Social Networking

It's a connected world out there people!

Are you all aware that I have a Facebook Fan Page for the inn? No? Visit it here. Become a fan! Leave a comment! If you send me pictures from your stay I'll post them for you - or I think you can post them yourself.

You can also follow me on Twitter. I wasn't sure I'd like using it, but I actually do. I love the 140 character limit, it makes me think about my wording and it makes it much easier to go through the posts of the people I follow.

It's a beautiful day today, I'd best make the most of it. Thanks for reading!

Slice of PAII

I'm off this week to the PAII* conference in Atlanta. It promises to be three days of information-packed sessions, a busy trade show and (I hope) some time spent with innkeeper friends from other parts of the country.

In other news, my occupancy for the first quarter of this year is up slightly from last year, economy not withstanding. Reservations for the summer are coming in steadily as well. Signs of spring are everywhere, even though the weather has remained chilly. When I get back it will be time to start thinking about yard cleanup and spring projects.

A guest snapped this nifty photo of a hawk at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary a couple of weeks ago and sent it, along with permission to use it here:

Thanks, Mia!

If I learn anything worth reporting at the conference I'll post about it when I return. Y'all have a great week.

*PAII is the acronym for the Professional Association of Innkeepers International, the trade association for B&B owners and Innkeepers. It's pronounced "pie".

Laugh Therapy

Have you ever noticed how much better you feel after a good belly laugh? I'm talking about the kind where you just can't control yourself and where tears come out of your eyes. A laugh like that just seems to release a lot of stress and suddenly whatever was bothering me seems a lot less difficult.

I have found a number of websites that make me laugh on occasion, but none so consistently as this site. Go spend a little time there, it's like a mini-vacation. Just one warning: don't have anything in your mouth when you open the site or I guarantee it will wind up on the screen.

Six Word Memoir

I just returned from my annual February trip to NYC. It was great, I saw a lot of friends and ate some good food. On my way out of the City yesterday I was listening to WNYC and the Leonard Lopate show. I used to listen to him a lot when I was living in Brooklyn and home on weekdays (read: unemployed). His show was always a bright spot in my day.

Yesterday's show centered around a contest to write a personal memoir in six words. It was surprisingly interesting and it inspired me to come up with my own. Here it is:
Living a life I didn't expect.

Solstice

I want to wish all my readers (both of them) a happy, healthy, safe Winter Solstice and whatever other holiday you may celebrate this week. May you be warm & dry and surrounded by those you love.

Provincetown's "famous" lobster trap Christmas Tree

Social Networking

I joined Facebook back in June. I did it because the owner of the Post Secret site started a page there and I wanted access to it. I put up a bare-bones profile, did a couple of searches and "friended" a couple of people. Then I pretty much left it alone on the theory that this was largely a site for the under-30 crowd. Until about five weeks ago. Then, all of a sudden I started getting messages and friend requests as a bunch of my old friends from high school and college - and I mean at least a dozen people, all over 45 - joined the site and started searching for people. I've reconnected with a number of them now. With some I've exchanged just a message or two, with others I feel like I've really resumed a long-dormant friendship. It couldn't have come at a better time.

As a side benefit, Facebook is now allowing people to set up pages for their businesses. I've done one for the inn. I'm not sure if I'll see a benefit from it, but at the moment it's free and it can't hurt. It may help me draw in a younger generation of B&B goers.

I also recently joined Linked In. That site is more for business networking. There is some overlap between the friends I've found there and the ones on Facebook, but I've found a number of people on Linked In who have probably never considered joining Facebook.

If you've been getting invitations to join either of these sites, take a chance and do it. You might be surprised at who you find there. Be warned, though, both can be a bit of a time-suck if you let them.

Yes We Did

My favorite photo, so far, from this election.

These two people have a long, difficult road ahead of them. This country is quite a mess.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he is as good as the speech he gave last night.

Green Travel

There has been a lot of talk lately about "going green". We are all being encouraged to think about our environmental footprint, change our light bulbs, reduce waste, drive less and so forth. There is also a "green" trend in the travel and hospitality industry, and while I think anything that can be done to reduce energy consumption and waste is good, I wonder how many travelers actually choose a lodging establishment based on how "green" it is.

We have been pretty green from the very beginning but I've never advertised it because it's just what I do. To me it isn't a marketing ploy, it's how I want to live my life. And we aren't totally green, there are no solar panels on the house and the property isn't large enough for a windmill so we are forced to use oil and propane for heat, hot water and drying laundry. Only rarely do I hang anything to dry outside. Our electricity use could probably be reduced by putting in power strips for things like televisions and video decks. I haven't yet changed over to a water saving front loading washing machine, although I probably will very soon; our current washer is showing definite signs of advancing age. Still, I think I do more than the average homeowner. For anyone interested, here is a list of our green practices:

- Soap/shampoo/lotion dispensers in the bathrooms save on all those little plastic bottles;
- Navy blue towels and colored bed linens so we don't have to use bleach in the wash;
- Compost almost all fruit/vegetable waste from the kitchen (except in winter);
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs in all lights that burn many hours a day and I'm in the process of changing the bulbs in more places;
- Timers for outdoor lighting;
- Recycling, including bottles, cans, newspapers & cardboard;
- Freecycle(TM) for items we no longer use but that aren't ready for the trash, like blankets & towels that we change out every couple of years. Pillows and linens that are too stained or worn for human use go to an animal shelter;
- Air conditioners are installed in frames that allow us to open the window above the unit. This permits a cross-breeze in all our guest rooms and minimizes the use of air conditioning;
- Ceiling fans in all guest rooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and our personal space to cool without a/c;
- Minimal use of chemical cleaning agents;
- Purchasing larger refill sizes and/or concentrates rather than small bottles where possible;
- Programmable thermostat for the heat which allows us to keep the house warmer during peak guest usage (mornings and evenings) and cooler mid-day and at night without having to remember to set it ourselves;
- Purchasing recycled office supplies as much as possible, including copy paper, our letterhead & envelopes, file folders and clasp envelopes;
- Switched from sending snail-mail confirmation letters to email;
- Switched to paperless billing for as many of my business & personal bills as possible;
- In order to save water on longer stays, sheets and towels are changed after the third night. Requests for more frequent changes are, of course, honored;
- When planting my garden each spring, I specifically look for drought-hardy annuals that don't have to be watered every day.

Wow. Pretty exciting, right? I'm sure everyone who reads this is going to want to book rooms here now.

Let's face it, most "green" practices are pretty mundane. I do these things because they make sense to ME. In some cases they actually make my life easier (less watering, fewer light bulb changes, two or three loads of laundry saved in a busy week), in other cases they increase my workload (rinsing & sorting recyclables, bundling newspaper & cardboard, resetting timers, mixing cleaning agents and filling spray bottles).

Okay, now I'd like to hear from my readers. I have a stat. counter, I know you're out there. Do "green" practices weigh into your decisions about lodging when going on vacation? Do you think there is more I should be doing? And what do you do at home?

I'm Surrounded...

by pregnant women. Three of our five female guests this weekend are between five and six months pregnant. That has NEVER happened before. We've had lots of pregnant guests over the years, but only one at a time (that we knew of).

I hope it's not contagious.

Missing Wellfleet Lighthouse Found

This lovely article graced the front page of the Cape Cod Times yesterday (June 5). Surprisingly, today, it was picked up by the AP. My little town has made national news. Yay!

Geographically Challenged

This was a real phone call earlier this week.

Caller: I saw your inn featured on the Fine Living Network's "Top 10 Vacation Spots"* and thought it was really nice. Do you think you can help me find an inn as nice as yours on Martha's Vineyard?

Me: Let me see if I understand this: You think my inn is really nice but you want to stay somewhere else?

Caller: Well, I only have one day, I'll be in Stamford (CT) on business and it looks like Martha's Vineyard is closer.

Me: It may be closer as the crow flies, but you have to take a ferry to get there.

Caller: I do?

Me: Um, it's an island. It's a 45 minute ferry ride, you have to find the schedule and make a reservation.

Caller: Well, I only have the one day and I didn't want to drive more than about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Me: Where are you calling from?

Caller: Cincinnati, Ohio.

To make a long conversation short, the caller had no idea of the distances involved. Stamford, CT is near the New York border, about an hour from NYC. It's about a 5 hour drive from there to Wellfleet. The closest place she could have picked up a ferry to the Vineyard is New Bedford, about a 4 hour drive. I'm not sure how long the ferry ride is from there, the 45 minute time is from Hyannis. At any rate, the caller finally decided, with a little prodding from me, that her best bet for a quick getaway would be to drive to New London, CT, and take the ferry from there to Montauk, Long Island. It's also a beach resort area, but not as nice as Wellfleet, at least in my opinion :)

*The show on which the caller saw my inn was filmed about six years ago. It still airs at least once a year and has been picked up by local stations in some markets now and then in between. It was one of the best pieces of publicity I ever got, and it was totally free!

How To Get Rid of Fruit Flies

From an email exchange between two innkeeper friends:

Innkeeper #1
"Anybody have a way to get rid of the buggers?"

Innkeeper #2
"Our standard is to drink almost all the wine from a bottle, then set the bottle with a little wine in it on the counter near where the fruit flies congregate. They'll go for the wine (smart little buggers) and then can't find the way out of the bottle (dumb little buggers)--but at least they die happy."

Innkeeper #1 (late the next day)
i hav dlunk the wyine, and cnnott see any moorre floot fries. It wroks!

I Couldn't Resist

A Few Random Things

I know I've been a bit lax about posting lately, my attention has been pulled in too many directions to compose a coherent post. We've been very busy for this time of year, which is good, and I still have some winter projects to complete and some supplies to order before the busy season really rolls around. None of this is terribly interesting, however, so I'll invite you to read a couple of things I've found recently on some of the blogs I read when I have the time.

A while back I posted a bit of a rant about weddings. They have a way of getting seriously out of control that I just don't understand. My own wedding was a backyard clambake, very casual and a lot of fun. But then, I just didn't have the "big wedding" dream. Big or small, the details can be mind boggling. I found this post at a blog on organizing. It should be required reading for anyone planning a wedding.

I now take you to a completely unrelated topic: Jacuzzi tubs. We don't have any, primarily because there was a) no way to fit them into our bathrooms and b) the way this house is constructed, there would be no way to isolate the vibrations, meaning that everyone in the house would know when someone was using a jetted tub. Many of my innkeeper friends, however, do have them. Guests seem to enjoy them. Here's a story of a guest enjoying one in a way none of my innkeeper friends ever envisioned (perhaps that's for the best).

And finally, I leave you with this. It is an utterly useless site, but I'll bet it'll make you smile.