Parents Prepare to Be Hit by a School Bus

When Spring arrives and finally dismisses the damp misery of winter there’s a great sense of potential and a promise of better things. This is reflected in the annual ritual of graduation that overwhelms half the nation a few weeks later.

With a level of pomp and pageantry way beyond the scale of the achievement, teenagers enable an orgy of back-slapping for merely finishing high school. And you’d better bring gifts. Today, they’d expect a new iPad rather than something sane and enduring like charm bracelets.

Personally, I think the whole scene’s bizarre, thinly veiled greed. Yet there’s no such indulgence when those same kids leave college…Why is that?

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We Rise from the Ashes

If you believe the media, the worst of this recession is over. People are supposedly starting new businesses and jobs are slowly returning to areas of this wonderful nation that were almost crushed by the effects of the down-turn.

The snag is organizing all the elements needed just to open the doors. Finding staff is unlikely to be a hardship, but the minutiae of starting a firm and all the rules on work safety can grate on your nerves; Everything from clean air and fair hours to cord management for your businesses’ tech. The forms never end.

If you survive it all, you deserve all the success you ever get…

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The Stork needs better merchandise

Early Spring is the most popular time of year for being born, and despite generations of practice it’s troubling to see how many people still have problems deciding on gifts for the parents.

Clothes seem to be the most popular [easy] option, but if you know an upcoming mom, give her something thoughtful like personalized kids blankets. It’s a safe bet she’d love it and really appreciate the thought and time involved.

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How do you cope with Stress?

Life is stress. It’s that simple. Your job drives you nuts, your coworkers are crazy, the boss doesn’t care, and the traffic you sit in for what seems like hours every day just to get to the office gets worse by the week. But what can you do?

Some people try yoga, others get involved in weekend sports to work off the tension, and some sit cross-legged in front of outdoor water fountains contemplating the mysteries of life….or something like that.

Almost any solution is better than pills, but what do you use?

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Live in North Carolina for Less

The scale of foreclosures in the past five years or so is obscene and upsetting, but for some folks it’s been a chance to secure a beautiful [almost] new home in some wonderful areas. Bank-owned homes are big business among savvy investors, but the regular Joe on the street who is looking for a new place can also find some great homes being sold this way.

All the homes are sold ‘as is,’ which means you get to pay for any repairs, and you don’t get any furniture, but the prices mean you can get into a nice home at quite a bit less than the usual sticker price. Outer Banks homes in North Carolina are one good example.

If you like the glorious Carolina scenery check a few listings and see if you need to make some moving plans. A lot of folks did.

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Amber Waves of Indifference

This country boasts some of the most stunning natural landscapes you could ever imagine, but most people drive right past them and don’t even grab a picture. If you have the intellectual caliber to enjoy all the majesty on offer, slip on some suitable outdoor gear like sierra designs, leave the keys and the roads behind you and get out out in the wilds and explore.

There is a level of natural beauty out there that will leave you speechless. Try walking ten blocks from your house and see if I’m wrong…

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How do you beat the heat?

Although what passes for Winter in this area is very similar to the rest of the year the arrival of Summer is still easy to detect. The temperatures go from 70 to 100+ in a weekend, the humidity goes right up as well and everything in your wardrobe becomes instantly unwearable.

Days like today, where it’s 86”F in the shade, make you long for the chance to sit somewhere cool, with a glass of iced tea and a bubbling water fountain to keep the heat down. What’s your favorite way to beat the heat?

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Spring Cleaning My World

For the last few months my home has been looking pretty basic, but life is about to improve and I’m thinking this needs to be reflected in where I hang my hat every night. Getting your home dressed right is a trial, and finding furniture that’s both good quality and made with attractive materials, like p kaufmann fabric is pretty hard in a sector of retail that’s unpleasantly obsessed with discounts and mass-market appeal.

Sometimes you deserve the good stuff in life and that’s where I’m focused. The gray days are over. It’s time for some well-deserved color in life…

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Pools of Delight

It’s with no small sense of relief that I’m noticing clear signs of the oncoming Summer. This fall and winter were pretty rough for our family this year and the prospect of warmer days and long evenings is way more than welcome.

This is the time of year when folks gather around the pool and sip Margaritas, and that’s on my to-do list – you can bet on it. Children need to watched when there’s a pool nearby but you can solve that with a pool fence AZ is a great place for pool parties, but California works pretty well too.

Get those tall glasses ready, folks. We’ve done Winter and lived to tell about it. Now let’s get us some Summer time fun…

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Summer is Here…But is it There?

Well, kids, I think it can safely be judged that – here in Central California at least – Summer is already in place. The mercury is not nudging 110″F…yet, but the garden chairs, funny t shirts and flip-flops are out of the closets and people are starting to head for the beach and forget the whole ‘winter’ thing. The nights are now milder and the mornings bring sunlight instead of clouds.

But some part of the nation are still in a seasonal flux. What’s your neighborhood like?

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