2013

>> Monday, December 31, 2012

It's already 2013 in New Zealand and Australia!

New Year's eve is always an exciting time.  It's like getting a brand new notebook getting ready to write your very first word in there.  The promise of new possibilities awaiting.  Magical I say!  We're celebrating at the house of our friends'.  I'll be sporting my silver snake skirt print skirt.  That's right!

On an unrelated note:

Latest vocabulary of Jr.

mony - bunny
fok - fork
poon - spoon
pate - plate
kaas - (cheese) referring to anything you put on bread
tita - sit
copper - helicopter

Obsession with cookies seems to be over.
Wishing everyone a super Happy Sparkling Exciting Adventurous Wonderful 2013!!!!!!!


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Chicken kotletki

>> Thursday, December 27, 2012

So!?  How was it???????????  :)

My Christmas was very sweet, we celebrated at Vito's mom's house as usual.  We all brought a dish over and I made a jr mistake of eating too much of my mom in law's home made salmon mouse for starters that literally I didn't have room for anything else!  I had to lamely say that I'm saving room for desserts...

I was also tasked with contributing to the holiday meal and I went all "Ukrainian Nostalgia" this year!

I made Chicken balls for starters and a Honey Cake.  Here is the recipe for the Kotletki :)  SUPER EASY!

Getting happy

Ukrainian chicken kotletki (balls)

1lb ground chicken meat
3 slices of bread (white or brown)
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 green onion chopped
1 large garlic clove finely chopped
1 table spoon of lemon juice
1 tsp dried dill (or fresh)
1 tsp dried basil
2 tbs of oil

Prepare:
Soak 3 slices of bread in the milk then squeeze out the milk from the bread.  Tear the breads into small chunks and throw into the mixing bowl.
Put the ground chicken meat into the mixing bowl.
Crack an egg into he bowl as well as the chopped onion, green onion and garlic.  Add the herbs, salt and pepper.   Mix everything together.  I just use my hands... I always liked squeezing the stuff through my fingers..

Warm up a large pan and the oil.  Make larger or smaller balls from the meat mixture and cook in batches if necessary on medium to low heat.  Few minutes on each side should do it, depending if you made larger or smaller balls.

Make smaller sized balls for starters, or larger burger sized ones and serve as main course with some potatoes and veggies.

WARNING: This is very garlicky.  If you're planning to kiss people later that day who have NOT eaten the same balls, leave out the garlic.  But then again, the balls will be so sad without the garlic.



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urban planning at its best

>> Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Traffic seems to be a problem plaguing all cities.  
There were quite a few times I had to pull trucks out of the pond.... crazy drunk drivers...
On an unrelated note, can you find the "inspiration point"?  

Lesson kids: (we got MANY today)
-don't drink and drive
-don't go too high up in your ballon because you might get burned by the sun
-don't accept invitations from exotic ladies to 'park' near the lake! 
-stickers are ooodles of fun for young and ''old'' alike!

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Oy wei!

>> Monday, December 10, 2012

Ale: Good morning! Did you sleep well?
Jr: Yup!
Ale: What did you dream about?
Jr: Truck!
Ale: Really, and what else?
Jr: Auto!
Ale: ...hmm really... Jr. that's what you told me yesterday... and the day before yesterday!!!! and the all last week...!  I'm beginning to suspect something is up!  Are you telling me the truth???  OOOooooiiii!!! You're not even two yet!  ARE YOU LYING TO YOUR MOTHER?????
Jr:  ...mamma look!  stars! (points to his pajama shirt)

Lesson to sons:  never lie to your mother!  and don't try to change the subject!

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Cute robot stuff overload!!!

>> Thursday, December 6, 2012

Don't you love to discover a brand new aspect of yourself that you never knew of before??  Well, I've recently discovered that I'm a big NERD!  Lucky for me, nerds and geeks are hotter then hot now days.  You see back in the days of calculus math and similar such horrors, I would simply sit next to a brainy guy and pretend I have a wondering eye...  Well!  Turns out you can know nothing about math and STILL be a nerd!  Yeeey...?! I manifest this by telling everyone that Jr. is going to be an aerospace engineer.  I even already visited a potential university and spoke to that faculty about what one needs to do to increase their chances of acceptance.  They looked at me and said: oh how nice!  When are you done with high school?...

So because I'm such a lover of all things nerd and geek, I've been totally drooling over these cute guys lately!!!  I just want to take them all home!  And this isn't for just fun and games, I'm working to create a conducive atmosphere for Jr. to be influenced towards aerospace engineering...and stuff...

Tea infuser, isn't he cute!?



Salt and Pepper shaker!!  We can call them Sonia and Pedro, and they're in luuuuurve!  Aww!  But they come from rival families, and they have to see each other in secret, then they'll commit suicides from heart break!  Now... where did I hear a similar story?





Robot ice cube tray!  "It's time to unwind" hehehe... UNWIND... meeehehe

And these guys are just too much!!! Little table top robot vacuum cleaners!

Now all this stuff I want to get is NOT for ME, and NOT for my personal entertainment... no-no... This is strictly for Jr's educational purposes!!!  Absolutely.  Most definitely it's for his education.

Lesson: Having a kid is such a selfless, sacrificing, etc, etc, etc, job....   Yeah...OK...It's soooooo much FUN!!!!

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Corner View - Serendipity

>> Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it. (wikipedia) 
Here we are exercising our love for travel by hanging off the boat to see glaciers in Patagonia.  (Don't worry, no ginger haired guys were hurt while taking this photo).
I'll start out by saying that I COMPLETELY DO NOT BELIEVE IN SERENDIPITY.

I believe that 'happy accidents' happen when you're moving towards something, working on a goal, and pushing along in a certain direction... then... seemingly by accident, but ONLY seemingly, little things happen to propel you forward.  Serendipity? Luck? No way, it's just what happens when you work hard for something and keep your eyes open. 

So did I meet Vito by "accident"?  Some may see it that way.  Though if you peel just one tiny layer you'll see the intricate web of activities that pushed us together.  But that's a story for another day!  

Today is Serendipity, so to answer the question of how I met Vito, I will simply say: Sure ok, he dropped out of the sky into my lap!  No literally, he flew over from the Netherlands to NY to take me out to dinner. :) 

We both worked for the same client just in different departments.  I in NYC and he in Amsterdam.  After a few months of working via email, and a few phone calls that made me conclude he was rude, and him that I was a man (?!???)  we somehow got past it and figured out that we had lots in common, especially love of travel, that we were same age, and so on and so forth.  Then Vito flew over to hang out with me for a long weekend!  It was Easter weekend and precisely a year later on the following Easter weekend I moved to the Netherlands.

Tada!  (Serendipity is such a romantic concept... let's believe in it for just one day)  We can go back to our militant, systematic selves tomorrow!  (Me? militant and systematic?? Yes! Because it's so action oriented, I find being "serendipitous" too passive for my taste.) 

Lesson kids: Look up!  Good things DO drop from the sky accidentally or on purpose.

Play with us next week!!!
Corner view theme by  Kari
Hosted by Francesca
Invented by Jane

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A blog about finding something beautiful in everyday. Lots of time we forget to do that.



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