Results matching “trip” from Jeanette Hada's Wellness and Happiness Blog

When we first saw the sour cherry tree at God's Little Acre Nursery (located on Almaden Road in San Jose), I thought the fruit was for birds only.  It was the prettiest dwarf tree laden with branches of tiny bright red cherries -- perfect for eating off of the tree or baking in pies.  The owners of the nursery, Phil and his beautiful wife, Dolores, became our friends and we've enjoyed several trips to their gorgeous place to purchase fruit trees and a Silver Dollar Eucalyptus.  If you purchase six or more trees, Phil will give a 10% discount...of course, Naoki could not resist such a deal! 

The ones you see in this cup were a few of the last cherries, before our guests and bird, Lucky, finished them.  We'll have to wait until next Spring for the new harvest.  I wonder how the cherry blossoms will look.

After an excellent appointment with my midwife's assistant/doula in Menlo Park, my friend and I headed to downtown Los Altos to indulge in something light and sweet at Satura Bakery. If you've not yet been, I highly suggest taking a trip there on a Thursday afternoon. After eating one of the best choux creams in my life, we walked over to the farmers market. This is one of the rare markets that stays open later in the day. We sampled different types of flavorful cherries that were sweet and not the least bit sour, hearty Jersey Brand milk cheeses, super sweet sweet peas, and dark juicy red strawberries. I left with five small, but crisp and sweet, organic white peaches from Kashiwase Farms, organic Spring Hill Farms garlic curds (made from fresh mozzarella), and also one of their pesto jack blocks, melt-in-your-mouth roasted rosemary fingerling potatoes (we ate those there), and a small basket of unusually pointy, but remarkably sweet strawberries!! Oh, and I also purchased five of Satura's choux creams for Naoki -- three vanilla and two green tea flavored. Forgive all of these foodcentric posts. Occupying my mind most of the time is food, house hunting for friends/clients and ourselves, and this baby.

If you're going on a cruise, I would recommend Royal Caribbean. Their level of service, cleanliness, on-board entertainment, and food is amazing. This was our third time cruising with them and we had the best time ever! The weather was gorgeous. One evening as the sun set, a full moon rose at the same time while dolphins swam next to our ship, the "Serenade of the Seas". Guiltily I must admit, my favorite time was spent on the ship. This cruise was an incentive trip we earned earlier this year. Can't wait to see what the company has planned for our next incentive! Interested in coming on the next trip? It's always more fun going with friends (old and new). Here's a quick slideshow of a few of the pictures I snapped with my Treo phone... Enjoy (you can turn the sound off by clicking the speaker icon) Places we visited were Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallerta. The last two ports were wonderful and I'd be tempted to fly to PV again for a short vacation. The food and people were lovely there. The other two cruises we went on were to the Caribbean (The Bahamas and Jamaica) and Alaska (Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan). Hopefully the next cruise will be aboard the new ship "Freedom of the Seas". Our ship the Serenade was twice the size of the Titanic and Freedom is twice the size of the Serenade! They have an ice skating rink, boxing ring, shopping mall, rock climbing wall, wave pool to surf (yes, that's right surf!), and so much more. Oh yeah, one of the best acts on the ship was an excellent magic show by a magician named Chad Chesmark. He and his show was beyond amazing and I had a stomach ache for the rest of the night from laughing so much! Though this cruise was a gift from the company I work with and partly a vacation, there was an informative and interesting health and business workshop held every day on the ship. Of course it was optional and part of the luxury was being able to watch it in our room!

Ever since returning from Taiwan in 2005, I've really enjoyed the ritual of having a cup of tea after dinner. There was a particular mulberry tea from there that I loved, but finished off within the first few weeks after our return. If I have the chance to visit again, I will make a special trip to purchase the same brand again. Other mulberry teas just don't seem to have that same deep flavor. Mulberry leaf tea is known to be good for lowering blood pressure and maintaining blood sugar levels.

The tea I had this evening was made with ginseng and dried pink rose hips. I was a little put off when I first opened the teabag as it smelled like potpourri, but after brewing it for a few minutes it made the prettiest and most aromatic cup of tea. Rose hips are high in vitamin C and can also be eaten. The ginseng teabag that you add separately has a flavor that takes getting used to. It's definitely an earthy tasting brew.

Top 10 tips for new speakers and presenters
Posted by Allen Stern 02/05/2007

As you grow your web application and become successful, conferences and other venues might ask you to speak about yourself, your site and your success to their audiences. As I have sat through thousands of presentations both at work and at events, I thought I would share 10 tips for presentation effectiveness. This is not an exhaustive list but by doing these 10 things, you will absolutely increase your effectiveness of giving presentations. Some of this comes from listening/watching CEO presentations where they have only mere minutes (5-7) to get their audience engaged and excited.

Tip 1: Leave out the PowerPoint effects
This is probably the most important tip of all. Why? Because each of these effects take time and can provide severe distraction for your audience. The most recent example I have of this is at AlwaysOn in NYC when the CEO of Payperpost presented. He had 6 minutes for his presentation and clocking the effects, he lost 81 seconds waiting for the next screen to load. Are the effects cool? Sure, but leave them at home.

Tip 2: Verify your presentation works
When I give presentations, whether they are to my team, or to a large conference, I always have my presentation on multiple media formats. I am a bit over the edge but you can never be prepared enough. Just providing it to the conference planner is not enough. I usually store the presentation on a remote file server, and a usb stick drive as well. So total of 3 places including my laptop makes certain that I will always be ready. You should be ready too. Remember someone might want to ask you later about your presentation so having it locally will help afterwards.

Tip 3: Be relevant
Make sure the presentation fits the audience. If you are speaking to a group of young women entrepreneurs, tailor your presentation so they get excited. If you are speaking to young kids, don't bore them with a speech showing your service working with elderly folks. Remember that it is all about tip 4... engagement!

Tip 4: Engage the audience immediately
Two presentations at AlwaysOn did a good job of immediate engagement. Unfortunately I was unable to get the company name of the first but they used the ding-dong sound from the TV show 24 to get attendees to pay attention. Great job because when they showed the clock like on the TV show, they kept the clock accurate. 3-4 times overall for 10-15 seconds but the audience laughed and was engaged. The other presentation was from ClipSync's CEO. He brought in a story from his days playing basketball in Israel which drew in the audience. Once he moved to the discussion of his service, the person sitting next to me asked, "why did he talk about basketball, I don't get it?" So I am assuming more than just this one person didn't get it. Make sure they get it.

Tip 5: Provide multiple means for contact
Offer attendees multiple ways to contact you. Where possible stay after the presentation for on-site questions. Offer a phone number and an email address for other contacts.

I am so happy to be back home in California. Alaska was incredibly beautiful and the 7 day cruise was amazing, but nothing beats the weather here! This was the third trip we earned from the company we work with - the first was a Caribbean cruise to Jamaica and the Bahamas, and the second was to Cancun, Mexico at The Moon Palace Resort.

The food on the ship was lavish and a little overwhelming. Everything was included except alcohol, which was fine since we rarely drink. We stayed aboard The Royal Caribbean's 3 year old "Serenade of the Seas". Our large stateroom was gorgeous and had a large port window. There were 13 floors and a wonderful number of original art pieces gracing the vessel. Pictures will be posted on my Xoops page that can be found at http://jeanette.hada.us

It really is a blessing to work with a company that recognizes and rewards their associates for the work they do. They continue to come out with innovative and proprietary products such as the preservative/paraben free skincare line and soon the PhytoMatrix supplement (more on that soon).

p.s. - Going forward I will start posting more health and nutrition information. If interested in specifics, please feel free to contact me.

During the hot summers, my favorite things to eat are foods that cool the body.

The wise Chinese view seasonality of foods in a more complex light, through the application of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) wisdom to dietary habits. In short, certain foods are considered too yang, or hot to eat in excess during the warmer months, while others are prized for their yin ability to cool the body, useful in the heat of summer. If all that sounds a bit too wacky for you, simply try to avoid eating things like beef tripe or sauteed snake meat in summer. Much too much yang! Save it for Spring Festival, or your next trip to Iceland, or something. Overall, the goal is internal balance between yin and yang forces within the body.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/citylife/2006-06/08/content_611929.htm

I learned this while on one of our travels last year to Taiwan. It was such a treat to enjoy grass jelly desserts, fresh island fruits (pineapple, dragonfruit, guava, and lychee). The vegetarian restaurant our friend introduced to had the best selection of cold noodle salads, veggie sprout handrolls and blended ice drinks!

Slices of crisp English cucumbers between lightly toasted wheatbread, slathered with seasoned cream cheese are especially wonderful since they require little work and have lots of flavor. Fish, mushrooms, watercress, and chilled salads are also great at helping beat the heat.

Never thought it would be possible to find good pizza in the Bay Area and was actually looking forward to my March trip to Fort Worth, Texas where there's a NY-style pizzeria with the most amazing pie that I think about that cursed, delicious cheesy piece of heaven almost a few times a week since I was there last year.

Last night, a friend and I (she's a native east coaster), dined at Tony Soprano's pizzeria in downtown San Jose. After that first bite into a simple slice of hot cheese pizza, I was in total bliss. The sauce and melting cheese were pure perfection! Don't even get me started on their crispy (not oily) calamari, hearty and generous servings of Chicken Marsala over a bed of linguini or their golden toasted garlic bread. The only thing that outshined the food, which wasn't an easy thing to do, was the service. Everyone from the patrons to the employees were so happy, wonderful and nice. Did I mention it was a Monday night? Anyway, my friend told me that their pizza was the closest she's come to what she's had back east and that's saying a lot! Her next quest is to find the perfect cannoli here...

The restaurant is a few months old and they will be getting their liquor license by the middle of this month. Drop in and take a look at their menu, bet you'll have a difficult time deciding what to order. My next visit will be to indulge in their seafood pasta laden with wine drenched mussels, clams, shrimp, and scallops in your choice of white or red sauce. Portions are extremely generous and can be shared or saved for the next day. Oh and pizza can be purchased by the slice!

Tony Soprano's Pizzeria Ristorante
87 E. San Fernando Street (btwn 2nd & 3rd Street)
San Jose, CA 95113
(408)271-9707

Worth visiting Monday thru Saturday when the incredibly talented Chef Marvin is working!!

Tell Richard J says hello!

http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/mad_cow_di3.cfm

For over 30 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture have been flirting with a mad cow disease epidemic. The public has largely been kept in the dark about regulatory decisions leading toward this potential public health catastrophe and even about the dangers associated with eating contaminated meat and meat products. Recently, some of the glaring deficiencies in the regulation of the U.S. meat production system were revealed when a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in Washington.

Mad cow disease, or BSE, belongs to a group of related brain-wasting diseases known as "transmissible spongiform encephalopathies" (TSEs). While TSEs are known to occur spontaneously, they also are spread through cattle herds by feeding infected nervous system tissue to other animals. Beginning in the 1970s, the meat rendering industry began processing dead, dying, disabled, and diseased animals for use in livestock feed--and pet feed--as a way to increase the protein consumption of cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry (cattle can get the disease by eating less than one gram of diseased meat and bone meal fed to them as a protein source). Consequently, these quasi-cannibalistic feeding practices quickly spread the fatal TSE diseases, resulting in hundreds of thousands of diseased animals, some of which ended up in the food supply in Britain and Europe. Over 140 people in Britain have been infected with vCJD from contaminated beef.

Humans who eat contaminated beef products are at risk of contracting the human version of mad cow disease known as new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD). The disease slowly eats holes in the brain over a matter of years, turning it sponge-like, and invariably results in death. There is no known cure, treatment, or vaccine for TSE diseases.

Tissue from infected cows' central nervous systems (including brain or spinal cord) is the most infectious part of a cow. Such tissue may be found in hot dogs, taco fillings, bologna and other products containing gelatin, and ground or chopped meat. The process of stripping every last piece of meat from a cow carcass, including connective tissue from bone, can contaminate this meat with infected nervous system tissue. Transmission of vCJD between people has also occurred in over two-dozen cases as a result of transplants or injections of body tissue from infected people.

Despite the adoption of additional safeguards following the discovery of mad cow in the United States, the FDA still allows the risky practice of recycling animal offal into feed: ruminant animals (cattle, sheep, goats, deer) are fed to non-ruminants (pigs and poultry), and these non-ruminants are rendered and fed back to ruminants. Such practices are banned in Britain and Europe. Also, in spite of the wake-up call the FDA and the USDA recently received, only a small percentage of slaughtered or soon-to-be slaughtered cows are tested for BSE in the U.S. By contrast, Britain tests 70 percent of its beef cattle and Japan tests 100 percent.

So far, none of the vCJD cases diagnosed in the U.S. have been linked to domestically-produced beef, but this fact may have little bearing on the reality of the situation: the disease has a long incubation period and few dementia-related deaths in the U.S. are investigated. Creutzfeld-Jakob disease is not yet a reportable disease with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

CFS seeks to make CJD a reportable disease so occurrences can be tracked, and to plug the loopholes that still exist in FDA and USDA regulations, i.e., require testing of all cattle over 20 months of age and ban all animal products from feed.