San Francisco has a special place in my heart.  It has the romantic feel of New York City mixed with the casual, laid back feel of California. This combination makes San Fran a bit of a utopia for me, except, it’s still too darn cold. If it had the same weather as LA, I would definitely have been tempted to live there, but now that I’ve grown accustomed to sun and warmth, I am happy to visit the City by the Bay at least once or twice a year.  My husband and I never grow bored of the city, and are always discovering something new to do and somewhere new to see. On this last trip we went to the city’s Carnavale festival, saw the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibit at the de Young Museum, took a Noir-themed walking tour that focused on the life and writings of Dashiell Hammett, and took in the fireworks honoring the Golden Gate Bridge, among other fun little adventures that I will detail in upcoming blogs. Being that this is a FASHION and TRAVEL blog, I would be remiss to not tell you all about the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibit. Back when the E! Channel used to focus on fashion, I spent many hours of my youth watching their fashion runway telecasts. During fashion week I was glued to the television watching pieces of magnificent art walk down a little runway. Jean-Paul Gaultier’s fantastical and irreverent designs quickly became my favorite and greatly inspired my youth and the designer I am today. The exhibit at the de Young was overwhelming to say the least.  There were six large galleries filled with Gaultier’s creations, sketches, videos, monologues, photographs, etc. And each of the galleries was absolutely packed with people. There was a...

Warmer weather makes us lazy as a species. Unfortunately, ice cream for dinner every night will lead to a myriad of problems, such as running out of pants that fit. Thankfully there are some easy and relatively healthy recipes that require no attention to the stove. Someone once told me, “You don’t have to cook cabbage, it cooks itself.” All cabbage on the stove asks is that you add liquid and leave it alone. With a little apple, onion and chicken broth, a beautiful and tasty head of purple cabbage cooks itself into a delightful side dish which is even better cold the next day. This is a bonus because a head of cabbage is not easy to finish in one sitting, no matter how good. This purple cabbage recipe goes very well with another lazy dish: oven cooked pulled pork. The making of this version of pulled pork is less complicated than following the directions on boxed macaroni and cheese. You cut up pork shoulder into large chunks, cutting off as much fat as possible, and put it in an oven safe dish with a whole bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce. I have used Baby Ray’s successfully. Cover with foil and stick in the oven at 250 degrees and completely forget about it for 5 hours. Your nose will remind you. After the slow cooking, the pork will be fork tender and easy to shred. Add a squirt of ketchup if it needs a little tang. Eat this pulled pork with the following purple cabbage recipe, and potato salad if you can get a hold of it. Cole slaw, cornbread and lemonade are other good ideas. Find someone else to take care of the dishes. Purple Cabbage and Apples I head purple cabbage, chopped coarsely 2 small apples, diced, you can...

Dear Dr. Miro, What lowers sperm count? Sincerely, Brad Pitt Dear “BP”, An estimated eight million US couples have fertility issues, half of which involve men with poor sperm quality. There are SO many contributing factors to lowering your count. I am not sure if that is what you are trying to do or if that is what you are trying to avoid but here it goes… To understand this topic better, it is important to get a handle on where your sperm is hanging out and manufactured which is, inside the scrotum. So, first of all, beware of those skinny jeans! You have got to let those boys breathe. Careful of long exposure to extreme temperatures like standing in the freezing cold or severely hot baths. The Cremaster Muscle, responsible for letting the balls hang low or come way up tight, depending on the weather around your manly danglers, can only do so much. Sitting long amounts of time can lower sperm count. This is a major concern for cabbies, pilots, students and any other testicle-baring male who has a sedentary lifestyle. Take caution in regards to radiation emitting technologies. Try not to store your phone in the front pocket for long amounts of time and keep your laptop off of the genital region. You feel how your computer is getting hot? That is a sign TO MOVE it! An epidemic decline of sperm counts in modern man is also being blamed on environmental pollution, plastic chemicals, pesticides and unhealthy diets like junk food and sodas. Pharmaceutical drugs are another major cause of decreased swimmers. For example, the common selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant drugs can literally bring a man’s sperm count to zero! The men of today have much poorer sperm...