The topic of the speech was her top three hitlist for the GOP.  Close-ups of her hand seem to indicate that what was written there was “Energy, tax cuts, lift American spirits,” with the word “budget” crossed out.

We want to know what the people would have liked to see on that… er, handy… crib sheet.  And this brings us to Monday’s PALIN PALM CHALLENGE, wherein we’ll be giving away a free T-shirt* at random for every 25 unique folks that shout out with a #palinpalm tweet on our @cafepress Twitter account.  Yes, democracy is alive everywhere.

WHAT YOU DO:

1. Follow us on Twitter.
2. Think about what you’d want to write on Sarah Palin’s palm.
3. Tweet at @cafepress with the words or phrase, using the hashtag #palinpalm

Example:

smile – you betcha – snow machine #palinpalm @cafepress

That’s it! We’ll choose T-shirt recipients randomly among the tweeters for every 25 tweets that contain both the #palinpalm hashtag and the @cafepress.

*T-shirt must be chosen out of the CafePress Markeplace, and have a retail value of $30 or less.

With long-suffering New Orleans Saints fans cheering on this weekend’s football game, and Mardi Gras just around the corner (specifically, the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse), les bons temps are going to roll.

All that’s to say it’s a good time to head to The Big Easy, sit outside at Cafe duMonde and enjoy some beignets and chicory coffee.  If you can’t travel this year (and you don’t live in Indiana), consider a break from your usual Superbowl party fare of cheap beer and bagged chips – duMonde ships their beignet batter and their coffee.

I have no guarantees about the football game, but I do guarantee that from NOLA to North L.A. the Mardi Gras celebrations are going to be wild (for those keeping track, this year Fat Tuesday is on February 16).  Whether you’re into collecting beads or just showing your Cajun pride, it’s a fun holiday to gear up for.  And remember that it’s easy to get beads in the Big Easy, just flash a smile (or anything else).

Growing up in the Midwest where the winters are nasty & cruel (in a good year), I quickly gravitated towards any slim hope of Baywatch weather on the horizon … be it real or imagined. So while I never actually took a plane, train or snowmobile to visit Punxsutawney, I’ve always followed the event religiously from afar.

This year, Punxsutawney Phil once again poked his wet nose from his subterranean penthouse suite.  (Hey, with endorsements, book deals and personal appearance fees, Phil is now clearing seven figures annually.)  Much to my dismay (but to the excitement of hoodie manufacturers across the globe), Phil saw his shadow. That means six more b-b-b-blistery weeks of winter.  Ouch.  Good thing I like skiing and snowboarding.

For a front-row seat of the prognosticating action:

So cheer up, warm-weather fans. We may be in for 6 more weeks of winter, but at least we’re not living underground in a den only to be forced out once a year for a blustery photo op by a man in an silly hat with cold hands. Very cold hands.

But after a few months of darkness, there’s nothing like a quick recap of what’s happened in seasons 1-5 (to help prepare for tonight’s big event).  That’s why fellow LOSTies at the office got together this afternoon and were quickly transported back to island (where we reunited with 1977, the love square between Sawyer, Juliet, Kate, and Jack…and other exciting details).  We hope you’re caught up on the action too.  And to get caught up in all the current action, be sure to tune in on ABC at 8/7c tonight.

With spoilers leaking all over the internet, we’ll take a break from the “What’s going to happen” and do a catch-up via the T-shirts.  (And hey – if you see a plot point missing, feel free to make your own LOST T-shirt.)  Here, in short, summary, is where we currently are with the survivors of Oceanic 316 (and those other random people that crashed on the next intentionally doomed flight):

We’ll be giving away a free pair of customized undies at random for every 40 unique folks that shout out with a #chattypants tweet on our @cafepress Twitter account.

WHAT YOU DO:

1. Follow us on Twitter
2. Go check our our underwear designer
3. Tweet at @cafepress with the phrase your underwear would say, using the hashtag #chattypants

Example:

Let’s say that you’re a realtor.  You might want to make some “I’m gorgeous inside” underwear – hey, you deserve a little levity in this trying real estate market.

Your tweet would look like this:

I’m gorgeous inside #chattypants @cafepress

The underwear designer only accepts a certain number of characters (less than 140), so you shouldn’t have a problem fitting your phrase, the hashtag and @cafepress into the tweet.

That’s it!  We’ll choose undie recipients randomly among the tweeters for every 40 tweets that contain both the #chattypants hashtag and the @cafepress.

Now get on out there and let your underwear do the talking.

Hi, I’m mamaLife, new to the CafePress blog, but not new to this company.  I’ve been roaming the halls here for about a year and a half now!  My roaming has become a little more like a waddle lately, please just pass me if I’m going too slow people.  Everyday I find products on CafePress that express how I’m feeling about my journey through this pregnancy – so much so that I really wanted to share with you.

One of the newest wonders of being pregnant is all the kicking that the baby is doing.  I was actually surprised how early it starts (my naïve self figured babies don’t kick until 8 months or so?!)  So when I was on vacation in Hawaii last month, it totally took me by surprise to feel kicks after dinner one night.  Like a lot of new moms the first time you think it’s gas.  But with each passing week the kicks get stronger, which is amazing because the baby is relatively small (about the size of a papaya according to Google!)  Sometimes it’s really distracting, sometimes it’s annoying, but most of the time it’s really touching – I’m lucky to have an active, healthy papaya in there!

Obama’s speech has been described as “somber but dynamic” by at least one analyst who seems to have given various news sources a nice summation soundbyte.  The speech was an hour and 10 minutes long, which compared to Bush’s keep-it-under-an-hour tradition is somewhat long.  In fact, the speech was among the longest State of the Unions in the last 45 years – though no President holds a candle to Bill Clinton, who delivered the top 4 longest addresses.

From our end, the State of the Union wasn’t the most inspiring from a T-shirt perspective; that honor goes to George W. Bush and his human-animal hybrid remarks of 2006.  Indeed, it would seem the soundbytes that cover pressing, legitimate social problems (which already have a lot of T-shirt commentary) – the unemployment rate, job creation, the stimulus package, national security, healthcare, energy – just aren’t as immediately fun to designers as a monkey with a human head.  Ah, the fickle nature of creatives…

The only real moment of T-shirt inspiration came from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who seems to have mouthed a “Not true” as Obama criticized the high court’s recent decision to reverse the restrictions on corporate ad campaign spending/candidate endorsement during elections.

Whether Joe Wilson feels trumped is anyone’s guess, but then again his outburst did earn him a lot more T-shirts than Alito’s non-vocal dissent.

Although Obama has more products made about him than any single person in the history of CafePress (3.8 million and counting), his speeches simply don’t seem to provide the fodder that George Bush bestowed upon our design community.  Then again, Obama is the only President to have teleprompter T-shirts made about him, so perhaps that counts.

Overall, the almost 4 million Obama products are still mostly pro-Obama, with the bulk of recent dissent being policy-based.

This also brings up an enigma of sorts: why would anyone in their right mind would go to all of the trouble of passing an Act of Congress to create National Puzzle Day?  Then again, maybe it’s not a real holiday like Christmas, the 4^th of July or the day Elvis Presley died… hmm.  The origins of this holiday are a puzzle wrapped in an enigma shrouded in mystery…

But back to the point at hand: puzzles have always been wildly popular with folks.  That naturally means there are tons of puzzle-themed designs being created by the CafePress design community (no strangers to fun hobbies).  From crossword puzzles and Sudoku to mazes and math riddles, be sure to check them out.  And hey – have a Happy National Puzzle Day.

We’d like to thank both Studio Number One and our design community for stepping up to donate designs toward Haiti relief.  Shirts are still for sale, and we already cut and mailed a check for $30,000 to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.   Woot!

This isn’t the first time our design community has been so generous (we’ve done donation portals for Katrina, among other things), but every time we witness the creative, generous spirit of our community we can’t help but be amazed at the power of the individual designer.

Huge, huge thanks to everyone who donated designs, bought T-shirts, donated to Haiti relief funds, and sent their good wishes toward a better future for the Haitian people.

And if you haven’t bought a Haiti relief T-shirt, hey – there’s still time.  Spread the word!