New Zazzle Coupon

Hey! I just ordered some Scooby Doo T-Shirts for my kids, and i got a coupon code for Zazzle, if you need one. Here it is:

$5 off your next purchase of $20 or more at Zazzle.com: GOVGVAYOMRZDRNKLJBRL. This code expires on 4/28/2008.

Sorry I've been so crazy with the bar that I haven't been posting too much. Will catch you up soon. Maybe when I'm sitting by the pool at my folk's house in Florida. We're going on Wednesday.

Hope You had a Happy Easter!

Well, Easter is over. So, when does the warm weather come? I know that I'll be experiencing some warm weather next week, when I take the girls to Cape Coral to see my folks. One whole week of 80+ degrees. Yippee!

Life has been a bit crazy (as usual), and I've been busting my hump to get everything ready for Downey's House. So, so many things. Micros system info (Jabby Joe's currently has cash registers), running CAT5 line, getting the menu together (and laying it out for print), we need a merchant account, two business checking accounts. I need to check out some quotes for signs and custom lettering on the awning. There's insurance. And an accountant. I need to get together an employee handbook...and some training. We need to set everything up with our entertainment vendor, our food purveyors, the liquor store and the beer distributor. Oh, I have to figure out who will do our payroll. And that's just the stuff I'm going to do in the next couple of weeks. AAARGH!!! I may have mentioned this already, but I think it's worth mentioning again. I got a simple website up at www.downeyshouse.com. If you (or anybody you know) would like to apply for a job, you can download the application there and send it to us.

UM, so the whole reason I REALLY decided to post was that there's a new free shipping coupon for CafePress.com It's a quickie, but not a bad coupon. So here's the details:



Use coupon code: EARTHSHIP75 Disclaimer:
*Free Economy or Standard shipping for purchases of $75 or more, excluding shipping charges and applicable sales tax.

Delivery address must be within the United States.

All orders will be Economy shipping unless the order is not eligible for Economy shipping (e.g., order exceeds Economy weight restrictions).

Coupon code must be entered at check out.

Promotion starts on March 25, 2008, at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on March 29, 2008 at 11:59 p.m. (PST).

Cannot be combined with any other offers, discounts or coupons and this offer may change, be modified or cancelled at anytime without notice.

OK...have a happy day. At least it's sunny (for now).

One Crazy Dinner

I almost forgot about the dinner post. We (meaning about 14 of us) went to dinner on Saturday night. We had an evening of fun planned. Meet around 6:00, have dinner, and then proceed to the Carnegie Crawl. Just in case you're not familiar with the Carnegie Crawl...you just basically bop around Carnegie bars. Safe? Not so sure anymore. But fun. So, we all meet at Papa J's in Carnegie. We got there a little late, and everybody else was already seated.

Now, I'm pretty lenient when it comes to bad service. Really. Here we are, a table of fourteen, and our server proceeds to tell us that it's her first night and we are her first big table. But that's OK, we plan on taking it pretty easy on her. Most of the people (ok, maybe only 5) have worked in restaurants for a long time. We've been there. She gets our drink orders, and eventually brings the drinks and takes our dinner order. She's doing OK. She's obviously stressed, and she's not getting ANY help from the manager. (and that is where I get all crabby). Her only real downfall is that she's complaining about how stressed out she is. But hey...she'll learn that the less she complains, the better her tip will be.

Anyway, the whole process is taking us forever. It's 8:00 and we're still there. We've just gotten our meals. And that was after there were a bunch of questions about our orders. And the questions came about 15 minutes after we should have been eating our dinners. But I digress....

The manager of this place completely dropped the ball. In many, many ways. Should he have given the new girl a table of 14 on a busy night? Her first night? No. Should he have been there holding her hand most of the way through this gigantic table? Yes. Did he? No. Bad, bad manager. If anything even remotely close to that ever happens at Downey's House I think that we should just close the doors. You know, even though the food was good, I will not be heading back to Papa J's any time soon. And not just because I never get to go out to dinner without my kids.

Oh, speaking of Downey's House, I got a little teenie tiny website up last night. You can download an application to send to us, if you're interested in working for us. The website is at www.downeyshouse.com. And I started a little blog at www.blog.downeyshouse.com. Go check it out :)

OK, happy day! The fridge guy is coming to fix my fridge (again), and I'm taking the kids to spend the Easter money they got from my folks.

Zazzle Coupon Code

Hey! I just got a new coupon code from Zazzle, if you're interested:

It's good through April 12th for 15% off. If you can't see the picture above, the code is ZAZZLEBLOOMS.

Here are the 2 newest shirts that I've put up on Zazzle:

Momnesia
by hdowney

Easter Bunnys Top 8
by hdowney

I'll try to come back later today and tell you about my experience on Saturday night at dinner. Gotta go to preschool and pick up Becca!

Rat Germs

Well, we went to our birthday parties this past weekend. And yes, now we are sick. Again. It feels like I have an army of teenie tiny employees working overtime in the booger factory located in my nose. Fantastic. Plain and simple, Chuckie Cheese = Big Fat Germs. That's my addition to parent math.

Well, since this post is heading down that road of complaining, I might as well continue. I took Becca to the dentist on Monday. This was her second visit, because they found 5 cavities at her first visit. Before we get there, I discuss how they're going to use nitrous oxide to make her feel 'weird' and we talk about filling the cavities. We're ready. We get to the dentist office about 11:50 for our noon appointment. They called us back at 1:00. Yes, my friends, 1:00. Now I understand that things happen. Their thing on that day was that an assistant called off. That's fine. I really DO understand. But, if you know when I sign in that my wait will be more than a half an hour, please tell me. Instead of sitting in your stuffy waiting room with 10 other parents with children, I could have been running errands. Hell, there's a Wal-Mart right next door. By the time Becca got back to the dentist, she wasn't just nervous. She was bored and aggravated. And probably a little tired. But she did well, and came out telling me that she felt dizzy. By the time we made it home, she started crying that she never wanted to go back to the dentist. I think she's over it now, though. Good thing, because we have to go back on the 31st.

Poor little thing, she's really going thru the ringer lately. We just went to pick up her new glasses yesterday. She's had glasses for about a year, but the doc upped the times she needs to wear them. For tv, reading, coloring...pretty much all the time except when she's playing. She DOES look cute in them though. I do feel bad for her. Well, for all of us. I've put us all through doctor and dentist appointments. I figured I'd better get them all in before our insurance changes. I have no idea what our new insurance will be like, but because we'll be getting it on our own (because we will be self-employed), I can only imagine that it won't be stellar.

I just got a little bit of news on the status of Downey's House. I'll update later today when I know more. Happy Friday! Oh, and be careful out there tomorrow! Remember...drinking and thinking don't go together.

ARRGH!

OK, I'm officially completely sick of winter. You're most likely not surprised. If you live around here, you're probably sick of it, too. I really hate to say it, but I called it on Monday (when it was 60-some degrees). Just felt one more snow. And it's coming today. Oh well, maybe this is the last one. But, Pittsburghers, if you do remember...it snowed last Easter. And it was in April.

I wanted to put this out there: If you've purchased any of my St. Patrick Day designs, or any other design for that matter, and you have a picture of yourself wearing your shirt (or drinking out of your mug, or wearing your hat), please send me a copy!!! I'd like to put a section up in my store with pictures of REAL people wearing the shirts I've designed. You can email them to info (at) brainlint.net. And I'll give a free shirt away every month to a random winner. You can take pictures of products from any of my stores, whether it be from Zazzle or CafePress. (www.noshoptalk.com, www.brainlint.net or www.peaceloveshirts.com). I can't wait to start getting some pictures!!!

Well, I'm sure that the grocery stores are crazy right now, because the snow hasn't started yet. We're heading to a birthday party for my 1 year old great nephew today, and a party for a neighbor at Chuckie Cheese tomorrow. So, I'm sure my kids will be sick again soon. Too many germs looming in Chuckie Cheese to avoid them. No matter how many times I put hand sanitizer on my kids' hands at Chuckie Cheese, they always get sick right after they've been there. Damn rat.

Hey! That's my shirt!

Hey...just a very cool little thing that I wanted to share (and that made me all happy and proud inside). I got an email from an employee at Zazzle, and they told me that they put one of my designs on an insert. They're including this insert with every (yes, every) package that they send out in the next couple of weeks. Pretty damn cool. Will it bring me more sales? Who knows, but it DID make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Here's a picture of the ad:



You can check out my Zazzle gallery at zazzle.com/hdowney. Or to see the "Not Officially Irish (but happy to fake it)" shirt, you can just go here. Rather get it on CafePress? Just go here

So, I'm tickled pink. And that's good.

Zazzle Coupon

Hey! Here's the newest coupon from Zazzle that I've found. $4 off shirts until March 5th. It's a quickie, but hey...four bucks is four bucks. Here are the details:

$4 Off Apparel

$4 discount applied to orders of one or more qualifying apparel items (any style from the Mens, Womens, Kids and Baby categories). The coupon code ZAZZLESTPATS must be entered during checkout to receive the offer. Offer is valid from March 2, 2008 at 12:00am PST through March 5, 2008 at 11:59pm PST. Your order must be placed during that time to qualify for this special promotional pricing offer. This promotional offer may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or discount offers.

In other news, we're going to try to go sled riding today. We have a great sled riding hill right out back. A few of the family members are coming over, and we're going to watch the Pens. Just some hangin' out on a Sunday. But, I still have to clean the house. Oh well. I'm hoping that this will be the last chance we get to go sled riding this year. Because I'm totally and completely over winter! Bring on Spring!!!!!!