Still Here, Still Kicking

Life has been insane for the both of us.
We both have moments where we turn to the other and say "we should post this on the blog"
Sadly I do not recall any of those off the top of my head.

In other news it is October.
Weather is changing but still not all that cold.
The stray cat Greyhawk wants to be held on occasion.
The both of us are behind in various school projects and struggling.

What is the expression...life is what happens when you're busy?
We're living life for certain then.
Research.
Papers.
Cards.
Music.
Four failed laptops in two weeks (that's just me though).
Video games.
Burn Notice.
Classic Doctor Who.

Trying to reconcile thousands of year of religion, personal spirituality, scriptures, tradition and this Divine Madman know as Jesus who brought all of this into being by words.

I have papers piling up, hundreds of pages to read, a new novel to start next month and a Masters thesis to spin into existence sometime between now and May.

Veronica is trying to pull together her senior project/thesis/experiment, put together an adventure in France than spend a year there teaching.

We're both trying to figure out where we are on this tiny blue orb spinning in sync with an exploding nuclear star that is just a few paces away.

As always we need your prayers.
-Simon

"I've been in every black hole
At the altar of the dark star
My body's now a begging bowl
That's begging to get back
Begging to get back to my heart
To the rhythm of my soul
To the rhythm of my unconsciousness
To the rhythm that yearns
To be released from control

I was punching in the numbers 
At the ATM machine
I could see in the reflection 
A face staring back at me
At the moment of surrender
Of vision over visibility
I did not notice the passers-by
And they did not notice me

I was speeding on the subway
Through the stations of the cross
Every eye looking every other way
Counting down 'til the pain will stop"
-U2, At the Moment of Surrender 

Divergence

Through my life, I have been known primarily for being quiet, innocent, stubborn, and intelligent. They're certainly all nice qualities to have in their own ways, but only being noticed when people cover my ears while they curse, when I get in someone else's way, or when I muscle through a subject with intellectual horsepower instead of proper understanding gets very, very old. Focusing my life on my intelligence makes things a whole lot easier, but it's also killed my work ethic, and it's far from fulfilling. I almost think I'd rather focus my life on beauty.

Not beauty in a worldly sense, ick, no. No orange skin, plastic surgery, or chandelier earrings for me. I want the beauty that is God. In my holistic Catholic worldview, God is the Absolute Good - there can be nothing better - and that Good encompasses Truth, Love, and Beauty. Beauty is the physical dimension of Truth and Love, and it runs deeper than the sexual appeal that passes for beauty at times - though properly ordered sexuality is a good, and is beautiful. Beauty in absolute terms means, to me, everything that reflects the Creator, and therefore it is everywhere.

The "problem" with such an aesthetic is that it cannot be truly appreciated at top speed. A sunset or a cathedral may be striking enough to force the necessary slowing down, but is a child? A stack of neatly folded towels? A piece of moss, such as the one I have been nursing on a twig for the last week? A dead man's life story? I want to believe that there is beauty in everything, but my cynical heart and my crazy life are not making it easy. The more I try to prioritize toward love and beauty, the more trouble I run into with people who think I'm prioritizing wrongly. That I need to get back to my schoolwork; that I can live later. If I don't learn how to live now, though, I don't know when I ever will.

Living up to my academic potential was supposed to be fulfilling for me, I suppose, or maybe it's just what was expected of me all these years. I have two extremely intelligent parents whose college GPAs were in the 3.9 range, and who always knew I was capable of doing the same. Mentally, yes, I'm capable of it. I'm also capable of cooking fabulously, taking good care of Simon when he's in too much pain to walk, and knitting ridiculously complicated lace - all of which I would much rather do than obsess over my schoolwork. (As evidenced by my writing this post instead of the final exam essay due in 6 hours.) If I applied myself only to school and to nothing else, I'd be valedictorian, but I'd go crazy in the process. So what if I "only" have a 3.74 average? I sure as anything don't care. I'm taking an academic direction where I'll be more appreciated for my ideas than for my grades anyway, and I have no problem producing ideas; I can be really dedicated when I want to. Maybe I really am undisciplined. Maybe it's just that famed stubbornness. Maybe I just have realized that while academics were what got my parents where they wanted to go, they're not necessarily going to do the same for me.

What am I going to do with myself, then? I don't know; I'm still figuring that out. I'm certainly not marrying into money or attempting to make the search for beauty into a career. I think my goal right now is just to live, and live happily. I've come at my life very fast, am graduating very young, and still carry myself as if I were much older...I just want to slow down for a while and remember the love of God.

Is that too much to ask?

--Veronica--

Recipe: Chicken Noodle Soup

This may be slightly obvious, but I'm essentially using these posts as a way to remember recipes I threw together without writing much down at the time. Yay for taking advantage of the cloud in the cheapest way possible! :) Without further ado, here then is the chicken noodle soup that Simon and I both liked very much even though we both hate chicken noodle soup. I still don't know why I thought it was a good idea to try something we both hate, but it did make me feel a lot better about my cooking skills. Very (VERY) loosely based on this recipe here.

Miss Veronica's Totally-Awesome, One-Hour, Welcome-Home, Safe-For-Dental-Work, I-Just-Paid-The-Bills-So-Let's-See-What-We-Have-In-The-Cabinets Chicken Noodle Soup

Servings: 4-6
Cooking time: about an hour

Ingredients
3 frozen chicken breasts
1 can chicken broth
water
beef bouillon concentrate
dried parsley flakes
dried thyme
1 bay leaf
~2 cups dry rotini noodles
1 can sliced carrots
garlic salt
pepper

Instructions


Thaw out the chicken. If you got Simon or his roommate to stick it in the fridge this morning, great. If not, dump the frozen chicken breasts in a pot of water, turn the heat on about 3 or 4, and let that sit for 15 minutes or so until they thaw.

Pull out the pieces of chicken and cut them into smallish pieces. Dump out the water, scrub all the fat off the bottom of the pot, and put the pot back on the stove with the chicken and the broth. Add water to cover the chicken by an inch or so and put in about half a teaspoon of beef bouillon concentrate. Just make it smell good. Also put in parsley and thyme until it smells even better and drop in a bay leaf. Put all the spices away, scrub the cutting board with antibacterial dish soap, and turn up the heat until the broth boils. Skim off all the foam, turn it back down to a simmer, and sit back and study Systems Architecture for 15 or 20 minutes until the biggest piece of chicken is done all the way through.

Pull the chicken back out and stick it on a plate under a paper towel to cool down. Put noodles in the pot until it looks about right compared to the amount of chicken on the plate. Congratulate yourself on finding a use for that can of carrots Simon's mother gave you, drain it, and add the carrots along with more water and bouillon concentrate and some garlic salt. Simmer until the noodles are done, probably about another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, pull the cooled chicken pieces into shreds until they look like a size that would be good in soup. Put them back in when the noodles are cooked and leave the soup on the stove until it's all back to a comfortable temperature. Remove the bay leaf to avoid a repeat of the Thai chicken curry incident, add pepper to taste, and serve hot.

Re: "On the Difference Between Public and Private Christian Schools"

For the Record:
1.My spelling was so bad because of being tired/half asleep.
2.Veronica goes to a public university but went to a private secondary school, whereas I went to a private university and public secondary school.
3.I'm taller, ergo I win.
-Simon

"Painted in Twilight"

Dust in the fading light,
catching the eye
as  the wind catches,
cradles us
in a loving embrace.
-Simon

Veronica's Videos - Feeding the Positivity Monster

My negativity monster gets fed far too much as it is, so in the interests of helping my positive thoughts along, I'm making a post of things on Youtube that make me happy. (It got too long for a Facebook status.)

1) Trout Fishing in America - "The Window"

Trout Fishing in America's children's music is perfect for delightful absurdity. This song, "A Proper Cup of Coffee," "I Think I'll Need A Band-Aid"...they may ostensibly be kids' songs, but Keith and Ezra are funny enough that it doesn't matter.

2) Kristen Schaal - "Mel's Video Blog"

I'm watching the whole series of vlogs start to finish because it's just that hilarious to me. Simon finds the character of Mel from the Flight of the Conchords' TV series to be rather disturbing, but I love her...it probably has something to do with the number of  fangirls I know who act just like this, but who aren't considered creepy because the objects of their stalkerish affection are either fictional or dead.

3) The Magic School Bus - "Busasaurus"

Arnold is so awesome in this episode - it's super cute. :) The Magic School Bus books were one of those things that I ended up reading despite being a bit old for them when they were being published. (I was even past the Magic Tree House level, I think, though I happily read those too.) Now, I just really want to dress like Ms. Frizzle and see what my students say...love those Triceratops shoes. I'm such a nerd.

4) Les Miserables, French Concept Album - "Dites-Moi Ce Qui Se Passe"

Am I right in thinking that you don't have to speak French to get why this is funny, as long as you know the context? Here Javert is arresting poor Fantine for assaulting Bamatabois, and, gee, could the background music sound more peppy? Of course, if you do speak French, you get to imagine Javert and the chorus doing a little skippy dance as they call her a slut and say she ought to be thrown in prison so she can get back in her right mind. (The OFC lyrics are much...darker than the English.)

5) Babyschwimmen

This video perplexes me. It should be terrifying, given that my first submersion experience was rather traumatic and has kept me ever since in deadly fear of Not Being Able to Touch the Bottom of the Pool, but...it's just...beautiful. None of the babies look afraid at all. They've even got their eyes open in wonder and awe. I wish I could be so fearless.

6) FLUFFY KITTEN.

26 seconds of fluffy, short-legged cuteness. <3

And that's it because it's 2:30 and I'm tired. But, finally, not depressed.

--Veronica--

The Difference Between Public and Private Christian Schools

{Veronica helps out at her university's chili cook-off, gets bored, and decides to text Simon about her team's tent-mates. Edited because Simon can't spell when he's panicked.}

V: Yay for sharing a tent with the drunk frat kids!
V: From the other side of the tent: "Ok, I'm gonna go not sober up."
V: "I knew we should have started the whiskey earlier..."
V: ...they should not be allowed to play with propane tanks and lighters in their present condition! (No one was hurt, but there was a small fireball there...)
S: Oh god are you okay????
V: Yes!! Yes I'm fine! I was standing a few feet away and my shoe got pretty hot for a minute and the pop scared me, but nothing caught fire!
S: :((( god sorry sorry for not being there
V: Dear it's fine! They haven't messed with it since, i'm fine.
S: *hug*
V: *hug* Don't worry, darling. I'm fine. I'm being the booth decoration. :)
V: I'm more worried for them...the girl keeps almost falling into their chili pot.
S: No teachers are in charge??
V: No - we're adults...public school, remember?
S: Ohh...
V: Yes - no church-mandated chaperones. ;)
S: Oh, right.

Salt and Water

This morning I had a horrible, horrible nightmare in which I was reliving a particular sin, and woke up from it very suddenly with feelings of disgust and fear. I've had this problem before, generally leading to another downward spiral of depression as I get onto myself for thinking about something I was never supposed to think about again.

At the same time, I realized with a shock that I'd fallen back asleep after my alarm had gone off and had almost overslept my meeting that morning. I placed a quick call to the affected person and we got things worked out, and in the meantime I started to feel a little better about the nightmare, realizing that it was only a dream and that I would be able to stop myself if I were ever in that situation again while awake. However, these things have a habit of breaking out in clusters (often causing me to go days without proper sleep because I'm afraid to go to bed and have them again), and I began wondering how I could keep them from effecting me while I was awake, if I couldn't stop them in the first place.

At that moment, I had a mental vision of plunging my head into a bowl of salt water. That would cleanse my mind and allow me to keep going forward with my day. "This is how peasant superstitions get started," I laughed, and resolved to use the thing in a piece of writing somewhere rather than seriously do it myself. However, I kept getting gently poked by the idea until I decided to look it up and see if it was really a thing, or what the symbolism of it might be - and was shocked to see that salt water actually is a common 'magical' defense against nightmares. At first I panicked a bit, thinking, "Oh God, now the devil is trying to get me into magic." I admit I have proclivities toward superstition to start with (most people do, it's why we develop rituals for everything) and I was rather worried that they were getting directed in the wrong way. I prayed like mad and kept clicking links to see if I might be wrong.

When I saw that one site suggested using salted holy water, I calmed down and remembered how much 'magic' is derived from valid sacramentals that have become worshiped in and of themselves rather than seen as simply focuses for devotion, grace, and protection. I then started looking specifically for the uses of salt in holy water and found to my surprise that blessed salt and blessed salt in holy water are long-established means of driving away evil in all its forms. Despite a long Catholic education, somehow I had never actually learned much about salt besides the whole "salt of the earth" thing. We're accustomed in modern times to revile it for being unhealthy in quantity, but salt has been used since the ancients for preservation, and Catholics take that to symbolize preservation from sin. Obviously, a sacramental is not going to be all-efficacious against the devil, given that people sin in churches all the time, but really - besides direct Divine intervention, what is?

This post is running much longer than I meant to, so I'll try to wrap it up. What does it mean that the idea came to me by itself? Could mean almost anything. It's possible, I suppose, that I learned about blessed saltwater at one point and simply forgot until now, but I don't often do that kind of thing. It's also possible that I came up with the idea myself, based on the symbolism of salt and water, basic human symbols, but I'm not so sure that's what happened. I also highly doubt, now that I'm calmer, that the devil is going to hand me the key to a sacramental that will help me lessen his influence over me. I think it was from God. Now, am I going to literally go stick my head in a bowl of holy saltwater? Probably not, but I'm not ruling it out. I see it like the difference between baptism by immersion and baptism by pouring: they do the same thing, but one is more deeply symbolic and makes it easier to make the mental connection between form and matter.

Since a sacramental has no power in and of itself, it only does good when a person understands it as a physical link to God. Perhaps what was really needed here was just for me to realize the power of the prayers that are constantly gathered around me. I mean, like most Catholic girls, I have a collection of holy medals big enough to sink a battleship. In all honesty, I'm too chicken to go ask a priest to bless some salt for me, so I'll probably just go back to taking my rosary to bed...which really ought to be just as good.

Still, I wonder if we have any more holy water laying around the house.

--Veronica--

Recipe: Tuna Rice Bake

I'm terrible at fasting.

I don't really understand why I am; if it's a regular day and I simply don't think about food, I can easily make it through the whole day, having eaten less than half of a "normal" meal, without having any adverse effects. However, if I'm fasting for a purpose, I can guarantee I'll be sick as a dog before noon. I'd love to be able to just offer it up, grit my teeth, and soldier on, but it usually manifests itself in horrible acid reflux that keeps me from breathing, thinking, driving...I'm literally unable to function at all. I'm not sure what makes that fasting different from "Oh, whoops it's 8 pm, better eat something," but it's really infuriating. Another day of fast and abstinence is coming up, though, so I'm trying to figure out what I can eat to keep me reasonably functional through an entire day of school and travel. (Simon is taking me to meet some of his family over Easter.) I'm thinking maybe a protein bar and part of a banana before I leave for school, maybe some yogurt before bed, and a real lunch before Simon and I leave for his mom's house. A few days ago I came up with this tuna rice...thing to satisfy a craving I had - I'll probably throw that together for us, with a salad on the side. Mmm. Greens. I don't have a picture of the tuna bake because of how quickly it was eaten both times I've made it, so...use your imagination.

Tuna Rice Bake
Prep Time: 6-7 min
Serves: 2

1 can tuna
1 package (2 individual containers) "Minute Rice" - the brown rice.
~1 tbsp spicy mustard
~2 tbsp mayonnaise
paprika, to taste
"Mexican blend" shredded cheese

Cook the rice in the microwave per package directions. Combine all ingredients except the cheese in a small casserole dish or large ramekin, adjusting proportions as desired. Top with shredded cheese and bake in the microwave for 3-4 minutes, until cheese melts and starts to brown..

-Veronica-

RPG of Life - Boss Battle: CRANE FLY

My last playthrough of this level took me about 6 or 7 in-game hours, mostly because my items on hand were limited at the time and so I went for a stamina defeat rather than trying to kill the CRANE FLY outright - bad idea. The first thing you should know about the battle with the CRANE FLY is that there is no effective way to defeat it by draining its stamina; as long as the LIGHT is on, it will keep coming back, and you will get tired of chasing it back out of the room before it gets tired of creeping back in. If you can't summon the CAT but really, really want the no-kills achievement, your best bet to defeat the CRANE FLY is to wait until night, chase the CRANE FLY out of the room with the BROOM item, then turn on a LIGHT elsewhere in the house and make sure the room you are in is in total darkness. When your character falls asleep and wakes back up, you will have won the battle.

Other, much faster strategies include:

1) Middling strategy: Summon an NPC to deal with the CRANE FLY. I don't recommend it, as while waking up MOTHER and/or FATHER for this battle will result in a dead boss, first you'll have to sit through a series of long cutscenes in which they try to convince your character that he or she is overreacting to the presence of the CRANE FLY.


2) Good strategy: smash the CRANE FLY with one of the items in your inventory or in surrounding rooms. Try the BROOM item hiding in the BASEMENT. The BOOK or SHOE item may do just as well if the CRANE FLY is sitting still and within reach. Note that this approach won't work if you took the INSECTOPHOBIA hindrance.


3) Best strategy: summon the CAT NPC by going to the BASEMENT and opening the door. If the CAT is awake and in range, he will think he is being fed and come running. Pick up the CAT and carry him to where the CRANE FLY is, show it to him by pressing the Action Button, and put him down next to it. If the CAT catches the CRANE FLY before he becomes bored, he will eat it and you will win the battle without this counting as a kill. You may have to either summon the CAT more than once or shut him into the room with the CRANE FLY if the CRANE FLY can evade him for longer than his attention span lasts.

On this playthrough I had the CAT unlocked and was able to deal some damage to the CRANE FLY with the BOOK item before summoning the CAT, who caught and ate it immediately. The whole thing lasted less than twenty minutes. Lesson learned!

--Veronica--

"The Wild Rose" - Wendell Berry

"Sometimes hidden from me
in daily custom and in trust,
so that I live by you unaware
as by the beating of my heart,

 suddenly you flare in my sight,
a wild rose blooming at the edge
of thicket, grace and light
where yesterday was only shade,

 and once more I am blessed,
choosing again what I chose before."


-Simon

Laetare Jerusalem!

Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis,et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae. -- Introit, Laetare Sunday

This week was Laetare Sunday, traditionally a day of rejoicing midway through Lent. Personally, I find it to be a good opportunity to look at how well my Lenten practices are going. In the past, I've chosen to sacrifice something like sweets or computer usage; this year, I started out all fired up to go old-school and spend the entire forty days without any meat, dairy, eggs, or added sugar.

Yeah...you can guess how long that lasted. (I'm nomming on a Snickers bar in between sentences.)

Simon had a much better idea, anyway - he suggested I should give up anxiety, since the severe depression and anxiety that I've had for years are seriously interfering with my life and are only getting worse. I ended up dropping the veganism in favor of something similar to that: this Lent, I'm trying to trust. Sometimes it's very, very hard to stop myself and say "Jesus, I trust in You" once something goes wrong or I start panicking, but I have done my ever-loving best to try. While you might expect this to be the part where I begin to joyfully chirp about how much better and easier my life is since attempting to consciously, actively put my trust in the Lord, nothing like that has happened. Instead, everything has suddenly gotten much worse.

The first three weeks of Lent were the worst pit of depression I have experienced since I was a young teen with no close friends, a skewed body image, and an unhealthy romantic relationship. My anxiety and tension suddenly rose again, triggering vision problems, muscle pain, stomach illness, flashbacks, and disturbing nightmares. After going months without a truly disabling panic attack, yesterday I had three within a twelve-hour span. My compulsive coping mechanisms have resurfaced stronger than ever and greater in number, while the intrusive, obsessive thoughts have become near-constant. Needless to say, I feel like a complete nut case. Who said being a Christian makes your life easier?

There are bright points. The increased intensity finally convinced me to try treatment again after a disastrous first effort a year ago - first effort because I am still fighting the perception that my illnesses are shameful and reflect poorly on my self-control and maturity. I've started working with a psychiatrist, and I really hope that the medication I've just started and the therapy sessions I have coming up will help, even if they make it worse to start out with. I think something along those lines is why everything has become worse now. I haven't yet gotten used to holding on to Jesus exclusively, and without my familiar habits of pride and self-loathing to fall back on, my footing is a bit wobbly. I'm also not so sure that Satan doesn't have a hand in this, since he has a history of interfering pretty obviously - at least, to me - with my efforts toward Heaven...though that's another story.

All I can do, really, is keep praying, keep trying to take care of myself, and keep working toward my silent goal of being a healthy woman, capable of being a good professional, but first and foremost a good wife and mother - and above all, a faithful daughter of God. I like my progress so far this Lent - it's a painful start, but it's still a start, and I hope good will come of it. Even in the midst of suffering I can rejoice.

Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation.


--Veronica--

Too much time on my hands...

There were only seven days in my spring vacation

And school came along just to end it,

So the most recent problem for my contemplation

Was finding a good way to spend it...

Like maybe...

Building a bookcase

Or fighting boss battles

Or trying to snap shots of flowers,

Discovering products that shouldn’t exist (Yeek!)

Or giving Simon’s porch a shower

Surfing the Internets

Baking tiny pies

Or locating your car in the rain (It’s over THERE?!)

Finding the pics you lost

Running along the beach

Or driving pharmacists insane (Back already??)

As you can see,

There was a whole lot of stuff to do

Before Monday’s roll call (Come on kitty!)

But it’s all cool ‘cause Simon and Veronica

Totally did it all –

But it’s all cool ‘cause Simon and Veronica

Totally did it all!

(Simoooon! I’m parodying a title sequence!)

--Veronica--

Recipe: Teatime Tassies

I've only made these cute little pecan tarts twice, and they're already my favorite dessert recipe ever. Know why? Because I've only made them twice and I've already memorized the recipe. Also, it's amazing how much inattention on the part of the baker they will tolerate! Though I nicked the recipe from a friend's grandmother, you can find it listed as "Teatime Tassies", "Pecan Tassies", "Pecan Tartlets", etc. in just about any older Southern cookbook worth its butter. I had never encountered the word 'tassie' before this recipe, but it's just the Scots form of French tasse, cup. Now you know, too. As the other half of the title suggests, these are indeed delicious with tea, which helps cut their sweetness.

TEATIME TASSIES

Total prep time: 1 - 1.5 hrs, depending on how many people you have helping, how good they are at helping, and whether or not you left time to soften the butter and chill the pastry.

Qty: 2(4) dozen tartlets, to serve 12-24 people. They're very rich and most people will only eat one or two, but if you want leftovers or there are teen- or college-age boys involved you should probably go ahead and double the recipe anyway. Really.

These will go faster than you think.

PASTRY
1/2 cup/4 oz (1 cup/8 oz) cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 cup) butter or margarine
1 (2) cup(s) flour

FILLING
1(2) egg(s)
1(2) tbsp(s) butter or margarine
3/4(1 1/2) cup(s) brown sugar
1(2) tsp(s) vanilla extract
Dash of salt
2/3(1 1/3) cup(s) pecans

Put the cream cheese and butter out to soften, preferably somewhere the cat can't get to them. Write a few paragraphs on your language history paper. Come back and poke the butter. If your finger leaves a dent, great. If it doesn't or you skipped what I said about the paper, don't worry; the only thing softening really does for this recipe is make it easier for you to combine them later.

Cut the butter into pieces, dump the butter and cream cheese into a bowl, and mash them up with a fork until they're one big light yellow glob. Try not to think about how you are, at this point, basically handling an enormous ball of delicious milkfat, most of which will shortly head straight for your waistline. Add some more people to your guest list and cut the flour into the butter-cheese mixture - this is cooking-speak for "carry on with the fork-mashing until you have a solid ball again." Scrape it all off the inside of the bowl, squish it together with your hands, and stick it in the fridge.

At this point, you can either leave the dough alone to chill for a while, or you can jump right into making the filling. Cut up the butter and set it aside to soften a bit, then crack and beat the egg. You can be fancy and use a whisk, but the fork you were just mashing with is fine. (Wipe the dough off first, though.) Dump in the sugar, butter pieces, vanilla, and salt and stir them all together. Chop the pecans into whatever size pieces you would be fine with seeing sticking out the top of your pastry and dump them in too.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Take the dough out of the fridge (or wherever you set it down) and cut it in half. Cut the halves in half again, and...you see the pattern. Keep going until you have a size you feel comfortable tearing into the number of pieces you need out of that particular chunk. Just to make sure, roll  them all into little balls between the palms of your hands and drop each one into one of the cups in the tin. This is another great reason to make sure you're all doing them at once.

Should look kind of like this. Pretend I actually made those into balls of dough.

Using your fingers and thumb, smooth the balls of dough into mini pastry shells along the contours of the cups. This is easier demonstrated than described (see photo above), but once you make a few batches you should get the hang of it. Just make sure the bottom of the cup isn't too thick or thin, or the filling will either leak or be all pastry and no pecan, and don't slope the tops of the cups away to nothing or your filling won't stay in right. Drop about a teaspoon of filling into each cup and wipe up allllllll the drips. Trust me: you don't want to be scrubbing burned sugar off that pan later.

If you have a bunch of filling left over, don't panic: your cups were just probably a bit too shallow, but they'll still be delicious. And chances are, at least one of your friends or family members likes sugar too much to be worried about salmonella and will happily eat the filling as it is. Stick the pan in the oven, set a 25 minute timer, then clean up the kitchen and check on the tartlets nervously:

Reward yourself by browsing photos online for a face-claim for your newest RP character. When the timer goes off (you DID remember to set the timer, right?), take them out and let them cool - again, preferably somewhere the cat can't get to them. Once they're cool, they should pop right out of the pan, but if not, loosen them up a little with the butter knife. Stick them into paper cups and take pictures because of how cute they are, then quickly put them away where you can't eat them all by yourself at once.

Enjoy!

--Veronica--

Simon Speaks

Hello.
Hi.
Hey there.

I've been meaning to post for the past couple of weeks but life has had a habit of distracting me and what free time I've had has been spent being sick.

However, I am better.
Somewhat.
Chronic cases of maybe and undefinedness.

However, the ironic thing is faith is like that.
Suspended between two extremes...two poles where we attempt to follow Jesus' on the 'straight and narrow' because to go to either extreme is to sin.

Grace helps us find the medium, the balance between endless physical greed and shallow self serving spiritual...a middle ground between the physical science and the abstract religious.

It's more than idealism and better grounded than any philosophy.
It's the "evidence of things unseen" while at the same time it's the sort of faith where we have to be willing to take the next step...even when we do not see a logical conclusion of how it's possible for another platform for us to step upon.




"We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
 "But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."
-1 Corinthians 13:12-13




There is a beauty to be found in realizing we're finite, incapable and in need of Love's divine insanity to rescue us. God made us not because He was in  need but desired to show love...and all of history has been the tale of God chasing His wayward bride aching to have us near.

The love shared between Veronica and I is an example of that. Currently we're only dating (have talked engagement, marriage and escape to New Zealand as opposed to Old Zealand) but despite mistakes we've made and pain we've caused one another...we both pray, strive to serve and keep communication open so that we do not live in darkness but push one another to grow, to trust in Christ and to hopefully be ready for the day in which we marry.

Marriage was created to serve as a reflection of the harmony God has in His Trinity and how God shares with us...and so this little blog will be a record of our trip, our journey and blessed misadventures through life.

Thank you for joining in, take a seat, feel free to prop up your feet and nibble on some popcorn. It's going to be one heck of a trip.
-Simon

La Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris

(Background: I have a major in French language and spent a sizable chunk of my last summer in Bourgogne. I am also a sucker for Gothic architecture.)

These photos gave me the kick in the pants I needed to finish my six-month-old photo album from studying abroad in France (YESSSSS!! FINALLY), though most of my pictures are not nearly as breathtaking as these shots of Notre Dame. I miss the brief four days I spent wandering around Paris, forgetting I didn't live there. The City of Light does that to you, n'est-ce pas? Check out the full photo set on Crack Two here and don't mind me comparing the price of plane tickets to Paris against the balance in my savings account.

Ces belles images m'ont fait FINALEMENT finir l'album de photos de mes études en France que j’ai devenu à faire il y a six mois – bien que la plupart de mes photos n’est pas aussi stupéfiante que ces-là de Notre Dame (bien sûr). Je parcourais Paris pendant quatre jours, au cours desquelles je me vraiment oubliais que je n’y habitais pas. La Cité de Lumière fait tout le monde penser comme ça, n’est-ce pas ? Voir toutes les images sur Crack Two ici et m’ignorer, s’il vous plaît, pendant que je compare le prix d’un billet d’avion à Paris au solde de mon compte bancaire.

--Veronica--

Yeah, but is it tasty?

I'm not a big gamer, but for the last few weeks I've been following Simon through Metal Gear Solid 3 and acting as his spotter. MGS plays like an interactive film, which I love, and divides itself pretty fairly between things that make perfect sense (e.g. if you blow up the enemy food supplies, the soldiers you encounter will be weaker) and things that are perfectly absurd (e.g. if you eat the glowing mushrooms, all the batteries you're carrying will be recharged.) I really recommend the series for jumpy types like me who tend to panic when things charge out at you: much of MGS 3 focuses on survival and sneaking around rather than on direct firefights. The radio game's main method of transmitting information to the player is through often-hilarious radio conversations with NPCs back at headquarters, and if you're curious about whatever new food the PC Snake has just caught, you can just dial up Paramedic. She'll happily reel off a veritable encyclopedia entry on Garials or Russian Inkcaps, while Snake just wants to know how the darn thing tastes.

I'm also not a big cook, but every now and then I get the urge to make something, and the results can be a little...hit-or-miss. Oftentimes I leave it to Simon and his barely-functioning nasal passages to finish the leftovers since he can't taste much anyway. Such was the case last week when the amount of spice in the chicken curry left my mouth in pain. I thought I'd heard the last of the Disastrous Thai Chicken Curry of '12 until Simon brought it up today and then asked me what the leaf in there had been. "Uh, that was a bay leaf. It's just there for flavoring, you're not supposed to eat it." Naturally, he already had...sigh. I quickly went to look up what happens if you eat a bay leaf, and we proceeded to have the following conversation.

"Well, it says here that it's not toxic, but it's not exactly good for you..."

"Hey..."

"...they're just really crunchy. 'The sharp edges may be painful to stomach linings, intestinal walls, and mouths'..."

"Hey."

"...but they're a good source of antioxidants. What?"

"But is it tasty?"

"...Snake."

"What?"

"(sigh.) Yes. The Yahoo!Answers entry says it should taste pretty good."

"That's all I needed to know."

Why do I have a feeling I'm headed for Snake and Paramedic cosplays next?

--Veronica--

Spring

Well, it may not be spring most places, but it's spring here. Showers, and flowers, and all those lovely things. The temperature, as always, is fluctuating by about twenty degrees depending on whether there's a cloud on or not. The clouds can't make up their minds either and so the morning has gone between hard rain and just enough mist to be annoying. It's one of those days.

I'm still living at home for the simple reason that, without a bachelor's degree or work experience, I can't earn enough to pay rent and go to school at the same time. (I should know. I tried.) It's not fair, but there you are. One of the trade-offs of living at home is that there are very few subjects on which my mother and I agree: not on priorities, not on what constitutes "staying out late", not on my clothing. Especially not on my clothing. We've had these discussions so many times that it just takes one look for me to know what she would say to me if she weren't tired of saying it. In this case - why is that crazy child of mine wearing a summer dress and nice jewelry with an Aran sweater, thick stockings, and big, ugly boots? Doesn't she know that none of that matches?

My excuse is that I'm dressing for the weather. Light dress and heavy sweater so I can adjust between 50 and 70 degrees at a moment's notice. Boots and thick socks to keep my feet dry. Delicate jewelry because I've got to wear it somewhere, haven't I? I like to look pretty even when I don't have a reason, and it doesn't necessarily have to match. God made flowers to grow in mud. That's good enough for me.

--Veronica--

Introduction and Welcome

Veronica is a veil-wearing, Latin-chanting, Rosary-toting cradle Catholic who delights in order and will read anything on Faith and Reason she can get her hands on. She likes to capitalize for emphasis and is the kind of woman who will iron bedsheets if not given enough other work to do, for which reason she always keeps more than she knows she can handle going on at once- not that this has taught her anything about time management.

Simon is a one-time Southern Baptist missionary, seminary dropout, and now nondenominational Christian who likes Christian Anarchy and dislikes labels. He reads Koine Greek, interests himself in historical theology, and is the kind of man who, despite being uncomfortable with the leadership role, always seems to find himself in it. Statistically speaking, he should be dead by now, and takes the fact that he's not as proof that God just isn't done with him yet.

We've been dating for a year, and despite our theological differences find ourselves drawing each other closer to God. We're not perfect, and we're not trying to be perfect - just as good as any fallen sinners can be with the help of grace. This is our blog. Please feel welcome here.