I got a full plate this weekend, jack. Grill-outs, good times and great big explosions on the sky. But before I go in feet-first to all the fun ... just wanted to remind all you joes and jills out there that we got boys and girls overseas making all the fun and freedom possible. So I declare this RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS TO A SOLDIER WEEKEND.

Here' s a great chance to have some fun. When you're out this weekend; if you see anyone from the military, do something for them. Pick up their restaurant tab. Have your kid go up and salute them. Shake their hand and thank 'em, or buy them a Coke and a smile, see? If you do it, lemme know what you did, where, when and how. I want stories.

Til next week ...

The real estate market in Florida ain't THAT bad! Some dame in the Sunshine State is having trouble selling her digs. She's asking a cool 340 grand, but since she ain't gettin' any offers, she decided to up the ante. For half a million, you get the home and the hottie. That's right, joes and jills ... this big love offer includes 2,000 square feet of happily ever after.

Bless her heart, I hope she finds a prince charming with pockets to match. Sure, she's more eye candy than if Willy Wonka became an optometrist, but I gotta think this deal will make the first date kind of awkward. Hope she doesn't put the deed next to the dinner bill and you sign the wrong one.

Just a reminder, as long as the subject's up: You can't buy the best things in life. There are different ways to get your kicks; be it a date with a knockout or knocking out your debt. But the stuff that really means something doesn't have a receipt or appraisal attached to it. Remember that on your next anniversary.

I was 6 figures in the hole when I started my total money makeover, baby. I had a mountain to climb and nothing but my bare hands to do it with. I thought I had it rough. Then I log on this morning and read about Ivan Castro. This Special Forces unit joe got tagged with a mortar shell in September 2006. When he woke up 6 weeks later in a hospital, he was blind.

But guess what? He's right back in the mix, preparing for missions. He works out, ran the Boston marathon earlier this year and is shooting for the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii, all the while he's making plans to graduate from the Army's officer advanced course.

Don't tell me you can't overcome whatever junk you've got going on in your life or debt, jack. If this guy can take a hit like this and get right back out there, you can get a part-time job throwing pizzas to deep-six your debt. Quit your whining and start your winning. Be all you can be, baby.

Things are looking pretty narrow for Countrywide, jack. Now that Bank of America (BOA for short, and yeah ... it's appropriate that the bank acronym is a kind of snake) has bought out Countrywide, they are giving the ax to 7,500 of CW's staff. It’s just about the final nail in the coffin, and all because they were loaning a bunch of dough to subprime borrowers. Before you know it, their whole deal blew apart like a house of cards in a windstorm.

Debt can bring down even the billion-dollar companies, baby. It's like a bunch of anchors on a sailboat ... too much of either one will sink you. Debt may give you a quick taste of the "good life", but then it bites you in the backside 10 times as hard. Think I'm full of it? Ask Countrywide. Think I'm wrong? Try it yourself.

Stay away from debt. It brings problems, not prosperity. Catch you on Monday, suckers.

Some joes just don't know when to call it quits. Exhibit A is in Z-country. As in the Zimbabwe elections. Current prez Robert Mugabe is pushing 85 and still going as the head honcho, but the problem is that he's throwing his weight around and scaring off the competition at gunpoint. His chief rival, Morgan Tsvamgirai, says Mugabe has been beating his supporters and running people off. Vote can't work, see?

Doing things a certain way and having nothing but a wreck to show for it. Sound like your money situation? I'm not being trivial about the violence, jack ... I'm pointing out how there needs to be a change in a bad situation if good things are gonna happen. Mug's mug doesn't need to be showing itself around there anymore. Time to move on to better things.

If you're doing the iron fist routine at your house and insisting that it be your way or the highway, then maybe someone needs to run YOU out of town, bub. There's only one guy who needs to run the whole show, and His name ain't you. Get with your other half, get a budget going and work together. Capiche?

I quote George Carlin - "The reason I talk to myself is because I'm the only one whose answers I accept." I'm laughing a little less this morning because old GC got fitted for a pine overcoat this weekend at age 71. He had more quickfire sayings than most, and just about all of them can't be punched in on my family-style blog, baby. Tough luck.

Sure, Carlin was edgier than a high-strung salesman at the end of the month who's short on sales and long on caffeine. But me being me, I decided to put a spin on his quote. The answers really are up to you. Either way, whether you say I can or I can't ... you're right.

So which one are you gonna do? When you see something that you like or want, are you gonna listen to all the stiffs who say you can't get it? I don't care if you talk yourself up or talk yourself into it, but get fired up about getting something done. Thicken up that skin, toughen up that resolve, and burn down anything in your way. Got a problem with that?

This one was a stupid tax that didn't cost any dough ... just a whole lotta life. Seems a dozen and a half dames at Gloucester High School made a pact with each other to get pregnant so they could all raise the kids together. None of them are over 16. These babes a for a rude awakening ... at about 2 a.m., complete with a diaper-filled surprise.

I shouldn't joke. This is a sad thing, when you consider that the school principal said these girls lack self-esteem and a lot of love in their lives. They feel like this is the way to belong to something and have something to take care of. Maybe baby-sitting is a good way to kill an afternoon and make a couple of bucks, but these chicks have no idea what they're in for.

Keep an eye on your kids ... every last one of you that has one and is reading this. The second you short-change your kid for love and attention, the second they get down on themselves and start diving into the stupid pool. You put the family first and don't look back, jack. Find out what they're doing. Encourage them if it's right. Bust 'em if it's wrong. Love 'em til you die.