PulseofCentralFlorida.com is happy to help support and promote WineQuest, Central Florida’s premier series of fine wine tastings, dinners and auctions. The event benefits Quest, Inc., a local nonprofit organization serving more than 1,100 children and adults with disabilities each day.

Here’s a little info on what to expect from this year’s event:

This year’s 15th annual WineQuest series will have four events – a grand tasting with 200 wines from around the world, a farm-to-table five-course wine dinner, a garden brunch at Primo Orlando, and a golf tournament – taking place June 10-12, 2011, at Grande Lakes Orlando resort. We really are relying on WineQuest to bring in the kind of funding we need to keep our programs serving people with disabilities operating. It’s Quest’s largest fundraiser, and our expectations for this year’s event are especially high as the needs for our services continue to grow while our resources become more limited. As such, we are looking at influential outlets than can help us spread the word about WineQuest.”

Here are some photos from last year’s event(s):

WineQuest Golf Classic

WineQuest Grand Tasting & Auction

WineQuest Premier Dining Experience

For complete details and information on this year’s WineQuest event, you can visit their website. Tickets may be purchased here (not an affiliate link).

I have a cat. I think he may’ve made an appearance a time or two here on the blog. Admittedly, it’s been many, many years since I’ve taken him to the doctor; he’s an indoor cat – don’t judge. Recently, though, I thought it time for him to get a check-up, and I decided to visit the newly opened Varsity Veterinary Centerupon the recommendation of a good friend (who’s in the vet field).

Varsity Vet and The UPS Store are NOT one-in-the-same!

Pets are appreciated!

Veterinarian's Oath

Quality Pet Food and Products

The new Sam Flax store location in Orlando, as mentioned a couple of weeks ago, is NOW OPEN! Kim and I took a trip there over the weekend, and I must say it’s a great space. If you’re into crafts and artsy stuff, I suggested taking some time and exploring it* for yourself! Have fun!

* Keep in mind the store did just open, so there still might be some areas that need a little TLC.

Kim and I are both huge fans of Sam Flax. It’s safe to say we both frequent the location on the corner of Shine Avenue and Colonial Drive quite often. So I was excited when I was recently driving down Colonial Drive and noticed there’s a new location opening soon (just west of the current locale). After doing a little research, I see OrlandoSentinel.com reported on this a few months ago; musta missed it. According to the article the store will “move from 1401 E. Colonial to a two-story building at 1800 E. Colonial that will double the store’s showroom space and consolidate the company’s retail and warehouse operations into 17,000 square feet.” NICE!

I was able to pull over and snap a couple of shots (don’t worry, I wasn’t driving…this time):

New Sam Flax Store on Colonial Drive

New Sam Flax Store Exterior

The Sentinel article mentions an opening as soon as early March, but it obviously was not open during my drive-by. No word yet on a hard date….

Anyone know anything about the opening of the new store?

Move over, Starbucks, Downtown Credo is where its at in College Park.

Actually, after my first visit to Downtown Credo for this month’s Indie Media Meetup I realized this is so much more than your typical coffee shop, and comparing it to Starbucks hardly does it justice.

Take, for instance, their cause: “the world is not yet as ought to be. Neither is Orlando. Neither am I.” … “The Downtown Credo is a concerted effort to make a difference.”

Their coffee is more than coffee, it’s coffee grown in Guatemala where growers are paid a living wage for their work. Pretty heavy stuff to ingest over a cup o’ joe.

Wanna learn more?  Me too.  Luckily, Downtown Credo is having A Commitment Breakfast March 10 between 8 and 9 a.m. You can get the details from their website.  See you there!

Downtown Credo
706 Smith Street
Orlando, FL 32804

Here on Pulse we like to diversify events and goings-on around town, so when we ran across this upcoming Spanish Reggae Band event we thought it’d be worth sharing. A new event last year, there were nearly 1,000 attendees. Sounds like success to me!

This year’s event takes place on Friday, March 4th. Tickets range from$30-$55, and bottle services and VIP services are available.

Venue deets:

THE LAX VENUE
7430 UNIVERSAL BLVD.
Orlando, FL

You can find more information about Cultura Profetica on Facebook.

As you know Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is this coming Monday, and there will be a parade in celebration of Mr. King’s life and accomplishments at downtown Orlando’s Lake Eola today (Saturday, 1/15). If you plan on attending you can also do something good for the Central Florida Community: help local charities!

Organizing For America is accepting donations of “items in need” to distribute to our area’s charity organizations. Items can be:

• Canned Food
• Clothing
• Toiletries
• School Supplies
• and more

Look for the tent and donate up until 3pm!

(Source of information BarackObama.com.)

I’m a big fan of PetSmart. I started shopping with them exclusively some time ago, after I just got fed-up with several things with their competitor. So when I was in the store last week picking-up a few items for my pet, I saw this:



Not really a Central Florida specific event, but one where we can help out! So if you’re in the market for a new pet, know someone who is, or if you simply have a HUGE heart, won’t you help spread the word on PetSmart’s National Adoption Weekend? The three-day adoption event is February 11th – 13th (Friday through Sunday), in all PetSmart stores located in the United States and Canada.

More information can be found at your local PetSmart store. You can also get insight and information about the company by Following them on Twitter.

P.S. If you do end-up adopting a pet as a result of this event, won’t you share some photos of your new friend? We’d love to post them here on the site!

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays, Peeps, and most of all Happy New Year! 2010 has been such a great year of growth for our blog–with regard to traffic, media, audience, Community awareness–and we have you to thank!

We hope you have a safe and wonderful New Year, and we look forward to providing you with even greater information and insight about Central Florida in the coming year.

Rock on!

If you weren’t able to catch last night’s episode of Orlando LIVE, then you didn’t get to see us and fellow Central Florida Blogger Bess Auer (Central Florida Top 5) talk with host Peter Murphy about blogging in Central Florida. (BTW, we like that Peter refers to us as “Cultural Bloggers”!)

Unfortunately WordPress doesn’t support the Livestream video player, so you’ll have to click on the link below (or on the image). And please, if you’re not already, get familiar with Orlando LIVE! They’re a great local show providing tons of great information to Orlando residents. We’re happy to help support them, and appreciate their reciprocal support of us.

(Screengrab from episode featured on OrlandoLiveStreaming.com.)

http://cdn.livestream.com/grid/LSPlayer.swf?channel=orlando_live&autoPlay=false