I think people are afraid to use tables for what tables were intended now that there's a big push to pull away from tables to control layout. Anyone who 'must' go without using tables isn't doing themselves any favours.

In semantic design, tables can be used to hold tabular data...this means the information under specials where you have pictures and descriptions that information is tabular so it is perfectly acceptable to put them in tables. Please don't think that by going "table-less" in layout you have to go table less with content.

The actual layout of the page can be done completly in CSS. If you need help with how to float that image and caption within a paragraph take a look at the floatutorial here: http://css.maxdesign.com.au/floatutorial/index.htm