Hello, and welcome to In My Bag! My name is Jenn, and this is my product review blog. 
I have a Pug. She loves to go for walks, but she’s bad about pulling and wrapping herself around my legs — or around the legs of anyone that is walking her or near her. So while I was at That Fish Place last night, I picked up the cat food I was there for, but I also made a pit stop in the dog leashes section and picked up a Flexi Classic Cord Leash.
The Flexi Classic Cord Leash is a run of the mill retractable leash. It features a push/slide type of button that allows you to “lock” the allowed length of leash in place. Lift your thumb from the button and the lock releases, which allows the dog to pull the leash out to its full length — sixteen (16) feet.
The good: the retractable leash works as it should.
The bad: there is no locking mechanism. To lock the leash in place you have to continue to hold down the button. This may not seem like a big deal, but after fifteen minutes or so of walking my thumb started to hurt.
In all probability, I will be taking the Flexi Classic Cord Leash back and purchasing a retractable leash that allows me to lock the allowed amount of leash.
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I finally decided to upgrade my flash drive. I’ve been carrying around the same 128MB lanyard flash drive since, oh, let’s see… mid-2005? Don’t get me wrong, it works fine, and at the time it was a steal for $15.99. But these days, it doesn’t take much to consume 128MB of space — 15-20 high bit rate format songs, or 40 RAW format photos (.nef) and oops, you’re down to a few kilobytes!
So, I hit Google and then eBay to see what was good and at how good of a price I could get it. For $12 I picked up three 1GB JOGR Flash Drives. They look neat because they are neat: the innovative soft-rubber outside is not only shock-resistant, but also waterproof! It’s true that my flash drive will be spending the majority of its time in my laptop bag or purse, but you never know what could happen. 
Plus I thought the coating looked neat, and as an added bonus it would keep out debris.
The JOGR Flash Drive works quickly and precisely. Both my desktop computer and laptop computer recognized it without issue, and so far it has worked flawlessly as a quick way of transferring files from one computer to another.
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Teeth whitening. Chances are you know somebody who does it. Maybe you yourself have done it, or you’re thinking about it. I’ve messed around with pastes and gels and trays in the past, but I’ve never seriously committed to a seven or fourteen day regime of doing it. Kind of ridiculous, really, since it’s not that hard to do. So as I type this, I’m letting my teeth chill in Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal.
The Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal differs from other teeth whitening tray systems in that the trays themselves are form fitting. I have used various trays in the past, and the one thing I have always hated about them is how bulky they feel, and how much they slide around. I have an overbite and some teeth crowding problems, so bulky trays that slide around aren’t all that fun to deal with. I would usually wind up salivating excessively from the taste/sensation of the teeth whitening gel getting onto my gums and tongue, and would toss out everything in disgust after a few attempts.
But so far, the Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal seem to be doing what they’re advertised to do: they’re staying put. They’re thin and quite flexible, and they easily molded to the shape of my teeth. Both trays have been in now for ten minutes, and so far they’re not budging! I’m going to let these trays do their thing, and then try out three more strips (Target sells trial packs for $5. Each pack contains two sets of upper and lower trays), and then come back and do a full review!
The Thermos Raya Cooler Tote is advertised as being perfect for use with soda cans, but it is also a great choice if you’re looking to bring along a picnic lunch for four! I speak from experience, of course. Yesterday I surprised my children with a late afternoon picnic at their favorite park, but before I sprung the surprise on them I first had to make sure I had all of the essentials to bring along with us! I had food, drinks and snacks, but no easy way of transporting and keeping it all cold! So I ran out to Target, and it was there that I found several Raya Cooler Totes.
At first glance the Thermos Raya Cooler Tote looks a bit like a diaper bag, but I’m all about the function, and it does perform beautifully! It’s roomy enough to store twelve cans, as advertised, or a lunch for several people! I filled my Raya tote with four reusable ice blocks, four pouches of Capri Sun, one bottled water, four sandwiches, a box of Goldfish crackers, four donuts and two packs of fruit snacks, and there was still some room to spare (I should have tossed in a diet pill or two for myself, considering all the food I brought along!)! The outside of the tote offers a deep storage pocket, and in there I was able to fit a travel pack of baby wipes, two diapers and my keys!
The Thermos Raya Cooler Tote performed beautifully. Its entire inner lining features that spiffy insulation material, and that combined with four reusable ice blocks kept everything nice and cold. There’s more than enough room in the tote for everything I could possibly want to bring along for a meal.
The Raya Cooler Tote comes in a few different sizes, including a tote bag that holds eighteen cans! Smaller bags would be perfect for students and people who bring their lunch to work. You can find these totes in Target (I paid $13.99 for mine) and Walmart, and online at amazon.com and most sporting goods websites.
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I have the opportunity to review a product from CSNMirrors.com, which I’m really excited about! The online company specializes in mirrors for the home (living room, hallway, bathroom, child’s room, you name it, they’ve got a mirror for it!), but they also offer a nice selection of home decor and accents. Lamps, small storage units, wall art and various items of accent decor are all available at CSN Mirrors.
My product of choice will be announced once I review it!
Early last month I managed to jailbreak and unlock an iPhone. I blogged about it on jenn.nu. Basically, I used these easy instructions to do it. Once I found the right way to unlock the iPhone (it was my mother’s; she bought it off of eBay and wanted to use it with her T-Mobile account), the whole process took less than fifteen minutes.
Many people enjoy the convenience of an unlocked phone. Having an unlocked phone means being able to use it with any carrier, despite the fact that it may have been designed to work with one carrier only (such as the iPhone for AT&T, or the G1 for T-Mobile).
Is your phone locked or unlocked? Mine (a white T-Mobile G1) is locked, but that is because I don’t mind using it with T-Mobile.
Pure Ice Nail Enamel is another nail polish I like because of the unique colors it is available in. Pure Ice is definitely about the cool, icy shades of just about every color out there, though the primary focus seems to be on shades of blue, pink and red. Pure Ice is about four dollars per bottle, which is pretty reasonable, I think, since you get such a unique choice of colors. While the colors themselves may look to be sheer, they’re not, though it does take at least two coats to get a “fully saturated” look. I’ve worn Pure Ice alone and as a finishing touch for other nail polishes, and it looks great either way.
The one downside to Pure Ice is that it doesn’t seem to last quite as long. It chips fairly easy, which I’m sure is due to it being a metallic type of nail polish. They’re pretty notorious for not having long lasting power!
