One of the better things about operating our earlier business ventures out of Tucson was the annual opportunity to attend the world’s largest gem show. I believe that may have been what drew us there in the first place, back in ‘87.

The first few years, I seldom got a chance to tag along with my dad and his friend and mentor, Walter C. But as our business grew and I aged into a somewhat responsible teen, I was allowed to accompany him more often. We would only make it through a tiny percentage of the show, as my dad was extremely pokey, and loved nothing better than haggling some poor Brazilian until the guy forgot his English.

In the early nineties tanzanite really took off as a popular gemstone. Always exp ...

Summer has finally come to Northern Michigan. It has had to struggle through rain, late frost, and more rain. Then it encountered hail, high winds, thunder, more rain, and… more rain.

It is flooded up here, as in other parts of the country. My poor neighbors had just gotten their garage emptied of six inches of Lake Mitchell when another storm blew up and refilled it. As if that weren’t enough, the storm also upended a good-sized tree onto their swing, and their yard is now one big messy pond.

But I firmly believe that we have found summer, and I intend to hang onto it until at least October. My peonies bloomed and died, now the Iceland poppies grace a sparse patch of lawn. We redid the landscap ...

The little boy couldn’t have been more than twelve years old. Small for his age, he peered just over the glass countertop of our antique cases.

“How much does a custom necklace cost?” He asked, his voice level and his eyes serious.

“Well,” my dad hedged, ever the profiteer, “how much do you have?”

“I have thirty-two dollars.” The boy pulled a stack of sweaty bills out of his pocket. They were wrinkly, but neatly ordered. “I want a peanut necklace for my mom.”

“A peanut?” My dad asked.

“Yes, sir.” Any child who referred to my dad as ‘sir’ immediately rose up a few notches in his estima ...

Since I launched the shopping cart I have been keeping an eye on how many people are registering and using the shopping cart. I am always looking for ways to make the shopping and browsing experience better as we transition to the finalized website](http://wexfordjewelers.com). It was while I was looking at this that I noticed no one was adding anything to their shopping carts.

I found a bug that was preventing it from working and have fixed it. I have tested it on my development server and on the main ...