Dollar Shave Club...

Today, we’re talking hair and getting rid of it. First of all, I can’t grow a beard. Not that my wife won’t let me grow one (she won’t), but I grow something that looks like I ran into too many bird’s nests and some bits stuck. My beard is not only scraggly, but it ruins razor blades. I use a razor and it looks like I tried to shave a wookie village with the same razor. At one time (when I was pulling in a steady paycheck), I was using a three-blader that I could use a couple of times before it looked like I was shaving with a chainsaw. The refills were ridiculously expensive, though. I’m rough on blades due to the fact that I shave during my shower… water and my trusty blade, no shaving cream or gel. An old friend, Roy (affectionately known as Cannonfodder), posted something about www.dollarshaveclub.com… so I checked it out. Apparently, I’ve been living in a cave… or this site needs to spend some well-earned bucks on advertising (the video on the home page is hilarious)
.
This brings us to a few clicks later, and Katie and I are now signed up to get 4 blades a month, each, for less than it costs to get ONE set of 4 replacement blades from the store. The handles we got in the mail are solid, and very comfortable. There are rubber grips all over the thing, so there’s no fear of dropping this sucker when wet. It’s hefty, too. You know you’ve got a tool for massive follicle destruction in your hand when you pick this baby up. Oh, did I mention that we went for the 6 blade version? Six blades? Yeah, six mother*&^#+in’ Levolor blind looking blades! Top it off with a swivel head and you’ve got something that you could easily drop more than $20 on at your local grocery store. But, no… $9 a month. They keep sendin’ ‘em… you keep usin’ ‘em. The policy for switching between different plans and canceling is as simple as clicking a button.

Soooo, I decided to take it for a test run this evening. I had over a week’s worth of growth on my face and didn’t bother running the electric hair clippers over it beforehand (something I have to do with a cheapo razor). With 6 blades, it was like mowing a lawn with a laser. I have the barest of razor burn (usually, it feels like I sat my jowls in a fire ant pile), and looking at the blades, you can’t tell the difference from a brand new one. I think we’re onto something here.

The point of all this, is that if you’re sick and tired of paying out the nose for replacement razor blades that last about as long as a stick of butter in Death Valley and leave your face (or legs, for that matter) looking like you got in a fight with the blender, give Dollar Shave Club a try. At a minimum, it’ll cost you a buck plus shipping… at the most, it’ll put you back $9 to try the best one they have. I think, either way, you’re winning.

New things are great…

For example, I’m writing this on a new laptop. Being paid to go to school is a great thing… the expenses in doing so aren’t so great. I set out to save money on everything that I could. Tuition is pretty much set in stone, so that leaves books, materials, etc… So… Looking at the school’s library website before classes started, I wrote down all the books I needed (suckers left out the ISBN numbers, so the start was pretty rough). I found a website that will rent you textbooks. So for the low, low price of ONE of my books, I rented all three of them. Yay!!!! Savings! Then, after school has started, I find out I still need two more books that weren’t listed the week before. CRAP!

Oh, did I mention that we were in California the first week of school? Oh, and I didn’t get paid for another week or so? DAMN. After a search, I did find an alternative version of the books (read FREE). I’ve finally made it past the first week of school… got all the books I need… tuition paid and can finally get the rest of the grant. We had planned from day one that we were going to need a laptop as our dinosaur of a desktop computer was NOT going to be conducive to doing any type of school work.

Jump to Best Buy. We found a great laptop, big screen, plenty of memory, huge drive, etc… for less than the one Katie liked at wally-world. Having enough left over after saving tons of money on books, we decided to get a hers and his set.

Being without for so long has left us with a guilty feeling in the pit of our stomachs… do we really deserve TWO laptops? did we need to get ones with such big screens? are we just going overboard and overcompensating for being without for so long? Who knows. I’m not going to dwell on it, and enjoy the heck out of our purchase. For one thing, it’ll be nice to do homework on something that doesn’t look like it was made in the dark ages of the computer age.

Hits a little too close to home...

We helped mom out a little today with the Big Move. I put up some vertical blinds over her sliding glass door and some nice cordless blinds in her front window. Katie put contact paper in every drawer in the house. Needless to say, we were busy with other things than Facebook.
We get home... get settled... Katie checks her Facebook and finds out that one of her heart sisters has passed away. Katie is devastated.
Her friend, M, was diagnosed with PPCM, had an LVAD implanted and received a heart transplant all about the same times as Katie. So now, this girl, who Katie was in direct contact with constantly, is gone... Poof. She was only a year younger than Katie.
It hits way too close to home. Some little four year old across the country doesn't have her mommy anymore.
It hurts just thinking about it. Hug your loved ones tight and tell them you love them... even if it's hundreds of times a day.

Why Junky Drawers?

You’re probably wondering about the blog’s name, aren’t ya? Well, ‘the Junk Drawer’ and ‘Junk Drawer’ and every other iteration of a singular crap compartment was taken, so I had to resort to using Junky Drawers. Now, while the name has different meanings (get your brain out of the gutter!), it essentially is based on that wonderful item we call the junk drawer. Usually in the kitchen, but sometimes in a niche or hallway, this innocuous container of stuff does come in handy at times.

The drawer in question.

I assume that most people have one in their house. We have three. Three drawers filled to the brim with the extra bits of stuff that just doesn’t have a home elsewhere in the house, but might just be important enough to hang on to.

Thus, the reason for the blog. I have, and use, Facebook and Twitter. They’re there for the most important bits of my life, like the kitchen and living room of my house. There are a myriad of other things I do, think, say… that aren’t relegated to those other social sites. So, I’ve decided to create a junk drawer for my life.

Not only do I plan on posting the bits of flotsam that float around, but thoughts and ideas that just don’t seem to fit on those ‘other’ pages. So, dig through the tiny separated compartments and we’ll see if you can’t find something interesting to use.