March/April 2008
San Diego
Woman
Woman San Diego
www.sandiegowoman.com
Wine 101 Surprising Wines of South Africa “Facials not just for women anymore� Basics of Internet Marketing Women of Distintion
March/April 2008
Dear Readers, It is with great pleasure and immense pride that I welcome you to the first issue of our new San Diego Woman
Magazine. For those of you not familiar with our history, San Diego Woman magazine previously printed five issues before a change of ownership, stopped publication for a short time. We are now back and better than ever. We have completely reinvented our look and feel and have improved our editorial content. In essence we are a brand new publication. We have worked hard to make San Diego Woman the type of publication that will educate, entertain, and encourage our readers to strive to reach their goals and make a difference. With this said, I hope you will all enjoy our first issue of San Diego Woman. So sit back, prop up your feet and get lost in the pages of our magazine. Travel through the Napa Valley for a taste of local wines, learn how to bring your favorite wines to your home and learn the wine basics. Perhaps a glass of wine is not all you need to relax, how about a cruise to Mexico to enjoy the local flavor? Or the ultimate local trip a visit a chocolatier and ndulge your sweet tooth. At San Diego Woman we not only want to entertain, but also educate, so learn the secrets to perfect skin, how to improve your business savvy and how our women of distinction attain their successes. Keep in mind that San Diego Woman is your publication. It is written for the women of San Diego. We are your source for everything San Diegan. As such, we want to hear from our readers. Share your ideas and suggestions with us. Visit our website and submit your suggestions for story ideas or nominate a fabulous woman to be added to our list of “Women of Distinction� or just take some time to let us know what you think. Thank you for reading our magazine. It is our readers that motivate us and keep us striving to provide the best magazine possible. Thanks for helping our vision grow. Regards,
Judith A. Habert
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Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Subscription Information . Annual subrisciptions available on request Please send name, mailing address and check of $20 payable to San Diego Woman Magazine
San Diego Woman Magazine 254 E Grand Avenue, Suite 201 Escondido, CA 92025
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Cover : Anna Doxie Photographer: Lisa K
Inside
March/April 2008 Page 6
Discovering the Baja California Wine Region ...........
Learn the secrets of the Baja Wine Region.
Facials, Not Just for Women Anymore..............Page 10 Your man deserves beautiful skin too, learn how to help. How to honor a breast cancer survivor ............Page 14 Share the joy of recovery with those who have conquered cancer. Step Forward: ..................................................Page 16 Walk your way to health.. Internet Doubting? .........................................Page 18 Is there any honesty on the Internet? Wine 101.................................................. ........Page 8 Confessions of a wine imposter. Flames of Devasttion.....................................Page 10. Getting our lives back after the fires.
In every Issue Traveling With Teens.......................................Page 28 Can you really survive a traumatic trip with your teen? Clearing and Quieting the Mind.....................Page 30 Learn to unwind and de-stress with our author Chuao Chocolate ..........................................Page 32 Sinful chocolate is just around the corner. Earning a Gold Star.............................Page 34 How to stay focused and reward yourself for a job well done. Business Matters............................ Page 37 Learn how thinking positively can improve your business and your life. Beauty Everywhere ......................... Page 40 Cruising Vegas style Home Sweet Hometown ...................Page 41 Our transplanted Bostonian tells about home A Magnificent Rebirth in New York City A tribute to our fallen heroes.................. Page 42 Women of Distintion ............................Page 44 Meet our distinguished recipient of honor.
Surprising Wines of South Africa ......Page 46 A surprising wine from a little known region.
Bitchin’ & Moaning..............................Page 48 Generic may not be a bad word after all
San Diego
Basics of Internet Marketing................... ....Page 26 Steps to improve your website’s visibility.
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Behind the Pages
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief editor@sandiegowoman.com
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Sonali Soni
Creative Director
creativedirector@sandiegowoman.com
San Diego
Judith A. Habert
Woman
Meet Team
Woman San Diego
www.sandiegowoman.com 254 E Grand Avenue, Suite 201 Escondido, CA 92025 Phone: 760.7388700 Fax: 858.760.7388866
March/April 2008
The
Judith A. Habert Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Sonali Soni Creative Director
Danielle Habert Sales Associate
Robert Tussey Copy Editing
Lisa K Photographer
Donna Hulme Robin Dohrn-Simpson
Robert Tussey has been a published writer for over thirty years and has been providing editing services for the past twenty-five. As a musician he has written scores of songs. His life has revolved around his music and writing, often melding the two into articles and interviews.
Karen Kripalani
Karen Kripalani’s adventures as a travel writer and photographer have taken her all around the globe, from galloping camelback through the desert to the pyramids of Egypt, to living deep in the rainforests of Borneo with a tribe of headhunters. She is a national television spokesperson and representative for Canon Cameras and has done work for National Geographic’s TV show “Taboo.” For more info visit www. KarenKripalani.com
Louis Becerra
Louis Becerra is a freelance writer currently living in San Diego, CA. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD in 1998, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in English. He spent several years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, and is a veteran of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Louis received his Master of Science in Global Leadership degree from the University of San Diego in 2005.
Siobhan Malany
Siobhan is a scientist and science writer in the San Diego community. She works as a cell biologist in the biotechnology industry. She is also writer and editor of the online newsletter for the Association of Women in Science San Diego Chapter and currently serves on the board.
Deborah D. Lazear Author and teacher of wine studies for over 15 years, Deborah’s background and her Certified Specialist of Wine designation, makes her more than just a “foodie” who loves wine! Having taught wine appreciation, wine and food pairing, and written curriculum for San Diego State U. Business of Wine certificate program, she is no stranger to peaking people’s interest in exploring wine. Her no frills approach and practical advice for the everyday (or wanna be) wine drinker has drawn audiences to say “This woman has demystified wine for me. I shop with confidence now”. The Wall Street Journal wine columnists D.Gaiter and J. Brecher have three times published her wine and food pairing menus.
Lisa K
Lisa is the owner of Photography by Lisa K a custom portrait studio located in Rancho Penasquitos, specializing in the highest quality portraiture. As the mother of twins, Lisa shines at capturing moments in pregnancy and early life. She shares her talents with many local charities by volunteering her photographic services.
Jack Doxey
Jack Doxey formed Doxey & Associates Inc in 1991. It is a San Diego based management and consultant company dedicated to helping companies grows and change. It has s a combined experience of over sixty years in quality tools, process management, organizational change and instructional design. In February of 2004, Jack joined ranks with Dr. Kathleen Jensen and Dr. Karla Jensen and formed The Doxey & Jensen Group. Prior to owning his own company, Jack was the Training Manager in the Quality Assurance department of the Hewlett Packard Company.
Jennifer L. Sachs
Jennifer RD is a freelance writer and dietitian at the University of Calfornia San Diego Medical Center. She has been providing nutrition couseling to people of all ages for nearly 10 years. She loves to travel with her husband and when at home, bike through San Diego’s beautiful neighborhoods.
Jaime Victoria Marilyn Taylor
Marilyn was born and raised in San Diego. She gives seminars on search marketing and manages search marketing projects for companies on a freelance basis working with a team of programmers and writers. Marilyn is a single mom to five children, one girl and four boys, ranging in age from 24 down to 12, and is the proud grandma to
year old.
Jaime is a music enthusiast whose favorite genres include jazz vocals, and classical crossover. She has plans to pursue a degree in journalism and media. She is a freelance writer, who takes every opportunity to write about the subject she loves. Jaime resides with her family in Rancho Bernardo, California.
a three
March/April 2008
San Diego
Robert Tussey
Robin is a freelance writer living in San Diego. She has had her travel articles published online in e-zines. When not sitting at her desk she can usually be found exploring the corners of San Diego. Her passions include writing, going on adventures and scrapbooking.
From designing computer systems for a major agriculture firm, managing computer programmers for a chip giant, to writing projects pertaining to governmental requirements in the soggy Northwest, Donna has had a fun and varied career. She is the recipient of an academic scholarship and numerous career related awards. She has been an avid volunteer and fundraiser, and has been an advocate for the prevention of child abuse. She also belongs to a philanthropic sorority that promotes college education for women. In addition to her writing, she is currently working on two patents.
P HOTOGRAPHER
W R I T E R S
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Discovering the Baja California Wine Region By Robin Dohrn-Simpson
“You go to the house with the three green arches and turn right, follow the dirt road, through the vineyards, cross the stream then follow the signs of the Kremlin. After about two miles you’ll see some large trees, that is the Russian Winery. You can’t miss it.” This is how it is winetasting in Guadalupe Valley just outside of Ensenada, Baja, Mexico.
Emilion and Malaga. Wine in the Guadalupe Valley is an international affair. Only 1% of the Mexican population drink wine, therefore most wines are exported, both to the United States and to Europe.
So, we head off down the dirt road in what we hope is the right way from the directions we have just received in Spanish. It is fall and the grapes have just been harvested, however there is still some greenery remaining filling out the rows upon rows of vines. The valley sprawls for several miles and the surrounding brown hills are dotted with olive trees. The valley floor explodes with fall colors; rust, orange, magenta and forest green. We have come to enjoy the fruits of the harvest.
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The Baja California Wine Country is a short 65 miles south of San Diego and 10 miles northeast of Ensenada and the Pacific coast. The Ruta del Vino (Wine Route) is well marked with signs posted along the highway directing you to different wineries. The area is comprised of three valleys: Calafia, Guadalupe and San Antonio de las Minas and boasts 19 charming and diverse wineries. These wineries range from small boutique-style family businesses to large industrialized operations. Wines are not new to Mexico. Winemaking dates back to the Spanish conquistadors, who then banned their cultivation. In the late 1800’s, the vintners began to resurface and were pleased with how the grapes adapted to the climate of Baja California. For a long time the wines were pretty awful, but in the past twenty years this has changed. The current new wave of this industry is still in its infancy. Winemakers come from Argentina, Europe and the United States to create tasty and award winning wines. The varieties of red wine produced in the Baja California region are Cabernet Sauvignon, Ruby Cabernet, Zinfandel Grenache and Mission. The white wines are Chenin Blanc, Palomino, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Saint
The wine world in Baja is unique unto itself, not trying to be Tuscan or Californian. The architecture of the wineries in Baja is classic Mexican with white walls, sharp-angled buildings and plenty of red brick arches lining walkways. One of my favorite buildings, the Adobe Guadalupe Winery and B&B was designed by Nassir Haghighat, a Persian architect. It is both Mexican with a white façade, terra cotta tile roof and arches in the front while at the same time showing the influence of what one imagines desert architecture of the Middle East to look like.
March/April 2008
Our first stop of the day is Casa Pedro Domecq Winery, a large establishment that can handle big groups. There is a bus in the parking lot when we arrive. We chat with some people and find that they are on a day trip from the cruise boat that has docked in Ensenada for the day. The tasting room is large and spacious with two walls of floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Calafia Valley. It is designed to handle many people at one time. There are many groupings of comfortable chairs to sit and relax and taste wine.
of thermal materials and is partially buried in the ground to assist in keeping the insides a moderate temperature for aging wine. He proudly shows us their stainless steel fermenting tanks, and rows and rows of American and French oak barrels. There is a tasting room that is being constructed in this building. I, for one, will be sad when I cannot taste wine in the kitchen of the family’s home, as it is quaint and homey- two factors that I love in wine tasting.
Our last stop of the day is at Vinisterra Winery. This is a husband and wife operation. They are both hosting the bar today. When we arrive late in the afternoon, the tasting area is full of a group of bicyclers who are on a day tour from the cruise line. We enjoy tasting in what was the family home for many generations. It is made with local red brick, has arches in the patio and has a green grassy area where there is a barbecue and a covered patio for al fresco dining. They have three labels of wine. Their lower end is Domino (affectionately named after their domino games in the patio while sipping wine). The mid level brand is Macouzet, which is the wife’s family name. Their high end brand is Vinisterra. The Swiss winemaker, Christopher Gartner, is very accomplished and has created many lovely, drinkable wines. His philosophy, we were told, is that since Americans who go there can only bring back a small amount of alcohol, they will instead opt to buy a bottle of wine to enjoy while in Mexico. So, his wines are created more with the intent of drinking now instead of laying down for a few years to age. Mr. Rodriguez, the co-proprietor proudly takes us on a short tour of the production and storage building that is located on what was once the family tennis court. It is constructed
March/April 2008
San Diego
Next we’re off to the Russian winery: Bibayoff. The daughter is hosting the bar here today. She speaks passable English and we share a common language of hmms, yumms, and smacking lips as we taste their wonderful reds. Many Russians immigrated to Mexico a century ago and have assimilated into the culture. Who knew! This small and humble winery has bold and powerful Cabernet and Moscatel wines.
Woman
The winemaker here is Argentinian. They are tasting their Califia label wines today with their table wines: Tinto and Blanco Chateau Camou is “just down the street”, so we decide to pop over there, only stopping twice for directions. This lovely family owned winery has rows and rows of wine barrels lining the walkway to the tasting area. We are immediately charmed. Although the tasting room attendant doesn’t speak a lot of English we are able to communicate in the language of wine. We are treated to a 10 year old Chardonnay that astounds us. It is rich, buttery and very complex.
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There was a time, only a few short years ago, when drinking wine from Baja wasn’t considered by serious wine lovers in Southern California.
San Diego...
But Yvonne Stern of San Diego says “These wines rival some of the best California wines I have enjoyed.” After a day of wine-tasting, you’ll probably be hungry. The Ruta del Vino has twelve local restaurants serving gourmet and regional cuisine, Mexican- style meals with an Arabic flavor, seafood, international cuisine and one even specializes in ostrich, quail and deer. There is still one problem in the Baja wine industry, and that is, if you are driving into Mexico you can only bring back 1 liter of wine per person, every 30 days. However, if you are visiting Mexico on a cruise you can bring back 6 cases of wine. That is definitely incentive to take a weekend cruise to Ensenada and a day tour of the wineries. a bit more rustic than Napa or 8 “It’s Paso Robles.” I told my friends, who
were joining me for a day of exploring. “But it’s worth it.” I assure them. After a day of winetasting they were happily surprised at the quality of the wines. “We only have one question,” my traveling companions say “when are we coming back?”
I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes — and six months later you have to start all over again.
Harbor by night
Joan Rivers
March/April 2008
San Diego
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March/April 2008
Facials, Not Just for Women Anymore by Louis Becerra
“What the heck is that smell?” “What smell?”
“That rancid stench – you can’t possibly tell me that you don’t know what I’m talking about?” I asked my wife holding my nostrils closed with a look of disgust. The smell turned out to be a new formula she was prescribed by her esthetician, called P-50, which is used to exfoliate facial skin. At the time I had no idea what ‘exfoliating’ meant and certainly didn’t have the patience to tolerate the required to accomplish it. 10 odor The routine carried on for several months. My wife would get ready for bed, undergoing the half-hour routine preparing for the night and performing various other tasks necessary to help preserve her youth. And, without fail she would come out of the bathroom reeking of P-50.
After several months of constantly trying to explain to me what it was she was using, I finally started listening. She explained to me that ‘exfoliating’ meant removing the dead skin cells from our faces, allowing newer skin cells for form underneath. Removing the dead cells allows the facial skin to appear more vibrant and healthy-looking. While washing the face removes of a lot of the dead cells, many stay behind clogging pores with debris and bacteria. This effect, coupled with sun damage over the years, results in the formation of noticeable fine lines and wrinkles on the skin which only get worse over time. That’s when the cosmetic surgeons earn much of their business. Working in an environment where I was exposed to the sun for lengthy intervals each day, this information really caught my attention. My wife urged me to explore the benefits of getting a facial and exfoliating on a regular basis. But, being a military officer at the time, there was nothing further from what I considered to be “masculine” than getting a facial. I imagined myself covered in a pink bathrobe with my hair tied up in a towel, my face covered in a bright green cream mask with cuts of cucumber covering my eyes, all the while hearing Enya playing in the background.
March/April 2008
I resolved to try out my wife’s esthetician Johanna Feiner at ‘Bella Donna’s’ in Ocean Beach, whom she had raved about for months. When I arrived for the first time, everyone in the salon probably thought I was the Unibomber walking in, since I was covered by a hooded shirt and dark shades to avoid detection
My First Facial Experience Johanna was the perfect match for an apprehensive man getting his first facial, and taught me a lot about proper skin care practices during my first visit. I found the experience to be very rejuvenating and relaxing overall, which is exactly what the process is intended to accomplish. I was very nervous and uncomfortable at first, but she was very gentle and professional while taking time to make sure that she explained every step of the process to me as we proceeded. My facial also included a head, neck and hand massage, which also added an element of relaxation. This is exactly what I receive every month when I go in for my facial. Being tied to my cell phone every hour of the day now, my monthly facial provides me with the only period of time when I can truly turn off my cell phone and feel relaxed.
also available for lower costs, but I always enjoy getting at least an hour-long facial once every 4-6 weeks. The facial process itself differs between estheticians and by the time period you require, but in general a 1-hour facial should include at least the following elements: a skin type analysis (on the first visit), 1 or 2 deep cleanses, a 10-minute steaming and exfoliation, a gentle extraction of blackheads, a treatment mask to help normalize the skin, and a moisturizer and sunscreen application to finish it up. A neck and hand or foot massage also accompanies the steaming or mask application to help the time pass while the treatments take effect A more advanced facial would include a chemical peel, but I wouldn’t recommend this during your first facial as it can be somewhat uncomfortable. A chemical peel can best be described as a very intense exfoliation which sheds damaged portions of the outer layer of skin on your face, and allows for a newer and heathier layer to form underneath. Also, many men have no idea what the difference is between estheticians and dermatologists is (unless they’ve had to see a dermatologist in the past). Dermatologists differ in that they should be seen for more intensive skin care treatments, and should be used to diagnose peculiar skin conditions. An esthetician performs more of a ‘salon’ type treatment, and helps to maintain a more regular and less abrasive regimen to maintain skin health. Liz Trejo with ‘Peak Performance’ states that “estheticians spend much more time with patients with regular monthly appointments, and can effectively treat the skin without being overly aggressive or using potentially harmful treatments.” Rhonda Parshall from ‘A Touch of Clover’ also states that “a dermatologist is best utilized to treat more serious skin conditions, such as skin cancer, severe hyper-pigmentation, and chronic cystic acne.” For someone with major skin problems, they should probably visit a dermatologist at least once or twice a year, but in general everyone should probably visit an esthetician at least once a month or so.
San Diego
However, I also began to notice more and more people walking around with noticeable skin damage and the appearance of premature wrinkles. And, I still couldn’t ignore the fact of that sun damage accelerates the aging process. I certainly did not want to look 75 when I turned 50. So, eventually realizing that I didn’t want to go under the knife later in life in order to maintain a more youthful appearance, I finally decided to get a facial on my own.
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Why Get Your Man a Facial? He’ll thank you for it later in life, especially if it helps to motivate him to pursue regular skin care. One widely unknown fact about us men, regardless of what we say, is that the moment we realize that we are no longer “spring chickens,” it hits us just as hard as it does women. Another reason is that the process allows us to receive sound advice from educated and trained skin care professionals rather than from celebrities pushing over-the-counter products on TV. Estheticians help determine appropriate skin care products for your skin type, and can recommend products that won’t be harmful to your skin. Over-the-counter salespeople at the mall often have no formal skin care training other than the sales pitch that their vendor has provided for them to memorize. Using the wrong products can sometimes prove disastrous for your appearance.
What He Can Expect The going price for a 1-hour facial ranges from $75-$125 per hour depending on the location. Shorter facials are
The Direct Benefits that Facials Provide for Men In general, the shaving process tends to help exfoliate part of the facial area for men on a regular basis. However, this process only works on part of the face, and it’s not usually the part of the face that shows aging early on. Rhonda Parshall explains that “facials provide exfoliation all over the face” and that “facials help remove the natural oil (sebum) that men tend to produce on a greater scale than women, which can clog pores often resulting in blackheads.” Facials also help to hydrate and “calm the skin,” which helps to prevent razor bumps. In general, facials are merely periodic parent treatments for skin care that help accentuate the skin care regimen we should be performing regularly on our own. This helps give our skin a better and more vibrant appearance, which in turn makes us feel better.
March/April 2008
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The Sun’s Role in Aging While many people occasionally use sunscreen to prevent sunburn during extended periods in sunlight, most do not use sunscreen on a regular basis. This is unfortunate since the aging process is directly linked to sun exposure. The sun breaks down the collagen and elastin that provide support and structure for our face’s skin cells, and also damages the cells’ DNA. This can lead to skin cancer and hyperpigmentation. Liz Trejo recommends using a sunscreen of at least SPF 15 for those who are not exposed to the sun regularly. For those who are exposed to the sun frequently, SPF-25 or greater is recommended. In either case, the sun block should be applied regularly through the day, at least every 3-4 hours, and more often if the individual is exposed to water. Estheticians unanimously agree that everyone should remember that sunscreen is only water resistant – not waterproof. Frequent applications when exposed to water will provide the best protection.
Increasing Interest for Men’s Skin Care The fact that more and more men are becoming interested in skin care cannot be ignored. The increasing interest for skin care by men has resulted in a surge of new skin care product lines for men. While this trend is indeed good, there are several items to be careful of when selecting products to use. Johanna Feiner recommends avoiding products that do not have a money-back guarantee, products that don’t produce fairly quick results in how your skin looks and feels, and products that are seemingly over-priced. You don’t need to pay a whole lot to buy effective products, and many of products coming from big-name companies are expensive because you’re paying for their marketing. By going through an esthetician for skin care products you will get sound advice on the appropriate products to use and how to effectively use them on your own; and, you can often times acquire products containing more active ingredients than over-the-counter items. If you insist on buying over-the-counter products, I still recommend reviewing the contents with your esthetician to make sure that the product is beneficial and appropriate for your skin type. Armed with this information, it should be evident why men should receive facials and take care of their skin regularly. Receiving early treatment is the key to preserving a youthful appearance, and is much less costly and harmful to your body in the long run than expensive cosmetic surgery (which is also another increasing trend among older men). Remembering the new adage that “prevention today will keep the plastic surgeon away” should be reason enough to consider purchasing a facial for your man and dragging him in to meet the esthetician in your life. And, you never know – he may actually like it. So, now the pungent odor of P-50 emanating from our bathroom every evening has become as commonplace as the smell of toothpaste, as my wife and I each undergo
our own individual skin care routines before going to bed. Will all this effort indeed prove to help me preserve a more youthful appearance later in life? It’s worked for women, so I think the odds are in my favor. In any case, I’ll let you know for sure when I turn 50.
Recommended local estheticians: Johanna Feiner Bella Donna’s 4820 Santa Monica Ave San Diego, CA 92107 (619) 962-2167 Liz Trejo Peak Performance 4732 Point Loma Ave 1450 Rhonda Parshall A Touch of Clover University Ave, Ste 202 San Diego, CA 92103 (619)298-1550
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San Diego
How to honor a breast cancer survivor Meaningful and inexpensive gifts from the heart By Jen Sachs
Leanne and her friend Joan walked down the quiet hallway of the medical building. Leanne had just heard the news that her test results, to check to see if the cancer had spread, had come back clean after receiving a double mastectomy the week before.
to get permission from the local park association to plant the tree and then invite her closest circle of support. Allow each person to share how much the woman being honored means to them and offer words of encouragement.
Minutes earlier the surgeon scanned the report after it came through on the fax machine behind the counter of the reception desk in the waiting room. She casually told Leanne that everything looked fine and she probably wouldn’t need radiation.
Host a lingerie party for a friend who completed reconstruction surgery. Give gift certificates or choose an elegant new bra or night gown to help your friend feel beautiful. Don’t forget to include a gift receipt if you give a gift. Depending on your friend’s personality, make it fun and humorous with breast-themed shower games and decorations or for the more reserved person have a quiet tea party with fancy finger foods and pretty flowers.
As they left the room Joan made her best attempt to support Leanne by enthusiastically saying, “Wow!”, “That’s great news!”, and “Thank you God!”. Leanne was very quiet but responded, “What the surgeon said is just not sinking in. I don’t feel like I can really believe her.”
14 The drive home was very quiet. Joan tried to show her support with occasional words but mostly she listened to the few comments Leanne offered as she continued to express that she was having trouble knowing how to process her thoughts and how to think of life now that she had finished chemotherapy treatments and surgery.
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A few weeks earlier another woman had shared with Leanne and Joan that she had experienced depression following her treatments and that this was common among breast cancer survivors as they transitioned to a new phase of their life. Reflecting on her experience with Leanne, Joan couldn’t help but think that there must be a more effective way to support her.
There are several ways, Leanne realized, that could do just that. You don’t have to be an artist, just ingenious in finding simple ways to say we love you and we are so happy that you and we are so happy that you are okay.” Try honoring your friend with these meaningful and inexpensive gift ideas that don’t require artistic talent.
Tree planting ceremony
Plant a seedling or tree to symbolize the beginning of a new chapter of life and hold a life ceremony in honor of your friend. Involve her in deciding what type of tree she would like to plant and where it will be planted. She might like to have it planted in her own yard or a local park. Make sure
Make your friend the guest of honor
Compile a recipe binder
Gather together favorite healthy recipes and make a cookbook to promote health for the future. Help support your friend by equipping her with a binder or recipe box full of cancer- fighting yummy recipes. Choose recipes that include ingredients that are high in antioxidants such as berries and colorful vegetables and are also low in sugar. Have each person who contributes display the recipe on a nice piece of paper provided or a recipe card in their own creative way. Have the group meet together for a potluck dinner with the prepared recipe they contributed and present the recipe book or box to the guest of honor.
March/April 2008
Plant a memory garden Plant pink tulip bulbs in a garden, window box or flower pot. They will bloom each year and represent another year of survival. Share a special time with your friend by driving together to the local garden supply store and let her pick out the shade of bulbs she would love most. Choose from delicate pink to fuchsia. Return to her home and help her plant the bulbs. After scrubbing the dirt out from under your finger nails enjoy a cool glass of pink lemonade together and some yummy treats.
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Schedule a girl’s day out
Remember the anniversary date of the day your friend was diagnosed and celebrate survival with a special lunch or outing. Once a year plan an event with your friend to celebrate another year of life and cancer survival. For the adventurous type, go for a hike and enjoy the outdoors or pack a picnic and sit by a lake or among the trees and flowers of a local park. For the artsy type, go to a local art gallery, exhibit or play. Celebrate life through the beauty of visual art, the relaxing sound of coffee shop pianist or by laughing until you have tears running down your cheeks at a comedy play at your local theater.
Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart.
San Diego
Erma Bombeck
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Step Forward: Using Pedometers to Lower Risk of Cardiovascular Disease By Siobhan Malany
Latinas march to music. A pedometer attached to their hip counts each step. These women meet once per week for 12-weeks as part of a research program called Pasos Adelante (step forward). The main goal of the program, directed by Simon Marshall, professor in the Department of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences at SDSU in conjunction with the San Diego Prevention Research Center (SDPRC), is to determine how many steps they must take each day to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). (See more about the program below) This week’s meeting held at a local school begins with the enlightening march. Afterwards, the women sit in a circle and open their workbooks. They calculate and log their average number of steps taken during the week. A proctor (health provider) leads the group to discuss problems they have encountered using the step counter, to establish goals for the next week and to set up support groups during each week. The participants have been randomized into three pedometer groups. The first group is asked to walk 10,000 steps per day, the second group asked to make 3,000 steps in 30 mins and the control group self-selects the number of steps. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends 30 mins of moderate intensity exercise each day. In pedometer terms this translates into 3,000 steps per 30 mins for the average adult. Continuing with the program, participants share ideas on how to incorporate pedometers into their daily routine. One woman has encouraged her family to walk weekly to church together. Others meet at soccer practices and walk the field. “Group cohesiveness is the most important part of the program,” states Marshall. “If we want people to come back then they must be made to feel a part of the group.” If this group joined a typical exercise program, statistics show at least 50 % would drop out. At every meeting, the group performs an exercise to strengthen bonds with each other. This week, the exercise is “Admiration.” Each person shares their subject of admiration and what qualities they admire. They also discuss how role models influence them and how they are models to others such as their families. At the close of the session, everyone relaxes to music. They close their eyes and share a thought of the day. After groups have completed the 12-week program, the researchers measure waist-hip ratio and body max index, two main correlative factors of Cardio Vascular Disease risk.
Over the three-year study, the team will determine how step counters can be used to motivate the public to be more physically active, what is the best method of promoting moderate intensity physical activity when using a step counter and how many ‘steps’ are needed each day to reduce the risk of CVD.
For these women today, they are stepping forward to becoming a physical activity role model for themselves and their families. About the program: Pasos Adelante is aimed toward alleviating the serious health disparity facing the Latino community through a self-motivating exercise wellness program. Latinos (and Puerto Ricans) are at greater risk of developing CVD, 2-3 times more likely than non-Hispanic whites. Latino women in particular, are at higher risk of becoming obese, developing diabetes and having high blood pressure, all associated factors of CVD. More than 200 participant,s predominately women, have been recruited to take part in the study. Participants reside in low-income areas in South Bay San Diego, are free of CVD, have a low level of activity and an interest in stepping forward to a healthier lifestyle. Groups meet once a week for 12-weeks at community centers and schools. On-site childcare is provided. For more information on the program contact Ms Pilar Santos, Program Director, santosp06@yahoo.com
March/April 2008
Is your business in need of some extra capital to expand. Visit the sites below to find out if you qualify. http://www.womensnet.net/ http://www.womensbusinessgrants.com/ http://www.womanowned.com/Growing/ Funding/Opportunities.aspx http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/onlinewbc/index.html Disclaimer: Products, services, websites or informational packets mentioned within our pages are in no way an endorsement by San Diego Woman, but are provided to our readers for informational purposes only
By Erin E. Ruocco
1) Watch the Saint Patrick’s Day parade. Check out the calendar section for exact time and location. 2) Enjoy some Irish food, music, and dancing at the House of Ireland in Balboa Park. 3) Browse through The Irish Shop at 3509 Fifth Avenue, San Diego, CA, 92101, 619-299-7812 or Scottish Treasures and Loganbearies at 1201 First Street, #213 Ferry Landing Marketplace, Coronado, CA, 92118, 619-4351880, www.Scottishtreasures.com. 4) Read an autobiography about a colleen that was a lass of many firsts, i.e., T’is Herself by Maureen O’Hara – a fiery redhead that stood her ground on screen against John Wayne himself. 5) Borrow Shel Silverstein’s book from the local public library with The Unicorn or listen to the Irish Rover’s whimsical rendition. 6) Catch the sight of a young Sean (James Bond) Connery in Walt Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People movie. 7) See Whoopi Goldberg play a banshee in The Magical Legend of Leprechauns video. 8) Witness Maureen (the Queen of Technicolor) win John (the Duke) Wayne’s heart in The Quiet Man, the first movie filmed in Ireland. 9) Learn about silkies in The Secret of Roan Inish or Tir’nan’Og in Into the West videos. 10) Listen to the soothing melodies of Enya (Paint the Sky with Stars CD is a favorite of mine). 11) Jam with Bono and his U2 band. 12) Feel the Irish Heartbeat with Van Morrison & The Chieftains. 13) Plant or wear a shamrock (wearing of the green in Ireland). 14) Pick up a bag of Irish Soda bread at Cost Plus or a loaf at a local bakery. 15) Purchase Creative Irish gifts online at www.shopirish. com. 16) Make a Saint Brigid’s cross (patroness saint of Ireland). 17) Indulge in a boxtie at an authentic Irish pub such as The Field.
San Diego
Women in Business Grants
SEVENTEEN WAYS TO CELEBRATE SAINT PATRICK’S DAY
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You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. Maya Angelou
March/April 2008
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Internet Doubting? By Donna Hulme
I’m a widow. I have been for a few years now. I guess I am considered young for a widow; however, I am not incredibly young, seeing how as my youngest child is in college. I tell you this, not for sympathy, but to add a little context to this situation.
many phone calls and emails, we decided to get together and have a real “date”. What a blast! So, the long distance romance (LDR) continued. Let me tell you, LDR’s are difficult to maintain. Tone in email is often hard to discern. Different time zones lead to phone calls at the wrong time, social functions are often attended alone, and the physical contact of hugs and kisses are condensed into long weekends. Talk about burn out.
Shortly after my husband passed away, the planning for my high school reunion was underway. I wasn’t on the planning committee, but a good friend was. In fact, I live half a continent away from where I went to high school. This good friend happened to mention to others in the planning group that I was now widowed. And so it spread through the grapevine, far and wide, amongst our extended network of friends.
I received a call from a guy I used to sit in front of in American Lit. class. We were always just friends, but had a lot of fun in class. He was always whispering something to make me laugh as the teacher was lecturing. Or, he would flip my long hair with his pencil. When he signed my yearbook, he included a sticker he had peeled from the back of my chair. In other words, I don’t think he aced the class, but we had a lot of fun! As fate would have it, he was recently divorced, living just a state away, and had heard I was recently widowed. After
Living in suburbia, I am surrounded by married couples, which is fine with me. However, I have noticed married couples want everyone to be married. So, well meaning friends, not being satisfied that I am accompanied only on occasion, suggested I “go online” to find a local guy.
This did not appeal to me. Number One, I rather like my high school friend that I am seeing, and Number Two, I am old enough that I think the guy should do the pursuing, I shouldn’t have to take out an advertisement to get a date. On the other hand, most guys my age that I know are married. The ones in the neighborhood, at church, at the supermarket, on the freeway. I don’t do bars.
March/April 2008
About the same time I was resisting the “force”, I decided it would be nice to move back to Arizona. Realtor.com became my friend. Lo and behold! I found a home that was beautiful, in my price range, and had many of the amenities I was seeking. The home was built by a builder I was familiar with, having lived in Arizona prior to one of our many transfers. The photos on realtor.com showed it positioned on a cul de sac, on the point of a lake, with massive homes across the lake. The listing stated it had not one, but two boat docks! There were photos of a gorgeous pool and patio, all overlooking the panoramic view of the lake. The photos showed an understated classic interior, with nice upgrades. My adrenaline was flowing! I just couldn’t believe this “find”. It was not too big, and not too small, the photos showed a nice flow of rooms and it was within my price range! I called my realtor friend, Karen, and sent an email with the link. She agreed that it looked like a find, and made the necessary appointments. I grabbed my checkbook, and hopped on a plane. I think I was flying higher than the plane, the anticipation of seeing this beautiful property, and the luck of finding a home without days of tromping through houses was just incredible! Karen met me at the airport, and we drove to the house. Almost. I was navigating, since The House was in an area that she normally didn’t handle. One wrong turn and half an hour later, I was getting clammy hands.
“Karen, I don’t think I really want to live in an area like this.”. Dogs were chained in the front yards, bondo cars lined the streets, and broken windows were the norm. After checking our directions again, we found my mistake. Hope sprang eternal again, we were on our way to the correct location. As we entered the street that led to the subdivision, I commented on how nice it was that a major supermarket was so close, I wouldn’t have to drive for miles to shop. We turned down the street where my dream home was sited. Funny, there wasn’t broken pavement shown in the photo. Oh, well that could be fixed. The neighboring houses looked pretty nice. Just a few were in need of a paint job.
“Here we are”. Karen had pulled in front of the home I had “found”. Hmmm. Maybe they were cleaning the fountain today, but I wondered why wires were hanging out of it. As Karen reached for the doorbell, more bare wires greeted her. At that point the listing realtor opened the door. Walking into the foyer drew my attention to the opposite wall of windows, and the view of the lake. However, the view was through a cracked window with broken window treatments. As we walked further into the house, the marble flooring had been cracked, and shifted. Things only got worse. Plumbing didn’t work, wiring was exposed in the most unusual places, the pool was such a mess, it would have to be replastered, the boat docks were rotten, the decking around the pool was cracked, and the massive homes across the lake were actually the back of a business complex. The home was priced too high for me to consider it a fixer. Besides, how do you fix a business complex in a residential neighborhood? Obviously, someone had been having a lot of fun with Photoshop. I now have the lake view of the house as my screen saver. It is a reminder that photos on the web can be quite deceiving. Anytime someone mentions online dating, I just laugh, and think of my screensaver. My friend from high school? He is still in the picture. The real life picture, not the one in cyber space.
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Still, friends kept giving glowing reports of people they knew who had met on the Internet. My cute little newlywed next door neighbors even met on J-Date, so they think internet dating is superb. Two of my daughter’s sorority sisters found their mates on eHarmony. On the down side, I had seen some of the men other singles in my community have found online. Obviously, someone was lying about their age.
People shop for a bathing suit with more care than they do a husband or wife. The rules are the same. Look for something you’ll feel comfortable wearing. Allow for room to grow. Erma Bombeck
March/April 2008
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Wine 101
Confessions of a wine imposter.
The Sommelier expertly pours the wine into the glass. I lift it and swish the wine around for a few seconds. I lean into the glass enough to get a whiff of the sweet aroma as I bring it to my lips to sip the fragrant liquid. I turn back to the Sommelier and give him a slight nod. I think to myself, I wonder if he has any idea that I have absolutely no clue what I am doing? Thankful for the many wine connoisseurs with whom I have had the pleasure of dining , I am able to go through the motions and make those around me think I am one of them, a wine enthusiast. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good glass of wine as much as the next gal, but could I pick a great wine from a good wine? Or an expensive wine from an average priced wine…unfortunately, I think not. I have to believe that maybe I am not alone and there are other imposters out there, but who knows. I could be the only phony trying to pull off the wine thing…or maybe not.
Judith A. Habert
One California based company WineShop At Home, (http:// www.wineshopathome.com/) is proof of the increased interest in wine. This company provides in home wine tasting parties to allow the guests to not only taste an incredible selection of wine, but to learn how to pick out a good wine.
So what does it take to be able to compete with those who really know what they are doing when it comes to wine? I wondered the same thing and decided it was time I learn a bit more about this mysterious aromatic liquid. The most important element to consider is that in order to pull off the “I know a really good glass of wine” thing, you must first learn some basic terminology. Yes, wine has its own language. Who would have guessed that to have a nice glass of wine with my dinner I would first have to obtain an education. Well, it isn’t a necessity, but then I was introduced to such elements as legs, mouth feel, body, balance, depth and finish. I wondered to myself if Berlitz offered a course in wine. Wine is one of those elements of life that is always in style. To say that the interest in wine has grown may sound silly, but it does seem that wine shops, wine tasting events, and at home wine parties have gained an increase in popularity over the past few years.
March/April 2008
The best part is that you actually get to taste the wine before having to fork out the money to buy it. Before I could attend one of these events I decided to obtain some basic knowledge so I could appear a bit more wine savvy.
I decided to start at the very beginning. I felt if I could understand the winemaking process then the rest would be a piece of cake….hmmm maybe not, but that was my original thought and I’m sticking to it.
formed into alcohol. Now, I know the opposite of dry to most of us who graduated the sixth grade is wet, but not in the language of wine. Sweet is the opposite of dry…go figure. In a sweet wine only part of the sugar from the grapes
The winemaking process includes 5 steps:
1 Harvesting the grapes. 2. Juicing the grapes (this means crushing the grapes to get liquid out of them.) 3.Fermenting the grapes (a natural process. ) 4 .Filtering the wine (removing sediment ) 5. Bottling the wine.
Most table wines contain less than 14% alcohol, which is hard to believe considering the times when it only took one glass to make us feel a bit tipsy. The multitude of wines available vary, and wines are often placed into categories. The most common of these categories is the one based on color. There are red, pink and white wines to choose from, the main difference being whether or not there was skin present during the fermentation process. Some red wine favorites include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlo, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir. They earn their deep rich color from the red grape skins called anthocyanins. Grape skin also contains tannins, which is a substance that adds a dry somewhat bitter flavor to the wine, this is not found in white wines. The longer the skins stay in contact with the juice the deeper the color. Pinks wines, such as rose or blush are only briefly fermented with the skins. White wines such as Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and Savignon Blanc have no contact with the skin of the grapes that are used to produce these favorites. Perhaps one of the most confusing terms for me when it comes to pretending to know about wine is the concept of a “dry” wine. Okay, leaving aside the fact that wine is liquid and therefore wet, how could a wet item be dry? Perhaps it’s the child in me trying to make sense of this new language of wine. What I learned was that when a wine is dry it means that all the sugar in the grape has been trans-
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This process has not changed very much over the years, however the true art of winemaking comes from the individual winemakers. These are the individuals who decide all of the specifics which can greatly affect the final product. Such things as how the grapes are grown, where they are grown, what type of containers they will be housed in while fermenting, and for how long, all play a huge part in the final taste of that wine in your glass.
21 has been converted to alcohol. These are usually lower in alcohol at about 11% whereas the dry wines are more likely 12-14%. So, how do you pick the perfect wine when you are entertaining and you have no clue? I have one easy answer, ask the wine sales person. I know this is cheating, but let’s face it, if you want the best… speak to a professional. It is helpful if you do have an idea what food you are serving and a general knowledge as to whether your guests like a red, white or blush wine and if they prefer dry or sweet. If you decide that you are more of the self starter type and want to pick out your own wine take note of the wine labels. These will generally give you some basic information about the wine you are holding in your hand. Wine labels have information such as variety of grape, country of origin, region and the winemaker. You can generally find the alcohol content as well, which will give you hints as to the dryness of the wine you are considering. Just remember it is okay to ask for help when trying to pick the perfect wine.
March/April 2008
So here you are with the perfect wine at hand while in your search for wine knowledge you read an article about wine glasses. Ugh! Something else to consider. Truly, wine drinkers are very picky as to the type of glass used to serve their wine. The shape can affect the taste and a good wine glass should have a generous bowl, so wine can be swished and swirled without ending up on your guest’s new white blouse. The glass should narrow at the top so that the aromas are focused. The wide bowl allows the wine to breathe, which changes the flavor as well. Generally, red wine glasses should be wider than white wine glasses since red wines need to breathe more. Okay, so now we have a basic knowledge of wine, but let’s get down to the important part. We want to look like we know what we are doing. Therefore we need to know how to taste wine. There are actually only three basic steps and three human senses needed to perfect this act. The sense of sight, smell and taste are needed if we are going to pull this off. First make sure that you are not wearing lipstick or perfume, you don’t want anything to detract from the smell of the wine. Second, be sure to only pour a small amount of wine into the glass, usually no more than half a glass to allow adequate swirling room. Last but not least, hold the glass up at about a 45 degree angle with a white background behind it so you can get a realistic opinion of the color of the wine. Although flavor is not related to color, the age of the wine can be told from the color. Red wines get lighter with age and white wines get darker.
22 Now the entertainment begins, swirl the wine along the
inside of the glass, the dripping lines as it falls back into the glass are called legs. The more legs the higher the alcohol content. The nose of the wine is it’s aroma. Put your nose into the glass…just slightly…and take a deep breath. If the resulting smell is musty this is evidence of a bad bottle of wine with a cork that has not been properly sterilized. There could also be excessive hydrogen sulfides which would make the wine smell like rotten eggs or a bitter smell which sometimes means the wine has turned to vinegar. If none of these smells are present, feel free to use the numerous wine terms that will show your knowledge of wine. Perhaps it smells fruity, spicy, savory or floral. The word Animal has shown up in my research, but somehow I don’t think I want to know what that means. Now it’s time to taste the wine. Swishing it around in your mouth allows you to pass it along the various tasting regions of your tongue. As soon as the wine touches your tongue you can tell if it is dry or sweet. Next concentrate on the flavors are they fruity , spicy or herbal? Most important of all, do you like it? There are so many variables in a good glass of wine that what it essentially comes down to is what you like in a wine. Expensive doesn’t always mean better, and sometimes we can get surprised by the quality of a bottle of wine that sells for much less than our palates believe it should.
More than anything drinking wine should be an experience. There are so many wine based events and companies popping up which help us to learn more about wine and to learn to properly appreciate and enjoy wine. My quest to learn more about this wonderful substance led me to Anna Doxie, a local representative of WineShop At Home. I was now ready to explore the wine experience even further. I explained to Anna my plight and my desire to learn more about wine, and she invited me to experience a wine tasting event. These events are held at your home, or the home of a friend, where you get the opportunity to sample some exclusive handcrafted artisan wines and compare notes with the rest of your guests. So how could I go wrong? I get to taste wine, research my article and hang out with my friends. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that at home wine parties have become so fashionable. I also liked the idea that I could try a wine before I had to lay out any money to buy it. As an added plus, the process included instruction on how to properly taste wine. This was a no brainer. I would soon be able to taste wine like a pro. Anna, a busy Mother of five lives in Poway, and started out as a novice winetaster, so there was still hope for me. I asked her how she became involved in WineShop At Home. “I got into the wine business because I had a desire to learn more about wine. I was impressed with the company’s ongoing trainings and events to increase my wine knowledge, while being able to earn an income at the same time. My passion for wine continues to grow. Because the more I learn about wine, the more I appreciate the art of making wine, and the various stylistic choices the winemaker uses to achieve distinct flavors and aromas in the wine. Its truly an incredible process!” Well off I went to my first wine tasting event and I can truly say that I am now, no longer such a novice. Okay so I still don’t know what Animal means, but maybe a few more parties and I will no longer shudder when the Sommelier pours me a glass. Salut!
March/April 2008
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March/April 2008
Flames of Devastation By Brandon LeValley
It’s been several months since the fires ravaged our community, and some of the small birds have returned, the ones barely large enough to duplicate the size of your thumb. The hill directly behind our house is not one of the places where they’re likely to find refuge; looking more now like the surface of Mars. We were lucky, only two houses that back up to our same hill were lost, the rest of us saw in horror how the whole hill was engulfed in flames as we escaped in our cars to seek safety. Starting out more like a stream that raced across it, we could see it out one of our arched windows in our Master Bedroom. It struck me as peculiar how it acted, as if it defied all common laws in nature, where order is given a certain predictability, even direction.
This wasn’t anything like that. It was as if the devil had found its outlet and sought out destruction with an opportunity it’s rarely given, because the whole of our town was suddenly and devastatingly overtaken by it. Spared and fortunate were most of the residents by what the city had learned from the previous “Cedar Fire” four years earlier, 21 by sending out reverse 911 calls to alert us of the oncoming fire. I’d read about fire before, from eyewitness accounts from fireman, how the fire takes on a life of its own. Until you actually see it and are caught in the wake of it, can you fully appreciate it and the fear it instantly instills. It explains how whole blocks can be wiped out, while a single home in the middle of it is spared, or like in the same subdivision in a mirrored cul-de-sac, how all the homes were spared except just one. You could have said that it’s the Santa Ana winds that contributed to the fierceness of the fire storm, you could have said it was the low humidity and increased temperature and the unusually dry period that had left most of our countryside susceptible, but it still requires a flame or an ember; power lines that may have been stretched too long to arc and spark a fire when the winds came up; or an unattended fire in a campground that may have been left too long. There are those, for reasons that it takes a psychologist to sort out, who start these fires outright, and this too brings about its own firestorm of sorts, that drags out years in prosecution and rehabilitation. Our blackened community won’t likely forget this event, it stays alive in the hearts and minds of those residents left to rebuild, who had a lifetime of memories and possessions stored up in their homes. And what of the nightmares left to linger in the minds of our children, who wake in the middle of the night thinking that another fire has
erupted and suddenly surrounded their home. That delicate sanctuary of security has been shaken and we wonder how long before they’ll feel safe again. In spite of all this, a sense of community has been strengthened by this. Where a customary distance between residences has often kept people from speaking with one another, now the shared experience has given them something in common, and a sincere concern for those whom have experienced the same. A sense of perspective too has developed, where all those things that were so desperately important, have now been given their due balance, and an overreaction to circumstances is now weighed against those things that now seem so much more valuable; family, home and friendships. I’m looking at things differently. It’s caused me to slow down and acknowledge that the randomness of this disaster could have just as likely taken my own home, and there’s no reasonable explanation that can account for why any home should be lost, or singled out as mercilessly as it was. One needs only to drive through a few of these stricken neighborhoods to appreciate this revelation. Editor’s Note: Many of our readers and staff were deeply affected by the wildfires. Several of our communities have come together to help rebuild and support those who lost so much. To learn more about those organizations visit our website at www.sandiegowoman.com/resources
March/April 2008
San Diego
Woman
HOME KIDS -Nancy Canfield All profits from the sale of Home Kids will be donated to St. Agatha’s Home, many foster and group homes, and the New York Foundling Hospital. Home Kids can be purchased from Amazon.com or directly from the author by mailing a check for $24.95 (which includes tax, shipping and handling) to the address below. The check should be made payable to St. Agatha Home Services March/April 2008
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“Basics of Internet Marketing”
By Marilyn Taylor All of us in business realize the importance of having a quality website to represent our company. However, no matter how wonderful your website is, won’t help you if no one ever visits it. There are several ways to promote your online business through Internet marketing, here are your choices: Search engine optimization, Pay-per-click marketing, Email campaigns, External Inbound Linking, and Affiliate marketing.
Search Engine
Search engine optimization involves the basics that will ensure your site is indexed and well received by the various engines, which are: quality relevant keyword content, focused keywords, and well written title & description META tags and effective internal & external (in-bound) linking.
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Optimization (Free Search): Search engine optimization is the art of marketing your website so the search engines find your website and the searcher or end user participates the way you want them to when they get there. Another term for this type of search activity is called “organic” or “natural” search. It is the task of making your site consistent and relevant to the concept or idea that you are promoting on your website.
This form of Internet marketing has costs up-front, either for you to learn how to optimize your own website, or for you to pay someone who knows what the search engines want to see on your website. This process is the first step to making sure your website comes to the top of the search engine rank pages. Once you establish a top ranking, your cost is maintaining that search engine position. The “organic” search clicks are all free and abundant. Search engine optimization is the best Internet marketing tool for you to invest in for your website’s overall success. Search engine optimization is the foundation to your Internet marketing plan and will be the most cost effective method in the long run.
March/April 2008
Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing (Paid Search):
are many types of directories on which to list your site, some are free, some have an annual fee, and some have a one time listing fee.
Pay-per-click means just that, you will pay for every click that a search does to come to your website. Pay-perclick is available through many types of search engines. The three main search engines which are the most important are Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are other types of search engines, which are specialized, like shopping.com. Pay-per-click can be expensive and not very productive especially if you are not educated on the strategy of selecting the correct keywords. Google, Yahoo and MSN all have ways for you to set budgets and ways for you to test the keywords that you want to pay-per-click.
Press releases, articles on other websites about a subject related to the products or services you are promoting on your website are also great places to have links back to your site. Having many links on quality websites on the Internet will bring you traffic to your website and it will also give your website more importance in the eyes of the search engines, especially Google.
Paid search should be used secondary to search engine optimization as described above. You can also use this method if you have a new website and you cannot wait for the search engines to find you based on the relevancy of your site through search engine optimization.
Email Campaigns: Email campaigns send your message to your existing customers. These would generally be customers that you have collected email addresses from on your site. It is very important to build a strong list of customers through activity on your site. Email campaigns are a great way to stay in touch with you current or past customers. Customers who have inquired about something or purchased something from your site may want to see what new products, services or special offers you are now presenting on your website. The key to any email campaign is sending emails to your customers on a regular basis and often, they generally do not see what you are sending the first few times. Make sure your title and email make them want to click your link to see what is happening on your website. Email spamming is an issue in which you do not want to take part. Make sure that you are using your list of customers or a list of potential customers, which you purchased from a reliable source, who have requested information related to what you are offering. You can get in trouble for sending emails to someone who is not interested in what you are offering.
External Inbound Links External links (links coming into your website) can be placed in directories on the Internet. The most important directory is www.DMOZ.org, which is the main free directory from which to search engines pull information. There
Affiliate Internet marketing is similar to the pay-perclick marketing, except it does not involve the search engines. Instead of paying the search engines for each click, you pay another company for placing a banner or link on their website. You then pay for each click or a commission on sales that was referred to you from another website. This type of marketing involves generating code for another website to add to their website, which would appear in the form of a banner or a link. This code would then tell you who sent you the referral and you would in turn pay them a fee for that referral in the form of a per click cost or a percentage or amount of the sale that was generated. Affiliate marketing requires programming and management of the program, this can be very costly if you are paying per click and not converting to sales, since you would also be paying a programmer to create code for you and someone to manage the program.
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Google and Yahoo give you the opportunity to pay for the top positions for a particular keyword, but they also factor in your website’s popularity, so you may not get the top slot even if you pay for it. MSN will let you have the top slot if you set the highest bid for a keyword phrase.
Affiliate Marketing:
Google has a program called AdSense, which creates code for you and places it on other company’s websites that have relevant content. This is risky because you are not really sure what kind of sites your link will be put on, and if searchers click on your link it costs you money and what you offer may not be what they are looking for. In conclusion, you can select one of these methods to focus on or use several of them to work together. It is important to remember when creating and fine tuning your website, the optimization of your site is the main ingredient to success with Internet marketing. Your website must attract searchers who want what you are providing and then they must convert to add to your revenues. Once you have an optimized website the other methods of Internet marketing can be added as you need them to expand your customer base.
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Traveling With Teens By Diane Garner (travelingwithteens@cox.net) Even though we live in or near San Diego, most of us choose to travel away from America’s Finest City occasionally. We often return wondering what in the world were we thinking to voluntarily leave paradise even for a brief time. This feeling may be especially strong if you have been traveling with a teenager. Volumes have been written about how to travel with small children, but there is a void when it comes to advice on traveling with teenagers. Having survived numerous trips with two teens, I submit to you, fellow parents of teens, that traveling with a teenager is far more difficult than traveling with anyone under the age of thirteen. Why? Because children have needs; teenagers have ATTITUDE.
Are you asking: What makes this woman think she’s an expert? Good question. Actually, I don’t consider myself an expert. I am a survivor. I will say that I’ve had a lot of experience. Judging from the travels of relatives, friends, and neighbors, I’d venture that we’ve traveled more than the average family. Our savings account would also be evidence of that fact. Our travels have taken us from Honolulu to Athens and from San Francisco to St. John. We have camped on Mammoth Mountain and cruised the Mediterranean. We have been pampered in first class, but also been carsick in an RV. We have snorkeled in the Caribbean, scuba dived in Hawaii, hiked a river canyon, shivered in underground caverns, cried on battlefields, listened to Supreme Court Justices, gawked at a mansion, pondered inside the Colosseum, toured the White House, and explored innumerable National Parks. Since I’m not an expert, I’ll simply be sharing with you things that worked and things that didn’t work on our family trips. I’ll throw in some horrors and some successes. You may be obliged to tolerate some maternal philosophizing, but I’ll try not to bore you with verbal home movies. I can’t promise that I won’t brag occasionally. To avoid any misconception that I perceive myself as the Mary Poppins of traveling with teenagers, I am sharing the experience of our trip from Hell. Imagine a situation in which your teen is cold, bored, hungry, and embarrassed, and you will understand our disastrous trip. This story could be titled “How NOT to Introduce Teenagers to RVing.”
My husband and I were flush with excitement as we planned the first trip with the used RV we had recently purchased. Images of carefree independence and the wideopen road invaded our dreams of family vacations and early retirement. Naïve, so naïve! After days of packing, supplying, and preparing the rig, we headed off like a herd of turtles for two days of skiing and RVing at Mammoth Mountain. In retrospect, we should’ve spent those days studying the multitude of owner’s manuals.
The first bad omen was our teenage daughter’s bout of motion sickness brought on by the gentle swaying of the rig. Remembering the one previous experience with this problem when she hurled partially digested donuts, we quickly (remember this term is relative when traveling in an RV) stopped at a 7-Eleven and stuffed her with Dramamine. She was catatonic for the remainder of the drive. After negotiating the last few miles through snowy slush, we were relieved and thankful to pull safely into the RV park by dinnertime. We marveled that there were only two other RVs in the park even though it was prime ski season. Naïve, so naïve. My husband and teenage son braved the biting cold to plug in, hook up, and fasten together the loose ends of everything they could find. Meanwhile, my daughter and I bounced around like the silver ball in a pinball machine as we prepared dinner in a kitchen the size of a bedroom closet. Fearing we might run out of propane, we used the heater sparingly, so the best part of squeezing the four of us into the tiny dinette for the mediocre meal was the shared body heat. With teen discontent brewing from boredom and cold, we retired to bed early. After everyone showered the next morning, we noticed that the gray water tank was nearly full. We decided to “dump” that evening. So, my husband and two teenagers set off to ski in the fiercely blowing snow. (No, I don’t ski, and don’t ask!) At the end of the day, they returned frozen, starving, and exhausted. Deciding it was wise to do the dump before dark, my husband and disgruntled son attacked the project of unplugging, unhooking, and unfastening. We were good to go until hubby lowered the hydraulic lifts, the six tires hit the ground, and the right front tire went completely flat.
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AAA assured us that someone would come to help ASAP. ASAP turned out to be over an hour. In the freezing wind, it took the poor mechanic another hour to get the lug nuts off and change the tire. We huddled inside, snacked, and tried to stay warm without running the heater too much. The teenage grumbling grew louder. Once the mechanic finished, my husband cranked the cold engine, and we drove the few hundred feet to the dump station. The guys performed the gross dumping task as the temperature dropped into the single digits and flurries swirled around them. They climbed back into the rig eager to warm up, return to our space, and enjoy a hot dinner. So naïve. When my husband turned the key, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. No engine, no lights, no heater, no generator, no microwave. Everything was dead. We were stranded at the dump station, which now felt as cold, dark, and isolated as the Moon.
punishments−anything that might help the poor parent who is dreading a family trip with a teenager. Together, we may save a parent’s sanity!
So, until next time, keep traveling with your teens!
San Diego....
San Diego
When the same mechanic came to rescue us again an hour later, our teens were mortified. We would probably never see this man again in our lives, but that fact didn’t lessen their embarrassment. I must admit he did seem to find a morbid humor in our predicament, and I can only imagine the tales he later told about the dimwit RV folks stuck beside the dump hole. By the time the mechanic performed his magic, we were all cold and starved, to say nothing of grumpy. We carefully drove a few snowy blocks to a fastfood restaurant where we ate dinner inside the RV with the engine running for fear we might otherwise spend the night stranded in the parking lot. Calling AAA a third time in one night was not an option. When we left Mammoth, everyone was eager to get back to civilization. The drive down the mountain was as harrowing as the trip up. Our daughter popped her Dramamine and drifted off to Never Never Land. Our son’s ATTITUDE and caustic comments were enough to set his parents’ teeth on edge. Our teens never forgave or forgot the misadventures of that trip. Every subsequent RV trip was an adventure, but that one was the worst. In defense of the RV, the problems were always “operator error.” Those pesky owner manuals just never got read. But, we are no longer naïve. The RV is for sale. Yes, our family has traveled extensively, but we haven’t done it all. That is why I need your help. I would love to hear from you, at the above e-mail address, about your travel experiences with your teens. Tell me about your best trip and your worst, but especially explain why the trips turned out that way. Tell me your ideas, gimmicks, threats,
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California Tower Museum of Man at Balboa Park
Clearing and Quieting the Mind By: Genie Taylor
Having a clear and quiet mind is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s world. We are constantly being bombarded with the ringing of blackberries and cell phones; as well as e-mails, faxes, air mails. We then make the mad rush of getting back to people within the business grace period of 24 hours. What a challenge it is to have a moment of solitude…a quiet time for ourselves. It is in the peaceful silence of a quiet mind where we can find our inner self and quietly listen to the wisdom that lies 30 within. Indra Devi, the author of Renewing Your Life Through Yoga, stated: “Like water, which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true images of the self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed. A ghost wind-and the rippling waters will distort the reflexion; a storm-and reflexion disappears altogether.” I know from personal experience, through the storms that have crossed my life’s path, that it is essential for us to clear our minds. I find that taking a walk through nature, on the beach, in a beautiful park, and taking a 5 minute meditation can be a powerful tool to help find that needed solitude of the mind and body. Once we reach that peaceful place of preference, sit quietly and notice the beauty around you. Then, close your eyes, and make sure you are sitting tall and upright. Breathe in relaxation, letting
the air you breathe clear your mind. As you exhale, emit all the stress and tension you have been through during the day …let it go so you can clear and quiet your mind. Inhale, relax…and exhale, let go. Visualize that a pond or lake is your mind. Let the wind rippling through the water be made still. Breathe deeper
until the water is completely tranquil. The more you can let go and connect with your inner self, the more whole you will be. If you are finding it difficult to sit still or if you are feeling restless or aggressive…I recommend taking a walk or exercise. This will release the tension. Afterwards, try again to inhale, relax… exhale, let go. Listen to your inner self…and learn from the wisdom from within! You will thus find that by clearing your mind and letting go, you will have accomplished the first steps on life’s path to soften the tension and stress of daily challenges.
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Chuao Chocolate Southern California’s Artisan Chocolate Shop
On Valentines Day, year after year, I go to University Town Center or Encinitas to the Chuao Chocolate Café to purchase chocolates for my honey this year was no exception. I joined a line of caring and thoughtful men who gladly made the trek to please their valentines. I am almost always the lone woman in line. Usually I hem and haw and can’t decide what kinds of lush brown confections to put into my 9-piece collection. I don’t really do chocolate (yes, you read that right!) but my husband loves fine chocolate. (In case you’re wondering, he is NOT a chocoholic – so he tells me!) I often enlist the help of other shoppers or the sales clerks to select the perfect combination. Nothing is too good for my man.
neered chocolate with stabilized fats. 2. Smell: Inhale the aroma; let your mind sense the flavors you’re about to taste. 3. Taste: Let the chocolate melt in your mouth. Allow it to cover your entire tongue. Allow the flavors to reveal themselves. Savor the flavors. My friend savored the flavor, rolled her eyes in ecstasy. She said “The flavor keeps changing, morphing and moving around my tongue. It has a hint of cayenne pepper that slightly numbed my tongue with its spiciness. Mixing deep dark chocolate with these spices is out of this world.”
So why, if I’m not a chocolater am I writing an article on chocolate? Well, to help my fellow women, of course! I consider it my moral and civic duty to tell everyone about the best chocolate around. I’m not able to wax eloquently about the fineries of chocolate, but I am a qualified observer. But where would I find a person to try this chocolate for me? As it turns out, every woman I know loves chocolate. So I treated a friend to her first piece of Chuao chocolate and delighted in her reaction. She is a well versed chocolater, and chose the Picante piece for her first experience with Chuao. She knew the 3 steps to tasting chocolate: 1. Observe: Is it shiny? How does it break? Does it crumble or splinter? A clean break with a hard and clear crack sound is also a sign of excellent quality. Does it begin to melt within a few seconds of holding it? 100% cacao-based chocolates will melt at body temperature faster than engi-
After she came back to the living she said that this was the best chocolate she had ever tasted. She assured me that she was making the trek to UTC the following weekend. Pronounced ChewWOW, Chuao is Southern California’s only artisan chocolate shop. Named after the cacao producing region in Central Venezuela. Venezuelan-born chocolatier Michael Antonorsi, used to be a biomedical engineer and decided to follow his passion. He left his engineering career behind and moved to Paris to study Pastry and Chocolaterie at the Ecole Lenotre. Two years later he graduated, joined with his brother; entrepreneur Richard Antonorsi and founded the company in San Diego County. At Chuao chocolatier you won’t find your standard run-ofthe-mill chocolates, you will find creative and unique combinations. Really unique. Bold, uncommon and assertive these flavors will delight your taste buds.
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Here are just a few of their daily standards:
Gianduja-
Hazelnut and almond paste enhanced with fresh vanilla and a hint of coffee, covered in Venezuelan milk chocolate.
Noccello- Roasted hazelnut buttercream covered with Venezuelan milk chocolate
Land of Milk and Honey is named after
the nickname for Israel. This bonbon features a pistachiohoney crunch inside dark chocolate. Pistachios are a popular crop from the Middle East. Chuao Chocolatier Cafes are in La Jolla, Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad and Irvine. For more information visit: www chuaochocolatier.com. Take my word for it…. No, don’t take my word for it, go by and taste these delights for yourself.
Cacique- Rum flavored creamy dark chocolate with California raisins
Zen- ginger ganache infused with green tea and covered in dark Venezuelan chocolate
Framboise- Double layered bonbon, one of hazelnut almond praline and one of raspberry “Pate de Fruit” covered in dark Venezuelan chocolate
Picante- California raisin fondue and Napa Valley
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cabernet caramel, spiced up with pasilla chili and cayenne pepper covered in dark Venezuelan chocolate
Chevre-
goat cheese, pear Williams and crushed black buttercream. This was all softened by the small, spicy raisins
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Modena- strawberry caramel with balsamic vinegar
from Modena
Candela-
Hawaiian macadamia praline spiced with smoky chipotle covered in dark chocolate. Salty, crispy and with a soft spicy finish
Qumran-
(named after the settlement where the Dead Sea Scrolls were originally found). This bonbon is rosemary infused salt butter caramel inside a milk chocolate. Rosemary is indigenous to the area and the salt refers to the salt of the Dead Sea.
Song of the Desert is a prickly pear/tahini delicacy inside dark chocolate. These flavors are popular in Middle Eastern cuisine.
The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. Lucille Ball
March/April 2008
Earning a Gold Star
Learn how to reward yourself for eating healthy By Jennifer L. Sachs, RD
You may have had great intentions to start eating healthier in 2008 but now, several months later you’re back to your old habits. Positive thinking and trying to pep yourself up failed to keep you on track. Think years back to those days as a young child when your parents and teachers were trying to educate you to establish healthy habits; important things you needed to learn to survive in our society today; things like reading a book, washing our hands before eating dinner, saving money in your piggy bank and learning how to work as you completed your chores.
How were you motivated to make these changes? Was it a spanking or a stern look? More often than not you were probably motivated to learn this new behavior because you would re34 ceive a reward, not because you were born disciplined. You may have received a star or sticker on the chart each time you read a book or completed a chore. You may have earned an allowance and you saved up to buy that special toy. Or even better yet, you may have gained the right to play with the neighborhood friends after completing your chores or homework for the day. Have you really changed that much over the years? I think most of us would admit that we would be willing to climb a mountain to get something we really wanted. Getting up in the morning for work when our alarm goes off can be excruciating but think about how easy it is to pop out of bed at 5 am when you know you’re on your way to catch a flight to Hawaii for a vacation. How about trying to find time to look through a cookbook for healthy recipes and compile a grocery list to make nutrition meals? Who has time for that? What if your favorite reality series is on two nights this week instead of one? Certainly
you will be able to adjust your busy schedule to fit that in. As a child our reward system was managed by an adult so unless our parent or teacher referee wavered easily, we were obliged to follow the rules. Today as an adult most often times we are in charge of our own lives. We set the rules unless we sign over the authority to someone else with our consent. This leads to a problem when it comes to trying to establish healthy eating habits. Most of us can easily convince ourselves to bend the rules “just this one time”. One compromise can easily lead to two and eventually we are back to our old ways.
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We are all at different stages of change. Some of us may have success with only a prize in mind and can manage quite well on our own while others may need both the prize and an authoritative coach to help us keep on track.
If you can stay FOCUSED on the Prize…
More women than men die of a stroke. Don’t be a part of this statistic. Motivate yourself through your desire to be alive and healthy for years to come for the sake of your family and friends. Acquire several copies of photos of your favorite people. Write captions on them such as “I want to see you get married” or “I want to enjoy retirement with you”. Place the photos in strategic locations where you make food choices such as on the refrigerator or food cabinets, on the dash of your car or in a smaller form on a key chain or in your wallet. The next time you’re tempted to drive through your local fast-food burger joint you will be motivated to head in the opposite direction.
Prize 1: Mini shopping spree
If you need some COACHING toward the Prize…
If your goal is to lose weight, reward yourself with a mini shopping spree every time you drop two sizes. Decide on a certain number of dollars and put it aside in a jar or envelope. Record the date and amount of weight loss directly on the envelope or a label on the jar.
Prize 2: Save a life To help yourself cut back on high fat and sugary snacks and beverages, carry a special change purse in your regular hand bag. Every time you get a craving to binge, figure out how much it would cost you to purchase those items and put that amount in the purse. Once a month use the money to sponsor a child or donate to an organization such as one that helps young girls from being sexually exploited.
Prize 3: Flower power Go to the local farmers market or favorite grocery store once a week and buy a variety of fruits and vegetables to include in your menu throughout the week. Try to choose the bright colorful fruits and vegetables which are very high in antioxidants, fiber and a variety of vitamins and minerals. Treat yourself to a weekly colorful bouquet of flowers to reward yourself while you’re there and remind you throughout the week to eat fruits and vegetables you purchased.
Prize 4: More free time for fun Start a lunch club at your place or work or with a group of friends in your neighborhood. Each person can sign up for one day of the week and bring food or drop it off for all the group members. Make a rule to only prepare healthy low-fat recipes. Depending on how many people are in the group, you may only have to make lunch or dinner a couple times during the week. Use your free time to do something you enjoy.
Prize 5: Quality time Four of the top leading causes of death are diet related.
Coach 1: A faithful friend Find a friend who is working toward similar nutrition goals or would be a good role model for you. Help keep each other accountable. Meet each other at the grocery store, share healthy recipes and encourage each other to make nutritious food choices.
Coach 2: A Registered Dietitian Look into setting up an appointment with a Dietitian. Check with your health insurance or doctor to see whether or not you need a referral or if coverage is available. Many private consulting dietitians advertise online or in the yellow pages and can be a great resource for accurate nutrition information and help you set goals and stay on track. If you’re prone to waver, pay for several visits upfront to keep you coming back and hold you accountable.
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Which category do you fit into? Trying some of these ideas may help you figure that out:
Coach 3: A personal trainer
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In addition to their exercise expertise, many personal trainers will also offer nutrition advice depending on their educational background. Beware of special nutrition products or supplements and diet pills. If you are unsure if the information you are being provided is accurate, double check with an RD (Registered Dietitian). An RD is licensed to provide evidence-based nutrition advice in San Diego and has to meet strict credentials to receive and maintain their license.
Coach 4: A local neighborhood support group Look for healthy cooking classes at your neighborhood community center or college. Ask the personnel behind the information desk at health centers or medical clinics about courses and groups that are available. Some grocery stores even offer grocery store tours where you learn how to read nutrition labels and make the right food choices. If you are unable to find a group, start your own. Once a week have a cooking club where you make a healthy recipe together or start a book club where you read a nutrition-related book and get together for a healthy dinner to discuss it.
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Coach 5: Online support Join an online support group through an established program or a variety of online forums. Avoid websites or groups promoting fad diets or products. Look for those sites that promote healthy eating lifestyle changes and exercise goals. There are also a wide variety of tools available to help you track your success. Try www.mypyramid.gov , www.eatright.org, www.diabetes.org, or www. americanheart.org where you can get accurate nutrition information, identify your goal weight, get healthy recipes and input your daily food choices to see if you’re meeting your nutrient needs.
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Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving. Erma Bombeck
“Unconditional Surrender”
is a 25-foot sculpture that sits in front of the USS Midway in San Diego harbor. It brings to life the famous black and white image of a sailor kissing a young nurse in Times Square, New York City, on August 14, 1945. The image captures the spontaneous eruption of joy and euphoria that swept a war-weary nation when the public announcement was finally made that World War II was over.
March/April 2008
Business Matters Low and Inside (The law of attraction) By Jack Doxey
I grew up in New York City back in the 1930s and 40s. I played a lot of sand lot baseball and aspired to be a major league player. We played in an inner city baseball league and I’ll never forget one very crucial game. It was the ninth inning and we were leading 4 to 1. It was the bottom of the 9th inning and the other team was at the plate. They had bases loaded with two out. Up to the plate strides Lefty Morrissey, who under the right conditions could hit the ball three city blocks. His adversary was our best pitcher Tony Deluca. Now Tony wasn’t about to let the other team take the game away from us. If he could get Lefty out we would go on to play the winning team in the borough of Brooklyn.
Now here is the important part: Whether Tony Deluca was aware of it or not he was describing one of the most important laws in the universe and that is the Law of Attraction.
The Law of Attraction in its most simple form is: What you think in your mind you will produce in kind. Folks, everything you experience in life is simply what you thought about at one time. Think for a moment about 37 some very successful people that you know. Everything seems to come up roses for them. The beautiful home, lots of money happy marriage etc. You know how the story goes. People who are not experiencing the same success tend, at times, to say these people seem to have all the breaks going their way. In other words they attribute it to luck. San Diego
Just as Tony stepped up to the mound, our manager called time out and strode out to the mound. He put his arm around Tony and said the following: “Do not pitch low and inside to Lefty.” The manager headed back to the dugout but stopped and turned around and was about to say once again no pitches low and inside. Before he could finish Tony interrupted him and said “Yea, I know no pitches low and inside.”
manager kept telling me was don’t throw the ball low and inside. And guess what, that is exactly what I did. I threw the ball low and inside just where Lefty likes the ball and the rest is history. He hit the home run to win the game and we don’t move on to play in Brooklyn.” Tony continued to complain and said: “Why did my manager tell me where not to pitch the ball? Why didn’t he tell me where he wanted me to pitch?
Tony once again walked up to the mound, went into his delivery and threw the ball. Lefty Morrissey swung and hit a grand slam home run and in the process broke Mrs. Ryan’s window in the tenement house across the street. The other team won the game 5 to 4. The next day, to console ourselves, we all gathered around our favorite hangout, Fitzsimons and Kiernan’s Bar and Grill. Of course Tony was there, still sullen and angry for giving up the winning home run. He told us: “all that our
Not true folks, these people have found the greatest secret in the universe the Law of Attraction. It works every time. What you consistently think of and believe in will become your reality. Case in point: Poor Tony Deluca was constantly thinking
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low and inside and it was so strong in his mind that he did just that-- served it low and inside. Now we know that is not what he wanted to do and that’s not what his manger wanted him to do but they became victims of the law of attraction by thinking negatively. Now the important thing to remember is that in order for this Law of Attraction to work you must monitor your thoughts. There are two types of thoughts-- good thoughts and bad thoughts. If you consistently dwell on the negative your experiences in life will be negative. The law will work just as hard in making you a failure as making you a success in life. It assumes that you are monitoring your thoughts and if you insist on thinking negative the law will produce negative outcomes. In other words you will experience trouble and turmoil in your life.
Let me end with a very positive example: I was privileged to be witness to the birth of the JW Charitable Giving Organization. The group created a Mission, a Vision and a set of Values to work to and the rest is history. The orphanage in Mexico came into our reality. Notice how beautifully things fell into place. The wonderful grateful Catholic nuns, the smiles on the faces of the orphans when they witnessed the beautiful transformation of the boys‘s dormitory. It didn’t happen by accident. It is the work of the Law of Attraction. I’ll be the first to admit that I have entertained a lot of low and inside thoughts in my life time but I am getting better, especially when I know that the right thoughts will produce the right results—every time without exception.
fitness article may be deadline almost expires!!!
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Beauty Everywhere By Karen Kripalani
Cruisin’ Vegas-Style San Diego is just a few hours from Vegas, the land of gaming, entertainment and exhilaration. Everyone loves Vegas and the excitement that Sin City delivers. But by the time you add up the cost and hassle of getting there, finding a hotel, and paying an arm and a leg on the shows and food, you end up spending much more than you initially anticipated….and you’re still just in Vegas. What if you could get that same thrill and excitement without having to take a flight or a long car ride? What if you had all-you-can-eat, gourmet food at any time, day or night, without having to dip into your wallet? What if you got to attend high-energy shows filled with beautiful women in multitudes of costumes every night? What if you got picked up right in your hometown and yet got to explore foreign lands? Oh, to be serenaded by fantastic musicians at every turn, to play any casino game your heart desires 24/7, or to just lie out by the pool with a cocktail in your hand. That’s what Carnival Cruise Lines (www.carnival.com) promises. Carnival claims to be the “Fun Ship,” and, sure enough, fun, fun, fun is all around you. If you are looking for a calm, relaxing getaway, this cruise may not be for you. But if you’re lookin’ for a good party, you’ve come to the right place! Activities abound, as do on-shore excursions like snorkeling the clear waters of Cabo, swimming with the dolphins and horseback riding on the beach. Fun days at sea may be spent getting pampered at the spa or learning to line dance. Vast decisions must be made while cruising, like whether to participate in the hairy chest contest, get krazy with karaoke, attend a wine tasting and art auction, compete in the Newlywed Game, play a mean round of big money bingo, or work off all the extra food weight gained at the gym. And that’s all before noon. It’s a great choice for honeymooning couples, families looking for adventure, or a girls or guys getaway. Carnival has 2-9 day cruises leaving out of San Diego exploring the Baja coast and the Mexican Riviera. And prices start at $299! You can’t get a room in Vegas for less then that, let alone eat, travel and get entertained! So the next time you are lookin’ to scratch that wild itch, let whatever happens in Vegas stay in Vegas and check out a weekend cruise out of San Diego. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s affordable, it’s all-inclusive, and it’s fun, fun, fun!
March/April 2008
HOME SWEET HOMETOWN By Erin E. Ruocco
What is your hometown? I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in the suburbs north of Beantown. I went to Marian Court for an Associate in Science degree; Bentley College for an American Bar Association Paralegal Certificate; and Lesley College for a Bachelor of Science degree. Poway has been my hometown since 1997! What is most unique about your hometown? Boston holds the distinction of having the first free public concerts, library, parks, and schools. Bunker Hill, Concord, the Freedom Trail, and Walden Pond are other areas of historical significance.
We fell in love with San Diego the first time we visited it in 1989, but family commitments kept us in the Bay State until about ten years ago. What does San Diego have to offer that your hometown lacked? San Diego has a mild Mediterranean climate and the Pacific Ocean.
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When did you move away from your hometown? Why?
41 What do you miss most about your hometown? The people, of course. Plus I miss the distinct seasons. That is, snow on Christmas Eve; the first spring robin; the free Fourth of July Boston Pops concerts on the Esplanade; and the leaves changing color in the fall. Also, the “lobsta” rolls; New England clam “chowdah”; and World Series-winning Boston Red Sox. Have you gone back to visit since leaving, and if so did it appear the same as it was when you left? Yes I have gone back a few times and each time it seems as if everything has changed. People have died or moved away. Companies have gone out of business. Even keeping in touch by phone and e-mail isn’t the same as face-to-face. But I always have “The Perfect Storm,” “Mystic River,” and “The Departed” to watch if I get homesick or I want to hear what I used to sound like with my “Bahstun” accent.
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A Magnificent Rebirth in New York City By Jack Doxey
I just came back from a wonderful vacation in New York City. I’m convinced that you could visit New York City every day for the next five years and still not see everything that it has to offer. The food is spectacular, not to mention the breathtaking architecture of the buildings.
some hard times if we can believe the foreboding forecasts of the future of our economy. However, we can all take heart from what is being accom-
However the attraction that absolutely transfixed me was ground zero which is the original site of the Twin Towers. As we all know both these towers came down in a most dramatic and sad fashion by terrorists on September 11th 2001. When I visited the site I was immediately struck by the colossal size of the cavity left in the ground. Sixteen acres are currently under construction and it will probably prove to be one of the most complex engineering feats this big city has ever encountered. The excavation and laying of the foundation is proceeding as we speak.
In its place will be constructed Freedom Tower. The artist’s renderings are breathtaking and when completed will be awe inspiring. It will consist of five buildings and the estimated cost for the Freedom Tower alone will be in excess of two billion dollars. It will soar 1776 feet. The height matches the date of our countries declaration of independence. This was not mere coincidence. This huge undertaking is scheduled to be completed in 2011 and this might even be overly optimistic. The people of New York have been very critical of some of the designs and the actual excavation has been plagued by almost insurmountable obstacles. However the architects and the builders continue with an undaunted optimism. The year 2008 for our country will also contain some daunting obstacles. Large and small businesses will encounter
plished in New York against incredible obstacles. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes we will produce Freedom Tower accompanied by magnificently beautiful memorials dedicated to the people who gave their lives on that fateful day. With this inspiration and in spite of all forecasts we can all take heart and look forward, with renewed optimism and courage, toward 2008 and forward.
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March/April 2008
Women of Distintion Judy Lawton - Owner and CEO of TLC staffing
By Judith A. Habert
“People may never remember what you say, they don’t remember what you do, but they absolutely never forget how you make them feel.” These are the words that Judy Lawton lives by, the owner and CEO of TLC staffing has made this her credo, and anyone who has the pleasure of meeting Judy will tell you that she makes you feel wonderful. Any client who enters her offices will quickly see that she means every word. At TLC Staffing no one is ever turned away.
Judy was on the phone setting her sights on starting her own employment firm. She contacted a trusted client and businessman whom she refers to as Uncle Arthur, and they met at a local restaurant. Sitting together in this restaurant, scribbling on a cocktail napkin, they set out to plan Judy’s new business. In five short weeks, her new firm was up and running. People over the years have asked Judy how she had the guts to start her own business. She stoically replies, “After going through that, feeling the way I felt, I would never have given anybody another shot at me like that. That
Judy remembers back to the day when she set her sights on starting her own firm. She had been a dedicated employee for a technical staffing firm. She had worked to turn this business around. Long hours, hard work, and dedication were principles Judy lived by. So you can only imagine her surprise when one morning she was called into her boss’ office, handed an envelope, and told that her services were no longer needed. She was escorted to her desk, and then to her company car so she could clean them out and was immediately driven home by a company employee. She was thanked for her hard work and a promise was made to explain why she was being let go. Twenty three years have passed and she has still not received that explanation.
would have taken more guts than starting my own business.”
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However, after a tearful weekend Judy decided she would never allow herself to be in this position again. She decided it was time to take control of her own destiny. So not one to procrastinate, bright and early Monday morning
From those modest days when Judy and her small staff visited client’s offices every Friday dropping off goodies and collecting their accounts receivable, so that she could make the weekly payroll; to owning and operating one of the top female owned businesses in San Diego, it has been a roller coaster ride. But, one that she would never ever trade in. The hardest part about getting her business up and running in five weeks was finding a 600 square foot office space in which to operate. Today Judy owns the 20,000 square foot building that proudly displays the TLC Staffing logo on its facade.
March/April 2008
Colleagues often refer to Judy’s infectious laugh as one of the characteristics that make everyone love her. Judy is often seen with bouquets of flowers, which she brings to her staff to help brighten their days, and bring smiles to their faces. TLC has had incredible growth over the years. From a company that employed one employee (Judy) to a business that grosses $12 million a year and has 32 professionals in three offices, located in San Diego, Carlsbad, and Ontario, TLC’s reputation continues to glow. Judy and her staff currently have 600-700 company contracts and they direct more than 1,200 potential employees to their doors. Perhaps best expressed by TLC’s executive Vice President, Shannon Erdell “I experience every day the qualities that have made Judy Lawton a successful business woman in San Diego. I’m proud to work for a woman who leads by example and who brings out the best in her employees and all those with whom she comes in contact.” Not only is Judy involved with a multitude of charitable organizations and endeavors she always encourages her staff to do the same by providing the time off necessary so they all can make a contribution to society.
How did Judy get into the Staffing industry? It was kind of a quirk. As a young mom relocated to San Diego in 1971 with her Naval Officer husband, Judy decided to enroll at the Barbizon School of Modeling. As she states, “I was 28 years old, probably 15 years too old, I was too short, too small but I learned how to sit so I wouldn’t look fat for job interviews” Judy loved the 6 month course. She was sent out to interview for modeling jobs, and one of these so called modeling jobs was for American Girl working for a savings and loan during reinvestment periods. Every quarter they hired people like Judy to look pretty while handing out coffee and doughnuts to people coming in to reinvest their money. Before long she was organizing staffing for these events and ended up being hired as the outside sales rep, and as they say, the rest is history. I asked Judy what she would suggest to young women who want to start their own businesses. Her answer was “Find a mentor, absolutely find a mentor, and there are three things that anyone who starts a business, male or female must have. A good CPA, a good banker, and a good attorney and make them love you. And don’t go into any venture undercapitalized .”
San Diego
After 23 years in the human resources field Judy takes pride in the fact that she has a wonderfully competent staff to which she can delegate many of the time consuming details of her daily business. As a result it frees her up to be a major force in charitable endeavors. JJudy serves on the San Diego Workforce Investment Board, and was its Chair from1999-2000, and currently serves as Chair of the Workforce Advance Committee. She is active in numerous organizations, including Soroptimist International of San Diego, LEAD San Diego and Women President’s Organization. In honor of the hard work that Judy does she has earned recognition from the National Association of Women Business Owners, the San Diego Regional Conference and the Soroptimist International from who she received the honor of “Woman of Accomplishment.” Judy is also a graduate of LEAD San Diego.
No accomplishment goes unrecognized at TLC. The ship’s bell 45 positioned outside her Executive VP’s office is often sounded to commemorate a staff accomplishment and let’s not forget the Friday afternoon Margarita parties. As Judy says, “We celebrate everything here and everyone,” What does Judy have in mind for the future? Her goals include 25 million in annual gross sales and although she doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon, she is concerned about obtaining an exit strategy that will protect all of her beloved employees. As Judy notes, “It is important to take good care of the people who have made me look good, and they have.”
March/April 2008
Surprising Wines of South Africa By Deborah Damery Lazear, CSW
Why Do Goats Roam?
Today’s South African wines are said to reflect the classicism of the Old World while at the same time being influenced by the contemporary fruit-driven styles of the New World.
cially in the Franschhoek “French corner”, whilst the young South African winemakers provide a fresh approach with fruit forward wines of Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot, and Rhône varietals, as well as a smattering of more unusual varieties
I picked up the bottle off the shelf and began to read the fable of the baobab tree. Its root system appears to be reaching towards the sky and not into the ground. What, I thought, did a tree have to do with a bottle of South African syrah? And then it hit me; everything. South Africa’s wine industry has one foot in its history roots and one foot in its future where the sky is the limit.
46 South Africa’s wine making history dates back three
centuries when the Dutch East India Company planted French vine cuttings of Chenin Blanc, which they renamed steen. I tasted a bottle of Storyteller Chenin Blanc recently; it had the raciness of citrus and the floral nose that reminded me of an old world Vouvray with the new world price point of US$10. I was intrigued. I hadn’t explored South Africa’s wines past its signature Pinotage for quite some time. I suppose this was due to lack of opportunity and also my lack of knowledge about how far the wine industry has come since 1994. Post apartheid, the wine industry is exhibiting a New World attitude and receiving the global recognition and increased presence on wine shop shelves in all price ranges it deserves. Half the vine plantings are less than a dozen years old, replanted with newer and better clones of old world grapes such as Cabernet, Syrah, and Merlot. These new clones are more leaf-roll virus resistant, a constant problem in Cape vineyards. Also, the newer clones are more in line with new world palates; need I mention Robert Parker! Cooperatives such as KWV have less hold on the wineries today, down to 25% from previous levels. This change encourages bold young wine makers, such as Marc Kent, Eben Sadie, and Gyles Webb, to strike out on their own. European wine aristocrats, such as Elaine de Lencquesaing of Chateau Pichon-Longueville and Anne Cointreau, have lent an air of respectability and Old World style, espe-
such as Nebbiolo. The Cape Wine Country is the 9th largest producer of wine in the world. But don’t be fooled by the seemingly large production. Only a tiny portion of that wine is of high quality and available for export. Much is turned into brandy. The Cape has a climate that is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Indian Ocean on the others. It is frequently compared to the Côte-du-Rhône region of France. Be prepared for three distinct climates: cool and breezy Stellenbosch for Cabernet and Chenin Blanc; Paarl, Franschhoek for Syrah and Rhône varieties; and very cool Walker Bay for Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Soils vary from region to region. This is reminiscent of France, especially Burgundy, with its limestone, shale, and schist. Granite is also evident, forcing the vines to struggle for nutrients and water making for more intense wines that speak of their terroir. The Cape area also has a mountainous influence creating microclimates that remind me of Napa, California.
March/April 2008.Vol I
As is in the Old World, the vintage is an important guide to quality and age ability. For example, 2003 was declared the best Cape vintage of the decade by Decanter magazine, ready for drinking 2009-2014. The 2004 on the other hand had imperfect conditions, careful selection is in order; drink in 5 to 8 years. This reminds me of Bordeaux caveat emptor. Yet, unlike Bordeaux, many of the wines of South Africa are crafted to be consumed young, 3-5 years, just like in the New World. Even the most intense syrahs are very fruit driven. It seems waiting is a luxury commodity!
world notion of terroir. Choose the right grape varieties, focus on fewer varieties per vineyard, and produce better quality from each vineyard. South African wines in the US$10-$20 per bottle range are giving Australia and Chile a run for their money! We global wine drinkers just can’t lose and neither can the wine makers, just ask Charles Back of Fairview, Spice Route, and the widely available Goats do Roam fame. So, go to the Cape Wine country. Travel to all three regions to experience for yourself time past and time present but mostly time future. Tasting Notes & Food Pairing Suggestion
The Wine and Spirit Board, in 1973, created a quality control system called the Wine of Origin classification system. Much like the New World system, it is place-driven. Distinct areas for wine production are named. Unlike the Old World, the restrictions on grape variety, methods of farming, and irrigation and others are not restricted, leaving wine makers with much flexibility and a creative outlet. There are 5 broad Regions, 22 smaller Districts, and 56 even smaller Wards. If the grape is named on the label, 85% of the grapes must be of that variety. If the vintage is listed, 85% of the grapes must come from that vintage, and if the area is names (such as Franschhoek) grapes must come from that area only. The penalty for not measuring up to regular inspection is no exportation rights! The labels fall into two categories. The first is the Old World style with classic and subdued script, maybe a building or farm, and lots of seals of award winnings. The second is a New World style, play on words (The Goatfather), pictures of animals, or fables such as the Storyteller line. These attract the attention of a visually overloaded public viewing a shelf of overstocked wines all vying for our attention. All bets are on for Syrah/Shiraz to be the shining star that leads both old and new world lovers to reach for South African wines. Columella and Boekenhoutskloof may just be the next cult wines giving California something to think about. The future for South African wines lies in the old
Sight: ruby red leaning towards the purple (no visible blue tint) (no orange oxidation), medium density, clean even color all the way to the rim, high alcohol Smell: blackberry, black plums, boysenberry, tar, leather, bacon, white pepper, smoke, spice
San Diego
The GOATFATHER Vintage 2005 W.O. Coastal Region 14.5% alcohol The Goats do Roam Wine Company, Paarl, South Africa $15 US (No varietals were listed on the bottle; therefore the wine may be made of many grape varietals. The only mention is on the back label “… always includes a selection of Italian varietals”.)
Taste: black and red fruits, black olive, clove, cinnamon Overall Impression: Medium tannin, high acid, medium spicy finish, touches of oak for smoothness, complex flavors, and medium heat from the alcohol content. A food friendly wine, bring to 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit before serving. This wine will be popular in the United States as it reminds one of California’s Zinfandel (aka Primitivo in Italy) blended with the Rhone Varietals such as syrah (Shiraz) which are popular in the Central Coast of California. Food Pairing; Not a wine for sipping before a meal, this wine lends itself to hearty, meaty main courses that have some acid such as tomatoes or goat cheese. A walk on the wild side would be to serve ostrich schnitzel with a mushroom sauce. For the more conservative, a lamb shepherd’s pie, meat laced with coriander or cumin for smokiness, a little goat’s cheese for acid folded into the potato topping. Let’s not forget the BBQ; grilled spicy sausages with a tomato coulis and lots of crusty bread Why do Goats Roam? “Wines of South Africa (WOSA) Stellenbosch, South Africa enfo@winesfromsouthafrica.net
March/April 2008.Vol I
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Bitchin’ & Moaning Please Pass The Oke
There exists a seemingly innocent little word strategically placed on the bottom of every physician’s prescription pad. Although it may appear a logical option to most, to me, the mere mention of the word sends chills up and down my spine. The word is “generic.” With a medically disabled dad and a hardworking, though severely underpaid mom, generic was a way of life in our home. As a young girl the simple act of watching TV brought with it a plethora of questions. I couldn’t quite understand why none of the products upon which we indulged ever felt the need to advertise. It wasn’t until I got a bit older that I began to understand. A survey of our pantry did show one common element. On every single item could be found the same 3 little words “Compare ours to...” Probably the funniest part of the entire generic experience was the comical manner in which manufacturers attempted to trick us. If this was not their intent, then perhaps these manufacturers possessed a belief that Americans just don’t pay close enough attention. Why else would we pick up a bottle of soda called Dr. Thunder instead of Dr. Pepper or Twist Up in place of 7 up? A quick examination of our pantry at home would provide an abundance of seemingly misspelled name brands. Such items as “Spiffy” Peanut Butter, “Wander” Bread, “Moonlight” dishwashing detergent and sitting there, center stage, as large as life my favorite beverage of choice as a youngster “Oke.”
By Judith A. Habert
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse a local supermarket chain proved me wrong. They came up with a brand new concept appropriately named “No Frills” Mom was ecstatic, and so apparently were most of the moms in our lower middle class neighborhood. In some ways I suppose it was better, less pretentious, and you actually knew exactly what you were getting now. No gimmicks, no manufacturers hoping for the deteriorating eyesight of the middle aged housewife. No hope that a shopper in a rush to complete the weekly shopping might mistake say “Oke” for the more popular nationally advertised and marketed soft drink. There now were separate isles set aside in the store specifically for the “low income shopper” The header on the isle proudly displayed it to be the “No Frills” isle. There were no mistakes to be made, since the labels on all items were very easily identifiable. Who could possibly make a mistake now with items labeled “Beer” “Cola” “Peanut Butter?” No creativity here. Of course these items were only for internal consumption. If company came around, depending on whether they were family or friends Mom would determine whether we could utilize the “no frills” brand or if we had to moved up to the generic brand. The decision was based on two very pertinent questions. Who was the company coming to dinner, and would the items in question ever be visible to prying eyes? Items such as tomato sauce, gravy, cake mix etc., would never be seen by upper middle class prying eyes, so “no frills,” was just fine. Butter or soft drinks, on the other hand, would require either generic or on very special occasions, and with special company, the coveted name brand items, since these would be visibly on display. Secretly I longed for a household cupboard filled with name brand items. I swore when I had my own home things would be different. I would have a pantry full of advertised name brand items. I would drink Coke!
So careful I was the next week, and came home with less food. We ran out on Wednesday and I scrounged around for creative meals utilizing the few remaining ingredients in my pantry...but I might add, they were all name brand. The day before payday it became increasingly obvious that if I were to make dinner that night I would have to do so on four dollars. Okay, so if I bought generic one night, who
Slowly it happened. First it was one item, then two, and before very long most everything in my cart was generic. I vowed to get a better job. To make my husband get a better job. To cut corners in other ways. Anything to get back to name brands. For a while I did. But then it happened. We had kids. Name brand diapers were sinfully priced. My logic could not escape me. Five dollars more a box for an item that got almost immediately soiled and thrown in the garbage. Okay so generic diapers were okay, unless of course it was a kiddie outing with other moms and then I was back to the expensive brands. I was sensible, but not stupid. Years have passed, finances are better, but there are just some things that I cannot escape. Maybe it was the very day I sat down at dinner with the kids who had requested their favorite dinner, “Hamburger Helper”. Who was I to tell them that this was not the name brand, but instead some generic product called “Hamburger Dinner.” They ate it just as well, it was less expensive. How far had I fallen? I was buying an item, which stretched dinners by adding pasta to chop meat, a product for those suffering somewhat financially and I hadn’t even purchased the name brand. I examined my motives, argued the rationale, and decided that if they liked it, who was I to impose my silly prejudices. If they wanted generic, well then I would give them generic.
San Diego
At dinner that evening I had as many packages as possible visible for viewing on our dinner table. It was a passage. I was mainstream. I was no longer generic! However, my husband didn’t seem to be impressed. It didn’t even seem to matter to him. Of course, that was until he asked me what I spent for the weekly shopping and I told him. He informed me that we would have to be “more careful” next week.
would know. So I meekly placed the “no frills” pasta and sauce on the counter and paid with my last $3.97. We had dinner and no one was the wiser.
Woman
My very first venture into the grocery store as a young married woman was frightening. There is an unwritten rule when setting up your own home. You do exactly what Mom did. You buy the same products mom bought, because you grew up on them and if mom bought them they must be the right choices. There I stood in front of the frozen food display. What brand do I chose. Of course reflex impulses drove me directly to the generic brand. I was stronger than that! I would go with the name brand item and live my dream...a pantry full of name brand items. I did it! I was proud! There was not a single item in my shopping cart that was not name brand. Even the items that I could hide behind kitchen doors proudly displayed nationally advertised, recognized and respected brand names. As the total for my shopping selections was emblazoned on the cash register I fished into my pockets to gather up every last penny, barely making the total on the register. Nonetheless I was proud. But I could never remember my mom spending anywhere near the total for weekly groceries that I had just spent.
Somewhat saddened by my realization that my ideals might have to be altered, I sat back and turned to my husband and said four little words that I knew might haunt me for the rest of my life, “Please pass the Oke”
San Diego............
Skyline from Coronado
March/April 2008
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The Grammy’s Go Retro By Jaime Victoria
The 50’s are alive again! On February 10th the Grammys honored crooners of the past with such heart-pounding performances as Alicia Keys and Frank Sinatra, Kid Rock and Keely Smith, and Beyonce and Tina Turner. Alicia Keys opened the awards with her duet of “Learnin’ the Blues”. The sultry tone of Alicia’s voice floated effortlessly over the lyrics and Sinatra’s video performance blended in perfectly with the Kid Rock 50 piano. and Keely Smith had a rougher performance. Kid and Keely’s constant joking and talking seemed more awkward then casual. Kid Rock butchered the song when he stumbled on words and uncomfortably swayed next to Smith. In an
effort to redeem the show, the incomparable Tina Turner stunned viewers with her class and sex appeal as she blasted out the infamous “Proud Mary” next to R&B beauty, Beyonce. Beyonce and Tina flew across the stage in skyscraper heels and flashy silver outfits all while bringing pizzazz to the well known tune. Aretha Franklin may have the crown as the queen of soul, but Tina definitely gave her a run for her money. This years Grammy’s featured so many throwbacks that for once the awards weren’t about pop culture, but about genu-
inely exceptional music. Herbie Hancock proved this fact as he won album of the year for “River: The Joni Letters”. This was only the 2nd time in Grammy history that album of the year was given to a jazz artist. After his win Herbie reiterated his success by saying, “You know it’s been 43 years since the first and only time that a jazz artist got the album of the year award…the giants upon whose shoulders I stand, some of whom like Miles Davis, John Coltrane ... unquestionably deserved the award in the past. But this is a new day; that proves that the impossible can be made possible.” Finally someone who’s work is not a product of radio repetition, but of talent and skill. Although the 50th Anniversary Grammys was definitely among the best, some artists were not honored during the 3 hour show. In a show of blatant disrespect, Michael Buble, winner of the award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, was given the Grammy at a pre-show ceremony. Buble, who has sold over 13 million albums, has never been shown the admiration he so highly deserves. British songstress, Amy Winehouse, came out on top this year with 5 awards. Performing via satellite, Winehouse was elated after her 5th win being the coveted “ Song of the Year.” After embracing her band, Amy gave thanks to her fans and parents who have supported her through her notorious ups and downs. This year’s show was unforgettable with such memorable performances as Kanye West’s heart-wrenching “Hey Mama” and Fergie’s “Finally” featuring John Legend on piano. The Grammy’s definitely delivered with 3 hours of pure entertainment and acts that will go down in history.
March/April 2008
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March/April 2008