Socal Mom by Donna Schwartz Mills

Cabazon: Desert Shopping and Swimming

My plan for today's post was to write about the Palm Springs area and what a bargain it is for travelers in the summer months (when demand for desert uh, warmth is on the low side).

Megan and I were going to leave the house early, check in to our Rancho Mirage hotel and then check out the local sights, like the Aerial Tramway and...

...well, that was the only activity I was aware of here. I figured we woud spend the rest of the day shopping at the River complex, and hanging out at the pool.

That was before Megan turned on her newly charged cell phone and found a text message from a friend, who happened to be staying at the Morongo Casino and Resort, out in Cabazon... which we would be passing by on our way to Palm Springs. The Desert Hills Premium Outlet mall is located right next to the resort... I had always wanted to check it out (for some reason, my husband never seems to want to stop and shop when we're traveling) and Leesa and her family were planning on having lunch there. So why not?

While there, Leesa's family invited us to come and hang out with them at the resort's fabulous pool. So instead of an awesome aerial view, we ended up spending the afternoon at an Indian casino... and it was good.

Happy Left Handers Day

I have a confession to make.

I am a leftie.

A southpaw.

Sinister.

Well, not sinister so much as clumsy.

Actually, I like to think of my klutziness as a result of having to deal with a world that has been created for the use of the 90% of you who favor your right hand. There are studies showing that left-handed people as a whole are more accident prone than the rest of the population; more likely to die young as a result. So hey diddley dee, neighbor  -- I take it very seriously.

Being left handed has impacted me in strange and mysterious ways. I have trouble taking a photograph without jiggling the camera (guess where the button is? The left handed shop actually carries a camera with buttons on both sides!) Forget about our camcorder - the controls are totally on the wrong side of the box. I have considered learning golf but never went through with it because of the difficulty of finding left-handed clubs for a woman who's only 5'2". Even simple things like using scissors and knives can confound me (I have to hold the former upside down and the serrations on the latter are on the wrong side for use by the left hand).

My husband, who is sympathetic to my plight, sent me this link to Left Handers Day a couple of years ago. It's sponsored by a Left Handed shop and catalog in London. I know - very Flanders. But I now use an ergonomically designed left-handed pen that I ordered from the place. And some day, I'm going to get me those knives.

In the meantime, if there is a leftie in your life, you may wish to tell him or her about this. And order a little something from the catalog. Believe me, you'll be thanked. (And if that person is your son or daughter, do check out their left-handed school supply kits. I used to get C's in handwriting when I was little, and I think it was entirely due to my lefthandedness. This stuff could help.)

How to Save a Bundle on Your Groceries

My cold is progressing out of my throat and into my chest. Yuck.

At least, I had some semblance of my normal energy level this morning -- so I caught up on some of the tasks that did not get done over the weekend.

After performing triage on the laundry (you know, prioritizing what we needed to have absolutely NOW), I dragged Megan with me to Ralph's. The one thing I did manage to do yesterday (besides reading the Sunday paper and surfing on blogs for hours on end) was to clip coupons.

For a couple of years now, we've been playing The Grocery Game. The idea of this is to treat your supermarket like the stock market; you only use the coupons when the items you want are at the lowest price. They keep historical data on all the stuff the markets sell and also track the coupons in the paper. They say that the markets often trick you into using your coupons too early (i.e., before the item has been priced at its lowest). By buying the items on their weekly lists, they promise you can slash your grocery bill by up to 70%.

I've only rarely hit the 70% mark, but my Grocery Game tabs regularly fall between 40-60% off. For instance, today I bought $144 worth of groceries and paid just $78. True, only $30 of the savings was from coupons -- but the rest was knowing which items Ralph's had on sale. For all the time I moan about how I hate taking an hour or two on Sunday to clip, I have to admit it's worth it.