I went last week with a few friends. It’s a hands-on class, as opposed to the demonstration kind. She demonstrates a technique and then asks someone to take over and finish the dicing, stirring, or flipping. We made Karai Murgi Torkari (Bengali Chicken Curry) and Aloo Poshto (Potatoes in a poppy seed gravy) and rice. There were 4 students in Fharzana’s kitchen and everyone participated in the tasks as she directed us and watched what we were doing. She complimented me on my slick knife skills.

Two of us brought wine for everyone to enjoy while we were cooking and we all chatted and laughed quite a bit while we were supposed to be paying attention, but we didn’t get in trouble. I’ve been to the kind of class where you aren’t allowed to drink wine and giggle and it wasn’t nearly as much fun as this one.

Fharzana is charming and really good at explaining the history or significance of a dish. She is from Bangladesh and her husband is from South Indian, so she knows how to cook food from both regions. If you have something specific in mind that you want to learn, she would probably be able to show you. We just let her pick the menu for us and all of us were happy with her selection.

She spent a great deal of time talking about the spices involved in the dishes we made. She passed around little spice bottles for each of us to examine up close. There was no talk of measuring anything. I liked that part. Just dump in some of this and even more of that one and it’ll turn out fine. I noticed that since I went to her class, I’ve been more brave at home and willing to try new combinations of spices. And I haven’t measured anything either. My measuring spoons must be getting lonely. And I like that she gave us copies of the recipes that we made. The copies that she gave us do have measurements written down, so don’t worry about whether or not you’ll be able to recreate the dish once you go home.

Fharzana can be reached through her blog, http://foodvestigation.posterous.com/ Her cooking classes seem like a wonderful way to get together with friends and do something new and different. I love Mountain View.

I don’t remember exactly when I used her services for the first time, but I do remember having her come over to the house to meet our dogs. She walked in the door and immediately sat on the floor and started talking ‘dog-talk’ to the girls. They instantly loved her and jumped all over her. Shawn seems to have some kind of strange connection to animals—you know, like Cesar Millan or Dr. Doolittle. And she always has a pocket full of treats. Dogs are suckers for treats.

We have a web cam set up in the front room so we can look at the dogs when we’re out of town. One time when we were in China for 10 days we open our laptop to check on the dogs and it just happened to be the exact second that Shawn was walking in our front door. She sat on the floor and the dogs leaped all over her and licked her face. They were thrilled to see her. It felt so good to be on vacation and know that they dogs were in loving hands.

Shawn recently told me that she feels a tremendous connection to all the animals that she cares for. She doesn’t have children and the animals that she cares for feel like her children. I think it’s so much better to hire her and know that my pets are being cared for by a professional than taking advantage of friends who say they can baby sit and then hoping that they don’t do something stupid with my dogs. Not that I have stupid friends, but you know what I mean. Shawn is licensed, bonded and insured. Sometimes I see her in random neighborhoods around Mountain View walking random dogs. I always think that those dogs are lucky to have her as their sitter while their parents are gone.

In the past, I’ve used those kennels where they lock your animal in a small prison cell and I always felt overwhelmed with guilt. Here I am going off to some tropical paradise and my poor doggies were in San Quentin. And those little prison cells are always made out of cold, wet cement and a chain link fence. My pampered little doggies are used to fluffy down blankets and a big leather couch. I’ll never take them to a kennel again now that I know Shawn White. As much as I love Mountain View, occasionally, I do go out of town, and when I need someone to watch over my two little dogs—I call Shawn White, Pet Care Specialist of Sittin’ Pretty in Mountain View.

The owner, Randi, has lived in Mountain View for over 20 years. She opened her store back in June. She took me on a tour of the store and told me about the different kinds of merchandise that she offers—every imaginable kind of t-shirt and sweatshirt in all different sizes and colors. And if you don’t see exactly what you have in mind, you can order something out of a catalog. And, yes, it’s even possible to bring in something that you already own. She has a super incredible “printer on steroids” that does the ‘direct to garment printing’ method. Everything single item is custom. Local schools purchase shirts for teams and get each student’s name on their shirt for no extra charge.

One detail that I thought was pretty cool is that they can resize the artwork for each size t-shirt. For example if you put a logo for your family reunion on an XL shirt and put the same logo on a small shirt for a toddler, it would look pretty funny. She showed me a big order that included toddler sizes as well as big adult sizes. The miniaturized logo was so cute on the tiny shirts. And it doesn’t matter if your artwork has only one color in it or 20 colors, it’s all the same price and they don’t charge extra for millions of different colors.

These new custom t-shirts are nothing like the kind they had in the old days. I remember the old ones cracking and peeling off if you stretched them too hard. The ink on these shirts doesn’t sit on top of the fabric; it sinks down into the shirt and is embedded, then it gets heat set. And it’s soft and flexible.

You’re certainly welcome to go to Big Frog and order a t-shirt or shopping bag with the ILoveMV logo on it, but you might also want to design your own artwork. I saw lots of examples of photographs on shirts, favorite family quotes, drawings, school names, dates-to-remember, and logos. Anything is possible. The staff at Big Frog is a really creative group, so even if you think you have a decent idea, let them work their magic if they offer. You won’t be disappointed, I promise. So, technically, I don’t have t-shirts with the ILoveMV logo on it, but I know where you can get one.

Alicia told me that her specialty is really going into people’s homes and creating and the perfect environment for them and their family. That could mean helping them select new flooring, wall coverings and furniture, but sometimes it just means “refreshing” what you already own. Alicia can come in, rearrange your existing furniture, make recommendations about changes that might take it to the next level and give you tips and ideas to make your home exactly what you always wanted it. She also does Holiday decorating. Her prices seemed really reasonable—I’ll let her talk to you about that. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an expert decorate your tree, hang garland and lights in the front room and put the perfect finishing touch on the room before your next party?

I love that we have this new store downtown and I really hope that the community keeps in mind how important it is to shop local and support cool independent stores like Villa Rouge. I’m a big fan of the 3/50 Project. Check out their website for the details, but the point of the movement is to inform people that for every $100 dollars that they spend locally, $68 of it stays in the community. If that same $100 was spent is a nationwide chain, $43 of it would stay in the community and if the $100 was spent online, none of it would stay in the community. Let’s all go shopping, not just anywhere, but in Mountain View!

Harriet is originally from Munich and moved to the Bay Area about 14 years ago. She’s been a painter her entire life and her artwork is in collections all over the world, from Germany, to Japan, Australia and the United States. Her newest series is called “Yellowstone.”

The Visual Arts Committee decided last year that the artists featured in the lobby may also sell their artwork if they would like to do so. There are prices on the artwork if it is for sale. A small percentage of the price goes to the Center. It’s really nice for the community to get to look at beautiful one-of-a-kind artwork and to know that they can purchase the items as well. The exhibit changes every 8 weeks. Artists from all over the United States submit their work for this show. The Visual Arts Committee spends a great deal of time studying the images and deciding who will be selected. We’re lucky to live in a community that cares this much about art.

The lobby is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12 pm to 1 pm and one hour prior to every public performance. The artwork that is for sale may be purchased at the ticket box office Wednesday through Saturday, from noon to 6 pm. For information about upcoming theater productions, please visit the Events Calendar for the Center for the Performing Arts.

The Siegel family has lived in Mountain View since 1967. Jac and his wife raised their 2 sons here and he’s seen our city change a great deal over the years. He remembers going to the Monte Vista Drive-In at the corner of Grant and El Camino. He has fond memories of Linda’s Parisian burgers. He mentioned the tater-tots that Linda’s had and I thought it was funny that no one else ever told me about the tater-tots. They always talk about the hamburgers, but apparently, Linda’s also had tater-tots that were amazing. And he told me about Shaw’s Ice Cream & Candy in the location that used to be Togo’s on El Camino. The Togo’s was recently torn down and now a Walgreens is being built.

Jac recently rented a sailboat and took his granddaughter sailing at Shoreline. He watched the entire Shoreline area change from a dump to a beautiful recreation area, he was involved in the committees that made the changes happen, and now he takes his grandchildren there.

It’s so nice to live in a city where our Mayor is our neighbor and not just a politician. Jac is at Peet’s Coffee on Thursdays for “Yack with Jac” from 10:30am -11:30am. If Thursday doesn’t work for you, he’s available by appointment. I just love Mountain View.

I have to be honest, I don’t have any children, but I still really enjoyed looking at Parents Guild. It’s a whole community of local people helping each other. They’re talking about what bay area restaurants are kid-friendly, they’re suggesting good Mountain View preschools, and they’re helping each other with day-care questions and concerns. I really like that it’s such a nice community of helpful individuals reaching out to each other.

As I read through some of the posts on Parents Guild, I realized how little I know about how to raise a child and I would be so happy to discover this website if I needed it. For example, how do you teach a child what pants are suitable to wear to school? Six different people answered this question. Apparently, you can’t always let a child make their own decisions. I might tend to let them go to school with no pants on if that’s what they wanted to do, but according to the community of new parents on Parents Guild, you have all kinds of options as to how to handle this situation.

Parents Guild is pleasant to look at and user friendly. It has a well written blog, as well as a questions and answers area. I follow them on Twitter and so do thousands of other people. The most recent questions from the website are also posted on twitter as are interesting articles related to raising children. I particularly enjoyed the one Parents Guild post a while back “When did girls start wearing pink?” by Smithsonian.com. It’s nice to find someone in our community who created something that could be so helpful to so many other people. I love Mountain View.

They have all kinds of activities designed to help you get involved in the community and meet other young professionals. Part of the program focuses on establishing genuine connections through networking and another important factor is community involvement. They have professional development lunch and breakfast events with inspiring speakers. I looked at the list of past events and speakers they have had and I must say it’s impressive.

Yipee is important to the community because they’re involved in giving back whenever possible. They’re connecting people to each other, and they’re also an invaluable resource for local businesses, executives and community leaders. They have a strong presence on social media. They stay well connected to each other and to our community so word spreads quickly amongst Yipee members about job openings, promising new restaurants and bars or the best new gadgets.

The next Yipee Mixer on April 28^th. It’s a joint mixer with the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce. You can register online. Part of the proceeds from the event will go towards disaster relief efforts in Japan. You don’t have to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce to attend. You just have to be Yipee-at-heart.

The market is named after Abhi and Shalini’s son, Ansh. He’s 3 years old and likes to help customers. You can meet him if you go to the store in the afternoon, as he’s still in preschool in the mornings. His areas of expertise are lottery tickets and drink selection. He’s very friendly and, like his parents, has outstanding customer service skills.

Abhi and Shalini want to get involved in the community. They told me that they would be happy to lend out their parking lot to local schools or churches that want to have a car wash as a fund-raiser. I really like that they’re so willing to try to connect with our community and that they’re doing all they can to try to be involved and meet people.

Ansh Market reminds me of the “3/50 Project” and the fact that it’s so important for us to support locally owned brick and mortar business. The concept behind this movement is that if half of the employed population spent $50 a month in 3 independent businesses of their choice, it would generate $42.6 billion in revenue. Think about 3 Mountain View businesses that you would miss if they were to close and stop by to support them. I would miss having a friendly convenience store in my neighborhood, especially one that has cold beer, a large selection of wine, lottery tickets and chicken broth! I just love Mountain View.

Turns out it was a great decision. They love that they can book her to come over and cut the entire family at once. Some clients request that she come to their workplace. As one could imagine, their co-workers see them getting a new hair style without having to leave the office, and they want one as well. One Mountain View bank has her come into the office and the entire staff uses her services. She can also do trims or “edging services” if you just need a touch-up. She would be perfect for busy Mountain View professionals who simply don’t have time during the week. She told me that she even offers a polite “Reminder Service” for people who might need help making their next hair appointment. That’s right, she’ll email you or call you or even text you to tell you that it’s time to schedule your next appointment. That’s so cute…

“See Jen Cut” covers Mountain View, Los Altos, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto. She charges a ‘travel fee’ which is minimal. She’ll show up with everything she needs, including a floor cloth, so don’t worry about your hard wood floors or carpeting.

I like that Jen is hip and uses the most progressive cutting techniques. While I was chatting with her at Peet’s, she pulled out her iphone and showed me some before and after photos of her clients. What a difference!  She likes to meet with new clients and have a consultation first so they can talk about their needs, including looking at photos of hair trends or talking about their desired hair color.  It’s important to her to make sure that their hair style works with the shape of their face and their lifestyle. Jen has very flexible hours and she’s even been known to work on an occasional Sunday. How cool is that? Jen can be reached at seejencuthair @ gmail.com.

The photo of the dog has nothing to do with Jen, other than the fact that he was peeking in the window of Peet’s at us while we were having tea and we both thought that he was adorable and that he needed braces. I just love Mountain View.