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Hi,

Tomorrow’s birth anniversaries are Giovanni Giacomo Girolamo Casanovq (1725), Emile Zola (1840) and Sir Alec Guinness (1914).  It is the anniversary of Ponce De Leon discovering Florida (1513), the founding of the US Mint (1792) and the anniversary of the first White House Easter Egg Roll (1877).

I woke up this morning and Mr. Negativity was lying in my bed.  He said “You let Mr. Positive rule Wednesday and it’s my turn today”.  Move over Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.  🙂

I guess politicians have short memories, or maybe they just don’t care because WE don’t always follow through.  Pennsylvania’s bloated, self serving and corrupt Legislature passed an illegal and immoral pay raise for themselves in the middle of the night several years ago.  Unfortunately, WE didn’t throw them all out, but a number bit the dust and a few have had to face corruption charges.  So John Kasich, the governor of Ohio (notice I did not give him a title of respect before his name, I assigned a job to him after his name), passed his union busting legislation in the middle of last night.

Now don’t misunderstand me, I am not “pro-union”, I’m anti “sneaking, illegal and arrogance”.  I strongly believe in the concept of unions and what they have done for the middle class in the past.  But to use the word “brother”, that implies certain responsibilities I feel I owe my brothers.  Growing up in a blue collar family, I was brought up strongly supporting unions.  Being from Pittsburgh and studying local Civics, I’m well aware of the role the Homestead Strike played in organized labor.  My big disillusion with unions came when I was a manager in the casinos in Atlantic City in the 80’s.  I caught a bartender red handed stealing.  This was a problem employee that always was pushing the limits on everything.  During our meetings with the union, the representative representing Local 54 and the bartender admitted the bartender was stealing and that he was a habitual problem, but my “bust” was not in the form recognized by the collective bargaining agreement and no witness.  I could live with this, if the union took the stance that stealing is wrong, we’ll save your job this time, but the next problem you are no longer my “brother” and are out.  But their stance was “Management didn’t follow collective bargaining agreements to the T and he gets his job back, period.”

In the first few months of this year, our City Firefighters Union has fought for the jobs of their “brothers” that have been charged with DUI, Domestic Violence, Conspiracy, Criminal Mischief and Public Drunkenness.  And their response?  Offering their members free cab rides and counseling.  Admirable, but not enough.  If my brother was beating his wife, driving under the influence repeatedly and other criminal behavior, I’d do a lot more than offer him a cab ride.  There was a lieutenant that was fired after three DUI’s in a year.  His union “brothers” fought for his job on all three occasions.  Then there’s the drunk Firefighter that stole a Rivers Casino electric cart and was driving the wrong side of the street when a Police Officer pulled him over.  When the Firefighter asked for “professional courtesy” and not be booked, the Officer refused and the Firefighter spat in the Officers face.  And his “brothers” fought for his job.  OMG  My biggest problem with unions is giving a blank check to all their members.  Right is right and wrong is wrong.  We all learned that from our parents, schools and churches.  Because we are adults we don’t have to abide by right and wrong anymore?

Then we have Walker, the governor of Wisconsin (notice I did not apply a title of respect here again?).   He was caught on a recorded phone conversation that he was doing union busting!  I am not going to go into all the illegal an immoral tactics he used in his union busting (like telling the State Police to arrest the missing democratic senators on sight).  He and his Attorney General ignored a ruling by Judge Maryann Sumi TWICE.  What arrogance.  Judge Sumi doesn’t seem to be taking this lightly.  🙂  Good for her.

We need to deal with the legacy costs we are racking up for future generations, since these are going to be paid for by our descendants.    In particular ALL government legacy costs have to be addressed.  Lifetime Golden Cadillac health care for our legislators and double pensions from serving as a legislator and then a cushy second job on some authority after they retire or are driven out of office. These are just two of the most glaring inequities our power elite need to address.

The legacy costs of our unions need addressed as well.  We are becoming a country of very rich who don’t need or care about retirement costs, very comfortable ex-government employees, there rest of us workers and the poor.  The “golden years” are hard enough, we don’t need to make it any harder for “the rest of us workers and the poor” than it is already going to be by subsidizing the government class.  We need public servants and they should be compensated for their service.  By far, most do a great job and work very hard and also deserve a comfortable retirement.  I have a problem promising one thing and then turning around and changing the rules.  I think current retirees should keep what they have, it was promised.  Current employees need to negotiate a compromise and new hires should be in a new tier.  Something fair, but when they start, they know what to expect.

That’s been my recommendation for Steve Bland with the Port Authority.  I see so many empty full sized buses going past my Inn.  If Port Authority doesn’t know when they have full buses and when they have empty buses, someone should be fired.  Through attrition, hire new people at a lesser rate and benefits to run the newly purchased, money saving mini buses so we provide service during non peak times, just not at a premium rate.  Through seniority and a rating system (like no DUI’s, spousal abuse and other illegal activities) let the newbies bid on the premium pay positions.  Not rocket science.  But I’m sure Port Authority can spend another $250K on another study and then bury it somewhere.  Damn my head hurts.

OK, I promise Mr. Nice Guy will be back next time,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the first time anesthetic was used for surgery in 1842 and the pencil was patented in 1858.  Also the birth anniversaries are Francisco Jose Goya (1746) and Vincent Van Gogh (1853).

As promised in my last blog, I won’t be whining today.  We really need a breath of Spring.  Yesterday when the weather forecasters gave our frigid high for the day (40), they noted the recorded high for date was 82 degree.  ):  To get your breath of spring, why not go out to Phipps Conservatory for their annual Spring Flower Show, it runs through April 24.  They are open daily from 9:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily with a 10 p.m. closing on Fridays.  The admission is $12 for adults.  They always have an under lining theme and this year it is wind, so there’s kites, miniature sail boats and butterflies amount other wind effected objects.

A funny story about Phipps (anyone that knows me, it’s my favorite space in the city year round) involves my good friend Kathleen Flaherty, the lady that did all the murals on my first floor.  The new addition to Phipps opened about four years ago when she was working on the murals.  I had just returned from Florida.  So we went mid week and the place was empty.  As Kathleen and myself wandered the new exhibit space, I was discussing traits of the tropical plants that I was aware of, since I had just relocated here from sub tropical south Florida.  As we were exiting the exhibit, one of the volunteers had another couple and was going to give a tour.  She invited us to join and since she only had two people to talk to and I can never get enough tropical plants we agreed.  Shortly into the tour, the volunteer gave some miss information on a traveler palm and Kathleen looked at me and in a loud voice said “That’s not what you said”.  (You have to know Kathleen to appreciate this).  The volunteer looked at me and I tried as gently as I could to explained how and why the traveler palm moved.  For the rest of the tour, anytime the volunteer gave out information on the plants, she would look to me for approval.  I was totally embarrassed.

For those of you creative types, it’s time for the Tribune Review’s annual Peeps Show.  Go to this link to see the past contestant’s.  Here’s how you do it:  #1 Choose a scene from history, pop culture, movie, advertising, etc to build a diorama as a back drop for your Peeps.  #2 Create a Setting supplying furnishings and other props to enhance your backdrop.  #3 Add Your Peeps feel free to dress and accessorize them.  #4 Take a Digital Photo in a high resolution JPEG and e-mail it to peeps@tribweb.com with your name, address and phone number.  If you don’t mind, please send me one as well, I’d love to see them ahead of time.  🙂

OK you non-hippsters.  Mr. Technologically Challenged is going to introduce you to two of the hottest things on the Internet.  One is FarmVille, separate from, but related to that game on Facebook.  It apparently is the rage right now.   You spend hours on “the farm” raising crops and animals, practice husbandry and other farm chores for the joy of doing farm chores for hours on the site.  Sorry, I just don’t get it.  🙂  Also, for you non-hippsters, the other game that’s all the rage right now is Angry Birds.  These green pigs steal the birds eggs and the game is getting the eggs back and revenge on the pigs.  OK, now on to the next subject …………….

Good news on Pennsylvania’s economy, our exports jumped 22% last year.  Mainly to Canada and China.  I just wish there were more countries whose name started with a C .  🙂

Have a great day,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is anniversary of the Canary Islands Airplane Disaster (1977 two planes collided and 570 people lost their lives), the anniversary of the Alaskan earthquake (the largest in North American History in 1964), the North Sea Oil Rig Disaster (1980).  For birthdays we have Gloria Swanson birth anniversary (1899), Sarah Vaughan birth anniversary (1924) and Quentin Tarantino’s birthday 1963.

I’m sorry, I am only talking about two things this evening and I’m whining about them both.  So if you want to check out, I take no offense (plus I’ll never know) :).

I think the developer’s name is something like Buncher, I’ve read about them several times.  They own a number or properties in the city that are in various stages of development.  They either own or have an option on all that vacant land behind the Terminal Buildings in the Strip.  They want to develop the land and I’m in favor of this.  They’re talking about a housing/retail mix.  BUT I am very much against their insistence that we allow them to demolish over a block of the Terminal Building so they have EZ access to their property.  Why do we have to give up on a piece of an icon building so they have an EZ flow?  Instead of demolishing part of the Terminal Building so they can create an intersection at 17th Street, why not go down to 15th street and build an intersection by Lydias?  They wouldn’t have to demolish any building with this option.  Personally, I’m not willing to give up any of that cool building.  And while I’m complaining about preservation, it looks like we’re loosing the Igloo, we lost the latest battle.  The City Counsel is our last hope.  We have a lot of iconic buildings in the city.  But I guarantee that if you take an international pool, the image of the Igloo is the most recognizable structure in the city.

Finally, the reason I’m writing this entry.  The problems with the nuclear power plant in Japan has had me thinking about nuclear power.  I was in the protests in the 70’s against nuclear power in Harrisburg and DC after Three Mile Island.  I don’t mean to treat you like idiots, I’m sure you know the waste (that we haven’t figured out  what to do with) is lethal longer than mankind (and womankind 🙂 ) have been on earth.  The risks are incredible on so many levels.  And here’s the reason for this post,with all the talk about global warming, they have been presenting nuclear power as an option.  I have been begrudgingly falling for this line.  Blame it on old age.  ):  Nuclear is WRONG.  We have no right to something that is deadly longer than man and woman has been on earth.  In the early 40’s, the car factories became tank factories.  We won a war.  We didn’t have to deal with special interests back then.  It was a war.  As I watch those poor people in Japan dealing with contaminated water, those brave men entering highly radioactive areas (basically a suicide mission to save their country), the animals and vegetation taking such a hit.  And the newscasters are happy when the radiation blows out to sea because the sea will dissipate it.  Hey, am I the only one on earth that’s aware that no matter how much it’s dissipated, for Plutonium is deadly for 24,000 years!  That’s a lot of fish that’s going to die for a long time.

OK, I promise be nicer next time we talk,

ed

Hi,

I’m scared.  It’s five o’clock and it’s totally dark here.  It’s pouring rain, the wind is gusting and the hail is coming down again and it’s larger than the last wave, it this the end of the world?

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the grounding of Exxon Valdez in 1989, Harry Houdini’s birth anniversary (1874) and being from Pittsburgh, we can’t forget Andrew Mellon’s birth anniversary (1855).  Today is the anniversary of the first attack with “Big Bertha” the German big gun that terrified the European countryside during the first World War (Laon, France, 1918).

Also, tomorrow is Burton Morris‘ birthday.  He’s that very cool Pittsburgh pop artist that got his big break on Friends, they had his art work hanging on their walls.  Visit Pittsburgh is giving him a birthday party at 5th Avenue Place Arcade Shops from 10 – 11:30 a.m. with cake.  If you get a chance, stop by and wish him happy b’day.

The Farm to Table Conference is at the David Lawrence Convention Center again this weekend.  Lots of local and sustainable ideas.  The hours are Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.  Isidore Foods , a local food supply company will be there as will my good friend Lisa Ferguson, from Fabled Table, she will be speaking on Cooking with Seasonal Foods.

With cigarette smoking decreasing, the Northwestern Pennsylvania company Zippo is looking for options.  From their high of 18 million lighters sold in mid 1990’s, Zippo’s 550 employees will produce about 12 million this year (still pretty impressive).  So they are looking to add new items to their logo’d offerings.  They are currently considering things like Zippo jeans, back packs, watches even cologne.  If I can make a suggestion to Zippo, the thing I love about them (besides being based here in Pennsylvania) is their lighters are made here.  I don’t know if they will have the skills to manufacture watches and cologne.  I wish them well, they’re one of the companies I keep my eye on like Mag-lite flash lights and Yuengling beer.

Any of my regulars may remember me talking about that dishonest plumbing company, Gillece back in January.  They got caught using the URL www.fagnelliplumbing.com and redirecting you to Gillece’s site (Fagnelli owns www.fagnelli.com, but not fagnelliplumbing.com).  Fagnelli sued Gillece to cease and desist from using their name and when I read the article, the law suit was still in the courts.  I was down my friend’s flower shop KS Kennedy and we we talking about it.  Kerry Googled it and the courts ruled in Fagnelli’s favor. The good and bad part is that scum bag Gillece had over 200 URL’s that implied another plumbing company and used these to re-direct to his site.  How can anyone ever trust them to do reputable work when they pull stunts like this?  I sent them an e-mail to that effect back then and of course they never replied.  The judge ruled that Gillece had to surrender all URL’s that weren’t directly related to him.  The courts do work well sometimes.  (Actually, even when I disagree with the courts, I generally hold them in pretty high esteem.)

Have a great evening,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the first day of spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is also Henrik Ibsen’s birth anniversary (1828), Fred Rogers birth anniversary (1928) and BF Skinner’s birth anniversary (1904), he’s the psychologist from Susquehanna.

Before I start my whining, lets cover a couple of things.  In January, they sold more E-books than paper for the first time.  Which reminds me, a past guest, Amber Hunt has two books recently published (one she was working on while she was here).  Dead but not Forgotten about a cheating husband and All American Murder about those college lacrosse players are both available through Amazon.

The Carnegie Art Museum is hosting their yearly Art in Bloom from April 14 through 16.  They will be exhibiting exotic and imaginative flower displays by local professionals and garden clubs.  A nice way to welcome spring in a couple of weeks.  Something a little more current (this weekend) Phipps is having their annual Love of Orchids show.  Both events are included in the general admission cost.

OK, now for my whining, twice none the less.  This may come as a surprise to some of my loyal followers :), but times are tight.  I’m one of those weird people that believe we should live within my means.  If I’m having a bad week and can’t afford steak when I go out to dinner, I order pasta.  I don’t know, the concept seems simple to me.  Maybe I should offer free classes to idiots like that Steve Bland of the Port Authority and now to my list Graham Spanier the president of my Alma matter, Penn State.  I’m a HUGE supporter of education and the need for it and to spend tax dollars for it.  But don’t be a corporate greedy minded executive and just want more and more while your core is falling apart.  Lets start with the debt we are saddling the young graduates with.  The national average of debt in 2009 graduate face is $24,000.  Pennsylvania it is $27,000-that’s a starter home!  I still have friends with Penn State and am well aware of the waste the university grandiose capital programs incurs.  Lets look at this from another angle, over half of their branch schools are bleeding students, one of them bled 24% of their student base in the past eight years.  And I read an article recently about the huge amount of students that start college and drop out before graduating. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the huge % of drop outs because the schools lured unqualified TUITION payers or they don’t teach relevantly. OMG, we are straddling our young people with huge debt, we are throwing money away on projects that are for show, we are keeping branches open that kids don’t want to attend (one of the campuses has lost 24% in the past eight years).  These are people running our institutions of higher learning and they don’t have a clue.  They just want to threaten Gov Corbett (whom I’m not a big supporter of) with tuition increases.  Spanier, lets earn the obscene salary you draw.

This one doesn’t upset me as much, so I won’t ramble for long.  The Regional Enterprise Tower is going on the auction block because they haven’t paid their mortgage in a few months.  The building was GIVEN to them ten years or so ago AND they were GIVEN $5M also from Alcoa as a maintenance endowment.  They’ve racked up a $10.4M mortgage they can’t pay on a free building with a maintenance endowment.  Once again, can I say OMG?  I’m not privy to the inner workings of the Pittsburgh Regional Enterprise group, their mission was to encourage and spur local growth, and they can’t keep a free skyscraper.

My guests are coming down for b’fast real soon, I have to go.  Have a great day, it’s supposed to be pretty nice today here in da burg,

ed

Hi,

I lied to you Sunday, I’m sorry.  You’d think I would have realized the St Patrick’s Day Flood occurred on St Patrick’s Day, not on March 14.  Tomorrow is Awkward Moments Day, where we should celebrate the humor in life’s uncomfortable situations, recognize them and apply humor to get us through them.

No joke, the CEO of National Lampoon, Timothy Durhan, was arrested for a $200M ponzi scheme.  🙂

The Bulgarian Macedonian Center in West Homestead is looking to expand.  It’s this nondescript building on 8th Avenue (the main drag) that has a museum, library, teaching and conference rooms and two separate kitchens.   This $1.3M capital plan calls for one large commercial kitchen (we’ll get back to that in a minute), parking (we’ll get back to that in a minute) and some more interior space.  The parking is to help the 23,000 visitors a year that visit the place!  OMG, what a huge amount of people going into that little building.  The combined kitchen plan is to make their soup making more efficient.  60% of their operating funds comes from their soup sales (not Soupy Sales you old timers).  🙂  They must make some pretty tasty soups.  Their most popular soups are chicken soup with farina dumplings, Balkan bean and a spiced wheat.  You can order the soup by going to their web site and clicking on the Soup button or sending them an e-mail bmnecc@gmail.com.  All soups must be picked up from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays or from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays.  I’d recommend using their web site to see what soups are available.  They only accept cash and checks.

There’s another small museum over in West Homestead that I’ve already talked about, Rivers of Steel.  Maybe make a day out of West Homestead?  🙂

You should time your soup pickup so you can make an adventure of it and have lunch at my good friend’s restaurant Blue Dust.  Blue Dust is a family owned restaurant which is kind of an oxymoron.  Jerry is famous for his smoked meats (smoked brisket sandwich is to die for) and Sarah is know for her vegan dishes.  They absolutely have the best artichoke dip on their appetizer menu I have ever had.  If you go there, check their hours of operation on the door and ask about the mural on the bar and the steel mills on the walls.  (The steel mills were air brushed by the artist that hand painted all the murals in my Inn, Kathleen Flaherty.)

Well, I have to run.  I need to drop off my recycling, stop  at Restaurant Depot and then run out to Costco for this weekend.  Then I’m taking Betty to lunch and a walk in South Park on this beautiful day.

Enjoy,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow’s the anniversary of the 1936 St Patrick’s day flood, need I say more?

Henry Clay Frick’s mansion, The Clayton, is doing special tours through May 1 called All the Ladies of the House.  They are at various, but unspecified times, so call first.  412.371.0600  It examines Mrs Frick’s roll in the household which was typical for the time period.  It also discusses the duties of female servants, nannies, etc.  The Clayton’s a beautiful mansion, always interesting to tour.  Touring this mansion with an explanation of the “woman’s place” back then with all the appropriate props like tea invitations, school books, etc should be quite interesting.

Friends of the Riverfront, a non profit here that encourages the use and enjoyment of all our 22 miles of river waterfronts have partnered with Google to do a street view imagery.  You can see this on their web site.  I was just at their web site and it doesn’t seem to be up and running yet.  Sounds pretty cool.

The Mexican War Streets are having their yearly neighborhood wide Yard and Art Sale Saturday, May 14 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Since this is going to be a neighborhood wide event,  The Mexican War Streets will have a map on their web site showing specific locations.

Manchester Craftsman’s Guild has announced their spring jazz line up.  BNY Mellon Jazz presents Hiromi on March 5 – 6, Jane Monheit will perform March 19, Jeff Lorber Fusion will perform March 25, Vijay Iyer Trio will perform with Don Braden and Mark Rapp the Strayhorn Project on April 29 and the Caribbean Jazz Project will perform May 7 – 8.  You can see details on MCG’s web site.

The New Hazlett Theater has also announced their spring line up.  The Glass Menagerie will perform March 5 – 13, Newband and the Harry Partch Instruments (microtonal music performed on instruments invented by the Iconoclastic) will perform March 19, Swan Day, 2011: A Celebration of Pittsburgh’s Women Artists will have a show on March 24 & 25, Squonk Opera will be performing Mayhem & Majesty March 31 through April 3 and finally Beauty and the Beast will perform April 14 -17.  See Hazlett’s web site.

City of Asylum/Pittsburgh is making news again.  They’ve received a $50,000 grant to start their latest project, The Literary Center.  They are taking an abandoned building, a vacant lot and a closed bar/restaurant and and turning them into a bar-cafe-restaurant and spaces for readings and workshops.  Quite the ambitious project for these great people.   For those of you not familiar with Asylum, it’s a non profit over by the Mattress Factory that hosts dissident poets and writers, usually Asian.  They host exiled writers with lodging, readings, workshops.  One of the houses has a Chinese poem written on the outside walls.  Details are on their  very interesting web site.

That’s it for today,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow’s the anniversary of the founding of the Girl Scouts of America (1912), the first women priests were ordained by the Church of England (1994), the anniversary of FDR’s first fireside chat (1933) and Austria was invaded by Germany in 1938.

Supposedly, the blog’s being sent Facebook and Twitter.  I’m going to have to open a Twitter account in my new smarty pants phone to see if it’s working.

David, my new architect from Morgan Associates was over this morning so we could review the blueprints.  He should have final copies next week and I can finally put it out to bid.  I’m finally getting around to doing the loft, which da boiz and myself will be moving into and then we’re going to up grade my current space  turning it into my 9th and final guest room here.  David had a great suggestion with my problem with the chimney that’s pretty bothersome with the entrance up to my current space (it makes the lower hallway too narrow).  He’s such a nice and positive guy, a pleasure to work with.

I finally figured out how to darken the lines in my rez book.  They have reservation books you can buy for hard copy records, but for one thing I’m too cheap.  Also, I started this before I found them and I certainly am a creature of habit, just ask da boiz, that’s why we get along so well.  Dogs (and the owners of some Inns) do like their set routines.  In my defense, with all that’s involved with running an Inn and dealing with the ever changing demands of my guests, it’s easier to know “the milk is on this shelf”, “logo pens are in that cabinet”, “the hammer’s over the workbench”, etc.  But I digress, I finally Googled “Excel gridlines darker” and the solution was the first one to pop up.  My problem with Excel’s default is the lines are too light for my eyes to follow across, particularly in the middle of the month for the rooms in the middle of the page.  This will work so much better.

I was at The Mid-Atlantic InnKeepers Trade and Conference Show this week.  First of all, I stayed at my good friends Myra, Phil and Alex’s soon to open The Stone Manse Inn.  It seems that they will have a web site soon and be opening soon as well.  They have the summer house finished (except for a few details their person guinea pig pointed out )  🙂  The summer house is the oldest continuously occupied structure in York County, it was built somewhere around 1736.  They also have two more rooms just about ready to go.  Myra’s working on her state license, so they should be good to go soon.

For three years I have been looking for small mugs for use in guest rooms.  I want a smaller quantity size because I just have small coffee makers in the guest rooms.  They are just an amenity so someone can have a cup while they’re getting ready to come down for my fantastic breakfast.  🙂   So I don’t want 12, 14 or 16 ounce cups.  Also, several of the rooms are tight for space were I have the coffee makers and I want cups that will fit everywhere.  And I want them logo’d.  At the conference, I found a family owned china company (anyone that knows me or follows my blog knows how HUGE that is for me) that has what should be a perfect sized mug both in quantity and shape.  All china companies I have spoken to about possibly buying mugs from them have minimum quantities they will sell logo’d.  I understand they don’t want to run eight mugs with my logo, I’m fine with that.  What Maryland China does is charge you the set up fee all china companies charge, but they run 200 logo’s and I only have to buy the mugs in dozen quantities until the 200 logos are used up.  Then I’d be assessed a new fee for more logos.  I’m waiting on the set up price from them and will order as soon I get that.  I’m so excited.  I know, I’m so sad, it doesn’t take much to get me going.  🙂

I also made some very good new Innkeeper friends.  Swapped stories and offered/got advice from other Innkeepers on how to deal with things.  Some excellent seminars.  One of my favorites was on microwave cooking.  Mainly for energy conservation, I’d like to use my microwave for more than melting butter, blanching veggies and making hot water for tea (actually, I do use it for a bit more, but not as much as I’d like).  Carol Evans from the Cape Charles Bed and Breakfast was very informative and kept quite the pace throwing tons of info out on recipes and microwave secrets.

By far, my favoritist seminar was by Vikram Singh, from Evision Worldwide on mobile marketing.  That was a huge topic at the convention.  Smarty pants phones are huge and getting huger.  They will find my web site and navigate it like a left handed person using right handed scissors.  You can create a new version of your web site that’s more mobile friendly.  Vikram is extremely knowledgeable, extremely personable and presents his ideas in an extremely fun and attention catching way.  It’s not been unheard of in my life where I’ve sat in a lecture and valued what I was hearing but was either having a hard time following the speaker or worse, staying awake.  This guy is great and if you ever get a chance to hear him, I urge you to do so.

OK, lets go back to my good friend Myra (whom I attended most of the conference with) and a lady at a booth that owns an Inn in central PA.  This lady said she knew Myra from my blog.  How funny is that.  Me in Pittsburgh, writing about my friend opening an Inn in central PA and another Innkeeper in central PA learning about it on my blog.

Another reason for me to attend this conference is I want rid of my current on line reservation system, Webervations.  If you remember, whenever I don’t provide a hyper link to a company, like Walmart, it’s because I don’t like them.  I don’t want to spend the time now whining about what a terrible customer service company they are now, maybe in a future blog.  So there was three or four new on line reservation companies with booths at the convention.  This one I go to, Innkeepers Advantage has two representatives, Cindy and Felix.  I’m speaking with Cindy and she looks at me funny and asks where my Inn is.  I tell her above Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and she says “I know you, what high school did you go to?”  I say Peters Township and she says “Yes and then you went to Penn State”.  I could have died.  Me that don’t remember someone I met yesterday speaking to someone that remembers me from more years ago than I care to admit.  Here she’s five years younger than I and when to high school with my sister Susan.  We went to college together because I took five years off between schools for working stints and the army.  She and Felix own their own computer company here in Pittsburgh, small firm, local…they have a good shot at me.  I probably shouldn’t be exposing my weakness here, we’re meeting next week to finalize any deal we’re going to have. They have a very nice product, it’s just a good bit more expensive than what I’m paying now.  We’ll see.

Miserable day here today.  It’s rained/snowed all day and been all over cast, etc.  And actually, it’s not supposed to get much better for awhile.  But it’s time for me to leave the office and go down and be an Innkeeper.  I’m sold out with several people on the sleep sofas.  I need to make breakfast for twenty guests tomorrow.  I think five of the rooms are Karen & Mike and Patti & Linus, repeat guests from last year and three other couples.  They all have college kids participating in the robot challenge here at Carnegie Mellon University.  Last night, Patti & Linus and D & Mark came in when I had two other guests sitting in the Parlor and I think all six of them when to the same college.  Small world.

But I do need to go down to the kitchen and get busy.  I have lots of prep to do.  I’m making Fratatta for breakfast and there’s lots of veggies with my name all over them.  Have a great one.

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is Guam Discovery Day or Magellan Day, commemorates the discover of Guam in 1521 by Magellan.  It is the anniversary of the Boston Massacre in 1770, it’s the anniversary of the Iron Curtain speech by Winston Churchill in 1946.

ModCloth, the folks that did a photo shoot here and named one of their line after The Parador (it was soon sold out 🙂 ) were back in the paper.  They were ranked by Inc magazine as the second fastest growing private company in the United States last year based on the percentage revenue growth between 2006 and 2009.  Susan & Eric Koger are originally sweethearts from Florida that continued their romance when they enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University.  It was Susan’s interest in her grandmother’s clothes that started their endeavor.  They learned buying vintage clothing wasn’t going to work as a business.  That’s when they tapped into Susan’s taste in clothes and Eric’s expertise in computers to really launch their business.  They still have a presence here in the Strip and they own a house in each of their locations (here LA and their headquarters in San Fransisco).  Great folks.

Sunday, from 2 – 6 p.m. is the 16th annual Empty Bowls Dinner at Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 5th Avenue in Oakland.  Students, artists, celebrities, etc all create and donate ceramic bowls that for $20 you get a bowl of soup (donated by local restaurants and caterers), bread (donated by The Breadworks) and water.  They’ve raise a half a million dollars for Just Harvest and the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank.  And you get to keep the bowl.  🙂

I bought a smarty pants phone today.  Anyone that knows me knows how technologically challenged I am.  I got the smarty pants phone to be in addition to my normal cell.  Of course the tech that did the programing programed my cell number in my smarty pants phone.  So when I got home, I had all kinds of trouble until I took it back this evening.  Things are looking up now.  🙂

I finished a project in Bougainvillea.  In case you didn’t read my blog a few days ago, in the second floor hallway of Bougainvillea has several closets for the servants back in the day.  The two under the stairs going to the third floor, I took the doors off and made them into “built in bookcases”.  Unfortunately I didn’t think to take a pic before I removed the two doors and took the original shelves out.   They turned out pretty cool, check it out:

I’m pretty excited, I’m going to the Mid Atlantic Inn Keepers Conference on Sunday.  They have a lot of great presentations scheduled, I’ll be hanging with my good friend Myra (who’s opening the Stone Manse Inn right there in Central PA) and I know a few other attendees.  In particular I’m looking forward to a presentation on book publishing, my manuscript is over 50k words, getting close to the # I need to proceed finding a publisher.  I also look forward to interacting with purveyors and a number of other presentations.  And I’ll be staying at the new Stone Manse, not quite open and seeing what Myra, Phil and Alex have accomplished since I was last there when they bought it I October.  And I’m going to let “my little girl drive the car for the first time”.  When I leave, I’m leaving my cell phone (since I have the new smarty pants phone) with Derronda.  She has one reservation so far and will be accepting reservations, etc.  She’ll have access to me through my smarty pants phone if she needs me.  I feel like a dad giving the car’s keys to my teenager.  Not that D’s a teenager, I totally trust her and have the utmost confidence in her skills and abilities.  It’s just the first time in five years I’ll be giving up the reigns.  Wish me strength.  🙂

See ya soon,

ed