My peers are in their thirties. My children are just now starting school, and only a few friends who got married right out of high school instead of waiting until they got out of college have kids that a couple of years older than mine. So the idea of my friends having children that are 17 – 22 years old is freaking me out a little.

I remember when i was getting ready to graduate from high school. We didn’t graduate until mid-June and we always had our graduation ceremonies outside. My graduating class had commencement on the football field of our high school and we didn’t have any problem with rain or bugs or mud. I only sent out a few graduation announcements, to family members. Then off to college I went!

When I graduated from college, we had our ceremonies on campus in the auditorium. Some of the colleges and even high schools have their commencement ceremonies on the stage of the Grand Old Opry. I always though that would be very cool – the Opry is such a Nashville landmark and its stage will always be very special to us all.

The graduation announcements that I received in the mail today were for the children of people that work with me. Now, that makes sense, as I am one of the youngest employees in our office. I am flattered that my co-workers think enough of me to send me graduation announcements. That is very cool and I am looking forward to going shopping this weekend for a nice gift for each of these kids.

My son loves everything about the water. He reads about sharks, loves to look at fish, and especially loves dolphins because they are natural enemies of sharks. But when he saw this cute photo we all busted out laughing. So I had to share it – so funny!

My Dad suggested that I arrange for a home energy audit and see if a professional inspection might reveal a few things that I can do to reduce energy consumption and increase the energy efficiency of my house and yard. I am willing to look at everything – from planting trees for shade to hiring a home insulation contractor and add more insulation to the attic or walls. From what I understand, older homes sometimes need to pull out all their old insulation that has compressed and settled, becoming less effective, and replace it with new, better insulation materials.

My dad wants me to check out new energy efficient windows, too. He says that any single pane windows are now obsolete and I need to get estimates on replacement windows for the whole house.

I suggested she cut out a sword shape and cover it with aluminum foil to make the blade. It doesn’t have to be very big and you can tape or glue the aluminum foil for the day of pretending he is a knight. Surprisingly, she admitted to me that she does not have an aluminum foil at home, because food stamps does not pay for non food items like toilet paper, tampons, plastic baggies, soap, etc.

That just breaks my heart. I know that food stamps is supposed to cover food and be an emergency resource. But instead of paying for Twinkies and Captain Crunch, which have no redeeming nutritional value but are covered by the food stamps program, why not allow a few non food purchases? Or come up with some kind of assistance program separate from food that provides the other basic hygiene items that today’s families need?

Online marketing includes designing or re-designing a web site to be friendly to both users and visitors to the site but also to the search engines. It means getting your web site noticed by the right people and found when potential customers search Google or an online directory for your store address or phone number. And the newest technologies involve developing apps to work on the smart phones, like what the Scottsdale web development company can do for clients like the Bella Interior Design company that my girlfriend Ilaria used on her new house.

I can’t help people with their web sites very much. I know what looks nice and what needs tweaking. But I can’t do that for you. It takes someone who knows what is going on in the online world and has the right design skills. When I saw the Bella Interior Decorators web site I was so impressed that I asked Ilaria to ask them who design their site for them. I want to be able to refer my friends and business associates to the companies who do really good work.

Found this photo on Facebook and just loved the idea! As much as we love books and are avid readers in my house, this would be a natural decoration for the stairs. It doesn’t look all that hard to do – I think the hard part would be deciding which book titles to feature!

My sister is moving to Tampa, Fl in July and will start teaching there in August. So we only have a couple of months to help her get new wheels and a new house, hire a moving company and get her settled before classes start.

I started out looking at Trucks that were listed on the internet in the Tampa Bay area. She told me on the phone that she wanted an extended cab Ford F-150, so that is what I was looking for. But those are scarce, so I started looking at SUVs and other Used Cars. I found a few things that look good, so I sent her the links on the Park Auto Mall website. It even has  used car videos for her to watch.

We don’t have to worry about Credit Approval because my dad is going to just pay cash for her. We just have to make sure we found the right vehicle and that it is priced fairly, that she likes it, and then I’ll handle the purchase and titling for her from here.

My two nephews are close to his age and have the same basic interests, so I bet they will like it, too. Even though they are only going to be staying with us for a couple of weeks, I want them to feel at home and have some fun with us while they are here.

I offered to take her kids for a couple of weeks if that would help her with the job interviews and time needed to pack up the house to get moved. She wants to move to Florida, so I was thinking that I could move things around here to take in my two nephews and have them share my son’s bedroom. I can easily put a pair of bunk beds in his room and since they are all about the same age, there shouldn’t be much trouble with the three of them sharing a bedroom for a couple of weeks. Just taking a peek at Bunk Beds AtoZ has given me some ideas of what to do with the space.

What worries me is having to tote everything from the car to the beach by myself. What do I do about making sure nothing gets stolen while I am walking back and forth? My brother suggested that I buy a security cable and attach it to the laptop. That way it will be tethered to something that makes it hard to grab and run off.