Future race car driver

I didn't think it was possible for someone to love cars more than Nick, but it is. When we were in London last week we got to spend time with our nephew Alfred, Joyce and Stephen's genius child. He's not even 3 years old yet and he can stand on the street and name every car make and model that drives by, not to mention all the parked cars which present no challenge at all. And if you ask him what country a car was made in, he knows that too. It's absolutely insane. In this video, Alfred names the cars that each member of his family drives:


We also got to spend some time with little Thomas who does not name cars yet, but I'm sure as soon as he can talk his big brother will teach him.


The visit to London was wonderful and so was the food (especially Nahia's cooking - spinach pies, yum!) We went to a restaurant one night called DeCecco (same family as the dried pasta you see in the grocery store). Nick ordered their speciality which is pasta with lobster. Here's Nick enjoying his feast (I'm not quite sure if he's angry or just feeling manly - something about ripping the claws off a whole animal that does that to a person):

Wienerschnitzel and Apfel Streudel

I know it's been awhile, but it's amazing how much work you have when you haven't worked for a week. So back to Austria we go...

The next morning I woke up and met some of my colleagues for breakfast - an odd assortment of cereals and cold meat and cheese, but still a vast improvement over my dinner. My counterpart from Italy, named Chiara, was a tiny bundle of Italian energy with the cutest accent...Iya woulda likea toa...It's so fascinating to think that she is over in Milan doing the exact same job I'm doing, for the same cause, but all in Italian. The meeting room where we'd spend the next 3 days was a big open room with desks arranged in a horseshoe, confirming my belief that this would be a mini UN of Internet marketers. Austrians are very formal, and I worried that the meetings would all be talking at us and no interaction, but actually for the most part they were great. The most useful information all came out of personal conversations outside of the meetings, but still overall very good. I won't bore you with all the details since I'm sure it's not interesting to anyone besides me, and it's barely interesting to me. I'll just tell you about the time I spent outside of the meetings, and the food of course!

From the way that Europeans smoke, you'd think that nobody ever told them that smoking is bad for you. Out of 11 of us the first night, 8 people smoked. And not just casually, but like it was their job. I had to take showers at night instead of in the morning because my hair reeked so badly I couldn't sleep. The second night in town, 2 colleagues from Austria took me into town to see the sights before meeting up with the rest of the group for drinks on the rooftop of this building downtown. We ate "dinner" standing up at a sausage stand in the town center. Yum, sausage. There were 8 different kinds on the menu and the one they recommended came out filled with bits of cheese. There's nothing like sausage and cheese to get the heart pumping. The famous site in Innsbruck is called the Gold Roof, and basically it's just that - a small gold roof on the side of a building that used to house royalty.
The town is so cute - cobblestone streets and outdoor cafes, brightly painted houses, and little shops. A river runs along the edge and the mountains are always in the background. The air is so fresh, it just feels like there is more oxygen in it than normal. And the streets are clean (which considering how much people smoke is amazing - the cigarette butts must just disintegrate in mid air). It could be old town Nice, if the people were drinking wine instead of beer.

The last day in Innsbruck was the best. After the meetings were finished, I took a cab back into town and did some shopping. Swarovski crystal is made nearby and although the little jagged animals don't do anything for me, my mother used to collect them so they hold a special place in my heart. I bought a tiny pair of earrings for myself there and took this picture of a wedding cake made entirely of crystal: After picking up a gift for Nick and some chocolates for his parents, I settled into a cafe to have a beer and watch people walk by (not coffee this time, Mom!) After the beer I decided that I couldn't come all the way to Austria and not eat Wienerschnitzel, so I found a restaurant where Mozart had once eaten and ordered my dinner. The meat was perfect - pounded flat and fried with a thin, slightly salty and crisp breading.

With all this sausage and fried meat and beer, my body was screaming for some exercise, so I went for a long walk. Crossing the river I saw a tiny one way street leading up a winding hill. At the top was an old church with the most beautiful cemetary I had ever seen. I know cemetaries are supposed to be creepy, but they've never made me feel that way - more like solemn, contemplative. Anyway, this graveyard probably had 40 plots and each one was marked by an intricate iron cross about 3-4 feet high, all different patterns. On the ground each plot was outlined in stone with carefully tended flowers spilling over. One of the crosses had a rose vine winding up it with gorgeous, fat, red roses hanging off it. It was so moving and perfect and I thought for a moment that I would not be afraid of dying if I knew I would spend eternity in a place like this.

The sun was setting and since graveyards are slightly more creepy at night, I left and walked back down the hill to catch a cab and go back to my room.

The whole trip was fantastic, and a milestone in my life. This is the first time I'd been out of the country by myself and I left feeling satisfied, happy, and a little grown up.

Speisen getranke

I arrived in Innsbruck on Sunday afternoon after 14 hours of flying and several hours of running to and from planes. Flying into Innsbruck is an amazing experience. The town is nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges and it is by far the most breathtaking view from an airplane I've ever had. Jet lagged and starving I got to the headquarters of SOS where I would be staying for the next four nights. Nobody else had arrived yet so I dropped off my bags in the room and started out for a walk to see if I could find something to eat.

The first place I came to sounded nice and Austrian, Schlosse Cafe. I stepped inside to the most bizzare little bar, not cafe, I had ever seen. The place reeks of stale cigarettes. There are 8 cramped little booths, 4 on each side of the door. In the background I can hear "You can call me Al" playing on the speakers. After ignoring me for about 5 minutes, despite the fact that only 1 of the 8 booths is occupied, the waitress gestures to one of the booths indicating that I should sit down. She seems concerned when she realizes I can't speak any German, but takes pity on me and helps translate the menu. The cover reads "Speisen getranke" which according to Babblefish translates "Foods getranke". There are 5 pages - 2 of them with food, 2 of them with drinks, and 1 with about a dozen varieties of ice cream sundaes. For the food, this is pretty much how it went: sausage with bread, sausage with mustard, sausage with mushrooms, sausage with cream sauce, sausage with spinach, dried sausage, cold sausage...you get the picture. I ordered sausage with bread and a glass of water. The other booth in the corner seemed to have worked their way through most of the 2 page drink menu already.

Sitting back and waiting for my food I look around the "cafe". On one wall is a painting that reads "in vino veritas", or "in wine lies the truth." Caddy corner to this gem is a heavily lacquered wood carving of Jesus and the last supper. I feel like I'm in a movie.

I eat my dinner (not worth even mentioning) and make my way back to my room for a good night's sleep. I'll write more later about the next day in Innsbruck (which was a vast improvement), so stay tuned!

A vacation from the vacation

Tomorrow afternoon Nick and I are flying to Europe. He will stop in London while I continue on to Innsbruck, Austria for a 3 day meeting at SOS Children's Villages headquarters before I join him back in London for a nice long weekend with the family. I may not update the blog before we return on the 17th, but promise I'll have plenty of pics and stories to share then!

Where did all the tahini go?

I love grocery shopping more than the average person I think. I like the whole process of it - making my list, adding to it throughout the week. I like the feeling when you first walk into the store of embarking on a mission - everything is colorful and organized, picking out the perfect fruits and vegetables and meat, reading labels. And in about an hour you have accomplished this important task and leave with a basket full of possibilities. It's also a way of guilt-free shopping - I mean, you have to spend money on food right?

And you'd think that grocery shopping in San Francisco, food mecca of the US, would be an especially enjoyable experience for me. Which it is...for the most part...except apparently nobody in this city sells tahini, which is driving me crazy. We've already come to terms with the small Lebanese population here, and the lack of good Middle Eastern grocery stores, but tahini? I mean, they serve hummus in the middle of Iowa for God's sake (sorry Carla!). Google "tahini recipes" and you get 293,000 of them. Do none of these people live in San Francisco? So after an afternoon of grocery shopping yesterday and still no tahini, I'm off to the organic grocery store where, if they have it, it will cost $15 and last about 3 days in this house. Wish me luck!

Old friends and new friends

Happy Labor Day Weekend! We've had a full long weekend here in the sunshine state. Wednesday our friends Serge and Laureen came into town with their son Nicholas and we've been doing alot of eating ever since. If anyone appreciates food as much as Nick and I do, it's Serge and Laureen. We started out with crepes on Wednesday evening near their hotel. Thursday evening was dinner at a place called Palomino's right on the Embarcadero with a few other former comScore folks. This was actually the first bad restaurant we've been to since we got here. Nick ordered Garlic prawns and I'm not even kidding - there were 3 tiny shrimp cut in half to make it look like 6 - for $24. Absolutely ridiculous.

Friday I was off work, so we met up for breakfast at a San Francisco institution called Sear's in Union Square. They are famous for their silver dollar pancakes which are delicious. Every waiter in the place was in love with Nicholas, which is easy to understand. I swear his eyelashes are the length of my fingers! Friday lunch was at Nick's Crispy Tacos down the street from our house where I think we ordered one of everything on the menu. Friday night we ate at the Slanted Door - the Vietnamese restaurant in the Ferry Building - and it was just as delicious as the first time. Nicholas, unfortunately, did not agree, which he demonstrated by projectile vomiting all over the rental car on the way home, poor thing.

Saturday morning was back to the Ferry Building for the farmer's market where we picked up ingredients for dinner that night - flank steak with fresh rosemary, roasted eggplant, tomato and basil salad with lemon thyme salt, and baked peaches. Sunday morning came and for our last meal with the Matta's we went to La Boulange for a french breakfast complete with coffee served in cups the size of bowls. We've probably gained back all the weight we've lost, but it was worth it.

After our old friends left, we spent the remainder of the day meeting new friends. First we met a cousin of Tanya's and her husband, mother, and two friends for coffee in Russian Hill. They live south of the city, but come into SF every Sunday for church. All three of us couples were married in the summer of 2004, and I can tell we'll spend alot of time together over the next two years. Then Sunday night we went over to a former comScore colleague's house for drinks with about a half dozen other couples. They have a gorgeous house with a rooftop deck that looks over the whole city and we had a great time. We're finally starting to settle into things here and making new friends makes it feel a little more like home.