I got my all time favorite board game for Christmas. It is called the Settlers of Catan and I would play from morning until night if I could find someone to play with me. I was introduced to it a couple of years ago by some friends and I was hooked from the very first game I played.

In the game, the goal is to get points by buying towns and cities. You use commodities to build different things and you can get ahead by trading commodities with other players. I am not sure whether I believe that one commodity is better than another, but I know that wood and brick are important commodities at the beginning of the game.

I would consider myself a pretty goo strategist when it comes to this game, but it is also very dependent on luck. You can have the greatest strategy in the world and if your numbers are not rolled, you are out of luck.

As a business owner, I’m always looking for new ways to increase the revenue of my company.  I have done many things in the past, including selling new products and offering new services.

So comes as no surprise when I talk about my new offering to our investors.  You see, we have become a merchant account agent, providing merchant accounts to our many clients.  We thought that this would be a good fit for our current business model, so we are trying it out.

In terms of competition, there is only one other person in town that offers similar services to what we offer, and our offer is superior to theirs.  In fact, we are in talks with our competition to see if he wants to join our organization.

Just because we have added a new division to our business, we will still be looking for new opportunities - the moment we stop, we risk being overtaken by our competition.

Working in the medical field, I have noticed a big difference in the CPAP supply and demand.  It seems that sleep apnea is becoming a lot more common and this struck me as odd and made me curious as to why this would be.

I think we have sent out more than two times the number of CPAP machines this year than we did last year.  I am not sure if it is because there are that many more people now with sleep apnea or if we deal to a whole lot more companies than we did last year.

We have also more than quadrupled our sales of Bipap machines which could be a good thing, as maybe there are more and more people who are able to use these because in my opinion, they are better than the CPAP machines.

It will be interesting to see if the numbers keep rising and it will be interesting to find out why they are.

“If you miss the train I’m on, you will know that I am gone. You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.” So goes the haunting folk song from the sixties.

There’s something about a train whistle, when the Doppler effect causes its sound to change as it moves away, that has always evoked a sense of sadness, just like that folk song does.

“Lord, I’m one; Lord, I’m two; Lord, I’m three; Lord, I’m four; Lord, I’m five hundred miles away from home.”

Having lived twice outside the United States, I know too well the tug of homesickness. It doesn’t matter if you’re abroad arranging an overseas property investment or stationed at a foreign military installation. No matter how much you enjoy where you are, it still feels like you’re visiting.

I also know that unless you’ve only ever lived one place in your life, somewhere else can become home, in time. It’s true. Home is where our heart is.

While I was out at the mall today (a rare occurrence), I found myself at a jewelry store, looking for a gift for my wife.  You see, sometimes I like to do special things for her for no reason at all.  Call me a romantic if you will, but I think it is part of what keeps our marriage running smoothly.

There were many nice pieces in the jewelry case, but I passed on the common items such as diamonds and pearls in my quest to find something that truly captured how I felt about her.  I don’t feel that she deserves something common, rather something unique and captivating.

I was just about to leave the store when I came across a mystic topaz that sparkled like nothing that I have ever seen.  I purchased it immediately, and I am sitting here looking at it now.  I am just waiting for my wife to come home from work - I bet she will be surprised!

If I had gotten vinyl replacement windows upstairs like the ones my sister had installed downstairs in our mother’s house, I wouldn’t be in this mess. This is how it started.

When I moved in with Mom, I set up shop upstairs. The space is filled with boxes from the truckload of “stuff” my ex- brought out when we sold our house. So until I am emotionally able to deal with all the decisions that come with opening so many boxes filled with bittersweet memories, I’m living, working and sleeping on a futon. Yes, it doubles, er, trebles, as my desk, bookshelf and bed.

It sits directly in front of a window. This time of year the weather can change dramatically. This afternoon it was summer. Tonight it’s spring, it’s raining, the window won’t close, so my desk-bed-bookshelf is getting soaked. And all because we didn’t have the window company install vinyl windows upstairs, too. *sigh*

When our church had a golf tournament for charity last year, I was on the committee of people that would go to different businesses asking for promotional items as prizes for the golf tournament.  In return, we would advertise for the company in our golf brochures.

We managed to get several hundred promotional products and ended up having to do a whole lot of advertising, but we also raised a lot of money for the charity that we were supporting.  I think that everyone had a great time and I know for sure that I did.

With all of the corporate gifts that we had obtained everyone in the tournament ended up getting a least one prize.  When all is said and done I think that the golf tournament was a huge success and it is definitely something that I would not mind being involved in again.

My friends and I recently went to prom and in order to make it special we went in together on a limo. The ride was great and the limo was the bomb. Leather inside with fun lighting and a great stereo system.

Eight of us, four couples, split the cost of a Philadelphia limousine service for the evening and it was great!

They picked us up at each of our homes and then took us out for dinner. We had a great time at the restaurant and then we went on to the prom. The place was decorated amazingly! It looked like a very, very, expensive production from a movie set of some foreign film with beautiful fabrics and trees and plants.

When the night was done, the driver took us all back to our final destinations safely. It was the best night I’ve had so far and I know my friends all were impressed too.

A few years ago, I was struggling in my relationship with my husband and I knew that our marriage was falling apart.  He would not admit to this and so I went on my own to talk to my pastor and see if he could give me any advice.  He gave me a relationship book to read and told me that he was there anytime I needed someone to talk to.

I had read several books on keys to as happy relationship prior to this meeting with the pastor but none of them really hit the nail on the head as this book did.  When my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told him that I wanted him to read the book and tell me what he thought of it.

He read it, and finally admitted that there were some major problems in our marriage and told me that he loved me and we do it every had to fix those problems.  He started listening to Dr. Phil advice and even went to see the pastor on his own.  Most days we’re doing okay now and I attributed all to the pastor’s book.

If you’d like your website or blog to get more traffic and rank high in search engine listings, it helps to know some basics for optimizing your web pages. What are the words your customers might use when searching for your product? Think carefully about this. What you might type and what your customers might type may differ.

If so, perhaps you haven’t really considered who your ideal customer is. Take the time to brainstorm some of their characteristics. These are a few things to consider:

Age?
Income?
Interests?
Hobbies?
Internet connection type?
Are they spending money online?
Where do they interact online?
What are their problems?
Why do they need your widget?
How will your widget benefit them?

At this point, many site owners feel overwhelmed. If this is you, there’s no need to be discouraged.

No one in business can be expected to do everything. This is a perfect time to call in an IT consultant. He or she will do all the keyword research, help you set up your pages optimally and guide you in understanding who your ideal customer is. Never underestimate the value of good IT help.