From: "Wallers, JoAnn" <JoAnn_Wallers@bmc.com>
To: "'balloon@balloonhq.com'" <balloon@balloonhq.com>
Subject: B&D Pump
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 08:23:23 -0500

I like the B&D pump!  I only twist for fun, so I might have a different 
take on it than if I were trying to earn a living doing it.  I have 
been twisting for about 3 years now and love it.  A few times a year 
I get crazy and volunteer for an event at my daughter's school, or my
work or my husband's work.  This weekend I was at an Easter Egg Hunt
put on by my husband's company.  The four and a half hours that I 
was there twisting were made soooooooooo much easier by the B&D pump.
(Since I don't do this all the time, I am not as conditioned for 
long periods of twisting.)  I am by no means "fast" when compared with 
the twisters I had the opportunity to see at T&Jam, but fast enough 
that lots of the kids (and parents) commented that I was really fast.  
(I naturally did not set them straight on the facts...)

I used both the silver batteries and the gold batteries (which cost
almost as much as the pump -- go figure!), but it lasted the entire
afternoon.  Using the pump never seemed to detract from my interaction
with the kids or the fun they had watching the balloon twist into 
shape as they watched. I played with the pump and interacted with the 
kids -- things like blowing several short breaths toward the balloon 
as it was inflating, or turning it off and on while it was blowing 
up a balloon.  I got a lot of giggles when I told the kids that I had
stayed up all night blowing into the pump so it would have enough 
air to last today.  I never had anyone tell me that I was cheating --
as a matter of fact, I had several parents tell me that I was doing
it the smart way.

It is loud enough that my brother told me that I should've gotten
the muffler attachment -- but that was while we were inside with no
other noise going on.  (No backpack or other container around it 
to help muffle noise, either.)  At the outdoor event it was 
wonderful -- and for someone who doesn't want to invest a lot 
of money (I save that for balloons and books!), it was a great buy.  
The stand-up pumps and blowing them by mouth are definitely more 
impressive to me, but the B&D pump was an extremely practical 
solution for not a lot of $$.

My 8 and 5 year old girls love the pump because it is much easier 
for them to use to blow up balloons than the hand pump.  As a "toy",
it is probably relatively expensive, but it has already been extremely
useful to me.  (Not to mention how useful it will be this summer 
with inflatable toys and rafts and all of that!)

Jo Ann Wallers
Austin, TX