There was a memo on our desks today about the work disruption that we would all experience because of the renovations that they were going to do to our office complex.  In all honesty, it was about time as the building has pretty much looked the same inside for the last ten years or so.

We have been given dates that we will not be able to work as the commercial contractor has targeted certain areas of the building for certain days.  They are trying to do it with the least amount of disruption, but as with any other construction project, interruptions are inevitable.

There are talks that management might rent another workspace for most of us if we are unable to maintain minimum levels of productivity, but we will see how things go.

It will be nice to have a new work area to work in - it is time for a change of scenery.

Last year, I made the decision to go overseas and teach English as a second language. It is something that I had wanted to do since my cousin went to Japan when I was in high school. When I decided to go, I knew I had a lot of preparations to make and I knew I would rent a self storage unit for my stuff and get rid of my apartment.

I did not figure it would be a good idea to pay rent on an apartment that I am not using when I could rent storage units for my stuff at a fraction of the price. I needed two units to hold all of my boxes and furniture, as I was not sure that I really wanted to get rid of anything.

I had a friend, who happened to own a truck come with me to rent a self storage and he helped me move all of my things into it. I have been here in Asia for over a year now and the decision I now have to make is whether I want this to become permanent.

My cousin just finished high school and had to find a job in the real world.  He is bright, but from the times that I have talked to him, he really expressed no interest in furthering his education by attending college.

He had no problem getting a job, but it was clear after a couple of months that he wasn’t happy.  He didn’t like working hours set by someone else for such little pay - he had always had an entrepreneurial spirit in him.

I suggested that he follow his passion of motorcycles and do something along those lines.  Though I didn’t know what he should do, I told him that the best idea would be to do a little brainstorming and soul searching to figure out what he wanted to be when he grew up  and take steps to make that happen.

When I spoke with him a month later, he had become a Cycle Trader, helping others find the perfect motorcycle for their budget and he was enjoying providing the service to his clients.  He had finally found his calling.

My wife and I have talked about traveling to Europe for many years, and we finally have the money that we can do it.  We have been saving up for the better part of two years, and we will finally have the chance to enjoy what we have been patiently been waiting for.

But we have been undecided where we really want to go when we get there.  It is hard to decide as it will be a completely new experience for us.  We just want to make sure that we can enjoy the whole experience and have some sort of plan for when we get there.

So, we have picked up some worldwide travel guides and we will be sitting down tonight to figure out what we are going to do and where we are going to do it.  We are going to make some sort of rough schedule, so that when we are on the trip, we will have all the information we need and we can just follow our plan.

It will be interesting to see how much work it will take for us to come up with some sort of consensus - the last trip we planned took forever.

If you know me, I am one of those people that just delete any emails sent to me that are not work related.  Honestly, I don’t have the time to do everything, so I make choices when it comes to what I do with my time.

But, yesterday, an old friend of mine sent me a link to a new website that he was creating.  I don’t think that I had ever received any messages from him that were a waste of time, so I thought I would go check it out.  I clicked on the link in the email and I ended up at his site.

It was a free online dating website.

Now, I am happily married, and have no interest in his service, but I do know that he is a smart cookie, and that he wouldn’t make a website if he couldn’t profit.

I think I will have to talk to him sometime about his other ideas for websites - maybe he can help me start another one.

I was born in America, but my family moved to Europe when I was very young. My dad had been offered a job at Translation Company London and it was an offer that he could not pass up. I don’t blame him for taking the job and I know that we had a lot of things because of it, but I knew that someday, when I was old enough, I would move back to America.

When it came time to go to college, I knew that I would be applying to schools in America, as it had always been my dream to go back. I knew it would also give me a chance to get to know my grandparents and other relatives. I had only seen my grandparents three times in the fifteen years since we had come to Europe.

It was a great experience, but as the grass is always greener on the other side, I missed home. I did my four years of college and then I went back home to England.

With the purchase of my new computer for my business, I have purchased a customer service plan for my computer.  This not only includes regular maintenance, but it also telephone computer support should I run into problems.

You might wonder why I would spend the money to get service like this, but the reasoning is simple: time is money.  This is especially important in my line of work as every moment that I don’t have the use of the computer, my business is bleeding money.  Too many minutes of downtime, means that I would be broke.

You could argue that I could buy software to keep my computer running at tip-top shape, but when I can’t figure something out, or the computer is non-responsive, will the software help me out?  I think not.

So, is it worth it?  You bet.  It is nice to know that there will be someone on the other end of the phone that would be happy to help me out with my computer problems at a moments notice.

When we were looking to build out first home, my husband was really great about letting me choose the design. He said the home was for me, as long as I left the garage and the yard up to him. I thought that this was a fair deal and I got busy with the architect, choosing the layout of our new home-to-be.

The one thing it had to have, to keep my husband happy, was a complete solar system. He is really big on saving energy, and although it was going to be a big cost, we were prepared to do whatever it took to make it happen. I didn’t care, as long as it did not make the house look bad in any way, and it didn’t.

I have to admit, too, that he did an awesome job with the yard. I have never had to plant a single flower or weed the vegetable garden, as that is what he loves doing. He keeps the lawn looking great and we are so at home in our new house. It took a long time for us to get here, but I would say that we are perfectly content.

With the growth my business has been experiencing, it is time for us to get our first business credit card.  This would not only help us have better tracking for our bill payments, but give us credit on demand should we need it.

Since I’ve never applied for a business credit card before, I decided that it might be smart to look at some review websites and make my decision based on the credit card ratings given to each card.  Specifically, I’m looking for sites that allow user ratings so that I can see what other business owners experiences have been with the cards I am looking at.

I will just have to remember that even though there are many business credit cards available, the business really only needs one.  So I will just have to make sure that I pick the best for us and our company.

My wife decided that we should have some friends over tonight for a games night.  I wish that she had not invited them.

You see, I have been working really hard at work and I was just hoping for a quiet night at home alone.  Usually, she goes out on Thursday nights with her girlfriends and I thought that I could have a movie night with myself.

In fact, I had already bought some cheap finger food yesterday with that plan in mind.  But when she told me that she decided that we were going to have friends over, those dreams were shattered.

So, I had to go shopping this morning for some food for tonight’s event. There were quite a few things on my list, but the store wasn’t busy, so it didn’t take too long.

I hope we don’t go too late tonight as I need my sleep, and honestly, I don’t care for the people that she invited over.