Heeeeere, piggy piggy (or, $4 worth of barbecue)

May 15, 2012 By 1 Comment

Memorial Day is gonna be here sooner than you think, and for backyards across the country, that means it’s time for outdoor grilling and fun.

Barbecue (pronounced “bobbacue” by many folks in my area is a longtime tradition of Memorial Day cookouts. Sneakpeeq (which you should join if you haven’t yet) is featuring Pig of The Month in its boutiques until 11 a.m. ET tomorrow (May 16).

I know some of you think that this whole Sneakpeeq thing may just be full of it and totally not worth your time. But let me show you the loot I managed to grab for $4 from this lovely shop that proves to us that pigs love us and want us to be happy.

First of all, you see that picture up there at the top left corner? That is their Last Meal Pulled Pork, the description of which is something that must be seen to be believed:

There’s regular pulled pork, which is pretty good and puts smiles on faces. Then there’s Pig of the Month pulled pork, which makes you believe in miracles, life on other planets, and world peace. This pulled pork is slow smoked over hickory wood, then hand-pulled and roofed with their premium BBQ sauce. It’s so good, you wouldn’t mind having it for a last meal.

Oh – and did I forget to mention that it’s five pounds of pulled pork? And it’s shipped in dry ice because they don’t want your pig to go bad? Because I’m a loyal Sneakpeeq peeqer and fan, I earned a discount badge that got me this for $4. Including shipping.

You can still save on this even if you aren’t as seasoned in Sneakpeeq as I am: If you join Sneakpeeq today: You will get a $10 badge off your first purchase. That will instantly bring Sneakpeeq’s price on Porky Pig’s cousin from $19 to $9. I don’t know where you come from, but here, $9 for five pounds of pulled pork is nothing to shake a stick at.

While we’re at it – I also had a $20 credit, which got me FOUR BOTTLES of POTM Barbecue sauce for FREE.

Even if you happen to read this post after this shop is closed, you still should join Sneakpeeq. Because there are many treasures to be found, and you will still get that $10 off your first purchase.

So. Go. Get your Sneakpeeq on.

Filed Under: Food and Recipes, Reviews, Saving Money Tagged With:

Awwyeah, $4 worth of cookies

May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Check out what the UPS guy just dropped off at my door! These are the David’s Cookies Fresh-Baked Tin – normally retailing for $33.95 on David’s web site – but I got for 4 bucks from Sneakpeeq!

Yep, 4 bucks. That includes 24 soft, fresh-baked cookies in the following flavors: Chocolate Chunk, Peanut Butter, Oatmeal Raisin, White Chocolate Madadamia, Cherry White Chocolate Chip, and Double Chocolate Chunk. It all comes in a reusable red tin, and it weighs 2 pounds.

I just tried the peanut butter, and lemme tell ya – well worth the four bucks.

Now, you can’t get a deal like this at Sneakpeeq today, because sales like this are only up for about three days each. But Sneakpeeq offers discounts like this EVERY DAY. In addition to the standard discounts, you can earn extra discount badges by inviting your friends, sharing items on the site, and even just “peeqing” behind the price card to reveal today’s discount.

Shipping is normally $5.95, but you can usually get an easy free shipping deal just for sharing Sneakpeeq with your facebook friends.

Toldja they were four bucks.

Here are the only two things you need to join Sneakpeeq:

1) A facebook account

2) A U.S. address

If you join TODAY, you can start off with a $10 credit to get you to start saving on gourmet foods, designer accessories, home decor and even gadgets!

Sneakpeeq is my FAVORITE place, and you really have to join ‘em to believe ‘em. This $4 cookie deal is just the latest in a lot of things I’ve gotten for discounts at Sneakpeeq. Just last week I got an 8G Einstein Mimobot flash drive for FREE! Yes – FREE!

So – if you haven’t joined Sneakpeeq yet – JOIN! Get your ten bucks! You’ll be amazed at the stuff you can get. I promise!

Filed Under: Food and Recipes, Reviews, Saving Money

Now on Netflix: ‘The Rock-Afire Explosion’ a must-see for Showbiz Pizza fans

May 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I am no stranger to kid-friendly animatronic characters in pizza restaurants. My first job, in 1995, was as a hostess at Chuck E. Cheese’s. I look back on that job as one of the worst I ever had, full of stresses, helping to rescue infants out of the ball pit, and coming home sobbing every night.

But alas, everyone must have a first job, and I’m glad I did have the chance to work there – even though while I was I had no real understanding why it had just shifted from Showbiz Pizza Place to Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Chuck tried to explain it to me in the training video I had to watch. I don’t really remember it, but they dolled it up and acted like it was such an awesome thing that now Chuck E. Cheese’s and Showbiz had combined into one fun-loving place.

Meanwhile, the animatronic band that lots of customers asked about, the one with the Cheerleader Mouse and the Gorilla who played the keyboard – was replaced by a rat in a tuxedo and his less-than-memorable friends.

So watching The Rock-Afire Explosion took me back for a bit, reminding me of my childhood days at Showbiz – and how the place was more about entertainment and fun and pizza than anything else. It reminded me also of how while I was working there, Chuck E. Cheese’s was slowly transforming from an all-entertainment complex to a casino for kids.

But The Rock-Afire Explosion doesn’t delve into this. It looks into the history of Aaron Fechter, a lovable genius who invented all the robots and members of the Rock-Afire Explosion band. He voiced the band leader, Billy Bob, among some other characters, wrote incredible, imaginative music for kids, and was able to capture the amazement of children of the 80′s like me.

Also cut from the film: Fechter was the inventor of the Whac-A-Mole. Fortunately it made it to the special section of the DVD, and the Rock-A-Fire movie producers uploaded it to Youtube.

Very interesting story, huh? When I was watching the film, I’d already known the Whac-A-Mole story from my research on Aaron Fechter, so it didn’t surprise me at all that when Showbiz closed down and Aaron was given this crap offer to relinquish the rights and creative control of the Rock-Afire Explosion, he said “no.”

Sadly, it has resulted in Fechter’s once-300-person-employed plant, Creative Engineering Inc in Orlando, to be cut down to just Fechter and several deteriorating electronics and robots.

But as the Internet came along, the Rock-Afire Explosion began to see a resurgence, when ultimate fan Chris Thrash bought his very own Rock-A-Fire ensemble and began programming the band to perform songs like “Ms. New Booty” by Bubba Sparxxx, and “Love In This Club” by Usher.

Fechter welcomed this new embrace of the Rock-Afire Explosion, and has since made a number of videos at the request of bidding fans.

Here’s my favorite youtube vid, created by Fechter, who has done some incredible new things to improve what these guys can do. It’s one of my favorites from The Arcade Fire. If I had a jillion dollars I’d pay Aaron to have Mitzi Mozzarella sing “Sprawl II.”

Also, check out this AWESOME tribute to Davy Jones and The Monkees Aaron did a couple of months ago.

This guy is a genius. I thank him for years and am saddened by what The Industry did to him.

The last time I walked into a Chuck E. Cheese’s was about four years ago. The animatronic band was completely demolished except for Chuck E., the pizza tasted like crap and all I could hear were bells and buzzers as kids kept plunking tokens to win really, really cheap prizes. Like I said – Casino for Kids.

I have a feeling that if Aaron had relinquished the Rock-Afire Explosion to CEC, they would all be in landfills right now. He did the right thing by preserving their memory.

Click here to subscribe to Aaron Fechter’s Youtube channel, where you can watch many more videos and keep up-to-date on new ones.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Reviews

Review: The Essential Cardigan from Fresh Produce

May 4, 2012 By 4 Comments

I loooooove wearing camis. Unfortunately, they certainly do not flatter my arms. While it’s easy to layer over them during the fall and winter, the spring makes it really difficult.

I had the opportunity to try out The Essential Cardigan from Fresh Produce Clothes. You may have recently seen web advertising from Fresh Produce. I’ll tell you a bit about the company.

Co-founded and still run by a mom entrepreneur, Fresh Produce has an extensive line of colorful clothing, made mostly in the United States.

They have a great selection of women’s vacation clothing, women’s resort wear and other gorgeous items. They also have a wide selection of women’s cardigans, and I must tell you I’m absolutely in love with The Essential Cardigan!

First, I love it because it’s plus-size (Fresh Produce has a number of plus-size clothing in addition to standard women’s wear). I also love it because the fabric is light – not as light as a t-shirt, but not as heavy as a hoodie or even a lightweight sweater.

I also love it because it has snaps instead of buttons, which makes it extremely versatile! I can easily button it all the way to the top, but can also just snap at the middle to accentuate my curves. The sleeves are very easy to roll up and don’t get in your way.

I will say it’s not suitable for the summer months. I would suggest wearing this cardigan in the autumn and spring. It comes in a variety of colors, so you can be sure to find a cardigan or twelve that suit what you need.

I chose the “truffle” color, because brown can go with anything, and it doesn’t absorb sunlight the way black shirts can.

The cardigan is very easy to care for,  doesn’t have to be ironed and doesn’t even get wrinkled.

But what I love the most is the “Made in the U.S.A.” on the tag, which lets me know that if I buy Fresh Produce, I am supporting American manufacturing. These clothes are a bit more expensive than those that are manufactured in other countries, but I can verify that it’s worth it.

If you’re going on a cruise or plan to visit a resort this year, I seriously urge you look into the Fresh Produce Catalog to see what they have to offer. If the rest of the clothing is as lightweight as this cardigan is, they’re sure to make it easy for light packing as well as for mixing and matching for all events.

Great quality, made right here, goes with everything – I love Fresh Produce!

Fresh Produce provided me with product for this review. All opinions are 100% mine.

Filed Under: Reviews, shopping Tagged With:

Save 10% on Ghirardelli for Mother’s Day!

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment


Save 10% on Ghirardelli Mother’s Day Gifts with code: CJ10ED!

I hold a special place in my heart for Ghirardelli. They are from the heart of my one of my favorite cities, beautiful San Francisco – they have a beautiful office just a few miles away in Downtown Bentonville, and they make these wonderful, perfect-sized squares of chocolate. I haven’t tried their new Orange Deluxe Squares Gift Bag, which is available right now, but if mom loves that chocolate-orange flavor, I’d love to know if she’s tried this!

Ghirardelli sent me a “tasting box” of these chocolate squares to review for my blog. I can’t believe how long it took to figure out their instructions for my post.

I mean, come on – I may have a college degree and everything, but – sheesh!

Within a grueling millisecond I figured out what they were trying to tell me. I selfishly kept the box sealed, though, much to my mother’s disappointment. “Aren’t you going to open those? I want some?”

It’s tests and trials that mothers face every day that make them deserving of a bit of pampering once in a while.

I finally opened the box to see this. Now, imagine this is glistening and you hear angelic voices in the background:

Look a it! It’s so – so pretty! And it’s wrapped in pretty bows! My mom and I, who are very careful about packaging and like to preserve every ribbon and every piece of wrapping paper because we may have to use it again, tore into the chocolates to see what we could divvy up.

Mom was partial to the blue milk chocolate squares, whereas I was a fan of the sea-salt/dark-chocolate combo.

What I love about their dark chocolates is that they are not sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo dark that they have no flavor. I know there are some of you out there who are cacao purists, and you believe anything less than 99% cacao is just not worth it. Not me!

My mother is not a fan of dark chocolate, but I LOVE it. I happen to have some Artisan marshmallows and plan to drive up to an unsuspecting friend’s house for a weekend of gourmet S’mores-making very shortly.

Now – with this – Mother’s Day is Nigh! And you HAVE to remember that dear ol’ Mum would absolutely LOVE to know that you care about here on that special day. You still have time to order some delicious chocolates, and I have a SPECIAL discount code just for you:

Save 10% on Ghirardelli Mother’s Day Gifts with code: CJ10ED!

Don’t forget mom this year!

Ghirardelli provided me with the products I reviewed for this post. I was not required to post a review in exchange for product. This post contains affiliate links; all opinions are 100% mine unless attributed otherwise.

Filed Under: Food and Recipes, Reviews
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