Record card celebrates 2 of my favorite things: Athletes & Switzerland

In Switzerland, they love their athletes. I lived there for the summer when I was 14 and when I wasn't clocking boys at the local pool, communing with goats and cows in the backyard and learning how Swiss cheese was made, I often watched village soccer games played in no less than four languages. Soccer was not an option in Sumiswald: you played ... in German, Italian, French, Romansh and sometimes English (mostly for my benefit).

The good luck card celebrating Swiss skiers, jumpers, curlers and hockey players competing in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver has 3,645 signatures and is so big -- 43×64 meters (that's 141 by 210 feet) -- that it had to be hung on the Lac de Creuson dam. So big, in fact, that the Guinness Book of World Records dubbed it the world's largest.

Damnnnn.

Finally, an iPhone app for paper greeting cards

I don't own an iPhone, but this kind of technology makes me wish I did.

CardRaven allows you to send greeting cards from your phone. No big deal, right? Anyone can send an e-card (there's are free, BTW, and not really worth your time). But this app allows you to send print greeting cards from you phone. Printed greeting cards where you can take a picture with your phone (or, with your camera and upload it to your phone) and ADD it to the card. Paper greeting cards that cost only $2.99 to send, anywhere in the world, postage included. So the next time you need to send something airmail, this service is definitely a no-brainer.

And it's green with a twist: "Our greeting cards are printed with vibrant and durable inks, similar to postcards. The cards are folded, sealed, stamped and mailed – without an envelope. Without an envelope, your card will be noticed and opened immediately."

Not sure what kind of research went into the last statement, but it's an interesting sales tactic (though, who doesn't open a card they get in the mail?)

Major drawback: the art & designs need A LOT of work. But since everyone is a semi-pro photog these days, that doesn't matter as much. Customizable mobile greetings are the wave of the future. You heard it here first.

Is it IMproper to think these cards aren't saucy enough?

If you're going to promise me something irreverent, naughty & sassy, you'd better deliver. Seek Publishing has launched IMproper Greetings - combining images from the 1920s with such "modern" sayings as "WTF." The result ... maybe I'm missing something. WTF?

Greeting cards + wine = awesome

Wine bags. My home-bar area is cluttered with them. A great thing to reuse, but often ugly and easily ripped.

Wine gifts. I get a lot of them. Always graciously accepted and readily shared.

Cards. I can never get enough greeting cards.

Toast-its addresses all of these life issues with nice art and some fun sayings. The greeting cards that wrap around wine bottles are $3.99 each, shipping included, and when combined with a $10 bottle, makes for a nice, personal and unique host/ess gift for your next night out. Plus, the brand sounds like Cheeze-its, which are a good snack addition to any (casual) party. And who doesn't love cheese & crackers?

No word on if they fit around bottles of bubbly -- the toast-its, not the Cheeze-its. Maybe toast-its 2.0.

The best VTD card that I didn't get, but wish I had given

The boys at Bald Guy Greetings have done it again. I heart them so much.

I hope all of you got what you wanted from the (fabricated-but-still-important) holiday. There's a lot of pressure to give a good card to a card writer. Luckily, the best one I got was in Spanish, had dogs on it and made me laugh out loud for both of those reasons. And that's one of the best gifts you can give anyone.

What kinds of cards did you give this Valentine's Day. And did it work? Did you get laid?

Cards for the great beyond

Normally, I try to avoid linking to stories that could make me cry, but this is a unique one. Eternally Yours offers "laminated, weather proof cards" intended "to celebrate holidays, birthdays and special family remembrances with those who are no longer with us." Not an easy task, so I'm glad a company is trying to tackle it. PEP will be sure to follow with something a little lighter than "You left too soon." Which is kind of making me cry right now.

Regardless of what you think about life after death, after I've left this world, please send me cards addressed to wherever you think I've gone. I figure Heaven & Hell both have forwarding programs.

When you care enough to say I love you more than video games...

I'm hoping I get one of these this weekend.

Really, really hoping.

But at $6.25 a pop, maybe I should just go for the cuff links and call it a Valentine's Day.

P.S. -- Seriously? An entire blog about Xbox? Really?