planning to get rid of in a month or two anyway.  Now imagine that where you live, a huge, nasty hailstorm came through, and knocked out the back window of your Celica, along with causing a good dozen or so hail dents all over the hood and top of the car.

Are you with me so far?

So what would you do?  Remember, you're getting rid of the car in a few weeks, anyway, so is it worth spending the money to get the back window replaced (not even worrying about the hail damage)?  Or would you just tape up the back window with some plastic and bear with that until you get a new car?

(Oh, and also, you only have liability insurance, because your car's a piece of sh!t, so having the insurance pay for it is not an option.)

I'm taking a day off from work today.  I called in "sick"--I'm kind of sick, but I could probably work if I wanted to.  

But I've got other stuff to do--air up my tires, wash my car, return something to Target, organize the Star Wars room, plus, do my taxes.  

The thing is, I know that by the time I lay my head down to sleep later this evening, I won't have accomplished any of that.

I'm going to hang out here all day.

Damn you people.

He was the walrus.  I could be the walrus.  I'd still have to bum rides off people.

One of the oddest-titled movies I've ever heard of is coming out this Friday.   It's starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst, and it's written by Charlie Kaufman, the guy behind Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.  I've always been a Carrey fan, more or less, and have always had a thing for Kate Winslet as well.  

I don't know how to describe the plot, because I don't know that much about it, but it looks like it might be a cross between Total Recall and Vanilla Sky or something--neither of which are the greatest movies in the world.    And the first time I saw the trailer, it looked like a mess, but after reading about it over at the HTF, the couple of people who've already seen it had nothing but great things to say about it.  And then on the Today show this morning, Gene Shalit gave it a really good review, too.

Neither are the greatest sources for movie reviews, I realize, but all the positive word-of-mouth makes me really curious about this flick--especially after seeing the trailer, which I was lukewarm at best on.

I'll try and find a synopsis and put it up here in a bit, but until then, anyone interested in this flick at all?

So, do you guys know about the Share the Love deal at Amazon?  If not, here's a brief synopsis:

Each time you place an order for books, music, DVDs, or videos with us, we'll offer you the chance to e-mail your friends and give them an additional 10% off the items you bought. (You select which items, of course.) If any of those people purchases one of those items within a week, you'll receive a credit to use the next time you shop with us! Your credit will equal the dollar amount of your friend's 10% discount. Let's say you bought a CD for $15 and decided to Share the Love with a friend on that purchase. Your friend would be able to buy the same CD for $13.50. You would receive a credit for $1.50 (the difference) to use any time in the next 30 days. You are eligible to receive one credit per item shared.

You can visit Amazon for more details.

Anyway, I'm getting ready to order some DVDs from Amazon, and figured I'd see if anyone else would be interested in sharing the virtual love on them.  It's a fairly good deal they've got going, which benefits both parties.

So here's what I'm going to order, and if you're interested in doing the STL thing on the same titles, just post a reply in this thread with your e-mail address and what title you're wanting the STL discount on, and I'll hook you up when I order them in a day or two.

• American Splendor (currently $19.56 before STL)
• Lost in Translation (widescreen) ($18.89 before STL)
• Rain Man: Special Edition ($13.99 before STL)

And, like mentioned above, you'll get 10% off those prices with the STL discount applied.

And, by all means, if any of you guys have any other titles you are buying that you want to STL on, feel free to list them here.

(Aside to jjks:  "Share the Love" is just a figure of speech--not literal.  Thanks.)