The Sobe drinks are wonderfully different from carbonated sodas and not as sweet as colas. I like the green tea flavor the best, but I like all the different ones.

The regular price is $1.69 per bottle. This week the grocery put them on sale at 10 for $10.00 so I bought 6 green teas and 4 assorted other flavors. I love to find a bargain!

To be honest, I am hoping that I have lots of candy left over. I don’t mind sharing it with the trick or treaters, but I have a sweet tooth and it would be nice to have some sweets in the house for a few days.

That’s probably a good indication of why retail is losing their asses and have been in trouble for the past several years. They don’t listen to what the general public thinks or wants.

I like to shop at Sam’s Club because most of the items in the discount warehouse are a good price. But you can’t count on finding the size and color that you want. You can’t count on the same thing being there next time you go to get it. You can’t check out quickly with just a few items in the basket - there are no express lanes. And you can’t use a VISA card to pay for your purchases.

But I found a nice little daily calendar for under $10 that would be a great Christmas gift for my mother, so I bought it. So I have reluctantly but officially begun my Christmas shopping for this year.

• First, braise the meat and the seasonings on top of the stove to create a seal and keep the juices in while baking.
• Next, do not use a fork to move the meat to the baking pan. Use tongs or a spatula. You don’t want to pierce the meat with a fork as you just sealed it and piercing it will let the juices out, making it dry.
• Put the meat in a baking pan, add one cup of water or stout beer, and cover it with aluminum foil to help keep the juices in.
• Bake it at very low heat, 300 degrees, for 4 hours and do not open the oven door to check on it - leave it closed so the heat in the oven stays even.

I don’t know anyone actually in the military, although my cousin’s husband was in the Army for about 10 years. He has been out of the Army for a long time and is working with a Government contractor now as a civilian.

So I don’t know why I like to watch The Unit on TV because I really don’t like war type of shows, but I have to say that the men in that show are the most macho, sexy, capable men I have ever seen and I hope there are hundreds of thousands of little boys who watch this show and realize what wonder role models these men are.

Seeing that she lives with her Dad and he leaves for work earlier than her bus arrives, I volunteered to pick her up and drive her to school for the first few days, until she feels a bit more sure of herself, being a new school and all. She is such a shy one and she is very nervous about the whole thing, I wish I could go with her and make sure everyone is nice to her, I’m sure their are millions of mothers (and fathers) who feel the same way. Kids can be so incredibly cruel and I just hate thinking of anyone being mean and/or nasty towards her in any way. This is one wonderful little girl and is full of such goodness and humanity, she has the soul of an old Native American woman and deserves nothing but the best!

It’s late, I just got off of the phone with her, making sure she has everything that she needs and has it all ready to go for in the morning. Seems that they had to make a run to the store today to get her a new alarm clock and now she is all set to go. Hope she sleeps well.

I have always enjoyed water sports, swimming, boating, rafting, fishing, tubing, but have never been able to get myself up and out of the water each time that I have attempted to water ski, so this came as a big surprise and helped end the summer on a high note! And one of my nieces got the whole thing on video to be shown, I’m sure, during one of the family holiday season get togethers that will be here soon, ugh…

This afternoon, I answered the backdoor, to find a neighborhood kid with a basket of home grown vegetables that his parents had asked him to deliver to me. It seems that they have an over abundance of their produce and are nice enough to bring over to share with me. I like neighbors like that, not really used to being friendly with neighbors, never stayed any where long enough to get to know anybody and the ones that seem to approach me, in most cases, are the whacked out, messed up, druggie kind of neighbor, the kind that you would want to avoid, not get friendly with, that is for sure.

I have seen for the past month or so that Food Lion has a huge bin over flowing with brand new books at a discounted price and as much as I love to read, it takes a huge discount for me to purchase any book. I get most of my reading material from places that give them away or go to the used book store to find my bargains. The price of a brand new book is totally outrageous, I can’t even remember the last time I bought a book at full retail price.

But back to Food Lion’s book offering, today I had to make a mid week grocery run and I noticed that the book bin was almost empty, and they had a sign stating that the remaining books were being sold for 75% off of the already discounted price. With that being said, I stopped and took a look to see what was left over and was glad to find two new hard covered books that needed to come home with me and only paid $1.50 for each one, and I’m pleased with my purchase and will go back again on Friday and take another look see.