Where has the year gone! It came and is gone in a blink of an eye. It does not feel like 365 days are done. Just yesterday I was celebrating the 1st of Jan 2009, just yesterday we embarked on a crazy work deadline, just yesterday we met the crazy work deadline, just yesterday I went to Australia and then just yesterday was thanksgiving and christmas. Where do these days runaway from us? I don't know. Looking back though, the 365 days were really wonderful. I most ways, I have grown up, grown out of old notions and warmed up to new exciting times I live in. More of a soul searching year with lots of demands and deadlines from all over and each was met with equamity and compassion. It has been a very very busy year for work, play and house and yard and almost every front. So much so that it was just too much to be blogging about the same too. So, unfortunately this blog 'suffered' because there were too many things and not enough time to put them all down into words. Hope the next year includes this blog as a priority too. So, Cheers to all. Make them resolutions and Make them Stick!

The excuse for not blogging being.... "I am too busy" is getting really old and boring! So, I am going to say, I am wicked busy at work and leave that at that. But, somethings got to give! Since March 26th life at work has been one long marathon! Wow, we are in July. Hmmm... where did the Memorial and July 4th weekend go? Wasn't it supposedly a long weekend? Eh!

I need to reclaim weekend time (and the mandatory holidays) to do summer things.... like go to the beach and watch the tides, read a book at a cafe over a lazy cup of coffee, catch a movie and dinner at Cafe Escadrill or Tryst, or explore new spaces. I have a plan..... (er... I always seemed to do... I need to act on this plan! ).... sort of! I am planning a trip to the furthest spot from here!

Stay tuned.

What does one do on sunny summer friday morning? This friday is a summer-Friday, very generously given by company to take off. Lately work has been busy enough that taking a day puts me back more than a day, so taking off is really not very useful nor productive. But, it is worth it, when the sun shines, and strawberry farms calls.... well... one goes strawberry picking!

10.75lbs of the gorgeous sugars! Yummmy. This is my annual visit to the Smolak Farms. It is a bit ways away, but a lovely drive and the trick is to get there really early. Around 8:30 AM, I have the farm to myself. It is a beautiful morning, rain washed, clean and clear, blue skies, warm sun promising to turn it blaze on later in the morning. Strawberries themselves just ripe for the picking! So yummy. This time I came prepared, with my Zune and ear plugs and my most recent favorite soundtrack (Angels and Demons - Hans Zimmer) really filling up the entire farm! Or that is what I felt it to do, just fill up the skies and the silence around me with powerful melodies of orchestra. 90 mins later, I had loads of strawberries and decided to high tail it back.... before the temps climbed into the 90 deg

I miss going to the movies, I have been hob-nobing with friends and neighbors and acquaintances, but I miss good ole' fashioned going to the movies with a bucket of popcorn.

There have been some cool movie out there from Watchmen to Slumdog Millionaire and I want go.... any one feeling the same?

I finally bit the bullet and decide the time was ripe and perfect to refinance.

For a month I have been watching the market and going back and forth about the daily fluctuations of the fixed rates. Finally, one day, it just felt right in the gut. I seem to do pretty darn well when I listen to the gut. It has yet to stir me in the wrong direction! Come to really think about it, it has yet to stir me in the perfect direction! The gut does pretty darn well at good-enough or better, but it has to learn the skills for perfect and swesome (sweet and awesome). Anyways, I followed the gut and locked the rate down. Nice work!

The past week has been busy getting all the paper work to the underwriters and the appraisals. So far all is smooth sailing and simply waiting for the closing dates! Cross fingers and... er... listen to the gut and it should come it alright.

Of all the inevitable things that needs attending..... taxes is one of them!

A long while back (cannot really pin-point the actual moment of enlightenment) I realized the power of organing for the taxation in the _previous_ year. I believe, if you wait until beginning of 2009 to _organize_ for taxation for 2008, then you are already a year _too late_. Perhaps intuitively it appeals to the notion of getting all ducks in the row and keeping them there. But, ducks will do as ducks please! So sometimes the well placed belief runs amok! (Hey! I am not perfect... athough I strive to be ;) )

In 2008, I did live up to my belief and organized every scrap and scrip of paper that leads to tax form completion. So, if you are wondering if this blog is going to detail something that went wrong, then I am sorry to disappoint you!

Taxes done, filed and shipped! Baby! I am done for 2008. :) A weekend extremely well spent!

A few weeks back I wrote about reclaiming my sundays. Post the reclaim, I find myself busier than normal. Weird! I hoped that the reclaimed sundays was the day to plough through hetherto neglected items. I find myself not ploughing through on a bullet train, but slowly dragging through sludge! Not literally! Eugh! That would be simply horrid (i hate sludge). Slow (sometimes excruciatingly slow) is the way things are going right now. I have come to realize there is no point in push a pace which is not really effective.

... not all pace is slow, some of it is happening in breakneck speeds! Work for instance has gotten wicked busy! That is the only way I like it, I thrive in it. It is the need to be needed, otherwise it is irritating boring and waste of time. Past year there were scheduling challenges that made for less than optimum speeds of progress. But this year, the train is chugging along at a quite a clip! Every so often, like today, the train takes a break at a station. It is fun to get off the train for the day and explore the world around at the station.

... not all of it is work, social life has suddenly gone to becoming one crazy stream of fun-filled wackiness. I guess everyone is coming out of the wood work post the cold snowy winters of the northeast. Back to back, I have wine tastings, dinners, pot-lucks, visits to my favorite haunts - scutra, lexx, oak room, and the list is simply ever expanding. I have plotted on my calendar to be free some evening in April.

... not all of it is fun, there are some tough questions to be attended to, really tough ones; it is time to let go of the past, time to shed them as old ragged clothes burn or bury them. Somethings and some people are just not worthy of my time, kindness and love. Time to toss these out once for all. Someone wise said (or may have been in a movie!) "You see things more clearly when you let go!". And of course the toughest question... what color to paint my living room! So many shades of white! From cream to egg-shell to snow to clear to brilliant to dusky! Wah! I just wanted white! Another toughie... planning plantation this season!

... not all of it is tough; some are complete no-brainers; No strain on the brain to play with kitties, completing wine catalog (I am proud of this baby!), enjoying the sun and warmth (I am the hopeless optimistic about it being warm soon), completing my porch work, and planning home refinancing. Last year lent promise lasted couple of weeks, this time it lasted less than 12 hours. Ok! What does that tell me? Hmm.... It tells me (a) stop doing these lent promises, it does not work and (b) I am going to hell, ah! If and only if there is one and I don't think there is one. I believe the heaven and hell are all part of the kingdom of god! HA! And I don't know what kingdom of god means as yet, and I don't bother defining it, save for the belief that it is all around me. So, I infer heaven and hell is all around me! Just look around you and you will find all examples of good, kind, bad and evil.

... not all of it is.... I am running out of these, so I will wrap up and run out the door to meet some folks for coffee at the local starbucks!

So, this is what a lazy sunday looks like. After about two years running flat out, working seven days a week, I am reacquainting myself to what a day at home with no outside commitments and demands looks and feels like. A day to wake up without any rush to get ready for the day. A day to laze under a warm-cozy down comforter over a cup of perfectly brewed coffee and a contentedly purring cat. A day to read a little, knit a little, snooze a little, and do nothing really.  A day with no to-do list pasted on the fridge, but a day let imagination take wings or not, a day to simply unfurl.

I haven't had a day like this for just about two years. Don't get me wrong I have had time off from all my work commitments, but they are were spent on commitments to family or friends or something else. Looking back I have taken some odd weeks of time away from work to meet up with family, but due to shortened visits, everyone is clamoring for your attention, and by and by it becomes hectic. Funnily, visitations are more hectic than simply working you a** off on a routine.

I must say, I could get used to sundays being just this.... do nothing day. I know it is a shortlived fantasy. Before long demands are going to pour in and commitments are going to need fulfilment and sundays are done for. Until that time I am indeed happy to reclaim a day to let the mind wander into unchartered waters with no requirements of any sorts of outcomes.

I write this at the end of the sunday as I wind down with a Sancerre....... yum.

Folks, Happy New Year.

In the latter half of 2008, I think fell off the proverbial 'bloggin-wagon'. Not that I did not have things to blog, but life just got extremely wicked busy between work and play and constantly battling cold and flu. Excuses, excuses.... bah humbug! I should not have stopped blogging simply because of these excuses. Thankfully, it is all in the past year. I can safely make the new year a better bloggin year!.... psst: Blog is a four letter work, at that.

As I write this, I have still not yet recovered from nasal or chest congestion and cough and nasty stuff. Depending on the time of the day, either the nose is running or I am congested! Dang, make up u'r mind. I have been taking low level over the counter medications, but most believe I need some heavy hitters. When I called my nurse (nice soul but sometimes dense), she exclaimed... "You sound sick". Ah ha! we are now on the same page. I sqaurely blame the flu shot taken end of November last year to cause this nasty bout of cold. Ten years ago I had take the flu shot and I remember being this sick. I officially am completely annoyed with the flu-shot. But perhaps I should not blame the shot on its own. In the past two months in addition to the work, play and cold, I have been travelling like there is no tomorrow!

Travels included meeting family and also for our national forum (Nashville, TN). Did I ever mention, I completely dislike the Nashville Gaylord hotel. It feels like a terrarium with its own weather controlled tropical feel, while outside weather is american winter. This is the third time I have had to go there and each time it has reinforced my belief of how much I completely dislike that space. Give me ice-slopes of tundra or the heat of the sahara, but not the artifically controlled recirculated crappy weather control of Gaylord. Just imagine a hundred years from now, when we have shot our environment to hell, the whole earth may be one big Gaylord kind of space! Brrr... sends shivers down my spine, but thankfully, I should have passed on to something better :)

New Years, was spent at home with kitties, some TV and Nyquil........ zzzzzz!

{Edit: 1/4/2009} Oh!! Some pictures from the Holiday time..... enjoy!

Last couple of months can simply be categorized as the busiest months I have had between work and more work, there wasn't much time to do anything else. Blogging pretty much was nonexistent.

Whats new in the last couple of months?

Work was work, it simply is. Summer is a great time to really focus uninterrupted by meeting to really design, plan and implement some really cool stuff.  So, work was work.

My neighbor had a tree trimmed. More than two cords of fantastic maple wood and it was left all for me. Thanks G! Love you for that! Over several days of arm numbing physical labor I moved and stacked them little logs onto my deck. The bright side is that I get to buy an axe or rent a wood splitter and have a wood chopping party! I have not yet bought the axe and I wonder if I can just go in to Home Depot or Lowes and say "I want an axe". I wonder if I will directed to customer service to 'register' that axe. Or perhaps, an axe is not such a terrible weapon to own. Somehow, I feel scared owing something like that! Upcoming in another couple weeks, I am holding a wood chopping party! Let me know you can (er... want to) help... I am going to need it for chopping two cords of wood. Of course, food and drinks are on the house! :)

Over the last months, one thing that has really worked out well, is the wine tasting! Yes! Almost every Saturday, I have found myself wandering over to Winchester's Spirited Gourmet to taste some incredible wines. I will blog over the next few days/weeks for the wines that I did taste and like. Interesting thing about The Spirited Gourmet is that they are finally getting together the wine diary of sorts in place where consumers can log in their wish lists, the order lists, and more over review wines as they taste them. NOW, if only they got their ducks in the row and actually allow my login to work, life would be great! DUH!

Talking about wine, my favorite store Bermans (in Lexington, MA) has finally gotten off its butt (sorry!) and got its first revamped website up. I think it is live, but _not_ alive and not even close to the full potential it can be! There is a wealth of knowledge there and can make so much difference to bringing that knowledge to the people who want it. Plus it can cater to the average wine buyer who simply wants a case of good reds!

So, between Bermans and Spirited Gourment, the jury is still out on which one I really like! Almost need a fusion of the two! It is like having two great knowledge bases, each almost complimenting each other.

Travel notes: My car is seeing more miles that it ever did in the past two months. It saw a trip to New York (my sisters place), Lake Taghkanic State Park, and couple of towns around Massachusetts. I have not flown around too much, but never say never. There is a trip to Nashville, TN just around the corner for work.

Oh yes! I turned 36! On September 8th, I celebrated my birthday.

Never expected the month to be this busy, but it did. With family travelling and me traveling and all sorts of events and activities, it was one extraordinarily fun and incredibly action-packed and exhausting month.

First week of July, my sister and two nephews visited, whilst my brother-in-law was travelling in India. We crammed loads of activities, perhaps one-too-many. But it was fun. We spent a day at Crane Beach in the warm waters and nephews spent time building castles and moats until the tide came in. On another day we spent with my sisters friend's family in a neighboring town. We made papermache heads but did not have time to see them baked and paint on them. But we did have fun getting our hands into the papermache gooeeeiiness. Then we spent half a day painting on porcelain toys. It was something I have wanted to do forever and it is in my town. Duh! I resisted doing anything until the nephews arrived. We had fun picking the toys to paint on. Of course, both the kids wanted to paint on a car. Trouble being there was only one car! Oh well! The elder settled for a Dinosaur. My sister picked a fluted bowl and I picked an oval plate. We selected paints and the painted for hours. I think we stopped when our stomachs started to rumble. The toys were painted and left it to be finish glazing or firing et. al. I thought it maybe interesting to combine a bit of home furniture shopping with entertainment for kids, so we made a trip to Jordans at N.Reading. I simply love it there. I remember spending hours (yep.. hours) at the liquid fireworks, waiting for friends. Kids loved it. They also loved the trapeze. Perhaps, most surprising, they were completely and utterly entertained in the store itself. As we wandered through the living room and sofas and office furniture, the kids were happy to pounce and pitter-patter around. At the office furniture, they managed to act as sales folks, except they kept 'selling' me everything for free. Personally, I did not mind, but the portly gent who was the sales person sounded a tad miffed. On one of the office desk chairs, the kids found the automated back massage..... ahh.... ohhhh... I didddn't wwaannntt tooo leaavve. Yet another day we spent it at the childrens museum. I had never been there and boy! was I ready for a treat. We got there mid morning and we left at closing time. It was just so much fun. It caters to all levels of kids and also brought out the kid in my sister and me. I could not have imagined a more perfect week with my sister and nephews...... ah! I did not know what lay ahead!

Talk about family travelling, my aunt and uncle have a schedule that would shame the most ardent campaign managers. My aunt is travelling for the newest arrival and addition to the family; little baby boy Cormac, a good solid Irish name for a good solid little lad. This little one is the third in my cousins growing family. My other uncle and cousin traveled from Washington D.C. to meet up with all the family. This cousin from DC I have not met since 1997. Wow! She has grown up to quite a lady! I remember a little child in pig tails! Anyways, back to my aunt! She is in my town, the dashes off to New York. Her husband, my uncle meanwhile goes to Tampa to meet his youngest son, and then returns to New York. There is some gettogether with family there. They come back to home town and then go to San Jose for more family meets and then head to Vancouver, and from there to an Alaskan Cruise. Back from there to home town. All this in 3 weeks! Wow! I am now just exhausted writing about it all. Go Aunty Go! Go Uncle Go! Awesome!

That was it I thought about travels and trips. But, in all this, we heard news from my father and that family and friends expressed their desire that either my sister or me travel to India. My sister opted to go. So, I planned a trip down to New York. It would be a trip for me to see the nephews again and deliver the ready procelain toys that we painted. Earlier I mentioned that I could not have expected a more perfect week with nephews and my sister. But, the trip to New York was equally, if not more prefect. It was a working trip for me. So, the working days were working and I took couple of days completely off. It made sense. With kids we made trips to the Bronx zoo, Kettletown State park (Connecticut), Science Fair at little ones school, watched some disneys classic animation on their ridiculously fantastic TV (btw: I want it!) and just hanging out.

In all this work still managed to be center stage. Goes to show, I can work from practically anywhere. Give me my laptop, a great bandwidth internet connection and I am so good to go! I am so ready for doing major releases in the first week of August and also plan for subquent quick fire design, development and releases.

All in all.... a rambling of millions of things with family and friends and work and play! All in all, one heck of a month.

The past few days have been miserably hot and horrid in New England. It is sometimes hard to believe that just few months ago we had 2 feet of snow lying on the ground and now the ground temperature is somewhere in the 90+ deg. What is a tad worrying is that we have not reached the height of summer as yet, which at current rate promises to be one miserable mess of a weather.

Thankfully, I have a fantastic home, with a basement, that stays at 62 deg (psst... it is where all the wine is stored, hic!) in there. I really don't start the air conditioner or the fan upstairs. Why use, if I don't really need it! So, I am hibernating in my basement with my laptop. Thank goodness for wireless access point, I have great signal even in the basement. 

I know it is too dang hot, when both Duke and Princess (*my littie kitties), have been sprawled in front of me on the cold concreted basement floor. I had to move all the food and water (er... for the cats) to the basement, because I saw they refused to go up!  I also realize how 'long' the kitties can really stretch..... dang! Both the little ones can bundle into little furry balls of about 6-9 inchs diameter, but when the occassion (such as hot weather) calls for it, they can stretch up to almost 2 feet from nose to hind leg paw! Wow, call about elasticity! Princess who always.... I mean always sleeps like a royality, is stretched and sprawled like a little drunken minx!

I want rain.... goodness sakes some rain, pleeeaaassseee!

I want one of these! Nah! I need one of these!

There are several reasons for my needing a bicycle! and in no particular order they are:

1. My doctor says, "It is better for your broken... er... fixed foot to be biking rather than walking or running on aspalt!". Yes, yes, I broke my ankle a decade or more ago and I should be grateful that I can walk, but overtime, I have brought it up to be able to walk 3-4 miles without issues and even go running when it takes my fancy! But I think what my doctor is saying very very diplomatically, is that I am getting old! Right! and I should take care of the old Bones (or cartileges or tendons etc etc)! He suggested that at some point in exceedingly far future I may need a cane! Hmmm! Me thinks...... should I get one with a silver head or gold plated. Que Sera Sera! 

2. The gas prices are atrocious! Now, I really don't use my car to commute to work, so, I really not that shamed that I don't over indulge in using in the worlds resources! Blimey! I just annoyed some folks who legitimately need to drive to their work. I am not beating you guys up at all. Actually, I really don't care how the rest of the world commutes to work, whether they are concious of or abusive of the natural resources. That is their lookout. But, my concern is my 'recreational and other commuting' that takes up roughly 40-50 miles a week! argh! That is actually the amount some folks drive to their first job. Something has got to be done for this!

3. I live  a sneeze and cough away from the Bike Path in Arlington, MA.

4. I have this vague recollections that after initial hic-cups with learning to ride a bicycle, I actually enjoyed it! The initial hic-cups include, falling down bursting knees, ramming into stationary trucks, ramming into hedges, and loads of other very exciting and side-splitting stuff that my sister can narrate endlessly in family gatherings.

Now, I have just to find one a good one that I love, so I will use it more often than not. Unfortunately, living in New England, means, I can use it about 4 months, may be 5 months in the year. But, it is just turning summer, so, I have few solid months ahead that I can use to ride.

Step 1: The bikes thus far! I have not ridden a bicycle in about 12-13 years! Actually after my ankle breaking episode, I don't believe I have ridden a bicycle! This will be so interesting to 'test' ride bikes. Where do I start? There is a bike shop less than three-fourth mile away called Quad-cycles. I may as well start there. They appear to know what they are doing. So, I test rode some bikes.... they were:

1. Fuji Absolute 1.0 17 inch
2. Fuji Absolute 2.0 17 inch
3. Breezer Town Bikes (U Frame) 17 inch
4. Schwinn Ultra Comfort Voyageur 19 inch

Of all the above bikes, the Absolute are just absurdly expensive. If my bike is going to be a thousand dollars, then I need it gold plated, and if it is then I will keep it in the glass package, which defeats the purpose of owning a bike in the first place! The Schwinn was absurdly clunky! Sorry, I thought that because I got spoilt with the ultra smooth ride that fuji bicycles provide. Hmmm! Lest you read me wrong! I loved the Absolute 2.0, and if I could justify paying $700 for it, then I would. But I cannot... not at this stage. Perhaps in a few years time.

Today I continued with my bike testing.... LLbean! 
I wanted to test ride Acadia Cruiser (by Schwinn!)... but they are completely sold out.... and I have to wait a week! But I test rode the K2 T:Nine Crosswind Womens and gosh! felt and reacted exactly as the Absolute... but a little more heavier and little more reliable on brakes and at half the price (more or less)! Go figure!

So, conclusions thus far!
I would love to have the Absolute 2.0, but I may get the K2: T:Nine or the Acadia Cruiser as my first bike! This week will tell the story.... and I cannot wait.

Tonight is our company sponsored outing to the ball game. The last one was ages ago, and I think I had fun! or didn't I?

Lets start off by saying that I am not a huge baseball fan or for that matter any of the commerialized sports. You won't find me at a game stadium, but more likely to find me at a movie theater, library (or barnes and noble), a restuarant, a wine tasting or simply at home. Lest this gives you the impression that I won't go to a game, allow me to clarify. If I find myself at a game, then I do enjoy it thoroughly. This pretty much goes for everything that I do. One of the principles that I live by is; If I am going to do (either opted or asked) something, then I do it with all my heart and soul. It is a waste of time doing it any other way.

So, I am going to have fun at the game. The outcome really does not matter too much for me and I will be happy for my friends if the Red Sox wins. But, if the other team wins, so be it, yeah for them! It will be fun because almost the whole company is going. It has been a while since I have hung out with other folks from the company. There is a pre-game that happens that means baseball food and beer before the baseball game!

(Hope it does not rain! and is not cold!)

_Post_:
The pre-game getting together for the company was at the Boston Tavern on their top deck, with food and drinks. The bright and sunny afternoon turned to nasty little dark clouds that threatened to downpour. But, apart from a spitter-spatter of rain drops it wasn't too shabby.  A group of us made our way to the game way past the start. It was interesting to be there, hanging around the bleechers to see the game in progress. Seats were what they were, nothing very exciting anyways, but for $10 I it was just fine. It was fun to catch up with folks that I have not met in awhile. After the seventh inning, it was time to head back, at least for me. It was a nice evening, just right cool breeze, and I could not wait for the bus or train, so walked from Kenmore to Harvard. It took a good hour, but it was exhilarating to walk. Home by 11:30pm and off into the noddy-world!

Pstt: Who were the RedSox playing against? er... Who won?

long time no write, and tonight is not really a night for me to write anything meaningful (hic!)

It has been roughy 15+ hours at the computer for fun purposes (hic!)  I have finally got a working vision of my blog-next generation in silverlight (groan! it blooming hurts right now to write this). I don't know if my fancy starting point blog is going to work well with this syndicated version of the blog. But it does not matter too much right now. :)

I am millions of miles away from where i want to be with my blog implementation, but I have it running on this webserver! and that is blooming incredible. :) I am happy! Over the next couple of weeks I anticpate several of these really long hours of understanding silverlight and wcf and asp.net 3.5 and a good bottle of wine! Current favorite! (hic!) Altos De La Hoya *a Jumila (Bodegas Olivares) Red Wine from Spain. Along with this incredible red wine is the soundtrack from Hitman and also from King Arthur.  

Whilst I do the changes (and enjoy great wine and music), please bear with the fact that I won't be writing much here...... and will be moving all mee blogs enteries to the new generation. (Good lord! The number of times I have hit backspace to correct typing mistakess, is actually quite funny! ha-ha-har-hee-hee)

Anyways! Great day! Man! Such a fantastic blooming day!

(HIC!) Blimey! got to go!

Twelve years ago on twelfth day of the third month of the year I stepped off British Airways flight with two suitcases and an oversized carryon to be welcomed by my sister and cousin at Boston's Logan Airport. 

Wow! Twelve years! Twelve tumultuous and terrific years! This calls for a celebration of some sorts and a recap of some sorts too.....

Twelve highlights for the twelve years (no particular order, except perhaps the 12th is exactly where I want it)......

1. Completed Masters in Computer Science... resisted the urge to continue to do PhD.
2. Travelled more in the last twelve, than the previous twelve years. Mostly within US, Asia and one in Europe.
3. Held a job or two concurrently.
4. Gained weight... lost weight... and finally learned live a healthy lifestyle.
5. Made friends... lost friends... and finally learned to not get too close.
6. Owned a house and a terrifically growing yard with flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs. Shared it with two cats (literally).
7. Killed one orchid... meticulously cared for seven others... and finally had three orchids rebloom.
8. Owned a car... had some mishaps... one warning ticket... and several scratches and one bump on the car.
9. Found a renewed passion for crafts like  knitting, crocheting, stain glass, board games, movies and wine.
10. Worked on varied technology platforms... and finally got sold on Microsoft technologies.
11. Invested in the market, rode the wave of a successful IPO and its subsequent bust.
12. and... finally... yes... lived my life my way!

As regards celebrations, I have not given it too much thought. But I am sure wine will be involved.

Okay, this should stay in Las Vegas....but Lent is out the window! After the first minute of feeling guilty..... I was over it and done.

Lent is really hard this year and it is all my fault. In the past years, I have given up (separately in different years) coffee (never doing that again), alcohol, red meat (too easy!), and eating out. On Fat tuesday we had the wine tasting at my office and the following day onwards, I proclaimed that I would give up alcohol (yes, including wine and wine tasting) and meat (eggs, fish, and all other meats). Normally, I would give up just one thing, but the 'over-achiever' bug in me decided to give up a whole lot more. Lesson learned (or learning) the hard way that giving up too much will drive me nuts.

I have no idea, what possessed me to do the same. I thought I would use the 40-days to instill some good habits, but couple of weeks into it, and I have not done a dang thing! I know exactly what I am going to give up next year..... it will be that over-achiever bug in me. Now that will be a good challenge!

Anyways, I just realized that Lent is really not 40 days, but it is almost 47 days! Popular thoughts say, that Sunday does not count. But, that just sounds like excuses to me. I have never really bothered to find out how many days, but simply did what I needed to do to stay on track and by the time Easter rolled in, it did not really irk me to over indulge in the item that I had given up.

It has been hard this year, simply because, I am missing out on some tremendous wine tasting's. I land up going to wine tasting, but taste nothing. If it sounds great on paper, I sometimes purchase the wines and house is now getting pretty dang full with wine cases around. I have got to stop doing that. Perhaps, I should leave all purchasing powers at home and then get to the wine tasting, or even not go to the wine tastings. Giving up meat has not been that hard at all. I have well balanced meal normally, so, giving up meat was okay. I should have stuck with just that.

Well! All this next time! Lessons learned! Oh! by the way..... I am not Christian! Lent just sounds something of a challenge to do! Go figure!

Since coming back from New York, I have been keeping busy living life, rather than blogging about it or may be I was being just a tad lazy about penning (typing) down what was happening. Either way, nothing got written down for a while. So, what has been happening? Loads of stuff that was on-going, well, has continued to be on-going, loads of new stuff got started, loads of stuff got done, and all along loads of fun was up for grabs.

Work front, all well that works well.

Entertainment front: Movies. Thanks to Netflix (door delivery), Netflix online and Hulu.com sites, I have caught up with several items from the queue

Shattered Glass: All about seeing Hayden Christensen in a role which nothing to do with Darth Vadar. I did get drawn into the movie as it dealt with the ethics. The movie is about a journalist, who has dreams about grandeur and he goes about getting it by fabricating his stories. It reminds me people who love to talk, love to hear themselves talk and all the while are saying nothing or are simply lying.

Arsenic and Old Lace: After the heavy dose of ethics, this one comes with Cary Grant in one of the most hilarious roles as a newly wed with aunts that have a sordid passion of killing gentlemen callers and burying them in the basement. The two aunts go about killing and burying as it was the most normal pasttime ever. It is great!

The Pianist: Holy molly, loved and hated this movie at the same time. Cannot believe I did not go to see this at the theaters.

Prime Suspect 1 and 2: I really do like Helen Mirren's role as DCI Tennyson.

And Then There Were None: As a kid I have remember reading this book, with 10 people murdered on a island, and no one could have gotten to the island and no one left. Since then I have been on the lookout for the book. Couple of months back as I was browsing through tones of used books for sale, I spotted it and bought it. It was great to re-read the book. I couldn't wait for the movie. Hmmm! Quite certain that there was a movie, I searched, found, and moved it to the top of my queue on Netflix. I must say, I was dissappointed, arghh! The suspense was there, the thrill was there, and the ending was horrid. I could believe my ears (or eyes for that matter). How dare they change the ending!

House M.D. (playing catup with season 4... I think): Hugh Laurie is really really cool. The brilliant but caustic doctor and his team as they battle the weirder of the medical problems.

Crochet Conquered! Finally, I have conquered the dopey one needle in one hand and yarn in the other craft. Yes! It has been a personal ghoul to couquer. I could knit, I could embroider, I could pick up almost any other craft, but the whole crocheting business drove me bananas. I could never manage the whole yarn and single needle thing. Conquering this thing has led me down the path of doing a sampler which is almost 50inches in square and also started on an ambitious shawl. Hmmm! I wonder if conquering a craft has lead me down the obsessive crafting path. Time will tell, but this may be a passing phase or a lasting entertainment. My very own accomplishment.

I am back in the hometown after a brief visit to see how the 'other' half lives. The 'other' half being the married-with-children-with-varied-schedules people. This married with children folks that I had the privilege to live with is my sister's family. She has two kids; one 7.5 year old that goes to second grade school and one 3.5 year old that goes to daycare. She goes to yet another school to teach a bunch of high-schoolers. After a week, I must say, Wow! Yep! a simple Wow!

All together, there appeared to be bursts of activity during the morning and evening hours with a peaceful dead-zone (for me, not for my sister) in between. It is a peaceful 5 AM to wake up to, no kitties jumping over me (hmm, I kind of missed that) to wake me up. Just past six am, my sister is up and about, shortly there after the kids are woken up. I have observed that all little ones crave mummy-time in the morning. Mummy-time is something similar to kitty-time. My kitties, simply jump on the bed (if they haven't been hanging out there already) squat on me or near my head, purring their head off. The next 15-20 minutes are completely dedicated to them, to tickle their bellies, scratch their heads, hold them and hug them. My two nephews needed exactly that.. mummy-time. By and by, breakfast, milk, coffee got made, breakfast got eaten, morning ablutions wrapped, kids got yelled, kids crying wrapped, kids got their crankiness out, kids dressed, everyone else dressed, everyone tumbled out to do drop offs.

I dropped the older one to school and my sister dropped off the little one and we switched the pickups. The school doors open at 8:25 AM. A late pass needs to be issued if the child is not inside the school doors by 8:45 AM. It is 20 mins of complete chaos in front of a school. The school buses unloading their cargos and going off to gather another cartload of kids. Parents, guardians and people like me, dropping off kids. Of course, all drivers want to park right in front of school, right at the door, probably at the classroom door! duh! What is the harm in parking a block away, getting out, walking ten (or more) steps to get to the school door. Perhaps I am beating up the droppers a bit too much. After I dropped off, I was heading home, while most people there were heading to work, trying to get there by 9:00 AM. I should really cut them some slack; after all, they were the ones that were on a more stringent timeline.

I spent most of the morning, lunch time and afternoon blissfully clickity-clicking on my computer getting work done, receiving emails, responding to emails, writing up instructions, doing demos, talking on phone and communicating on instant messenger. While I was happily typing on my computer, my sister is at her school handling lessons, reviews, talkative kids, grades, homework, teaching, doing demos and running around. Somewhere in all that she has her packed lunch and I have my bowl(s) of cereal, chips and soup.

... all was back to normal working day until 3:20 PM.

Around 3:15 PM outlook reminded me to pick the little one from daycare. Work went on hold for the next hour, whilst, I drove off to pick the little one. Picking a kid from day care was (is) not a matter of getting to the daycare, bundling the little one and driving back. 'It' is not a bag of potatoes or carton of milk that one drives to the store, purchases and drives back. It entails, spending 10-15 mins with the little one at the daycare, before the little one is prepared to head out. No sense in forcing a kid to drop their current train of thought, current book, current chat with friends, current fight, current crying or anything for that matter. I found myself enjoying my 15 minutes of hanging out with 'my' (my is in single quotes, because it my sisters little one, so indirectly mine) little one at the day care. Interestingly, if you hang around chitter-chattering with 'your' kid, random other kids gravitate towards you. One kid wanted something from other kid, and was not getting it, so was crying his head off. I happened to be around, and patted him saying: "There, there, play with something else". The next moment (to my utter astonishment), this bawling kid clung to me and cried even more. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the teacher(s) laughing heartily. All I could do was hug the crying one, which led to others coming over. Hug-Magnets, I say. By and by, everyone was sorted and I and 'my' little one were on our way home.

Back home, the little one was happy to be playing around until mummy brought the other one, and then everyone was home, exchanging news of the day. Over coffee, milk, snacks, and homework for kids, I was happily reunited with my computer to continue clicking meaningful sequences of alphabets and numbers and some odd special characters.

Almost 12 hours since we have been up, the family sits down for dinner with work for the day wrapped up, homework done, and computer shut down. In the next couple of hours, the kids have play time, reading time, fighting time, crying time, bath time, and bed time. The bed-time always came last, but all the other 'times' were in random order and many times repeated over in the same evening.

Around 9:00 PM, peace reigns once more, whence my sister goes to pack lunches, clear dishes, complete her work for the next day. Who knows when she does sleep, I am already in dream world, when she finally gets to bed.

All in all, at the end of the week, my sentiments are exactly as they were when I started the drop off and pick up schedule. A simple, WOW!

A perfectly gorgeous day finds me driving down to New York to my sisters place. I will be camped out at her house for a week. It is going to be a working week, since there are way too many things to get done for work. I have couple of deadlines to meet and couple of things to wrap up before we move onwards to other bigger items. But then that is work.

I have always wondered how do families manage two working careers and kids, and their schedules, drop offs and pick ups, homework and playtime and everything in between. I am about to embark on a week long introduction to drop offs and pick ups. I think it will be loads of fun, from new driving routes, one or more kids in the back seat, getting to school, getting to daycare, remembering access codes to drop offs, the procedure for pick ups. Wow! Already I have had the first day of pick up round with my sister navigating and me driving to do the pickups of one child from school and the other from day care. Earlier in the morning, I did a drop off for my brother-in-law at the train stop, which is near his college. In between all this drop off and pick up, we have all the ducks in the row for one deadline tomorrow. Awesome! This is wicked cool. But, of course, this is the first day. Talk me at the end of the week and I may be singing a completely different tune. But for now, life is good.....

You keep play-doh in front of me; the little child in me is going to insist I play with it. I must admit, I have plenty of play-doh at home and I use it. :) I use it to stimulate the creative side (if it exists!) of the brain, to do a temporary join of pieces of stained glass to see if they (glass color) go together, to use my fingers other than clicking on a keyboard, and mostly for just plain ole' FUN.

So, on this grand Friday, I find myself presented with bunch of play-doh lumps and I go to 'work'. After an hour or two, all I had done was kneed the different lumps into some thing resembling round balls. It wasn't very creative, nothing stimulating and fingers getting plenty of non-clicking workout. I started to make long earthworms from then on. But they were long spindles and still incredibly boring. But, what if, I arranged the 'earthworms' (which by the way happened to be green in color), like stalks. Hmm, how about stalks of lavender.... oh! oh! How about French lavender. I can almost smell them. Before I know it, we had stalks of lavender. The table next to mine had red and orange color lumps, which I rescued from their imminent boredom. While I was not looking some art patron walking left me yellow. Wow! Now we are in business. Flowers and buds just kept uncontrollably popping up. Arrgggghh.... no stopping this spring fever anymore...... 

Before you can sneeze ... bless you!

All, I (and, Of course, Duke and Princess aka Amber) wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

All I wish is for all your dreams come true!

 

The week in Florida went fast and relatively pain free. It was exhausting, but thankfully it was not painful as some of the previous experiences down at the Forum. I had made some resolutions before I travelled, and I am happy to report that I broke all of them. (Hee hee!) I know, I should feel guilty, but I don't.
Yesterday, we just made in time into Boston. We took off on time (or 10 mins early). The flight had mostly my company folks, from the President to the event planner and collegues. The fun tid-bit is that the captain, as he rattled off his welcome to the flight to boston speech, he added the fact that the flight carried most of the company, and the lead planner Tara. He went on to mention that the company was here in Orlando for a week organizing the forum for 7000 people and are headed back just before the snow starts. This speech brought on cheers with the company, a general applause and whoo-hoo's. We got into boston just before noon.

I barely made it home, said hello to kitties (who were happy to see me and appeared to be in 'where-have-u-been' meows), dashed to Trader Joes and got provisions, and it started to snow hard.

I forsee tones of shovelling..... but I am so happy to be home! the kitties and the holiday tree!

It is the evening before my trip down to Florida for the forum. Like I said before, I am dispassionately optimistic about the whole venture. I rather be home (or office) coding. There is so much to be done that it isn't funny. The endless house projects are piling up too. They (these projects) peek around the corner where they are propped and make this long face. :( Poor projects, need prioritization pronto!

Perhaps, when I return, I must make a flipchart, add projects to the list and start tackling them. One of the items on that list is ...... have fun, live life!.... It some how never gets on the priority list and it sucks! No one should have to put "having fun and living life" on some list. It should be there, it should be always there on the top of the list. But, if putting it on a list is the only way, then so be it. It is going up on the list and (may I add) top of the list.

Argh... I must pack for Florida..... Somehow packing faster, may make the trip there and back go faster.... (duh!).

I don't know who..... but somebody said = "Plans are only good intentions unless they degenerate immediately into hard work"

So, we have a free flu shot meeting in our office today. You sign off declaring that you are 'legally fit' to get a shot and then go to this meeting and get a shot.

I am ambivalent of getting one. I downloaded the form, set the calender with reminders to get the shot a week ago and then procrastinated about getting the shot. I am not scared or paranoid about getting shots. I grew up surrounded by doctors and hospitals and getting shots was no big deal. I am perfectly okay to get shot, I am just not perfectly okay to this particular shot. Why! The only reason being, that last time I got this shot, it was dreadful! I was sick for a week after the shot. With a day to go down to the forum, I was not about take a risk of falling sick. Another weird thing was that the whole year following the shot, I fell ill more often and just felt more vulnerable. So, after getting the free shot, there is a distinct possibility that I would be sicker all next twelve months or so. Getting sick would make me miserable and that alone is not worth the free shot.

So, after a long debate with myself...... the verdict is in! Flu shot is out!

It is that time of year again! It is time for the company's mass travel down to Orlando, Florida for our national forum. Last year I dreaded it and the year before I hated it. Now, I am dispassionately optimistic about it. Is that even possible, dunno! But that is exactly how I feel about the whole thing. By far we have the largest number of attendees signed up for this.

This year, I have made some serious resolutions for the forum, and it is going to take all my efforts and energy to see them through. It is these resolutions that are making it more interesting than not..... so we will have to wait to see how these really pan out. What are these resolutions? Some wise person mentioned that if I say them out loud or if I make them public, I am more likely to follow them through. So, here goes....

1. This is going to be an alcohol-free forum..... yeah! I can just see that lasting for the first 12 hours.
2. I am going to eat wisely.... Last year, I managed to put on 5lbs in 7 days! A simple matter of eating disastrously. This year.... it is going to be different.
3. Record at least 10 miles on the treadmill..... more will be great.... but this is at least numbers in 7 days. This makes the average of 1.428 miles per day. Hmm, I think this is doable.

.....that is it......

I think three resolutions are enough and just correct for me to proceed to break them....:)

We (a bunch of us) celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday.

First day of vacation and it is snowing! It is not a sad feeling, but one that makes my heart sing! I love it! It is the first snow of the season, and feeling is just inexplicably euphoric. Of course, with the snow, pretty much all that was planned is out the window and it being changed to enjoy the first of the flaky white-stuff.

Today {EDIT: oops! It is already Nov 11th, please read this as Nov 10th blog!) has been incredibly long, yet incredibly happy day. I want to bottle this feeling and use it when I am down in the pits and need a pick me up.  It has been a long day simply because, I have been up from around 5:00am  (nothing new) and it is way past midnight (whoa, this is new) and into the wee hours of the next day, and I am still up jotting a few words (mubble really!) . All day I have driven around..... allow me to elaborate.

1. 7:00am: Drove from home to Starbucks along Route 3N (en route) to North Reading to be at a one of the weight watcher meetings. Ja, I work some of these meetings to help others lose and maintain good healthy lifestyles.
2. 7:45am-10:45am: Completed meeting, closed all the accounting for the meeting, faxed in all the relevant documents for processing around 50+ members and then hopped back into the car.
3. 10:45am-1:00pm: I drove down from North Reading to Burlington Mall, to pick up a gift for Doug's Birthday Party. Thank goodness, I knew what I wanted to pick, just did not know whether it was going to be Lord & Taylor or Macy's or something else. At the mall, I picked up my yearly Swarovski's Christmas ornament, and couldn't resist the snowflake brooch. Also, picked up the long budgetted ear plugs from Bose. Of course, picked the scarf from Lord & Taylor. This was an event of its own. I liked three and could not decide between the three. One was a brilliant red and gray, the other standard green and blue and lastly the gorgeous gray. The more I drove myself nuts, the more I liked the gray one. It was lovely, and I loved it. So, there, Doug gets this one! Of course, all the while, I was reiterating to myself, that Doug may or may not like it at all. So, got it gift receipted just in case he wanted to return it. Anyways, I hope (I really do!) he likes it.
4. 1:00pm-1:20pm: Realized that there is no gift wrapping done as yet at the mall! WHHHAATT! God gracious. I drove home, and within the next twenty minutes gift wrapped the gift, and wrote out the card. Thank god, I had picked the card up!
5. 1:20pm-1:55pm: Just enough time to drive up to Methuen! Argh! Through all the traffic of I-95 and I-93, for the second time this day.
6. 2:00pm-5:00pm: GOD! I had hoped to get to Dougs Party by 4ish. Darn! I had mentioned in the email, that I would be there by 4pm. I think he is laid back and cool enough not to be bothered, if I was late. 3-hour seminar! yuck! People! Shorten that damn presentation! Sorry I am just annoyed.
7. 5:00pm-<don't know the time>: It is dark when I leave the seminar (ARRHGGHH!), I am driving down from Methuen down to Bellerica. I have never done this before. Couple of wrong turns..... and stops later, I arrive at Dougs place.
8. <don't know the time>-12:00midnight: I don't think I remember having so much fun at Doug's place as I did today. Is it because, I am incredibly happy? I don't even know what is making me feel incredibly happy. We pieced together a 750 piece puzzle. I love puzzles, I think, more than some board games. I have a whole bunch at home and my kitties love to 'help'. Yep! They help by watching me piece something together and then paw me with their soft little paws, and then run off with a piece in their mouth. I have to physically lock my puzzle in one of the spare bedrooms. But then the kitties sit out side the locked door, meowing pathetically, until I let them in. I wonder when I can really do these. I have just got a new Ravensburger puzzle which I want to do.
9. 1:30am the next day! Holy molly, I am still awake. This always happens, if I am awake past a certain time, I can keep awake all night.... which is going to be tonight! My only concern is that tomorrow plans to be wicked busy too! I have another meeting at 8:00am and then Innovations meeting at 11:00am to 4:00pm and past that, I am pretty sure I am going to be dead to the world.

---- Must go to sleep ----

I feel just incredibly happy and elated. Don't know why, but I do. There is a sense of peace, direction, and happiness. Something that I have not felt in a long while. Thinking about what could have made me feel this way and finding none, has simply led me to the conclusion that I must be growing up. Things that would simply drive me batty before, scarcely raise an eyebrow anymore. Still there are things that drive me completly batty.

So, I put together the Batty-ness list:

1. Dishonesty. Yep, it drives me quite pots, or batty or annoyed to know someone has been dishonest with me. Weird, though I have to know to turn batty, otherwise I am live in blissful ignorance. So, in summary, if you want to be dishonest with me, just take it outside and leave me out of it. 
2. Computerized sales dialing. In the same light, business that don't pay attention to 'Do not call lists'. Annoying bums!
3. False flattery.  In the same vein as the dishonesty. Some people live under the illusion that if they flatter someone, then it will all work out. Flash News: No siree bob! If you want to compliment, then do sincerely or don't do it at all.
4. Folks who bluff when they have no business talking about the subject in the first place.
5. Being re-gifted. I really do like to take the time to find something really nice and perfect for the folks I truly care about. It drives me completly nuts, if my gift is re-gifted... and perhaps more batty if I actually told about the same.

I realize that some of the items in my batty list are silly and weird. But then they are on my batty list (make one for yourself!). Most of them I am working on to make me less batty. But should I really be working on them? Aren't these the quirks that really go to define who I am?

I have a face book!

Hey guys! I am now on face book. I highly recommend it, it is awesome. Already, have found a whole bunch of folks on it that I work with and also friends that I used to work with in past jobs. It is nice to catch up with all of them.

A very very long while ago, about ten years ago, I had put in an application for an enviable position. Over the years, I entertained the thought, that perhaps, I would get a hearing or an audition or at least a trial. Today, I learned that the application has been summarily dismissed without a second thought. Something broke! All I can think is: "That what does not break you only makes you stronger!" Does it really? I mean it is so easy to say it, but does it really mend?

For the past week or so, I have been on a hunt for that gadgetty thing that pipes music to my ears. This morning, as I browse through, I read the horoscope for the day!

"The shopping bug has bitten, and it's not letting go -- but this fascination with material goods is not going to be good for you right now. All signs still point to save, save, save! Not only is throwing your cash around going to drain your resources, but it's distracting you from things that matter most. There's more delight to be found in the people around you than in some silly new gadget or trendy accessory. Put yourself on a budget and avoid the mall for a while" 

Right! Thanks! (Shaking my fist at providence, if it exists!)

I want one of those things!

Those things that pipe music to your ears at a drop of a hat pin or less. Right, I need a small portable music player. Before you say iPod, allow me to say, I don't want to deal with iTunes (well, if I don't have to :) ).  My criteria:

1. It should be Flash Card (not hard drive), as I will be using as I workout.
2. It should play mp3 and wma formats, and please have an FM tuner. I am hooked on radio in my car!
3. It should have re-chargable batteries.... I am not spending on new batteries and I am good at making sure batteries are all charged.
4. It should play..... ah!.... well!.... great!

Any ideas?

My current reigning favorite is: The 8GB Zen by Creative Labs. Any others? Please do suggest!

As I cleaned my website this evening, some sad truths became very apparent. No one has really posted on this blog! It is journal with my jottings which (perhaps) only I find interesting enough or passionate enough to write up. More than once, I refer back to these scribbles, especially on what is on the wine, travel, schedule for yard or schedule for the month. So, really, I am my own blog reader! On the flipside, placing myself in a reader's shoes, there is nothing in here for most to comment or discuss on either. I think what is making it really sad, is that the entry with celebrating my own birthday, had not one comment. How sad!

This is making me quite blue this evening. Or maybe the overdose of listening to the soundtrack of Last of the Mohicans!

Currently feeling.... like running away! Just don't know where!

Tonight was Figaro's turn to entertain. My friend and I decided to indulge in an evening with Loeb Drama Center's Figaro. The play was fun! It was an evening with the arts. Every time I go to a play I wonder why I don't do more of the same. Living/Commuting/Working close to some of great theaters, I don't go to see too many plays. Why is that? One perhaps is that the tickets are expensive and can be indulged in less frequently, than say going to the movies or watching TV at home, the other is that, I just don't find the time. There is a solution for the both these concerns. I should (and now have) a little budget planned out to indulge in this form of entertainment and have planned 'mandatory-fun' days. The budget should take care of the entertainment expenses and this is not just plays, but also exploring new cuisines. The 'mandatory-fun' days are days/evenings that I really do take off and exploring the new world (whatever the new world means).

Back to the evening of Figaro! My friend and I met up couple of hours before the play. We had dinner reservations at the Craigie Street Bistrot at 5:30pm and it was just 4:45pm. We wandered around Harvard Square, essentially looking for a watering hole. We stopped at Om, both of us completely hankering for their Champagne with Lavender essence. But, we were disappointed as the place does not open till 6:00pm. Next stop, Z-Square! Downstairs is their full bar and restaurant. As soon as we sat at the bar, and were asked what we would like, we were "Prosecco!" (that's Italian bubbly). They served Fantinel Prosecco, that was incredibly bubbly, dry, elegant, floral, and wow!

From there, we headed to the Craigie Street Bistrot. A small, elegant restaurant in the basement, with excellent French cuisine. It was a tad expensive, but it was worth every penny. We shared the Trois Foies which was accompanied with ground mustard, greens, gorgeously toasted bread and assorted chutneys. I followed that up with their Cheese platter with Fromage Montagne (Cow, Alps), Charollais Fervier (Goat, Burgundy), and Pigouille (Sheep, Pyrenees). I had the hostess write down all the names of the cheese's and accompanying these stunning cheeses, was a shared half bottle of 2005 Pouilly-Fumé Hubert Veneau (Loire Valley, France; Varietal: Sauvignon Blanc). Almost perfect pairing for the Pigouille (as it turns out). What I like about French dining is that the food is exception and so well portioned. We were satisfied, but not stuffed. We were hankering for coffee after all that wine and cheese, but we had to run to the play at the Loeb Drama Center. Wallets being a little lighter made the run easier!

All in all a good evening! All the yummy food (definitely going to go back there for the chef's tasting, when we have more leisure time), and fantastic play.

{Edit} As I researched the wine and cheese online, I came across this site which lists about 500 different cheese and their wine type pairings! Dang!

It was a picture perfect day with bright blue cloudless sky, warm sun and cool breezes, to be apple picking. My friend and I drove up to Smolak Farms to meet a bunch of other folks and enjoy the farm, the weather, hang out and pick some apples. Looked like the rest of New England had the same notion. Must have been at least a few hundred that showed up at the farm for apple or pumpkin or heirloom tomato pickings, or hay/pony rides, or the hot fresh baked apple pies and cinnamon-sugar donuts! What a perfect way to start off the Autumn season (Sept 23rd was the first day of Fall), with the smell of fresh baked goodies, cool breezes nipping at the nose, and warm sun overhead! Gosh! Love every minute of it. I wish I could bottle it! I can still smell the day (absurd but true)!

Picture perfect day with plenty of apples
Plenty of pumpkins (above) and my humble pickings (below)

Got an update from the organizers to the trip to Davis's Mega Maze. Interestingly, I was the only one who could not make it on Sept 29th and rest all could. So, the correct decision was to go with Sept 29th.

But it just made me think! How well do I know these folks? How well do I know the folks for the Apple picking?  Is this back to the Friends & Faces question? Maybe I am reading too much into non-existent issues, or making a mountain of a mole-hill (or less). I like to think that I have way too many options and way too many things to do with way too many people to do them with and hence, there is always a choice to be made. I made the choice to go apple picking on Sept 29th. It so happened that the rains washed the plans of the Maze from Sept 15th to Sept 29th. So, it is just a bunch of choices

This fall, I have plenty to do and (of course) no time to get it all done. My fervent hope is to tackle them all.... er....or at least most of them.

After watching Greenfingers, I have been bitten by the fall planting bug. Several blubs and plants have been ordered and soon shall be lovingly planted. I think, I have to order some Critter ridder (or blaster), something - anything, to keep those furry little nuisances (squirrels) from digging up the bulbs. I would love to have a gizmo, that goes 'pop' and scares the living daylights off the rodent, when they dig in the yard and are just about the get their paws on the blub. Now, that would be funny! Couple of years ago, I planted 40-45 Crocus bulbs and those nasty little devils dug most of them out. So, this year, I am going to be prepared. I hate to add toxins in ground, but in this case I am going to make an exception. Oh! I do believe their furry tail is way overrated.

Both the little kitties need to get their annual shots! Poor things, they are petrified with visits to the vet. I have to make it doubly sure, that I can be with them for at least couple of hours after. They cling on to me, like there is no tomorrow. If I move around holding them, they dig their claws deeper and a loud "meow" makes it amply clear for me to stay put. I wish I could take both together, and get it done in one afternoon. According to the vet - NO. One has to get it in Sept and the other in October. The reasoning being, they were given shots in different months to begin with, so I have to stick to that schedule. Hmm! Weird! I don't get it. What if I skipped the September month and delayed the shot for one of them into first week October, would it be the end of the world? Does that mean, on Sept 30th, the effect of the previous shot ceases and Oct 1, the kitty is vulnerable? Of course, I don't know the exact date and time when the previous shot was given. It could have been earlier in the month and not later. Arrggghhh! Stupid!

In some previous post, I mentioned that my neighbor (and her family) has moved to Japan for six months. Since that post, they have arrived safe and sound in the little city of Tokyo and getting over jet-lag and settling in. Meanwhile, on this coast, I am now the landlord and caretaker of their house. This is going to be so interesting to do. Everything I do for my house, has to be doubled (I think)! Or I have to simply keep a watchful eye out. Their gardener has been instructed to do the lawn and fall clean up. Thankfully the house is going to be rented for a few wintery months, so, I don't have to worry about keeping the pipes from freezing and keeping a closed house in working condition. So, really, I do not have too much to do, except collect mail, keep a watchful eye out for issues, solve them if they occur, and email my friend and reassure her.

Fall Schedule:

• Sept 22, Saturday: Either the Davis' Mega Maze (if organizers decide it will be Sept 29th and not Oct 6th) or fall planting prep begins or hang out at home playing with board games.
• {Edit: 10/1}! Did some yard cleanup, but nothing new planted.
  
• Sept 23: Official Autumn Starts!
• {Edit: 10/1}! Right-o!
  
• Sept 29, Saturday: Apple picking! Umm! Yes! of course! It wouldn't be fall without going out to the farm lands one more time before winter sets in. This year, I missed strawberry and peach picking, but did great on blueberry and red/yellow raspberry. A bunch of us heading to Smolak Farms for apple picking and then baking.
• {Edit: 10/1}! Picked 11lbs. of apples at Smolak farms, hung out with new folks. played Cranium. Did not do any baking.
  
• Sept (sometime):
  • get one kitty to vet.
  • get car inspection done.
  • complete two stain glass restorations...... ok! At least one then!
  • {Edit: 10/2}! Arghhh.... no appt till sometime in Oct.
    
• Oct 2, Tuesday: Figaro at Loeb Theater. This is for my mum. I miss her so much and wish she were here! I wanted to see Don Juan too, but the schedule is too crazy.
• {Edit: 10/3}! Done... excellent evening with French food and Figaro!
  
• Oct 6, Saturday: Davis' Mega Maze. This will depend on scheduling with organizers. If does not work, then go on Sept 22nd, Saturday. So, either the Maze or the fall planting continues.
  
• Oct (sometime): get the other one to the vet. Dumb! I am going to take both of them together. They are not outdoors cats, so, there is very limited 'catching' they can do.
  
• Nov 10, Saturday: Wine and Apple Festival, Russell Orchards. I missed the peach festival, held in August.
  
• Nov 11, Sunday: Innovations..... All afternoon (argh! one of those things where appearances are essential).
  
• Nov 17, Saturday: Keep absolutely open! Celebrating (dunno how!) four year completing at my current job.
  
• Nov 19, Tuesday - Nov 26, Monday: Thanksgiving week! Taking all week off. Yes! I need that. 

I am pretty sure, lots of other field trips and activities will crop up and I will not be able to say no. Well, there is no reason to say no. Love this weather, with nippy cold mornings and warm days.

{Edit}: Oops, forgot..... get to work during the weekdays!

Lately, I have been doing tremendous amount of soul and mind searching towards (perhaps!) a fruitless goal. Every morning on the bus ride to work as I listen to Russell Watson belting out Va Pensiero or Nessum Dorma, I have been trying to answer the following:

***** Who are my Friends and Who are just Faces? *****

If you can answer that one for yourselves then I congratulate you. To really answer the 'Who' I need to clarify what makes a friend and what makes a face (duh! of course in my personal opinion, yours may be different). For me a face is simply a soul with a name, whose path(s) have intersected with mine at some juncture and that intersection distinguished them from the general masses. A friend is a face with whom I might share a tad more, in terms of interests, conversations, emails and spend time together. I am pretty sure there are levels within the friend section that distinguish one from another by how much of the sharing/giving/spending is happening. But whatever the levels may be, a friend commands some of my heart and soul. Therein lies the true distinction for me, how much does a person really have a hold on my heart and soul. A face holds nothing, while friend can command from a little to all of it. I was a little enlightening (at least to me) to reach this graduating scale, and the realization why it hurts when a friend falls off the cliff to become a face.

Right now I find myself on very shaky ground and I know why! In the past few weeks too many friends have fallen off the cliff, or have they? or have I changed to increase the minimum bar for friend and the gap between the friend and the face has increased, causing friends to fall off and become faces? Or was I mistaken (to begin with) to call them friends when they really were only faces. As I battled these.... I posed several people couple of different scenarios to help me sift through this mess.

Scenario 1: For five or six years, two people looked after each others houses and cats when the other was out of town. Then one day one of them moves to live just couple of miles away and that is it. No more conversations, no nothing..... Did this two people just fall off the friend cliff and become faces?

Scenario 2: Two people go to a movie; one buys the movie ticket for both. After the movie at a quick bite to eat place, the other does not even offer to buy the edibles. Are these two friends? or are they just faces? Or was it a mistake for one to assume that the other was a friend?

Scenario 3: Two people live next door to each other, exchanging hellos/byes over a fence etc. One day one of them relocates for several months to a different country and leave the other in charge of their house. Did those two people just move from being faces to friends?

The soul search continues......

So, how did I do with what do I want for my 35th?

10. I want... to start a new arts/crafts (crochet, knitting) project.
I got... to start an ambitious crochet scarf with a beautiful peach color yarn (pics coming soon). I started the project three days ago, and had to undo and redo several times to get it all just right, correct mistakes, change needles etc etc. And yesterday, as I was running out the door, I left the yarn ball with about 6 inches croheted on my couch. I tell you this, because, my kitties decide to lend me a hand at this project! When I came home on friday, my good helpers had managed to spread, roughly 450 yards of yarn all over the dinning, living room and porch, around the tables and couches! A prefect new project! Thanks guys!

9. I want... to play a board/card game or two.
I got... nothing

8. I want... to go for a movie or walk. 
I got... to think about it, but then didn't go to see any movie. I talked myself out of sitting in a dark room for 2-2.5 hours. When I could be walking in 90+ temp...... Nah! I did walk within Wilson farms getting flowers.... I think that counts.

7. I want... an email or a comment in this blog.
I got... an email from my aunt and uncle with warmest wishes! Thanks guys! I knew that wishing a comment in this blog would be asking too much. Besides, I don't think anyone reads this anyways, it is a great place for me to write stuff.... who really cares if people read it or not.

6. I want... a call or two with wishes.
I got... two calls!

5. I want... to receive a house plant, flowers, balloons or bottle of wine.
I got... myself bunches of white lillies and lavender. Forget balloons! I am not 10! and I spent the budget on flowers, rather than wine.

4. I want... to have a visitor or two...er, postman does not count.
I got... no visitors... and the postman did drop cards at my door! I received the cards from my nephews! Thanks for the cards, they are wonderful.

3. I want... to be treated to a coffee/drink... or dinner.
I got... treated to lunch by two of my office colleagues! This year, I had gone out of my way to ensure that our office manager did not put my name up and did not put the goofy wishes on my computer screen. Yet! These guys remembered or found out, doesn't matter. What is important that they wished me and took me to lunch on Friday.

2. I want... to wake up to celebrate my 30th birthday and not 35th! HA!
I got... to get wiser! I am 35! Proud of it and looking forward to the next milestones. I really don't want to be 30 again!

1. I want...
I got........... hmmm! ask me and I might tell you!

With the approaching 35th birthday, I got thinking about what I would truly want for the day. As I pitter-potter-ed around the house, getting some work and house work wrapped up, I jotted down all the items I would want. This morning, I finally ordered them from 10 to 1, where ten is the most simple, yet attainable wants to one more difficult and almost impossible ones.

I want...

10.   to start a new arts/crafts (crochet, knitting) project.
9.    to play a board/card game or two.
8.    to go for a movie or walk.
7.    an email or a comment in this blog.
6.    a call or two with wishes.
5.    to receive a house plant, flowers, balloons or bottle of wine.
4.    to have a visitor or two...er, postman does not count.
3.    to be treated to a coffee/drink... or dinner.
2.    to wake up to celebrate my 30th birthday and not 35th! HA!
1.    ...

I spent two hours of my life sitting in a waiting room on a wooden bench surrounded by humanity in an attempt to complete a state mandated task. I am not sure what was more tiresome: a) the two hour wait or b) the wooden bench or c) incessant wasteful chatter of surrounding humanity or d) the nervousness of completing the state mandated task. Taken each individually or even two of the four in combination would have been tolerable. But to be ambushed by all four was a bit too much.

While I sat on the bench, I tried to read Tom Topor's The Codicil. The book is a page turner, but I was too nervous to do the book any justice (the nervousness comes from dealing with all state mandates). I could barely concentrate on the plot and after about three pages, I gave up. The moment I put away the book, people seem to gravitate to me asking a whole bunch of questions. Like I would know the answer. Every few minutes my answer would be "I don't know, please ask the customer service" to some poor smuck who thought that I knew the answer to his/her questions. I even looked around me for signage or an arrow pointing to my location saying "Ask ME!" (Nope, there was none) Normally, I would welcome a chat or two with folks (I am sociable), but not if folks were considering me a customer service for something I have no clue on. Come chat with me about the weather, but no one was asking me about that.  I have noticed that, if someone wants or needs (or think I have the answer) something from me, then they are very sociable with me, but otherwise it is "Who-are-u?". The wooden bench was not helping, it was simply messing with me! Perhaps, it was the nervousness dealing with state combined with the long time sitting around twiddling thumbs was pushing me to the edge.

Two hours very long hours later, I was summoned to pay my respects to a rather kindly looking lady behind an imposing desk. She asked a bunch of questions, made me read some letters and lines, identify some colors and some blinking lights, made me smile at a camera, and pay some money. The whole process took less than two minutes. So, two hour wait for a two minute job!

At the end of it all, I have a pathetic piece of paper that claims that my driver's license has been successfully renewed! I don't have to think about the state mandates on license, the wooden bench, the bustling humanity and the long boring wait for another four years and eleven months.

It has been the longest time to be in love (or the notion of it), but I am finally free! It takes just one fateful fraction of a second to fall hopelessly in love. I never believed that it takes equally (or lesser) time or the simplest of the actions/event to wipe the slate clean! I am at long last.... free!

A chapter which never got started is closed, and I can finally move on to the next chapter.

I hate being sick! The worst part of being sick is that number of things to get done multiples exponentially!

Friday evening, as I left work, I did what I usually do on the bus ride home.... prioritize the tasks to complete over the next few days. Most weekends/evenings, I know what I am going to tackle (Yep! Doing nothing and lounging in front of the TV counts towards my things-to-do. I have become a compulsive-doer-of-something, even if something is sleeping! Weird! I know, but that is the only way I seem to get some free time).

This past weekend was not any different from the others, the task list included: Read Harry Potter, Watch movie: Shooter, Clean and reorganize whole kitchen (something was not correct and it kept bothering me), Rip staircase carpeting, Wine Tasting, Trip to Home Depot (list ready), Trip to Jordan’s Furniture (Reading), Meet Lee (Starbucks) and of course the normal other weekend stuff of laundry, ironing, kitty time blah blah blah. By the time I reached home, though, my throat was scratchy, nose was running, and eyes were watering. Oh! Crap! I popped some medicines and flopped on the couch. My kitties kept me company!
Weekend, I did make the trip to Jordan’s, to meet Lee and check out some furniture. But Lee was not there, so spent more time in Jordan’s looking at office desks and curio cabinets. This is where my head hurt like crazy and I started to feel dizzy. Maybe I should eat! I did, but it simply went from bad to worse. I trooped to Home Depot, (thank goodness this was easy, I had a list and knew exactly what I wanted to get). By the time I got home. I knew I was doomed! It was going to be a bad migraine. I don’t suffer very often, but prolonged exposure to heat at 85+ deg is a sure trigger for me.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were spent curled up in bed, with all curtains closed, and kitties sitting at the foot of my bed, going “meow” every time I twitched or turned. Poor things! I think they knew I was sick! I am finally back at work this morning and it is a struggle! I am headed home today and curling up and my task to do is _NOT_ to think about the tasks to do!

Few weeks back I sent out an email to a bunch of folks to post/email/phone in their advice on how I should spend my $2000 tax refund.

Thanks so very much for emailing me. Did you know that you can post directly at the website? There is a link at the bottom of each blog, to allow for comments. So, you are more than welcome to email or phone me, and you can post comments right next to the blog. (NOTE: This website does not store any personal information and encodes email you use to log the blog).

Anyways, some stats:

1. Number of people asked for advice: 38
2. Number of people responded via phone: 0
3. Number of people responded via direct posts: 1
4. Number of people responded via email: 3
5. Number of people responding at first email: 3 and 1 for second email reminder.

What are the conclusions? I know plenty of 'acquaintances' and have very few 'friends'. I do believe quite a bit (or most of it) is my fault, as I lead a very busy, tight and enjoyable (to me at least) schedule.

Anyways, this blog is all about the Winners of the Contest. And the winners are...... drum roll..... drum roll.....

EVERYONE!!

I guess and why not. I need to do everything that was suggested.

• I need to spend some on furnishing a bedroom. (Yep, I have three bedrooms and none are furnished).
• I am going to Spain and then possibly Montreal (in May)..... and I am simply going to increase the budgets for both the trips. A little more padding to the bottom line will definitely work. And,
• With all the wines that I am collecting... I am definitely in the need to getting a wine cellar/cooler (I already have my eye on a Haier 42 bottle 2 temp zone one) 

The plan for spending will follow the standard house 40-20-40 plan: This means the first 40% goes straight for investing for the future, 20% for entertainment and travel and 40% towards home (furnishing, wine cellar and garden).

Now what happens next? I will send out emails to all the winners (that is pretty much everyone who responded).... and arrange for the movie tickets to be sent to them. These are premium Loews tickets that can be used _any day_ and _any time_ for _any movie_. There are no blackouts, no waiting no nothing. :)

Thanks ALL.

I love to play card games
I enjoy good alcohol
I have also had alcohol while playing card games

What I have never done (well, until now), is play card games involving drinking. The record has been broken! Second day into the event in the evening, the powers that be and the hotel organized the simple affair with pizza (yuck), chicken fingers and bottomless cases of Heineken, Bud Light, Miller Light, Beringers White Zinfandel and some other beers and wine. As we lounged after the long day of running around, giving directions and being 'on' constantly, this was the time to let the hair down and relax and enjoy each others company. The average age for this group is about 25 years! And one of them just turned 21!

The suspects


So, one person was sent off to look for a pack of cards. I hadn't the faintest idea of what I was getting into. This is what we played:

First Game: Kings Cup
The rules: A empty glass is placed in the center of the table and all players sit in a circle around it. This is the Kings Cup. All cards are shuffled and spread out face down around the empty glass. All players in turn pick a random card and turn it over. Based on what the face value of the card the following actions need to be done.

Ace: Waterfall. When this card is drawn, the all players starting from the players left (including the player) starts drinking in succession, that is each person waits for the player on their right to start and does not stop until the player on the right stops drinking. This is lots of drinking.
2: Is for You. The player who draws this card picks someone in the circle to drink.
3: For Me. The player who draws this card, drinks.
4: Touch the floor: All players must touch the floor, the last one drinks
5: Guys drink: All guys drink
6: Chicks drink: All the girls drink
7: Raise hand to heavens: Everyone must raise hand to the heavens, the last one drinks
8: [Best one] The player decides on a rule and implements it anytime, and other players have to watch and follow suit, the last on drinks. (The only rule that got made was: Thumb on the table. This meant whenever the player who decided the rule, invoked it, the others had to follow suit...needless to say, who remembers when you are all tipsy and there is lots of nudging going on to remind people).
9: Bust a Rhyme, The player starts a rhyme, and player on the left must add a new sentence that rhymes.
10: Category: The player who pulls the card, decides on a category, such as car models, dog breeds, name of people/places etc) and then each player in the circle starting from the left of the player, has to give and example of the category such as for the category car models it could be Toyota, Mercedes etc etc. If the player cannot come up with an example, stalls or mentions something duplicate, the waterfall of categories stops and the player drinks.
Jack: Back, person to the left to player drinks.
Queen: Question. The player drawing this card, picks another player and asks a question (any random question). The recipient player turns someone else (who has not been asked) to ask a question to another player. This goes around, until either the player cannot remember to ask the question, or answers the question instead of asking forward, or asks a person already asked.
King: The player that draws the King, pours (any amount) some of the drink into the center glass. Each time the king is drawn, the drawing player will add to the center glass.... So depending on the crowd and what the mix of drinks that are going around, the center glass can be a serious drink. The last person to draw a king (one deck = the fourth king), then that player has to drink from the center glass.

Second Game: Up the river & down the river. This one has a very high get-drunk and buzzed factor.
This game involved a full deck of cards and about 11 people. It is usually played with 6 people per deck, but we were too many people and not enough cards. So we played a drastically modified version.  We played with the following rules:
1. Everyone sits in a circle including the dealer.
2. The dealer in turn asks each player in turn: "Red card? or Black?". The player has to guess if the card to dealt will be from the red or black suit. If the player guesses correctly, then player asks anyone in the circle to drink and if the guess is wrong the player drinks.
3. Round 2 dealer asks: "Over or Under?". The player has to guess if the card value to be dealt will be over or under the first card dealt to the player. Again if guessed correctly, player asks anyone in the circle to drink, otherwise drinks themselves.
(Of course, nothing stops the other players simply drinking).
4. In the next round the dealer asks: "Inside or Outside?". The player has to guess whether the next card to be dealt will be within the two cards already dealt or outside the two cards. If it is value is same as either or both cards, then it is considered inside. The drinks go up in this round. If the player guesses correctly, then player can asks any two other players to drink (player can also ask just one other player to take two drinks.... nasty!).
5. Onto the next round, Eight cards a placed face down. Each is earmarked as (a) Give one (b) Take one (c) Give two (D) Take two.... you get the picture..... until the last two cards are Give four and Take four. Two other cards placed face down are marked as Drink Half and the other Drink Full. (Dang!) Each card is flipped over, and all players who have the same card face value, have to follow the earmarked instructions. So for example, if the face up card was earmarked Give Three, then the player with the same face value can dole out other players three drink requests. All three could be to the same player or split up with other players.

The third game.... by now, I must have had a whole bottle of wine and was a bit tipsy, but no buzzing in the head and that's when my super boss joins the party and introduces a vegetable game (nothing to do with cards). In this game, each player had to pick a vegetable that would be the players' given name. One player starts (funnily it is my boss) and the idea is to repeat your given vegetable name twice and pick some other name from the circle and repeat their name twice. Sounds easy? well, it ain't, because rule two is that you cannot show your teeth. So I could say "Corn Corn, Zuchinni Zuchini" (I was corn). The player named Zucchini would then have to respond with "Zucchini, Zucchini, <some other veg> <other veg>" And so on and so forth. Why is this game ludicrously funny? It is because, remember we have already played two drinking games, so everyone is already mostly drunk and on top of that the only way to really talk without showing teeth is to wrap the lips over the teeth.... and that alone maketh for jocularity.

And.... so on and so on.... by 10:30PM.... I was ready to call it day and head back to my room.

Alrighty people! Here is your chance to win two Loews premium tickets from me! [Edit] Ah! for those who are not in the US, or where Loews is not in your neighborhood, equivalent gift awaits your answer)

Answer this question: What do you think, I should do with my Tax Refund this Year?
Hmm... I was hesitant to put any dollar amount to this, but my friend brought up a great point. The suggestions could be vastly different based on the the amount involved. So, without further much-a-do, the amount = $2,000.

Rules:

• Email, phone or post in this cool blog. If you call in or email me independently, please note that I reserve the right to post it in this blog.
• Entries, should be submitted by March 31st, Midnight. (Alright, April 1st morning).
• You can submit multiple entries and no limit on the number of entries.
• April 1st, I and (of course Duke and Amber) will make the decision on the best entry and the party will be notified.
• If you are my financial comptroller/financial advisor or tax advisor, then sorry your entries do not count! But don't let that stop you from suggesting.
• If there are no entries, then by default.... I win!
• If there are more than one 'Best' entries, then...... Duke and Amber get the final say.

Definition of Best Entry: I think I am going to say that the best entry is the entry that would make me think about it, perhaps laugh, perhaps implement. :)

Psst: By no means the two tickets imply that you have to take me to the movies!

 

Wow! It has been 10 years since a jet-lagged, slightly tipsy, wide eyed kid was transported from Bombay to Beantown!

Year: 1996
This kid was given six-month loan to make it this country. Perhaps a tall order, but then perhaps not so. This kid starts school at Northeastern, picks two easy courses to get couple of A's and applies for Teaching Assistantship. It is indeed a frightening and interesting time, as future is unknown (perhaps the one and only time this kid has gambled!). Kid talks to Dean and other professors and is amazed at getting small odd jobs at school and the first earnings of $12.00 was a day to remember! This kid also gets Teaching Assistantship! Kid cannot help think: "Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good" (quote from Sound of Music). By the end of the year, courses are picked, homework is completed and submitted, bunch of 'A's received, loan repayment is well on its way, friends are multiplied, enemies are divided, apartment rents and utilities are paid, new apartment is found, move is done and life is good! Teaching graduate school has settled into routine. One fateful December evening, kid attends a graduate school pizza party, and is hit by the thunderbolt and now kid hates pizza with a vengence.

Year: 1997
The student year continues for the kid, with more courses, more homework, more teaching, and now something new preoccupies the mind ;). It is weird and confusing and danged depressing time. Some friends are good as gold and some are plain idiots. Kid's elder sister gets married in summer in Maryland and their Uncle's place. This starts a whole bunch of travel. Before the wedding celebrations, the kid and the sister drive from Boston to New Jersey to Maryland, doing a whole bunch of touristy things. Whilst in Maryland, they visit the US Capital and the Mall and Museums. Alongside, enjoy the company of uncle and aunty and the little niece, and plan for the wedding. After the wedding, the kid travels for six weeks to India.  In India, there is packing and moving the parents from a huge house to a rental space, while their new home is getting built. This is bittersweet farewell to the place always known as home. The new place wouldn't be the same. Back to Boston via Amsterdam, this kid dreams one day to visit Netherlands and picks up liquors, chocolate and brochures. Returning 'home' the kid jumps in headlong into the job hunt. Folks! This is 1997, and the demand for computer engineers is insanely high. Many interviews are done and flights are taken to Seattle, New York City (multiple times), North Carolina, and San Francisco and of course within Massachusetts. Many trips are taken for the trip sake and not for interview (shhh!). During this year, Beantown is explored in all available free time, Museums are visited, Freedom trail is walked, North end is explored and Beantown is adopted as home!

Year: 1998
The student graduates, and becomes an employee! The student takes one week vacation before starting new job, mainly to get clothes for the corporate-consulting world. Family (sister and brother-in-law) come to celebrate graduation. All outstanding loans are repaid and closed, and promptly a new loan is taken out (welcome to the American way of life). The new loan is for a car! Yes, the kid learns, researches, and negotiates for six hours to buy a brilliant blue pearl Toyota Corolla, with the works (well, most of relevant ones anyways). The first few weeks of owning the car are petrifying, simply because the kid never owned something that expensive (until then at least) that sits out in the cold hard rain. Kid moves once again, sans any dopey roommates to a studio apartment. Life is vastly improved with financial independence and emotional too! A new motto for living is born; live life, repay loan and save for a house.

Year: 1999
The year starts and ends as a employee. The office moves to from Wellesley to Cambridge. The commute is now on T versus driving. Kid decides and starts the process to get permanent residency in the country. Kid stumbles into stain glass art and invests time and energy into developing the art.

Year: 2000
The kid becomes an aunt to a little one (kid's sister has a baby boy). Kid's mother visits to help taking care of the little one and is based in California. For 10 days, when autumn is at its peak, kid's mum and kid take a road trip in central New Hampshire. The best 10 days ever!. Life on the other hand continues with its nuances and its ups and downs and sideways.

Year: 2001
Wacky and scary year, the dot in the dot-com world is going bust. 9 layoff later, the kid is still gainfully employed, but goes into work each day to give 100% and the neck in a live guillotine. Who knows when the axe will fall?

Year: 2002
This was the year of perpetual darkness! Halloween! Kid's mother passes away. Nothing good, bad or ugly matters in this year.

Year: 2003
This is the second year after 2002, to be the year of turmoil; September brings sad news of kid's grandmother death. It is also the year for job jumping! Finally the axe falls on the consulting company and one morning the company heads swarm down and decide to close the office. Funnily enough the office is 'officially' closed, but no one is asked to leave, no doors are locked, no security access cards revoked! Nothing! Simply because there is too much work to be completed before the office can be closed. So, twenty two odd employees are given all different dates when their last day will be. Interestingly during those days/weeks, all these employees are hired. This kid decides to take a weekend off before starting the next job. The next job is brutal, messy and worst and kid jumps ship and goes to the third company. All this jumping around and no vacation, leads to a emotionally frazzled kid, but solid bank balance for buying house and research is started in earnest. This year will also be remembered as the year, when this kid finally blooms into a more confident, strong and self-reliant, simply because Homeland Security blesses the permanent residency application. Kid is free to flip burgers for a living (not that the kid would want to)! Kid also begins to believe that there is a dawn after darkness. Kid's father decides to visit the family.

Year: 2004
Kid uses the 5-year savings to buy a house and sets plans in motion to make the house a home. The home life takes adjusting financially, emotionally, physically and whatever other -ally's you can think of. This is year of settling into the new job, new commute and new house.

Year: 2005
Life simply just is! A planned trip back to India happens, and a week in Lakshadweep (one of the coral reefs) is just what the doctor ordered. Once again as flight takes the kid via Amsterdam, thoughts of travel in Netherlands prevail. But the commitments of home, are still settling so no planned trips until more of the house and garden is settled. Work is just it work! Thoughts sometimes revert to the fateful December pizza party (yes, still hates pizza!). Stain glass work comes into its own as a home based business. Commissioned work, restoration and couple of craft fairs are done. Simultaneously, old craft - knitting is resurrected. Creativity is at its all time high. Kid becomes an aunt for the second time round.

Year: 2006
Kid plans for home and garden renovation. After emptying some of the savings, the yard looks better, and following year schedule for planting is figured out. Kid accepts invitation and goes to board game parties (something not done in a long while) and actually has fun. Kid goes out with friends again! This one is huge, step back into some social life! Against most the family's disapproving emails and conversations, Kid adopts two kitties and showers them with loads of love. The year of living life, growing up, and setting up and accomplishing goals.

Year: 2007.... and many more
So, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, if you read this, raise a glass and wish me (the kid) luck for the next 10 years, wherever it finds me.

A few blogs back, I mentioned I was heading out from a winter hibernation. And today was the second day in a row, that I was in a happy state and needed to celebrate. Perhaps, it was the thought of the early day light saving or perhaps it was end of an internal project or perhaps the sun and stars were all in alignment, or perhaps.... oh! who cares! I was happy and needed to get out. So, I did and dragged a few of work colleagues out to lunch. We went to Grendels Den, in Harvard Square.

Grendels Den, located at 89 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, MA I really do like the place with its half price food with drink orders between 5-7PM and specials for every day at $3.95. Personal favorite is the Turkey & Harvarti on a toasted Baguette with Pesto-Mayo and a light white wine. Hmmm!... a perfect friday! Today the wine was Rudy Wiest Riesling (Mosel River - Germany) I must go back and find out more detail about the wine. I was wonderful.

More than 30 days and no blog! Shame on me! Was I lazy/tired/bored/annoyed? or Was I cold? I really don't know. Perhaps it was the month to hibernate!

Every year sometime during the tail end of winter, I hibernate, away from public view. Mostly because, if I don't I can become quite crabby! But I see that winter is receding (although not today) but last week we had some warm days and the upcoming week is also going to be on the warmer side. So, the outlook is brightening.

So what have I been up to the past month?

In short, I was playing host to my father, who was visiting for couple of weeks. Unfortunately it was too cold to take him around and there was not enough snow to take him skiing somewhere. The problem was that I was at work and busy at that, and he was probably bored out and yearned to get back to warmer weather. Unlike my sister, who has two kids, that can be quite entertaining, I have two cats, who are really not entertaining as kids.

I moved desks space at work. And went from being comfortable to miserable. But my office lot is cool and they have organized to have it more comfortable. Ah... well... it remains to be seen when it will get done.

Whilst hibernating, the best thing to do is eat, watch movies and read. I highly recommend not starting anything that is critical or crucial or has long term repercussions. So, I did exactly that.

So, in the last 6 weeks, I put on 5 lbs! (Dang! Now to work on getting it down!)

Along the journey of putting on 5lbs, I read The Last Templar. If you liked Da Vinci Code, then this is a good read too. I just disagree with ending. It would have prefered if the author had left it open ended. That is everyone can make up their own mind to believe in the Templar or not. Also, mindlessly read,  If Tomorrow Comes (Sidney Sheldon) and currently reading some other random book whose title eludes me right now.  [Edit: The book currently in hand is The Jester by James Patterson]

And I watched movies such as Coma (1978) (did not think it was too frightening, book was of course better), The Family Stone (eh! ok!),  The Sentinel (mediocre at its best), Mission Impossible III (actually liked it, but I think the first one is really the better one, to think of it, I have not see Mission Impossible II), The Lavender Hill Mob (Awesome! with a capital A), Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (dark as the book, pretty good), Flightplan (2005) (Wanted to watch this, for Sean Bean, pretty decent, but nothing to write home about), Snatch (again.... I needed the laugh, and boy does this deliver!), The Queen (Helen Mirren is awesome), Prime Suspect 6 - The Last Witness, Breach (left me wanting more details), and I have no idea what possessed me to watch Tenerife, but I did.

Oh! I also did a bit of running around, getting paperwork done for Taxes (groan!) and travel itineraries for Nashville, TN and then, of course Barcelona, Spain!

	My father celebrates his 70 birthday at my place.
Father with my cousin's wife and my nephew and the baby carriage has my little niece
	Friends and neighbor, Walter, Genevieve and their son Kenji (on the left) and on the right my cousin, brother-in-law, sister and her two sons in a room-full of toys. and, yeah! My fake christmas tree is still up, I cannot seem to get the time to put it away. Soon though... ;)
The food: Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Pulled Chicken, Baked Beans and Mashed Potatoes from Blue Ribbon (Arlington), and home made salad with lettuce, tomatoes, huge grapes and cucumber and cornbread with peas. We forgot to put the cole slaw out. After dinner we had a lemon cake with Butter Pecan ice-cream and fruits (oranges, strawberries and peaches).
No account of a celebration in my house will be complete without wine! We had Ayler Kupp Riesling Spatlese 2005 (Germany) to start with, followed with Dry Creek Merlot 2002 (USA: Sonoma) and Yellow Tail Shiraz 2005 (South Eastern Australia)

Whats for dinner tonight? With family (My sister, brother-in-law, and their 6 year and 3 year old kids and my father) visiting it was time to have some great Ahi Tuna, pan roasted on a bed of crisp lettuce with Near East Bulgar Wheat and mixed vegetables in 21 spice seasoning from Trader Joes. I could not decide whether to open a white or a red wine. So finally decided on opening something I have not had. That was the Twin Beaks Cab-Sav. I think it paired rather well.

The New Year usually brings resolutions and promises, that get broken way before we can say where-should-I-write-down this years resolutions. Last year, I did exceedingly well, I kept 9 of the 10 resolutions till the end. Wow! And these resolutions were all the standard ones, like exercise more, eat well, knit more, play board games more, blah blah blah. This year to celebrate the success of keeping resolutions for the last year, I am going to make no resolutions. If you smell a big BUT at the end of the previous statement then you are correct. There is a but to the no resolutions resolution.

So, this years resolutions..... promises (in no particular order)
* Keep doing what I did last year with the standard exercising, knitting, playing board games, eating well..... blah blah...
* Knit more! More over complete all projects that are lined up before adding to the list.
* Wine rocks! but so do gemstones! What is that, is that a resolution to spend less on wine and more on gemstones? Dunno, but I think a little less on wine and more on gemstones is never a bad idea.
* Explore more! I have a vague idea what this is... and it will gel into a plan soon. Stay tuned.
* and.... many others to be added after the initial euphoria of resolutions promises is done

Ohhh! It snowed! Finally feels like winter.

I love the beginning of winter time, with first snow, and fluffy thing, the holidays and festivities and it is so lovely this time of the year! And I become a hopeless romantic this time of the year

My neighbor and I chat over the phone as much as we chat whilst hanging out in the yard or in each others houses, which is to say that we chat quite a bit. So, yesterday, we got chatting about Christmas trees. She wanted to get one next weekend, a real one from Mahoney's. Fresh from my own tree lighting and decorating ceremony, I couldn't believe she wanted to go another holiday week with no tree. I convinced her that we could go get the tree and I could help setting it up.

So, this morning, we drove to Mahoney's. I have never ridden in a Toyota RAV4, and I think I like it, despite my disgust for all SUV's/Van's. My own car a Toyota Corolla (top of the line, when I bought it, brand new in 1998), is growing old, but it is excellent car. At Mahoney's, this was my first real Christmas tree buying experience. My fake Imperial Conifer was ordered online and shipped to me. We walked around tall ones, short ones, fat ones, slim ones, full ones and sparse ones....trees that is! We liked some and found some just plain weird. It felt like picking kitties (well not really, but close), we saw so many, and then picked the one just right for the house, not too fat, not too thin, not too tall, not too short. Almost like the tree destined to be at their house. Once purchased, the tree handlers, picked the tree, put them on a 'shaker' (for the lack of the technical machine name), which shakes the trees. This is serious vibrations that shake out all the loose stuff. From the 'shaker' to the 'bundler' (no technical term here), at which, one guy, simply pulled the tree by the stump, through a hole, the hole was surrounded by the white mesh packaging. This has the effect of pulling all the branches together in the direction towards the tree-tip and covering it with the white mesh to hold it all in place. The mesh is simply cut and tied at the tree-tip. From 'bundler' to 'stump-refresher' (not a technical term, but who cares, except the stump-refresher himself!). The Stump-refresher simply is a guy with a chain saw, who chops about a inch or two of the stump, to make it ready for the tree stand with water at home. From 'stump-refresher' to 'car-loader' who simply loaded up the tree on the roof rack of the car and tied it down. Now, if we can only take a 'car-unloader' with us. But, wait, that was me. I had volunteered to do this! Drive back was uneventful, and the tree was less than 20lb., so I could easily haul it over the shoulder, up 10 steps to the house and set it down in the tree. Yeah! Second (after mine) tree in place!

After the all the tree business done, I had just enough time to hop into the shower and head to Doug's to play some board games.

What did I play?

Cairo: Someone please restore my gray cells please. This game was a tad absurd. It had a board (duh!) with a river and pyramid sites. The idea was to man your ship up and down the river and at your turn, roll a die, and flick (yes, I said it flick) with a 'specific' (based on the die number, 1-thumb, 2-fore finger....) finger a little block from the top of the ship onto the board. Of course, if the block flew off into space or outside the board, then it is out of the game (man, what an easy way to lose game pieces), if it lands into designated pyramid sites, then you can build pyramids. And it goes on to flicking to demolish opponents pyramids and whatever...., by now my brain is dead. The common consensus was to have alcohol involved!

Ingenious: Loved it, came last in the four player game, but loved it. What was weird was that, I think I own the game, and it is languishing somewhere in my closet. And another thing, it can be played by one! Awesome, this is good. I say that, because, most of the time, when I play Settlers of Catan (or Caftan, Catnap, Satan, Cat an, or Catton, according Microsoft Word 2003 spell check), I set the board on my round dinning table and play for 3 people. It gets confusing sometimes, but I resolve it by always acting in the best interest of the hand currently held. Of course, the game takes probably 3 times. But, then I have nowhere to be! So, it is useful to find a board game that I like and can play on my own. I must find this and drag it out from the closet.

Citadels: Few weeks back, I started to play this at Jess/Amy's place but had to leave this game midway (because I was doing an airport pick up). I remember liking it and not remembering what it was called. I think I bought the game (when I was told the name) and its expansion. Julia, Jason, Amy and me played this one and Amy and I tied at the bottom score.

So, in terms of winning, I didn't, in terms of having fun, I did. So, it was a great evening.

The tree is up!

This morning was the house cleaning day. I have no idea what possessed me to do it, but I did. Usually, it is set of rooms per week, such that once a month each of the rooms gets 'touched'. This morning, I was enthusiastic, (perhaps it was the large cup of java from starbucks!), so the garage got swept, the living, dining and kitchen got a thorough sprucing, and whoa! so did one of the bedrooms. I must be loony-bins, but the good kind, because the outcome was a clean spring fresh house. I think I know what prompted this cleaning spree, it was the tree lighting day at my house, and well, we cannot really decorate and light up the tree in a messy house.

It took a while to lug the 20+lb. fake Imperial conifer, unfurl it, clean it, spray it, and get it standing on the 35lb plaster cast stand. But once done, Duke and Amber could not make heads or tails of it and wandered around the base. The base is overly ornate and sets the tree about a foot and half above the ground level. The tree itself is not very tall (perhaps I should have got a taller one), it is four and half feet tall. So, all in all, the tree sits at six feet. This is the second year for a tree in the house, so, I have very few ornaments. I like the red-gold-green-white and small items theme (just in case you are thinking of getting me an ornament, wink! wink!). I have a festive gold and white garland that goes around the tree, a few red shinny glass balls that hang on the tree and plenty of the little clear glass lights (I think it is 4 strands of 100 each, Yah! it is bright!). Duke loves to stretch up and pull the red glass balls down and play with them. If I catch him, he has this look on his face; what-are-they-not-meant-for-me-to-play-with? look. Amber (currently) is the sweet one, is not as naughty. The kitties got their holiday present early with a new scratch post....now hopefully they will leave my couch alone!

A trip to Mahoney's added to my holiday decorating collection. I dreamed and always wanted a lovely mantle piece with white runner and beautiful green garland, decorated with candles, and ornaments. I picked up a nice garland and some ornaments and spent some time setting it all up. hmmm, I love the holidays! Something so romantic about it all, a fireplace with logs burning, lighted candles, warm light reflecting on ornaments, snowing outside, and wine (or hot toddy) in the hand...hmmm, yum! Perhaps, I may make some more trips for little ornaments and a wreath or a garland for the dinning room. But for now, we are set.

It has been a while since, my heart did a little flutter, a little skipping, and sent a tingling sensation all over the skin, but it did this morning.

In the wee hours of the morning, when the sun has not even decided to wake up the day, at the bus stop, as I was waiting for the bus.... he stood there getting rid of his jacket (it is warmer today), stuffing it into his backpack. The poor ole' heart stopped... I thought it wasn't going to start beating again (gosh.... where has this happened before!). But I think it did, because, then I was out of breath (as if I had run a marathon) and completely tongue-tied. He was in cornflower blue sweater, pale corn colored pants and sneakers that carried the cornflower blue stripes. We clambered into the bus, he sat behind me. I wish I knew what was going on in his head, sitting there behind me. He could have sat anywhere in the whole bus, it was only the two of us and the bus driver. I wish I had courage to ask.......perhaps....I can guess.....he was perhaps thinking about his day, or why on earth is he getting up this early (it is 6AM), or if he is going to catch that bus/train, or about some game or tv show, or his girl friend, fiancé or wife.....

"Achooo", he sneezed, I said "God Bless U".

The bus hurtled down towards its destination. I wish (really wish!) I was given courage, just a little, but I know I wasn't.  

So goodbye Guy in Cornflower Blue. Have a great day! I know I will. Thanks

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Thank you De's (especially Anup & Anish), Father, Leader Bank, Steven, Valerie and Heather for the warm wishes. Special thanks also to Veebs and Bunny for waking me up to great vocal "Meow" (I like to think they are wishing me).

The day started with me driving over to work, just because I absolutely detest the silly b'day sheet that Judy puts up on all our computer desk. And I wanted to get it down as I am going to be on vacation for next four days. Well! She was not in, Maureen was, but there was no sheet, AWESOME!! Hmmm, why am I surprised, I shouldn't be, Judy put the sheet up for the next two days, and perhaps I was lucky and she was on vacation too. Awesome! I knew this was going to be a great day.  I drove over to home town and lounged in Panera bread for a great cup of Hazelnut coffee and Oatmeal (Apples and Cinammon).

I was going to treat myself today and go Peaches picking on a farm in Concord, and also help on their farm (to pick fruit) for their stand and just maybe they would assign me to tend the pigs (being the rookie). But that did not happen. I landed up driving to Barnes and Noble and spent couple of hours browsing through loads of books. I got a list to buy using my personal development money, but did not buy any. I almost bought a book on mixing drinks. I really want a good book on cocktails and Liqueurs. Beer: whatever, Wine: nice, Champagne: hmmm yum, Liqueurs: god I am in love.  It is just the sheer variety of it all, is just so amazing, love it all. Current favorites are: Sambuca, Ameretto, Galliano (I know, I know, better in mixed drinks, but oh baby, this is nice), and oh, schnapps (especially peach and peppermint), oh oh and anytthing with Vodka. Oh dear! how did I ever get side tracked with alcohol. My resolution this year to keep and maintain a well stocked bar. Good one to have.

Well, after just browsing in Barnes and Noble, I swung by to the AMC theaters to see, if anything interesting was playing, nothing was, so got back home. Lunch was a simple affair with Bean soup and summer squash. Highlight of the afternoon was watching "Mad about You" season 1 for couple of episodes and playing with Veebs and Bunny. Bunny has started walking over to me and flopping for a good tummy scratch and I love to do that. They (VanBurren and Baxter, the cats) are so adorable and so understanding and so loving, and give so much unconditionally, it is insane.  I think I should get a cat, but, I think I am allergic, I have not stopped sneezing since they have moved in..... Dan/Li, what was that allergies medicine again? I'll call to find out. As I am writing this, they are slumped over and sleeping like babies. Aw, they are so cute together (pics coming soon). 

Evening, I cannot decide, whether I should go out for dinner on the town or stay indoors. I might landup going out, but don't know yet.  I have opened a great Sauvignon Blanc from Oyster Bay and love it, it complements peaches so well. Well, the night is really young, so we'll see.

Update: I did not go out for dinner, settled for a second glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a large bowl of Maple-Brown Sugar Oatmeal with Peaches and Nectarines. Yum, so much better.

What a perfect day to be working! Labor Day. Yeah, yeah, labor day is to celebrate as a holiday for the laborers, to take it easy and rest before the chaos begins again. But, I look at it as a day, for me to catch up on my work, with no one bugging me every few minutes for, "can we do this?", "can we do that?", "how about this?", "how about that?", "fix this!", "fix that!", etc. etc. 9 hours straight of getting organized for the next set of projects, planning for the team and milestones and getting requirements documented, design and prototypes generated. All in all, a very productive and very satisfying day. Bring on the next set of deliverables!

It has been a while since I blogged something or the other, regards something or the other interesting things going on in my life. But the past week has been rather hectic and frenzied at work with a major deadline for four interconnected projects that I manage. All four projects were in flux and under developement for enhancements for the past 8 months and finally I see the light at the end of the tunnel. After endless iterative design, changes, developement, testing and managing multiple projects, these all were delivered. I am proud to say that my 'babies' have grown into well behaved (well, most of the time!) 'toddlers'.  I should be blogging more this month.

I am trying to recover from a major sore throat, cold, runny nose, sneezing and high fever. From past Monday onwards, a miserable summer cold set in and was finally able to shake it off Thursday afternoon. This was a weird illness; I was relatively fine in the mornings (although fever was high), but towards noon it went downhill fast and stayed there till next morning. I could get some work done from home, chatted with team to get them on their merry way, and then afternoon slept like a log (thanks nyquil!).

During this time, I did a lot of thinking of why I don't like being ill. Some of the reasons are:

1. I don't like being ill, because it makes my todo list grow longer as nothing is being taken off. The list has a habit of growing exponentially when I am ill. So when I am recovered, I have twice the amount of work and half the time to get it done in.

2. I don't like being ill, because it means I have to take medicines. And I hate dumping medicines into me, which have more side effects than curing or preventing anything.

3. I don't like being ill, because I any given time, I am not sure, if I am really hungry or thirsty, should I be eating or drinking. Maybe I should eat, but then that may make me more ill. Perhaps drinking will help, but my nose and head is already swimming. It is all so confused.

4. I don't like being ill, because my house is a mess and it takes a week or two get it back in order. Under the guise of being ill, I tend to neglect good housekeeping principles.

5. Lastly, I don't like being ill, because there is nothing good on the idiot box (TV).

The season for picking fruit continues with blueberries. I had it on my to do list, but I think I was getting a wee bit tired with my trip to New York and then preparing for the major terracing project at home and major project delivery deadlines at work and starting training for WW Leader. I think that was a lot to do on my plate already for the month of August. But, encouraged by a colleague at work who went blueberry picking, I decided to go. By and by, I got another friend who wanted to go too.

So, we went blueberry picking at Turkey Hill Farm, Haverhill, MA. I am so very happy that we went. The day was perfect, with warm sun, and cool breeze. The entire blueberry section, must be about an acre or two, was neatly planted with rows of blueberry trees about 4-5 feet tall. The entire farm was covered with mesh at about 8-10 feet height to protect the fruit from birds and other predators. Each tree had a personal water connection connected to the main pipe neatly placed alongside each row. The blueberry trees were loaded. There were more fruit than actual leaves (ok, I didn't count). But when you see a blueberry tree that appears blue, with a tinge of green, and not the other way around, you know, it is going to be great picking.

How can you refuse this tree?	Me, and the blueberries

There were about 5-6 other people picking blueberries, all mesmerized with their tree and the blue marbles. The general chatter about what we were going to do with our personal stash; freeze them, make cakes, make pies, and oh! of course eat them. I don't think we were allowed to eat as we picked, but I did, all the ones that fell to the ground, I ate them. My rationale being, they are going to waste any ways, as no one picks fallen fruit, so may as well, invoke the 10 second on the ground rule and pop them in the month. I must have gobbled at least half a pound. Not that I am saying that I was a poor picker and many of mine landed on the ground (grin!) for me to eat.

The owners (at least we think it was the owner) walked around, chatting with us. I found from him, that the trees were planted in 1980's and some were older. Hmm, So, if I plant a blueberry tree in my yard, then my imaginary children will be able to get a decent harvest. Nah! not planting blueberries..... although.... hmm.... nah.... we'll see. The picking for blueberries, will go on till Labor day, this year, due to the fantastic crop. The farm also has sections for blackberry and raspberry. I did not know that while picking blackberry, we should not be picking the good looking ripe ones, but pick a ones slightly over ripped ones with little mushy feel. Interesting, who knew? Anyways, no blackberry or raspberry picking this season. I want to pick peaches..... and make gingered peaches..... but, I need the freezer space now.

I loved every minute of my time with the blueberries. Between my friend and me we picked two buckets (one 11.4 lbs and the other 9.5 lbs) of blueberries. They are delicious and now they are going to be frozen in smaller packets for the winter time.  What I need now is a freezer. I have my eye open for a good upright front loading freezer.

I am home again!! I love my home and went around each room (most of the them empty), just to make sure everything was in its place. It was. Thanks to my neighbor, my herb plants are doing really well. Basil is growing strong, tomato plant has baby tomotoes, the chocolate mint is growing strong. And all the pothos (indoor) are growing nicely.

I was great to be a part of my sisters move, but I am happy to be back where I belong. My Home!

My 6-year old nephew runs over to me and says: "Why don't you get married, so, you will not be alone and will have a family like ours?"
Completely taken aback with this question, I asked: "Why do you want me to be married?"
He responds without a second of hesitation: "So, I will have cousins to play with".

How does one respond to something like this. I had absolutely no idea where this question came to his mind. So, I told my sister that her insightful 6-yr old wanted me to be married. She laughed and told me what transpired between the two of them, before he ran over to pose the question.

(Setting: My sister and her family just moved from an apartment to a large and lovely single family house. She and my nephew were sitting in the living room, while I was in the kitchen)

Nephew: "Ma, I am scared"
Sister: "Scared? What has scared you?"
Nephew: "This is such a large house and and I am all alone"
Sister (trying to explain that he is not all alone but we are all together in the house with Ma, father, little brother): "You are not all alone, but we are all live in this house, and we can see each other in, even if we are in different rooms."
Nephew: "How many rooms do we have?"
Sister: "Lets count how many rooms we have, shall we?"
My nephew and sister, count the number of rooms and come to some random number 7-8 rooms. To which my nephew continues
Nephew: "How many rooms does aunty (aunty = me) have?"
Sister: "She also have 6-7 rooms"
Nephew: "Who lives with her?"
Sister: "She lives all alone"
Nephew: "All alone?! She does not see anyone in another room?"
Sister: "Yes, she stay in her home, with no one else."
Nephew: "Why doesn't she get married, so she can see someone else in another room?"
Sister: "Why don't you ask her?"
Nephew: "No, you ask her"
Sister: "No, you have the question, you ask her."

At this point (my sister reported to me), my nephew walked out of the living room, and into the connecting dinning room, wandered around in circles for a few mins and then dissappeared. This was the point where he came upto me asking me to get married.

I received an email from my father couple of days ago, regards, the english language. It had its usual nutty phrases and gotchas. But the the following excerpt is priceless! Enjoy! (and thank you father!)

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP . We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP
almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP, so.......... . Time to shut UP!!!

Do you ever get that feeling that you are running so hard to catch a train that is hurtling away from you. And how hard you try or how hard you run and it is always just out of your grasp? That's where I am at for the last few days.

I believe that this train is going in some direction, dunno where, and going pretty darn fast. It is challenging and taunting me to try and catch, and me like a dufus am trying to. My fervent attempt is to run alongside, reach up and catch the handle bar sticking out back of the train. There are days when I can almost feel the metal of the handle. Those days are the most frustrating; because, I feel that it is so within my reach, when train pulls away just a tad faster. There are days, when I give up and sit down along the wayside. Funnily, when I am sitting the dopey train is just at the horizon, taunting to pick up and start running again. When I do sit down, that's when I get all philosophical about even trying to catch the darn thing. What's the point? Am I even meant to catch it? Maybe it is not my destiny (Whoa! don't even get me started on destiny/faith or beliefs).

I have been running for a long time now, and need to probably sit down and rethink this whole thing. Whatever that thing is! Perhaps that is where I should start.... what is this thing that is making me so overwhelmed!!

What did I do over the long weekend? Hmmm long? It was not a long weekend, but a normal weekend comprising of one Saturday and one Sunday. I needed to catchup with work, so, I came into work on Monday. It was fantastic, with not many people in office, I could concentrate, get work done and get out at a reasonable hour, without my ear being chewed off with "can you get this done?", "can you do this today?", "can you help with this?" so on and so forth.

4th was a working day for me (shame on me!). It is independence day, but since I am just a poor US resident, and not a citizen, I guess I have gotten very patriotic as yet. But, if I were a US Citizen! I would probably have taken the day off, gone to a bbq or two or three within walking distance from my house, so I could roll or totter back without causing undue grief on the mean streets with my driving. I would have a bbq at home, which would solve the issue of rolling or tottering back, I would already be there. I would have watched some movies, ah! played some board games, stayed up late, and in general be merry. But I did none of that. I suck! It was a lack-luster day, leading up to a lack-luster evening and it did not help, that it rained cats and dogs that evening. What a waste of a day! Was it? Not really, I got plenty of work done. So, there was something being done, unfortunately that something was not fun (normal definition of fun).

Anyways, Happy 4th!!

Recently, I became an aunt, the nth time over. This brings the count to five: three nephews (ages: 6yrs+1mth, 2yrs+4mths, 2yrs+2mths) and two nieces (ages: 4mths, couple of days). Do the neighborhood kids count? If they do, then add a 2 year old that I frequently baby-sit to the above list. None of these are really mine. 

Maybe I want one kid, but to have one, I may have to be married (well, okay call me really old fashioned, but wouldn't dream of having a kid (or kids) in this world without being married). To be married, I have to find someone who will marry me. And that is loooonnnngggg way off. I think it is a long way off, because, I am too chicken to do anything about it. Maybe I can adopt one.... nah! Not at the moment.

Maybe I want one pet and not a kid. So, it is much easier to adopt a pet, they (pets) are so unassuming and they love back (most of the time). I say this by experience, as I am the official cat sitter for my friends two adorable kitties. Both these kitties are also my 'docs'. When I am sad or unhappy, I have a serious 'chat' with them and they respond with a very vociferous 'MEOW', 'Purr', and 'scratch my tommy, it will make you feel better'. Perhaps the thing about cats is that they are like me; independent most of the times and need loving sometimes. Or maybe get a dog, but nothing short of a Siberian Husky or a German Shepherd would do. I don't have the space that these large dogs need to thrive. I am some ways away from getting a cat because; I want ones exactly like my 'docs' and I know I won't get that

Maybe I want one plant and not a pet, but I killed my indoor lavender (Wah!), but my outdoor yard work is coming along as well as it can. This year is the year of the yard, so it will be done. A yard and plants are not animated as a kid or a pet.

So, maybe I do want one..... something!

At the First Parish Church, in Lincoln, MA, the bells were rung around 6:30pm to announce to the world that Terry and Laura are married. The ceremony was just the right length of time without being butt numbing boring. It started just past 5:30pm, with a processional of the groom, grooms parent, and grooms men, followed by the brides maids, brides parents and the bride. The reverends speech was a welcome change from the dull, old and drab blah, it was really very modern, so refreshing.  After the exchange of vows and rings, we all filed out of the church amidst church bells being rung (I really really loved that, something about church bells ringing makes me very happy). We hung outside the church for a while.

I wore for the first time my Ann Taylor little black dress with burgundy stole, outfitted with bunch of glittering jewelry, felt for the first time very comfortable. I walked up to old friends from Agency.com, and most did not recognize me. (Hee hee!) I met Qian Ma and his wife, Chris and Laura, Raj and of course Dan and LiSing. None other than Dan and LiSing recognized me (but then Dan and Li see me more often than anyone else). I had to introduce myself again to folks, when I saw little lights go off in their eyes, as they remembered me. We chatted a bit and then all piled into cars to get to dinner celebrations. It was a less than half a mile away from the church in fantastic house converted to reception place. I loved the layout the house and that is really my million dollar home. The drive way was long and winded back to parking lot from where you can see the main house entrance, but between the lot and entrance, there was pond with ferns and a small bridge, then a walkway, then a stepped up manicured lawn with bushes around, and low fence and then the main entrance. The house itself was sprawling and open verandas. Past the house there was a large tent that sat around 60 people and then the yard expanded into further lawn, and trees and bushes and ponds. Wow, what a place.

As we got to the house, I finally got to congratulate Terry and Laura, and I could see that it took couple of secs for Terry to recognize me too. I also walked around and met Terry's mom, his aunt, one of his many uncles and his family. I made my way around meeting and greeting people, eating and drinking a nice red wine. Dinner was great, with filet mignon, masked potatoes, cake and more wine. Perhaps I should not have had all that wine, as getting home was a tad hard. I should know better. Along with dinner, there was dancing with a live 3-4 piece band.

All in all, it was a lovely wedding and lovely day.

Its the season for strawberries, and this year, I had planned for months in advance to go strawberry picking and learn the art of freezing in dry pack and in honey. One of my friends in the neighborhood joined me in picking around 20 lbs!!

We travelled to Smolak Farms early this Sunday morning, when the weather promised to hot, hot and humid. We reached early and picked enough to fill a tray, and it did not look too much, so we decided to double it and fill another tray. Thats me picking a ripe one for the tray. What do you think, is that enough strawberries? We did not think so, so we filled another one.

              

Tell me they don't look delicious, mouth watering little red treats!!! I kept roughly 12-13 lbs and most of them are in process to be frozen as full berries, and some are sliced and coated with honey for making sweet preserve. Drop on by for a tasty treat in strawberries.

Next month Cherriess..... and Peaches..... oh boy! oh boy! oh boy! hmm. 

   

This was indeed a memorable evening at the Boston Symphony. With Keith Lockhart conducting, this was a salute to Gershwin. It included selected works from Porgy and Bess, and An American in Paris. Also, Rapsody in Blue, and I got Rhythm Variations with pianist Max Levinson. Finally, my favorite part, with vocalist Marin Mazzie (Tony award nominee) and Jason Danieley, songs from My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Sunset Boulevard, Ragtime and more.

Granted apart from the last list of well-known songs and Keith Lockhart, I had never heard of the other named artists and the works. But, it was indeeded very enjoyable.

I think what made this really memorable for me, was President (NEU) Richard Freeland made his debut as a conductor in the last music score! he did wonderfully.... :). Richard Freeland became President of Northeastern University, the same year I joined the school (1996). (Has it been 10 years already?) This year, Freeland retires from the position. So, we had both the outgoing and incoming presidents at the Pops.

9 days from May 20th to May 27th (5 business days, 4 weekend days).

Completed:

Yard: My yard is a shoddy mess, mainly because it is a steep slope along front and right of the house (thankfully sloping away from the house, so no flooding) and it was/is painfully boring with lawn with dandelions and who know what else. I had a vague idea what I wanted to do with the slope, but needed loads of designing, planning (esp. finances), and finally execution.

This year has been declared the "Year of the Yard".  

• Researched, called/emailed, interviewed, discussed, got estimates from landscapers. Finally, selected one landscaper and detailed plan, and measurements for breaking the slope into terraces with small retaining walls. As we designed and planned, I needed to research what stone, block? what color should the retaining wall should be. That lead to endless research into the designing retaining walls, sturctural stability, drainage system, and of course actually seeing the blocks and stones, pavers and coping stone at countless sites online and couple of them in the neighborhood towns. I don't think I have settled on this one yet, but I have a fair idea what I want.
• Researched endlessly (and I mean endlessly) online (a sample of the sites = Greenwood Nursery, Autumn Ridge Nursery, Wolf Creek Gardens, Moonshine Designs Nursery, Michigan bulbs, so on and on and on) and driving to nearby nurseries (Wilson Farms, Lexington Gardens, Mahoneys, Lowes, Home Depot and any other nursery I could find) for the trees, shrubs, flowering, non-flowering bushes. Researching for plantings meant literally walking or driving around town, taking pictures of plants/trees that I liked, asking neighbors and knocking on doors asking people what that plant was (that was weird! but what the heck!), asking strangers, getting back home, downloading, printing them and then researching them for seasonality, when to plant?, what soil?, how does it look like in summer and winter?, are there other varieties of the same genus?, where are they available?, how much does it cost? etc etc etc etc........ whew! I now have a set of plants/trees/shrubs that I have totally fallen in love with. So, the plan (subject to changes), for spring have Pink Flowering Dogwood, mid-end spring Lilacs (Lavender, Pink and White) and colorful Azaleas (Red, Orange, White, Fuchsia), end spring Deep Pink and White Rhododendrons, late spring through summer Pink and Red Myrtles, White Buddleias and possible colorful Gladiolas, fall have Pink dogwood display burgundy leaves. All along the season, spot the yard with Golden Euonymus, Rosy Glow/Burgundy Barberry, Salvias, Lavender, and the list goes on. Along with the flowering frenzy, I wanted to make couple of vegetable beds mostly with Tomatoes and some herbs.
• During my running around (rather driving) I picked up (it was so irresistible) bunch of herbs and planters for indoor planting. I am now a proud mum of a few indoor pots with Lavender (Munsted, Hidcote, Provence, English.... you think I am partial to Lavenders?), Thyme, French Tarragon, Chocolate Mint, Sweet Basil, Rosemary and a few succulents whose name I did not catch.

Along with yard work the other things that I managed to do are:

• Cleaned the garage (swept, washed and got rid of cobwebs), moved the packing boxes to the attic, trashed un-used stuff (thankfully this was the recycling week, so I could dispose of stuff), organized the yard and hardscape supplies.
• Cleaned the attic and organized boxes in attic for storage.
• Cleaned deck, and some part of the yard.... most of it is still shoddy, wacky mess which will get done sometime soon (hopefully this summer!)
• Porch work took a life on its own, I got down to design storage space with shelves or book cases and endlessly researched in local places and online for specific shelf constructions and/or book cases. Most designs, concepts died a natural death, as either they were too expensive or plain dorky or just not feasible or simply I got tired. Three good things happened for the porch, though, I finished staining the french doors (needs final finish), researched and got great deal on curtain rod brackets and rods and got a fantastic deal for curtain lining material. This was big for me as I had bought absolutely gorgeous silk materials for curtains, but the silly linning took 6 months to get. Now another project can get completed - curtains.
• Knitting could not be left behind. I completed two itty-bitty baby sweaters and one narrow scarf.

Perhaps the biggest achievement was I organized my To Do list... Funny, but true, now I have a little better system to track work done, work to be done and work that maybe a good idea to test out.

Not done:
There are so many things that I have not started or not done as yet. But this week was a great start. I did not get to relax, don't remember having wine (apart from one night where I was invited to a dinner party), I am exhausted from the vacation and need a vacation from the vacation. But knowing me, if I do have a vacation, I am going to be running around again. So, it was a great break for me to get organized and have a clear vision of what I want to do in the next few weeks, months, and perhaps years.  

psssst..... I am sure everyone would like to see before and after pictures of my yard....... stay tuned.... I will keep all updated....

Finally it is here! My long awaited vacation week. It has been 14 months+ since my last vacation. Vacation defined as more than one consecutive days off. I have taken half day or day here and there, but they were mostly because the previous week already clocked way more than 50 hours at work.

In my vacation I am going to catch up on sleep..... hmmm.... perhaps travel to Montreal or New York or someplace other than home. Or maybe just relax on my deck, wine and dine, watch movies, and/or do nothing. If I feel enthusiastic enough I may even tackle the 5 page To-Do list that has been growing exponentially.

A very productive weekend on a very deary day. Perhaps, due to all that rain and icki-ness outside, I am forced to stay indoors and be creative, productive and keep myself entertained. The forcing function turned out to be fun and at the end of the day I was happy, proud and ah, well! tired.

The day started as usual around 5ish, I slept in a little, but not much. Right from the first waking moment, I knew this was going to be the day I clean up and organize my attic and hopefully the basement. (I need to get my stain glass studio in ship-shape and ready for work! It was a pile of boxes, and more boxes). I get out my ladder, and it is a heavy ladder, very discouraging one, to pull out, setup to get to my attic. After brief struggle and couple of cuts on the forearms, I was frustrated with the ladder..... (anyone want a 22 foot ladder, which folds into 6 ft for storage, send me an email! For a $150 (I spent $325) bucks I am willing to happily part with the cuts and bruises I got with it).  I had to clear my head, and get the annoyance out, so I did the next best thing, setup the ladder, and treated myself to cup of great Australian coffee!

Re-energized, I got to the basement/garage and started the cleanup. Rule of thumb, if I did not need it in the last 2 years, or even thought of it, then it is got to go. No sentimental attachments to old pair of shoes, old mats, wooden slats(?), and other wacky items. The junk got to go, and rest needs love and care and ORGANIZATION!! Whew! two hours later, I had most of my garage about 40% cleaned and basement, except for the stain glass studio, rest was in a better place, either shelved, marked and cleaned OR in the garbage.

Several trips were needed to get all the items to be stored in the attic to the attic. It is 3 flights of stairs, one from basement to living room, and from there to bedroom and then the ladder to the attic. Large bowl of oatmeal was a welcome treat after that workout.

Perhaps it was the workout of cleaning and climbing innumerable stairs, that got the endorphins kicking in in high gear. I got down to tackle the weekend chores of cooking for the week, cleaning, laundry and most importantly relaxing, in that order.

By the time afternoon rolled in, it was still raining outside. I made myself comfortable in front of the idiot box (TV and Cable) and started to watch surf channels, when the new Lacette Yarn, started clamoring for my attention. Should I knit, or shouldn't I? Duh! I did! A very simple caplet with eyelet pattern in drop dead gorgeous silky, soft yarn called Lacette (Patons) and edging with silverlash (also from Patons). Pictures coming soon... I promise.

This weekend spent time nursing a cold, watching movies (Attila, Red Eye and Legend of Zorro). The looonng list of todo's just got a tad longer. Well, tomorrow is another day.

Cool blog...... no really cool!!

All this time, I was blogging on live journal, and that worked fine. But something was missing, really missing. Whether it was the feeling that I was writing on a page from someoneelses mega-journal or it was just that I couldn't get myself to tailor it. I think it was an ownership issue, that I could bring myself to write more frequently.

So, I have moved to my new home, under the umbrella of my registered url of Kirti Glass Accents.  This site was under construction for the longest time ever. Finally, I am getting my act together or all ducks in the row to spiffy up my site. I have uploaded some suncatcher images that I made over last year and sold in craft fairs. But there are more panels need some loving and uploading to the site. Stay tuned for more.

In addition, I have been bitten by the knitting bug. :) What started as a general hobby to be dabbled in infrequently, has turned into pure obsession. More about this in the next blog with pictures... I promise.

Lastly, welcome to my blog, post if you like to comment on anything, post if  you like to just say hello!!!!