Well, we haven't talked much about Spain but I'm going to bring up some great memories. It's fun for me to write about Spain because that's where I met my wife! We met in Salamanca while we were studying abroad and attending the University there. It was tons of fun! In Spain, the "Cafe's" are, in many cases, the bars. I believe we met at Cafe Moderno.

Besides meeting my wife, I remember the architecture and the great Spanish Weather that we had in the summer time. It's amazing to go through the streets and learn about the history. The jardin or the town center was such a great meeting place.... great to have dinner and a glass of wine along the square while discussing the up and coming events planned for the evening. Such fond memories.

One of the things that I specifically remember was the weather. It was great while we were there. It was June and the average number of days for rain in June is 7 (normally) in Salamanca. It only rained a few days. Also, the average temperature in Salamanca in June is a high of 75 and a low of 55... which is exactly what we experience. Needless to say, the weather was awesome. Clearly, the weather, the architecture and the atmosphere was right for meeting your future partner. It's been 14 years and we're still together!

It is absolutely our passion to travel overseas. Last year we spend time traveling to Puerto Rico and more specifically, San Juan. We also went to the Dominican Republic. However, let me say up front that it was not nearly as enjoyable as it could have been. Yes, we had a lot of fun but it wasn't the days of old where we didn't worry about money on vacation. It's unbelievable how much extra stress money constraints can add.

Our problem last year is that we just had too many trips planned. Now, we didn't do it to ourselves... we just had a lot of weddings to attend last year and a few were in exotic locations. Despite to obligatory fun, we did actually have fun. We love Puerto Rico and the Seviche... great stuff with perfectly fried plantain chips... just awesome.

Still, we were constrained and just didn't feel we could eat everything and do everything. This is what brings me to the purpose of this post. We haven't posted in a while because we've had to pick up odd jobs, work extra hours and try to pay for last years vacations. With all the extra work hours, we've also noticed that we don't need everything that we buy either or we've found ways to get the same things for less. It's forced us to look at value and what we actually get or our money. We've also learned that you save more money when you can reduce regular charges like monthly services or electric bills.

Also, when buying products, we've found it useful to buy through distributors when possible. Take a look at this third party review of eyeglasses.... for the review, click here: Zenni Optical.  It's just one example of saving money. There are many do-it-yourself products, gardening, canning, and purchasing ideas that can be fun and save money. 

Our plan is to use the savings, in part, to make our vacations better...  fewer vacations but with less limits... that's our goal for 2010!

Vacation Rental.org has some advertising character known as the "unitard". When you think about going on vacation, considering a vacation rental should be part of your research. It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish on vacation. When I travel to the city to catch a Broadway Show and just have a nice evening out with my wife, I look for a nice hotel in close proximity to everything.

However, when I'm traveling with the whole family or meeting up with extended family, I always look at vacation homes. For starters, I get a lot more space for the money especially when I travel with my aupair, we need the extra space. It's nice to be able to overlook the mountains from the deck or sit with a glass of wine by the beach while the kids are taking a nap. We always have the best vacations when we find a home away from home. We've rented homes that include the kayaks when we're on the water, crabbing pots when we're by the bay or beach gear when we're at the beach.

It's just a nice alternative and something to consider when you're going on vacation!

If you want to see the unitard for yourself, check out their vacation rental commercial:

It makes it difficult to actually go overseas when traveling by car but the fact is that in todays economy people are making different choices for travel. Many people are still wanting to take a vacation but they're looking a little closer to home. For my everyday life, I live in the Dallas Fort Worth Area. My kids love the beach so to be a little more economical, we're looking at places in driving distance like Galveston, Corpus Christi or South Padre.

Now, when I'm taking long trips on vacation, I don't like to come back with a long to do list. So, I always bring along a few house keeping items to take care of during my trip. I take maybe an hour a day while the kids are napping. It's not a hassle for me. I like to feel productive and I really enjoy being productive while sitting on my balcony with a view of the ocean and a nice cold beer.

When considering my trip to the beach, I know that I'm going to take a long drive and put a lot of miles on my car. With kids, I know I'll have to stop, get out, go to the bathroom, get drinks and food. So, one of the things I'll do is plan a stop in Houston on the way home. I'll plan the return trip around a Houston auto repair shop. I'll pull up our Accra TL up to the local shop and likely get an
oil change and a brake job.  It's the ultimate multi tasking. I go on vacation, at a local restaurant on the way home, give the kids a break and take care of some things. That way, I have less to do when I get home and it's not the after vacation blues... or not as much of them anyway! 

Well, it's the New Year. It's that time of year, the time of year that forces you to think about time. Most days we scurry about our lives working, sleeping, eating, dreaming and looking forward to the next big vacation. Time is always moving forward. When you consider it, our methods of keeping time are just a way to measure time. Clearly, it's all been very well planned and observed. Like most things, our measurement of time is based upon what we see that already exists in nature. Our year is based upon the earth's rotation around the sun. A month, for the most part, is similar timing to a full lunar cycle. Each day is in in line with a single rotation of the earth on its axis.

Of course, when people started observing the seasons, the rotation of the earth around the sun, the lunar cycle and the spinning of the earth on its axis, they didn't quite know that is what they were observing. The just recognized that the stars seemed to rotate in the sky, the moon changed from full to crescent and back to full and that every day there was a sunrise and sunset. The tides, the weather, the stars in the sky were all indicators observed by early scientists and philosophers. When they noticed things like the unwaivering Southern Cross and North Star; icons in the sky that never moved, things that they could always count on for navigation. Then consider the pitter patter of rain drops, the steady beat of the ocean waves or some of the steady nature sounds: crickets, song birds, or the morning crow of the rooster. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

As we move into modern times, time is everywhere. The world is in a hurry! So many things depend on a matter of minutes and seconds rather than hours and days. Cell phones, microwaves, stereos, ovens, tv's, and tons of electronic items have clocks build in to them.  These days a traditional clock is used for decoration as much as it is for time. Watches are used for jewelry as much as they are for time. Consider the seiko diamond watch or a high priced rolex. We don't need them to tell the time. Sure some are used for scuba diving or sky diving and can with stand great changes in pressure. Trust me, many of the people buying rolex's do not scuba dive or sky dive.

Clocks and watches have become symbols of time (or fashion statements). In that light, I love the watches that are fueled by light. It's a constant reminder the need for saving energy and green living as time marches on! So, we wish you a Happy New Year and challenge you to spend your time wisely in the coming year.

I love to ski, and frankly one of the best places (in my opinion) to ski is Utah. I live in California, and everybody around me will tell you that I am flat out wrong. They'll tell you how great lake Tahoe is for skiing and how nice it is to be able to drive up there. It is nice to be able to drive, but it is not nice to get stuck in traffic between here and there for 7 hours! That's more common than the map quest time of 4 hours that everyone always quotes. Well, if you head up on Wednesday and home on Monday you can easily avoid the heavy traffic. So long as your job permits that kind of schedule and it does not snow, you are good to go!

That leads me to why I like jumping on a plane and flying to Utah better than getting in a car and going to Tahoe. Put simply, it is faster for me to go skiing in Utah! The mountains are only about 20 minutes away from the Salt Lake city airport. And, there is plenty Utah Lodging to keep the price down. So, after a 45 minute flight and a 20 minute drive, and maybe some extra time for security and bags at the airport you are on the slopes same day. It does cost a bit more money, but it is a much better travel experience. And, yes, the snow in Utah is true powder, which lake Tahoe does not ever have!

If you like to travel, you may want to look into becoming a travel writer. The upside is that you get a lot of free meals and hotel rooms. The downside is that you won't get rich writing. It should not matter though because the whole point in writing Travel Articles is that you get to do something that you love. My advice is always to follow what you find passion in. That's why I started this blog. Again, it's not something that is going to make me rich, but I like thinking about new adventure travel topics to write about, so it all works out in the end!

Ok, there is certainly a group of legit websites out there that sell prescription drugs. That said, there are also a good number of less that legit ones. The less than legit pharmacies probably sell you fake drugs at best, and if you are lucky enough to find one that sells you real drugs, you are now breaking the law (assuming you don't have a prescription) so you are kind of out of luck. The best advice is always to stay on the up and up and if you want to buy your meds online, then go to a legit online pharmacy to buy them.

Don't get me wrong, I totally see the benefit in online purchases, whether they are prescritpion meds or shoes. To me, shopping online is way faster, much less hassle and often cheaper than going to your local store or pharmacy. That said, with something as important as medication, make sure you are only shopping with the best.

There is a website called tramadolbluebook.com that does reviews of online pharmacies. This is a great concept because of the legit versus non legit issue I mentioned earlier. The idea behind having an inpartial party do reviews is that they can help inform your decision making.

Let's say you are looking for tramadol blue book hcl tab 50mg and you want to find a place to make your purchase online. You could spend all day in google, or you could turn to a group like this one to read their various reviews.

I have not purchased and medications online yet, but it seems reasonible to say that it might be worth a few minutes of your time to check out buying tramadol bluebook online. Why not? Right?

Online pharmacies should be the way of the future. So, we do need to support them if we ever want to get out of the normal drive to the drug store paradigm, Just think of the fuel you can save! That said, let's all try to do our part not to support the less than legit vendors out there. All they will do is give the legit ones a bad rep and then you know the government will come in and over regulate the industry. That never happens! ha!

Moscow is a cultural, economic, and religious center. It is a world class city. Signs of life in the vicinity of the Moscow date back to the stone age. The earliest historical references to the city date back to 1146 AD. In the mid 1150's, the city had build a moat and a wooden wall for protection of the citizens in the city. As it was with the times, war always seemed to be on the doorstep and the city was taken in the early 1200's and burned to the ground.

Resilience is a must for survival and you'll find the same level of resilience with every successful team, organization, city or nation. Moscow's people and position on the Volga River put resulted in an expanding city on the rise again and began to thrive. Of course, it has had it's share of challenges over the years.  In 1654, over half of it's citizens died from the plaque.

In 1712, St Petersburg replace Moscow as the capital of Russia. Of course, that's bound to happen when the head of state, Peter the Great, builds a city (on the east side of the Baltic Sea). St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 and, as previously stated, became the capital in 1712.

Later, in 1771, over 100,000 people died of the plaque causing an even more tragic loss of life than the first plaque. Still, the citizens of Moscow moved forward. Over the years, Moscow has survived invasions by Napoleon and the Nazi's. Then, of course, the Cold War where Russia was a Super Power until the fall of the Russia in 1989.

Life goes on. Now, the prevalent religion in Moscow is Christianity with the Russian Orthodox Church being the prominent church. The population is over 10 million people which has been declining with the lower birth rates since 2002. It's decline has been significant; 700,000 per year. The population was over 17 million in 2002.

Anyway, are you ready to visit. Understanding the basic history is just a start. Furthermore, we didn't get into the current food, places to stay, nightlife or things to do. Although, you'll want to check out this website for Moscow Hotels. Otherwise, we'll get into more details about Moscow in later posts.

I love to travel. I love going places and visiting new things but these days with the advances in HDTV and large screen LC and Plasma TV's, you can cover a good amount of ground without ever leaving your house. It's not our favorite way to travel but it is efficient and it allows you to see things from angles that you may not be able to see them in person.

One of my favorite TV adventures is the National Geographic and BBC special: Planet Earth. It's often aired on the discovery channel and it just awesome in HDTV. As far as I know, Directv still has the most HDTV channels when it comes to a national offering and they still have the Sunday ticket (because I love football as well).

Anyway, it's worth asking the question: how do you get your HDTV? There are many choices out there but I still have Directv (Commonly spelled incorrectly as Direct TV or DirectTV). If Directv is something you are interested in purchasing, check out the included links because assuming Directv is something you want, you're going to want to make sure you have the best deal.

Shop around and ask for a deal. Even if you are a current customer, they are always updating their plans and are willing to give away freebies to current customers. Again, check out the link and see what kind of package deal you can get so you can get more channels for less. Kind of like the commercial they run... maybe it's time for you to get upgraded.