Planning a wedding is one of the most exciting, and yet one of
the most nerve wracking, times in any person’s life. There are
many things that must be done in order to successfully host a
wedding and the reception.

It is important to start planning as early as possible to make
sure your big day is even more special than you have always
imagined.

== The Rings ==

Of course, choosing the ring is a vital part of any wedding
planning. After all, the exchange of rings is what seals the
ceremony and makes the couple man and wife.

Most couples will want to shop for their wedding bands together,
so that they can agree on a style and setting. With so many
different metals and finishes available, this process may take
longer than you think. Be sure to leave plenty of time for this
important part of your wedding.

== The invitations ==

The happy couple will of course want to include as many family
members and friends in their celebration as possible, and this
means ordering and mailing perhaps hundreds of invitations for a
large wedding.

No matter how many guests you are expecting, it is important to
allow plenty of time for your guests to RSVP. Having an accurate
count of the number of guests will make other parts of planning
your wedding, such as ordering the food and renting the
reception hall, much easier.

== Food ==

Speaking of food, you will need to make sure you have plenty of
it on hand for your guests to enjoy. Finding a caterer who has
experience planning wedding receptions is important, as these
caterers may be more sensitive to your specific time frame and
needs.

== The Reception ==

The party afterward is a big part of any wedding celebration,
and you will want to make sure you rent a hall with plenty of
space, elegance and style.

Having an accurate count of how many guests will attend the
reception will help you greatly in your planning. As with other
aspects of wedding planning, it is important to start looking
for a place to hold the reception as early as possible.

== The Cake ==

A wedding cake is no ordinary pastry - it is the centerpiece of
your celebration and a work of art.

It is vital to find a cake decorator who is skillful and
artistic, as well as a first class baker. Again, planning early
and getting references is important.

== The Dress ==

Last but certainly not least is the wedding dress itself. A
wedding dress is probably the most important piece of clothing a
woman will ever own, and choosing just the right wedding dress
is a vital part of planning any wedding.

Shopping around and scouring your favorite bridal magazines for
ideas, is a great way to make sure you find the wedding dress of
your dreams.

---

People are always asking me what the most reliable car is to purchase. You know it took me quite a while to figure this out as I grew up mainly because I grew up in a family with recessive genes when it came to purchasing vehicles. My grandfather (the one who would sing Italian love songs after a glass of wine on my dad’s back patio) was in love with Cadillacs. Picture this 5′, 6″ graying guy who looked like the typical image of the Mafia boss driving his 43-foot long El Dorado down the street and you start to understand what I’m talking about.

My grandfather had almost no problems with those Cadillacs since he bought a new one every 2 or 3 years. But he didn’t seem to get the idea that was a very expensive approach to car purchasing (the biggest hit to depreciation in a car’s value is usually in the first 3 years as most of us know). But it made him happy and that’s what mattered. And he had a ready source to purchase the aging vehicles. My dad.

Back in those days Cadillacs tended to hold up pretty well. Although they did come with a lot of new fangled gadgets such as one my dad referred to as “an electric eye” that would automatically dim the lights after about 5 seconds of blinding the oncoming driver. Actually, I’m not sure if that’s something that Cadillacs came with or my dad installed it aftermarket. What I am sure of is it didn’t work all that well as can be evidenced by a string of oncoming drivers that drove off hair pin turns after being blinded by my dad’s “cool” technology gadget.

Today, though, I don’t own any Cadillacs. My mother and sister also finally gave up their Cadillac addictions through a 12-step program. We’re pretty much an all Lexus family at this point for our primary vehicles - since even auto repair shop owners get tired of having to have their vehicles serviced. Lexus vehicles hold up really well. But let’s take a look at my personal experience with my current set of vehicles to really get under the hood of this question.

I have a 1998 Lexus LS400, a 1999 Range Rover and a 1993 Mercedes 300e. So let’s compare how well they have held up. The Lexus has 102,000 miles on it and over the last 8 years I’ve put maybe $3000 retail equivalent dollars (meaning what a person who doesn’t own an auto repair shop would pay) into it, including 2 rounds of tires and all the services it requires. It has never broken in any way. The Ranger Rover has 110,000 miles on it and I’ve put in the equivalent retail service dollars of about $3,000 in the past year alone! The Mercedes has probably had an average of about $3000 total in the 7 years we’ve owned it. It has 132,000 miles on it. I’ve also owned a 1987 Mercedes 300e with 60,000 miles and a 1989 260e with 60,000 miles. Those cars cost me $2500 each every year I owned them! But neither of those cars ever broke down (the money was in things like air conditioning, interior lights, maintenance and leaks). Go figure all that variability

But that speaks to how I would answer folks when they ask about our shop’s experience with different vehicles. In our shop the Lexus’s still reign king for less problems than any other vehicle that comes into us. They are just amazingly well built cars. Every other car that comes in has been variable and fairly dependent on how it was treated by it’s owners. Of course some brands are seemingly more prone to problems than others. As they say, “your mileage may vary”.

Frank Bellucci is the President of Performance Motors in Austin, Texas. In addition, he likes to think of himself as a rather funny person. His wife doesn’t agree. But that’s OK. Frank seems to have limitless funny experiences with cars, one of his great passions in life. You can catch Frank driving down 183 in Austin in his Land Rover. He loves his Rover more than wine. And he really likes wine (just not at the same time). Anyhow, look for articles that have good information with a bit of humor in the coming months! Visit Frank at http://www.perfmotors.com

---

The inconvenience of visiting a gaming room is more than enough to give up on it unless you can’t avoid it. Traffic accidents, the inconvenience, and task list this necessitates can’t seem worth the struggle for a mere prospect of placing your wager at gaming room, even so in case you are the type who is absolutely frenetic about gaming rooms then choosing virtual gaming houses is likely the more obvious option.

It isn’t required to leave your familiar desk for online texas holdem since everything will be conducted from your familiar home office assuming you have a pc plus, of course, a reliable Internet connection. Even so, don’t hold your breath too soon because there’s numerous guidelines and things that you will positively want to be with regarding online texas holdem, in particular if you’re a greenhorn. So smother that tizzy of yours and ruminate what follows. Here’s our brief guide that instructs you what to observe when unearthing an honest online texas holdem Web site.

The very first thing that a sharp Web risker like yours truly definitely must target is an online texas holdem web site of the sort capable of promoting the best winning odds. Make certain the online texas holdem web site is evaluated by an honest auditing company in order to assay their quoted games pay-outs regularly. This is very constructive to confirm the gravy you are about to wager as part of your eventual spree will actually justify the toil.

Always confirm the online texas holdem web site has a legal license, for example by studying the government certified approval on the casino site’s pages. Should you be unable to find any government certified approval on a targeted online texas holdem web site, don’t ever try to wager there.

Another bit of major advice would obviously be to risk a game for a start in petty amounts in lieu of dole out so much that it hurts immediately. Check out the status of this specific online texas holdem operation prior to daring to risk any severe injury, in particular that of losing your money… And here’s another prompt regarding online wagering. It is to call to mind always that any kind of gambling is actually about amusing yourself and less about making money. Betting in online casinos is not a business, on the contrary - it’s a leisure pursuit that can help you become bright and life in general satisfying. Play casino on line any time! This online venue always has action.

---

It’s easy to ignore family health insurance until a family member falls ill and hospital bills and medical expenses pile up. It’s true that we can never bet on our health; an emergency can occur at any time. Therefore, the wise thing to do is buy health insurance before you know you will need it. Once you decide to join a plan, many questions arise. These can be about the schemes, the type of coverage, the repayment options, and of course doubts regarding the reimbursements.

The term ‘health insurance’ is very broad, encompassing a wide range of insurance types, starting from covering the hospital bills to providing the disabled with long-term care. There are ‘comprehensive’ or ‘major medical’ schemes that companies give employees that cover most of the medical expenses. Other policies include the ‘fee-for-service’ and ‘managed care’ plans.

These policies cover most medical and hospital expenses, but differ in certain aspects. The ‘fee-for-service’ insurance schemes allow you to visit any doctor you wish and the medical practitioner will be paid for the services. The hospital or doctor will submit the bill to the insurance company, and the insurance company will reimburse you the actual cost. Remember, reimbursements are only for covered medical expenses. The reimbursements are not total but cover about 80% of the expenses; you have to bear the remaining 20%. This amount you pay is called the ‘co-insurance.’ If the doctor charges more than the standard you have to pay the difference. ‘Deductible’ is another term an insurance seeker has to know. The deductible is an amount that the policyholder has to pay before the insurance company starts to reimburse. If you pay a higher deductible you will get a lower premium.

Employer-provided coverage is the best way to buy family health insurance. Here you have to pay a low premium, because the employee and the employer share the coverage. The disadvantage is that you will not have as many options.

The other way is to purchase your own family health insurance plan, but it will cost you more. Here there is an option to pick up your own deductible, but check the policy first.

There are lot of options but it’ up to you to choose the right one for your needs and your budget. You may be easily lured by low premium or low deductible insurance, but most of them do not cover the important medical bills. Preventative medicine, which includes the yearly checkups, vaccinations etc., is not covered by most plans.

Another serious issue with many health insurance policies is their unwillingness to pay for prescriptions. Hence it is advisable to select a policy that pays for prescriptions.

Health insurance is a very hot market and there are lot of schemes and companies to lure you. Be careful that you are not falling for a bad one. So please check for the testimonials, experiences, opinions and reviews before you buy a policy.

---

Sometimes people ask me which of my wines (”Which do you think is better, the ‘95 or the ‘96 Zinfandel”) I like the best. As a winemaker, and particularly because I am a winemaker in a tiny winery, this is very much like asking me which of my children I like most, Lea or Jesse.

It is not lost on me that I carry this concern for my wines throughout their “lives”, much as I still caution my children to be careful at tasks they have long since mastered. When someone picks up a case at my winery and we place it in the trunk of their automobile, the lecture is automatically cued: “Don’t leave this in here too long and if you have to stop on the way home, park in the shade.

But then I am the kind of person who, if going shopping for wine and the day is hot, brings along an ice chest with a top that closes tight and a few ice cubes in a plastic bag to keep the contents from heating up.

I do not have any data about how hot it can get in the trunk of a car parked in the sun on a warm day, but we both know it can melt the heck out of a Hershey bar, don’t we! Wine literally cooks in that level of heat and if tasted later, has a dead, red liquid but not wine, flavor.

I recently visited a friend’s new home and he mentioned that he thought some of the wine he had purchased from me was going bad. After I removed the knife from my heart, we took a look and saw that he had a fine, out-of-the-way-storage place for the wine…on top of his refrigerator! I was amazed that any of my creations had survived the heat and vibration there.

Heat is the enemy of fine wine. Keep it cool and alive.

About the Author

Paul Kreider, who made his first wine in 1975, is the owner and winemaker of the Ross Valley Winery in San Anselmo, California. Since 1987, with notable success, his small Marin County bonded winery has specialized in transforming modest lots of unique grapes into vineyard-designated wines, each with its own individual character and particular personality. Check our website at www.rossvalleywinery.com.

---