1. Marc's - a grocery store, from which produce does invariably go bad if not used immediately, has the cheapest prices consistently of any area grocery store. These prices are possible because the store does not accept credit or debit cards, thus cutting out the fee imposed by credit card companies for use of their products. They also have close-outs, which can be hilarious, cheap stocking stuffers, or feed my need for kitchen gadetry.

2. Caribou Coffee - their coffee blends smell (and taste) delicious. I know, because I get to grind them and smell their fruity/nutty/coffeeness. The prices are exactly the same as Starbucks, and the coffee less bitter (what does Starbucks do? Filter their coffee through used panty hose? Add roadkill as filler?).

3. Applesauce-Carrot Cake Muffins. Fluffy, low fat, and amazingly sugarless. Amazing, because you just don't care, they're so fluffy and warm and ... excuse me for a moment ...

4. My roommate - a baker, an independent woman of privately acquired means, a seamstress, and a pugulent advocate of truth.

5. Facebook - I was able to get onto this previously prohibitive website, because they now allow anyone with an email address onto their site. I have claimed Cleveland, OH as my network, but I can research old friends from high school (very hard to find them, because I went to high school partly in England) and see pictures posted of college friends (it's like being connected without the effort of emotional support - HA!).

6. Timberland - Not only the maker of boots, but of my favorite single strap backpack. This backpack provided a conversation opener with one of the most difficult students in the afterschool program for which I help tutor. He said, "Your backpack is made by Timberland. So are my boots." And the door was opened, and he got all of his math and science homework done.