Clearly Fresh Veggies
By · CommentsOne of my pet peeves is throwing away rotten fruit and vegetables. I’m really hard on myself when this happens. Think about it, if you spend $2 on an avocado, forget to eat it, and end up throwing it out that is the same as throwing $2 in the garbage. Would you throw a $2 bill in the garbage? I don’t think so!
I’m not usually one to write reviews but this product caught my eye because of what I wrote in the paragraph above (and I’m a sucker for free stuff). Actually I don’t like just any old SWAG (Stuff We All Get), I only like the stuff I would actually use. Since I love to cook and I love fresh vegetables (and detest rotten ones) I decided to give Clearly Fresh Bags a try. Also the company is located right here in California and I like to support local businesses.
Disclaimer: I did not do any formal testing but I did throw all my veggies is the bags.
As usual, my life got busy, I went out to eat more than I should and forgot about my fresh veggies from the Farmers Market. However, what I did notice when life slowed down for a minute and I had time to cook my veggies that were 2 weeks old, was they were still crisp and fresh! So, in my unscientific conclusion the bags work to keep veggies fresh longer than the regular bags you get at the grocery store. They are also easy to re-use. The only improvement of these bags that I suggest is the zip seal – I struggled with it a bit. I was not able to fully close the bags without a lot of concentration and effort but that could just be me…
Here are my now 3 week old carrots, still crisp.
If you’d like to learn more about Clearly Fresh Bags check out their site here: www.clearlyfreshbags.com
Social Media Overwhelm
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I don’t know about you but I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with life. In particular I’m feeling overwhelmed with social media. Ever since Google+ arrived on the scene… I have felt pulled in 3 directions. Then Facebook started messing with our privacy to the point where even I’m feeling a bit invaded, and I am not a very private person. I’m barely able to keep up with my @ messages on Twitter which means half the time I miss reading my friends tweets. My DM (direct message) column is filled with unwanted promotional and spammy messages and I sometimes miss real DMs. I even forgot to check my personal email sometimes.
Earlier today I announced on Twitter that I was doing a little Twitter experiment. Well that experiment is that I’m totally going to copy Chris Brogan and do a Great Twitter UnFollow. I’m in the process of unfollowing most of the 5000 people/businesses that I’m currently following and am just keep the handful that I actually interact with.
I used to believe it was rude to not follow back everyone who follows you but that was 2 years ago. I’m now starting to think it is rude to follow everyone who follows you. If you follow everyone it drowns out the people who are most important to you. So, I’m trying this little experiment. Please don’t take it personally if I have unfollowed you. If you start a conversation with me using an @ I’ll most likely follow you back because I’ll know you are a real person interested in real conversations. Many people are on the lists I’ve created so technically I am still following them, but only when I look at my lists.
I know for me personally when I find out someone has unfollowed me it stings a little. Then I remember we’re all busy and everyone needs to make decisions on what information they’re going to allow in to their overcrowded information garden.
Already I’m seeing interesting tweets from people I’d been missing. I look forward to discovering and rediscovering new tweeps now that I can actually see what is going on in my Twitter stream. I’m changing my Tweet stream from the autobahn in Germany to Highway 1 in Marin, making it a little slower and easier to handle.
*disclaimer: I sort of went on an unfollow rampage today so I may have unintentionally unfollowed someone I meant to be following. I’ve already unfollowed about 2000 people, I will continue my great unfollow over the next week. I’ll let you know in a few weeks if this crazy idea has reduced the feeling of overwhelm or caused more stress. 
Watch out Facebook you’re next!
Money Honey
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Last week I gathered a group of tweeps together to watch the film Miss Representation. It was a fund raiser for Huckleberry Youth Programs at the Rafael Film Center.
Besides having a very creative name, Miss Representation was a reminder that not much has changed for women in the media (and in general) over the last 20+ years. Miss Representation is about women being misrepresented in the media -> Miss Representation get it? Catchy title.
Twenty plus years ago Thelma & Louise and The Accused came out. I was in college at the time and I was angry about the way women were treated but I was happy to see films addressing the issue.
What got to me in Miss Representation were the statistics: The number of women unhappy with their bodies. The number of women with eating disorders. The number of women who have been raped.
I’m all for focusing on the positive and for individuals being responsible for themselves but I also believe somethings are bigger than the individual and we need to talk about this issue and problem solve it together. However, a pet peeve of mine is people who preach to the choir but never actually do anything, they just talk, complain, blame and finger point. So I’m not going to do that.
Working in the Financial District of San Francisco I often walk by the TV screens with CNBC on. Did you know that people refer to the female reporters on CNBC as the Money Honeys?
I don’t know what the answer is because blaming men is not going to change anything, we already tried that and men are a product of this society just as much as women are. Blaming individual women isn’t going to work either because if a female news reporter or actress is asked to use a little botox here, show some cleavage there or lose some weigh,t she’s probably going to do it to keep her job. Unless she is Rachel Maddow.
One thing we can do is show our support by paying to see movies: written, directed or produced by strong women, support women in politics, female bloggers, news reporters and companies who advertise with these outlets. In this society money talks faster than anything else!
If we focus on the positive and put more of our dollars in to the positive the media will follow the money and the ratings.
I say instead of boycotting the negative and drawing more attention to it, IGNORE the negative media. Focus on the positive media, spend money on the positive media and shout it out to the world about all the films, shows, reporters, bloggers, artists, musicians, writers and politicians who are doing great things and being positive role models.
I’d love to start a list of all the great media women (and men) are already doing to bring more balance and happiness to the world. Please list your favorites in the comments below. Also if you saw the movie I’d love to hear your thoughts.
“Energy flows where attention goes.”
Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.
Follow the film on Twitter. @RepresentPledge
PS. After the film a group of us pledged to blog our thoughts about the film. I will link to their blog posts below as they are published.
when de ja vu draws the same blank by @Alembic
Women and the Media, Revisited by @CurtisFinancial
Week of Representing: Rachel Taormina by @TamHolland
Twitterless Tuesdays
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This post is intended for active Twitter users. The rest of you can go back to what you were doing.
Twitterless Tuesdays – inspired by @TamHolland, @C8nHogarth and the rest of my Twitter BFF’s.
Ms. @TamHolland arrived on the Twitter scene fairly recently and took it by storm. She has also inspired many of us in many ways. One of those ways is to take some time off of Twitter (and screens in general). She wrote this great post back in January called: Here’s How We Roll: 1979 Saturdays and she actually walks away from her screens every Saturday and does things off the computer (imagine that). She recently added in taking a Twitter break on Tuesdays.
Today a group of us were talking about taking some Twitter breaks. We started out talking about taking 15 minutes of conscious Twitter breaks and came to a group consensus (except for @fun_master who is trying to create an extra day in the week so she can have more days to tweet) to take Tuesday’s off of Twitter. We also agreed to take this one week at a time.
So what do you say? Do you want to participate in Twitterless Tuesdays with us? Just imagine all the things you could be doing if you were not tweeting. Here is a list I compiled:
- Spend time with your dog/cat/pet – take them for a walk, pet them, play ball with them. Imagine totally focused pet loving time with no screen distractions.
- Spend time with your kids/spouse/friend/partner – be fully present with them, listen to them, enjoy them IRL.
- Read – read a book, newspaper or a magazine – possibly find inspiration!
- Cook – pull out an old cookbook, cook something new, take the time to try a new recipe.
- Walk/Hike – go for a walk, appreciate your surroundings (instead of staring down at your phone).
- Clean/Organize – clean your house, organize your desk, wash your car, purge! Purging stuff always makes me happy.
- Meditate/Pray/Relax – quiet time does us all some good.
- Tune in to your creativity – write, make art, take photographs
- Work – fully focus on the work that needs to be done.
- Pick up the phone – call a friend or family member who is not on social media – just to say hi.
- Write a letter/Send a card – a real life paper and pen kind of letter and mail it. You’ll most likely put a smile on someone’s face.
- Garden – plant some flowers, pull some weeds, enjoy nature.
Celia would want me to add one more: Go for a bike ride!
What are you going to do with your extra focused time?
Happy #TwitterlessTuesday!
If you are joining us let us know by posting the hashtag #TwitterlessTuesday on Monday evenings when you sign off.
What will you be doing with your extra time?
I’d love to hear how your Twitterless Tuesday goes. Please leave a comment and let me know!
Tweet! Tweet? Where’d everybody go?
Maybe my next blog post will be Facebookless Fridays…
Everybody needs a wife or 2 or 3 and a burger
By · CommentsI’m talking about a wife as in someone who is there to support you, inspire you and be there for you in sickness and in health.
Women: Don’t you wish you had a wife? Well now you can and you don’t have to be gay to have one! (But if you are gay, that’s okay too.)
All you have to do is join the online group called A Band of Wives (ABOW) and you are instantly married to a supportive group of wonderful women. Seriously, it is that easy.
A Band of Wives was founded by the amazing Christine Bronstein.
I joined back in February when I discovered them via the Marin Magazine article about online communities that we were both featured in.
At first I didn’t know if this was the right group for me. I was a little intimidated by all the hip, beautiful and successful women. Then I attended a few of their events and realized they were also friendly, genuine, authentic and caring women. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.
A few weeks ago, I discovered Bistro Burger in San Francisco. I loved their turkey burgers SO much, I went there 3 times that week. They had one of those fishbowls on the counter where you put your business card in for a chance to win a free lunch. I never put my business cards in those things but for some reason I decided to this time. The next day I got an email saying, “Congratulations you won a free lunch for 4 at Bistro Burger”. I was super happy but was wondering who I was going to invite. I didn’t have 3 friends in the financial district who would be available to lunch. This was about the same time I had the realization that my only real complaint about my job was that I really missed those coffee and lunch dates I used to have in Marin with my Twitter friends when I was self employed.
I remembered super-star wife Leila (@mizbohemia), the Director of Operations at A Band of Wives, lived in the city, so I invited her to join me for the free lunch. She agreed.
Then I got the idea to ask on Twitter who works/lives in downtown San Francisco and I got a response from someone who just happened to also be a member of ABOW! Shasta (@girlfrndcircles), owner of GirlFriendCircles.com and I invited her to join us for lunch. She said yes! We had room for one more at lunch so Shasta invited Jessica (@50womenproject), author the 50 Woman Project and she said Yes!
On Friday, we all met at Bistro Burger (in Trinity Alley) and were greeted by John who congratulated us and took our photo. I’m guessing the photo is going to show up on their Website under the Happy Winner section soon. Bistro Burger sells veggie, turkey, chicken and regular hamburgers along with salads so there is something for everyone. And they’re really, really good! You can order your burger without a bun if you’re doing the Sugar Divorce, like I am. They’re also on Twitter at: @BistroBurgerSF
It was a nice day so we sat outside. Our little lunch turned in to a 3 hour magical, brainstorming session. We ended our lunch full of ideas and inspirations for our own various projects. It’s amazing how the power of group intelligence can get you unstuck from a rut. That’s what A Band of Wives is all about; connecting women, and igniting the spark in all of us.
Thank you Twitter, Bistro Burger and A Band of Wives for connecting us!
Here are the 3 dynamic wives I had the pleasure of dining with:
Jessica Buchleitner, Shasta Nelson, Leila Radan
I told you they were all hip, beautiful and successful!
Gratitude for my iPhone
By · CommentsI went to work today and forgot my phone. Being separated from my phone for 8 hours has given me a greater appreciation of my phone.
The fact that we call iPhone’s “phones” is actually kind of funny because who actually uses the phone feature on their iPhone? I know I hardly do.
Let me count the ways as to why I love my i”Phone”
- it’s my camera and a darn good one thanks to the Camera+ app. Taking & sharing photos makes me happy.
- it’s my connection to Twitter. Talking to my Twitter friends makes me happy.
- it’s also my connection to Facebook and Google+ where I like to post my photos.
- it’s my newspaper. I read the news every morning on my iPhone via Twitter and the various news sites.
- it’s my Words With Friends connections. I play Words With Friends with my friends and my mom, when I remember. Most people who play Words With Friends with me get annoyed with me because I take SO long between each turn.
- it’s my FourSquare checkin tool. Without my phone, I can’t checkin at FourSquare and then my friends take advantage of the situation and pass me. (please note #3 in picture below)
- it’s my text message center. I can’t chat with my sister on my lunch break with out my iPhone.
- it’s where I check my personal email.
- it’s my calendar.
- it’s my notepad where I jot down movies I want to see, books I want to read, etc.
I missed my phone today.
Photo taken by @fun_master
@TamHolland Art Thing
By · CommentsLooking for something fun to do this Sunday?
How about stopping by @TamHolland‘s Art Thing? Actually it’s called Under the Sun Flea Market but for some reason I can not remember that name so I keep calling it @TamHolland’s art thing. Tamara (aka @TamHolland on Twitter) makes cool stuff like…
Greeting cards. Luggage tags. Checkbook covers. Magnets. Business card holders. Collage goodie bags so you can make your own cool things.
Bean Up The Nose Art will be selling all sorts of goodies at the August “Under The Sun Flea Market” at Beach House Style on Sunday the 28th. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 779 Center Blvd. in Fairfax, CA.
The Marin Twitter Gang will be meeting up there sometime after 1pm so stop by and say hi. #TweetUp
All are welcome! Hope to see you!
Check it out! This event was even mentioned on the Sunset Magazine site!
Full disclaimer: @TamHolland sent me an absolutely beautiful bouquet of flowers today to thank me for inviting the tweeps to her art thing but I had plans to put this post up BEFORE the flowers came. It was actually on my list of things to do after work today list. It was such a wonderful surprise to come home and find this gorgeous bouquet of flowers waiting for me. Thanks Ms. Tamara! I love my Twitter friends!
Bring Back MySpace
By · CommentsYep another blog post about Google+
Bring back MySpace! Okay how ridiculous does that sound? Remember MySpace? I don’t know about you but I embraced MySpace wholeheartedly. I blogged at MySpace, I reconnected with my old friends from high school, I made new friends, discovered new music, decorated my page to be all sparkly and pretty and I resisted Facebook. I resisted Facebook like a cat sliding down a curtain with its claws out. I did not want to change, I did not want a new social network, I was happy with MySpace, why did we need to change?
I reluctantly opened a Facebook account because my teeny bopper daughters wanted to be on Facebook and the deal was, the only way you can be on Facebook is if I am your friend on Facebook. So, I joined Facebook as a “responsible parent” move. Then of course, I got hooked. I was managing both MySpace and Facebook and slowly my MySpace friends trickled in to the Facebook scene. Facebook started suggesting friends and a whole new world of old friends reappeared in my life. Reconnection was fun! At the time, I had a Virtual Assistant business that I was somewhat bored with so I morphed it in to a marketing business and started teaching entrepreneurs how to use Facebook and preaching the benefits of it for business.
I posted this on MySpace in October 2007. Just replace the world MySpace with Facebook or Twitter and Facebook with Google+ and it sounds like a lot of people I know right now.
10/19/2007
Can someone please tell me why Facebook is so popular these days? I resisted going over to Facebook because frankly it was not a priority in my life… but I finally folded under social pressure and headed over there. Everyone swears it is so much easier and more intuitive than Myspace… I’m not seeing it that way. But I do see that a lot of serious business owners are using Facebook. For now, I will continue with both. I still like Myspace better… so if you are like me and are on both Myspace and Facebook feel free to be my friend over on Facebook too.
Then came Twitter and as many of you know I got a little obsessed. I love Twitter and the people on it Twitter. Twitter is the ultimate social network, it’s actually social at least my crowd is. Twitter introduced me to people (strangers) with similar interests who are now some of my best irl = “in-real-life” friends. I love Twitter and I am very loyal to Twitter but I also know in the world of technology – CHANGE is the reality. Ever since my MySpace world evaporated I’ve always kept it in the back of my mind how very likely it is that someday Facebook and (gasp!) even Twitter may go away. This does not mean I want them to go away, it’s just life in the modern world.
Fast forward to Google+. Just like when Facebook arrived on the scene I resisted it. The main reason is TIME – I don’t have time for another social network. Then the “why would I want to go to another social network when all of my friends are already on this one” factor. Finally, I personally did not find G+ to be intuitive or user friendly so I resisted, I complained, I made fun of it. I did exactly what I did 4 years ago. I also found the original Google+ community, the one’s who like to call themselves “early adopters” to have an attitude. G+ was getting defined as the intellectual network, the content driven one where people put important smart stuff. I actually felt pressured to only post smart, intellectual things. The first handful of people in my G+ stream seemed to be competing to who could post the most intellectual crap. I’m so over intellectuals – stopped being impressed with them about when I graduated from college. Don’t get me wrong, I admire smart people, I just don’t admire people who like to tell me they are smart.
But then something happened, I saw this video:
As silly as this video is it reminded me of my MySpace stubbornness and also opened my eyes to some of the cool features of G+.
Then last weekend I had something I rarely have these days. I had TIME! I had some down time where I didn’t have to do anything so I spent some time getting to know Google+. Up until this weekend I kept thinking and saying G+ is boring and nothing is happening over there. I then had the realization that Nothing is going to happen on G+ unless I do something on it.
I was just sitting around waiting for everyone else to do something. Duh everyone else was doing the same thing! So I started doing things on G+ and guess what? People started responding.
I still love Twitter, and Facebook is just fine but here are a few things I’ve discovered about G+ that I like.
Circles – I can easily divide people in to groups. I can have friends, coworkers, family, strangers, etc. This means I can look at updates by groups and I can also post to selective groups. If I want to post something personal like a picture of my kids and I don’t want my coworkers, strangers and others seeing the pic, I can set that post to just show to my family circle and they are the only ones who see it.
G+ also could come in handy for coordinating things such as carpools. Last night on Twitter a group of us were trying to coordinate carpools for our upcoming TweetUp. We must have exchanged 20+ tweets to do this most likely boring the heck out of our followers and in the process getting somewhat confused on who was doing what. If we would have had the same discussion on G+ we could have done it in 1 thread and only those involved would have seen the thread, we wouldn’t have had to bore the rest of the world with our logistics.
Also, for all you amateur photographers out there check out the photo sharing, it’s pretty cool. One of my favorite professional photographers is sharing her stuff on G+. Check out: Lisa Bettany (the inspiration behind all my photos from the bus)
I’m not going to go on and on with the wonders of Google+ because frankly I don’t see a huge benefit yet to switching over. However I am constantly fascinated by the ever changing world of social networks and thought I’d share my 2 cents with you since people have been asking me “what is the point of Google+?”
I guess you could call me an early resister in the world of social media.
So… do you wanna connect on G+? Here I am: Sally_K
By the way… Tom, (you know the founder of MySpace) thinks G+ is going to succeed.
My Car is Pretty Again!
By · CommentsI got my car fixed! A few months ago my car was parked in a parking lot when dear daughter came out and found this very large dent in it. Thankfully, the woman who hit the car stayed and took full responsibility.
Unfortunately, this was my brand new car. 
Good news is we found an awesome auto body repair guy to fix it. My car is like new again! Ray from AutoBody Express did an amazing job putting my car back together. He was fast and very detail oriented. I’ve been to other auto body repair places in Marin before and have never had great service like this! They also handled all the insurance communication so I didn’t have to deal with it. Here are the before and after pictures.
Thanks AutoBody Express for doing such a great job making my car new again!
AutoBody Express is located in the Canal area of San Rafael (behind the Canal Alliance)
They are also on Facebook!
AutoBody Express
86A Belvedere Street
San Rafael, CA 94901
415-454-1881
Mountain Bike Clinic for Women in Marin
By · CommentsMountain Biking Marin is holding the last all Women’s cross country mountain bike clinic of the season on August 28th! They’re keeping this clinic small so if you are interested please fill out the assessment form here and contact Celia at Mountain Biking Marin for more information!
This clinic is Women Only – All Levels and LOTS of FUN!
Read about one of their past all women’s mountain bike clinics here: http://mountainbikingmarin.blogspot.com/2010/06/hot-mama-mountain-bike-clinic-was.html
So what are you waiting for? Go for it!
