He has been living in London for over two years and that contract is finally over. I don’t think anyone expected it to last this long. Of course, he has traveled back to the States for all the major holidays and events, but it is still odd to have your dad living overseas. Everything is different – a huge time zone difference,the plumbing is different, the food is not as good – unless you like authentic Indian food.

He has not picked up any British accent that I can tell, although some of the words they use in England do not have the same meaning as the same words used here in America. For example, here if you are “pissed” it means that you are very angry. But over there, if you are “pissed” it means that you are drunk.

Here in America, when you are ready to move from one house to another you hire a moving company or a van line, like Atlas or Mayflower, to pack up your household goods and furnishings. But over there, you look for the house removals company to do that for you.

I can’t wait to see my dad again and I know my mom is thrilled. I’ll be talking to her in the morning to make plans for a welcome home party in New York!

I got a case of water, several cases of canned sodas, an assortment of Sobe fruit drinks and a variety of cookies and snack crackers. Then I decided to get some fresh fruit and make a nice fruit basket arrangement. I like having healthy alternatives to just cookies and crackers.

Then, on my way to the checkout counter, I passed a table display with slices of lemon cake from the store bakery. I couldn’t pass it by – I put two slices in the basket. I’m not sure how I’m going to explain to slices of cake to our Office Manager, but they looked so good!

For example, everyone knows and loves David Letterman’s nightly “Top Ten Lists.” The nightly countdown on the Late Show is always very topical and very funny. I’ve noticed that Letterman has been bringing in special guests to read the list on stage. There have been all kinds of athletes and celebrities participating- always a hoot.

I have categories within all TV episodes for my favorite shows over the years. I like comedies and crime thrillers. Lately I’ve been getting bored with reality shows, but there are even lists of shows within the reality show category, such as Top 10 Favorite Reality Shows as opposed to the Top TV Most Watched Reality Shows. It is a fine line, but there is a difference.

When I want to research my favorite movies, I count on the IMDB movies web site. This is one of my favorite web sites that I bookmarked years ago and still use at least once or twice a week.

1. Jimi Hendrix

2. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band

3. B.B. King

4. Eric Clapton

5. Robert Johnson

6. Chuck Berry

7. Stevie Ray Vaughan

8. Ry Cooder

9. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin

10. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones

11. Kirk Hammett of Metallica

12. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana

13. Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead

14. Jeff Beck

15. Carlos Santana

16. Johnny Ramone of the Ramones

17. Jack White of the White Stripes

18. John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers

19. Richard Thompson

20. James Burton

21. George Harrison

22. Mike Bloomfield

23. Warren Haynes

24. The Edge of U2

25. Freddy King

26. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave

27. Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits

28. Stephen Stills

29. Ron Asheton of the Stooges

30. Buddy Guy

31. Dick Dale

32. John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service

33 & 34. Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth

35 John Fahey

36. Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG’s

37. Bo Diddley

38. Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac

40. John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival

41. Clarence White of the Byrds

42. Robert Fripp of King Crimson

43. Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic

44. Scotty Moore

45. Frank Zappa

46. Les Paul

47. T-Bone Walker

48. Joe Perry of Aerosmith

49. John McLaughlin

50. Pete Townshend

51. Paul Kossoff of Free

52. Lou Reed

53. Mickey Baker

54. Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane

55. Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple

56. Tom Verlaine of Television

57. Roy Buchanan

58. Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band

59. Jonny Greenwood

60. Ed O’Brien of Radiohead

61. Ike Turner

62. Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band

63. Danny Gatton

64. Mick Ronson

65. Hubert Sumlin

66. Vernon Reid of Living Colour

67. Link Wray

68. Jerry Miller of Moby Grape

69. Steve Howe of Yes

70. Eddie Van Halen

71. Lightnin’ Hopkins

72. Joni Mitchell

73. Trey Anastasio of Phish

74. Johnny Winter

75. Adam Jones of Tool

76. Ali Farka Toure

77. Henry Vestine of Canned Heat

78. Robbie Robertson of the Band

79. Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps

80. Robert Quine of the Voidoids

81. Derek Trucks

82. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd

83. Neil Young

84. Eddie Cochran

85. Randy Rhoads

86. Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath

87. Joan Jett

88. Dave Davies of the Kinks

89. D. Boon of the Minutemen

90. Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper

91. Robby Krieger of the Doors

92 & 93. Fred “Sonic” Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5

95. Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine

96. Angus Young of AC/DC

97. Robert Randolph

98. Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer

99. Greg Ginn of Black Flag

100. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

Does it bother anyone else that there are only two women on this list? Who picked these people – just a bunch of teenage boys who love to play Guitar Hero? I’d like to see the list as voted by professional musicians.

We had such a nice relaxing day – best Labor Day that I can remember!

We have a big jazz festival going on in Franklin today and tomorrow. I’m thinking about taking the kids down there for a couple of hours. There will be concerts, but I’m concerned that the shows will last too late for the kids to be able to enjoy that. The opening act is scheduled for 5:00 but the headliner doesn’t come on until 8:30 – and that’s if it starts on time. Unfortunately, the shows are the main reason I’m interested in going. So I don’t know if we will do that or not. Still thinking about it.

Now, I do love South Carolina and I love North Carolina. I love Myrtle Beach for family vacations to the Atlantic, (although I think the Virginia Beach area is a little cleaner and nicer now that they got serious about being a family friendly destination).

According to this tourism site, South Carolina has these activities to offer for a girls getaway weekend:

• Beaches
• Shopping
• Outdoors
• Golfing
• Historic
• Wine / Cuisine
• Theatre
• Ghost Tours
• Spas

I’m aghast. What a dumb idea. That puts a huge burden on all the other secretaries and now they won’t be able to get their own work done. Plus they are paying the legal secretaries a much larger salary than what they were paying the receptionist, so they just made that position cost a whole lot more.

Vicki hates sitting out front and dealing with the phones. The firm is using voip phone service, to save money, which means she has to wear a headset while answering the phones. She doesn’t like wearing a headset and she refuses to share a headset with the other secretaries. She made the firm buy each legal secretary their own headset to wear, as a matter of good hygiene. So there’s another related expense to letting the receptionist go.

Vicki was telling me a little about VOIP and how she was thinking about getting that at home. But the system used by the law firm is Business VOIP, so she would not have to use a headset at home.

The only problem with sending out all these emails is that you need good email marketing software to handle the large lists and to provide templates for quick composition.

The last time I sent out emails to a long list of recipients, I had problems with my server flagging the emails as spam and limiting the number of emails that I could send at one time to less than 20. So to send out 2,000 emails, I would have to send the same template out to a list of 20 people 200 times. Let me tell you, that is very repetitive and tiring. Especially when there are email marketing solutions to handle those types of issues for you, faster and easier.

One website that I love has coupon codes for online purchases but also has coupons that you can print out. So it you prefer to shop locally, you can check this site before you go. I did that with Target coupons and saved enough cash to pay for the gas and back, which is better than free shipping because I got to actually go to the store and walk out with my purchases in my arms- no waiting for the mail carrier!

I love printable coupons when I know where I want to shop and I want to try on clothes or shoes before deciding to buy them. Buying the right size saves a whole lot of time and annoyance if there is any doubt about the size of an unfamiliar style or brand.

My friend, Wes Bennett, shares my love of dragonflies. He took this picture of a beautiful blue one and put it on his Facebook photos page. I just had to share it with you (he said it was OK).

This is a huge savings on the very best ice cream in the store. Normally they sell one gallon for $6- $7 per gallon. So to buy 3 gallons for $10 is a savings of about $11.

I barely have room in the freezer for 3 gallon containers, but I plan on making room somehow. This is too good a deal to not take advantage of it!

Once they master the basics, then the more advanced options have to be considered. For some businesses, a managed hosting arrangement is an affordable option to hiring engineering staff and housing a full IT department.

If storing a lot of computer equipment on site becomes a problem, a very practical way to free up space and increase security is colocation. By sending your servers to an off-site facility, you no longer have to worry about fire, vandalism, theft, or natural disasters that may affect your primary place of business. The servers and all your data will still be safe and available for use because they are somewhere else.

I love this scene from “Pretty Woman.” The best part of the whole movie! I especially love the false, forced flattery from the store manager. LOL!

The living room TV is hooked up to the cable box and so is the DVD/VHS player. So the one remote control works to watch cable or a movie. When i bought a Playstation 3, I hooked it up to the living room TV, too. That is our main entertainment system.

But I do have a smaller TV in the bedroom and it is hooked up to the cable through the DVD player. This is a different hookup and I have to use different remotes. There is one for the TV and a separate one for the DVD player. It gets to be too much to keep up with and I rarely even bother with turning on the TV in my room.

But last night I wanted to lie down and watch a movie with a good chance of falling asleep before it was over. So I decided to watch it in my room. I found the two remotes and got it to play just fine, but in the process of starting the movie, I discovered that you can use the remote to select extra features on the DVDs. It probably sounds totally dumb on my part, but I never knew how to access these bonus features until just now!

My sister bought a couple of sets of nursing scrubs. She likes the bright colors and bold patterns of the tops and the way the white pants fit with a drawstring waist. The tops can be seasonal and also reflect major holidays. She loves wearing the Halloween tops on weekends throughout October while she runs errands.

I might just order a scrub set for myself and give it a try. I feel like a slob if I wear sweat pants out of the house. I think I could wear the scrubs and not feel so conspicuous at the gas station and the grocery store.

Well, this movie is hilarious. The dialogue is fantastic, with a lot of references to famous lines from a huge number of popular movies and TVs. The comedy is well delivered and the acting from an assortment of “B” List actors and unknowns is really good.

My only criticism is that the movie is supposedly set in New York City. Well, there is very very very little about this movie that looks, sounds or feels like New York City. They should have just changed the handful of references in the script to NYC and made it L. A. It would have made no difference to the story line and it would have been a lot more authentic.  I bet they spent maybe 2-3 weeks in NYC doing a handful of location shots to get the skyline in the background and the subway, then the rest of the movie was obviously shot in an L. A. sound stage.

There are some really funny scenes in this movie. I think I will buy it and add it to my DVD library next time I go to WalMart or Target.

I haven’t tried it yet – have you called anyone using Google yet? Does it work for home phones and business phones? Does it work for cell phones? I’m not sure how it works but I’m willing to learn!

For example, I go to Boston quite a bit but when I thought about it, I only seem to go to Boston as a pit stop on my way to someplace else. Almost all the flights to New England ski resorts have to stop in Boston so you can change planes. Next time, I should plan to spend a day and night in Boston and see the sights and the top hot spots before going on to the ski resort in Maine or Vermont.

If I want to go to Florida and spend time at Disney or other Orlando area attractions, there is a great deal at a 4 star Orlando hotel for rooms starting at $109. What I like about the Caribe Royale is that they have three towers, with two for anyone, including families, and one tower exclusively for adults. So if you want to go someplace to get away from the kiddos, with all their noise and running around, then you can get a room in the adult tower.

If you have ever been to Orlando, then you know how hard it is to get away from families and children. But there are plenty of adult activities – Orlando is not just for kids.