There’s a reason that properties, whether houses, commercial buildings or strictly land investment venues are called “real” estate. Not only are they tangible, but there is only so much land to go around in any given area of the world.

So real estate investments are, generally speaking, the best of all investments if you shop wisely and buy prudently. First, there will not likely be more land created, although some cities have tried by building islands or peninsulas in places like Florida’s coastal regions.

Think of it this way, land a simple matter of supply and demand. Whether you are living in Canada, in the USA or in the UK land is still an excellent investment.

So the next time you see a sign that says land for sale, remember that some day that land will double or triple in value. Look at Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney bought 27,400 acres of essentially swamp land that land owners were only too eager to unload, and from his vision, Walt Disney World remade the entire face of the region.

Hey guys, listen up! If you upgrade your car, your computer, your software, your home appliances, your power tools, why in the world wouldn’t you consider upgrading your wife’s wedding ring come anniversary time?

This is not the time to get her that brushed stainless steel refrigerator or the cook top that has a button which will cause water to boil in and incredible 90 seconds. Neither does she want a riding mower, vacuum cleaner (even if it is a Dyson), a watch (unless it has diamonds), or anything one would call “practical.”

Even if your wife is practical, once in awhile you need to treat her with something deliciously impractical (as long as you’re not jeopardizing next month’s house payment or your kids’ college educations.

Do yourself a favor and spend some time searching online for wedding bands, rings in diamond or anniversary rings in diamond, and get her something special. But be sure to clear your browser cache. You don’t want her accidentally see you’ve been searching for diamonds. She might misunderstand…

I am happy to say that I don’t really go out shopping very much.  Honestly, it really isn’t my favorite pass time, but sometimes you just have to go.  For example, earlier today, my wife and I went to the mall to go do some shopping.

Now, we did need a few groceries, but honestly, we didn’t need much else.  But she loves to window shop, so I knew that we were going to be spending at least a couple of hours there.

We looked through many stores, browsed through a baby gifts store, some clothing stores, and she even humored me and let me look in a video game store.

We really didn’t spend much money (except on the groceries), but it was a nice chance for us to talk without the constant chattering of our children.  Yes, the day at the mall was fun - though I still don’t really like to shop.

We are planning a wedding and the stag party is quickly approaching. I knew that the boys would want to go out and party, maybe see a few strip clubs, or even take in a show somewhere but I wanted them to do it safely.

So, my gift to my future husband is a limo hire and boy are they going to be surprised! They won’t be getting just your average run of the mill limo, they are getting a Hummer! Although I considered hiring the stretch Dodge Ram or the bright pink PT Cruiser that the company also has, hummer limos seem to be the “in thing” now and I didn’t want to embarrass the guys too much.

This way I know that no matter how much they drink or what kind of trouble they try to get into, the limousine hire will be able to drive them all home safely.

One thing that I have noticed over the past few years is that if you don’t keep up with the world, you get left behind.  I look at my sister-in-law that just purchased her first computer, and she doesn’t even have a clue on how to use it.

The same thing goes for all the new technologies on the market.  You might not know that there is something that is available that you should purchase as it would make your life easier.  So, if you don’t know, I feel that you are doing a disservice to yourself.

So, I make sure to keep up with all the latest gadget news, to make sure that I not only know what is coming out, but so that I can make informed decisions when I go shopping.  If I didn’t do it, I would be missing out on life.

Do you keep up on the latest products, soon to be hitting the market?  You should.  You just don’t know what you might find.

Fight gear. I’d never heard the term before, but assumed it was related to boxing.

I was disabused of that notion by a few male students at the middle school where I do the bulk of my substitute teaching. They explained — as though I were someone who had been living under a rock for the past five years — that the term sometimes referred to boxing gear, but that aficionados (Well, okay, they did not use that term.) knew it referred to MMA.

So there I was. Do I further reveal my ignorance or act as though I know what they’re talking about?

Seeing a teachable moment, I asked them to explain MMA. This they did, as if I were a doddering old grandma. Oh, wait. I am old enough to be a grandma. I just don’t dodder yet.

If I’d been their classroom teacher, I would have pursued the conversation after library period was over. It turns out the Greeks had an Olympic event in 648 BC called pankration which combined wrestling and boxing. My teachable moment was lost when the bell rang.

I remember in high school playing mock market in one of our classes. It was probably science or social studies of some sort…….. Anyway, we got to set up accounts and play the stock market as a part of a class project.

I honestly don’t remember now what the heck I did, traded, or made in profits or losses. It was probably Wally World since they were actually pretty new back then, but it might have been a product brand too. Who knows? But I do know that if I decided to try my hand at any of the markets now, I would need a commodities broker.

I would hope that a broker would be able to help me understand (in layperson’s terms) what was happening with my money and the stock or commodities that I had chosen to trade. See, I think maybe I’m combining two different things into one now.

Are commodities a product and stock a piece of a company? Man, it is beyond me!

In my quest to get my blog to rank higher in the search engines, I’ve hooked up with an SEO mentor. He’s brilliant in other online areas, as well, but for now I’m only interested in the search engine part of his psyche. *grin*

It came up in conversation recently that dotnetnuke web hosting might influence a page’s ranking on Live.com. I tried to act as if I understood, but my eyes must have rolled up into my head because my mentor just laughed and changed the subject to a topic I was capable of understanding without straining something.

Little by little I am starting to “get” search engine optimization. In the past I’ve been put off by so much conflicting information. Now that I have a mentor who knows when I’ve lost him, we can go step by step over every point from page rank to keyword research to using alt tags, at a pace I can handle.

If someone had asked you last week the likelihood that you would be having foot and ankle surgery in Orange County, California, you would have told them they were crazy. But that was before you tripped over your own feet going down the steps at the convention center and broke your ankle.

And before you spent a horrific six hours in the emergency room in absolute agony without a sole to talk to, without a book to read, without a television to distract you, without being able to sleep. You learned the visceral meaning of “stir crazy.”

A nurse explains that a six-car accident has kept them busy with priority care. You feel guilty for being resentful. You may be in pain but you’re not fighting for your life.

Finally they admit you and take you to your room. Your surgery is scheduled for 6:00 a.m. They drug you for the night. All is well.

I’m very much a “what you see is what you get” kind of a person. So when I’m accused of deliberately leaving out a key ingredient in a dish that I’ve served and then shared the recipe for, I take it personally.

When I started questioning my accusers, I discovered invariably they’d changed my recipe.
Now, if someone makes you fabulous Indian food, and then shares those Indian recipes with you, why would you substitute Filipino or Vietnamese ingredients?

If you liked it the way it was presented to you, why would you think it would taste the same if you tweaked it?

So I look them in the eye and say, “I left it out, because if I told you, I’d have to kill you.” They usually back right down. I guess that gossip about Uncle Tony’s rumored “Family” connections did its job. They don’t know I started the gossip. I don’t even have an Uncle Tony.