It's been such a nice week! I honestly can't believe the difference two weeks have made. Two weeks ago, I was stranded at a gas station with a flat tire and a busted tire iron. I tried walking to an auto parts store to find a tire iron or some other custom auto accessories that could help, but since the snow was a foot and a half deep and the blizzard was still raging, I didn't make it very far. Yesterday, I drove past that same gas station. I had no jacket on, the window down, and there was no snow to be found. How did this happen?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Spring seems to be here. I can get outside again and get some use out of the promotional water bottles that we own. It just seems crazy that I went from struggling through snow drifts in my heavy winter coat to no coat at all so quickly!

Time for the big decision: 24 oz. Custom Aluminum Bottle or 20 oz. Custom Recycled Bottle? Thoughts?

With the Masters less than a month away, there seems to be one major question in the golf world: Will Angel Cabrera repeat as champion? Wait, it's not? Oh right, the Tiger watch. Will Tiger play? He'd most likely need a tune-up tournament, so he'd have to return to the PGA Tour in 3 weeks. I'm not sure what will happen, but Tiger at Augusta would lead to some pretty big ratings (not necessarily for the right reasons).

Personally, I hope he plays, and plays well. I like watching professional sports because I can see the best athletes in the world competing against each other. Tiger is in our lives because he is a great golfer, not because he is a great person. Most public figures aren't on our radar because of their morals and values, but because of their special talents. Let's separate these things. I don't need him to apologize to me (as a member of "the public"). Apologize to your family and friends, fix your private life (in private), and get out there and golf! Sunday at Augusta is better with Tiger in the hunt.

One thing that will definitely come from this episode is a decrease in Tiger Woods-related golf promotional items. Given the choice, people will most likely go for the item without the picture of the philanderer. I'm sure the people at Augusta have come up with many golf giveaways that promote their course and their sport rather than their star.

Over the past month, the wife and I have been utilizing our new Netflix account to the fullest extent. With the apartment's other new toy (PS3, Merry Christmas to me!), we have been streaming some of the content available through Netflix's 'Watch Instantly' feature. Netflix sent us a disc, we put it in the PS3, and it links to our Netflix account. It's nothing short of awesome.

So we've been finally gotten on board and have been streaming 30 Rock. Great show. We especially enjoyed the episode that co-starred Wayne Brady as Steven Black. He may not have been the coolest character, but he sure did love his promotional tote bags. Steven Black is nowhere near as urban as Tracy Jordan. The only reason he would attend The Source Awards was to take advantage of the night's giveaway: new custom tote bags for his collection.

If you haven't watched, I won't spoil how it ends. It's a sitcom, which means that hilarity ensued. We're definitely going to keep using Netflix to watch the antics of the gang at 30 Rock.

PS - Adam: I searched the blog archives for 'Wayne Brady' and didn't find anything. If you already did a blog about this, my apologies.

When we at Motivators get our own imprinted items, they are usually custom office supplies. We get great items, from promotional pens to promotional tape flag dispensers.

I asked a friend if he uses anything imprinted with his law firm's name. While they, like Motivators, have imprinted pens, he was more excited about his new promotional t-shirt imprinted with the name of his dodgeball league! With a league membership, you get the shirt (and to play, of course!). So the sports league orders the imprinted t-shirts, recoups the money with the membership fee, and the members become living, breathing advertisements for the league.

The moral of the story? Once again, if you give people "free" imprinted stuff, your logo will get out there! (To be fair, part of the fee for the league membership goes to charity. Members are more than walking billboards.)

A couple of weeks back, Sarah blogged about how some promo products were being used to help in Haiti. Sarah's blog was mainly about television, so here's some info about how sports and promotional apparel are involved in the relief efforts.

As USA Today reported, the promotional t-shirts of the losing Super Bowl team would be donated to Haitian earthquake victims. Two sets of shirts are printed each year for a variety of reasons. The teams wear the shirts on the field after the game. Fans want to buy the shirts as soon as possible. To make sure this can happen, the shirts are printed in advance.

I think this is a great thing for the NFL to do. I'm sure some people would want to buy the shirts as collector's items or conversation pieces, but there are people in real need. The Colts t-shirts were sent in conjunction with the return of the Manning Face:

Some needy folks in Nicaragua were able to receive Patriots t-shirts emblazoned with a 19-0 slogan, back in 2007...

Good for the NFL. Hopefully next season, t-shirts of the Giants' Super Bowl opponent will be sent away.

Tragedy struck the O'Sheas recently. We lost an important part of our lives. The external hard drive stopped working. We unplugged it for the Christmas season to accommodate the tree, then tried using it again in early January. No sound, no nothing. I brought it in for tech surgeon Danny to take a look at, to no avail.

We lost some documents, saved web pages, Mad Men Season 1, and music (and music and music and music). Luckily, I'll be able to recover the music. A friend backed that up for me. I'm not sure exactly what documents were there, but they are gone forever.

We'll eventually get another hard drive, but I've learned my lesson here. Any important documents will be saved to both a computer's hard drive and custom USB flash drives. I can get a promo 8GB USB flash drive, which is more than enough space for documents. I think I'll go with the 8GB Bamboo Flash Drive. If there's an option, might as well go with an eco-friendly promotional giveaway.

The lesson here, folks, is this: Do your best to save your important files in two locations. You never know when tragedy will strike.

Before getting married, I thought about some of the goals that I had. Goals that, if reached, would make me feel like I was being a good husband. Last night, only 3+ months into the marriage, I achieved the most important goal on that list.. the wife accompanied me to a Knicks game, which meant that she had been with me to see each of the four major US sports leagues! Our second date was to a Mets game; we went on a Motivators outing to an Islanders game; we saw the Giants "play" the Panthers in December; we watched the Timberwolves "play" the Knickerbockers.

Working in this industry, we always notice the sports promotional items at these events. The Knicks team store was selling custom water bottles. The fans in a selected section of the crowd were given promotional thundersticks. I never thought about where those items came from before I worked here. Now I pretty much anything can be imprinted.

As far as the game goes, the Knicks destroyed the T-wolves, 132-105. It didn't make up for the embarrassing 50 point loss against the Mavs, but hopefully it gave the guys some confidence. Laurie asked at one point, "What's a Knick?" and after my answer, "A Knickerbocker," wasn't good enough, we looked into it further when we got home. Turns out Father Knickerbocker was the symbol of New York during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Who knew?

*Important note: Sarcasm does not always translate through the written word.. Bringing Laurie to sporting events was not a goal I had when thinking about marriage. Nor does it make me a good husband. Making her watch many, many games on TV does!

I haven't blogged about football in a while. Shame on me. It's just that my football season peaked in October. The Giants completely fell apart. My one-time first place fantasy team fell apart. And my other fantasy team? Last place. I didn't get any cool football promotional items. Why would I want to write about football?

That's a poor attitude, though. Our little brothers, the J-E-T-S, are making some noise. Adorable. Are they changing the culture? Or are they setting up their fans for a typical Jets ending? I'm rooting for them. This isn't like Yankees-Mets or Rangers-Islanders.. the Giants and Jets play only once every 4 years. There's no true rivalry... they've never met in the Super Bowl or anything (which is hard to happen when one side hasn't made it there since the '60s). So why not? As long as the Jets fans that I'm friends with don't get too mouthy... go green! Wait, sorry. Go Gang Green!

The fans have been good so far. Following is the assessment of Jets vs. Colts from my good friend (and Jets fan) John: We don't stand a chance!

Ladies and gentlemen, the NY Jets!

The National Association of Realtors announced today that Existing-Home Sales rose 7.4% in November 2009. This is great news for everyone, as a Real Estate rebound will hopefully lead to an overall economic recovery.

If home sales continue to rise, Realtors will have to start looking for ways to separate themselves from their competition. What better way to do that than to have promotional items for the Real Estate Market?

My realtor is also currently my neighbor. Anytime we've had to contact her at her office, we just look at the high quality promotional executive pen that she gave us. There are tons of options, like thel promotional magnets that Sarah wrote about recently.

Let's hope the upward trend continues. We'll see more of these, both on fridges and on lawns!

People have differing views on Twitter. Most people who do not have accounts think of it as a place where people can write about what they are eating or that they're going to the gym. Those of us with accounts know that it's much more than that. It can be informative and funny. Every now and then, you come across something that can make a difference.

One such example came up recently. Director/Actor Kevin Smith retweeted a link to "Let's Say Thanks". This program, sponsored by Xerox, let's you pick a card (drawn by children around the country) and add a message. A postcard will then be printed and sent to military personnel overseas. I think this is a great way to bring a moment of holiday cheer to our soldiers. It's important that they know how much we appreciate their sacrifices. There's nothing like receiving custom holiday cards!