Since moving to Chicago, I’ve been a fairly devoted Giordano’s fan, but I only order their thin-crust. (I think it’s something about their blend of cheeses. There seems to be a lot of Provolone in there, which helps satisfy my craving for 300% of my recommended daily sodium allowance in a single meal.) However, Giordano’s has a few shortcomings. First, delivery time for any type of pizza—even thin crust—is always one hour. Second, Giordano’s prices are enough to make a normal gay man balk, let alone the cheapest gay man in America.

I’ve been meaning to give Domino’s new recipe a try if only to reward them for their painfully honest new ad campaign that addresses the company’s long-standing reputation for producing America’s most forgettable pizza. So, when I saw a commercial last night promising two two-topping medium pizzas for $5.99 each, I was on dominos.com placing my order faster than you can say, “Gosh, this special was really meant for a family of four, but I did six minutes of uninterrupted aerobic exercise today and I deserve an entire medium pizza with double pepperoni.”

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, the pizza was pretty good. Good enough to order again, but not so amazing that I don’t still wish I had a Papa John’s a little closer to home. (You can take the boy out of the South…) The best part was the new and improved crust. It included a mix of Parmesan cheese and herbs that definitely merited finger licking. The sauce was better than I remember it being in the past and my significant other thought the whole package was a huge improvement. I still have a few reservations, primarily because I’m not a big fan of hand-tossed crust. I’m not sure if it’s always so soft and doughy everywhere, but it was definitely not crispy on the bottom. Also, the boxes were already grease-stained when they arrived and by the end of the night, they looked like the scene of some kind of gory grease murder-suicide.

One thing I will say Domino’s deserves a standing ovation for is its online ordering experience. The interface design was great, and it featured a final screen that showed the status of your order. This screen featured several stages, with the current stage illuminated. Stage one showed that the order was being prepared and included the name of the person making the pizza. Stage two showed that the pizza was baking. Stage three showed it was undergoing a rigorous quality check. Stage four showed that the pizza was out for delivery and included the name of the driver and exact time it was moved to car. The final stage confirmed the pizza had been delivered. Initially, I was a bit freaked out when the pizza hadn’t arrived and the stage-five light blinked on and displayed a message stating, “Your pizza has arrived. We hope you’re enjoying your meal!” But, before I could call Domino’s and scream in a panic that my pizza had been stolen, the driver was at the door. Now if they could just embed a small, edible GPS in every pizza and allow me to track its progress on Google Maps, I could stop leaving the house altogether.

Amazon.com is currently offering a new, free Christmas song every day in December through the 25th. All of the songs can be downloaded at any time, so there’s no need to check the site every day. They’re not all winners, but there seems to be something for everyone so far.

A loyal reader recently informed me that Green Day’s latest album was available for download on Amazon for $4.99 within the first few days of its release. Apparently, this has become something of a trend for Amazon. So, if there’s something relatively mainstream that you wouldn’t mind owning when it “drops” (as the kids say), keep an eye on Amazon for a very temporary price break.

Also, I recently discovered that Amazon runs a monthly promo called 50/$5 in which the editors throw together a random assortment of fifty albums all available for $5 each. For May 2009, there’s an interesting grab bag that includes albums by Death Cab for Cutie, Dolly Parton, Kanye West, Etta James, and Culture Club.

Amazon is offering $20 off “fashion sneakers” when you spend $80 or more. I’m not sure if unfashionable sneakers receive any comparable discount.

I’ve got my eye on these brown and baby blue Ben Shermans.

When I was in high school, all the cool kids studied French, so I did, too. Spanish was far too ordinary, and for years I had little interest in learning it. But now I find myself longing to travel to exotic Latin locales. So, I’ve decided that before I try to order a prime cut of beef in Buenos Aires or save sea turtles in Costa Rica, I should learn a bit of Spanish. And of course, there’s no better way to learn basic, cliché phrases than by listening to pop music. Here are a few of my favorites for those of you interested in joining my study group.

First, there’s Marta Sanchez from Spain. In the video for “Soy Yo” (below), Marta pays homage (read: rips off) a particular American diva right down to her awkward dancing and persistent hair flinging. If it takes you more than 15 seconds to figure it out, you’re either not paying attention or you’re a straight man.

Once you’re tired of watching Marta point at herself and frame her face with her hands, you can shake your bon-bon to “Superstar” and revel in a whole new kind of pointing mixed with pelvic thrusting and moaning in “High Energy.”

Although Marta gets points for being really good at spinning around in chairs without throwing up, my heart currently belongs to Mexican pop sensation Belanova. Their lyrics are very easy to learn and I love their electro-pop sound and the slightly squeaky voice of their lead singer. For beginners, check out “Me Pregunto“. Once you’ve mastered that, you can move on to “Baila Mi Corazón“, “Bye Bye” and “One, Two, Three, Go!” (shown below).

It’s easy to find song lyrics online, but it’s often hard to find English translations written by real people. One site that offers some help on this front is trdream.com. The site includes useful translations of several Belanova songs. Also, if you’re looking for some very affordable learning materials to help you round out your new gay-pop vocabulary, I recommend the following:

1001 Most Useful Spanish Words - $2

Easy Spanish Phrasebook - $2

Quick-Study Spanish Vocabulary Cards - $5.95

If you happen to order any of the items above from Amazon, check to see if they’re included in Amazon’s 4-for-3 promotion. (They all were when I ordered.) If you order four items that are eligible, the cheapest one is free. It’s not a huge savings when you’re ordering $2 books, but it can be a nice way to grab an extra copy for a friend.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I just want to remind everyone about how much I love promo and coupon codes for online retailers. These codes are often sent to select customers, but they’re very easy to find online. So, before you pay full price, make sure to do a quick search for something like “j.crew promo code” or “Bath and Body Works coupon code”. Sites like RetailMeNot.com keep fairly comprehensive lists of these codes, along with ratings to indicate how reliable the codes are.

I don’t know what happened over the weekend, but I’ve been bombarded by ads for cheap international airfare ever since I got on the train this morning and opened the paper. First, there’s Alitalia, which is currently offering some very low fares to Italy (including a Chicago to Milan flight for $389, all fees included).

United is currently offering all kinds of special spring deals to Europe. In addition, to celebrate the launch of new United service to Moscow, they’re offering ridiculously cheap flights there. I was able to find a Chicago to Moscow flight in April for around $450 with all fees included.

If you’d rather soak up the sun in South America, American Airlines is offering flights for $600 to several cities in Brazil and Argentina. (This may not sound especially cheap, but flights to South America are usually much more expensive and go on sale a lot less than more popular tourist destinations.)

It seems almost all the major airlines are getting in on the action. Iberia is offering some very reasonable rates to Spain, Lufthansa is running a spring sale on European flights, and I’m sure there are other deals to be had if you check out the websites of other international carriers.

A friend just introduced me to shopittome.com, a site that sends you emails with everything that’s on sale in your size from your favorite designers. When you sign up, you create a profile to indicate what types of clothing and accessories you’re interested in and what sizes you’re looking for. The site then sends you an email (as frequently or infrequently as you like) with the latest sales from around the web that meet your criteria.

Quizno’s is giving away one million free subs. All you have to do is fill out a short registration form at www.millionsubs.com and you’ll be emailed a link that will let you print the coupon.

A friend of mine went to Banana Republic a few weeks back and told the cashier he couldn’t buy all the items he brought to the register unless they could give him some kind of discount. The cashier gave him 30% off everything on the spot without batting an eye. Initially, I was moderately impressed, but I assumed there must have been some sale going on that my friend didn’t know about. I thought the whole thing seemed suspect, especially since my friend told the cashier he forgot to bring a coupon with him and the coupon was only good for 25% off.

Apparently, my friend had stumbled on to a new trend at major retailers: haggling on everything from pricing to return policies. According to an article I read today on MSN’s Money, J. Crew managers are taking back items long after return deadlines have passed and Best Buy employees are matching prices that shoppers find while comparison shopping from their cell phones. Check out “Shoppers haggle for deals from desperate retailers” for more info.

If you buy $100 worth of gift cards between now and December 31st at any of the OSI Restaurants (which include Outback, Carrabba’s, and Bonefish), you’ll get a $20 bonus gift card free. There are some restrictions on when you can use the bonus card, but if you eat out any of these places a lot (or know someone on your Christmas list who does), it’s an easy way to save 20%.