Facebook is the new MySpace

Why is Ashleigh Hall's story being reported only by British newspapers??
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7398085/Ashleigh-Hall-one-mistake-cost-teenager-her-life.html

...this is why Facebook should've remained for college students only. The world wide web doesn't need another creep-invaded website

How I got over my fear of not really following the recipe

I've been thinking about making this all day long. It's been a long rainy and windy Saturday, reminiscent of October weather much more than March. Intrigued by a nostalgic mood I gathered enough motivation to make one of my favorite deserts from childhood, mom's rice pudding. It is a simple thing to make, but just for the joy of it I dusted off my older-than-I-am Romanian cookbook, opened its cracking and about-to-fall-apart crinkled covers and hoped to find the recipe I was anticipating inside.

There it was, recipe #1442, "orez cu lapte," in clear dark type on crisp beige paper and very easy to follow, with only one problem. Without a scale in my kitchen, how was I to measure 250g of rice? Or 200g of sugar? And so I went on to boil an unknown quantity of water and an unknown quantity of white rice and then later, despite whatever quantity the directions asked for, added X (who knows?) ml of milk. Sugar and butter came next, then vanilla essence, and then I stirred anxiously from time to time, waiting.

After 30 minutes or so the pudding was done and came out pretty delicious if I may say so myself! Well at least Chris though so, but of course only after teasing me for having to use a recipe book to make "such simple rice pudding" in the first place. hah! wiseguy.

mission: road trip

rent a little red convertible, put a flower in my hair and hit the road. the hum and buzz of 2,928 miles of winding open road await........ ahhhhh, one day soon

 I have just finished watching Julie & Julia, and it is brilliant, absolutely amazing!

"I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying."

my day in photographs - waiting for spring in CP

   

if life could be paused, i would hold on to its moments forever

soon

Mucenici!

On the day of March 9th Romanians all over the country and world celebrate the Saints Mucenici, 40 martyr soldiers who died for their faiths many moons ago. It amazes me how some traditions are passed on from generation to generation and last hundreds of years. The tradition is to greet the day of March 9th with something sweet and delicious, called mucenici. In the part of the country I grew up mucenici are flour based and made by hand in the shape of the number 8. After the mucenici are cooked, sugar, crushed walnuts, ground cinnamon and orange or lemon grinds are added. The sweet mixture is then spiced with rum extract and becomes a deliciously scented syrup which the mucenici soak up. Yum!

And because march 9th is also the vernal equinox after the Julian calendar, this day marks the start of spring, life, new hopes and new beginnings.

mucenici are supposed to look like the ones in the picture above, but these bowties are my own version!

No wind, and not a cloud in the sky. I have a pair of running shoes which need jogging and a heart which needs mending, nowhere else i'd rather be but in CP to clear my mind