I'm having an engineer buddy of mine look over something that I built in the garage..(yes he signed a non-disclosure form) I've never been really much of an inventor so this is new territory for me..What's the process like? Any regrets?

The first thing to do is figure out how you could make money off of the invention.  If you can make a bundle, then it might be worth investing a little of your profit in a patent.  A patent will cost you $5000 to $10000.  A patent is not a ticket for profit.  It's a legal tool to fight off others who might try to compete with you.  Fighting them off is up to you, and that is expensive too.  It is very rare for an existing company to look at your patent and say "gee, we'll give you gobs of money for that, what's your bank's wire-transfer codes?  "very rare" sounds like it could actually happen.  Let's call that "unpossible".

PM me if you want to talk next week, I'll give you a free telephone consultation.

Thanks for the info...if you don't mind me asking what do you think about a provisional patent application?