After years of special occasion gift giving, there comes a point when you know - you just know - you need something really distinctive to send as a gift across country. 

One that says, "Now here's a gift I think you're really going to love." 

A gift that goes beyond the usual trinkets, the traditional floral bouquets, the same old standard food gifts from the same old standard food gift suppliers that we relentlessly seem to order from online.  

Especially when you're dealing with a recipient who is, shall we say, a bit on the critical side when it comes to receiving edible gifts.  I prefer to think of this particular family member as having an extremely discriminating palate combined with an extremely unpalatable hard-to-please nature.

If you catch my drift.

For Mother's Day, I found that gift by sending her way a nifty collection of goodies from Red Truck Rural Bakery.

I had never heard of this amazing bakery before, having found the website for Red Truck Rural Bakery after extensive Google searches for food gifts in various search engine result pages. I'm awfully glad I persisted in my online search, considering that arranging this gift from its website turned out to be nothing less than pure gift-giving perfection.

This family member sent me a "Thank You" email expressing that she was so delighted with Bobby's Breakfast-in-a-Box (which Red Truck Rural Bakery states on its website was customized by Robert Duvall and his wife Luciana, "neighbors and our two favorite customers," to send to their Hollywood friends) that I was ready to dance all over my keyboard!

She wrote, "The Apple Jam is tremendous. I have had apple jam before and never liked it. This jam tastes just like the applesauce I make with apple chunks in it and the rich taste of cinnamon and other spices. This jam tasted so good I had to eat it right out of the jar. Oh, it was good!"

And she raved just as appreciatively about the granola, the bread, the sour cream coffee cake and the bag of coffee contained in her gift box.

Oh yeah, she was happy.  We had definitely come in with a winner of a gift for her this year!

Personal Customer Service 

Because this particular family member is so hard to buy a gift for, we were running very short on time. My online order with Red Truck Rural Bakery was placed less than a week before Mother's Day. On the order form, I had asked for the package to be received in time for Mother's Day if it was possible.  I didn't expect that it would be.

Guess what?  I received an email from Brian Noyes, the owner of Red Truck Rural Bakery, assuring me that this gift would be delivered to my recipient before the end of the week. 

And it was.

Huffpost Entertainment reported two days ago that Katherine Heigl - star of movies Knocked Up, 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth (to name just a recent few) is loving her electronic cigarettes.

She told Parade.com in a story last year how she had replaced her regular tobacco cigarette habit with the e-variety when she became a mother.

"Now I use an electronic cigarette," she said. "I know it's ridiculous, but it's helping me not to actually smoke real cigarettes. You feel like you are smoking, and you get to exhale but it's just water vapor and not nicotine. I've been doing it for six months. Smoking sucks!"

A year later, she's still puffing away and exhaling that water vapor.

I'm convinced.  I'm definitely giving these e-cigs a try! 

Truthfully, I've never been what you would call a "professional smoker."  I'm pretty sure I still have my amateur standing in that respect, considering that I only smoke when I'm drinking an alcoholic beverage. 

I don't jump out of bed with a craving for nicotine.  I don't sigh, "OMG, I need a cigarette," during stressful moments throughout the day.  In fact, I can go for days without any kind of desire for a ciggie.  But put a bottle of beer in my hand or a nicely mixed cocktail and ohhh yeah...my other hand is going to snatch up a pack of cigarettes and get me smoking like there's no tomorrow!

With, of course, the nasty truth about smoking cigarettes gleaned from years of medical research and the not-so-recent discovery that people die from smoking, the advent of the electronic cigarette is a boon to us all.  

Imagine!  We can smoke but not really smoke and yet still feel satisfied.  

Katherine Heigl's year-long ability to smoke the e-variety has me ready to offically take the leap.  Yup, I'm doing it.  I'm buying Vibe - the #1 Electronic Cigarette that looks, tastes and feels like a real cigarette.

I'll report back here on eClubAmerica.com how my experience with Vibe turns out.  In the meantime, why don't you do the same and we'll compare our experiences!

Give Vibe a try...I'm definitely going to. 

If Katherine Heigl can love her electronic cigarettes so much that she says, "Smoking sucks!" a year later, I'm thinking she's on to something and I definitely want in on it. 

Here's to some happy smokin' with those luscious rum and cokes I'll be stirring up next Friday night!

I'm ashamed as a white mother living in Hampton Roads.

If you're like me, you expect the best from every business you frequent.  You expect to be treated with respect and concern.  How often does either realistically happen? Not enough, regaredless of whether you are patronizing an online or offline business.

Myself, I've been jousting and doing battle with various businesses in my mission to receive nothing but the best in customer service online and offline for the last ten years.

Sometimes, these businesses goofed in the the way they handled an order on the internet or in the way they served me locally here in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

I have no problem overlooking such mistakes - it's the way these businesses and their employees chose to handle these issues customer service-wise that turned me into a diehard 'warrior' when it comes to customer service.

Plus, my background where I was trained by the Sears Corporation in customer service and having worked for a national web design business where customer service to clients was intensely stressed.  It was clear in both instances that there are no second chances when it comes to new customers. Lose their faith through customer service and they won't bring their business to you again.

In the past, I was also a professional shopper hired by several mystery shopping businesses to evaluate the customer service I received during my assignments. Those assignments ran the spectrum from fast food restaurants to designer furniture stores to high-end hotels.  It never ceased to amaze me how poor the level of customer service is out there in the marketplace - especially now during this recession.

This website may be highly beneficial to you as a customer here in the Hampton Roads area and also in terms of the internet where you may be, as I am, a serious buyer of goods and services.  I have gone back and forth demanding the utmost in customer service from top line businesses to the very small.  I've yet to have an issue with a retailer on or offline not be fully resolved in the end - although, I admit, at times it was quite a challenge.

My efforts here are focused on helping us all achieving better treatment and more respect when we are spending our money in the marketplace. Whether that marketplace is online or offline, it doesn't matter. As consumers we are worthy of the same amount of respect regardless of where we bring our business.

The reviews here are written as a result of my own personal experience. You are free to post your own reviews in the comment area under each posting and also to contact me directly.

I invite your opinions whole-heartedly!