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.

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?

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.

How low can you go?

In my neighborhood, the base home price has dropped $50K since we bought. Eek! The price for our particular model is down $30K. I was poking around in the website for my county appraiser, and discovered that I could export the data into an Excel spreadsheet, or even create address labels for my neighborhood. (So that’s how the Realtors do it!) I dropped the information and sorted it by price, and found that only 23 homes sold for under $200K. Property values may not be great, but it looks like due to my neighborhood having only a few lots left, things may not be that bad for us after all.

I’ve seen this Morpheus Photo-Morpher featured on a few other blogs, and I’ve been having so much fun looking at the pictures everyone decided to morph. When I saw what the tool did, I immediately knew what pictures I’d use for my personal photo morphing project. I scanned this old picture of me at the beach (Fred Howard) - I was 11 in it. And I have this great picture of my oldest - also 11. Since everyone says we look alike, I decided it would be the perfect pair of photos to use for the Morpheus Photo-Morpher!

After installing the tool, I just selected my pictures and got the placement ready - that’s easy, and the instructions are very clear. You just place little dots in things that are the same in each picture, like the eyes, the nose, mouth, etc, so that it can naturally morph between the two images.

I would love to continue using this to be able to play around with more pictures - maybe morph the kids baby pictures into their school pictures from last year? You can get your own version of the Photo Morpher from Zoombli.com - what a fun toy this is!

I’m in Boston this week, and it’s my first visit to the state. I haven’t seen much of the city at all, but I’m definitely enjoying the cooler weather and the lack of humidity! Today was a good hair day, thanks to the dry air. It’s not quite Indian summer, but it’s pretty close. I was sitting outside tonight after dinner and actually got a bit chilly, and that was with jeans and a long sleeved shirt on me. This Florida cracker can’t handle these cooler temperatures!

Alas, I return back to Tampa International Airport tomorrow, where I’ll be hit with the oppressive heat as soon as I exit the terminal and head to the shuttle bus to parking.

A friend who just started teaching locally was over last night, and the kids had to show off their new pet mice. She was asking about how their care, because she’d like to get a class pet for her new classroom of elementary school students. I told her to forget the live animals, and go with the online version, like Matthew’s teacher has done. Instead of a live class pet, his class has 2 Webkinz, and the students earn points for good behavior and can use those points to go online and care for the class pets.

If your child has outgrown the virtual pet, you can turn them on to cartoon dolls instead, at sites like CartoonDollEmporium.com - it’s one of the largest and fastest growing websites for young girls, the kind of girls who grew up with Webkinz, but have outgrown them recently. For any Hannah Montana fans you may have in your house, there’s even a doll for her at the site that children can dress up and play with.

The site is kid friendly, and kid safe. It’s nice knowing there’s a place for tweens who are too old for some websites, but too young for others!

My sister and I enjoyed a free lunch today with my office at Crazy Buffet on Dale Mabry, by Raymond James Stadium. It was my first trip there, and I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t go on my own and pay full price, since I never eat enough at buffets to get a good deal, but it was a nice spread. There was a large sushi area (which I steered clear off) as well as another area where you could have fresh stir fry made. Another section had a huge salad bar and plenty of hot dishes, and there was a dessert bar too. Not bad for free!

At 2pm today, the sentencing hearing for John Couey will commence. If you’re living under a rock, John Couey is the animal who took 9 year old Jessica Lunsford out of her bed in rural Citrus County, violated her, and buried her alive. His family members assisted him in covering it up. Death is too good for this man. I want to see him go to jail, because I know what ‘regular’ prisoners think of people who prey on children. A little jail house justice would be the best thing in this case.

Couey’s lawyer attempted to portray him as a childlike oaf during his trial by having John color in a coloring book, but the ploy didn’t work.

A 15 year old living in Germany (which explains the grammar) made this video about Jessica and 2 other little girls who were killed. Mark Lunsford, Jessica’s father, is the man pictured with long hair, crying. I can’t say enough about the strength he’s shown though all of this. Many people in Florida have asked him to run for public office and he turned them down. He’s an amazing person.

And so it begins - another school year is upon us! I have a daughter entering middle school this year. I do not remember those years fondly, at all! I was telling her today how I had to walk to and from school when I was a bit older than she is now, in the heat. No sympathy from the kid. But it’s true - I walked to school, and home again, in the summer heat, and usually in long pants. Despite going to school in Florida and attending during the summer months, we weren’t allowed to wear shorts until I was in the 10th or 11th grade. It was miserable! My daughter is wearing jeans today, but she went from my air conditioned car into an air conditioned school. She’ll survive!

It’s back to school for some of the counties surrounding Tampa tomorrow, which typically means more traffic on the roads. My commute was so incredibly easy during the summer, and that’s going to end now. Watch out for children crossing the street on your morning drive, be aware of children waiting at bus stops, and watch out for those school zones! With so many new routines starting, there’s a potential for disaster if all drivers aren’t alert. Don’t expect the kids to be alert and watching out for you - YOU need to watch out for the kids!

I just noticed that my husband’s car has some rust on the drivers side mirror, no doubt from his run in with the deer he hit a few months ago. We haven’t seen any deer on that road since the accident either - they’re probably steering clear of our vehicles, after we took their buddy out. I’m envisioning some kind of scene from The Far Side with Jim’s picture on a sign in the forest. HA! I guess the mirror damage missed the careful eye of the guys who fixed his car, so I need to call and see if they’ll repair it now, months after the incident. Even though we’ve got cheap insurance, as we found with the deer incident, cheap doesn’t equal low quality. We were asked to compare car insurance when we purchased our home insurance about a month after Jim hit the deer, but I think I’m in love with my car insurance company after the way they handled that mess. They were so accommodating - as if people call in every day with tales of hitting deer with their car.

School starts in just a few weeks, and for all of you juniors seniors heading off to your last year, or nearly your last year of high school, now is the time to start thinking about scholarships! Deadlines for these things come up quick, and you need to be prepared if you want to get some free cash to pay for your education. There are all sorts of out there scholarships - some for only a few hundred dollars - but it all adds up. You can get scholarships for being left handed, for being the descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, for majoring in certain major, for attending a certain high school - all you need to know is where to find out about these things before it’s too late! This site provides free access to an exhaustive list of college scholarships and grants. The scholarship search allows you to seek out scholarships based on your academics, your interests, and your talents. You can view the newest scholarships, as well as deadlines for those you want to apply for, and sort them by deadline, monetary amount, or how relevant they are to you. And it’s all free!

One of the perks of living and working in Tampa is MacDill Air Force Base. Why? Because it turns a quick run to Chipotle for lunch a few weeks ago into a chance to view American’s finest in uniform. Mmm…men in uniform. Those air force boys were looking pretty hot in their little uhh…outfits (jumpsuits?) and hats. After those guys arrived, some of the boys from the US Customs bureau came in, but they weren’t nearly as trim and good looking.

There will be an open casting call for ABC’s hit show National Bingo Night in Tampa this weekend. On Saturday, 8/4, from 10am til 4pm, you can visit the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center to audition. You don’t have to love bingo to come out, the casting directory is looking for people who love to have fun, and trivia buffs! Contestants have the chance to win $50,000 in cash and prizes!

Our neighborhood recently cracked down on overnight street parking, and will be towing violators.

This is me, clapping from inside the safety of my house, where the neighbors can’t see me. HA! Seriously though, if you know the rules of the HOA when you move in, why do you get ticked off when you break them repeatedly and get told not to break them anymore? All of the homes in our neighborhood have 2 car garages. We park my SUV in the garage, and Jim’s car in the driveway, which has room for 4 cars. The same people in trouble for parking on the street overnight are also in trouble for parking a commercial vehicle in the driveway. Look, slap some truck covers on your plumbing truck or whatever the heck all of the letters and logos covering your truck are for, and be done with it! If we can’t see the logos and such, then the problem is solved, right? You can buy car and truck covers online, they’ll help you avoid a nasty-gram from the HOA, and they’ll protect your car’s paint. Win, win, win!

I got a postcard in the mail today from a local realtor telling me that they sold a house down the street. Actually, they were a buyer’s agent, and the house isn’t built yet, they just happened to “sell” their client on our builder. I sure wish it had been one of the empty, already constructed homes that had been sold. It’s a shame that so many investors bought and walked away, and now are possibly declaring bankruptcy because they couldn’t sell the homes they bought to flip. Should you be in the same boat, and you’re not sure about your options, a bankruptcy legal professional is who you need to speak with. Don’t do anything rash until you find out all of your options!

A few years ago, my friend Laura had a scary experience involving carbon monoxide in her home. Thankfully, Laura and her husband had installed carbon monoxide detectors in her house, and they were able to evacuate in time. I’m pretty sure that most carbon monoxide issues inside homes normally come from furnace issues, which obviously, isn’t an issue in Florida. But in the paper this morning, there was an article about a Tampa family being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after they left a car idling in their garage for EIGHT HOURS! (Ok, accidents happen, but how the heck do you forget to turn your car off?) Salvatore Gagliardo is still being treated, but his wife and child are home safe. The couple woke up when the 2 year old awoke crying and saying he didn’t feel good, and they got out in time. That is one lucky family, because the story could have had a much more tragic ending.

It proves that we should ALL have carbon monoxide detectors in our homes - furnace, or no furnace!

If you know what song I got the above title from, you might just be interested in a concert this Saturday, July 28th! Several bands will be performing at the Lost ’80s Live Tour, one of whom is Flock of Seagulls. The show is at Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg and starts at 8pm - tickets at $19.99.

Other bands scheduled to perform at Dramarama, Gene Loves Jezebel and When in Rome. (I’ll admit, I don’t know who they are, but I’m sure I’ve heard songs from those groups at one time or another.)