COTCO GAS

Just gassed up at COSTCO in San Leandro. Quite surprised to see it at $1.95. FINALLY UNDER $2.00/GAL.

COSTCO in Vallejo is selling at $1.75. WOW>

PASKO EXPO 2008

A Filipino Christmas Celebration
THE EVENT Click here for the website
DATE: December 13, 2008 11AM-8PM, an Indoor Event
ADMISSION: FREE Parking $6-$1 will go towards PYCADDRESS:
Solano Fairgrounds900 Fairgrounds DriveVallejo, CA 94589

"Pasko Expo" is an event where Filipinos, and actually people of all ethnicities, can come together to celebrate the merriest time of the year….Christmas!

In the Philippines, Christmas is the most anticipated holiday of the year. With various town fiestas and parties, people gather from near and far to celebrate with friends and reunite with family. This year you will not have to miss out on any of the Christmas festivities from back home. "Pasko Expo" is here!

This soon-to-be yearly celebration will have holiday lights and decorations, local and international entertainment, delicious traditional food, and much more!
The First Annual "Pasko Expo" will be held in Solano Fairgrounds, Vallejo, California. According to the New York Times, Vallejo ranks on top as the most diverse city in the United States. By holding "Pasko Expo" in such a diverse community, we will bring the love, warmth, and spirit of the Christmas in the Philippines to you, to all Filipinos, and to everyone here in America.

We, at "Pasko Expo", would like to invite you, your family, and friends to be part of this fun-filled celebration. 2008 marks our inaugural year, but with your participation and support, we all can make this an annual event to enjoy and to remember, not only for this year, but for every year from now on. Let's celebrate Christmas the way it's done in the Philippines.

A WORD FROM DAVE: I have always like selling at the Filipino Events, but the $300 booth fee for ONE DAY is a bit much to swallow. The first year for this...uh uh. The fee is reasonable for a two-day event, but you must also consider probable adverse weather conditions and the refusal of visitors to spend their money. However, there is no entrance fee for the visitors and that makes for a great (inexpensive) time for them. Should be enjoyable.

COSTCO GAS

There's a number of stations selling gas for less than $2.00 per gallon. COSTCO in Concord located at 2400 Monument Avenue is going for $1.99. The COSTCO in San Leandro is selling at $2.19.

Hopefully prices will continue to drop to well under $2.o0

Our show guide, etc.

We have just updated the California Events page of Starving Vendors with a list of websites that include many events. You can get loads of information from there as there are links to the show's websites, etc. and you can even download applications at some of them.

Lots of things to read on the website. Some very popular pages recently include The Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich, Inhaling Helium, Your Daily Dose, and our reviews of events are quite popular as I give a lot of insight to shows we have done. Check out Our Tales of Woe, which describe such terrible events as the Chandler Ostrich Festival, where we had to survive a two foot lake of rainwater.

Don't forget to take a run over to our main website DandL CREATIONS, where we sell custom-sized hand-made shell necklaces. Also cowrie shell chokers which are really beautiful AND hand made. You love browsing

Indio Tamale Festival Dec 6-7

Indio Tamale Festival, Indio, CA
Dates: Saturday and Sunday, December 6-7, 2008
(Always the 1st weekend in December!)
Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
Location: Downtown Indio The Festival is between Highway 111 and Indio Boulevard and fills-in the streets of Miles, Towne, Smurr & Requa.
Weather: 79 Degrees, Sunny Days; 40 Degrees, Cool Evenings

It all started in 1992 with an idea by Dave Hernandez, a member of the Downtown Indio Merchants Association. The rich heritage of the tamale, consistent community support and hard working tamale makers have created the festival's tremendous success. Recently, the Food Network-TV ranked the Indio International Tamale Festival in the top 10 "All-American Food Festivals" in the nation!

Festival's Guinness World Records: The World's largest Tamale-over 1 foot in diameter and 40 feet in length, Dec. 4, 1999. The World's largest tamale festival-with 120,000 in attendance, Dec. 2-3, 2000.

The weather is pretty good in Indio this time of year, but nights are a little cooler. Booths are spread along several streets. Lots of tamales and they all sell for the same price. Booth fees are a bit high and overpriced. Commercial goes for $475 and if you are staying in a motel, your expenses end up quite high. Very risky for this economy. Arts and Crafts spaces go for $475

New pages in Starvingvendors.com

I have just added new pages to my Starving Vendors website. I have created a Cheeseteaks in Philly page which, obviously lists places to them in The City of Brotherly Love. I have a page which will accept ads which will sell for different rates depending upon the page, size of ad and placement location. Some of my Philly Cheesesteak pages list high on Google.

Upcoming Shows and Reviews

Well...we are winding down another year with just 2-4 events left. This has been a very trying year, not just for us...but everybody in all walks of life. Vendors are suffering all over the place and the stock of the company that sells Cup of Noodles Soup is probably the only one rising. Please stop by and enjoy our websites... DandL CREATIONS which ios where you can buy hand-made, any size 13-22 shell and semiprecious necklaces. Buy two get a bracelet for free. We also have cowrie shell cholers and wrap around skirts. Come on buy...we are open 24 hours a day. Also, we have Starving Vendors whose readership and following is increasing steadily.

Nov 14-16 Antioch Holiday Craft Fair
Nov 22-23 Noel Notion Christmas Bazaar, Mt. Carmel School Auditorium, Mill Valley
Dec 6......... DeAnza College Flea Market, Cupertino.
you might see us popping up at some flea markets in the coming days...Chabot (3rd weekend?)

Go ahead and check out some of our reviews of shows recently done:

Antioch Holiday Craft Fair (Nov 7-9)
EOS Winery Arts and Crafts Fair, Paso Robles (Oct 18-19)
Monterey Columbus Day Festival (Oct 11-12)
Richmond Homefront By the Bay (Oct 4-5)

Philly Cheesesteak Lovers of America

Check out the videos I have added on the Philly Cheesesteak pages listed below. If that don't make you hungry..........

I consider myself a conniseur of Philly Cheesteaks and have been eating them for years and years. I grew up on them in Central New Jersey and I love them more than ever nowadays. Hard to find really good ones out here and I'm still seeking out the perfect Philly Cheesteak.

Anyways, please visit our website to read about Philly Cheesteaks.... how to make them, where to buy them, etc., at many locations throught Northern California, Bay Area, Central Coast and Southern California. And of course, the story of the Philadelphia Cheesteak.

I have created a blog where I'm writing about every aspect of this delicious Sandwich and it's called Philly Cheesesteak, naturally!! Several recipes, locations, types of cheeses...... will have everything you want to know.

COSTCO GAS

Went down to $2.31 today. THE PRICE LEADER!!!!

To see prices in the San Leandro area click here. You may enter any other city in the US through this website.

Telemarketers

What to do about annoying telemarketers

(1) The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please...' Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task..

To read the remainder of this, please visit my website

Motel 6 Problems

Many times have had problems with the keycards that they give you. Several times I have gone to my room there (on the 2nd or 3rd day, etc.) and found the card would not open the door.

Here's what happened in Lake Tahoe this past June.

We were staying at the one on Highway 50. After we parked the van I walked over to the room. Pulled out my 'key card' and attempted to open the door. Oh gosh. Wouldn't open and the rain was coming down quite hard. My wife stayed outside the room while I walked over to the office IN THE #(#$ RAIN, getting wet along the way. I asked them if they changed the code, like a lot of Motel 6's have done in the past. The said no...and told me that I must have put the card near my keys or credit cards. Usual response by these people. I actually had my card inside my top coat pocket away from everything. So, they reprogrammed it and I returned to the room and opened the door. This must have been around the 7th or 8th time I had to get my card re-programmed. Some of these motels automatically de-program the cards at noon time and I am sure that is what happened. And they have been 'trained' to tell the customers that it is their fault because the customer placed the card near a set of electronic keys or next to credit cards.

And then, it happened the following day also and I had my card located in the top pocket of my WINTER coat once again. We arrived back at the motel around 6:00 and I had to walk back over to the office and got the same rhetoric from them.

You can read more about the event we did in Lake Tahoe where we had rain, snow, wind, cold tempteratures. You think that's in November? No, uh uh. That was over Memorial Day weekend this year. Last weekend of May. Anything goes in Lake Tahoe. One of our ugliest weekends ever.

This has happened to me in Fresno, Tucson, Yuma and a couple other places. This happens espectially if you are staying more than two nights. I specifically have to tell them not to deprogram my card and have been making it a point to keep the card in a separate pocked, not near anything. But it's still happened and they try to tell me that it is my fault.

I wish that some of the other motels had rates close to Motel 6 because I would go there. However, being a vendor, we all have to stay at the least expensive motels. Some, believe it or not, do sleep in their vans at the events, which is something I have tried a couple times and it just doesn't work out. If I were doing the event by myself, than I could probably do it, but I have to give my wife (and I) a half-way decent place (warm and out of the weather) to stay at night.

So people, when you spend a night at Motel 6, keep those darn key cards away from anything (especially car keys, credit cards, etc) because when you go back to your room and find that they have re-programmed your card and can't get in, you have a good argument on your behalf and their B.S. just does not walk.

Top of the Line Marketplace

A number of people had told me that the Top of the Line show in Visalia at the Convention Center was supposed to be a good show. This event was held from Nov 7-9. From what I have heard, sales were somewhat slow and they had at least 30 fewer booths. Of course, I wasn't there so you are not hearing this from the horse's mouth.

I had considered doing the event, but over head was pretty high. Booth fees, gas and motel and with this economy, we all are down in sales as people are holding onto their money and do not want to part with it. You have to turn these people upside down and shake the hell out of them to get that money out of their pockets. When vendors sign up for events, they really have to analize where the money is going to come from and what they consider their net profit is after adding in those three expenses AND cost of merchandise sold.

This has probably been a pretty good event over the years, but just like every other show, it looked like more of the same. I decided to 'go cheap' and stay just outside the Bay Area so we would have added expenses.