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MyAdventures.com – Try a new adventure…

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Keith Bates

Keith Bates

A few years ago I sat on the board of The Adventurer’s Club of Chicago. There I met Keith Bates who had a passion for traveling the world, meeting new people, and learning new things. He decided he wanted to bring like minded people together. So, he created the website: www.MyAdventures.com

Keith’s goal was to create a site where people could post the trip or adventure they had gone on. At the same time, other people who were planning an adventure could search for someone who had already gone on that trip — view trip details, photos, etc., which would help them plan “their” trip. Great way for people to meet kindred spirits.

The site has taken off and I wanted to share it with you.

Napa Hot Air Balloon Ride

Napa Hot Air Balloon Ride

You might come across a new adventure you had not heard of OR you might connect with a like minded sportsman, traveler or adventurer. These days an adventurer can be anything from a bird watcher, a kayaker, a mountain climber, to a fly fisherman, race car driver, piloting  —  who knows!

Here’s to finding our NEXT adventure!  Life is about exploring, meeting new people, and enjoying the outdoors.

If you’ve gone on a GREAT trip, let us know. We learn from each other.

I still want to visit Mackinac Island. Would that be an adventure?

Italy’s Mille Miglia 2015

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image

2015 Cars on display around town.

Last year, I came across Jay Leno’s Garage 2014 youtube video on his participation in Italy’s yearly Mille Miglia vintage car race. First of all, Jay Leno has a great sense of humor, we know he loves cars and then put him in Italy and you want to join the fun!

Map of Race Route

Map of Race Route

So, this year, I came to Brescia, May 14-17, 2015 where the Mille Miglia race starts. There are approximately 430 vintage car owners from around the world who gather here every year to enter the race. It’s a spectacular event to behold. Just look at the cars I am seeing. Really beautiful!

Photographers and journalists are everywhere. The road race starts in Brescia goes to Rome and then back to Brescia. You can view a map of the race. It’s a tough race, especially for those coming from abroad who are not familiar with the small and winding roads of Italy. Normally, an Italian wins the race, but maybe a foreigner will surprise us this year.

Wednesday the Italian Military had an Air Show, similar to our Blue Angles Air Show in the U.S., in honor of the Mille Miglia. Many of the vintage cars were on display at the air field. There were about 7,000 people viewing the show.

2015 Cars on display.

2015 Cars on display.

Around Brescia, the media was setting up, cars were being driven in to be put on display, people were at cafes, walking, taking picture – having fun!

If you are ever in Italy on vacation at this time, you will enjoy seeing the race.

Whether you are in Brescia for the start or end of the race OR you see the cars driving through one of the towns, you’ll share in the excitement for sure!

Yoga… it’s time!

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Yoga on Green Lake

Yoga on Green Lake

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Sign for Yoga Room at Airport

Yoga, it has started to stalk me!  You laugh, but it’s true.

For years now, I have been able to avoid yoga. I’ve stayed under the radar preferring pilates or a classical stretch program by Canadian Miranda Esmonde-White.

I don’t have anything against yoga, I guess I don’t see myself twisting my body in all sorts of shapes and standing on my head. My twin brother used to do that when we were young – stand on his head! That was funny!

I have never been a gymnast and I think that is why I have shied away from yoga, I feel like it is for people with limber bodies. I remember trying to master the cartwheel in gradeschool, it was not going to happen.

Why is yoga stalking me?

Follow Arrow to Yoga Room at Airport

Follow Arrow to Yoga Room at Airport

First, I was visiting my girlfriend who has been devoted to yoga for 10 years. She was dashing off to yoga class raving about it.

Second, I was innocently walking around Green Lake in Seattle when I noticed yoga on paddleboards? I shook my head, you know, when you are “verifying” that you “saw what you saw.” Yes, indeed, yoga on the Lake, see photo for proof.

I love the water, so suddenly yoga was looking interesting to me. However, it did cross my mind that if I can’t balance “off the water,” how would I balance “on the water,” but as I love the Lake that seemed like a small obstacle.

THEN it gets better… Third, I am at the airport going to my gate and I see yoga signs.  WHAT — I shook my head in disbelief. Yoga is here too?

Do you see why I am being stalked by Yoga.

Three signs in one month?!

Don’t they say we should “follow the signs?”

My twin brother “would laugh” if I sent him a picture of myself standing on my head!

Pawpaw Tree?

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pawpaw1a

Pawpaw Tree

Have you heard of a Pawpaw Tree?

A friend from Oregon was just asking me about this and wondering how the fruit tasted. This was news to me, I have never heard of a Pawpaw Tree.

Pawpaw flower

Pawpaw flower

Google to the rescue. Turns out this is a tree that grows very well in the eastern United States, but also in the Great Lakes region.

It’s a lovely tree.

Pawpaw Fruit

Pawpaw Fruit

First, the purple flowers bloom in May and then the Pawpaw fruit, which looks like the shape of a mango, comes in June. The fruit has a tropical taste, but is more like a custard texture. Wild Pawpaw fruit might be bitter.

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

On further investigation, I found that if you have a Pawpaw tree you most likely have Zebra Swallowtail Butterflies.These butterflies are beautiful and love to feed off the Pawpaw tree.

I am going to be driving through Oregon soon. I’m curious to actually see the tree, taste the fruit and see the butterflies.

Has anyone grown a Pawpaw tree or eaten the fruit?

Let us know…

Pack Your Duct Tape

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Duct-tapeI learned about duct tape when I was about 12 years old. My father was in the building business and we would help him on the job site. One day he yelled, “Get me the duct tape.”

Not knowing what duct tape was I thought he said, “DUCK tape.”

DUCK Tape?

DUCK Tape?

You can imagine the image in my mind – a duck with tape. What in the world was he talking about? As I was dilly dallying around trying to figure out what “DUCK TAPE” was…

My Dad gave another LOUD shout, “WHERE’s the duct tape?”

At this point the electrician seeing I was going to be in trouble soon called me over and handed me the grey roll of duct tape. I looked at him quizzically and smiled, SO THIS is “duct tape?!”

I soon learned how handy duct tape was in life. I always travel with duct tape now, in fact, it came in handy last summer in Africa. My nephew came to me in a panic, because he said the sole of his shoe was starting to fall off.

Well – Duct Tape to the RESCUE!! With his foot in his boot, I taped his boot up – no more problems! I won “Best Auntie” for that one. Proof that duct tape comes in handy.

I became a duct tape expert – fixed my rain coat while hiking, taped up my broken luggage, removed lint from my clothes, taped up the hem of my pants and even used duct tape to bandage a blister. Wow – I was feeling cool.

DuctTapeHave you seen the “Jumbo Duct Tape Book,” by Jim Berg and Tim Nyberg? More uses, you’d be amazed.

And now, duct tape comes in fancy colors. I don’t know, I’m still with the traditional grey.

So, share a story…

HOW have YOU used YOUR duct tape?

SmartBrief News

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75-Free-Retro-Clipart-Illustration-Of-A-Man-Sitting-On-Chair-While-Reading-Daily-NewspaperNews — Can we ever get enough? Not long ago I was signing up for a trade show online, which then asked me to sign up for different SmartBriefs (www.smartbrief.com).

My “first” reaction was – WAIT – I just wanted my trade show badge information. Why am I being asked about SmartBriefs?

Soon, I was at a screen asking me to choose “which” SmartBriefs I would like to receive. I still didn’t know what a SmartBrief was and I was already choosing! This was annoying. What happened to my badge signup?

Before I knew it, I had signed up for four SmartBriefs (Leadership, Manufacturing, Small Business and Entrepreneurship).

Finally, my badge registration was confirmed. I was mentally exhausted!

So, what is a SmartBrief?

“SmartBrief is the leading online publisher of targeted business news by industry. Newsletters sent to your email daily or weekly.”

Was it worth signing up? YES, I have found the newsletters to be very interesting; however, on stressful days it does feel like a bombardment in my inbox.

On those days, I have been tempted to press “unsubscribe,” but I always STOP myself.

Good thing, because today I opened a SmartBrief and read the most amusing story about “Segway Polo” having their first International Championship game in England. That was an enjoyable article!

segwayI knew that Segways had been used for tourist sightseeing, but polo?  BRILLIANT idea!

Segway Polo reminds me of Ultimate Frisbee. It’s those sports that we KNOW are fun, but our first reaction is to not take them seriously, because we think it is recreational – not a “real” sport.

So, by taking a moment to read a SmartBrief, a stressful day turned into an amusing one!

Segway Polo, think about it, this could be fun and definitely easy on the joints. We’d compete Internationally, I’m IN… and you?

Dress Code

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Someone on LinkedIn was mentioning that their company was what-to-wear1enforcing the “dress code” to “professional attire.” Co-workers were discussing this in the lunch room and complaining on how expensive it was going to be to “dress professionally.”

WHAT? I smiled at this. When did casual Friday take over the entire work week anyhow? And is “dressing professionally,” really so expensive?

Come on – 2 black pants and 4 work shirts bought on sale, rotate them during the week, same pearl necklace/earrings and 2-3 pairs of shoes. For a woman, a little boring, but it works.

OR, better solution, do what I did in manufacturing – dress in ALL Scarvesblack or all blue every day and change your scarf. Boy was that easy! Do you know I was receiving compliments on my scarves every day, no one even noticed I wore the same outfit – they “loved” the scarves. OK, the scarves were very bright and colorful, but you get the point. Dressing professionally can be as expensive or cheap as you make it. And you sure get dressed quickly in the morning when you have a “personal uniform.”

Interviewing has been a bit challenging too. It used to be we wore a blue suit, white shirt, and pearl necklace. Keep it simple. Now for many jobs if we go in a suit, we are over dressed. For example, a suit now would be used for a marketing/sales job interview, but if I go for an interview for a manufacturing job then going in a suit is inappropriate when they wear jeans. We would all feel awkward. Trust me, I made that mistake.

So… have we gotten too casual? Is it really that expensive to “dress professionally?”

And finally, do people work better when they “dress professionally” versus “casually?” I wonder!

Great Advertising

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I had to devote this Blog to advertising when I saw this adorable Italian ad from Dolce & Gabbana featuring Italian grandmothers with tiaras and beautiful designer purses. What a great idea! The ad warms our hearts.

Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana

Don’t they say a “picture is worth a thousand words?” This next ad caught my attention, because it was clever.

Madeline Weinrib

Madeline Weinrib

Madeline Weinrib’s marketing team used an interesting old Indian photo to transport our minds to India and then in a conversational font asked us if we knew they carried Antique Indian dhurries. The ad was very engaging! I’m curious about the photo.

I sold adverting for over seven years. It became a habit to prospect for potential advertisers in other magazines, newspapers, billboards, listening to the radio, and more. You name it, and I was there, looking for my next good lead.

It got to the point in my life that I couldn’t enjoy looking leisurely through a newspaper or magazine. Why? Well, instead of enjoying reading the articles, I was looking at all the advertisements. After ripping out pages for different leads my brain was too tired to go back to the beginning to actually “read” an article. The funny thing was, I had bought the magazine to “read” NOT “prospect,” but work prevailed.

Now, a few years later I can enjoy reading… but my mind is still “alert” to looking for the next great ad something I haven’t seen before. Isn’t that why we look forward to the Super Bowl ads?

I’ll leave you with this last great ad by “Hellman – Chang.” I love this ad. The men are in beautiful suits, focused on making furniture and RIGHT in the middle of the ad it says, “IMPORTED FROM BROOKLYN!” THAT caught my attention and I smiled.

Way to go guys. America is on the verge of a manufacturing “come back!”

Hellman - Chang

Hellman – Chang

So, what’s YOUR favorite ad?

Dragon Boat Racing / Italian Meetup

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Ottawa Dragon Boat Feast

Ottawa Dragon Boat Feast

About a year ago I received an unsolicited Meetup.com email in my inbox. The title mentioned something about “Dragon Boat Racing.” Of course, I immediately thought this was “junk mail.” I didn’t know about Dragon Boat Racing and I had never signed up for a Meetup.

I was curious though, because I like being out on the water. I had heard that Meetups were a great way to do different activities and meet new people. So, I nervously pressed the “open” email button hoping I wouldn’t be infected with a virus.

Dubuque, IA Chamber of Commerce photo

Dubuque, IA Chamber of Commerce photo

I was pleasantly surprised. No virus! It turned out they had a Meetup scheduled for that Saturday, free to attend as they supplied canoe, life vest, paddle and free coaching – I just had to show up. I decided to give it a try.

It was a lot of fun!

So, I went again today and I wasn’t disappointed. The first group out to practice were the veterans. Wow – they are FAST. May/June time frame they have some competitions coming up, so they were focused on timing and their strokes. A canoe is 44 ft long with 20 paddlers. Wonderful to be out on the water, it’s a great team sport (see photo of a team in action).

View of Florence, Italy

View of Florence, Italy

This encouraged me to try another Meetup. This time I went to a weekly Italian conversational one. They meet every week on Sunday at an Italian café. This group spoke different levels of Italian, some basic/intermediate like me and others fluent, because they had lived there. Enjoyed being transported to Italy for an hour.

Well… I’m smiling, because I think that junk email is like dating. Sometimes the email you want to toss out is really the one you should keep!

Happy Easter!

Bologna Children’s Book Fair

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Bologna Children's Book FairFor a long time now, I have had an interest in writing a children’s book. Why? Because when we are young, this is when we have incredible curiosity to learn and our imagination is big. Books expose us to life, to adventure… We believe we can be or do anything. Reading is powerful.

A few years ago, someone told me about the annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Bologna, Italy. I immediately investigated.

Bologna seen from Asinelli Tower

Bologna seen from Asinelli Tower

The book fair takes place every year “at this time” – end of March beginning of April. Approximately 70 publishers from around the world travel to Bologna to buy and sell rights for international publication. They all gather here from authors, literary agents, illustrators, licensors, licensees, packagers, distributors, printers, and booksellers to librarians.

For me, this is super exciting! This is the place to see the latest in children’s literature and multimedia production from around the world.

We have all been influenced by different children’s books when we were young, i.e., Babar, Madeline, Pinocchio, Rupert Bear, Dr. Seuss, etc.

Who remembers being part of Junior Great Books?

Strega_Nona_(Tomie_dePaola_book)_cover_artThinking of Italy, my children enjoyed this Italian children’s book called, “Strega Nona,” by Tomie dePaolo. The book was published in 1975 and won the Caldecott Honor in 1976. The story is about Strega Nona and her magic pasta pot and Big Anthony who secretly tries to use the magic pasta pot, fumbles on the magic verse, filling the town with pasta. Strega Nona comes to the rescue.

It’s fun to read about the author, see Tomie dePaolo’s story here: http://www.tomie.com/about_tomie/index.html

So, how do I get into the Bologna Children’s Book Fair? You’ve got to be in the industry to attend. I still have this on my Bucket List, there’s got to be a way…

I know, I hear you saying, “Start writing!”