The last few years, sports in July has meant three things to me: NBA Hot Stove League, Fantasy Football research, and disappointment with the Mets.

The NFL has been locked out for months. The NBA lockout began this morning (and is being predicted by many to be worse than the NFL version). It's millionaires vs. billionaires, with the fans who support them losing. I have consciously avoided anything about the NFL since the beginnig of the lockout. I plan on doing the same for the NBA. I'm sure I'll be back when the disputes are settled, but will everyone?

So in July 2011, I'll be spending tons of time with the Mets. I'll get to use some of the corporate gifts that I received during the last holiday seaon. The custom iPod covers will come in handy when I stream Mets games on my iPod. Baseball's definitely a sport that can be enjoyed on the radio. My daughter loves being outside, so I'll need to plug the iPod into my promotional Tag Along mp3 Speakers (compatible with the iPod, of course). With these speakers, we can hang out and enjoy the game. I'll definitely have to catch the highlights though, as Jose Reyes is having an insane season. There's nothing better than watching him hit the ball into the gap and end up on third.

I'll hope we don't see another Mets summer swoon. I'll also hope that the lockouts end and we don't see empty fields/courts in the fall.

It's been evident for years that custom awareness bracelets are a great promotional tool. They exploded onto the scene with Lance Armstrong and LIVESTRONG:

That yellow, oval, "strong" concept was such a powerful awareness message that it was expanded upon (and enlarged) to form the STILLERSTRONG headband (helping to raise funds for schools in Hurricane-ravaged Haiti):

Derek Jeter is the latest to run with this idea. As he pushes towards his 3,000th hit, Jeter will be wearing promotional awareness wristbands:

Proceeds from the sales of these custom awareness bracelets will go to Jeter's Turn 2 Foundation, which helps steer kids towards healthy lifestyles.

I applaud Jeter for this move. By getting this idea out there early, he was probably able to keep the dirty Yankees from making money off his pursuit. They have to respect Captain Terrific's charity work!

During the 2010 NBA Playoffs, I noticed that the teams would sometimes supply their fans with promotional t-shirts. This made for a great visual effect, as the fans blurred into one intimidating unit.

This trend has exploded this year. Almost every single night, you can turn on a game and see a White Out.. in Oklahoma City:

or Miami:

In New Orleans, a Blue Out:

and even a Bright Yellow Out:

Most times, promotional apparel is used to outfit a team or a company's employees. These NBA teams have found a smart way to promote themselves (and, indirectly, help them win) through promotional t-shirts!

It's been a very busy month. In my last blog, I talked about how we packed a promotional travel bag with hospital necessities for when Laurie went into labor. That bag came in handy during the wee hours of 2/19/11, when labor began. Twenty-four long hours later, we welcomed our daughter into the world!

We're getting ready to use promotional baby items around the house. So far, the promotional baby rattle has helped to calm her down. Most of the products Motivators offers are for toddlers, so our newborn will have to wait. Hey Greg, what promotional baby items is your bundle of joy using?

As crazy new parents, we're taking tons of pictures everyday. Our co-workers have seen many pictures already, but I can't blog about her and not end it with pictures, right?

   

(Pink outfit in the second picture given to us by our great co-workers at Motivators!)

The time is almost upon us. In less than a month, we will be welcoming our baby girl into the world! While exciting, there is also tons of planning and preparing to do. It shouldn't be surprising anymore, but I still can't believe how many promotional products enter into our everyday lives.

At the Motivators Holiday Raffle, Laurie won the Cutter and Buck Weekender Case.

I, of course, was hoping to win the iPod nano that Ali won. But Laurie had a plan. She won the promotional travel bag and is using it as our hospital bag. She's packed it with everything we need for when she goes into labor.

I don't know what kind of bag I was expecting to pack.. but I should've known it would be a promotional travel bag!

I was hoping for last week's blog to be an isolated event - shoveling and promotional products. Sadly (for my back, not my "snow is pretty!" wife), the snow continues to fall. Without further ado, I present: The Snow Strikes Back.

I find that the time passes more quickly if I'm listening to music or a podcast. I downloaded the latest Bill Simmons podcasts, put my iPod in one of my custom iPod covers, and outside I went. I put the iPod in my sweatshirt pocket, not the jacket, figuring that the combination of custom iPod cover and layers would keep it from getting too cold. This made the shoveling more bearable.

For further entertainment, I brought the puppy outside. We've learned this winter that Terry loves the snow. He chases birds away from the birdseed, rolls around, and uses the extra couple of inches to eat berries off of the bushes. The only downside is that the snow gets clumped in his fur. To solve this, we have a couple of promotional towels handy. They do the trick. We have a dry puppy who has spent tons of energy and is ready for some sleep!

That concludes this week's promotional products snow update. With more snow in the forecast, tune in next week for (hopefully) the final installment. Laurie's brother will be back from LA, so I'll have some help in.. The Return of the Screenwriter.

Yesterday was another snowy day on Long Island. For me, this meant another morning of shoveling! Our house has a double driveway and is a corner property. That makes shoveling a daunting task. The promotional products that we have around the house made life a bit easier.

One of my Christmas presents was a new winter jacket. I refuse to throw out my Florida Panthers Starter jacket, but this gift was yet another hint that it's no longer acceptable to wear it. As it turns out, I really do like the Charles River Apparel Alpine Jacket. I was expecting it to be bulky and make noise whenever I moved; that's not the case. The jacket is warm and compact and, most importantly, makes no noise. This is my new go-to jacket when it snows.

The first thing I did was clean off the cars. As far as custom ice scrapers go, I prefer promotional snow brushes. This cuts the work in half, as I was able to clean the entire top of the car while standing on one side. I grabbed our Custom Telescopic Ice Chisel Snowbrush and went to work.

It took a while, but I was able to get everything shoveled. The task would've been much tougher if I wasn't given these promotional products!

Last October, I thought I learned a pretty important lesson. The amount of promotional sunscreen that I put on before going into the sun is never enough. I always need to put on more.

The October comment was a reference to my honeymoon. We went to Aruba and, after one day in the sun (with multiple applications of SPF 50 promotional sunscreen), I was a lobster. So it goes with the Irish.

This past weekend, I was outside with my promotional garden accessories weeding a flowerbed. I weeded from 9am - 11:30am with a tank top on. It was sunny, but it was the early morning! No way I'd get burned! Wrong again. I had to have some of the leftover Aruba Aloe put on to lessen the pain of yet another sunburn. Will this be the time I learn? I hope so!

I'm really looking forward to the 4th of July this year. We're taking a trip down to Washington, DC to visit friends and family. I expect we'll come across many 4th of July Giveaways in the nation's capital. Friends have told us about a parade at the National Mall, which I'm sure we'll check out. The fireworks at night will be amazing.

I think the highlight of the trip, however, might be on Saturday. We made plans to check out the Mets vs. Nationals at 7:05pm. Over the weekend, we discovered that the game was moved to 4pm, aka the Fox Game of the Week. Hmmm why would they want to televise this game nationally? Could it be a STRASBURG outing? If so, I'm sure the Baseball Giveaways will be in full effect.

(Disclaimer: I did the math, and it doesn't look like the National Treasure will be pitching. This would be a good thing for the Mets, of course, but it would be cool to see him throw.)

I can't believe it's been almost 12 years since I graduated high school. I didn't know it then, but the Graduation promotions that were handed out that day would become a part of my future. We received, among other promotional products, custom keychains with the year 1998 on them. Of course, if you're getting these for the current graduates, you'll need the 2010 version.

There are definitely cooler Graduation giveaways around these days. Who wouldn't love a Photo Friends Graduate Bobblehead? That would've definitely been found in my room. The Custom Die Cast Graduate Clock is a classy option for graduates.

I'm sure I'll continue finding occasions from my past that foreshadowed my future in the promotional products industry. I wonder what will be next.