It is time to retire our old, chipped bathroom suite.  It is the same one we have had for years, and it is time for a change.  The tub and sink are both chipped, and they look like they came out of the 1970s.

So, today we went out to see what was available.  I felt overwhelmed by the number of selections I had at my disposal – it had been some time since I went shopping for anything to do with our home.  It was nice too that it was a chance for me and my wife to spend some time together.

Unfortunately, our time that we were spending together turned into a disagreement.  You see, I liked the whirlpool baths a lot, and I thought that is what we should get for our new bathroom.  But, she loved the shower baths more.  She argued her points and I argued mine, but in the end, we ended up in a stale mate.

So, we didn’t end up buying anything today, and now we will have to discuss our options.  Now that I have seen what is available, I hope we can come to an agreement soon – our old bathroom just disgusts me now.

I had no idea about the vast variety of cell phone ringtones that were available in this day and age. I have had a cell phone for years, but for me, it has always been about function and I have never really thought of it as a toy or electronic music player.

I just bought a new phone, as my other was obsolete about eight years ago. I was surprised to find all of the different Motorola ringtones that were already on my phone. It prompted me to look a bit further into this musical phone business. I am so old fashioned.

I went to my phone company’s website and found a ton of Verizon ringtones that could be downloaded. I didn’t immediately download any, and I am a bit disappointed in my curiosity about this nonsense, but I like some of the tones that are offered and maybe it is time for me to step out of boring and live a little bit.

Sometimes it amazes me how fast each year goes by.  It seems like it was just yesterday, and that we just rolled around to 2007.  But, like every other year, time just keeps on moving forward.

Tonight we are meeting with our insurance broker to discuss our life insurance policy.  We usually do this once per year as things might change, or their maybe an increase or decrease in our policy.  We have only been dealing with our broker for about three years now and he has been alright – though not as good as we would like.

So, we just make sure that we find out all the insurance information that we need before he comes over.  We just want to make sure that we have a list of questions for him – to test whether or not he knows the right answer.  This way we can tell if it is worth listening to the words coming out of his mouth or not.

He is coming later tonight, and I think all we have to do is increase our term life insurance coverage to ensure that our kids are provided for if we should die.  It will be interesting to see what he’ll try and sell to us this time…

I am going on a trip to Europe with my young daughter and I have to admit that I am more than a little bit nervous. It is going to be both for business and pleasure, but as we are on a tight budget, I am looking to cut corners as much as I can. That is why, when I was booking our hotel, I asked about cheap car hire Italy.

That was to be our first stop and I wanted to be able to get where I needed to be without having to pay a lot. I also enquired about cheap car hire Switzerland, as that was our second stop. I wanted to know if this was something I could book in advance or if I had to wait until I got there.

When I called about the cheap car hire Ireland, I was told I could book in advance and that they would even meet our flight and take us to our hotel. I thought that this was a good deal and I would feel safe doing this. I am still nervous about the trip, but things are starting to come together for us.

Now, it may seem strange that someone would befriend their landlord, but they are people too.  In fact, I am friends with my first landlord that I had over ten years ago – and we make every effort to keep in touch.  Today I had the chance to sit down with George and discuss how things were going.

George really likes to talk about his job – both in a positive and negative way.  Almost every time we get together he complains about having to do landlord tenant referencing and finding new tenants.

Now, he doesn’t stop there.  Next he talks about having to check tenant history on his quest for that perfect tenant.  He also has to brag about his record of successfully picking good tenants 95% of the time – he compares himself to an artist.

After about a half hour of talking about his work, we get to talk about his grandchildren and his family.  I find you can learn a lot from someone who has made it through your stage of life and I can usually pickup a nugget or two of wisdom from our little chats.

Like always, we setup the next date that we would get together and we part ways.  I do quite enjoy having coffee with my old landlord.

I currently volunteer my time at a local high school, teaching evening website building classes. The school is for inner-city kids, who would not normally have opportunities to learn these kinds of things. In my class this week, I was telling them about article submission.

I thought, if these kids can build websites, why not also teach them to promote them and make themselves a little bit of money. Even if they don’t make money from it, it will give them knowledge, should they decide to make this a career path in the future. To me, link building is a part of website design and that is the way I teach it.

In fact, I was thinking about making up a separate class just on SEO. I think many of my current students would be interested and it would be a great learning experience for me, as well, to learn how to not only utilize the skills I have learned, but to teach others to utilize them as well.

I had the great opportunity of getting together and discussing the job of foreclosure assistance with a colleague of my father’s today. It is something that greatly interests me, as I feel it is always a worthwhile job when you can help someone out of financial ruin.

I learned that by going with PMI Insurance when you take out a mortgage, it is a lot easier to qualify for help if it ever comes down to it. I love learning these kinds of things, because I have not purchased my first home yet, and the more knowledge I have, the better equipped I will feel when that time does come.

We also had a chance to talk about life insurance and I will definitely go with term insurance to ensure that my loved ones will be taken care of if I pass away. The knowledge is one reason why I love to get together and discuss with my father’s various partners and colleagues.

I know it seems to be late in the year, but recently, some of us at work formed a bowling league.  The goal of the bowling league was to get some social time in with my co-workers, as well as brand recognition for our company.

You see, we were going to get custom T shirts for our team – but we thought we could get the company to sponsor us.  So, I setup a meeting with George (our boss) and he liked the idea.  With the funding under our belt, we needed to find a company that would allow us the option to design your own T shirt.

After a quick search online, we found a company that had an option to make your own T shirt.  After a number of revisions, we came up with a unique design that had our team logo (we were the Hawks) and had our sponsors logo on it as well.

We have had a lot of compliments about our shirts, and people definitely recognize us when we come in the room.  Now, if we could only bowl as good as our shirts look – but that will come with time.

While I was in a gaming forum the other day, I decided that I really needed to upgrade my laptop and decided to start looking around and listening in on discussions about what was available today and what others thought was best suited for the types of things that I use my computer for.

It was suggested that I look into purchasing a laptop from a local India gadget store. A close computer acquaintance of mine had just purchased one there and was thrilled with both the laptop and the price that he received it for. I thought it was definitely something that I should look into a little bit further.

I went to the gadget India website and got some information on the different laptops that they suggested. It was very informative and helped me to make an informed decision. I decided on a final product in the end and am in the process of purchasing it.