ProBiz Partners Blog

I’m one of those people who drives everybody else nuts trying to figure out every possible scenario. Travel is no exception. What if my computer dies? What if the Internet connection doesn’t work? What if I want paella but my friends want fish? Oh, sorry, it’s always about the food, you know….

To prepare for a trip, I mentally walk through every potential obstacle I can imagine. I know where and how I can buy a new laptop if the worst happens — if I lose it (the computer, the computer!) or it dies completely. To prepare for a loss of data, I have two really important resources; an online backup service and a portable external hard drive.

There are many choices for online backups, and I highly recommend that you find one AND USE IT! Some are quite expensive, some have more bells and whistles. My choice is Mozy, a service that is free for 2Gb of storage, but I pay $4.95 per month so that I can backup all of my data. The advantages of online backup are many, not the least of which is that you can access and restore your data from anywhere that you can access the Internet. Then there are the redundant servers that they use to ensure that your backups are always there. One note, though: online backup services are NOT a place to store and share files. You cannot browse the files and simply choose which one to download. It is meant for restore purposes, and it does that job very well.

Since I’m paranoid and don’t ever want to have to explain to a client: “Hello, Wanda? You know your database that has 5,000 contacts and all their sales data? Well, my computer went down….” No thank you. So in addition to backing up data, I use an external, portable hard drive when I travel. After much research and a heart-to-heart with my tech guy, I settled on the LaCie Mobile Drive that can store 160Gb, and is very small and light. Weight becomes a significant factor after you’ve been stuck in 5 airports in 1 day. No exaggeration.

For me, the thought of losing my computer and everything on it is my worst nightmare. The idea of having my data backed up is comforting, but if my computer dies, I don’t want to reinstall the operating system, all the software, and all of my settings. It’s incredibly time consuming. There is an advantage to starting all over with software, which is the rough equivalent of cleaning out the garage. But I don’t have time. So I use Norton Ghost to clone my entire system. It surprises me that more technical people don’t share this little tidbit with their clients. The difference? My computer dies, or I buy a new one. Option A: Install all my software, re-set all my settings (as much as I can remember), then restore all the data. Option B with cloning software: Install cloning software, click restore, and walk away. Come back to a computer that is exactly like my old one. For me, it’s a no-brainer. Ghost is $69.99, and for that price I can save hours of time and frustration.

Remember, no amount of software or hardware for backups will help you if you don’t use it religiously!!!!

Join us next time when we explore the exciting world of… never mind. Next time we’ll talk about food.

OK, I’ll admit it. I harbor a not-so-secret wish to become a tapas bar owner. I’ve left many a cocktail-party goer with their jaw on the floor with that little bit of news. TAPAS bar, not topless bar!

Tapas are the little bites of Spain — in case you’re not a foodie and haven’t heard about them in the past couple of years. Tapa means “cover,” which is where this tasty tradition came from. There are several stories about the origin of tapas but my favorite is that a king of Spain was out on a hunting trip on a windy day. When the hunting party stopped for a break, a servant brought the king a glass of wine, which was covered by a piece of bread with a slice of jamon (dried cured ham) on top. When the king asked “What’s this?” the servant replied, “Sire, it is to cover your cup to prevent the wind from blowing dirt into your wine.” The King liked it so much that he made it a regular part of the castle cuisine, and people all over the country soon adopted the custom.

Spaniards traditionally have 5 meals a day; a custom which is, sadly, disappearing. One of those meals is around 4 or 5pm when they often stop in at a neighborhood tapas bar and have a drink and a few small tapas, or appetizers. In some parts of Spain drinks are still served with free tapas, but that too is fading away.

Tapas have evolved into every type of appetizer you can imagine. Despite the enormous variety, you’ll still find certain staples in neighborhood tapas bars all over Spain. Those include jamon, tortilla española (see previous post for recipe) and a variety of dried sausages, Russian salad (don’t ask, I haven’t figured that out), potato chips (often homemade), cheeses, and a variety of fresh or preserved seafood. I also have to mention roasted piquillo peppers. These are roasted red peppers that are grown in Spain. Our red peppers are delicious when roasted, but piquillos are extra-special. You can find them at online stores.

One of my favorite neighborhood tapas bars

One of our favorite parties is to invite friends over for tapas and wine (and Sangria in the summer). A tapas party can be incredibly easy, or as fancy as you care to go. The options for available canned and prepared tapas are many; even in the U.S. And trust me, they’re good! You can order prepared foods for your tapas party from a number of online stores. Of course the prices are not what you’d pay in Spain, but the quality of the products and the ease of putting together a party with these canned goodies is well worth it. I use a number of online stores, but two of my favorites are AmigoFoods.com and Tienda.com.

I will share some of my favorite tapas recipes as we go along, but for today we’ll stick with the basics. Start with a good crusty bread, cut into thin slices and toasted on both sides. In the Barcelona region of Catalunya they rub the toast with a garlic clove and then with cut chunks of tomato, then drizzle it with good Spanish olive oil. You can top that with jamon (ham-OWN), sliced sausages, or any good Spanish cheese. Manchego cheese is one of the most popular, but don’t stop there. There are dozens of artesan cheeses that are rather pricey here, but again, very well worth it.

Artesan cheesemaker in a small local market

Any respectable tapas party needs olives. This is where I have to keep off my soapbox because the olives in Spain are, in my opinion, far superior to anything I’ve been able to buy locally in the US. I suggest buying them online unless you live in an area that has a good gourmet market. The olive bars that are featured in our high-end markets are very salty or so vinegar-y that I can barely eat them. Not so in Spain. Look for real Spanish olives and see what you think. Olives stuffed with anchovies are one of the most common. Don’t be afraid, they are not salty or fishy.

Small olive selection at a local market

Once again I find myself with a book’s worth of info and the nagging reminder that blog posts are supposed to be SHORT! Maybe someday I’ll master that skill. So I’ll leave you with this great summer suggestion: throw a tapas party…. just be careful how you tell people!

My stash of fast tapas ingredients

OK, I’m trying to get my head back around work and OFF of babies, but it’s not an easy task.

For me, one of the most challenging aspects of working from another country is figuring out the phone situation. I wanted to be sure that my clients had access to me, the same as they would if I were in my own office in the US, and at no additional cost to them. Before I left on my inaugural voyage of ProBiz Partners de España, I did extensive research to find out about the most cost-effective and least-difficult ways to stay in phone contact with the US.

I tried Vonage V-phone and Skype but both turned out to be worse-than-terrible connections. I think it had to do with being in a smaller town where the Internet connection wasn’t quite as fast as advertised. Vonage and Skype turned out to be unacceptable options, although if I were going to a larger city, I would give them a try again. Both offer options of having a “real” phone number that people can use to call you, at no cost to them, but the downside is that you have to be connected to your computer to receive the calls.

After trying and failing at several different things, I decided to simply accept phone calls on my cell phone (which I use as my primary business number), and if a client needed to have a longer conversation they were completely OK with me calling them back, using my MCI Global phone card, or my PINGO calling card. The good news is that my clients knew that they could call me during regular business hours, at the normal number they were accustomed to using. The bad news is that I had to pay $.99/min for incoming calls. Actually it wasn’t bad at all because my clients rarely call me without arranging it in advance, so I was able to schedule a time for me to call them, which helped me control the cost.

MCI is by far the better option of the 2 calling cards that I have. I always get a stable, very clear connection with MCI, and the rates are reasonable — $.07/min either from or to the US. PINGO is my choice for long international conversations, with a rate of $.02/min to call to Spain (for land lines — note that calling cell phones in Europe has a steep surcharge) and $.05/min to call from Spain to the US. Unfortunately, PINGO sometimes has poor connections, so I typically don’t rely on it for business calls.

I also researched back-up options to connect to the Internet in case the connection in my apartment should go down (which is always a distinct possibility). One of the coolest tech toys I’ve found in a long time is my Blackberry Pearl, which I use with my T-Mobile cell phone account. T-Mobile provides the best international options for me, and the Pearl gives me access to the Internet, email, a built-in MP3 player, and a camera. As I type this post, I am at my favorite bookstore / coffee shop, with my Pearl tethered to my laptop, to provide me with a high speed Internet connection. I love the fact that I can get Internet service anywhere that I have phone reception. The speed is acceptable, although not the same as in my office. One precaution here, though. Using a device like the Pearl as an Internet connection in another country redefines expensive. Don’t try it unless you know exactly what you’re paying for. T-Mobile does provide a Hot Spot plan that allows you to pay a monthly fee to access their Hot Spots, which are all over Europe and many other countries. That might prove to be a good back-up plan, although I was lucky and my Internet connection in the apartment was stable for the entire trip.

I completely expect that as things evolve there will be less-expensive, and more widely available options for both international phone calls and Internet access. If you’ve heard of anything exciting and new, please let me know. I have to keep up my reputation as having the coolest tech tools.

We interrupt this important (planned) tech tools blog post to bring you the much-more-important announcement of a new arrival in our family. Mr. Hudson Sailor Milligan was born on Friday morning, May 11th, at 12:13am. Numerologists would have a field day with that one. 11 - 12 - 13. Anyway, he is, like all Milligan children, a Gerber baby. He was gorgeous at birth, and just gets cuter every day. I’ll stop gushing now and share a couple of pictures. You can call me Granny! (gulp)

Tech tips coming this week. If I can focus…

Beside my desk there is a little piece of paper that says “Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.” Judith Thurman

The life of a dreamer brings unexpected pleasures — no, JOYS — that are so rich and amazing that you sometimes have to wonder how you got here, and why in the world you are so incredibly, amazingly, lucky. Today was one of those days. Today my life touched the lives of people from 6 different countries. And not just in a trivial way. I got to spend hours with people who are artists, engineers, architects, and composers. And they all have incredibly different cultures and different stories to tell.

I first met my great friend, Beatriz Gomez, who is a wonderful artist, when I was teaching English as a Second Language. Beatriz and I became good friends and, through her, I have had the privilege of meeting amazing people from all over the world. Beatriz’ husband, Ugljesa, is Serbian. Ugljesa is a wonderful architect and artist, and an amazing person. Today, for his family, is their saint’s day. Saint George, to be precise. Uglesza explained that in Serbia each family has a traditional saint’s day, and it is celebrated with friends and family. There are traditional foods and everyone simply enjoys each others’ company. Ugljesa and Beatriz invited Al (my husband) and me to join them with other friends and family to celebrate their saint’s day. We had no idea what was in store for us.

When we arrived, Ugljesa explained the tradition of saint’s day, and described some of the food for us. Then he served us wine and turned us loose to get to know each other. By the end of the entirely-too-short four hours, we had visited with people from Serbia, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, and the US. Al and I spent quite a long time listening to the fascinating stories of Luis Jorge Gonzalez, who turns out to be a “celebrated Argentine composer.” He even had me singing and clapping along with him as he tried to help me understand just how EASY it is to compose music. Umm… sure….

The food! Oh, MAN, the FOOD! The large dining room table was so heavily loaded with food that you couldn’t see the beautiful Venezuelan wood. We had handmade traditional Serbian bread, a dish much like baklava made with spinach and nuts, and there were a number of non-traditional treats as well. Crepes with an amazing turkey dish, a mushroom dish that melted in your mouth…. I could go on and on. A spread fit for Julia Childs. I looked around me and saw these rooms filled with incredible, interesting people enjoying amazing food and communicating in 3 different languages. I still have goose bumps.

Maybe it’s because I grew up in Spearman, Texas, a little spot in the road where nobody ever did anything more exciting than run their tractor off into a ditch. Or maybe it’s because I always dreamed of learning another language and experiencing other cultures. I don’t know what it is, but I know that I love my life. I love the people that are in it. I love the work that I do, and I love love LOVE the opportunities that I have to experience the world outside my little town and to feel homesick for places that I have never been. You don’t have to be a traveler to experience the world. As the Muppets sing “… with an open mind and a grateful heart…”

When the topic of travel comes up, there is alway someone who brings up the issues of jet lag and surviving the cramped quarters of hours and hours flying in the cheap seats. I’m also frequently asked how I can work effectively outside of my home office. So I’ll share a few of the tips and tricks that I use when I work from the land of far, far away.

The flight to Europe doesn’t look so bad when you see that there are non-stop flights from Denver to London that only take about 8 hours. I can do that. Um… but London isn’t where I’m going. By the time my head hits the pillow in Dénia I have sometimes been in transit for as long as 36 hours. That´s because things happen like bad weather, broken airplanes, and lost luggage.

The things I do to avoid jet lag are very easy. I always ask for a window seat so that I can see where I´m going but, more importantly, because I can rest my head against the plane and I sleep better. I use one of those funky neck pillows that cost about $5, it folds up nice and neat, and it helps me avoid neck cramps. I avoid alcohol (shocking, I know…. ), and I try to eat light during the flight, focusing on fruits and veggies. The food usually sucks anyway, depending on the airline, so I just think of it as saving up for a great meal when I arrive.

The two most important bits are to sleep as much as possible and to walk around and stretch at least twice during the longer flights. This makes a world of difference.

As for the tools that I love to travel with — I always need my iPod, my noise-canceling headphones, and a good book. The thing that annoys the h$!! out of me with the iPod is that the addition of that clever little “i” in front of the name of anything adds about 50% to the price. I have spent an embarrassing amount of time searching for accessories for my iPod that were good and affordable. The best of the best is my iLuv i901 noise canceling headphones. I’ve always had trouble hearing music on airplanes because of the roar of the engines. Purely by accident I found the iLuv headphones that not only have good sound, but fold into a nice tight little package, and are a fraction of the cost of other similar headphones.

Another iPod accessory that I wanted was a simple case that would securely hold my iPod so that I didn’t have to worry about dropping it or losing it. Again, the prices were unbelievable. $20 for a little chunk of rubber that didn’t even have a strap with it. Love that little “i.” I finally came across a set of 3 silicon cases that fit the iPod snugly and it comes with a neck strap. $9.95 for the set. Sold.

My travel kit:

The last thing that I carry with me at all times — even during the flight — is my small digital camera. I love my Nikon digital SLR, but it’s just too big. I finally gave in and purchased a small Canon that does an amazing job, especially in low light, and it is small enough to tuck into my purse for unexpected photo ops.

With these few tools I can endure even the toughest airport delays and still arrive at my destination ready to go. I may not have any clean underwear, but at least I’m not sleepy!

If you have some tools and tricks to share, I’d love to hear about them. Please leave a comment and tell us how you travel.

Tortilla Española, one of the classic dishes of Spain, is deceptively simple and incredibly delicious. Although there are tons of variations, the original is nothing more than a magical combination of eggs, potatoes, and onion. But once you get hooked on tortilla, you understand just how amazing this trio can be — especially in the hands of the right Mama or Abuela (Grandmother).

You can get a recipe for Tortilla Española almost anywhere. But good luck making one on your own, without a little experienced instruction. Each cook has her (and occasionally his) own little tricks. I’ve been a guest in the kitchens of several great cooks and they have each shared their family secrets, insisting that theirs is the very best tortilla. And they’re all right! So I’m going to share some of their secrets. It’s taken me dozens of tries and at least 10 lessons in home kitchens to finally get reasonable results. My Spanish friends sometimes even invite me to cook tortilla for them. But who are we kidding? They’re just being polite.

Tools:
10″ Non-stick skillet (my new project is to use my iron skillet to avoid the particles from the non-stick surface, but that’s another lesson)
Very thin, flexible spatula
Flat dinner plate

Ingredients:
3 - 4 large fresh eggs (tortilla thickness varies depending on the region and the cook)
2 medium potatoes (I prefer Yukon Gold) — Cleaned and peeled
1/2 medium onion (sweet is best)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Spanish preferred — use one that is deep, rich green in color if you can find it)
Sea salt to taste

1. Preheat the skillet over medium heat and fill to about 1/2″ with olive oil — don’t let it get too hot
2. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and slice them very thin (semi-circles)
3. Carefully slide the potato slices into the oil and cook slowly over low to medium heat. Do not brown!
4. Slice the onion thin and add to the oil with the potatoes when the potatoes are about half done
5. As the potatoes and onions cook, use the spatula to break them into very small pieces
6. Sprinkle good sea salt over the potato mixture as it cooks
7. While the potato mixture cooks, crack the eggs into a large bowl. Whisk with about 3 Tbs of water until the eggs are light and frothy
8. When the potatoes are done all the way through, are very tender, but not brown, transfer them to a plate covered with paper towels and drain off any excess oil. You may want to cover with additional paper towels and press to remove oil. Careful not to get bits of paper towel in the potatoes.
9. Spoon the potato mixture into the beaten eggs (in the bowl) and mix gently
10. Pour off all of the oil from the pan, but do not wipe it down (leave a thin coating of oil)
11. Reheat the skillet to medium
12. Pour the eggs and potato mixture into the warm skillet and gently move the potatoes around to distribute evenly. Be careful not to scrape the bottom of the pan. The mixture should be very thick with potatoes.
13. Cover the skillet with a loose fitting lid and make sure the heat is medium or less. The mixture needs to cook slowly to cook all the way through.
14. As the mixture begins to set up, gently scrape the sides of the pan to loosen. Do not run the spatula under the mixture until you are reasonably sure that a light golden crust has formed on the bottom.
15. When you are reasonaly sure that the mixture is done enough to hold its shape, run the spatula around the edges and under the tortilla to loosen it. Careful not to break it.
16. Remove the skillet from the heat, place the dinner plate upside down over the skillet and hold in place with 2 thick dish towels. In one quick move, flip the skillet over to get the tortilla on the plate. Quickly put the skillet back onto the burner and slide the tortilla, wet side down, back into the skillet.

Flippin’ the Tortilla

17. Cover the pan, be sure the skillet is on low to medium heat, and allow to cook for just a couple of minutes more. If you cook it too long the tortilla will be dry. Most people prefer it to be slightly moist on the inside.
18. When the tortilla is done, flip it once more onto the plate (clean the plate of excess egg first).

A thing of beauty!

Allow the tortilla to cool for a couple of minutes. Slice into pie-shaped wedges. Serve with sliced tomatoes, mayonnaise to dip, and good crusty bread that has been toasted and drizzled with good Spanish extra virgin olive oil.

Favorite tips from friends:
1. Maria Jose says that if you soak the sliced potatoes in cold water for about half an hour and then drain them well on paper towels before you fry them, that the potatoes won’t hold as much olive oil and therefore the dish won’t be quite as fattening. I’m no food scientist, but it seems to work.
2. Some people prefer to keep the potatoes in full slices. Others like to smush up the potatoes. I’m in the smushed camp. Chelo uses her spatula to dice up the potatoes while they cook into an almost indistinguishable mush. Sounds awful, but it creates a really nice consistency in the finished tortilla.
3. In Spain they have ajos tiernos — young garlic — that looks like large green onions. If you have access to those wonderful things, thinly slice 2 or 3 and add them to the potatoes during cooking.
4. Some people say that you should add salt to the potatoes only, and never to the eggs. I can’t tell the difference. Just be sure to use plenty of salt to taste.

If you try it, report back and let us know how it goes. I’m happy to answer questions if I can, and if not, I’ll ask somebody in Spain to help us out. Bon Apetit!

Perfect late night dinner

When my first granddaughter was born, I was a ripe old 42 years old. Jordan, weighing in at just under 2 pounds, was the most fragile and incredibly beautiful baby girl I had ever seen, and I knew that this little fighter would change my life.

Spending countless hours at the hospital, working full-time, going to school full-time, spending time with our youngest son (who still lived at home), and still finding time for my husband, taught me all kinds of lessons. Most importantly, I had to grasp that I wasn’t 24 anymore, Toto! The rules had changed while I wasn’t paying attention. But I sure as h@$$ wasn’t a typical Granny either! I’d be damned if I was going to retire so that I could babysit and do some occasional volunteer work. Quick Disclaimer: Grandparents who do those things of their own accord, and not out of guilt or a desire to do nothing more exciting than sit in a rocking chair, have my respect and admiration. It’s just not me.

Jordan made me realize that I had two clear choices within the boundaries of the culture that I live in. I could cut back on my work, babysit Jordan, and forget my dream of completing my Bachelors’ degree. Or I could swim upstream; I could be the best Granny I knew how to be, and still follow my dreams. For me, there was never any real choice.

Today I find myself living a life that is shocking to some, and apparently encouraging to others. Because my choices are not always conventional, I have been mentioned in a few blogs, and just yesterday I was featured in Laura Allen’s post “Business without borders” in The Virtual Wire. The most important thing to me, though, is that I follow what author Paulo Coelho calls my “personal legend.” In one of my favorite books, “The Alchemist,” Coelho (roughly translated) writes, “When you follow your personal legend, all the universe conspires to assist you.”

My dream of learning another language, experiencing another culture, living every single day of my life, and — just maybe — encouraging others to follow their dreams, is my personal legend. Still trying to grasp it, but it is very, very real, and I am very, very grateful!!

I can’t believe it’s already time to say goodbye to Denía. But more than that, I can´t believe that it´s been raining for 3 weeks solid and the sun finally came out YESTERDAY! That gives me a whopping 2 days of sunshine before I board the plane. OK, I said I wasn´t going to whine. Enough already.

After searching forums and considering past issues with my host provider, I´m pretty sure that the reason I can´t link my Flickr photo album to my blog is because my host provider, GoDaddy, prevents the connection. I´m not sure, but it´s the only thing that makes sense. It seems that other GoDaddy users have had trouble as well. GoDaddy´s tech support is fairly notorious for being bad. No need for yet another rant. Their worst area of expertise appears to be databases and anything related. So when I get home my first non-client related task will be to change host providers. Fast. Then I can go on with my posts and make the photos available that go with them. Although I won’t be writing from Spain for another few months, I have a whole list of topics that I haven’t even touched on.

Although I miss my family while I’m here, there is nothing quite like charging your batteries when you are living outside of culture. My husband always says that he looks forward to seeing my “Spanish glow” when I return. This time I won’t be quite so glow-y because it’s been so rain-y, but I still feel refreshed and recharged. The challenges have been far fewer than I had imagined. I just have to be more disciplined and stick to my schedule. That’s the hardest part when there are so many tempting things to do. Despite the rain.

One main topic that I have barely touched on is the food. I’m a major foodie, so my time here always revolves around food. Fortunately all of my Spanish friends are also foodies, so we can do some pretty serious damage together. I’ve had the incredible fortune of being a guest in several Spanish kitchens, so I’ll share some recipes, sources for ingredients, and some special secrets that make all the difference in the world.

It’s time to pack up. (muttering Spanish curse words) But first, a mad dash to the grocery store to stock up on my favorite treats — cans of mejillones (mussels), olives, and a couple of bottles of olive oil. And, of course, ingredients for paella. Lunch at my house on Sunday????

Denía in the rain:

My private castle (I wish!):

A little bit of sunshine, finally:

The tiny fishing port in Denía:

Hours and hours apparently. I decided about a week ago that if I was going to put photos on my blog that I would do it right. I created an account on flickr.com, spent several hours editing, uploading, and creating tags, titles, and descriptions for all my photos, and then went to install the most popular plug-in to tie my flickr photo album to WordPress. And guess what? It won’t work, no matter what I do. My speculation is that it has to do with either a sporadic internet connection here (which I doubt, because I had no trouble uploading the photos to flickr), or there is something that isn’t working right in the connection between flickr and my host provider. But I won’t pick on them just yet. Not until I know for sure what the cause is.

Anyway, here are a few photos to tide us over until I can get the entire album connected.

First, a couple of snapshots of Semana Santa, Holy Week. This is a huge festival in Spain, celebrated with more flair in the south than anywhere else. There are organizations of church members who have the privilege of wearing traditional robes, capes, and sometimes the pointed hoods that make Americans shake in their boots. I’d like to understand how the pointed hoods that are such a strong symbol of religion in Spain became such an ugly thing in the US. Anyway, here are a couple of shots until I can get the photo album working.

Semana Santa — Life size statues of the holy familiy and various saints that are carried through the city to the beat of drums

Semana Santa in Almuñécar in the south

I’ll post a couple of more photos as time allows. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time left here, this trip. sniff sniff….

I have a ridiculous number of photos, so I´ll keep hammering away at the photo album and try to get it to work. Any suggestions??