Flowers are the finishing touch

Today is my birthday. Unfortunately, I still had to be at work at 7 a.m. today and I've been cleaning all week because my parents are visiting tomorrow. There's no rest for the weary, not even on a birthday.

The highlight of my day was a special delivery from 1800flowers. I'm not one to advertise around work that it's my birthday, but everyone instantly knew the truth as soon as they saw the birthday flowers sitting on my desk.

It's an almost effortless gesture, but it serves so many purposes, sending flowers. It made me feel loved, it told everyone else that I'm loved ... and it added the finishing touch to my clean apartment when I set the bouquet on the dining room table.

Westford Asset Management: Lucky to be in Boca Raton

Westford Asset Management is located in Boca Raton, Florida, a well-known vacation spot and popular escape for retirees, making it the largest city between West Palm Beach and Pompano Beach. The city is known for its affluent residents and high-income demographic.

Westford Asset Management is surrounded by Florida's beautiful Palm Beach County. The area is blessed with a year-round tropical climate, and temperatures range from a high of 86 degrees Fahrenheit to a low of 58 degrees Fahrenheit.

The city Westford Asset Management calls home is also home to Florida Atlantic University, Lynn University, and Digital Media Arts College.

Some of Boca Raton's notable residents have been singer Jon Bon Jovi, actor Ernest Borgnine, NASCAR racer Jeff Gordon, "Marley & Me" author John Grogan, and tennis player Andy Roddick.

Sakwinder Narwal makes catch and release his hobby

Sakwinder Narwal, much like the whale that shares a similar name, has an obsession with fins and scales. Rather, his obsession has to do with catching the creatures that come with those features.

An entrepreneur and avid fisherman, Sakwinder Narwal (Sak for short) has traveled the world to feed his fascination with all things fishy. He hunts the world's greatest sports fish, such as salmon, trout, catfish, tarpon bonefish, and redfish. He chooses to take the "catch and release" route with his hobby, so the fish he catches will live to swim another day.

Sakwinder Narwal is also known to hook a shark every now and then. He has waited for them off Montauk Point in New York, where the water is rich with many types, such as Blue, Mako, Thresher, and the occasional Hammerhead.

RENEW International is all about outreach

RENEW International is above all else a ministry organization.

An arm of the Roman Catholic church, RENEW International has dedicated 28 years to breathing life into the communities of more than 150 dioceses around the U.S. It is also a missionary organization, going outside the U.S. to serve the people of 23 countries and counting.

RENEW International reaches different areas of the Catholic community through its various ministries, including Campus RENEW, which focuses on college campuses during a 2 1/2 year process; RENEW Worldwide, which reaches people of other countries; and RENEW Resources, which publishes books, bulletins, videos, etc. and distributes them to dioceses, parishes, communities, and individuals.

The organization also offers several opportunites to get involved, whether it be attending a workshop or a retreat or making a donation to support the cause.

K-Designers creates "a new home at the old address"

Change is good. And as much as we love our homes, sometimes we just need a change.

K-Designers, formed in 1978 in Wyoming by Larry and Lee Judson, provides that change with an array of remodeling services for existing homes. One of the largest remodeling contractors in the U.S., K-Designers even offers its own product lines for everything needed to give your home an outside makeover, including exterior siding, patio and entry doors, windows, and garage doors.

Even more than providing the materials and labor, K-Designers can redesign the overall outer appearance of your home, adding beauty to existing architectural features and creating interest with new details.

This award-winning company has 10 branches scattered across the western U.S., including locations in Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and Sacramento.

Jeff Barcy makes life investment in real estate

There is much uncertainty for people looking to buy houses and residential land in this economy, which makes people such as Jeff Barcy who skillfully handle investments in the real estate market all the more valuable.

Jeff Barcy, a Harvard graduate who found his early victories on the college wrestling team, tackled Wall Street after graduating with his MBA. He then moved on to investment banking with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in Los Angeles, where he rose to the level of director of real estate investment banking practice. After the L.A. investment banking firm, he joined Hearthstone, an investor in for-sale real estate in San Francisco.

Today, Jeff Barcy has risen through the ranks to become CEO and co-founder of an investment management firm that focuses on endangered residential opportunities. That firm, Ridgeback Partners, employs 75 people and has handled billions in investor capital.

It may be time for eyeglasses

As much as I hate to admit it, it may be time for me to invest in some good eyeglasses.

Lately, when I drive at night, I've noticed I have a lot of trouble judging how far away cars are when all I can see are their headlights. Even during the day, I have to practically be driving underneath a street sign before I can read it.

For someone like me who has never needed glasses before, the prospect of finding the right pair is a little bit daunting. So I did what I always do when shopping for an important item and started online. Where I stopped is at eyeglasses.com.

This Web site breaks its extensive stock into categories, such as vintage, round, small, rimless and unique, so its easier to narrow the search to my personal style. I can also view the glasses by brand. The Web site even provides a list of eye doctors according to state, so I can easily learn what kind of lens I need.

Once I find what I'm looking for, all I have to do is put it in my virtual shopping cart and wait for the mail. If I discover the frames I chose are wrong for my face, I have 30 days to return them for a full refund.

Now I just have to decide whether I want to be vintage or classic.

Amos Tamam pioneered a useful taxi technology

It happens to all of us.

You're visiting a big city and need to grab a taxi, but you realize immediately after you've victoriously hailed a signature yellow cab that you aren't carrying any cash. With the invention of plastic, the number of people who carry cash has steadily dwindled. Plus, a pocket full of paper is much more successfully picked than a pocket full of plastic.

Thanks to Amos Tamam, an import from Tel Aviv University, visitors to Philadelphia and New York City have one less reason to carry cash. Using his skills as an electrical engineer, Amos Tamam developed wireless technology that allows cab drivers to take credit cards as payment.

Looking at the usefulness of this technology from the perspective of the cab drivers, they will likely have less cash onboard to tempt would-be robbers.

Although Amos Tamam's wireless credit-card technology is now available only to fleets in New York City and Philadelphia, he is in negotiations to bring the system to fleets in other major cities around the U.S.

Mother's Day is in how many days?!?

There I was, peacefully going about my day, when I accidentally glanced at the calendar. I completely forgot what I was supposed to be doing because, there, in plain English, was my reminder that Mothers Day is only six days away. SIX!

I quickly took stock of my schedule for the next week and realized that I don't have a day off between now and Mother's Day. I procrastinated and went on with my life, and now I'm at a loss what I can send to my mom that will be guaranteed to get all the way across the country before her special day. Plus, I just paid my rent for the month so my entire paycheck basically disappeared before my poor bank account even noticed it was there.

When I lived at home, I would wake up early on Mother's Day and clean the house or make breakfast or scoop the kitty poo out of the litter box. Now that I'm grown up and living far away, Mothers Day gifts are a lot harder to produce ... especially meaningful ones. After a few minutes of panic-induced Googling, I stumbled on a classic bouquet from 1800flowers.com that costs under $30 and is guaranteed to be on my mom's doorstep by Mother's Day.

Crisis averted. Now there's just Father's Day ...

Bouquets are nice, but plants are better

What is more satisfying: clipping the ends off a bunch of flowers and putting them in a vase to enjoy for days or pulling a plant out of a small pot and nestling it into the soil to enjoy for years? I suppose the answer to that depends on who you are. For those with the mothering gene, I think the latter provides more of an outlet for that urge to tend to something beautiful and help it grow.

I think this year, I'll opt for a Mother's Day plant over the typical Mother's Day flowers. My mom is what I believe is called an empty-nester. This is a recent occurrence because I just graduated college and moved across the country, and my brother has been living elsewhere for a couple of years now. She has the cat to cuddle and feed and clean up after -- and of course there's always my dad to take care of -- but I think she would appreciate something that won't make demands or ignore the chores or bring dead lizards inside.

So, Mommy, enjoy the flowers from your son, but I'll always know that you loved the Mother's Day plant from your only daughter more. Those flowers will be beautiful for a little longer than a week if you treat them well, but the plant will remind you of me for years. Just don't let the cat eat it.