Does this vacuum suck (in a good way?)

I really hate vacuuming. I think it is mainly because our sweeper is this huge clunking thing that weighs like 50 pounds and dragging it up and down the steps is a nightmare. Thus, our house only gets swept when my husband does it (or I'm desperate because friends of MINE are coming over).

I have been saying for three years or more that I really wish "they" would make a full power cordless sweeper. I discovered this Shark Cordless Sweeper which looks to be the real deal - my dream come true. I discovered this item because it is the hottest selling item on Coolshopping.com. We have sold literally hundreds of these things! Apparently it also has its own informercial, which I've never seen.

My birthday was last week and I TOLD my husband to get me three of these (one for each floor, of course). I figured at $59 each if they ended up sucking (in a bad way) that it wasn't that big of a deal. I starting envisioning sweeping nirvana as the big b-day approached....

Too bad the hubby blew off birthday shopping until mid-afternoon on my actual birthday. Sweep on, dude.

Six Degrees Feet of Separation....

Too weird. They mentioned "Trading Spaces" on Six Feet Under (another of my obsessions) tonight. How cute is Kathy Bates in her guest starring role as the earthy shoplifter? It crossed my mind that she and Ruth may become more than just friends....

Spongebob is a drip

My kids have two goldfish that Santa brought them two years ago. I honestly never imagined that goldfish could live this long (especially with as little attention as they receive). Of course, *I* am responsible for their health and welfare -- feeding, cleaning, etc. Every morning the larger of the two seems to 'SCREAM' out of his tank at me -- shaking his body violently and desperately demanding to be fed.

Long story short, about a month ago their tank was so dirty I decided to just go out and buy a new tank instead of going through the torture of cleaning it. Um, yes, a pretty lazy move. Which brings me (finally) around to the point of this post -- the Spongebob Squarepants Aquarium.

It's definitely a cute item and a hit with my kids. However, it irks me because the stupid fish keep knocking over the Spongebob figure so he is constantly just laying face down on the aquarium floor. In addition, a few days ago it started dripping, slowly, from the lid area. Now I have a kitchen towel under the tank to soak up the drips.

Maybe I should have just cleaned the original tank in the first place.

Unhealthy obsession with "Trading Spaces"

I tend to be obsessive/compulsive about a lot of things, and the TLC TV show "Trading Spaces" is one of them. You know, the one where two couples trade houses and redecorate a room with the help of "interior decorators". I, of course, have fantasized about being a show participant -- and having Vern redo my room. Anyone but Hildy (she once stapled 6,000 silk flowers all over the bathroom walls of one home). Needless to say, I want this book!

Yeah baby, Opera Babes!

Perhaps it's due to my incessant and constant watching of MSNBC war coverage, but this morning I saw a portion of an infomercial that struck me as kind of bizarre -- for a CD called Opera Babes.

In looking at their website, it appears that either I live in a paper bag, or these gals are currently a British Phenom. According to Opera Babe Karen, "Why shouldn't people look good and do opera? We haven't tried to cultivate a sexy image, we are just being ourselves - normal girls."

Watch (and listen) for the Opera Babes media tour of the US in May.

Welcome to my blog...

Via this blog, I hope to find an interesting way to share my stream of consciousness and connect it to ecommerce and shopping related topics. Yes, folks, the ultimate mix of content and commerce!

For those who care, I consider myself an ecommerce veteran. I started creating ecommerce websites back in 1995. Back in them there days, I launched the "MegaMall", a directory of shopping sites. The MegaMall eventually morphed into Coolshopping.com.

I rode the wave of the Internet advertising boom and have been lucky enough to have great success over the years. I used to be a feature writer on ecomerce for Clickz, have had lots of great media coverage and online coverage, and even was interviewed by the infamous Stuart Cheifet for PBS' Computer Chronicles TV show.

I have a number of ecommerce ventures, including a great cat furniture retail site called CatsPlay.com (shameless plug). I'm a mix of highly technical (18 years in technology in banking) and highly creative (art, photography, graphics design, etc), and, most importantly a shopaholic.

Bottom line is I'll try to bring a humorous yet deeply informative view skewed towards ecommerce to a wide variety of topics.