I think I have decided on my New Year’s resolution for 2008 – I am going to start a new business.  Now, I am not sure what it is going to be, but I have decided that I need to start something.

I thought perhaps that starting an online business would be a good start, and from what online business information that I have read, it should be relatively inexpensive.  All I would really need is a new domain name, a new idea (I’ll have to figure that out), setup the website and then market it.  I purchased an online business guide that guides you step by step on how to create a successful online business and presence.  I’ll have to read it a bit more, so that I will know what to do.

My wife has also been gathering some business information about different home businesses that she could start.  She has done Mary Kay in the past, with little success, and she was thinking of something that caters to women, but not necessarily dealing with makeup.  She found a good home business reviews website and has been checking out some of the businesses there.  She has made a list of consultants in our area, and is going to arrange meetings with them.

So, I think by the end of the year, things will be looking up – we will have two businesses run out of our homes and hopefully enjoying the fruits of our labor.  Whether the businesses do well or poorly, it will definitely make for an interesting year.

Have you ever struggled between paychecks to get out of the house?  I know I have.  Sometimes it is a result of your vehicle breaking down, or other unexpected expenses.  Usually, the result is that the entertainment money goes to pay for the problem, leaving us with nothing left.  Instead of complaining about it, I decided that I would figure out some sort of alternative that was fun, but didn’t require us to leave our home.

We liked to go to the Casino in town and play card games, so I thought that I could find something online that would work.  A quick search for "casino games" resulted in many online game sites that had free games that we could try out.

While we were on one of these game sites, we found some classic games that we used to play as kids on our Nintendo – and we started playing them too.

Now, instead of going out, we stay in and take turns playing online games.  It is the kind of entertainment that we can afford.

I was a very young teenager when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was very manic and my parents and the doctors all struggled to get me under control. I have heard how hard it is to live with a teenager and I must have been a hundred times worse than the average fourteen year old girl. The doctors put me on a high dose of generic Zoloft to start with, but told my parents it would probably take trying a few different types of antidepressants before they would have success.

They were right. The Zoloft didn’t do me any good, and if you ask me, made me worse. The next thing they suggested was to order Prozac. This bothered me a lot because my friends and the kids at school made fun of people on Prozac, calling them all crazy. I couldn’t bear the thought of them finding out that I was taking it, so I refused.

The doctors then suggested that we buy Paxil. It was, at last, successful. I have been taking the same dose of Paxil for eight years now, and I am happy to say, that as long as I take it properly and never miss a dose, I am a happy, normal functioning adult.

I have met the most amazing man, and even though we have only known each other for four months, I am pretty sure that he is the one. The biggest problem that we have right now is that we live far apart.

Even though we decided that we would take things slow and get to know each other really well, I can’t help but looking at prices for homes in Greenville, SC. I know that moving to another state would be rather drastic, but I feel a pull on my heart that if we lived near each other, we would have a better opportunity to know one another on a deeper level.

I do not want to suggest that I would be willing to sell my current home and put in for a job transfer, for fear of scaring him, but I have never felt this way about anyone before. I think that I will at least talk to him about it and see where it goes from there.

I was looking the other day for Bellagio discounts, as my brother is getting married there in a few months. He has a block of rooms reserved, but I was sure I could get a better deal than he had and I made it my mission to try. He told me if I could get a better deal for his guests than he did, it was better than a wedding present. That sounded like a challenge to me.

I phoned a couple of travel agents and asked them about current Las Vegas hotel promotions. One place told me they had a whole list and would email it to me. I was pumped to see that the Bellagio was one of them and the discount was about 20% better than my brother had been offered.

I forwarded the list of Bellagio offer codes to my brother, instructing him how he could get his guests better rates than he had done himself.  Now, all I have to do is decide whether or not I should be getting him a wedding present – I would feel a bit guilty if I didn’t.

I just got back from having coffee with my friend, who just got a mobile home mortgage. Before the coffee, I figured that she was pretty silly to be getting herself caught up in something like that, as we are very young and can still live at home for next to nothing.

She explained to me that she got a great deal and that mobile homes are going pretty cheap. She said that she got a manufactured home mortgage loan and that she will be able to pay it off in five years, even while attending college. She is excited that when she is done school, she will have a place to live and not be scrambling like so many other college grads.

She said that the PMI mortgage that she has is going to give her much freedoms and when she does graduate, she will have a place to live that costs her next to nothing, and should she decide to go for a house then, she can sell this one to cover a hefty part of the down payment on a new home. Maybe she is not so silly after all.

I have been suffering from Asthma for many years now.  I have tried a slew of medications, with some of them working and others not working well.  Some of the side effects that I have suffered were horrible and uncomfortable.  I just recently returned from a trip at the doctor and he suggested that I buy Ephedrine.

He told me that many people have used Ephedrine for Asthma with few side effects.  He mentioned that I shouldn’t drink coffee or other products with caffeine while on the medication.  Thankfully, I don’t care for coffee, so it wouldn’t be a problem.

When I picked up my prescription, I noticed that the name on the bottle was Biotek Ephedrine.  I have been taking it for a few days now, and so far, so good.  I will have to watch for the side effects and talk to my doctor should I experience any, but I have a good feeling about this one.  I just hope I am right.

As we are awaiting the birth of our first child, we have been learning a lot about Medicare Part B. This pertains to insurance. We never had the type B insurance through Medicare because we never felt much need to have it. It is funny how perspectives change when you all of a sudden have a new little person to be responsible for. We suddenly had to think about things like broken bones and scrapes and cuts. We do know that children get hurt and sick and we need to be prepared for this.

It got us thinking a lot about Medicare Supplement Plans. I do not want to be stuck going into debt over the unexpected illness or injury of a child. Looking over all the forms, I even consider how lucky we have been to not have needed the coverage when we didn’t have it.

What actually prompted us to look into it was that my friend had to scrounge for diabetic supplies for her son when he was diagnosed and they didn’t have the coverage that they needed to pay for his supplies. It was then that I decided that I would be prepared if it happened with my child.

Let me tell you a little story about me not planning ahead.  It is full of tragedy (at least in one person’s opinion) and a lot of yelling and screaming.  The tale goes like this:

Last June it was my daughter’s Prom.  I wanted to make it a special event, so back in September I promised her that I would get her a NYC Limo Rental – and she was so excited.  Problem was, I forgot to make any reservations through any of the many New York Limousine Rental companies.

So, when June rolled around and I was ready to take her to the Prom in our station wagon with wood paneling, she started yelling at me.  Between her sobs and yelling all I could hear was "Prom Limousine New York" and some other choice words that I won’t mention here.

Crap!

I guess I forgot.  I tried to phone around to get her a limo, but no luck: I was too late.  Needless to say, she has never forgot that I forgot her limo – and she rubs it in all the time.  So, a note to you other fathers out there – don’t forget to book your daughter’s prom limo, or you’ll regret it.  I sure do.

My friends all had Croc shoes and couldn’t stop talking about how comfortable they were. I am not usually one to jump on the bandwagon, but I thought if they were as great as everyone said, maybe I was missing out by not owning a pair. So, I gave into peer pressure and I bought some.

The pair that I bought happened to be called All Terrain Crocs. They were very comfortable at first. They probably would have continued to be comfortable if they hadn’t fallen apart after two days. My friend urged me to take them back and get new ones. I took them back alright, but it wasn’t for new shoes. I wanted my money back.

They would not give me my money back and actually said that I must have abused the shoes for them to fall apart like that. I was so mad, I stormed out of the store and decided that I would never do anything again just because all of my friends did. My new shoe experience was a real Croc. No pun intended!