While you're out shopping. . .

. . .tomorrow, on the biggest shopping day of the year, here are a few things to keep in mind for your shopping list, just in case you should feel the need to lavish your CabanaBoy with outrageously expensive gifts:

First, the Nakamichi AV-10 Dolby Digital DTS Receiver. If you care anything at all about your CabanaBoy, you want him to have a beautiful sounding home audio system. This one here is about as good as it gets, as far as mass-market consumer electronics go.

Of course, you have to have speakers built to withstand and reproduce the kind of sound you get from a Nakamichi receiver. And, while I could go with a more esoteric brand with the outrageous pricetag that comes with esoteric brands, I would just as soon have a top-notch, mass-market home theater setup, and Polk Audio fits that bill. This particular home theater setup will more than fill the cabana with glorious, rich sound. Between speaker placement, and fine-tuning the seven channels with the Nakamichi AV-10 receiver, these gifts will keep me occupied until next Christmas, and entertained well beyond.

And, what home theater system would be complete without a DVD recorder with a built-in 400 GB hard drive? Actually, the more appropriate question is, how did I live this long without one? And, still more appropriately, how can I be expected to go on living without one?

I'm not necessarily a big TV watcher, but if I'm going to have all this home theater equipment, I'm going to need a nice television to go along with it. I figure a 32" Plasma Flat-Panel HDTV from Sony will suffice. It just so happens that this one has had its price slashed at Amazon, all the way down to less than $3,000. You'll save $2,000. That alone almost pays for the speaker system!

With all this wonderful audio equipment, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a reason to leave the house, but if I should have to for some reason, I'd want to be gone as briefly as possible. So, I'll need something quick. I could go for the new Corvette C6, but those things are upwards of $70,000. And that just seems outrageous when I can get comparable speed from a Subaru Impreza WRX-STi for less than half the price.

So, you see? I'm a reasonable person. You'll notice that none of the items above crosses the 5-digit price barrier. I don't ask for much -- merely the closest approximations of the finer things in life at steep discounts. I'm a conscientious receiver of gifts.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Tomorrow is going to be a big day of shopping, and you'll need your strength and energy when loading my gifts, so when the tryptophan kicks in after your bountiful gathering tonight, give in and go to bed. You'll be thankful as you labor to fit all that stuff into the back of my Subaru tomorrow.