When I walk into my Food Lion and I see him in his nice crisp, clean lab coat, he has a variety of nice lab coats that he is obligated to wear while behind the counter, and a smile immediately appears on my face. I stop by to him each time I go there even if I don’t need any prescriptions that day. We spend a few minutes catching up on what is going on with each other’s lives and I always get a hug from him each visit. I love hugs.

Once in a while his wife will be there and we get to chatting up a storm and have a few laughs. She works at the hospital and I usually see her wearing one of her scrub uniforms that have become so trendy these days. They are a great couple and I treasure their friendship. I hope Food Lion knows what a good thing that they have going on back in their pharmacy.

I can remember how shocked I was when I was younger when I even learned that television was going the route of pay television.  I thought that advertisers buying commercials was supposed to be enough money for the networks to put on their shows.  When I was about in fourth grade, I can remember our teachers talking about cable television being in the future, and how it was supposed to eliminate commercials.  Yeah, right.

Now we have so many different types of television services to choose from – from cable to Dish Network.  Each company has so many different types of packages to choose from – and they range in price from affordable to “are you kidding me?” 

Fortunately you can go online and compare the different companies and services, and can use a TV service guide that can help y0u to determine which service is right for your family.  In this tough economy, though, I find myself wishing that television was free again!  Even though we have hundreds of channels available to watch, and we have the cheapest package we can get, we still only watch a handful of channels.  I almost wish we could do a pay-per-view on everything we watch – we’d probably save a lot of money that way!

Many of the places we had were decorated with inexpensive window coverings.  We liked the natural and airy feel of the woodweave blinds, and it seems to me that everyone had at least one room that had them.  Whenever I see that type of blind my mind goes back to those happy days of my youth.

Whenever my hubby and I discuss putting on a sun-room addition here at home, I am always envisioning turning it into an atrium, with woodweave blinds in them.  I think that would add to the tropical and casual living feeling that I’d like to have in that room.  It would help me have my own tropical paradise right in my own home!

So, what is a woman to do?  Smart women get estimates, and this is where the Internet can help.  There are websites, such as repairpal.com that you can use to plug values into their search engine to determine fair rates for different types of repairs, and then find out where different local repair shops are located.  So you could, for example, find out how much you could expect to pay to replace the timing belt on a honda accord in the San Francisco auto repair market.  You can switch it out to match your own needs.  I think that this kind of help is a great advantage to all of us consumers – you can get a good idea of the value of the repair so that you are not treated like “fresh meat” at the repair shops!

It is almost back to school time and the thought of traffic and crowds has always been nauseating. Luckily, I do just about all the shopping for clothing online via anxiety of crowds.

No person should have to go to the stores for pants for their children. Online the choices, and many times the prices are much better. Taxes as of now are not often charged, unless the store has a physical presence in the state you are ordering from.

Life is so much easier with more time to devote to other activities, when all shopping is done online. You will also be home to see all the upcoming college football games come the fall. Don’t tell your wife that the reason you shop online is to be home so you can dominate the television and lock it into sports. Just tell her it is cheaper to order pants online. That should be enough.