Posted by Richard Benedetto on Monday, July 4th, 2011 at 10:08pm.

Not only does David Wesp, chairman of the 14th annual antique and classic boat show, enjoy his antique, but he wants to pass the passion he has for it along to others. “It’s a beautiful thing … to get a boat done, enjoy the lake and have others enjoy it,” he said. Wesp began his love of antique boats when he started work to restore his first, at 16 years old.

“It became a passion,” he said. Restoring the boats is a passion he shares with his family.

Twenty-six years ago, in fact, he asked his wife to marry him … on the boat that he said will some day belong to his daughter, who shares his passion for working and riding on the vessel, along with traveling to boat shows with her father.

They are boat shows like the one that will be held July 8-10 on Chautauqua Lake when the 14th annual Chautauqua Lake Twin Tier Chapter of Antique and Classic Boat Society holds its show.

The show, which draws those who restore boats from across the country, is also open to spectators.

Events include: noon to 4:30 p.m.

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A few weeks ago, I put out a call on Twitter and on Facebook for detailed posts that people would like to see. I got enough great responses that I’m going to fill the entire month of July – one post per day – addressing these ideas.

On Facebook, Alyssa asks “Is it worth investing in a washer & dryer or is it more economical to use a laundromat?”

Few people would argue that, over the long run, a washer and dryer will save you money. The question really comes down to how long that long run really is. Let’s take a look at some real numbers and see what we find.

The Raw Data First of all, let’s look at basic costs for a laundromat.

Cost to travel to and from laundromat: $1 per trip (this is highly estimated, but there is some cost involved here) Number of loads per trip: 8 (Again, estimated) Cost of washer load at laundromat: $1.50 (I called three different local ones and averaged) Cost of dryer load at laundromat: $1.50 Cost per eight loads of laundry at laundromat: $25 Cost per load at laundromat: $3.12

What about the basic costs of a home washer and dryer? This varies a

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The new Collins Scrabble dictionary is out today with a host of newly accepted words. As a self-confessed Scrabble nerd, I thought I’d attempt to analyse how useful some of these new words are to players.

Apparently 3,000 have been added and I’ve not seen the full list yet, so I’m just going to share my notes on some of the most commonly reported (source: Guardian, Telegraph).

• QIN: a Chinese zither – the BLOCKBUSTER new one

  Without doubt this is the powerhouse of the new words, likely to be used regularly and increase average scores.

  There is only one two letter scrabble word with the power-tile Q in it and that is QI (the only three letters are QAT, QUA and SUQ). So if, as is common, you’ve a Q in your rack but no U, this is a key play. Hopefully, you’ll be able to intersect it on a triple letter position, where you get it vertically and horizontally, thus scoring 62.

  Once it’s on the board, the only way to hook into it (connect another word to it) is currently by pluralising it with an S to make QIS. The newly acc

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Once in a while, the drinks let loose a sparkler of an idea and a cocktail napkin takes a turn as notebook. We went looking for entrepreneurial ideas conceived at bars. Here’s what we found.

1. When the green chiles they’d ordered from their native New Mexico didn’t arrive at their home in Tampa, Fla., Allison Rugen and Carlo Marchiondo made a logical next move. “We walked across the street to a local bar to drown our sorrows,” Rugen says. “Up on our semi-drunken high horses, we ranted about the superior job we would do as chile distributors.” Then–on a cocktail napkin they still have–the duo jotted down the plan for Southwest Chile Supply, a company that now includes restaurants, wholesale accounts and chile merchandise. 

2. Three martinis and 10 cocktail napkins from Chicago’s Boka. That’s what it took, in 2007, for Daniel Adamany and Aaron Nack to come up with the business plan for their IT company, Ahead. Last year’s revenues? $130 million. Definitely enough cash for Adamany–a Grey Goose man–and Nack–who prefers Belvedere–to order a few celebratory martinis.

3. Publicist Lisa Jeffries was always in the know about the best to-dos around Raleigh, N.C.

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The first Olympic ticket payments will begin to be taken today and the 1.8 million applicants need to urgently ensure they’ve enough cash in their account to pay – or they face bank charges. The entire system feels designed to cause people major cash flow issues, it’s a surprise it’s not sponsored by Wonga.com.

The organising committee seems to have put all its energies into maximising the money and no thought into what it means for ticket holders. I’ve blogged before on the ridiculous booking system, (see Olympics psychic booking blog) which only clairvoyants could use effectively, as well as giving Visa a monopoly.

Now, to the other side of the coin – the ridiculous payment system. And before getting into it, let me state again for the record I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. I’m hugely excited about it and I have bid for tickets. But it’s the thoughtless, uncaring booking process I’m disappointed by…

• People must tie their cash up for a month There is no fixed payment date as successful applicants money will be taken between today and 10 June. That means you need

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First of all, for the more than 30 people who have already pre-purchased LEC 6 and have been waiting so patiently, thank you so much! We are now ready to start installing your development locations (more details on LEC 6 to follow).

Next – the REW 4.0 backend CRM product is ready for launch! We’ve been building this new backend system since Sept 2010, and we feel like we’ve acheived something truly special that should provide an immediate positive impact on our Realtor customers’ workflow and lead conversion. Once again a HUGE THANK YOU to all of our customers who joined us for two summits (Vancouver Island and Las Vegas) as well as on the forums, blogs, phone conferences and emails providing suggestions and feedback that have helped make this product as amazing as it is.

Here’s the deal (LEC and 4.0 upgrades):

LEC 6 (and all other LEC versions) is now fully loaded with the new 4.0 backend system and available for purchase. Purchase during this promotion and receive 25% off the retail LEC price.

Existing customers wanting 4.0 upgrades: Any customer wishing to upgrade their existing site to 4.0 can do so by requesting an estimate here on the blog (please provide URL’s), or in the work orders forums, or by emailing sales@ realestatewebmasters.com or by contacting your favourite sales rep by phone or email.

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For many people, making a significant change in their life requires them to hit bottom. They have to reach a low point of some sort where the drawbacks of continuing down their current path are so severe that they overcome the addictions or behavioral tendencies that have taken them down their current path.

I’ve discussed my own personal finance bottom on here many times. For me, it came one April afternoon when I realized we didn’t have enough money in our checking account to pay the bills that had come in the mail that day – and there was no longer any reasonable way to borrow ahead on a credit card to make things work for another month. I got depressed and as I rocked my infant son to sleep that night, I realized that I just couldn’t continue along that path any more.

For me, that was the point where the drawbacks began to outweigh the benefits of my lifestyle. My spending-heavy choices might have created some short-term fun in my life, but when I started comparing it to the pile of debt I’d have to pay off, the dangers of defaulting on that debt, and the choices (such as my job) that were forced on me because of a constant need for more money to feed that spending need, it became clear that I needed to change.

Although the pile of debt was certainly real, it was the threat of much worse things coming down the road that convinced me to change my ways. I didn’t

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Heart sinks. Take a breath. Try not to look bothered! I was having coffee in London’s Westfield shopping centre with two BBC big wigs, Jeff Anderson the Editor of BBC1 Watchdog and Jo Vaughn-Jones the Senior Producer, discussing how we’ll be doing PPI reclaiming on next week’s programme… when it happened.

Jo had just asked me, “do you get stopped by people a lot”, and I’d explained that it was common, though not for me the celeb trappings of autographs or photos, most people just walk up and say “hiya Martin, just a quick question” in a tone so relaxed and informal, I often question whether I know them or not. In fact it’d happened twice just on the walk to the coffee place.

Then, in a moment Larry David (if you’ve never watched Curb Your Enthusiasm do) would’ve been proud of… I saw an older woman stop directly in front of me, turn, march towards me and from no-where near yell….

You’re the man on the television who talks too fast, why do you do that, I’d never watch. It’s horrible, horrible, I hate

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There’s no substitute for homework.

That’s where the real learning happens for students, and the same is true when investigating a franchise. The most important homework step is calling people, specifically the franchisees of the system you’re interested in. You’ll receive a list of all the existing franchisees in the Franchise Disclosure Document you get from the company, so take the time to call at least five to 10 of them. It also a good idea to do a search online to find some former franchisees.

Here are the best questions to ask them:

1. How well did your first unit opening go? This broad question focuses on how effectively the franchisor’s systems and training work. An honest answer will reveal how easy the franchisor can help make the process of opening and operating that first unit. There will always be snarls when opening any new business but this question will tell you if they were small annoyances or ulcer-inducing.

2. How well do the marketing programs work? Most franchises have required marketing initiatives designed to help build the business by seeking to attract a lot of customers. F

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