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Today was a crazy day for me, First of all I was woken up at 5 am by the sound of hammering. As I rose from bed still dazed I wondered who was working at 5 in the morning. So I got up and went outside when to my surprise I found that the street light outside my house had been knocked down and there was a crew working on it. I then went back into my house and was too hyped up to go back to sleep, so I cleaned up around my house, picking up beer cans and did some of the dishes. After that I drank a whole bottle of Nyquil and fell asleep on the bathroom floor.

The game that is my favorite of all time is the Cleveland Cavaliers versus the Detroit Pistons in the 2007 playoffs.  In game 5 Lebron becomes a one-man scoring machine and leads his team to a victory of their rivals.  The Cavs are trailing late into the fourth quarter and Lebron decides, “This is my time.”  He becomes a one-man wrecking crew and scores 29 of the teams next 30 points between the fourth quarter and overtime.  The Cavs end up winning the game because “The Kings” have heart and desire.  This game inspires me to play my hardest in everything I do.  He is my inspiration for my sporting career.

Like every morning I went outback to check on the bird feeders.  This summer has been full of ants, tons of them!  They will find the hummingbird feeders and swarm them, so I have to remove the feeder, wash, and refill and kill the ants that have found it.

Usually the hummingbirds that frequent my yard are very patient waiting for me to bring their food to them. Sometimes they will start trying to drink while I’m still holding the feeder, so I don’t worry about them when I hear them zoom by.

Today was different, one hummingbird in particular felt that he couldn’t wait and that I needed some scolding to make me go faster.  He zoomed up to about 6 inches in front of my face and scolded my soundly for not having done my chores earlier. When I came back out with the feeder, I was still not moving fast enough and I was scolded some more. He followed me from the back porch all the way out to the stand, circling my head and cussing at me the whole way!

Being a bright and pretty big hummingbird with a large napoleon complex, he must have come to the conclusion that he is in fact the boss bird and I’m the peon. Since I’m a good servant I shall be out earlier tomorrow as commanded.

At least now I know my proper place in the chain of command!

My favorite basketball game ever was between the retired 49’er (foot ball players) and the Santa Rosa police.  They were holding a fund raiser for the teen boy’s center. I just happen to get two tickets to take my mother as she is a big time 49’er fan.   My mother had to put her 49’er license plate on the front of her jeep, also had me wear her original 49’er jacket.  We get to the parking lot outside the gem where they are holding this game. Not thinking we were on the wrong side of the building. We jumped out and two guards grab us and usher us through the back doors, Not even asking us for our tickets.  And where do we end up in the locker room with all the 49’ers nude standing around in or without towels.  You think my mother would have been running up and grabbing all them. Nope she stood there in a daze, her mouth wide open and unable to move.  Joe Montana of all people starts talking to me, asked how we where?  You see we did know a few of the players, just not all of them. I told him fine. He asked, if we were going to watch the game? I said yes. The whole time trying not to look down below his waist line and that man is hard not to look at. We finely make it out to the courts. The whole time my mother not saying a darn word. We sit down and the game begins. As the game is being played the 49’ers are kicking the Santa Rosa polices butts. We were very surprised that the 49’ers could play basketball. Well half time comes up and all the players are down sitting around the court. I told my mother I wanted to get her some autographs. She begged me not to go; that the guards might know by this time that we shouldn’t have went through the back doors. I didn’t listen and took her jacket down with me. I got them all to sign it also three books, and to boot, I met some of their families. We all had a good laugh about why they brought us through the back doors too. You see one of the players set it up. Knowing how big of a fan my mother was. And it being her birthday and all, they wanted to surprise her.  She did get a surprise; later on she even got kissed and hugged by every one of them, while they stood around after the game taking showers. LOL!

The most recent movie i watched in the theater was “Harry potter and the half blood price”. I had been wanting to watch that movie for a long time, since i am fan of the series. When the movie release date was postponed last year, i was disappointed , just like millions of fans worldwide. So, when the movie was released finally i eagerly rushed to the theater along with my friends to watch it. But unluckily by the time we reached the theater the movie had sold out. We discussed our options and purchased the tickets for the next show. But we had no idea what to do to pass the time, and so we purchased tickets to the transformers movie, that was also playing in the same theater. Once  “Transformers” ended we had no time to lose, and had to rush to watch the Half blood prince. Overall it was a fun Boulder experience, watching two movies back to back, and we liked both of them which was a plus.

These days, earning a degree from an institute of higher learning is of paramount importance for getting somewhere in life. You simply need a college degree to get ahead in today’s highly competitive job market. Remember, there are fewer jobs available now than ever before and that means the competition for such jobs will be fierce. For parents, this can be downright frightening since they realize their children must have access to higher education regardless of the costs. And, of course, there will always be costs associated with attending college. This is something that can never be circumvented. So, how can you afford college tuition? One method that is gaining in popularity is the expansion and development of a College 529 Plan. What is this plan? Let’s examine it….

The concept of the 529 College Plan centers on the notion that a tax advantaged investment strategy can help encourage the savings for a beneficiary’s college education. Parents and grandparents can start a 529 College Plan, contribute money to it, and not have to worry about any tax debt. When it comes time for the child to enroll in college, the parent can withdraw the money to pay for tuition while not having to pay income tax on the revenue. Needless to say, that is a great deal!

Of course, depending upon the type of college savings plan you are working with, the money you have put away will be invested in the stock market under the careful management of a portfolio manager. This way, the money will be put to work for you in a series of blue chip stocks that will increase the value of the money over time. As a result, when it comes time to pay for college, the funds will be there to make the payments on the tuition. Of course, the money needs to be used to pay for the child’s tuition in order to be tax free. If you attempt to use the money for other purposes you will assuredly face penalties. The same can be said of early withdrawals as certain College 529 Plans will require that you invest a certain amount of money for a certain specified time period in order to achieve the benefits of such a plan. However, those that put they money away, contribute additions to it regularly over time, and do not touch the capital will end up with a great deal of money to work with when freshman year rolls around.

Again, not all College 529 savings plans are identical. They may even vary from state to state. As such, you will need to do a little research into the applicable laws of the region you reside. However, virtually all of these plans have their benefits which are why looking into them remains so highly recommended.

Another great strategy to use when considering college is to consider buying a home for your children in the college town they might someday attend college. University Hill Boulder real estate has dozens of homes that have been purchased this way. If the kids don’t end up going to school in Boulder CO, they are still a great rental property, and depending on when purchased, could be paid off by the time your kids go to school! The rental income can either pay your kids’ expenses while in school, or the home can be sold to pay for college expenses wherever your kids do end up.

Do you currently have your Boulder home up for sale on the open market? If so, you are probably looking to stage and show your home to potential buyers. That is fine but there is one potential problem you have to deal with – the home is empty. That means you will be showing a home that is completely bare. So, what can you do to stage the home in such a manner that it actually looks impressive to those that may be interested in buying? Do not worry. The steps you can take are a lot easier than many assume.

First and foremost, you probably would not want to keep the home completely empty. Some of the rooms will have to be properly staged with furniture and, for lack of a better word, props in order to impress potential buyers.

If you home comes with four bedrooms, you will need to stage at least one of the bedrooms. Or, more accurately, you will need to stage it in such a way that it will impress visitors. Properly dressing up a single bedroom will definitely impress visitors and they can fill in the proverbial blanks with the empty rooms based on the staging model they have viewed in the master bedroom that has been dressed up.

Similarly, the same approach can be given to one of the home’s bathrooms. Also, it is certainly helpful to dress up the living room as best as possible followed by the kitchen. Of course, there will be other rooms in the home that will be bare. This is understandable as you simply may not have the budget to ensure you can dress up every room in what may be a large home. And, honestly, you would not necessarily have to. As long as you can give the potential buyer an idea of what the home will look like dressed, you may be able to stimulate sales of the home.

It is also most definitely necessary to make sure that the home is staged as best as can be. If you lack the skills to be able to do this, then it probably would be bets to bring in a professional who does know exactly how to stage a home in the best manner. Quality professionals understand the marketing psychology employed with staging. It is not enough just to make the home look nice. It has to be able to sell the home. A bright designer will know how to achieve such goals. Calling in a pro would definitely help stage the home properly and move it closer to finding a solid seller. Staging a home is not difficult but it does require a solid eye for detail and presentation. A pro can help deliver on this and hiring such a professional might be the best move to make.

IIf you’re ever in the market for a University Hill Home in Boulder, visit Automated Homefinder – the best real estate company in Colorado.

I woke up this morning to a very hot and humid summer day. I spent a couple of hour doing chores around the house until the power went out and my air-conditioner turned off. It was too hot to continue with cleaning and the kids were all starting to complain about the heat. I decided to take tem on a little canoeing trip down the creek near my house. We packed a picnic lunch, loaded the canoe onto of our jeep and headed down to the creek. We even brought our two dogs so they didn’t have to suffer in our house that was getting increasingly hotter. When we arrived at the creek I could not believe how much cooler it was just simply being by the water. The breeze felt great. We paddled down the creek for a little while until we gat to a secret little spot we like to stop at for picnicking. The kids jumped in the water for a while to go swimming while I was getting the food unpacked. The kids coaxed the dogs into the water so they could cool off too. After the kids were all done swimming we ate our lunch and rested awhile before paddling back up the creek to where we left our jeep. The paddling was a lot harder on the way upstream but we were not in a hurry so we took our time and enjoyed the breeze. When we got back to our house we found out the power was back on and the kids were quickly backed to playing video games. We had a great day even though it as very hot and we had no power, it made us venture out looking for comfort and we found it chilling at the creek.

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At the age of 38 I finally went to my first professional baseball game.  We drove about 45 minutes from North Boulder to Denver.  Sad to say it took that long.  I have always liked to watch baseball on television but had never been to a game.  Last summer we had some family in town and they bought tickets for us to go.  What an awesome experience.  We had seats 3 rows up on the first base line.  We also went early and got signatures of some of the players from each team.  I had no idea it would be so exciting.  I felt like I was so a part of the game.  Since then we have gone a few more times and have a new appreciation of the sport.

Go Rockies!

My absolute favorite basketball game of all time is the 1983 NCAA Championship game between the N.C. State Wolfpack and the Houston Cougars. The game featured future NBA Champions Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon playing for Houston as well as legendary N.C. State coach Jim Valvano. Everyone expected the slower, less athletic Wolfpack to hold the ball and keep it slow as Coach V had said they would many times. Instead, the Pack came out firing and had the lead at halftime. Houston was visibly shaken but took the lead back in the second half. The Cougars couldn’t hold that lead and with the game tied with three seconds left on the clock, the Pack’s Derek Whittenburg launched a desperate outside shot which fell way short. The Pack’s Lorenzo Charles was there to dunk in the miss and time expired. The game was over. The Cardiac Pack had shocked the world!