Five Things to do with your SIGG

Other than take a drink, that is.

1) Call in the hounds with a thermos.

2) Use as an icepack: a SIGG filled with cold water will take the edge of a bruise or cool you down on a hot day.
3) Roll out some dough. Empty or full, SIGG 1 L bottles make a great substitute rolling pin.
4) Defend yourself. I take some comfort thinking my nighttime water bottle could be thrown at an intruder. Well...maybe not the best defense, but at least the bottle wouldn't get broken if thrown and it's better than sleeping with a frying pan on your bedside table!
5) Play a song.

Two Days only Gift Sale!

For two days only, Monday November 26 and Tuesday November 27, we will offer 15% off everything in the store! Simply use the coupon code 'hohoho' at checkout.

Buy your gifts now and save!

Audits away....

So we buy helmets as surplus from the Department of Defense. As part of the purchasing process, we must complete an End Use Certificate (EUC) stating what the final disposition of the purchased items will be. The rationale for this is that kevlar helmets are items that both the State Department and Commerce Department place restrictions on. As such, we may only export them to certain countries and in certain quantities.

If you are reading this from your local cyber-cafe in Pyongyang, I am sorry to inform you that I cannot sell you ten kevlar helmets.

Since we have made several purchases from the Department of Defense along these lines, our names came up as being ripe for an audit to determine our proper handling of these items. So we had a visit from a representative of the DoD this morning. She was very pleasant and courteous, and was pleased to see that we are controlling our products very well. She gave us a thumbs up on our understanding of the trade regulations and left after a short while. It ended up being a fairly uneventful encounter all-in-all.

It was interesting as for most of my professional career, I have been in the shoes of the auditor in one form or another. I am used to asking the questions, not answering them, and this experience gave me at least a slightly better understanding of how the relationship feels from the other end.

Hound + Kid + Food = Funny

We ran out of dog food today. This afternoon we shopped at PetPeople, the most upstanding local pet store, to replenish our supply. (Of course, we also had to go next door to Clintonville Outfitters, hands down the best Columbus outdoor store.)

Walking up the stairs to our house, our daughter was babbling about "Devie barking. Running round." She and the hound both know the drill: dog food day is the best day ever.

Watch what happened next:

Holiday Retail Season

This is the first holiday retail season that we are actively trying to grab hold of the holiday buying spirit. How?

We just sent our first newsletter to all past customers. We placed our second order with SIGG and expect new designs listed in the store around December 1. We are listing auctions on Ebay four days a week for the next two weeks to coincide with the biggest shopping days of the year. Will it work?

Follow along for the ride!