Guest Book

Good Morning Friends, foes, foxes, and farfennugen lovers everywhere... Wal-Mart...the great bastion of red neck and junque, the place to absolutely avoid on black friday, or anytime for that matter. The Great American money abyss.... Employee killed in rampage for Christmas "bargains" (nee junk). Amazing. You could not pay me to go in a Wal-Mart, period. Oh, I used to go in them and buy stuff....back when Mr. Walton was still in control. After he died, the rocket ship took off and the mega store was born. And the piles of cheap crap to fill shelves followed. I/we now go out of our way to avoid those places in favor of the local owned store combined with the internet, and then prefer the mom and pop owned internet site. Take for example the art of actually thinking and putting together a gift. OK, so I wanted to give Mara a set of tanzanite and diamond earrings for our 5th Anniversary coming up 12/24. (Can you believe 5 years?). So, I shop around for "premade" sets..junk, confirms my premise. So, I go out internet shopping and found these beautiful tanzanite matched loose stones from a small shop....guy overnights them (so the small shop and FedEx get some $$), then go to a local and very well respected jewelry store (NOT in the mall), and design a setting and choose 2 loose diamonds to go with them, and in about 10 days BOOM, heirloom quality jewelery that is much higher quality than packaged stuff in the malls, and has a story to go with it when Mara and I leave this old world. I guess my blather today is to focus on the alternative to the Wal-Mart type experience, to shift the mood to a pleasant experience shopping. No, some things have to be touched/held/yada and some times you just want to grab and go. I understand...been there and raised 3 kids doing that sort of thing. I guess I just want to share the thought that for those times when you CAN break away from the current tradition of what shopping is defined as, perhaps a little creativity will pay off for you in the end. Have a great day.