Life Begins at 30

A teaser

I have had so many requests to see the pictures from our trip.  I promise you, I will post pictures.  It won't be in the next couple of days but probably next week.  I promise.

Until then, a teaser.  This shot was take at the Rialto market - a market that is well known for it's fish, but that also has many fruits and vegetable stalls.  Merchants sell fruits and vegetables from all over the place, and don't seem to be bringing their own product to market.  But the fantastic thing?  Everything is sourced.  Next to the name of each and every fruit or vegetable, be it at this market or in the supermarket, is the location of where it was grown.  Does anyone happen to know if this is Italian and/or EU law, or if it is just something that merchants do?

We interrupt this regularly scheduled food blog ...

... for a lesson about iPod photo and how I almost lost all our vacation pictures.

The moral of the story?  Thank goodness for Norton Disk Doctor.

When Jason came home with a new iPod Photo about a week before our trip, I initially rolled my eyes at it - thinking it was just another one of his gadgets.  But then I realized that this meant that we would not be having to take a laptop to Venice.  Using a connector between the iPod and the camera, we could download direct to the iPod and it would save all our photos until we returned home.

I was nervous at the prospect that this gadget would be responsible for the safety of all our photos, but was willing to suspend worry and trust that Jason had tested it all thoroughly enough to know it would work.

We returned home late Saturday night and part of Jason's ritual that night was to check and make sure that the download of the photos would work smoothly.  He had several gigs of photos on the iPod photo so he just tested a few pictures, we saw that they downloaded to the computer very nicely and went to bed.  Fast forward to the morning.  I woke up way before Jason and decided to grab his laptop and go into the other room to read my email.  The iPod was connected, but since both seemed to be sleeping, I just disconnected the iPod and took the computer.

You know how computers get grumpy when you detach a piece of hardware without dismounting / ejecting it?  Well, I got that same message that we always get ... the one that we all kind of ignore, knowing that we shouldn't have detached the hardware, but whatever.  You've done it ... I know you've done it.

When Jason realized what I had done he said, "I bet you didn't disconnect it properly and the computer yelled at you didn't it?"  I meekly said yes, and we kind of laughed about it.

A while later, Jason went to download his photos and the computer wouldn't recognize the iPod.  It knew something was there, but wanted to reformat it.  That was the only option that Jason seemed to have.  I was in deep doo-doo.  He tried everything he could think of - restarting, he went on boards to figure out if anyone had experienced the same thing, tried mounting with the iPod connected to it's AC adapter, turning the iPod into a hard drive and trying to make my computer recognize it ... nothing was working. 

We for sure were not going to let anything reformat the iPod - that would have meant losing everything we had taken in Venice that was not yet backed up. 

To give J credit, he really kept his cool.  He wasn't mad at me, and realized that it was a serious glitch in the iPod software that was letting this happen.  He was almost out of options when he decided to try Norton Disk Doctor.  He said that it had saved him before, and so we shelled out the $100 for a new copy of it and let it run.

Disk doctor found several errors in the directory structure and apparently repaired them.  When the program was finished running ... magic!  It allowed the iPod to be mounted, and Jason was able to (quickly) download all of his pictures.  He is planning on wiping the iPod photo clean today and reformatting.  At some point during all the drama, he grumbled something about wishing that he had bought the Nikon gadget that allows photo storage instead.

In the end, I don't think either of us regret buying or using the iPod photo, we just had a scary couple hours and will probably treat it as gold whenever it is not backed up ... and I have vowed to never unplug the iPod from his computer without ejecting it via the OS again.

 

We're back ...

It's always very telling for me to see what I gravitate to doing once I return from a trip.  I think there are ritual things that we all do ... put on our favorite pajamas, make a cup of tea.  We returned to civilization late last night after a gruelling flight home from Venice via JFK. 

Last night before I went to bed, my ritual included a small cup of coffee (my system was whacked from the time change and I had a total caffeine headache) and checking on my Tivo (I had some issues with everything I wanted being taped ... argh).

This morning, I was wide awake at 8.30, though I will force myself to sleep some more today.  The ritual this morning was coffee (again) and ... Mexican rice.  Weird.  I didn't have much in the fridge, but all I needed was a can of tomatoes, some onion, rice, chicken broth, and lemon.  Had all those ingredients and it made for a great breakfast snack.  (I am in the process of perfecting my grandmother's recipe and will post about it if I ever get it right).  Quick check of email and then sit down with my blogs ... the order in which I read my blog rolls when I have a lot of things to read is very telling ... it's something that I will have to post about someday.  The other part of my ritual today will be going to Rainbow Foods to pick up some staples for the week.

We had a fantastic trip.  I was a little apprehensive about Venice after reading about how touristy it is, and how it is unlike any other part of Italy.  I definitely had done a bunch of research before leaving about where to eat, stores to visit, etc., and I feel that it paid off.  I really don't have any regrets about the trip and feel like we made the most of our week away.  Jason and I have this thing we do at the end of a lot of days where we ask "What was your favorite part of the day?"  When we were in Venice, every day was full of so many "favorites" that it was difficult to choose.  That, to me, is a sign of a good vacation.

Interestingly, I didn't take many pictures.  I was pretty happy to sit back and have J be the photographer on this vacation while I just kind of wandered and took in the scene.  He and I are probably going to work on those today, so you can expect to see a bunch of shots sometime soon.

Our most exciting purchase of the trip?  A hand-carved wooden salad bowl.  I wish I could tell you more about where I purchased it, but I am too lazy to get off the couch right now and find the store information.  If you have the Rome/Venice/Florence edition of Bon Appetit (from last month I believe), the artist is featured in it.  She is a really interesting entrepreneur who features artisan-made wares in her store.  The bowl was made by her and another artist in the Veneto -- he does the heavy lifting and creates the form of the bowl, and she finishes the bowl and adds the detail.  They only use hand tools in the creation - no lathe is used.  This bowl is a work of art.  It is walnut, and is being shipped -- I cannot WAIT to get it!

Just a quick thanks to Jeanne at World on a Plate for all her help with all things Venice.  She is the reason that I ended up picking up that copy of Bon Appetit before we left, and she gave us tons of tips that were valuable during the week.

We're off ...

We are going to Italy in the morning.  This time to Venice.  Jason is looking forward to a week of photography in a city known for it's beauty.  I am looking forward to visiting some of the 50 pages of restaurants I printed out from Chowhound and eGullet. We are both looking forward to a week of downtime without computers or much extra input.  I have spent so much time at the computer lately that my right hand ... my "mousing" hand ... has turned into a claw that desperately needs a break.

I have lined up a week of archive posts for you, and I hope that you enjoy them.  Life Begins @ 30 has been around for over a year and a half, so there are some fun old posts that many of you probably haven't seen.

See you after the 25th!

Don't poke the salami

Two years ago, we shared a villa in Tuscany with about ten other people.  It was wonderful and a really inexpensive way to go.  If you are ever considering a trip, I would highly recommend getting together a bunch of friends and renting a villa (seriously folks, it was like $300 pp for a WEEK).

One night at the villa, we hired a local cook to come in and make dinner for all of us.  It was an outrageous spread of course after course of rustic Tuscan food.

I saw one of the women at the table poking the fat out of every piece of salami that she ate.  She would hold it up to the light and with a narrow finger, just poke and poke and poke until she was left with a swiss-cheese style piece of meat. 

I was partially appalled, but not as appalled by what came next.  She had driven to Rome the day before (Rome is a long way from Tuscany, but they decided to go and come back in one day) and the first place she went?

I'll give you three guesses.

..... No .....

..... No .....

..... No .....

McDonald's!  She had been in Italy for a whole 5 days and she could not go without a Big Mac.  The same person who had shunned a perfect piece of salami as having too much fat was willing to put a hormone-laden, corn-fattened burger into her mouth.

Did you read your Chronicle carefully today?

Did you see Jason's picture of Blue Bottle Coffee Company in the Chronicle Magazine today?  I know that this doesn't count cause he's my boyfriend and all, but you should really check out his blog if you are into photography.  He has been trying to post a shot a day, and it's kind of fun to see his adventures (many of which are my adventures too).

Walking the walk

Interesting post from Knife's Edge today ...

He is a restaurant owner in Northern California, and his perspective is always very interesting.  Anyway, check out the post.  He talks a bit about the type of people who are ardent supporters of things such as a living wage in the abstract, but see no connection between that and what they pay for on a daily basis.

We can't expect restauraunteurs or farmers or shop owners to run a business holding to the ideals that we hold dear ... be it living wage or organic or non-gmo or local or seasonal ... without being able to support that proprietor with our business.  Once we have determined that the proprietor has honest, true prices, we have to walk the walk and show the business, with our wallets, that we honor the cost that they are charging.

Reading: Fine dining starts early in Berkeley

Berkeley has started a pilot program to bring breakfast to the desks of all schoolchildren via a "red wagon program".  The food will be free of hydrogenated oils, dyes or preservatives, refined sugars, bovine growth hormones and genetically modified ingredients.

"I've never seen this stuff before, and when I look at it, it looks kinda nasty," Tommy Rodriguez, 10, said Wednesday morning as he stared at a Bosc pear and the square of focaccia. "But then I try it, and it's pretty good."

Happy April 1!

This is my friend Jen.  She and I have been friends since the first day of junior high school in 7th grade.  Even though we both grew up in Southern California, she now lives in Sacramento, so we are able to see each other fairly often.

Jen and her husband Curtis are the biggest celebrants of April Fool's Day that I know.  Some people are into Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July - whatever.  Jen is into April Fool's Day.  Sometimes, six months before the day, she will announce to me, "I have the BEST April Fool's Day trick planned this year!"  Today, her Yahoo IM status says "Who's the FOOL now?" 

Her husband already tricked her today, waking her up at 12.03 am with an alarm out of a dead sleep and trying to disorient her ... and she hasn't confirmed her plan for the day, but it may involve serving Curtis COMPOST on a bun.  He always jokes around that she is such an environmentalist that one day she is going to serve him compost -- so she may try it.

She even has her 5 year old nephew in on the action, and last year she taught him how to play tricks on his dad and his teachers.

Her sense of humor isn't completely relegated to April Fool's Day ... this year she decided to serve Curtis his dream Valentine's Day meal:  boiled hot dogs and macaroni and cheese from a box.   He was thrilled and enjoyed the joke.

So if you see a 5 foot 2 inch woman with a big smile walking around today, just make sure that you don't get fooled!

As an aside, thanks to Jeff who pointed out this blog post that I wrote a year ago about how April tends to be a big time of change for me.  I am really looking forward to the month, especially because it will involve a big trip that I haven't told you about yet!