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Greetings from SillyCon Valley

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Greetings from SillyCon Valley

Tue 22-Mar-11
5:58 am

annaraven

Silicon Valley

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Fri 4-Mar-11

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Greetings:

I've been hangingout on the sufficientself forum for a while - got there because of backyardchickens.com. I live in Sunnyvale (not so sunny this week - I'm worried about flooding with all the rain we've had and are still expecting...).

I'm a typical american mutt with bits of English, Irish, French and Polish, but I grew up in Minnesnowta surrounded by Scandinavians and Germans. We lived in the city but Grampa had a farm about 2 hours out where we often spent time in summers.

Fast forward a bit - I lived in Minneapolis with my kids. Had raised beds with veggies in the back yard and a couple compost bins. I met a guy on the Internet (yes, really!) from Italy. We were friends and (many years later) got together and I moved to Italy (Bologna) to live in a tiny apartment. I learned to cook Italian style, and since DH (dear husband) was a consultant, travelled a bit in Europe (made it to London a couple day trips and to Oxford for a few days). Six years ago, DH got an offer to relocate to SillyCon Valley (yes, he's a geek and so am I). Took awhile to afford a house here (CRAZY prices) but eventually, we found a nice place with a backyard.

We now have a dog, 2 cats, 1 snake (a ball python), and (currently) 8 hens. I've just started a garden (hooray!) and looking forward to expanding it this summer. We have a couple of rain-barrels where I've collected the rain - just this week's storm produced enough to fill two 65-gallon barrels! I've just started canning and have put up a fair bit of orange marmalade with agave (DH is diabetic and agave doesn't spike his blood sugar) and lots of chicken stock. I just picked up a half a hog (butchered and wrapped in freezer paper) today, and I plan to make my own guanciale (uncured "bacon" from the pig jowl, kind of like pancetta).

Oh - and I have to admit - I haven't lurked here long. I know a lot of folks lurk for a while before registering but I'm just too opinionated to do that. whistle Now I'll just sit back with my sloe_gin and catch up on other posts here.

Thanks for having me!

Tue 22-Mar-11
6:49 am

3ravens

West Virginia

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Mon 20-Sep-10

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Hi Anna, from the "other" raven! I noticed you've got one thing wrong........ Aren't those supposed to be Scandahoovians? big_laugh At least that's what my Minnisnowta friends call themselves...... (And they eat loogy fish, too.) Somebody said we're all as mad as a box of smiling frogs. I resemble that remark! eeek Jump right in, you'll enjoy it! Oh wait, you already have!

Tue 22-Mar-11
7:12 am

Sooliz

Somerset

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Sun 30-Jan-11

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Morning Anna wave .......well, it's morning here anyway big_laugh . You've had a pretty full and interesting life by the sound of things, and travelled around a lot, you must have loads of experiences to tell us about. Good to hear you've got a garden.......I couldn't live anywhere that didn't have one.

You're not the shy retiring type then, unlike me wink whistle

Look forward to hearing more from you.

learning to love veg…..except celery :-O

Tue 22-Mar-11
7:44 am

Hattie

Bucks/Oxon Border

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laugh Hi Anna,

I see you are already making friends on the forum...I told you they were a very friendly bunch.......mad as hatters a lot of the time.... devil devil devil ...but full of fun. It is great to have you around.

wave

"The beautiful is as useful as the useful...perhaps more so."

from Les Miserables

Tue 22-Mar-11
2:00 pm

Toffeeapple

North Bucks

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Tue 22-Sep-09

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What an interesting life you have led. Looking forward to your garden stories.

I'll try that again!

Tue 22-Mar-11
4:08 pm

annaraven

Silicon Valley

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Fri 4-Mar-11

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3ravens said:

Hi Anna, from the "other" raven! I noticed you've got one thing wrong........ Aren't those supposed to be Scandahoovians? At least that's what my Minnisnowta friends call themselves...... (And they eat loogy fish, too.) Somebody said we're all as mad as a box of smiling frogs. I resemble that remark! Jump right in, you'll enjoy it! Oh wait, you already have!

Well yes, we do call them Scandihuvians. Wasn't sure anyone would grok that though. I've tried some of their fish-flavored jello, I mean, lutefisk... it wasn't so bad - of course, it was smothered in white sauce! DH and I noticed in Sweden that everything is smothered in white sauce. I swear, if the food wasn't white by itself, it was smothered in a white sauce.

And there's a Minnesnowtan comedienne who says her ancestors came from Sweden - travelled across an ocean and then across thousands of miles of the new land to find a place just as cold and miserable as the place they left...

And yes, jumping in with both feet is something I do.

Tue 22-Mar-11
5:39 pm

Toffeeapple

North Bucks

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annaraven said:

And yes, jumping in with both feet is something I do.

That's just what we like , so carry on.

I'll try that again!

Wed 23-Mar-11
2:13 am

Danny

Scarborough, England

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annaraven said:

I met a guy on the Internet (yes, really!) from Italy.

Snap!

Well, almost. No Italians involved in our case, just Irish/English Romeo/Juliet. Her family were convinced that I was an IRA bomber in the beginning. Really doh . We have had many an explosion over the years but without explosives, if you know what I mean. It's changed now and mostly we all get on like a house on fire.

I met my Fiona through match.com 13 or 14 years ago (crikey, was it really that long ago? cry )

I don't know what it is like now but back then it was very much akin to old fashioned letter writing, although faster by email.

Lei parla italiano?

Never knowingly underfed

Wed 23-Mar-11
5:09 am

annaraven

Silicon Valley

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Fri 4-Mar-11

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Well we weren't actually "looking". We met on a usenet newsgroup (remember those?) while chatting about common interests. My first post on that forum was actually a *correction* of one of his posts. He took it so well, I fell a little in love right there. But it was 7 years later that we actually got together. (We were both in long-term relationships, which just happened to break up around the same time we were re-connecting over programming!) The Fates clearly wanted us together... heart