It's Your Eyes

It was her eyes that first caught my attention. A soft blue. Not that baby blue crap like you hear about in the songs. No, more like the sky on a cloudless sunny day, when you're sitting on a boat fishing and nothing is biting so you look up at the sky and that's what you see. The blue of her eyes. 

I first saw her at the breakfast joint. She was my waitress and when she looked at me I saw the beauty of her eyes. And I fell in love.   See more...

Home-made Ravioli

I love ravioli and love to make pasta from scratch so it didn’t take long to perfect a recipe to make it myself. This recipe continues to get great reviews whenever I make it for company. I hope you like it as much as I do. One note however, it is very time consuming to make, but it is certainly worth it.  See more...

Italian Fare: Slow Simmered Meat Sauce

One of my passions is cooking, especially Italian. I love to make my own pasta from scratch because it’s so much better than the dried store bought product in my opinion. But it took me seventeen years to develop a slow-cooker recipe for what I consider the perfect meat sauce for nearly any pasta dish.

The added bonus to this particular recipe is that it tastes like you spent all day on it but it takes such a small amount of time to prepare. The slow-cooker does the hard part!  See more...

How to Make Kung Pao Chicken

Most people love Chinese dishes, and Szechuan is even more popular in my experience. I know it's my favorite. However, I had never tried to prepare Kung Pao Chicken, and, at the urging of family members, I found a recipe and decided to make it. Much to my dismay, however, I was missing several ingredients. So, being an amateur chef, I made a few key changes, and received rave reviews. Let's see what you think.  See more...

Sesame Almond Green Beans

Most people love green beans, but when serving with Chinese dishes, they need a twist to fit in. To accomplish that, I added a couple of special ingredients and some bottled salad dressing, and came up with the perfect Asian vegetable dish.  See more...

Quick and Easy Raspberry Chicken

Sometimes we want a delicious, quick recipe that doesn't require a lot of work. Raspberry Chicken fits the bill just right. Other than the one hour of marinating, Raspberry Chicken is completed within 20-25 minutes. Delicious, quick, and easy, but guaranteed to get rave reviews every time.  See more...

Choosing a Hypoallergenic Dog

So, you want a dog, but you are allergic to them. However, you shouldn't let that stop you from getting a dog that could become a best friend.

Why are some dogs hypoallergenic?  See more...

Top 5 Things to do in Kansas City, Missouri

When planning a trip to any vacation spot, you should have an itinerary. This list is my recommendation of five attractions you should not miss if you are planning on visiting Kansas City, Missouri, this summer.  See more...

Ten Rules of Investing for the Beginner

Shortly before the Dot.com bubble burst in March 2000 I had been watching the stock market and paper trading, trying to perfect my skills. I foresaw the crash a week before it happened. Of course, when it actually happened, I thought I was a genius. So four months later, after things began to settle down, I entered for the first time into the actual roller coaster that is the stock market.

Over the course of the next two years, I learned I was nowhere close to being a genius. I managed to turn an initial $10,000 investment into about $2,500. I had to step back and reevaluate things, and quickly.

I learned that the successful investors all had their own set of rules that governed their decisions so I decided to make my own set of rules. I share them with you so you may learn from my mistakes.  See more...

How to Develop an Effective Photo File Management System

One of the hardest things for an amateur photographer isn't what camera to use, or what depth of field is best for the shot you're working on. Actually, it's how to develop a file management system that makes it easy to find any photo you are searching for quickly.

Over the last ten years I have tried many systems, and I have finally come up with one that makes sense, is easy to remember, and helps me to find any photo I'm searching for within a minute or so.  See more...

Using Klout to Track Your Twitter Area of Influence

So by now practically everybody has heard of Twitter, right? And it's obvious that people can gain a large following on Twitter, as shown by the number followers and those you are following, which are supplied by Twitter. But how much influence do you actually have with those who are following you? Until now, there has not really been a way to measure that influence.  See more...

How to Set Up a Personal Budget

The Merriam-Webster dictionary says that a budget is “a plan for the coordination of resources and expenditures; the amount of money that is available for, required for, or assigned to a particular purpose."

Why Budget?  See more...

How to Set Up an ECommerce Business with no Money Up Front

According to emarketer.com, estimated online sales for 2009 will be $131.4 billion. They further estimate a substantial increase in the next ten years. This is in part because many of the large companies we know are  now adding online sales to their business model, and also because many small businesses are starting up, using only online sales to grow their business.  See more...

The Deer

"What's that?" I wondered to myself, as I walked out of the forest.

As I crossed the snow covered ground, I was mesmerized by the flat, raised piece of land that was different from the ground I was used to. The strange land seemed to go off forever in both directions, but it wasn't very wide, as far as I could tell.  See more...

A Quick Travel Guide for Lake of the Ozarks

Located in the center of Missouri, Lake of the Ozarks boasts two state parks, 300 caves including three show caves, golf, fishing, mountain bike riding, public beaches and shopping. As well, the area is home to over 100 restaurants, horseback riding from one of four outfitters, and bird watching over 25 species.  See more...