Shopping for guys
I hate shopping with my wife. For me shopping is a challenge to jump over everyone else, find exactly what I want as fast as possible and get the “eff” out. My wife likes to browse, compare, buy stuff at a store and when she finds it at another store cheaper take the first one back. Even if it’s only to save 50 cents, she’ll waste the time to go back and return it.
I am addicted to Stumble Upon, a service that lets people rank sites, submit sites and when you feel inspired to do so, click the “Stumble!” button and randomly go somewhere. I stumbled upon Barcle, http://www.barcle.com. First I thought it was kinda hokey. Bunch of banners, a search, blah blah. So I tried it out. Taking the UPC number from my son’s Thomas the Tank Engine book, I put it in and found out that the one I bought at Chapters Indigo was cheaper at eToys. Nice. I lost a buck twenty there. Next I tried the Shrek 3 DVD that we bought on Black Friday, nope, we got it cheaper at Wally-world than what Barcle came up with. But! I know I got a good price for it.
They have a mobile version so when I was at the store getting some groceries I punched in UPC’s all over the place. Food stuff they don’t have. Toys and Electronics they did. I didn’t buy much because where I was didn’t have a good price on what I was looking at. Money saved!
Check it out. www.barcle.com or mobile.barcle.com
Now if I can just get wife to use it…
Price Rollback… er not so much
Yesterday I went into one of those big box store which recently “rolled” back prices on thousands of items in Canada to pick up a few things. While I was there I wandered over to the magazine section and looked at one or two mags to possibly buy. Now before this “rollback” the retailer offered their magazines at 10% off the cover price, that price of course being in Canuckistanian dollars. Over my head though was a sign saying they now charge US cover price on magazines in Canada. That’s great because on the magazines I buy there usually is a $2-3 price difference. With the 10% off I saved under a dollar, where the new pricing means I would save $2-3 right? NO
Here’s the rub - In their price reduction to the US price, they removed their 10% discount on all magazines. The issue is, a lot of magazines in Canada have recently stopped posting the US price on their cover. So that magazine that for a long time was priced at $5.95 US, $7.25 CDN is now just $7.25 CDN. No US price. No US price means no discount so Mr. “Rollback” now is not selling at the US price because there isn’t one and is infact selling to me at 10% higher than I traditionally paid.
I looked back at some recent prices of these brands I buy and low and behold it’s only in the last couple of months they stopped the US price on mags sold in Canada… Coincidence? I think not.
Thanks for the rollback there!
Very cool storage
Recently my sons have gotten into Lego which makes me glad I saved all of the Lego I had as a kid. A friend passed this along to me and this thing looks great. It’s called a “Box 4 Blox” and it’s a sorting tray system. Like those old coin ones where you’d dump the coins in the top and shake it to sort everything through the slots, same concept. Dump the blocks in, shake and sort. No more running through a box with all the blocks in it just to find that 1×2 transparent green piece that you know you only have one of. Very cool stuff. Will definately be under the xmas tree this year because you know Santa likes organization.
The first November 11th
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| Lest we forget |
On November 11th, 1813, the Battle of Crysler’s Farm was fought, part of the American-British War of 1812. That battle was a turning point where the British was able to fend off and capitulate the American army and stop their march on Montreal and Quebec City.
In 1895, the Ontario Legislature erected a monument to that battle at Crysler’s Farm. This was moved during the St. Lawrence Seaway project and in 1961 the current Battlefield Park was dedicated. The monument is made from rough granite and sits on top of a large hill overlooking Lake St. Lawrence (St. Lawrence Seaway).
Every year, a wreath from the Province and the County is laid. Since my family and I have lived here, we also go to visit on November 11th at 11am to pay tribute to all of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Lest we forget.
I’ll trade you Lord Durham for Lionel Groulx
The National Capital Commission (NCC) took down a portrait of Lord Durham in a recent display celebrating Ottawa as Canada’s Capital because of some historic information about his views on the French. Durham advocated for the French to assimilate into English Canada as a way of succeeding. Yes, a fairly unenlightened view during those times and to many offensive, however a part of our history. Why whitewash it?
If you want to start whitewashing, let’s cast our eyes at Montréal to Lionel Groulx. For all of his good works in Montréal as a priest and historian, he was a right-wing extremest who admired Salazar and Mussolini, was an anti-semite and one could argue was one of the first Quebec Separatists. Yet his name is featured prominately in Montréal.
Instead of whitewashing history, let’s celebrate that these people contributed to our history and that they were not perfect. No one in history is perfect. To take down parts of our historical identity because it might offend someone instead of understanding and learning from it does nothing but reduce our history to an episode of the Brady Bunch, all touchy-feely with no substance. Our history is too rich and diverse for that!
Simple pleasures
Quite often my family and I have been going over to the USA to do some shopping. Prices are good, the Dollar is great (thank you GWB for tanking the US economy) and I get to enjoy one of the simple pleasures of life, Root Beer. Not just any Root Beer. Stewart Shop’s Root Beer. It is the best I have had and I have had a lot of root beer. Better than A&W or Barq’s (sorry Johnny). Just right and it’s only 99 cents a bottle.
Recap: Cheap, delicous… Sounds like a simple pleasure to me…
Win win!
(Stewart Shops did not pay me for this endorcement but I am open to being paid 
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Can I lose $32 Billion in three months?
I heard in the news that GM lost $32 billion in three months. How can a company lose $32 Billion and still be in business? According to MSNBC, GM has a market-capitalization of $18.5 Billion. The market-capitalization means the share price times the number of shares and is a key figure in the value of a publicly traded company.
GM lost nearly double the value of all it’s stock in three months.
If I lost almost double what my net worth is, do you think I’d still be here? No I’d be bankrupt, no house, no car, Nothing.
SO how can a company lose almost double it’s value and still be in business?