Paese Di Vino, Wine Country in Italian. The Sonoma County wine country is where we live and enjoy life. We are very fortunate to live in the heart of Wine Country and so close to San Francisco, Pacific Ocean beaches and the Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe. I love to cook and I'm going to use this as a place to document the recipes I've tried and lessons learned. I'm also a wine maker and will try to document what we do to make some award winning wines. I hope I'm able to provide consistent content as I realize that will be an issue with me and all the things I love to do. I also enjoy cycling, mountain biking, skiing, cooking, wine making, bread making, olive making, sailing, bass guitar, flyfishing, gardening and even a ham radio contest. A bit about me.... I'm a survivor with ten years of remission under my belt. I remember my parents taking my older brother for treatment 33 years ago. I truly believe he would still be with us if he had the same treatment I received. At the age of 29, my brother succumbed to Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma after a courageous battle in 1981. I was diagnosed with my own case of the same aggressive form Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in July of 2005. At the time I was a 46 year old single father of two beautiful girls ages 10 and 6. They are truly the apple of my eye. Although my brother has passed, what we share is the support from family, which continues to be the most important aspect of my life. Like Tim McGraw says... Live like you were dying... My parents are 2nd generation Greek and Italian immigrants raised in San Francisco.We, my brother, sister and myself were raised across the Golden Gate bridge in Marin County. We enjoyed activities such as playing music, camping and sailing, skiing and spending time at our cabin in Lake Tahoe. The girls are now 19 and 15, one in college in Boston, recruited to play softball and the other a freshman in high school. Time really does fly by and my adversity has given me a new appreciation of life. Don’t let it pass you by, live in the moment. I worked for RCA and General Electric for 15 years as an electronic technician in Southern California, specializing in audio and video circuitry. I made the transition to Information Technology around the time the San Francisco Forty Niners won their 5th Super bowl. We haven't won a Superbowl in swhile, but we are 3 time World Series champions in baseball. I’ve enjoyed employment with Sonoma State University and currently with a nearby County government for the past 20 years. I hope you enjoy what you see and I'd love to hear from you, so leave a comment. Ciao, Jim