Friday Humor

Here is a glimpse of the mad friends that I hang out with and who give me a reason to smile each and every day. They simply are the best…

Background – planning to participate in a local event. Attached below is the email thread between the group.

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AD,

Can you please send to the intel crowd (SJ, MS, RR, SS etc).  Every year Tempe has a Chinese Drag Boat Race even in April. I had brought this up, and few where interested.
www.azdba.com

I wanted to check if folks are interested.  Twenty people per boat. Fees including rental and two practices sessions in the evening would be $45.00 per person.MD

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fwding as per MD\’s note below. Could someone fwd it to SS?

IM

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I am.

Forwarding to a few others…

MS

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We need 20 to ride this beast

MD

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am in and Sands is too. Nadu will be the captain.. she used to be a naav chalak (one who steers the boat) in her previous life. Vik can also be in because most of us know the story of how he pushed the boat wading in the water. in any case we will win.. like oscars…Jai ho!

 

yo

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Ho gaya abhi to. Referee ko bhi kuch dena padega under the table.(Done, now will have to bribe the referee)

MD

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MS,

Lakta hai mera wine kal hi katam ho gaya. Aacha tha re! (translation just won\’t do justice to this comment

MD

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Load up on it dude…you’ll need a lots of that to make 20 ride anything!

MS

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I am in.

SJ

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Looks exciting and fun. I am interested.

SS

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ok,

So far, outside of the normal \’noise\’ we only have 3-5 confirmation. We need twenty at the game, so if you have friends who are interested, get the word out and we can finalize by Monday. Remember it will be $40 – $45 non-refundable per person. This includes the equipment and two practice sessions. Additional practice sessions will be $100 per session per boat.  The practice sessions timing will be assigned, not preferred – typically they are in the afternoon or evening. Although two practice sessions are not enough, we should be ok as long as we can steer in a straight line (yeah right).

Come back on Mon – Tues, and we can decide then.

MD

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MD,

Yo & her jokes apart, I am seriously interested. Now put that wine back and let’s get to work err practice.

Sands

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I am interested…keep me posted. Vik still has his speedo\’s in the closet…..

Nadu

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When is this?

Nadu: Our ship’s name can be desi Manchurians

AD

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or desi chopsway

Nadu

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here we go again.

we will look like a desi dhaal for sure.

MD

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Need to add Ms. V (kids swim teacher), to save us from drowning!..

AD

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only if Yo is on the team.

MD

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ok,

http://www.azdba.com/Festival/festival_index.htm

the final events are on Mar 28, 29

The pratice sessions have to be in the Mar 1 / 2 week.

MD

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maybe Ms. V can do the voice and direction and the saving

Nadu

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Just so all know how I feel about the \’noise\’ right now.

Mar Dhala ….. Mar Dhala…. Allah….

MD

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Nadu,

Whose your patient right now?  No texting while drilling please….

MD

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MD,

sala mera Credit Card bill main galti hoaga to tera gala pakadega

Nadu

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and the madness continues…

Happy Friday Folks!

p.s. I apologize to the sentences I don\’t have translation for. It simply does not bring out the essence of the comment.
 

It’s official!

I am old. It was so sudden and hit me right between the eyes that I have gone from being the youngest or almost youngest in the room to the not so young in a span of a day.

Outside of work , I have had ample opportunity and reason to accept the fact that I am not the young girl that I once was. I have accepted gracefully (I would like to think!) this whole I am not in the 20s phase very well.

But it was a very different story at work. Most people I have worked with have been around the same age as me, a few years older or a lot older. Yesterday, I was in a meeting with my project team and as the conversation revolved around politics and history during a short break, I happened to mention to a colleague that my knowledge of America history took a significant leap post 1994 (the year I landed in this country). He is quick to agree with my and just as I digest his words, his next comment was all I needed to hear to accept the fact that I am officially old. What is it that made me feel this way, you wonder. His comment was that he agrees ‘coz he was 9 yrs old in 1994.

boooo. Now that I’ve laid it out here, let me go back to my crawl space

Weekend in review

With the OH off to play cricket on Saturday, this is how I spent my saturday with the kids. Thankfully, we ate out on friday night and had enough left overs to carry us through the day.

7:30 am : Wake up

8:00 am : wake kids up & head to the shower

8:30 am : fix the kids their breakfast (waffle as always) while the OH makes our early morning cuppa hot chocolate and his cuppa coffee.

8:35 am : OH leaves to play cricket.

9:00 am : OH calls to say he forgot his wallet & cell phone and if I could please drop it off sometime. I promise to try.

9:10 am : Gather the kids, kennel the dog and head out to drop Meg at her music class that starts at 9:30 am.

9:20 am : Stop for gas. Of course the tank has got to be empty when you are in a hurry.

9:35 am : drop Meg off and start driving back towards home to take Raul for his chess tournament that for small mercies is at the school that’s a hop skip away from home.

9:45 am : try calling the OH with the good intention of dropping off his wallet & phone. Get no response.

9:58 am : Reach the school and get Raul into the multi-purpose room to begin his Round 1 at 10 am. Hang around the door waiting for him to come out after his first round. He comes out shortly after to report he won Round 1 and heads off to play with his buddies till Round 2 starts at 11:15 am.

11:00 am : Meg calls to say she is done with her music class. Promise to be there in 20 minutes and make a dash to the car to head back to pick her up.

11:10 am : Meg calls back to know when I will be there. A not so happy me tells her it will take me the same 20 minutes whether she calls me once or 10 times.

11:20 am : Reach Meg’s music class, pick her up and start my drive back towards home.

11:45 am : Drop Meg home, ask her to start eating her leftover bruschetta and get ready to be picked up by a friend for her dance class at 1:15 pm. Pick up Raul’s soccer paraphernalia and head back towards the school.

11:48 am : Call friend at chess to let her know I will pick her son, S and Raul up to take them to the soccer game that starts at noon while she waits for her second one to finish his Round 2 of chess.

11:51 am : Reach the school, pick the boys up, change Raul’s clothes in the car, instruct him to change into his cleats and start drive towards soccer field.

11:57 am : Reach soccer field and dump them with their coach for last minute instructions.

12 noon : game starts and we get into cheering for a bunch of 8 yr olds as they run across the field and score goals and take the lead.

12:50 pm : Raul has now played 2nd and 3rd quarter and will sit through 4th quarter. Since he was going to sit the last quarter and the score standing was fairly evident by now, I decide to rush Raul back to school to start Round 3 at 1:00 pm. He orginally had a bye in case he played 4th quarter at soccer.

12:59 pm : Drop Raul at chess for Round 3, chat with an acqaintance I met after months and rush back home to send Meg to dance with carpool buddy. Reach home just in time to see friend pull in to the driveway to get Meg. Send Meg out to dance and run into the house to heat up leftover pizza for Raul and devour the last piece of bruschetta to stop self from passing out from extreme hunger pangs.

1:20 pm : back at school to feed Raul his lunch as he listens to his coach gives him lessons and reviews his earlier games. Run back to the parking lot to grab a few tissues (nothing like being in a rush and unprepared).

2:00 pm : Raul is back in the room to play Round 4. By now both of us are exhausted.

2:15 pm : Raul comes out after losing his last game (the only one he lost). Coach runs out to review his game. Raul’s eyes glosses over and I see him tune out the coach’s feedback. The kid was so exhausted he hadn’t even notated his moves right. Coach instructs us to head home and take it easy.

2:30 pm : Raul and I reach home. We both change and hit the bed, hunger forgotten and exhaustion at the forefront.

4:00 pm : The OH returns and wakes us both up. I then joined him to have a light lunch.

4:30 pm : Off to the basement to my favorite job, pay bills.

6:30 pm : Resurface to get the kids and self ready to visit a friend for dinner.

Sometimes it really makes me wonder why we put ourselves through these absolutely insane and crazy schedules. Hopefully all this running around will make a positive difference to the kids and their lives years from now and we can look back to these days with a sense of satisfaction.

Thankfully sunday was a lot more relaxing and slow paced. Even got to watch Welcome to Sajjanpur all by myself, while the OH took one kid out to run errands and the other one was out in the frontyard playing with his buddies. Vegged out sunday night watching A.R. Rahman walk away with 2 Oscars much to our delight.

Celebreties & Drug experts

If you are wondering what is common among to two parts of the title let me explain.

Yesterday was a bad traffic day getting back home and thus a dear friend V took the kids to swim lessons as I was battling my way on the highway to get home 5 minutes prior to the start of their classes. Thanks to all this chaos, I didn’t get to see the kids and hear about all their exciting news at school before they headed off to swim lessons.

After my workout, I made my way to pick Raul up from swimming only to be greeted by a super happy 8 year old screaming at the top of his lungs “Amma, I am famous!” After futile attempts at calming him down to extract further information and receiving “I have been there” smiles from parents nearby, I finally was able to get him to explain.

Apparently Obert Skye, the author of the Leven Thumps series is doing the tour of various school to promote his 5th book and is coming to the kids school on monday. Raul, has been unanimously selected by both his school librarian and class teacher to announce the arrival of this author and request the kids to meet with him during the public announcement time at school on Monday morning. He has his script all drafted and turned in to his teacher. The icing on the cake of course is that his 6th grade sister, who runs Media club at school will be announcing him before he does his advertising

And thus we witness the birth of a celebrity! Mom & dad for sure agree

Part – II

Meg has been going through DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) at school the past couple of weeks. After the very first day of drug education, she came home to tell me all about it. The instructor had apparently asked the kids if they could name a few of the drugs they had heard of. Meg said that she was extremely surprised when a bunch of her classmates raised their hands and started shouting out a few of the most common ones out there.

Surpised why? Because she said that the only drugs she knew of were the ones she had taken in her life. As my brain tried to comprehend her statement, she quickly explained that the only drugs she knew of till then were Motrin, Tylenol and Amoxicillin that we had given her when she was sick. I couldn’t help but chuckle. My naive baby learnt a lesson or two that day

After a couple of weeks of these DARE sessions, she is the resident expert of all drugs that can be accessed the right or wrong way down to the latest one, Ritalin that is becoming all too popular in college campuses. This leaves mom and dad wondering if all this education is helping to keep them off it or giving them all the information to give it a try. We still are not sure but can only hope & pray that it helps keep them off it for life.

On that note, Happy Friday & have a great weekend folks!

Kerala Vacation – Excerpts from the Spice Plantation tour

Our vacation to India in December included a one week vacation to God’s own country. On our drive from Munnar to Thekkady, our driver Ratheesh recommended to us a tour of the Spice Plantation. All four of us had an extremely fun and educational few hours learning about all the spices that make our cooking unique and flavorful.

Here is our trip in pictures with some information I can recollect from all the details the tour guide filled us with on these spices. The first plant on our tour was the tobacco plant. The OH & I thought it was interesting they started of their tour with this plant.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was followed by one that is close to our hearts, the insulin plant, given that most of the OH’s family (him included) have embraced this antidote for life thanks to dealing with diabetes for generations. The OH & I were of the opinion that insulin was a chemical that was manufactured and were pleasantly surprised to hear that it is also a plant derivative. Here is the OH with the insulin plant… 

 

Our next stop was a chilli plant that was different from the usual ones found in the market. Here is a not so clear picture of the light green chillies. Look carefully to notice the yellowish chillies sticking out of the branches.

 

 

 

 

We next moved on to the various spices. The various kinds of pollinations were explained to us in detail. The cardomom grows via honey bee pollination. There is an interesting story behind the cardamom plantation. It is apparently the women’s job to pluck the cardomoms from the plant since it grows at the bottom of the plant and is extremely strenuous on the back. The women, it seems can handle this stress on their backs much better than the men folk (how convenient!). Therefore it is the women who predominantly employed to pluck the cardomoms when the time is right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following the cardomom was the vanilla bean plant. It was explained to us that the vanilla bean is expensive because it grows via manual pollination. The plantation owner hires help from local residents to come in on a foggy morning at the crack of dawn to manually pollinate each bean pod. Flowering normally occurs every spring and without pollination the blossom wilts and falls, and no vanilla bean can grow. Each flower must be hand-pollinated within 12 hours of opening. All vanilla grown today is pollinated by hand. A small splinter of wood or a grass stem is used to lift the rostellum or moved the flap upward so that the overhanging anther can be pressed against the stigma and self pollinate the vine. Meg holding the vanilla bean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next was the pineapple plant. It was interesting to learn about the effort that went into growing this fruit and the chemical pollination that takes place to cultivate this tasty fruit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next in line was the black pepper. This plant grows via rain pollination and it was explained to us that as the rain water trickles down the tiny peppers, pollination occurs. When the rain water does not flow down uniformly the peppers in the bottom don’t grow enough and have to be discarded. These are then dried to be sold in the markets as whole black & white peppers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In all the years that I have been cooking with cinnamon & bay leaf, the one fact about them that I did not know is that they are both from the same plant. The leaves of the cinnamon plant is the bay leaf and the bark is peeled of to be sold as the cinnamon stick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My school back home growing up was in one of the most beautifual campus and was known for it’s forest, deer, monkeys and banyan trees. Many years of lunch break was spent under the wonderful banyan trees that extended to cover a significant portion of our playground and give us a wonderful shade from the sun. In the spice plantation, we got to see a very different kind of banyan tree. This one was the kind that grows almost like a creeper. Here is a picture. Never had I seen one like this before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the midst of all these wonderful plants, here is a lovely hideout, a tree house built for tourists to enjoy & for the plantation employees to sit in and guard the plantations from the animals at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not the least, here is a beautiful picture of the lush tea plantations that covered the landscape as far as the eyes could see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were so many more plants that we didn’t take pictures of. Some of them are the rudraksh tree, the leaves used to make incense, the nagalinga flower that is special for Lord Shiva. It was an amazing experience indeed.

The person who made this trip memorable for us with his rich knowledge of all these spices was our tour guide, who nurtured, guarded and shared his love for this plantation. Here he is explaining to us about yet another plant.

25 Random things about me

I was tagged on facebook to do this. Figured if I took the time to do it, might as well post it here as well So here it is…

1. My zodiac is taurus but I have been told I have quite a bit of Aries in me as well.
2. Learnt the veena for a year when I was young and on hindsight regret not pursuing it.
3. Back in my college days, I could speak and understand French. I wonder how much of it I remember anymore.
4. I met my husband for the first time 20 days before our wedding even though we’d been engaged for 6 months. 15 years and 2 kids later all I can say is “I lucked out!”
5. If I had to choose only 3 things I could eat for the rest of my life it would be yogurt rice, dhal dhokli & chocolate.
6. Something that I love doing these days is reading some of my favorite blogs and updating my own blog diligently. Have been doing it for almost a year now and am absolutely loving it.
7. The one thing I love to do most in the evenings in share a nice cuppa tea with the hubby in our patio.
8. I love to spend friday evenings vegging out with friends and a nice glass of wine. In fact I could spend any evening with a glass of wine
9. Italian is my favorite cuisine apart from Indian.
10. I enjoy fancy cars and would love to some day drive one as fast as I could without having to worry about getting caught by the cops.
11. The one thing I wish I had learnt while growing up is classical dance.
12. I love all kinds of electronic gadgets.
13. I hate spending time talking on the phone. If possible I do it only when I absolutely have to.
14. I love cooking but it has to be in my time and exclusively what I like to make.
15. I like to unwind after a long day by watching movies & dumb soap operas.
16. I am a librarian by education and would some day like to get back to volunteering at the local library.
17. I wish I could find the time in my schedule to work out more and find money in my wallet to work with a fitness trainer. Some day I hope to.
18. I am not adventurous when it comes to food. Anything I try has to first appeal to my eyes
19. I love meeting and talking to people which is why I enjoy the work I do.
20. I am a romantic at heart but am really bad at expressing my feelings.
21. If I didn’t have to worry about saving for the kids college and our retirement funds, I would happily spend it all going to school and learning all kinds of cool stuff.
22. I enjoy all kinds of sports thanks to my dad.
23. I wish I could someday live in a cul de sac home with all my friends as neighbors, including the buddies who live in different cities and countries thanks to job relocations.
24. I can run on all four cylinders for months and then catch up on my sleep by dozing off for 16-18 hours straight every once in a while.
25. I absolutely must have “me” time and occassionally hide myself to do just that.

Significant Milestone

Much to our delight and our fears, we survived our first week (kala tikka /anitjinx) of leaving the kids by themselves in the house with no adult supervision.

With dad heading back to work, grandparents not slated to be back in town till the third week of February & their usual babysitter taking up another part-time job, the OH & I were left with very few options. With reassurances from neighbors that they would frequently check on the kids for the 30 so minutes they would be by themselves, the OH & I decided to take a giant leap of faith and let the kids be. Safety instructions were explained, rules were laid out, emergency contact information was written out and the kids did amazingly well.

The very first day I called them at home from work right after they should have returned home from school only to be greeted by the answering machine. I took a deep breath and tried again 5 minutes later to the same message. Panic attacks were in full swing and I called me neighbor to check on them. She was sweet enough to assure me that she would walk over and check on them. She & I weren’t sure if the kids would open the door to her given that we had asked them not to. My only hope was that I had told Meg that she could pick up the phone if Mrs. R called.

Giving up on any attempt at work by this point, I packed my bags and headed towards my car all the while saying a silent prayer. Shortly after getting into the car I get a call on my cell from home. Significantly relieved I pick up the call. Meg explains to me that they are home safe, that Mrs. R had checked on them and that the only reason she hadn’t picked up the phone was because she didn’t recognize my work number. It was then that I realized that I had given them the number to my desk, but all outgoing calls get the main switchboard number on the receiver’s Caller ID.

They passed with flying colors on the test I had inadvertantly given them They followed our orders to perfection. We just had to make one small change to our instructions and the kids have been doing great except for this day. Not long before they will be completely functional without us

All in a day’s work

Last evening I returned home from work to the sight of the master bathroom completely trashed by a hyperactive dog, one that  managed to get out of her kennel and 

• throw her water bowl in the formal living room.
• drag the cushions from the family room couch into the living room floor
• empty the trash in the master bath, destroy the entire toilet paper roll, shred each piece of trash from the trash can, rip all the books neatly stacked in the toilet ehem for distraction
• get herself locked in the toilet while trashing the place
• scratch the paint off the bathroom door trying to get herself out
• and continued scratching on the door till the kids came home and found her there after frantically searching all over.

The kids for their part decided to wait till mom came home to display the mess. They further added to the mess by

• leaving their dirty socks on the couch
• scattering the contents of their school bag all over the dining table
• spending their times playing games instead of fixing themselves a snack
• and being completely unprepared for the swim class they needed to be at five minutes after mom got home.

11  years after learning it for the very first time I am still putting my breathing lessons from the Lamaze technique to good use. hee hee hoo (lamaze breathing)!

Help one another, is part of the religion of sisterhood

Dear Meg,

You are the best sister one could ask for and you make the title of this post come true in our home by some tiny thing that you do each day. Growing up, I always wished for an older brother to play guardian, protector to me and someone I could flaunt to my friends when in need. Seeing the way you help Raul has made me realize that he couldn’t have asked for anyone better than you in his life. You not only watch out for him but you are there for him whenever he needs you. Whether it is a Nintendo DS game he is struggling with or the Wii game he is trying to succeed at or school homework he is trying to complete, you are always there to make him look cool & intelligent.

“What’s the good of news if you haven’t a sister to share it?” (courtesy Jenny DeVries). I am sure Raul relates to this the best. You are the one he comes running to you when he has something exciting to share. You are the one he shares the most with. The charmer that he is, the little twit has figured out how to get you to help him in need. He will be at your beck and call and fulfil every little request when he needs your help. He has even learned to shower you with his best compliments knowing full well in his tiny heart that he means them as well. He loves to show off to his friends how cool a sister he has.

Inspite of the fact that Appa & I don’t carry a creative bone, you have fortunately been blessed with a lot of it. Appa & I can see it in every little thing you create with your artistic hands. Be it costume jewellery of painting or drawing, you do it all. Appa & I are not sure what we would do in our crazy schedules without you helping Raul with his homework. You made elementary school feel like a breeze. Little did we realize the amount of work you did independantly for school. It is now when we sit with Raul to help him, do we realize all the assignments you completed with little to no help from us. You have always exceled in school and you have achieved this simply with your hard work and perseverance.

When you are older and are reading this, I wanted you to have a snapshot of the work you did for your little brother. The Land of Chess was a beautiful piece of work (got to say I am a tad biased). Just the fact that you could free hand draw the entire piece is truly amazing. You took Raul’s thoughts and created an entire city to visualize his imagination. Your images of the Chess Castle, the Chess Library, the Chess Museum & the Chess Park was amazing. Thanks to all your help, Raul can proudly claim that his is the best one in his class

I pray that you will always be there to help your little brother when he needs you. I know there are times when you like to use your seniority to hassle him endlessly but I also know that behind all that is a sister who is ferociously protective of her little brother. Appa & I are so proud of you and are extremely fortunate to have you to enrich our lives.

Love you, baby!

Amma

* title quote by Louisa May Alcott