?

what happened between 3 and 4 pm today - remind me to ask you one day.

i

smell so

good

!

vida e caffe

I realised while having coffee and muffin this morning, that my favourite coffee shop has almost the same logo as my humble little blog… So here, I will give credit to Vida.

Vida - portuguese for life and e caffe - and coffee.Today they gave Lindor chocs because it is Mothers day today.I should email my mom these cameraphone pics, its the best I can do.

 

 

I usually have a double meie de lait…which is espresso + a little bit of milk.

 

I was thinking…what was more painful than heartbreak… all those years ago… was the feeling that I had decieved myself - that I was capable of believing something unreal and impossible.I’ve read, that all adversity is an oppurtunity! Well, if that is the case, then my story will be one of the most romantic, it just has to be… because I say so…and because I really want it to be and because at the moment my love life is non-existent.

flourless peanut butter cookies

I don’t know, about these, I would like to go gluten free, but how good can wheat-free cookies be?

I will try both recipes and let you know.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

One cup creamy peanut butter
One cup white sugar
One teaspoon baking powder
One egg

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Cream the peanut butter and sugar in a bowl. (As much as I love my KitchenAid, I have found that this is a hand-stirring job). Beat in the baking powder. Add the egg. Mix until it is all well combined.

The dough will be sticky, so be prepared to get your hands messy. Roll some dough into a ball. (How big? That depends on you. I have found, however, that the smaller these cookies are, the better they hold together. Eat two instead of one!) Roll the ball into white sugar. Line a baking sheet, covered in parchment paper, with sugary balls of dough.

Bake in the oven for about ten minutes. You will know the cookies are done when they feel coherent, but still a little soft. Take the tray out of the oven and let the cookies rest for at least five minutes. Afterwards, carefully transfer them to a cooling rack. After ten minutes or so, they will have hardened and be glistening with sugar.

Eat them.

Makes ten to twelve cookies.

“He loves these peanut butter cookies so much that he started making them himself. He serves a little stack of them with chocolate mousse and a bittersweet chocolate sauce, as a parfait in a martini glass. Now that is decadence.”

peanut butter cookies

I had a very busy day and I really don’t see things slowing down until end of July, eeek.I am quite anxious lately, and jealous, of all the people going into summer, going on vacation, having fun.

One of the reasons I think I like this job of mine is because it gives me the reassurance that I understood what I did in university and so my whole adult life has not been in vain, haha.

On a totally unrelated note - I want to learn how to make cookies, specifically peanut butter cookies because all the ingredients are in the kitchen.If I had chocolate lying around, I would look for a choc-chip cookie recipe.I wish I had the time and patience to make something decadent & extravagent.So here is the only recipe that doesn’t ask for shortening (whatever that is).I still have not made swiss rolls as per the recipe I pasted here weeks ago, I don’t know why I looked for it because Woolies sells some which are small, fresh, light, soft, moreish, really very nice.

 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup ( 1 stick ) butter or margarine, softened
1/2cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In a medium bowl sift to combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
In a large bowl beat together peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth.
Add in egg and vanilla
Combine flour mixture with peanut butter mixture, scrapping the sides of the bowl to insure batter is well blended.
Cover bowl with plastic and place in frig for 20 minutes
Using a teaspoon drop batter 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Using a fork make crisscross pattern flattening cookies slightly.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes per your oven

right now, I am wondering about Burma and about this http://omg.yahoo.com/what-were-they-thinking/photos/1816

 

3D photo for mapping

oh my goodness, so busy today!

 

We just had a talk by a guy from Leica geosystems on a new 3D laser scanner that will reach 60% accuracy for distances up to 1.5 km, it is more robust, user-friendly, and data can be stored to a memory stick and it is really really good.He described it as a camera that takes creates a “point cloud”, like a 3D photograph.

The photo is then “georeferenced” so each point gets a (X, Y, Z) position - to create a map!

It will revolutionise some aspects of GIS - creating 3D maps from points that have been mapped by laser!

picture that, in a few years when you query route information - you will get detailed maps in 3D streaming via the internet, a map as you would see it in reality - and not a 2D map, as we are used to now, amazing huh?!

This also has good applications in the mining sector, because mines can be very dangerous places, there are always accidents and to avoid this a survey has been done to map the inside - not always possible, because of the type of terrain - but now the lasers can be operated remotely using WiFi!Laser scanninig instruments are also being used to map Mars.Mapping is so important, for everything and Man has become expert in it. 

http://ilris-3d.com/

lick me

I have created my own stamp/seal, here http://www.says-it.com/seal/

 

I am so busy…but here are a few that I had in mind, for everytime I send you something.

 

“he’s just not that into you”

I just deleted a whole lot of yesterday - and sometimes I wish I could do that in reality - to delete whole days and months and years of my life where I have said or done stupid things.I would like to delete December 2005 and January and February 2006 in particular.I think I was insane at that time, seriously deranged and temporarily crazy.The worst case scenario is that some people think of me as strange, and that would be the correct assumption/deduction but …so what ? Why can’t I just forgive myself for being an idiot, for trusting people, and move on ? There are so many people in the world, they all have their story and their own challenges, in their own reality.I sometimes think that mine is worse or better, and that is wrong.

“God knows.”

I was convinced at one time that a guy I really liked liked me too but he did not! Is that so bad ? I survived.But I seem to always be attracted to the same type of guys.Notice how you always attract the same type of people? Do we learn from all our relationships ? I think we do but I think that the heart can become less and less tender each time.Is it so terrible to feel like you are in love and show that you have a soft heart ? Why ? Somewhere along the line, we are told that this is a weakness, more so in the northern countries than the southern ones.It is embarrassing, to put yourself out there and be left hanging.But people have always done that and always will, and we survive and learn something from it most of the time, right? I do regret stuff but there is a reason for everything and everyone or… that’s what I’ve been telling myself.

“if only they really knew me.”

I have said this here before - but I will say it again, there is nothing you can say to me, that I have not already said to myself, and the criticsm and judgement is more harsh in here (in my own mind) than it is out there (cos no one really cares).I don’t look down on other people who have crushes on people who are ‘unattainable’ so why should they look at me with pity ? I wish someone had warned me though, years ago, to not let my imagination run away with me, to just be cool, and to not let my heart get broken because that’s the worst feeling in the world, worse than embarrassment.Worse than anything we can imagine, at the time.But we can always laugh these things off much later, wonder what the big deal is and tell ourselves, that if it’s meant to be, it will, and that would be right.I only have to convince myself of my worth, that I am lovable.

/best to read this while listening to anything by James Blunt

/what am i doing here? I have so much work to do today.