There's no shop-till-you-drop affair more time-honored in the metro area than the annual Ladies Only Sample Tour, which began several years ago in Historic Downtown Littleton and spread more recently to fellow Original Shopping Districts member neighborhoods. It's a sweet idea, wherein local independent merchants band together to offer free samples, goodies, coupons and more during an evening stroll with a breezy $12.50 price tag.

This year's tour gets underway today from 4 to 8 p.m. in four districts -- Olde Towne Arvada, Historic Downtown Golden, Historic Downtown Littleton and Old South Pearl Street -- with dozens of retailers and restaurants participating in various ways. For instance, Pearl Street's two 5 Green Boxes stores, respectively at 1596 S. Pearl Street and 1705 S. Pearl Street, will host a Triple Trunk Show of locally made jewelry at the former and free sampling of World Cuisine recipe packets at the latter. But the only way to find out what else is in store as the afternoon rolls into evening is to purchase an invitation packet, which are available only in limited quantities, from your favorite participating merchant.

Don't miss out: Get a complete listing, rules and regulations, and information on the happenings in each district at the LOST website.

For more ways to rock the night and kill the day, go to westword.com/calendar.