Money management is an area that we could all use a little help with, right? Even with a very money-savy fiance, I often find myself wishing for a little more security. Here is an interesting little quiz you can try find out how well off you are with relations to your bills, credit, debt, budget, wealth and life plan. You can actually learn a few things along the way.I did it and got a score of 89% which is a B. Hey! At least I didn't fail! LOL! I learned a few things from the quiz, one thing being that since I have met my fiance, I have made some great changes for our future. However, as always, there is definitively room for improvement. One obvious step is to become debt-free as soon as possible. That is easier said than done, of course. Achieving this goal may be more manageable with the development of a budget and a little Debt help. I actually found it encouraging to see that I was generally on the right track. Although I'm sure we all find retirement somewhat of a scary concept, it's something that I look forward to and hope to have many years of it with my nearest and dearest! 
I am amazed to say that my wedding and honeymoon plans are all winding down. I can't believe it's all come together so easily and nicely! The more I get things planned, the more excited I get! What's funny is, as much as I am excited to marry my incredible fiance, I am just as excited to go on this honeymoon with him! We are planning on flying to Alaska for a cruise, but first we are getting a car rental and spending a couple of days in and around Denali National Park. Just take a look and drool!Meanwhile, I have to clean my house! My parents are coming in to town to visit and I have to pretend that I keep this place like a civilized human... It's always hard to know what to do when they visit, especially since it's so freaking hot outside! We rented a minivan - wish I knew about about the 50% off deals at Advantage at the time - so we didn't have to cram them into our small vehicles, and I've found a few fun things to do with them inside, like wine tasting etc. Wish me luck! It's the first time they will be spending a significant amount of time with my fiance! 
Just checking in to say Happy Fourth of July to all of my American friends! I'm so excited to have two days off in a row with my fiance. And guess what we're going to be doing??? Cleaning the house and yard. How fun is that?! Actually my parents are coming to visit next week, which is HUGE, so I have to make it look like we keep a somewhat orderly existance. LOL!
I've been feverishly working on wedding and honeymoon planning. The more I get into it, the more I get excited about our Honeymoon cruise to Alaska. This has been a dream of mine for years, so I can't believe it's actually coming true! Nor can I believe the amount of planning that has to go into it! Thank-God, I found this website that pretty much walks you right through everything, right down to what excursions to book, a packing list... and they're serious about their stuff! They've got the deals right down to the kind of binoculars you should get for optimal wildlife viewing to the 5.11 Tactical pants recommended for hiking in Denali! So things are finally really starting to come together!
Have a great Holiday, folks! Enjoy the outdoors and the BBQs with your family and friends! 
Ok, I hate to admit this, but as I approach 40, I am really noticing my eyesight deteriorating! Almost 10 years ago, when it was first becoming popular, I had Lasik done to both eyes. It was one of the best things I ever did for myself! It was painless, a quick recovery and suddenly the trees had leaves and my alarm clock had numbers! It was amazing! Now I'm thinking I'm probably spending too much time on the computer and am going to need it again.
I'm only wishing the whole process was covered by insurance. It's only fair, don't you think, since it's only returning my eyesight to what it should have been in the first place - it's only bringing my eyesight up to par with the rest of the world.
Hey! Tiger Woods did it... not sure if he had Lasik in San Francisco but I'd be willing to bet it improved his game.
I've had several people email me, inquiring as to how I did the design for my blog. My answer: I didn't! I wouldn't have the first clue as to how to go about designing a blog! LOL! I just do an internet search for blog templates. There are some great sites out there full of all kinds of templates you can use. It doesn't matter which blog platform you prefer, whether you are looking for blogger templates or wordpress templates - you're bound to find something you like. Once it's installed you can customize it to your liking just like you would do to the one you currently have. For example, check out this template, blogs can be beautiful too!
I think one of the greater challenge for us Digital Designers is how to sell our designs. Personally, I am more of an artistic-type person. For the most part, I probably only use the artistic side of my brain. (That would explain a lot! LOL!) The business side is more calculating and mathematical... an area I would be happy to ignore. I suspect that's why we have heard of the term "Starving Artist."
I'm sure we could always use a little help when it comes to the business side of designing. So here's an interesting little quiz to take which does a domain name analysis. It asks three simple questions regarding your website's domain name and then gives you a Domain Name Scorecard, evaluating your website's extension, brand protection and descriptive domain. It also gives a few suggestions as to how to improve the Domain Name Score, such as registering for different extensions besides the usual .com, having one or more descriptive domain names that can point to your current site. Give it a try - you may find out a few things you did not know about domain names and their usefulness in our businesses! 
Ahhhhhhh! A day at home with my boyfriend! To me, this is the ultimate! We've got so much to do to plan our wedding and honeymoon, it's overwhelming! We started by booking some fabulous rooms at an undisclosed location - LOL! I'm not giving away much since we're keeping it mostly secret until we get back! My family's going to kill me! Then we had to got get passport photos done for Michael's passport. We got home to find the termite killers truck outside our neighbours house - that's never encouraging! I'm off to do some more organizing... Have a great weekend! I'll be working...
Ok I know I cannot be the only person here who is soooooo frustrated by Help Center outsourcing! With my computer in the toilet, I ended up on the phone (for hours!) to God only knows where speaking to "Rob" and "Joe" and "Dave" and "Jack" - are you kidding me?! Are companies really saving money with this, when the customer emerges from the encounter so angry that they are guaranteed to never buy such a product again?! Where are the good old-fashionned days when we dealt with people who were pleasant and wanting to help? Not reading from a script with 4 lines on it?! It's encouraging to see some companies actually coming up with products to help the customer. We need more communication tools such as ProCallback by Mercia Networks to bring back real customer service!
Blogger template adapted from 'Fundamental' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008 using "Addicted to Love" Digital Scrapbooking Kit by Joanna Cinnamon at My Digital Addiction.
