You know how we have the Final Fridays “Art Crawl” here in Wichita? Well, I recently found out that they have something similar in St. Augustine, Florida. Their gallery crawl occurs on the first Friday of every month, though.

The great thing about the St. Augustine Artwalk is that it is a whole weekend art extravaganza. Instead of just being on one night, the event continues through the first Friday and first Saturday of the month from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Just like our local art crawl, there is a free shuttle that runs for the benefit of the art loving public.

Some of the featured St. Augustine artists include:

• Beau Redmond – www.beauredmond.com
• Jean Troemel – www.jeantroemel.com
• Peter O’Neill – Most famous for his poster of a Sept. 11^th Fireman. www.oneillgallery.com
• Trip Harrison – Take a look at his creative ability to capture the beauty and the romance of nature. www.trippharrisongallery.com
• Jan Miller
• Sydney McKenna – Featuring oil and watercolor paintings, and charcoal drawings in private and corporate collections in the United States and abroad. www.sydneymckenna.com
• Ray Brilli – An artist whose love of St. Augustine is profound. www.raybrilli.com

The schedule for 2008 is posted on the First Friday Weekend Art Walk web site in case you’re planning a trip to Florida. You can tour the various art galleries for free during the events. This would be a nice, inexpensive addition to ones vacation itinerary.

It’s hard to believe that Jen is turning 27. Gosh, you’re getting old! Only three more years before the big 30 like me! We need to get you married.

This photo was taken last night at Margarita’s where we celebrated Jen’s birthday. A few people showed up, mostly Jen’s coworkers. Several no shows. Good excuses, though. You know what was noticeably missing? A significant other. Time to set my sister up.

I’m seriously thinking of putting up an online personal add for my sister. Kind of like what Diane Keaton did for her Mandy Moore in Because I Said So. Hey, it worked for Mandy Moore!

Anyway, there are several free personals web sites out there. Date Hookup is probably the best, though. They have forums for members to share thoughts on relationships, videos, pictures, discuss religion, politics and other general stuff. The feature I like most is the “date ideas” section. Members share date ideas with one another. Brian and I tried to create a web site like this, but I have been too busy to put much work into it. Theirs is searchable. You can even search for date ideas specific to your geographic location.

Feel free to check out their web site. Look for Jen’s ad. LOL!

The last time Brian and I went over to mom and dad’s house (this would have been yesterday, actually) I noticed that there was something noticeably lacking in their $10,000 landscaping. They need a decorative boulder. I’ve seen these fancy schmancy decorative boulders at other homes. They are actually pretty nifty. Some of them even have address plaques or “Welcome” messages.

Most people have their address displayed either above or next to their garage, and then some display their address on their mailbox. Using a decorative boulder to showcase your address is a much more stylish alternative. The only downside is that it’s not cheap. For those who don’t have the money to spend on a thousand-pound boulder, there’s always Artificial Rocks Factory. Artificial Rocks Factory offers four models of realistic fake boulders with custom address or welcome plaques. In addition, Artificial Rocks Factory has about 20 different models of fake boulders which are hollow and are open at the bottom.

I think it is a pretty neat idea. I wonder if mom and dad would like one. The fake rocks are on sale right now and shipping is only $50. What do you guys think? Look at the picture of the front of mom and dad’s house below. Do you think it could use a decorative boulder?

The other day at work we got to talking about Andale where a couple of my coworkers live. Andale is this small town Northwest of Wichita with a population of about 800. The town is so small you can walk to the Post Office or to the town’s one and only bar. You can pretty much walk everywhere. There’s really not much there. They do have a pretty good size high school, though.

Lance said that a pizza place recently opened. It didn’t make a good impression on him, though. He says that they really needed to do something special in order to attract customers. There was nothing extraordinary about this place. He gives them a year, he says.

That got me thinking. It would be awesome to own a mom and pop pizza parlor in a small town. Brian and I have always wanted to own a business of our very own. We’re just not very entrepreneurial so we don’t know where to start.

Although, I did come across this web site that provides commercial mortgage advice — Commercial Finance UK. They offer many useful resources. Their web site is a wealth of helpful information for those wanting to start their business and in need of funding.

Of course, we are not ready to do anything right now. But maybe ten to twenty years from now we’ll be able to make our dream of owning our own pizza parlor a reality.

Years ago it was taboo to have an online personal ad. Nowadays it is perfectly acceptable. Many happily married couples have started their relationships by first meeting through an online dating service of some sort. Movies like You’ve Got Mail romanticize online dating; while movies like Must Love Dogs and Because I Said So show that it is perfectly acceptable to meet someone through an online dating service specially if you weren’t the one who posted the ad.

For a lot of people, posting an online personal ad (or any type of personal ad) is still an icky prospect. Understandably so. There are so many pervs and wackos out there. Putting yourself out there, on the Internet, is pretty scary. You’ll never know what types of people you’ll run into. So even though the popularity of online dating services has grown at an exponential rate and society has become more accepting of this practice, I understand why so many people still hesitate.

Enter Prime Dating Sites. Prime Dating Sites reduces some of the risks of posting an online personal ad by providing reviews and information about the various online dating sites. This way you are able to select the matchmaking service that best suits your personality and lifestyle.

For example, someone looking for fun and excitement will be better served by certain online dating services; while individuals looking for serious relationships and possibly marriage are ideal candidates for eHarmony’s matchmaking service.

In the movie Must Love Dogs Sarah’s sister Carol put her profile on Perfect Match. A review of Perfect Match is available on Prime Dating Sites also. Prime Dating Sites is really helpful for singles who want to harness the power of the Internet in their search for friends, dates, or future life partners. Perhaps the only thing that maybe they could do different is post a comparison page of the different matchmaking services so that you could easily compare each side-by-side instead of having to click on every single review.

Anyway, I thought I would share this useful web site to all of our single blog readers. More power to you all!