Last fall I started a little jogging routine. Unfortunately I fell of the track I was on, but after a month of jogging, I was up to four miles a day. Recently, some of my buddies just ran in a half marathon, The Gasparilla Classic, which is here in Tampa every January or February. I would love to try to build up to running in a marathon one day, however I do not know if I have the discipline it would require to train every day for months on end. It seems every time I get into a groove exercising, something draws me off track. Whether it be vacations, holidays or work, it just seems I get busy and somethings got to give. And since jogging does not pay the mortgage, the exercise always goes out the window. Living in the Tampa Bay area, there are several marathons every year. There is one at Disney World, the Gasparilla Classic in Tampa, I think St. Petersburg has one too.

Cities across the United States have them as well. Such as the Wirefly National Marathon in Washington D.C. on March 24, which is sponsored by Wirefly Cell Phone Superstores. I think it would be cool to plan a vacation around a marathon. The Washington D.C. marathon would be a great race to run in and vacation around. Wife has always wanted to take a family vacation to Washington D.C. and see all the historical stuff. However, I do not think all of our kids are ready for that type of vacation. What, no roller coasters? I am not sure if I would be able to do the tourist walking routine after running a marathon. All of the proceeds go to several charitable organizations, my favorite being the Special Olympics.

I do enjoy reading articles in magazines about training and how to build up for a race. Maybe when all of the kids are ready for a Washington D.C. vacation, I can get my self motivated to train and try to finish a marathon. To date, my longest run ever was twelve miles and that was many years ago when I was still in high school. I remember it was not very difficult, but I am much older now and much heavier!

Have you ever had trouble with school teachers or administrators and getting straight answers from them. I had to talk to my son’s teacher and I just felt like I was talking in circles trying to get answers. Also, it’s clear teachers, or at least this teacher, are not used to being held accountable. Too bad. In my line of work, I am used to holding people accountable as well as being held accountable for my performance. I have no problem applying that principle to the education system. Problem with the education system is, the teachers and administrators like to have standards for students, however, they resent standards being applied to them. Too damn bad!

Wife and I are planning a family vacation to Canada, and we found a killer deal on airfare for the family. As a person who had a lot of debt at one point, I am usually not inclined to charge things like that. But in this case, I know I have a bonus coming in a few months, and I can pay off the airfare before vacation. With the budget planning help we’ve found online, we’re ok with charging a few things, because we have a plan for paying the cards off right away. So far, it’s working. If you want budget planning help, it’s easy to find tips online to how to draw up a budget, set money aside for debt, and most importantly, how to use your budget to get OUT of debt. We went through credit counseling and it helped a lot, but we don’t plan to do it again. That’s why we think about things like using the charge card to buy airfare before we do it.

I was at the Tampa Bay Lightning game Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars. Unfortunately, the Bolts lost. However, I was a big winner. Before the game I entered a raffle to benefit the Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation. I paid ten dollars for seven raffle tickets and got the call on my cell phone just after the start of the second period. I won a goalie stick autographed by the whole team, with a certificate of authenticity. Wednesday night I will mount it in my son’s room, which is Lightning themed.

Does anyone out there use car covers? I live in a neighborhood that is still being built so there is still a lot of dust and stuff. Plus, I keep my car in the driveway, as half our garage is filled with bikes and a portable basketball goal that our homeowners association does not allow us to keep outside permanently. I wonder if they are a pain in the rear to take on and off and worth the bother of using. I found a website that specializes in car covers, called carcoverguys.com. They have pretty good prices and the site is easy to use. I found a car cover to fit my car, but can not decide if I want to bother with one.

While I was looking at their site, I saw they also have car cover bras, which fit across the front of the car. I have often considered installing one of these on my car to save it from bugs. Living in Florida, we have these bugs we call love bugs. Twice a year, May and October is love bug season. These bugs are soft and do not bite or sting. But what they do is fly in swarms and splatter on your car. Each season lasts two to three weeks, and your car just gets creamed with the bugs. Usually the front of the hood and the grill of the car, as well as the windshield are the parts that take the brunt of the splatters. I know a car bra would help eliminate the splatters on the paint and the pain in the rear of getting it off my car’s paint!

I haven’t been able to get back into my weight loss and exercise routine since the holidays. It just seems like every day, when I come home and want to job, there are other, more pressing things to do with the family. It’s hard to carve out the time for exercise when your kids are clamoring to see you after you’ve been gone all day. I’ve heard a lot about Hoodia diet pills online, and I’m wondering if that would be worth the cost….but I do still want to get back to jogging as well.

A week ago it was thirty degrees, and cold. A damp, bone chilling cold. The heat was definitely on in our house. Fast forward a week. Monday night I turned the a/c on because it was so friggin muggy! It was a nice change…I think we always sleep better when it’s cooler in the house, and getting the humidity out of the house made a big difference.

We get mailers almost weekly to refinance our house. Most of the deals being advertisers are come-ons - meaning, it’s a really low rate being shown, but in the fine print, that rate is only good for a short period of time. Anyone shopping for loans, especially those of you shopping for personal loans - should know exactly what they’re getting into, and they should read all of the fine print. You don’t want to be shocked when your loan doubles in price after a few months of that introductory rate. Since wife and I own a home, we have a few loan options, should we decide to do some updates around the house, or put in a pool, we don’t have to go with unsecured loans. Our house can serve as collateral for any home improvement loans. That’s a great option should we decide to put in a pool in a few years. When we looked into buying property for our retirement, the loan brokers we spoke with were very upfront and honest - nothing at all like those mailers we get promising the world. It was great to hear from professionals who had good loan advice for us and our situation. I know a few people through work who have been more than reckless with their credit, and due to that, they can’t even get loans now. I hate to see it happen to anyone, but I really hate to see it happen to someone just because they couldn’t keep tabs on their money or they wanted to live beyond their means.
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Tuesday night the Lightning play host to the Dallas Stars. I’ll be at the game. It’s my last game until the Lightning play host to Buffalo on March 16. Go Bolts! Did you see the beat down the Lightning threw on Pittsburgh on Sunday? What a total ass kicking! Literally. Not only did the Lightning win 5-1, there were 3 fights in the game and the Lightning won all 3. Cory Sarich got the better of Malone, and Nick Tarnasky wore out Maxime Talbot. Twice. Sweeet.

“Oh the best game you can name is the good old hockey game, and the good old hockey game is the best game you can name…”

Today was the kind of day the chamber of commerce puts on a post card. Sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Mid to upper 70’s for a high. Low wind. What a shame I was inside working all day. I have back to back days off this week, and I plan on doing a lot of yardwork. I hope those days are as nice as today’s.