Many of you know about my Douwe Egberts coffee obsession. No, not the roasted beans, the machine itself that combines with a concentrated form of the coffee produced overseas so that every cup is identical. It’s normally only available to restaurants but I called the company and just bought one outright so that it sits…
Ashly and Ian arrived safely in Orlando! Woo hoo! Although it was a tough journey for them after the crazy plane re-routes and fog landings, we were able to keep our dinner reservations at Jiko, a restaurant featuring upscale African, Indian and Mediterranean cuisine. The blog has quite a few foodies and we eat…
Aaron and I hung out in Downtown Disney until meeting up with Karen, one of our oldest friends. We’ve known her for 10 or 11 years, having first met her when she and Aaron were assigned to a Freshman orientation group at college. Within two weeks, she became one of the most awesome, cherished people…
After arriving at the Animal Kingdom Deluxe Resort in Walt Disney World, Aaron and I headed to Downtown Disney to check out the shops and wait for the other people in our party to arrive from elsewhere in the United States. We found our way to the shuttle “motor coach”, in Disney speak, and upon…
After graduating from college, Aaron and I have regularly visited and vacationed with our close friends as a way to keep in touch. There are many times this included 1,000+ miles road trips and weekend home stay, and other times, visits to theme parks, such as Cedar Point, the North American roller coaster capital. In…
One of the weekly traditions in my life, the family get-together of four generations, rolled around again today and it was our turn to provide the food, meaning the kitchen was a flurry of activity for three or four hours as the dishes were prepared. The menu was set as follows: Main Dish 1: A…
After publishing my newest About.com article, What is a Mutual Fund Family? as part of a new group of content focused on very, very basic financial concepts for beginners, I spent the morning over a cup of coffee in my home, curled up at a desk in a side room with reading lamps (it was dark…
If I were thinking about starting a small business from nothing or I were actively operating a small family company, there are eight questions that I would immediately ask myself about any entrepreneurial idea I had. These eight questions are: How do we make money? (What product or service do we provide at a profit? What…
Very early in life, I had three important insights that helped me achieve the things I desired within a year or two after graduating college. These three insights were based upon my observation of the world and years of sitting in a reading chair by the fireplace pouring over history, accounting, economics, philosophy, psychology, ethics,…
Though I very rarely talk about my personal life on the blog due to privacy concerns, I will say that for years, I have attended a flexibly-scheduled weekly family dinner that rotates among the members’ households with the host cooking for the guests. This is an extension of the tradition that began during my childhood…
