Sony NEX-5N The Coolest Camera Around...and I have one on order!

I ordered a new camera! It is a Sony NEX-5N Black Digital SLR Camera With 18-55mm Lens - NEX-5NK/B in black!  How cool is that.  This is one of the most exciting purchases I can make...well  a new computer or a Kindle excites me too!  But still this is absolutely huge in my life. We have been shopping online for the camera for several months now and finally decided to visit the camera store so we could hold it in our hand.  It turned out that this camera had a bigger area to capture the picture than other similar cameras and was the one all the people in the store were wild about.  We added the telephoto lens to the package because I want to take some architecture shots.  I will add other lenses later.  


I love that this relatively little camera allows me to change lenses and learn to do some very technical things.  We also purchased an extra battery.  I have used a Sony for many years so I know the quality and ease of use is just what I want. It is very hard to actually find one in the Portland Metro area with the type of package we were able to put together. One store had a plastic model on the shelf! Take a look by visiting the link above.

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What you do after you visit matters! How to read a blog! @addthis :)

If you are here for financial information, are wondering about living in a very small space, looking for information on the retirement lifestyle or just think I am a stupendous passable writer, thank you for coming by.  Your visit really does matter.  You see, there are people out there in cyber space that actually keep track of your visits and what you do after you come here.  It is not some nefarious plot to entrap you...it is simply about deciding who is the most popular! Wahoo!!! I would wear a bathing suit but since you cannot see me...well it is all for the best.

Note: More information on the subjects can be found in the "pages" at the top of the blog page.

For example, I received an email from the @AddThis team. You can find their icon at the bottom of the blog in a red box marked +Share  They were wondering if I was alive and well.  Why?  Well it turns out that they keep track of whether my readers are clicking on the icon.  I know!  Who knew?  And I am sure you would have done that but I didn't tell you to.  It is really my fault.  How were you suppose to know?

I also have a follow button in the sidebar on the left hand side.  There is a fancy G beside a blue box that says Join this Site.  That button is above pictures of a bunch of  Avatars (picture...fancy online talk.  Sorry!).  When you become a new follower, this blog benefits from your actions. Google keeps track of that kind of stuff...I am pretty uninvolved but I do care.  It is like a cycle...you follow so my ranking goes up so more people will see the blog and they will follow.  It just keeps going.

If you are shopping on Amazon and you can come to this blog and search the Amazon button for what you are shopping for, as an associate I benefit from that. It is at the top of the left hand side-panel.  If you do that, thank you so much.  My penny bank is almost empty!

This blog is a little space that I have carved out for myself.  I can write anything I want here and you get to decide whether to come on down and read or not.  If you like what you see, you can beam this starship up to someone...twitter, facebook or +share.  If you don't, well I will still like you anyway.

So that is why you are so important to this blog.  What you do when you come by is up to you.  But if you want to give the blog a little support, it would not hurt my feelings.  Leave a comment and come on back soon y'all.  You-are-very-important!

Be well.

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Satisfying Retirement: What Makes a True Friend?

  I think you will find this wonderful and satisfying.  :)

Satisfying Retirement: What Makes a True Friend?

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The Circles of Life...a different look at financial mangagment

When James Barnett approached me with this infographic on investment, prosperity and financial management, I asked him for a supporting article to go with it.  Really, one picture is worth 1000 words. However, I found his words to be worth 1000 pictures.

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note:  Please be aware that this article is written by an employee of Pannone Law.I am not receiving any money to publish it.

The Circles of Life

Family Life is often tied between the equilibrium of divided wealth and investment management, which correlates the success of ones ambitions, influencing manoeuvrability in a competitive capitalist society. The Circles of Life, managed through a professional and structured financial arrangement can provide incredible opportunity and the essential building blocks to provide future prosperity for your families aspirations.

Employment features at the heart of life’s circle as it is the most significantly influencing factor for wealth creation and self-determination. It will often provide the financial means and investment opportunities in addition to becoming the source of generation for new relationships and lasting connections. Each career step, whilst layering responsibility within employment provides an external provision to invest in home assets and your family’s future.

The company employing you is likely to offer various perks through insurance, pension and financial planning, or in some cases be an offset of your personal management should you be able to negotiate a better deal with private lenders and market players.  The crucial elements to succeed within this financial cauldron lay within an understanding of the legal boundaries and market movements that controls the financial relationships within contemporary wealth management.

Trust funds can be used through different accounts to provide higher interest, conveyance knowledge can provide you a successful property sale, and tax levels can be reduced whilst retaining a fair contribution to compulsory earnings through a successful knowledge of the legal requirements to manage your income. Financial management often comes to a peak at the time of retirement, which should remain a highly rewarding and dramatic release from years of hard work and planning across life’s evolving circles. Upon reaching this stage, maximising your investment return will allow you to kick back for a much needed break.

Author Bio – James Barnett offer financial financial management and planing advise on behalf of Pannone Law and researches innovative ways to connect with families through new social channels.  Google +: James Barnett

Aging: How I Found Friends in the City

I had a hard time making friends here in the city.  I was raised in a very small town and lived in rural eastern Oregon all of my working life.  I found that I just did not fit somehow. Maybe I was just looking in the wrong places or I tried too hard or maybe I simply did not share a culture that those raised in the city know and share.  I really do not know why. I guess I am a country girl and I guess I always will be.


While friendship was alluding me, I was been looking for an old friend.  She has been hidden for many years...at least from me. A small class reunion prompted me to take just one more look and see if she could be found. It became very important to me somehow.  A part of me was missing. I needed  just one non-family friend.  I visited an old friend from my home town knew her brothers name and that was all I needed to locate him and then her. 


I called her and we decided to have coffee and just visit for an hour or so.  I was feeling very hopeful and excited but I was unsure how it would go.  I know she felt the same way. Would we have changed so much that we could not relate?  It wasn't until I could look in her eyes once again, I realized that what made us friends over 50 years ago had not changed. It was like coming home.  We share a childhood and a common culture of upbringing.  That will never go away.  


She came to our little community of 800 people when she was 13 after living 7 years in Indonesia.  Her parents were missionaries.  She was the most exotic person I had ever know and still is.  I felt a little frightened of her worldly knowledge and tried to fit into her life when she came to live near me. But it turned out she felt the same.  She was unsure of her English language skills after all those years living overseas.  She worried about being out of place and finding friends.  Another best friend and I were the "go to" girls when a new kid came to town.  We took them under our wing and tried to include them.  But Sharon was special.  She turned into a true friend.  She added so much to our lives.  I feel bad that she did not know how we valued her until just a few days ago.  But she hid her true feelings just like we did. I will not let her go again. Friends are what complete our lives no matter our age.  

Oh by the way, she lived just up the street from my home here in Hillsboro...in plain sight yet hidden.

How does this relate to finding friends?  I am beginning to realize that friendship may be just under my nose and I don't see it.  While I was joining golf groups and book clubs and inviting company in for dinner, I should have been looking people in the eye and seeing what was going on in their lives. I should been more thoughtful and country real. I am discovering that visiting over the back fence with neighbors almost every day is very satisfyingly simple.  Taking soup into someone that is ill or just giving someone a hug is what I have been searching for and it was there all the time...the country girl culture is still alive everywhere I look.  I just could not see it.  

Have a wonderful day.  Thanks for stopping by.  Become a follower if you have not already and beam me up to Twitter or Facebook or the planet Jupiter!  I would like that a lot...especially the planet Jupiter thing!


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Links:  My Friend Rosie, Keith's Ramblings 

A Survey: What do you think about "reverse mortgages"?

I received an email from a business that wants to post a guest blog related to reverse mortgages.  I really don't know that much about the subject so I am going to ask them to write something up for me.  But I want to know...what do you think?

Leave a comments please...I need your input.

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Link: 

Money Magazine/CNN

Twitter: barbblogtwits

I wish I had a Nickel for everytime.....!

Now Blue Orchid of Texas (the 48 year old guy that passed on AARP) is gone...that made me feel sad.  The guy hid out in a blog bat cave and ranted about a world he could not change.  We often said we should sit down and drink margaritas together and commiserate but he is young and I am not, he live in Texas and I in Oregon and I am not sure our spouses would have had that much in common.  So there you have it...he just closed up shop and disappeared like the local deli turned dry cleaners.  Darn and I liked to read his words.  Darn again.  I wish I had a nickel for every time something like that happened...gone but not forgotten.

My classmate I had not seen for 53 years came by to see me yesterday.  I wish I had a nickel for all the times I have thought of her.  My children have heard stories about her and we cook a dish that her mother made for us when we were kids.  I just found her last week...she lives seven blocks from me.  Darn...all those years gone.  We will never get them back.  Oh, by the way she is still beautiful and a friend.  At least I have that!

I showed up for my hair appointment exactly one day late.  Now, I would like to tell you that this was a new thing but it isn't.  I paid my hairdresser for a hair cut I did not get and resolved to cut my hair myself until I am in my dotage and someone else is responsible for remembering my appointments.  I wish I had a nickel for every time I forgot to show up someplace...once the time has passed it is gone and must be forgotten.


So, hows your day going?   

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