Life Begins at 30

Year in Review

I picked up this fun end-of-the-year post from Gina at Cauldron Ridge Farm.  You just find the first few lines from the first post of each month in 2005.  It's a fun year-in-review method.

P.S.  You may notice that I *finally* graduated to my own domain ... www.lifebeginsat30.com ... this may mean that you need to re-set your rss feed.  Everything else should be working - let me know if you see anything amiss.

January

Happy New Year everyone!   I hope that this day finds you safe and happy with all of your loved ones in safe locations.  This week in particular, I am just so conscious of where all my friends and family are and whether they are safe...

February

I am having a love affair lately ... with San Francisco.  I don't know if it's the weather, or the vibe of the people in town right now, but I just can't get enough of my city (I called it that the other day and Jason said, "Hey, it's my city too!").  The sunrise in the morning has been fantastic, with the downtown buildings surrounded by pink from the dawn...

March

The two of us are like chickens with our heads cut off these days -- make that organic, free range chickens with our heads cut off.   Work has priority around the house lately, and we are both up to our eyeballs with different projects (a very very good thing, but difficult on our schedules nonetheless)...

April

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

May

How do you like my new look...

June

Breakfast Canned Garbanzo Beans, Eden Foods, Indiana Hard-boiled egg, Corning, California (see Food Tracking, Day 2) Coffee from La Bou in Sacramento, roasted in San Francisco...

August

Lenndevours has a timely Wine Blogging Wednesday Challenge: Drink Local, Real Local...

October

Some of you may remember that I posted in July about the fact that Jason was starting a new diet at the request of his doctors: a limit of 25 grams of fat a day, and no alcohol.  Thank you to the many many people who have asked me since that time how it's going, how he's doing, and who have given recommendations...

November

Earlier this week, I posted about a dish that Jason made called "Chutzpah".  Well, I received an email from his mom after posting that said "No, not Chutzpah, it's Hutspot!".  This is a dish that Jason remembered from being a child, and by the time he told me (and I wrote it down) I heard Chutzpah...

December

I had drinks with Jeanne the other night (Ottimista Enoteca -- I was happy to try out a new place, but for my money I would much rather have a glass of vino at Nectar or The Hidden Vine)...

A Menu for Hope II

A year ago, a group of bloggers came together to raise money for UNICEF for victims of the tsunami.  This year, there is a need once again: for the victims of the earthquake in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan.  If you are a reader of this blog on an occasional basis, a constant basis, or this is your first time here -- I would like to ask for your help in this effort.

The idea here is fun and ingenious.  Bloggers all over the globe have put together fun prizes to be raffled  -- between now and December 23, you get to choose the prize you'd like from a menu of choices and buy a "virtual raffle ticket" with each $5 donation via firstgiving.  None of the money will pass through our hands -- it will go to UNICEF through firstgiving, and we will be notified of the donation.

And what prize is being donated by Life Begins at 30?

 

 

 

 

Buying a $5 raffle ticket and noting "Life Begins at 30 prints" on the *"personal message" of your donation will enter you into a chance to win three beautiful produce prints by San Francisco-based photographer Jason Meagher.  They will be signed, matted, and framed, and will make a beautiful series for your home -- or a wonderful gift for a food-loving friend.

Through the past year, Jason and I have been working on a series of prints of produce.  They are all from local San Francisco farms, and feature stunning produce from our area.  They are of a shallot, a purple okra, and tomatillos.

Whether you choose to buy a raffle ticket for this prize or for the myriad of other amazing prizes, please give whatever you can to this fun and worthy event. 

* - when you donate, you will have the chance to write in a personal message.  Please use this space to say which prize you would like a raffle ticket for.  Each $5 contribution gives you one chance at one gift.  If you give more than $5, you are welcome to request tickets for numerous prizes.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

About a year ago, Talk of the Nation had a show about a new decision by Target Stores: to disallow Salvation Army bellringers from the entrance of their stores.  During the course of the show, a caller phoned in to disagree with Target about this decision.  Neil Conan, the host, asked her if her upset with the decision was going to cause a change in her spending habits:

Neil Conan:
Would you, after hearing this, that some places are excluding those bell ringers, would you exclude [Target Stores] from your shopping list?

Caller:
Um (laughs) ... I don't know ... I don't know.

Neil Conan:
Possibly not, in other words.

Caller:
Possibly not.  Because Target has such a wide variety of things and ... I don't know.

The reason that this conversation sticks out in my mind has nothing to do with the bellringer controversy and everything to do with this caller's response.  To me, it was the epitomy of a person having zero connection between her wallet and the companies where she chooses to spend her money.  She was upset, and called a national show to talk about Target making a bad decision.  But to stop shopping there?  That would be much too much of a hardship -- of course she was not going to stop shopping there.

I was reminded of this call yesterday when I went to see Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price.  The movie is a muckraking type movie, and is extremely slanted against Walmart.  It has stirred up quite a controversy -- but in general if you are the type to read a blog like mine you probably know most of the information that is in this movie.

As I watched the movie, I kept coming back to the fact that consumers who dislike Walmart need to be taking much more of a personal stand against the store.  At one point in the movie, a man whose small-town business was allegedly a casualty of Walmart's coming to town was talking about how profits changed once the Walmart opened.  He said something to the effect of "once it came to town, it caused profits in our town to drop 50%".  What he really should be saying is "Walmart came to town and my neighbors decided to spend their money at Walmart instead of frequenting the small local businesses."  When it comes down to it, Walmart can come to town but if no one decides to shop there, then no businesses would close.

I get frustrated with what I call the "zombie effect" with some people when it comes to a place like Walmart.  Many times you will hear this type of effect when people are fighting a Walmart coming into their town.  They make it sound as if it's inevitable that stores will close down, and that everyone will be shopping at Walmart.  But the thing is, we all have a choice.  No one is going to hold us down and force us to give our money over to Walmart.  We choose to spend our money there (or at Starbucks, or Target, or Home Depot or any other store that is controversial). 

Of course there are more facets to the Walmart issue, but the bottom line is this:  The only thing that Walmart will respond to is a change in their profits or a change in their stock price.  Period. 

So, this holiday season, ask yourself if you are spending any money at Walmart.  Or if any mutual fund you own has Walmart stock.  Or if you are spending money at any other store you disagree with.  Because every day, with every dollar we spend, we are voting with our dollars -- in a language that those corporations understand.  And the only way that we can vote against any corporation is to withold those dollars and choose to spend them somewhere else.

Back to Blogging

I had drinks with Jeanne the other night (Ottimista Enoteca -- I was happy to try out a new place, but for my money I would much rather have a glass of vino at Nectar or The Hidden Vine).

So ... what's going on with your blog?  I mean you CAN'T still be reading those blogs you said you were reading like two weeks ago.

Duly noted, Jeanne.  Back to blogging.