Out With the Old and In With the New

This is the last post for the 2009 couch and the first post of the 2010 couch. The 2009 couch had some great memories to it. I am sure we all have our favorites. My favs of 2009 was The Thirsty Troll Fest and New Glarus Brewery. The year went very quickly and there were some great milestones!

Well I thought a lot about how to get rid of the 2009 couch, and I settled on letting it go quietly. It made it's way to the big living room in the sky via a pseudo viking funeral. I took it to Grayslake Landfill in a junk boat.

This is the LAST picture of 2009 Couch

Now on to the MONSTER couch of 2010. This is a vintage couch from right here in Crystal Lake. I found it on Craigslist and met Diane at her home to pick it up. She had no idea what was in store for her favorite couch. She had some great memories on it and now it will have many many more added to it's history.

The new couch is a lot heavier and about 1 & 1/2 feet LONGER than the '09 couch. It BARELY fits in the back of the truck and may require another set of swivel casters in the center. This one is gonna be more of a 'chore' to haul around, but it will be well worth it. Not only is it a traveling couch...it is HUGE and will be one of the largest couches that most people have seen.

"2010 is gonna be HUGE!"

PADS Sleep Out April 17th

I was at the Young Professionals of Mchenry meeting last week and we were discussing volunteering options. PADS of Mchenry (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) came up. They are having a "sleep out" event in April to raise donations and awareness to help homeless individuals. As soon as I heard of the event, I knew it was something that I had to be a part of.

I would like to experience the feeling of being homeless as much as I can for the night. I know that it will be more of a physical experience than anything, because I know that I am fortunate enough to be returning to my home the next morning. I will be trying my best to forget that for the night. I am going to try to really get into the situation of being homeless and forget everything I have, for the night.

The only "luxuries" I plan on having for the night is the www.DougsCouch.com couch, my BlackBerry, and a camcorder. I have chosen to bring the BlackBerry and camcorder to document the experience and to connect with my Twitter and Facebook through the night. I would like to allow people to see what I see through the night. I am not planning on sleeping in a tent or inside. I will be on the couch in the elements. I plan to bring a sleeping bag and a tarp. That's it.

I have set a reasonable donation goal of $250. I think that is attainable and I also have a feeling we can gain raise MORE than that! I do not have much to donate and I am not asking you to donate much either. If you have a few bucks to donate, that would be great. If you have more to donate, that's awesome! I will be keeping everyone posted on where I will be spending the night April 17th.... until then, lets raise some CASH!

Donate Here!

Pleas share this with your freinds also...

Northern Illinois Boat Show

Northern Illinois Boat Show March 4th - 7th

The couch made it out the the Lake County Fairgrounds Friday night for the 1st Annual Northern Illinois Boat Show. The show was held in the new fairgrounds building and the place was PACKED with boats. Chicago Searay, Munson Marine, King's Island, Great Lake Yacht Sales, Chicago Mastercraft, were some of the leading dealers in the area that brought over 35 different makes of boats to the show. The cool thing about it was that all the boats on dysplay were geared towards the local boating community. There wasn't anything that was uncalled for on the chain o lakes There was everything from Bayliner to Hustler, and Regal to Lund. There was plenty of boats that has some real "wow" features to them too.

There were a bunch of service companies set up too. Audiosmith had the new Clear Internet Service on display, Ravewaves Detailing had some great show specials, Bottoms Up had his Jersey Skiff on display, and Road Rage Design had their wrapped Kayot...wow is it sharp.

Friday night was Fun on The Fox.com night. Craig Munson, one of the organizers of the event, was kind enough to let me roll the couch right through the front door. Once in, the couch had a front row seat at the FOTF booth. Mike Deron, one of the webmasters for FOTF, made the couch right at home by lining up O-Bombs on the table in front of it.

Once the O-Bombs started, it didn't take long for the FOTF'ers to start up the antics!

Word that the couch was there spread pretty smoothly and it got a lot of attention. Most of that attention was from the Fun on The Fox crew. A bunch of them joined me for the signature "Couch Picture"

I am so glad the couch was able to get into the show. The only trouble we had was physically getting it through the front doors. It didn't FIT! With the help of my freind Bill, we tipped it on it's side and slid it through. On the way out, I had one of the fairground personel pop the center pole out.

Last but not least is Kyle. He snagged a pic on the couch before anyone else at the show!

The coolest part of the couch is SHARING. Twitter it, Facebook it, email it, scratch it into the bathroom wall... the more who know, the farther we go!

The Tribune Local Artcle

The Tribune Local Article was posted on their site a couple days ago! It is already up to 500+ views, so that's great! A lot of people are being introduced to the couch and a lot of them are probably thinking, "WTF?" That's what I love about the couch; you can not understand it, but still like it. It's a COUCH! Who doesn't like a nice comfy couch? And why keep your couch hidden and alone in your home? I wanna get out there and see the world, but I am too lazy to get up...lol

For all of you that have been waiting for the first published article of the couch, here it is.

I was also interviewed by Freakin Genius Marketing in September of 2009...check it out!

Please share on your FaceBook, email, or Twitter!