I’ve been seeing television stories on the news over the past few months about how social media marketing is the new marketing strategy.  The strategy takes advantage of the old adage that the best advertising is by word of mouth.  Rather than taking out paid ads in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, or bulletin board advertising, social media marketing focuses on getting people to recommend products and services to their friends and neighbors.  Since your friends and neighbors theoretically trust your judgement, they are likely to give your recommendation a try.  In the “information technology age” one way this can be accomplished is through blogging.

We love to eat food that has been cooked on our grill. During the warmer seasons we put the grill out on the deck and have grilled burgers or steaks several times a week. In the cooler seasons, we put the grill in the garage and grill a little bit less often – but there are a few warmer winter days we can grill if it is a really sunny day and around lunch time; the garage will warm up enough so that we don’t mind cooking out there with the garage door open for however long it takes to get the food cooked.

Sticking to a budget seems to be the biggest challenge that Americans face.  For a lot of us, we are used to spending more money than we make.  I’m no exception to that!  It has been so easy to just go out and spend money!  The mentality of spend now and pay later is an easy one to get into!  That’s why so many of us are now going to see debt counselors! 

But this tendency has always been a dangerous one, and with so many people having their hours at work cut back, or losing their jobs completely is going to make it even more difficult to manage our debts and stick to a budget.  Once we lose a job, in this economy, it is going to be tough to find a new one.  We will be competing with a lot of people for the few remaining jobs out there!  Darn few jobs are “safe” anymore!

So it is becoming vitally important to create a budget and stick to it.  We need to figure out a way to live within our means and stop thinking that we can have something NOW and pay for it LATER.  We need to go back to the mentality of “if we can’t afford to pay for it NOW, then we will have to WAIT until LATER when we CAN afford it!”

In order to force ourselves to stick to a budget, I think it is a good idea to use a Prepaid Mastercard.  You can get these in the form of a Prepaid Debit Card or a Prepaid Credit Card.  The good thing about one of these is that the card will not allow you to spend more money than you have on it, and you have already paid for it up front.

I don’t remember if I ever told you about our little dog! We have a little dog that was a stray that wandered into our yard two years ago. We call him Pita. At first we didn’t know what kind of dog he was, but we have been told that he was probably the runt of a litter of North American Shepherds. I’ve tried to find information about the breed here and there, and just ran a search on North American Shepherds on a search engine I just learned about. The search experience was different than what I have experienced with other search engines; this particular time I found a site that I had not found before. It led me to a web page that was very informative about the breed, and I discovered that our little Pita is not a runt at all! He is exactly the right size!

My wife tells me that sometimes I drive her crazy because I am so interested in cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Whenever we go anywhere I am always looking around at the other vehicles on the road and making comments about them. What drives my wife crazy about that is the fact that she couldn’t care much less about cars, trucks, or motorcycles. To her, they are simply a mode of transportation; a necessary evil that you need to get from one point to another, and nothing more than that.

So, when we go driving along, she gets a little irritated with me when I exclaim “Oh, honey, look at that audi tt, how would you like to have one of those?”  She says to me “I’m trying to drive, don’t distract me, and I don’t even know what an audi tt looks like!  Besides, I’m not into ’status cars,’ so why are you even trying to get me to look?”

Then I’ll usually remind her that she used to own a Mazda RX-7 when she was much younger, and wasn’t that a status car?  Then she reminds me that was her first hubby’s car and she had nothing to do with it.  Oh well.

Personally I’m a Chevy man, but my wife’s brother owns a ford expedition that he likes a lot.  He’s had it a long time, and it has treated him well.  I think if I were to buy a ford, it would probably be a ford fusion.

My son showed me this video from UTube that is so funny! He thought I’d like it because we are always teasing each other around the house about not hearing each other! He found it on the failblog.org website. That website is awesome – it shows lots of funny things that they call “Fail.” I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Last night I caught my wife looking on the Internet at some Hydrotherapy pools.  I asked her what she was doing.  She told me that Sally, a good friend of hers had recently bought a Swim spa.  Her friend has fibromyalgia and her doctor suggested that Aquatic therapy would be a good idea for her to get some relief from her condition.

Sally told her that she loved her pool, and that it helped her with her pain enormously.  My wife started to think about getting something like that for our house because we both suffer from arthritis from time to time.  My wife has been reasoning that as we get older our arthritis will probably worsen, and that a hydrotherapy pool would be a good way to slow down the progression of our arthritis.

I was just reading an article about what companies are probably not going to be laying off employees in the coming year. One of the articles mentioned was Colgate, with the reasoning being that even during a recession people are probably going to continue to buy toothpaste. That’s a very good point. And I am thinking that would be a really good reason to buy stock in a company like that (if I had any money to invest!)

Based on reading that particular article, now I’m thinking that companies like Kimberly Clarke, Proctor & Gamble would probably also be good safe bets. They make products like facial tissue, bathroom tissue, disposable diapers, paper towels. People are going to continue to buy products like that too!

Since my wife and I moved here only a couple of years ago, I find that a lot of people that I talk to ask me for advice about moving.  This sure is a nomadic area!  Seems like every time I turn around people are moving in or out!  I guess that has a lot to do with the political nature of the area. 

Anyway, people ask me for my advice and opinion about moving a lot.  So I tell them “Before you move, go through everything you own and throw away, give away, or sell everything that you don’t want to have to pack, haul, and unpack.”  Then I tell them to try to collect as many good packing boxes that they can find from local stores.  Book stores and liquor stores and grocery stores are all good places to get good boxes.

Then I tell them to take a hard look at their budget and decide whether they can afford to hire a moving company. I tell them to compare prices and services between different moving companies because their prices and services vary quite a bit between companies.  Then I tell them that if their budget does not allow for hiring a moving company, and they have access to a lot of volunteer labor, renting and using a one-way truck rental service might be the answer for them.

I was surprised to read in the Time.com website that underneath this red clay, in the Piedmont section of Virginia (which is where I live) sits a huge deposit of uranium. And, there is talk about mining it, to fuel nuclear reactors to generate electricity. I have a lot of concerns about that. From what I understand nuclear energy still is problematic because there is no good solution for where to put the nuclear waste. And mining uranium can put the environment, and our health at risk. Yeah, I have some concerns about that.

I get so aggravated when someone tells me that they are not an alcoholic, but then they admit that they have a “drinking problem.” Well, as far as I’m concerned, if you have a “drinking problem” then you are an alcoholic. Sometimes people try to sugar coat reality, and I think that is when small problems grow into big problems.  Similarly, I get so angry when people tell me that they are not “drug addicts” but that they are addicted to their pain medicine.  I’m sorry, I understand that is not the same as being addicted to a “recreational drug” and that it is not “their fault” but it is still a drug addiction.

I hope that anyone who finds themselves addicted to their medicines gets the help they need through a drug treatment center once the doctors have finished fixing the problem that was causing the pain. There really is no need to go through the difficulty of drug withdrawal and rehabilitation alone. There are some really good programs available that help people that need and want it. I’m sure that a good drug treatment program is “out there” that would meet the needs of the patient that wants it.

Recently I was reading on the Time.com website that scientists have discovered an area in Utah where there is a concentration of dinosaur footprints (and possibly tail drag marks) that are so closely concentrated together that they have decided to call it a “dinosaur dance floor.” The theory is that the area was an oasis in a desert so many dinosaurs went there for water. The scientists say that many of the footprints were originally thought to be simply “potholes” but were recently discovered to have toe and heel prints. The site is along the Arizona-Utah border, in a protected wilderness area. Good thing it’s in a protected wilderness area! They should have plenty of time to research that area without worrying about commercialism paving it over!

My wife just reminded me that we might need to hire an accounting firm this year to help us with our taxes.  We sold a piece of property earlier in the year, and she is concerned that she might not know how to handle that properly.  She feels that hiring a chartered accountant would help to make sure that we don’t file our taxes wrong.

She’s afraid that if we don’t do it right that we will either get too small a refund, or end up having to pay penalties and late fees for not paying enough!  Well, I told her that we’ll look into it as soon as all of the forms come in.

I’m getting anxious to get all of the tax return forms in -all of the W-2s and 1099s and interest statements. I’m expecting a decent tax refund, and I’d love to get my hands on it! I have a few credit card bills that I’d like to pay off with the refund as soon as possible! The cards are a really low rate, but I still don’t like being in debt! So, I’m really looking forward to getting my taxes filed as soon as I can this year!

My grandmother was an alcoholic, and so was my father.  It runs in the family, as alcoholism tends to do.  I loved my grandmother dearly, and it sickened me to watch her drink herself to the point where she developed cirrhosis of the liver. 

I wish that “back then” there was more information easily available to the general public about the dangers of drinking, and about alcohol rehabilitation.  I would have loved to have sent my grandmother to an alcohol rehabilitation center like the Orchid Recovery Center for women; she probably would have lived a lot longer if she had been able to kick the habit.

I went to Wal-Mart this morning with my wife to do the grocery shopping. I went into their garden department and was glad to see that they were getting it set up for spring flowers! They were already selling some early spring primrose! I wanted to buy some, but I resisted for the moment because I’m not going to have the time this week to plant them. I’ll try to buy some next week instead! I know my wife loves primroses; I want her to help me pick out which ones to get.

My neighbor was telling me that his brother was finally seeking the drug addiction help that he so desperately needs.  It seems that his wife has left him and told him that she would only take him back if he went to drug addiction rehab and went through the entire rehab program.

Well, I told him that I thought that was really good news!  I know that his drug habit was costing his family a fortune and that he had recently lost his job because he had shown up to work stoned out of his mind!  If he can get straight, then maybe his wife and employer will give him a second chance!

A few days ago my sister asked me what my favorite dessert is. Oh my goodness, what could I say? I love lemon meringue pie. But I also love strawberry shortcake. And oh my oh my, let’s not forget cheesecake! Oh, and white chocolate cheesecake ice cream with raspberry topping! Oh dear, oh dear, I can’t make up my mind at all! I think it depends on the season!

I think during the early summer I like strawberry shortcake when the local strawberries are ripe. Then when it gets hotter, I like to move on to white chocolate cheesecake ice cream with raspberry topping to cool me off! Then in the fall I like to move on to lemon meringue pie. Wintertime is cheesecake time. So, there, my favorite desserts are seasonal!

By now I imagine everyone who has a television has heard the controversy over stem cell research.  It seems that as we switch back and forth between government leaders the stem cell researchers either get government money or lose it.  In my opinion, stem cell research is vital to learning how we can treat and prevent a lot of disorders, injuries, and diseases.

Women can play a vital role in protecting their health, and the health of their families by participating in the C’elle’s company service.  They can collect their menstrual blood (which is loaded with adult stem cells) and have the company cryofreeze and store it for future use.  According to their Pricing page people can buy gift certificates to give to the women in their life to help defray the cost of the service.  Their Order Now page shows that they are offering a limited time $200 discount on their services.  I think this is a good idea!

My nephew has come to visit us for the weekend. I haven’t seen him in a few years, and I’m glad he came. My wife and I picked him up from the bus station last night around 9pm and we got home about 10pm. He slept in late this morning, but we had a nice visit before lunch.  I grilled some burgers for lunch and then took him for a motorcycle ride after lunch. It’s nice to have family come visit!

Believe it or not, this is a good time to buy certain stocks.  If you have a little bit of money that you can spare to invest in some Stock Trading, you should give some serious consideration about using the Online Trading services of the firsttrade.com website.  This Online Broker website is geared towards anyone who wants to buy stock.

There is no minimum purchase, and they charge only $6.95 per trade.  They have no hidden fees!  They have a great “knowledge center” that you can use to learn more about the process of buying stocks, mutual funds, and bonds.  So I think that this is a good place for a beginner to check out before investing any money into the stock market!

My wife came home from work this afternoon, all aggravated because she had to work with someone who is very verbally opinionated when it comes to politics.   It is against the work rules to discuss politics because it can get really intense, but this woman ignores the rules and spouts off anyway.  Today she was spouting off that Obama promised a quick fix to the economy, but she hasn’t seen any changes yet! 

My wife told her that Obama did NOT promise a quick fix, and that in fact he has always said that it would take a long time and a lot of work.  It took a long time to get into the mess we are in, there is not going to be a magic wand that will fix it overnight.  This guy has only been in office for ONE month, and this woman is already running around complaining that the economy isn’t fixed yet!  Give him a chance, and give me a break!  Geez…..

My birthday was Sunday, and my wife surprised me by holding a birthday party for me.  Several family members attended, and we had a nice visit.  My wife cooked a nice dinner, and we played some games and had cake and opened gifts.  The most unusual gift that I got was from my brother-in-law.  He gave me a Bushnell Rifle Scope!  He remembered that the last time I came over to his house I had been admiring his Bushnell Rifle Scopes, so he bought one for me.  Wasn’t that a great gift!

On this morning’s television news I watched a story about a device called EDAR. EDAR stands for Everyone Deserves a Roof. This is an amazing device that looks like a tent that is raised up off of the ground with a bed inside. It is designed for use by homeless people; it folds up and can be wheeled around similarly to a shopping cart. They are also designed to hold recycling types of items that homeless people tend to collect to try to generate income. This is done by a non-profit organization. I really have to say I’m impressed!

As I just mentioned about two posts ago, I’ve been having some health issues with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. My wife (and doctor) have bee encouraging me to try to increase my exercise to help keep all of that in check. I know it’s a good idea, but I really have a hard time convincing myself to join any kind of gym or exercise class. Part of the problem is that I live so far away from any of them that it is a real effort to get there!

So, we are looking into turning part of the basement into an exercise area where we would put some exercise machines. I want a treadmill for myself, and my wife says she wants an elliptical machine.  I think that if we put a television in the room to watch some television while we work out would be a good way to keep our minds off of the fact that we are exercising!

I thought that submarines were equipped with things like sonar and radar to prevent them from running into things when they were submerged!  I was reading an article on the Yahoo news that was reporting that two submarines (1 British and 1 French) collided with each other while submerged in the Atlantic Ocean.  Apparently neither one knew the other was there!  These were nuclear submarines, people!  This could have been a huge disaster!  I hope that there is going to be some huge investigation that results in this kind of accident never happening again!  It’s lucky that there was no nuclear disaster as a result from the collision!

Heart disease is no laughing matter.  Every time I get heartburn (indigestion) I worry that I might be having a heart attack.  I have been battling high blood pressure and high cholesterol for a couple of years now, and it is a tough battle.  I’ve modified my diet substantially, eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, eating a lot of oatmeal, too.  I have to be careful, though, of how much fresh fruit and vegetables I eat because I also have diabetes, and too much can make my blood sugar spike!

One of the most difficult parts of trying to eat healthy is that sometimes I feel like I’m the only one in the world going through this.  That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when my wife told me about the freshpromise.net website that is dedicated to drawing attention to heart disease and promoting a fundraising effort that is being backed by several companies to raise funds to help the fight against it.

I just heard that the peanut company that is at the heart of the salmonella outbreak that has killed/sickened so many Americans is filing for bankruptcy.  The Time.com article I was reading said that it was filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  I know that there are a lot of different kinds of bankruptcy, but I really don’t understand them all; thank goodness I never have had to learn much about them!

I just hope that this does nothing to let the executives that placed the orders to ship the bad products out even after knowing that they were contaminated off the hook!  I think they should serve jail time!

Have you ever considered buying a locking mailbox?  As I drive around town, I see quite a few people have bought locking mailboxes.  When I see them, I wonder if these folks have already been victims of mail theft, or if they are taking precautionary measures in advance.  Unfortunately, in this economy, mail theft not only is a fact of life; it is rising.

Unless you are home and can retrieve your mail the minute the mail is delivered, there is always the threat of your mail being stolen.  That’s one big reason why my wife has as many of her checks direct deposited as possible – including our tax refund checks!  She’s trying to eliminate the possibility of the checks being stolen out of the mailbox (or lost in the mail, which is an entirely different subject!)

This is just one really good reason to invest in the best security locking mailbox you can buy.  The Mail Boss has the best materials, best construction, and best locks in the business.  Although no mailbox is 100% invulnerable, it would take a thief about twenty minutes to break into one of these boxes, and most theives would not want to bother taking that much time trying to do that!

My wife and I bought a used car two years ago, a 1996 Chevrolet Lumina. It had really low mileage on it and is in excellent shape. My wife uses it more than I do, because we also have a Chevy truck that I like to drive. I’m a truck man at heart. Anyway, my wife has mentioned a few times that one of the things that she does NOT like about the Lumina is that it has manual windows. So last week I bought a kit that will convert the manual windows to power windows. She is going to be so surprised and happy when I install it! I can’t wait to see her face the first time she pushes the button and the windows just go up and down without any hand cranking involved!