Life Begins at 30

View from the window 10.22.03

Very cool view out the window tonight. You get an idea from this picture, but it doesn't completely do it justice. The fog is rolling in, thick and dark, and the foghorns have already begun their calls tonight. This is contrasted by a bright sun on the Coit Tower / Telegraph Hill area of the city. There has definitely been a change in the weather in the past few days. Cold, foggy nights and bright warm days.

itunes for windows

"ITunes for Windows is the best Windows app ever written'' -- Steve Jobs

Apple just gave me a great gift. iTunes for Windows. Before last week, iTunes was one of the major reasons I was jealous of the Mac OS. But now ... I can have my Windows OS and iTunes too! It's a good day!

Article from the Chronicle about iTunes here.

Luna

The moon asked me to meet her in a field tonight.
I think she has amorous ideas. Fantastic!
- Hafiz

There is a yearly tradition in San Francisco called SF Open Studios, where you have the chance to meet artists and view their work -- often right in their studios. Yesterday, we saw the fantastic photographic media of a friend, Jeanne Brophy.

Today, we went to the actual studio of a printmaker named Katie Gilmartin. Jason gave me a really great print by Katie for Christmas, and I have been looking forward to seeing more of her work ever since.

Katie Gilmartin's studio is at the back of a huge artist gallery called SomArts. When we arrived, she was working on a print. We were able to see her apply the ink, and then roll the image on to the paper. Jason watched the printing process, while I took a moment to flip through a stack of prints. Then I saw the print I had been looking for. I had seen it on Katie Gilmartin's site, but in person it was bold, empowering, and I made an immediate emotional connection to it.

When Katie told us about the poem that inspired the print (above), I was sold. Mom and AP had given me birthday money, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate my 30th birthday than to buy this awesome piece of original art. New print in hand, we headed home.

I wanted you to be able to see the print, so you could get the gist. This shot doesn't even come close to doing the print justice. Click here for a better representation.

The "Bike Ride"

I have stopped counting the bruises on my legs. I wore shorts today (yes, in SF in October!) and it looked like I had been seriously beat up by someone from the waist down. The ones that hurt the most are four bruises, all in a row, down my left leg. I considered grossing you all out with a picture, but decided against it.

We went "bike riding" on a trail with some friends on Saturday in Napa. It was more like "bike pushing" on the way up and "bike falling" on the way down. Being completely out of shape and owning a sucky bike, I was off my bike and pushing it within the first ten minutes of the "ride". Curtis kindly offered to switch bikes with me, and I am sure was cursing me as I expounded on how much better his bike was than mine.

We "rode" to Lake Marie with little incident save for many stops to catch our breath. The trail was fun -- a wide gravel road with some beautiful views of Napa and cool ruin-ish looking structures on the way.

We arrived at the small lake, unpacked a picnic, and settled in to have lunch before heading back. We brought bread, tortillas, cheese, apples, pears, dip, and avocados. Jen and Curtis rounded out the meal with chips, skittles, starburst, fruit chews, and soda (g). All food groups covered, it was a fantastic lunch. The lake was small and we were at one end, happy to find a shady spot and a bench to recuperate.

Heading back, we had a choice to return the way we came, or to try an unknown trail which would loop back to the main road. We all agreed to try the unknown trail (insert foreboding music ...) and headed off. We should have suspected trouble when the first thing that we came to on the "bike trail" was stairs. We forged ahead. Next, we came to a series of switchbacks. The trail was narrow enough that we "rode" single file and began our way down the trail. I was in the back. Definitely the most tentative and cautious of the group. I was pretty unsure of myself.

The trail was windy and steep enough that there were times when we were completely out of sight of each other. Or, I should say, the rest of the group was out of my sight! The first trouble came on a part of the trail where there was a dropoff on one side of the trail, and rocks and such in the trail. So riding was an obstacle course of hitting the rocks and trying not to fly off the side. I hit a rock funny and ended up over my handlebars, going down the dropoff. There were several very lucky things about this fall: I did not hit my head or neck, I landed in soft forest stuff (mostly burrs), and it was not as steep as I had feared. I was in the burrs, bike on top of me, with no one in sight. I yelled "Everything is fine, but I fell! I am okay!," I think more to convince myself than the rest of my party. By the time I got back on the path, and hurried to meet up with them, I was full of burrs - everywhere.

The rest of the trip down the hill was not nearly as exciting, but did include more, less than graceful falls. When I was about at my breaking point, I caught up with Jason who rode with me and encouraged me for the rest of the ride. I really needed this because by this point I was exhausted and had lost all confidence.

Jen and Curtis had ridden ahead. Remember how he traded bikes with me at the beginning? My bike, the one he was riding, got an irreparable flat! The rest of his ride down consisted of blowing up the tire, riding till flat, blowing up the tire, riding till flat. Poor guy.

Riding home after a filling and restorative dinner, I thought about what a great day it had been. How many times in our adult life are we in a position to learn something completely new, physically fall down (LOTS of times in my case), and get filthy dirty? It was an exhausting day, and I am still sore, but I felt accomplished in a funny way, and was really happy to have had a fun new adventure.

The (Agri)Cultural Contradictions of Obesity

Great article in the NY Times by Michael Pollan

The rules of classical economics just don't seem to operate very well on the farm. When prices fall, for example, it would make sense for farmers to cut back on production, shrinking the supply of food to drive up its price. But in reality, farmers do precisely the opposite, planting and harvesting more food to keep their total income from falling, a practice that of course depresses prices even further.

Full article here

SFO Flight Tracks

This is a cool site which shows you all the planes in the Bay Area, near real time. It's strangely fascinating. Best thing is switching the map view (under map menu) to "Aerial View". Beautiful.

SFO Flight Tracks

Rick Bayless' Big Mistake

I am so mad. And it may not be rational, or completely fair, or in touch with reality. It may be naive to be so disappointed, but here goes.

Rick Bayless is a chef in Chicago of some well known restaurants, including Frontera Grill . He is also the founder of a group called the Chef's Collaborative, a group of folks who work very hard to promote local, sustainable food consumption. These are the guys who remind you to ask where your food comes from, and how it has been grown. From their statement of principles, they say "Sound food choices emphasize locally grown, seasonally fresh and whole or minimally processed ingredients".

I have been reading different books and articles lately, many of which talk about Rick Bayless as a forefather type of this food arena. Rick Bayless once said that eating local trumps eating organic, and I have really learned a lot from that line of thinking.

So when Rick Bayless, forefather of many great food principles, chose to do commercials for the Burger King Santa Fe Baguette, I hit the roof. On an online forum called e-gullet last week, famous chef and author Anthony Bourdain wondered what's next: "Hi, I'm Alice Waters..Here to tell you about an exciting new product from Pringles!" or "Hi, my name is Susan Sarandon--Maybe you know me from such films as..and I'm here to tell you about the next generation of fighter bomber from General Dynamics"

I am not here to expound on the politics of food. We all have our issues, and this is mine. I choose to eat local food when I can, and really pay attention to how much my food is processed. I don't judge those who don't go along with me, but I do look up to the leaders in this field. And when one of them does something that is the exact opposite of what I would expect, then I do make a judgement.

I don't even think it's about the money. Rick Bayless is giving all his earnings to his foundation which supports farmers in the Chicago area. If you ask me, however, he is doing more harm than good with that money. He is taking money to encourage people to purchase an overly processed, mass-produced product, and then with that money he is helping the farmers that he has hurt with this ad campaign.

The Chicago tribune ran an article this morning where Bayless said that he felt that the BK sandwich was a step in the right direction, and that he felt that the step should be rewarded. Bourdain says "That's like Rob Reiner selling Pall Mall Lites."

Joe

I went to see my friend Amanda yesterday and her 14 month old, with the cutest butt in the world. This is one of those pictures that he is going to hate us for later ...

Jessica Simpson Watch

Tastes like chicken
Just when you thought "Newlyweds" couldn't get any better than the episode where Jessica Simpson mistakes "Chicken of the Sea" for chicken, the pop princess bride trumps her own finest hour. This week, our new favorite couple are on vacation in the Bahamas, hunkering down for some appetizers with Nick's brother, Drew, and his wife, Leah, when Jessica makes an important discovery.

Leah: (motioning to Buffalo wings) Have you tried these?

Jessica: I don't eat buffalo.

Leah: Ha! It's not buffalo, idiot. Oh my god.

Jessica: It's not?

Leah: No, it's chicken.

Jessica: Then why are they called Buffalo wings?

Nick: Baby, come on. You know that.

Jessica: I don't know this!

Drew: Because barbecue wings started in Buffalo, or something like that. You know, it's kinda weird that buffaloes don't have wings?

Jessica: I never thought about it.

Tune in next week, when Jessica gets confused about corn dogs.

From Heather Havrilesky, Salon.com.  Full article here

Chowhound Picnic

We went to the Chowhound Picnic on Saturday, and had a great time. Everyone goes all out in making a dish to share, and we tried some really wonderful things. Photos are here, all taken by Jason (I was too busy eating ...)