My wife and son and I are headed to a weekend-long family reunion – we’ll probably be in the car on the way there as you read this. It’s a huge reunion of my wife’s very extended family. In years past, this would have left me feeling like an outcast, but I’m actually going to spend the whole time working on my communication skills by striking up lots of conversations with people. It’s better than sitting off at the side somewhere feeling miserable.

Frugal Food Wrap-Up: How To Eat For Fun And Profit This is the culmination of a two week long series on frugal eating that I’ve been tempted to link to several times; I’m so glad that there was a great wrapup to the series. (@ an english major’s money)

Lessons Learned From Examining My Payroll Taxes A nice, concise explanation of payroll taxes that explains what FICA is and the various things that the government takes out of your paycheck. (@ my money blog)

Speaking As A Performance Art This is pretty far outside of the typical stuff I link to in these roundups, but the advice here on public speaking is incredibly good and could be invaluable to anyone. (@ how to change the world)

The Simple Dollar Retro: Review: Jim Cramer’s Real Money I still feel that this was one of my best book reviews – I think I really extracted the good pieces from this very good book on individual stock investing.