Estate and Charitable Gift Planning Institute and Starbucks

I just signed up fro the 16th annual Roy Adams Estate and Charitable Gift Planning Institute. Locally it's sponsored by the Salvation Army and they want an audience. They also want you to be in a position to be knowledgeable about charitable gift planning so you can best advise your clients how to donate money. Especially if the clients want to donate to them.

I especially like this seminar because it's open to everyone; it's at a big venue so I know there's room for everyone and feel free to tell my friends. It's at the convention center so I can take the bus. Because it's a bit far from most restaurants, you're trapped and the easiest thing to do for lunch is buy from the convention center lunch cart with its long line. I think I'll bring lunch this year and avoid the wait. It isn't for another couple of months yet so hopefully I'll have the ambition to make lunch when it's time.

On a caffeine-related note, Starbucks has announced the closing of 600 unprofitable and not foreseen to be profitable stores. I guess there is such a thing as too much coffee. People have been wondering whether Americans would continue paying $4 a cup for coffee and products made with coffee indefinitely. I've seen enough budget analyses in the news that have pointed out the excessive amounts of money people were spending at the coffee shop that also suggested reducing coffee purchases as a way to improve their finances so that I'm not in the least surprised at this news. It doesn't affect me as I'm not a coffee drinker and rarely venture to coffee shops for a beverage of any type.