Greetings from Pittsburgh

As I'm sure Steve will be pleased to hear, I've been able to get my grandfather's PC up and running without re-installing messenger and tapping the aforementioned Steve online and asking him for various solutions to problems only a 92 year old with a PC can cause.

Yeah me!
Yeah Geek Squad!

Yes, despite my feelings about the big blue empire, I have to say the Monroeville Geek Squad are by far the nicest BBY employees I've ever met. Not only did they answer my questions but they offered to install whatever RAM I bought into this 6 year old machine and trouble shoot any addition problems. I heart them. If you're ever in Monroeville, I highly suggest this Best Buy.

Are you enthralled yet? Can you just not stop reading in case you miss something else equally interesting? Yup, such is my time in Pittsburgh. I sit in front of a PC for hours and hours troubleshooting viruses and misplaced settings in an effort to get the computer up and running again.

But, we're up which means we can leave the house for shopping! I know you're wondering what a label snob like me could possibly find in suburban Pittsburgh. Well, let me tell you there is quite a bit to find, and always far below retail!

For the Frugal:
Dollar Tree kicks the 99 Cent Store's booty. I would tell you the swag I scored but that would ruin Christmas.

Target:
Oh, the deals to be had! No one does markdowns like the kids in Monroeville. I got a pair of metallic Converse One-Star pants for $8.36. And, since there's no sales tax here on clothing, the pants really were $8.36. But, I did have to talk gramma out of buying me the ugliest thought of a bridesmaid dress for Elizabeth's wedding. It was sorta cute on the hanger but on me...yeah, not so much. I didn't care if it was $10 it didn't make it any cuter. I was able to distract her with the thought of stealing a dress I picked out for her years ago that she wore for a wedding. She was overwhelmed by the thought of getting that out of her closet; when I saw she was weak I put the ugly $10 dress away.

For the Fashionable:
We have Kohl's (and no for the non-west L.A. readers, we don't have that at home). I was able to see and cry at the Vera Wang for Kohl's collection. Woof. But mom did score $5 Talbot's pants at the Talbot's outlet. My grandfather didn't think it was possible to buy pants for $5 that originally retailed for $68. (Yes, dear readers, its true, he doesn't spend much time with us.) He declared shenanigans on the whole thing, shock his head and walked away. He doesn't appreciate our shopping brilliance. That's why we usually hide all of our treasures. Mom showed him in a moment of weakness. It won't happen again.

For the hungry:

Labriola's is a second generation "Italian store" as my family calls it. Its a small grocery that specializes in Italian foods. If you're a foodie, doesn't matter if your a cook, but if you're a foodie, your head will explode. If you're a cook, your head and your heart will explode simultaneously. Its not pretty. Anything Italian you've seen on a cooking show from these special canned tomatoes mom kept muttering about to beautiful imported pasta...and everything was really well priced. And, and, they had all this super cheap ready-made food...like a HUGE pizza with all homemade ingredients for $6.50. They had biscotti and cream puffs and stuffed shells and ravioli...all homemade and ready for you to take credit for. They had a huge deli counter and fresh cheese and eggs and really I just ate two pizelles as I typed this 'cause I was making myself hungry. (The things I do for the blogsphere!)

So yeah, I'll leave you with that. But, I will ask you to stay tuned. Why, you ask? Well, I reply...all of you people who think you're all frugal and earth-friendly and all of that? Dude, meet my grandfather. He can recycle anything, including 25 year old Stoffers containers AND boxes.

I know, you're hoping tomorrow comes sooner so you can read about him.