So we looked into having her take the Megabus from DC to Raleigh/Durham, and then a bus from the station to the hotel. Well the bus stops a couple of blocks away from the hotel, so she could use that for the trip down, but the bus that would return her from the hotel back to the Megabus station does not run on Sunday, so that would not work. A taxi from the bus station to and from the hotel would be very expensive, and since she has never been there before I am a little bit concerned about her being stranded someplace. Another concern is how many suitcases is she going to need to take with her; we don’t know yet what clothes she is going to be packing. We need to find out if she needs to pack any formal wear, or just business/casual attire for the entire weekend.

She’s already found a couple of ladies to share the hotel with the nights that she is going to be there, so that is good. I sure hope none of them snore! She is a very light sleeper. And I hope none of them need to sleep with the television on, either, because she never manages to sleep with any kind of flickering light or noise. That reminds me, I’ll tell her to be sure to pack some ear plugs and a sleeping mask to wear.

Our youngest son found out that she needs to go to the convention and that we’re having issues getting her there, so he volunteered to use a hertz coupon to rent a car, splitting the cost with us, and driving her to and from the convention. It turns out that he has a girlfriend that goes to college at Duke University and he wouldn’t mind going down there and visiting with her for the week-end! Problem solved!

With the advent of the Internet, and the rapid acceptance and dependence of the Internet, I find it so much easier to use the Internet to do a local search for any business than going back to the old paper version!  And yes, we DO have the old paper version in the cupboard by the telephone, but I gravitate towards using the Internet first.  I really like how once I find the listing that i need I can often get directions to the place if I need them!  The paper version doesn’t do that at all!

So far I have not timed my visits to the website right for grabbing an insanity deal, but I have purchased a few of the items that the website sells at outrageously low prices. In some ways, this new website has put a little bit of fun into shopping that I haven’t had outside of going to an auction house. To be perfectly honest, I don’t know how long this website has been online, but I have a feeling that it will be a success for many years to come.

In addition to selling various products such as handbags and jewelry, the website also sells travel packages and electronics. I was looking through the section that they call “Insanity Deals” and saw that they had sold some really expensive electronic products for some really crazy low prices. There is no way possible that anyone made any kind of profit from those “insanity deals.” Not being an expert on marketing, I would imagine that those products are what are sometimes referred to as “loss leaders” by the big chain stores – products priced so low that the sale actually loses money, but the hope is that while customers are in the store that they will find something else that they really like and spend money buying the other items.

Not the old illegal “bait and switch” routine, more like the “while you’re here looking around, maybe you’d be interested in buying some of this other stuff” type of marketing.

Jack is an enrolled agent cpe and has been for almost 5 years, he comes from a well established family from Massachusetts, which makes him a Yankee, but we are trying not to hold that against him LOL! He is now concentrating on his required enrolled agent continuing education, which can be done right online these days, so that he can continue working in that position and save enough money for the big wedding that my sis has always dreamed of and I’m sure that will cost us all a good chunk of change in the long run.

They make a cute couple, it was a nice relaxed Christmas this year. Now on with the New Year’s festivities.

We haven’t gotten away, just the two of us in so long. I think it would be a good thing for us both. I’m banking on using the Internet and Googling “Beach Resorts Myrtle Beach” and seeing what I can come up with on such short notice. With such horrible weather conditions outside today it seems that it would be a good way to spend the day looking around online.

We will see what I can come up with, maybe print off some of the information that I find and put it in an envelope and put it under the tree for her on Christmas morning. That should be a smile on her face and when she is happy, I’m happy as well!

I have never had to deal with International Shipping, so I really can’t offer them any assistance, advice or guidance on that subject, but I can help in other ways while they attempt to get ready for their big move. Looks like I’ll be helping them sort, trash, give a way, sell and pack up all of their belongings up until the International Movers take over and start doing their part. At least this isn’t going to start happening until some time in April. Hopefully the weather won’t be so harsh, nothing worse than moving during the winter months.

One of the business people there is self employed as a business promoter. Basically he just stands up and says that he can help businesses with their SEO for their websites. I think that he would be more effective if he explained to people why that is important because there are a lot of people there that don’t even have a website for their businesses! The Internet is making the world a smaller place, and if people want to grow their businesses, I think that they should at least consider having their own Home page to help people find their business!

So anyway this guy talks about using a pay-per-click service to help drive traffic to his customer’s websites. I think that pay-per-click can help, but I think that is just one of the many ways that people can increase their rankings and visibility. I’d like to encourage folks that want to monetize their website or promote their website that they need to carefully look at the Advertiser page and the Publisher page of any website that is claiming to help people with their SEO and get a better feel for how that company actually performs their SEO marketing functions. And reading them carefully might give you a better idea of exactly how professional that company really is. If their website contains a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes, you might ask yourself if this is really the company you want to represent your company on the Internet.

The one thing that I recently researched and learned about was that it is not too awfully difficult to increase the amount of traffic on my site. By using , a company much like RevLocal, in which they can work their local search optimization magic which will then increase that amount of people/traffic to my site and help me get the word out and hopefully generate some much needed sales.

I’ve learned that there is so much involved in having a good quality web site.  First of  all you have to have the right web hosting and lord knows that that can be pretty tricky if you don’t know what you are doing or getting yourself involved in. And then of course you have to have a good IT to help with all of those issues that an every day person would be clueless in.And lastly you have to learn all about small business marketing and all that it has to offer via the Internet. It’s all about specialties these days!

What I really need to do is empty the whole thing out, put in a nice tool box and a new workbench and start filling it up again with only the essentials and in an orderly fashion. I’ve seen some nice workbenches online, which would do nicely in there. I don’t think that this is going to happen any time soon, but something to put on the back burner, to be sure.

Something else I want and need to do is to start planning on purchasing some out buildings made of metal and/or steel. I’ve hear a lot about these Future Steel Buildings that seem to be right up my alley. I know of a few people that have gone with these Future steel buildings and they couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Next time I get a chance I’ll have to look up the website and start researching for myself.

There are so many sports channels on satellite television that it would be easy to watch sports twenty four hours a day!  Almost all of my neighbors and relatives have satellite service.  Apparently we live in an area that doesn’t have cable, so antenna and satellite are the only two options available right now.  But even many of the people that I work with have the option to have either and they still opt for the satellite – they say that they have a lower rate and that they are very happy with the service.

My father used to always have a rain water barrel that he used for our small garden that we all worked so hard in year after year for our home grown fruits and vegetables that my mother loved cooking with. That made a big impression on us for years to come about rain harvesting.

I’m hearing that there are now more rain water barrels are being sold than ever before. Did you know you can find many rain barrels for sale right online at sites like simplyrainbarrels.com has to offer? They have a very large variety of  sizes, colors and shapes as well as various price ranges. What I really like is that simplyrainbarrels.com accepts PayPal, I’ve put an end to my credit cards and rely on my PayPal account more and more for online purchases such as this.