Small Businesses Are Everywhere

I am like a lot of other people, I am self employed. I make my living doing freelance work. It seems to me that more and more of the people that I know either own small businesses or do freelance work like I do.

There are a lot of advantages to this type of work but there are headaches as there are in any job. When you own a small company you have to make decisions about your corporate image. In today's world that often means your web presence. There are things to consider such as deciding between dedicated servers or managed hosting. You have to decide whether colocation is the way to go. When you run a small company, it's all up to you. But the rewards can be worth it.

Car Repair is Confusing

I don't know about you, but I find the whole car repair thing very confusing. I feel like I am at the mercy of the repair shop since I have no idea what is wrong. Even if I know what is wrong it can be difficult to shop for prices. If my Honda Accord isn't running I can't drive it around to different places for estimates.

Whether I need San Francisco auto repair or work done in Florida, the whole process should be easier to navigate. Women are especially at a disadvantage since many of us do not speak car speak. I don't know a timing belt from a fan belt. When they start throwing those words around my eyes tend to glaze over. Let's hope that some day the whole process becomes a little easier.

Cabinets are In

We are getting very close to completing the kitchen renovation. The cabinets are installed and the tops should go in later in the week. My husband and I were both in the mood for some color so I painted the kitchen lime and aqua. It looks awesome! Everything should be completed by some time next week. I am so excited to see it all done. I will be cooking again in no time.

They're Here

Spring break is at it's height. It's amazing how busy it can get here when everyone shows up. We get family spring break people here, not just the college crowd.

Trying to drive anywhere is a real test of patience. I try to look at it as an adventure. It is fun to check out all of the different cars on the road, my favorite yesterday was an Infiniti g37. My husband was excited to spot a Maserati Quattroporte. In the winter when it's mostly locals the cars are of the more common variety. There are a lot of ones like his favorite Scion xd, we may wind up with one of those yet. I still like the GMC Acadia so there hasn't been a meeting of the minds on the subject of cars yet.

What a Ride

I don't know if you follow the stock market, but I do. It had been a very interesting ride. I took over our accounts a while back and stated using online trading services. I decided that I could get as much out of using an online broker as I did from a traditional one. We even moved out IRA accounts.

If you are interested in keeping up with the markets you can do everything that you can do with a more traditional approach. You aren't limited to stock trading, you can trade everything like mutual funds and options as well. It takes a little work but the fees are less. I like being in control of where our money is going. They even have mobile trading now!

I Was Mistaken

Guess I was mistaken when I said I was happy to see spring arrive. We got up to rain and cold weather this morning, more like a winter day than a spring day. It's hard to get motivated to work on a morning like this but I have articles to write and bills to pay so I had better get things in gear. Time to heat up the espresso machine and brew up some energy. Anybody need a shot?

Time for the Fun Part

My kitchen has been undergoing a complete renovation for the past month. Thankfully it is drawing to a close and it's time to get down to the fun part, shopping!

Right now I am looking at JK Adams products. I love all of their natural wood kitchen items. A JK Adams cutting board is at the top of my list, I love cutting boards and now I have a spot for a nice big one. I am also looking at the JK Adams pot racks. I have always wanted one but never had a spot for one. My new kitchen has a big island and I think it would be a perfect place to hang a pot rack. I think I am going back for another look.

Translation Made Easy

One of the things that I love most about the internet is the way people and companies from all over the world interact with each other. It is not longer necessary to travel to a foreign country to work with someone from there.

Language used to be a large barrier between people from different parts of the world. Translia has stepped in and made translation fast, easy and affordable. They have a network of online translators from all over the world that speak all major languages. They can handle any size translation job that you have from one word to a million. Try them the next time that you need to translate something, it is free to sign up.

Please Shoot Me

I have spent the entire day up until now working on our income taxes. There is nothing I like less than numbers and bookkeeping. Unfortunately, I also hate paying someone $800 to do our taxes when I can do them myself just as well. Hence my day spent crunching numbers. I have my corporate taxes done, which was my goal for the day. I have the personal ones to look forward to next Sunday. In the meantime, would someone please just shoot me?