www.CookieCabana.com is finally online and functioning. There are still adjustments to make and many many improvements to think about, but hey that's OK.

Please visit the website and tell us what we can do to make it better. I want to personally thank Benjamin and Clemens for their good design and technical work. Let's keep it going guys.

Now I have to go and bake the first three orders. God, I've been good all these years... haven't I? Help get this adventure reach the top of the cookie charts.

You should read everything carefully before sending money to people you don't know. I always knew this... I'm not exactly a businessman born yesterday, but now I know it even more. This is also why we are very serious that CookieCabana.com has clear and easily accessible terms of use... our lawyer has done a good job on this.

Her's the story- As we did our commecial registration (Hendelsregistereintragung), we naturally had to pay some fees. 40 Euros to Amtsgericht, another 30 to another official bureau, etc. Things were fine until a few days after receiving our official notification that the registration was completed, when we received two bills from other seemingly "official" organizations for a total of around 1000 Euros. This was a shock... I hid the bills under a stack of papers for a couple of days, so I wouldn't have to think about them. Finally, the real "man" that I am, I mustered the courage to show the bills to my wife. After some careful consideration, we decided we had to pay these "official" bills, so might as well get it over with. We paid them online last Sunday afternoon... big mistake. On Monday, I received another bill for 530 Euros. This was strange, so I went to see my tax advisor. He told me this was all a scam. There are people who monitor the Handelsregister for new registrations, and send them offers for inclusion in their data bases. However, the informatin about the "offer" is in very very fine print. They name themselves such official sounding names as "Allgemeines Gewerberegister AGR / Gewerberegister Veröffentlichungen", send a letter with a payment slip (überweisung) attached, and ask you to pay before such and such date.

So, we were duped. But, fortunately we found out early enough. The bank could stop one payment, and the other is in the process of being returned. By the way, I've received two more similar bills since then, but now I know better.

You know what I'm talking about. Every space shuttle launch is always announced weeks in advance, but often when the actual time comes the sky is cloudy, it's too windy, the temperature's too high or too low, or any number of other "weather" related things happen that delay the launch. Something similar is apparently happening to CookieCabana.com.

Benjamin, our "weatherman" web-designer was here a few days ago, along with the "tech.-brain" behind-the-scenes-man we hadn't met before. It was indeed a pleasure meeting Clemens. Both gentlemen look the parts they play in their company. One the free-sprited designer, the other the technical maverick. The two of them had brilliant ideas about lots of things, that I'm sure we'll use one time or another. The only thing is we're again not online yet. There's a sort of commonness between our website and the space shuttle... the delays. Our weatherman (men) have put the launch date back again by two weeks.

Want to know what I think? I think these guys had thought they were dealing with me. They didn't know their actual counterpart was my wife, the "better" half of Cookie Cabana. She is a computer engineer so she knows the real and not-so-real issues in programming. When she estimated the time this website should take to develop, she evaluated things based on her own work habits, expectations and speed, which are excellent, high and fast. Damn, if I were a bit more like her, I would've been a minister or something by now.

As much as we have been anticipating an on-time launce, I seems less than likely. Our website is going to take a bit longer than planned, and we hope to get things started right after the Easter holidays. On week's delay is unfortunately unavoidable and tomorrow the countdown clock will be set back seven days.

Although everything else is ninety something percent ready, this slight delay will also give us time to finish the few remaining things before opening the shop.

Bear with us.

On Christmas day last year, I wrote something about a dream I'd had, in which the website countdown clock had only a few days left before launch. That dream is now reality.

My immediate remaining job is to put the finishing touches on the text that goes into the website, and my wife's in charge of getting the technical-financial parts running; Benjamin, who has grown into a much closer associate than just a hired web-designer, is pushing to get as many things finished and ready as possible. I think he's also getting a little excited, which we appreciate. And, of course, God has the important job of making everything fall into place on time... I'd be quite happy if he acheived 95%.

The last of our start-up supplies are arriving almost daily, but there are still one or two main things that kind of give us the jitters. I know, I know... we've come all this way, and we'll keep moving along the rest of this journey as well. On my computer keyboard, I have a label from a bottle of Johnnie Walker whiskey. This reminds me everyday of their wonderful slogan: "keep walking".

That's what I feel like, An ATM machine. It seems we're just paying money left and right, without delay. So many things to pay for, some of them you can touch, but many things you can't... the remaining legal registrations, lawyer's fees, payment systems membeship fees, and of course our beloved website. Having said all that, it feels strangely good to be paying all this money. You know, it feels sort of like when you're spending money on your kids' education. It hurts, it's alot of money, but you know you're investing in something worthy, the future of your children, something very important. For me, CookieCabana is like a project, if not a dream, come true. I've wanted to do somthing like this for ages, but now was the right time to get started.

Aside from the pleasant novelty of the investment part, We've both enjoyed a great learning experience during this whole process. When you go to a store and buy a package of almost anything, you don't realize the amount of thought and work that has gone into putting that product on the shelves of that store... I can tell you, it really has been quite a lot. I think going through this process has given us hands-on experience that's been as valuable as a business entrepreneurship degree from college, at a fraction of the cost. Has it been worth it so far? I think so.

This morning, I finally held our "product" in my hands. Cookies, high-tech biodegradable wrappings, box, labels, etc. All put together, complete. It felt good, a kind of relief, around eight months after "she" made the decision it was the right time in our lives to do this. Holding the box in front of my eyes played on my nerves, in an expectant but soothing sort of way. I knew then that we'd succeeded, even if we sell only one box. I remeber one of my teachers in high school who used to say "getting from step one to step ten is a lot easier than getting from zero to the first step". We'll have a chance to put that theory to test.

Less than one month remaining, and things are coming together one by one. There are still a few details left, but we've finally got a "product" in our hands. Spending these past few moths on all kinds of bigger and smaller decisions, we're finally left with only a few minor tiny details like what legal information must we provide on the website, fine tuning the packaging, buying a label printing machine, and a few similar issues.

Somehow I know that when our grand opening day comes, we'll manage to hit the ground running... and my rather relaxed attitude worries my wife to no end. Of course, she's right. Whereas my strength is in the product design area, she's the organizational,and executive, "brain" of CookieCabana. She's the one who makes it all happen... or pushes me until I make some things happen. This whole project has been able to get off the ground because of her.

By the way, we had another meeting to see how the website is coming along... It's coming along. What can be seen looks good, but I'm worried about what we can't see yet. That part of the site is its most important part. I have every hope things will be ready on time... can you see my fingers crossed?

Working in Europe is great for someone like me. I' am a true believer in the free enterprise system. There are people who criticize liberal capitalism because of its instances of social and economic injustice... I agree. There are flaws of capitalism that man hasn't been able to find a solution for yet, but then there's this other part of capitalism that makes it all worthwhile. To me, free enterprise means having the freedom to cempete. Two things usually happen when there's competition in the market: 1- prices come down 2- quality goes up. But, free enterprise isn't easy... it requires lots of good thinking and much hard work.

In our search for suppliers of ingredients that go into our cookies, we've found many, tested most, and selected a few companies. We have very simple criteria: 1- high quality bio products 2- suitable technical characteristics. Price also plays a role in our decision making, but not as big as the other two. Some of these companies are huge... for example, the bio cane sugar comes from a big supplier, but some materials come from 3-4 person companies.

This morning, we received a sample from one of the smaller companies in southern Germany. Their product is great, it's sized perfectly, it's correctly dried, it smells and tastes fresh, it's good. This is just a small company competing in a big world; and it's going on... producing... selling... participating in the economy... providing income for a few families. This example made me think again of the benefits of free enterprise. Nobody's too small or too big to specialize in, make, and sell something very good at reasonable prices... this is the key. Many many participants of all sizes come together to shape large efficient economies. By the way, China surpassed Germany in exports for the first time in history last year. Does this mean the communists are becoming better capitalists than the traditional free market countries?

I was taking a walk with the dog in the forest early this morning. I was thinking why are we doing this cookie thing at all? I mean we had our hands full to begin with... two full time jobs, three kids... one daughter in the last year of Gymnasium (high school), a son in eighth grade in Gymnasium, and a daughter in the last year of Grundschule (elementary school); a dog, house mortgage, and a million other unfinished and ongoing things. I tell you why.

Classical business thinking would suggest because we found a niche in the market that was not being served by anyone else, so based on our capabilities and resources we made a decision to fill that niche. But, reality would suggest reasons a little different. We started Cookie Cabana because we wanted to do our own thing... to do something good for people, and be rewarded for doing so... to make our own independent money... to take our own destinies in our own hands. Tall list, and oh... finding a niche in the market that was not being effectively served by anyone else was also a reson.

Basically, the plan is to give people better organic (bio) cookies than they could buy at their bio shops, for a lower price than what they would pay at those shops and supermarkets, to do this so well and to make so much money as to be able to provide a good living for all of the people involved... and to give as much as possible to those other people whom our customers will decide to give to. You'll see more on this subject when the web-shop opens. Kind of like a democratic Bill Gates. Can we count on your support?