As a lifelong Canadian resident, I knew that marrying an American and moving south of the border would be a big change for me. I also knew that it would be a big growing experience and that as long as I was with the love of my life, I would be happy. I also knew that, as well as planning the wedding, I had to pack all of my belongings and try to find a home to live in from so many miles away.

When my fiancé came to visit a couple of months before the wedding, he brought me some real estate papers of homes in Greenville, SC. It was going to be so hard to purchase a home without ever having seen it, but I trusted him to take my tastes into account when he made the decision on which one to purchase.

It was also comforting to be at least able to have an opinion and a bit of a say on what the outside looked like, as I could see the pictures. He made a great decision and I love my new home.

My sister was showing me how to convert DVD to iPod Nano. I found it quite interesting because I take a long bus ride to and from University and being able to watch movies would surely make the time pass a lot quicker. It would also give me a chance to catch up on some of the movies that I have been wanting to see, but have not had the time to, between work and school.

I borrowed some movies from my cousin, who always has the best and new ones and I borrowed his iPod Touch converter. I hoped to be able to watch a movie on my bus ride the next day. But, I could not seem to get it to work. I wondered if it was just me or if it was because my iPod was quite a bit older than his was.

I went to our local electronics store to get some help from someone who knew more than I did. He told me that my best bet was to buy software to convert DVD to iPod Classic. I did this and it finally worked. I now get to watch movies and have caught up on many good ones and a few that were not so good.

If you are a parent, you can probably relate to my situation.  For those of you who are not parents, someday if you become one, you will find that you will not get any free time until they go to bed.  Even after they go to bed, chances are you will have something to do, like make their lunch for school or do laundry.

But when I have all my work done, I like to sit at the computer and take a moment for myself.  Okay, each minute for me seems like an hour, but I still need to balance the amount of time I play online games versus the amount of sleep I am giving up.  Quite often I will only sit down for an hour before I start falling asleep.

I quite enjoy playing classic games such as Pac-Man and Mario.  On a good night, I try to beat my high scores that I have written down on a paper.  I also play the classic Duck Hunt from time to time - it is much easier than the original game I played on the NES years ago.

Some nights, when I feel like winning some money, I play some casino games.  I am talking about fake money of course in games like blackjack and poker.  My wife doesn’t mind that I gamble as long as it doesn’t take away from food on our table - and this is the perfect outlet for that.

In some respects these games we play at night are a date for us - it is the one time of the day that we spend together where we can talk.  For parents, life starts after the kids go to bed.

For my birthday, my friend gave me a booklet full of Las Vegas hotel promotions for the next year. She knew that I was going to Vegas for a work conference and she purchased the booklet, which was good for meals, discounts and casino vouchers at a good number of hotels. It was such a nice gift and you could tell she had put effort into getting it for me.

The booklet was also good for discounts on room rates. This was helpful to me, because although my room was being paid for while attending the conference, I wanted to stay for a few extra days to do some fun things.

For work, we were being put up at the Mandalay Bay I checked to see if the certificate included and Mandalay Bay discounts and it didn’t. That was alright because I thought it would be nice to stay somewhere different and get a change of scenery.

I did manage to take advantage of the Mirage discounts that were in the booklet when I booked a room for after the conference at the Mirage. The gift was such a nice idea and I know that I am going to have a super time and have a lot of good food. Hopefully, I will also win some money.

Part of my job with my company is to prepare product reviews; particularly when there is a new product on the market. Along with this, we also do company reviews and ratings. One of the best ways for me to get information on the usefulness of a product or company is to do consumer reviews. No one knows more about a product than the person who is using it.

When I am looking into a company, I often like to do website reviews. I check for the effectiveness of the website to push a product, as well as the ease of accessing and navigating the site.

When putting up a website about products that are on the market, it is always good to include a page of news and opinions on the product. This is where any new changes could be posted and nothing will sell a product faster than real people saying it worked for them.

About a year ago, I decided to ask my friends which financial products they use each year.  Quite a few of my friends are extremely honest about what they do use, but I don’t ask them the specific details about why or how they used them.  The following are some of the common answer I received this year.

Debt was on everyone’s mind.  Whether it was bad credit card debt, too many loans, or other borrowing, it seemed that everyone had some issues with debt.  Some of my friends had taken steps to enter a debt consolidation program to help reduce their payments and get their debt under control.  I also had one friend that needed to go bankrupt - his health had been bad all year, and their medical bills and lower income put them in a position where they couldn’t handle it any more.

Housing values this past year have skyrocketed in our community, and quite a few people took advantage of the increased values in their homes to take out home improvement loans to renovate their houses.  I don’t know how many times I went to some houses this past year, where their flooring or paint on the walls was different each time.  I have noticed a lot of hard wood and laminate flooring in their houses and other renovations as well.  It is neat how you can take advantage of the increase in value in your home, borrow money, do renovations, and increase the value of your home some more.

Lastly, many people mentioned the use of Payday loans.  Perhaps the biggest change that was mentioned was that a fax machine was no longer needed.  These “Payday Loans  No Fax” programs were very popular with my friends that flip houses - they had used these and other hard lenders to come up with down payments on some of their properties.

I own a New York Limousine Rental company.  New York city is probably the best place to have a limo business, as your services are always required and we rarely ever have a slow day.

In fact, in the month of June, we can barely keep up.  This past June, I must have turned down at least 200 people.  June tends to have a lot of weddings going on and we owners tent to call June “Prom Limousine New York“.  Most prom limos are booked at least six months in advance and it is a very profitable month for us.

NYC Limo Rental is a very prosperous business and I am really happy with my choice to own one.  It has actually done so well that I am considering hiring a manager and stepping back from the operations to give myself some time to explore hobbies and interests.  I think I may take up gold or something.

I am not like other girls - when it comes to shoes I prefer functional as opposed to stylish.  You won’t find 500 pairs of shoes in my closet or anywhere in my home.  Instead, you will only find two pairs of Crocs.

I know that a girl with only two pairs of shoes sounds strange, but it works for me.  I have Croc shoes for summer and winter - but to be honest, I could get away with just one pair.  But the reason I have two is to have a pair of shoes for the beach in the summer and for indoors in the winter.

The rest of the time I wear my All Terrain Crocs.  They keep my feet dry when it rains and warm when it is cold.  Even though they are more functional than my other ones, they still retain the comfort of regular Crocs.

So, don’t think that I am strange.  Instead think of me as a practical girl.  For me it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have many pairs of shoes - I am happy with just two.

I was doing research for and essay that I was writing for my pharmacist class at college and the topic was antidepressants. I was writing on the differences between generic and brand name. I bought some generic Zoloft, as well as some name brand and was astonished at the difference in cost. I dissected and ran chemical tests on each pill and they were made up of exactly the same components.

I then went out to buy Paxil and run the same tests on this particular drug. It too, was made up of the same chemical components and it got me to wondering why any doctor would even prescribe the name brand.

Lastly, I decided I would order Prozac and see if I came up with the same results. On this one, the results differed very slightly and I didn’t even see that it was enough to affect the drug. When I convocate in the spring and become a pharmacist, I think I will make it my mission to see that people get the better deal.

I am looking into real estate for sale in Asheville.  I am considering a move there as I will be retiring from my job in six months.  I am ready for a change and have heard nice things about the retirement community in Asheville.

The Asheville real estate market is doing well right now, which makes me glad.  I know that if I purchase and move there and don’t like it, it will not be hard to resell my property.  I would be most interested in living in a part of the community that has may single people my age and people that have the same interests as me.

Asheville Condos seems to fit that description well and the more I get to know about the area and the types of people there, the more I know I could love living there.  I know the decision must be made soon.  I also know that once the condo is purchased, I won’t be able to retire soon enough.