bensrib: A good read and an incredible bargain. . .

Goodness, where have I been? My summers are crazy hectic with everyone working different jobs, some two jobs, teaching both girls to drive, back and forth to the U. for various reasons. Yesterday I took Leah's computer to the helpdesk to be fixed - her hard drive died, but thankfully it is still under warranty. Thursday we go back for her to have another mid-summer violin lesson. Today I have Ashton and will have Bailor a little later. I'm looking forward to the start of the school year so I can relax a little.

I just finished reading Fighting for Dear Life by David Gibbs. It's the story of Terri Schiavo's fight for life. If you've never read it, you really should - it was spellbinding. Hard to believe this happened in America, but her story is not the first, just the most publicized. So go to your library today and get it!

We have finally had some rain the last few days. Unfortunately, it comes in these horrific downpours and most of it runs off. The rivers are high, but the ground is still pretty hard. Yesterday Leah was driving when one of them hit. You know the kind - windshield wipers flying and cars crawling. She was pretty nervous but she did fine.

And last but not least, my bargain of the year: I went shoe shopping last week, something I loathe. See, I have bunions, which make it almost impossible to buy my shoes from a regular shoe store. I need wide widths, and no heels, so buying anything "cute" is out of the question. I've resigned myself to boring shoes. So I head out to the biggest shoe store in town looking for shoes to wear to an upcoming wedding. I'm back in the discount area (the back third of the store) and I spot a pair of really cute leopard-print shoes with a very low heel, little peep-toe thing - they're adorable ! And they happen to be my size! Just knowing they won't fit, I try to slip one on and, to my utter amazement, they fit! And they're COMFORTABLE!!! Now I'm amazed and thinking, "I don't care what the price is, I'm buying these." So I look at the tag to find out they are $65 shoes. On sale for $50. Marked 80% off - that makes them $10. And I have a $10 off coupon in my purse. I stand there for a few minutes running through the math in my head just to make sure I'm not making this up, and no, I'm sure I'm right. So I sprint for the register before I wake up from my incredible dream, and because you have to pay tax on something, I get charged a cent. One penny. I think I should get an award for this!