Driving the streets of Tampa, you’ll notice three kinds of signs parked on street corners:

• Some advertise homes for rent, or sweet deals on pre-foreclosure properties.
• Other signs advertise jobs where you can make $1000 a week with no experience required. (Yeah right!)
• The third kind of sign offers cheap health insurance, presumably to people who don’t have any.

I’ve always wondered about the health insurance signs. It seems to me that most legit companies would allow you to scope our health insurance online…they wouldn’t put up signs on a street corner. It screams “scam” to me, and I always wonder if anyone actually calls these companies. If you’re looking for health insurance quotes, don’t call a cardboard sign on a telephone poll. Do your research online and off, review your options, ask which doctors are covered in the network, and the like. A professional company will give you all of the information you need on the health insurance plans offered upfront, allowing you to make an educated choice for family health insurance.

If you grew up in the Tampa Bay area, there are names form local news that will stick with you forever. Gail Sierens, Bob Hite, and Dick Fletcher, to name a few. I’m sad to report that Dick Fletcher, the long time weatherman for WTSP, died yesterday (2/26/08) at the age of 65 from a stroke he had on February 18th, 2008.. Dick had worked for the CBS station as their chief meteorologist for 30 years, which means he was the only weatherman I ever knew for the affiliate.

He was a legend in the Tampa Bay area, and he had a huge local following. He’ll be missed.

My husband just told me that Brad Richards, Tampa Bay Lighting center, was traded to the Dallas Stars this morning. Brad was a great supporter of people in the Tampa Bay area, and an all around nice guy. How do I know? Well, we met him in 2005, and he was genuinely interested in speaking to my son about hockey, and I appreciate that. In an era when we consistently hear about baseball players abusing drugs, and football players raising dogs for fights, or beating their wives, it’s nice to have nice guys involved in sports, and guys who play hockey are as nice as they come. (Ignore the fighting on the ice - I’m talking about when they’re off the ice!)

The news of Kim Sjostrom & her new husband, Teddy Efkarpides, made it to our paper this week. The Davie, FL couple had been married only an hour when Kim passed out and died at the wedding. Kim was diabetic, so when she passed out during the first dance with her husband, her family went to get sugar for her…turns out it was heart disease that killed the 36 year old elementary school teacher.

Kim wanted her own version of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (I watched that last night!) and even played the movie while she was getting ready for her big day. What a tragedy!

Could it be true? Could Sunday’s game have been the last for Tony Dungy as the coach of the Indianapolis Colts? I can’t think of another coach who has been as loved in Tampa Bay as Tony Dungy was, and still is. When it was announced that Dungy had enrolled his children in Hillsborough County schools this week, it seemed like a decision had been made, despite Dungy’s contract for the Colts extending into 2009.

Come on back Tony, Tampa loves you! (Can we trade Dungy for Gruden?)

You’ve gotta love it when a neighborhood feud ends up being blogged. These signs were taken this week in a Tampa neighborhood. It seems that neighbor #1 decided to make it known that neighbor #2 was a former convict. Neighbor #2 responded with a sign that read, “This is true. I was a drug addict, but have been saved by Jesus Christ, my Savior”.

After a few days, that sign was replaced by one that reads, “Our neighbor is impotent and can’t have children”.

I love how they tossed aside Christian morals to insult the neighbor. Turn the other cheek, much?

Ladies, let me ask you a question. When you take a shower, do you then proceed to walk around your house naked? Do you undress and position yourself in front of windows? Or do you make sure that you’re protected from the view of folks outside your home?

A Tampa man was arrested early Tuesday morning for peeping in a window of an apartment. He was looking at a woman who had just finished shower. Now don’t get me wrong - we should be able to parade around naked in our own homes without attracting the attention of a voyeur, but is that a reason to leave the drapes open, especially when it’s dark, and ANYONE can see inside your home?

Buy a clue, and secure your home and curtains to stay safe.

I read on a friend’s poker blog this morning that the Seminole Indians have made an agreement with the state of Florida that will allow blackjack & baccarat to be played in Florida. Currently, the Seminole Indians operate two such casinos, in Broward and Tampa, and both are booming with business. Craps and roulette won’t be allowed just yet, and that’s got me bummed. I’ve watched Jim play roulette for years and finally bet on my own this weekend in Las Vegas. I played electronic roulette on Friday night and walked away $40 richer, and then lost $80 at a roulette table on Saturday night.

In the past month, anytime I’ve had to take the Veteran’s Expressway into Tampa, towards the airport, I’ve had to divert off course. Typically, the expressway begins to back up just before the Waters Avenue exit, and that makes sense, because 2 lanes branch out to 5 or 6 lanes to go through the toll booths, and then some lanes exit, and the rest of us merge into 2 lanes again. It’s a stupid design, but we’re all used to it by now.

Lately though, traffic has been backing up a lot sooner. I’ve been stopped way back at the Van Dyke exit, or Hutchinson road, and the cars just creep along for miles. That forces me to get off at Gunn Highway, and go through the city streets in order to make up some time.

Am I the only one who has noticed this mess? It’s enough to make a girl want to tele-commute every single day!

A few years back, we had the chance to take a lovely grandfather clock from my husband’s grandmother’s home when she passed away. I had always wanted one, so when we were asked what we’d like to remember Nanny, we were in agreement that the clock would be it. Had I gone shopping for grandfather clocks on my own, I probably wouldn’t have picked the clock we ended up with from Nanny. It’s a lighter toned wood than I prefer, and the mechanism is out dated, but since it’s from family, I can overlook those things. Something like the Ridgeway Victoria II at 1-800-4clocks.com is more my style - actually, it reminds me a bit of the clock from Beauty and the Beast. The curve of the top of the clock and the rich, dark wood on the body of the clock appeal to me.

For now, we’ll keep the clock we have though. Someday, we’ll hand it down to one of our children. I need to get better about maintaining it for sure, especially if I want it to last that long. The site’s grandfather clock blog has some great tips on how to maintain your clock. I didn’t realize oiling was recommended every 2-4 years. We definitely haven’t been keeping up with that! I think I need someone out to take a look at the whole chime mechanism and make sure it’s working correctly, and then we’ll be in the know about caring for the clock going forward.

I was at one of our local malls (International Plaza) yesterday for lunch. I so rarely go into this particular mall, because, well, it’s too high class for me. A coworker made a remark about going into the Dillard’s there, and I said that must be the cheapest department store option at International Plaza. It has a Tiffany & Co. store, Betsey Johnson, Lladro, and a Louis Vuitton shop. It’s definitely NOT the place to go if you’re looking for a bargain, but it’s a great place to hit for lunch!

As I’ve stated here many times before, the real estate market here in Florida is NOT in good shape. Homes are sitting for months without an offer, and many investors who thought they’d be making a quick buck are walking away from the homes they purchased. We’ve got several in our neighborhood that will be sold at a foreclosure sale this month. Too many investors simply don’t have the funds available to continue carrying a house they’re not living in. That reminded me of friends of ours who have the opposite approach - they have 6 months of paychecks in savings in case of an emergency.

It may sound a little extreme, but think about it. What would happen if I lost my job? We’d live off savings and credit cards for a while, maybe I’d be able to find a new job, or maybe not. What would happen if something happened to Jim or I, and we couldn’t work anymore? I don’t think disability and social security would help us much. And what if, god forbid, you lost your spouse? We have wills set up in case something happens, so that the kids are taken care of, but financially, it would ruin the surviving spouse. We may need to look into a revokable living trust and some other trust options to make sure we’re completely set for a worst case scenario. You can actually research quite a bit of this online, with sites like the one created by Morris, Hall and Kinghorn, so that you’ll find out if you’re prepared for the worst.

With stories about sports stars running dog fighting rings, and other beating their wives, or just being, in general, not “nice guys”, it’s absolutely fabulous that we have a “nice guy” like Vincent Lecavalier to look up to here in Tampa Bay. Actually, I’ve met several of the Tampa Bay Lightning players, and they’re all nice guys. It seems that hockey, as a sport, has more nice guys than other sports, and Vinnie is a gem.

Vinnie’s charity foundation, along with his corporate partners (Kane’s Furniture and DEX Imaging), has announced they’ll be donating $3 million towards the construction of the new building for All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. I have a huge soft spot in my heart for All Children’s - I’ve not only been there with 2 of my own children, but my niece was there when she was just 1 for a long illness. This isn’t the first time that Vinnie Lecavalier has helped the hospital. With each goal he scores, he donates $1,000. With each assist, he donates $300. Since he started doing that in 2003, he’s donated over $70,000 to All Children’s.

The $3 million dollar gift will go towards creating a special wing called the Vincent Lecavalier Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. The corporate sponsors will provide half of the money, and the rest will be raised through events held by Vinnie’s foundation, like his poker tournament in Tampa on November 12.

Ghosts are big business for Tampa Bay.

A few years ago, Jim and I went on a ghost tour of Ybor City on a cold January evening. There are similar tours at several locations around the Tampa area, including an old hotel in St. Petersburg. I’ve also done ghost tours in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I just found out that should a ghost tour not be spooky enough for you, you can stay at one of these haunted hotels. What a truly hair raising experience!

The closest haunted hotel to my house is the Don CeSar Beach Resort & Spa in St. Petersburg, Florida. Built by Thomas Rowe in 1925, the hotel has had reports of a couple walking hand in hand around the grounds. The couple is presumed to be the spirits of Thomas Rowe and his beloved, Lucinda, who were forbidden to continue their relationship.

As for me, I’m too chicken. I don’t even like staying in a regular, non haunted hotel room by myself…so I will not be booking an overnight stay with the spirits and ghosts anytime soon!

We’ve had a few more homes close recently in our neighborhood, and surprise surprise - people are actually moving into them! Folks are realizing that it’s a great time to buy a house, and the homes in our neighborhood aren’t sitting empty as long. We still have quite a few homes in the front that are empty, because they were purchased by investors, but the other homes seem to have been purchased by people who actually want to live here. What a novelty!

I got nosy this week and walked through one of the homes under construction in my neighborhood. With the prices being so much lower than they were a year ago, people are spending a little bit more attention to detail on the inside of their homes. We’ve seen more people optioning to get upgraded cabinets, and Corian, and we’ve seen a few homes with upgraded bathroom lighting, just like we did. The builder standard was a bar of 5 of those big rounded bulb lights - like a dressing room backstage in a theater. The direct light bothers my eyes, so we chose to get something with a shade over the bulbs, and we upgraded the lighting in all 3 of our bathrooms. The master bath and the kids bath match, and the powder room downstairs matches the dining room and foyer lighting.

Of course, had we not done it in the construction process, it’s something that’s easy enough to change out on your own. You also get a much larger selection than we had in our builder’s design center, and you save money by doing it on your own. Sweat equity, and all that!

I came across an interesting article in the paper this week that was talking about the high number of rental homes in subdivisions around Tampa, and that less people are buying now, and more are content to rent for a while longer. (I don’t understand that, since this is a fabulous time to buy a home and get a deal!)

The articles stated that from the HOA’s experience, renters are more likely to pay attention and follow neighborhood rules and regulations, because they don’t want to risk losing a lease. That’s not entirely true for my neighborhood. Landlords are so desperate to rent homes, they’ll overlook residents not following the rules. Of course, we also have plenty of residents who don’t follow the rules, from the people who park on the street overnight, to the people who installed illegal fences.

Due to the state of the real estate market here in Tampa, lots of residents are choosing to stay put in their current homes. Quite often, this means updating your current space to make it work for your future needs. If you can’t move to get a bigger house, you may need to add on. If your outdated kitchen or bathroom isn’t working for you, it’s time to remodel. Had we stayed in our last home, I would have definitely been after Jim to replace our kitchen cabinets and counter tops, and upgrade the bathroom. Doing projects around the house to make it more livable for you right now will also add to the overall resale value when the market does bounce back. You may choose to build a deck now to give your family a great outdoor living space, but you’ll find that in a few years, when you go to sell, that deck = money in the bank for you.

Trouble is, a lot of people who want to do these DIY (Do It Yourself) projects don’t know where, or how to begin. Heck, when my husband put down laminate floors in our last home, he didn’t know how to get started either, so we had to get instruction from the store where we bought the materials. It’s MUCH easier to go online and get advice for free at DoItYourself.com, which has over 100 active forums on how to complete home improvement projects on your own. They even have DVD’s that can provide you with step by step instruction, which means your project can go off without a hitch. Knowledge is power, and in this case, it’s also money in your pocket!

All of USF is pumped up about the big football game this weekend, but there are some students over at USF in mourning. A 19 year old USF student, Rachel Futterman, passed away earlier this week from bacterial meningitis. The illness is rate, but can be fatal. It’s not easily transmitted, but is more common among schools and college campusus. Friends and students who were in contact with Rachel are being treated as a precaution.

If one good thing came of her death, it’s that many students at USF are now being vaccinated against the disease. It’s sad that it takes a tragedy like this to make people aware of bacterial meningitis, but hopefully this news will prevent other deaths.

In the 11 years my husband and I have been married, we’ve moved a total of 5 times. Our most recent moves were definitely the most stressful. In 2005, we sold our home, and moved into a rental home while our new home was being built. Knowing that we’d only been in our rental home for a few months, we left a lot of our things packed and stored in the garage, which made things interesting. I’d go looking for a certain cake pan, or a book I wanted, and then realize they were piled under 15 boxes in the garage. We didn’t use professional movers, but I sure wish we had checked into it, or at least gotten some free professional advice, like what you’ll find on HomeBulletin.net. They’ve got a neat moving checklist I could have used, and advice on how to pack your things correctly too. I’m guessing that my technique of shoving clothes randomly into trash bags isn’t among the tips they share. The site also gives you the ability to get free quotes from movers.