I remember when I had a house and I had a car and I had a real future. In fact, it was a time not too long ago. It all changed in a split second when I fell asleep at the wheel of my car and hit another car in a head on collision. That is the day that I wish my life would have ended.

I was not that lucky though. I was close, but they managed to save my life. I was in a coma for three days and then was in the hospital for another seven weeks, until I could function as a normal human being again.

I sold my house and my car and it did not even put a small dent into my medical bills. I knew that I should have bought medical insurance when I had the chance, but now it was too late. The one thing I was lucky enough to do was to avoid hurting anyone in the car that I hit.

Take it from me, if you feel too tired to drive than just don’t do it. I will be paying for this mistake for the rest of my life.

If you haven’t noticed, this site has a radically different design than it did a few months ago.  It was about time that something changed because the old design was old and ugly.

Changing a website design is never easy.  There are so many things to think about besides the graphics you are going to use.  There is the layout, navigation structure, text color, and many other things to consider.

I enlisted the help of a New York Web Design company to help make sure that I didn’t forget anything.  There is nothing worse than forgetting something and losing customers because of it.

But they were very professional, and helped me out immensely.  I was surprised at the final product as it was better than I was expecting.

Now, I think this blog has the right look with a design that will last for years to come.  I am thankful that I had some professionals to help me finalize my web design.

For the last five years or so, I have been on an adult basketball league.  We play once or twice per week from September to May.  It is my ticket out of the house and a break from my children.

But, last week, I sprained my ankle while playing.  Unfortunately for me, that means I won’t be playing for at least a couple of weeks, but I still have that need to get out of the house.

Thankfully, my teammates have pooled their money together to buy NBA tickets.  They thought that even getting cheap NBA tickets and being able to watch basketball would put a smile on my face.

And they were right.

Those NBA tickets they bought were great.  I had never watched real, NBA basketball in real life.  Sure, it sucked that I couldn’t play, but sitting there, watching the game, was almost as good as the real thing.

I have been saddened lately by the condition of my photographs.  You see, I have some pictures of when I was a child, and I have pictures of when my parents were children.  I take them out from time to time to look at them and reminisce.

But, when I took them out a couple of days ago, some of the older pictures are starting to yellow.  Right there, in that moment I was saddened that the pictures were not going to last as long as I had hoped.  I knew I needed to do something sooner as opposed to later, as each day was taking its’ tool on the photographs.

I rushed down to the local photo store to see if they had any suggestions for me.  What I was told over the course of the next ten minutes is that I should put my photos onto canvas.

Isn’t that what artists paint on?

You bet.  But the compelling reason was that your photograph would last nearly forever and wouldn’t degrade in the same fashion as photo paper.

That was enough for me.  I have a batch there at the moment, and I am interested to see the final result.  But, if it does what they say it will do, this will definitely be the best decision I have made in a long time.

With my apparent love of Squidoo obvious (if you haven’t noticed), I thought that I would be satisfied with my life completely.  But, I came across another site that I had never heard of - Hubpages.com.  Now, checkout these two lenses that I looked at - it looks like they are easier to implement than Squidoo.

• If you are looking for Free Spyware Removal Software, I think I have found a good resource for you.  Simple and to the point, you can find the best two offerings on the market in one simple place.
• I personally use a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and found the Five Uses for an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to be very informative.  Who knew that you could use one on a fish tank?

As investors we are faced with many different types of investments that we can invest in.  Everything from stocks, bond, mutual funds and other investments are at our fingertips.  Some of them offer good returns with little risk, while others are really not worth the time.

For me, one of my favorite investments is real estate.  There are many types of investments that you can find including single homes, apartments, and commercial property to name a few.  But out of all the different types of investments, it is real estate that gets me excited for a number of reasons.

Perhaps the biggest reason to invest in real estate is that it is an investment that you can see.  If I want to see the house I invested in, all I have to do is drive there and take a look.  It is as simple as that.

There is always a need for real estate as well.  Someone will always need a place to live or an office for their business.  This constant demand means that if I buy something today, chances are someone will need what I have tomorrow.

Historically, real estate values have continuously gone up over the long term.  That means that even though I am getting cash flow today, if I do sell it in the future, chances are I will make a profit on the sale as well.

It is for the above reasons that I love real estate – and that is why you should be investing in real estate too.

We recently purchased a new puppy and my children are so very excited.  I have never had a dog in my life, and it will be a new experience for me too.  My wife did grow up with them so we will be relying on her expertise when it comes to puppy care.

Today we went to the local pet supplies store to get those needed accessories for our new puppy.  I was amazed at the number of different types of things that you could get for your dog including houses, clothing, and even specialized doggie dishes.

But the real reason that we were there was to pick up some rawhide for Missy to chew and some dog toys for her to play with.  We also picked up a bag of dog food and then we were out the door.

I am beginning to wonder if this was a smart idea – it seems like we are going to be spending a lot of money on our new pet.

Alright, this is getting a bit tough to rhyme each title, but so far, things have worked out okay.  Let’s take a look at a couple of lenses I looked at yesterday from a couple of my good friends.

• I have heard a lot about Max Lucado, but to be honest I didn’t know anything about him.  But I was able to learn everything I needed to know about him at this lens - and he seems to be a remarkable person.
• For you ladies out there (and maybe a couple of gentlemen), if you are into scrapbooking, you should check out some of these free scrapbooking layouts.  They should be easy to do (instructions included) to make some good looking pages.  I bet my wife would love it!

After checking out Squidoo for the first time, I was hooked.  I mean, what a cool idea - you can make a web page that can make you money in just ten minutes (in theory).  Check out these other lenses that I thought I should mention:

• If you need a little website promotion, consider using a free link directory or two.  It takes just a couple of minutes to create a listing and get a free backlink.  The lens shows a couple of great resources of where to find them.
• I had mentioned free proxy servers in an earlier post - and I found a Squidoo lens that reinforces what I talked about here.
• Need some new laptop accessories?  I know I do.  There was a big laptop accessories clearance on there and I picked up a new battery.

Most of the time I plan things at the last minute.  If you want to get a good idea of how I plan for things, I am usually out Christmas shopping on December 24th for my first trip.

Some things need to change when you get married though.  You do have to remember to get gifts and remember important dates like birthdays and anniversaries.  Trust me, I learned my lesson when I forgot our first one!

So, this year, I thought that I would plan ahead and arrange something early.  I figured I wouldn’t forget if I remembered early (in theory).  This year I have a good idea of what to get her: tickets to The Sound of Music.

She has wanted to see that musical in real life for as longs as I have known her, but it has never come to town.  But it is in the fall, which would be close enough to our anniversary that we could make it a date.  I bet she will be very happy when she sees what I got her - and especially the fact that I didn’t forget.