Florida Housing On The Rise Again.

I was watching the news today and they had a report on the steady rise in real estate sales in Florida and how they're starting to get back to the 2005/2006 area. The median house price in Hillsborough County in Tampa Bay for example is apprx. $134,800, while Tampa Bay as a whole is about $141,000. Yes, it's still lower than the hey days of the past but without the financial plagues to go with it. I've been also keeping an eye on North Carolina because I happen to like N.C. a lot and would someday like to retire there. In N.C. we can enjoy the change in seasons without the extremes of the northern or southern climates combined. I saw a listing for a quiet little town in Bertie County. This is a 3,000 sq/ft 2 story home for $52,900! That's an incredible price for this size home.Nags Head foreclosures has numerous listings from land only to mobile to full homes with and without waterfront access. I'd finally get to use my boat! When I retire that is and that probably won't be for a long time, not by my choosing that is.

More Gadgets Please!

With the economy being off the way it is many merchants are pushing a lot of really cool gadgets out to those of us who are gadget hungry. I love gadgets unless they're too expensive to be considered real gadgets and thus become 'emerging technology'! I can't afford emerging technology and I think that there are many others out there in the same boat as me. I laugh every time Apple releases a 'new, improved' product because if you wait a heartbeat you can start counting the expert and consumer exposed flaws in them in rapid sequence, like the new phone that came out recently. I'll start talking about this and my wife just laughs at me and keeps saying, "boys and their toys, boys and their toys". I tell her that they're not toys, they're necessities of life and human enrichment, until they either break or have a new and improved model come out in a few months time. I think by the time the current model is 'on the streets' the replacement is already in production(I know I'm right on that one)! Yes, I love my toys, I mean gadgets necessary for life!

Time for Some Upgrades - Maybe.

I was in a Best Buy today with my wife to look at a picture frame and ended up looking at wide screen televisions. The new LED models have a great picture and the new 3D sets, in my opinion, leave something to be desired. I found the peripheral parts of the picture, with the glasses on, to be disturbing. I watched a golf game and I felt my eyes trying to track too many objects at once and it was giving me some decent eye strain. I'm not ready for the kind out cash outlay yet. I was duly impressed with the LED sets however. They're low power, high contrast beauties with a thin profile to the back. I told my wife that we could move up in status with a couple of HiDef sets, a hi end surround system, a couple of Amish fireplaces, and one of those big rattan bladed ceiling fans for that Casablanca look! Of course she had to bring up the C word - cash, and that kind of put the kabosh on everything, at least for this week.

Birthdays Get Involved, Except Mine!

It seems like when someones birthday rolls around the lists start showing up in conspicuous places, like my car dashboard and next to my razor, to name just two. About a month prior to my wife's birthday she starts to read ads, lots of ads, for products that are a 'must have'. Of course they are! She saw a television ad for a floating recliner chair for the pool and you guessed it. She read a woman's publication and saw an article referencing a best eye cream review and where it could be obtained and, you guessed it. Did I mention that she needs a watch? What happened to last years watch? I know, don't even bring that up, just roll with it. Needless to say that with my incredible luck I was able to order the pool float, and was subsequently informed in an email 3 days later that it's on a multi week back-order. Could my day get any better? Actually it did. I was able to get the eye cream and I had to tell her about the float so tomorrow we'll be looking at, you guessed it again, watches! On my birthday I tell her what I want, where to find it on sale, and when the best time to buy it will be. Did I mention she wants a watch?

One Alternative to Duck Tape.

Aside from duck taping my pie hole and curbing what I put down the hatch, I have an alternative, more or less. My doctor did agree to allow me to use an appetite suppressant for a short while until I get on a good eating regimen. She was going to put me on a prescription medication called Phentermine, which will suppress my normal appetite until my body adapts to the new caloric level she wants me to maintain. It seemed like a great idea until I saw the cost of this Rx medication and that put the brakes on for me on that front. There had to be a better, cheaper way to do the same thing. I searched the web and found a similar product that was based on Phentermine but called Phentirmene. It's supposed to have the same effect on suppressing the appetite but not nearly as costly. This I can handle, the absence of goodies will be a more difficult task. Why do they make the junk stuff taste so great? So we'll eat lots of it and get hooked on it's empty goodness. The best part of this is that there are no reported side effects and it doesn't require a prescription. I'm going to let my doctor know what I want to do and bring her on-board with the plan so she is aware of what I'm doing, always a wise thing to do when taking supplements or other treatments that aren't prescribed.

My Yard Looks Bleak.

I've spent so much time and money on my front yard that I've forgotten about the backyard, until recently. I've begun my annual summer weed 'pull and poison' and you know I'm really digging the hot, humid weather I get top do this in, not! I've trimmed my two large orange trees and one grapefruit tree back to a Tim Burton looking landscape. If that's not bad enough, the once pristine white and beige metal shed I house my yard equipment, tools, and organics in is now mostly orange from rust. I think Mother Nature misheard when I said I like a 'rustic' look, not rusty! I was contemplating getting a new plastic shed but with the hurricanes down here, when they do hit, it wouldn't last very long indeed. I'll have to do a metal building, most likely steel, that I can anchor down to the soil. Soil, that's a good one, Florida has sand and that'll take a long anchor or three. This time I'm going to put some sort of cheap ceramic tile on the 1/2 inch plywood floor to keep the citrus rats from chewing through the wood for winter living. Where did they go before the shed was there, let alone the house? Now I can start shopping for prices. That'll be fun to do during the summer!

Ooops, I Did It Again.

I managed to get my new doctor to lecture me on the perils of not losing some weight. I know I need to but the summer has been so hot here in Florida that getting out to ride the bike or take some long, brisk walks has been a real chore indeed! I can deal with the heat but the humidity is a bit much for good breathing. I wish there were a best weight loss product or a miracle fat burner I could take in the interim but I digress. She is correct in stating that my pressure would come down significantly if I did drop some poundage, I don't dispute this fact. Also a fact is that I now have a sit down job that doesn't burn many calories and it's also at night when I could go for a cooler walk instead of during the high sun of the afternoons, or the showers of summer. The past two appointments I had I showed a 2 lb drop each time and this time it was a 3 lb increase. Maybe I should remind her that overall I still lost 1 lb.!

Veggies In, Veggies Out. Simple? No.

Fiber isn't the cure all for the health and physical welfare of today's active society. Many tout the health benefits of fiber in the diet, which is absolutely true by the way. I'm in no way saying that fiber is useless, it isn't. I'm saying that fiber ALONE is useless unless it's an integral part of a whole health food lifestyle. You can eat junk food so long as you don't over-indulge and you balance the junk out with good food and yes, fiber to push good and bad out the door! There are different things that you can do to jump start a healthy lifestyle and get on the right path. One of those things is a high quality, legitimate colon cleansing product. I advise that doing what the television or radio tells you to do may not be in your best interests, but it will be in theirs. There are many websites that can give you the proper information about what to do, how to do it, and what to do it with such as http://www.colonixreview.net. They'll let you know what to expect 'up front' on their main page, not buried deep in the fine print as so many others do. They'll tell you what it is, what the benefits are, it's history, and side effects that could occur because someone reported an issue, just like pharmacy information. The like/dislike stats appear starkly honest because they show some people are not benefited from the products, but that's normal. I am glad they don't hide the dissatisfied reviews because we all know not everybody likes everything.

Hollywood Stars are a Cut-Up ...and Over ....and Under!

One of my pet peaves is why Hollywood, and non-Hollywood, folk like to be legally butchered to make them look grotesque afterwards. Why do they do this garbage? Did Mickey Rourke think he came out looking like James Dean or Joan Rivers think she'd look like a teen again, instead of the infamous 'Catwoman' who's husband has done so much plastic surgery to make her look beautiful that she now looks like a circus freak! There are products available that aren't administered with a scalpel. I have to be very careful as to what types of supplements I take because I take a Beta Blocker for my blood pressure and things like Ginseng and Flax could potentially cause my meds to not work. That would be counter productive for my greater health issues. You take meds to lower your blood pressure because(in part) of weight issues, then you take a supplement to help you lose weight in order to reduce your meds, and the supplements that weren't researched properly have now caused your pressure to increase because your meds no longer are effective. Makes no sense to me and I'm sure if your in a similar situation you can relate easily. Maybe that's why so many people with money to burn and body's to disfigure go the quick surgical route. Who wouldn't want a pill that would drop those cottage cheese pounds off that butt or a cutting edge prototype 37c or something that will tone and tighten wrinkles on the not so young while returning lost youth to their body? Everybody would love that because everybody wants to look good. What did Fernando say.It is better to LOOK good than to FEEL good! You get the drift. My advice: before taking any herbal based supplements contact your pharmacist if you currently take prescription drugs like BP meds, statins, etc and see about negative interactions. It's good to be slim, tight skinned, and toned but it's better to be alive and healthy, both is great!