Holidays at Keys

So Its been a month since I blogged and I am regularly irregular ;-) I was too lazy to write and I wasn't doing anything interesting ...I was just looking forward for holidays so that I can have fun time ...Param and his friends planned a trip to Florida Keys and I know it will be nice time together.

The resort (tranquilitybay.com) we stayed was one of the highlights...It was pretty good I would recommend it to all. It is in Marathon, 40 miles north of Key west and we had reserved 3 bedroom beach house with all facilities and a nice private beach in the resort... Param's gang is a big lazy group that won't rush to do anything..So we had a nice relaxing and lazy vacation...

Day 1: We checked out the resort/beach/tiki bar and couple of our folks went on Jet skiing ! The guys did it with all enthu and had real fun..Evening we manage to get ready on time for a 2 hr glass bottom boat to the keys coral reef in the sea south of Key West. We snacked our way through the cruise and the sunset was very beautiful on this cruise :)

Day 2: We decided to go on a Do-it-all day-long cruise ..The cruise boat took us a couple of miles into the sea . It was 10-15 feet deep with a near by coral reef which was shallow. Except Param and one of his Friends, none of the others in our group could swim. We para-sailed, hopped on a banana boat, jet skied and simply drifted in water whie trying to swim. Banana boat was fun with we on top of a balloon (in shape of banana) that was dragged by another boat into sea and we get tossed into sea at high speed ;-) It was the most adventurous thing I have done till date in my life.. Thank god for the life jacket ;-) When the waves in water toppled our banana boat, we had to climb on it again ourselves which was quite a challenge.. We actually fell off the banana boat when we least expected !! Out of 6 folks on the banana boat, we were a gang of 4 and a couple who had joined us on it were absolutely enthusiastic for the adventure!! We were all exhausted when the cruise ship brought us back to shore at 5pm.

Day 3: Its a lazy day and this time we played beach volleyball and monkey (game with someone hopping to catch the ball from other players ) for quite some time and then I wanted to try jet ski - which I shouldn't have done at all..Actually after driving the ski for sometime from shore with param on passenger seat, he jumped into water to remove the seaweed caught in the ski intake..When Param tried to climb back on the ski, from the sides of the jet ski (which he should not have done), the ski almost toppled and I got scared and started screaming which made param abort his climb back ..... Finally another person on jet ski gave tips to param to climb back on ski from behind maintaining the balance. Once param was back on ski, I was all scared of water and made him drop me back on the shore ..One of my night mares as I do not know swimming and sea was quite scary ! Param then picked up one of his friends from shore who was jet skiing the previous day and took a hour long lesson ;-).We stay at our beach house for dinner..Param Grilled some salmon indian style which all his friends claimed was mouth watering..Hope he starts making some vegge dishes as well soon ..We had a wonderful-family-kind-of-dinner.

All 3 days was spent playing cards, talking college stories- Always never ending and interesting :)

By the way, I am looking forward for 2008 for a lots of reasons...We are going back to India by end of 2008 and am looking forward to set up our home at Chennai..So 2008 has been in diary from a lot long ago...Wish you all have a happy and eventful new year 2008 !

My little snow man

What did I do this long weekend?

Went on a long trip? - > Did not do much, Jus did a beach drive.
Went on a shopping spree? -> No Not at all
Had nice food? -> Yes, a hell lot of dishes from Saravana bhavan, muniyandi vilas, american restaurants, home made food, sea food
Had fun? -> A lot with friends visiting us and we played a lot of playing cards
Threw a party? -> Yes, had a big fun with Param and his friends.
Took photos? -> Shot a bunch of pics at SFO & beach drive and some sneak shots of P & his friends as well ;-)

So Its 95/100 and No complaints :-)..Another best weekend :-)

Priceless Sunday evening

Doing puri and omapodi - 2 hrs
Nagging P to get pori and dates- 2 hrs
Preparing Date chutney -0.5 hr
Searching for Easy-recipe cake- 1 hr
Getting the sponge cake ready -1 hr
Preparing Bhel Puri 0.5 hr
Enjoying the snack and Coffee On Sunday evening, with absolutely everything turning out to be tasty- Priceless

And by the way, Guess what is this?

Still blogging....

I know you have been checking for my post which I have been procrastinating for so long....

Yes, I have finally settled down ! Last 1 month was quite hectic with vacating apt., cleaning and celebrating our anniversary on an empty home, then dragging my days at hotel, searching for a new apt. for 2 full days, having infinite discussion about the localities and amenities, finally decided to rent this nice apt that felt like a home (though bit expensive for us), searching for job, getting irritated when there was no job offers/ calls from any company ... and finally getting an that unexpected call from another consultant leading to my new job where I am yet to join. Am just sitting at home right now - spending time browsing,reading, cool and meeting my old friends on weekends (I was very much anxious or should say crazy to meet them after 4 years), still finding the old stories interesting...and that's how my life has been for past 1 month.

One thing I am really excited about the new place is that there are lot of activities going on in the neighborhood :-)

Most important, My loving friend Baru has started blogging..Please visit hers too
http://barukarthi.blogspot.com/

Moving Again

I have always had good friends and well wishers and really happy to have them at every stage of life.

When it was my last day at my previous job, my friend completely surprised me by decorating my work place like this and throwing a nice party.



And this time, Param had a change of location and we are moving to California and hence I resigned my job again. Thats one of the reasons that kept me busy and away from blogging. But again my last day was really unforgettable with my colleagues presenting me a "Mini Cooper" replica ( I tested this car at work and was part of the "Mini" team). I was all happy to get it as a memorabilia.

And then we went out for team lunch where my team completely surprised me with a scrap book ful of pics from last year. Very thoughtful of them. One of the photos from scrap book had all the phones I was testing with our car.

I am so happy I had been part of such a very nice team. My memories from here will always be in my heart and I will take them with me to India.

Now that we are moving to California wish me luck to get a nice job soon :-)

Century அடிச்சாச்சு :-)

I and Param always wanted to do something together. So we started running/jogging together a few months back . Just like two perfect Geminis, we now changed our interest to do something else -We started to play tennis this week. Param kept this idea of playing tennis just as an idea for a long time until i insisted last weekend to get the racquets. Yesterday we went to the school tennis court near our home to play. As always, Param had lots of inertia to start the game but once started he was in it with full enthusiasm, whereas I had great enthusiasm to start the game but got tired really quick. Well, at least we complemented each other on our enthusiasm levels and played for an hour with Param playing big shots and me running all around picking the ball I missed ;-) Anyway, not a bad idea to start the week with.

BTW this is my 100th post and I am happy that I chose to continue blogging. I started it as a time pass and now it is more than that. I sometimes feel compelled to create a post and Param thinks I am obsessed with it :-)

Our long weekend

For independence day weekend we went on a Orlando vacation !
Day-0
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On Tuesday afternoon I finished my work as soon as possible and headed home.With full enthusiasm , we packed our bags with food items (for 4days) in one bag and dresses in others. We even packed our dinner (dosai) ;-). At airport after check-in and security check, we were soon at the gate. We got seats in different rows and had to squeeze in middle seats. After a 2 hr flight, we were at Orlando. Orlando international airport was quite big. We took Hertz shuttle to Hertz rental centre and I should say I feel the roads at florida are wider than those in NJ. We got a Mazda with GPS (was quite happy that it made my navigator job easy)
and we set out to our hotel.

This time Param surprised us all by taking us to nice 4.5 star hotel and we were in all awe seeing the hotel. Our room even got refrigerator and microwave. I have never stayed in such star hotel before and started enjoying my stay. We had our nice dosai dinner and crashed into our bed ...:)

Day-1:
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We started to Sea world. I am not going to bore you with all the details..but all I would say is - It was the best I have ever seen. If you are watching the Shamu show, Watch the first show, I feel it better than any other timing...It was awesome to see how they believed that they could train killer whales to do such shows.The sea world was worth a full day visit...

And evening DIL (me) and MIL bought souvenir . The day was memorable also for the puliyotharai (this time I enjoyed my vacation because I had south indian food unlike french fries only)

Day-2:-
------
We visited Universal studios.

It was thrilling and exciting, as we started enjoying all types of animation shows, simulation shows just like small kids...starting from Shrek to twister to earthquake to mummy to jaws to spiderman to sindbad stunt show...We were tired at the end of the day but full of nice memories..Forgot to mention, everyday during our stay at Orlando, there were thunderstorms ! But its fine if few things like weather were not so perfect on an otherwise perfect day.

Day-3:
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This day , it was the trip to land where all dreams come true, yes the Disney Magic Kingdom. But I was rather disappointed as eventhough its beautiful to see all imaginary characters on dream place, I could not enjoy much. Maybe If I go with my kids in future I would enjoy it more.The Disney parade and Cinderalla palace was just like in fairy tale and salvaged the day.

Day-4 :
---------
With lots of expectations, we got 2-day tickets to Disney the previous day, So we thought we'll try our luck at Disney Animal kingdom this day.

It turned out to be a better decision as we enjoyed the "its tough to be a bug" 3-D show to start our day. We felt cockroaches crawling under the seats( thats a spoiler without warning if you are planning to visit) and nice safari in African jungle(one of my wishes is to travel across Africa- Param are you hearing this? ). We ended our day with a Lion king show. Near our hotel there was a theatre which was upside down ;-) and my FIL wanted to check it out and we took some Patel shots..

Ooops I forgot to mention, In the hotel where we stayed, they had this wierd tradition- at 5 in the evening every day, they played parade music while the ducks in the fountain were made to march towards their nest and there was a big crowd to watch it :-) We were full of laughter to see the fuss about the whole thing.


Day-5
So after visiting all these places, its time to get back home and We all started back again to NJ and my story ends here

Not to forget
the Memories of India hotel

Service-> Poor
Food-> Above average


Woodlands cuisine

Service->Excellent
Food->Good

(this is just a tip for anybody travelling to Orlando)

Brands Or Bargains?

From childhood, good bargains always fascinated me compared to quality or brands. But when I started working I always heard lots of discussion about designer wear, unique shops and products. I was always a silent spectator during these discussions.When I went shopping with friends its the same story.While they discussed with no end about the items, I never got involved.

For the same cost price, I would choose many-good-looking-no brand watches rather than going for a single-branded watch.The same with slippers and dresses...But when it comes to bargained products, they usually do not last long and many a times fail you at the wrong time.(its almost 50% true for me)

Now I am wondering "Should I chose brands rather than bargains ?"

My latest time pass

When Life is routine, I need to do something interesting. Since it is spring time and I see flowers everywhere, Why not bring home fresh flowers every week?



And To top it up, Last week I got a plant, Now I am waiting for it to bloom more flowers

Birthday time again

Here comes the baking time of the year again. Last year I tried to create the cake from scratch. But this time, I did not want to trouble Param again on his birthday with my trials . So I was looking for ideas on internet for a couple of weeks. BettyCrocker's cake recipes seem to be quite popular. So I went for that cake mix and decided to do a 2-layer cake with frosting in between.

And tada this was my cake to my dear husband and he seem to enjoy it

Many more happy returns of the day dear!

What's happening with me

• Last 1 month has been very busy with param's parents at home.So every week, we have been touring around new york and new jersey.
• Got a car for myself and started driving alone...Getting prepared for defensive driving test at my office.
• Ran for 4- mile race twice in 10 days.
• And We have completed 1 year in this home. I have come a long way from not liking this place at first sight to feeling at home in this last 1 year.
  
• And this time, I wished my dearest friend on her birthday, while another dear friend gave birth to baby boy on the same day, so I have one more reason to celebrate the May day.

• Spring has come and I see flowers everywhere, beautiful tulips in Central park...

A pleasant surprise trek

One of memorable incidents during India trip was climbing Tirupati with two important persons in my life- My father and my husband. When I planned to go to tirupati with our families, My father told that he planned to walk up the hills. I did not want him to do that alone and So I told him that I would accompany him and Immediately my husband who doesn't want me to go alone either offered to come And So we started early morning around 6:30 and we know we had to climb 4000 steps to reach up.

So with full enthusiasm we started

Inital1000 steps were a breeze. We climbed it in 30 minutes. So We thought we could do it easily.

Next 1000 steps were the toughest ones. They were very steep and It was like climbing the mountain directly.And these were really hard for all 3 of us, but still Param was encouraging us to walk. We finished it in next 30 minutes.The view from 2000 steps were really beautiful

We thought we would finish next 2000 steps in another 1 hour, but next 1000 steps were wide.So it was like walking few 100 meters per step and It was not how we calculated, we took more than a hour to reach the step 3000.

In the last 1000 steps, we almost took breaks for every 100 steps we climbed. We chatted all our way up thereby managing to do it with much less tiredness.

We were at Tirumala 3.5 hrs after we started from the foot of the hill.
So the whole walk was an unplanned yet memorable.

And Family picture after dharsan

I am back online

Having jasmine flower all days for a month -> Done

Visiting Old friends and get to know what others are doing-> Done

Shopping till I dropped -> Done

Roaming around Pondy bazaar-> Done

Gossiping with my mother about all stories -> Done

Going on a morning walk in marina beach-> Done

Visiting all possible temples -> Done

Pestering Param to get all gifts which he promised me to get -> Done

Watching a movie in one of the finest theaters in Chennai-> Done

Having a cone ice cream on hot summer afternoon -> Done

Travelling in and around Chennai in Auto-> Done

So thats the reason for my sudden absconding for a month, Yes, I have been to India on a vacation

Meanwhile one more April fool's day has crossed .

மொழி

Went to this movie this weekend. The movie exceeded well over my expectations .The dialogs were neat and entertaining.Hats off to the dialog writer!. Songs are also good in the movie. I especially liked the first song and the unique voice of the singer is simply superb. Last but not the least My favorite Jo's performance is beautiful. As this is her last movie, I will miss her performance

One more added to my collection

What's in a name?

This story reminded me of an interesting event in my life..thought I should write it here

When I first heard my husband's name from my father as a prospective bridegroom , I told my father that I don't like the name. I also told him that I cannot even think about creating a nick name out of it.My father promptly discarded my silly comment stating that "பையன் தான் பார்க்க முடியும் பெயரெல்லாம் ஒரு விஷயம் கிடையாது." Now I feel how silly It would have been If I took the name seriously

Have a look at this

Usually I don't like giving Links as Posts, but this one is worth mentioning.
My team lead's cousin and his friend are crossing the Atlantic ocean by rowing.
Every one thinks its both crazy and dangerous to just row across the ocean. They are half way through, They actually started on January 7th

So I thought I would post their website link here as a tribute and let my world know about them :-)
http://www.haute-mer.org/

The Bad Worse and Ugly

Bad
I ran another 4 mile without practice this time and it felt like a punishment...Cursed myself for doing that without practice

Worse
I tried to do pizza and it was a disaster, totally taste less, Ordering pizza is better :-)

Ugly
I have written about my hate towards drawing, but still after seeing a painted tea pot at one of my friend's home I wanted to try it out...So I pestered Param, and bought few colors from Michaels arts and crafts stores and tried my hand..Looks like the handy work of my niece :-)

What a weekend it was!

It has been more than a month since I found anything interesting to blog. Life was busy and usual until this weekend. All the fun started on Thursday when my husband’s friends visited us. It is one of the best weekends I have had here in USA in the last 1 1/2 years !

I prepared home food for the guests - dosa, potato curry & rasam, adai, idli/thakkali kichadi, bread/omlet and even my husband prepared chicken one day for his friends. In effect, I tried to play host like my mom (but I realised I am light years behind her when it comes to playing host). Hope everyone enjoyed my cooking.

All of us had tons of good time played cards with set of 9 people, eating out, chinese chequers and just plain talking about anything that is nothing :-)

We played the card game "Bluff"and whenever my husband played for some body else, they happen to lose in the game :-p Then we started playing Chinese checkers it was an engaging game. With everyone playing both offensive and defensive/block strategies and all the small talk while the game was on really got everyone excited.

On the whole, a memorable weekend and good to meet a bunch of new & nice folks. Would love to do this again.