Nancy:

She just called me and said "did you know that Berta's is having a sale?? The store is going out of business and everything is 50% off!!!

My response: "Esther you are very dangerous to go shopping with. I'm going to tell your husband and he'll lock you up!!! We laughed our heads off. Imagine going shopping with her to a store that's going out of business???

She'll have more than 100 pairs of shoes, believe me.

Oh, and you'll love this. She has a think for spices. She took me in her kitchen and she opened up all the cabinets on the left side of her kitchen. There were 5 cabinets. Two shelves each. In each and every one of these cabinets is little bottles and packages of various spices from around the world. If you want a particular kind of ginger, or a special variety of pepper flakes, it's in her closet. She has absolutely every spice that Emiril (the guy on tv), makes!!! She also collects mustards. Do you know there is a champagne mustard? She also collects gourmet coffee. Every time it's my birthday, I know what I'm getting. Some kind of Truffle Gourmet Coffee. I still have it in my freezer. I put fresh coffee in my freezer because they don't freeze. It's all packaged nice and tight. Stays really well that way!!

She has spices from India. From Pakistan, from China. She goes on the internet and looks up food websites and orders from them. And can she cook??? Wow, can she cook. I have a little round lazy susan thing in my cabinet that holds my salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and Creole seasoning. She puts me to shame with all her spices and gourmet stuff.

She even has Saffron!!!! Do you know how expensive Saffron is??????

I can't wait to see what she brings home from her next shopping trip.

Melody