Car repairs are not fun

Especially when you don't have faith in the shop working on your car. I've been searching around for a repair site and I found a auto body falls church shop. They specialize in auto body repair which isn't quite what I'm looking for right now. But it pays to look for an expert in their field when you need someone to work on your car. You don't want some fly by night company that may not do a good job. You want your car returned in pre-accident condition.

Check them out for your car repair needs.

Date night

I was sitting here watching tv and I saw the advertisement for a new movie that's coming out. It made me realize that I haven't been to a movie in while. We usually go out during the day to eat and go shopping. But we haven't had a real date in quite some time. You know the whole dress up and go out thing.

I think it's time for that again.

People who make a difference

Having a positive influence in your life can make all of the difference in the world. Most often that influence comes in the forms of parents and teachers. It can also come from a person like Norberto Diaz. Bert is a former Latin musician who is now a principal in New Jersey. He uses music to motivate and inspire students. When you meet someone who is enthusiastic about what they do, it's easy to be inspired by them.

Bert is now an administrator but he was a k-8 public school teacher. As a multi-lingual educator (he speaks Spanish, Portuguese and English) he was quickly able to gain the trust of both parents and students. Read his blog to find out more about him. Who knows, he may be one of your child's favorite people.

I forgot to buy shirts

We went shopping yesterday and I forgot to get shirts. I need new t-shirts for the weekend. I have jeans and jean shorts but I don't have any t-shirts to wear. All of the ones that I do have are over 3 years old and most of them look like I've had them that long.

Most of them are faded or have stains. One or two have holes but I just wear them around the house. It's time for new shirts. I'll probably get them next weekend.

A new way for me to exercise

No wonder teenagers are so thin. Their metabolism is already low but most of them are riding skateboards for fun. I'm thinking what kind of fun would it be if I fell. But teens are able to stay on these things and do all kinds of tricks. Have you seen them lately? They have these half pikes built out of wood in their backyards and they ride up and down on them all day long. Sometimes they do spins and back flips but I can't watch. I just keep thinking about them falling and getting hurt.

It looks like it would be a great way to get exercise but too strenuous for me. I know the kids love them though. They even have their own skateboarder gear in the malls. I may buy the clothes, but no skateboards for me. I'll leave that to the neighborhood teens and I'll continue to watch. With my eyes covered of course.

Money making opportunities

I've been making small amounts of money from a lot of sources. The bad thing is that most of them require a minimum to cash out and I'm not even close. I think once I get to the minimum and cash out, I'll drop a few of them. When I think about it, it's not worth the time I've been putting into them for the little bit of money that I get.

Now is a great time to shop for a mortgage

The mortgage meltdown is causing a lot of people to panic. For people like me that have been on the sidelines, this may present a great buying opportunity. Homes almost everywhere in the U.S. are overpriced. Now with the bubble bursting, they're coming down to normal levels.

People like me that have been sitting on the sidelines have a great chance to jump in and buy property. Even mortgage rates are cooperating. They're not as low as they were but they're still at a respectable level. I still have another year of school left but I'm keeping an eye on rates. When I'm done and I'm ready to buy, I want to make sure I get the best rate possible.

Summer shopping

I need to buy some new summer clothes. I don't have any skirts or capri pants to wear. It was hot a couple of weeks ago and this week it's normal temperatures. I need to get to a mall and get some things while there still on sale. I don't want to wait too long or everything will sell out.

I wish I had more money to invest in gold

If I weren't taking classes right now I would invest in precious metals. I would buy silver, gold and platinum. I would focus on gold however. Gold was recently selling for over $1000 per ounce. I went to a few garage/yard sales and saw plenty of junk and scrap gold being sold for less than $1.00 per piece. You could spend a buck and get several pieces. For less than $50 you could have accumulated over an ounce of gold and sold for a heck of a profit.

Since I'll be in school and I don't have time to go to garage or yard sales, I'll stick with a company like Monex to buy gold from. I'll buy gold coins or ingots as future investments. If I needed them to, Monex would even hold the gold for me. However, I'll put them in my safe deposit box since I have one.

Now I just hope that the price of gold keeps increasing.

School is paid for

For this semester anyway. I have a one month reprieve then I have to start paying for the fall. The thing that stinks about that is that I don't even know if I'm taking 1 or 2 classes in the fall. I'm already enrolled in one class and I'm trying to get into another class. I could also change my work schedule just in case the second class is closed and I can take a English class.

All I keep thinking is that I'm almost done.

John and his medical drama

2 weeks ago one of John's eyes started swelling. First it was under the left eye. Then it was the right top lid and then under the right eye. He went to the eye doctor and it's allergies of all things. It's scary because the last thing you want to mess with is your vision. The doctor went through his medical drug reference software and came up with 3 different drugs for him to take. Actually it was 2 drugs and an eye cream.

The doctor actually pulled out his pda and made sure the 3 drugs wouldn't interact with each other before he finished writing the prescription. He was probably using software by Epocrates. With Epocrates software downloaded onto a pda or smartphone, a doctor can immediately access the information needed to make prescribing decisions – such as drug dosing, side effects and health plan coverage. Unfortunately John's coverage didn't pay for the eye cream but it did pay for the two pills.

His eyes are clearing up now and I'm glad that everything is back to normal. Now we just have to figure out what he's allergic to.


This announcement was paid for by Epocrates

Is it the weekend yet?!?!

I can't wait until Saturday. I'm so tired with work and school. This class is very challenging, time-consuming and interesting all at the same time. The only problem is that since it's only 6 weeks long, you have a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time.

I finished my book last night around midnight. It's due today. Only 2 more weeks and then I can enjoy the rest of the summer.

Do you follow your horoscope?

Do you follow your horoscope? Do you believe the things that it says. I know some days it seems like the advice was made just for me and is targeted strictly to me. There is a facebook page where you can follow your Biotrend - Facebook Horoscope. If you believe in astrology this page is a must read. It's very interesting and you won't be disappointed in it.

Give it a try and then come back and tell me how accurate it is. Spooky isn't it?

3 classes left

I was talking to a coworker this morning about school. She said that she was done the first week of July. That made me stop and think about it. I only have 3 classes left. Of course, in that time I have another quiz with a book due and the final. In addition to about 5 or so readings. She did cut down a few of the readings.

I will be so glad when this is over.

Searching for money for school

I use the internet for everything, especially if it's education-related. I work full-time so it's often difficult to do things before or after work. Most places have the ubiquitious 9-5 hours. Considering that's the bulk of my day, it's the internet to the rescue. Searching for college scholarships is not exception. I look online at least once a week for scholarships.

The search engine at Scolarship.com takes your information and tailors it's results to your specific situation. That makes it easier to use because you know you qualify for everything it brings back. Even though I can't find anything for me right now, there's are two contests to win scholarship money. Even if I don't find a scholarship elsewhere, I can at least enter these two.

Any money I can get would be awesome because school is expensive.

We didn't get our midterms back

I was expecting to get our midterm exams back last night. Once we got to class the professor told us that we would get them back next Tuesday. After that we have a quiz on Tuesday. Then the final two Thursday's from now. I've been doing fairly well in the class up until the midterm. I could have pulled out a high B. Now I'm looking at a low B.

As long as I pass I'll be happy with whatever grade I get.

Have you signed up for Social Spark yet?

I know I did. I was actually a little disappointed that it took me so long to get accepted into SocialSpark. But it was definitely worth the wait. You do know what Social Spark is right? Here I am rambling on and you don't know what I'm talking about.

First was PayPerPost. Then the team decided to expand and the main company became IZEA. Then the IZEA team decided that they wanted to come up with a product that wouldn't affect the search engines. They decided that no-following links would work. But some advertisers still wanted the all might page rank. So the team decided that they would keep PPP and start a new company. That's when SocialSpark was born. The advertisers still get a great way to advertise their sites, and the search engines don't get manipulated by the links.

But that's not even the best part. The best part is that they'll pay you for your blog posts. If your blog is 90 old with regular posts you probably qualify. Need more to get convinced? There's an awesome blogging community that stands by IZEA. You can ask questions about the site, get somebody to help you with your blog or blogging problems or just chat in general. I'm sure the message board is my favorite feature because I spend so much time there. I've met some great people and found some awesome blogs that I wouldn't have ordinarily found.

If you're not a member of SocialSpark you should really get over there and sign up now.

One of my friends works with me now

I'm pretty cool with T. She just started in the area that I work in but she has a different job function. I feel bad for her because I know the pace of this job is going to get her at first. Our old jobs were go, go, go all the time. This job is really laid back and smooth for the most part. So it will be a real adjustment.

I hope she likes it here. I need more people to talk to.

Stimulating my jewelry box

I hardly ever buy myself really nice things. I mean I do buy stuff for myself like clothes and shoes and the occasional purse. But that stuff is mostly for work anyway. It's not like I buy nice trinkets, iwc watches, or designer shoes.

The economic stimulus check is going to change that for me. I still have a little money left over from my check that I'm going to use to buy something nice for myself. I love jewelry but I don't get to buy it very often. My last purchase was some diamond stud earrings while I was on vacation...last year. They were inexpensive but very pretty.

I was cruising around the Vialuxe website and saw some awesome jewelry including this really pretty bangle bracelet. It's pretty plain, just a simple band of gold. But it's 18kt and really rich looking if you know what I mean. There is something so elegant about 18kt gold jewelry. It has a different look and texture to it than regular 14kt gold.

I decided that if I'm going to shell out money for jewelry, I'm going to make sure it's a piece that will get noticed. I don't want to be noticed for some outrageous design, but I do want to be noticed for a great piece of jewelry.

Did you try to win that IPOD?

In my last post, I talked about a survey to win a IPOD. You answer the survey questions and get entered into a random drawing? When you're eligible for things like this do you enter? I usually do. I've won some good things from surveys and sweepstakes.

I used to enter a lot more often but now I just enter things online. I love to win too! I just wish I did it more often.