Happy at Home

What's that old saying? "Travel the world and find happiness in your own back yard." or something like that.

It's so good to see green! (grass and trees that is ... money is another story) The weather has been gorgeous. It's a perfect 76 degrees outside right now. And, everywhere we turn, we see another old friend. I went to my Women's Executive Club luncheon the other day and got so many hugs! Some of these women I've known for 25 years.

I do like Florida. People always ask us about our favorite places in our travels. Southern Utah is gorgeous, Austin Texas is a surprisingly nice city, the wide open spaces and mountains of Wyoming are awe-inspiring, Long Beach Island New Jersey is fun, and California's Central coast is probably my favorite. But Florida ranks up there at the top for liveability and natural beauty. It's the only place warm enough for me in the winter time. It's the only place in this country where you can go kayak diving in warm water. Too bad it's so crowded ... I wonder why ...

Speaking of diving. We volunteered with our Kayuba dive club to work at the Ocean Fest event this weekend.

The event is held right on Fort Lauderdale beach: My mom, Marilyn and her brother, my Uncle John, were also volunteers; Jim took a little time off to enjoy the sights: I'm sure looking forward to a kayak dive soon. We've been awfully busy so far though. Jim is working in the office here at Paradise Island 3 days/week. I had four different appointments this week with old clients and new. 2 for website work, 1 for database programming, and one for good ole computer tutoring. And, in my spare time, I'm trying to get our Geeks on Tour website ready to become a membership website. That's my long term plan for making a living. I'm working on new video tutorials for Photostory 3 and for Windows Vista. When I get them done, I believe there is enough value there to start charging for the videos. Oh - one last thing - I added a 'shoutbox' to the right sidebar here. This is an easier way for you to leave comments on this blog. I first saw the shoutbox on George's blog and really liked it. btw - George has been blogging from Mexico for the last few months - wonderful stories and photos - check it out. He's going to Tulum today. Today, I noticed a shoutbox on Froggi Donna's blog and hers fit in the sidebar. So - I went and got my own. Leave a note and see how you like it. You need to create a name to post under, but that's all. It's *really* easy.

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Investment Conference with Mom

I did my share of investing when tech stocks were hot in 1997-2000. That was fun. When they crashed in 2000-01 ... not so much. I never did learn when to sell. I really haven't cared much for investing since then. But, investing conferences are great. In order to learn what to invest in, you need to learn about what is going on around the world. Some of it is not so good ... shortage of water, food and oil is a major theme now. In investment-speak that means that commodities are hot. The other theme is emerging economies ... the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China. They are all becoming more free, and with more freedom comes more economic growth. In investment-speak, that means own global stocks. But, the best part of the conference was getting to spend this much time with my Mom. Even though we were in a hotel in St. Pete, Florida - it felt like we were traveling. We watched a piano recital by a Russian pianist, learned about resort properties in Nicaragua, and enjoyed a wine tasting of Argentinian wine. It was a beautiful hotel: We were in meeting rooms, listening to speakers most of the time, but we took a walk around the block a couple times and took a picture of each other: (more pictures if you click on any of those above) I love traveling. I mostly travel around this country, but thanks to Mom I have traveled to Chile, Ecuador, Turkey, China, and Borneo. Mom travels the world and she takes video when she travels. I help her edit the video and post short clips like this one of Namibia or this one of Bhutan. One of my goals for this stay is to help her edit the video of her last two trips; Central America and China-to-Tibet by train. We gotta get that done before she takes off on her next trip ... to western Australia. I had a great time being out of the RV world for a few days, and in the world of investing possibilities. I may have even learned enough to put my toe back in the investing waters - they taught us about a portfolio strategy so simple, you only have to trade once a year. Thanks Mom!

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Lobster Fest

Chris and her Mom are in St. Pete for a conference, so it is up to me to do the fun stuff.

Dr. Ray has a party this time every year. Ray is an Icon in the diving community and the guest list is a veritable who's-who of South Florida divers. We've known Dr. Ray for many years because of our membership in the USA Dive Club.

The main dish is lobster, of course. Pork Bar-B-Que, Stuffed Shells, Lasagne, salads and more are on the menu. Not to mention the desserts. Yummm.

The best thing is getting together with folks young and older, who we have known for quite a while.

Thanks, all.

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Hotels

I'm staying at a hotel for a few days attending an investment conference with my Mom. I left Jim at home with Odie. Mom and I are in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was about a 4 hour drive.

Do you find that the cost of Internet service is directly proportional to the cost of the accomodations? This is an expensive hotel, and the in-room Internet service costs $15/day!!

I had to have Internet today in order to get my weekly article for RV.net posted, so I paid the $15. But, I probably won't do another day, so you won't hear from me till I get back to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.

By pure coincidence, my article is about Online Banking. And, here I am listening to speakers talk about the great things available to investors online!

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Four Generations

If it weren't for the little ones, we might not even know that time has passed! But, check it out - the last time we saw Jim's grandson, AJ - he had not yet taken his first step. Now he's a little over 1 1/2 years old and he's zooming around on those two legs! And, 'Gramps' is back on all fours :-) He's going to be a heartbreaker, dontcha think? Brad Pitt move over. You hear how much grandparents spoil the little ones ... that's nothing compared to Great Grandparents! ooohh - what a bad influence?!

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