Lifestyles of Mariners and Fishermen...

None of us can forget the Titanic and other famous cruise lines that sank and they were even guaranteed not to sink nor hit anything that would make them sink. Now with technology, it is even safer for the little ships and fishermen to navigate and not be in danger spots since there are now free electronic downloads of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NAOO) Raster Navigational Charts. A Raster chart is a digitally scanned image of a paper nautical chart that is used by mariners for navigation. It is used to make navigation a lot safer than ever before. Those are always updated and are made available at http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov .

For the mariners, there is also another website where they can get electronics for boating and fishing including fish finders. Northeast Marine Electronics has all these electronic fishing tools available.

Then on another note, tourism in Orlando is really booming and has been for almost a century now. Orlando's history is only 150 years old but a lot has happened in that time. It was first a cattle raising industry and it looked more like Laredo and other western towns instead of it's neighboring Southern states. There were Indian wars, cattle rustling, gun fights, gambling, and other unsavory evening activities.

Then in 1880, Southern Florida Railroad extended it's line to Orlando from Sanford into the rest of the nation. This then expanded the Citrus Industry in Central Florida. By the 1920s many changes already happened since business was booming including the land boom. It was at that time the tourist industry in Orlando began and now that town is a very vacation resort with many visitors visiting the seven major theme parks.

With the billions dollar tourist industry booming, there have many job openings and it is also a great place to raise a family. There are many nice homes in Orlando that range from upscale condos with the city's view to the vintage homes but whatever a buyers needs are, Windermere Real Estate is one to help represent the buyer. They are also the Buyers Broker of Florida.

It is interesting to know how Orlando grew from a 'western town' to a major theme park vacation capital in the world.

Father's Day....

Just when Mothers Day is over and we took out DH's mother for that day, it is now time to start thinking of Fathers Day gifts. Since I won't be able to take him out, I can order a gift basket for him and he will love it since those gift baskets have nuts, wines, and cheeses. One can also create gift baskets as well.

Now since I am always wondering how holiday traditions get started, I learned that Fathers Day originated with Sonora Dodd when she was listening to a sermon on Mothers Day back in 1909. Her father, William Smart who was also a Civil War veteran was forced to raise his six children alone when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth baby. This all took place in a rural farm in Washinton State.

How is this for a "Did you know"

Investments and Insurance.....

As I stated in my last entry, gas prices were only 25 cents at one time, and that was backed by real silver. Now I think I also mentioned that the same amount of silver can still buy four gallons of gas just like at that time, one dollar bought four gallons of gas. It seems like the prices of everything has gone up but in reality the value of the dollar has gone down.

Investments experts have long recommended to investing in tangible assets like silver, gold, and bullion coins and I am hearing that more and more people are buying gold bars. Monex as I have mentioned before is one of the country's oldest, largest, and most experienced firms specializing in precious metals.

Now I have to think of auto insurance since I tend to think I am being charged a lot for my auto insurance. Geico in fact has advised auto owners in California to pay attention to the latest crime reports submitted by the National Insurance Crime Bureau. California is home to six of the top ten auto theft locations in the nation. One of the tips given is to keep the vehicle locked at all times even while driving. Another tip is to keep the windows and sunroof closed even though it is very hot.

I heard of one way to buy good car insurance and yet save money is to buy car insurance from Carinsurance.com. They do provide an auto insurance quote for all states. They not only save money but time too. I also heard in some states once the application is processed, the proof of insurance is provided in 15 minutes. I am thinking of checking more into this to save money.

Decisions........

I need to decide now if I want a new chair for my desk. I thought of those antique chairs and that got me to thinking of the history of furniture and how it parallels the progress of culture. Furniture through the centuries has been designed many ways and with so many different materials.

Western Furniture comes from four sources: Egyptian, Asian(Persian and Chinese), Greek, and Gothic. The Egyptian furniture dates back 6,000 years and is known for inlays of gold and ivory. Oriental furniture is known for carving and inlays on ebony and teak. The Greeks were known to prefer low couch, tripod, and chair with curved outlines.

As time went on, the metal folding chairs and ergonomic chairs became popular. Bean bag and pod chairs were also very popular at one time. Massage chairs are now very popular. Many offices now use stackable chairs. The best place to get those would be Best Furniture Online where they also provide excellent customer service. Most likely I will check back with them to see what they have. I know I should get a chair.

Then I know I need to think of the future meaning protecting my assets. Some of us remember when gas was only 25 cents a gallon and it only took one dollar to buy four gallons of gas. That was backed by REAL money, real silver. That same amount of silver can still buy that same amount of gas. It seems like gas, food, and other goods have gone up but in reality it is the value of the dollar that has gone down.

One of the best ways to now invest is to buy tangible assets like silver, gold, and bullion coins. Monex is a good place for that since they meet the needs of all investors. I have heard that more and more people now buy gold bars. Investment is now becoming more and more important.

Real Estate Market......

With all the outsourcing of jobs putting over three million Americans out of work, mortgage rates are now dependent on foriegners to buy the US debt. Prices for single family homes have cooled during the first quarter but many metro regions are showing a double digit annual gains according to a surver released Monday by the National Association Of Realtors.

For someone looking to buy a house, condo, or townhome in Naperville, (a suburb of Chicago), the Naperville Real Estate had many listings available at New Castle Realty. The agents at New Castle Realty provide very good advice for home buyers. They have all the buyers needs covered.

Gebhart Properties has just launched a new website featuring many luxurious resort homes and ocean front properties for rent on both the big Island and Maui. For those who want to visit the beach in style, Hawaii Vacation Rentals is the way to go. Many features include spacious living areas, artwork that cannot even be found in hotels, and custom furnishings.

One of their rentals include Hale Ke Kai, a very luxurious three bedroom/four Bath two level private home in Kailua-Kona with full kitchens and expansive lanais on both levels, two master suites, a private wading pool, and very close to the ocean that one can feel the spray of the ocean as the waves break against the coastline. This is just one of the many properties available there.
For more information, here is the link: http://www.gebhartproperties.com/resort/hawaii.html or call 1-800-545-5151.

Bausch & Lomb......

Parker and Waichman now has a lawsuit against Bausch & Lomb since a woman lost her sight in her left eye from using ReNu with MositorLoc. It has been proven that a serious fungal infection known as Fusarium Keratitis is resulted from use of this solution. Bausch and Lomb manufactures ReNu.

Back in April 10, 2006 the CDC and FDA issued public warnings against this infection from using this solution and a few days later, Bausch and Lomb asked the retailers to remove all ReNu with MositorLoc from their shelves. The CDC also interviewed other patients who were suspected of having this fungal infection. A high percentage of those patients used Bausch & Lomb ReNu.

The woman who became blind in her left eye is in West Virginia. After unsuccessful surgeries, she now has to wear an ocular shell. This lawsuit was filed last week. For more information on this, please visit Renu Lawyer.

Parker and Waichman is a leading products liability and personal injury law firm who represent plaintiffs nationwide. They have assisted thousands of clients recieving fair compensations for defective medications and medical devices. This is the first law firm to file a suit for ReNu with MositorLoc. For more information, please visit www.yourlawyer.com or call 800-LAW-INFO.

Gas Prices.....

Ok, I am not going to go into a huge lecture about this since complaining does no good but didn't we all have a nightmare about the fact that if it all goes up to even three dollars a gallon that we may have to walk to work and many are now scared....frankly I don't blame anyone and I am just as scared.....I am just glad I don't have a gas guzzler....

One thing is of comfort and that is this place I found on the web that I want to share with you if you need to fix your beaters or even your new cars and trucks and vans just to save money and that is Truck Tool Box. It satifies all your auto and truck needs with a wide selection of SUV, van, and truck accessories. Buyautotruckaccessories.com also has free shipping for all orders over $100.00 both for Fed-Ex and ground shipping. One can order exterior and interior accessories there including the truck tool box. The truck toolbox inludes the Single Lid Crossovers and Dual Lid Crossovers. Brand names can also be purchases at this site. You will have excellent shopping experience there....it has the "shopping cart" thing and you just click and check out and you are done. They also match everything to the year, make and model of your automobile.

I have a few friends who have cars over ten years old and now I know this site will help them since it would cost more at their local mechanic. Now they can just find out what they need and then shop here and just have someome replace the part.

People To Please.....

My DH just started talking to his mother again this past winter and we are a lot happier now. It feels good to be a family again and be on good terms. I always liked DH's parents but he was the one who was on the outs with them for whatever drama that happened years ago and the lies of others.

Now the past is dead and buried and am I ever glad of that. She and I have a lot in common. We both love to sew, knit and crochet along with watching Apprentice. But I could not stand someone on from last season and she liked that person so I just kept my mouth shut.

Anyway, we all made plans for Mothers Day and we told her to select a place so she picked a Polish restarant which I am looking forward to. I also want to send her Mothers Day Flowers since she just loves flowers with a passion. DH wants to send her roses and a dozen of them. I will tell him to go ahead and do it. I want to order them online through Dot Flowers.com to have a look at beauty.

I am just now planning and planting my garden and I want pansies and other forsythias as well. I may also put lilac bushes as well. Now I have to pray for nice weather since it has been a little crutty.

Disney World....

My husband and I got an offer last year saying we can get a free three nights and two days in Orlando, Florida. All we had to do was attend a sales pitch from them trying to buy these vacation packages.

They showed a movie on these vacation packages and I kept thinking how nice if we could get to do that every year. We ended up not buying the packages, but we ended up getting the Orlando vacation deal we were promised. They gave us a voucher for that.

I have been to Disney World twice in my life and loved it both times. Sometimes I wish we could have a winter home there but that is not feasible in this time of my life. I can still check how the seasonal home deals are just by talking to an Orlando Realtor. I am sure they have some good deals on the seasonal property.

I am happy where I live now, but it would be nice to sometimes get away. I also keep thinking of Disney World. There is something there for everyone to enjoy.

List Your Goals Where Others Do The Same....

Few things all of us here have in common; we all love to write, we all love to blog, we all hope to make money with our writing, and we all hope to make money blogging.

Another important thing we have in common is that we all have goals and inspirations. I have spent a lot of time here recently reading so many blogs and I see that everyone is inspired and wants to accomplish a lot.

One of the easiest ways to achieve our goals is to make a list. Yes, I know making a list for some people sounds a little boring but there is one way that makes it very interesting and it has been available for some time now.

You can do it online at 43 Things . Simply creat an account there which take no more than two minutes and you don't pay anything. Then you can list your goals there. You can list up to 43 goals so that many is the limit but if only want to list like 10 goals, that is fine too. You don't even have to type some of the goals in since many of them are already pretyped and the ones featured could be the very goals you want to accomplish.

Now comes the fun part, you will be assigned how many cheers you can give others for the day and go to their list and cheer them. Others will also cheer you. Some will also leave comments. You can also make entries underneath your goals and others can cheer those.

Once you have accomplished your goals, you can list them under the done section and mention if it was worth it and share your experience with others.

Now many of you may be wondering what is the catch her. There is no catch here since there is no fee to join. It is just like having an online support group in a very fun and interesting way. You can make friends there as well. No, I have never ran into any freaks there in case you are concerned about that. People are there to accomplish their life goals but friends can be made in the process if you so wish and many nice people are there.

I have been a member there for almost a year and I have no complaints about that site. It has helped me a great deal and I have recieve support in my goals there.

My Week Off

I am so glad it is now Spring Break. It didn't start out too good since my husband got robbed yesterday. I am just glad he is still alive. He was taking his walk and decided to go around the block. They pickpocketed him and took his wallet. Then they ran. So we went this morning to get his driver's license and then another library card as well as the blockbuster card. He also went to get the Jewel Card. He has to go to the VA to get his VA card since he is a veteran and is on VA disability. We did have his credit card cancelled, same with the library card the Blockbuster. Surprisingly they did take out any books nor movies.

Now I can rest a little easier. I should go and play paintball. I am glad my friends own airsoft guns. It is such a relaxing sport. I highly recommend it.

I am still thinking what to get my mother for Mothers Day other than the flowers. A friend of mine mentioned that she is looking into getting for her mother one of those Mothers Day gift baskets. That seems like a great idea for me since they have all kind of nice things for a mother.

I also want to go take some pictures as well. I just love taking nature photos. I also like to tell a story to go along with them.

I also want to get some knitting and crocheting done this week while I am off.

New Projects......

I am ever so glad that tomorrow is my last day of work before my Spring Break starts on Friday. I need this break. I have to do my income taxes yet.

For Easter we are going to DH's parents house and they asked us to bring dessert. We ordered the cake today. We also want to send flowers there this weekend.

Next week if the weather is good, I want to start my garden. I want to plant some seeds for flowers and for vegetables as well. I also want to put in mini waterfall there. I just want a place this summer in the backyard where I can take my book or my knitting and cross stitch and just relax back there in a very welcoming atmosphere. Once it takes off, I will post pictures on here.

I also hope we can spend Mother's Day with DH's parents since my parents live out of state. We will get Mother's Day flowers to both mommies.

I haven't really felt like crocheting lately. I might do some stamped cross stitching later on tonight. I have to pay some bills first.

I hope all of you have a very good weekend.

This Season's Apprentice....

I have noticed how popular the show, Apprentice is. I was glad last year, when Kendra won and when last season, Randall won. He really was a very hard worker.

Now I am wondering if he really has a great group this season. They don't seem too competent this time and I am having a hard time seeing who can really get hired and they say it will be "America's Choice". I am glad it was not America's choice last season or Rebecca would have won and I didn't want her to win.

Now we all know how Mr. Trump not only puts puts emphasis on college graduates, but he wants the advance degrees as well and graduates from the best of colleges which there is nothing wrong with if one wants to earn a high six figure. However this group may be smart in studying if they went to all these good colleges and one is a member of Mensa (he keeps messing up). Mr. Trump also makes sure he gets attorneys on these shows. Now look how often they mess up and sometimes the first to go. I do think though Brent was treated unfairly. However do I want them to be my attorneys and I even wonder if they can handle something as simple as these vioxx lawsuits. Just a for instance...Stacy who is a criminal defense attorney claimed that Brent was harassing her. All he did was tell her off and she couldn't handle that or so she claimed. Makes one wonder about the competentcy of that attorney in her.

I do like the way Mr. Trump is trying to promote the other businesses since they also help him as well and give the chance for the candidates to prove themselves. When they did the commercial for the Norwiegan Cruise Lines, they were on a tight time schedule since the cruise was taking off in just a matter of a few hours. It is a great thing that these modern ships now have marine electronics. If not for that fact, the task would not have been accomplished. Then the same losing team loses again as usual. LOL!!!

Then on some of their tasks since the candidates have to move around so much and set up shop, they need to have commercial folding tables. They get to carry it in their vans and then they can just set up when they get to their workplace.

We saw last night the losing team lost again and once more the project manager brings in the wrong people to the board room. That seems to be typical this season. LOL!!!

Let us see how all this unravels before us.

Super Long Winter.........

That it has been a very very very long winter. We started getting heavy snowfall in December. January was not bad at all and all of us were concerned here that we would be surprised when February and March would come. It barely snowed in February and we had some snow this past month and it is still very cold and here we are just a few days away from April and Spring is officially here by the calendar time and Easter is barely two weeks away. Now what can we expect.
I was hoping to start on my garden by now with planting the spring flowers since I want to start on the tulips. I also want to have other types of flowers and a vegatable garden.
Meantime, I am still into my crocheting and knitting. I haven't said much lately since I haven't progressed much other than starting on two afghans. I have tons of yarn from Herrshners where I can make a single crochet afghan and then I took one unfinished afghan apart to start an easier pattern that will take a lot less time. I am putting off the sweaters for now unless I can find a suitable pattern where I can use two colors in an easy way.
I want to learn Intarsia but I don't want my first project to be too overwhelming. I also saw an afghan in a magazine with the most beautiful colors and it is with a lace pattern. I can't wait to get the yarn but I first need to finish what I am working on so that I don't get overwhelmed.
I have many other ideas on this yarn that I have. I just have to get nice easy patterns that can be done quick. Then I have all these UFOs. LOL!!!
That is about all for now and I hope
All of you have a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Are Certain Medicines Worth The Risks?

I will start off by clarifying that I am not a doctor nor am I in the healthcare field. However I am interested in personal health and try to keep up with issues of recent changes since many things have now come up and many new medicines are now on the market.

What now concerns me at times is the new medicines since there is always the issue of side effects. I will take an example of Lunesta since that is advertised on TV frequently and many people have insomnia. Insomnia is very prevalent since we are now in a age of high stress and worries which are among the highest causes of insomnia. Now they advertise Lunesta as the wonder prescription drug that makes one sleep right away and the commercial shows the people having a very nice sound sleep.

The commercial does warn though about side effects of Lunesta. What makes me wonder is the fact that are the side effects worth the risks of taking this medicine and dependency on a medicine as we can figure out can be hazardouz to one's health. I hope for the ones who are taking this medicine do not suffer the side effects.

For a long time vioxx was working wonders for people suffering with pains of arthritis. Then not too long later it was recalled because it was causing very serious side effects causing other health problems. This medicine was recalled and now many vioxx lawyers are working to resolve the issues surrounding this medication.

I also learned in TV commercial about lawyers who are handling cases against seraquil that was causing diabetes. If I am not mistaken, I think that was used as an antidepressant medication.

This all makes me wonder since all the medications have to pass the FDA requirements before hitting the market how strict is their screening process and how well do they check for side effects? Also before the medicine can be presented to the FDA, it has to be thoroughly tested in the labs and clinical studies among volunteers. I can see if one or two prescription drugs slip through the cracks but now it seems as if too many are slipping through the cracks. Also there should never be any fraction of a percentage room for error since this is always involving a person's health and life as well.