McNulty Live

I was at Fisherman’s Marine & Outdoor today to pick up Waders for clamming at the beach… It is a GREAT store. I have never been in there before because right next to it is Joe’s (formerly G.I. Joe’s) and they seem to have all the sports stuff I have ever needed. Recently Joe’s (who was bought out and name changed and gone down hill ever since) filed for Chapter 11. I have been going there fore 15 years (it is very close to my work, so whenever the kids or I needed anything I’d zoom over at lunch). And, I’ve been going there because of advertising, location & breadth of product ~ not because of good service, not because of good prices.

It took Chapter 11 before I even ventured next-door. I have had very bad, rude service & even over paid for years. I’m really not sure why I kept going (I think once they were bought & changed to Joe’s, it even got worse) ~ maybe it was just habit. So today I went to Joe’s & searched all over, not one person asked to help me, several were sitting in their little coffee station chatting away and there were people lined up to pay. So, I thought I need waders, why not check next-door at Fisherman’s.

NEW JOE’S PHOTO:

I went to Fisherman’s and had the best service picking out equipment & the stuff was on sale & for the most part it was a great experience. Now the “Not that I don’t trust you” comment. I get all my ger together & go to pay. I hand the guy my AMEX & he looks at me like I’m shifty & says “Not that I don’t trust you, but I need to see an I.D.” Well in my experience anytime someone says “Not that I don’t trust you,” they don’t trust you! It’s just like: “Not that I think you are lying,” or “Not that I don’t believe you.” Whenever someone starts a sentence like that they might as well just take away the “Not that” and be honest!

So, I say to the guy “my picture is on the credit card.” And he responds “I need to see your I.D.” Then he opens both boxes of waders and says “sorry, some people try to shove extra stuff in the boxes.” And the kicker, he did not ask the couple of people in front of me and I didn’t notice it happening at the other register.

I also need to note that I came from work at lunchtime and was wearing nice cords & a nice arguyle sweater (not dressed like a bum at all). It was really just an odd ending to a good buying experience. I don’t plan on letting it stop me from going back.

I found this story to be quite funny…..

Three Ducks basketball players accused of shooting at ducks in park

by Kevin Hudson, The Oregonian, March 31, 2009

Three Oregon men’s basketball players were cited Monday night in Eugene’s Alton Baker Park for shooting BB guns at ducks and geese in the park’s pond.

Officers responded to a report of men shooting guns in the park at 11:08 p.m. and arrived to witness freshman forward Josh Crittle fire approximately 20 shots toward the pond with a BB gun, said Jenna LaBounty, a spokeswoman with the Eugene Police Department.

Crittle was cited along with fellow freshmen Michael Dunigan and Teondre Williams on an accusation of violating park rules, which carries a base fine of $155.

LaBounty said that when the officers approached, Dunigan tossed his weapon into the water, where officers found it. Williams’ weapon was also located by the six officers who responded.

Crittle, Dunigan and Williams were handcuffed, cited and released within 30 minutes late Monday.

LaBounty said it did not appear any animals were injured in the shooting.

The players are scheduled to appear April 14 in Eugene Municipal Court to face the charges, which are unclassified misdemeanors.

Again, I hate to get political on this blog but I was Very impressed with Congressman David Wu! My congressman here in Oregon.

I had sent him an email voicing my concerns about the conflict of interest having Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State because of the international fund raising done by President Clinton. My concerns had nothing to do with her ability, but more with the possible conflict of interests because of her husbands endeavors. So, I was amazingly surprised at Congressman Wu’s very detailed response. I was expecting a quick generic email response (similar to what I received from Senator Ron Wyden) and got a much better response.

LINKS To Responses:

Congressman Wu ~ Letter ~ Page 1

Congressman Wu ~ Letter ~ Page 2

Senator Wyden ~ E-Mail

I have to admit, I am very impressed with Congressman Wu.

I’ve seen this column up in Astoria for years & finally we had time to kill & drove up there…weather was awesome & views incredible…We lucked out because there was a break in all the rainy crappy weather. The reason we had time was some mean hag at the bowling alley.

We decided to leave our place in Long Beach and spend a day in Astoria and have a fancy dinner. I always enjoy taking the kids to a fancy place & have them act like real gentlemen. So, since we have a few days, Astoria was a no-brainer & it was only 20 minutes (actually a little more since we ran to Warrenton Home Depot to get a few final tile pieces for the bathroom tile job).

We arrived in Astoria with time to kill before eating. We first drove around & checked out several places…All looked good ~ Schooners, The Silver Salmon & Columbia Cafe (I’ve eaten there before & it is incredible). So we decided to try out Pier 11 Steak place…

That settled, we thought why not bowl a bit to waste time before eating. We walked in and the nasty lady behind the counter did not want to acknowledge us ~ instead she wanted to chit-chat with her friend. After waiting about 10-minutes she barked at us “You can’t bowl…We need to get ready for leagues.” That was our entire conversation. So we opted to leave and check out more of Astoria.

We thought we stumbled upon the house from The Goonies movie ~ later we found out we were wrong. There were about five other photographers with tripods and weather was perfect so we figured it was right. Then we saw a sign to a fort, could not find it and stumbled on a curvy road leading to this column.

After a great dinner at Pier 11 we rambled over to the Columbia Movie Theater to watch Coraline. What a great little theater. A second run theater and the balcony was a bar for people 21 and older to have drinks & watch the movie. And, they made homemade pizzas.

If you need a place to stay, The Hotel Elliot is incredible….

Link to actual Goonie house ~ me & the boys will check it out on our way home from Spring Break!

We found it!

Part two (PART ONE) of my love of the Seal-A-Meal vacuum sealer…Made a batch of GREAT breakfast Burritos & froze them for future use. What’s great about this is you pull them out f the freezer, microwave & they taste like you just made them fresh.

When you are in a hurry in the morning these are a great way to get a FAST, delicious & good for you breakfast.

Ingredients in mine: eggs, mushrooms, red peppers, little ground pepper, little salt, cheese & a teaspoon of hot sauce (I used “Fire on the Mountain’s” Bourbon Chipotle).

Man they taste good!!!!

The How To Movie!

Burrito: The Movie

Big, big games tomorrow….I’m sooooooo looking forward to the start of March Madness… I am lucky in the fact that some of the 1st games are going to be played right here in Portland. And, I got tickets to the first session… I’ll get to see Washington take on Mississippi State and Purdue vs. Northern Iowa.

The last time I was lucky enough to go to an NCAA Tournament game was when I lived in Milwaukee, WI. Me and a buddy went down to buy some scalped tickets & we ran into someone from a visiting team that asked us to help them sell their tickets. In response to helping them they gave us two tickets ~ And, those free tickets were FRONT row. Needless to say, IT WAS An Awesome experience. AND, that visiting team 15 years ago was none other than Portland State ~ kind of ironic.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s games & depending on how it turns out and our baseball practice schedule I may try and take the kids this weekend. I already have my brackets filled out & am psyched for the BIG DANCE to kick off!!!!

Let the games begin!

O.K…I’ll risk EMBARRASSMENT & RIDICULE! CLICK HERE TO SEE MY BRACKET!

I was lucky enough to get to see another live presentation from Jeffrey Gitomer. And like always, it was awesome. Not only is his message right on target, his delivery is excellent and humorous. Today’s seminar in front of probably 500 attendees was in Portland, Oregon ~ my town which made it nice! The 7:00am – 11:30am seminar went by so fast and made you wanting to hear even more!

I have been lucky enough to work with Jeffrey Gitomer and his group and when I asked for a few tickets to see the seminar, they said how many & even sent me extras. I went with Dana and gave tickets to co-workers, customers & a couple friends. Needless to say, everyone walked away pretty impressed.

If you are in sales and have not attended one of Gitomer’s seminars, do yourself a favor and make a point of it. Although his books are great, seeing him live is even better. He really tailors his show to the audience and current events. If you are not in sales, you still should go because there a lot of principles that you can apply to everyday life. Attitude is EVERYTHING.

So, go see Gitomer when you have the opportunity and until then read one of his excellent books ~ I highly recommend “The Sales Bible” and “The Little Red Book Of Selling.”

As most of you know, I don’t promote products (except for myself & Apple occasionally)…. BUT, I have been so impressed with this product I had to share my thrill. When we were at the beach in October we caught 150 razor clams (If you have never seen a razor clam, they are big) & needed to freeze them.

My buddy lent me his fancy “Seal-A-Meal” mega machine that he got at Costco to zip-pack our 1st batch that was cleaned. I like his so much, I thought I have to get me one of these (at Costco I think their machine with all the bells & whistles was about $120 -$140 range – which I thought was a bit spendy).

After I got home & cleaned the 2nd batch (took about 3 hours to clean). I figured I’d quickly run up to Target & check out what zip-packing machines they had. Well, they had several models and different levels. I didn’t need all the bells and whistles and I didn’t need one that you could put a roll of the zip-pack material in…I just wanted one that sealed the quart bags because that seemed to work for me. So I got the same brand as my buddy had the “Seal-A-Meal,” but I just got the $49 base model & a box of the “Foodsaver” brand quart bags (not sure how the other bags are, but I like these).

It has performed magnificently! I love it. I used it to pack the rest of the razor clams. And, I have since used it to pack steaks, shrimp, chicken breasts, mac&cheese, & nacho meat. EVERYTHING I have used it for tastes as fresh as the day I packed it. We bought a family pack of Costco steaks & they were phenomenal a month later. The razor clams we ate this week were as fresh as when we caught them in October. I grilled 10 chicken breasts and marinated them on the grill & zip-packed 9 (I cut the quart bags in half & put one breast in each) last week – I just heated one up for lunch today & it tasted great (the marinate was even better since it was zip-packed).

It is saving me money because I can buy more stuff in bulk & freeze extra. And, it is way better than just putting in a freezer bag. With the economy the way it is, I feel way better about stretching my dollar & this has definitely helped. It also has saved me a bunch of time. My kids love nachos but it can be a pain to make for one meal. For nachos I cook more meat than we need, add all the seasonings & zip-pack the extra meat. It only takes a minute to heat up the meat and add chips, cheese and it’s done! And again, I think they even have more flavor because the seasoning is zip-packed in with the meat.

I also zip-pack everything in one-person portions so if it’s just me for dinner I only open one. I highly, highly recommend getting one of these. I honestly think mine has more than paid for itself 2-3 times already!!!!

Originally uploaded by pdxmac

Well as usual I went & made a huge electronics impulse buy. I immediately went out and bought one of the new MacMini’s!

And, I love it!!!! I bought a basic 2ghz MacMini and upgraded from 1Gb to 4Gb’s of memory. Instead of getting the larger hard-drive, I stuck with the 120mb drive and added two 1TB external drives (got those at Costco). I have 1TB for storage and the other as a back-up.

In addition, I bought a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, the recent version of iWork and all the necessary cords to plug the Mini into my 42″ HDTV.

It has only been a week, but me & the kids love it. They have been cranking out Garage Band music, surfing the net & watching movies on it. The picture is extremely crisp… We’ve also been using it to watch shows from Hulu.com. It is pretty cool to sit across your room on your couch with the wireless gear and surf the net…

I’d have to say that I like it more than I even thought I would. I’m even toying with the idea of dropping my Dish Network satellite tv & just using the Mac to watch tv & movies. I’ll let you know how that goes.

It is still new…..but I really am loving it. I cannot wait to try some photo & video editing with it!

Went to the Walla Walla wines tasting event at the Portland Museum last night with Dana & friends. If you like wine and have not tried any of the great wines Walla Walla, WA has to offer you are missing out!

Washington wines just keep getting better & better and are giving the Napa wines a run for their money. Some of my favorite wines come from this region. Some of the best I tasted last night were K, SYZYGY, L’Ecole N 41, Ensemble Cellars, Long Shadows Vintners, Spring Valley Vineyard & Otis Kenyon.

I’d have to say the Otis Kenyon was my favorite new taste. The Portland event was a great opportunity to taste a whole bunch of wines in one place without having to travel too far. If you get the chance you should hit this event next year or even better do a tour of the Walla Walla area.