Down home downtown: Mr. B and the prospective Ms. B celebrated two years of blissful angst and acrimony last weekend with a staycation in Sundance Square. A little sweet treat at Paciugo Gelato and Caffe, a movie in a palatial theater, a buy one, get two special at Jos. A. Bank, some frank talk from ESPN at a sports bar, dinner, but no dancing at Vidalia's, a night's stay at the Worthington Renaissance Fort Worth Hotel and breakfast at a bakery on the corner only because the cupcake place hasn't opened yet. Loads to do and so little time or money in the B wallet. We paid the freight, but Sundance's Tracy Gilmour can heighten your stay and lighten your load with this $100 gift card good anywhere in Sundance. This is really cool: Finally, we are near a break in the heat and that means the air conditioning folks in the area can come up for air. Sales, installations, repairs ... must be nice to be working. (Idle thought: Air conditioning folks usually aren't working in air-conditioned comfort.) Jack Ernst at Coaire says don't sweat it because he's cool and has freeze-framed this offer over in a pdf: a Coaire Mini-Split, which is a 12,000 Btu/h, cooling-only, Mini-Split air conditioning system and is are great for energy savings, low sound level and humidity control. The Mini-Split indoor evaporator is installed in the space to be conditioned and delivers conditioned air without air ducts. The $1,200 value includes an indoor evaporator, outside condensing unit and remote control. Now, it's going to cost you to have it installed, about $800 and something that Coaire doesn't do.

Picture of the Week     Walter Dansby, Interim Supt. FWISD, thanked Emanuel George, Walgreens, and more than a dozen other Distinguished Employers of Fort Worth Teens last week at a recognition event held at TCU. The Distinguished Employers of Fort Worth Teens (DEFWT) is a designation for area employers who pledge to practice specific supportive behaviors to help students create a balance between school and work so that they are successful at both. The DEFWT program includes 69 employers in 288 locations that employ more than 1,800 youth. See photos here.   Sponsored by

Business of doing business: Mr. B asked boss Miserly Mistress for a recession raise from 39 cents to 39.75 cents. She laughed. “No raise,” she chortled, “but you can have the Chamber's Major Employers Directory, its coffee table book and the Book of Lists published by the Fort Worth Business Press." She forgot those were Mr. B's birthday gifts, and if you don't squeal, Mr. B will re-gift them. The directory features contact information (except email addresses) for more than 500 businesses and organizations that employ 100 or more. The 175-pound book highlights Fort Worth's people, companies and diverse culture and is an excellent substitute for barbells. The Book of Lists is a necessity for doing business with who's who.

BRIT a hit: Tammie Crole says memberships to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas are growing wild (like weeds?), helped along by 370 sold via Groupon. Don't want to get too flowery when describing the Brit monument to greenery on University, but it is a fantastic greenhouse/nursery/museum. You can see it for free during the Sept. 24 Day in the District and maybe that will plant the membership idea in your head. To fertilize that thought, Tammie is offering an annual membership to one green thumb.

2nd-class member: Netty (not a Getty) Matthews, aka Mother of Membership, asked Mr. B to be on a Chamber committee. Now he is leery after reading her borrowed pearl of wisdom: “Sure, God created man before woman. But then you always make a rough draft before the final masterpiece.” Bar none: Gary Napier, Business Network Solutions, also is the owner of The Armadillo bar in Everman. In Gary's words, “it's a high-class dive... a neighborhood, Cheers-type bar.” Gary is a silent owner and “patron.”

Eddie Money, money, money: If ever you were going to give to a charity, tomorrow might be the day because it is the third annual North Texas Giving Day. Donations $25 and above made to one of nearly 700 North Texas charities via www.donorbridgetx.org between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. will be matched from a pool of $710,000 underwritten and raised by DonorBridge founders. Frac Tech and Community Foundation of North Texas are contributors to the pot.

Doesn't add up: Brett Jeffreys says his worst class was college calculus. The Handyman Matters franchisee claims every time he took the course he did worse.

What's on TV today, honey? The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame has won two national awards for distance-learning and Mr. B thought it was because guys were interested, but were too "macho" to come to the museum. Straight from Mr. Ed's mouth, he found out that through its 26 distance-learning programs, the Cowgirl Museum reached 16,963 students in 2011.

Truth serum: It was only coincidental that Mr. B met Tina Lynch of DECAF (Debt Education & Certification Foundation) in the coffee line.

Whole lot of celebratin' goin' on: Some people like to celebrate Thanksgiving, some Christmas, some Ramadan, some Pesach. Nobody celebrates birthdays better than Bethany Tyler-Tinderholt of Burnett's Staffing. Yours, mine and especially hers, which is today.

An earful: Mr. B was attending a Chamber function, during which he is expected to get snippets for Newz-E-Letter. From the mouths of babes: “Watch what you say. Mr. B has big ears.”

Lots of beautiful people: If you ever are bored, casting days are a great time to hang out at Studios 121.

A-D-D: Cally Monson of MMG was asked to name her best contact that would return an email or phone call. It was obvious she didn't understand the question when she answered “Any cute guy.”

Tech talk: Former Mayor Bob Bolen is very social, but you'd never see the TCU titan on Facebook a la current Mayor Betsy Price. “One of her strengths is technology; mine isn't,” he said. “I like her a lot. She's inquisitive and smart.”

More about Fort Worth: Unleashed on a suspecting online public in October will be Unleashed the magazine, which already debuted in San Antonio with Fort Worth next in line. Editor and CEO Jesus Monroy of Mexinco describes it as a combination of editorial and advertorial about business and culture.

I'll take one of those, too: Interest rates are low, low, low. Just last week, bankers from Southside Bank and BBVA Compass were suggesting businesses consider refinancing commercial and equipment loans.

Nothing fuzzy about her: In addition to her Sandler Sales Training franchise, Kim Booker has franchise rights for Fuzzy's Tacos in the Phoenix area.

Sales 101: Super (not Soupy) sales peeps Toni Shelton of Curry Printing and Dani Chambers of Lucky Strike have three techniques in common. They still send hand-written thank you/nice meeting you notes within 24 hours, they strive to get face time with prospects and always, always ask for referrals.