Dec
19
Incompetency at Walmart.com
Filed Under Florida Business | Leave a Comment
Wow, a friend of mine and Florida blogger is getting screwed over by Walmart right before Christmas. She’s a single Mom and purchased a very expensive item for her kids through walmart.com, paid for expedited shipping, and now the item isn’t going to be here in time for Christmas. A sorry tale of customer service failure and incompetency.
Oh yeah, don’t believe Walmart when their website says something is in stock.
UPDATE
Here is the item on the walmart.com website, still being advertised as in-stock with shipping available by Christmas Eve:
Dec
4
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida gives $350,000 to charity
So, BCBSFL members can expect lower premiums next year, correct?
Yay!
What?
Oh.
Hey, I don’t mean to be a scrooge at the holidays or anything, but I’d much rather see lower premiums given today’s supposed skyrocketing healthcare costs. After all, I already give to United Way, my church, my kids’ school, the Girl Scouts… get the picture?
Is the best use of that money to give it to charity or return it to your members in the form of lower premiums?
I’m just saying…
Nov
14
Motivational Speaking
Filed Under Interesting | Leave a Comment
My parents have a vacation home in the mountains north of Asheville, NC. If you’ve ever been to Asheville, you know that during the summer Florida license plates outnumber NC license plates. One of the big draws, besides the weather, is the Biltmore Estate. My wife and I always bring a case of Biltmore wine home with us after each visit, and have been through the wine-tasting demonstrations. Biltmore is known for excellence in everything they touch.
Jackie Pelletier, the Wine Training Coordinator at the Biltmore Estate, is a motivational speaker and can bring the same energy and excellence to your organization. Prior to working at Biltmore, she was an educator in the state of Maine for 30 years and brings the lessons learned from her life to her speaking. Some of the most interesting topics I found on her website include:
- NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS
- THIS IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL
- SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH MAKING MONEY?
Man, I know a couple holier-than-thou bloggers that could stand to listen to that last one.
Jackie delivers corporate presentations, keynote addresses, and motivational speeches for large and small, profit and non-profit organizations. Her booking and contact information is available, she also has a blog where you can get insight into how she prepares for her speeches.
So, now I’ve gone and made myself want to go back to Asheville. Oh don’t worry, Florida is better than NC and I’ll have to make that my next “7 Reasons Florida is Better Than…” post. But we all have to take a vacation occasionally.
Nov
12
Hey, for those of you traveling to Florida on vacation or business and need a Miami car rental, or an Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, or Pensacola car rental (we’re including Pensacola for political correctness, even though we know it’s really South Alabama out there), the folks that brought you Maui car rental and Hawaii car rental would like you to know that they can help you, also.
Come to Florida. We’re way closer than Hawaii, we have islands also, with none of those nasty volcanos or 15 foot waves to worry about. Plus, we have Mickey.
Oct
5
I remember when St. Augustine was cool
Filed Under St. Augustine | 7 Comments
It was a while ago. A lifetime, really. Back when it was unique and had flavor. I even proposed to my wife in a lookout tower on top of the Castillo de San Marcos.
A while back the local government passed an ordinance to get rid of sidewalk vendors and performance artists. Local businesses hated them, because they competed for tourist dollars and tourist eyeballs, and created clogs of people on St. George Street, a foot-traffic only stretch of shops in historic buildings.
I can understand their point: They’re paying big bucks to own or lease space for their store selling paintings and pictures, while some guy can sit down on the sidewalk outside of their door and set up an easel and start whipping out paintings for the locals. Hardly seems fair, except that it IS a public thoroughfare.
I always enjoyed that stuff. I never spent any money because I never saw anything I had to have, but I did drop a buck in a guitar case from time to time. I was also approached by panhandlers, but I just say “no” and they walk away, no hassle. No big deal.
But, it feels like the place is changing. The sidewalk artists are gone, the musicians are gone, and all we’re left with is shopping and restaurants. Hardly unique. The city pays people to dress in period costume and provide information to tourists, but issued a citation to a one-legged man dressed as a pirate that was charging $2 for a picture.
Really? Was he holding them down, forcing them to take pictures of him, then grabbing $2 from their wallets? Why can’t the tourists decide if they want to pay $2 for a picture?
Sep
27
Man, I’ve been working my tail off on some new sites the past few weeks.
First, there’s the Hundred Day Head Start, a motivation/support/accountability site dieting and exercising. This is going very well, we’re getting really good traffic and incoming links, and the attention is very motivating for me, helping me stick to my diet. I’m really excited.
I’ve also been moving my mother’s small business website over to my hosting account and updating the site. It still isn’t ready for prime time, but it’s already a big improvement in terms of SEO-readiness than the former site, which was put together by an outfit that charged her 3x the going rate for design and hosting. If you’d seen the source code and meta tags, you’d have been as angry as I was about these guys. Simple, easy things that would take them 10 seconds to do, they wanted to charge $50. Anyway, the site is The Paper Porch, and again, it isn’t ready for prime-time yet, but we’re getting there. My mother doesn’t want to have to check her email for inquiries, so I REALLY need to get her over that!
Finally, I’m hosting and developing a site on a volunteer basis for a gifted-student advocacy group at my daughter’s school. Another one that is not ready for prime-time yet, but we’re getting there as well. I hate the template, but someone with a vagina over-ruled me. I think I have her convinced to switch to a better template, but the plugins I need to use won’t be supported by the better template for a couple more weeks. The site is St. Johns Gifted.
Check ‘em out. I’ve been pretty busy with them, but I can see where my tasks on the last two will be wrapped up in the next week or so.
Sep
2
About
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Florida Sun Dog is a Florida-centric blog. Rarely will I take time to comment on matters elsewhere. Subjects I discuss include funny news, commentary, theme parks, real estate, cities, towns, businesses, people. I also touch on Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Pensacola, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Ft. Myers, St. Petersburg, Daytona, Clearwater, Bradenton, Orange Park, St. Augustine, Amelia Island, Cocoa Beach, Disney World, Universal, Epcot, Sea World, Busch Gardens, Brooksville, Spring Hill, & Hernando County.
If you’d like to know more about me, this is everything Tim.
Aug
26
Filed Under St. Augustine | Leave a Comment
My sister-in-law and her husband are back from their latest excursion in their RV, which they are now putting up for sale. It is lightly used and I can attest to the fact that it is in wonderful condition. But, they have a little one entering school and business interests competing for their time. When they first bought it they told me they were only going to keep it for a couple years, keep it in great condition, and sell it when the little guy started school. So, if you’re looking for a lightly-used in RV in great condition, give them a call.
These are the same folks selling one million-dollar home in St. Augustine to move to another million-dollar home in St. Augustine, so if you need a million-dollar home in St. Augustine, well, you should have an abundance of links to click-through… 
St. Augustine Million Dollar Home
Aug
20
Setting up a corporation?
Filed Under Interesting | Leave a Comment
About half of my family are small business owners - small in the sense that they’re basically family-owned, but at least one is a multi-million-dollar business and another is well on it’s way.
I’m also dipping my toes in the water with these blogs o’ mine. I’ve been asking a lot of questions, trying to figure what the best business structure would be for someone like me. The one thing everyone I speak with is in agreement about is that an LLC is probably best, at some point in time. Mr. Fab over at pointless-drivel.com has written that he’s ready to take the plunge.
I don’t have the patience to figure out the filing process to incorporate in Florida. But, I know an attorney will charge me more than he’s worth, and more than I can afford, to do what is actually simple for someone knowledgeable about the process.
Enter a company like IncParadise.com, who will file all of your Florida corporation documents for $137. They are a Nevada corporation that can take care of filing articles of incorporation in every state. The fee schedule for every state is available on their website, so if you’re looking for a service like this, all of the information is available on their website.
Aug
17
My idea of a perfect Caribbean vacation
Filed Under Interesting | 1 Comment
I’ve always wanted to go to the Caribbean on vacation. Hey, Florida’s great, but sometimes I need a change of scenery. Every time I’ve mentioned it to anyone, they always start with “Hey, there’s this cruise ship…”, to which I jam my fingers in my ears and spin around singing “la la la la la la…”.
Cruise ships and yours truly don’t mix. Traveling on someone else’s timetable, cramped quarters, and the ever-present Norwalk virus are not my ideas of how to spend time relaxing on Caribbean vacations.
A nice quick flight, a beachside hotel or resort, and fruity-umbrella drinks at a tiki bar - THAT’S living!
My parents visited St. Kitts a few years back, when my father was doing business down there. English-speaking, mandatory education through the 12th grade, and a higher literacy rate than the US made it attractive. Each visit, they stayed in high-end resorts for the same price as you’d pay for a Motel 6 outside of the gates at Disney World.
Poking around On The Beach, I found place that hit me juuuussssst right: The Flamboyant Hotel on Granada. Open-air dining and a beachside cabana take care of the basic needs, and complimentary kayaks and pedal boats for when I feel the need to stretch my muscles a bit. Oh, and the ocean, can’t forget about that, right?
