Real Da Vinci Code?

Musician discovers hymn hidden inside “The Last Supper”.

from www.msnbc.msn.com posted with vodpod

New Blog about Aspergers

Just when I thought it was time to give blogging up (I’m always thinking that), I decided to start a blog about Aspergers in Kuwait.

My thanks to Jewaira for writing about autism and giving me the tiny push I needed.

Special thanks to my son for being my son. When you’re older and stumble upon my site, I hope you realize why I made the decision to share our experiences. Remember what I tell you every night before you sleep, and know that I mean it.

BeFunky

BeFunky takes your pictures, sketches them, colors them, warps them if you want, and then lets you easily share your creations with your friends. And the creations can be stunningly beautiful or hysterical (using the warp option). Be warned: it’s fun and addictive. Here is an example of what it can do: the picture below is a cartoonized version of the picture used as my header graphic.

My kitchen looks so much better this way.

No Fear

This song will forever remind me of decorating the Christmas tree, 2007. My favorite part from the song comes at the end:

A parte che i tempi stringono
e tu li vorresti allargaree
intanto si allarga la nebbia
e avresti potuto vivere al mare
ed anche le stelle cadono
alcune sia fuori che dentro
e un desiderio che esprimite
ne rimangono fuori altri cento..

I’m terrible at translating but it goes something like this:

Apart form the time that becomes less
while you would like to have more
meanwhile the fog grows
and you could have lived by the sea
and the stars fall
some of them outside
some of them within
for every desire you express
you have one hundred wishes left…

Click here to see the video Niente Paura by Ligabue on YouTube.

A Transformative Year of Delight and Discovery

From Simple Abundance, January 1st:

New Year’s Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery.

Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change. What are your hopes for the future as you reflect on the years that have passed? Gradually, as you become curator of your own contentment, you will learn to embrace the gentle yearnings of your heart. But this year, instead of resolutions, write down your most private aspirations. Those longings you have kept tucked away until the time seems right. Trust that now is the time. Ask the questions. The Simple Abundance path brings confidence that the answers will come and we will discover – day by day – how to live them.

Take a leap of faith, and begin this wondrous new year by believing. Believe in yourself. And believe that there is a loving Source – a Sower of Dreams – just waiting to be asked to help you make your dreams come true.

I hope this inspired you as much as it did me. May 2008 be a transformative year of delight and discovery for you.

New Posts Next Year

See you then.

The Winter That Never Was

Is it me or will the winter of 2007-2008 in Kuwait be known as “The Winter That Never Was”? We’re two weeks away from Christmas and I’m still in sandals. Yesterday I wore a t-shirt in my yard. The space heaters are still tucked away in storage. We have dragonflies and butterflies in our garden. And where’s the rain? It rained all of two seconds this season. Don’t get me wrong, I hope it stays this way. But, damn. A little rain and nippiness would be nice.

On a totally different note, I bought some tuberoses tonight and they’re in a vase on my dining room table. The whole entire floor smells like tuberoses. I used to be addicted to tuberoses but they disappeared on me for a while. I’m glad they’re back.

And because this doesn’t deserve to be an entire post:

Dear Carrefour,

When you sell “Apple Tarts”, the miniature ones, make sure they are filled with APPLES and not mincemeat or some shit. I’ve gone my entire life never eating mincemeat, hell, I didn’t even really know what mincemeat was, but I think I might have had some on my ride home from your establishment tonight. (And trust me, folks, it isn’t good.)

And for the love of God, stop replacing Carrefour products with local stuff. That’s what co-ops are for. American junk food? That’s what Sultan Center is for. Be yourself.

Merci.

Faith and Mercy

I want to share with you a beautifully written paragraph from my cousin’s book, Mercy. Brief background: Anna, the Italian journalist who witnesses all sorts of horrors in Africa, is struggling to understand how God could allow such immense suffering. The other character, Kez, is an Egyptian Muslim. Although Kez has his addictions, he is a man of faith.

When Anna slips a note under Kez’s hotel room door saying, “Predator, victim! Parasite, host! Canine distemper! Surely there could be finer mechanisms that these! Surely God can do better than this!” Kez replies:

“What do you know of the life of the neutron? What do you know of the circuitry of the brain? What can you tell me of the balance struck between electricity and magnetism? Which insights can you provide into the event horizon of a black hole? Tell me: what do you know of music of numbers, the clarity of water, the human eye? You know nothing. You sin through pride, my sweet friend. You sin through pride: the deepest, the darkest, the Original sin.”

He was far less castigatory in person. “Allah is great. You’re not. End of story.”

Mercy, by Lara Santoro is available in hardcover and paperback.

Soup For Stuffy Sinuses Recipe

Still nursing a nasty sinus/post-nasal drip/flu, so I came up with the following soup. First off, I believe in the power of garlic. It’s good for just about anything. Raw garlic is best. Some people swallow whole raw garlic cloves so that they don’t have garlic breath for the rest of the day. Secondly, I don’t know why but I’m on a beef broth kick. I’m not a beef eater these days. The only time I eat beef is when it’s ground and in a meatball. I also get the urge now and then for a McDonald’s cheeseburger but that’s about it. I think the reason I’m choosing beef broth over chicken is because my children are now in a chicken broth with alphabet pasta soup phase. It started out as just soup with a little pasta and getting them to eat it was easy because I’d say which letters were on their spoons, “Look! You got an O!” Little by little, I added more pasta and less broth. To get them to really enjoy it, I had to partake in the fun so I’m a little bit tired of chicken broth.

This is another quickie. Who has time to make soup from scratch when you’re feeling like you want to crawl up in the fetal position and zone out? If you’re somewhere in the world where finding canned or tetra-packed beef broth is easy, well, this recipe gets even easier. For the rest of us, well…

500ml / 2 cups Water

2 to 2-1/2 beef broth bouillon cubes

Pasta, any small shape will do. I used mini conchiglie rigate

1 large garlic clove, crushed

Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Boil the water with bouillon cubes in a small pot. Once boiling, add pasta until done. Add garlic (I used my garlic press right over the pot), stir a bit then turn off heat. Add freshly ground black pepper. Makes enough for one big bowl. Enjoy!

Tortellini in Brodo, Stat!

Yesterday I was talking to a couple of American friends married to Kuwaitis about cultural differences during winter. My husband, with his Kuwaiti upbringing, runs around the house closing all the windows, while I, the American, run around opening them up. While I run around the house barefoot, he runs after me telling me that I’m going to get sick from the cold tiles. I’m outside in capris and sandals while he’s wearing a turtleneck, long pants, socks and shoes. I tell him, “I’m from Massachusetts, I’m USED to this weather. It’s not even cold for me!” He replies that the cold in Kuwait is different. It’s a “dry cold”, one which gets into your bones and makes you sick. I look at him and say that only viruses and bacteria make one sick, and he’s talking a lot of hogwash. Kuwaitis aren’t the only ones to be cautious of cold weather. Many Europeans are the same way – specifically Italians. Same logic goes for cold tiles, breezes through windows, they’re all something to avoid at all costs. In Italy, just like in Kuwait, if you don’t hop from the shower to your blow dryer within a nano-second, you’ll be on your deathbed by the next day. Older Italian women take a step further and have the belief that during a woman’s menstruation, water is something to avoid all together. Something about the water making you sick or infertile or both.

Moving right along… So yesterday, after our discussion and after hearing both of my friends agreeing with me that it’s all very silly, this almost superstitious phobia-like avoidance of cold breezes and tiles, I did my usual barefoot walking around the house, the outside in the yard with capri sweatpants thing, and slept with our bedroom window open.

Well, reality woke me up and slapped me in the face this morning. I woke up with terrible sinus pain and spent most of the morning blowing out lots of sinus gunk. I’m tired and achy. I’m also thinking there might be something to this whole avoidance-of-cold thing after-all. As my husband says, “We know these things because this is our country and we know it better than anyone else, so listen to me when I tell you that Kuwait’s winter is no joke.”

So for dinner tonight, I had very little energy, very little inspiration and I craved something hot. I had a bag of tortellini in the fridge so…

Tortellini in Brodo (Quick Version)

A bag of Carrefour fresh tortellini, filled with ricotta and spinach

Beef or Chicken broth

Parmesan cheese, grated

Remember, this is a quick version. I only had some Maggi broth cubes so I used 5 cubes for 3 liters of water. It may seem excessive to some, but you need a really rich broth for this soup. I was in the mood for beef, but you can certainly use chicken. Once boiling, add the tortellini. They will automatically rise to the top but don’t be fooled, they’re not done. Boil until they seem to plump up a bit. You may have to taste one to make sure they’re ready.

Pour into bowls, and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. While your eating your soup, remember to drag the spoon around the bottom of the bowl. Some of the Parmesan settles there and gets all gooey and nice.

That’s it. Easy, no?