Posted by Spaycial on September 27, 2009
Being self-employed, I find the hardest thing is scheduling time off. Oh, a day can get away from you pretty easily, and by the end of the day you might find you haven’t gotten done as much as you’d wanted — but that’s not the same thing as taking a vacation. I may have a problem with slacking off sometimes, but when I try to take a vacation, I have the opposite problem — I end up working for half of it.
This morning my mom left for Pittsburgh to visit my grandfather, which is why this is on my mind right now — it’s been a while since I’ve visited, simply because I’ve found it so hard to schedule the time off. I really sould visit soon — my grandfather is pretty frail. For some years now, he’s suffered from some significant hearing loss. I think he actually tunes out a lot of what goes on around him, because even with a hearing aid, he doesn’t seem to pick up on much. He was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years back, which I’m sure contributes to his habit of tuning everything out.
Perhaps it’s lucky that I’m headed for a slowdown in my workload — I’m always the busiest through the summer, and always the slowest in the winter. If I work with my schedule, perhaps I will find it a little easier to schedule time to go out and visit my grandfather this winter!
Technorati Tags: Alzheimer's, hearing aid, hearing loss
Posted by Spaycial on July 28, 2009
When you are planning a wedding in another city or state, or even farther away, you are most likely going to need help — someone local to be your middleman (or woman).
This is a great job for — you guessed it — a wedding planner! Hiring a wedding planner in the city where you are going to get married can be a huge help, giving you someone local as well as an insider, who can assist you in lining up everything from catering to photography.
For instance, if you are planning a Fiji wedding, it would really help you to have someone local, who is familiar with the venues, caterers, and other businesses in the area who do weddings. For instance, a wedding planner based in Fiji can suggest and help you reserve rooms at a Fiji hotel, can tell you who the best caterers, florists, and photographers in the area are, and might even be able to get you a discount by recommending service providers that they work with regularly.
All of this can help prevent you, the bride, from getting too stressed by trying to plan an out-of-town wedding. So in addition to the valuable suggestions and assistance, you also will be less stressed and more pleasant to be around for your groom and the rest of your friends and family.
Obviously there are a lot of good reasons to hire a local wedding planner. Unless you have friends or family who live in the city where you are planning to get married, and who can help you out, a local wedding planner is virtually a necessity.
Technorati Tags: Fiji hotel, Fiji wedding, wedding planner
Posted by Spaycial on July 26, 2009
While the “supercenter” approach has become quite popular lately — you know, the “get it all in one place” idea — in truth there are a lot of areas of your life where you will want to specialize a little bit.
One example is in pet care. A vet is not a groomer is not a trainer is not a doggie daycare.
Got it?
There are a lot of different businesses that specialize in providing a certain service for your dog or cat. Your vet keeps your pet healthy, your groomer cleans and clips them as necessary, your trainer teaches them how to behave, and a daycare service keeps them occupied and happy during the day when you’re at work.
I know a lot of people tend to muddle these things all together, but don’t be tempted to do so. Your vet is a great person to see about your Cavalier King Charles spaniel’s health, but don’t expect them to do a show-quality grooming job (unless they have a groomer on staff, which is different). Likewise, most dogs find daycare to be a lot of fun, and wouldn’t even notice that you’d even left them there while you went on vacation — whereas they would be completely miserable boarded at the vet’s.
As you can see, there are some very good reasons not to go for the “supercenter” approach when it comes to your pets. See the right specialty service provider for what your cat or dog needs, and everyone will be the happier for it!
Technorati Tags: Cavalier King Charles spaniel, doggie daycare
Posted by BuzzSpecialist on July 15, 2009
When the time comes to find the best web hosting you can afford, how do you go about doing it? One of the first things you’ll want to do is a little research online to learn about some of the best rated web hosting providers that are within your price range. Be prepared for overwhelm when you start checking into these things, however, as there are literally tens of thousands of companies that offer web site hosting.
But you want affordable web hosting and you want it provided to you by a company that stands behind their service offerings. There is absolutely nothing worse than setting up your new website on a hosting platform, and when you least expect it, your site is down, the provider is nowhere to be found. In a nutshell, you’re stuck in a sea of desperation with nothing to hang on and float with.
By securing some of the best web hosting your business budget can afford, you will be ensured that not only will your ISP be there when you need assistance, but the chances of your company needing that assistance is far less with a well capitalized hosting provider. At the end of the day, if you’re paying for services that you are not receiving, you might as well run your Internet budget through a shredder and deposit it right in the trash.
Technorati Tags: best rated web hosting, best web hosting
Posted by Spaycial on June 30, 2009
It’s wedding season, and so many people that I know are getting married this summer. The woman who nannies the kids I babysit for on the weekends got married just last weekend; my sister and my best friend are both getting married this summer too. The result is tons of Michigan weddings to go to, tons of wedding and shower presents to buy, not to mention all of the responsibilities of being a bridesmaid in one of these weddings.
I can’t help but feel a little sorry for all these brides. I remember how difficult it was to plan our wedding two years ago, when my husband and I got married. And we had a small wedding! My sister is having something like 130 or 140 guests, and I think my best friend is having around a hundred.
How on earth do you plan for that size wedding all by yourself? Planning our 30-person wedding was difficult enough. You have to find a wedding venue (such as these Northern Michigan gardens) that allow for your size group, have to plan catering for all those people and worry about food likes, dislikes, and allergies, have to make that many more invitations, etc. Yikes!
Good thing weddings only (usually) happen once, isn’t it?
Technorati Tags: bridesmaid, Michigan weddings, Northern Michigan gardens
Posted by Spaycial on June 23, 2009
When I was in middle school I got braces, and I remember my orthodontist had before and after pictures of his patients’ smiles on his wall. Being 12, I didn’t exactly understand the brilliant advertising power in it, but I get it now.
For any services you offer that can be shown visually better than they can be described, before and after pictures are, literally, priceless. For example, if you run an interior design business, you could show pictures from before and after an impressive transformation. Likewise, if you are a hair transplant surgeon, you can show pictures of your clients before and after the surgery to demonstrate how effective hair replacement for men is and how natural the final results look.
Likewise, as a potential client seeing before and after pictures can be very reassuring. It shows you that the service provider really does know what they are doing, even more than written or spoken references, which are fairly subjective in nature. While your reaction to the photographs is still subjective, at least you are the one drawing the conclusions — after all, it is your opinion that will count most, as the client.
What other businesses can you think of that would benefit from before and after photos? As a potential customers, when do you like to see before and after photos?
Technorati Tags: hair replacement for men, hair transplant, orthodontist
Posted by BuzzSpecialist on June 14, 2009
When I was laid off from my job a few years ago, one of the first things I did was start to rely heavily on using my credit card to make the ends meet. I was doing everything else the way I should be; signing up for Unemployment Insurance, cutting back on things that were clear luxuries, going out for entertainment far, far less.
Even with all of that I was still sensing myself falling into a deep financial pit of despair. Many months went by before I was finally able to come across a job that both fit my talents and abilities, but also paid what I considered a fair wage. Of course, just because I had started working did not mean that my money worries had gone away.
As is the case with most new jobs, there was a period of time where I was working, but was not receiving any actual pay. In this case, almost 12 days went by and I was not seeing any income from the new job. What made it really tough is that I was required by the state to divulge any work done, whether paid for it or not. My benefits stopped.
The only option I could come up with was to seek out a payday loan. Given that I knew I had a decent first check coming, I was extremely pleased that this service exists. It really got me over a hard spot, financially.
Technorati Tags: credit card, payday loan
Posted by Buzz on April 22, 2009
I am desperately looking for pregnancy maternity clothes that have a cute line of outfits so I can replace the maternity top that I ripped this weekend. My husband and I have been working hard on a lot of different projects around the house and have been hammering, drilling, painting and staining all the different wood floors and banisters that we have that need finishing. I am not too sure when it happened but I must have snagged my shoulder on some part of the walls or banisters that we had been sanding and ripped my favorite shirt.
Even though it cost me one of my best shirts, I am really happy about the improvements of the house. We want to get all of this boring house stuff done before the baby comes so that once she is here we can just spend all of our time showering her with our doting parental affection and spoiling her rotten with cuddles and play time and reading stories and all that fun stuff that comes with being a parent. We do not want to have to be worrying about sandblasting the walls so we can put on a new coat of paint then.
Technorati Tags: house, maternity top, pregnancy maternity clothes
Posted by special buzzer on April 21, 2009
Hey, I’m looking for some really good battery operated lights. The kind I want is like the little twinkle lights you use on your tree. I’m looking for some good sets to use in a night time parade, and the only kind I know of just kind of burns through batteries quickly. But those were sort of like little seed lights, and I’m hoping I can find a set that will last a good few hours, at least.
The type of parade I mean is sort of like the Parade of Lights that they do in Denver. This is where all kinds of community groups like marching bands or tumblers or even small vehicles…AND small animals…have lights put onto them so they can really make a showing in the darkness. I’d also be interested in a type of rope light that might also run on batteries. Do they make such a thing?
And while I’m on the subject, you know those pre-lit Christmas trees? Wouldn’t it also be nice if they made those to run on batteries? Then you wouldn’t have to run yards of extension cord if you have a big yard. I’m an idea man, and this is just a thought.
Technorati Tags: battery operated lights, Christmas trees, Parade of Lights
Posted by pattya on February 21, 2009
I just moved to San Diego with the woman of my dreams and although she doesn’t know it, I’m going to ask her to marry me. We moved from Phoenix about a month ago into a beautiful apartment real close to downtown. Now all the decorating is done and we are settled into our new jobs, I want to find the perfect time and place to get down on one knee and propose. Before I do though, I want to get a lot of financial type things in order. She doesn’t know it but I have paid our rent in full for the next year so there will be no month to month payments to worry about. The other thing I want to do is get some life insurance information so I can have all that paperwork filled out and ready to go as one less hassle for her. I know my girlfriend and planning the wedding of her dreams will be all she focuses on until the big day!
I guess I need to look into life insurance financing and figure out which is the best route to take. I heard something about premium finance making insurance a lot cheaper but I don’t really know. Once all the nitty gritty stuff is taken care of, hopefully in the next month, I want to take her to the beach and propose. I have had the ring for ages but wanted to wait for the right time. I think it is finally here as I can really see the two of us settling down in this beautiful place. Any advice on how to propose to make it original and romantic is always useful!
Technorati Tags: life insurance financing, Life insurance information, premium finance, ring
