Garlic Ice Cream. Going Green. Fun Summer Festivals

Here's a quick run down of some festivals occurring in the Bay Area this summer.



You've got the Gilroy Garlic Festival held July 24,25,26, where you will find a variety of foods you never thought should contain garlic, including garlic ice cream!


The popular San Jose Jazz Festival August 7-9, 2009. You can attend lectures to learn more about Jazz in the month of April before the festival takes place.

The Marin County Fair is going green this year. You will find all sorts of ways they are saving the environment.

Click here for more Festival Fun:
Festivals of Bay Area

Where to go when you are blue and 1 person who’s worse off than you

The first part of this blog is a little sad and even gruesome, I warn you, but keep reading and I will reward you with places to find comfort during times of weakness.

Recently I had “one of those days”. I am sure you can relate: You think God has shined down his hatred laser beam upon you. You can’t find your keys, cell phone, car, or your mind.

Or even worse... a potential love told you that it won’t work out long term.

Well, I had one of those days recently. I sat and groveled, felt sorry for myself, and wished that I never stepped out of my mother’s womb.

After browsing the internet, I ran across an article. It was about a woman who had a face transplant after being shot point blank by her husband. The woman is Connie Culp, who was a very attractive woman before turning into a frightful “monster” . Her nose had been shattered and 80% of her face needed replacement.

The doctors used a combination of a donated deceased woman's face and Connie’s cheekbones and legbones to reconstruct her face. Even though she appears like a stretched cartoon character, she was laughing and thankful that she HAD A NOSE.

Sitting there stunned, I walked away touched by this woman, who is now devoting her life to help other disfigured people.

How ungrateful I have been.

**So here it is, your reward.** I give you some wonderful places you can retreat to, when you feel like your sky is falling and God’s hatred beam has drilled a hole through your head:


Berkeley Rose Garden
Botanical Gardens in San Francisco
Shoreline Lake in Mountain View

Swine flu: This little piggy went to the market and came home sick

My apologies for an extremely lengthy blog hiatus.

Sadly, I had a visit from Mr. Flu (not his cousin Mr. Swine Flu aka H1N1 Flu) and then I had family in town for a friendly and lengthy vacation. (Very lengthy, as in: "Did you move in with us or are you still just visiting?")

The only problem with this blog is it involves seeing a pig. And given everything in the news lately including Vice President Biden on the Today Show telling the world not to travel, to my own doctor barring me from the office and taking my temperature in the parking lot while I sat in the car, I sense that seeing a pig may not be an ideal GirlsGatheirng.

Also, given:
-- Several Santa Clara county schools have closed due to the swine flu fear
-- A global fear of a pandemic occuring (from Wikipedia: The H1N1 form of swine flu is one of the descendants of the Spanish flu that caused a devastating pandemic in humans in 1918–1919)
-- The Egyptian government demanding the slaughter of 300,000 pigs for fear of the swine flu, which lead to a major clash between police and pig farmers.

I imagine that all of the above information may scare you from visiting today's suggestion. That’s fair.

So, I thought I would tell you about a favorite hiking spot that holds an adorable little farm, but ADVISE you NOT to go until the CDC stops counting how many cases of swine flu (H1N1 Flu) have been reported throughout America.

Enough healthy pessimism.
----------------------------------------
If you head to FREE Rancho San Antonio, you can take a hike up through the mountains and pass by a Deer Hollow Farm, a 150-year old farm that’s kept up by volunteers from the community. Here you can see chickens, goats, **pigs**, and rabbits.

Additionally, you can take the Wild Cat Loop which is about a five mile round trip starting from the farm.

I will admit, the Wild Cat Loop is not easy, but when you reach the top: you overlook the entire city of Mountain View: NASA Ames, Shoreline Ampitheatre and the traffic of 101.

Once at the summit, you feel like you are granted a beautiful prize of feeling on top of the world.
Let me tell you-- you feel incredibly proud of yourself. I will sometimes sit at the top and listen to the wind whistle through the trees and imagine flying down to Shoreline Lake.

When everything settles, then you should definitely check out Rancho San Antonio for its quaint farm and beautiful scenery.

Circling the World with Jellybeans

Visit our website at : Girls Gathering Guide to Chic Fun

Happy Easter from GirlsGathering.com!

As I was filling 35 brightly colored plastic eggs for our annual family Easter egg hunt yesterday, I started thinking about these sugary, corn starched filled sweet beans. Do you know just how many jellybeans are consumed in our nation on Easter alone?



Here are some facts I found:

• $1.9 billion of Easter candy are purchased each year ( behind Halloween which is $2 billion)
• 16 billion jellybeans are eaten at Easter time
• If you lined up 16 billion jellybeans side by side, it would circle the world 3 times



Hot buns in your Easter Basket
What constitutes Easter candy has changed over the centuries. Various candies have been added to the tradition of Easter giving over the years. It all started with a monk in 1361.

• During Good Friday, Monk Thomas Rockcliffe gave away Hot Cross Buns to needy people.
• In the 1800’s Europeans chocolates used the image of the egg to sell chocolates during Easter
• And in the 1930’s jellybeans were added to the Easter tradition



Jalapeno Jellybeans
It is fascinating to think how many jelly bean flavors are available. Have you ever sat and tried one flavor after another?

It is quite an strange and wonderful experience to go from chocolate, to popcorn, to blueberry with one small bean, a massive surge of flavor. Here’s how I feel about these flavors

• Licorice (yuck, in my humble opinion)
• Jalapeno (interesting but I’m not going to even bother)
• Juicy Pear (not really my cup of tea),
but…

Strawberry Daiquiri (oh my, yes!),
Strawberry Cheesecake (delicious).



What’s your favorite flavor?

So now that you know a little bit about Jelly Beans, you can have a better appreciation when you take the FREE: Jelly Bean Factory Tour.

**Resources

Easter Candy

History of Easter Candy

A few notes on Deadly Makeup

Visit our website at : Girls Gathering Guide to Chic Fun

Where Makeup Originated
Thanks to the ancient Egyptians for the gift of makeup. Originally, the makeup Egyptians wore was for practical purposes: reduction of sun’s intensity, stave off infection, and flies. (Just like a quarterback at a football game puts the black lining under the eyes to prevent glare from the sun.) Eventually, cosmetics became a way of life for looking beautiful.

When beauty is deadly
Fast forward a couple thousand years: Scientists (with the help of L'Oreal) discovered that some makeup was made from deadly chemicals! They found certain ingredients used for the Egyptian cosmetics (kohl, malachite) which were used for beauty products such as face masks, hair dye, or eyeliner actually contained lead.

Your daily dose of lead
So what happens when you have daily exposure to lead? Well, short term: naseau, stomach pain, and irritability and long term: madness, infertility, and even permanent neurological disorders (** it does take a good deal of exposure).

What's really scary is that lead in makeup has been imported and sold in the US, even though of course it is banned by the FDA. Lead traces in Makeup: 2007

So, now that you have a little background on Egyptian life, head to the Egyptian Museum to learn more about this fascinating time.

**Resources:
Egypt : Beyond the Pyramids
Lead Poisoning
Cosmetics
Metal Lead in Egyptian's makeup

Introduction to GirlsGathering.com

Get off the couch. Turn off your TV (or stop watching hulu). Stop checking your email. Log out of Facebook. Close your laptop. Grab your friends/boyfriend/husband...

Live your life!

Head to Bakers Beach or to the top of Telegraph Hill. Paddle boat on Stow Lake or take a bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Unfortunately, you can't fly to an exotic island every weekend, so we are devoted to finding the next best thing: chic fun in your backyard.

GirlsGathering.com is passionate about travel, technology and fun.
Our motto: Live your life. Love your life. Travel.

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