AAPEX Wrap Up
I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I thought the show would be terrible and that we would be asleep in the booths on Wednesday and Thursday, but it turned out to be a great show afterall.Hopefully this means things are starting to turn around in the market. Only time will tell.I did get a chance to review the new product showcase. I did not see anything of interest there. Considering what happened to everyone's revenues this year, I am not surprised to see that not a lot of R&D was done.

AAPEX so far
Day two of AAPEX is behind us and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. Traffic quality has been much better than I thought. The # of attendees is certainly down and the hall looks to have shrunk by about 30%, but the quality is still there.Several buyers who told me they were not going to be able to come out were here and stopped by the booth. Hopefully, this is a sign that the worst is behind us.....

AAPEX is here
Tomorrow is the first day of AAPEX, www.aapexshow.com. From all accounts, attendance is supposed to be WAY down this year. I know that a lot of my customers are not attending, or are sending 1/2 to a 1/3 of the people they usally do.I had a chance to take a quick glance at the new product section. I did not see anything that seemed exciting. I will take another look tomorrow.

Motor Magazine Top 20 Tool Awards
I had a chance this weekend to look at the September 2009 Motor Magazine. I look forward to this issue every year for one reason, the Top 20 Tool Awards.Congratulations to everyone that one. The usuals were there, SP Tools/Schley, SPX, and Snap-0n. Both SPX (OTC and Robinair) and Snap-on won two awards. I think every award was warranted. I am not sure how well the Envirolift from Challenger Lifts will sell (outside of government markets), but some of the others looked like must haves.My favorite?

WORX Grass Trimmer
I have a pretty big yard (1 acre). It takes me about 30 minutes a week to do the edging, trimming, etc. My Homelite gas powered weed wacker is on it's last legs so I thought I would borrow the WORX GT Grass Trimmer.WORX GTI have seen it on TV a few times and thought it would work for me. I used it over the weekend. I was not satisfied with it. I am a heavy duty user though. For the average home owner, I think it would be fine.It is very light, easy to use and it does a great job when used as an edger. Unfortunately, to me, it is underpowered. It simply does not trim in a wide enough p