Is it possible to add more luck when you are getting married on 7-7-07? Getting married is a big gamble because no one knows which half they are the marriages that end in divorce. According to theknot.com, 31,000 couples are planning to get married on “lucky” 7-7-07. This number is triple the usual number of the July 4 weekend weddings. Triple number “7″ lining up on a Las Vegas slot machine gets you a jackpot payoff.

Couples getting married on 7-7-07 are looking for extra luck for their “jackpot” marriage. But staying happily married is not about luck: it is a big task that is all about communication and physical and emotional connection.

If you are going to marry on 7-7-07 and you want to add more luck to your wedding, I suggest that you create your own Jackpot Wedding Care package: you and your partner can create a more personal and meaningful beginning to your marriage. It is a “survival kit” for the first year of marriage.

I suggest you put lucky 7 items inside the “Jackpot” Wedding Care Package. Each item is necessary to bring extra luck when you prepare for the marriage and to keep the marriage strong and happy. Inside the Jackpot Wedding Care Package, put the following items together as a wedding present to you and your partners:

• a talking stick or rock (each uniquely designed and craft-painted by the couple)
• a journal book (the bride recording her thoughts as the wedding day approaches)
• a weekly “Honey To-do List”
• sexy lovers’ coupon book
• personalized wedding vows (to be rewritten and renewed on each anniversary)
• a prenuptial marriage agreement (fun and sexy, not just financial agreements)
• sexy photos of the couple

If you are already married, you still can create this Jackpot Wedding Care Package. and a “marriage stimulator” for couples who are already married.

Franklin was a lonely guy. He was reasonably handsome, very intelligent and witty. But lonely. He had a string of pedigree degrees and a never ending resume. People liked him and he was especially charming in a group. He had what many would call charisma. But lonely.

Poor Franklin had gone through a spirit crushing divorce that left him bruised and battered. The worst of it was she left him for another man. His ego was in a black hole and he felt the only way he could get back out was to find another woman. Some men really need women and Franklin was one of those men. He desperately needed a woman. Desperately.

Finally he had lunch with a colleague who tells Franklin he’s just going about it all wrong. Odd that there always seems to be an overabundance of colleagues available to point out your faults.

Franklin abruptly sees the light. Franklin’s friend tells him he shouldn’t be thinking about American women as they are all jaded and hate men and are always starting arguments and are always keeping some silly scorecard. Franklin thought that sounded a lot like his ex.

Franklin’s sure cure was to get a foreign woman that would do what he said, be loyal and end his agonizing loneliness. A good Latina, Indian or maybe Oriental woman would do nicely. How could Franklin lose? Besides, most men knew that Oriental and Latina women age very well.

Way over on the other side of the world a very pretty Maria de Jesus was waiting for our man Franklin. Well, maybe not exactly for Franklin but someone like Franklin. Actually, the truth was she was waiting for anyone like Franklin.

So when the Get Close Internet Dating Service called her she had already paid her fees and was ready to go. She had been packed for months. 10 days later Franklin shows up and it was love and desperation at first sight. Franklin was overwhelmed.

Maria de Jesus immediately agreed to follow him back to his lonely California. He was readily accepted into the family and Franklin was surprised at how quickly her parents approved of him and thought maybe it was his natural charm. Right.

Franklin’s second biggest surprise came later when his new love invited him on a date to Bellagio in Las Vegas. The surprise came when she told him to dress up and they went to a wedding chapel and were married. What could Franklin say? It must be love, no? I do. I do. I sure the heck hope I do?

One week later Maria de Jesus began proceedings to bring her extended family to California one by one. That was nine relatives ago. Now she is on first name basis with everyone at the Consulate. And poor Franklin wishes he was lonely again.

I wonder what would have happened if Franklin had met Melinda.

I often think Melinda’s goofiness came from hanging around too many of the criminally insane types she counseled; the ‘I was bored so I killed ma and pa’ types. Or the types ‘She wouldn’t shut up so I just duct taped her up real good.’ All Melinda’s patients were handcuffed for very good reasons.

In her early forties Melinda developed a ‘lazy eye’; a condition where one eye isn’t up to strength with the other. Melinda looked sort of goofy anyway so the lazy eye made her look even more so. The lazy eye had even started to droop a bit and she was beginning to look like some of her hard core patients.

The prescribed treatment was to wear an eye patch over the good eye so the lazy eye would get used more and consequently become stronger.

Melinda was astounded by the results. For months she went on and on about what a miracle this eye patch treatment was and how her lazy eye was so much stronger now.

In fact, Melinda felt so much better she decided to try the new therapy on the other eye. Made sense. Her reasoning was that since it had helped one of her eyes so much most likely it could help the other. In the end each eye would openly compete one on one to see which could get stronger.

So now goofy Melinda alternates the eye patch and still swears that she can see like an eagle even though with only one eye. After all, why waste good energy using both eyes at once? I thought she might get along with my brainy friend Gerald, but then with Gerald time just ran out.

Gerald and I were in language training together and became friends. He was an intellectual sort of guy with a vast knowledge of history, art, literature and fine foods. He was smart and worldly and I felt in many ways a lot smarter than me.

After finishing training I transferred to California and Gerald remained in Dallas. We spoke by phone every now and then and I was surprised when he called to say he had gotten married. He and his new wife would be in San Francisco over New Years and could we please join them?

We did and met the new lovebirds at an upscale dim sum restaurant in Chinatown. They were already seated and I nearly fell over when I saw them. Gerald was fifty pounds heavier with a double chin and he was seated next to a woman 30 or 40 years older than him. In fact, later I found out she had children older than Gerald. I was stunned.

On a loo break I ask Gerald ‘what’s up, man?’

“Aw, she’s a great cook”, he said patting his belly, “but best of all she has a condo off Westwood. That’s only ten minutes from the office. I don’t see the fact that she is 36 years older than me as an issue. Age doesn’t matter. Her kids all like me and I use a lot less gas now.” Good old Gerald always was a committed environmentalist.

Like my old pal Pat O’Leary used to say, ‘Are we stupid or what?’ Even though Pat was right it remains a rhetorically inane question.

Simply because everybody already knows stupid is us…

Considering the myriad challenges homeowners face – from paying for rising property taxes to making needed repairs – it’s surprising more of them don’t pull their hair out while engaging in profanity-laced tirades. But there’s one dirty little word that even the least superstitious homeowner is loathe to utter, let alone ponder: foreclosure.

A foreclosure is a legal proceeding by which a lender forces the sale of a property after a debtor has defaulted or failed to make payments. Legally, a foreclosure is a process for a lender to regain control of the property because the buyer has violated terms of a contract.

To initiate a foreclosure, the lender must serve a notice of default on the debtor after a certain time period when payments are past due. The notice will give the borrower a time frame and list an amount necessary to be paid in order to ‘cure’ the default and avoid foreclosure. If the delinquency and other costs are not paid within a determined time, then the lender – or the trustees in states that use deeds of trust – will set a foreclosure date for selling the property at a public sale.

State foreclosure laws vary. In some states, the mortgage holder must go through a court proceeding known as a “judicial foreclosure.” In others, a non-judicial foreclosure is allowed. Both types require giving notice to the borrower. Regardless of the type, the foreclosure process can be as short as six weeks and as long as two years, depending on the state.

The prevailing thought about foreclosure is “it can’t happen to me.” Yet the experts agree that any homeowner is one unexpected misfortune away from being at risk of losing their property.

Foreclosure are circumstances that any homeowner can be vulnerable to, including an expensive illness or death of a family member, the loss of a job or a significant income change, or a costly divorce. Any of these major, unexpected life events can lead to an inability to afford monthly mortgage payments.

Additionally, with the widespread availability and popularity of zero-interest, balloon-payment, adjustable-rate and other types of loans in the past few years, many borrowers have overextended their resources – purchasing more than they could afford over the term of the home loan, As a result, more borrowers are at risk of future foreclosure.

A foreclosure cannot only leave you without a roof over your head, it also can damage your credit, making it more difficult and costly to obtain financing thereafter.

“First, don’t buy more than you can afford. Don’t get caught up in easy purchase/finance marketing that causes you to act when you should not. And use acceptable debt-to-income ratio guidelines to determine what you can afford.

The easiest way to prevent foreclosure is to simply find a way to pay off the debt, says David Stone, president of Nevada Association Services, Inc., Las Vegas, a collections agency that specializes in non-judicial foreclosures.

“Other options include contacting the lender and arranging a payment arrangement more in line with what you can afford,” Stone says. “Communication with the lender is very important in these situations.”

Homeowners can always negotiate with the lender, but do not ignore letters from the lender, and don’t forget to pay your mortgage, even if you do not get a statement.

Lenders may be willing to give you extra time to pay or may suggest debt counseling to restructure or consolidate your debt. It also may be possible to create a trust account to protect your assets or to rework your loan for an extended time period for the purpose of lowering your monthly payments.

It’s never too late to avoid foreclosure so long as the foreclosure sale has not been completed. After that, a costly lawsuit could be brought in order to show why the foreclosure should be reversed. A court may reverse a foreclosure if it is determined that a substantial error occurred in the foreclosure process. After-the-fact reversals, however, are seldom and extremely expensive to pursue.

A debtor also can opt for a voluntary foreclosure, which involves selling the home to the lender.

This can minimize the damage to a debtor’s credit record. In a voluntary foreclosure, the debtor may not be held liable if the home sells below the debt amount.”

Because of the loss of financial control and the credit damage involved, filing for bankruptcy generally is considered a last resort to avoid foreclosure.

“Bankruptcy can stall a foreclosure. However, eventually the debt will need to be paid or the lender will foreclose on the property.

Long work hours which occur with alarming regularity are regarded as one of the classic signs of a cheating spouse. What makes it so hard to pin down however is that in this day and age with money being too tight to mention, it is at times an absolute necessity to put in overtime, go in on weekends or even your day off. Most families just to make ends meet require that both spouses work.

But whether good times or bad, the office has always been one of the prime meeting places for singles and married alike. In his article, “The Ugly Side of Office Relationships”, Francis K. Githinji writes, “An office is always a fertile ground for working colleagues to hit it off in a relationship. It is a place where you are bound to meet new people who will always be within your proximity.”

Proximity is the key word here. If familiarity breeds contempt, it can also give rise to enticement. The majority of spouses that cheat on their partner do not consciously take a job in the hopes of having an extramarital affair but it happens anyway. Working closely with someone allows you to observe them under a whole host of circumstances. How they react to high pressure situations, how they communicate and treat others, their attitude and professionalism toward their job and well as other factors.

A coworker will also see that person when they are relaxed and more than likely will also be exposed to that person’s sense of humor. That goes a long way to forging a bond. It many ways a good sense of humor is allowing people into your world. If a spouse and one of the co workers have the same sense of humor, than the connection becomes that much closer.

A few generations ago office romances were not only frowned upon but actively discouraged. That of course didn’t stop them from taking place. Now it seems the work environment has changed one hundred eighty degrees. In a CNN study done earlier this year forty percent acknowledged that they have had an office romance at one time or another. The astounding part of this survey was that sixty six percent felt there was no need to hide the relationship.

Unless they want a divorce, it’s practically a given that a cheating spouse will not come forward and declare publicly their extra marital affair. But in some ways they don’t have to. The old saying “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” can also apply to the office. Every work environment has a unique culture of its own with different levels of loyalty. Many coworkers may know what’s going on but they don’t feel it is anybody’s concern; including the offended parties. The motto whether spoken or not is if you don’t work here, then it’s none of your business. In other words their first loyalty is toward their coworker.

The majority of spouses go to work to work. They maintain their professionalism and save intimacy exclusively for their marriage. They also take seriously their wedding vows as well as the trust they have in themselves and their partner. Unfortunately for many others, the temptation is too great to resist. Being around someone they find physically and emotionally attractive 8 plus hours a day for 5 days out of the week puts their significant other at an unfair advantage.

Porn actress Ava Vincent was born in Placerville, CA in the year 1975. Upon graduating from high school, Ava Vincent went to work at an adult bookstore while she made plans to study theater in Los Angeles. While working at the shop, she became interested in the world of adult films and befriended Samantha Style.

In 1998, she shot her first movie under the name Jewel Valmont for Seymore Butts. In those days, she was a brunette (she kept her natural hair color until 2000). When she changed her hair to a platinum blonde color, she also changed her name to Ava Vincent. This gave her a greater level of name recognition, as she was no longer competing for fans and jobs with the likes of Jessica Jewel and Jewel DeNyle.

The following year, in 2001, Vincent completed her transformation by losing approximately 20 pounds. This helped to increase her popularity dramatically, and to this day she only carries around 119 pounds on her five foot, four inch frame. 2001 was also a big year for her personally. On July 2nd, she married John Decker in Las Vegas. A year or so later, the two were divorced.

For as much as Vincent had going on in her personal life, her professional life certainly wasn’t suffering. In August of 2001, she was featured on the cover of Penthouse magazine and was the Pet of the Month, as well. She was also awarded the trophy for AVN Best All Girl Sex Scene in 2001 for Les Vampyresskank. In 2002, Vincent took home even more awards, including AVN Best Supporting Actress and Best Group Sex Scene, both for the movie Succubus.

A few years later, she made her comeback at the AVN Awards, earning the Most Outrageous Sex Scene honor for her work in Misty Beethoven: The Musical in 2005. The same year, she entered Hustler TV Can You Be A Pornstar competition under a new name. The ruse worked for awhile, and the judges seemed to dig her black wig when she was featured in the third episode of the show. Eventually, she was discovered and disqualified before the final votes started to roll in.

Besides having an excellent sense of humor, as outlined above with her Hustler TV antics, Vincent also has a fantastic body. At age 32, she measures 36B-26-36. One of the few actresses in the industry with 100 percent natural breasts, she’s truly something to behold on screen.