Maybe Jimmy Buffet had the right idea.

My first trip to Cancun was thirteen years ago during “spring break”.  Neither the accommodations nor the service at the resort at which I stayed made a good impression on me.  I left with no desire to see Cancun or that particular resort ever again. 

Fate, however, had other plans and I recently found myself returning to the same resort in Cancun in the “off season”.  In the interim, the resort had undergone a cosmetic “face lift”.

In spite of my initial  lack of enthusiasm about revisiting the resort in question, I found myself quite favorably …

What makes promises so difficult to keep?   

The dictionary defines “promise” as “a declaration that something will or will not be done, given, etc. by one”.  It sounds simple enough. You agree to do something and then you do it.  So why is it that so many promises are not kept?

Even worse, those who make and then break their promises often don’t seem to feel the least bit of remorse or the need to offer an apology or explanation for having broken their word.  

Currently, the college age daughter of one of my friends …

Blue, my Standard Schnauzer, is young and energetic.  He needs lots of exercise or he finds alternate ways to entertain himself, most of which involve the destruction of my shoes, flower beds, and other property.  So, in addition to nightly walks around our neighborhood, at least once a week I take him to one of the local dog parks so that he can run off leash and use up some of his amazing store of energy.

Although I was concerned, …

Recently my Danish ancestors have risen and, much like the ghost of Hamlet’s father, are dancing around the edges of my life. Modern social media moves to an entirely different plane when you are contacted by the descendant of a business associate of your great-great-grandfather. 

It started with an e-mail from a woman whose ancestors were also involved in the Arizona silver boom in the late 1800’s (think Tombstone in the bad old days).  She is doing research for an article on the early history of Arizona …

Video proof  that I was there : Tractor pull

On a recent visit to see my daughter at Cal Poly I got to witness my first tractor pull event.  Walking towards the entrance, I could only imagine what this was going to be.  Tractors pulling what?  I know NASCAR goes around an oval track with lots of horsepower, but a tractor?  When I first saw some of those tractors on steroids, I started imagining a drag race.  Now that would be cool.  John Deere vs. Kubota, now there’s a classic showdown.

But it wasn’t in the cards. This was about pure muscle.  Some of the …

Last weekend I celebrated one of my favorite rites of spring – the end of “tax season”.   Instead of staying home and beginning to dig out from under my personal (and embarrassingly large) backlog ,  I dropped Blue the Schnauzer off with friends, left food for the cats, loaded Ace the Scottie into the car, and took off for Mendocino. 

The weather gods were smiling and there was not cloud in the sky as we cruised through Anderson Valley on our way north.  Apple orchards were in bloom, vineyards were coming to life, and wildflowers dotted the landscape.

Ace and I spent two …

In addition to my two dog boys, Ace and Blue, I also have two cats.  I know what you are thinking “destined to become an old woman with lots of pets”.  Yes, that will probably be me. 

Anyway, my two cats were both adopted from local shelters and have had dog siblings all of their lives. 

Cara, the elder of the two cats, is an extrovert.  She is the first one to greet me (on the front porch of my house) when I arrive home from wherever I have been.  When I have company, she hops into their laps to be petted …

Life lessons from the bowling alley. 

Brotemarkle, Davis and Company proudly fielded two co-ed teams of 5 people each to participate in the Wine Industry Network 2010 Gutterball Classic fundraiser last Saturday. 

First of all, you have to wonder who decided to associate all of those unfavorable words with this game.  You play the entire game in an “alley” for goodness sakes. That doesn’t sound like the kind of place you want to be after dark.

And then there’s the “gutter”, which for some of …

My Scottie dog Ace will be ten years old this summer.  Two years ago I started the process of getting him a puppy for company and to mentor as his eventual successor.  I did this with my late, much beloved Scottie Dandy when Ace came to live with us and it worked very well in a number of ways. 

The “puppy”, Blue the Standard Schnauzer, is now twenty months old and a solid 45 pounds.  It has been an interesting journey and …

I have just finished relocating my family’s residence to Napa, California. While the move was far shorter than our journey from Atlanta, Georgia five years ago, it still required what seemed like a gargantuan effort and a dedicated team to make it happen. We moved only 60 miles this time but managed the entire project ourselves.

The experience taught me a lot about the attributes of project team members – and the difference in the view of owners versus employees  in a business.

Our moving project involved 5 team members which consisted of two owners (my husband and I) and 3 part-time employees (our unpaid 2 children and one boyfriend.)

These …