Boston Wine Festival and Other Truly Memorable Galas

Was feeling let down by the WGBH Downtown Abbey 'do, which caused me to be apprehensive about the Italian Wine Dinner as part of the Boston Wine Festival 2014.

At the Boston Harbor Hotel.  FYI - When Doug and I first brought the Triumph to Boston, we stayed in the mooring field just outside the hotel.  If you wait for the pictures to click around, you can see the field.

Oh.  My.  God.

First off, I didn't take any pictures of the food, wine setup or wait staff, because I wanted to just enjoy.  And enjoy I did.

The buffet had:
Lobster, clams, stone crab, swordfish, almond crusted sole, lamb, lamb meatballs, braised beef, eggplant rolled around spinach/feta, marinated seafood salad, roast beef, seared tuna, assorted cheeses, fruit, marinated vegetables, spinach Wellington, lemon meringue tarts, limoncello tarts, salted caramel tarts in chocolate shells, Tira Misu, pana cotta with strawberries, assorted cheesecakes with blueberry, strawberries and so on...

The wine selection (45 in all), were all from Italy with everything from Soave to Chianti to Brut to Moscato.

There were live musicians and the wait staff was incredible.

Tables overlooking the Harbor.  Did take one final picture of the view...

My faith is restored in Boston Galas.  Bring on the next!

Nipped in the Butt and Other Quotable MisQuotes

I rarely go through a day without a quote or mantra or other trite saying.  An ex-husband had a family that was rife with misquotes.  Since I was constantly hammered for being "over edjicated..."  I usually held my tongue.  But sometimes, especially when alcohol was involved and a particularly funny expression popped out, I had to say something.

How true, how true...


Here are some of the most noteworthy:

Well I say we just nip this in the butt [nip this in the bud]...
You can trust that; it's an old wise tale [exact opposite - old wives tale]...
5 Sayings Most People Get Wrong

And on and on and on...

Ultimately, my ex got the last laugh.  He dumped me for a younger woman when I had a miscarriage.  They went on to have five children.  Happy and sad at the result...

I'm not bitter.

I live on a sailing yacht, S/V Triumph.

They live outside of Dayton Ohio.

Working From Home and Other Urban Legends

A little shameless promotion to start off.  My first book is The Basement Office and is based on an engineer who works from home to avoid the petty politics of corporate life.  Unfortunately, the isolation coupled with innate human behavior causes him to devolve and his life goes from (perceived) bad to worse.


Two of my friends/coworkers have quit the onsite engineering world to pursue a consulting position from a home office.  Both, when invited to lunch by yours truly, showed up looking disheveled, right down to food stains and rips on their clothes.  Each had an unbelievably negative outlook on life, their career and everything.

I picked up the tab in both instances.

Takeaway - human beings are social creatures and need interaction to stay presentable and sane.

For those of you attempting this lifestyle, Take a shower!  Comb your hair!  Wear nice clothes!  

Honestly.  You'll feel better and people won't be creeped out when you enter a restaurant.

Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? And other Great Sayings

The engineering portion of my life focuses on Embedded Programming - the code that runs in the ubiquitous devices that permeate our existence.  Not cell phones or smart phones or iPhones or other communication devices, but coffee makers and satellite receivers and remote controls and on and on and on...  Even trash cans.  Think Wall-E - only real.  Big Belly to be exact.

But with the fun and the great pay and the excellent co-workers comes all the minutiae associated with corporations.  A fellow engineer came by my desk and I unloaded on his very empathetic and sympathetic ear about having to redo documents for the dozenth time.  For things like Copyright 2013 had to be changed to Copyright 2014.

His comment was "Always ask, is the juice worth the squeeze?"


Awesome.



Which made me think of my favorites.



When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial intention was to drain the swamp.   Thank you, Gary!


And a kind of interesting site about motivating sayings and cliches:
Forty-Four Timeless Business Sayings You Should Know

Wonder Mill, Whole Wheat, Refined Flour and Other Stuff about Wheat

A couple of decades ago, I encountered some really serious digestive issues.  I've taken control of my life and feel fine, but it took a lot of research and experimentation, with little to no help from the medical community.  In fact, the doctors, well meaning as they were, kept circling back around to removing my colon and giving me a colostomy to wear on my hip for the rest of my life.



Nope.





One of my discoveries was about wheat and refined flour and just what a travesty we've heaped upon what is, truly, an amazing food.  You can read all about it here: The World's Healthiest Foods - Whole Wheat
To summarize, whole wheat is good -- refined, enriched white flour is very, very bad.

Wheat in its natural form lasts indefinitely and retains all its wholesome goodness.  Once the outer hull is breached -- ground into flour -- the nutrients start oxidizing until they're gone.  After 72 hours.  Solution?  Get a grain mill and a bag of wheat and grind your own!  Lots of fun, too!


Favorite grain mill: Pleasant Hill Grain - Wonder Mill

Info on grains and what they're used for: Pleasant Hill Grain - Grains  

For all you Star Trek fans out there - Triticale is real!

And here's my very first YouTube video of me using the Wonder Mill:
Wonder Mill - Grinding Wheat Flour Part 1 Evelyn Sabbag

Annnndddd, Part 2:
Wonder Mill - Grinding Wheat Flour Part 2 Evelyn Sabbag

Be kind.  Remember, first one!

Office Space and Other Corporate Realities

Being an engineering consultant and spending most of my career in a corporate environment means that I LOVE the movie Office Space.



One of my favorite scenes is the engineers commuting to work.

Here's my version:

I'd love to end with Enjoy! but I really feel like crying...  So I'll just end...

Age of Communication and Other Modern Myths

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Match.com.

Smartphones, iPhones, Skype, iPads, Webcams, GPS Trackers, Foursquare.

At any instant, we can reach out to someone, know where they are, what they're doing, and who they're with.  And they can do the same to us.


24/7.  A meal is enjoyed by taking a picture of the food, the drinks, the company, the setting.  The location is shared, reviewed and logged for points.


People are friended, defriended, Liked, Googled and collected.




But... Suicide is up.  Divorce is up.  Marriage is down.


Why?

Because we're connected, but not communicating.