Well, in our new economy running at least the government has set aside some money to further our energy policy. Just how that will shake out is any-one’s guess, but we will see. The WSJ showed a nice graph today outlining the money allocated for the policy. I appreciate the fact that 5.5 billion will be sued in Transmission infrastructure for renewable energy. This is critical if we are encourage municipalities to invest in wind or solar because this power will need somewhere to go and often they or the investor is on the hook to create sub stations where power generates say from wind turbines is then put onto the grid. Not cheap! One element that caught my eye in the articles was 2.3 billion in battery research. Now we are talking! Do you realize that the technology for most camcorders is still in play today but because we have smaller batteries, we can create smaller and more usable cameras. We could create more back up solar systems if we had the battery storage to keep all that power. The sun has not changed. The batteries have and that is where research needs to be. I like that number 2.3 billion. Finally,20 billion in tax credits. Ok, now we are talking real money and real initiative to give the end user/ buyer a reason to invest in solar and wind as well as for utility districts to get involved.

Its hard to believe but the football season is just less than two months away and that means teams and fans are gearing up for a another great season. We all know that its more than just a game, its an American Institution. Its a time for friends and families to get together and celebrate. The last Super Bowl was a great matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. While we lived in the NW it was still great to have friends over and get all the Super Bowl party favors to then take on a new team for that weekend to cheer on. My wife came up with a great idea to have various party favors like glow sticks in various sizes that would be a fun treat for the kids. It turned out that the adults were just as in to the sticks and making colorful cheer items than the kids. What was great is that you can order these sticks to be in bulk or by the piece so that you can mix and match to come up with some very creative ideas.

I did a quick search for Super Bowl and a ton of ideas came up. They have Super Bowl party games, First Down Appetizers, special dip recipes and invitation ideas. There was also a great idea to use glow sticks in your teams colors to liven up the decor and give out various gifts to your guests. Guys love the game and the wives love the food and frolic with friends. Its bigger than New Years Eve in my opinion. So, from the invitation to door prizes, to food recipes and drink ideas, to glow sticks in the shape of footballs. Don’t end up like me with a great idea and not to follow through. Plus, you will take the heat off your wife from all the planning it takes to pull this off. Enjoy!

I just love the way the French developed a plan to save two car companies from going under from a market that does not want to buy their car. Here is the plan. Give the taxpayer 1000 euros to buy a car if they turn in their car that is 10 years old. So imagine the simple frenchman thinking, what is wrong with my old car? Everything, now turn it in. But I like my old car it was built in France, I love it. Sorry, it is old. But why must I? You need a 1000euros that is why. Well perhaps, but still. Ok fine, you need to keep your countrymen employed. But they make a car I do not wish to buy. Too bad, buy it now. But they cost more to make here, let us use Romania instead. No, you will buy from the French who make a car you do not want and you need 1000 euros because of the current crisis in the world. But that was not my fault. Well yes it is, because you did not spend enough now turn in your car. Its all circles for these guys. I do commend though Peugot the maker of the economical Peugeot 107 and the upgraded Peugeot 308 who said they do not want any stimulus money and will shut down plants because that is how the market forces operate. They are family owned, well at least for now they are!

With the revitalization in the auto industry you can find a list a Peugeot Dealer online through Perrys.co.uk where they offere a simple solution to help you find and locate cars online. With a simple search interface they are helping to make your next car purchase online easy and simple. You can even start to look for info on the newly anticipated Peugeot 308 RCZ which is the new sporty edition from the famed French automakers that should make it a serious contender in the sports car arena. Competing against such autos as the Audi TT this new souped up car will offer consumers a great option with a price point to help those afford their new car. At Perrys they offer the ability to research and compare various auto makers and find dealers to help you find locations to test drive some of the hottest makes and models for 2010.

Peugeot 308 RCZ

A new service has been launched by Websitesin48hours.com that will enable customers to promote and operate a successful business environment both on and offline. They offer a money back guarantee if your website is not completed within the 48 hours. In the fast paced world of the internet, every minute counts, and you do not want to loose out to your competition because of delays. They also offer eCommerce enabled site to help you start selling your products right away.

There are three different levels to choose from based on your business needs. They are Bronze, Silver, and Platinum.With the Bronze you will be able to select from a few templates that will be fitted to your business. With the Platinum package you will have over 2000 web templates to choose from. Remember that when starting out online, the look of your site will only matter if you have people looking at it. Work with the professionals at Websitesin48hours.com to find the one that best fits your needs. One that is simple and easy to navigate will help you generate more sales, than one that loads with a lot of graphics. And remember that not everyone will be operating from a High Speed connection, so all the nice Flash and animation will not be seen by certain percentage of your potential customers.

Remember to always to create with the customer in mind, and you will always win.

One of the more frustrating issues with any software upgrade is that just when you got used to using the old tools and were very comfortable with them, things changed and now who must learn a new menus. Well, thanks to the people at www.addintools. com you can now download the classic menus for several office tools. For example, they offer the classic menu styles for Office 2003 to be used with your Office 2007. You don’t need any training or tutorials for Microsoft Office 2007 if you have ever used old versions of Office. What a great concept and great idea to make life easier for all of us. Why not bring back the menus and tools of Word 2003 and use the classic style main menu and standard toolbar? This could be a good message back to Microsoft where we love the product and we love these classic menus, Why did you ever take them away. Plus, www.addintools.com offers the classic menus and tools for Word 2003. What I really like is the 60 day money back guarantee which should give us all the time we need to see if the product is as good as they say. What is more is that they offer free updates and product support for 24 months.  This is great company that stands behind there product and meeting the customer needs. Why spend so much time retraining yourself when this type of product is available?

One of the best ways that we can get our image across to our customers is in the uniforms that we wear.  If you think of a restaurant, each person has the brand on their uniform, while at the same time the uniform allows the customer to know what our role is within the business. We take this for granted, but our customers expect it. At the restaurant, what the host is wearing immediately tells the customer what they do and what type of restaurant this will be. This goes for the chef as well whose chef shirt is critical. We all look back at the kitchen and asses the professionalism of the chef. I found a solid company that can produce these uniforms for us at www.iDbyLandau.com. Look at the chef jackets and you will see that the iD0104 projects a different statement than the equally nice iD0131. Take a look at these chef coats again, you see the difference in image and branding. You need to take the time to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. iD by Landau has put together a great site with nice images to make a sound buying decision. I appreciate the way they use models so I can get a real life idea of what my restaurant will look like. iD by Landau also has many other uniform styles to shop for. They create uniforms for small businesses, Spa’s, hotels plus they can help you withe your Logo and monogram needs! I love a site that is so laser focused. This is where business needs to be!

Traditional advertising is continuing to take a back seat to Internet marketing. Just think of the millions of English speaking people who connect to the Internet everyday to explore, learn, shop etc. If you want to get your message across in a meaningful way, it will take a professional firm to help you with web and graphic design. I found a solid portland web design firm named at www.cyphondesign.com. This firm is best known for its portland web design services working with major companies like Intel. They have a long list of Portland, OR companies that have benefited from their expertise and up to date knowledge of all the new technologies in web and graphic design. Look at their portfolio in their portland web design solutions and you will see some very professionally made designs that have helped Porland, OR companies get their message out. Other companies such as Movidis, Firefly Technologies and Strategic Contact have all used this portland website design firm to maximize their marketing efforts. They offer a multitude of services in website design including: branding, animations, flash sites, shockwave and application integration. With graphic design, they offer solutions for brochures, packaging, logos, annual reports and books. This is the kind a firm a business needs so that they can focus on their core business and let the experts take care of the technology and graphic design. Plus, this is a very easy website to use that is laid out well and easily communicates what their expertise is. Basically, Cyphon offers affordable, professional, high quality web and graphic design to any type of business be it for profit or not. Any Portland, OR firm must look at the premier design firm: Cyphon Design

Now I see that even car dealerships can get involved. The FordStory site explains how Sunrise Ford in Florida has put on over 100 solar cells on their roof to trap the suns energy and power the huge dealership. They have an ongoing monitor display to show just how much power they are producing. Even the cells themselves are from 75% recycled goods! Sometimes its hard to think a car dealer would ever have anything but sales on their mind. However, these guys have taken the initiative to show what they can do for the environment. The video clip goes on to show how the recycle the huge amounts of paper and the plastic cups everyday. Its stories like these that we need to here. We all need a break from the news and see that the world is still moving no matter how the Dow closed today or which bank failed. It is still up to each one of us to take the initiative to create work and to create a better more Green workplace. Wow, good for Ford. Not only are they not taking the stimulus money, they are also moving forward with technology that will truly separate them from all the other car makers that will soon mire in the mud!

Our family is huge on crafts these days for entertainment. Its fun and educational. We are starting out with clay projects and we need all kinds of supplies like lead free glaze pencils. We found AMACO/Brent to be the finest and most professional site to use for the unique craft supplies. For example, they make 572 different liquid glazes for both professionals and families like mine. They are then broken out for easy shopping, into categories like low and high fire glazes, under glazes and over glazes. I really like the photography they use on this site to give a good graphic detail of the items they sell. Our children like the variety of glaze chalk they have for sale. They come in delightful pastels and hues that the kids love, especially for spring! Take a look at the example image on the glaze chalk page to see what you can create with these colors. It is titled, “Our First House” which gives some idea of just how these colors stand out. Our favorite tab is the Kids and Crafts page, where you learn that they also produce modeling clay and magic mud which our children just cannot get enough of. You may be interested in downloading there 2009 catalog to get an even better idea of what they sell. I found the site to be very easy to use, with all sorts of links to more information on neighborhood clinics with a great help staff when needed. 90 years from experience speaks for itself!

I have friends who are considering a corporate move to the United Kingdom. Its hard to believe, but yes there are plenty of jobs in the world and they still need top talent and will pay to move them overseas. One of the issues that they must think about is affordable car insurance. Your local carrier in the US is probably not licensed in the UK and would it not be nice to find affordable insurance from those who know what they are talking about? The family will need specifically Van Insurance because unlike the US, they really do not drive too many SUV’s over there. The streets are much smaller and not as wide.

At www.autonetinsurance.co.uk/ they have the solutions to this problem. You can save up to 70% on your van insurance and with one click you can get a quote. What is more, you can get quotes on pet insurance, motorcycle, business, travel and caravan insurance. For us on this side of the pond, caravan insurance is RV insurance. What I love about this company is that if you find a better deal with the same level of coverages, you will get your money back. They shop 40 carrier to make sure of it. That is what shopping on the Internet is all about and few companies seem to meet this demand. Thank you www.autonetinsurance.co.uk for doing so! Further, their site is very easy to use and navigate. Just click on the type of insurance you need, click on give me an online quote or call their phone number, enter your information and receive your quote.

Probably one of the better investments these days are Cd’s. There is a lot of competition, so I went out to the Internet to find the best CD rates and found selectcdrates.com I found the best cd rates out there from across the nation. For example, the I learned the federal funds rate today is 2.87% and that six month cd rates are around 4.44%. This site allows you to look up by state and by how many years you are looking to invest, say a 3 or 5 year Cd. Plus, they have a great FAQ page for the banking and cd industry. They also have a wealth of tips on such things as cd ladders and check clearing times. You will get a good education here and begin to make good strategies on which cd to buy.

No matter the economy, paper will always be in high demand. I appreciate the idea of a paperless company, but in reality there will be paper needs regardless. A leading suppliers of used Pulp and Paper Equipment is www.surpluspaperequipment.com. This company is a world wide leader in the marketing and selling of surplus Paper Machines, Vacuum Pumps and hundreds of other pieces of equipment with a experienced staff to meet our current economic changes. They are more than company that sells they equipment, they also service the the paper industry in the dismantling and transportation of used or surplus Pulp Mill Equipment. Surpluspaperequipment.com provides an “Asset Recovery Program” along with another unit called Surplus Paper Inc who specializes in Plant and Equipment liquidations. Plus, they offer the opportunity not only to shop their inventory but you can also post your surplus equipment for sale. I love niche companies like this, that target a select industry and do their very best to service them. This company is well known in the industry and a firm you can trust when these type of matters arise. I was also impressed with the format of the website as well. It is easy to navigate and when looking at the items for sale, the pictures and images do a good job showing the current condition of the used equipment. I also like the idea of registration of new users to keep the integrity of the site solid.

One must take into account when building a gas powered power plant, the amount of water needed to create and steam and for cooling. Rebecca Smith had another great article in the WSJ today. She discovered that a megawatt of power generated by wind turbines can save 200-600 gallons of water as compared to gas fired power. This can be huge for dry areas in Washington, Colorado, Nevada and the article goes into state line issues where one could be taking a resource from another state. So in the last post that discussed the fact that gas fired is cheaper than clean coal and nuclear, it is because the water is so cheap or is it? Don’t forget that Nuclear power does demand more water than the gas fired plant too. Wind turbines and solar is the future of our country and we need to take into account the whole picture and not just dollars and cents. Perhaps we need a balance approach where we use all resources. I guess that is why I do not make the big bucks at the DOE! Perhaps we could all use a little less in our natural resources going forward, perhaps we could all make a difference and take notice of the power and water we use at home.

Does your Mom deserve something special on May 10th? Maybe a nice white gold chain or a pair of diamond earrings might make them smile on this special holiday coming up? I think jewelry is a great gift and it is also a gift that holds value. Many of you know I like to play in the stock market and buying something now that will be worth money later, is the way I like to roll. Jewelry fits into that thinking and its investment that can be worth more in the future. Not to mention, jewelry makes a great gift for all the ladies out there. I think they all like jewelry and with the right stones in them; they know just how much you think of them with a ring or bracelet on Mother’s  Day. So if you haven’t thought much about the perfect  gift this year; look to the jewelry department for your Mother’s Day answers!

More people are adding broadband to their homes which has increased the use of home PCs for more applications like downloading movies and watching TV over the internet. There are multiple providers and you should shop around as you will find different services that may be just right for your situation. For those that do not have cable service or are tired of the DSL land line service then you may want to consider HUGHES NET for your satellite provider. Sometimes your bandwidth can suffer due to poor performance of your PC and you may not be realizing the full potential of your high speed connection. For Windows XP users there is a little trick that you can do to help increase your broadband speed. PLease do not attempt this if you are not familiar with making changes to your system.

For a cheap broadband deal check out Hughes Net where you can get a cut your phone cord to the internet and see speeds up to 50X faster. As of this post the folks at Hughesnet were offering Free standard installation and $100 back by mail in rebate. This satellite service is backed by their 30 day money back guarantee as well to make sure that your purchase is what you need. You can find a list of FAQ’s on their site to answer most of your questions like “Can I use my existing Direct TV satellite to receive Hughes Internet service?” The answer is no because the signal that they each receive is different and contain different priorities. This has it’s advantages in that if your TV goes out you will still be able to have internet. This is something that we have heard some cable customers dislike that when their cable goes down they are left without internet as well.