Wayne’s first cousin died this weekend. She died without warning or fanfare. Her lungs were attacked by a blood clot and the doctor’s attempts to save her last week failed. She wasn’t a smoker, she wasn’t on any medications that predisposed her to this… and she was only 39. It’s a somber time for the entire family. It’s hard on Wayne because they were close. After all, Jennifer was the reason for that scar he carries on his forehead. I remember asking him about that when we were dating and tracing that light line with my forefinger.

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You know, I teach the children not to gamble; that it’s just not wise… but it’s really hard to pass up a “sure thing” isn’t it?

While actually relaxing with my husband this weekend, we started a conversation about blood types. I mentioned something about O+ being the most common, and he said something about A+ being the most common.

And the bet was on…He was rather “smug” about the fact that I was, in fact, wrong about this. Completely, undeniably wrong. He was so sure that he was right; it nearly shook my own faith in what I’d said…

But we waged a bet.

He could have anything he wanted and I could have anything I wanted… depending on who was correct.

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What will be the outcome of Microsoft’s latest controversial approach to high ranks in Google’s search engine? SEO expert forums are buzzing over these alleged “black hat SEO” tactics.According to the Information Security Glossary, White Hat hackers are those who perform hacking for legitimate reasons — like testing security systems for flaws and holes. Black Hats, on the other hand, perform clandestine activities for malicious reasons.

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RSS has become an important new wave in the world of the Internet. But you are still a little unclear about the whole concept. Learn more in this two-part series on RSS feeds, blogging and making your mark on the mobile web!

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As most people already know… I work from my home… currently in a little corner not nearly secluded enough, while impatiently awaiting the completion of both the new cabin and my new, detached office.

I’m not a patient woman. I’m just not.

And the recent challenges of working from home have been… well… nearly more than I can bear.

Like last week, when I had a call from a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. During the middle of my phone interview on the direction I felt the Virtual Assistant Industry was taking, my husband returned from picking up building supplies and thought it would be cute to bellow from the front door “Honey, I’m HOME!”

I was not amused. And this is one of many such challenges. When you work from home, you have challenges. Work from ANYWHERE is challenging, but there’s a whole unforeseen tangled bunch of them when you try to work, live, play and raise children from the same locale.

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Ok, I’ve been working on this thing for literally HOURS and HOURS now… and I’m nearly up to speed on all the new programs, all the manuals have been read (yes, I read BEFORE I install… go figure). I also read user reviews before downloading programs. I highly recommend this approach to any new software or hardware, BTW.

I’ve reworked the way the desktop portions of the applications are situated on my laptop… and things are starting to hum.

I do still have a few “gotchas” to handle…PocketQuicken seems to work seamlessly with the desktop Quicken program — after a minor error issue solved by reviewing the support documents online. But, I’m still having difficulty with the business finances — which are on QuickBooks.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to carry around a copy of QB on the Treo (I don’t even like having a copy of that monster on my laptop.) I prefer to have my accountant take care of all that and do the billing and endure the headaches.

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If you haven’t already done so, GO VOTE!

It’s easy to complain and whine, and yes… it’s true the options we have may be sad and limited (and even scary from time to time) — but if you don’t participate, how will it ever get any better?

Push away from the computer, put down the palm web-browser and …

Go VOTE!

This weekend, we had commitments to attend a friend’s party and to visit my sister and her husband later, where we planned to spend the night.

I took NO COMPUTER. I took a change of clothes and a toothbrush. I took a purse. In that purse was the new Treo 600. . .and that was IT…

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