Find Your Chances

I’m a sucker for rice crispy treats.  When I was living in New York City, DTUT (Down Town, Up Town), a cute cafe on the Upper East Side, served the most decadent rice crispy treats. DTUT’s rice crispy treats were so big and rich that I often ended up splitting one with fellow rice crispy treat fan Second Doubles.  Sadly, DTUT closed, and I lost my gourmet rice crispy treat supplier.

However, Daily Candy’s March 23rd Everywhere edition introduced me to The Crispery. One glance at the website and I knew I had to give The Crispery a try.

So, I ordered the small sampler gift box, which held a mix of four crispy bars individually wrapped. Three days after placing the order, my box of crispy treats was waiting for me on my doorstep when I arrived home from work.

The Crispery treats came wrapped in tissue paper in a country kraft gift box tied with a blue ribbon. I received quite the sampler: Chocolate Cookie & Marshmallow, Rainbow Sprinkles, Chocolate Buttons (a.k.a. M&M’s), and Sugar Crispy.

My only concern during this whole process was that The Crispery treats would be stale by the time they reached me, but that was far from the case. Even after sitting in my kitchen for a couple of days, they are still moist and fresh.

When the package arrived, I quickly took a few pictures and then dug into the Chocolate Cookie & Marshmallow crispy bar.  I can honestly say, The Crispery treats are delicious!  I would highly recommend them to anyone with a marshmallow sweet tooth.  My personal favorite: the Chocolate Buttons crispy. Although, for my next order, I’m definitely going to give the Crispy S’more a try!

Earth Hour will take place tonight from 8:30 to 9:30 pm. During this time, people across the world will be turning off all their lights to make a statement about what we are doing to our planet.

Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, and these “votes” will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference this year in Copenhagen. This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. Earth Hour is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Plus, it’s the perfect opportunity to watch a scary movie in the dark!

This past St. Patrick’s Day, I didn’t exactly have the luck of the Irish on my side.  I was in an auto accident. My first, and hopefully last, auto accident. Fortunately, I was not hurt nor was the other driver. And (cause I know you’re all wondering), it was NOT my fault!

Although the important thing is no one was injured, I was still upset, annoyed and frustrated that my brand new car was bashed in.  I hadn’t even had my new Infiniti G37 a month and now it looked like this:

What happened you ask? Well, I was sitting at a red light waiting to cross an intersection out of a shopping center. The light turned green, and I stepped on the gas.  Unfortunately, another driver thought he could make it into through the intersection, but he ran right through the red light and plowed into the front driver’s side of my car.

Not pretty, but it could be a lot worse — better the car looking this way than me!

A few nice people got out of their cars to ask if we were alright, and one lady and her daughter even waited with me until the police arrived.  Such nice people! The other driver was very apologetic and immediately owned up to his mistake.

A week and a half later, after much back and forth with the insurance company, having an appraiser look at the car, and taking the car to an autobody shop, I finally have my car back — good as new!

“Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like.”

–Mark Twain

Thanks for the tip, Mr. Twain!  I think I will.  This delicious cupcake will certainly make my Wednesday evening very successful.

The Subtle Knife (Book 2 in the His Dark Materials trilogy)

by Philip Pullman

Read: March 2009

Description:

In this sequel to The Golden Compass, Lyra finds herself in another world, Cittagazze, where soul eating Specters stalk the streets, children roam freely without an adult in sight, and wingbeats of angels sound against the sky. It is here Lyra meets twelve-year-Old Will Parry, a boy from our world fleeing for his life after taking another’s, who has also stumbled into this strange new world. On a perilous journey from world to world, Lyra and Will uncover a deadly secret: an object of extraordinary and deadly power. And with every turn, they move closer to an even greater threat — and the shattering truth of their own destiny.

My Thoughts:

The Subtle Knife lived up to my expectations as the second book in this thrilling trilogy.  With the introduction of a young boy from our world who becomes Lyra’s companion and a more in-depth look at characters such as Lee Scoresby and Serafina Pekkala who played minor roles in The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife has an all together different feel to it than the first book.  This originality brings a freshness that I was not expecting, but happy to encounter.

Of the many themes throughout this book, the one that particularly caught and help my attention was the theme of sacrifice.  Faced with difficult and sometimes insurmountable challenges, each of the characters makes sacrifices for each other and for what they believe is “good.”  The characters are in the midst of a war in which line between good and evil is blurred and everyone has their completely rational reasons for choosing the side they take.

I did have one regret while reading the book. I feel as though I should  have re-read parts of the Old Testament before jumping into Philip Pullman’s second book. Pullman’s references and parallels to The Fall and other events in the first books of the Old Testament were very intriguing, but it has been quite some time since I have read the Bible so my recollections of the Old Testament are a bit hazy. I would have had a better understanding of the allusions and paralells if I had taken a few days to re-read a few of the stories from the Old Testament.