Happy Holidays 2007

three days before christmas and i'm done all my shopping....first time in a few years. this year i did 90% of my shopping online. it only took one saturday trip to target to direct me to the web.

last week saw a host of holiday parties (both work and friends) and little sleep. today was a great day for catching up on some rest and gift wrapping.

one of the coolest gifts received so far (work exchange) was a flip video recorder.

so far it seems very functional, easy to use and delivers high-quality video...best of all, allows for quick/easy upload and makes it easy to house all video clips for use on youtube, revver, google video, etc.

back to work for a few days next week, then off to the beach for new years.

Funny Movie Clip - The Break Up

When HBO and Cinemax have a movie in heavy, heavy rotation, it's hard to not catch the same clip 20 to 40 times over the course of a few weeks.

this clip from The Break Up is one of the more classic scenes..makes you wonder how much was scripted vs ad libbed...

Mazatlan Mexico Vacation Recap

we took our annual week long vacation to Mazatlan Mexico a few months back. all in all, i would recommend it if you're looking to relax and enjoy an exotic resort where there is a lot to do within close proximity.

high-lights:
we stayed at the El Cid Marina Resorts...mainly because i was interested in doing some fishing. for a half day charter, we averaged about 35 dorado/mahi mahi. better yet, the marina restaurant was able to cook our catch to order.

before: after:


the daily two-for-one happy hour at the resort bar...including the mango margaritas. the dollar was strong, so most of our meals were very inexpensive. the quality of the food was four-star.

low-lights:
mazatlan has a strong timeshare community..and the airport/resort/some restaurant personnel take full advantage. it was not uncommon to be pitched a timeshare opportunity while checking in to the resort or waiting for your check. they wouldn't think twice and even tried to make you feel guilty in saying 'no thanks'.

on a jaunt to downtown, we decided to check out the mazatlan acquariam/zoo. while there were some interesting exhibits/species on display, it was a waste of time.

i would recommend you check it out. give yourself at least five days to enjoy.

i'm back in play after a short hiatus

after a little over three months of hiatus, i'm back and ready to update. let's see, so much to catch up on...

> i was fortunate enough to attend to phillies final home game, which was THE 'must win' game of the year. it was a great moment in philadelphia sports history. i was hungover until the following wednesday.

> college football is in full swing. it's been a wacky season so far, and penn state is as dissapointing as ever. i am doing well in my college fantasy football draft

> i trapped/killed an unwanted mouse in the house....found another great use for peanut butter.

> work has been especially busy, considering that i work in retail and the holiday shopping season is ramping up.

> for our annual august trip, we traveled to lovely mazatlan mexico for a week with another couple. separate post with more details to follow.

with regained access to my personal laptop, i will be posting more regularly.

Crocs - Believe The Hype?

with great suspicion and some anxiety, i decided to see what all the hype was about and get a pair of crocs. not the trend setting 'clog' style, but one that i could see getting some long term use out of...the athens (flip flop) model.

bottom line, are they as comfortable as they look and as what everyone has been saying? yes they are. granted, i have another pair of flip flops that are slightly more comfortable, but they certainly are not as resilient to odor and wear and tear.

i was also shocked to see what the crocs company was doing on wall street (CROX). for a company that cranks out footwear in various rubber molds, they recently hit a high around $90 then executed a 2:1 stock split. huh? believe the hype? guess it's hard not to at this point. just do a search on youtube or the web 2.0 engine of your choice.

however, with every footwear retailer cranking out knock-offs, give it a few months to see if this can sustain momentum...while you're waiting, you may as well get yourself a pair.

Phillies Phever

decided to get a Phillies sunday ticket plan this year. aside from the dismal start, they seem to be turning things around...but trying not to get too excited. history will most likely repeat itself and the phillies will start dropping games right after the all star break...and end up one game out of the playoffs.

seats are fairly decent left field, and provide a great view of the action. to make it more enjoyable, we're seated behind a crew a college-aged season ticket holders. they provide a different kind of comedy (in addition to charlie manuel's coaching decisions) in the form of heckling the visiting left fielder...and sometimes, deservedly so, our own pat burrel.

a day at the ballpark is always entertaining and provides opportunity to experience some age old traditions; ballpark hotdogs, overpriced beers, smell of roasted peanuts, and in the case of citizens bank park, a schmitter sandwich.

if the phillies can't at least remain at .500, i'm not sure if even the environment will be enough to get us down there on a summer sunday. we'll see.

Retail Karma...Consider Yourself Warned

few months ago, my wife and i visit Target first thing on a Sunday (highly recommended if you want to miss the crowds) to purchase our necessary batch of consumer products. we also end up getting a well-needed tv/entertainment stand. we get home and after assembling said tv stand, decide to look at the receipt to confirm how much we spent on the project that just took us 1.5 hours to assemble.

to our surprise, favor, it looked like Target failed to charge us for the stand. even thinking back to the check out sequence, we recall positioning the stand SKU panel so the cashier could scan...guess it was too early for her. at this point we decide to chalk it up to an oversight and continue to enjoy our new purchase.

a few weeks back, we revisit again for a few more things (new house always needs something). included in this trip was a 3-pack of v-neck t-shirts - size L. when i get home and open the pack, realize that somehow the pack of "L" t-shirts includes 1x size L and 2x size MEDIUM?

granted, cost-benefit ratio still favors us, and that we expected Target to get its revenge somehow, but found it eerie that of the piles of packs of T's, i grabbed the one mislabled or mis-packed.

keep in mind the next time the cashier misses a sku scan or that pack of soda underneath your cart.