Contrary to beliefs of evil onlookers, cool things do happen in Budapest. For example, sometimes this European cradle likes to dress like sin city New York. Why else would there be five yellow cabs lined up around the corner from the Hungarian Parliament and a Kosher Deli sign glued over the barber’s? 
Either Budapest was begging for a maker over, celebrating Halloween early, or… they were shooting a film! They were! Right next to my house for 5 nights in a row with streets blocked and taxies, New York news vehicles and an ambulance all lining the streets. Ah, nostalgia!
They did it! After much procrastination M&M had a baby! The beautiful Francesca was two weeks late, but already two weeks old yesterday, and she is a total stunner. Right now she enjoys eating, burping and sleeping. She won’t be carrying on with this slacker existence for long! Her dad is setting goals for her already - she has to learn two languages and speak in 5 months! A bit of an overachiever requirement, if you ask me, but no mountain is too high for the Guarinieri offspring!
I went to Azerbaijan for the second time this year and the country continues to completely mesmerize me. From beautiful Baku we traveled to the very southern region, where Azerbaijan borders with Iran. While women in Baku wear outfits that would make Britney Spears’s early show garb look like business attire, this region is more conservative and women here wear head scarves and pride themselves on their ability to carry heavy things on top of their heads. When we got out to photograph the “firewater” – 
the water that’s being pushed up to the surface by natural gas and can be set on fire – the little boys who were hanging out around the spring started snapping photos of me with their cell phones. A touching and zoo-like moment. Back in Baku, we took full advantage of Azerbaijani hospitality, which seemingly has no limits. The ancient part of the city, which is favored equally by locals and tourist is being invaded by western developers. But still, the Baku castle stands beautifully on the Caspian shore. More sweet photos on my flickr page!
The all over fabulous band Muse was here in Budapest this past Wednesday. They were supposed to play the Budapest Sports Arena but unfortunately (well fortunately for us) played only a blocked out by separator walls half of it, since, I guess, Muse is not big in Hungary. The show, aside from the wildly bad Hungarian opening band, was fantastic. This photo of the hot drummer was either taken by me or by my coworker with her Fuji digital camera.