Oh, Mojito!


I was reading my blogs earlier today and I came across a recipe that said it was a Cherry Mojito. The Mojito is one of my very favorite cocktails, so I thought I'd check it out. The recipe sounded tasty, but was entirely NOT a Mojito, and so I got a little upset for somebody ruining my favorite drink. Why did they ruin it? Well, this drink was made out of vodka and had no mint! ARGH!

A mojito has five basic ingredients: rum, mint, lime, sugar and club soda, and there are a bunch of slight variations. I'm generally a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to things like this, so since the mojito is a Cuban drink, I like to use Cuban rum. Because I live in the United States and we've got an embargo on pretty much all-things-Cuban, I use the Cuban exile rum, Bacardi. (Yes, I know it says Puerto Rican Rum all over the bottle, but the Bacardi brand of rum is originally from Cuba.) I also use white rum. The mint and lime will be fresh and depending on what's available and what my mood is, I usually use simple syrup or regular sugar.

To make a mojito, you must have a muddler. A muddler is pretty much a stick that helps to mash up your mint and lime. When you make a mojito, you start with a Collins glass. (I eyeball pretty much everything except the rum.) Put a few mint leaves in your glass and cut your lime in wedges and put about half of it in the glass. Take your muddler and gently smash it around a bit in order to release the essential oils in the mint and marry it with the lime. (I sometimes put the sugar in before muddling, if I'm using regular sugar. Simple syrup doesn't work as well if you put it in before muddling.) It doesn't make much difference. After you muddle, add ice to the glass and then 1.5-2 ounces of rum. If you haven't put in the sugar yet, do that also. Top the glass off with the club soda and stir. Yum.

Some people don't like the hassle of muddling the fresh mint and lime, so they opt for the mojito mix. I'm sure some of them are tasty, but like I said before, I'm a traditionalist, so I prefer the fresh mojito. I think it tastes so much better! If I ever have a bar, the mojito will definitely be on the drink menu and it will always be made fresh!

That's it for me...Happy muddling!

Note: The picture in this post is my mojito from the bar at Hotel El Convento in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. If you ever get the chance, I recommend staying at least one night at Hotel El Convento. It is a fabulous hotel in the heart of Old San Juan that was originally a convent (hence the name) in the 15th century, and is one of the very best and most unique hotels in Puerto Rico.

A Little on LOVE <3

My lovely Aunt Sandy sent me the following in an email and it got me thinking about love and all that. I even got out my Bible to look up 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and I realized, not for the first time, that love is a wonderful and magical thing. Also, I'm a big sap when it comes to love stories. :)

Love can not be measured in time or in value, not in measurement of a rule or gauged by a scale.

Love can not be thrown away like rubbish, or whisked away in the breeze or take flight by a gust of wind and banished from your heart or soul.

Love should not be tossed into the winds as though it were a pail of water.

Love should be taken to the heart, cherished and kept within the portals of the heart, held onto as though it was in intricate part of your own being.

Love comes into our lives through different stages of our time on Earth.

Love is granted by God to allow your heart to care for someone more than your own being.

Love comes in so many levels of emotion, giving way to tenderness of heart as is shown by the love of a Mother, a sibling, a spouse, a child, a lover or a friend.

Love comes in the form of compassion for another human being, allowing yourself to make someone 's world brighter, just by knowing you cherish them.

My Aunt Sandy wrote this. Isn't it pretty and so true? Love you! 사랑해요!


"Amor is to love you, Amor is to care, Amor is two people with something to share. Amor for the Spanish, Amour for the French, Love in any language always means the same!" - "Amor" by Amigos Invisibles
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Now playing: Amigos Invisibles - Amor
via FoxyTunes

Love Me If You Can

I know that some of you may not like country music, but oh well. I went through my stage of hating it as well, and coincidentally, it was Toby Keith's song, "American Soldier" that got me listening to country again after about 6 years of hating it.

I've seen Toby Keith in concert twice. In Iraq. It's kind of become a tradition, I guess. I got the opportunity to see him for the second time about a week of so ago, and I learned that that show was like his 115th or something show that he's done for us deployed troops since the war started. That's one of the many reasons I admire him. Another reason is that Toby Keith is an amazing songwriter and several of his songs have really meant a lot to me. One of my favorite things about country music is that a majority of the songs tell a story, so not only do the artists write songs, but they tell stories as well. (Another cool country storyteller/singer that I've started liking recently is Brad Paisley.)

Anyway, to make a long story short and before I go off on any more tangents, "Love Me If You Can" is a really great song, my new favorite song. Download it or buy his newest album, "Big Dog Daddy." Below are the lyrics and pictures from the concert.

Love Me If You Can

[verse 1]

Sometimes Think The Poor Is Necessary
Every Night I Pray For Peace On Earth
And I Hand Down My Dollars To The Homeless
But Believe That Every Able Soul Should Work

[pre Chorus]

My Father Gave Me My Shotgun
That I'll Hand Down To My Son
Try To Teach Him Everything It Means

[chorus]

I'm A Man Of My Convictions
Call Me Wrong, Call Me Right
But I Bring My Better Angels To Every Fight
You May Not Like Where I'm Goin'
But You Sure Know Where I Stand
Hate Me If You Want To
Love Me If You Can

[verse 2]

I Stand By My Right To Speak Freely
But I Worry 'bout What Kids Learn From Tv
And Before All Of Debatin' Turns To Angry Words And Hate
Sometimes We Should Just Agree To Disagree

[pre Chorus]

And I Believe That Jesus
Looks Down Here And Sees Us
And If You Ask Him, He Would Say

[chorus Out]


Have a great day!
Kendra

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Now playing: Toby Keith - Love Me If You Can
via FoxyTunes

I like to E

So it took me some six days or something to get from D to E...if you notice, I just posted D, but I wrote it several days ago. I thought I'd be creative and put some pictures of stuff on there...who knows if that even worked. I'll have to check when I can actually access Blogger and fix it if needed. Ugh. Well, on to E...

I like to eat.

Everybody has to eat to live, right? I like to live, thus I like to eat. I'm a bored eater though, and that isn't a very good thing, but good food is AWESOME!

I like to explore.

I like to find out where a path leads.

Geez...as soon as I start writing, I start feeling unmotivated to write. I am going to eventually get to Z though, even if I can only post "I like to X..." I can do it!

I can't believe some people blog for a living. They must really have a lot to say...but then again, some blogs I've seen say nothing at all...much like this one, I suppose.

At any rate, have a great day. :)

I like to D

I like to drive. I like finding out where a path takes me. Sometimes I go on marathon drives to nowhere, just to see where it takes me. It's fun to just drive around by myself and listen to music blaring on the radio. I don't have to fight with anybody about what I listen to then.

I like to dance. You don't have to be a good dancer to like to dance. It's all about moving to the mad beats, yo. I do get terribly self-concious though, so I usually end up dancing in my room when nobody's around. ;)

I like to doodle. When I have paper and a writing utensil and I'm not actively engaged, I usually end up doodling all over the paper. I like to sometimes just write whatever words come to mind and draw patterns. I am not terribly artistic, but I love innovative and unique design.

I like to drink. Not necessarily alcoholic drinks, but I like tasty drinks. I love going to restaurants and getting a neat drink from their drink menu.

A little on this thread...I've only been doing this for four days now, and I'm already getting tired of it. Maybe it's just my mood in the past few days, or maybe I'm just tired. I know I'm tired at this moment.

My Photo was included in a Travel Guide!

Ruby Falls
Originally uploaded by kaygpea

Yay! This is kind of old news, maybe a couple weeks, but it's new to you! Schmap found one of my photos that I posted on Flickr from my trip to Chattanooga in January 2005 and they included it in their Travel Guide for Chattanooga! Cool Huh?

I like to C

I could only think of one thing that I like to do that starts with C today. That's cry.

I like to cry sometimes. I generally don't like to though. I am a pretty emotional person though, so I sometimes can't help myself. I almost always cry during sad movies or books, and I always get teary eyed whenever I hear about troops deploying or redeploying. Sometimes even, I give myself a headache because I cry so much. The Notebook (both the movie and the book) always make me bawl like a baby!

I hate it at times though, because since I am an emotional person, when I get really angry, I tend to cry. I usually feel so helpless when I'm that angry, because at those times I feel like the circumstances have rendered me powerless and all I can do at the moment is cry. But then I feel weak because I broke down enough to cry and that makes me feel even worse.

Well, that's all I can do for today...I think I'll go home and watch a sad movie now. Good thing I have a bunch of tissues by my bed.

Tomorrow is D...there's lots of things I like to do that start with D, so be prepared!

I like to Believe

Today there's only one thing I like to do that starts with B...one thing that I could think of anyway.

believe

intransitive verb

1 a: to have a firm religious faith b: to accept as true, genuine, or real <ideals we believe in> <believes in ghosts>

2: to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something <believe in exercise>

3: to hold an opinion : think <I believe so>

transitive verb

1 a: to consider to be true or honest <believe the reports> <you wouldn't believe how long it took> b: to accept the word or evidence of <I believe you> <couldn't believe my ears>

2: to hold as an opinion : suppose <I believe it will rain soon>

— be·liev·er noun

— not believe

: to be astounded at <I couldn't believe my luck>

I don't really have a firm religious faith in anything right now...I was raised as a Christian and I believe in God and everything, but I always feel that when I go to church, I feel like I'm being scolded for sinning and if I don't repent for my sins I'm going to hell. I don't know about all that. I like to believe that God loves everybody.

I like truth and honesty in life. I like to believe that there is good in everything, though I do also believe there is bad to everything. Life is like that, harmonious. Good and bad, happy and sad, yin and yang. One person has one belief and another person has a complete opposite belief.

Ok, that's it for right now...I'll try to make tomorrow better. Can't really concentrate on this right now because of too many different thoughts running through my head...man, it's going to be difficult to get to sleep tonight.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE
	Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
	When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
	Follow the three res. Respect for self, Respect for others, and Responsibility for all your actions.
	Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
	Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
	Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
	When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
	Spend some time alone every day.
	Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
	Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
	Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
	A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
	In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
	Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
	Be gentle with the earth.
	Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
	Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
	Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
	Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

These instructions have been floating around for a while. Some say they're from the Dalai Lama, and some say they're not. I don't care who they come from, they're still great rules to live by in my opinion, so I'm sharing them. Have a great day. :)

I Like To A

Here goes for my new topic I talked about yesterday (or at least I think it was yesterday).

I like to ACHIEVE.

achieve

transitive verb

1 : to carry out successfully : accomplish <achieve a gradual increase in production>

2 : to get or attain as the result of exertion : reach <achieved a high degree of skill> <achieved greatness>

intransitive verb : to attain a desired end or aim : become successful

Like everybody, I like to achieve my goals. I sometimes can be categorized as an overachiever I guess, but I don't really like that. I try not to set goals for myself that I have no hope of achieving, and I generally don't like others to set my goals for me. They tend to set goals that I can't really achieve.

I like small goals the best. For instance, if I'm having a hard time getting up out of bed (which was pretty hard for me this morning), I can start by saying to myself, "OK, let's just get one foot on the floor." I do that, I've achieved a goal and feel good about it, and it makes me want to work harder and achieve my ultimate goal at the moment: getting up.

Doing simple stuff can lead to a lot more...I gotta keep telling myself that. One foot in front of the other. One day at a time. I'll get there somehow, even if I have to take baby steps the whole way. That's achievement.

I like to ASSOCIATE.

associate

transitive verb

1: to join as a partner, friend, or companion

2obsolete : to keep company with : attend

3: to join or connect together : combine

4: to bring together or into relationship in any of various intangible ways (as in memory or imagination)

intransitive verb

1: to come or be together as partners, friends, or companions

2: to combine or join with other parts : unite

Also see CORRELATE

When I was brainstorming earlier and came up with associate, I was thinking more of the third definition, to join or connect together, but I like to do the others as well. Therefore, I'll start with my "original" definition and then write a little on the other. In other words, I'll associate the definitions.

My friends have noticed that I make a lot of weird associations sometimes. It's just how I think. The world is all connected somehow anyway, right? It's neat to me to think about how things can relate to each other. I could use correlate in the same context, but the term that usually comes to mind for me is associate. I take my past experiences and thoughts and associate them with what's happening to me in the present.

Thinking like this, by making associations, can unfortunately be troublesome at times. I tend to go associate one thing with another and that makes me think about the other thing and then I associate that thing with something else and I get terribly distracted by this tangent. This is how I can spend hours upon hours just surfing the Internet. For instance, I could be looking up Burj Al Arab, a terribly expensive and luxurious hotel in Dubai. The hotel itself is designed to resemble a sail, so then I start thinking about sailing. Sails go on boats and boats go in water and people dive from boats into the water...I've always wanted to learn how to scuba dive, and so I start looking up how you get diver certification. Then once I get certified, I have to go someplace to dive, right? So where should I go? I've heard Belize is great for diving...and on and on it goes until I forget whatever I was looking up in the first place. Association...it can be a good thing or a bad thing. I still like to do it either way.

OK, that's all I can write for now. Tomorrow is B.

In the spirit of Sesame Street: I like to...

Last night, when I was struggling to go to sleep because my mind was racing, I was thinking about starting a series about what I liked to do, and to make it more than just a one post deal, I thought that maybe I could make it a daily thing that I do...at least for a little while. And how could I stretch this out to be more than one post? I could do a letter a day for 26 days! Like Sesame Street's whole thing, "Today was brought to you by the letter A" or something. What do you think? I left my brainstorming notes in my room, so I'll tear it out of my notebook and bring it in tomorrow and start on A.

Yay. a project. Let's see if I can complete it!

Bits of Wisdom From The Cheers Theme Song

Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo - Cheers Lyrics

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.

Full Lyrics never actually aired

Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got;
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?

All those night when you've got no lights,
The check is in the mail;
And your little angel
Hung the cat up by it's tail;
And your third fiance didn't show;

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name.

Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead;
The morning's looking bright;
And your shrink ran off to Europe,
And didn't even write;
And your husband wants to be a girl;

Be glad there's one place in the world
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to go where people know,
People are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came...

copied from http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/cheerslyrics.html

I was just listening to this a little while ago on my Zune, and it got me thinking about being social...even when you don't really think of yourself as being a very social person, like myself, you tend to yearn for a place like Cheers. I tend to not talk to many people, and I pretty much stick with the small group of people I know and with whom I feel most comfortable, but I hope to one day find a place like this. I may have already found it somehow, but I don't know...since I'm a maximizer, I guess I'll always be looking for my "best" place. I just hope that place is like Cheers.

Bits of wisdom from my Dove Dark Chocolate wrapper

"Be michievous. It feels good."

Now listening to "Rosas" by La Oreja de Van Gogh

I just joined Bookcrossing!

So I finally joined Bookcrossing. I thought it'd be fun. It's kind of like catch and release for books you've read or at least have come into your possession. By assigning a special tracking number to your books and writing your personal review on the book, you can track your book from owner to owner and see what they thought about your book (given that they have went to Bookcrossing.com and logged that they have caught your book). It's a neat way to be a little bit more social, so sign up and put some books on there! Yeah!

Now listening to: "Control" by Puddle of Mudd

Ramblings - A Little Bit About My Writing Style

I always hated writing papers in school...this is why I almost failed English every year in high school. My proudest achievement in high school English was when I got a C on my junior year research paper. I turned it in on time. I actually started the paper like the night before it was due and worked through the night. I only got a couple hours of sleep that night, and my mom ended up taking me to school in the middle of the day, right before my English class. Even though I got a C, I was proud of myself and felt good about the paper. I don't care what my teacher thought of it...

In Ohio, like every two years or so, you used to have to take proficiency tests to be able to get to the next grade. I remember writing a story on my writing test in sixth grade that I remember being so horrible that I was surprised I never had to retake the test. I'd like to read that story again someday.

The reason why I always had trouble writing was because I could never be trusted to write about just one topic and my rambling thoughts are very hard to organize and put them into a final product that can fully satisfy me. Even as I am writing this, I'm getting distracted and I'm having to try very hard to even stick to the topic I'm trying to talk about. I'm a perfectionist too, so I keep looking back at what I just wrote and I keep making changes to grammar and usage and then I get so distracted and frustrated that I end up just giving up on writing anything at all and then I have to just move on to something a little less taxing on my mind.

Despite my horrible writing style, I do realize I need to start writing more and be less critical of myself. I know what I want to say most of the time, but I need to find some way of getting my point across in a precise and clear manner. So in an effort to at least get some writing out there, I'm going to start writing a little bit on this blog, even if it is about nothing...like how this post is ending up. Oh god, I have to stop writing now...

Now listening to "LoveStoned" by Justin Timberlake

Update - Yeah, so just in case you were interested, I was looking through my old documents, and here was a little blurb I felt like writing like a month ago, pretty much about the same thing!

Thoughts 15JAN about 0100hrs

I think I have constant writer's block. I have so many ideas in my head, but whenever I actually sit down to put my thoughts on paper or in this case, the computer, my mind goes blank and I can't seem to think of anything to write or type. Whenever I do actually start writing, I keep fretting over grammar and correctness, and it takes so long for me to write what i want to that i either get side tracked or forget what my whole point for writing was in the first place. Maybe it's not so much writer's block as it is a mild case of attention deficit disorder. I remember reading my old report cards from school and my teachers wrote things like, "Kendra is more concerned with socializing than staying on task." Yeah, i acknowledge that i have trouble staying on one task sometimes, but generally, i am not the most social person in the world...no, take that back. I am probably a closet social butterfly. I agree, it sounds crazy, but it's true. i think one of my greatest downfalls is that i'm not fluent nor am i articulate. i have never been good at doing speeches and since i have this mild ADD, i have never been able to write more than maybe a paragraph before i'm sidetracked...ugh. even now, it's almost a physical feeling. I'm getting bored of writing and I have to do something else before i fall asleep...and so goes the days of my life...

 

This is reassuring for me. I definitely am not wasting my life then! I tend to be a bit of a packrat, but sometimes I go nuts and just start cleaning and organizing and then I feel really good about myself and my accomplishments. Then I continue my existence and everything goes to shit until the next time I freak out. It's fun. :)

- Now listening to 알면서 by 비

Here's some pics from our trip to Korea. We went to Korea for our mid-tour leave from Iraq. It was so exciting to finally get the chance to go, and now I am planning on going to Yonsei when I get out to study Korean further. We also went to Jeju Island, but I haven't had a chance to post the pictures yet, will soon though.

Have a great day!

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Get your own

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Now playing: Juanes - Ahi Le Va
via FoxyTunes

I Promise

I promise to blog more often. I don't do a whole lot else other than work and type useless emails anyway. I hope everybody has a great day!

It says my last post was on August 26th, 2006. Man, that was over a year ago, and I was in Iraq back then...not much has changed I guess. I'm back in Iraq. My time back at home was too short, and there were so many things that I wanted to do, but ended up being too lazy to do them. This time, when I get back to the States, I plan to get out of the military for good and get a job and a real life. Maybe I'll be kind of scared to start my life right after I get out, so maybe I'll go out and see the world that I had planned to see when I joined the military and haven't gotten to yet. It'll be fun, I can't wait.