Most Improved Award: Duane Reade on 91st/1st

Well, as promised, I would like to introduce one of the nicest "improved" Duane Reade's out there - the DR on 91st & 1st! Right under my building! Now I won't have to walk up the hill on a rainy day that we happen to run out of trash bags. Or a morning when I run out of toothpaste. It's great! It's just right there!

Background: When the crane came crashing down on the Electra in May 2008, the Duane Reade drugstore below my building got caught up in the destruction. So much so, that they didn't reopen until last month - a year later! I've seen housing developments go up faster. I suppose the heads of development and design decided that this Duane Reade was just going to get the make-over that several others in Manhattan have recently undergone. You know, since the old logo version of the sign was crunched anyway, they must have thought - "Hey! Perfect time to renovate!"

There are a lot of things I like about this new DR (the layout is not one of them). I like that you can buy frozen dinners and have a wide variety of snacks. The product shelves are pristine and fully stocked with even more selection than I'm used to. They also have a unique shopping carrier that I've never seen before - a basket with wheels on the bottom and an extra long handle, so you can tote it around like a small suitcase on wheels. What will they think of next?

So anyway, if you're ever in the area of 91st & 1st, swing by and check it out. I think you will be impressed.

Recent Visit to Duane Reade

So tonight I was just kind of sitting in my apartment watching some TV. The sky was overcast and I created a nice little mood with the lighting, but after a while I jumped up and felt the need to just buy something. Ideally when I'm in this mood, I have a Target available and a pal to share in this type of adventure, but tonight I just sort of had to make do with the situation at hand and I ambled down the street to my nearest Duane Reade. The CVS on Lex is probably a little bigger/nicer but I just wasn't going to walk up the hill to get there. So this is what I purchased:

Caress Tahitian Renewal body wash. After giving up on my search for PTR botanical buffing beads body wash, I decided there just has to be another summer shower gel out there that I could actually get my hands on. Now, I've purchased this body wash as a travel size for when I went on vacation somewhere in the south, and I originally thought I wasn't going to go bigger than that, but I went ahead and decided to make the commitment to the whole 12 fl. ounces anyway. The thing is, I'm using a coral-colored poof right now, and I just have this thing that the shower gel has to mesh with the poof color. I mean, I just couldn't use Dove's Cucumber & Green Tea with a purple poof, for example. Also, after doing a little research, I found out this shower gel was given out on the Tyra Banks Show! Wow! Since Tyra and I are in agreement on most things in life, how could I go wrong here? All in all, I'm happy with this purchase but it wasn't anything new and exciting.

So ironically, for my new and exciting purchase, I went for Johnson's Vanilla Oatmeal body lotion. Two scents that couldn't be further from the idea of excitement. BUT, it was New! and it stood out from the rest of the baby lotions with its more natural tones. I just thought it might be a nice light scent for after the shower that wouldn't compete with my perfumes. But looking back on this purchase, I'm feeling a little bit of buyer's remorse, only because this seems like such a fall/winter scent. Maybe I'll save it, we'll see. One thing I would like to add here, it's really annoying how you can't smell any of the baby products in the store since they always have that safety seal. So if you want to purchase anything baby-related, you have to just take a leap of faith. I've always wondered why it was OK for adult bath products to go unsealed while baby products are blocked from the world until after purchase. I suppose some things will never change, even if it is a mild source of frustration.

Strawberry-frosted Pop Tarts. I like cherry-frosted better. But I always pick cherry over strawberry for everything anyway so no surprise there. DR just didn't have them, so I went with these. This will be an exciting new addition to my breakfast routine this week, so I'm looking forward to it. I don't think there's much else I need to say. We've all had them, and I'm pretty sure we all like them.

Dial Daily Care Antibacterial Hand Soap with Aloe. So it's my turn to get the soap for our community bathroom, well, sort of. The weird thing is, everyone in my apartment has purchased their own hand soap. So we have 3 at our sink right now. I mean, I guess it's nice to have the backup option, but it's also just kinda funny/ridiculous. So for my personal contribution I went for the Aloe version. I bought the Melon-scented last time because I thought I remembered liking it at one point, but I was wrong. It wasn't great. So since I've been washing my hands a lot more often as of late (due to the humidity and the stickiness of the city in the summer), I had to go with something soothing/moisturizing. The scent is very boring, like a hand soap you would find in your aunt's powder room, but it will get the job done. In a soft and soothing way.

And lastly, I purchased Betty Crocker Warm Delights Fudgy Chocolate Chip Cookie because I wanted a snack for HGTV's Design Star finale. I haven't even watched any of the shows this season, but I figured I would watch the finale and then catch a marathon of the rest of the season sometime this week. But anyways, I introduced these to Susan last year and it was a big hit! It's basically like having a serving size of fresh warm cake. In NY, it seems that they only sell limited kinds, so I can't get my absolute favorite - Cinnamon Swirl Cake. But since I was feeling burned out on ice cream, I think this will be a nice change of pace for an evening snack.

Drugstore Shampoos

I feel as though we've been talking a lot about shampoo lately, and I would just like to thrown in an additional comment.
I'm kind of a shampoo snob, i.e. my favorites are Aquage, Sudzz FX, Matrix, Halo, etc, which, unfortunately, are all expensive. So to offset the expense, I like to have a nice drugstore shampoo in my shower at all times. Sunsilk Hydra TLC is my favorite. It makes my hair so soft! And I really can't resist the scent. I love it. So if you're in the market for a cheap but effective shampoo, give this a try! What is everyone else's favorite drugstore shamp?

Wildly Cherry

I just got back from an afternoon run to Duane Reade. These were my purchases: tape and Wildly Cherry M & M's. I went down there looking for the Mint Crisp Indiana Jones M & M's, but apparently they are sold out. I settled for the Wildly Cherry as they are limited edition too.

On the website it said these were a February introduction. Apparently I've been blind up until today. I don't think I've been missing much though. At first taste they kind of taste more cherry mediciney then cherry candy flavoring. Maybe I'll get used to them? They are kind of growing on me.

Sore Throat

I had a bad cold and was really dying last week. Normally I avoid cough drops because I haven't found one I like. But browsing Duane Reade I picked up the Ricola Cherry Honey throat drops. I didn't realize until I was looking for a pic that they were throat drops instead of cough drops. I don't know how to classify the difference - but these taste great and my throat did feel better after having one. I always feel like Halls and Vicks tablets taste too chemical but I'd buy these again.