Well it’s back to work after the long Fourth of July holiday weekend that is of course unless you are on vacation this week. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family, friends, a cookout and last but not least a firework show.

This year for the first time my wife and I went to The Mall of Georgia to take in the fireworks show there. It seemed as though it started a bit late…almost 10:00 but it was well worth the wait. I’ll let you be the judge…Mall of Georgia Fireworks.

Let me know what you think.

Independence Day in The United States is the annual celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The day is typically celebrated with parades, fireworks displays, ceremonies, barbecues, family gatherings and in Atlanta, The Peachtree Road Race. With the heat of the summer days I thought it would be a good idea to publish a Top 10 list of safety items for the Fourth of July:

•    Stay Hydrated – Drink plenty of water. Sorry but alcohol and sodas do not count
•    If you drink alcoholic beverages – Don’t Drink and Drive
•    Use Sunscreen – Especially during the hottest part of the day
•    Always fully cook all meats on the grill
•    Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold – Foods with mayo or dairy products can go bad quickly
•    If you will be doing any outdoor exercise do it early in the morning or late in the day
•    Use only legal fireworks for your area.
•    Adults should supervise all fireworks activities
•    If boating – Always wear your flotation device
•    Think of your pets – The heat can be hard on them also. Make sure they have plenty of water

The Gwinnett County Fair is in full swing. This year the fair opened on September 11, 2008 and will remain open through September 21, 2008. Hours are from 4:00 until 11:00 daily and the price of admission, $5.00 for adults, $2.00 for children 6-12 and seniors 65 plus include the entertainment. Entertainment is nightly at 7:30 by such entertainers as Gene Watson on 9-15, T G Sheppard on 9-16 (my wife’s favorite), The Bluegrass Alliance on 9-17, Linton Wages & the Sloo Fly Five on 9-18, and Joey Watkins and the River Street Band on 9-19.

The headliners are not the only entertainment at the fair. Of course children of all ages can enjoy the rides. Who doesn’t like a Ferris Wheel? In addition to the rides are the exhibits which cover everything from produce to canned goods to handcrafted items and what county fair would be complete without livestock. Ahh the aroma! We now have that new livestock cologne “Ode To Angus”.

For once my wife and I enjoyed the fair without seeing how much junk food we could consume. Not that it wasn’t there, we just didn’t eat it. What we did find were several vendors who had good ole country cookin and there is one vendor who has the best roasted corn I’ve ever eaten. If you get it make sure to ask for it to be double dunked in the butter. That is not to say that we didn’t get a large container of boiled peanuts and a caramel apple to bring home.

Just in case you didn’t know, the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds are located on Sugarloaf Parkway between Highway 124 and Highway 20 in Lawrenceville.

One thing that is common for all of us who vacation is that we have to have some place to stay. The question is how do we want to pay for it? Do you want to rent, buy or possible look at another form of ownership? For many of the more affluent, the answer is easy. Just buy a vacation home and use it whenever the mode strikes. I see this type scenario in some of the mountain and lake areas that just a short drive away. For those of us who just can’t go with out a little sand in our bathing suits the beaches of South Georgia and Florida call out to us annually. Perhaps because the drive is considerably longer, the vacation homes in these locations may be purchased as a time share or interval ownership.

Let me be the first to say that if you are looking for an investment, in my opinion a time share is probably one of the worst investments you can make. If you are looking for a place that you can trade in order to visit other time share facilities it can work out nicely. One lady in my office bought a Florida time share with her husband and they have never been to it. They trade it in every year and visit another location. For my wife and I, we purchase a time share in Daytona Beach Florida about 20 years ago. We have gone to it every year and we vacation with many of the same people each year. One nice thing about our situation is we don’t have to worry about who we may be playing golf with. There is always a foursome ready to go play. We have seen children grow up and are now visiting with the grandchildren. This will be our case this year. If you follow this blog or put it into your RSS Feed Reader, you may even see a picture of our grandson Lincoln playing on the beach or in the kids pool. Bet you will!

Accessibility to vacation areas and vacation homes from the Greater Atlanta area is one feature that we have over many other metro areas of the country. Let’s look at some of the areas that are in close proximity to Metro Atlanta.

• The North Georgia Mountains – About an hour and a half north of the city
• The Blue Ridge Mountains – About three hours northeast of the city
• Lake Lanier – About forty five minutes northeast of the city
• Savannah and Tybee Island – About four hours southeast of the city
• Jekyll Island – About five and a half hours southeast of the city
• The Florida Panhandle – About five hours southwest of the city
• Daytona Beach Florida – about seven hours southeast of the city

Twas the week before Christmas and the search engines were slow, shoppers were searching for places to spend their dough.

With mom on her laptop and me on the pc, we knew that the family would be happy as could be.

On VISA, on MASTERCARD, on AMEX we spend, will this internet shopping spree ever come to an end.

Email accounts were totally ablaze, Credit Card companies wanting our limits to raise.

Overnight deliveries are now the only way, UPS and FedEx the dividends they will pay.

Now it’s all ordered and we have time to think, Oh what the heck I’m just going to have a drink.

We will get it all wrapped, some how, some way, And my wish for you is a wonderful Christmas Day.