Good Money In Translating

It seems to me that any type of legal translation services (off or online) would be welcomed all across the country. With so many people traveling as much as they do these days and so many languages being spoken ( estimated to be between 5 and 6 thousand) there is certainly a great need to be able to communicate.

With this in mind I certainly wish that I had buckled down more in school and taken more languages classes. I did take 7th grade Spanish, twice. Once in 7th grade and then again in summer school because my mother didn’t have day care for me during the summer months so I had to take Typing and Spanish that summer. I can type really good, but as far as the Spanish that is a whole other ballgame.

It very well could be that I would have been making some pretty decent money at this time of my life. The Spanish language is widely used in so many areas of the world, or at least some type of Latin based language. I can muddle through a bit with many Hispanic people that I run across during my daily life, but to be able to hold a decent conversation, much less translate, no can do.

A Karaoke Birthday

My birthday is right around the corner and everyone in my family is asking me what I want this year, so I have been thinking about it and I have decided my top pick would have to be a home karaoke machine. Ever since I was a young kid I’ve always find myself turning up some of my favorite music and singing along (quite loudly, mind you) with it, dancing around the room with a spiral hair brush in my hand pretending it is my microphone. Most of my girlfriends did the same thing and when we would all get together we would spend most of it listening, singing and talking about music. Man didn’t we have some great times, all based around the magic of music.

And the sleep-overs, I swear I don’t think I ever spent a weekend along. I was either at one of my friends house or one or more was sleeping over at my place. Most of the time we were at my house, it was always so kid friendly and a safe place for all the kids of the neighborhood and all the other kids that wanted or needed a place to hang and have fun. My parents made a huge effort to make and keep it that way for as long as possible. They still have people come to the door that used to come over  and play that just wanted to stop by and say hello and see if our family was still calling the house our home. My mother really gets a kick out of seeing how much they have grown and changed and hear all of there stories.

shure sm58
The Shure SM58 Mic

Well back to the subject of a karaoke machine I searched around on the Internet for some idea of the prices that they are asking for today’s home karaoke machines, and where to buy a microphone that I would like with it and had found a particular website that offers so many awesome karaoke machines for outrageously low prices. I sent out an email shared this sites URL with my close family members that have asked me for any ideas that I might have for a birthday gift this year.

Marching Bands

While looking online at various musical instrument sites, trying to find a good deal on an electric guitar to get for my nephew for Christmas I came across some exquisite Atkinson french horns that brought back a flood of memories from my days back in high school. One of our favorite things to do was to go to the Friday night football games, man those were some extraordinarily good times. The half time celebration was always a blast. I knew a lot of the kids that were in the marching band that always played during this exciting half time. To this day I get goose bumps whenever I see or hear a marching band play like in a parade, or on TV or in a movie, or even on YouTube!

I am still on the look out for a good guitar and with Christmas only a couple of weeks away I’m starting to get a bit nervous about the whole ordeal. It’s a good thing that I got a lot of my Christmas shopping done way ahead of time.

atkinson french horn
Atkinson A800 Pro Double French Horn

A Good Quality Raleigh Cleaning Service

Spending some time online looking at gift options for my sister. I think she would really appreciate a raleigh cleaning service that would come into her house and get it a good cleaning, from top to bottom. She has been very overwhelmed with the new baby and her two and a half year old, which isn’t allowing her the time that she needs to get everything done that normally she would be right on top of.

The Other Woman, Inc sounds like they would be the perfect fit for what sis needs and wants. I have heard about The Other Woman from other people and they all seem to be satisfied with them. Word of mouth is still the best way of advertising, with the Internet falling right on it’s heels. I hope that this gift from me to her will make her Christmas a good one and that we have many more Christmas holidays ahead of us all.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

A few years ago, while perusing through TV channels one Saturday evening, I discovered that my favorite Christmas tale of all time, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, was airing in its live action movie format. I’d loved the book and the cartoon specials as a child and thought they did a good job of fleshing out the story in order to accommodate the feature length format. I was living with my college roommates at the time and we waxed nostalgia while enjoying it on TV. The movie plot basically follows the book where the anti-Christmas Grinch tries to spoil it for the people of Whoville by stealing all of their presents. Realizing the true meaning of Christmas after the folks of Whoville were able to enjoy it even without presents, the Grinch has a change of heart. The movie was directed by Ron Howard and starred Jim Carrey. It originally came out back in 2000 at the height of Carrey’s popularity.

Anyway, watching it has pretty much become an annual holiday event for me. Now that I’m out of school and back at home, I’ve been watching it the last two years with my parents. We usually catch the weekend showing when the whole family can get together. The only other requirements we have are some snacks, drinks and some cozy blankets.

Cigar Samplers

My mother just now posted the Christmas day pictures that were taken on her camera on Facebook to share with everyone. Bless her heart she tries so very hard to master all of today’s latest technologies. I know that a lot of our senior citizens are so intimidated by all of that tekki stuff that they really miss out on all that there is out. It took my parents, especially my mother, a good long while before they would even consider to just sit down in front of a computer and allow me to show them so that they could see what it was all about. Dad finally caught on pretty well, but mom basically settled for learning how to use their email and it wasn’t until last September that I got them both to give Facebook a try!

So I was really tickled that she got the pictures posted today. My favorite picture of all is when my Dad was opening the present that I gave him which was The Ultimate Plasencia Sampler that I posted a picture of below. He was grinning ear to ear. I know he really wanted to light one up right then and there, but mom would have kicked his butt for smoking in the house. I found some great cigar deals online, but even at discount prices cigars aren’t cheap.

sampler
Ultimate Plasencia Sampler

Good Friends

I used to be good friends with a gal that worked for an insurance company as a claims representative. She was such a lively person, full of energy and life, I miss her and want to try and find her on the computer somehow. I used to love hearing all the stories that she would tell about the customers that she dealt with each and every day and how they’re acted to a female claims rep in a male dominated world.  Not only did I enjoy hearing her stories, but she also got me hooked up with the best van insurance that money could buy and I’m grateful for that.

I have had to submit a few claims from time to time, always hoping that she would be assigned my claim, but was always happy with the service by the claims rep that did receive my claim. It has been a few years, I was told back then that she was still with the company, sure would love to hear from her again. I’m sure she has some new funny stories to tell me and we have a lot to catch up on. Gonna have to work on finding her soon, I think I’ll start with looking on Facebook which seems to be the best way to find people these days.

 

Home Made, Make Shift Boarding Stairs For Dad

I’m sorry but I’m just not as knowledgeable about Boarding Stairs as my brothers are at this point. But good grief I can’t even remember the last time I was on a boat or even talked about a boat for that matter. When our father finally got so ill and was having a hard time getting around back in the last years of his life, we all tried to figure out how to afford or to make some make shift Boarding Stairs for him to use to get off and on the numerous boats that we all owned and used and kept in his boat house. The same boat house that he built way before any of us where even thought of. And we did manage to have one built and he used it for several years, it looked so stupid and it stood out like a sore thumb but not a single friend or family member cared one bit as long as it made life easier and more enjoyable for our dad.

He became a land owner early in his life, and his favorite property was the property that he built the log cabin on and was located right on the best water around for his needs and wants. The water is formerly called Buckneer’s Creek, but I can assure you that it in no way resembled a creek. It was perfect for swimming, boating, fishing, crabbing, tubing, canoeing, paddle boating, water skiing, jet skiing, water boarding and any and all other types of water fun you could come up with and it still is. Only thing wrong with the picture is that he isn’t in it any more, but we are so very lucky that we didn’t lose it when he passed on and that we still get to enjoy it year after year. We have a few pictures of the boat with those boarding stairs on it, it still looks awkward but at least you can see a smile on dad’s face there right along side it.