I’ve been thinking about wine. Red wine, white wine, blush—any of them, just wine . . . and weddings. It’s almost Spring and love is in the air. The birds are chirping, our resident skunk is back from her winter long hiatus, and there’s a new crop of engagements and a new round of weddings. Many newly engaged couples are looking beyond the dress and perfectly matched suits. They’re thinking more pragmatically. They're thinking, "How are we going to buy all that wine for the r

I’ve been thinking about wine. Red wine, white wine, blush—any of them, just wine . . . and weddings. It’s almost Spring and love is in the air. The birds are chirping, our resident skunk is back from her winter long hiatus, and there’s a new crop of engagements and a new round of weddings. Many newly engaged couples are looking beyond the dress and perfectly matched suits. They’re thinking more pragmatically. They're thinking, "How are we going to buy all that wine for the r

Last Sunday something amazing happened. I opened my eyes, climbed out of bed and saw the sun! I realize there are a lot of people out there who don’t see anything exciting in that big hot yellow ball, but after rain, rain, and more rain, it’s nice to go outside and feel warmth, not water, on your face. I thought we were on the way to setting another record for the longest number of continuous days of precipitation, but it turns out we aren't anywhere close. That record was se

Today my book A Trail of Embers started its 30-day Kindle Scout campaign. What’s that you ask? Let me tell you about it. Amazon calls it “reader-powered publishing for new, never-published books.” Basically, what that means is: it’s a system of nominations that runs for 30 days. During that time, readers can view the first few chapters of a book and vote for it. At the end of the 30 days, books winning the nominations receive a publishing contract with Amazon. The nominators

Here it is, another Super Bowl Sunday, complete with hype, hoopla and a half-time show . . . and commercials—don’t forget the mega-commercials. Every year big corporations use Super Bowl Sunday to launch big ad campaigns. Super Bowl is as much a battle over brand recognition as it is over the pigskin. Through the years there have been some truly epic commercials. What will this year bring? Doritos, Pepsi, Budweiser, Amazon—big names, big budgets. NBC receives 5 million dollar

Here it is, another Super Bowl Sunday, complete with hype, hoopla and a half-time show . . . and commercials—don’t forget the mega-commercials. Every year big corporations use Super Bowl Sunday to launch big ad campaigns. Super Bowl is as much a battle over brand recognition as it is over the pigskin. Through the years there have been some truly epic commercials. What will this year bring? Doritos, Pepsi, Budweiser, Amazon—big names, big budgets. NBC receives 5 million dollar

52 Over 50—Writing the year Challenges aren't always fun. After all, this is about getting off the couch and doing something. This week’s objective is the dreaded garage clean-up. Yes, Garage Cleanse Day has arrived. How did this happen? I've noticed that every couple of years we find ourselves faced with doing a deep clean of the garage. It usually happens when we open the door and say, “Are we imagining things, or did the junk in the garage multiply while the lights were ou