Teaching an old dog new tricks?

When odd things happen in your life, you may need a little time to digest it before you truly understand what happened. Then like a light bulb, you get it and it all makes sense.
I recently joined a women's networking group here in Camden. We meet once a month at a bakery for coffee and discuss women related business topics. The group is fun and a great networking opportunity. Towards the end of the meeting, each member gets about 2 minutes to promote themselves and tell about their services. There was this one lady that was very familiar to me and I could not remember how, until one day I was able to put it all together.
My dad is your traditional jolly, fun going, beer drinking, football watching type of guy. He enjoys going out, being with friends and celebrating life. When out or celebrating my dad's choice beverage is always a beer. In my 34 years, I have never seen my dad drink wine. This is an important part of my story so bare with me.
My parents came up from New Jersey in 2007 and as a fun day trip I invited them to go to the local winery with me. My mom, unlike my dad, loves to drink wine. The winery had just been renovated and under new management. We drove up to the winery and when we got their we enjoyed the atmosphere, my kids loved running around the place, my mom and I were enjoyed the wine tastings and my dad just seemed out of place. He did not want to taste the wine nor was he comfortable with my kids running a muck. The women behind the bar noticed my dad was a little obtuse and invited him to join in the tasting. My father was reluctant but he was flattered that the pretty, well built women had asked him to join us. I say well built in the kindest sense, she was very shapely and womanly if you get what I mean. This part is also important because this is the magic power that I thought was at play. The women asked my father again to taste and he declined, she somehow, without him tasting, got him to actually purchase a bottle of wine. She convinced him that it tasted like beer and he fell for it. My mother and I did not understand his impulse to buy, but were convinced that the women's fine looks were the reason for the purchase. We teased him in the car all the way home.
Back to the networking group. One of the members of the group called out to my familiar women, "hey didn't you used to work at the winery?" She said yes, "yes I created the wine speel and was their best selling agent." I was shocked and remembered her to be the women that sold my father the wine. I asked her what her profession was and - you are not going to believe this - but, she is a clinical hypnotist. She hypnotises people before surgery, if they are fighting with an addiction, or need a new direction in their life. I couldn't stop laughing when I realized that all this time - perhaps my father was hypnotized into buying that bottle of wine. Case solved. Now whether or not the wine tasted like beer, I will never know. But the fact that he broke out of his comfort zone and tried something new was impressive to me. The shapely women no longer works at the winery but I highly encourage all to go and see the winery and experience the wines. Cellardoor winery. A Great Camden Maine Lodging : Camden Windward House is 5 miles from the vineyard and is offering a lodging discount when you sign up for the cooking classes.

Winery Cooking Classes

The local winery has these great cooking classes. The winery itself has been remodeled and the new owners are just fantastic. The new owners put in a test kitchen where local chefs can come in and teach their craft to those of us that like cooking and wine. Bettina is always looking for food to pair with the wines and with the price of the class you are offered several different wines to try with all the foods. The class started at 11:00am and went to 2:00pm. I was not quite ready to start drinking wine at 11:00am, but by the end of the class, I had tried all the samples that were there.The class was full of interesting people and the discussions were fun. My Inn, Camden Windward House would really like to support this winter time activity. We offer our guests, when coming to town for this class, a 5% discount on room rate along with a complimentary bottle of the Local wine upon arrival. The class ticket is $50.o0 and is an additional fee. The next class is at the end of March - check our site for details and reserve a room. It is a nice weekend getaway.

Spring Is Coming

The snow is starting to melt here in Camden Maine. The birds are starting to come out and the sun is rising a lot earlier. Camden Maine is almost the eastern most point of the US and the sun comes up very early. Here at the Inn, we are preparing for another busy summer. We purchased new washers and dryers (LG), put new floors into some of the bathrooms and painted some walls. But much more is needed before you can host over 1,900 people for the summer. Basically a strategic plan is needed to make all go well. Jesse and I have owned the Inn now for 3 years and just starting to understand how this place works. We are evaluating our vendors, considering going "green" for the summer and updating our website so that our guests can use it as a useful tool in planning their trip to Camden.
One of the things that I very excited about to be able to offer our guests this season is an upgrade on our sheets. We have always had nice sheets on beds but now we have upgraded some of our sheets to 500 thread count. I was reading a trip advisor posting about our Inn and they labeled it "I think they iron their sheets". She is right we do iron the sheets. Does anyone do that at home? In fact I complain to the other Innkeepers about how much time we spend ironing sheets - and most just laugh at me and say "you do what? I just hand iron them when they come out of the dryer". Which might be ok for some, but to have a nice ironed sheet is luxury. I can't really complain about the ironing because my husband actually does the ironing. He plugs in his computer, puts a movie in - in front of him, and watches while he irons. He also sometimes puts in a book on CD to help get him through this tedious task. He never complains, I think he finds it meditative. Hope all of you are starting to enjoy the thaw. Get those chores done!