After five years of college and a degree in philosophy, I was less than satisfied with my career choice. I found that I was bored and I was just not enjoying it at all. It paid the bills, but I was always counting down the minutes until my work day would be done.

I went into a depression and went to see a counselor. She suggested that if it was making me unhappy, than I should quit, forget all of the money and time I put into it, and find a job doing something I enjoy. I took her words to heart and sought my parents for encouragement on my new venture.

That is when my professional logo design service was born. It was something new everyday and I was able to put my creative abilities to good use. I was a much happier person and I do not regret it for one minute.

There are not many things that I really look forward to in summer, but this year will be a bit different.  You see, I have got wind of the BetterTrades conference that is happening in August, and I am really excited.

You see, it is just one of those conferences that you need to attend if you have money - something that we should all have.  They talk about investment strategies and ideas, and it is a great chance to rub shoulders with some of the best.

I can’t wait to see Darlene Nelson, and finally have a chance to meet her in person.  I have read her book Stock Split Secrets, one of the greatest investing books that I have ever read.  It details the exact steps to succeed in stock market investing and I have profited from those techniques.

Well… I guess I will have to be patient until the conference, but it will be here before I know it.  I just can’t wait to learn something better to do with my money.

I struggled with my weight my whole life. When I was in my early thirties, I finally decided that I was going to do something about it. I wanted a total lifestyle change and when I started to lose weight, I was presented with a whole new problem. My skin was starting to sag and it looked anything but attractive.

I decided that the best course of action for me was to leave town, finish losing the weight and have surgery to get rid of the excess skin. I looked into several different options, including cosmetic surgery abroad. I had a friend that was living in Europe and I knew that she would be thrilled if I came to stay with her for a few months.

I went, with a solid plan in my mind. I lost the rest of the weight and had the surgery done. I was happy with my appearance for the first time in my life and I came home with a confidence in myself that I have never experienced before. I like who I am and I think that no matter what happens in the future, I am secure enough now to take it all with a grain of salt.

I was still quite young when I lost my husband to a fatal car crash. I had three young children, two of whom were not even in school yet, and I was overwhelmed at the vast responsibility that I had lying ahead of me. I poured my whole heart and soul into the kids, helping them to cope without their dad.

A couple of years after the accident. I decided that it was time for me to get back in the dating game. I had spent two year giving my all to my kids and I knew that it was time to put some effort into tasking care of my needs. I asked a few of my single friends where was the best place to find local singles.

I was not really into the bar scene, as they suggested, as I still had three kids to take care of. I also knew that most men would find that very fact daunting. I went to some free online dating sites and put up my profile, wanting to be honest from the get go. I knew that, if the fact that I had children bothered them, than they would not even contact me.

I was lucky to meet my second soul mate, who has become a very good father to the kids. While ha cannot take the place of their biological father, he loves them more than I could have ever hoped and we are all lucky to have him in our lives.

I have always wanted to be a professional website designer, but I have not had the time to learn how to code a website.  Honestly, I don’t even know how to do any type of programming,   In fact, I don’t really want to know.

Part of my problem is that computers and I don’t really get along.  In fact, it seems that whenever I touch a computer, it breaks.

That aside, I wanted to be able to put a site on the big world wide web.  I have some homemade chain mail armor that I have made and I want to sell it.

I did a search for quick and easy web design software and found one that would meet my needs.  It was even able to create a JavaScript menu (whatever that is).  So, I am going to attempt to make a site - but I bet it will look like it is done by a professional.

In my search for a super thin laptop that I can take back and forth to work, I’ve found two brands that offer portability and function.

However, unless I can find a free Macbook Air, or HP Voodoo, I’m probably out of luck since my price range is way under what they retail for.

At nearly seven thousand dollars for the top of the line model, the Voodoo is not for just anyone. It does offer nearly instant access to on line functions and looks like high priced art as much as it does a laptop.

The Macbook Air, on the other hand, offers the same portability in that it is thin and light weight, but has a slightly better price.

The biggest difference is that the HP product isn’t available here in the US yet and that is a major drawback for me. I’d rather see something in person before I buy it, even it means visiting a local store, then buying on line later.

I watch a lot of cooking shows with my mom these days. She has an air conditioner downstairs. All I have upstairs is fans, which, when the mercury tops 90 degrees Fahrenheit in mid-June, merely blows around the hot air at high speed.

One of my favorite cooking shows she watches is the one where a chef and his staff must produce a catered meal for large groups of people in unfamiliar surroundings, and on tight deadlines. Of course he’s always panicking that they’re not going to get done on time. And naturally he’s all over his staff when things go wrong — which they do, invariably.

What made me think of this was seeing a blog post title that was something like, “Cooking for 1,000.” What if ordinary people had to cook for one thousand hungry diners? My first thought was, is there a toll free number I can call for help, on the order of “1-800-HelpMe!” But, alas, toll free service doesn’t include exclamation marks.

I realized that cooking for that many people would be an impossible mission for me. I’ll leave that to the experts and stay here in front of Mom’s A/C, thanks.

Solitaire rings, diamonds, anniversary rings in diamond and other precious stones — these are not exactly a girl’s best friend. Sorry to contradict the song. It’s a sentiment right out of the sixties and one that, frankly, is a slap in the face to the wonderful relationships that women now enjoy with one another.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, women were depicted in film and on TV as catty, competitive with one another and definitely not “groupy.” I actually had a woman who was a kind of mentor to me in college say flat out that women were not “groupy people.”

That may have been true in decades past, but no longer. Women are bonding on a deeper level than ever before, finding strength, support and encouragement in their relationships with one another, and learning that those friendships can endure longer than some marriages.

TV series like “Sex and the City,” and now the movie of the same name, celebrate the bonds of friendship (and fashion). A girl’s best friend? Not diamonds. Another woman, of course.

With football season just getting going, our team has been getting ready.  You see, last year, we were 2nd in our league, and this year we want to be the first.  Sure, if we had not had so many injuries in the end of last season, that we are hoping to avoid it this year.

So this year, the coaching staff is taking a more proactive approach when it comes to avoiding injury.  From increasing the amount of time that we spend on warming up, to providing sport massage to all of the players.

There will also be more attention to players that could end up on the injured list, and hopefully we will be able to keep the injuries to a minimum.  Hopefully, we will have a better season this year and win the final.

It would be perfect if we did win - it will be my last year playing and I have yet to win any trophies - maybe it will be my year.

I was reading about a woman who was planning her daughter’s wedding. She was a real piece of work, this woman. Her heart was in the right place, but she wasn’t exactly operating with a full deck, if you get my drift. She had come into quite a sum of money — she won the lottery in her state — and she was determined to give her daughter the wedding of a lifetime.

Now even though she was now a wealthy woman, especially compared to before, she still retained a tight fist on her money. So when she saw an ad that said, “special offers for Central Coast brides,” she jumped on it. She’d always wanted to go to California and it seemed the perfect location for her only daughter’s wedding. The woman lined up a wedding planner, who began making all the arrangements.

The only problem was, the mother got everything all wrong. The ad was for the Central Coast of Australia. As I said, the woman wasn’t working with a full deck. It worked out in the end, but the woman couldn’t get a complete refund on all her deposits. It turned out to be a dream wedding for the bride and groom, but not the mother of the bride.