There’s buzz around the office about a book by Steve Harvey called, “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.” Have you heard about it? I think it is climbing the bestseller charts and is even sold out in some bookstores.

Steve Harvey is becoming a little industry. He has a morning radio show, he does stand up comedy, he’s a best selling author, and he has a foundation that does good things for the black communities. He has a line of designer clothes. He’s been on Oprah, Tyra and all the morning news shows.

I need to learn more about this guy. I might not agree with his advice in the book, but it at least has some people thinking about it and talking. That’s the important part of philosophy.

One of the girls that I met tonight works for a mortgage company and I took advantage of the moment by asking her a few questions about credit. I’m trying to decide if I should buy a new car this year or if going into debt will hurt my credit score.

She told me that a car loan is not considered the same way that credit cards count toward your credit score. Then she told me a lot of good tips about managing credit cards to make your credit score good or better.

According to her, the best thing I can do right now is take out a new credit card and use it for the sake of building my credit. She said that the best credit cards can be found online.

I only have two credit cards and she thinks I should get a third card. Then I need to make sure that each of the three accounts has a little activity on it each month and I should either pay the entire balance each month or at least make an effort to get the balance due on each account down to about a third of what the dollar limit is on each account.

I found a web site that has a low interest credit card that I can apply for right online and get that started right away. She thinks that after 6 months of this credit card strategy (and no other problems, of course!), I can check my credit score and I should find it has gone up to the level that will get me the best loan rates.

After work, a bunch of us from the office went sip on martinis and just relax for an hour or so at a sports bar over by the mall.It’s not a big chain, just a local place that seems to have a regular crowd and is doing well.

I tried a different drink that had two huge olives in the bottom of the glass and I loved it! I’m not a big drinker, so one was plenty for me.

We made friends with some of the other people in the restaurant and had a really nice time. The bartenders were great – very attentive and friendly. I would love to go back sometime soon and stay longer – maybe even order a nice dinner.

Sometimes for fun I’ll take a long drive in the middle of the day and just drive around some neighborhoods. It’s a great low calorie lunch and it gets me up away from my desk and out of the office.

Today I drove through one of the nicer neighborhoods in Franklin and looked at the landscaping and exterior architectural detail. For example, a lot of the homes had security gates with mailboxes and call boxes at the entrance. Some of the mail boxes were built into the brick columns and some were mounted directly on the iron gates themselves. I think the differences must have been a personal preference of the individual homeowners.

Most of the homes in this neighborhood seemed to have built in sprinkler systems for their lawns and a few had swimming pools. In ground pools are not all that popular in Middle Tennessee because of all the rock in the ground.

I saw a gorgeous square mailbox mounted on a pedestal as I was leaving that subdivision. That style was both unique and attractive. It intrigued me so much that I came back to the office and searched the internet for a web site with that style of mailbox:

Thank goodness my kids are old enough now that they are good travelers. They are easy enough to entertain and keep occupied, so road trips are not filled with whining about, “How much looooonger?” or “Are we THERE yet????”

When we go in the car for longer than an hour, I try to pack a few things for them, like the portable DVD player with 2 or 3 of their favorite children’s movies, and a Gameboy or DSi. Each child has a favorite movie or two that they never seem to get tired of and they can watch over and over again. But sometimes I buy a new movie and tuck it away as a surprise so they have the choice of watching something old or something new.

It seems like forever ago that we were in grade school and learning how to do all the gmaes and puzzles of childhood. Do you remember how to take a piece of string and makes a cat’s cradle or Jacob’s Ladder? I barely remember how to do all those string tricks, yet my sister and I spent hours upon hours playing with the strings.

Another fun game of sorts was to make a “cootie catcher” and let your friends pick colors and numbers to learn their fortune. I barely remember how to make the cootie catchers, but surely someone has put that on the internet for others to learn and enjoy.

The “Cash for Clunkers” program is pretty tempting to me right now. My car is getting older and starting to cost an awful lot in repairs and maintenance. Not to mention the gas mileage is not all that great.

From what I read on the internet, cars and trucks must be 1984 models or newer to be eligible for the big cash rebate when you trade it in on a newer model with better mileage. Your “clunker” must get 18 miles per gallon or less in combined highway/city rating. The rating of your car will be based on the “Estimated New EPA MPG” ratings shown on the web site: http://www.fueleconomy.gov.

PS – There’s not much room for scams and people who mess around can end up prosecuted. The clunker needs to be drivable, and you have to have had it insured and licensed for at least one full year. So don’t even think about buying an old clunker this summer for a couple hundred bucks and “flipping” it – that won’t work.

Once in a while over the years I have wondered if there might be a way to put free sheet music on the internet to share with everyone? After all, we have books, magazines and newspapers in both regular print and internet versions.So far, most of that content is free to people who can get online. So I did a little checking and found a web site called www.yokewong.net that does that for us!

When I took 4 years of piano lessons as a young child, a big part of the lessons was learning to read music and relate the printed notes to the keys on the piano. As I learned more about music and made friends with other musicians, I learned that guitar players have to read the same music sheets in a different way. But I was taught the sight reading for piano and keyboards, and that’s what this web site does.

It’s been years since I played the piano and I would love to take it up again. I have a nice keyboard stashed in a closet and now I can use this site to refresh my memory and get started playing music again! I would love to play at night to relax after work, and who knows? I might even have a couple of original songs flying around inside my head, waiting for an outlet.

According to a survey taken by Harrisand the LinkedIn web site and then reported in the LA Times, 69% of the 2,025 adults surveyed have little knowledge of what Twitter is. That bother me quite a bit. There have been mentions of Twitter in all the different media for about a year now – where do these 2,025 “adults” live and why do they not know what Twitter is?

When I first moved into my downtown condo, no one made any effort to welcome me to the building – or even the neighborhood. I have to say that I was a little bit put out by that. After all, we live in the South and there is such a thing as good old southern hospitality.

But then as I gradually met people, I realized that my neighbors had incredibly busy lives and that none of them were from here in the first place. Some of them were pretty influential and although I don’t usually drop names, I can’t help but mention that country singer Faith Hill had lived in the building when she first came to Nashville. And now I understand that Kid Rock has taken the unit next to the one I used to have. Well, shoot! Imagine if I was still living there and could claim Kid Rock and his son as my neighbors!