Well, I went to my first event at the Coral Gables Whole Foods since the grand opening last week. On Thursday they had a sangria tasting and it was a good excuse to hang out in their Whole Lifestyle Center (LC) and chat with friends and neighbors who stopped by. The Tarantas Sangria, an organic […]

Gotta admit that I am a food geek who has been anxiously awaiting the opening of Whole Foods in Coral Gables. I loved shopping at Whole Foods in California and though I wouldn’t trek to the Aventura store, I did trek all the way to Fairfax, Virginia to visit the store there. Actually, I was […]

No, this is not an early Halloween blog but rather one about Books and Books, our Manhattan-style bookstore. Mitch Kaplan, Books and Books owner and a co-founder of Miami Book Fair International, has done an incredible job bringing distinguished authors to speak, read, and sign books over the years, but none got my teen daughter’s […]

The Alternative Minimum Tax is basically a parallel tax system that runs in conjunction with the regular tax system. You may not have heard of it before now because it was originally only directed at individuals with extremely high incomes. However, since it was never indexed to inflation it will be affecting the middle class […]

Miami-Palmetto Senior High School is celebrating its Golden Anniversary and the PTSA is having a special membership drive to commemorate it. Ranked in the top 100 public schools in the country by Newsweek Magazine, the school is one of the reasons so many families move to Pinecrest. I remember the first time I attended a […]

First, a disclaimer. I am not a CPA nor accountant and I don’t play one on t.v. To find out whether you are subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) contact your accountant or CPA. The AMT was originally enacted in 1969 in order to make sure that high income individuals paid income tax. Over […]

The Village of Pinecrest reduced its millage from approximately 2.4 mills to 1.95 mills by cutting $1,600,000 from its 2007-2008 budget. This was attained by: Increasing the admission fee at the Splash and Play at Pinecrest Gardens. Charging memberships at the future community center. Increasing rental rates at Village facilities. Decreasing expenditures on out-of-state travel […]

At the first public hearing on the budget for 2007-2008, the Village of Pinecrest City Council voted to reinstate the $50,000 that they allocate in the form of $10,000 to each of the schools withing the Village limits. In the past, this money has been used for landscaping the front of the schools, increasing or […]

No, this blog does not pertain to the hundred and one things we all must do on a daily basis to empty our honey do lists, work lists or any other lists. This has to do with all of the fun things there are to do in South Florida, but many of us never get […]

Well, I received my property tax notice last week and surprise! my property tax bills are not going down significantly (neither did my insurance by the way). I can’t complain as I am one of the lucky homesteaded property owners who defied the “average-time -in-a-house-is 5-7 years-rule” and have been in mine for over 16, […]