RDIAENG.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

forwarded to me by Medha...Awesome isn't it??

Bourne supremacy rocks..

loved the movie....you know what I liked the most, the ease with which he moves around..like I have always said, I would love to travel around the world!! So I was fascinated by that!! I mean not with the whole CIA after me! :)

I enjoyed it.

Shopping for a guy....

can be exhausting!! Went shopping for Neeraj's birthday gift, I know I am late, but can barely get him to go to the mall with me. So finally today I dragged him to the mall, to buy the white shirt he said he wanted. Phew!! A plain, simple white cotton shirt is all we wanted..Not a tall order, was it? Sears, Macy's, GAP. No plain white semi-formal shirts. So like I always complain, they don't make clothes for the real women. All of them are meant for models, or plus size. There were no decent shirts. If we liked the material, it had a big golden sun on the sleeve. Or design on the collar, or simply transparent and thin that will surely get spoilt in the washer. Finally we ate at Panda Express and promised ourselves that we would be back.

Camping was fun...

was tiring and hot. Did not do touristy things like various falls etc. Hung out at the lake on the way back from Glacier point. Guys did some rock climbing.

Back to  work, parents-in-law got their visa and will be visiting next month!

 

Going camping for the weekend....
 
Yosemite, 8 people, one 8 seater van! fun times...
 
more when we are back
 
PS: drove all the way to SF and back. Am I getting better or what?? :D

Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell.
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high.
Mama's dancin' with a baby on her shoulder.
The sun is settin' like molasses in the sky.
The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything.
Always wanting more, he'd leave you longing for.

Black velvet and that little boy's smile.
Black velvet with that slow southern style.
A new religion that'll bring ya to your knees.
Black velvet if you please.

Up in Memphis the music's like a heatwave.
White lightning, bound to drive you wild.
Mama's baby's in the heart of every school girl.
"Love me tender" leaves 'em cryin' in the aisle.
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true.
Always wanting more, he'd leave you longing for.

Black velvet and that little boy's smile.
Black velvet with that slow southern style.
A new religion that'll bring ya to your knees.
Black velvet if you please.

Every word of every song that he sang was for you.
In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon.
What could you do?

What could be better that this blasting in the car on a friday evening, sun setting behind you, and me singing at full volume? Back to back Black Velvet on two different radio channels!! Aah maybe I might be exaggerating a bit..am so ready for a weekend!! So much a good review can do for a morale boost..

Fun weekend..

SF and pier 39, bbq at Vasona County Park, Santa Cruz and Boardwalk and 4th July Fireworks. Some observations...numerous trips to Lombard Street and I am still terrified every time, especially, if we take Neeraj's stickshift. Though nowadays, we just take mine. No poing getting a high BP every single time. Fisherman's wharf, clam chowder and garlic fries. Yum Yum. And I am always fascinated by the spray painting artists. They are good, although, sometimes they tend to be repeatitive. Shalimaar, always associated with over-eating, no parking spots. Went to "naan & curries" last time and its not half as good. Maybe its more non-veggy and beefy than us brahmins are comfortable with :). Shalimaar suits Indian/maharashtrian palate well. Drive on Golden Gate gives you a rush and a sense of power. I did it last time, although I jumped off the driver's seat as soon as we reached the other end. Marine headlands is not my cup pf tea, yet.

We always want to visit other places in SF like the Museum of Fine Arts, Japan town, China town, Haight and Ashbury, but somehow every single time we do the typical tourist things. I think a few days in the city is what we need!!

Tandoori bbq can stir up quite an interest amongst people around you. "Chicken Teeeka"..um um good! New found love, Fish bbq. Tilapia and Cajun spice.

4th July fireworks, too short :((. Missing Diwali poluted smell, continuous noise and faraal. I have been lucky to visit India once in Diwali and its just something that I miss every single Diwali here in US. Well, not for too long. :)

At Boardwalk, you can't be weak at heart or weak in stomach. Weak in heart is fine, you can just walk around and eat. All the forbidden delicacies find a way into your stomach. The beach, I think I will pass on the tan part, but I always get sun burnt. Red flaming cheeks is what I have right now. Something I never had in India. I guess I am my father's daughter in more ways than one :D Americans dress down at boardwalk, Indians dress up, Saadi, Salwar kameez..the whole nine yards, or maybe six. :).

As it shows, I had a very relaxing weekend...back to the grind..

Carpet clean, kitchen clean and car clean..

yippppeeee. Isn't that great? We haven't put the furniture back yet. This is so clean and nice. Caught Lakshya on the big screen. Was pleasantly suprised. Decent movie, decent pace. Gonna watch Munna bhai again. Loved it the first time I saw it. Nothing more to blog..so toodles!

Its hot in Santa Clara..

so hot that one day home of cleaning can drive you mad!! Since I am in an extra-cool office all day, just don't realize how hot it is. I miss the free utils and A/C in Fort Collins. Were we spoilt or what. We used to leave the A/C on in the morning so we would have the apartment cool when we got back from school. I want an A/C....

How come people with authority think they don't and those who don't have any think they do....

Or maybe thats how I see things, whereas in reality, who seem to have authority don't really have any and simply project they do. Does that make sense? I guess not. Anyways, plans to clean my kitchen, carpet, car, go jogging, cooking...and I know all I am going to do is flop in front of the couch and do nothing. :D

I need the motivation....

Finally issue resolved..

and some sanity is restored here at work :). Had a very high calorie weekend. First made some italian-mexican chicken that I made that was soaking in butter and cheese. Then has a lunch of shrikhan puri and dinner of awesome puranpoli and masale bhaat and batate wade! Why can't I eat and not put on weight??? Its sooo unfair. :)). Anyways, who said life is fair?

So what else, been watching all sorts of silly movies, Aan, Dev. Amazing how reel life is so divorced from real life. If I want to seen unrealistic movies, then might as well go all the way! The ones that claim to be hard-hitting and are ridiculous are the bad ones. Anyways, never ever watched soo many indian movies ever in a week. Time to go to blockbusters or AMC to catch up on foren movies.

What else? No news on the stolen stuff:( Have pretty much washed our hands off it.

Phew..been sooo busy. :( Putting in 12 hours a day at work. with production issues, upset customers. Although i like it when things are lively, this is getting hyper. will post soon..promise

The reason for the previous blog..

was some people who are obnoxious and overbearing. And I find it hard to sometimes say no. Maybe because I don't care about somethings strongly enough to get into an argument and hence I comply to certain things easily. However, sometimes it backfires and then you are in a soup!! :) I try to avoid confrontations unless I am passionate about it. Then run for cover!! ;)

Listening to radio on itunes, and I tuned into some top 40 and everything is new to me, saw an 80's section and tuned into those stations one by one, and heard a familiar song on almost each one of those :D. We used to beg mom to buy blank audio cassettes (90 minutes, 60 minutes were too short). Then we used to get cassettes from Rushi and Radha who always had latest music, and then copy the songs we liked. Then play it over and over again in the car. Wham, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Madonna..all of them. Atul and I used to tune our radio's into voice of America, he also had a list of radio frequencies and times when there were countdowns. Then we used to exchange notes, record if it was good quality.

I also sent a letter to VOA for a free calender, and I did get it. At that time, however, I lost interest in the calender very quickly and lost it. :). After all, did it matter if it was Chicago downtown or SF? Now with everything available on the net, I guess the novelty of tuning into a radio chanel and listen to the entire countdown to hear the lastest songs is gone. I just look it up on the internet and listen to it. Especially, hindi movies.

Internet did kill the radio star..

Technical support, not my cuppa tea...

how many times have I heard this? How many times have I had to convince people that its a challenging job. It needs an in depth knowledge of many aspects of the term "computer". And it requires the skills to handle people. And yet, time and again, I have heard "Support???!! Call center??" "Is your job related to computers" "You must have forgotten programming by now??..ahem..I do html and jsp as a consultant" WHAT????????

How come everyone who is a developer thinks of themselves as superior? Ooooh, I am a DBA oh a big bank, I did not know that my database is not being backed up, and I don't know how to check if the storage is about to exceed, but YOU do support, hence you are a mere "technician".

"I am the manager and I am certified in all these blah blah blah things, but can you show me how to find the ip address of the machine I am on". "I am this java expert, but somehow I never had to catch an exception, so can your technician show me" "I am not too sure how to use winzip, but I am a leam lead here". There are true sentences I have heard.

I just had a tough day...maybe tomorrow holds a better day....

Back to Alaska and good things...

Looooong days. Restaurants open till midnight. Nice food even in the remotest of places. "Hun ..Sweetie...Dear" in the conversation. People smiling at strangers. Relaxed mood. Pure air....If only the camera did not get stolen.

I have my car back...

aaaah..the bliss. Its amazing how easily you get used to comfort. For almost a year I did not have a car and I was ok. Of course now office has moved much further away. And considering I spent two years in Fort Collins, CO, with no bus. The place I lived had no direct bus route. So I walked, come rain, snow (it always did). I used to thoroughly enjoy it. The tread back from department to home, listening to songs on the cool MP3 played daddy gifted me when I visited Indonesia the first time. That was almost 3 years back.

And look at me, withdrawal symptoms for not having a car for one week...shame on me ;)

I did get something back from Alaska...

a bad cold. :( And it is Alaska, simply because Anu and Sheetal also have a cold. Could it get any worse?

I guess, now I should stop cribbing about Alaska, and talk about the good things. The Portage glacier was extremely beautiful and considering we went there only because we were looking for a restroom, it was a pleasant surprise. Here is the link to get an idea.

http://www.alaska.net/~design/scenes/portage/portage.html

It was even prettier than the pictures here. The Kenai Fjords national park is also fantasic, certainly something to experience, though not for those with weak stomach :)). Seeing a glacier and touching one, never would I have realized how blue they are.

Also did white water rafting. Level 3/4. Thank God, the lady convinced us, because since I don't know how to swim, I was a bit skeptical. But its worth every penny. Also also on this one, we did not have to row, we just sit and hold on tight :D

More positive things about Alaska to follow....

I got an A...

so finally I think I am all set to graduate..and the documents are falling in place too.

Alaska was no fun...

first Sheetal lost her contact lens. Then we had our car broken into and lost a lot of stuff. thats so unfair. Considering that we bought the camera a week back (a digital SLR), its very very bad. To top it all, we took a cruise at Kenai Fjords, and Neeraj, Sheetal and Anu were sea-sick all the time. And it was a 9 hour long cruise. They missed out on the Salmon dinner. :(

So when I think about Alaska, I can't help but think about that and I can't really say its the best trip I had. Considering a similar trip we had last year to Yellowstone was so much fun.

My two cents:
1. Don't ever leave anything in a car, even for a few minutes
2. Get the maximum possible insurance on a rental car
3. Get expensive stuff insured ASAP
4. Don't park in an uncovered parking, if a covered parking is available. (Even if both belong to the hotel)
5. Be alert of people around you.

I am off to Alaska....

for the long weekend!! So what if weather.com predicts showers, so what if Denali park tours are still closed, so what..I am taking off for four days, pure unadulterated fun! yaay..

We will be visiting Denali National Park, Kenai Fjords, and Anchorage. Last year's trip to Yellowstone was simply amazing, this promises to be fun too! :) Never in a thousand years did I think I would go to Alaska...as I pack all my winter stuff, can't help but think of Madhuri in a sari in the song from Pukar, on a glacier. Should I pack my one and only saree?? haha.

PS: Grades are partly out and looks like mes heading to atleast an A-, mostly an A