CVS giftcards available at Staples!

On my usual trip to Staples this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find CVS giftcards available for purchase.  Bonus!  Since CVS is my prime go-to pharmacy choice, this definitely adds benefit for 5x points earning opportunity with the Chase Ink cards.  During my last trip to Staples, I also discovered Target giftcards on the rack.

Nice to see my local Staples location adding in a new product.  Has anyone else noticed this new availability?

Travel more now

Wanted to share this article from Marketwatch:

One of the biggest life regrets for Older Americans is...

I find it interesting that many find regret with what you didn't do as opposed to what you DID do...certainly goes against our current societal norm of "what have you done for me lately".  I'm certainly an advocate though - travel now while you have the means and health!

Upcoming trip: China!

My recent schedule has really impacted my writing on the blog, but since it's Leap Day I figured I better get back into it.  And since I'm also traveling this week it's another good motivation for me to put together a post.

That's right...I'm headed to China!  Bejing to be exact.  I will depart on Thursday, arrive Friday evening, tour all day Saturday, and fly back home Sunday.  Yes you read that correctly, I will be there for two nights and one day.

You're probably asking yourself, "why would he do such a short trip?" The best answer I can give would be that I'll take what I can get.  Truthfully I had an international voucher that needed to be used before expiry and since the amount was high enough ($700) it would cover a pretty good trip deal if I could find one. And I did on American!  I'm flying for free on the Dreamliner (upgraded to Business on the outbound) and burning points for the hotel, so the trip overall is costing little to nothing.  A score in my book.

Not only that, but I now have a Chinese Visa good for 10 years of entry (which will be valuable for future trip staging and stopover possibilities).

Stay tuned for trip updates later in the coming week!

Want to buy a castle in the Czech Republic?

This is an intriguing idea, actually:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-03/you-can-buy-a-czech-castle-for-13-000

I'm curious what kind of cost it would be to do the recap/renovation, but it's actually not out of the realm of possibility.

http://www.vipcastle.com/en/215/

Actually...a better scenario is this:

Friends (at least 10, more would be better), anyone willing to go in with me on a joint venture?  We can calendar the visits and rent it out during the times we're not there to recoup cost.

Upcoming trip: Stanford/San Diego

I'll be on the road coming up this weekend into next week as I attend the MOR Associates IT Leadership meetings being hosted on the Stanford University campus.  Looking forward to being back in sunny SoCal as well since I'm taking the opportunity to head down for a few meetings and to connect with colleagues and friends at SDSU and USD.

And good thing I'm heading out as well...this winter storm they're predicting could be a massive headache for travel!