I am on the mailing list of a great company called The Duluth Trading Company. Their target market is professional contractors, so lots of tool belts, work shirts, tool bags, etc. One of their new products that I loved right away was this pocket utility knife. I would have ordered it right away, except that it is $25, and I don't need it that bad.

Anyway, this morning I spent about 1.5 hours studying for tonight's midterm at White Castle, drinking coffee and Diet Coke. I got through four chapters and needed a break. For fun I thought I would stop in Menards on the way back home and see if they had anything like this knife. I went to the utility knife section and no luck. Oh well, I didn't really expect them to have it, I just wanted an excuse to kill some time in Menards. I remembered that I wanted to get a cheap pair of 99¢ jersey gloves for Saturday dog walking at the shelter. I also picked up a $1.99 bottle of Fisher dry roasted peanuts. Basically just wandered around looking for cheap things to buy because it is fun.

I round the corner, and on a huge aisle-end display, are these pocket utility knives! Yeah Brad! And better yet; they were only $9.99! So I do my little happy dance, grab one, and run to the check-out. Waiting in line, I do some quick addition in my head; knife $10, peanuts $2, gloves $1, plus tax, bill should be about $14 or $15. It's time to sign the charge slip and it is only about $10. I look at the receipt and the knife only rang up for $7! I might have to go back and buy a bunch more. Back-ups, Christmas gifts, stocking stuffers, etc.

It folds up to about 3.5", and folds out to a full sized 6". It has a lock-blade so it will not collapse back on your hand and cut you. It has a little knob on the blade to you can unfold it with just one had. It has a very nice comfortable heft to it. It uses standard inexpensive replacement blades you can find in any hardware store, so you can always have a razor sharp edge.

In short, it made my day. As you know, I like to carry around small pocket knives, and I have not added to my collection in a long while, so this was an enjoyable addition. Also, my studying went well, and I am not as apprehensive about my midterm tonight, so that made me happy too. I should also be getting my adaptor via UPS this afternoon so I can run two monitors from my computer. Happiness all around!