So the whole discussion started when k started wondering about Lego Mindstorms possibilities! He bought himself a little toy over the weekend but I will let him do the honors and describe it with a page long essay, I will focus on what he thought his toy should be made to do.
"What if the robot could shop for us?! Then we don't have to go every weekend for groceries!"
This whole discussion occurred just outside our local Indian grocery store, Sagar and it left me puzzled. I actually look forward to going to Sagar every weekend. I mean, I am not a "Wheee! I love shopping" kind of girl but I do like to go to Sagar, read the desi ads on the store window, linger over the big pile of video cassettes and DVDs and I like to see human activity around me :p, greet and be greeted by familiar faces, once a week.
k on the other hand cannot understand why he should be pulled away from his robot for a precious half-hour to buy fresh curry leaves and expensive toor dal :)
And since we have had this discussion several times and have just agreed to disagree on the topic, I'll just file this aside as another one of those guy-girl things that I never seem to "get".
I rented out a Hindi DVD, Gangster this week, at least I have my excuse for my next weekend visit, "We have to return the DVD! It's a new movie and it's been lying here for a week!"
July 30, 2006
July 26, 2006
Daydreams...
Do you ever get the feeling that you are approaching the edge of a cliff? You have no idea what’s going to greet you once you reach the top, all you see is the few steps separating you from the top…and you wonder in the space and time that separates you, if you will find your destiny there, if it will be an epiphany that makes you a new person, a feeling of freedom, a moment of magic that changes you completely, a vista opened up for you to absorb…
Or perhaps such fantasies remain just the mere subject of day dreams filling the minds of lazy souls and what you see is just reality, no miracle to sweep you off your feet, just life as expected, everything as you would expect them to be…and then you will probably make your way back with drooping shoulders and nothing to show the people standing down but the tiredness of your feet...who knows? Life changes in an instant, doesn’t it? Maybe that instant will be mine in a few…
You don’t ever get that feeling? Sometimes, like now, I do and I eagerly await the breeze to embrace me, at the top of the cliff, and sway my existence to wisps of nothingness, until I feel light and free…my thoughts, myself and my body, all weightless and dream-like, dispersed everywhere with no boundaries, to experience...life.
Or perhaps such fantasies remain just the mere subject of day dreams filling the minds of lazy souls and what you see is just reality, no miracle to sweep you off your feet, just life as expected, everything as you would expect them to be…and then you will probably make your way back with drooping shoulders and nothing to show the people standing down but the tiredness of your feet...who knows? Life changes in an instant, doesn’t it? Maybe that instant will be mine in a few…
You don’t ever get that feeling? Sometimes, like now, I do and I eagerly await the breeze to embrace me, at the top of the cliff, and sway my existence to wisps of nothingness, until I feel light and free…my thoughts, myself and my body, all weightless and dream-like, dispersed everywhere with no boundaries, to experience...life.
July 25, 2006
UPDATE blog SET content = {SELECT random-thoughts FROM RS} WHERE theme ='quirky'
Movie Update: The past two weeks have been "Bollywood vaaaaram" for me, watched a whole bunch of Masala movies: 36 China Town, Fanaa, Shaadi Se Pehle, Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, Malamaal Weekly and Krishhh (yet to watch)...whew!
Book Update: Still working on “The Monk who sold his Ferrari”, it says we need to rise with the sun. I really want to do that, at least once in my life! “I am that” – talks with Sri Nisargadatta is next (My library was sweet enough to get the book for me :)
Dream Update: I woke up remembering bits of a really strange dream, that I was still not married and my parents were selecting a guy for me. I was actually chatting with this guy and talking to him on phone…I vaguely remember dreaming that he was cute, he also looked a bit like k but had morphed features from a number of familiar yet unfamiliar faces (this is such a common occurrence in my dreams – the face is so familiar, but I can’t place one name on it!). How does this dream process work anyway? I am pretty sure my subconscious was not mulling over anything related to a wedding, especially mine :)
Quirky Update: So, I bought this chapstick at the airport and it was kind of frozen. So, I left it out in my car so that it becomes a bit more goooey, and it did. When I opened it the next time, a tube full of liquid squirted out on me and promptly solidified. Never try to melt a stubborn solidified chapstick.
Talk Update: We were discussing work, vacation and time-off and what we would do if we took a half-day off and I remembered the time k did that. When I came home in the evening, a tasty aroma wafted from the kitchen, books and magazines were neatly piled up on the table and everything was in it’s place. He opened the door with a ladle in hand and a welcoming smile, I almost had the urge to say, “Honey, I am home!” but then I didn’t have the hat to toss :)
Acronym Update: Heard of SAHM? What?! You don’t know about Stay-at-home-moms? Bus told me about S/D-INK (Single/Double-Income No Kids). Hmm…we learn something new every day!
Article Update: Here's a nice article by Shobhaa De.
Food Update: Tried to be healthy and all and cooked brown rice! Pretty good for a first attempt!
“Mental” Update: Sometimes life’s just a series of rewinds and reruns. That’s what makes it so hard to live in the present, as the wise men say. They must be really wise, those men, they sure had a lot of things to say.
Book Update: Still working on “The Monk who sold his Ferrari”, it says we need to rise with the sun. I really want to do that, at least once in my life! “I am that” – talks with Sri Nisargadatta is next (My library was sweet enough to get the book for me :)
Dream Update: I woke up remembering bits of a really strange dream, that I was still not married and my parents were selecting a guy for me. I was actually chatting with this guy and talking to him on phone…I vaguely remember dreaming that he was cute, he also looked a bit like k but had morphed features from a number of familiar yet unfamiliar faces (this is such a common occurrence in my dreams – the face is so familiar, but I can’t place one name on it!). How does this dream process work anyway? I am pretty sure my subconscious was not mulling over anything related to a wedding, especially mine :)
Quirky Update: So, I bought this chapstick at the airport and it was kind of frozen. So, I left it out in my car so that it becomes a bit more goooey, and it did. When I opened it the next time, a tube full of liquid squirted out on me and promptly solidified. Never try to melt a stubborn solidified chapstick.
Talk Update: We were discussing work, vacation and time-off and what we would do if we took a half-day off and I remembered the time k did that. When I came home in the evening, a tasty aroma wafted from the kitchen, books and magazines were neatly piled up on the table and everything was in it’s place. He opened the door with a ladle in hand and a welcoming smile, I almost had the urge to say, “Honey, I am home!” but then I didn’t have the hat to toss :)
Acronym Update: Heard of SAHM? What?! You don’t know about Stay-at-home-moms? Bus told me about S/D-INK (Single/Double-Income No Kids). Hmm…we learn something new every day!
Article Update: Here's a nice article by Shobhaa De.
Food Update: Tried to be healthy and all and cooked brown rice! Pretty good for a first attempt!
“Mental” Update: Sometimes life’s just a series of rewinds and reruns. That’s what makes it so hard to live in the present, as the wise men say. They must be really wise, those men, they sure had a lot of things to say.
July 18, 2006
A motley post.
Hmm...it's 4.45 PM, so if we leave in half an hour, I can have a light tiffin, maybe bread with honey. Do we have bread at home? I wonder if we get that super-soft Sara Lee bread at Kroger...hmm, else we can stop by at Meijers and buy bread and some butter milk, maybe pick a Hindi movie from Sagar.
# # # random thoughts # # #
Man! my leg aches, am I not exercising enough? Or did I over-exert myself at the swimming pool yesterday? I really have to start lifting weights else I am headed towards Carpal Tunnel for sure!
# # # random thoughts # # #
If I find time, maybe I can arrange the pantry, it's really a mess...drat! I forgot to use the strawberries and it's been a week, so much for my strawberry spinach salad!
# # # random thoughts # # #
I have to, have to do my laundry today. Maybe I can put my clothes in the washer, finish vacuuming the kitchen...I need to arrange the closet and drop the big bundle lying in the trunk, at Salvation army...I wonder what k's mom would think if she saw the state my closet is in!
# # # random thoughts # # #
Let's see, it's 5 PM, If I leave now, I can...
Ping! A chat window appears on my screen:
K - "Hey! I am going to play TT here, be back in half an hour."
Sigh...so much for my over-active trail of thoughts and frenzied planning. Back to ajax or comet or whatever cleaning product is hot for web-based apps now!
Also, new story up. If you have nothing better to do - oh, come on, whom are you kidding now? Stop playing that stupid cycle game :) and do check it out.
I also changed the layout of my blog a bit because unlike you, I have lots of time - I don't play stupid cycle game :)
# # # random thoughts # # #
Man! my leg aches, am I not exercising enough? Or did I over-exert myself at the swimming pool yesterday? I really have to start lifting weights else I am headed towards Carpal Tunnel for sure!
# # # random thoughts # # #
If I find time, maybe I can arrange the pantry, it's really a mess...drat! I forgot to use the strawberries and it's been a week, so much for my strawberry spinach salad!
# # # random thoughts # # #
I have to, have to do my laundry today. Maybe I can put my clothes in the washer, finish vacuuming the kitchen...I need to arrange the closet and drop the big bundle lying in the trunk, at Salvation army...I wonder what k's mom would think if she saw the state my closet is in!
# # # random thoughts # # #
Let's see, it's 5 PM, If I leave now, I can...
Ping! A chat window appears on my screen:
K - "Hey! I am going to play TT here, be back in half an hour."
Sigh...so much for my over-active trail of thoughts and frenzied planning. Back to ajax or comet or whatever cleaning product is hot for web-based apps now!
Also, new story up. If you have nothing better to do - oh, come on, whom are you kidding now? Stop playing that stupid cycle game :) and do check it out.
I also changed the layout of my blog a bit because unlike you, I have lots of time - I don't play stupid cycle game :)
July 13, 2006
Back to Normal?
So here I am, typing something inane on a blank document as a city tries to forget what should not be forgotten and limps back to normal. But “normal” for Bombay has changed…
Here is a city that pretends to go about it’s routine tasks as if it has not witnessed something terrible - an attempt to destroy the very cogs that make it function, like a well-oiled machine, is that normal?
Where there was not enough place to stand on both feet, where people were happy to swing with one foot in the compartment and the other dangling out just relieved that they had managed to catch the train, now there is place to actually sit on the seats. The same guy who dangled from the edge of the train now checks under the seats before sitting down, is that normal?
k’s cousin, Hardik who boarded the very same compartment that was blown to bits at Mahim now relives the terrifying scene every day even as the doctors have declared him fit to go home, he has cried not just once…relieved that he is alive or stricken that he would have to live with memories that cannot be erased? Will life be normal for him again?
Back in Madras, my mom tells me about my brother’s friends who wonder what unknown power still lets them live, breathe, feel…alive. They both usually board the same trains at the same time, on Tuesday, one decided to take the bus “for a change” and the other had an accident recently and stayed back because the doctor had advised bed-rest. Lucky souls in an unlucky time. Will life be normal for them?
And here in the US, as I fearfully clicked on a link that declared that there were blasts in Mumbai, as I anxiously scanned more articles online and then even more frantically dialed the 15 digits that I can now dial in my sleep, over and over again, as I imagined the unimaginable for those few minutes that it took for me to talk to familiar, tinny voices so many miles away…I wondered if it was all worth it? Did I feel guilty because I was so far away, safe in my cocoon while Bombay burned? Did I feel helpless that I could do nothing? Selfishly happy that my brother who works in Bombay was at Madras for a short vacation and that my in-laws were safe? Or did I just feel plain scared?
So, what’s your point, you ask me. I don’t know. Meaningless rants, emotional trash dumped on you all…anyway, I, will also be “normal” soon, just like Bombay.
God bless Bombay and the spirit of Bombay.
Here is a city that pretends to go about it’s routine tasks as if it has not witnessed something terrible - an attempt to destroy the very cogs that make it function, like a well-oiled machine, is that normal?
Where there was not enough place to stand on both feet, where people were happy to swing with one foot in the compartment and the other dangling out just relieved that they had managed to catch the train, now there is place to actually sit on the seats. The same guy who dangled from the edge of the train now checks under the seats before sitting down, is that normal?
k’s cousin, Hardik who boarded the very same compartment that was blown to bits at Mahim now relives the terrifying scene every day even as the doctors have declared him fit to go home, he has cried not just once…relieved that he is alive or stricken that he would have to live with memories that cannot be erased? Will life be normal for him again?
Back in Madras, my mom tells me about my brother’s friends who wonder what unknown power still lets them live, breathe, feel…alive. They both usually board the same trains at the same time, on Tuesday, one decided to take the bus “for a change” and the other had an accident recently and stayed back because the doctor had advised bed-rest. Lucky souls in an unlucky time. Will life be normal for them?
And here in the US, as I fearfully clicked on a link that declared that there were blasts in Mumbai, as I anxiously scanned more articles online and then even more frantically dialed the 15 digits that I can now dial in my sleep, over and over again, as I imagined the unimaginable for those few minutes that it took for me to talk to familiar, tinny voices so many miles away…I wondered if it was all worth it? Did I feel guilty because I was so far away, safe in my cocoon while Bombay burned? Did I feel helpless that I could do nothing? Selfishly happy that my brother who works in Bombay was at Madras for a short vacation and that my in-laws were safe? Or did I just feel plain scared?
So, what’s your point, you ask me. I don’t know. Meaningless rants, emotional trash dumped on you all…anyway, I, will also be “normal” soon, just like Bombay.
God bless Bombay and the spirit of Bombay.
July 05, 2006
About alternate lives, old friends and power cuts (this is one of those posts).
I wonder if it’s just me. I have this compulsive reaction to people and their places – to put myself in their shoes and imagine how life would be for me (as them), if you know what I mean. I do it all the time, when I visit the post office, the bank, Office Depot, Best Buy, yesterday it was HhGregg!
I watch the sales rep at HhGregg help us with our microwave purchase, I watch the teller count the currency notes at the bank, the friendly post office lady tell me the charge for my India packages and I always wonder how life would be if I were to be them.
What if I worked at the post office, wearing my smart grayish blue uniform, weighing letters and packages and answering questions posed to me in different accents, sitting under the ceiling fan (there are there in our local post office and for some reason ceiling fans always capture my fancy because I see them so rarely), would I make any friends there? What would I talk to my colleagues there at lunch?
What if I didn't work and had more time (the lack of which I complain about every other day), would I actually sign up for those yoga, swing dancing and keyboard classes? Or would I just make myself like "Manaivi" and such exciting soaps on TV (recently I realized the American ones are just as bad)? Would I be one of those oooh-my-dress-has-to-coordinate-with-the-house genteel hostesses with perfect nails and a perfect house?
Such a weird trail of thoughts but it happens all the time...
* * *
Another of the is-it-just-me mulls – ever gone back to visit old friends having this image in your head of them that you have carried from the last time you met them (which may range from a few to a several years)? And then you notice small changes? Essentially, they are still the same person with the same quirks but them many more quirks have joined the wagon and several other factors play a role now to dictate how they talk, how they react, how they spend their time…but then you catch a bit of the old college slang, a facial expression, a gesture that reminds you of old times and a younger you and them…when things were less complicated, when you felt more at home, more to act on an impulse and say just what you feel…now you think for a second before you speak and that second makes you wonder what has changed...still, is fun to catch up and reminisce of times when we were younger, more foolish and probably had more fun?
* * *
Okay, I see the "You are a weird one" look nice and clear(come on, haven't you got used to these kinda posts by now?!), so, I’ll proceed to talk about more normal happenings around here. Yesterday and today, after heavy rains, we had a power cut! The first sign was the alarm clock blanking out on me this morning, (thank God I had set a backup alarm on my cell phone), then I wondered what we would do for hot water (the water decided to come out hot for a short while and we managed to get ready quickly!), we couldn’t have coffee (read – two cranky zombies driving to work), and then the unexpected side-effect – we couldn’t use the automatic garage opener, so early morning, we sleepily read through the garage manual and figured out how to open it manually. It will be interesting to cook tonight without electricity (now I see why gas ranges are just as popular as electric ranges!)
So, that’s all (as Meryl Streep puts it oh-so-saucily in “The Devil Wears Prada” - watch it, it’s fun!)
I watch the sales rep at HhGregg help us with our microwave purchase, I watch the teller count the currency notes at the bank, the friendly post office lady tell me the charge for my India packages and I always wonder how life would be if I were to be them.
What if I worked at the post office, wearing my smart grayish blue uniform, weighing letters and packages and answering questions posed to me in different accents, sitting under the ceiling fan (there are there in our local post office and for some reason ceiling fans always capture my fancy because I see them so rarely), would I make any friends there? What would I talk to my colleagues there at lunch?
What if I didn't work and had more time (the lack of which I complain about every other day), would I actually sign up for those yoga, swing dancing and keyboard classes? Or would I just make myself like "Manaivi" and such exciting soaps on TV (recently I realized the American ones are just as bad)? Would I be one of those oooh-my-dress-has-to-coordinate-with-the-house genteel hostesses with perfect nails and a perfect house?
Such a weird trail of thoughts but it happens all the time...
Another of the is-it-just-me mulls – ever gone back to visit old friends having this image in your head of them that you have carried from the last time you met them (which may range from a few to a several years)? And then you notice small changes? Essentially, they are still the same person with the same quirks but them many more quirks have joined the wagon and several other factors play a role now to dictate how they talk, how they react, how they spend their time…but then you catch a bit of the old college slang, a facial expression, a gesture that reminds you of old times and a younger you and them…when things were less complicated, when you felt more at home, more to act on an impulse and say just what you feel…now you think for a second before you speak and that second makes you wonder what has changed...still, is fun to catch up and reminisce of times when we were younger, more foolish and probably had more fun?
Okay, I see the "You are a weird one" look nice and clear(come on, haven't you got used to these kinda posts by now?!), so, I’ll proceed to talk about more normal happenings around here. Yesterday and today, after heavy rains, we had a power cut! The first sign was the alarm clock blanking out on me this morning, (thank God I had set a backup alarm on my cell phone), then I wondered what we would do for hot water (the water decided to come out hot for a short while and we managed to get ready quickly!), we couldn’t have coffee (read – two cranky zombies driving to work), and then the unexpected side-effect – we couldn’t use the automatic garage opener, so early morning, we sleepily read through the garage manual and figured out how to open it manually. It will be interesting to cook tonight without electricity (now I see why gas ranges are just as popular as electric ranges!)
So, that’s all (as Meryl Streep puts it oh-so-saucily in “The Devil Wears Prada” - watch it, it’s fun!)
June 28, 2006
It's a whole new world!
Heard of the phrase "kenathu thavala" (frog in a well), the frog's world is the well around it and it thinks there is no world beyond the well (somewhat like H.G.Well's The Country of the Blind). So, anyway, two frogs from Lexington set out to see the world last week (I wouldn't go as far as saying we didn't think there was a world beyong Lex but well, it's a whole new world out there :)
The first thing that struck me about Seattle is that the city is aged, the buildings, the huge trees and even the weather seemed to suggest a place that had aged. B~ told me Redmond was much younger (built after MSFT came up), to me Redmond seemed old too (maybe it was just the weather that day). So, anyway, we wandered about the wise old cities and I liked quite a few things about it:
Our Visa Stamping Appointment...
was anything but what we expected. First we got kicked out because we carried sealed envelopes (our official transcripts), "Go to the back of the 8.30 line!", the burly guard roared (it was as if I was in school again, only that noone had screamed at me like that in school!). So anyway, we went to the back of the 8.30 line and started giggling because the whole episode was so weird. First they ask for official transcripts, then they ask us to open them (to be fair, we didn't open them all and that was our fault) and then he strikes through our visa appointment letter (quite traumatic for B~ who hates even the lightest pencil marks on his books :) we get thrown out, anyway we sobered up lest we should get thrown back to the 10 AM line (he actually threatened to do that) and then were let in. The guard must have felt bad for us because he said, "See that guy there?" (pointing to a confused looking chap hovering outside) "I sent him to the 10 AM line!" Joy. Poor chap.
The interview inside went smoothly for the most part but k has a different version of the interview. Anyway, the good thing is we got our visas stamped after all that. B~ commented that he hated talkative interviewers, he said, "Imagine if they go on yapping for 15 minutes and then say, 'that's all very good but your visa is rejected'" :) I did see one woman denied a visa (she was there for a H4 to H1 transfer)...
Sights and Eats...
We went around Vancouver, Whistler and Victoria and saw the usual places - Capilano Suspension Bridge, Granville Island, Butchart gardens, scenic drive to Whistler, biking in Stanley Park, Robson Street, BC ferries...Ikea(!) - all fun. We ate food ranging from greasy Indian dal and questionable vegetable-curry in a small, dark restaurant with one-man service (he was the waiter, cook and cashier!) to expensive Greek leafy wraps with lemon sauce! In Seattle we ate twice at Thai restaurants, King and I and Thai Ginger - the pad thai definitely had a whole lot more oil than here at Lex. We had pasta, icecream and coffee all for less than $10 each at Old Spaghetti place - beautiful decor with tinted glasses.
Worth remembering...
- that the suspension bridges make the tree stronger! Also that they would have to rebuild the bridges once every 4-5 years because of tree growth! That's a douglas fir that k and B~ are hugging in the picture above. We saw some that were more than 300 feet tall, older than us by atleast a couple of centuries and more than 20 feet in circumference! We actually bowed down to one of the Grandma douglas fir trees!
- At Butchart gardens, the flowers mainly stole the show but it was fascinating to watch the different varities of leaves and plants that surrounded them! (Note the second row in this picture-collage).
- On the way to Stanley Park, there was the cutest cupcake shop (bottom right most pic), I just had to eat one!
- Microsoft is everywhere, literally. It's hard to escape it when you live on the campus, MSFT somehow manages to enter most conversations, there is less of a home-work distinction there than here...
- So we heard quite a few quips about our "small town" life :) Ku~ asked if we still had only two roads (one for the University and one for Companies) or if they were building a third road. Driving in downtown Seattle was kind of...wild compared to Lex (you know the two roads that we usually drive on :)
As k put it, the trip gave us a chance to get a different perspective, to catch a glimpse of a different life style, to take a peek at a different work-culture, to catch up with friends, to raise eyebrows at the real-estate prices and all that good stuff...a nice little breather in all, frogs back to well now :)
Tip: Green implies there's an associated photo in the collages somewhere :)
The first thing that struck me about Seattle is that the city is aged, the buildings, the huge trees and even the weather seemed to suggest a place that had aged. B~ told me Redmond was much younger (built after MSFT came up), to me Redmond seemed old too (maybe it was just the weather that day). So, anyway, we wandered about the wise old cities and I liked quite a few things about it:- Let me begin with coffee because I think Seattle is to coffee is as Kentucky is to horses and KFC (tell any relative about Kentucky and you'll know what am talking about :) - There really is a coffee place every street! And not just Starbucks, there was this cute artsy coffee place (bottom row, first two photos from the left) that we went to at Pike Place in Seattle, then we had Seattle's Best Coffee and strangely enough, we didn't have coffee at Starbucks in Seattle. We did take a picture in front of the very first Starbucks (top left-most pic) though!
- Pike place is this really neat market place in Seattle, we went early morning immediately after our Canadian Visa appointment and people were just setting up their stalls, within half an hour, the entire place filled with rows and rows of fresh flowers, fruits, produce; it was fun just to walk around and watch the busy morning unfold in this place. We then wandered around to this candy shop which also happened to sell kites. The lady there asked me if I recently got married (she was so thrilled that she was right) and since we bought a bunch of kite stuff from there, she also gave us honey-roasted popcorn (bottom row, two pics to the right) on the house. I will vouch that it's the best popcorn that I have ever tasted in my life!
Our Visa Stamping Appointment...
was anything but what we expected. First we got kicked out because we carried sealed envelopes (our official transcripts), "Go to the back of the 8.30 line!", the burly guard roared (it was as if I was in school again, only that noone had screamed at me like that in school!). So anyway, we went to the back of the 8.30 line and started giggling because the whole episode was so weird. First they ask for official transcripts, then they ask us to open them (to be fair, we didn't open them all and that was our fault) and then he strikes through our visa appointment letter (quite traumatic for B~ who hates even the lightest pencil marks on his books :) we get thrown out, anyway we sobered up lest we should get thrown back to the 10 AM line (he actually threatened to do that) and then were let in. The guard must have felt bad for us because he said, "See that guy there?" (pointing to a confused looking chap hovering outside) "I sent him to the 10 AM line!" Joy. Poor chap.
The interview inside went smoothly for the most part but k has a different version of the interview. Anyway, the good thing is we got our visas stamped after all that. B~ commented that he hated talkative interviewers, he said, "Imagine if they go on yapping for 15 minutes and then say, 'that's all very good but your visa is rejected'" :) I did see one woman denied a visa (she was there for a H4 to H1 transfer)...
Sights and Eats...
We went around Vancouver, Whistler and Victoria and saw the usual places - Capilano Suspension Bridge, Granville Island, Butchart gardens, scenic drive to Whistler, biking in Stanley Park, Robson Street, BC ferries...Ikea(!) - all fun. We ate food ranging from greasy Indian dal and questionable vegetable-curry in a small, dark restaurant with one-man service (he was the waiter, cook and cashier!) to expensive Greek leafy wraps with lemon sauce! In Seattle we ate twice at Thai restaurants, King and I and Thai Ginger - the pad thai definitely had a whole lot more oil than here at Lex. We had pasta, icecream and coffee all for less than $10 each at Old Spaghetti place - beautiful decor with tinted glasses.
Worth remembering...
- that the suspension bridges make the tree stronger! Also that they would have to rebuild the bridges once every 4-5 years because of tree growth! That's a douglas fir that k and B~ are hugging in the picture above. We saw some that were more than 300 feet tall, older than us by atleast a couple of centuries and more than 20 feet in circumference! We actually bowed down to one of the Grandma douglas fir trees!
- At Butchart gardens, the flowers mainly stole the show but it was fascinating to watch the different varities of leaves and plants that surrounded them! (Note the second row in this picture-collage).
- On the way to Stanley Park, there was the cutest cupcake shop (bottom right most pic), I just had to eat one!
- Microsoft is everywhere, literally. It's hard to escape it when you live on the campus, MSFT somehow manages to enter most conversations, there is less of a home-work distinction there than here...
- So we heard quite a few quips about our "small town" life :) Ku~ asked if we still had only two roads (one for the University and one for Companies) or if they were building a third road. Driving in downtown Seattle was kind of...wild compared to Lex (you know the two roads that we usually drive on :)
As k put it, the trip gave us a chance to get a different perspective, to catch a glimpse of a different life style, to take a peek at a different work-culture, to catch up with friends, to raise eyebrows at the real-estate prices and all that good stuff...a nice little breather in all, frogs back to well now :)
Tip: Green implies there's an associated photo in the collages somewhere :)
June 27, 2006
All about "I"
I am thinking about...
why I cant think of anything except what to think about when someone asks me what I am thinking about :(
I said...
it's always about me but people keep hearing "me" as "you".
I want to...
have a demanding career, retire;
keep my days full so I can hardly breathe, do nothing all day long;
aim higher, be satisfied with what I have;
give up and move on, hold on and stay rooted;
do everything, do nothing;
I wish...
i could remember our Acura's mileage (for heaven's sake, it's just one number!).
I hear...
voices I no longer want to hear, too loud and voices I want to hear, too soft.
I wonder...
if anyone's gonna actually read through this whole tag, except the people I tagged...actually even them :)
I regret...
at times, things that were just not meant to be.
I am...
quite silly except when I am not.
I dance...
better than k! :))
I sing...
to myself.
I cry...
when I am alone and wish someone were around with me to ask me why.
I am not always...
imagining rosy beginnings and fairy-tale endings, I just happen to be doing that most of the time and at other times :) (wipe that see-I-told-you smirk off your face, I am kidding!)
I make with my hands...
scrapbooks and good food :)
I write...
what I feel and what I cannot.
I confuse...
numbers and directions. Always.
I need...
a sanity check :)
And finally...
thanks to Kumari for getting back at me :) and to the rest of you for the 3.5 seconds that you spent reading this post. Be back with some cool photos from Seattle and Vancouver (now you know what the pics in my previous post meant) :)
I tag Kamal (because I want to see the look on his face when I demand to see the answer to this tag :p), Dinesh (because he would love to answer a tag like this) and Bus (so I can force him to write a new post).
why I cant think of anything except what to think about when someone asks me what I am thinking about :(
I said...
it's always about me but people keep hearing "me" as "you".
I want to...
have a demanding career, retire;
keep my days full so I can hardly breathe, do nothing all day long;
aim higher, be satisfied with what I have;
give up and move on, hold on and stay rooted;
do everything, do nothing;
I wish...
i could remember our Acura's mileage (for heaven's sake, it's just one number!).
I hear...
voices I no longer want to hear, too loud and voices I want to hear, too soft.
I wonder...
if anyone's gonna actually read through this whole tag, except the people I tagged...actually even them :)
I regret...
at times, things that were just not meant to be.
I am...
quite silly except when I am not.
I dance...
better than k! :))
I sing...
to myself.
I cry...
when I am alone and wish someone were around with me to ask me why.
I am not always...
imagining rosy beginnings and fairy-tale endings, I just happen to be doing that most of the time and at other times :) (wipe that see-I-told-you smirk off your face, I am kidding!)
I make with my hands...
scrapbooks and good food :)
I write...
what I feel and what I cannot.
I confuse...
numbers and directions. Always.
I need...
a sanity check :)
And finally...
thanks to Kumari for getting back at me :) and to the rest of you for the 3.5 seconds that you spent reading this post. Be back with some cool photos from Seattle and Vancouver (now you know what the pics in my previous post meant) :)
I tag Kamal (because I want to see the look on his face when I demand to see the answer to this tag :p), Dinesh (because he would love to answer a tag like this) and Bus (so I can force him to write a new post).
June 19, 2006
Clues, Plays and Such.
Had fun making up clues for K’s birthday-gifts-treasure-hunt. It’s almost a kind of tradition now with us, where I make up these weird, complicated, sometimes downright silly clues for him to go hunting for birthday gifts.
Last year, I recall he had quite a day of fun solving clues. This year was even better (for me ;) I was initially disappointed when he solved the first few clues in a flash (I didn’t realize he would guess the Da Vinci mirror trick so soon).
But, I had my revenge especially with the LEET clue, here goes the clue for those of you who would like to get tortured too:
\-/37 4|\|()7[-]312 8eye127[-]|)4\-/ 61ph7 4VVaeye75 @ |)4|\|\/11_1_3 - ^^\-/ $1$7312 31_1_3|\|
Hint: I’ll give you the first word: \-/37 is YET. It’s all about pattern recognition, symbols and a solid imagination (ever played joining the dots as a kid?)
I finally finished obsessing over the scrap book that I was making for his birthday and gave it to him. He made all the appropriate gestures to indicate his pleasure at receiving it (I don't really know if guys dig scrapbooks and stuff like that!). And this time my cake came out not-so-sad-looking! Thanks to egg substitute and the right amounts of ingredients (you wise people were right in warning me not to mess with the Science of Cake Baking :).
Anyway, if you live around the Lexington area :), you should check out the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, Kentucky (where else? :). It's a quaint indoor/outdoor play house and I have watched a couple of plays there (under the stars, just as advertised in the brochure) and they have been nice old-fashioned comedies or dramas. We went this Saturday to watch "My Sister Eileen" and it was fun! K and I were probably the youngest members of the audience (if you don't count the few kids that managed to laugh louder than K)!
Which reminds me, The Lexington Shakespeare Festival is coming up soon. Be there or be square or whatever geometric shape that doesn't appeal to you :p
So be back with more stories from:
and 
Gosh! I hope I took all my forms and remember all their names!
Last year, I recall he had quite a day of fun solving clues. This year was even better (for me ;) I was initially disappointed when he solved the first few clues in a flash (I didn’t realize he would guess the Da Vinci mirror trick so soon). But, I had my revenge especially with the LEET clue, here goes the clue for those of you who would like to get tortured too:
\-/37 4|\|()7[-]312 8eye127[-]|)4\-/ 61ph7 4VVaeye75 @ |)4|\|\/11_1_3 - ^^\-/ $1$7312 31_1_3|\|
Hint: I’ll give you the first word: \-/37 is YET. It’s all about pattern recognition, symbols and a solid imagination (ever played joining the dots as a kid?)
I finally finished obsessing over the scrap book that I was making for his birthday and gave it to him. He made all the appropriate gestures to indicate his pleasure at receiving it (I don't really know if guys dig scrapbooks and stuff like that!). And this time my cake came out not-so-sad-looking! Thanks to egg substitute and the right amounts of ingredients (you wise people were right in warning me not to mess with the Science of Cake Baking :).
Anyway, if you live around the Lexington area :), you should check out the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, Kentucky (where else? :). It's a quaint indoor/outdoor play house and I have watched a couple of plays there (under the stars, just as advertised in the brochure) and they have been nice old-fashioned comedies or dramas. We went this Saturday to watch "My Sister Eileen" and it was fun! K and I were probably the youngest members of the audience (if you don't count the few kids that managed to laugh louder than K)!
Which reminds me, The Lexington Shakespeare Festival is coming up soon. Be there or be square or whatever geometric shape that doesn't appeal to you :p
So be back with more stories from:
and 
Gosh! I hope I took all my forms and remember all their names!
June 15, 2006
Stuff I don't "get".
It's that time again. Filling up online forms that generate PDFs that cannot be edited, re-filling said forms re-generating said PDFs, spending more than what you would for a decent lunch on passport-size photos which should have your face covering at least half of the whole photo, noting down the exact dates of entry and exit into the United States (5 trips so far for me - if you manage to decipher the vaguely reddish, smudged stamps of entry on your passport, I shall declare you Master and Lord).
Anyway, I finally got tired of my ignorance on aforementioned subjects and decided to educate myself to the minimal extent permissible. So, here goes a totally lost person's (I refuse to use the word, dummy) attempt to embrace what she does not wish to - the dreaded world of visa forms and indecipherable acronyms.
OK firstly - what is a passport?
Oh boy! You are way behind. Please peruse Visa Documents 101 before you come to this post!
1. What is a visa?
An official authorization appended to a passport, permitting entry into and travel within a particular country or region.
2. What is an I-94?
A USCIS Form I-94 (Arrival-Departure Record) or Form I-95 (Crewman's Landing Permit) shows the date you arrived in the United States and the "Admitted Until" date, the date when your authorized period of stay expires.
3. What is an H1-B? (Sigh...don't we even qualify for a "Who"?)
An H1-B is an alien coming temporarily to perform services in a specialty occupation. (Alien :()
4. What is an LCA?
H-1B status requires a sponsoring U.S. employer. The employer must file a labor condition application (LCA) with the Department of Labor attesting to several items, including payment of prevailing wages for the position, and the working conditions offered. The employer must then file the certified LCA with a Form I-129 petition plus accompanying fee of $130.
This is a two-page form that contains information about the employer. By completing and signing the form, the employer is agreeing to pay the higher of the two wages, that the employment of this individual will not adversely affect the conditions of other workers and that there is no strike for their occupation at the workplace. Recently, Congress determined that employers must attest that they will offer H1B visa holders the same benefits as their other workers. This includes health, life, medical, retirement, stock options and bonuses.
Forms used: ETA 9035
5. What is an I-129?
Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker – US Employers may use this form to petition USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) for an alien to come to the U.S. temporarily to perform services or labor, or to receive training.
After the Department of Labor accepts the LCA, then your employer can file your H1B visa petition. BCIS Form I-129 (Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services or BCIS).
6. What is an I-797?
An approval notice (Form I-797) is issued to the petitioner. The Form I-797 shows dates of validity for the foreign worker to work in H1B status for the petitioner.
7. What is a Visa stamp (H1-b stamping)?
A visa stamp is used solely for permission to enter or reenter the U.S. The visa stamp does not control how long a visitor may remain in the U.S. That is, a visa stamp is used only to cross borders. The visa stamp authorizes the visitor to enter the U.S. to engage in a particular activity using a specific visa type (e.g., J-1, H-1B, F-2, etc.).
You need form DS-156 (Non-immigrant visa application form) and DS-157 (Yay! Only guys need to fill up this form :).
Don't congratulate yourself yet. Once you emerge out of this slew of forms, a mutated version in the form of a green monster awaits, which we fondly call, "The Green Card" (which is not very green actually). Here's a quick description of the process:
1. Are you eligible for permanent residency? If you are a studied-at-top-indian-college-completed-masters-now-working candidate, mostly you are under category EB3.
2. The U.S. employer complete a labor certification request (Form ETA 750) for the applicant, and submit it to the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.
3. Third, CIS must approve an immigrant visa petition, Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker, for the person wishing to immigrate to the United States.
4. Fourth, the State Department must give the applicant an immigrant visa number, even if the applicant is already in the United States.
5. Fifth, if the applicant is already in the United States, he or she must apply to adjust to permanent resident status after a visa number becomes available.
Forms: I-94, LCA, I-129, I-797, LCR, I-140, DS-156, DS-157
Acronyms: USCIS, BCIS, INS, LCA, LCR
If your head swirls a tad, if the alphabets in your cereal soup seem to read BCIS and INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), if you see flashes of green whereever your head turns, if you've already started revising the 120 or so questions that a person must know the answers to before becoming a US citizen in your sleep, yup, you've definitely caught the "Green Card Fever" :)
References:
http://www.h1base.com/page.asp?id=49
http://www.uscis.gov/
http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/residency/employment.htm
Anyway, I finally got tired of my ignorance on aforementioned subjects and decided to educate myself to the minimal extent permissible. So, here goes a totally lost person's (I refuse to use the word, dummy) attempt to embrace what she does not wish to - the dreaded world of visa forms and indecipherable acronyms.
OK firstly - what is a passport?
Oh boy! You are way behind. Please peruse Visa Documents 101 before you come to this post!
1. What is a visa?
An official authorization appended to a passport, permitting entry into and travel within a particular country or region.
2. What is an I-94?
A USCIS Form I-94 (Arrival-Departure Record) or Form I-95 (Crewman's Landing Permit) shows the date you arrived in the United States and the "Admitted Until" date, the date when your authorized period of stay expires.
3. What is an H1-B? (Sigh...don't we even qualify for a "Who"?)
An H1-B is an alien coming temporarily to perform services in a specialty occupation. (Alien :()
4. What is an LCA?
H-1B status requires a sponsoring U.S. employer. The employer must file a labor condition application (LCA) with the Department of Labor attesting to several items, including payment of prevailing wages for the position, and the working conditions offered. The employer must then file the certified LCA with a Form I-129 petition plus accompanying fee of $130.
This is a two-page form that contains information about the employer. By completing and signing the form, the employer is agreeing to pay the higher of the two wages, that the employment of this individual will not adversely affect the conditions of other workers and that there is no strike for their occupation at the workplace. Recently, Congress determined that employers must attest that they will offer H1B visa holders the same benefits as their other workers. This includes health, life, medical, retirement, stock options and bonuses.
Forms used: ETA 9035
5. What is an I-129?
Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker – US Employers may use this form to petition USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) for an alien to come to the U.S. temporarily to perform services or labor, or to receive training.
After the Department of Labor accepts the LCA, then your employer can file your H1B visa petition. BCIS Form I-129 (Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services or BCIS).
6. What is an I-797?
An approval notice (Form I-797) is issued to the petitioner. The Form I-797 shows dates of validity for the foreign worker to work in H1B status for the petitioner.
7. What is a Visa stamp (H1-b stamping)?
A visa stamp is used solely for permission to enter or reenter the U.S. The visa stamp does not control how long a visitor may remain in the U.S. That is, a visa stamp is used only to cross borders. The visa stamp authorizes the visitor to enter the U.S. to engage in a particular activity using a specific visa type (e.g., J-1, H-1B, F-2, etc.).
You need form DS-156 (Non-immigrant visa application form) and DS-157 (Yay! Only guys need to fill up this form :).
Don't congratulate yourself yet. Once you emerge out of this slew of forms, a mutated version in the form of a green monster awaits, which we fondly call, "The Green Card" (which is not very green actually). Here's a quick description of the process:
1. Are you eligible for permanent residency? If you are a studied-at-top-indian-college-completed-masters-now-working candidate, mostly you are under category EB3.
2. The U.S. employer complete a labor certification request (Form ETA 750) for the applicant, and submit it to the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.
3. Third, CIS must approve an immigrant visa petition, Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker, for the person wishing to immigrate to the United States.
4. Fourth, the State Department must give the applicant an immigrant visa number, even if the applicant is already in the United States.
5. Fifth, if the applicant is already in the United States, he or she must apply to adjust to permanent resident status after a visa number becomes available.
Forms: I-94, LCA, I-129, I-797, LCR, I-140, DS-156, DS-157
Acronyms: USCIS, BCIS, INS, LCA, LCR
If your head swirls a tad, if the alphabets in your cereal soup seem to read BCIS and INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), if you see flashes of green whereever your head turns, if you've already started revising the 120 or so questions that a person must know the answers to before becoming a US citizen in your sleep, yup, you've definitely caught the "Green Card Fever" :)
References:
http://www.h1base.com/page.asp?id=49
http://www.uscis.gov/
http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/residency/employment.htm
June 12, 2006
Camping.
Scratch. Scratch.Must be a wild cat or something. It was a little after 3 AM.
Scratch. Scratch. Louder this time followed by a definitely human cry, "Help!"
I tried to locate the zipped door of our tent and opened it frantically.
V~ stood outside holding an umbrella in the pouring rain, shivering. He must have caught the look of panic on my face or maybe he realized he shouldn't have exactly said, "Help!", anyway, he added, "Our tent collapsed in the rain. But no problem, I just need a car key so we can sleep in the car, you guys go back to sleep!"
!!!
Anyway, our camping trip was fun, the rain made it more "adventurous" as our local Tarzan claimed. Few observations/thoughts/random musings follow:
- We are possibly the only bunch of people that cooked Suda suda alu + onion curry with lotsa green chillies, channa + tomatoes + masala + lotsa chilies curry with gravy (thanks to Sb~) for a "light" dinner at our campsite. And to add variety, we had sev puri and bhel puri in the morning (thanks to p&b) and sandwiches and hot coffee the next morning.
Making each cup of coffee was a kind of elaborate procedure (devised by k), first he would mix milk, coffee and sugar in a plastic cup and place it in the microwave, set it to 2 minutes, approximately 1.5 minutes he would come back and notice that the plastic cup has lost its delicate balance and the coffee is now getting directly heated in the microwave and then we would proceed to step 2 - the cleaning stage. In this stage, a few other unfortunate souls will join him to clean the microwave plate which is now swimming in a rich almost-coffeeish liquid. Then k would fill in another plastic cup with milk, coffee and sugar and this time make sure it is placed exactly in the center and standing straight inside the microwave. And viola, a hot cup of coffee is ready in exactly 4.5 minutes! - P~b rocked with the grill! He managed to make 3 tortillas/minute, he made a total of 24 tortillas for the twelve of us. His grilled potatoes (I helped, I helped! Yay!) were a big hit too!
- Black bears were a popular conversation topic at the campsite. Although we couldn’t reach a consensus on 1) whether we should play dead 2) make a lot of noise 3) run away 4) attack, if a black bear drops by.
K and ANM were absolutely fascinated by the whole fire bit. They had the most fun buying the logs of fire, adding coal, coal starter, lighting it up and giving the camp fire company until it died. ANM’s word of the day, “ember” was a big hit at our campsite.- I was glad that I was not the only one that prayed at night when we saw one lightning after another flash outside our tent. Oh and the gentle pitter-patter of rain drops can sound so much louder when you are sleeping inside a tent in the middle of nowhere. It was a scary but thrilling experience, distant and then not-so-distant sounds of thunder, flashes of lightening, a slightly leaking tent and me. Well, there were seven other people in the tent, but you get my point.
- We had several interesting discussions/arguments inspired by let’s say nature…one of which was, are the guys who got a campsite allocated right outside the rest rooms lucky or not? Since the restrooms were really clean and smelled great, we decided they were lucky. P~ and I decided guys were luckier than girls when it came down to basics. While we drove to the restroom from the campsite twice a day, they just picked a tree and they were all set.
ANM decided at 1.30 AM Saturday night that it was way too scary to drive back alone in the night. I totally agree. We discussed what we would do if we were left alone in the dark, I figured I would just knock (err...scratch?) at the nearest tent, asking for help (and get shot for it probably)!- I heard the sound of waves splashing against the shore, after a really long time.
- 6 cups of rice is too much when you are also making 24 tortillas and alu curry and chickpeas curry with lotsa green chillies. Yes, it’s a lot even if you are having a second serving of rice with butter milk and manga thokku pickle.
June 09, 2006
Me and My Christmas tree.
My ex-boss once told us a story about his christmas tree. He said he had an argument with his wife about his christmas tree - where do they place it? In the living area or the front room? He wanted it in the living area so they could all see the nicely decorated christmas tree when they were relaxing with the family. His wife wanted the tree in the front room so that people outside would see the brightly lit christmas tree sitting in the tastefully decorated front room, through the window.
"I don't care if you can see the tree through the window, I want to enjoy the view when am at home!"
Fair enough. But I see his wife's point too. The right thing to do here is to put it in the family room but then there are some things we do because we feel compelled to do so even though they may not work to our best interests. Women tend to be affected more than men by this society-syndrome.
I remember this other time, when one of my office colleagues said, "My neighbour bought a new Lexus, you know? So, the pressure is quite high on me! But, we are a single-earning-member family and my wife understands that we cannot afford to match our neighbour, you know what I mean?"
Yup, I do. I try to do things because they make sense for me but sometimes I end up (not) saying/doing things influenced by what others say. And much as I try, I know am affected by the society-syndrome more than k. After all, haven't we all learnt long back that "Man is a social animal"? They just forgot to add, "Woman take that to a whole new level." :)
If I do anything that falls outside what society deems as "normal, appropriate" with an approving nod of her (this society that I talk about is definitely feminine, believe me!) head, my mom objects with "What would Vaishali maami say?" Her little society initially did not give her nod of approval for a Gujarathi son-in-law. She (society) extended a warning finger and shook her head sadly, much to my consternation. But somehow, over time, she brought me into her embrace and mom said, "You know that pretty girl Anju who lived in 2nd street? She married a Punjabi and he takes such good care of her!" Yup. Nod of approval. Took time but she did nod.
Anyway, I digress. What I wanted to say was, maybe sometimes, it's good to take a stand back and think of what it is that "we" really need, just us, not the family next door, not the Doctor couple that saw our house and said, "Oh, that's a good starter home!" (maybe for you uncle, it's a good finish home for me :), not whether Vaishali aunty would approve, not whether others can see the christmas tree from outside...
For now, I want to see the christmas tree, with it's twinkling lights and starry decorations, with colors winking at me and angels flying around...I want to see the tree when I sit cuddled on my sofa in my finish-home...just me and my christmas tree :)
Photo from: http://lee.org/blog/archives/2006/01/05/my-christmas-tree-is-famous/
"I don't care if you can see the tree through the window, I want to enjoy the view when am at home!"
Fair enough. But I see his wife's point too. The right thing to do here is to put it in the family room but then there are some things we do because we feel compelled to do so even though they may not work to our best interests. Women tend to be affected more than men by this society-syndrome.
I remember this other time, when one of my office colleagues said, "My neighbour bought a new Lexus, you know? So, the pressure is quite high on me! But, we are a single-earning-member family and my wife understands that we cannot afford to match our neighbour, you know what I mean?"
Yup, I do. I try to do things because they make sense for me but sometimes I end up (not) saying/doing things influenced by what others say. And much as I try, I know am affected by the society-syndrome more than k. After all, haven't we all learnt long back that "Man is a social animal"? They just forgot to add, "Woman take that to a whole new level." :)
If I do anything that falls outside what society deems as "normal, appropriate" with an approving nod of her (this society that I talk about is definitely feminine, believe me!) head, my mom objects with "What would Vaishali maami say?" Her little society initially did not give her nod of approval for a Gujarathi son-in-law. She (society) extended a warning finger and shook her head sadly, much to my consternation. But somehow, over time, she brought me into her embrace and mom said, "You know that pretty girl Anju who lived in 2nd street? She married a Punjabi and he takes such good care of her!" Yup. Nod of approval. Took time but she did nod.
Anyway, I digress. What I wanted to say was, maybe sometimes, it's good to take a stand back and think of what it is that "we" really need, just us, not the family next door, not the Doctor couple that saw our house and said, "Oh, that's a good starter home!" (maybe for you uncle, it's a good finish home for me :), not whether Vaishali aunty would approve, not whether others can see the christmas tree from outside...For now, I want to see the christmas tree, with it's twinkling lights and starry decorations, with colors winking at me and angels flying around...I want to see the tree when I sit cuddled on my sofa in my finish-home...just me and my christmas tree :)
Photo from: http://lee.org/blog/archives/2006/01/05/my-christmas-tree-is-famous/
June 05, 2006
Almost Yum!
Have you watched the Rachael Ray 30 minute cooking shows on Food Network? Blank look? No, have more useful things to do? Well, I don’t :), so I watched it and was so impressed with one of the desserts that she whipped up ;) that I thought I’d try it too!Ingredients: Brown Sugar, peaches, butter, vanilla ice cream.
That’s all. Simple ingredients and a simple recipe...well, I did spend a few minutes wondering whether to buy the light brown brown-sugar or the dark brown brown-sugar, I settled for the light brown one, it looked better :)
The dessert came out pretty well, unlike my other sun-tv Sunday samaiyal attempts. All I had to go was melt 3 spoonfuls of butter, add ¼ cup of brown sugar to it and stir it till it melts, cut pecans into little pieces and fry them in the mixture. Then the fun bit, To one scoop of vanilla icecream, add the fried pecans and a little bit of the syrup left behind on the pan and you are done! It tasted heavenly although I didn’t set the pan on fire with a little cooking wine and add three layers of whipped cream to the icecream (which is what she did on TV).
And then I thought, since my dessert attempt was a big hit, I’ll try baking a cake. So, I bought two boxes of Betty Crocker’s cake mix, lemon and chocolate, a cup of chocolate frosting and a tin of condensed milk (which was to be my egg-substitute) and I wore my apron (that’s a must, you can’t bake if you don’t wear the apron).
But then, I decided to alter the measure of ingredients to suit my mood, and so I added 1/4th a cup of oil instead of 1/2, I added 4 spoons of condensed milk and a little bit of yoghurt instead of eggs and then added the cake mix to this and used the hand mixer to beat it (Can I say “to beat it” although I didn’t add eggs?). For some reason, I missed the 11/2 cups of water, I just didn’t see it in the recipe the first time I read it. When the cake came out, it looked a bit sad, instead of being all fluffy and happy, it kind of sat depressed in the center. Also when they say extra-moist lemon cake mix, they mean extra moist because the filling in the center of my cake was really moist. So, anyway, my second experiment was not as good as my first but I shall still put on a brave front and cook more exciting, new err…experimental stuff (In my defense, I also tried an angel hair pasta with my very own tomato based sauce and it came out really good!)
Anyway, Until my next experiment, eat healthy ye' all :)
May 31, 2006
Economics and Shopping and Patio furniture!
Shopping. Do you know how to say that? You have to stress on the "p" and forget the "g", so, it reads more like "shopppppin"! Now that we know how to pronounce it, we can proceed to the story of why I hate shopping for patio furniture. I'll tell you why:
1. Either the furniture explodes
2. Or they are sold out
3. Or they only are available fully assembled
Anyway, the story with our old patio furniture was that it had kind of exploded on us, I mean literally exploded into little pieces. They tell us glass expands in summer. Duh! As if we didn't know that! Still, we bought a patio table with a glass top which promptly expanded and burst. One night we had a nice, blue tinted patio set sitting outside peacefully, the next afternoon it lay in small bits in our back yard. So, we took pictures and took the chairs and the table frame and asked Lowes for an exchange. I think the guy at Lowes was kind of shocked to see the pictures and gladly gave our money back.
This time we went to Lowes looking for a patio set that wouldn't explode and we saw the cutest swing set sitting there. It was love at first sight but before we could do our little family-happy-dance, we made out the word SOLD in bold written across the canopy. So, we asked one of the Lowes employees when the next batch would arrive. "Umm...I don't know but I can tell you if the Lowes at Richmond carries these. These pieces are selling like hot cakes." We were disappointed but willing to fight it out and so we waited for him.
"The Lowes at Richmond carries four of these!"
Yipppee. So, we rushed to the Richmond Lowes, a replica of the Lowes at Nicholasville and there it was, our cute little swing set, swinging gently in the wind. So, we rushed inside the store to pick up our packaged swing set before they also sold like hot cakes and we didn't find any. We went straight to customer service and dragged a guy who looked knowledgeable aside, "We can't find any of the cute swing sets!"
"Umm...yeah, these come assembled. We recently sold a bunch of them. You can rent a truck and take them as they are!"
"Oh..."
"Yeah, it's like $19 for an hour and a half...if you rent a truck, that is..."
Yeah, we got that.
So, I put on my best i-am-a-lost-but-cute-puppy-look and turned to k.
"No."
"But I really like the swing set."
"If you look at economically, it's a bad deal."
Huh? The way I am looking at it now, it sounds like a cute deal to me and quite economical at $69. I really have to improve my lost-puppy look.
"But this is perfect, I can make tea for us and you can read your fin magazines while sitting in the swing..."
I imagined making tea in a nice, hand painted tea pot (Bed, Bath & Beyond has really cute ones) and serving them in matching little cups and saucers (we got a set for our wedding reception and they are really cute although the cups are really small, each holds about 4 spoonfuls of tea)...I broke out of my reverie at his emphatic no.
"No. We can't spend 1/3rd of the cost on shipping, it's just not wise."
So, I turned to the wise Lowes man, "So, how much do you charge for shipping?"
"Umm...it's really a better idea to get a truck..."
"And if you ship it?"
"It costs $60 ma'am."
Now, that's "economical". $60 shipping for $69 swing set.
And so, I walked out of Lowes hating shopppin and economics and patios in general. Maybe if we buy a new sofa set also, I can convince k to rent a truck...or maybe, as one of our office colleagues suggested, we can buy a truck. That's $30,000 for a $69 swing set but hey, we save on shipping and we can always transport mulch, that's what he tells us :)
1. Either the furniture explodes
2. Or they are sold out
3. Or they only are available fully assembled
Anyway, the story with our old patio furniture was that it had kind of exploded on us, I mean literally exploded into little pieces. They tell us glass expands in summer. Duh! As if we didn't know that! Still, we bought a patio table with a glass top which promptly expanded and burst. One night we had a nice, blue tinted patio set sitting outside peacefully, the next afternoon it lay in small bits in our back yard. So, we took pictures and took the chairs and the table frame and asked Lowes for an exchange. I think the guy at Lowes was kind of shocked to see the pictures and gladly gave our money back.
This time we went to Lowes looking for a patio set that wouldn't explode and we saw the cutest swing set sitting there. It was love at first sight but before we could do our little family-happy-dance, we made out the word SOLD in bold written across the canopy. So, we asked one of the Lowes employees when the next batch would arrive. "Umm...I don't know but I can tell you if the Lowes at Richmond carries these. These pieces are selling like hot cakes." We were disappointed but willing to fight it out and so we waited for him."The Lowes at Richmond carries four of these!"
Yipppee. So, we rushed to the Richmond Lowes, a replica of the Lowes at Nicholasville and there it was, our cute little swing set, swinging gently in the wind. So, we rushed inside the store to pick up our packaged swing set before they also sold like hot cakes and we didn't find any. We went straight to customer service and dragged a guy who looked knowledgeable aside, "We can't find any of the cute swing sets!"
"Umm...yeah, these come assembled. We recently sold a bunch of them. You can rent a truck and take them as they are!"
"Oh..."
"Yeah, it's like $19 for an hour and a half...if you rent a truck, that is..."
Yeah, we got that.
So, I put on my best i-am-a-lost-but-cute-puppy-look and turned to k.
"No."
"But I really like the swing set."
"If you look at economically, it's a bad deal."
Huh? The way I am looking at it now, it sounds like a cute deal to me and quite economical at $69. I really have to improve my lost-puppy look.
"But this is perfect, I can make tea for us and you can read your fin magazines while sitting in the swing..."
I imagined making tea in a nice, hand painted tea pot (Bed, Bath & Beyond has really cute ones) and serving them in matching little cups and saucers (we got a set for our wedding reception and they are really cute although the cups are really small, each holds about 4 spoonfuls of tea)...I broke out of my reverie at his emphatic no.
"No. We can't spend 1/3rd of the cost on shipping, it's just not wise."
So, I turned to the wise Lowes man, "So, how much do you charge for shipping?"
"Umm...it's really a better idea to get a truck..."
"And if you ship it?"
"It costs $60 ma'am."
Now, that's "economical". $60 shipping for $69 swing set.
And so, I walked out of Lowes hating shopppin and economics and patios in general. Maybe if we buy a new sofa set also, I can convince k to rent a truck...or maybe, as one of our office colleagues suggested, we can buy a truck. That's $30,000 for a $69 swing set but hey, we save on shipping and we can always transport mulch, that's what he tells us :)
May 24, 2006
Catch My Point?
Some days, nothing interesting seems to be happening, so we go in search of the out-of-the-ordinary. So, that's what I did today and I found this:
http://www.towelday.kojv.net/
So, maybe I should just carry a towel tomorrow because after all, A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have! He is one of my favorite authors which reminds me I have to buy the Hitchhiker's collection some day.
Have you ever come across the phrase, crossing the rubicon? I hadn't until today and strangely, while reading a technical article on javascript. Since I had decided to spend the day in such critical pursuits, I looked it up:
Crossing the Rubicon: Irrevocably commit to a course of action, make a fateful and final decision.
And then I looked up a few more phrases I had come across recently and since I have nothing else to write about, I am posting them here, hoping you find them as exciting as I did (yippeeee!):
Occam's Razor: the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable.
A self-fulfilling prophesy: a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true.
A self-authorizing language (sound familiar?): "That is, if you’re smart enough to read it, you’re permitted to know what is being said."
On to lighter stuff, one lady at the University actually showed me what this phrase meant (tip for maximum effect - hold the hand straight up while walking away as the person is talking to you! - atleast that's how she did it):
Talk to the hand: contemptuous and urbanized way of saying that no one is listening.
Water Under The Bridge: used to refer to something that is over and gone and so not worth thinking any more about.
One of my friends kept using this and finally, I had to look it up (I didn't tell him that I nodded all those times without knowing exactly what it meant, though :)
Moot point: A debatable question, an issue open to argument; also, an irrelevant question, a matter of no importance.
Another one of those phrases that cropped up at work when someone said, "Am winging it here..." and the phrase went over my head as it filled with colorful images of birds and blue skies:
Wing it: To improvise.
Here's one that sometimes applies to me literally and figuratively
Bad Hair Day: a day when everything seems to go wrong.
And here's what you, the reader and I, the writer will exchange now at having successfully completed (reading/writing) this post:
High Five: A gesture of greeting, elation, or victory in which one person slaps an upraised palm against that of another person.
http://www.towelday.kojv.net/
So, maybe I should just carry a towel tomorrow because after all, A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have! He is one of my favorite authors which reminds me I have to buy the Hitchhiker's collection some day.
Have you ever come across the phrase, crossing the rubicon? I hadn't until today and strangely, while reading a technical article on javascript. Since I had decided to spend the day in such critical pursuits, I looked it up:
Crossing the Rubicon: Irrevocably commit to a course of action, make a fateful and final decision.
And then I looked up a few more phrases I had come across recently and since I have nothing else to write about, I am posting them here, hoping you find them as exciting as I did (yippeeee!):
Occam's Razor: the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable.
A self-fulfilling prophesy: a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true.
A self-authorizing language (sound familiar?): "That is, if you’re smart enough to read it, you’re permitted to know what is being said."
On to lighter stuff, one lady at the University actually showed me what this phrase meant (tip for maximum effect - hold the hand straight up while walking away as the person is talking to you! - atleast that's how she did it):
Talk to the hand: contemptuous and urbanized way of saying that no one is listening.
Water Under The Bridge: used to refer to something that is over and gone and so not worth thinking any more about.
One of my friends kept using this and finally, I had to look it up (I didn't tell him that I nodded all those times without knowing exactly what it meant, though :)
Moot point: A debatable question, an issue open to argument; also, an irrelevant question, a matter of no importance.
Another one of those phrases that cropped up at work when someone said, "Am winging it here..." and the phrase went over my head as it filled with colorful images of birds and blue skies:
Wing it: To improvise.
Here's one that sometimes applies to me literally and figuratively
Bad Hair Day: a day when everything seems to go wrong.
And here's what you, the reader and I, the writer will exchange now at having successfully completed (reading/writing) this post:
High Five: A gesture of greeting, elation, or victory in which one person slaps an upraised palm against that of another person.
May 18, 2006
Just like that!
I have to, have to finish reading Da Vinci Code a second time before tomorrow because we are going to see the movie tomorrow and I am only on page 40!
*~*~*
Visits to the dentist are turning out to be fun nowadays. This time the dentist asked us how long we were married and then he said, "Oh just six months, so, you guys actually like each other still? That will change soon!" And then we both grinned while silently panicking inside. Atleast I did.
*~*~*
"How Opal got kissed..." reminded me of my College days. Of course, no similarity between my College days and what happened in the book but still, a teenager narrating her College traumas and high points reminded me of Bits and my teenage life in general. So, on a whim, I wrote a campus love story, just like that. It's not a great story or anything but just something that left me satisfied once I finished it. Don't ask me why. Some of you bitsians out there might recognize the setting ;)
*~*~*
Scrapbooking is fun. I have always wanted to try it out and I am finally making my own scrapbook now! Yay! I kind of lost it in the n aisles dedicated just to scrapbooking at the local Michaels store. I wanted to buy everything in those aisles!
Visits to the dentist are turning out to be fun nowadays. This time the dentist asked us how long we were married and then he said, "Oh just six months, so, you guys actually like each other still? That will change soon!" And then we both grinned while silently panicking inside. Atleast I did.
"How Opal got kissed..." reminded me of my College days. Of course, no similarity between my College days and what happened in the book but still, a teenager narrating her College traumas and high points reminded me of Bits and my teenage life in general. So, on a whim, I wrote a campus love story, just like that. It's not a great story or anything but just something that left me satisfied once I finished it. Don't ask me why. Some of you bitsians out there might recognize the setting ;)
Scrapbooking is fun. I have always wanted to try it out and I am finally making my own scrapbook now! Yay! I kind of lost it in the n aisles dedicated just to scrapbooking at the local Michaels store. I wanted to buy everything in those aisles!
May 16, 2006
The Art of Gifting.
Remember the times when our friends used to make elaborate plans to hide our birthday gifts from us? When they used to arrange treasure hunts leading from under the trash can to behind the television in another friend's place? When we used to unwrap layers and layers of newspapers to unravel a gift which turned out to be a brick and then the real gift would be given to make up for the sheepish grins on our faces? Remember the art of gifting? Scented sheets of paper, lace and ribbons, verses and silly limericks, photo collages and greeting cards? Remember the gleeful, excited expressions on their faces as they would tell us how they fooled us, how they hid the cake from us, how they let us believe that they were playing volleyball when they actually shopped for our gifts?No? I do. From Bits-Pilani to UK, the fun part of birthdays was finding, guessing and opening these gifts. I enjoy gifting as much as I enjoy receiving them. I like matching wits with the person I am giving the gift to, surprising them with a gift, watching them take really bad guesses at what the gift could be.
In Bits, for one of my birthdays, my friends had made up an elaborate schedule of my day's activities with a clock showing the time for each one of them, and the activities mainly included me kadalai-pottufying with the guys I was currently being teased with! My mom happened to read the card years later and although she seemed amused, it was embarrassing all the same! For each one of our friends birthdays, we would excitedly discuss what all we could kottify on the greeting cards, what gifts we would buy for them and how we would pull their legs...
I guess as we grow up, we no longer find the time to indulge in such trivialities and its quite impractical to expect every birthday gift to be unique and worth remembering...Me? I still enjoy gifting, I wish gifts would be more than professionally gift-wrapped boxes hurriedly bought and prepared an hour before the birthday party (I have done that many times :) I wish...I wish many more things :) but for now, I am happy for the rare, thoughtful gifts that I receive and give, the ones that speak to me because of the time and effort that has gone into making them...Here's hoping we never become so busy that we forget the Art of Gifting.
Quick aside, I just finished "How Opal Mehta got kissed, got wild and got a life!" - witty, funny, charming and even satirical in some places. Me likes!
May 14, 2006
Kamal's Karmic Kafe!
Did you get your good karma for the day?!
Hmm, nope, definitely need something more fancy like "I'm lovin' it!". It's got to be a jingle. OK, that comes later. First, let's cover the basics.
What is kamal's karmic kafe?
A place to hangout - coffee, snacks, exotic Indian cuisine, free hand reading by our residing karmic expert, browsing, soothing Indian music, a peaceful decor, in all a place to create good karma.
What's on the menu?
We don't serve dosas, vadas or gobi manchurian, no Sire, none of the usual stuff. We serve daal bhati, Rajasthani kachori, pani puri, bhel puri bambayya ishtyle (you can even request the waiter to talk to you in bambayya) and anything Indian-vegetarian and edible that falls under the category of "exotic".
So k and I brain-stormed a bit (I vaguely remember having a conversation about this with our Lex "measuredly-impatient" poet :) and we thought of a gypsy-Indian "expert" who would read hands for free and predict the future with reasonable accuracy :) Pleasant music (no bhangras or fast beats), a few "selected", "relaxing" books that are deigned suitable by the kafe's staff so you can relax on the barcalounger and read them, board games, chess boards (no Risk or Pictionary), pastel shades ("Rajasthani decor!", k chimes), un-hurried waiters and a general feeling of drifting about in good karma and peace. You get the picture?
If you don't, take a look here!
We will of course have signs that read,
We are exotic, so we will ahem...tend towards expensive but we make up for the price by all the goodness we plan to create ;)
So, what do you think? Will you want to be at KKKs? Lil' bro tells me that acronym is taken, so let's call it 3Ks for now :)
(Note: An idle mind is a bad-but-creative-ideas workshop)
Hmm, nope, definitely need something more fancy like "I'm lovin' it!". It's got to be a jingle. OK, that comes later. First, let's cover the basics.
What is kamal's karmic kafe?
A place to hangout - coffee, snacks, exotic Indian cuisine, free hand reading by our residing karmic expert, browsing, soothing Indian music, a peaceful decor, in all a place to create good karma.
What's on the menu?
We don't serve dosas, vadas or gobi manchurian, no Sire, none of the usual stuff. We serve daal bhati, Rajasthani kachori, pani puri, bhel puri bambayya ishtyle (you can even request the waiter to talk to you in bambayya) and anything Indian-vegetarian and edible that falls under the category of "exotic".
So k and I brain-stormed a bit (I vaguely remember having a conversation about this with our Lex "measuredly-impatient" poet :) and we thought of a gypsy-Indian "expert" who would read hands for free and predict the future with reasonable accuracy :) Pleasant music (no bhangras or fast beats), a few "selected", "relaxing" books that are deigned suitable by the kafe's staff so you can relax on the barcalounger and read them, board games, chess boards (no Risk or Pictionary), pastel shades ("Rajasthani decor!", k chimes), un-hurried waiters and a general feeling of drifting about in good karma and peace. You get the picture?
If you don't, take a look here!
We will of course have signs that read,
- "Remember to talk in hushed tones lest you should disturb the good vibrations."
- "If you are rude, you will be charged a 55% tip so we can dispel the bad karma you created!"
- "Children are welcome and are possibly the only customers who are allowed to create high decibel chatter."
- Oh, also, we don't count calories!
- Please be kind, we have one laptop, don't hog internet time!
We are exotic, so we will ahem...tend towards expensive but we make up for the price by all the goodness we plan to create ;)
So, what do you think? Will you want to be at KKKs? Lil' bro tells me that acronym is taken, so let's call it 3Ks for now :)
(Note: An idle mind is a bad-but-creative-ideas workshop)
May 08, 2006
You see what I see?
Let's just face it. We are all just selfish. Maybe not at all times, but we have been at sometime or the other and we will be in the future (to give us some credit, most of it is with us not even aware of it). If you don't agree, check with your best friend. Because no one else will tell you to your face that you have been selfish :)
And why not ask yourself? Because your "self" holds the same point of view as you. You are both watching the world from the same vantage point, a place that comfortably supports your assumptions, actions and conclusions.
If we had been bestowed with the ability to consider a situation from everyone's point of view, we would probably never be able to reach a conclusion because they would all conflict with each other. And so here we are, stuck in our single points of view, surrounded by close ones who also see through similar points of view and we have nice little conflicts, differences of opinions and such.
Also, as flawed as we human beings are made, we tend to narrow our points of view and adjust it based on our own emotional attachments and prejudices. That's why my mom thinks I am never wrong when I tell her I had an argument with someone :) So, as I get older and climb the long ladder of wisdom (man, I still can't see the top!), I realize the world or even my little world with little people around me (yes, that's how I visualize it in my head, a small circle around me and tiny people standing around me - like a Lex-Lilliput :) will never see things the way I do, the parameters that zoom in and fade out parts of their view have different priorities attached to them and so, my little world and I just can't see the same things the same way!
What's all this long winded story about really? Just a reminder to myself to not expect people to see as I see - my skewed representation of the world :), and even if I can't help but expect, then to just accept the difference.
Photo from http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/exh_gfx_en/ART20905.html
And why not ask yourself? Because your "self" holds the same point of view as you. You are both watching the world from the same vantage point, a place that comfortably supports your assumptions, actions and conclusions.
If we had been bestowed with the ability to consider a situation from everyone's point of view, we would probably never be able to reach a conclusion because they would all conflict with each other. And so here we are, stuck in our single points of view, surrounded by close ones who also see through similar points of view and we have nice little conflicts, differences of opinions and such.Also, as flawed as we human beings are made, we tend to narrow our points of view and adjust it based on our own emotional attachments and prejudices. That's why my mom thinks I am never wrong when I tell her I had an argument with someone :) So, as I get older and climb the long ladder of wisdom (man, I still can't see the top!), I realize the world or even my little world with little people around me (yes, that's how I visualize it in my head, a small circle around me and tiny people standing around me - like a Lex-Lilliput :) will never see things the way I do, the parameters that zoom in and fade out parts of their view have different priorities attached to them and so, my little world and I just can't see the same things the same way!
What's all this long winded story about really? Just a reminder to myself to not expect people to see as I see - my skewed representation of the world :), and even if I can't help but expect, then to just accept the difference.
Photo from http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/exh_gfx_en/ART20905.html
May 05, 2006
Why RS hates documents.
So normally I am in a pretty unfrazzled, peaceful state, sort of like a calm Vesuvius. I look dreamily at people and things around me and in general am filled with love for the world and its inhabitants and then a few things come along, quite small if you consider their place in the whole scheme of things, and then I am calm no more!
What, you ask, are these seemingly innocent but actually vile and devilish contraptions that make my goodness vanish? I will tell you - they are called documents. I have a certain dislike for filing documents, filing taxes, filing for my H1-B, preparing my documents in order for travel to India, and although I may start with a mild dislike, it soon escalates into a bubbling, swirling ocean of hate and ill-will to the whole world in general!
You give me a "You're weird" look and wait for me to proceed. So, let me go ahead and prove you right. So, I set upon the simple task of scanning my passport and other documents for some visa related stuff. The rules insist that I scan ALL the blank pages in my passport and I do, dutifully, patiently, I might even have whistled a little tune as I swapped the paper out of the fax machine, with panache.
And I scan 30 pages and return back to my desk where I anticipate that I will say a little "ta-dah!" when I receive the scanned documents. I don't say "ta-dah" though because the first page of my passport came out like this - a general black blob.
So I still manage to smile at it as if the fax machine was just playing a little trick on me and scroll down to my picture in the passport and am shocked to see a scary-chandramukhi version of me, digitally morphed and ugli-fied (yes, I make up ugly words when am angry)
I can imagine the poor lawyer who takes a look at my photo and drops the sub she holds in her hand, in alarm, and down goes the onion, tomato and all!
So then I ask wise hubby dear who seems to have somehow mastered the art of filing documents (he is positively filled with glee when its tax time) and he says, "Huh? You didn't scan them in color?"
Yes, of course, silly me, I should have known all along, scan the damn document in color, as if I had asked him, "duh, what is 10 times 10?" And so I take the silly expression on my face and my silly self back to my sorry cube to do the whole thing AGAIN!
And that, ladies and gentleman is why I hate documents. I rest my case.
What, you ask, are these seemingly innocent but actually vile and devilish contraptions that make my goodness vanish? I will tell you - they are called documents. I have a certain dislike for filing documents, filing taxes, filing for my H1-B, preparing my documents in order for travel to India, and although I may start with a mild dislike, it soon escalates into a bubbling, swirling ocean of hate and ill-will to the whole world in general!
You give me a "You're weird" look and wait for me to proceed. So, let me go ahead and prove you right. So, I set upon the simple task of scanning my passport and other documents for some visa related stuff. The rules insist that I scan ALL the blank pages in my passport and I do, dutifully, patiently, I might even have whistled a little tune as I swapped the paper out of the fax machine, with panache.
And I scan 30 pages and return back to my desk where I anticipate that I will say a little "ta-dah!" when I receive the scanned documents. I don't say "ta-dah" though because the first page of my passport came out like this - a general black blob.So I still manage to smile at it as if the fax machine was just playing a little trick on me and scroll down to my picture in the passport and am shocked to see a scary-chandramukhi version of me, digitally morphed and ugli-fied (yes, I make up ugly words when am angry)
I can imagine the poor lawyer who takes a look at my photo and drops the sub she holds in her hand, in alarm, and down goes the onion, tomato and all!
So then I ask wise hubby dear who seems to have somehow mastered the art of filing documents (he is positively filled with glee when its tax time) and he says, "Huh? You didn't scan them in color?"
Yes, of course, silly me, I should have known all along, scan the damn document in color, as if I had asked him, "duh, what is 10 times 10?" And so I take the silly expression on my face and my silly self back to my sorry cube to do the whole thing AGAIN!
And that, ladies and gentleman is why I hate documents. I rest my case.
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