| the_horváth_kávai

.attack.of.the.g.

(almost) horror story to follow. if you are sensitive to such things, do not, - i repeat - do not keep reading. we have been visiting our friends, the chuns in mikepércs since yesterday. that's the prelude.

this morning at 5 am, nina woke up to request her usual portion of milk. the house was quiet, not a soul was stirring (except for nina - that is), it was still dark outside, and about the same inside. so, still half-asleep, i stumbled out into the - to me somewhat unknown - kitchen, turned a small light on, and opened the fridge. as i did that, i heard a small, but immensely shrieking voice pierce through the darkness behind me eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and i froze. i freaked. i almost got a heart attack. in the two-and-a-half seconds that followed, many thoughts went through my mind, such as: what on earth is about to attack me? ... maybe ufo's exist after all ... what if one of the chuns's seven-year-old daughters came down the stairs just to scare me? for fun? ... until i heard a song, which went something like this: very letter makes a sound, g makes ...

then it dawned on me. it's the girls' alphabet game! (they have this little tool that helps them learn spelling - they are in 1st grade. this toy thingie has a magnet, so you can conveniently place it on your fridge - convenient for the kids learning, not so much for the uninformed guest at the crack of dawn!)

i accidentally pushed the g as i was opening the fridge. it really attacked me. for a second there, i was very close to a heart attack. thankfully, it was just the g, which is quite harmless, really. i will be on the lookout tomorrow morning. there might be an h or a p waiting for me. don't want to get on their bad side.

.28.

that is the number of messages that are currently in my gmail inbox. you might think that is a lot. well, not for me. i have just spent half the afternoon (nina is taking a long nap) clearing the inbox, as i haven't had virtually any time for the things of email during the last two months or perhaps more. i started with 65 messages an hour and a half ago, so i'd say Ii've done well.

i know there's more work ahead, but just thought i'd share my joy with you all.

yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

.caboodle.

although nina was with lea and lotti (her cousins) for less than one day during christmas, they hit it off right away. occasionally we felt we had three sharks circling us, waiting for their prey :)

unfortunately, the lighting wasn't the best for photography, so i had to use the flash on occasion. and when i didn't, well ... see for yourself.

.subotica.

as we said earlier, we are spending christmas with family in serbia, more specifically in (and around) subotica (szabadka in hungarian), the biggest city in the northern serbian province called vojvodina (vajdaság in hungarian).

although it is freezing cold outside, we went for a short stroll last night, giving me just enough time to snap a few photographs of the city call. (this city has the most art nouveau buildings in serbia and the city hall [built between 1908 and 1910] is of outstanding beauty.)

.agreement.

we, the creators of this blog (hereafter referred to as the parties), hereby enter into this agreement on the below place and date upon the following terms and conditions:

it is the intention of the parties hereto, that between the dates of december 20th, 2008 and january 5th, 2009 (also known as holiday season) they participate in a competition amongst themselves.
the subject of the aforementioned competition is the increase of the body mass of the parties during the aformentioned time period.

now, therefore, the parties have agreed as follows:

the parties voluntarily submit to the measuring of their body weight in a 9.08665 m/s² gravitational field (earth, that is) on the aforementioned first day of the contest.
the parties will refrain from using substances specifically engineered for weight loss purposes (natural or otherwise) during the aforementioned period.
the parties may engage in strenuous physical activities to decrease, or to stop the increase of, their own body weight.
neither party may entice the other party to participate in the consumption of substances known to drastically increase body weight, however, parties are free to consume such substances should they choose to do so.
the declared winner of the competition is the party with the smallest increase of body weight (where the minuend is a party's body weight on january 5th, 2009 and the subtrahend is the same party's body weight on december 20th, 2008) within the aforementioned time period.
the winner of the competition receives a gift of his own choosing, which has to be countersigned by the other party.

the validity, interpretation, construction and performance of this agreement shall be governed by the laws of hungary, excluding any conflict of laws, rule or principle that might refer the governance of the construction of this agreement to the law of another jurisdiction.

.unwrapped.and.unboxed.

as we said earlier, we are not going to be home (in vajta) for christmas, so we decided to give nina her christmas gift a week earlier. she got a k's kids baby with activity blanket. she loves changing the diaper on the baby and feeding everyone (including elmo, and us, of course) with the toy bottle.

this has to be good, it is wrapped in shiny paper!

but who needs the paper?

.christmas.cheer.

i just finished making 5 gallons [~20 liters] of eggnog (non-alcoholic, of course) - my contribution to holiday cheer. eggnog is one of the few things i enjoy about christmas. it contributes greatly to the insulin roller coaster of christmas, but hey ... i just cannot (do not want to) resist when it comes to eggnog.

i love eggnog, but this amount is way beyond my digestive capacities, it is for the staff christmas party we will have tomorrow night.

you like?

.outlook.

it is interesting, accorging to folks at princeton, outlook is the act of looking out, but according to wiktionary it does not mean that at all.

anyway, the view from our window was really nice as the sun was rising.

.the.tree.

when I was a kid, one of my favorite things about christmas was the smell / scent of the tree. i loved the way it filled the whole house, and i loved coming home during the christmas season, because you could smell the tree as soon as you opened the door. and I always felt sorry for those people who only bought a fake / plastic tree in the store. i would imagine that when i grow up i would always buy one of those really BIG and TALL beautiful trees that reach up to the ceiling of the room.

when arpi and i got married, for our first christmas together we bought a - what i would call - medium-sized tree, as there were no kids yet to buy a big one for, and our apartment wasn't too big either. ditto for our second christmas together. we spent our third christmas together visiting friends in america, so no tree then. last year, nina was tiny, and we spent the holidays visiting our respective parents, so we decided not to get a tree at all. yes, there were trees at our parents' houses, but that is not the same.

but this year is different. we got a tree! after two years without one, i was so excited to get a real christmas tree. well, to make a long story short, the more we thought about it in the light of having a toddler in the house, the more reasonable it seemed to just get a fake. so i broke down and we did exactly that.

we decorated it today, and when she saw it, nina couldn't get enough of it. mesmerized is not a strong enough expression to describe her reaction. so here they are, nina and her first christmas tree.

.chocolate.lover.

i guess nina inherited my love for a certain processed food produced from the seed of the tropical cacao tree - chocolate, that is :)

our very own inigo montoya :)

.from.all.over.

this past week-end, we were blessed to visit the city of vienna, the capital of austria. coincidentally, a few students from the college decided to do the same, so we met up for a day and spent some time being tourists together. it was great, and also very unique. as we all sat at the dinner table of our hosts - a family originally from bosnia, but now living in vienna - we realized how many nationalities were represented there.

by the way, this is one of the many things we love about serving at the bible college: people come literally from all over the world, and yet, the unity of the body of christ is tangible here. what beauty for the world to see!

here's a picture of our little multi-cultural group, from left to right:

emily (america), andrew (poland / britain), joel (america), claudia (romania), danijela (bosnia / austria), andi and nina (serbia / hungary)

arpi (serbia /hungary), gustavo (puerto rico / america), dunja (croatia)

cool, huh?

.adieu.les.condamnations.

well, before nina was born, we had unspoken parenting agreements concerning what we were going to let nina do (eat) and what would be out of question for her to do.

needless to say, the rest of the world, all you 6710144870 were not included in the decision making and you keep intruding on our plan. thus, from time to time, we need to give up our convictions, say farewell to them (thus the title) and let nina be influenced by other inhabitants of this overpopulated planet.

yes, this outrage was inspired by the fact that someone gave her nutella for breakfast while visiting friends in vienna (austria) last weekend :)

.tech.savvy.

she should be ready soon to educate her uncle and tell him finally what a podcast is :)

.our.daughter.

having your mouth washed with soap is so outdated :)

.giving.in.

sissy (plural sissies), a noun, meaning a timid, unassertive person. synonyms are mama's boy or pansy.

i have to admit, i am giving in to weather. with temperatures below freezing, i have decided to put on socks and shoes, starting tomorrow morning. good bye rainbows, see you in four months or so (unless i end up having to go to california in january). from now on i will have to spend a total of 90 seconds every morning putting on socks and shoes - time wasted.

good bye freedom

from andi: yes, my husband is weird. and cute.

.the.end.of.the.world.as.we.know.it.

president-elect of the united states of america barack hussein obama ii was right when he said in his victory speech that america is a place where all things are possible.

i guess it is only expected that american companies, representing american interests (thus american people), show the same kind of approach to business as well. in my personal opinion mcdonald's has gone way too far in implementing this idea by offering hungarian-looking (yes, it only looks hungarian) food items at their establishments (i refuse to call them restaurants).

i have not ventured to try these fine products at a restaurant (there, i said it, i called it a restaurant) near me, and i don't think i will any time soon after reading these reviews at chew.hu and velvet.hu either.

.dont.mess.with.texas.

we had quite a few guests today. it happened so that all of them were from one of my favorite places - texas. go panthers! dillon football forever!

two of our guests were pastors from calvary austin. we had a wonderful time catching up on what the lord has been doing in our respective lives, making fun of lame christian books and eating chocolate zucchini cake, yum :)

much later, almost at midnight, we were blessed to have heather mercer (of global hope) over for fellowship and sharing about ministry to muslims around the world. we are so thankful for her time and insights and were much blessed by her heart and were encouraged regarding our plan to minister in bosnia.

.bubbles.are.my.friends.

as a boy i never liked bathing, i felt that it was a waste of my precious time - time that could have been better spent watching television or playing some more.

well, girls are different. they are not smelly (like boys) maybe because they just love bathing. nina loves putting shampoo in her hair. every time she bathes we have to put blue, yellow, and green shampoo in her hair as well. and the end result? see for yourself :)

no comment ...

.500...

... that is days. it has been that much since nina arrived.

much has changed since then. she speaks fluent gibberish, climbs couches, places phone calls, knows the difference between yes and no. she also knows many other useful things, such as shoes and socks are smelly, that the oven is hot, or that bathing means that we can put shampoo in our hair. we are definitely not biased, we just know she is a genius :)

day 1 / day 500

.let.the.accessorizing.begin.

i know this is just one small step for nina, but it is a giant leap towards looting my wallet to purchase trinkets :)

her hair in a pony tail last night, for the first time

.this.morning.

the view (i took it after running)

in the meantime, missy was displaying the journalist genes inherited from her grampa

.trick.or....

nina, the dragon slayer :)
(thanks nick and rosemary for the costume)

.biscuits.très.chocolat.

Today I made my first recipe from Clotilde's cookbook, the very chocolate cookies.

And they are just that: like eating three bars of chocolate at the same time. Delicious! Arpi approves! (I made my cookies a bit bigger than the recipe suggests, so they are not as chubby as the original ones, but they are still very, very good.)

If you'd like to try them, come and see us in Vajta! :)

.amen.

we belive nina uttered her very first conscious full word last night. it was an amen after andi finished praying for dinner.

the funny thing was that after saying amen she started repeating other words as well, pupak for example (which is belly button in serbian/croatian), while pointing at her stomach.

maybe we should have started to teach her croatian/serbian in the first place, since she seems to be so good at it. last night was sort of a balkan night (we had a dinner with a serbian girl from bosnia who lives in austria now, a croat/slovene girl from croatia, and the two of us, hungarians from serbia with a bit of croatian background) and we spoke this mix of balkan languages during the entire dinner. it was fun!

.meet.clotilde.

I love cooking and baking. I love collecting recipes. I could spend hours searching for and reading new recipes. I could spend hours in the cookbook section of bookstores. Part of me wishes that I could spend days on end just testing recipes, feeding them to large crowds (hopefully, appreciative ones), and then do some more cooking and baking.

Years ago I discovered that some recipe-sharing websites allow you to search by ingredient. So, since I had a bunch of zucchini on hand (it was their season) and was getting tired of sauteing them, I decided to do a search for that ingredient. And out came the recipe for zucchini chocolate cake. Intrigued by the name? So was I. So I gave it a shot. It has since become a family favorite, and I have become a pretty regular visitor of some of these websites, along with the one where this recipe came from. It was a link to a link to a link to here.

The writer of the blog is a young French woman, Clotilde Dusolier, whom I wish I could spend a week-end with, cooking and having gourmet fun. And then recently, my wonderful husband decided to buy me her book.

This book is amazing, and wonderful, and exactly how I think a cookbook should be, and exactly how I like cookbooks to be and the recipes, are - of course - oh, so interesting, and unusual but still doable and mouth-watering. I guess you could say that it's a cookbook after my own heart. If I were a kid, I would put it under my pillow at night for the next week or month or so. But I am not anymore, so I will instead soon try to make the Biscuits Trés Chocolat (Very Chocolate Cookies), or the Tarte Chocolat Caramel (Chocolate Caramel Tart), or the Cake Tomate Pistache et Chorizo (Tomato, Pistacho and Chorizo Loaf), or the ...

.commitment.

i am so blessed to know that andi is committed to me and to replanting cacti. you see, we are trying to have at least one cactus (or any other kind of potted plant for that matter) survive at least one season in our home, but no such luck so far.

i guess, what i have described with so many words here would be called love, or commitment in plain language :)

.mojo.

if i believed in mojo, or any other kind of magic charm, i would tell you that i have a very bad geek mojo going on right now. most of the things i touched during the last day acted funky or stopped working altogether. i am in desperate need of displaying some glorious geek bravado.

it all started with my laptop battery charger in the office. it only worked for a second, then it did not work for a second, so my laptop screen was flickering like a christmas display. the good thing is that when i tried a day later, it worked fine.

after that came the brand new (and very brand fake) 16gb pen drive i purchased on ebay for dirt cheap from a very reliable (i am naïve, you can laugh at me) seller in hong kong. my precious posession started corrupting files (not quite what you want from a pen drive) and stopped working altogether after owning it for less than a day.

thirdly, it was time for the internet to mess up my life. i am not going to go into details, but let me just tell you that i wasn't able to complete any of the tasks planned for yesterday. my to-do list now is longer than it was yesterday morning - always a bad sign.

then it was time for a very reliable product marketed by steve jobs (namely the ipod nano we own) to just stop working altogether. no signs of life, no flickering, not even a half-eaten silver apple to reassure me that there is still a chance to enjoy this ridiculously overpriced product.

i really hope this is it for today. if not, i will make sure to give you further updates for your entertainment - if my laptop will be working, that is...

.outreach.

One of the last things Jesus told his disciples before leaving this earth, was:

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (Gospel of Mark 16:15)

One of the coolest (among many) things about the Bible College we live and serve at, is that each semester, the students go out for a 10-day outreach to do exactly that: preach the Gospel. This semester's departure day is today, October 17th, and they are going to the following countries:

India
Kosovo
England
Ukraine
Romania
Hungary
Moldova

How extremely exciting! Please, join us in praying for all these teams during this time (October 17th to 26th): safety in travel, unity, soft hearts...and so much more!

.multicultural.experience.in.the.hospital.

If you speak Hungarian, and would like to have a good laugh, read this post by our good friend, Trudy. She and her husband are Americans, living in Hungary. Her husband, Russ was hospitalized for a few days recently, and Trudy wrote a great post on Russ's experience as a foreigner in the Hungarian medical system. We enjoyed it tremendously, and we know you will too!

.picasso.dali.klimt....here.i.come.

during the last few weeks nina has shown an increasing interest in pens and paper, so crayons were purchased, much to her delight. she was amazed when discovering her box of crayons this afternoon and immeditately went to work.

you may think this is foolish of us to publish this, but i guess parenthood makes you do all the clichés you smiled at before becoming a parent.