water bottles -- a consumer dilemma

Sigg Bottles for the Whole Family by saracarl

So Miss J.'s just moved up to the 2 year old class at school, and one of the new supplies required is a water bottle.

You'd think this would be easy.

But I *hate* all the sippy cup/water bottles that are full of Disney or Viacom characters -- I know J knows who Dora is, but do I really need to line the pockets of a media giant just to give her a bottle to drink out of?

Additionally, J. loves our old MS 150 Water Bottles. I should probably just send one of those to school with her, but I think they are a bit big and I've managed to lose both of them at Jazzercise in the last week. (A full year with no loss, and then I lose 2 in a week because it's getting hot and I'm carrying them with me when we do floor work instead of leaving them by my purse...)

So what I really want to get her is one of the very trendy new Sigg bottles that are popping up everywhere. I first noticed them on my friend Waqas's kitchen counter, then at Whole Foods, and now they are at Borders has knockoffs of them, too.

I can argue they are better designed -- they are, with the cover that goes over the pop up top -- or more healthy -- no horrible BPAs -- but really, they are just cooler. (And hotter at the same time -- metal with no insulation in Texas during the summer -- am I crazy?)

Interesting -- by the time I've become aware of them, there are already many chinese manufacturers knocking them off. (Hey Kara -- here's an idea for your fall festival next year -- order and sell some of these water bottles with a custom design -- maybe your installation artist + school name? I bet they'd be a big hit! You'd have to come up with some way to label them with kid's names, too.)

And while I'm at it, maybe I should get myself one, too. In fact, that's what this whole dilemma is about. It's not about whether J. should have the cool water bottle -- she could care less. It's about whether *my* daughter should have the most trendy thing, because *I* actually want it. So the obvious thing to do is buy *myself* the Sigg water bottle. Miss J. can have a plain plastic one (still no Dora, sorry!), and if for some reason she takes a shining to my water bottle I'll consider getting her one too.

Right Now

The power has been out for 45 minutes due to a thunderstorm. We shut the server down, but the UPS is still powering the cable modem and wireless router -- so I'm websurfing by candlelight until the battery runs out on the laptop, listening to the rain fall.