I almost did not go, what a wimp. But I did, so I am not a wimp. :) I had a blast, it was fun playing Wise and Otherwise. And then Caylus.

Wise and Otherwise: This game involves completing obscure phrases and having people vote for your pharse. More the votes, more the points you get and first person to get to 20 points wins. It is pretty funny what people come up with to complete a phrase. Some of the weird, funny and insightful ones were:

A nose does not know..... what smells beyond the door

For every fool that has a stick..... a wise man has a gun

For every fool that has a stick..... there is no firewood

He who does not work in summer.... steals

A dogs god is a.... master of the universe

PS: I came in close second.

Caylus: A game of strategy to help build a castle on on the way build production houses, stone houses and others. Me and creatively building things do just fine and dandy. I came in close second, but according to the players, if I had played the last hand a bit defensively, I may have won. Oh well, considering the number of rules that the game had, I think it was great fun. I did love the game.

How time flies with good games and great company! I could not believe it was 5 hours since I stepped into the play zone. It was incredibly fun and relaxed. Must do more of these board game nights, simply because the fun-factor is really high.

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. 

   

Trip to Atlanta, home of the Peaches, Olympic Park and Whales!

I was in Atlanta, Georgia from Friday, June 9th to Wednesday, June 14th. This trip was mostly for staffing the International Summit held by my company. The event did not start till Sunday morning, so going a few days earlier, enabled my team mates and me to organize the space, setup computers, printers, organize the team assignments, schedules and at the end of the day have some fun and enjoy being in the peach state.

We stayed at downtown Hyatt Regency, which is walking distance from the CNN building, Centennial Park and of course the Atlanta Aquarium. My friend and me spent an entire afternoon wandering in the Aquarium. It is one of the best I have seen thus far. The glass walls were not just from floor to ceiling, but also turned upwards to stretch over the ceiling to allow visitors to wander under the fish. The aquarium is divided into five sections; Georgia Explorer, River Scout, Cold Water Quest, Ocean Voyager and Tropical Quest.

Georgia Explorer features horseshoe crabs, large white shrimp, sting rays and many of them in open tanks which allowed visitors to touch them fishes. (I love the fish, but I rather fry 'em and eat 'em, rather than just touch them, hee hee).

River Scout features some really exotic fish from Africa (Cichlids... my favorite), South America, and Asia. This section also has those dangerous piranhas with their razor sharp teeth, and the worlds largest freshwater fish called Arapaima. It was fun to see playful otters too.

Cold Water Quest, features the Beluga Whales, California Sea Lions, African Black foot Pengiuns, Sea otters and much much more. There were giant Sea Spiders and Octopus, scary enough to give me nightmares.

Ocean Voyager, is indeed a Voyage under the sea, with thick acrylic tunnel under 6 million gallons of salt water and hundreds of thousands of fish of all sizes and variety (hmm, I wonder, if some of them get eaten by others in the tank!!) This tank is a representation of the Great Meso American Barrier Reef of Central America. It was definitely one of the highlights of the visit, with giant Hammerhead Sharks, Goliath Grouper, squadrons of large and Small Sting Ray, Snappers, Trevally Jacks, just to name a few.

Tropical Diver was simply great with all tropical fish of all colors, shimmering in the huge tank of cool blue waters. It was mesmeriszing to see the tropical coral reefs in all their vibrant colors and the jelly fish, garden eels, delicate and brilliant seadragons.

Sometime, when you visit my place ask me to show you all the pictures I have taken. Surprisingly, they came out pretty well. Here are some really nice ones. From left to right, and top to bottom the pictures show, African Cichlids, Some random fish whose name I don't know, Piranha, Giant Sea Spider, Sea dragon, Whale, and Tropical Yellow fish.

Pink Lacette and Gillactic yarn scarf in a pattern from my friends 1000 Patterns book. Lovely isn't it! It is soft and fuzzy and has sprinkles of silver glitter. It was too tempting not to knit with this yarn mix. It has become a personal favorite. I am sure there are other colors waiting for me. :) The 1000 Patterns book is really fabulous, I want that!! It went on my list of wants...... :)

A friend and I happened to chat about retaining walls, and, she had some work recently done. And she mentioned that she had some spare bricks and blocks hanging out in her house. Field Trip (rain or shine)!! I drove over to her place over the weekend, and took some pictures. Yah! I could so use them in my yard. I asked her how much she wanted for the same, but she declined. What a saint! I don't deserve this. She is so sweet. The deal being that I transport it. Hmmm, may take a few trips, but I think the bricks and blocks have found a new home.

PS: Never thought, ever in my life that I would be taking pictures, getting excited and planning for a brick!

In the past 15-18 days, along with the vacation and yard work, I knitted some more little baby sweaters. They are all knitted with baby blue Sirdar Snowflake double knitting yarn on 4 mm needles (yarn is not as stunning as the Sirdar Ultra light, but it is soft and fuzzy and fun). Usually, the needles recommended are much larger size ones, and I wondered how they would turn out on smaller needles. There are two for 0-3 month baby and two for 3-6 month old, one frilled edge at the bottom and one ribbed. I think they turned out pretty good. 

Each of the sweaters have dark blue buttons. I was chatting with my sister over the weekend, and she reminded me that buttons and ribbons are a choking hazard (she would know, she is mum to two boys). I knew that buttons were, but ribbons too! Beats me, why we still have patterns for babies that need buttons. Another weird thing about this pattern was the sizing of the finished garment. The 3-6 month frilled edge (pic: bottom left) sweater is 1/4 inch larger than the 0-3 month ribbed edge (pic: bottom right). What gives! You mean to say that for this pattern the baby grows only 1/4 inch in body in 3 months. Oh! Well, I just follow the directions.

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.