Kitchen Inspirations

We are thinking about renovating our kitchen. The kitchens that I seem to gravitate towards are contemporary kitchens that are minimalist but still warm. The upper cabinets above echo the latest trend towards horizontal rather than vertical lines. Notice also the spareness of the cabinet fronts themselves. There is an absence of routing or any other details. I also like the vertical brick tilework on the backsplash, which is reminiscent of old tilework (which I love), yet looks modern at the same time.

I don't think of myself as the minimalist type. I usually gravitate towards bright colors. But the above kitchen I feel I could look at and never grow tired of its simple elegance. There is luxury in its spareness.

An example of a kitchen with traditional and modern styles blended together can be seen above. It is also an example how cheaper, painted cabinets can create as much of a visual impact as trendier finished wood cabinets.

This is the most modern of the kitchen images that I liked. The avocado green also goes well with our general color scheme. I am also fond of the high-gloss look of the bottom cabinetry. I would also choose upper wood cabinets with a more subtle pattern.

Christmas in Calistoga, Part II

View from Joseph Phelps Winery

Our second day in Napa was all about food and wine-tasting. We started at Duckhorn Vineyards, which had a lovely tasting room, but the wines were not very good, even their reserve wines. Mark's nose wasn't working, so I had to do most of the discernment. Since Mark is much more knowledgeable about wines than I am, but since his nose was out of commission, I had to take my job very seriously, and took profuse notes.

Our next stop was Joseph Phelps. If you like wine, I HIGHLY recommend going to this winery. Joseph Phelps is famous, although we knew virtually nothing about it going in. Their "Insignia" wine, which is a red wine blend, continually gets 94-96 points from Wine Spectator and Robert Parker. And at $100, it is considered to be more affordable than other cult reds with comparable scores, such as Screaming Eagle. Also, their 2002 Insignia wine won the #1 Bottle of the Year from Wine Spectator for 2005. Meaning: it was ranked the best bottle of wine in the whole world for that year.

But we knew nothing about all of that. We meandered up a hilly road for a good 5 minutes before arriving at a large barn house in the middle of a pastoral scene. For $20, you get to taste 6 incredible Joseph Phelps and Fogdog (sister winery) wines, including their famous Insignia wine, on their beautiful outdoor terrace. The terrace has some of the best views of Napa period. The price of the tasting is worth the solitude and the view. The Insignia wine that we tasted was excellent of course, but for $100, just a bit too steep for our budget. We ended up buying their low end 2006 Fogdog Chardonnay and their 2005 Joseph Phelps Merlot.

Beaulieu Vineyards (affectionately known as BV) has been our consistent visit through the years. Mark collects their Beauzeaux red wine reserve blend every year, so we bought a case of this year's offering (named Fideaux this year).

William Hill was our final stop of the day. A friend gave us a wonderful bottle of William Hill reserve Chardonnay as a gift, and it was probably the best Chardonnay I have ever tasted in my life. We bought two of the William Hill 2006 Reserve Chardonnay.

What to Wear/When to Go

If you've never been to Napa Valley before, here is some information to get you going. Any time of year is suitable for visiting Napa, but I find Fall and Winter particularly nice times to go. February is a great month to bring a loved one because, not only is it romantically apropos for Valentine's day, but the vineyards are scattered with yellow mustard seed flowers, so it is very scenic. It is also warmer in Napa by a few degrees than in San Francisco Bay Area, so it isn't necessary to wear a coat.

Dress in Napa is very casual. Most people wore jeans, warm fleeces, and comfortable shoes. The light in Napa is so fantastic that everyone glows and looks beautiful, inspite of their casual wear.

Information for all Stops Mentioned:

NapaStyle
6525 Washington St.Yountville, CA
(707) 945-1229
Hours: Monday thru Saturday: 10am - 6pm
Sunday: 10am - 5pm

Bouchon Bakery
6528 Washington Street
Yountville, California 94599
Phone: 707.944.2253
Open everyday, 7:00am to 7:00pm

Dr. Wilkinson's Hot Springs Resort
1507 Lincoln Ave. Calistoga, CA 94515
Phone: (707) 942-4102
Spa Treatments: 8:30 am - 3:45 pm

Duckhorn Vineyards
1000 Lodi LaneSt. Helena, California 94574
Phone: 888-354-8885
Daily: 10 am -4 pm

Joseph Phelps Vineyards
200 Taplin Road St Helena 94574
Tastings are by appointment only (although you can sneak in)
tel: (707) 963-2745
Mon-Fri: 9 am- 5 pm
Sat, Sun: 10 am- 4 pm

William Hill
1761 Atlas Peak Rd Napa CA
Tastings are by appointment only
Phone 707-265-3024
Daily: 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m

Beaulieu Vineyards
1960 St. Helena Highway Rutherford, CA 94573
Toll free: 800-373-5896
Daily: 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m

Christmas in Calistoga

Here is some perspective on how the recession has shaped our travel plans this year:

Dream holiday:
Diving cruise in Palau, drinking kava and visiting the mantas in Yap

Reality:
2 day holiday in Calistoga over Christmas break

Over Christmas break, we usually fly either to Chicago or Seattle to spend time with our families. This year, our flights were cancelleddue to the stormy weather. Rather than finding an alternate way up North, we decided to save our pocketbooks by staying home over the holidays. Well, I put a lot of importance on my vacation days, and insisted that we do something different with our time off. We ended up in beautiful Calistoga, where we got to soak in the thermal mud baths for the first time, and also had a fun time noshing and tasting wines around Napa.

We began our sojourn poking around in Yountville in Napa Valley. We visited one of our favorite chefs, Michael Chiarello's new store, NapaStyle. At NapaStyle, as in everywhere else in Napa, exotic salts are the latest thing. I took a shot of Mark posing in front of a display of pink Hawaiian salt crystals. We didn't buy a thing other than a panini at the in-store cafe, but enjoyed the beautiful store.



Excited and inspired by all of the foodie things to buy at the store, we later entered Bouchon Bakery, where we had two delectable pastries, and Mark bought an enormous loaf of bread. I'm not sure what Mark was thinking by buying a loaf the size of a young toddler, but I have long ago abandoned reining Mark in when it came to his gourmet treats.

With the bread as a third passenger in the back seat, and with the top down on our Mini Convertible, we bombed our way down the Silverado Trail to make our 2:30 thermal mud appointments in Calistoga. Dr. Wilkinson's Hot Springs Resort is considered to be the best spa value in the Napa Valley. For around $300, we got a motel room in the resort, mud baths, hot springs and massages for the both of us. Not a bad deal. With the resort's unpretentious '50s style motel architecture, and the institutional look of the spa interior, I could see why the treatment was on the cheaper end of the spectrum.

After rinsing off in the shower, you are summoned into a large stone bath filled with warm mud. Floating in the mud was like floating in warm jello. The mud had a very gelatinous consistency, but with small pieces of moss fibers thrown in. They pile mud on top of you all the way up to your neck, cover your face with a facial mixture, and put cucumber slices over your eyes. I enjoyed floating in the mud, and playing around by squeezing and flailing in the mud around me. Too soon, the mud bath was over. We were asked to shower off the mud, and immerse ourselves in a bath full of hot springs water while the ladies hosed down the room of excess mud(institutional, right?). I didn't think the hot springs water was any different than any other warm water. Except afterwards, my hair felt like it does after a day at the beach, except the saltiness and stiffness is multiplied by 20X. The massage itself was so-so. But I am more used to being pummeled than being treated to the soft sensual style of Swedish massage.


The spa treatment alone was worth it just to see the look on Mark's face after the treatment since Mark is not much of a spa-goer. Mark looked very relaxed and pink. Mark's impressions:

"All I could think about when I was in the mud bath was that I wanted to scratch my face but could not because of all of the stuff they lathered on my face. I almost fainted several times while in the hot springs due to the heat. The massage was all right. All of the other guys in the spa were quiet. I think they were there accompanying their girlfriends."

After the treatment, we wandered around Calistoga, had dinner (middling pasta) and called it an early night.

To be continued...

This morning, I am grateful for

• People who love me despite my flaws
• Being tough enough to look at myself and gain insight into how I create bad situations for myself
• Experiencing the pure clean morning air in the warmth of my fuzzy sweatpants and sweatshirt
• Having a partner who helps me grow better as an individual
• Being wiser and more temperate than I used to be

2008 Year in Review

From a very early age, I have asked myself: "How can I make something of my life?" This question has given me much angst in my life (as I am sure it has for others), so much so that I have spent many nights staring up at the ceiling, and have resorted to such measures as going to meditation retreats and such. I think this past year, I have mellowed out. Or is it that I have all but given up?

When I was little, I had such high hopes. I wanted to be so many different things. The occupations that I always came back to were the following:

(1) Marine biologist

(2) Archaeologist

(3) Architect for building in outer space or underwater

(4) Paleontologist

(My mother claims that after watching dance shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City at age 7, that I wanted to be a Rockette. But I don't ever remember having such an ambition. I do remember practicing the can-can endlessly, however.)

So where does this leave me now? And realistically will it ever change?

I am a mechanical design engineer. I have always worked in creative, even artistic environments. At my current place of work, my design interests are encouraged to expand into interior design/Christmas card design/web design. The engineering projects are challenging, interesting and always different.

It seems as though my early interest in science (see occupations #1, 2 and 4 above) has found satisfaction later in life, albeit in the engineering field. And some how, my early proclivity towards creativity and designing (see occupation #3 above) has also found an outlet, in the design of plastic injection molded parts and creation of new products.

So what's wrong? I should be grateful. Exactly.

It there is something to tweak in my career it would be to lean more towards projects that benefit the environment or people in some way. Ideally, I would like to work on alternative energy projects, and underwater robotics. I am pretty sure this can be achieved if I put my mind to it. But what I am working on now ain't half bad. The majority of my projects have been medical devices designed to save lives, if not improve life drastically. And just recently, I have been working on consumer products, which I have never worked on before, and also complex mechanisms that I have never witnessed before.

What pained me the most in previous years was feeling a lack of recognition and feeling unfairly treated. But this past year, I started to lose the bitterness: (1) life is unfair sometimes, (2) get over yourself as quickly as possible, (3) my true aim is to help the world, (4) feel gratitude.

Which leads me to all of the things that I should be grateful for, but that are so easy for me to overlook:

This year I got married after many months in 2008 of planning. Many people approached me and stated they had a great time. Admittedly, the wedding was imaginative and different, featuring an underwater wedding ceremony, beach barbeques, relaxed dress code and setting, and an island atmosphere. I enjoyed it too, despite being a bit stressed. I can't wait until someone else has a destination wedding, so that I can completely relax and enjoy. In retrospect, I would have rather saved the money that was spent towards the wedding, but many years from now, I can look back on the memories fondly, as I look back on my friends' weddings fondly. Also, married life is good. If there is something that I am grateful for it is that.

Also, this past year was a great year for friendships. I feel surrounded and supported by good friends. In some cases, friendships were revived after a few years of coldness. In other cases friendships persist in spite of distances. And old friendships continue to comfort. With family, too, relationships are strengthening, and I hope they continue to strengthen. Perhaps this is a sign that I am wisening up. If I continue to show the warmth that is inside my heart to others, and if I try to demonstrate tolerance, and care for others, I think this trend will continue to move forward instead of backwards. A warm gesture on a daily basis can certainly make someone else's day just a little brighter, and my own too.

This leads me to discuss the new year's resolutions. As I mentioned before, I want to "get over myself as quickly as possible", i.e. develop my emotional resilience. There are studies that show that happier people get over breakups faster than naturally depressed people. People who can get over flashes of anger faster, are better adjusted than those who cannot (read "Social Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman if you want to learn more). Emotional resilience is not something that I have in abundance. Also, it would be a fun little project for me to work on. If I ever feel pissed off, I can tell myself to get over it as part of my own self development.

Other things that I want to work on:

(1) increase tolerance and minimize judgement of others

(2) listen to my gut

(3) care for others and focus less on myself

(4) be better with finances

(5) be more eloquent

(6) exercise my brain on occasion, maybe know world affairs

(7) continue to write on a frequent basis

Well, that's it for now. What are your new year's resolutions?

Cave in the Snow

"Cave in the Snow" is the biography of Tenzin Palmo, a British woman, who became a Tibetan Buddhist nun at an early age. In her attempt to seek enlightenment, she endured 12 years in solitary isolation in a barren cave in the Karakoram mountains. For 12 years, she slept upright in a 2' X 3' "meditation box", endured cold, wild animals, and near starvation.

Surprisingly, I found this book to be a real page turner. It was an uplifting book, and accessibly written by Vicki Mackenzie. I got a real sense for Tenzin Palmo's vibrant, spirited personality. She does not have the hermit-like personality one would think she would have for isolating herself in a cave for 12 years.

The book was also eye-opening. I gained insight into the makeup of a person who is more spiritually inclined than the rest of us. Tenzin Palmo was exceptionally single-minded in pursuing her spiritual goals, more inclined to break societal expectations, and felt more passionately towards Buddha and her gurus than the rest of us. Through her eyes, I got a sense for how spiritually barren our Western society is compared to the impoverished areas of Northern India where she spent many of her years. We are surrounded my material goods, but are still depressed and lost for all of our material goods, wondering, "What is the meaning of life?" In reading about Tenzin's Tibetan Buddhism learnings, I also gained a surface impression of the depth and learning of certain Buddhist practices, as well as the superficiality of other Buddhist practices.

I found the book's message to be uplifting as well. After all of her soul searching, Tenzin Palmo came to the conclusion that all religions seek the same spiritual goal, which is to be "live in the moment". Also, we don't have to retreat into a cave to progress spiritually. We can spend 15 minutes a day in the grocery line, washing dishes, or cleaning to calm the chatter in our minds and to attempt being in the present. This book has inspired me to learn more about meditation and its benefits, and more about Buddhist philosophy.