Birthday time :-)

Every Year on this day, I get on full swing to make cake for You-know-Who :-)

This year, I fast-forwarded his birthday 2 days so that we can celebrate with my amma and sister before they return back to India. With my new cake decorating skills, I grew in confidence to bake a 3D cake...As car is one of his favorite items, I chose a 3D cruiser cake.

I baked the cake day before yesterday. Since the cake was big, it took around 1 hour to bake and more than 5 hours to cool! Yesterday morning, it took 2 hours for me to decorate it with home-made icing...Thats the cake below.


The cream was real yummy and everyone loved it :-) We all had a fun evening yesterday
In retrospect, I should have made a red car for him as he is a Ferrari supporter. Anyway, I tried out my favi color :-)

And I am smiling ear to ear seeing it come out very well :-)
Happy birthday Dear Param :-)

Family Fun trip :-)

Yay! I am back after a great 10 days of vacation!! We had a fantastic time with my mother and sister. My father had to return to India urgently before our road trip and hence couldn't join.

All in all,

• We enjoyed watching Shamu @ Sea world.
• My mother & sis did a lot of thrilling rides.
• We went on safari at Animal park and fed giraffes.
• Everybody had their dream day at Disneyland,LA and an easy day at Universal, LA
• We enjoyed fabulous Vegas- took lots of pics.
• We were amazed by Hoover dam - one of 7 engineering wonders.
• Spell bound by sun rise @ Grand Canyon, thrilled by Helicopter ride over the canyon and mesmerized by the IMAX movie there.
• Enjoyed American/Continental breakfast on all 10 days and I was very happy to see my mother and sis enjoying it as well (Denny's & IHOP were memorable).
• Had a tasty dinner at Woodlands,LA and sumptuous dinner at Tamba, LV.
• We did a lot of chit-chat during our road trip
• Enjoyed ice cream, candy, juices & cotton candy.
• Had a great road trip across lonely hills & desert like terrains of Nevada and Arizona.
• Took tons of lovely family pictures during the trip

On a whole, my mother and sister had their best vacation trying out all sorts of new things. So did we :-)
These days will stay in my diary forever :-)

Super Busy days

My parents have arrived last week and Its kinda of Super-busy from then! They came 8 hours late as they missed a couple of their connection flights due to delay!! We were at the airport 2 hours earlier with WELCOME Balloon and kutti hand made gift for my sis...I was very happy to see them after a year. We told each other how much we have gained/lost weight and had the usual chit-chat all the way to our home. Everyone enjoyed the nice dinner I prepared for them ;-)

The next few days, we did pretty much nothing as they had jet lag... Anyway, after the couple of days, we took them to a Mexican Restaurant and they seem to enjoy the food (to my surprise) as they said Mexican is good :-) My mother has even become a fan of Star bucks! Then came the weekend and we went on a trip to do white-water rafting. The whole gang (9 ppl) drove up to South Fork American river @ Coloma, CA. We had a sumptuous picnic lunch under the shades of trees while chatting/pulling each other's legs...Was great fun (Will post the rafting pictures soon when we get it from the photographer).

Then the gang set out for the river rafting while I gave company to my parents. My sis was all excited to try it and so was Param. I am sure they had super fun in the water, while we 3 gossiped family stories sitting on a bench and had the whole park for ourselves.. After rafting we headed back and had a good dinner at Krung Thai restaurant (2 hours) ;-) My parents seemed to be able to try it as well (surprise, surprise!!).The whole trip was quite memorable for me , with great company and Saturday ended with most of us tired/sore for different reasons...:-)

We had planned to go for 17-mile drive on Sunday, but everybody was so tired that we dropped the idea and instead went to Kuruvi -Kuppai padam....I had made vegetable puff for evening Tiffin and we had it in theater - just like old times.. And so the Whole week finished so fast :-) Now I am waiting for this Friday when we will be on vacation for 10 days - on a Road trip to LA, San Diego, Las Vegas & Grand Canyon. More updates soon.

Tag from NY girl :-)

Last Movie Seen In A Theatre?
Billa..did not like it so much.

What Book Are You Reading?
Pastries.

A Favourite Board Game?
Trade while in school days and now Scrabble and Chess .

Favourite Magazine?
I don't read anything regularly..I need to work on this soon.

Favourite Smells?
Smell of Rasam on the stove, Jasmine flower, Ripen mango, jackfruit smell.

Favourite Sound?
Mouna Raagam BGM.

Worst Feeling In The World?
When I could not do what I had promised earlier.

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?
I need a coffee.

Favourite Fast Food Place?
Adyar Ananda Bhavan for me.

Future Child’s Name?
I haven't decided yet.

Finish This Statement: If I Had A Lot of Money, I’d…
Celebrate first and then decide

Do You Drive Fast?
Only when I am late to office meetings at 8 am

Do You Sleep With A Stuffed Animal?
NO..

Storms– cool or scary?
Cool, A nice blanket around, Cup of tea and bajji, few good friends and card game.
Scary If I am driving.

Do You Eat The Stems on Broccoli?
Why not?

If You Could Dye Your Hair Any Colour, What Would Be Your Choice?
Brown may be, actually I do not like to dye my hair.

Name All The Different Cities/Towns You’ve Lived In.
Bombay,Tiruchi,Tirunelveli,Sivakasi,Chennai,New Jersey, Cupertino.

Favourite Sports To Watch:
Nothing as of now

One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You:
I love her passion for good film making.

What’s Under Your Bed?
Nothing.

Would You Like To Be Born As Yourself Again?
Sure...Yes

Morning Person or Night Owl?
Night Owl.

Over Easy or Sunny Side Up?
I don't know.

Favourite Place To Relax?
Home.

Favourite Pie?
Cakes please.

Favourite Ice-Cream Flavour?
Dulce-di-liche and Arun Pistachio,Tutty fruity.

You Pass This Tag To–
Any one who wants to write a tag.

Of All The People You Tagged, Who’s Most Likely To Respond First?
I don't know!!

They will be here next week !!!

All my friends around me would have already known my excitement, but writing it in my blog is always a special thing to me....

Last year around this time, I had returned from my India trip and this time , my parents are visiting us :-). It's been a year since we saw each other and so we are excited!

My mother has been preparing a long list of snacks to bring, and my sister is busy shopping clothes and already started her packing ;-).My father wraping up his work before the vacation, and I am cleaning our home one area everyday to make it more presentable ;-)

You can definitely expect a few travelogues in my blog in coming weeks :-)

Image source: cartoonstock.com

Dec 2006 ->July 2007->January 2008->Now

Running->Tennis ->Poker-> Chess

We have started playing chess now. Few weeks back we got a chess board and now playing one game of chess is the last thing we do before we sleep. I have to say Its very refreshing. All I do now is trying to learn all tactics of the game and beat Param. That's the goal of the month :-)

My new stash box

Personalised by me :-)

To us

For 1 more reason :-)

I say

our

Images Courtesy: Google Image search

Cake class - Finale

This weekend was hectic! With our last cake deco class on Sunday, I wanted to bake & take a 2-layer cake for the finale and so started baking on Friday night. The first cake I baked crumbled :-( So I had to bake all-over again and this time I decided to bake additional cake layers for back-up. Thus, finally I ended-up with a 3-layer cake after buring couple of extra hours on bake sessions :-) This time I did the cake leveling well. Then I did a joint frosting session with my friend on Saturay. Sunday's cake class went well as we learnt to do stems, leaves etc. At last we were left to decorate our cake the way we liked I am happy with the way mine came out :-).

I even got a course completion certificate!

Its a memorable experience which will stay in my diary bringing back sweet memories whenever I see it later. I am happy I tried this class.

Subha, now as I have little confidence,I promise to male a cake for you when you visit me :-)

B&W memories :-)

I wanted to do this tag long back, but I had to wait until I could get Param’s childhood pics from my SIL.

Aren't we cute when we are kids? :-)
Now coming to tag, all that comes to my mind are:
We both are Gemini.
Our names match with Hindu God and Goddess pair, coincidentally.
We both studied at Trichi.
Anyway as destined to meet, we met and got married in Sep 2005 A.D.
Whoever is reading this tag, please do it as well and post both you and your better half's childhood pics....It is interesting to play :-)

Another fun sunday with cakes!

To a great friend...

இருவரும் வேறு வேறு இடத்தில் பிறந்தோம்
கலாச்சாரம் வேறு குடும்பம் வேறு
ஆசைகள் வேறு குணங்கள் வேறு
எங்கேயோ பிறந்து எங்கேயோ சந்தித்தோம்
வார்த்தை பரிமாறுதலில் ஆரம்பித்த நட்பு
வாழ்கையை பற்றி பேசும் வரை நீண்டுது
கற்று கொண்டது பல பல
வார்த்தையில் எழுத தெரியவில்லை
இன்றும் நீங்கள் என்னிடம் பேசியதும்
நான் உங்களிடும் பேசியதும்
நமக்கு மட்டுமே தெரிந்த ரகசியங்கள்
இப்பொழுது பிரிந்தாலும்
மீண்டும் சந்திப்போம்
சில வருடங்களில் :-)

The above are straight from my heart to a friend who is returning back home.She is a great inspiration for me and We had good time together at NYC.

Dedicated to our good friendship and Probably she cannot read Tamil :-)

My killer cake !

Few days back, I came to know about Wilton Cake Decorating classes in Michales and decided to try my hands with it...(ஆசை யாரை விட்டுச்சு). On my first day, when the teacher wanted to know why I joined the class, I told I wanted to make a decent cake :-) There are only 4 persons in our class and all of them are Indians! Out teacher asked us to prepare and bring a frosted cake for our 2nd class this Sunday! I did a joint cake making session with my friend on Saturday ;-) Just like the group study at college, we baked our cake together, prepared and frosted it as we liked. But our cake didn't get a good shape. To add more trouble, we prepared a thick frosting while our teacher had actually instructed to make it thin!! I learnt about these mistakes when I showed my cake to the teacher..I am glad alteast I learnt how not to make a cake & frosting till now !! Anyhow learning basic cake decorating techniques was interesting. See my class 2 cake decorating attempt in below picture !

My favourite vegetable manchurian

Yesterday when I came from office, I was craving for something spicy. So I quickly checked out few blogs and One of my favourite blogger had a recipe that exactly suited my taste buds

http://premascookbook.blogspot.com/2007/05/vegetable-manchurian.html

So My version of Vegetable manchurian (It was 100% tasty)

What do I want to become?

At an early age, all I dreamt was to become a teacher (may be a dance teacher)...I love to teach, even now.....Even while we were in college, I liked to explain subjects to my friends and help them with assignments. I have lots of good memories of those sessions ...I'll save that for another post. Even my FIL (who is a Retired Physics Professor) once commented that I am a better teacher than Param ... When somebody asks me to explain something I know, I explain it with full enthu and Param envies me for that ;-) But yes, I did not become a teacher...

When I came to US, I started using CNET and liked their reveiws...I even thought about applying for a job to become a phone reviewer ... Something in me told me to give it a shot...I still haven't figured out my first steps for applying or what they look for (in qualifications/experience). Yes, I didn't apply at all.

Nowadays I am impressed by HR dept colleagues :-) I like their busy schedule arranging travel, arranging facilities, arranging business cards, making hotel reservations and helping others.

So my career interest has changed from teacher->reviewer->HR while I am an Engineer ;-) How does that sound? I am still trying to figure out what I want to become!

Life in fact has free lunches :-)

Today was one of those days when I overslept (by weekday standards ;-). As I was already late, I packed a quick lunch and started to office in a hurry.

Once I reached my office, I realized I had left my lunch bag at home! I was totally irritated as we don't have a cafeteria at our office. Now if I have to eat lunch, I have to go out which I don’t like as restaurants are not very near.

But I was surprised to see an email from one my colleagues that he had won a free lunch at a Mexican restaurant (after having our team name on the raffle) and so our entire team get a free lunch!! I was happy to see veggie burritos in his order ;-) So I got my veggie burrito lunch with coke & dessert.

Sometimes, there are free lunches in life !

From seeds to flowers

Getting seeds from Walmart -> 2 hours & $1
Transferring them to India through In-laws -> 24 hours
Planting seeds and waiting for flowers to bloom-> 3 months
Clicking Photos and Sharing them over Internet-> 1 hour
Feeling happy that it bloomed and seeing the whole family excited about it - Priceless.

Tagged by a friend :-)

Daisy, Its for you... will do your other tag soon :-)

A - Available?: Just for a good talk :-)
B-Best friend: With few friends, I am really who I am, Don't want to list it here :-)
C-Cake or Pie?: Always Plum cake
Drink of choice: Hot coffee, but lately Frappucino
E- Essential thing used everyday: My Sony VAIO
F- Favourite colour: Blue and Black
G- Gummy bears or worms: Definitely Gummy bears all the time
H- Hometown: Halwakku famous Tirunelveli
Indulgence: Earrings and Chocolate Truffles
J-January or February: January for a fresh start
K-Kids and names: None, I haven't really thought about the names, but surely it will be a Tamil name.
L-Life: Life gives you an interesting twist always
M-Marriage date: September 5, 2005
N-Number of siblings:Younger naughty sis
Oranges or apples:Tangerine Oranges Please
P-Phobias: Sea/Swimming
Quote:Nothing is constant except change.
R-Reason to smile: Nice gestures from Param
S-Season: July-August in Tirunelveli due to Courtalam season..Ah,I love it :-)
T-Tag two people: Baru and Mohan
U-Unknown fact about me:I can get really quirky sometimes
V-Vegetable you do not like:Bitter gourd
W-Worst habit:Getting Angry for small reasons
X-x-rays you have had:Tooth
Y-Your favorite food:Always amma's idli and chutney, maggi noodles,panju mittai

Z-Zodiac:Gemini

Compliments

How do I accept compliments? I am fairly awkward in this department :-( When somebody compliments me, I really don't know how to react. I just freeze or change topic...I don't say a quick "Thanks" like other folks. It will be usually an awkward silence at my end with a blank expression in my face when someone pass a compliment. I sometimes even say something irrelevant to change topic and take attention off me. I feel embarrassed when somebody points this out (about me not accepting a compliment gracefully). Everybody likes compliments and so do I.

I feel that genuinely complimenting others is a great thing. But to add to my misery, I usually mess it up when I try to pass a compliment to someone else. I don't put it right words and end up saying something embarrassing again ;-( Even Wikihow has something to say abt this: http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Compliments

How good are you in this department?

Today.....

Today I went for driver training at a raceway with my team as arranged by our office. I was little bit anxious and eager to do it as they would expect me to do stuff which I would normally not do in my driving (like braking hard, accelerating quick etc). But I think I did pretty OK. We were asked to accelerate quickly and change lane without braking, accelerate and brake hard, avoiding skidding and drive in a S-curve etc. It was all fun and exciting. Moreover rain added spice to the outing. Another day to note in my personal diary :-)