"Daar is 'm ... daar is 'm"

The most mythical goal of Belgians Red Devils: Belgium - The Nederlands, 1985, world cup qualifier to go to Mexico.

Sport-Voetbal Magazine heeft het doelpunt waarmee Georges Grün België in 1985 ten koste van het Nederlands elftal naar Mexico kopte uitgeroepen tot meest mythische doelpunt ooit van de Rode Duivels. Ook Rik De Sadeleer op zijn best.

• "Ze gaan lopen ... ze gaan lopen"
• "Daar is 'm ... daar is 'm"
• "'t Is om er geel van te worden"
• "Dank U George"
  

(Telegraaf)

Castello di Amorosa

Napa Valley is about an hour and a half drive from our house. I've visited Napa Valley many times, sampled many wines and taken many many pictures of the beautiful wineries and landscape. Yet, it is not my favorite wine destination. Napa has become overly touristy and very expensive. If you want to sample a couple of sips of the Napa wine, it will easily cost you $9. An average bottle of wine runs about $20. Sonoma Valley or Livermore are more affordable and less crowded. My favorite wine region is Mendoza region of Argentina: the wines are excellent (Malbec is their specialty), and very afforadable. Sampling several glasses of wine at a winery cost you about 4 pesos, or $1.50.

Our trip this weekend to Napa Valley did not have wine in mind. We were invited to visit Castello di Amorosa. The castle hasn't opened yet to the public, though a friend of mine knows the owner Daryl Sattui (who is also the owner of V. Sattui winery). The castle is inspired on a Tuscan castle and is unbelievable. This is not a Vegas style copy of a castle with fake walls. No no noo, real walls built with stones of Europe and real painted walls (as a matter of fact artists were working still on the wallpaintings in the church). The many caves are already filled with barrels of wine and we encountered a small gathering in a small back room, three levels down, sampling some of the wine. Check out the links below to see some of the pictures inside. I did take a couple of pictures, but my camera does do well in poor light. (Plus it doesn't feel right to publish pictures before it is officially ready.).



Links:

• Official website of Castello di Amorosa
• Pictures of the castle
  
• Castello di Amorosa (LA Times)
  
• The empire that Sattui built (San Francisco Chronicle)
  

The best organic food

The best organic food is what's grown closest to you. I just finished reading an article about organic food vs local food: Eating better than organic. Coincidentally, my wife was giving my back a massage, because I had been working the garden most of the day. I couldn't agree more with the article: buy local and buy organic! Or better even, harvest locally. I harvest my own vegetables and fruits. Here's a sampling of what's in our garden:

The fruits:

1. All winter we have fresh oranges, right outside the kitchen door.
   
2. In summer we harvest tons of apples. Last year, I did prune the apple tree and the harvest was dramatically less. Hopefully this year the tree bounces back from the shock of what must have his first trimming ever, as it doesn't resemble the size of an apple tree.
3. We have raspberries and blue berries which my wife planted in the back.
   
4. I planted last year a lemon tree.
   

The vegetables:

1. My favorite vegetables are tomatoes (although technically it is a fruit, isn't it). This weekend I sowed two types of tomato seeds: they are sprouting in the kitchen.
2. So are two planters of spinach.
   
3. My office at work is the best green house: two big windows on the west side of the building. Currently I have radishes and spinach growing, almost ready to planted in the full soil in the garden.
   
4. Bock Choy is already growing in the vegetable garden.
   
5. I planted this weekend corn and
   
6. green beans
7. Hot peppers still have be added.
   

The herbs:

1. Sage (3 types)
   
2. Parsley
3. Oregano
4. Thyme
5. Rosemary
   

A couple of more vegetables and herbs will be added in the coming month. For now, it is the battle of keeping the clover out, those lovely yellow flowers, yet overtaking weed.

If you are interested in finding out more about buying local food, check out these links, reference in the article:

• Local harvest - http://www.localharvest.org/
• Eat local challenge - http://eatlocalchallenge.com/
• Locavores - http://locavores.com/

No more kneeling in front of the holy screen

After reading an article in the Wall Street Journal on how big gym balls are all the rage in some companies as a replacement for the traditional office chair, I decided to improve my posture in front of the computer screen. A gym ball did look a bit too extreme. I remember having tried a kneeling chair once. The first few days were comfortable: no more slumping in my chair. You only need to adjust one setting. Wikipedia has some background on how it works:

Kneeling chairs sought to open up the angle between the thigh and the spine, making it easier to retain the natural curvature of the lower back (the lumbar).

Despite the name, the posture of a person in a kneeling chair is not the same as kneeling on the ground. It is sometimes assumed that the knees bear most of the body's weight when sitting in a kneeling chair, but this is incorrect--the shins bear some weight for stability, but you are still sitting (not kneeling).

This posture changes the stress distribution of the human body in comparison with the sitting position of an ordinary chair and is recommended for certain diseases or injuries of the backbone. Because the angle of the hip joint is between that of sitting and standing, it allows the spine, particularly the lumbar (lower region), to be in a more "neutral," or middle-of-range, position.

After a couple of days, the lack of padding starts to hurt. It is also not flexible when swiveling between two computer screens. You back might be up right, though you tend to twist it to read the screen to the right. As a result I switched back my regular office chair. Or I might try a gym ball after all (just kidding).