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Previous Update - April 3, 2006

April 3, 2006 - Letting "The Dog" Out of the Bag First of all, before any more people write to me irate about my having received a dog in the mail, let me just say that IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. While I'd assumed that the aptly-dated April 1st letter would be widely understood to be an April Fools joke (all too common on the Internet nowadays), some people didn't pick up on it. Maybe my mad crazy Photoshop skills were just too good (nah...) Anyway, to repeat: I did not receive a dog in the mail. He wasn't packed in foam peanuts or bubble wrap. Considering I even dated the fake letter March 20, that would have put the dog in transit for 11 days! You can see below that I removed the tags from the original photo to make the dog look "unowned", and the fake letter was derived from the EXACT same photo that I took of the real Nylabone letter. So to those who didn't put two and two together — and to those who put two and two together and got "five" — relax. It was just a joke. Incidentally, yeah, that really is my dog. He's definitely not "wolf size". Anyway, moving on... P&G Procter & Gamble (#65) sent over a letter telling me that if I have Internet access, I can register to receive their online newsletter... no coupons, though. Oh, well... I'll make a point to get online and sign up for Internet access this afternoon. 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 Campbell's Four 50-cent coupons $2.00 Energizer Three $1 coupons $3.00 Frito Lay Two 55-cent coupons $1.10 Nylabone A "Double Action Chew" with "Minty Fresh Center" (wolf size) $9.33 Brownberry Three $1 coupons $3.00 Riceland Three coupons $2.70 Eight in One Pet Products A bunch of free dog snacks $25.00 31 companies $211.06