Spectacular winter in Uah!!!

Canyonland National Park

God knows I am sick and tired of the snow but let's face it.... Without it, Utah would just not be the same.... what a pretty state I live in!!! Check out these fantastic pictures.... Now visualize Flushing, New York....You'll have to agree with me that God put more energy in creating some places and totally cursed others..... I am blessed to live in such a beautiful place, no doubt.... Sorry New Yorkers!!! None of the pictures are mine, but they are just stunning and I had to share them (I love to take pictures, but I have my limits... Snow and polar temperatures are two MAJOR obstacles)

Blue Moon over Park City 12/31/10

Rural Utah

Arches National Park

Arches again

A REALLY nifty program!

Today, I am using a dictation program for the first time ever! In fact, I am entering the text of this post without even touching my keyboard to type anything!

Amazing!
Unbelievable!
Mind blowing!

Over the past couple of years, I have been talking to my brother who works on the Internet and is always in need of composing lengthy chunks of text, both in English and in French... a couple of years ago, he started to use some dictation program that also controlled his computer with performing some basic functions. The program was really nice, however it required plenty of interaction from his part, especially when it came to correcting the text he was speaking into his microphone... a lot of it came from the fact that he, just like me, has a strong French accent when he speaks English. It is also important to consider the fact that my brother uses and has used Macintosh computers since the 80s... The choice for serious programs has always been less than what was offered for Microsoft Windows...


Then MacSpeech came along...

The beauty of this program is that it was built as a native Mac application from the ground up. it was inspired by the Dragon speech technology, however built as a brand-new application. It is sold with a choice of hard core noise reduction headsets, understands my accent, and even can switch and write in French and German at the flick of a button. It also controls the computer via voice commands! I am utterly baffled by what this program can accomplish and yet, it only took me about five minutes per language to train it! I would recommend it to anyone who handles a lot of text files, or who, like me types in three different languages. Check it out if you own a mac, and see why I am so excited...

A California flash trip

I am much embarrassed to admit that I have not been writing too much lately... No particular excuse, besides the fact I have been very busy in SLC.... Eric has finally sunk in a bottomless ocean of to dos and phone calls and appointments all related to the imminent opening of Sea Salt.... we have virtually zero time to spare....

We both flew to Sacramento last weekend. Eric was buying an oz winebar (a very fancy device that preserves opened bottle of red and white wine and dispenses wine by the glass) for one of his new projects....

Weather was gloomy, cold and foggy... After Eric sealed the deal and pre-conditioned the unit for shipping, he suggested we drive to Napa since we were not that far, and off we drove.....

We arrived in Yountville an hour and a half later and decided to have an apéritif at Bistro Jeanty, then dinner at Thomas Keller's Bouchon....

I honestly do not see what the hype is all about.... I swear.... And it has nothing to do with my being French and chauvinistic....

This place is a joke.... an utter farce!

The nerves these people have!!!! Salmon rillette... awesome.... everything else, grossly overpriced crap, delivered with a pompous, condescending attitude. Thank goodness the staff knows the menu and the sommelier knows his turf inside out.... It was so bad that we sent half of our plates back..... the onion soup was a total abortion... it tasted like half way reduced beef demi glace.... the escargots were hiding underneath what looked like puff pastry sponges, soaked with lukewarm butter... I could go on and on , but truly, I would waste my time....

The whole thing set us back $300 and change. The only nice thing about it is that it once again enabled me to see how far we are with the Paris Bistro....

On our way back out of Sacramento, we were bumped out of our flight and had to wait almost 4 hours until the next one... Most fortunately, the Sacramento airport has a small treasure right in its terminal: a wine bar called Vino Volo, which serves small plates and wines by the glass as well as wine tasting flights... This place was an oasis of quietness,and civilization... No crybabies, no trashy folks (they congregate at the fast food joints on the other side of the terminal) what a way to get bumped!!! what an amazing way to wait for a flight...

A new decade....

Not just a new year!... A brand new decade!

I have been flying a lot lately and busy with restaurant work in between trips.... I unfortunately have not had much time to write anything, but I promise I will very soon...

Happy new year to all.... May this new decade be better and less painful than the last one.... may we see the end to suffering, disease and hunger throughout the world and finally enter an era of harmony between people.....