Dickster's Random Thoughts Cafe Press Store

I was driving to work this morning thinking about the President Obama's health care summit.  It comes as no surprise that the Democrats would decide to try to go ahead and ram the current bills through without any bipartisan support.

Originally, I was going to send a tweet on Twitter saying "if they think they can shove Obamacare down our throats, then they can shove it up their ass."  Instead, I decided to design the picture below and open my own CafePress.com store.  The design is currently available on shirts, mugs, buttons & magnets. I hope you will check out my first effort at Cafe Press.

My First Ebay Venture

During the course of my life, I have had a number of hobbies.  One of my favorites over the years has been collecting sports memorabilia.  I have built up a fairly large collection of autographed photographs, balls, and other items.  All told, I probably have close to 100 pieces.

I had hoped that when I had a son that he would share my love of sports and of memorabilia.  He does love the sports, but the idea of collecting autographs is more or less lost on him.  Plus, with his autism, he has a difficult time with treating items with care.  I can't tell you how many times I have had to burn new copies of CDs for him because he has broken other copies.

I have reached a point in my life where "things" mean very little to me.  All I really want to do is read some books, listen to tunes, and provide for my family.  The last time that I had some spare cash that I could have splurged on something for myself, I ended up buying something for my son. 

So taking all of this into consideration, along with the fact that money is just plain tight, I have decided to jump into the wonderful world of ebay and part with my collection.  I am going to go at this slowly to see how things go.  Tonight I put my first item up for auction, a set of Country Time Lemonade autographed Brooks Robinson baseball cards.  If all goes well, I will add more items to the auction block.

Glad Force Flex vs Hefty Ultra Flex

Several months ago, my wife came home with our first box of Glad Force Flex Kitchen trash bags.  We have been using them ever since.  I was very impressed with the way you could put a lot more garbage into the bag without the bag breaking.  We have been through about 10 or 12 boxes of them.  In that time, we have had maybe two bags get a tear in them, and at most it was a small puncture.

About 2-3 weeks ago I was doing my grocery shopping and knew we needed trash bags.  I was going to get my usual Glad Force Flex, but noticed that the store had Hefty Ultraflex bags on sale.  I figured with Hefty being a well established national brand, and the picture on the box looking like the Glad bags, I would be safe in buying the Hefty and saving a couple bucks.  Big mistake.

We are still going through that box of Hefty Ultraflex bags.  I have had as many bags rip in that one box as I had in 10 boxes of Glad Force Flex bags.  One of the tears was a hole about 4 inches across and led to old coffee grounds spilling on the kitchen floor.  I had to put that bag in a second bag to keep the garbage from spilling all over the place.

Needless to say, when doing my shopping today, when I saw that the Hefty bags were reduced 33%, I picked up the Glad.

Mr. Rebates Update

Last month, I recommended signing up at the Mr. Rebates website if you were planning on doing any of your Christmas Shopping online.  I used them to order several of the presents I bought for my son.  Once you make a purchase through a Mr. Rebates site, it usually takes a few weeks for the rebate to be put into your account.  I had some funds in my account but had never requested a payout.  So about a week or so ago, I requested the available funds to be added to my PayPal account.  According to their website, once you request a payout, they process the payment in the first week of the following month.  Sure enough, on January 1st, Mr. Rebates had deposited $13 into my PayPal account, so it really does work.

Beer Update

As I mentioned last week, I went to the liquor store with the intention of treating myself to a better variety of beer and ended up settling for Bud Light instead of Busch Light. Well tonight, I stopped by to pick something up and ended up splurging on a 12-pack of Samuel Adams Winter Classics. This variety pack features 2 bottles each of 6 different Sam Adams beers; Boston Lager, Winter Lager, Cream Stout, Old Fezziwig Ale, Holiday Porter, and Cranberry Lambic. Tonight I enjoyed the two bottles of Winter Lager. I still like to have those everyday varieties of beer, but it was a real treat to enjoy a really good brew with the much richer flavor.

Christmas Shopping

If you plan on doing any of your Christmas shopping online this year, I recommend signing up at Mr. Rebates. Most of the major online shopping websites have links at Mr. Rebates. If you go to those sites through the link on the Mr. Rebates site, and make a purchase, Mr. Rebates deposits funds into an account that you can convert to cash. The amount varies by site, but in today's economy, every little bit helps. Happy shopping!

Hangin' with Sasquatch

I just spent the last three days in Chicago to attend the National Association of Convenience Stores trade show. There were a lot of meetings, seminars, new vendors to meet, and new products to look at. While the show was mostly work, there were a few opportunities to have a little fun. Here I am getting to hang out with my main man, Sasquatch, and yes, he is giving me the old wet willie treatment. As you can tell, Sasquatch is just an all around fun loving guy, as long as you stay on his good side. It is much better to be Hangin' with Sasquatch than it is to be Messin' with Sasquatch like the poor sap below.