tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23392238666734376382024-03-08T03:33:45.159-08:00The Blog About Stuff™Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger130125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-58011036737558522542014-01-16T07:16:00.001-08:002014-01-16T07:16:38.228-08:00End of 2013 and Begining of 2014New year: what does it means for you? For me it means that the prices are going up. Less than a month ago [around December 20-23], I went to the local Dunkin Donuts to get a 6-pack of donuts and the price was $4.99 for 6. Went couple of days ago at the same location and the price is now $5.49. I bet thats not the only place where prices went up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-7475523097683691132013-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:002013-09-29T08:03:10.117-07:00Olive Garden's Neverending Pasta Bowl 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today is the last day of the Endless Pasta Bowl special at the Olive Garden chain of restaurants, so on Friday I went to the Olive Garden on The Avenue of the Americas to try to get this special deal. I never been to Olive Garden ever before, but I know them from their ads: "While You're Here, You're Family" and all that, and I heard about their Endless Pasta Bowl specials from their circular coupon sheets. What is Endless Pasta Bowl? - Its pretty much all the pasta you can eat at a fixed price of $9.99, plus all the breadsticks you can it and all the soup or salad that you can eat - all for $9.99!</div>
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So on Friday I go there and the place is pretty much half empty: I get in and tell that I want a seat and get seated right away, and they give me 2 menus: one of them is of their featured [but not sale/promo] items, with nice-looking photo shots and the second menu is their standard text-only menu of their regular items and wine. So I sit there for around 3-4 minutes and then the server named Tyler B shows up, introduces himself and asks if I made my mind about what I want to order. I ask him if the Endless Pasta Bowl special is still available, to which he replies that he is sorry and that the Endless Pasta Bowl special has end today [Friday] and if there is anything else that he can get me. At this point I give him the benefit of the doubt since I did not know the end date of the promo, but I did checked the Olive Garden's website for this location earlier that morning and there was the Endless Pasta Bowl advertising still going on. So I quickly look at the featured items menu and look for a cheap dish that won't offend my tastes [I know that they have a bunch of cheeses in their dishes that I don't like], pick the Grilled Chicken Flatbread and Blackberry Blood Orange Tea for a drink. 3-4 minutes later the drink was served, and 3-4 minutes more and Grilled Chicken Flatbread was delivered to my table.<br />
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Blackberry Blood Orange Tea - "The fresh and fruity flavors of blackberry and blood orange mixed with iced tea" - cost me $3.79 and it was a pretty good beverage. It tastes like mix of tea and a berry punch, which I love and could see myself drinking this stuff back home. The only thing that I did not liked is that the glass had a lot of ice in it, and I don't like the idea of paying the premium for plain ice.</div>
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Grilled Chicken Flatbread - "Chicken, mozzarella, roasted red peppers and basil with Alfredo and garlic spread" - was priced at $10.79 and essentially it is a small thin crust pizza less the pizza sauce. It was pleasantly tasty, like a premium frozen pizza but for me it was just simply too little of a food, I presume that it was around 7 ounces or slightly less. I finished it in a couple of minutes and asked for a check.<br />
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Subtotal same out to $14.58, plus the sales tax of $1.29, with the suggested 18% gratuity of $2.62 to the total of $18.49, to which I paid $19.00 and took the receipt with me. When I got home, I began googling for the end date of the Endless Pasta Bowl and found out that the last day is September 29. I found the circular which confirmed this date and also called the Oliver Garden location that I visited, and the phone lady said that Endless Pasta Bowl does indeed ends on the 29th, which leads me to conclude that the server/waiter Tyler B lied to me about the Endless Pasta Bowl promotion being over. Given my experience in the retail industry, I find it difficult to believe that Tyler B misplaced the promotion's end date since it is the biggest promotion of the year that Oliver Garden has, which runs for August and September and the corporate office is pretty clear on communicating the details and terms of promotion to the general managers, which in turn instruct the restaurant's staff. At the end of the day I sent a complaint about this matter to Olive Garden company.<br />
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On the next day [Saturday] I decided to stop back at this Olive Garden #1567 on 696 Avenue of the Americas and see if I can get the Endless Pasta Bowl promo, since I had some business to do in the city. I got there at around 3:30PM and the place was packed. The woman on the reception desk told me that there is a 30 minutes of waiting time, to which I agreed and left to do the business that I had to do. When I returned back, the receptionist told me that she called my name and was not there, to which I acknowledged and she said to give her couple of minutes. I sat in the waiting area for about 5 minutes until they called "Alex", so I approached the reception desk and told that its me. Another guy and his female friend were also near the desk, and the receptionist told me that its that guy who is Alex, but that that is okay and that I should follow him, his friend and their host, which I did. I followed them to the back area, which was half empty compared to the fully packed front of the restaurant. I was seated behind a family of middle aged pop, mom and at least 1 of their toddler kids' [did not really paid attention to them]. The host told me that someone will be right back with me, so I sat there for 1-2 minutes and took a look at the menus. Then a server/waiter by the name of Robert R showed up, introduced himself and asked how could he help me. I asked him if the Endless Pasta Bowl promotion is still on, to which he replied yes, took out the Endless Pasta Bowl special laminated menu from his apron and asked if I would like to take a look at it, to which I said yes. The menu pretty much outlined the same terms that were listed on Olive Garden's website. I chose my combos for the Endless Pasta Bowl with the following items:<br />
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- Breadsticks<br />
- Chicken & Gnocchi Soup<br />
- Linguine pasta with Asiago Garlic Alfredo sauce<br />
- Meatballs<br />
- Strawberry Passionfruit Limonata<br />
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Robert R came back 2 or so minutes later with the Strawberry Passionfruit Limonata - "A sweet, refreshing mix of strawberry, passion fruit, lemonade and sparkling water" - that cost $3.79, which I began drinking right away. The beverage was a bit bitter due to lemon, and at first I thought that it was mixed with alcohol. The strawberry flavor made all the difference to it; a decent quality drink that was somewhat pleasant to drink, but I did like the Blackberry Blood Orange Tea from the previous visit over this one. Lots of ice was also left in the glass as with the Blackberry Blood Orange Tea.<br />
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Next came the breadsticks [included in the Endless Pasta Bowl promotion price of $9.99] and the soup. I was really interested in trying out these breadsticks since everyone seems to be hyped over them. I had high hopes for these breadsticks; kind of like or similarly to breadsticks that are sold at Au Bon Pain, since thats the go-to place for the breadsticks for me. Olive Garden's breadsticks turned out to be sticks of tasteless slightly crispy on the outside hot dog buns. No seasonings or flavor that I detected to them whatsoever. Olive Garden also sells additional dipping sauces ["freshly prepared marinara, Alfredo or five cheese" each for additional $4.29] for these breadsticks, but I just took one bite to taste the breadstick and another bite after I dipped the breadstick into the soup. Overall, 2 bites and I was done with the breadsticks - they are plain, tasteless and there is nothing special about them. A measly brushing with garlic butter or seasoned butter would make these breadsticks taste much better than they actually are.<br />
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Chicken & Gnocchi soup - "A creamy soup made with roasted chicken, traditional Italian dumplings and spinach" - [included in the Endless Pasta Bowl promotion price of $9.99, but priced at $7.29 at a regular price, without sale/promotion ] was pretty good. A creamy soup with tender chicken pieces and chewy bite-sized gnocchies was very tasty, so I had to ask for another plate of this soup. The quality was like a good canned Progresso soup that was worth even its regular price. The only part that I did not liked that much about the soup is that the handle of the spoon was a bit short, and it felt like I was holding a slightly prolonged teaspoon. I definitely recommend this soup.</div>
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Pasta Bowl combo: Linguine with Asiago Garlic Alfredo sauce was included in the Endless Pasta Bowl promotion price of $9.99 [plus $2.99 for two meatballs]. The pasta combo [you have to select from around 6 or so types of pastas and another 6 or so sauces to go with it] came out pretty bland in terms of taste, so I had to salt and pepper it a bit to give it some more flavor to enjoy it. I think that I can make better pasta meal at home with the help of Pasta Sides pouches or the frozen Michelina's [Let Mama Feed You] trays than this Olive Garden pasta. The only good part about this pasta was the cheesy Alfredo sauce, which was not enough in my opinion. In the end, I did not finish all the pasta that was on the plate and has around 20% of it leftover, to which the sever/waiter Robert R suggested that he can pack it for me to go, the offer to which I declined.</div>
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The meatballs themselves were pretty average, with weak taste to them, and were similar in taste to the Fast Fixin' brand of Italian style meatballs, just larger in size. I expected for $2.99 to be more than 2 meatballs, but they were large in size and at the end of the meal I was pretty stuffed and did not want any extra meatballs. I am also sure that these meatballs had soy filler in them, since they tasted and looked like the soy-filled meatballs. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Hlti3OCkvage964QeCSyRN7MOvpY0QDwgNR9Kyq6jXY6D6ukOov4qjOUj86TQHbMgimvgtX_-VNV4FvucHT-jLo-ywKz0trYxPJG82CvIOx2bUKrOmW8Z7thMuFM40H4NaofWUd0XY2m/s1600/Olive-Garden-Chocolates-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Hlti3OCkvage964QeCSyRN7MOvpY0QDwgNR9Kyq6jXY6D6ukOov4qjOUj86TQHbMgimvgtX_-VNV4FvucHT-jLo-ywKz0trYxPJG82CvIOx2bUKrOmW8Z7thMuFM40H4NaofWUd0XY2m/s400/Olive-Garden-Chocolates-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9hIooXTgtyhYLBCV0Sqj7g1HGAdmuHJcaPNA3qpysC5CyFlBcCtw2z2hVABcgK8fdskRLyMkEehXYayRK0wkOmZO0FU2BFM6WGfWory-3myCF1bXj2ThyphenhyphenTru5ecfRhT7RKtN46M9opZ_D/s1600/Olive-Garden-Chocolates-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9hIooXTgtyhYLBCV0Sqj7g1HGAdmuHJcaPNA3qpysC5CyFlBcCtw2z2hVABcgK8fdskRLyMkEehXYayRK0wkOmZO0FU2BFM6WGfWory-3myCF1bXj2ThyphenhyphenTru5ecfRhT7RKtN46M9opZ_D/s400/Olive-Garden-Chocolates-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I asked for a check and Robert R brought the check valet along with 2 pieces of complimentary chocolate, which I did not eat since I was pretty full. The subtotal came out to $16.77, plus the sales tax of $1.49, with the suggested 18% gratuity of $3.02 to the total of $21.28, to which I paid $22.00. The server/waiter Robert R was straightforward with me, did not take a lot of time to serve the food and even asked me couple of times if I would like any extra grated cheese [which I declined since I am not a cheese fan, other than the melted mozzarella, provolone, American, swiss or nacho cheese sauce]. The table behind me with the family had someone with a birthday, so Robert R even sang the Happy Birthday song for them.</div>
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In conclusion I would like to say that the food [other than 2 drinks, soup and cheesy flat bread] was pretty mediocre. Generally I was satisfied with my experience but I would probably not go back again for the Endless Pasta Bowl promotion anytime soon again. Breadsticks, pasta and meatballs needs more improvements; more seasonings, to be precise. If you will go this Olive Garden location #1567 on 696 Avenue of the Americas then stay away from the server/waiter Tyler B, since there is possibility that he will lie to you as he did to me. Also call in advance to check if they will honor the promotion. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-40371875122402441562013-01-12T16:43:00.005-08:002013-01-12T16:43:33.807-08:00Cordon Bleu Oven Cravers by Koch Foods<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5gacAIaNW-D2QkNjI48nyKJwCuylgZUUn-dr0_qyM5kJFLtCx3kDkwJjsCe6sc9SA7IVOL2ehAM3212trlvd-0Fd4689W0zjxvPB7_cAlmKzEK607G7upBn-2zi74vZXuAmUTBtVhDM0/s1600/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5gacAIaNW-D2QkNjI48nyKJwCuylgZUUn-dr0_qyM5kJFLtCx3kDkwJjsCe6sc9SA7IVOL2ehAM3212trlvd-0Fd4689W0zjxvPB7_cAlmKzEK607G7upBn-2zi74vZXuAmUTBtVhDM0/s400/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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So the Fall semester is over and I have more free time now, so I decided to start writing here again. I also started several other blogs that you can check out by clicking on my profile link, and taking a look at the other blogs. Here for this review, I have Cordon Bleu Oven Cravers by Koch Foods. I never tried this frozen product before but I knew of its existence for over a year; I first spotted it at the PathMark store near the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn, but I never bothered buying it for some reason. Last week they had it on sale at $2.99 from the regular price of $3.99 at the local Associated mart, so I decided to buy one and see how it tastes. There are 3 products within the breaded lineup that I have seen around the city: Cordon Bleu (blue ribbon), Chicken Broccoli (green ribbon) and Chicken Kiev (yellow ribbon). The manufacturer [Koch Foods] according to their website also has a product line without the breading, but I never seen it within any marts that I have been to in NYC. As per box instructions, this product is not microwave oven compatible and only works in regular stove. 400 degrees for around 30 minutes is what I went with.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9zt6DWNKNeZ-uo3dTOBzueXzSGFViT1I4cj7iig12syij-tK3-F0bwitI4BDh204tm1cuPvKul_9rvIBITZxnCdKj9MqrkAbz1dCutBR1aFnZ6X9RDwp9VrBMi9eAAB94FJBA86bKotJ/s1600/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9zt6DWNKNeZ-uo3dTOBzueXzSGFViT1I4cj7iig12syij-tK3-F0bwitI4BDh204tm1cuPvKul_9rvIBITZxnCdKj9MqrkAbz1dCutBR1aFnZ6X9RDwp9VrBMi9eAAB94FJBA86bKotJ/s400/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Back of the box.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47EhoFTCnjvZMEmQ1-4knVPwJXTBya2_W3t2rLKZM5NA_A8c8aN16leQhs_-qPlcWbzhVn0UYHh0-rY64_v6tiRCbBq5KYnuX2gWOxzdL_a9UF_vcrmupn4Jpb3zN7UQSHtua-IbrO6vW/s1600/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47EhoFTCnjvZMEmQ1-4knVPwJXTBya2_W3t2rLKZM5NA_A8c8aN16leQhs_-qPlcWbzhVn0UYHh0-rY64_v6tiRCbBq5KYnuX2gWOxzdL_a9UF_vcrmupn4Jpb3zN7UQSHtua-IbrO6vW/s400/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-3.jpg" width="400" />'</a></div>
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Box-O'-Vision.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8h1y1JXCFEuwDkpDS4X6vDPJOipB4VnVS6O8pG1Hd0iGamt-5rr9oZ-9a5a4k-UPv-UHKHFWSYYC8rsr4yfODHnRQ28A_3fmFvq3HYDl_mCecnTCbYlTTt70NehFclbsGRceFZe8831p9/s1600/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8h1y1JXCFEuwDkpDS4X6vDPJOipB4VnVS6O8pG1Hd0iGamt-5rr9oZ-9a5a4k-UPv-UHKHFWSYYC8rsr4yfODHnRQ28A_3fmFvq3HYDl_mCecnTCbYlTTt70NehFclbsGRceFZe8831p9/s400/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Individually packed cordon bleus.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh20-eXmcPSQ5J6NTeMYCY7k-jjXGRffsxcMGyICPJIRW0q-3kQgEfuxKGjh5IP-xoQ4pGpozmd0Pejz07QUKwAbWn1rIb6iMXiMCc3cpy-7vdxJCrbVeMtpUuMo2FfT7TjsgtSI9Dw_p0y/s1600/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh20-eXmcPSQ5J6NTeMYCY7k-jjXGRffsxcMGyICPJIRW0q-3kQgEfuxKGjh5IP-xoQ4pGpozmd0Pejz07QUKwAbWn1rIb6iMXiMCc3cpy-7vdxJCrbVeMtpUuMo2FfT7TjsgtSI9Dw_p0y/s400/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Cold cordon bleus.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8PiB3q3WE821GZJQnHXT4HTZFx-AWDMn1Hx3RFc3j29zxsVapDhWK20_g1oW9XqN7B0As6c4GatNOmMaz5uCFGVFaP9rAGWBzUGa7Ezj2fV4jIdMhJN4bLWwlCBBQC2iQr_yv6cdAnHp/s1600/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8PiB3q3WE821GZJQnHXT4HTZFx-AWDMn1Hx3RFc3j29zxsVapDhWK20_g1oW9XqN7B0As6c4GatNOmMaz5uCFGVFaP9rAGWBzUGa7Ezj2fV4jIdMhJN4bLWwlCBBQC2iQr_yv6cdAnHp/s400/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Baked cordon bleus.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS3W8cARN0Shav5lN3NQCLR9G2HptaEySQq66O1orNbYGQOO-y4PnJo7_K8zI8oBWFDedLiug0rRMVGhfEJ4VwoTV8dUzoBWIRig1so5GFEV5XQIcXeRiFC2s9w6YVtgWKfpl5lCc-YeY3/s1600/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS3W8cARN0Shav5lN3NQCLR9G2HptaEySQq66O1orNbYGQOO-y4PnJo7_K8zI8oBWFDedLiug0rRMVGhfEJ4VwoTV8dUzoBWIRig1so5GFEV5XQIcXeRiFC2s9w6YVtgWKfpl5lCc-YeY3/s400/Oven-Cravers-Cordon-Bleu-7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Inside of the cordon bleus.</div>
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Inside of the cordon bleu, there is some gooey cheese, ham slices [the better/pricier kind of ham] and the whole thing is made out of chicken breast, which is coated in breading. I kinda tried to find the seams within chicken breast since I was curious about how they get the stuffing inside, but I did not find any. Cooling time is around 5 or so minutes, and it is ready to be cut and consumed. After I took the first bite out of this thing, I was pretty much hooked on it, it just tastes so good. It is very well-balanced product in terms of all ingredients coming into play with each other, the cheese in particular. The chicken meat is very tender and juicy, not dry and flavorless. The only downside to these cordon bleu Oven Cravers is the 30-minute cooking time, which sucks when you are hungry. I rate these cordon bleus at 4.7/5.0 with a value rating of 4.8/5.0 [at the sale price of $2.99 per box of 2 cordon bleus]. I definitely recommend this product and I already bought 6 more boxes of it while the sale was still on and the shelves were stocked with it. In a way when I bought the first box, I was kinda comparing this product to a box of Hot Pockets, with similar value, shape, weight and stuffing. The major difference between the Oven Cravers and Hot Pockets is that instead of a dough shell there is a chicken meat shell, so I kinda see the Oven Cravers as "better person's Hot Pockets" and the difference in taste is just on a whole different level, while the price is pretty much the same to maybe a little bit higher.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-34051615053288416832012-12-17T10:35:00.001-08:002012-12-17T10:35:42.163-08:00Subway December $2 Sandwiches Fail<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix8Fg7kkH_qYxmyJrtIGIAKiVjl3mnk-wSw3zBcXV3PTPNSUHUMLBIMCxwEpbi3kZYNyvg6clSJLWg8chIgPMC4p0YckCW_I1d6duNBHomt7DCGfxJGckq1tUwr0KyQ8EEihdaFxynitra/s1600/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix8Fg7kkH_qYxmyJrtIGIAKiVjl3mnk-wSw3zBcXV3PTPNSUHUMLBIMCxwEpbi3kZYNyvg6clSJLWg8chIgPMC4p0YckCW_I1d6duNBHomt7DCGfxJGckq1tUwr0KyQ8EEihdaFxynitra/s400/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Couple of weeks ago, Subway sandwiches began promoting their December "Customer Appreciation" Month with select 6-inch sandwiches for $2.00. The sandwiches that qualify for this offer are Meatball Marinara [meatballs and sauce] and Cold Cut Combo [cold cuts]. I wanted to get this deal for some time now, but only recently I have been freed-up from the stuff that I was occupied with [mostly end-of-semester college stuff and eBay selling], and I also started a couple of new blogs: <a href="http://www.greedyjew.com/" target="_blank">www.GreedyJew.com</a> , <a href="http://www.sovietarchitecture.com/" target="_blank">www.SovietArchitecture.com</a> and also working on another food blog that I yet have to release. Yesterday in the evening I found some time to get out and grab one of these $2 subs, the Meatball Marinara to be exact, becau I like meatballs. Last week I also emailed Subway customer service with inquiry about which locations participate in this $2 December promo, but to my disappointment I received back an email from them with a "scripted" answer that suggested that I go and seek the $2 location myself, since they said "
<span>All SUBWAY® locations are individually owned and operated".</span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wu8aLKzj3f0X1r7_nAmUauktW4kpFXsLRbG2oCHMMH3-RCHQlV99iPYaBwR0NNi7wZ9z1nnyYWD8qoSTH7JMCZZlT85qZEv_KplgHgRSJqq_zQFefyDuNBgdQj5P908S7n0CzBa3drCh/s1600/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wu8aLKzj3f0X1r7_nAmUauktW4kpFXsLRbG2oCHMMH3-RCHQlV99iPYaBwR0NNi7wZ9z1nnyYWD8qoSTH7JMCZZlT85qZEv_KplgHgRSJqq_zQFefyDuNBgdQj5P908S7n0CzBa3drCh/s400/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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On YouTube, their ads are very frequent and I see at least 4 of them every day.</div>
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So yesterday I went to the nearby Subway location for the $2.00 Meatball Marinara sandwich, only to find out that the store has closed way before the scheduled closing time.<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqoe00fk37FmKxcmel4MyR7Krx95FrfImbDFxv2VnL73mXukKCrcZCEm6Pqpe3GjZ7-xFgTDS-dQDr2rVwmLLejH2hyphenhyphenA8XRK1ZrnuBjkiJEev1_dOcOYKiMinhFj4om4Piq_UjC4Ic8Ahyphenhyphen/s1600/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqoe00fk37FmKxcmel4MyR7Krx95FrfImbDFxv2VnL73mXukKCrcZCEm6Pqpe3GjZ7-xFgTDS-dQDr2rVwmLLejH2hyphenhyphenA8XRK1ZrnuBjkiJEev1_dOcOYKiMinhFj4om4Piq_UjC4Ic8Ahyphenhyphen/s400/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Their business hours sign indicate that the shop closes at 9:00PM.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1qtYywTQIJr-L5MGjsrSqhFPdZM-U2_2naDcwZ6elUrmKGxhqEzKLcYRb2qxMP-sufCTIk8vSAU4BrEd3NU1To6SyM_tFpuqsvlcVHWcO5RMiBQMk42iRRYupn7c-NMDq20M3YPwNPVYa/s1600/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1qtYywTQIJr-L5MGjsrSqhFPdZM-U2_2naDcwZ6elUrmKGxhqEzKLcYRb2qxMP-sufCTIk8vSAU4BrEd3NU1To6SyM_tFpuqsvlcVHWcO5RMiBQMk42iRRYupn7c-NMDq20M3YPwNPVYa/s400/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And their Subway.com business information indicate that they close at 10:00PM.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGUTMHuMXPysy8Ns1bfTGGkfTvDsIlRhVo8O0iyuYMObc1HInnF9qeAcxK-h_c3nJJNyb2aCK1o8RIlZSV-KBxj_VyW2CKsKmq18PnFxlmrTP5fm4U2JYA1vjL6Wy-B46Sp-OTzpGdxfk/s1600/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGUTMHuMXPysy8Ns1bfTGGkfTvDsIlRhVo8O0iyuYMObc1HInnF9qeAcxK-h_c3nJJNyb2aCK1o8RIlZSV-KBxj_VyW2CKsKmq18PnFxlmrTP5fm4U2JYA1vjL6Wy-B46Sp-OTzpGdxfk/s400/Subway-Sucks-December-2012---6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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There were at least 30 more minutes to go before their posted business hours sign closing time. There was nothing that I could do because the door was locked and the Chinese cunt that was running around in the kitchen/counter area just waived to me to go away, so went away.</div>
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Then I went to another Subway location on 86th Street, which was a block away from the Burger King. At this place, when I ordered the $2 Meatball Marinara sandwich, I was told "no more meatball" by the sandwich artist cunt behind the counter. Then another Chinese guy with glasses behind the counter came by and said that there is nothing that he can do and that I should stop by tomorrow [which is today]. My advice is to never shop at Chinese-run places because these people just do not get the concept of customer service.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-65980314862139427152012-12-17T09:04:00.000-08:002012-12-17T09:04:11.009-08:00Dorco Holidays 2012 Promo Code<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9Jba9Lu_nPgT9dqIbQkI5BNy17jhxdIDXvZP5JeRHX_d9Iv-32X8Uy9R0U8epzg51Q3GltWh4j-4wJoycQ3sTYwZnDCEk4pyFF1JT-B5xK6RHX2IxfVViibkV66doJ7qac-57rp0Jo7Z/s1600/Dorco-Coupon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9Jba9Lu_nPgT9dqIbQkI5BNy17jhxdIDXvZP5JeRHX_d9Iv-32X8Uy9R0U8epzg51Q3GltWh4j-4wJoycQ3sTYwZnDCEk4pyFF1JT-B5xK6RHX2IxfVViibkV66doJ7qac-57rp0Jo7Z/s400/Dorco-Coupon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I just received this emailed from Dorco yesterday, and its about their new promo code that they call "Biggest Sale of the Year". Basically it is $40.00 off the order of $80.00 and above. To use the code, just add bunch of their stuff of your choice to cart on their webstore and on the checkout enter the "Eighty40" less the quotes.</div>
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By using this promo code, I ordered 10x packs of their 6-blade cartridges with trimmer blades, so that is like $0.25 or so per cartridge, which is almost dirt-cheap. So if you need new razors then don't hold back and give the Pace 6 razor system a try. I actually just shaved 30 minutes ago and it feels good, because I haven't shaved for over 2 weeks. Remember, this code ends tomorrow!</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-52624886307900933332012-12-13T08:38:00.002-08:002012-12-13T08:42:22.343-08:00CVS Photo Surcharge Rip-Off<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqUZf13qT87Hqbwv36w4rNdf7v9IRNeO0rxinMVdRBys_zCc4UCACMBmqQCELgXtQPr0J9dlM3ZgyvAYUBMDJdU9WNclyonq-LYxrbgT5gB7mjBgP54gsxu47kEWNT29YYI5CKkIUL6GPN/s1600/CVS-Photo-Surcharge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqUZf13qT87Hqbwv36w4rNdf7v9IRNeO0rxinMVdRBys_zCc4UCACMBmqQCELgXtQPr0J9dlM3ZgyvAYUBMDJdU9WNclyonq-LYxrbgT5gB7mjBgP54gsxu47kEWNT29YYI5CKkIUL6GPN/s400/CVS-Photo-Surcharge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I just wanted to order 5x 4x6 photo prints and decided to try out the CVS photo service. Usually I use Walgreens, but I wanted to see how CVS would do the job, so I created an account on their website and began uploading photos. Then when the time came to checkout, I was hit with the extra $1.49 "surcharge".<br />
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So instead of placing the order at CVS, I went to Walgreens website and ordered five photo prints there; no extra surcharge or any other rip-off fees. So if you plan to order photo prints, then know in advance that CVS will try to rip you off for at least $1.49. Be smart and tell CVS to go fuck themselves.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-58952093241387395992012-11-25T22:13:00.001-08:002012-11-25T22:13:46.455-08:00Russian Pirozhki - With Meat and Kapusta (Cabbage)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPjoiqS1cFRh-NECosH53NiyY-YOQh1y1wFEUG-50Q5y6isOyie1CghjpUCy4U09oYBi6c37tQOrg7bRR6S9irMa_C_75WhHG3KgQjj8qr65EuJY8v-8BQuOoTGxUTUNO9wXqHtp0qjQQ/s1600/Pirozhki-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPjoiqS1cFRh-NECosH53NiyY-YOQh1y1wFEUG-50Q5y6isOyie1CghjpUCy4U09oYBi6c37tQOrg7bRR6S9irMa_C_75WhHG3KgQjj8qr65EuJY8v-8BQuOoTGxUTUNO9wXqHtp0qjQQ/s400/Pirozhki-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Pirozhki are the Russian pastries that often can be found inside the Russian baza stores, especially on Brighton Beach Avenue here in NYC. Its a classic Russian "fast food" snack that was popular for many Soviet years, and even these days pirozhki are very popular among the Russian consumers. Generally there are 3 types of pirozhki: deep-fried or as I like to call them Sovietskiyi (Soviet) or Stolovyyi (cafeteria or lunchroom style), triangular-shaped fillo dough ones or as Russians call them Sloyoniyi (layered) and the 3rd type is "fried" or as I like to call them homestyle. Pirozhki are made with savory and with sweet fillings. Some popular savory filling are meat [chicken, beef and pork], cabbage, pea paste, mashed potatoes and mushrooms eggs & onions. Sweet fillings generally include preserves and jams, which popular flavors include apples, cherry, apricots and sometimes [rarely] strawberries. Sweet filling pirozhki also maybe topped with some powdered sugar, but only of handful of Russian stores in NYC sell them this way. Russian stores that make sweet filling pirozhki most likely use commercial type of fillings that come in 5-gallon pails that most of the bakeries use, and could include jelly fillings. The pirozhki that I have here on hand are of the cafeteria style. I call them cafeteria or Soviet style because this type of pirozhki were widely available in all kinds of cafeterias during the Soviet and early post-Soviet times. I remember this type of pirozhki from kindergarden and from the school's cafeteria in Kiev. They were also available in many cafeterias and at some gastronoms (marts) in Kiev. On were also available in a couple locations on the Kreschiatik street, where Russian grannies would sell them from the wooden boxes. These Soviet style pirozhki are best in my opinion because they are deep-fried and hence soaked in oil, which make them not as dry as the fillo dough ones and the homestyle/fried [on the pan] ones. Soviet style pirozhki taste best pretty much as soon as they are done, given that they cool-off for some minutes, but they also hold the taste properties for hours, can be kept refrigerated for a day or two, and can be easily and quickly reheated inside a microwave or a gas oven, while retaining their awesome taste properties. Fillo dough type of pirozhki are drier and crumsier type of pirozhki, but most of the people prefer them with sweet filling instead of savory ones. After a day or two, the fillo dough hardens-up and does not taste very well. Fillo dough pirozhki are also disbalanced towards the corners due to the filling that is concentrated inside the center of the pirozhok. The 3rd, homemade style of pirozhki are pretty much made on the frying pan, which is fried on top and bottom in a thin layer of oil. This type of pirozhok turns bad [flat and dry] after 3-4 hours of its making. Homemade pirozhki are frequently made small and are sold per pound, but sometimes they are also made in about the same size as the deep-fried ones. I call these homemade because this is how most Russian people make pirozhki at home: on a frying pan. One pirozhok can be bought on Brighton Beach Avenue in several street and store locations for $1.25, but some store may price it for $1.50. When I went to the Kingsborough Community College, I used to eat a lot of the Soviet style pirozhki on Brighton Beach Avenue, because the transfer bus stop was there on the way home, so it made sense for me to grab a couple and glass bottle of soda as an affordable snack [compared to overpriced college cafeteria foods], and during this time, the pirozhki were priced at $0.75-$1.00. I also call all 3 types of pirozhki as "Russian Hot Pockets".</div>
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First pirozhok.</div>
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Inside of it there's kapusta (cabbage) stuffing. The cabbage is kinda stewed with pieces of carrots and there is also some ground pepper that can be see in the mix.</div>
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Second pirozhok.</div>
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It has meat stuffing inside. Its ground chicken meat mixed with onions and some spices [probably ground pepper and salt].</div>
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By the way, the best drink with a meat pirozhok is cold Coca-Cola in my opinion.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-47525699282144874652012-11-24T03:40:00.002-08:002012-11-24T03:40:24.067-08:00Lego Kit 9461 - The Swamp Creature<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDzbNidugbgqYlCUIkSFlYyhKMgcwBhjJztS5a__HmwF32YsHfWgJGLReO8FyWTQkCeixvBvFHY-aFfBVA8n3xxcOUxTzAmC8PM5nI2dHu1iF_k9mQubQC02rniAr1Yp8wHlRhobo2PtA/s1600/Lego-9461-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDzbNidugbgqYlCUIkSFlYyhKMgcwBhjJztS5a__HmwF32YsHfWgJGLReO8FyWTQkCeixvBvFHY-aFfBVA8n3xxcOUxTzAmC8PM5nI2dHu1iF_k9mQubQC02rniAr1Yp8wHlRhobo2PtA/s400/Lego-9461-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Recently I have been over at Flatbush Avenue Target which is next to the college that I go to, and inside the store when I was passing by the toy department, I decided to stop by the Lego isle to see if they had any open stock minifigures. These open stock minifigures have been produced for quiet some time now, maybe 2-3 years, and every 3-4 months they introduce a series of 16 different collectible minifigures. After 6 or so months, they retire the given series at the time and you don't really know what Lego minifigure you will get because all of them have the same packaging, but if the part or an accessory to certain minifigure is large enough or unique, then you can "feel" it and hopefully get what you want. They did not have these minifigures in stock, as always, because I think whenever they get them in-stock, they all get sold-out within a day or 2 due to the scarcity, high demand and value. In the past several years, I only caught these minifigures once at Target, and they only had 3 packs of them in stock, so I bought them all. Generally they are mostly available at the B&M Lego shops/boutiques, but the prices for them are $3.49+tax. Since I did not found the open stock minifigs, I browsed around to see if they had anything for cheap under $10.00 and I found this "The Swamp Creature" kit for $6.99 [plus tax]. It is part of the Lego's new theme which is called Monster Fighters that features minifigures of popular monsters and team of "monster fighters" minifigures. In this kit the minifure of the Swamp Creature alone was the deciding factor for me to buy the kit, because I think that it is super-awesome all by itself. By looking at the box art I, there was also an Elvis-kind-of-guy minifigure, whose name I learned later to be Frank Rock [I get the Lego catalogs every once in a couple of months that I use as bathroom reading material] and he is pretty much one of the monster fighters. Frank's unique minifigure part is his hair/wig, which is very Elvis-like. To tell the truth I really don't know the whole story to the Monster Fighters theme, but what I do know is that Lego recycles their old themes every once in some years and in 1997-1998 there was a theme called Time Cruisers that had a set in it which was called Twisted Time Train. I remember it because I got it as a gift for my birthday, and now they recycled this idea of train into Monster Fighters, which is made with more parts and is priced at double the price of the 1997 train kit, which was around $35-$40 if I remember correctly. They also added a bunch of new parts to the new train kit. So back to the Swamp Creature kit: it includes the Swamp Creature, Elvis, swamp-sickle and Elvis' swamp craft. The parts/pieces that I thought of to be worthy from this kit are: Swamp Creature minifigure, Elvis' hair, 3 revolvers/pistols, toad, fish and what seems to be somekind of a "seaweed crystal" that seems to be related to the Swamp Crature minifigure, because from looking at the Lego catalog, every monster minifigure seems to have a crystal of their own, so this must tie-into the whole Monster Fighters theme somehow, probably as a gimmick to "collect them all" or something like that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-M022mbZ5z6_qUQTxHatp1BXh895IqNZnq0rwK8ovtJ4g-qpqnpeblUWlEcCJ6504-lgFEWXvH46wkIpuVOZZf7qv6SM9WqhjR_9Yz5sJSoUGxORi0vHh8QpQYxJRluf9YZ7lsq-MYYvS/s1600/Lego-9461-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-M022mbZ5z6_qUQTxHatp1BXh895IqNZnq0rwK8ovtJ4g-qpqnpeblUWlEcCJ6504-lgFEWXvH46wkIpuVOZZf7qv6SM9WqhjR_9Yz5sJSoUGxORi0vHh8QpQYxJRluf9YZ7lsq-MYYvS/s400/Lego-9461-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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From the back of the box there is some suggestive mini story/strip of Dracula minifigure and Swamp Creature being mad at Dracula for stealing his seaweed crystal in order to launch some kind of a moon-like haduken.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJGmTFbt7aeDnElRz7M6ZPQhjuN3Vfgi75lyGVccAaaYE4guPWE2Vvz_e92UiH2PenkRturLNrjRF7QYUTzA1I6-78xhw2WOnyLZ5QRC1Yc7-7WX4V99PTPT6LX8YxXEmUdrsIxmmbs6t/s1600/Lego-9461-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJGmTFbt7aeDnElRz7M6ZPQhjuN3Vfgi75lyGVccAaaYE4guPWE2Vvz_e92UiH2PenkRturLNrjRF7QYUTzA1I6-78xhw2WOnyLZ5QRC1Yc7-7WX4V99PTPT6LX8YxXEmUdrsIxmmbs6t/s400/Lego-9461-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Another graphic strips in the back which suggest the minifigures that are part of the Monster Fighters theme.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw0QkVoGJW3IeAZET_lkkoVdMeLOWNGBA-9PNzJmxgadWGH2-Zk8N-JiKxTysLQapFuWoXmWEAMu9OvGeiXOcU9iwh8uq_L-DdpGnesJSvJvDCl439TaWQ0i8og1_gPZ3HEol6Dvbawk3c/s1600/Lego-9461-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw0QkVoGJW3IeAZET_lkkoVdMeLOWNGBA-9PNzJmxgadWGH2-Zk8N-JiKxTysLQapFuWoXmWEAMu9OvGeiXOcU9iwh8uq_L-DdpGnesJSvJvDCl439TaWQ0i8og1_gPZ3HEol6Dvbawk3c/s400/Lego-9461-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Back of the box.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMApWiDeRSAORWTRYU9_rWT4vB5W6XbmCI2uU0qfvt11i5Fh_azDPXpU5KGglteL7uxeS7ISu8P2Euf1aZpCyvXBkiPpRGH07uCj1Ddh1s3iG-0I9NXZzT-Rj2w0X6UasNVfCdjbhM0rg/s1600/Lego-9461-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMApWiDeRSAORWTRYU9_rWT4vB5W6XbmCI2uU0qfvt11i5Fh_azDPXpU5KGglteL7uxeS7ISu8P2Euf1aZpCyvXBkiPpRGH07uCj1Ddh1s3iG-0I9NXZzT-Rj2w0X6UasNVfCdjbhM0rg/s400/Lego-9461-5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Box-O'-Vision.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoF4r3SkEwgEHElxVhM1zvWj8ynMOUNQgvIOJ5ZfHad0O4fk8AuIFj1mNklpGDOMlxL6kbXs5RSdwnubQavveWYrF7UILv13puUue-wuAYkIQPCDXXEaUcXzoo0naWvVAN8LhxAEz583Oz/s1600/Lego-9461-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoF4r3SkEwgEHElxVhM1zvWj8ynMOUNQgvIOJ5ZfHad0O4fk8AuIFj1mNklpGDOMlxL6kbXs5RSdwnubQavveWYrF7UILv13puUue-wuAYkIQPCDXXEaUcXzoo0naWvVAN8LhxAEz583Oz/s400/Lego-9461-6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Contents of the kit.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDJfSCFok8VV7mn_Vt2J7DETJhVlBNAL02MMFQn5fQoMNMjEKDZyhaLBx7WkJ_NCmKS0wJY6dDbIkHKmpRYv4f8kSUsU4k7TwuDODcU5SHiMrf9DAjtVapcivDA0Jahju_XeEwtt-Kbl1b/s1600/Lego-9461-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDJfSCFok8VV7mn_Vt2J7DETJhVlBNAL02MMFQn5fQoMNMjEKDZyhaLBx7WkJ_NCmKS0wJY6dDbIkHKmpRYv4f8kSUsU4k7TwuDODcU5SHiMrf9DAjtVapcivDA0Jahju_XeEwtt-Kbl1b/s400/Lego-9461-7.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
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Swamp Creature minifigure.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxlCaIWROhUdPGkNlOcnGAZmUz9w0qZodY25drsjyLTFthCSPJCGaUDyD1IpjTFdiOmj77ReGlrjBB0lZwbZwe8XzsEP9HB8YHhCwzVrlwtEHK-4XGsFWzdGiK7nx4Qf95U7vtshmQJS3/s1600/Lego-9461-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxlCaIWROhUdPGkNlOcnGAZmUz9w0qZodY25drsjyLTFthCSPJCGaUDyD1IpjTFdiOmj77ReGlrjBB0lZwbZwe8XzsEP9HB8YHhCwzVrlwtEHK-4XGsFWzdGiK7nx4Qf95U7vtshmQJS3/s400/Lego-9461-8.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
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Frank Rock [Elvis] minifigure.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_-XEfy_UsygT6D7HtfYUGw6WDoAgqr0Ajo2YWQ3H3UY1sW7RsiO03eVC2MkZSCMB9048fWoQTg4QnbuFG1ajIDcGXAzU8r91F5uRQJdSWcziDwDyJk3cloIL_Ib_N8kGv1wbOpdLdOBk5/s1600/Lego-9461-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_-XEfy_UsygT6D7HtfYUGw6WDoAgqr0Ajo2YWQ3H3UY1sW7RsiO03eVC2MkZSCMB9048fWoQTg4QnbuFG1ajIDcGXAzU8r91F5uRQJdSWcziDwDyJk3cloIL_Ib_N8kGv1wbOpdLdOBk5/s400/Lego-9461-9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Assembled kit.</div>
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I think that this is very good kit that well worth the $6.99 price. Lego increases the prices of their kits every once in a couple of year or so, to keep up with the inflation, and this reflects on price per piece/part. The only issue that I have with this kit is that the propeller of the swamp craft touches the surface. I rate this kit at 4.2/5.0 with a value rating of 4.0/5.0. I also googled for the Swamp Creature minifigure, and found the following art and graphics by the minifigure's designer Alexandre Boudon:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhepqYq5wGmrxRa_k5KZaio4qkIMc5c_D80mVNrLhEMgHOUu9w46tQUOjhIvxUp9AoWlocxhSiacsCBPuBScoTPCit1fboXr3mj5M1_7PaAEtG8QNPgXXQPNNuoVPWQm8_BQe9hy26BoTZc/s1600/Lego-Swamp-Creature-Concept-Art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhepqYq5wGmrxRa_k5KZaio4qkIMc5c_D80mVNrLhEMgHOUu9w46tQUOjhIvxUp9AoWlocxhSiacsCBPuBScoTPCit1fboXr3mj5M1_7PaAEtG8QNPgXXQPNNuoVPWQm8_BQe9hy26BoTZc/s400/Lego-Swamp-Creature-Concept-Art.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
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Concept art by Alexandre Boudon for the Swamp Creature minifigure.
Click the image for full size.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizNnEWBgDiJHhqkJFxf-Cal6EOTyR4y2XmKJTOnQe5ALMpwVgM1EJwoE3ZHlmqF4xOIpjAlABB6KCXp00ymMwxNL850at1oSKEXa_nBPxjFAy4hyphenhyphenc4PdYtFEQduXLG8WhIOKwNerNzkpxS/s1600/Lego-Swamp-Creature-Development.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizNnEWBgDiJHhqkJFxf-Cal6EOTyR4y2XmKJTOnQe5ALMpwVgM1EJwoE3ZHlmqF4xOIpjAlABB6KCXp00ymMwxNL850at1oSKEXa_nBPxjFAy4hyphenhyphenc4PdYtFEQduXLG8WhIOKwNerNzkpxS/s400/Lego-Swamp-Creature-Development.jpg" width="281" /></a></div>
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Swamp Creature's production graphics. Click the image for full size.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/t2wah736BAc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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You can also check this interesting video; National Geographic's Lego factory documentary here.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-28786731982082166952012-11-21T06:58:00.001-08:002012-11-23T21:40:44.473-08:00Staples 25% Off Any Single Item Coupon, Ends Today<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPe-0WypKOY3_8w68Yj-AZKm799CkDcP7gZf3UINEoH5NB2cdY9LI0EiYcJsrXqgNS0YevouNQzAn7sM24Zs49a9fomZJvQOmteKdMT8Z4_xHLXV7rshnSACTMsVgwvM3A50CFznhbnqes/s1600/Staples25Off.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPe-0WypKOY3_8w68Yj-AZKm799CkDcP7gZf3UINEoH5NB2cdY9LI0EiYcJsrXqgNS0YevouNQzAn7sM24Zs49a9fomZJvQOmteKdMT8Z4_xHLXV7rshnSACTMsVgwvM3A50CFznhbnqes/s1600/Staples25Off.jpg" /></a></div>
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Another coupon that I got today in the email is the Staples coupon for 25% off for any single item, with certain items excluded per terms/fine print. It ends today (November 21st), so print it and use it if you need to. It's great for something like a multi-terabyte external hard drive. Read the fine print to make sure that you item of interest is not excluded from this deal.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-31011054888567001702012-11-21T06:53:00.000-08:002012-11-23T21:40:54.480-08:00Free Auntie Anne's Cinnamon Pretzel with Purchase of Pretzel and Drink<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDyXDcm3_OM8x5ZBrBMNWv7IpvllbcUkv_1pwY2Zx7G4kfidciYStLdLgTaApR7cbK7sqJW08mHjSxWTA5N-kwUr8-E49pEZsTQd5958i-zTF4BzxldUXhHDzePxBLNZVw53HSb0UYAPDY/s1600/FreeCinnamonPretzel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDyXDcm3_OM8x5ZBrBMNWv7IpvllbcUkv_1pwY2Zx7G4kfidciYStLdLgTaApR7cbK7sqJW08mHjSxWTA5N-kwUr8-E49pEZsTQd5958i-zTF4BzxldUXhHDzePxBLNZVw53HSb0UYAPDY/s400/FreeCinnamonPretzel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Just received this coupon in the mail today from Auntie Anne's. It gives you either original or cinnamon pretzel for free when you buy one of their pretzel products and a drink. Not a very good deal because they began to put the drink with the pretzel purchase for over 6 months now, and extra cost for the drink just ruins the deal in a way. But it's still an okay deal if you are hungry for a double pretzel dose and a drink to boot. Print it and use it at the Auntie Anne's joint.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-77671246527042630342012-11-13T10:51:00.000-08:002012-11-23T21:28:43.216-08:00Smirnoff Ice Black Watermelon<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRNeuY_P5WTHwJhKHQeZL-Iufctb8kmnVOARndP-PRyAHxtFUopvoQ0T7TeN_98iHN9Vznge0XbhyphenhyphenNfQdTsQZcoubO1UIdhccJSmNyqASub4XoTItg2Q7OV8d-m-9y_3lLXotYD2AF6AE/s1600/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRNeuY_P5WTHwJhKHQeZL-Iufctb8kmnVOARndP-PRyAHxtFUopvoQ0T7TeN_98iHN9Vznge0XbhyphenhyphenNfQdTsQZcoubO1UIdhccJSmNyqASub4XoTItg2Q7OV8d-m-9y_3lLXotYD2AF6AE/s400/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+1.JPG" width="273" /></a></div>
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Couple of months ago I was looking to get myself something with alcohol at the local food mart, but the assortment was slim due to the fact that most alcoholic beverages in the place are different brands of beer, so my choice pretty much fell on Four Loko, until I spotted a lineup of Smirnoff Ice Black alcoholic beverages: Fruit Punch, Lemon Lime and Watermelon. I had bad experience with fruit punch and berry flavored alcoholic beverages so I skipped the Fruit Punch version, and Lemon Lime was also interesting but it could be a 50/50 of being bad, so the Watermelon was the lesser riskier choice from the 3 that were available, because in my opinion it is diffucult to screw-up anything with watermelon flavor. The price of $1.99 per can was also very attractive to me, because Four Loko was sold at $2.99 per can and Mike's Hard Lemonade in a similar-sized can [24 ounces or so] was sold at $5.99 per can, so it was a no-brainer for me to go with Smirnoff Ice Black instead of lesser-quality [in my opinion] Four Loko or Mike's Hard Lemonade that was priced at 3x times that of Smirnoff. Smirnoff can also looked more appealing than the rest of the choices available at hand at the time of purchase.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_X4AZnDNZQ0wLxFpIGCjLFyID4jYpvFbUKWI526rLiaGm4vP0RYeVZvRr75oOvuokTJlBSIvjIwo1vHCSTF1VUrXL4EPwZXbeXFPkqVQh4vRzQqwiIqw0QywHBZcsAjBvmsVxhVo1hls/s1600/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_X4AZnDNZQ0wLxFpIGCjLFyID4jYpvFbUKWI526rLiaGm4vP0RYeVZvRr75oOvuokTJlBSIvjIwo1vHCSTF1VUrXL4EPwZXbeXFPkqVQh4vRzQqwiIqw0QywHBZcsAjBvmsVxhVo1hls/s400/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Affordable price of $1.99.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYFOVWO2Mne-hAfYRo4LdXx-16XFl3a4oWJ3nE-d2v805hS2PhaBfUNxuV07TBv4_iODCD7qa0cnaiAkdD-pcgab8E1OQI5eFrW5eqDjGRO2EmDnwYK8JzNwLSKwBX62e0wjdj5XKVcX8/s1600/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYFOVWO2Mne-hAfYRo4LdXx-16XFl3a4oWJ3nE-d2v805hS2PhaBfUNxuV07TBv4_iODCD7qa0cnaiAkdD-pcgab8E1OQI5eFrW5eqDjGRO2EmDnwYK8JzNwLSKwBX62e0wjdj5XKVcX8/s400/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+3.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Made by Smirnoff, which is good, because they make good quality vodkas at affordable price.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf4CK_C0xpZgdtBi-lvUhanIiaxoQXcjIzX8UEMlPLEbveq4oRp-Ki1R7cMezxqx1bpIIybiz_9ZkXrcb2-APB614N8PSYy6P550Ll5NuBbsCmJKbRnnwwgGlpNlaRkZEfkCPF191kjwA/s1600/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf4CK_C0xpZgdtBi-lvUhanIiaxoQXcjIzX8UEMlPLEbveq4oRp-Ki1R7cMezxqx1bpIIybiz_9ZkXrcb2-APB614N8PSYy6P550Ll5NuBbsCmJKbRnnwwgGlpNlaRkZEfkCPF191kjwA/s400/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The can contains half an ounce more of beverage than the $0.99 AriZona can of non-alcoholic beverages, and for only $1.00 with 8% alcohol while made under the quality brand Smirnoff, the beverage looked and sounded really promising.</div>
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Unique top of the can with black lid and green pull tab.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ViqAQs_eKvwVhllzx7Q72HTS1w_H7vG9vpubfkI9SzaKYD453N0_SAlscczlKaN0Lx1O8whMDSpQL0A_p6Vf9_Tn1pwXUbG_gr286HaQPw7n1VaWMrROmCUrYdFMgYVQKKNIYRRj9hc/s1600/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ViqAQs_eKvwVhllzx7Q72HTS1w_H7vG9vpubfkI9SzaKYD453N0_SAlscczlKaN0Lx1O8whMDSpQL0A_p6Vf9_Tn1pwXUbG_gr286HaQPw7n1VaWMrROmCUrYdFMgYVQKKNIYRRj9hc/s400/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+6.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Neat looking and feeling texture makes this beverage stand out on the shelf from others.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8hU9Y3CvSwZMeWpPnB4Mrwt27kF3O3WgrR4J0h5Z2JvsiQMd6ySQzMf8c9zADamJqv-GqHSOoAX4I1kIBMldgBjUDHqXPYdp0kK2xmz6UzWzk9NUg2-Rh6rqoMIjsrukHhUd__KVeZos/s1600/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8hU9Y3CvSwZMeWpPnB4Mrwt27kF3O3WgrR4J0h5Z2JvsiQMd6ySQzMf8c9zADamJqv-GqHSOoAX4I1kIBMldgBjUDHqXPYdp0kK2xmz6UzWzk9NUg2-Rh6rqoMIjsrukHhUd__KVeZos/s400/Smirnoff+Black+Watermelon+7.JPG" width="337" /></a></div>
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The drink itself was pretty much what I expected it to be: more enjoyable and smoother than Four Loko. The watemelon flavor was slightly above average but exotic-tasting non-the-less; especially while on the rocks. The drink is great for sipping but I think that some people out there would not mind chugging it. The 8% of alcohol by volume is just about right in my opinion, because if it would go over 12% or so then it would be not as smooth and as enjoyable as it is. I enjoyed this beverages and the $1.99 [plus can deposit and tax] that I spent on it was well worth it and I have no regrets over it: watermelon version was a good choice. I would definitely buy another can of this Smirnoff beverages, but lately I did not see it on the shelves at the place where I bought it. It's nice to have a can or 2 of these in the fridge just for whenever you feel like drinking it or when nothing else is available. I rate Smirnoff Ice Black Watermelon at 4.2./5.0 and value rating of 4.5/5.0. I definitely recommend this product, especially if you don't like beers but want a good-tasting alcoholic beverage with great value per serving.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-34877567618923198162012-11-13T09:52:00.001-08:002012-11-23T21:30:24.189-08:00Monster Mixxd Energy Drink<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwPeraRkWKGky5PnaaBml4mBX27dN6u8Nqk1suJUO6YmyHCCOrDuBLajDsQsKj2aqxkN6y7UITL9Yadgyd8j6rmoj6nRATFc2h3MWVd46Bnd8TTvURLQnrRP7gef4ew4qFRJ6jJ3_u0E/s1600/Monster+Mixxd+Energy+Drink+-+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwPeraRkWKGky5PnaaBml4mBX27dN6u8Nqk1suJUO6YmyHCCOrDuBLajDsQsKj2aqxkN6y7UITL9Yadgyd8j6rmoj6nRATFc2h3MWVd46Bnd8TTvURLQnrRP7gef4ew4qFRJ6jJ3_u0E/s400/Monster+Mixxd+Energy+Drink+-+1.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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Here is another one of the Monster energy drinks, this time it is the Mixxed energy + juice type of energy drink. Personally I refer to this energy drink as "Purple Monster", because theme color to the beverage is purple. To tell the truth, I was not really concerned with the flavor and did not bother searching for it when I bought the can, I was just thrilled about the purple color theme. I already knew from past experiences that energy + juice was a 50/50 thing of being either good or bad, so the thought of testing this product out was an intrigue to me, but like I said, I was not looking for flavor beforehand that I opened the can. This energy drink was sold at several Deals stores around Brooklyn for $1.00 per can during the summer until September, and they had cases of it stacked as high as 5 feet tall from what I remember from the 86th Street location. $1.00 per can of any Monster is a rare find, but the taste was the second half to it, that would make or break the value of the deal.</div>
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Back of the can with "The Juice is Loose..." story gimmick.</div>
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2nd time that I visited the store, I bought 12 cans of it. Too bad they don't have it anymore.</div>
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Monster Mixxd with a good amount of carbonation. The drink's color is brownish-purple dark color. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmBz86Q4Hs113TEZDNMA15e8BqTSaPT8Xd9-DD1LJs6Gn0wAKsttQpcEz6-_C0hkMGh2f8PBLar0rXN084tYQ9SrXWt6eAyiWLHsTiQ6FC0OIsJVyRmg4ruSJPFF2lOXPeYb3MSZO50FM/s1600/Monster+Mixxd+Energy+Drink+-+5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmBz86Q4Hs113TEZDNMA15e8BqTSaPT8Xd9-DD1LJs6Gn0wAKsttQpcEz6-_C0hkMGh2f8PBLar0rXN084tYQ9SrXWt6eAyiWLHsTiQ6FC0OIsJVyRmg4ruSJPFF2lOXPeYb3MSZO50FM/s400/Monster+Mixxd+Energy+Drink+-+5.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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True color of Monster Mixxd, before the light: lighter and more transparent than just a glass of it on the counter. The drink itself tasted liked a carbonated grape juice, and not your average store-bought grape juice. This one tasted like a real grape juice without any additives, like the stuff that Kedem brand makes in a small glass bottle with purple cap. When I tasted this energy drink at first I was a bit puzzled at what to make of it: I was not offended by it, but I was not crazy about it either but I could not stop sipping it! The different flavor from the rest of the energy drinks on the market appealed to me, and I mildly enjoyed it and did not complained about it. Couple of days later I went to the Deals store once again and bought 12 cans of Monster Purple, and during the 2 week or so period I drank all the cans. Looking back at this energy drink right now, I kinda miss it because sometimes I just was not drink something unique and different and that is what this Monster Mixxd is: an energy drink with unique kind of flavor. I can definitely see why some people would hate it, but on the other hand it is just grape-flavor Monster, and I don't see anything wrong with it, other than it is not the greatest Monster out there. At $1.00 price at the Deals store, this drink is kind of a steal. I rate this drink at 4.1/5.0 with a value rating is 4.7/5.0 at $1.00 and 4.0/5.0 at regular price. If you will see this energy drink on the shelves then give it a try, but there is a 50% chance that you will hate it.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-18598030080343404892012-11-12T16:37:00.000-08:002012-11-23T21:29:18.469-08:00Shrink Ray: Walgreen's Big Roll Toilet Paper - Big Roll is Getting Smaller<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZi-U2RTxv_yKV_Y9nMiimCnPkAQgP3bLh8bOtRFAhfFGkqWcSCvPx6hvinjZYaUxLBAL2tjJf2R3Pw9nIhCrlzC6Yeh4oDvttVyElQu4TMNlvppKJfuK0JPXZJhyphenhyphenrcUoNJaXL8r-LqRB/s1600/Big-Roll-Toilet-Paper-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZi-U2RTxv_yKV_Y9nMiimCnPkAQgP3bLh8bOtRFAhfFGkqWcSCvPx6hvinjZYaUxLBAL2tjJf2R3Pw9nIhCrlzC6Yeh4oDvttVyElQu4TMNlvppKJfuK0JPXZJhyphenhyphenrcUoNJaXL8r-LqRB/s400/Big-Roll-Toilet-Paper-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Big Roll is a brand of toilet paper which is sold in Walgreens locations throughout United States, and I prefer using it over some other brands because it is cheap [compared to others] and is of good quality. Several days ago I began to ran out of my supply of 52 rolls of Big Rolls, which I bought around 2 years ago during one of their Thanksgiving Day promotions, so I went to Walgreens and bought 4 more. When I came home and began to stack them in the supply closet, I noticed something different about the new batch: the rolls were shorter than the old stock, so I read the text and found out that the product has been shrink-rayed:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivGZzhVGAyKgJO-GrLo3LtH-7L6r5CE5cTMV_mVzr8jJ-iy9_fRuE9uHtwHEK7_Hc2acisZ-pV_DaJo0VW1-UStwJExF08xWOYzqf_LpSPdoBP3wHzSDybb8VmaS4Uhv0G-iCZWDUKTI0C/s1600/Big-Roll-Toilet-Paper-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivGZzhVGAyKgJO-GrLo3LtH-7L6r5CE5cTMV_mVzr8jJ-iy9_fRuE9uHtwHEK7_Hc2acisZ-pV_DaJo0VW1-UStwJExF08xWOYzqf_LpSPdoBP3wHzSDybb8VmaS4Uhv0G-iCZWDUKTI0C/s400/Big-Roll-Toilet-Paper-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Bigger one on the left and smaller one on the right.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FnSBVJHN-tKKPhhgRfxa_B4EXpVFeWblrqqaLSNHCZpKnPR_I76qzrghkzgt9m2xKJfpxwYynG4KmoY1MjdEoDWl0Z1akpHVzWFzhH0Z9KlSnNvBOw7aHJEQSGrGOlUwtbfIA1rED2oV/s1600/Big-Roll-Toilet-Paper-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FnSBVJHN-tKKPhhgRfxa_B4EXpVFeWblrqqaLSNHCZpKnPR_I76qzrghkzgt9m2xKJfpxwYynG4KmoY1MjdEoDWl0Z1akpHVzWFzhH0Z9KlSnNvBOw7aHJEQSGrGOlUwtbfIA1rED2oV/s400/Big-Roll-Toilet-Paper-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Older, bigger roll.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkKGiwewsu67w3ShGzIb_Q9T_o7VGuPanJ8WsvCljPWfjcmR9eyX5qITCL67iuOwMZOf1uSlVght1fINYS2p8ziP3NCA_29dpdnrW3786HWs5MvcAKL3JzyKWCATw-JDsvTv1u6qPVOhy/s1600/Big-Roll-Toilet-Paper-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkKGiwewsu67w3ShGzIb_Q9T_o7VGuPanJ8WsvCljPWfjcmR9eyX5qITCL67iuOwMZOf1uSlVght1fINYS2p8ziP3NCA_29dpdnrW3786HWs5MvcAKL3JzyKWCATw-JDsvTv1u6qPVOhy/s400/Big-Roll-Toilet-Paper-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Newer shrink-rayed, smaller roll.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-15483624379096101582012-11-12T12:54:00.001-08:002012-11-23T21:30:06.071-08:00Doctor [Clone] Soda Drink: Dr. Bob by Stop & Shop<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGS0nL5Nf9egzZydDjcUcvyUNjIJGLt9LTNSvs9MY-PicN7Yqv8Cx4tuBLkG-rzDhutFREtfh_UGMSBdayyTvPl_vc7T_AzPXCQi3LrTu3AxnhNbaD1hx_MJsNFJZC6mORkaFi3puudCwa/s1600/Doctor-Bob-Soda-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGS0nL5Nf9egzZydDjcUcvyUNjIJGLt9LTNSvs9MY-PicN7Yqv8Cx4tuBLkG-rzDhutFREtfh_UGMSBdayyTvPl_vc7T_AzPXCQi3LrTu3AxnhNbaD1hx_MJsNFJZC6mORkaFi3puudCwa/s400/Doctor-Bob-Soda-1.jpg" width="353" /></a></div>
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Another interesting item that I have found at the Stop & Shop mart is the Dr. Bob soda. I am a big fan of Dr. Pepper soda, and it is my 2nd favorite soda after Coca-Cola, so giving a try to Dr. Bob was a-must, especially when the price per 2L bottle was $0.77 [plus tax and deposit]. The graphics on the label were pretty doctoriffic, so it was a no-brainer to me that at hand was a Dr. Pepper clone: a store brand variation of the globally popular soda. The name was also pretty forward - Dr. Bob: a drink for the average guy.</div>
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Back of the label.</div>
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As you can see from the photo, the soda was well carbonated, with a very foamy head, so I was pleased to know that the soda will be at least well-carbonated. The taste was similar to Dr. Pepper at first but then it went to a different direction, nonetheless it tasted like a decent copy of Dr. Pepper and I was not disappointed with it. Where the taste in Dr. Bon went away from Dr. Pepper was not in a bad direction, just in a different one, and I had no problem with it, since I did not expect it to taste 100% like Dr. Pepper. I would say that Dr. Bob has around 75% or so being similar to Dr. Pepper, which is good in my book. Usually Stop & Shop 2L sodas retail for $1.00 or so, so the $0.77 sale price was of very good value. I rate Dr. Bob at 4.0/5.0 with a value rating of 4.7/5.0 and would recommend it to anyone that likes Dr. Pepper and doctor clone sodas. I wish that they had them in aluminum can inside 12-packs, but they had none in stock when I was in the store, so maybe they have them at another location, because doctor drink inside the cans would be much preferable.<br />
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Some one's collection of cans and bottles of doctor soda clones.</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-43958437364489566502012-11-12T12:18:00.002-08:002012-11-23T21:43:42.353-08:00Hot Pockets: Limited Edition BBQ Recipe Bacon Burger Buns<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiH6nKKfnnMYml08GepgyeyoWYwhYFKy43WOoWS_SFYrh8hOcaa7rPmnITGcjrDTKrACrcAuM_8XEuBm4nzfFYJqgIXwyYGqZoISfvZYBE02EHPUxn-4QmlzTyTFTpin4-MiqtEI2JX_zF/s1600/Limited-Edition-Hot-Pockets-BBQ-Recipe-SideShots-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiH6nKKfnnMYml08GepgyeyoWYwhYFKy43WOoWS_SFYrh8hOcaa7rPmnITGcjrDTKrACrcAuM_8XEuBm4nzfFYJqgIXwyYGqZoISfvZYBE02EHPUxn-4QmlzTyTFTpin4-MiqtEI2JX_zF/s400/Limited-Edition-Hot-Pockets-BBQ-Recipe-SideShots-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I was at the Target store yesterday and stumbled upon these new "Limited Edition" hot pockets buns, and since there was "BBQ" printed on the box, I knew that I had to give this product a try. The price was $2.29 on sale, and I figured that 1 box would be sufficient for the taste-testing of it; a year or so ago there was another Limited Edition Hot Pockets that had macaroni, garlic and something like Parmesan cheese stuffing inside, and I bought several boxes of it and hated it, so now I just buy 1 box so not to make that mistake again. Front side main ingredients listed as: "hamburger, cheese and bacon with sauce in a bun", so it sounded like a promising stuffing to me.
While technically these Hot Pockets buns are classified as Hot Pokets sub-brand/lineup of SideShots, the name "SideShots" is nowhere to be found on the packaging, but there is a text of "4 buns" in a couple of places.
To tell the truth, I actually prefer the SideShots soft buns over traditional Hot Pocket crispy pastries. The only negative thing that I tell right away is that the SideShots, especially the ones at hand, have experienced the shrink ray: 8 ounces now compared to 9 ounces before: thats 29 grams less of a product, and it makes me disappointed already.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUco4RqeWvu7ge1oaWqZZDkR4ck2thHzkMscBF_m3whQnO4nbLVfXVxKmw6sv_QxsShXKPKxx5ZF7pH6IoBiEXstX19gejprueEYeRk9_z-hSo8c_Ll8axTPJAAXTQJ8ZOmXBQycdgu7aU/s1600/Limited-Edition-Hot-Pockets-BBQ-Recipe-SideShots-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUco4RqeWvu7ge1oaWqZZDkR4ck2thHzkMscBF_m3whQnO4nbLVfXVxKmw6sv_QxsShXKPKxx5ZF7pH6IoBiEXstX19gejprueEYeRk9_z-hSo8c_Ll8axTPJAAXTQJ8ZOmXBQycdgu7aU/s400/Limited-Edition-Hot-Pockets-BBQ-Recipe-SideShots-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Back of the box.</div>
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Box-O'-Vision.</div>
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What's inside the box.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXLF7eWxgFOQWShpDaIWydFAJE0831W_TmdWGfFTneo2Hdvvgxc0fm4l6Kw3RinkNm8pkIhlyvzTXfcXARiQ_31V03h9cm2LnTO9UVliaXo3F2UpSTzQJEKl03y9UVrLONK3PV7rOVcsB/s1600/Limited-Edition-Hot-Pockets-BBQ-Recipe-SideShots-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXLF7eWxgFOQWShpDaIWydFAJE0831W_TmdWGfFTneo2Hdvvgxc0fm4l6Kw3RinkNm8pkIhlyvzTXfcXARiQ_31V03h9cm2LnTO9UVliaXo3F2UpSTzQJEKl03y9UVrLONK3PV7rOVcsB/s400/Limited-Edition-Hot-Pockets-BBQ-Recipe-SideShots-5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Cold buns.</div>
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Warm buns.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW5Ly86xViFrsobqroXiw3qaToG-X72MqzznsCtdsLGcVIWb1j7OoDA8IusX_lR5Emzn21QA-Uj2xLbTRqH4RMRCXys0qQ7FdrOCM60WwYYiYxwM9-mej57ku4kCwgHvUARgmg5Ot-Va_q/s1600/Limited-Edition-Hot-Pockets-BBQ-Recipe-SideShots-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW5Ly86xViFrsobqroXiw3qaToG-X72MqzznsCtdsLGcVIWb1j7OoDA8IusX_lR5Emzn21QA-Uj2xLbTRqH4RMRCXys0qQ7FdrOCM60WwYYiYxwM9-mej57ku4kCwgHvUARgmg5Ot-Va_q/s400/Limited-Edition-Hot-Pockets-BBQ-Recipe-SideShots-7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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These SideShots taste heavenly when cooled down: the tangy BBQ sauce, mixed with cheese and yummy bits of meat [burger]. I did not tasted much much of bacon, but I did not care much for it, but it is there; in small amount. These SideShot buns are totally awesome and I ate all 4 of them one after another, and I can definitely see myself eating a pile of 12-16 of them in 1 sitting, they are so good. The BBQ sauce was the most outstanding ingredient in these buns, and it is the same "Hot Pockets BBQ Sauce" that the other Hot Pockets [regular and lean ones] feature: tangy, with a pleasantly sour kick to it, but nothing like your regular store-bough BBQ sauce tastes like. I rate these BBQ Bacon Burger SideShots at 4.8/5.0 with a value rating of 4.4/5.0 [just because they are so small and the price per bun is around $0.57 or more]. Give these Hot Pockets SideShots a shot, because they taste great and will not be available for long.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-37549932990945288472012-11-12T11:44:00.002-08:002012-11-23T21:31:19.318-08:00Those Magical Coupons: McDonald's Fall 2012 Coupon Book [Волшебные Купоны]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0FXiee17aze6TtfbQd7mllm5gT_Oi0D7pHvwRUe6FmuC1x0EDWMnfm9TfoSYHDLbhD0gl9219OcrWXF4stXI0jiLhGyxTOqR9d57x7wnIZ-G01gCHx9y2kpLzXY0_tvDvcbdEm1l1A6AU/s1600/McDonald's-Fall-2012-Coupon-Booklet-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0FXiee17aze6TtfbQd7mllm5gT_Oi0D7pHvwRUe6FmuC1x0EDWMnfm9TfoSYHDLbhD0gl9219OcrWXF4stXI0jiLhGyxTOqR9d57x7wnIZ-G01gCHx9y2kpLzXY0_tvDvcbdEm1l1A6AU/s400/McDonald's-Fall-2012-Coupon-Booklet-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Last week McDonald's coupon booklets came-in the in the weekly circular pack, so here they are above. I was able to get 37 of them from all the circulars that were available in my building, so my coupon supply is well-stocked. Let's take a look at what is being promoted for the next couple of month [coupons expire at the end of the year]:</div>
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Front of the booklet with this month $1.00 promo Hot 'N Spicy McChicken Sandwich. Its pretty much like a standard McChicken sandwich but a bit spicy, not too much.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5j3sSZlayQ98Lb-wBsBO374UvVn9a9JiWjXHOtTbPR3mqJ5DB1PO4G2PoC_FL4kEOb8E8Zw0TxVtTVzmhTUO_AI9uj-xHSNmAzAQxhPG3CiRqCUtqEMzp0x0MTeGb3UffJL6NiMnjQ5b/s1600/McDonald's-Fall-2012-Coupon-Booklet-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5j3sSZlayQ98Lb-wBsBO374UvVn9a9JiWjXHOtTbPR3mqJ5DB1PO4G2PoC_FL4kEOb8E8Zw0TxVtTVzmhTUO_AI9uj-xHSNmAzAQxhPG3CiRqCUtqEMzp0x0MTeGb3UffJL6NiMnjQ5b/s400/McDonald's-Fall-2012-Coupon-Booklet-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Back of the booklet with an ad for 2 for $3.00 Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddles. Its a pretty good deal and I've tried it 2 weeks ago for breakfast: they taste good, are filling, and a good value.</div>
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Coupons for BOGO burgers: Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, Filet-O-Fishes, Premium Chicken Sandwiches, Angus Third Pounders and the new CBO sandwiches.</div>
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Different free with purchase coupons: pretty much fries and fries with soda. Not really worth unless you really want a meal type of a deal.</div>
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Coupons for coffees: I am not into them but the middle one sound like a good way to try the Cafe Con Leche.</div>
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Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal kasha. I hate this kind of food.</div>
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Coffee advertising. I'm not into coffee, so it ain't for me.</div>
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Dollar menu items. McDouble is excellent for $1.00, then McChicken. Sweet Tea is also great.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-6001545895766066262012-11-12T11:00:00.001-08:002012-11-23T21:43:56.761-08:00Jarritos Tamarind Mexican Soda<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4n0YBz3wIpgAqHs5xeSmraTDtAvmr54tS3VY8RbeUlbgCaAPa_4eVppdJ5dT6kWhxSSuEmJdAIY5TelG8r3-JqUkX7x-q0gdCsvuZoiXMHFtohcQIw-9ql3QBEZejAXd9oJMy8vBSlWCT/s1600/Jarritos-Tamarind-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4n0YBz3wIpgAqHs5xeSmraTDtAvmr54tS3VY8RbeUlbgCaAPa_4eVppdJ5dT6kWhxSSuEmJdAIY5TelG8r3-JqUkX7x-q0gdCsvuZoiXMHFtohcQIw-9ql3QBEZejAXd9oJMy8vBSlWCT/s400/Jarritos-Tamarind-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Couple of days ago I stopped by the Stop & Shop store that is just around the Flatbush avenue, just to check if they have anything good on sale. After flipping through the circular and finding nothing that I was interested in, I figured to take a walk around the store and see if there is anything worthy that was not printed in the circular. While walking around, I stumbled upon the soda isle, which had wide assortment of sodas. But in the next isle or so, there was another bunch of shelves with lesser-known and foreign sodas. On one of the shelves I found several flavors of Jarritos Mexican soda, and since in my neighborhood they are either unavailable or expensive, I decided to get the tamarind flavored soda for $0.79 per bottle. I never tried tamarind soda before, so I was intrigued at how it would taste.</div>
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Back of the bottle.</div>
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Pouring the drink.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrxmgg_8e-WUFBMXXCFgEeUVzVwCCAP6Z9p6CPgVZKnaO1iZgIU18H3nzxXZhdCgd2IU_BaptexRFzq248Dw2-ei8w4SrdvATDMsYcg3FLjanQPFpoIbOo5a1rLlxqlMQpxPHvc_se3XiR/s1600/Jarritos-Tamarind-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrxmgg_8e-WUFBMXXCFgEeUVzVwCCAP6Z9p6CPgVZKnaO1iZgIU18H3nzxXZhdCgd2IU_BaptexRFzq248Dw2-ei8w4SrdvATDMsYcg3FLjanQPFpoIbOo5a1rLlxqlMQpxPHvc_se3XiR/s400/Jarritos-Tamarind-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The drink tastes like...tamarind? I don't know, but it does tastes very refreshing with tingling-sharp carbonation. I've seen a picture of tamarind on another brand of tamarind soda and it looked like a cross between a turd and potato, so I was worried that this drink would be some kind of crap. But the drink turned out to be pretty good an refreshing I must say that I really like it and looking forward to buying couple more bottles of this tamarind soda. I rate this soda at 4.7/5.0 with a value rating of 4.8/5.0 at the price of $0.79 per glass bottle. This soda is a definite winner and if you are curious about it then by all means give it a try, its worth it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-62974705435698683342012-11-10T21:51:00.002-08:002012-11-23T21:32:27.383-08:00Escape From Far RockawayMy grandparents live in one of the senior citizen high-rise buildings on Far Rockaway, and since the hurricane Sandy hit the area, they have been living on one of the topmost floors without electricity, so I went there every once in a couple of days to bring the food and other life necessities. Most [if not all] stores have been closed recently, and the volunteers began going from floor-to-floor only a week after Sandy, so there was bunch of stuff for me to bring. One of the things until recently that was a nuisance, was the fact that the buses [Q35 and Q22] stopped running to and from Brooklyn after 6:00PM and 4:30PM due to "poor visibility". The whole place is pretty much pitch black, other than the floodlights, police and FDNY vehicles. I did not knew last week about that buses stopped running after a certain time in the evening, and I was stuck overnight at the grandparent's place without any heat and electricity. There were candles, couple of flashlights and cold water, but the absence of heat was very disturbing and uncomfortable. The day later when I got home, I send a bunch of tweets and emails to anyone that I could think of, to let them know that there was no heat in the buildings where bunch of stranded seniors live in, and within 2 days or so period, the heat was on. So today was my latest trip to Far Rockaway, and since I found my service-less phone with built-in camera, I took a couple of photos with it during my trip there on my way back home:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlghTfaMgvb9IlhhIRHSDLShxQeZPaSYANdRnJbWwm_khbVKc3t-mOsJvwfa5sGtoQeTqw73sAFZKx91Zs24IFVOkInwtKS0d81QUyh2li3WtABZ6Y8dr0Xq2DFj-Ise4vs70n_A4cdtRE/s1600/Rockaways-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlghTfaMgvb9IlhhIRHSDLShxQeZPaSYANdRnJbWwm_khbVKc3t-mOsJvwfa5sGtoQeTqw73sAFZKx91Zs24IFVOkInwtKS0d81QUyh2li3WtABZ6Y8dr0Xq2DFj-Ise4vs70n_A4cdtRE/s400/Rockaways-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Everyone wants to get on the bus, but I always make sure than I get on as first as possible so I can get a seat to sit on.
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The whole place is pretty much without power, with only generator-powered floodlights. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXk5CDrEYiH7vvgkE7vS4XJ2X3gk1tnlFEz_erdtjXHOPoklobALqRv1UdearkPGWzWAcQqYtnmkDFj27oqjSntIqhAtTt2wKN5nE6ndmU7GBT7li0iN8EmhatOaJRa-0hdRWBI74hol6d/s1600/Rockaways-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXk5CDrEYiH7vvgkE7vS4XJ2X3gk1tnlFEz_erdtjXHOPoklobALqRv1UdearkPGWzWAcQqYtnmkDFj27oqjSntIqhAtTt2wKN5nE6ndmU7GBT7li0iN8EmhatOaJRa-0hdRWBI74hol6d/s400/Rockaways-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Bank on wheels. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLQifb-ImQMZaTRCBYPryxMws100W-f6fDToD3qzDP5hcyVL9MBt9jcv83shsAUrIAx5ufRggzw4HF3sq6UggHKP7_uKLX0sbVnbDr3qEB3Gz7dBuwZ-VF7yU0V4RZp3gGJq1JZ-YfwVKX/s1600/Rockaways-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLQifb-ImQMZaTRCBYPryxMws100W-f6fDToD3qzDP5hcyVL9MBt9jcv83shsAUrIAx5ufRggzw4HF3sq6UggHKP7_uKLX0sbVnbDr3qEB3Gz7dBuwZ-VF7yU0V4RZp3gGJq1JZ-YfwVKX/s400/Rockaways-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Big trailer with brand-name mealies-on-them-wheelies.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2PPecjWCSOLdtNMIloi-ly23fsFNIbfZC4c8QUxVbsUiwhmx5qOOOE6jIiR3HtLcpXPf6HcRLJ4dkrE66_9_7uHpUVQqF811cW5foFglfKEUfR3vEAfRVIEXp55mblVbIPG44NGp-iEaX/s1600/Rockaways-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2PPecjWCSOLdtNMIloi-ly23fsFNIbfZC4c8QUxVbsUiwhmx5qOOOE6jIiR3HtLcpXPf6HcRLJ4dkrE66_9_7uHpUVQqF811cW5foFglfKEUfR3vEAfRVIEXp55mblVbIPG44NGp-iEaX/s400/Rockaways-5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I asked if I could get something to eat, but the worker told me that they are wrapped-up for the day.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-89287089108117673982012-11-10T21:09:00.001-08:002012-11-23T21:32:44.857-08:00Hunting for Empty Bottles and Cans<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilHc1hgWWPw_vQIMHlWPjlut0ynADoThMdKRCOS5-UqvGmdrK6IABah_Y5us7yZJvTriA7-5VDgjZ2CcmnQIimSrxAPcIEY6O360GdOfEE7TJg0faw2GOpd_6eAw-aLfO-1kyt4Lv-7Ri3/s1600/Empty-Cans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilHc1hgWWPw_vQIMHlWPjlut0ynADoThMdKRCOS5-UqvGmdrK6IABah_Y5us7yZJvTriA7-5VDgjZ2CcmnQIimSrxAPcIEY6O360GdOfEE7TJg0faw2GOpd_6eAw-aLfO-1kyt4Lv-7Ri3/s400/Empty-Cans.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Couple days ago I noticed that I have a bunch of empty bottles and cans from all the soda drinking, so I decided to save them instead of throwing them out so I can make a couple of dollar by throwing the stuff into those recycling machines. Then I thought about how can I get more of bottles and cans, and figured that I can just check the garbage rooms inside my building, because the resident leave these articles in the bin instead of throwing them down the garbage chute, so whatever is there on each floor is up for grabs. Evening and late mornings seems like the best times of the days to hunt for the "empties".</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSA55LXUC8rSkU_US5UrANnzFUber7PRth-rDHJNgfyl5N31qMAPoWD3xqKu3EVBnYD9u00pxdXLzTVUgKT9T8EUshAj0NNanqgFZprE3wZHWBq_ROngEzexFUs47p1IMxupomo-m20HQC/s1600/85cent-worth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSA55LXUC8rSkU_US5UrANnzFUber7PRth-rDHJNgfyl5N31qMAPoWD3xqKu3EVBnYD9u00pxdXLzTVUgKT9T8EUshAj0NNanqgFZprE3wZHWBq_ROngEzexFUs47p1IMxupomo-m20HQC/s400/85cent-worth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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$0.85 worth of recycles from 2 days ago evening hunt. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnRspxSonTC9QOsqO5iJsYH93JHRG9YjNSG3x_5dWqXwDyMAudfQdh-twSIqyWu3o2lE9R-axZuT06aUTw5-_bKaQIaZQtDq1hQ0uwbAxHGGwnd5NUS3NQGwpRXuDplpObyTmE107HaHqt/s1600/25cent-worth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnRspxSonTC9QOsqO5iJsYH93JHRG9YjNSG3x_5dWqXwDyMAudfQdh-twSIqyWu3o2lE9R-axZuT06aUTw5-_bKaQIaZQtDq1hQ0uwbAxHGGwnd5NUS3NQGwpRXuDplpObyTmE107HaHqt/s400/25cent-worth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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$0.25 worth of recycles from 1 day ago morning hunt. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic6y9jwJGPY6On1PVvmwQO1i9IGwWrj1LKTyav_XA0FJ7e0asWdKKA0jLVBs9IHKxMouhBbQnz9oDkI9n3o7UMq6WAF6ra-DLqFy_4wIA5RbBTeKrrEnUAsVblYey4e_xqwI50OMXyj-Bg/s1600/75cent-worth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic6y9jwJGPY6On1PVvmwQO1i9IGwWrj1LKTyav_XA0FJ7e0asWdKKA0jLVBs9IHKxMouhBbQnz9oDkI9n3o7UMq6WAF6ra-DLqFy_4wIA5RbBTeKrrEnUAsVblYey4e_xqwI50OMXyj-Bg/s400/75cent-worth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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$0.75 worth of recycles from yesterday's evening hunt. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHPJ2vwriCWjlx0DaFFC6HJOQUNdPAmibBXXxigdPD2j8UVm5EBcKHahCAUxjhtU4McRBGZhavnu5WMLWN0WMUwrm3xH5yuXdCG47yJAawzf4dP88YnL0Qxiu1lXZxfWqL8wd5pywveO1y/s1600/45cent-worth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHPJ2vwriCWjlx0DaFFC6HJOQUNdPAmibBXXxigdPD2j8UVm5EBcKHahCAUxjhtU4McRBGZhavnu5WMLWN0WMUwrm3xH5yuXdCG47yJAawzf4dP88YnL0Qxiu1lXZxfWqL8wd5pywveO1y/s400/45cent-worth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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$0.45 worth of recycles from today's morning hunt.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7SN6cRUhxRP9IabJuqOU3f63I4mS0IU3CthPji6qlIY8DyRmIo2Lg8xf0elLYf4igOMlkOnXe8iFrYspm4WaNxnxiAHOLRe3U2mXh9K5SfRTR1ulEVG-7_h6yEee_kftnTSHboGFNY13/s1600/Receipts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7SN6cRUhxRP9IabJuqOU3f63I4mS0IU3CthPji6qlIY8DyRmIo2Lg8xf0elLYf4igOMlkOnXe8iFrYspm4WaNxnxiAHOLRe3U2mXh9K5SfRTR1ulEVG-7_h6yEee_kftnTSHboGFNY13/s400/Receipts.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I went to the recycling place and began feeding 2-litter plastic bottles into the machines, and in the midst of it the machine broke down and worker had to fix it, so I went home and took the glass bottles to recycle. The glass recycling machine was idle, so I began feeding it but most of the bottles were not accepted: the feeding mechanism spins the bottle around while the laser beam scans for the bottle barcode, so I guess that they do not accept the brand that the place sells. Old Chinese people seem to have a hold of all of these recycling places and it is difficult to find the machines that are idle, so one can recycle, because Chinese recycle 24/7 and they have their "assistants" cart, bike and drive huge garbage bag-fulls of empty cans and bottles. So far I have 2 receipts that total to $0.50, which I yet have to cash-out.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-8357276743743223092012-11-03T10:09:00.000-07:002012-11-23T21:33:13.922-08:00Hedge Fund Trader Nick Gentile: Say Cheese, Nigga!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKFkAd3C4xal9eddzkhOmeKS_94UrGJMjBFFWzAUeTpJdSOes90SMcx69nx3X7kCRcNN1iEiQXSdVjLASxu-H7_tpIJF8ypRlqY6kXpoIXwRviVQaO6gKTOaqoSLgo7Z6f7P5nGBaHnDNU/s1600/Trader-Nick-Gentile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKFkAd3C4xal9eddzkhOmeKS_94UrGJMjBFFWzAUeTpJdSOes90SMcx69nx3X7kCRcNN1iEiQXSdVjLASxu-H7_tpIJF8ypRlqY6kXpoIXwRviVQaO6gKTOaqoSLgo7Z6f7P5nGBaHnDNU/s1600/Trader-Nick-Gentile.jpg" /></a></div>
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Laughs at Nick Gentile, the Staten Island hedge fund trader who had his Oakwood Beach house ruined by hurricane Sandy.</div>
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He screwed-up last year with MF Global and now he got hurt again with hurricane Sandy. I am just glad that he has to suffer along with regular folks [aka 47%], and I am not the only one who thinks like this:<br />
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Craig Anthony Swinson said "I don't feel sorry for him, not one bit on the MF GLOBAL loss. He plays in a risky game, with sharks and untold risks, he uses others money to basically bet on a market, and he got burned. Maybe if he was better at what he did he could have minimized his risk by splitting his risk over several firms. That old saying, don't keep all your eggs in one basket, goes for money and firms or banks too"<br />
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Gerarg Mcparland said "get a real job! sitting behind a desk and playing with other peoples money.... boo hoo"<br />
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Marty Cohen said "when things were good these guys were buying toys that costs more than a years salary for the average slob , over charging commissions and sand bagging customers with bogus trades , now that Karma is a itch don't feel sorry for the greedy slug!"<br />
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Wally Walter said "This is great! I hope he ends up in a homeless shelter workin 3 jobs. Voodoo economics was created by douches like him and the Gov. Now they get what they deserve. HHAHHAHA"<br />
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I just hope that this motherfucker will suffer more and more further on.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-4492983138114116482012-10-24T21:19:00.001-07:002012-11-23T21:44:29.461-08:00Lunch Box Buffet: Chinese Food For $4.50 At The Chinatown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WEt-bAj6NLEzYCCiYcFLLMV5c9cOIez0BBe94eehaDE_ts-JnxKJTcJ43OpcBR1yAbFhM-IkIkrkOo9g99ExB_2JmkL90yVcc5UAcxbQHRnxKLer3f_uhqwtVWTAnMA62JDmeX5OT5U/s1600/ChinseFood-3-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WEt-bAj6NLEzYCCiYcFLLMV5c9cOIez0BBe94eehaDE_ts-JnxKJTcJ43OpcBR1yAbFhM-IkIkrkOo9g99ExB_2JmkL90yVcc5UAcxbQHRnxKLer3f_uhqwtVWTAnMA62JDmeX5OT5U/s320/ChinseFood-3-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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They sell cheap food here: sit-in with 5 item selections is $4.50 and carry-out is $4.00. This is the cheapest place by $0.25 in the Chinatown that I know of. It is located on the Grand Street, right after you cross the Bowery, right next to the smelly market place.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEFrEYqsd2mye7LIk4at2FWMqbhuuE7ubwDkLYQBB_0payG2yNtqJB4UMDeAO0W8mvedUUczD8OcU76xVU3nPMqrBhG0nf3-Uq6ac2waN2CcbOGpgd0r1VAsIu_XkZFmXmBAWAhNsN40/s1600/ChinseFood-3-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEFrEYqsd2mye7LIk4at2FWMqbhuuE7ubwDkLYQBB_0payG2yNtqJB4UMDeAO0W8mvedUUczD8OcU76xVU3nPMqrBhG0nf3-Uq6ac2waN2CcbOGpgd0r1VAsIu_XkZFmXmBAWAhNsN40/s400/ChinseFood-3-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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They up the prices every-so-often, so I don't know what it costs now or if the price hike took place: since I went here in March-April period.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYKLI8o4UF1Q8AX46QPC6xaj6-2ubGSF5TwL-xRMpnNN3ffeiS5MViHUFl_Cz8nlEVzEurHUkCxAniPXL8HpvjV57Xgibk-0A4VDVjR2AuEySJUx7oO_QaVUl2fXvelbbtPtybYAeIqmw/s1600/ChinseFood-3-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYKLI8o4UF1Q8AX46QPC6xaj6-2ubGSF5TwL-xRMpnNN3ffeiS5MViHUFl_Cz8nlEVzEurHUkCxAniPXL8HpvjV57Xgibk-0A4VDVjR2AuEySJUx7oO_QaVUl2fXvelbbtPtybYAeIqmw/s320/ChinseFood-3-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I got all of this stuff. It wasn't anything great but it was warm and tasty and I did not complained.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-64708458699515242592012-10-24T20:52:00.001-07:002012-11-23T21:34:42.950-08:00Canada Dry Sprakling Green Tea Ginger Ale<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPK-xwKKyngYZnPheGSqUkIgfDluZ24B56R6VEmzg7WevMX1lIJfYVgEWh_QdnJG8fUOhQTcRm40KPljvwwNdMazRNKnnrvp1CDCmbSN2rsVSSjMWdvTBPLoHf922eSiF5bSqhD0dbjPs/s1600/Canada+Dry+Green+Tea+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPK-xwKKyngYZnPheGSqUkIgfDluZ24B56R6VEmzg7WevMX1lIJfYVgEWh_QdnJG8fUOhQTcRm40KPljvwwNdMazRNKnnrvp1CDCmbSN2rsVSSjMWdvTBPLoHf922eSiF5bSqhD0dbjPs/s400/Canada+Dry+Green+Tea+1.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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Couple of weeks ago [sometime in the summer, I started writing this entry in the summer and just got back to it, but they still sell this stuff; I just seen it yesterday at Stop & Shop] I stopped by at the Walgreens and noticed that they have this new Canada Dry ginger ale up for sale. I never seen it before and idea of tea-flavored soda intrigued me, and the price was $1.00 on sale, so I knew that I had to give it a try. The label was pretty interesting as well with the green tea theme of leaves and the header of "antioxidants" at the front.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-exHmMHsbLoELv01cNtNjUYkDAAzTQt7x6lbVvyQguZ3vMX9DzXgcyEuurYdz0WNhAzfcshaYhkznBnmhuexBKoldOkpVzPrBvbOmFSeOR6pX89OmyC7P3BkhyphenhyphenCNfI__JtYNT77ll3nw/s1600/Canada+Dry+Green+Tea+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-exHmMHsbLoELv01cNtNjUYkDAAzTQt7x6lbVvyQguZ3vMX9DzXgcyEuurYdz0WNhAzfcshaYhkznBnmhuexBKoldOkpVzPrBvbOmFSeOR6pX89OmyC7P3BkhyphenhyphenCNfI__JtYNT77ll3nw/s400/Canada+Dry+Green+Tea+2.JPG" width="273" /></a></div>
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The drink itself is overally pleasant, well carbonated and not as sharp like the original ginger ale due to the green tea. The green tea part tasted very much like Lipton green tea from a gallon jug, so it was pretty good. To tell the truth, I am not a big fan of ginger ale but I do not hate it; I just drink it once in a while [like a bottle or 2 every 3 months or so]. Carbonation was pretty good as you can see on the photo and it pretty much charged-up the green tea flavor into a pleasant sipperious beverage that many people would be curious to try out. I think that they will discontinue this flavor of ginger ale in the nearby future: either before the upcoming holidays to give way to cranberry-flavored Canada Dry or right after new year timeperiod in January of 2013, so grab a bottle if you can and let me know your opinion. I rate this green tea ginger ale at 4.1/5.0 with a value rating of 4.4/5.0 on $1.00 sale.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-69374138703856726382012-10-14T15:12:00.001-07:002012-11-23T21:45:03.955-08:00Chinese Food: General Tso's Chicken Combo Special<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzfjKv5gt55SYVyNOR2-whwYObodl3in5PsYsR1uwBWBXKQ39zaEbQpRhuG6E1njgUWM0-6EzzLyKMaTadw0FfNuBURahPUSrDsz7PsLY00eIrCHSLtFf6R1lKhoJP-_0IdknxscixLHk/s1600/General+Tso's+Chicken+Combo+Special.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzfjKv5gt55SYVyNOR2-whwYObodl3in5PsYsR1uwBWBXKQ39zaEbQpRhuG6E1njgUWM0-6EzzLyKMaTadw0FfNuBURahPUSrDsz7PsLY00eIrCHSLtFf6R1lKhoJP-_0IdknxscixLHk/s400/General+Tso's+Chicken+Combo+Special.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I really like Chinese food: it is cheap, tasty and pretty much readily available in NYC. One of the menu sections on the Chinese joint's menu is the "Combo Specials". With these items you save anywhere from$3.00 to $4.00 than if you would purchase the combined food items separately. Yesterday for lunch I was doing some shopping errands and was passing by the local Chinese [hole-in-the-wall joint] and decided to get something for under $10.00, so I placed an order for the General Tso's Chicken Combo Special for $7.25 ($7.90 with tax); this combo includes an Egg Roll, half of a plate-container with Pork Fried Rice, and other half of plate-container of General Tso's Chicken. If you order the items separately, then the price without tax comes to $10.25 without tax, given than the Pork Fried Rice and General Tso's Chicken are small size. Sure, the portions of rice and chicken will be a bit smaller in the combo than if purchases separately, but the savings of $3.00 are pretty something: around 30%. After I placed my order, I went to several others stores in the vicinity, and when I came back to Chinese joint, they were finishing up my order and I was able to observe the finishing touches on General Tso's Chicken: the wok guy took the chicken pieces from the deep fryer basket and tossed them into the wok for 8 seconds to bake-in the General's sauce glaze. This is why it is not possible to cook the food at home so well like they do at the Chinese joints: the household range just can't produce the high-temperature heat like they do at the Chinese joints with the jet burners.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-56980450693655954022012-10-13T20:03:00.002-07:002012-11-23T21:47:10.157-08:00Buona Journata Food Truck at the Brooklyn College: Lamb Gyro<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hq_SnJtN4m_XZ9qKDyO1gNNFFt0DKQumYOLeaz1leapkvqTPIvGTsTvc7sSDkFJE2-onvxkhEE5L8Vq1WstCOxxr69CKCWUM3DvcMXKrXkMuz60WKlajxaMd-VCsl3tCdJ6aQ8wfMHPX/s1600/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hq_SnJtN4m_XZ9qKDyO1gNNFFt0DKQumYOLeaz1leapkvqTPIvGTsTvc7sSDkFJE2-onvxkhEE5L8Vq1WstCOxxr69CKCWUM3DvcMXKrXkMuz60WKlajxaMd-VCsl3tCdJ6aQ8wfMHPX/s400/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Theres this food truck by the name of Buona Journata on the sidewalk right next to the building where I go to in Brooklyn College, and this truck seems to be packed here all the time so I just call it Brooklyn College Food Truck. They pretty much sell all your regular halal food cart stuff along with breakfast items, french fries, hot dogs, burgers and more. Since this food truck is a staple at Brooklyn College, I decided that I must try it out and see if it is worth it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajjQ0BsTi8K5k5vjTjcmv9VQP-IUC5Khi_F5mAmjsDK1FvlsOhxi8iM2TqKO1PGKluRZ_LH9rsgAQjyjWjsQPPw0eZkjjA8R5h2f764W2jInMdkn138LeQxnTAYP-OtlVRPUQ7lsgZchK/s1600/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajjQ0BsTi8K5k5vjTjcmv9VQP-IUC5Khi_F5mAmjsDK1FvlsOhxi8iM2TqKO1PGKluRZ_LH9rsgAQjyjWjsQPPw0eZkjjA8R5h2f764W2jInMdkn138LeQxnTAYP-OtlVRPUQ7lsgZchK/s400/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Most of the time there is a good number of people around this truck, so it must be popular with the locals (students). Note that the menu item photos are missing the prices, except for couple of items on the window to the left. Absence of visible prices is a violation of a NYC administrative code/law.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkGoui8qmcQS4rVoAA81Pzzrv73sLoLO5tuNM9csRC3PZFlONaD8WJbvDsjlJxC-1S4LupYR4Cnk058yVn9ZDGkoAnO5u1Bma210wPSUkBj_DA-bRuas4eKkNiC-4PaUxAeYHy5qQRrCL/s1600/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkGoui8qmcQS4rVoAA81Pzzrv73sLoLO5tuNM9csRC3PZFlONaD8WJbvDsjlJxC-1S4LupYR4Cnk058yVn9ZDGkoAnO5u1Bma210wPSUkBj_DA-bRuas4eKkNiC-4PaUxAeYHy5qQRrCL/s400/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+3.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Before one of my courses, I went up to the truck and ordered a lamb gyro since it is a food item that I can look forward to and am familiar with very well. The price for it was $4.00, which is pretty much the standard price that the gyros are sold for in the area of Flatbush Avenue and around the Nostrand Avenue. Instead of going to the lunchroom, I found this empty classroom with open door on the floor that my course was held on, since I used flash on my camera, the use of the empty classroom was better suited than the lunchroom.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5np4xCtuDnQGLZ1O3WHJOQB4sW31E9ma_QUw8zNR6OGdnw5b3pmkS2_KzqSXWTcIs5ro9S2zMj1a-SoBdZJ1WCqSYjkwrD4U3g9etzvbJamVOZHA4KmWLTWTrjJ0eis1mNhyphenhyphenNHe4IrZx9/s1600/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5np4xCtuDnQGLZ1O3WHJOQB4sW31E9ma_QUw8zNR6OGdnw5b3pmkS2_KzqSXWTcIs5ro9S2zMj1a-SoBdZJ1WCqSYjkwrD4U3g9etzvbJamVOZHA4KmWLTWTrjJ0eis1mNhyphenhyphenNHe4IrZx9/s400/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The gyro came in a standard double foil wrap.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHqICx-lTjUCcMieCkmYZXU0swxxUy6DoByGCFcShOicwg77NZNcOdHXPhN3W4wjAjWyA96kGCpVxjvs9VwI-IuqUCauNGbdo_VXn_dd0hpeXHtHgzfel36Fu2fiWsEBcgH249tR6P4dJ/s1600/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHqICx-lTjUCcMieCkmYZXU0swxxUy6DoByGCFcShOicwg77NZNcOdHXPhN3W4wjAjWyA96kGCpVxjvs9VwI-IuqUCauNGbdo_VXn_dd0hpeXHtHgzfel36Fu2fiWsEBcgH249tR6P4dJ/s400/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+5.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Unwrapped gyro.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_rNf8-YfNjp1M3QcQ0TcwZt9NM4hcDtahx06NWb5kPZMnkwvalJKFc-UMxTLWFy2DvXf_Hg-RkpawrMdhtReF6MMTFGubxDUROOdlg6WLEwygTVCO9mmjoQZO6ZRnmV25SkycRsoFUOh/s1600/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_rNf8-YfNjp1M3QcQ0TcwZt9NM4hcDtahx06NWb5kPZMnkwvalJKFc-UMxTLWFy2DvXf_Hg-RkpawrMdhtReF6MMTFGubxDUROOdlg6WLEwygTVCO9mmjoQZO6ZRnmV25SkycRsoFUOh/s400/Buona+Journata+Brooklyn+College+Food+Truck+6.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The meat turned out to be kind of bland and not well-seasoned as the most gyro carts have in New York City. The quantity of the meat was alright; not little and not a lot, but the taste of it was much better than I had hoped for. The vegetables were also an issue because they seemed like they came from a Foxy or Dole bagged salad mix that you can find at you local supermarket rather then individually cut produces. Leafy greens and carrot strips suggested to me the bagged salad mix, and I am not a big fan of carrots and it is the first time that I have seen carrots in a NYC street gyro. At first I really like that they included tomatoes in the gyro, but they were bland and tasteless, so other than releasing the bland juices to help with the bland meat, they were pretty much useless. The gyro bread was okay as well as the white sauce; it was pretty much your standard gyro bread and white sauce that every other halal carts use. Overall I did enjoyed this gyro and before I bought it I had higher hopes for it. Bland meat and salad mix of vegetables were the biggest issues that disappointed me, but I did satisfy my hunger for the next 2 hours of class time, and the truck is conveniently parked in the center area of college. I rate this lamb gyro from Brooklyn College's Buona Journata food truck at 3.1/5.0 with a value rating of 3.5/5.0. I do not recommend purchasing lamb gyro here because of mediocre taste and inferior ingredients, compared to the other halal carts in the area [there are at least 4 of them].</div>
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Close-up of inside the gyro.</div>
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Close-up of lamb meat.</div>
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Close-up of veggies.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2339223866673437638.post-61719344127379113092012-10-11T20:31:00.000-07:002012-11-23T21:36:31.821-08:00UpdateMy computer recently broke down as well as digital camera, and I have been pretty busy with school and personal projects for the past couple of weeks and this is why there has not been any new posts. But I did receive replacement USB charger from the South Beach smoke, V2 Cigs adapters, Humble Twin razor from Dollar Shave Club and several shaving creams. I bought a new laptop so I gotta figure how to get the files from the broken laptop into the new one.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1