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I’ve had a lot of moves in my lifetime. I was talking to my mom last month and for the first time I sat down with her and counted through all of the moves I have made since leaving home at 18. I don’t count that initial move out of the family home. I’ve moved 18 times. Yikes! I knew it had been often, but I had never stopped to think about how often.

I moved around a lot in college. I moved at least once a year as a young adult to find better apartments and neighborhoods. While I was married, we moved a lot for his job. I think perhaps that Gainesville was my longest stretch at a little over three years.

I need to put down some serious root. I want to. I really want to. I wan to live in a house for 10 years, 20 years, even until the end of my days. I’m OK with inviting some monotony into my life. Nonetheless, I know I’ve certainly got some more moves in my future and that’s OK as well.

I like to get at least three quotes when I move and I try to work with local people. Even if you go with a national moving entity, you still need to work with local agents. The times I have been forced to work with offices a thousand miles away are the times I have had bad moving experiences.

I suggest going with a company local to where your move originated from, for the best service. If you are moving from Chicago, find chicago movers. If you are moving from Tampa, find Tampa movers. Working with someone local to your point of origin means they can come out and actually see what you need to move. Your quote will be more accurate. You see my point?

Find a company that will do both local and long-distance moves. Find a company who has been in business a number of years and be ready to ask for references. I’m browsing the In & Out Moving and Storage website and I really like they the same company does both moves AND storage. I just moved all of my stuff into storage and my mover did not have a vested interest in how the stuff got packed into my unit. Having one company responsible for it all would have been fantastic. If they were local to my next destination, I would absolutely consider them. Even though they are not near my origin, the whole storage issue puts them in an attractive light for me.

OK, I’m done talking about moving! I’d like to go one more year without having to pack up again!

I watched the Rock of Love finale. I started watching the show about 4 or 5 episodes ago, mostly as a way to be on the phone with my friend pfunk making snarky comments about Bret Michaels’ hair and the desperate ploys of the women. Tonight was no different. And while I am “happy” Bret chose the gal he chose, I still feel dirty just being privy to this man’s thought process as he decided what makes a good woman for companionship.

He’s absolutely not like the men I’ve dated. First, he wears more makeup than me. Second, because he appears to sit back and just let the women who get the most gah-gah over him win their way into top spots. It did look a teensy tiny like out of the final two, he chose the girl who put up more of a chase. Still, that’s not saying much.

I wish them both the best and now I am off to Google and see if they are even still dating. More than likely, the only search result for Bret will be for creepy home-made sex videos. Ew.

As I was standing in the kitchen chopping all kinds of fresh vegetable san herbs for a morning omelet, I once Again started to think about how attending a cooking school would have been something I think I really could have enjoyed, not to mention been very good at (for what it’s worth.) That is what usually gets me in here surfing the net, looking for culinary programs to see what kinds of options are out there. I’m over at http://www.tca.edu right now reading up on the degreed and certificate programs for Texas Culinary Academy in Austin.

I know I just finished up my big adventure this past summer. I went back to school and got all the classes I need to teach here in the state. And, I do want to work in education. Still, the basic motivation of someone who loves the colors, flavors, scents and textures of food would naturally bring me back time and time again to the dream of, in the very least, taking some advanced cooking classes.

Of course, right now it is just me and my daughter and she is not exactly a raging gourmet. She asks for macaroni and cheese and I make it from scratch with aged cheeses and herbs. Usually, she expresses disappointment, because all she really wanted was the orange stuff you make from the box. Once her palate is a little more sophisticated, I will go right back to the more elaborate dishes I used to prepare.

I’m happy to announce that Gigi is finally on a schedule for her mornings. Unfortunately, that means she wants to wake up super early every day, including weekends. *Yawn* I don’t want to discourage her pattern, so I do not insist she stay in bed. Nonetheless, I do lay there for a few minutes battling internally over the issue.

I got up, but I’m still harboring fantasies about my bed.

Now, the next part of this equation is to find a way for her to have more nights where she drops off to sleep between 8 and 9 p.m. As it stands, there are too many nights she is in bed by that time, but awake and singing and making shadow puppets until approximately 100 p.m. That ways means she is cranky the next morning. I’m not a natural morning person wither, so it makes for some unpleasant times.

We have our routine: the bath, the story, the sitar music. Nonetheless, if she does not feel sleepy, she fights it.

I’m learning to become a much handier person around the house. I started learning back when I was still married and realized just how hopeless my husband was with small home repairs.

I remember once when he was putting on a shirt and as he reached his arms up, he clipped the ceiling fan and broke off two of the paddles. He went to the store to buy new paddles, thinking it would be a simple replacement. He never could get the thing balanced again and we ended up getting a whole new ceiling fan. It kind of seemed like a waste. Similar such “repairs” followed and they all ended up with us purchasing new items. Finally, he moved to calling a handyman when any little thing went wrong and my frugal side came out. I started learning how to take care of the house myself.

There is so much information out there on the net if you want to be part of the Do It Yourself (DIY) revolution. For example, DoitYourself.com is a free community with thousands of articles and active forums on a plethora of do-it-yourself home improvement projects. You can find info on anything from refinishing a desk to building a garage. Knowledge is power, baby. Learn and improve, that is my motto. The site even sells Do It Yourself DVD’s to give you an extra edge if you need it.

I’m going to be doing a small tile project, installing exterior shutters, and putting up faux wood blinds in the family room. Those are the projects I want to get out of the way so I can learn something more challenging, like replacing the faucets and sink in the bathroom.

Tampa is a happy place right now. The USF Bills beat the WVU Mountaineers 21-13 tonight. I did not see this one coming. WVU is (was) 5th ranked and USF only at 18. I assume things will change in a very big way the next time the AP a new poll. I’m shocked, amazed. I’m also happy for USF.

WVU has been a good, respected team for a long time. They have gone to bowls. They have a massive following in their home state. Morale is high. The Bulls are a new team and have close to no national recognition. Tonight very well may have changed that.

Oh, if only it were as easy as just buying it online. With all the absolute chaos that folks here in Florida are experiencing in the effort to insure their homes, it is no wonder I am so fascinated with the ins and outs of home insurance products elsewhere. I wrote about Cooperative Insurance over in the U.K. yesterday and in looking over more of their site, I see they offer a 10% reduction simply for purchasing a policy online. That and that offer a fast claims service as well. Sound like heaven.

I would relish getting a discount for something that pure and simple. The situation here in Florida is a nightmare that is actually causing people to get out of Dodge, so to speak. It is becoming a very vivid reality that renting is so much less expensive than overall home ownership in Florida that home sales might take a very long time to get back to normal.

Don’t me wrong; I love living in sunny Florida, but right now the proverbial grass is absolutely Technicolor on the other side of the Pond.

Tampa is having what amounts to their first really big college game day ever. Raymond James stadium is sold out for tonight’s game and people are tossing up the green and gold all over town. Though Tampa is much bigger than Gainesville, it feels just a little bit like a Gators game day. I miss games days up there, so I hope Tampa can keep the momentum going here.

ESPN is here to give us national exposure. It’s really quite festive. There is just an energy a college town has and Tampa never felt like a college town before. This could get fun!

Credit cards are a tricky topic for me. There are limitless companies out there offering all kinds of cards. Some have good deals of interest free periods, others have rewards, and some even have a built-in way to make contributions to the charity of your choice.

Even once you have some idea about what KIND of credit card you want, there is still the issue of going with a credit company that has a good reputation and a solid background. You don’t want to be issued a card with a fly-by-night company who is just going to turn around and sell your account. A company like the Cooperative Bank is one good example.

I only carry one credit card at a time and I make sure it is the best deal I can possibly get for my present situation. Right now I use a credit card infrequently, so I just want a low rate. I also want a guarantee that my rate will STAY low for at least 5 years.

It pays to shop around, but only with reliable creditors.

Somehow I never knew that one of my best friends from high school was in the 1997 Jon Bon Jovi video for Queen of New Orleans. That was 10 years ago and we were in a patch of time were we had fallen out of touch, due to odd and powerful circumstances. She mentioned she was in a few videos and I knew she had done modeling work; she still does, in good fact. Lately, she has finally found the time to work on her music career and I’m willing to bet she will be an icon before too long.

I’ve designed all of my own static websites, as well as a large handful of sites for friends and customers (mostly local small businesses). Even someone with a mind that can produce bountiful creative ideas, you sometimes hit a wall when it comes to find a unique angel and approach to design. Your client won’t always know what direction they want their site to go take and if you are juggling several design jobs at once, things can begin to blend together visually for you.

Sometimes the best thing is to sit back and look around. What are other designers doing? Are there some hot web trends happening that you might want to use as inspiration? I am absolutely not advocating using someone else’s designs, but inspiration can work in funny ways. A glimmer or glimpse of something amazing can come to you while you are looking at someone else’s work.

Someone with that concept firmly in mind has started a blog full of web design inspirations. It’s called Web Design Ideas, succinctly enough, and it features ideas for logos, navigation, layouts, backgrounds, patterns, and more are presented, detailed and explored. The blog is updated daily, sometimes two to four times per day. It’s basically a never ending stream of ideas and concepts offered to inspire those of us creating web sites.

I’ve been giving more and more thought about the age Florida issues a driver’s license. Sixteen-year-old are still children in many ways. Some of them have not even reached their adult heights. They are not emotionally finished developing. They are still under the guardianship of their parents.

How seriously do teens really see the privilege of driving? Are they too influenced by the phenomena teens often experience where they feel nearly immortal?

This all comes to mind, because yet another death has occurred in the Tampa Bay area due to a teen driver. Yesterday, 16-year-old John Holland Jr. lost control of his car and crashed into a scooter, killing the driver. Holland’s car then plunged into a pond. The victim’s name has not been released yet, because his next of kin has yet to be notified.

The Tampa Bay area is in the national spotlight due to Hulk Hogan’s 17-year-old son, Nick Bollea who crashed his car in downtown Clearwater August 26 collision, critically injuring his passenger, 22-year-old John Graziano.

An estimated 702 crashes occur on Florida roads every day, most frequently involving drivers 15 to 19.

I’m in favor of upping the legal driving age to 18 or 21. As a parent, I may very well do what is in the best interest of my daughter and not allow her to obtain her license until she is 18.

Give me even one compelling reason why a 16-year-old needs to drive?

When I was doing my practicum in various local schools, one thing I heard over and over was that the amount of homework assigned was overwhelming for some students. Although I heard it in all grade levels, it was often most shocking to hear it from the younger kids in elementary school.

While some of the students never batted an eyelash at the work they were expected to complete from home, others seemed particularly bogged down. When I would inquire further, it was usually the students who were struggling in one subject or another (usually math) and who had parents who either did not have enough time to help them with homework help in that subject or who did not have the expertise themselves to guide their child through the subject matter.

While most colleges and universities offer free tutoring services, students in lower grades will often need to find a tutor in a private setting. Doing so can often mean the difference between continuing to struggle and finally overcoming their academic obstacles. If you just cannot seem to grasp the concepts of algebra, for example, the value of working with someone who not only understands the subject, but also sees it in a different way than you do can be priceless.

One cool thing about the advent of the internet is that online tutoring is now an option. There are several reputable services available and by seeking tutoring online, you will often find the costs are more reasonable. For example, the site TutorVista.com offers unlimited tutoring for $99 a month. They were just featured on NBC’s Today show, so they are actually running a special where the first month is $49.

Having a notable college football team is a new thing for the Tampa area. USF’s Bulls have only been around for 10 years and fir the first time in their history, they finally have a sold out game on their hands. I find it ironic that the team they are playing for this game is WVU. I lived in Morgantown for three years while I was working at a small publishing house and for a while I lived in a house where I could see Mountaineer Stadium from my front yard. Sold out games are a fact of life in Morgantown. Of course, WVU has their own stadium, an older program, and a team that has been very good for much longer.

Local enthusiasm is palpable about the Big East showdown with fifth-ranked West Virginia is encouraging, even if more people around the Tampa area think the Mountaineers are from the western part of Virginia. I’m not sure why people forget WV is an entirely separate state. Perhaps they had bad geography teachers in school.

A win would be great for morale around here. Despite that, I am still predicting WVU will come out of this with a win.

Now that I have all the new trees and flowers planted out in the yard, I have a short list of easier home improvement projects I am going to get out of the way. I am going to add decorative shutters to the front of the house, replace the curtains in the family room with faux wood blinds, and retile the 2nd bathroom. It is a very small bathroom off of the family room and will be a very good project for me to get my feet wet learning to tile. I can work slow and steady, sine it is such a small area.

I’ve been browsing the tile over at the Anchor Bay Tile website. Since I have such a small area to work with, I want to make it pop by using unique tiles. The shower already has some groovy looking glass tile form when the bathroom was first installed. It is actually in very good shape and I want to continue the retro style and the color scheme out to the floor tiles I choose. I can afford to go a little funky with the 2nd bath. Anchor Bay has an impressive selection of tile that is very different from what I see in my local home improvement stores. Plus, shipping is way reasonable.