Need a[sic] Asian wife?

The above was the reference line on a Spam I received today.  I didn’t bother to open it and find out what they were selling but I was curious about the wording.  Bad grammar aside, what does “need an Asian wife?” mean.  Wouldn’t be better or at least less desperate and crude to say “Want” or “Desire” a wife…needing a wife sounds like you are shopping for a power tool for a carpentry project.

Souvenir Shopping, Paraguay Style

Paraguay isn’t known as a tourist destination. However that being said, friends from Paraguay assure me its a beautiful country with really nice relaxed people.  Despite their endorsement, it is known as a land of exiled dictators, gun runners, possibly Al-Qaeda training camps and other sorrid, unregulated and tolerated  illegal activities.  So it would only follow that the  democratically elected president of Paraguay,  Fernando Lugo, is the former Archbishop (he left his orders) of Paraguay,  has just admitted to being the father of at least one of the several children several teenage girls are claiming he had  fathered during his priest days.  No impeachment here, just business as usual.  I think the thing that gets me about this story is that in this Latin American, prominently Catholic country, no one seems to care or believes anything should be done about it, but in the United  States, we impeached a president for basically having a blow job by another adult.  What is up with sex  and the American (as in USofA) culture?   I digress.

Anywhoo, Paraguay is a bit of a cowboy state, the perfect location for a boy’s long weekend.  My husband and two friends went to Paraguay for a despedida ( goodbye party) for one of the said friends, who after 5 years of trying to impose transparent business practices on unwilling Argentines,  is returning to the safe and predictable life of living in Norway.

So the idea was to go and get in trouble, but not so much trouble that they miss their return flight on Sunday afternoon.  The weekend starts with a 4 hour flight delay because a Paraguayan club futbol team gets hung up in BA and the plane waits.  This really pisses off my husband who has never been able to embrace the Latina concept of time and scheduling.  They arrive in Ascunsion at 5 in the morning and hit the ground running.  There is some discussion about  trying to find the colony Nueva Germania which was established by  Fredrich Nietzsche’s rabidly anti-Semitic sister and husband.   It is this point that details are sketchy and the narrative gets lost.  Good thing there are some artifacts to fill in the blanks.

Required Eating with Kid’s review

I am a bit behind on my healthy snack posts.  So here are two of the last baking projects I endeavored.

First up was a really easy raspberry muffin recipe from a great cooking site that happens to be vegetarian, Picky Cook.  I subbed whole wheat flour for regular and did add in extra cinnamon.  I used frozen raspberries and smashed them up in a plastic ziplock and they worked fine.  My raspberries weren’t particularly sweet so I  added a white sugar based streusel (1/4 cup white sugar, 2 tbsp each cold butter and flour) that I sprinkled on top before baking.  I thought they were yummy.

Last week I made this Roasted Banana Cake with Brown Butter Icing  for the kids.  It’s really too good for the childrens.  It was a lot of work but worth the effort. I didn’t mess with this recipe much, just used whole wheat flour instead of white.  Dont take short cuts and omit the banana roasting or butter browning, it wont be the same.   If you served a slice (2 triangles would look nice) with good quality vanilla ice cream and drizzle with dulce de leche, you would have a dinner party worthy dessert.  I found this recipe at another real quality food blog called On My Plate.  I have pirated her photography, which is very good, just like her dessert.

Callum Says: The muffins were too messy and sour.  They would be better if the raspberry had been fresh. (2 1/2 chocolate bars)   But the banana bread was totally different.   Both the cake and icing were super  sweet and moist. (4 chocolate bars)

The Sun has set on Twilight

It is not something I am proud of, but I am happy to say I have finish the last installment of the Twilight Quartet, Breaking Dawn.

It should be clear, if you have read any of my other posts, I am not a fifteen year old girl.  I am a 47 year old woman with 4 kids, not the demographic these books are targeted for.  But I am voracious reader living in Argentina where there are no Barnes and Nobles to pop into and pick up the latest best seller or classic.  An afternoon of fondling books and snacking on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the things I miss most about living in the States.

But I am connected to a English reading (not all native speakers, show-offs!) community and we have a book group.  Not the typical book group where we all read a piece of literature during the month and meet to discuss the book with someone burdened as the facilitator of this discussion.  We just simply share books.  Some of the books are beach reads, some are thoughtful and provocative contemporary literature, some are biographical and a little of it is total garbage.  However, we all agree that when confronted with either another Paulo Coehlo translated from Portuguese into Spanish (a smidge of foie gras) or less than great literature in English, we go for the bowl of spaghetti. Well, this teen vampire romance series is a really big bowl.  Clocking in at 2379 pages, there has to be something compelling in these mediocre books.

Woodland Creatures Porn

Its been awhile since I have posted pictures of insanely adorable baby animals.  Something Georgie and Callum can enjoy.  More below.

You lost and are lost

Goposaur..see the elephant coming out of its ass

It really is all about being a really shitty loser.  These guys just cant believe it.  It happens.  God knows it has happen to me enough in my life time.  I lived through Nixon, Reagan, (who at the time seemed reactionary, now seems almost moderate) Poppy Bush (who at least wasn’t an idealogue) and then W and you can read lots here how I felt about HIM.  But in all my discouragement and disappointment I never thought about overthrowing the democratically elected government. (although a debatable fact in the last two presidential elections)  I never called Bush a Nazi or a plant for radical Islam.  I never bought into all the various conspiracy theories that abounded during W’s presidency.  I just kept informed, put the pressure on my legislators and supported the candidates that would bring us back from the brink.  I won.  You lost.  You have a choice.  You can make the best of the situation that is not going to change until 2010.  Or continue to say really stupid things about democrats being monarchists or fascists.  Actually, why don’t you spend the next few years brushing up on world history and and use a dictionary for the words you don’t understand.

Sorry for being so condescending, but what else am I suppose to think when hear drivel like this:

An earnest progressive dialogue

I dont know whats up with the video embed so here is a link to TDS segment, sorry

Here is another link to click for a very funny video

Swine Flu can make you feel like crap

Obviously.  But apparently, it has made the Mexicans feel bad on the inside too.  In the NYTimes today, an article explores the stigma that this swine flu has inflicted on the collective self confidence of the Mexican people.

Human beings need to evolve a little bit. I understand fear and how it can result in rash, unfortunate actions that are intended to self-defend. It would  be nice that before herding healthy people into quaratine because they are Mexican, you take a minute and think. Maybe some  fact based research, call me crazy.

Its like humans need to take that mental step that one does when they create a family.  Decisions are made for the good of the partners and the kids..not parent centered or kid centered but family centered.  Extrapolate that out and we need to make good community decisions, not individual centered ones.  I guess that is a lot to ask of humans especially when there are people like this that the rest have to some how counter and negate.

Sorry for this link, the video loader wasn’t working.

Happy May Day

In Argentina, like in much of the world, today is May Day.  Having been school aged in the height of the Cold War, I vividly remember May Day being the day that the USSR paraded all their warfare in front of the Kremlin.  In reality, its a day when workers have a day off, nothing more sinister than our own end of the summer Labor Day.  So today the country is pretty much shut down.  Unfortunately for me, this includes the newspaper delivery guy.  And while we are well in to the autumn season here, it may be a pool day.  Kids are home, the weather is warm and no where to go.