I apologize to anyone who has had difficulty accessing our website over the past 2 days. I couldn’t get to it myself either, and trying to get to the bottom of the problem was like nailing jello to a wall.

Apparently, the problem wasn’t with our website hosting site, or with the connections here. They reported that it was some sort of network issue that was affecting a segment of people — perhaps people coming through a certain internet provider, or from a certain region. They mentioned possible causes like construction workers digging up fiber lines.

I have no idea how many people were affected, and I’m sorry if you were one of them!

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I generally try to find a benefit or lesson in any situation, but I’m having a hard time with this one. From what I’ve heard, there’s nothing we can do to avoid such a circumstance in the future, and it’s just the nature of the net. If anybody out there has some tips, please let me know. I’d hate to waste this opportunity for a lesson!

We arrived in Sedona this afternoon, and it feels so good to be back!

I met our group of adventurous wenches this morning in Phoenix, then we headed up to Cottonwood, where we picnicked beside a lagoon, with big shady trees. It felt like an oasis in the desert!

Next stop was Tuzigoot, the ruins of a town built by the Sinaguans about 1,000 years ago, and mysteriously abandoned 400 years later. Who were these people? And why did they all leave this “oasis” spot in the desert? (Tuzigoot and the mysterious “abandonment” definitely deserve coverage in posts of their own, so more on that later!)

From Tuzigoot, it’s a quick hop to Sedona. Driving into Sedona is always spectacular, as the famous red rock landscape comes into view, and it’s always cool to share this amazing place with new people.

I’ve been here so many times, that settling into our uptown hotel feels like coming home. Get all the chores done, then relax on the hotel balcony, looking up at the rocks, and thinking “ahhh… life is good”. The view includes famous “Snoopy Rock”, lying on his back and looking up at the sky (on the right in the picture, click photo for larger version).

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We do Sedona tours for women a few times a year, in spring and fall. I always feel my spirits life when I come here, though I don’t know how much of that I can attribute to vortex energy vs. just getting away from my desk and spending time outside!

I just ran across a cool tool — the “Big Dig” over at Idea Sandbox. They describe this as a set of thought starters and problem solving techniques, collected from great thinkers and writers.

If you’re feeling stuck on a particular problem — whether a business issue, personal matter, or writer’s block — you can dig in their sandbox, and it comes up with a suggestion. A couple of tries netted me the following, both of which had a kernel I could make use of:

Consider looking up. You may be trying to solve something that is really a small part of a much bigger problem.”

It’s not enough to be good when you dream of being great.”

Great stuff indeed, and I’m glad I tried it! You can start solving some of your own problems at

Idea Sandbox: Big Dig problem solver

Recently when I’ve turned on my mac while sitting at the airport, I’ve been surprised to find complete strangers showing up under my “Shared” section in the Finder. Not being nosy, I didn’t go poking around in their stuff, but it made me wonder why this was happening.

And more concerning, were other people able to see (and poke around in) my files? I have my files set up to easily share between computers in the office. But that doesn’t mean I want everyone in the airport to see them!

I found the answer in Ask Dave Taylor, who explained that a change in the most recent Mac operating system (Leopard, or Mac OS X vers 10.5) , leaves the Guest account enabled for file sharing by default. If you don’t turn it off, you could be sharing more than you expected!

If you’re a Mac user and haven’t done anything about this yet, check out this post for simple instructions on how to close this security loophole.

Ask Dave Taylor: How do I completely disable the Guest account on Leopard?

No need for all those other travelers to see your business strategy or love letters, right?

Tonight I’m going through “the change”. Again.

No, not THAT change! I’m just changing back into my alter ego, “tour leader”. Though I run a travel company, most of my time is not spent personally leading trips. Most of the time, I’m working on product development, marketing and promotion, processes, finances, systems, etc. — everything that’s involved with running Adventurous Wench. But a few times a year, I get to go out and lead a tour myself!

This American Heritage Dictionary definition of metamorphosis seems to fit:

A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.”

It’s time to don some logo wear (appearance), put on my best smiling host attitude (character), get a good workout hiking trails and hefting bags (condition), and show and tell our guests all about the wonders of Arizona (function).

Sure warning signs “the change” is coming include:

• Talking to imaginary people. Not out loud, just in my head. Instead of just seeing something for myself, I mentally start telling other people about it, which is a very different way of processing the world.
• Stopping to look at all the plants I pass, to recall what I know about them (and sniffing all the creosote bushes).
• Remembering various tidbits of buried knowledge about people and places.
• Feeling a need to go double check the years certain events occurred.
• Alternating between “yay — I get to go on a trip and meet some cool people“, and “geez, I have so much work to do, how can I afford to leave my desk that long?“

Once I’m in “the season”, then it’s not a big deal. Switching back & forth frequently doesn’t seem like anything, since both roles are still fairly near the surface. But tomorrow is our first trip of the season that I’m personally leading, so the “tour leader” has been dormant for awhile. She’s been awakening the past couple of days, and tomorrow morning she’ll be ready to go!

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We do Sedona tours for women a few times a year, and I frequently lead these myself, since it’s practically my own back yard. The weather looks perfect, and it should be a wonderful weekend!

I set my Mac to announce the time every hour on the hour, and it reminds me of the old town crier (except a lot quieter)!

Actually, that mechanical voice can be a real kick in the pants. It always makes me feel like there’s more he’d like to say…

• “It’s eleven o’clock”… (and you’re still fiddling around with e-mails. Enough already — do something important!)
• “It’s four o’clock”… (and most people’s work day is nearly over. How did that website project suck up the whole afternoon?)
• “It’s ten o’clock”… (OK, so you’ve got a few hours left tonight — what can you do that’s useful?)
• It’s two o’clock… (you’re clearly a bit brain-dead now, but can you still get that blog post out tonight?)

Guess I’d better try!

It’s wonderful to think, but it’s even more wonderful to experience life with all your senses.” ~ Oscar Wilde

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How right he is!

I’m back in the office now. The life of the mind uses a lot of my time when I’m not traveling. It’s incredibly interesting! Whether I’m researching possibilities for new trips, or working on long-range strategy plans, or writing a blog post, or learning new coding techniques for our computer system (yes, I still have some techie left in me!), it’s all quite fascinating. Like the man said, it’s wonderful to think!

But there’s so much more, isn’t there? There’s the part we don’t get in the office, sitting in front of a computer. There’s the part we (or at least most of us in this culture) tend to forget about in the stresses of jobs, family, and all the commitments we have. That’s where travel, vacations, and adventures come in. When you get away from the everyday, all of a sudden, you experience life with so many more senses!

A couple of weeks ago, I was up in Cottonwood, and took these pictures of trees in the winter. I was struck by their beauty, and this quotation fit them so well.

While I was out walking there, I was feeling the chill in the air, hearing the river running nearby, gazing astonished at these incredible trees and the blue, blue sky, and feeling the path and the leaves underfoot. I was using all these senses in a way that doesn’t happen here in the office.

Now that I’m back, looking at the pictures can bring back some of the sensations — the exhilaration of those deep, fresh breaths, or the the nip in the air that made me glad I had a hat. But the pictures couldn’t do that unless I was actually there in the first place.

Oscar Wilde was so right.

We stop in the small town of Cottonwood on our Sedona hiking tours for women. You might even see these exact same trees, but you’d never recognize them covered with green leaves.

I came up to Chicago for the Adventures in Travel Expo here. The expo was smaller than I’d hoped, but my brother Alan lives in the area, which made the trip more enjoyable. Text chat with Alan:

Alan: (Night before the trip) It’s wind chill 20 below here
Me: I don’t think I own enough clothes for that
Alan: (morning I leave) Warming up, should be balmy when you arrive
Me: (taxiing to terminal in Chicago) I see snow. Am I in the wrong place?

One afternoon we took a walk around downtown Naperville, which was a pretty downtown, though I’m sure it looks a lot different in the summer.

Also out that day for a stroll in the snow were a bunch of ducks. What ever happened to migrating south for the winter? Those web feet really don’t look like they’re designed for this!