A Full Week and Then Some!

A Full Week and Then Some! was Originally Posted on March 9, 2005 by lavarock

There are slow weeks and there are full weeks. This one was pretty full.

A year ago I received an email from a couple wanting to vacation in Hawaii. I often get these emails because I participate in numerous forums and discussion groups. These people listen to the consumer advisor, Clark Howard.

I gave them some travel tips and helped them decide which islands they want to visit (Hawaii and Kauai).

Along the way they mentioned that they wanted to get married in the islands, so I helped then coordinate things here in Kona. They arrive Thursday night and the wedding ceremony is scheduled for Saturday night. Their cost is about $550 including the Justice of the Peace, flowers, a hotel location, certificates and a bottle of champagne. All in all, not a very expensive event in the scheme of things. They will stop by a local store for Hawaiian Wear prior to the ceremony. I’ll be a witness and will be taking photos for them.

Since they will know no one on the island (I’ve not even met them yet), I tried to get them to arrive last week so they could do the ceremony at the monthly KonaWeb picnic. We had TONS of people there this month and it would have been neat to have the new couple meet 20 or 30 new friends here. Unfortunately, they could not get he in time. Oh well J

I have invited KonaWebbers to stop by for a drink of champagne. Perhaps a few people will be able to make it. Otherwise, it’ll be just the 4 of us (until the Justice of the Peace leaves J

I have had 3 Ebay auctions recently; 2 in the last week. One woman got a pretty good deal on a pound of coffee but has yet to pay. The last auction bidder was the only one to bid and got 2 of my 4 ounce bags of coffee for 99 cents (plus $3.85 shipping). WOW! I love getting deals and believe it or not, I also love GIVING deals, if that is the way it turns out. Perhaps I’ll get a bit of repeat business from the auction winners.

Speaking of Ebay, I found a fantastic deal for websites at $10 a year and got a few. Although they offer great packages for installation, I found that the sites are not appropriate for ecommerce. You cannot get a static IP address and the site also does not support SSL certificates either.

I then found a pretty good deal ($78 a year) for a site that gives you a static IP if you want it. So I bought a SSL certificate for my site and got it working. As I converted my old site to the new hosting company, I ran into major problems and had to do a bunch of converting and troubleshooting. Just as I got things workinga nd ready again for customers, my site went down! I sent an email to the trouble desk and went to a coffee meeting about farms and taxes. When I got back I found the site was again running. Whew!

I have been testing out a router for a neighbor who also runs a coffee farm business. Unfortunately she does not yet know about the SSL problem and she will have the same issues. At least the router (which I got on, let me think, Ebay), was a great bargain. I also talked the seller into using the post offices Flat Rate Box (FRB-1) and saved like $14 shipping cost! The neighbor will be up on high speed along with her renter and both should be happy with the internet speed. I was hoping to get her interested in the Packet8.Net deal for internet long distance. It would save her even more money if she uses my discount code LAVAROCK J

I bought a backpack sprayer and walked part of the property spraying Roundup on the weeds. I have an area near the garage cleared and will be putting a weed mat there soon. The mat will protect the area when I get ready to build my nursery for little keiki coffee plants.

I also went price shopping for refrigerators again and am about ready to get one. I may have to keep it downstairs until I get the kitchen remodeled. I am still working on that project.

I got a call from the USDA about my application for a grant for water conservation. I’ll meet with them Monday.

I want to get my coffee into one store nearby to see how well it sells. The results may help me decide if I will invest in UPC codes and sell in many stores.

There are other things which happened this week, but I am tired just thinking about them, so aloha for now!