Fired up my gas grill and about 5 minutes into cooking the steak, the propane ran out. Arrgh!

I love to cook outside – all year long. The propane tank always feels empty and I have no idea how to know when it is about to run out. I wish there was a way to know how much was left in the tank.

I suppose if it was critical to keep propane on hand I would just buy a second tank. I might just do that this weekend.

Although I work in a tech company and have a lot of geek friends, I really don’t understand how the cable company can provide all these thousands of shows and movies “on demand.” I recently discovered this feature – thanks to finding the remote control after all these months. It is getting so that you cannot operate anything electronics without the remote controls.

I used the “on demand” to watch an old movie and it was totally great to sit down at 20 minutes past the hour to watch a movie instead of having to sit at the top of the hour and be held captive or miss critical parts. When I had to get up to tend to something in the kitchen, I paused the on demand movie and it waited for me to return and sit down all comfy again before resuming. Plus, if you didn’t hear what someone said, you can rewind it and hear it as many times as you need to.If you have dogs that bark at inappropriate times you will really appreciate that feature.

This on demand is very cool and part of my cable package. What a great feature!

Lately there have been people walking through my neighborhood trying to sell things, door to door. This is a disturbing new trend and I wish they would stop. I don’t like opening my door to strangers and I don’t like the idea of strangers coming onto my property when I’m not home.

My dogs bark loudly enough to keep most people away from the door, but most of the people in my neighborhood are not receptive to door to door solicitors. In fact, my neighbor calls the police and reports them as trespassing every time one of them comes to her door.

This door to door type of selling may have worked in the 1950’s and 1960’s, but in today’s world we don’t want people we don’t know coming to our houses. I am suspicious of them all and I don’t blame my neighbor for calling the police, either.

Well, it’s official that Jon and Kate are splitting up. No surprise, but what a shame. They have a ton of money and freebies and they still can’t make it work. The kids aren’t cute little babies and toddlers any more – they actually need parenting and Jon can’t seem to man up and be a father and a husband to this litter of kids and his overwhelmed wife.

As far as I am concerned, they should stop the show right now and stop paying them any money. No one wants to watch a divorce and those poor children should not be subjected to a TV crew following them around as their nuclear family dissolves into hateful and spiteful antics by their parents.

What I don’t understand is how they managed to keep a straight face and appear to be earnest just a few months ago when they renewed their vows in Hawaii. Then, they file papers in Pennsylvania swearing that they have lived seperate and apart for two years. To me, even though it is legal mumbo jumbo, the laws and words are there for a reason. Either they committed fraud by renewing their vows on TV or they perjured themselves filing false statements for the divorce case.

Surely, I’m not the only one who sees this problem.

One of the nicest things about immediate access to the internet from computers and mobile devices is that you can get directions to where you need to go or you can find the name of a store or type of business all within instants. You no longer have to keep a big fat yellow pages directory on the shelf that is out of date as soon as you get it. You just go to an online directory and within seconds you get what you need with lots of current and new information not found in the printed book directories.

I have used a variety of online directories and was happy to find out that one source has put information from all the different ones into one place: www.local.com. This site lets you search for businesses as well as classified listings based on your area. They also have reader reviews, which I like to hear from people with first hand experience.

All these reality shows are wearing me down. I think I read that there are over 140 different reality shows on the air. That’s an awful lot of peeping into other people’s lives.

At what point does the novelty of reality TV wear off and the networks go back to well written dramas and comedies with a little higher level of humor than what 8 year olds will laugh at?

Frankly, I’m sick of the Jon and Kate thing. They’ve made a ton of money parading themselves and their 8 kids around for the TV cameras. Jon has already knuckled under to the pressure of having a large family and a bossy prima donna wife. Let’s pull the plug on that show while the kids have a small chance of a normal life. Well, as normal a life as being one of 8 kids can be.

This confession bothers me a LOT. I found on it on the internet and I can’t get it out of my mind.

Especially since I love to work on puzzles. In my family, we have always had a puzzle out on a table for people to work on, ever since I was a very little girl. My whole family loves solving puzzles.

To think that someone would take out puzzle pieces on purpose and cause so much disappointment is really troubling to me. Then again, there are a lot of messed up people in this world. All I can hope is that the person who admitted this is getting help for an obvious personality disorder.

My Dad always likes to talk to me about his thoughts on Stock Trading and he has a whole staff of advisers that keep him informed. Although some of his business deals have suffered during this economic downturn, his personal investment portfolio has remained strong.

Dad taught me how to do my own Online Trading, as soon as I got my first job. He has always insisted upon a generous savings and investment program for each of us kids.

Most of what I learned was thanks to my dad taking the time to show me about the stock market, but I also have access to an Online Broker when I have questions. Sometimes Dad is not available for up to weeks at a time when he is traveling abroad, so having an adviser available makes me feel better.

While I have money on my mind, I came across a great site called “Feed the Pig,” which is hosted by CPAs and has good information for just about anyone with an interest in building their savings. I don’t know how popular the site is, but it is very well done and I like to send people to read it – even kids.

People who have money are looking harder for ways to keep it. The investments of the last decade in many stocks and traditional financial vehicles have not proven to be reliable or profitable.

My neighbors, Walt and Regina, were telling me about their gold IRA and how it has made them feel more secure and comfortable with their investments.

Walter started out investing in rare coins and gold, then his dealer explained to him how to put gold in an IRA.

My own 401K from work took a really bad hit this past year, so the idea of a gold 401k is intriguing. Walter says that the number 1 alternative investment is now gold and I believe him.

He explained that 401k gold has an impressive track record. For example, if I had bought $25,000 worth of gold bullion coins 30 years ago, that investment would now be worth over $500,000. That’s not a bad return on your money. However, investing the same $25,000 in limited mintage investor gold coins, it would be worth over $1.3 million!

If any of my friends would like to learn more about IRA gold, you can go to the web site that Walter told me about and I linked here, where they have a free guide that you can download. I learned a lot today.