This is one of those rare times where two of my passions — pets and chocolate — collide, and without doing any harm to anyone!

From now until the holidays, when you make an online purchase from one of my personal chocolate recommendations, Sucré in New Orleans, one dollar from every order goes directly to the Louisiana SPCA!
Sucré Executive Pastry Chef Tariq Hanna and his dog Bon Bon are making this holiday season even sweeter. Bon Bon knows what it is like to have a kind, caring owner and she wants all of her less fortunate furry friends have the same …read more

The last time we were in New Orleans, which was about three weeks ago as part of our cross-country road trip, we made reservations at Stella! We had never eaten there before. Since it was on our long list of NO restaurants to try and we were staying dangerously close to the place, we decided to give it a try. The minute we walked in we realized Stella! was not a kid-friendly establishment. To the restaurant’s credit, they didn’t kick us out.
We’re training Truman to behave in fine restaurants and we’ve found, as long as your child doesn’t do anything …read more

In order to write this post I’m going to have to admit that I’m just no good at reading maps. As a tourist trying to plan a trip to a new city, I want a visual explanation of where everything is. And MapEasy guidemaps provide that. I’ve used them for several years now. It’s true that MapEasy doesn’t make a map for every city or country, but they do cover many of them.

My first MapEasy guidemap was for New Orleans. I also used one for Boston and Washington, DC. The guidemaps work much like the maps you’ve known for years: …read more

One of my favorite quotes from the Big Book is to be found on page 102 in “Working With Others.” It says;
“Your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others, so never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful. You should not hesitate to visit the most sordid spot on earth on such an errand. Keep on the firing line of life with these motives and God will keep you unharmed.”
There is an issue in this country right now affecting our neighbors, brothers, sisters and everyone’s family. I’ve learned …read more