So far today we’ve gone to the dog park and CostCo shopped. That means that I should have the rest of the day to be a bum and watch the Olympics. I love the Olympics. I will watch just about any sport (including cycling) during the Olympics, even if I wouldn’t otherwise. I do have to try some moderation because C does not have the same tolerance as I do. Right now, it’s men’s beach volleyball. I’m looking forward to men’s gymnastics later.

And while I have been sick this week (and have passed that on to C), I have been reading the blogs a bit more, if not commenting a ton. So in case you’re like C, and don’t have a tolerance for 12+ hours of Olympics coverage, here are some things you might want to check out.

Over at Daily Money Shot, my friend Jana is making some changes to the menu as she adjusts to writing for a living. Check out her new features, and remember to bug her regularly about the word count on that fiction book she’s working on.

Lance from Money Life and More takes a personal finance lesson from commercials, reminding us that it never hurts to ask for more.

You all know I work in healthcare- specifically on the insurance side of a managed care organization (we provide insurance and actual healthcare). That means I pay just a little bit of attention to the changes in healthcare in the US. Philip at PT Money (the guy behind FinCon) recently got his health insurance rebate checks. Most people won’t be getting checks, but Philip still thinks that the new 80/20 rule for insurance companies (80% of your premiums must be spent on healthcare, not administration) might be too difficult for insurance companies to reach. I disagree, but we’ll have to see how it plays out in the next few years.

Talking about what I do for a living, I’m essentially an office manager, a traditional business administrator. Over at Broke Professionals, they had a guest post this week about succeeding as a business administrator. And just like with every other profession, the key is to staying on top of new technologies that effect how your job is done.

And our final regular links, Bog of Debt shares some words of wisdom from her fiancé- You Can’t Change Me Overnight. In this case, it applies to putting shoes away, but the truth is, no one changes overnight for anything. As a bit of a companion piece to that, American Debt Project wonders if there is resentment when the irresponsible join the ranks of the responsible. So for those people that have finally changed, are we really being fully accepting of them?

This week we welcome 30K to 30Million to the Yakezie family. I love the most recent post, Who Knew Giving Away Money Could Be So Fun!.  One thing I think it’s important to remember for all of us financial bloggers is that it can’t always just be about us. It’s important to find causes we believe in and donate our time and yes, even our money, to those causes. Giving back to the community has a great ROI.