Great Price on All-Clad 12 qt Multi Pot & Martha Stewart 7qt Oval Enamel Coated Cast Iron Pot

I anticipated all last week for Saturday morning to come. It was the annual 25% off everything at The Executive Chef store in Ward Center. The sale is only from 9a-12p, 3 hours. You must be standing in line with your purchases by noon to receive the 25% discounts. Kelli and I bought a whole bunch of stuff to simplify MY tasks in the kitchen. Today I'll blog about the All-Clad #59912 12 quart Multi Cooker seen above in brushed stainless steel. We also headed to the Macy's One Day Sale right after we made our purchases at The Executive Chef sale. We purchased that Martha Stewart 7 quart Oval Enamel Coated Casserole Pot there. Our morning got off to a slow start because the night before Kelli & I went to a late showing of "The Time Traveler's Wife" with our friends Tara & Shad. Ok ok, it was a 915pm show, but it's late for us since we usually only go to matinees due to the cost!! Anyway, the movie is fine to me, but Kelli & Tara obviously read the book and didn't feel it was all that great. (I didn't read the book.) I don't understand why people insist on reading the book then watching a movie knowing that the movie will never be as good as the book. Oh well, I'm sure Tara will explain in a comment. Anyway, on with the subject... at The Executive Chef, I found the All-Clad 12 quart Multi Cooker that I was hoping to receive as a gift some day (hahaha)! Knowing that it costs so much normally, I decided to buy it because it was an awesome bargain! I put some on my on-line shopping lists that were different models well over $300. I am not that particular, but those were the only ones I was seeing. This 59912 model appears to be around on the web for around $150 plus shipping and we are in Hawaii so shipping will either be another $50 or we won't be included as part of the United States! (Although, last Friday, Hawaii just celebrated its 50 years of Statehood... perhaps another 50 years and on-line retailers will consider us part of the United States and Google Voice will not charge long distance charges as high as calling international countries to call to/from Hawaii!!!) The regular price of this multi cooker at The Executive Chef is $105 + tax, which is already lower than on-line. With the 25% off and including tax it came out to $82.46! What a deal! If anyone finds it cheaper in Honolulu, Hawaii, don't tell me about it... just let me be happy with this great deal! They didn't seem to have the Le Creuset Oval Dutch Oven that I wanted so I didn't get that. We then went off to the Macy's sale. It was already 1230p or so. By the time we got to the housewares department, we had missed the "door buster" specials that ended at 1pm!! =) Why the =)?? Because I decided to save several hundreds of $$ and not get a Le Creuset and replace it with a much cheaper but functional Martha Stewart Collection version. It was a door buster at Macy's. $79.99 for the 7 quart oval that I would like. Yeah, we missed the door buster time, but it also said in fine print, "May not be combined with coupons." The after door buster price was $89.99, just $10 more and still a great price. We asked the sales person if the 20% off 1 day pass would apply and it did!! The result is the same pot for $71.99 + tax, $8 less than the "door buster special". Yay! That box was heavy! I think it must be around 20 pounds because I weighed the pot alone and it seems to be somewhere just under 20 pounds using the high tech bathroom scale technique. I had to carry that thing all through Macy's then all through Ala Moana Shopping Center and by the end of my work out at Ala Moana, I think it seemed like it weighed 50 pounds! We stopped at Neiman Marcus' Mermaid Bar for some much needed sustenance. Had had a custom salad in accordance to my special diet restrictions and Kelli had a Greek Sandwich. It was delicious. Kelli also bought this ultra-cute ceramic coffee mug from Starbucks. It has all these animals around it and even a few birds inside! You would think we went home and rested after all that. Nope. I busted out the brand new pots and cooked a Beef Short Rib Curry to add another 5 hours of my work out for the day. That curry will be in the next blog post...

Awesome Cash for Clunkers value at Saturn of Honolulu...

Ok... we all heard about the "Cash for Clunkers" program that the U.S. Government is promoting. If not, read about it here http://cars.gov. Anyway, in the recent days there have been many news reports of the cash for clunkers program not being offered any longer due to the difficulties the dealerships are having getting reimbursed for the $3500 or $4500 promotion. This is definitely true. My parents' truck... <--- see that on the left??!!?? Ok, it wasn't always smashed up in the front like that. It did have the fender damage and also other damage on the back that isn't even significant enough to photograph compared to this. It's had the other damage for years, but the front end damage just occured a couple weeks ago amidst the cash for clunkers mayhem. Let me add, this 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Track has been a "Clunker for Cash" since 2001!!!!!!! My dad bought it and it was a brand new truck from Ford. There were all sorts of problems that I told him to see the dealer about to have repaired under the warranty. So many issues that I won't even bother listing them. After all, Ford has enough of a questionable reliability reputation as it is. (Sorry if you are a Ford fanatic.) I took my parents to visit a Nissan dealership on the afternoon of that front end damage because we were immediately looking to take advantage of this cash for clunkers program. After all, would you buy this Ford for $4500?? =P The Nissan dealership here had nothing appealing to my parents. We went home and they drove that Ford home at night with the smashed up headlights (they looked like original carriage/buggy headlamps with candles in them... hahaha). They didn't do anything about getting rid of the Ford for the past couple weeks so I visited them yesterday and we ended up heading to the dealerships again. We first stopped at the Subaru dealership to check out a Subaru Forrester, but the Subaru dealership made an executive decision to stop participating in the cash for clunkers program on Wednesday (the day before)! So we moved along to Saturn. I had suggested to my parents that we get that clunker over to Saturn because they were advertising a promotion of cash for clunkers where they will match another $3500 or $4500 to the government amount. Essentially doubling the cash for clunkers amount. I had calculated on the http://cars.gov website that if the 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Track was turned in for the purchase of the 2009 Saturn Vue 2.4L XE or XR they would receive a $4500 cash for clunker amount and Saturn of Honolulu would double that. That meant a whopping $9000 off the sticker price of a low-mid $20,000 vehicle. That's an awesome ratio!!! Well they took a few hours making our salesman, Mike Gomes, work very hard trying to sort out all the features in the inventory. Mike Gomes is great, he sold my dad my first car back in 1991. It was a 1991 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 5.8L. Mike had to stay beyond closing just to finish the transaction so that my parents could drive home in a new Saturn Vue with headlights because the Ford would have been driving home in the dark if we left w/out a new vehicle. His poor wife had to wait around at a shopping mall for Mike to pick her up. (sorry!) Here it is, the 2009 Saturn Vue. The sticker price is $24,650 plus the taxes and licensing fees. The end price is a few dollars over $17,000. Not bad... don't you think?? Anyway, Saturn of Honolulu says they are ending their cash for clunkers participation as of Monday August 24th because that's when the government advises them to end it. I don't think you should wait beyond today if you are thinking of going to Saturn. Who knows, they boss might decide to end it as of last night or tonight. Good luck!

Excess amounts of $0.39 1st Class Letter Stamps!!

A couple of years ago I visited the post office to purchase some stamps. I was purchasing postcard postage stamps for a postcard mail out I was sending out that day. I asked the man working at the post office for 3 rolls of postcard postage stamps ($0.26 stamps at that time). The rolls are rolls of 100 stamps in most cases, which is what I wanted. I also had a few other items to get postage for at the same time. He placed 3 rolls of postage into a package after scanning them to my bill and gave me a total including the rest of my other items I got postage for. I quickly paid with my credit card and moved out of the way so the long line of people waiting could also get on with their lives. I was planning to stick the stamps on the bundle of postcards while in the post office so I went on the side where there is an area to work on your shipments and I began. I open 1 roll of stamps and start to peel to place them on my postcards. I then realize that the stamp says, "39 First Class"! It was not the stamps I asked for!!! I looked at the other 2 rolls and my receipt. The guy charged me for 3 rolls of $0.39 1st Class stamps and that's what I received in the package!! I immediately went back in line and waited until I got to go up to the same guy. I told him he sold me the incorrect rolls of postage stamps. I showed them to him and told him I asked for postcard stamp rolls! I never use 1st class stamps. I rarely ever send anything that takes a 1st class stamp because my bills are sent through an on-line service so I don't even deal with stamps. Normally, they do not allow returns on postage stamps so I was upset. I had 300 1st class postage stamps that I would most likely never use. The guy spoke with another manager or something at the post office to see what he could do. They let me return the 2 rolls that I didn't open only because it was on the same cash register till that he sold them to me on. Luckily, he didn't leave his cashier post yet! But I am still stuck with 100 $0.39 stamps. I knew I would never use them all, especially before they raise the rate of 1st class letter. Anyway, here I am today... still stuck with that stupid roll of $0.39 stamps. I think I used maybe 3 so far. The current rate for 1st class letter is $0.44. I should probably stash this roll and wait until the postage for a 1st class letter goes up to $0.78. Then I can just stick 2 of these on the envelope and get rid of them simpler. Of course, some of you may feel I should have reviewed my purchases prior to signing away on the credit card screen. Well, I didn't. So I will deal with these stupid stamps for the rest of eternity. Each time I get one out, it will be a reminder that I should carefully review those electronic credit card pads and thoroughly question every cashier about what is on my bill prior to signing it. Hopefully you aren't stuck in the line behind me... = P