Category: Travel

  • Starting My Bilingual Summer

    Christine Gilbert, author of the wonderful and inspiring travel lifestyle blog Almost Fearless, recently wrote about her intention to learn a new language this summer, and challenged her readers to join. Well, join and compete with her, using Duolingo, a free online language learning site promising no ads or hidden fees now and forever. That’s right, free, forever. I’ve been…

  • Want Hotel Status and Upgrades? Just Ask.

    OK first of all, the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program is amazing. In fact I’m comfortable declaring that it’s my hands-down favorite and the best loyalty rewards program I’ve ever used to date. The reasons are many, but I’ll save extolling these virtues for a later post. Before I go on gushing and retell how…

  • Save at Airports: Bring Your Empty Water Bottle

    If you find yourself trudging through airports every week, as I often do, I don’t doubt you’ve noticed that bottled water doesn’t sell for less than $3. Quite often even that is cheap. Nearly ever week since January I’ve wandered through terminals searching for bottled water, and nearly every week I shout (in my head)…

  • Toronto, Eh?

    In January I joined a software engineering team on a project in Toronto, Ontario, for the first time departing from my warm, familiar Excel-modeling blanket. Until boarding that inaugural flight, creating Excel models was my one and only jam, my professional bread and butter. Changing career paths is a daunting endeavor – there are many…