Even with the new economy, some things just do not change. Our home is still our castle and if you are married, you know just how much a wife wants to beautify her home. Friends and family still come by, there are still summer parties and in fact with people going out less, wives want to have their house ready to display. One idea that we wives should continue to strive for is having a very warm scent about our home. When you first walk into a home and the front door opens, you will immediately get a smell and invariably will make a judgment call. Do you smell the cat, the dog, the evening dinner? Why not make that first impression a warm scent from a candle such as candle within an apothecary jars? At www.jarstore.com, you find a multitude of candles to choose from, all in a decorative jar with pleasant colors a warm scents to make you house a home. With apothecary jars, you can choose the size of the a jar such as clear and frosted as well as the style of the lid. I for one love their honeysuckle and the fresh cut grass for the hot summer months. You can sell all the seasonal scents at their website, especially to get ready for the fall where they have several chosen just for that season. The website is very well designed and easy to get around. As you know, my biggest issue is always the customer service, where jarstore.com excels. You can click if you have a broken jar, need an update or Order info. Make your home a welcoming home by using scented candles this year.

Its been two years now and Michael Vick has  paid his for his crime. He was recently released from Leavenworth KS for doing time for the most famous football athlete crime that I can remember. Drugs, abuse, DUIs seem to run rampant but we quickly forget about them. However, abuse a dog and you might as well wear a Scarlet letter on your jersey for life. No matter the affair you may have on the road, or abuse but you had better keep your hands off the dogs. Of course, this was a most serious matter in that you gambling, mating perhaps and the burial of dead dogs on your property. That being said, we need to think of two issues here. The NFL commissioner now has the decision to make if Vick should be reinstated. Second, should we think about the mentality of football players, is this the norm? Obviously, he is not the most brilliant player known to man. How could you be so stupid as to think you could pull this off, look at the company he kept! It was only a matter of time. Then again, a narcissist would never care because they love themselves so much that what they do and how if affects others around them is of no consequence. But that is a matter for another day.

Should he be reinstated. I am going to say yes. He has done his time and now the Market forces are in play. Just like business, for football is a business, let the teams decide if they want him back and how much they want to pay. It is their decision if they want this type of guy to help their brand. What would Joe Montana think if Vick wore his beloved teams uniform? Oakland would never care, just think about their 1970’s team days. So that is next question. What team should take him?

We have recently added the zynga.com app to our iPhone that allows us to play Texas Hold em with friends and others from across the globe. They give you up to 5k Zynga poker chips just for joining and then additional chips for inviting others to join you. Now keep in mind that this is all for entertainment. You can also buy drinks and food items for others at the poker table and even talk a little smack if you get a card on the river.
Now you can avoid all the smoke and lines and play cards online to find the latest updates and sites to play with the best payouts. The site is simple and easy for anyone to navigate and find your game. I especially like their bingo tips that help you get the most out of your online playing experience. For example they tell that you should find a room that has fewer players thus increasing your chances to win. This makes a lot of sense since you are playing against fewer player your chances of getting the blackout or winning one of the other games is much better.

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 outlineing 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!

I thought it was just me but after reading the Newsweek article about our growing culture of young Narcissist behavior and I am now validated. I love me is the mantra. Hey, if I just show up for class I deserve a B. This is just the beginning. How did we get here. The parents of the new dashing 20 year olds are our favorite 70’s flower power folks who we all thought were anti establishment, took a huge 180 degree turn. These are the guys who buy the SUVs and own the companies that keep us running with our out of control spending habits. What happened? The article argues that these parents felt that that culture would keep these kids in check. The problem is that the love of self behavior is reinforced by everyone around them. The adults look the other way hoping and waiting for society to say enough is enough. Too late. I am not sure what to do with this. I know that if I were a hiring manager, I would tremble the thought of hiring someone who felt they deserved the job and not earning it. I wrote before about the Golden Child statue and article in the WSJ, how these new kids want to be a manager in 3 years and when they are bored they are gone! What to do???