Avocado Growing (or what it would be like to be a Viticulturalist)

 

It's humbling to reflect on the amount of  time, patience and hard work it takes to grow and tend a vineyard.  Many of the seedlings fail the first year and the producer has to wait at least two or three years before those that do survive produce any fruit.  I've been patiently waiting for nearly a month for this avocado seed to germinate.     

(Sub)Urban Gardening

Learning about the process of growing the vines that yield grapes for making wine has me excitedly propagating every plant in the house and office. I'm finding the hands on growing experience organically drawing me closer to the wine making process, even though admittedly, I don't have much of a green thumb.  

LMK Article: Starbucks purchases Teavana in an eye opening acquisition.

Find out more on the acquisition by clicking on the link below and reading the article I wrote and submitted.

Please "like" the article on Facebook and Tweet it on Twitter.  Thank you for the support.

http://www.lmk.com/blog/starbucks-purchases-teavana-eye-opening-acquisition

Starbucks   and Teavana 

Starbucks Purchases Teavana in an Eye Opening Acquisition

Starbucks Corp. will be expanding its selection of tall, grande and venti beverages to include more tea on their menu. On November 14, 2012, it was announced that the Seattle based company was purchasing Atlanta-based Teavana Holdings Inc. for $620 million, making Teavana the biggest acquisition made by Starbucks. Back in 1999, Starbucks purchased Portland based Tazo Tea for $8.1 million which currently generates $1.4 billion a year.

In 2011, Starbucks redesigned its famous green twin-tailed siren logo. By dropping the words “Starbucks Coffee” from their motif, Starbucks was showing the world they weren’t just about coffee. They were creatively expanding in order to sustain revenue growth with their instant coffee, energy drinks, juice, foods, single-serve brewer and making their products available in grocery stores. Now with the purchase of Teavana, Starbucks is looking to strongly appeal to and enhance the tea drinking experience for millions of tea drinkers in the world and take a strong stand in a $40 billion global tea market.

Teavana, a company specializing in fresh, high-quality tea and tea accessories, was founded in 1997 by Andrew Mack and his wife, Nancy, who invested their life savings into the teahouse concept after traveling abroad and noticing how Americans gravitated towards fine wines and coffees. Teavana sells more than 100 varieties of loose-leaf teas and currently has about 300 stores in U.S., Canada and Mexico, located mainly in higher-end retail shopping malls.

Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz told Reuters that, “In addition to opening stand-alone Teavana stores in the United States and abroad, Starbucks will add tea bars that serve prepared drinks in existing Teavana stores.”

The CEO and co-founder of Teavana, Andrew Mack, said, “Being part of Starbucks will give us access to incredible industry knowledge and know how as well as the financial strength to super charge our business and allow us to continue our rapid growth to the benefit of all our supporters including our dedicated employees worldwide."  

LMK - Let Me Know

I am very happy to have a few articles I wrote and submitted to www.lmk.com, published on the very popular and resourceful website.  LMK stands for, Let Me Know, which is a great site and source for all the news you need to know, now.

Those articles in particular which I have contributed to LMK are posted here.  Click on the link, then "Like" the article on Facebook or Tweet it out to your friends on Twitter and please help spread the word.  Thank you for the support.

LMK Article "49ers vs Rams, 24-24 tie: Win or loss?"

I recently wrote an article on the tie between the San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Rams,  
which was published on www.lmk.com.  

Please click on the following link, "like" the article on Facebook or Tweet it on Twitter: 
http://www.lmk.com/blog/49ers-vs-rams-24-24-tie-win-or-loss

Thank you for the support!

San Francisco 49ers vs. St. Louis Rams, 24-24 Tie: Win or Loss?

There are winners and there are losers. And sometimes there is neither.

Football is one of America’s favorite sports. Currently, there are 32 teams listed with the National Football League (“NFL”), each team playing 16 games in a 17 week period. At some point, you or someone close to you will be involved in a pool or some other form of friendly competitive betting to pick the winning team. One of the most common types of football pools is the Survivor Pool (Pick a team. If they win, you move on. If they lose, you’re out).

So what do you do if there is a tie?

The game held on Sunday, November 11, 2012, between the San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Rams has people asking: Is a tie considered a win or a loss? Of the 28 teams playing in Week 10 (4 teams had a bye week), San Francisco was favored to win by 11 points and seemed like a solid bet.

Before 1974, the teams would play until sudden death overtime - whoever scores first wins. On December 25, 2011, the NFL Network presented a one-hour special, commemorating the 40^th anniversary of “The Longest Game Ever” played between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins on December 25, 1971, which went into double overtime after 82 minutes and 40 seconds of play and ended with the Dolphin’s victory over the Chiefs, 27-24.

In 1974, the NFL decided that overtime would only consist of one-fifteen minute period. If a team scored during that fifteen minute period, the game immediately ended. If neither team scored during the fifteen minute period, the game resulted in a tie. Since the rule change in 1974, there have only been 18 games that ended in a tie. The last time this happened was on November 16, 2008, when the Philadelphia Eagles met the Cincinnati Bengals (13-13). Four years later, on Sunday, November 11^th, the San Francisco 49ers faced the St. Louis Rams and became a part of NFL history with their 24-24 tie.

Which leads us to the question, what happens in a football pool when there is a tie? Is it considered a loss and you’re out? Or is it considered a win and you move on to the next week?

There is room for debate.

Dictionary.com defines “tie” as, “to make or be the same score; be equal in contest.” A loose interpretation would be that a tie is neither a win nor a loss. In a Survivor Pool, since the team that was chosen did not outright lose, then you should be able to advance to the next week.

However, a majority of the sources found online using the keywords, “NFL Survivor Pool Tie” will say that "Ties are not wins," or "Games that end in a tie are a loss."

According to one online reference, FunOfficePools.com, the "Commissioners are free to interpret ties in any way they want."  In the Survivor Pool I joined, I chose San Francisco.  Argument upon argument was made.  But in the end, the friend running the pool decided that the ties was a loss and I, along with 4 other people, was out.  

How would you decide?

"Don't Let the Past Shape Your Future"

HERE is a nice article on the idea of not letting the past shape our future.

"Live in the present moment, not in the past. The past is past. Don’t let it affect your present thoughts and feelings and the situations of your future."

"Live in the present moment, creating new thoughts, and new expectations, not only about money, work or relationships, but also about health, happiness, and spirituality. These new thoughts, which you think in the present, would mold your future."

Real Estate - "Its Real" - Coffee Break 1

The coffee break series begins with a song described by NPR as "sunny with a chance of winsome." The video is too cute to pass up and the band hails from Ridgewood, New Jersey.  Having landed on NPR Music's 100 Favorite Songs of 2011 list, just one listen will have you commenting, "Indeed, what could be better?"

So go ahead, grab your coffee, take a listen and have a happy Monday.