I thought I’d cheat a little bit by trying to find something that could only be bought locally. That failure would take my sister’s idea out utility of online shopping and blow it completely out of water. For this specialized task I picked one of my favorite foods – organic, wild blueberry pancake syrup sold in our local farmer’s market. While it’s always a pain to wake up early on Saturday mornings to drive all way down to market, it’s worth it to get this locally-made, yet exotic product. Unfortunately for me, it was easy to find. I entered phrase Blueberry Syrup into Froogle and it was first product sold there. I had no idea they sold this stuff on internet! The new franchising and marketing opportunities have enabled local growers to market and ship their product all over states.

One last shot – I’d look for something for my sister, to get something so personal and unique that you’d definitely have to go there to get it. It was an item that we had seen on a friend’s wall, and for years now my sister had wanted one of her own. As it turns out, Thai elephant painting (the elephants grab paintbrushes with their trunks and then paint a canvas) is now online, and yes, they will take custom orders. I hadn’t really been willing to fly to Thailand to get a painting, anyway, but I certainly hadn’t thought that would have been online.

I called up my sister in defeat. After two hours online, I had bought all my major presents. Sis answered her cell phone and said that she was still stuck in rush-hour traffic on way to store.

The author’s shopping mall review website is http://www.malls-info.com which lists and reviews major shopping malls. Any or all parts of this article may be reprinted in any form, as long as there is a link to website. The HTML is US Shopping Malls Directory

The ruby is found in limestone deposits on side hills, but largest quantity is found in alluvial deposits of gravel and clay in riverbeds. These deposits are about fifteen to twenty feet below surface and from a few inches to five feet in thickness. This material called “byon” is mined or removed and put through a washing process by which rubies are recovered.

The genuine ruby is gotten from mineral known as corundum. Emery, so much used, is an impure form of corundum. The superbly blood-red color of perfect ruby is produced by very tiny portions of impurity in substance after they have been crystallized by Nature’s wonderful processes. All genuine—that is natural stones, contain certain tiny flaws and blemishes and characteristic peculiarities. The fewer these flaws rarer gem. Imitation stones get their imperfections during manufacture, and as chemists are more careful than Nature, these imperfections are less noticeable. By following differences between real and artificial, you can test your ruby. A real ruby contains irregularly shaped bubbles; imitation ruby contains bubbles that are perfectly round. Natural rubies all have a silky sheen, due to a number of tiny parallel lines going in three definite directions; imitation stones never have this characteristic.

While lab-created rubies and sapphires have a distinct use in jewelry, they can never affect sale of real gems any more than is case with imitation pearls. Aside from fact that imitation can always be ultimately detected, person desiring to purchase a ruby, as a ruby, and as a work of beauty and distinction wants a gem which he knows is one of nature’s rarities and is therefore possessed of intrinsically great value. A good illustration of this fundamental feeling is given by Mr. Zell a noted mineralogist, who says, “Many perfect copies of Sistine Madonna have been made by good artists, original is priceless, copies at most are worth a few hundred dollars, this is relation of a gem made in nature’s laboratory to one produced by chemist.”

Today, ruby is still considered one of most valuable and beautiful of precious stones. Artisans of fine jewelry throughout world continue to utilize this fine gem in their creations. Ruby is birthstone for month of July.