The other day, my web hosting was down and it caused me a great deal of grief. I make a living off of the Internet and if the hosting is not working than I am not making any money. I contacted the company to inquire about when it would be up and running again and, as I was not able to talk to a person, I left a message.

Three days later, I had still not heard anything and the hosting was still down. I tried to call again and then I finally decided that I would move all of my web pages to a new hosting account. I decided to go with asp.net web hosting, and so far it has been very good.

In fact, it has been better than it ever was with the old company and I am really happy with the switch. I actually got to talk to a real person and I was told that if I had any questions that they could help me at any time of the day. It is a switch that I should have made a long time ago, but I guess I had to learn the hard way.

I have a really funny story to tell. It is all about how I became known as the best horse racing tipster amongst all of my college friends. It was a long time ago, but we all still get such a laugh when we get together for beers and the subject comes up.

One night, when we were all bored, we decided to head down to the tracks, just for something to do. None of us had ever bet on a race before and we decided that we would all place a bet. I started spouting off racing tips, just to be funny, as I really knew nothing about it. I decided to place my bets on the jokes I was making, even though the odds were greatly stacked against me winning a single race.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, I won every single race I bet on. I made a lot of money that night and the next time we went all of my friends wanted me to share my best horse racing tips with them. We never won anything that night and we all had a good laugh that I had just had beginners luck that first time. It is still pretty funny to talk about.

The one thing that I wanted to do for my business was to make it as user friendly as possible.  I didn’t want to create a poor quality site that no one would enjoy, but rather make it the destination on the Internet.

I thought that I had everything all setup properly until I read some online services news that pointed out something that my site was missing.  Once I read the news, I realized it was a “must-have” thing for my new site.

You see, they talked about the need for fresh content online and how it could be easily provided by using news widgets on your site.  By using the widgets, you didn’t need to be a coding expert to provide your visitors with the latest news from around the world.

So, I put one of these widgets on my site, and I have seen an increase in the number of return visitors - just what I was looking for.

There’s a technical college in southeastern Ohio that trains students in hospitality management. On spring Saturdays, the facility is host to class reunions, up to three at the same time. I was present one such Saturday recently when the classes of ‘43, ‘58 and ‘68 were sharing the dining room.

I was especially interested in one of the conversations at a particular table off in the corner. There a lively discussion had been sparked by a member of the class of 1968. The topic: trading commodities.

Clearly emotions were running high on the subject of fundamental versus technical trading. On the side of fundamentals was a paunchy, florid-faced Boomer who liked to slap the table to make his point. His opponent was an attractive, petite woman who won the argument when she quietly revealed just how much she’d made the previous month in trades, and precisely how she did it. Her monthly profit was more than the table thumper makes in a year. Chalk one up for the ladies.

Having moved far away from home, long distance calling has been a large part of my life.  You see, I am very close to my parents (even though I live far away) and I call to talk to them every couple of days.  They are also getting older, so I feel like I need to stay in touch with them a little more than normal, just in case they are not there some day.

But, I have really been feeling the crunch of the long distance bills.  When you spend upwards of twenty percent of your income on the telephone, a solution - no, any solution, would be welcome.

It wasn’t until my birthday when I received one of those VOIP phones, that I realized that I had found my answer.  With one low price I was going to be able to call as much as I want, and not be tethered to a computer or wired headset.  In fact I would be able to use a regular phone, just like anyone else.

That is going to be just perfect for me.

When my cousin, who runs an import business from her home, was going to China to see dealers about new products that she wanted to bring in.  I told her that she should see about getting me some wholesale lingerie. I had five bridal showers coming up all in one month and I tended to always give out lingerie at them.

She said that she would look into it, and though I had been kidding at first, I agreed upon a price and sent her on her Asian underwear mission. We had a big laugh over it and I was anxious when she left to see what she would find. I had visions of the most hideous teddies and I was hoping those visions would not come to fruition.

When she got back from Asia she showed me what she had been able to get. They were really nice and they cost about ninety percent less than they would have cost if I had purchased them here. In fact, they were so nice that I almost did not want to give them away.

After my husband retired from the Army, he had difficulty finding work at a salary that wasn’t entry level. But we still had to eat, and our bank had this silly policy about wanting a mortgage payment from us every month.

A friend of ours was opening a door and window company that catered to contractors. He was sitting in his office wondering where he was going to find someone to handle the warehouse when the phone rang. My husband had gotten up the courage to ask if all the jobs had been filled. The rest is history.

In one week my husband was “fluent” in vinyl windows, atrium doors, sliding doors, you name it. As soon as we could afford it, we planned to replace our own windows. By the time that happened, however, my husband had another job and the company was sold. Still, he became the “go-to” person in our neighborhood on the subject of replacement windows. Knowledge is knowledge.

If you are a lover of robots, you will find this one interesting. The latest in technology from Toshiba offers a unit that is not only cute but comes with loads of time saving features.

This gadget offers the ability to capture infrared waves. So, you turn on your TV with a remote. If the little robot “sees” it and captures the signature, it can then be made to control the TV using voice commands.

It could come in handy for more than just cases of lost remote controls. It also offers photo capture technology which means it can take, analyze and send photos to you from home to wherever you are.

This could be helpful if you were to have a break in at your home. The little guy could take photos of the thieves and they likely wouldn’t even know about it!

The voice technology may come in handy for listening to emails or hearing the headlines read to you once the robot is hooked up to those functions. For now, it is just a prototype, but the possibilities are bright for this future home robot.

I have not had very many unhappy relationships in my life with the exception of my relationship with my in-laws.  They have never liked me which is cause enough for some tension in the relationship but even worse, for me, is the way that they treat my husband.

He would love to have a happy relationship with his parents but it seems that they compare him to his brother and sister and it seems as though he will just never add up.  We decided to go see a counselor to find out what they would have to say on the subject and to find out if it would be best if we just give in and do whatever they say so they will be happy with us.

The counselor told us that there are many keys to a happy relationship but giving in and doing what another wants, if it is not what we want will not make a happy relationship at all.  He said that in the end we would end up a whole lot more bitter and it would just make the situation worse.

I’ve come up with a few business opportunities for a clever inventor.

a. Patent a new kind of plastic packaging that is just as difficult to open in the store as current clear plastic, shoplifting-proof packages are — you know the kind I’m talking about. But once the item is scanned, the packaging opens readily.

b. Recreate the automobile fly window, aka the window vent. When air conditioning became standard equipment in cars, apparently the auto industry felt that the fresh air intake was a viable substitute for those versatile, triangular windows in the front seat.

They come in handy when it’s raining but the weather is too cool outside to run the air conditioning. They’re adjustable, pivoting well over 90 degrees, allowing for any number of custom adjustments for perfect fresh air redirection.

c. Create a viable raw sewage system for train and bus restrooms so that these closet-sized “rooms” don’t smell like outhouses.

Inventors, start your engines!