When opportunity knocks.

From time to time offers and opportunities come our way that sound good but we're just not sure. Perhaps they're too good to be true, perhaps we just never give them a try so we can't really say?

That's kind of been the line that I've taken on supporting advertising here. I've had offers from companies before and, whether it's because the person contacting me just seemed "pushy" or maybe it was a company that didn't really have anything to offer my readers, but for whatever reason I just never made the commitment to dip a toe into that world. It's something that I've thought about doing a little of this year, but wasn't sure how I was willing to do it.

Well, yet again the world seems to be pointing me in the direction I have decided to move and opportunity knocked...err.. emailed as it were and I find myself prepared to test these waters. The company that contacted me provides, from what I can tell, everything from Bar Stools to Writing desks and very seemingly everything else in between. They're called CSN stores and I have to say, I've been impressed so far with my dealings with them.

So then, what's the rub? What do I get in return for my endorsement? First off, re-read what you just read. See any endorsements? Nope, not yet. Links maybe, but heck those are a dime a dozen. One of the things that I did like about this company, was that when I told their rep that I wasn't willing to give an endorsement of his company blindly and told him that I can't offer my opinion to my readers without experiencing that company myself, well he thought that was a perfectly reasonable position to come from. I respect that.

To that end, I went about searching their extensive catalog. I was pretty surprised actually at how easy the site was to navigate. As a full time web developer I can definitely appreciate an easy to use web-site. At any rate, I found my self lost in the food section (surprise!!) and found something that I am willing to test my user experience out on. A food dehydrator. It's something that I need terribly anyway and if I'm going to check out a web-site they darn well better offer something I'd be interested in anyway right? Right!

There's also another reason that I decided to try out this product. It's a pretty good reason, but one that I'm going to have to make you wait for. After all, I did say I wasn't willing to stand behind anyone that I didn't have experience with right?
So just a little bit of patience and hopefully if all goes well I can have some good news for you next week... about the Dehydrator... and what I think of it... and what I think of CSN stores. Till then, I'll just be watching my dried tomato stash dwindle knowing next year I will have many many more!!

Wish me luck.

Buyer beware!

I bought this sledgehammer last year from home depot. Actually, let me make that statement correct, I bought a sledgehammer of this same model last year from home depot. The one that I had, I used a couple of times during my recycled concrete pavers project last year.

As I mentioned yesterday, we went out and broke up some more concrete over the weekend. After the first load of it was broken up, brought home and unloaded we went back for a second load. I hadn't even taken swing number 1 when the head literally fell off. It seems that the handle made of "American" hardwood had snapped inside but hadn't come loose yet. I used the head of the hammer to push some dirt to the side before swinging, and plop, there it went. I issued forth a few choice descriptive words to illustrate my frustration and then proceeded to head off to home depot to see if I could still exchange it for a replacement. I mean with less than a month of cumulative use it must have been defective or flawed right? I was in luck, I wasn't supposed to be able to return it since it had been over 90 days, but the very nice ladies at the customer service counter let me anyway since they could tell I had hardly used it.
Well guess what? Not ten swings into the brand new off the shelf replacement, and this is what I had. Now I know I am a true stud...(alright take a second while you finish laughing...done? Ok then.) but really, I hadn't even had enough time to get scratches on one side of this thing before I clean broke the top head off again.
I've taken the time on here before to tout products or services that I feel strongly about. As I've said, good products and services deserve good word of mouth advertising. Conversely, poor and shoddy products deserve poor word of mouth. If any of you are in the market for a sledge hammer any time soon, I encourage you to steer clear of this product, at least the wooden handled one. Which begs me to ask the question, what exactly is "American" hardwood. Didn't good American handles use to be Ash or Hickory? Is this the same variety of "American" product as "American cheese"? Why have we let the name of the greatest country in the world (no offense to those you from elsewhere, but it's how I feel. I wouldn't expect you to feel less for your country.) get associated with poor quality and cheap products? It's a shame really, we're better than that.

On a good note, I had a great weekend over all, I hope you all did too.

P~