So i had to hit Wal-Mart this morning to grab some TP for the TDI crew.  Gotta make sure our butts are clean. 

Anyway, on my way out, there was this old guy in line.  He was having an issue with a product ringing up at a different price than posted.  I think we’ve all had that problem.  She was trying to tell him that he had to go do a full return or some crap.

Anyway, this guy was freaking out.  He was screaming at the cashier and she was screaming back.  It was kinda nice to hear this guy say all the things we’ve all always wanted to say.  He told this girl exactly the way it was.

In my opinion, about half of Wal-Mart’s employees are good people.  The other half are people who aren’t used to a power position.  So they tend to go on power trips.  It always cracks me up to see that.  I mean come on, your a Wal-Mart cashier.

For instance the other day i was at Wally World with Stephanie.  She tried to use a check that had both of our names on it.  Well, her ID had her maiden name, not her married name.  Well, the Customer Service Manager ( yea right!) Amber was a complete bitch about the entire situation.  She wouldn’t accept the check unless i handed it to her.  All she did was sit there and roll her eyes.  I about smacked the white right out of her eyes.  Stupid Bitch.

Anyway, i’m sure every one of us can share a horror story about Wal-Mart.  I could blog all day about the issues with that place.  BUT, i won’t.  Let’s move on…

So, it’s Tuesday.  I have some interesting news.  This Saturday we will be at the Fairview Heights PetCo with Aphrodite.  We will be doing pictures with her for a fund raiser.  That’s crazy isn’t it?  I’m really looking forward to the event.  I think it will be a great chance to show the public that big-box stores and small businesses can truly work together toward a cause.  We’ve always had very strong relationships with both PetSmart and PetCo, but most people don’t know that.  So now we can put that relationship into the public eye.  Good Stuff.

Anyway, i need to find some good videos for you all.  I haven’t come across anything particularly clever recently.  I did find this funny picture.  Check it out:

That cracks me up.  Anyway, until next time…

Happy Monday Everyone!  So it’s almost April.  Hell Yea!  But how about that freak snow storm.  Strange.

So what does this week hold at the TDI.  I’m not real sure.  It seems that things always change around here.  I hope to get more done with our remodeling of our party room.  On top of that, we need to do some serious Spring cleaning/organizing.  Those are probably the priorities this week.  We are aiming to get some new animals in stock.  But we won’t know more about that until mid-week.  That’s always the story.

We have had a few people asking when we are going to get our new T-Shirt design.  Soon….    We need to get rid of the rest of our current T-Shirts first.  Getting a new design is always very expensive, so we want to liquidate as much as possible first.  So yea, soon…

BTW, i hate Windows Live Search.  I’m not sure if any of you use Hotmail, but i do.  And when you log out of Hotmail, it redirects you to MSN.com.  Well, when i get redirected, i always go right to the address bar to enter a new URL.  It never fails that every time i get halfway through typing the URL, the cursor jumps to the Live Search box.  I think MSN needs to realize that they will never have a market share of web searches.  Google is where its at and they aren’t going away.  Fricken MSN and their tricks to get you to use their search engine. 

Anyway, its Monday.  I have to go be productive.  Until next time…

Yup, String Cheese is some good stuff.  I hope everyone had a good saturday.  Shit weather, but the shop was busy pretty much all day.  We only had one show today in Mascoutah.  It was a good time.  A bunch of the kids had seen our show before.  It’s kinda cool when the kids know who you are.  It let’s you know you’re going in the right direction i suppose.

So Zoomed has released a screen Chameleon cage.  Zilla stopped making their screen cages about a year or two ago.  The company said it did so because the cost was to high to produce the cage.  So they got out.  Well ZooMed has stepped in.  We are yet to try the new cage, but look forward to trying it out real soon.  We currently use the ExoTerra Screen Cages, but it’s always nice to have some variety.

BTW, i watched a kid have a complete heart attack in the shop the other day.  It was hilarious.  He was a little dude, like 2 years old.  But he screamed bloody murder when he realized where he was.  And he WOULD NOT calm down.  It was really quite humorous underneath it all.

Anyway, it’s time to wrap things up.  Until next time…

Good Evening Everyone.  And it is a nice evening.  Although i imagine i will spend it inside passed out.  We had a busy one today.  We have some B-Grade adult bearded dragons in the shop right now.  They have never had UVB light and have been fed mostly lettuce.  But we are getting them rehabbed.  We are re-homing them for 15 bucks.  So if anyone is interested, stop by the shop.  We have three of these guys.
We will be at Whiteside Middle school tomorrow.  Schools are always a blast.  Especially older kids.  I like when my sarcasm makes sense.  I guess my sarcasm doesn’t usually make sense.  Well it does it me.  I suppose that’s all that’s important.

We didn’t get any new animals this week.  We are at the verge of a bunch of animals coming into season.  That means in the next several weeks, we should see some more variety coming into the shop.  That’s always exciting.

There aren’t to many demos this weekend.  A couple on Saturday and a couple on Sunday.  It seems that our demonstrations have really boomed in popularity in the last few months.  April is already pretty booked up.  Man, April is coming quick.  It’s in like 6 days!  It’s gonna be hot as crap before we all realize it.  Then we’ll all want it to cool off.  Oh well.  The grass is always greener i suppose.

Anyway, it’s about time to wrap up the evening.  I hope some of you sleep with the windows open tonight.  It will be a good night to do so.  Until next time…

Happy Tuesday. Some real spring weather today for sure. Our demo last night was a ton of fun. We worked with a group of about 35 mentally handicapped adults. I’ve never worked with a group like that. It was a great experience. I hope to work with the group again in the future.

So we have a bunch of clearance tanks if anyone’s looking for one. We have 20 gallons – 55 gallons. I tend to hoard tanks, so we are doing a bit of spring cleaning. We were thinking about getting a bunch of people together and do a huge yard sale in the parking lot. But that sounds like a lot of work. Good idea however.

So i was surfing break earlier today. Found a few cool shots:

South African Cement Throwing – Watch more Funny Videos

and

Using Molten Iron as Fireworks – Watch more Funny Videos

BTW, Charter Communications sucks ass…
Good stuff.

What is up everyone?!?! Well i have to say that this has been a rather stress free Monday. Thank frickin god for that! Monday’s can be a rough one sometime. Lots of dealings with lots of people. Sometimes they don’t always go smoothly.

Anyway, nothing really new going on at the TDI. We are expecting some more animals later in the week. Probably a small shipment. Hoping for some baby corn snakes.

We have a demo tonight in Granite City for a larger group of adults. That should be tons of fun. It seems that our demos have exploded in popularity in the last few weeks. We probably book 10 demos this weekend. Good times.

So not much going on really. BTW, have you all seen Live at Pompeii?? Check out a Saucerful of secrets.

So i just finished some Mario 2. Good stuff. Boy today was a busy day. We had four demos. We usually don’t do more than 3 in a day. So today was a bit more than usual. But it seems that i survived. Good thing.

We are going to begin renovation on our party room this week. We have quite a bit of demo work. Nothing like tearing down plaster walls. Especially for someone like me who is allergic to anything dusty. Hello respirator.

Anyway, it was a totally exhausting day. So i leave you with a short blog post and a fun story:

Drug Money Dropped All Over Freeway – Watch more Funny Videos

Happy first day of Spring everyone.  It’s finally here.  Good bye Winter.  It’s a nice feeling isn’t it?  Finally time to warm the earth up a bit.

So we made progress with the shoplifting situation.  We recovered the cage and caught the group affiliated with the theft.  Two of the people involved were simply guilt by association.  But in today’s society, it makes you just as guilty.  As for Cody ( the thief), we are going to be pressing charges against him due to his lack of cooperation.  Thank god for security cameras.

So i want to take this moment to talk about shoplifting.  Most of us have done it before.  And if we haven’t done it, we’ve all thought about it.  I am just as guilty as the kids that tried to rip off the TDI.  I spent plenty of time in high school thinking of ways to steal and cheat.  As i’ve grown older i’ve become a firm believer in Karma and have since grown out of the stealing stage.

Anyway, there is a big issue when it comes to stealing from the TDI.  Most of your big box stores have policies.  If the theft is under X amount of dollars, you walk away on a warning.  Well, it’s a bit different at the TDI.  When you steal from the TDI you are stealing from my family and my child.  And i don’t take that lightly.  And do you blame me?  How would you react if someone broke into your home and robbed you?  It’s the same thing when we dedicate the time we have dedicated to build this business.

So we also have a policy on shoplifting.  When an item is stolen, we will invest 10-20 times it’s worth into recovering the item.  This would make no sense to some people, but we do it out of principle.  If you steal from the TDI, we WILL find you.  I guarantee it.  And when we find you, you will either be led away in handcuffs or you will be drinking your next 100 meals through a tube in your throat.  Long story short, DO NOT FUCK WITH US!  We will come down so hard on your sweet little life you won’t even know what happend to you.

On that note, if any of you ever hear about a shoplifting issue involving our store, tell us.  I know it’s never fun being the snitch, but we will ALWAYS issue a reward for info leading to the apprehension of the individual.  And we will NEVER reveal your personal info to ANYONE.  That’s a personal guarantee from myself.

Anyway, enough of that negativity.  I just wanted to drive that point home.  So, It’s Friday.  We have all sorts of demos for the next few days.  Busy Busy.  We did get some new animals yesterday.  I will get the animal availability updated today.  It seems that this past week went so fast.  I looked at my desk and noticed a huge pile of paperwork that needs attention.  I will be dedicating most of the morning to that crap.  Otherwise, i have another vid for you all.  Enjoy…

Hey All!  So Stephanie told me today that the last few videos i posted were to negative and violent.  Well, that is true.  I think it’s a dude thing.  We like violence.  So i decided to post something happier today.  Check it:

How about them apples?

Anyway, Happy Tuesday. Nothing real new going on at the TDI. Constantly working and growing. That’s about it. I’m listening to Tool right now. That’s pretty sweet. Tool is always a good way to end the evening. I think i’m skipping the big St. Patty’s party at the Dandy Inn tonight. I guess i’m getting old, but i feel a bit safer at home. The crowd was even working it’s way into the shop area. We had a couple drunk dudes peeing on the dumpster singing. That was entertaining.

So has anyone starting any Spring cleaning? We did a bunch of cleaning in our breeding building today. Got a lot of clutter out of there. That always feels nice. We need to have a big yard sale at the shop. Everyone could come up and sell there own stuff. We could just fill up the parking lot. But that sounds like a lot of work to coordinate.

Anyway, it’s time to wrap up for the night. Until next time…

Sooooo, Happy Monday World. I think for the first time in a few weeks i’m having a stress-free Monday. Thanks god for that! I hope everyone else’s Monday is just a stress free.

So i want to write about a little incident that happened this weekend. Some d-bag stepped in our back door and stole a cage. What the hell is that shit?!?! Well, the nice thing is we know who did it. We have him on camera. The bad thing is we don’t know how to find him. So i’m hoping his dumb ass shows up here again. Makes me feel like watching Casino. Have you all seen that movie? You know the infamous pen scene? Check it out:

The Pen – Casino

That’s hardcore. But seriously, we’re not going to stab the dude with a pen, but you get the idea. We don’t take shop lifting lightly. The shoplifter will leave here in one of two ways: in handcuffs, or in a stretcher. It’s up to the individual. On that note, if any of you know how we can find this guy, let us know. We’ll make it worth your time.

Anyway, enough negativity. So did anyone hit the Dandy Inn this weekend? I know i was there. They are continuing the celebration tomorrow night. Every should be sure to stop in there and drink a beer. Time to celebrate our Irish heritage… except i’m not Irish. Oh well. Another reason to drink some beer. So, in a continued celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, some more Boondock Saints…