I finally awoke from coma two-and-a-half weeks later -- simple appendectomy my foot! It was during next week recuperating in hospital that I learned just how hard it had been on my family. Mind you, I had drawn up a simple medical directive, but nobody seemed to know where it was located. To make matters worse, I had completely failed to establish all other legal documents that would have guided my loved one's on my behalf. In addition to worrying whether or not I would survive, they were left fretting over my business interests, home and other assets; it was too much to deal with under stress.

The first real project I undertook after finally being released from hospital was to establish legal documents that should have in place ahead of time. A simple healthcare directive, or just telling a loved one your wishes, is not enough. It took me less than an hour, with guidance of legal software, to draw up some very important documents -- a Financial Power of Attorney, a Medical Power of Attorney, and an updated Medical Directive to Physicians.

If your diet is making you a humbug this season, there’s some good news. Turns out dark chocolate, that decadent confection, may actually be good for you!

Yes, recently conducted studies published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition have shown that a dose of dark chocolate will heed all sorts of healthy results. And with holidays just around corner, this news couldn’t have come at a better time.

So just for fun, I thought I’d conduct a mini-research project of my own and get “skinny” on our friend dark chocolate. Here’s some of interesting “factoids” I came up with:

•Cocoa—the precursor to chocolate--has been around a long time. A few thousand years, in fact. It has been thought that cocoa beans were brought to Europe in 1500’s by Christopher Columbus.

•Cocoa, later made into chocolate, was given to American Soldiers in WWII. A source of high energy, each solider was given a three chocolate bar per day ration, according to historical data.

•Researchers started getting more involved when studies began showing that in addition to being a high energy food, chocolate also seems to stimulate elevated moods. Researchers found truth to this, showing that dark chocolate does, in fact, increase levels of mood-altering chemicals such as serotonin and endorphins.