Card #2:

Card #3:

150 people signed up for the event ahead of time, and 112 showed up. I was surprised we didn’t have a higher turnout. We had the capacity to see double that number. There are so many people out there looking for jobs – why wouldn’t they want a free resume review from a professional? We got plenty of publicity, thanks to  WTBN, 970 WFLA, Mix 100.7, ABC Action News, Fox 13 (I appeared on Good Day Tampa Bay Friday morning), the St. Pete Times, tbt, and I’m sure others we missed.

Overall, the event was a success despite the lower than expected turnout. Everyone was extremely appreciative and said the advice they received was very helpful. The resume reviewers said they noticed a lot of common resume mistakes, so I think we provided a great service for the people who came. I met one man who is over 70 years old and looking for a job in the IT field. He has a great deal of experience but is worried about his age keeping him from finding something. He was also disabled due to a motorcycle accident. He was so thankful and appreciate of the help. The look on his face made the event all worthwhile. I really hope he finds a good position soon, and that companies will see him for his tremendous experience, not his age.

Some of the items were a little pricey, so it’s not something I can shop at on a regular basis. It’s also only open on Fridays from 10 – 2. I asked why it isn’t open on weekends and was told they don’t want to compete with the St. Petersburg Saturday market or the one in Ybor City. I think St. Pete is far enough away not to be of concern, and I like this one a lot better than the one in Ybor because of more variety. Hopefully they will expand some day so more people than those who work in downtown can enjoy it.

The only negatives were the cost of some of the items. I would also have liked to have seen fresh flowers there.

Overall, a great experience!
www.tampadowntownmarket.com

I am a social worker, not an economist, and what I know is this: The stock market is in free fall, financial organizations are being bailed out and the Detroit automakers may yet get financial help from Washington. But what about those of us in the nonprofit world? Where’s our bailout?

Full story: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-decrescenzo1-2008dec01,0,5497098.story

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Help the homeless this holiday season, and get a discounted ticket to a show!

Nov. 19 and 20, bring a non-perishable food item to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and receive a voucher to purchase a ticket to Steve Solomon’s My Sister’s an Only Child for $5. The comedy show plays in the Jaeb Theater Nov. 19 – 23.

Donations will be given to Metropolitan Ministries. In their 2008 fiscal year, Metropolitan Ministries:

• Sheltered 101 families
• Sheltered 38 single women
• Served over 20,000 outreach families with 61,500 children
• Provided over 21,000 families with holiday assistance

Come enjoy a show while helping the needy! www.tbpac.org

The best thing I’ve been able to do on Twitter is contribute to a weekly charity challenge set up by @amandamooney. I don’t even know Amanda, and unless I’m ever in Chicago or she’s ever in Tampa, I probably never will. But, that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? Amanda works at a PR firm, and she started a weekly Twitter Challenge where her followers suggest different charities. She then selects a charity and encourages everyone to donate $5 to it every Friday. The first week I donated,  I helped raise $180 for breast cancer. The second, the charity of choice was Barry’s Donor’s Choose, a group I had not heard of that helps teachers raise money for classroom projects. Together, we raised over $400, enabling a teacher in NY to purchase flip cameras for her class. I donated to a local music teacher who wants to purchase drums for his students.

This is a great way for people across the U.S. to unite and make a difference together, for just $5 a week – what you would spend on your morning latte (I usually drink the free coffee at work, but still).

BarCamp is a different kind of event – one where open participation is encouraged and networking occurs in its rawest, most natural form. Although plenty of work went into the behind-the-scenes planning, it’s very much an ad-hoc gathering that was created from the desire for people to share and learn from one another. There are no keynote speakers, or even a pre-determined speaker lineup. The schedule is set the morning of the event based on what participants want to present and talk about, and what follows are intense discussions, demos and lots and lots of meaningful interaction. It’s exactly the kind of thing Tampa Bay needs in order to create a vibrant, more livable community.

The event went really well, especially for a first one. Attendance was a little lower than expected, and I’m not really sure why. Maybe people were not familiar with the concept. The people who did attend were extremely happy and seemed to get a lot out of it. The team of behind the scene coordinators was great to work with.

The first day, which focused on technical development, was a little over my head, but I learned a lot from new media day. I attended sessions like “How to Make Love to Your Customer” by Saul Colt of Freshbooks and “Insider’s Guide to New Media” by Brenda Young of Marbay Group.

Some nuggets:

• Never sell anything on Twitter. Always make it about other people. Freshbooks does some interesting things with Twitter to show the love to their customers.
• Use the same picture on all of your social media sites to build recognition.
• New media is not just another avenue to broadcast the same message.
• 50% of conversations about your company are taking place outside of your control.
• A new concept called “coworking” is emerging, where people who freelance or work from home get together at coffee shops and such to socialize, do work and share ideas.

Web sites I’m going to check out:

• twitter.com/tweetanswers – ask questions and get answers on Twitter
• tweepletwak.com – track who stops following you on Twitter
• kenradio.com – demographics for social media sites
• www.twitclicks.com – track clicks for your Twitter feed. This is a new program created by local BarCamper Kyle Graham.
• google.com/cse – create a custom search engine
• snackr – easily track newsfeeds
• codiris – plugin for pictures that allows you to scroll images in 3D

The conference began on Friday evening with Women of Faith founder, Steve Arterburn, who is now with New Life Ministries. Steve discussed his personal struggle with sin and bad decisions, and how he overcame them. We also heard from Sheila Walsh, who spoke about living for today and valuing our loved ones. She sang an inspiring and tear jerking “When I Get Where I’m Going.”

Saturday included several moving dramatic performances from Broadway singer and actress Allison Allen, including one about anger and the tongue being like fire. Sometimes we don’t realize the way our words sound when they come out, and we can’t take them back. We also heard awesome singing from Natalie Grant, a successful contemporary Christian artist. Natalie has an amazing voice – much better than half the people you hear on mainstream radio stations today.I’ve already downloaded several of the songs she sang at the conference, including I Will Not be Moved and In Christ Alone. Sandi Patty, a well-known gospel singer, also spoke and entertained with familiar hymns.

Saturday’s speaker line up also included my favorite Women of Faith speaker, Patsy Clairmont. Although she didn’t mention it at this conference, she was a recluse for several years and did not leave her house. Now, she is touring the nation speaking in front of thousands of people. She is one of the funniest speakers, but also one of the most knowledgeable. Patsy spoke about her long-time friend who was diagnosed with Cancer. Patsy prayed for words from God that would comfort her friend, and all she heard waas “Let there be light.” Not knowing what it meant, she told her friend, who was also confused. A few weeks later, her friend learned that her doctor was looking for little pockets of light in her x-rays, which meant the Cancer had not penetrated those areas yet. You can view Patsy’s talk about this on YouTube.

Nicole C. Mullen also performed on Saturday. She’s more of a hip hop singer, and although not my personal taste, she definitely has the ability to get the crowd on their feet. She’s a wonderful role model and mentor for young teens. We also heard from Marilyn Meberg, who spoke about our connection with people and with Christ.

The conference concluded with Louise DuArt, a very funny comedic impressionist who spoke about her personal struggles and how she has trusted God along the way. I might purchase her book, Couples Who Pray.

The conference was a bit evangelistic for some people’s taste, but I always enjoy it a lot. Some may say it’s a little “over the top,” and I have even made that observation about similar religious programs before. But, these women are witnessing to over 14,000 people at one time, and there is definitely something to be gained from that.l To be able to reach out to the masses likes that takes lots of time, energy and planning. To me, it was worth the cost of the ticket to be inspired and entertained.

We left on Wednesday and flew into Buffalo, NY, then immediately drove to Canada. Google maps was less than helpful, but thankfully we got pretty close to where we needed to be before it was incorrect. The line for customs into Canada didn’t take too terribly long. We flew by without a hitch. I guess we looked honest.

Canadian Falls, seen from Canada

We stayed at the Best Western Fallsview hotel that evening. We chose it because of its proximity to the falls and relatively low price. The hotel was okay – clean, fairly comfortable bed, pretty safe area. It was no Sheraton or Marriott, but it suited our purposes. We were walking distance to the falls (down a pretty steep hill). We ate dinner at the Grand Buffet at the Fallsview Casino. The food was average, but I guess it was a good deal for the area and fact that it was all-you-can-eat. The create your own pasta bar made it all worthwhile, especially since they gave me extra garlic.

We found the Canada side of the falls to be pretty commercial. Pretty much everywhere we looked, there was a hotel and big neon signs. There were talking boxes on the sidewalk on the way to the falls, promoting the “falls experience” 3D movie (when you could just walk 2 minutes and get the real falls experience!). The walkway along the falls was a busy street, and there were lots of tourists, sometimes making it hard to get close to the rail. The view from Canada was wonderful, though, and it was nice to be able to see both sets of falls at one time.

American Falls illuminated at night, seen from Canada

That night, we watched fireworks over the falls. Thursday morning we walked back to the falls for a daytime viewing. We were able to get pretty close to the top of the Canadian falls where the water runs down, which was really cool. I got a little scared of heights on this side, for some reason (but not on the American side).

Merlot grapes at Riverview Cellars Wineary

Thursday we headed up to wine region of Niagara on the Lake. It was a very nice, peaceful drive up the Niagara River. We stopped at one of the first wineries we saw – Riverview Cellars. My research indicated this was a small, family-owned winery, and we like to support small local businesses. We arrived just in time for a tour, which we enjoyed very much. The people were very  friendly and welcoming. They had a little shop, where we bought wine, fruit and maple syrup. We also tasted ice wine for the first time, and it was great – very sweet. We didn’t buy any of the ice wine (too expensive for our taste!), but did get a bottle of Fontana Dolce, a sweet red wine.

We continued to Niagara on the Lake, where we walked up and down the main street and visited the shops. The town is full of flowers and quaint little boutiques, wine stores, cheese shops, bakeries and parks. We had a picnic lunch near the Niagara River and visited an orchard, where we tasted sauces and dips, including the best peanut butter I’ve ever had (with caramel in it). I also bought some turkish delight for the first time, and now I’m a fan. 

Niagara on the Lake

We stayed at the Wild Rose Bed & Breakfast that evening. It was very nice, and definitely worth the low price. We watched the sunset on Lake Ontario (after taking a “scenic” drive involving getting lost for a brief period and almost missing it). For dinner, we ate at the Irish Harp, a local irish pub. It had excellent food, local wine and a live band which consisted of two irish men singing bluegrass. Even though the music was a little loud, I very much enjoyed my evening there.

Friday morning, we ate breakfast with some interesting people from Wisconsin and Ontario and then headed back to the U.S. We stopped back by the Riverview Cellars to make some more purchases because their stuff was cheaper than anywhere else, and then bought some ice wine at the Duty Free store. Customs took about 30 minutes to get through, but once again we came through just fine. I gave the customs guy a good laugh when I presented him with an itemized list of my purchases while in Canada.

Canadian Falls, from the Maid of the Mist boat

We checked into our next Bed and Breakfast, the Rainbow House and then walked along the American Rapids down to the Niagara State Park, where we met some friends at the Maid of the Mist for a boat tour of the falls. We got pretty close to both falls in the boat, especially on the Canadian side. It was quite windy and wet. Thankfully, we had purchased a waterproof holder for our camera, so we were able to get some pretty nice pictures.

Rainbow over the American Falls

David at Cave of the Winds

Next was Cave of the Winds – by far our favorite falls experience.  We were literally underneath the falls wearing raincoats, and the water was falling over our heads. It was pretty amazing. We ate at Top of the Falls for lunch, which had great food and an excellent view of the Canadian falls.

Overall, we found the American side of the falls to be a better experience than the Canada side. There are more opportunities for different falls views, and it’s a more peaceful atmosphere because of the grassy park and rapids vs. commercialism and busy street on the Canada side. The bed and breakfast here was very nice, but it was kind of noisy due to being on a busy street.

Friday night we went to the rehearsal dinner for the wedidng we were attending, at Pizza Junction, a famous pizza and wings restaurant in Tonowanda, NY. The pizza was pretty good, although I have to admit I’m still a fan of Cappy’s in Tampa.

David and me near the American Rapids

Saturday we went to Three Sisters Islands at the Niagara State Park, where we got up close to the American Rapids, which flow into the falls. Saturday evening was the wedding, which was a lot of fun, especially during 80′s hour at the reception.

Sunday we woke up way too early and headed back to the U.S.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip and would definitely go back given the opportunity!

We found a stray female cat under our house. We think she has been there for a few weeks (since the middle of June). She is very skinny and hungry. She seems to have been owned at one time because she is semi-friendly (let us pet her sometimes) and has a white and pink flea collar on. She is a grey tabby with orange on her back and bright yellow eyes. She has obviously been on her own for a long time, so her home might not be very close to this area. If you know anyone whose cat is missing, please let me know!