My name is Melissa, and I am a Woot-aholic.

I have a problem.

I am addicted to Woot.

Admitting the problem is a great start - but with something as spectacular as a Woot-Off occurs - as it is today - I have no strength of resolve.

I am very likely to buy something -

and it will be cool -

and it will be cheap.

From Wikipedia:

Woot's tagline is "One Day, One Deal." Generally, Woot offers one product per day until its stock of that item is sold out or the product is replaced at midnight Central Time with the next offering. If a product sells out during its run, the next item still does not appear until midnight, except during Woot-Offs. Products are never announced beforehand and can easily sell out in a few hours or even minutes.

They also have sister sites for wine and tshirts. The tshirts are winning designs entered into woot contest and voted on by woot's online community. Awesome.

woot
wine.woot
shirt.woot

Freecycle, baby!! Just do it!!!

"The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,238 groups with 4,455,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free. "
~Freecycle.org

It may be my latent hippie tendencies talkin' here, but wow, I think this Freecycling thing is the coolest.

I have tons of crap I don't want anymore. Yet I yearn for more crap.

Freecycling is the answer to all my problems - especially because there is this element of "winning" the item - it's first come / first serve.

I like to feel like a winner. Those moments are few and far between.

I have a crapload of kids books, an extra set of plates and bowls and some cd racks (perfect example of an object that has lost its appeal - thanks mp3s!!) and they are all going to make their way to Freecycle.

I just found out about this thing Monday and already I got a flute out of the deal. And I'm waiting to find out if I was first to ask for the cast-iron chicken fryer with a glass lid.

I really need a cast-iron chicken fryer. I didn't know that about myself until this morning - but thanks to Freecycle my need for a cast-iron chicken fryer has become abundantly clear - like the accompanying glass lid.

If you are interested - just google freecycle - there are lots of groups all over the country.

Heck - they are even doing it in Canada - its just that good.