Nothing agitates me like getting unsolicited calls from telemarketers. What boggles my mind is how these intrusive companies get a hold of my phone number. If you find yourself in a similar boat, there are various websites online on which you can report the offending company or phone number. When I don't recognize the number, I proceed to type it on Google and run a search. Usually, there will already be complaints issued about said phone number on sites like 800notes.com. Some people even report the numbers to the Federal Trade Commission. I never answer the phone unless I recognize the number. If they leave a message, I vet it in order to determine whether the source is legitimate. Oftentimes, it's a call from, say, AT&T or my bank. In other cases, however, it's a scam that far too many consumers fall prey to. I advise all my friends and readers to do the same. Some of these schemes can be egregious; the shady companies pull out all the stops to get people...

I have found that two-day weekends are hardly enough to do everything on my To Do List -- and I don't even have kids!  I can only imagine my time being cut a lot shorter with a little one running around. My wife and I recently bought a condo and here we are, two months later, still in the process of moving in and getting settled. I don't know whose idea it was to have people work five days a week and have only two days off, but I think working four days and having three off seems a lot more fair. After all, once we leave work each day, many businesses -- like insurance companies and banks -- have either closed or are a couple of hours short of doing so. How nice would it be to have Fridays off? That would give us an extra day to run errands so that we have two days left over to spend with our loved ones. I suppose this could be problematic, though, because if those in private industry are off Fridays, that means many of the people working for the companies providing the ser...