So what does that have to do with the price of land on the moon?

Plenty if you are Dennis Hope, owner of Lunar Embassy in Garden Grove Nevada.

 

     Ok, so I heard some people talking at work yesterday about a guy that has been selling land on the moon for the last 23 years. Scam artist or innovative businessman? That was the question of the moment. Thought I would check it out for my self.

     It seems it might be true that over 1,125,000 people from 176 countries have already bought over 300,000,000 acres of Lunar Property from Hopes company " Lunar Embassy. "

     Starting at $19.95 per acre there are several billion pieces of property available on the side of the moon that faces the earth. I would assume that the best view of the earth is considered prime real estate. You know what they say " it's all about location, location location."

     I read on the Lunar Embassy web site that they will be delivering land registration cards to the moon via the " Trail Blaizer Lunar Orbiter." That's what I call special Delivery.

     So I guess if you are an astrology buff or someone looking for a gift for that special someone that has everything, or just looking for an innovative investment at bargain basement prices then Lunar Embassy may have just what you are looking for. At under $20.00 per acre it must be the best land prices in the universe. Check out how he found a loophole in the UN's space treaty that has allowed him to cash in BIG TIME $$$ at www.lunarembassy.com   Woohoo the hyperlink works, I'll get this figured out yet!

                                   *** Coy ***

The heads

     The longer she is in beauty school the larger the collection of heads in her room becomes.

     Mandy has found something that she loves and that she can excel in.  Great job Mandy mandy keep up the good work.

                        *** Coy ***

    

" Our Sunday Best "

     This entry was inspired by Billbinfords reference to " Our Sunday Best " in his morning journal entry today " Shoes make the person. "  click Bills musings in side bar to read. I don't know how to hyper link yet.

    This photo was taken before work yesterday. Our office is open 7 days a week and obviously Sunday is come as you want day. (within reason)

     What are the chances of 3 or us standing there chatting in colors most people would not be caught dead in Monday thru Friday.

     Yesterday this was "Our Sunday Best" it Boca Raton Florida and thank God you cant see the shoes.

     Photo 2 was Stella in her Sunday best. Not quite as LOUD as the rest of us.

Bill was the first person to leave a comment in my journal. Thanks Bill.

Control

      Control: our need to make other people think and behave as we want for them to as if it is our God-given right. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy to focus on trying to control someone else's behavior and there is no real way to win.

     During a long awaited for and much needed conversation with a close friend on the phone last night, (OK it's only been a week but it felt like a month.) I found myself defending how much control we have over the choices that our children make. Was that really me talking?

     More than anything I want for my kids (17,20 & 21)to be strong and independentand in control of their own lives. So why do I still feel so responsible for the direction that Mandy (still at home) travels each day and the choices that she makes?

     The need to control can really weigh me down and is often just one more excuse for putting off those things that I should be doing to make my own life a better place. Sometimes it's really hard to know what I can change and what I can't but I am working on it.

     Oh yea the picture at the top is a drawing of Mandy that we had made at the South Florida Fair recently. That night I rode the rides and rollarcoasters with Mandy for the first time in 15 years.

 

     If you have any comments on things you try to hard to control or way's you have learned to relinquish control, leave them. I would really like to hear from you.

 

 

    

 

 

For the love of Sushi

         I Love Sushi... My very best sushi sharin buddy is my friend David at work, we order Sushi every chance we get. Occasionally we get adventurous look to try something new. One night we were considering the "Boca Roll".

     The description said smoked salmon, shrimp,ikura, scallion, avacado, I/O fish eggs on top. Neither of us knew what ikura was so he looked it up on Google before we ordered. The description was as follows...

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaasty. This stuff is like little balls of gooey nastiness. With a capital ASTY. I have no idea why anybody would upon their violition ever eat this stuff, Look at the picture. I can only imagine what this stuff will look and smell like when it arrives in the mail a week later. Oy vey iz mir.  ( brooklynboy)

      Needless to say, after reading that description we opted not to order the Boca Roll and went with Rainbow Rolls instead. Later the picture came up and we laughed and laughed when we saw it. We agreed that we should make our own description for Google, something like "yummy little balls of seafood delight". A real treat when prepared by a good Sushi Chef.  We love that stuff.

                                             *** Coy *** 

                      

                                         

 

      

Skull and Bones

     My friend David sort of challenged me to read up on the Seceret Skull and Bones Society of Yale University. I looked at several books and did some research on line too. It seems that it is the opinion of some that the Good Ol Boy Alumni from this 300 year old organization are responsible for many of our most historical conspiracies. Dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Sept.11th, financing the Nazi's (Hitler), designing the constitution to fit the needs of a few, Desert Storm and so on and so on.

     I read that their was a movie, Skull 2000. Maybe we can watch it together sometime. I think that the reason the society is being talked about so much right now is not only has the Bush family been involved all these years with the organization but it seems that Kerry as well was a member of the Skull and Bones society.

     There are supposidly only 15 new members choosen each year meaning that there are usually no more than 800 living members at any given time. There were a few other Presidents that were in the society over the years. And with that few people no matter win or loose our next president will be a bonesman.

                                                     *** Coy ***

   

A little hand to reach for yours

     My friends Mary Lou and Jeff have been trying to have a baby for as long as I can remember. They tried everything they could to increase her chances of getting preagnant and nothing worked.

     After a while they decided that they would try to adopt and that began the long long drawn out process of trying to get in the system. There were so many steps that had to be taken and rules that they had top be followed. They took classes they went through inspections and God only knows what other kind of red tape over the years. And no baby.

     They bought a new house and set up the nursery and still no baby. Until now. A week ago, she arrived from Romania. Little Miss Genevive. Above is a photo (1)of her shower invitation and (2) a poem I wrote for them for their shower. Genevive is 2 1/2 already and she really needed her Mommy and Daddy.

     They loved the poem.

   

 

The Countertops

                                 The Countertops

     This picture was taken on our company trip (EOY) in January. Caribbean Cruise. We work for a Home Improvement Company (Kitchen Cabinet Refacing) and this was at the Karaoke Bar we called ourselves the countertops.

     So many lifetime memories were made on that trip.

I just stopped by

    Hey, I see that quite a few people are stopping by, and no one leaving a comment. I know that this is not the most exciting page but leave a " I just stopped by message " to let me know who was here.

     Oh yea, please read older entries, even though I have only been journaling for less than a week, I have added so many entries and no one has read them yet. I'm sure I will pace myself I just have a lot to say right now.

Thanks, Coy

 

       

aol journals

   Ok today is Saturday, my only day off. I was happy to run across this oppertunity to journal on line. I have a lot of questions about aol journaling and it looks like it's going to take up a lot of my day off trying to get it figured out.

     I tried to IM an entry that didnt work, I tried reading other peoples journals and found one I liked and never figured out how to get back to it.  I havn't addded all about me yet, I guess I can figure out the linking process when I find something I want to link. How am I going to figure out how to use a RSS and which one should I use?

     I have seen journals with large photos and multimedia added to them. I want to get that figured out today too.

     Oh well it wasnt going to be a nice beach day anyway. Much to windy, undertows way to strong too. So just me and aol journals today.  

     It's 12:51 and I found that journal that was looking for, " Slow motion life " figured out how to add it to my favorite journals and figured out that I do not really have to have a RSS today.

     " Slow motion life " has such an awsome journal  I want mine to look awsome too sooooo. I still have a lot of Saturday left.

   

 

    

Study Time

     I spent about 3 hours studying at the FAU Library in Barnes and Noble after work today. It is one of my favorite places to learn something new. Right now I am studying Dream weaver and Photo shop 7.0 software. It helps me to get away from the computer when I am trying to learn something like that.

     For years I have gone in and curled up in one of their big cozy oversized reading chairs with a stack of books. I can spend hours doing that but latley I have been studying in the reading room.

     FAU is right across the street so the kids come in to study. It is always filled with the most interesting people having the most interesting conversations in a very quiet atmosphere. Not like the conversations you would over hear  say in a bar.

     Besides the Beach, the Gym, at my computer or with Mandy  it is one of my all time favorite places to spend a lot of time.

      

I hate change part 2

part 2   

  I think people like me with only a 401k, as a rule are pretty passive regarding their investments. I do know that allocations should be split 40% bonds, 60% stocks and should be adjusted accordingly each year to ensure buying low and selling high, but I do not always take care of that like I should.

     I do have a goal of increasing to saving 17% of my income in 401k and I do increase some each year with my annual salery increase. I still have a ways to go before I reach that goal.

     I am also a little slow jumping in to open a Roth IRA that I keep telling myself I will open. I know that they are not tax deductable or tax deffered. I would be investing after dollars. I am pretty sure that I would qualify to open a Roth andthat my money would compound tax free for as long as it remained in the account with the added bonus of neither the money or the gains being taxed upon withdraw unlike the 401k where both are taxed. 401k's could also possibly inflate your income so much that you end up paying higher taxes on social securitie benifits but i guess that would be for someone with a lot more income that I could possibly hope to generate between now and then.

I hate change

 Part 1

    They are changing companies to handle our 401K plan at work. I hate change. They have someone comming next week to get us settled in. I'm betting that what ever company they are choosing won't carry our company stock. We don't get stock options in any other way, we have been fighting to keep them with our 401k.

     Saving for retirement is pretty mind boggling even though it is 20+ years away. I would immagine no matter how much I save it's never really going to be enough. If I plan to live an additional 30 years after retirement then they say that I can only withdraw 3% of my savings per year.

     The statements I get from Social Security say that if I continue earning the same amount I am earning now I will only get about 900.00 per month from them and that's if they are still around by then. With inflation and taxes figured in I will have to have an enormous amount of money saved up in order just to get by on the national poverty level.

     I would hope that social security will only be a small percentage of my retirement income so chances are good that I will have to work until I am really old unless I find some way to save very aggressivly over the next 20 something years.

     I don't think about these things very often at 41. Guess it is just on my mind a lot right now because we are going to be going through these changes next week.

 

In like a lamb out like a lion

     In like a lamb out like a lion. As usuasl thats what March has been like in beautiful South Florida. Way to windy to go to the beach this weekend. Undertow's are vicious right now and chances of having your skin sandblasted are good.

     Morning traffic has been good this week because the kids are out of school. Speaking of Spring Break, my niece Brittney (18) and many of her friends have taken the campers and all of the equiptment to the Keys for the week. They have been going all of these years for Spring Break and this year decided to go by themselves.

     They did not get to take the boats and jet skiis this time, gyess they have to prove themselves first. Theresa, (my sister) and Pete did go down for one day with the boat, good thing they did because it seems a few of the kids got a little routy and ended up getting kicked out of the park so she spent her whole day in the Keys helping the kids pack up and move to another campground. I'm not sure that is the decision I would have made but that's what happend.

     Guess it's just as well that Mandy has no Spring Break at her Beauty School. It would have been a fun experience to go to the Key's with the kids but I would have been pretty upset with her for getting kicked out.    

Caribbean Cruise

  These are pictures from the Caribbean Cruise I took in January. It was an Employee Of The Year Trip with my company and one of the most exciting weeks of my life. There is nothing that could compare to traveling with the 120 people in our group.

     No matter where we went or what we did on board or in port we ran into people that we knew so there was always something to do and someone to do it with. This was indeed a trip of a lifetime. 

     I brought my friend Sheila with me (thanks Louis for letting your wife enjoy this trip with me). We were up early every morning enjoying the ocean view on the balcony then off and running to take part in every single activity of the day. Dinner was at 8:45 every evening. We had group seating so every one in our group sat where the wished within the 120 seats we had reserved. Soooo every night there were new people to meet and friends to make. Dinner was one of the best times of the day for us.

     Most evenings we would linger until 11:00 when the show would start upstairs. After the show, off to close down the piano bar and then upstairs until 2 or 3 in the morning in the lounge. Sheila and drank club soda so no need to sleep in the morning with all of the other night owls.  After a few hours of sleep we were up and out early again.

     I could write forever about this trip but I wont, at least not tonight. I take a lot of photos and I will say that this first one has to be one of my all time favorite photos I have ever taken. It was in a little alley in St. Thomas.

     It was so lovely, the back doors to some very artistic little shops. I use this photo for my desk top so I see it every day and remember what it was like to be there in that particular moment with my friend Sheila in St. Thomas.  

    

Joey

     My son Joey called today. He is 20 years old and lives in Louisiana. He went to the dentist and they are going to have to do a tooth extraction. The dentist wants to charge him 350.00 to extract the tooth, guess it has to be surgically removed.

     That did not sound right to me so I called Louisiana and found another dentist that is only going to charge 150.00. I knew exactly which dentist he went to when I heard how much he was going to charge.

     A tooth extraction at 20 does not sound good. He is no longer under my insurance and I am sure that like most kids health insurance and dental insurance seems about as important as starting up a 401K plan. I hope Joey takes good  care of his teeth they have to last a long long time.

     Above is an uncompleated drawing I did of Joey when he was 16.

Mandy

     This is my daughter Mandy. She is 17 years old in beauty school and is one of the people that I love most in the world.

     What's best for Mandy is normally what is most important to me and thats a really hard job. She is growing into a strong independent young woman. I am very proud of her. Of course like most kids at 17 she has has her own agenda and often needs to be reminded to stay on track.

     It is hard learning to let go of the need to have control over everything in their life and to trust them to make the right decisions for them selves. I am sure that most mothers struggle with this as their kids become teenagers and then become young adults.

     I love Mandy and feel that to be a better mother to her I should shift some of my focus off of her and on to my self and being the very best me I can be.

     I love these seagull pictures they were taken on New Years Day on Hillsboro Beach near where we live in South Florida.

    

Just like a lighthouse

     I often direct so much of my time and energy to taking care of what's best for the people I love the most. It can become all consuming and often I forget to take care of whats most important me.

     I want my daily rounds to be motivated by making necesssary choices that will bring more health, joy, love, creativity, passion and contentment to my own life.

     Today my journey changes direction as I begin to reclaim my life. I will search for the knowledge and determination to make the crucial changes in behavior, thought and additude so I can  become the best that I can be. 

     Over 25 years ago, one of my closest friends Chris wrote a song called Just Like a Light House. The lyrics included a part that said " I'm just like a light house on a stormy sea, if your boat gets lost you can depend on me. When it's cold as the rain and it's black as the night, look for me and I am always in sight. But all I want to know is who, who looks out for me when I'm lookin out for you?

     The truth is no one. No one looks out for me. I have spent so much time looking out for them when I should have been spent more time looking out for me.

      

      

In search of me

      I am 41 years old, a single mother in South Florida. I have fewer responsibilities to others than I ever have in my life. My life is finally becomming my own and sometimes I dont take full advantage of that freedom.

     I am in search of me. I am learning that every day I am given the opportunity to reinvent my self and the sky is the limit.

     Finding adventure and pleasure is becomming a driving force in my life. Creative liberties for my future are compleatly in my hands. No one is going to pave the way for me.

     I  do have to remind my self sometimes to let love in. I forget that love like life is not a constant state of being. It is made up of ordinary moments and incredible moments. Being loveable is the first step to being able to love.

     When I care enough to listen to a friends thoughts, truths and new ideas they will often care enough to listen back and then I feel loved and less alone.