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Previous Update - March 17, 2006

March 17, 2006 - On Chickens and Time Travel Do you believe in time travel? I'm guessing that the folks at Boston Market do. I received a coupon book from them today which touts that I can "Save over $50" with the treasures that lie inside. There's only one caveat... I need to befriend Marty McFly in order to use most of it. The coupon book contains seven pages, each page containing three coupons. Sounds good! Unfortunately, one coupon on each page expires (or rather, expired) on February 12, 2006. Another coupon per page expires/d on March 12, 2006. And the third coupon per page expires on April 9, 2006 (why not April 12, I wonder?) So, I'm left with one-third of a $50 coupon book which I need to use within the next two weeks. I can only hope that I get a sudden, massive, sustained craving for chicken sometime very soon. On the bright side, I'm guessing that time travel is probably pretty fast compared to what we have today. The "letter" that Boston Market sent over with the coupon book was nothing more than a blank sheet of their letterhead — no words whatsoever. Maybe they figure that I won't have to time to read anything as I rush to use my soon-to-expire coupons. Or maybe time travel is just that fast. I just hope I don't run into any delays on my trip back to February, or I'll have to resort to reading the in-flight magazine for a few seconds... Remember, too, that the letter to Boston Market bounced back a few times due to having the wrong address. This just goes to show you that persistence does pay off — sort of. Freebies Summary Who? What? approx. $ Fellowes Four cans of compressed air $32.00 Carma Labs One jar of Carmex $1.29 Stash Tea Nine teabags $1.80 White Castle 19 burgers, 2 breakfast sandwiches, 2 orders of Chicken Rings $12.37 Airborne One free tube of Airborne $5.99 Reynolds Two 50-cent coupons $1.00 S.C. Johnson One free ($3 max.) Skintimate coupon $3.00 Church & Dwight Two $1 Arm & Hammer coupons $2.00 Pfizer Three 50-cent Purell coupons $1.50 Pepsi Pepsi pen, pencil, stickers, and gift catalog N/A Biotene Free samples of gum, toothpaste, and mouthwash N/A Burt's Bees Free stick of Burt's Bees $1.87 Dunkin Donuts Book of five $1 gift checks $5.00 Mercedes Benz Mercedes keychain $30.00 Eden Foods Pasta, tea, soymilk $9.54 Chicken of the Sea Two $2 coupons, one 25-cent coupon $4.25 Sanford Four pens $5.00 Gatorade (aka Pepsi) Three 60-cent coupons for Propel $1.80 Nestle Two coupons for Nestle candy $1.00 Max and Erma's A hat and travel cup $15.00 Dairy Queen Three $1 gift certificates $3.00 Del Monte Five coupons for dog snacks $5.25 Celestial Seasonings Three sample teabags, three coupons $5.60 Boston Market 33% of $50 coupon book $16.67 24 companies $164.93 Boston Market