While I publicize my great fondness for froufou cocktails and microbrews, I also enjoy wine a great deal, even if lately it’s only been to have a glass while soaking in a bubble bath. Fuzzy doesn’t touch alcohol, but when I was offered the chance to review a couple of different wines offered by the Gold Medal Wines wine of the month club, I jumped at the chance.

My pair of wines, a bottle of Belvedere Russian River Valley Chardonnay (Sonoma County 2005) and bottle of Bradford Mountain Grist Vineyard Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley 2004) arrived packed in a tight-fitting styrofoam bottle case fit snugly in a sturdy brown box. I’ve received wine before that wasn’t packed anywhere near as securely, and while we don’t really need boxes, I insisted we save this packing material. Inside the foam, each bottle was wrapped in tissue and tied with a colorful bow. The box was marked “gift card inside,” and I had been told to expect one, as well as a newsletter, but both items were accidentally omitted from my box. No matter , pictures of both are available at the Gold Medal Wine website (the gift cards are a rich wine-y purple), and I enjoyed reading the pdf version of the newsletter, so I could read the tasting notes, which were informative and interesting, as well as being neither pandering nor pompous in tone.

The wine itself, of course, is of real interest here. I tried the Zinfandel first, because I generally like Zin, and this one, rather typically of California wines, was oaky, but while the oak was present it wasn’t overpowering at all. In the bottle, this was a smokey Zin, in the glass it opened up a bit, and the spicier textures were evident, and on the tongue a little more oak than I’d originally expected but not bad, though I thought it tasted a little young.

The Chardonnay, on first taste, was sweeter than I’m used to chard being, and sweeter than I’d expected, since Gold Medal Wine’s website stresses that they feature very dry selections, but not a bad sweet, and after the first taste, the sweetness dissipated a bit, and more flavor came through - almond, especially - and the overall impression was exactly what chardonnay should be.

Both these selections come from the Gold Series of the wine of the month program, which costs about $32 / month (for two bottles). This series is an excellent first step for wine aficionados who want to educate their palates with some lovely wines from small-production California vineyards, or those who don’t have huge amounts of money to spend on their passion. As a former Californian who used to have a winery on her street, and made frequent forays to Bonny Doon (their framboise and cassis were favorites of mine for a long time), the Gold Medal Wine club also gives me a taste of home.

I’m buying a subscription on the strength of these sample bottles.

While Fuzzy has no real need for beach wedding attire, my parents live on the beach in Baja, and since Fuzzy and my step-father Ira are the same size, I pressed Fuzzy into service as a model, when given an opportunity to accept and review a shirt from FridayShirts.com.

The website has far more choices than I thought were possible in a button-down shirt, each with subtly different fabric options, or stitching, but with my mother’s advice, we selected a black shirt. I was surprised when, a few days later, I got a live phone call from one of the company’s representatives, Yeoh, (which I’m probably misspelling, for which I apologize) to confirm my order, and also ask what color thread I wanted the embroidery in, how many pockets I wanted, and whether or not we wanted embroidery on the collar as well. After answering all her questions, she told me I’d be receiving the shirt in about four weeks.

It came on Friday, almost exactly four weeks later, and it’s beautiful. Rich cotton, hand-stitched detailed embroidery, pockets placed near the bottom, which is traditional for this kind of shirt - all are exactly as expected. There are also buttoned side vents that can be opened for a bit more ease around the hips, if necessary.

I took my goofy husband’s picture in it (below), but I’m really looking forward to seeing Ira wear it, when we present it at Christmas. With his darker complexion, it will be amazing.

FridayShirts hand makes each garment (they’re made in Nicaragua) to order, so the delivery time of four weeks is typical, but they’re so friendly and informative, and the shirts are so well made, that it’s completely worth the wait.

There’s nothing better on a cold evening than a basic black turtleneck, but when you’re five feet tall, a mock turtle is a better choice. In a world where clothing - and especially women’s clothing in non-traditional sizes - can be either horribly expensive or difficult to find (at least basic pieces) it’s good that there are companies like Clothing4All, where the prices are reasonable, the sizes are realistic, and the quality is excellent.

I ordered my black mock turtleneck just before Thanksgiving, and it arrived fairly quickly. I had the option of having it monogrammed, or having my name embroidered on it, but with the exception of graphic t-shirts, I don’t really like clothing with writing on it, so I chose to skip that option. Since I’m busty and round, I ordered a men’s extra large, and really, just a large would have been fine, since this one fits me like a dress.

It’s so soft that I really didn’t need the tank top under it when I tried it on, and the neck is loose enough not to feel choke-y, but snappy enough to retain it’s shape.

The ordering process was simple - a few clicks to select the color and style and I was on my way, and I received an email notification when the garment had shipped. The price was reasonable, too - under $20.

I’ve been buying a lot of clothing lately, because I’ve lost 32 pounds (and still have more to go), and I suspect I’ll be shopping at Clothing4All again.

You should definitely check them out.

When you run a small business, one of the things you have to resolve as early as possible is what kind of phone system you want to use. I remember endless conversations with providers, stacks of catalogs and finally, desperately, calling Mike the Phone Guy who came with his little green Radio Flyer wagon, clad in overalls and an engineer’s cap, to help us sort everything out.

Mike was great. He introduced us to the world of PBX phone systems, and explained how they worked, that we could have virtual extensions, headsets for roaming, and even a digital receptionist to route calls, as well as unlimited expansion of voicemail boxes without having to add numbers. At the time, we didn’t understand how cool PBX systems are. Now, after working with a company that refused to spend the money for good phone, and then working for one of the largest financial institutions in the world, I understand better why your phone system can make or break your company.

And that’s why I like Talkswitch. It’s a PBX system designed for small businesses, so you don’t have to buy a thousand pieces to get the best rates on hardware, and it’s a hybrid system. That means it works over VOIP and analog phone lines, and that combination is important, because VOIP saves you huge amounts of money on long distance calling, but if the network goes down, or there’s an emergency, you need to be able to just dial.

Talkswitch is also great because it’s designed for the do-it-yourself small business owner. It doesn’t require an office building with a whole phone room - you can install it in the all-season porch you’ve turned into an office, if you need to. It’s scalable, as well - you buy what you need, and the number of licenses you need, and expand as necessary.

The other really cool think about Talkswitch is that it works with offices in multiple locations, integrating all the different extensions so if you’re on the road, or have employees in other states, or any number of possible combinations of homes and offices, no one ever misses a call, and callers have one central number to dial.

Having experimented with many PBX systems, I’m comfortable recommending Talkswitch, which you can buy from a company called NeoBits. They work both over the phone and online (neobits.com) and have discussion forums as well as product faqs for you to browse through. TalkSwitch isn’t their only product, of course, but if you need a small business phone solution, it’s the one they recommend.

I think Mike the Phone Guy would agree.

Last weekend, I spent a happy couple of hours reading the descriptions of apartments in Paris. This evening, I relocated (virtually) to Rome, and spent some time surfing at http://www.romaclick.com/, this great site for finding accommodations in Rome, as well as general information on life i n the city, and links to guided tours.

I’ve learned that when staying in Europe for any length of time, renting an apartment or house ends up being far less expensive than staying in a hotel, and also gives you room to spread out. You get to cook your own meals, hang out on a sofa in just a t-shirt, if you want to, and really experience living in a foreign city, instead of merely visiting one.

Most of the Rome apartments listed on RomaClick.com are upscale, and steps away from one or more tourist attraction or points of interest. The fees listed include utilities and a formal cleaning service after you check out, but not daily cleaning - but that’s really the point. Fees are listed in Euros, but there are various sites where you can convert that to Dollars if you need to - I’ve always found that it’s easier not to convert. If I’m in Mexico I think in Pesos; in Europe, it’s easier just to think in Euros. It’s the conversion that makes you insane.

Aside from apartments, RomaClick.com also offers information on hotels and Bed&Breakfasts.

My parents are planning a trip to Italy next spring. I’ve made it a point to tell them about this site, so they’ll know where to look for their Rome accommodation.

When I used to do tech support for a certain computer company with a fetish for cow spots, one of the things I was often asked was “how do I share my data?” It’s something my husband, the network engineer, has to deal with on a daily basis. How do you safely share files, back up critical things, without resorting to less-than-great security, or easily misplaced flash drives? The other question was, “My computer crashed, how do I get my files,” to which our first response was always, “well, did you back up?” You’d be surprised at how many people said no.

An excellent solution for this is an online backup service, such as iDrive. For no money at all, you get access to 2 GB of space on their server. For $4.95 a month, or $49.95/year, you get unlimited storage space. It’s enough to back up all the data on the average PC (something most people don’t do, but which everyone ought), or share files with remote users in Rome, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Dallas, without allowing remote access to your own machine.

Even if you already have the contents of your hard drive backed up, iDrive is great as a backup solution. I’ve always been told that crucial data should be backed up multiple times, with at least one copy stored off-site. This is a great way to do that, without having to make periodic trips to dusty storage units, or remember which file cabinet in the office holds your disks. Also, since they have almost-instant backup of their own servers, your data is doubly secure.

Even if you don’t use iDrive, make sure you back up your data on a regular basis.

But if you travel, share files, or live in a place prone to electrical failure, consider iDrive. iDo.

(One thing: iDrive isn’t Mac-Friendly.)