Yet another hobby

Beading! As in beaded jewelery making. Last weekend I went to the Gem and Jewelery Show and bought a bunch of gems, beads, pearls etc. Now, what should I do with those..lets see..Ofcourse, lets make jewelery! I have actually made 2 pairs of earrings so far. I'm loving this! I am very motivated when results are instant. So ofcourse everything else takes a back seat for now. I did read 2 books this month as well, but mostly I'm taking out the beads every night and planning what to do with them. And with Mehul right beside me, it means he wants to touch them as well. He has selected one particular strand of rectangular Agate that he pretends is the Black Train. Heee

So no wonder blogging and scrapping are taking a back seat. My online time is consumed in searching cheap sources for beading. I've found Fire Mountain Gems and placed an order with them last night for the materials needed to make jewelery - wire, crimp beads, clasps, metal beads, etc. I can hardly wait for the stuff to get here so I can get going on making matching necklace/bracelets. This site is great for instructions with pictures.

In other news, I did get to watch the 'Bee' last weekend as well. AWESOME movie. Definitely getting this one on DVD, but then, we enjoy animated movies more than normal people would LOL!

Lastly, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Bee was not to be...

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I've been trying to watch the Bee movie. Since my birthday (Nov. 17th), I've been trying to watch it. So, I went out with some girl friends on the 16th for a girls night out and watched a *different* movie, because we thought this movie was better to be seen with kids. On the actual day, we had the potluck so that day was out. Since then, something *always* comes up whenever we make plans. Oh, including last weekend when DH complained of having pain and buzzing in his right ear due to ongoing sinus issue.
Sometime last week, DH called another friend whom we haven't met in a while, and planned to finally go the coming sunday (yesterday). So, we all got there. Somehow, we managed to be late by around 10 minutes. We entered the hall 11 (which will be significant later) and settled in, the movie had already started. Within less than 5 minutes, they asked everyone to go out as there was a gas leak in the theater. I believe I actually said "Seriously!! This is not happening." Everyone was thrown out of the theater within a matter of minutes. Mehul and J were veryyy happy to see the firetrucks though. We were issued refund tickets to come back anytime.

We had lunch and then headed to our place to sit and catch up with them. DH called the theater about an hour later and was informed that they're open and playing the movies again. In the meantime I told my friends how long I've been trying to watch the movie and it's jinxed for me (and them too now hehe) They said they'll make sure I see the movie today and we went back to the theater for the 4:30 show. *Now* we were informed we couldn't watch Bee because that very hall #11 is closed, every single other one was open. Sigh. I won't every try again and just wait for the DVD. LOL!

But we watched Enchanted instead. I liked this movie. DH is not really into fairy tales so he thought it was ok. It is PG rated but there is really only one scene that might have scared Mehul. He was fine and enjoyed the movie and I believe the 6 yr old daughter of our friend enjoyed it much more.

Just busy

I've been busy busy busy for many reasons. I had a work deadline which is now done. We are getting our basement built. The contractors started last weekend. We've been gathering ideas for the kitchen/bar area we wish to make there. Been to Lowe's, Home Depot, Ikea, etc. I loved one of the kitchens in Ikea and that's what we'll go with. We ordered the appliances from Sears on Black Friday and got quite good prices because of the sale. There will of course be pictures when everything is said and done.

I cleaned the play room today. What a disaster area. Ugh. Currently, we're using the living room as the play room and use the family room to entertain the guests. That should change though because I can not handle the toys at the entrance of the house anymore. They are breeding like anything and are completely out of control. I have many ideas for organizing the playroom but lack the time rightnow. Once the basement is done, we'll move the playroom downstairs and then buy some nice furniture for the room. I've even selected what I want.

I started stitching the Angel of Love again. It's coming along really well. I have it in my 101 list as a goal for finishing in 2007. We'll see if that actually happens. I get distracted very quickly LOL!

Life in Software..

Whole day to find a problem.
15 minutes to solve it.

Such is my life..

Thanks for your comments, they mean a lot to me :)

Diwali Pictures rescued from the camera

Thanks for your comment, Fiona :) It helped me put a perspective on the purpose of this blog. That is partly why I started it in the first place, so I have a place to share my side of the world's view with others.

Here are some of the pictures I promised. Sorry I have none in the sari I wore on Diwali. I just have to make it a habit to wear traditional clothes more often that we have been. And to remember to take pictures in them. LOL!

Rangoli

It looks better in the pictures - They were taken at night after lighting the diyas (earthen lamps with oil and cotton wicks).

A closer look

Crackers

Diwali Lights

Coconut Burfi

- Recipe going on my food blog soon.


I am in love with my tile flooring. It was so easy to clean it after having the Rangoli there for 5 days. There even was some oil spilled from the diyas. I could never light oil lamps on hardwood flooring. So happy about this choice.

Saturday was my birthday. I celebrated by having a girls night out on Friday night - Ira, Monica and I went to watch a Hindi movie - Om Shanti Om - in the theater that only runs Hindi movies here. And we almost hit a deer while returning. We were on the Toll Road. It was just standing there, not moving at all. I saw there was *something* on the road from far but couldn't make out what was it. I asked Monica, who was driving, to change lanes. By then, the dear was clearly visible in headlights. Going at 65 mph there wasn't much time. Thank God there was no one in the next lane or it would not have been very nice start of the birthday (it was almost 12:15 AM). All four were saved, including the deer, who still did not move an inch.

Saturday, Ira had our Potluck group over at her house. We celebrated their housewarming, my birthday, and another girls birthday (was on the 15th). Much fun was had and I didn't have anything to do entire day :) DH made bed-tea, took me (and M) out to lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, and I treated myself to some knitting stash. Perfect day.

Diwali (last post on this topic - promise)

This post is long so better sit down for this one :)

Ok. So the day started with rain. Not entirely unexpected as there was 60% chance of precipitation. I hadn't decided as of Thursday night where I wanted to make the Rangoli. This actually made the decision easy :) It is usually made at the entrance of the house so my options were either outside the front door (more traditional), or in the Foyer. We have tile flooring so I didn't mind it inside.

DH had a meeting in the morning so he had to go in and he dropped Mehul at the daycare. I was working from home and had some stuff to do, so I worked straight through 2PM. Missed my lunch and ate breakfast while working. So then I decided I was getting behind on my to-do list for the Diwali so I took a break from working. I made the Rangoli, then made the sweet dish - Coconut Barfi, and then started thinking about lunch because my stomach was rumbling by then. It was 3, I believe. DH came home. He had gotten some fast food for himself and he brought Mehul back from daycare. He was running late for lunch too as he had his own list of things to do after work. M had the lunch and nap at the daycare so we're good there.
DH fixed me up with some frozen dosas as I couldn't decide what to eat and kept doing other things like cleaning. LOL. I have a short attention span so that's very normal for me.

Back to the Rangoli - I didn't like the colors at all. When I dyed them, they turned a nice bright color. I added more color because I thought they might lose a bit of the brightness upon drying though I was not expecting the Yellow to turn into cream. The red was better because it had other dye besides the food coloring, but I'm not happy with sand as the medium. Way too dirty (duh!). It kept running off the edges with the slightest movement of air. Mehul, of course, had a lot of fun with the left-over sand in a bag and shovel on the Kitchen floor. So, around 5 I went to Wegman's to get some flowers. I needed to make a border around it because the sand was driving me nuts. The flowers contained it a little better. But still the colors could have been brighter. Pictures are still not downloaded so I'll do those later.

I made the main dish I was supposed to make after lunch. I'm not sure what I did after - probably cleaning. DH finished vacumming the Kitchen and Family room. I dressed Mehul in the dress he wore on his birthday. Shortly after that, he had an accident. O oh! Luckily, I found a pajama-bottom that goes well with the dress and still fits him. I got dressed in Sari and DH wore a traditional Kurta Pajama as well!

It rained the entire day so we couldn't do the fireworks. Friends arrived, everyone had food and drinks, etc. The kids started dropping off to sleep around 10. We then sat down to play cards. Gambling on Diwali night has been a tradition for ages but no one in my side of family practices that. DH says everyone in his family gambles and loses LOL! We each put $5.00 and played with 10 cent at a time (or whatever you call them). They taught me how to play. It was the most fun I've ever had on Diwali night. We played until 3AM.
We played with the fire-crackers (saved from july 4th) on Sunday night. I have pictures, just no time to upload them yet. Mehul has caught another cold, he's not well but we're sending him to daycare. He's miserable at night.

Happy Deepawali

Diwali Preparations

Yes!! Diwali is Friday - Nov. 9th. It is a Hindu Festival but the entire country celebrates it, and Indians abroad celebrate it as well. You can read more about Diwali and it's origins here.

So my entire family is getting together in Delhi. My little sister is coming home from college in Alwar, my brother already came back from Chennai last weekend. My big sister lives in Delhi about 20 minutes away from my parents, so they are all there. I am (slightly) getting down, as it happens every year. But I refuse to stay like this. I am doing my own preparations. So what am I doing?

I am going to make a Rangoli - a colorful design made on the floor with colors or flower petals. Last night I started making the colors - by dyeing sand with food coloring and Rit Dyes. I designed and cut out a template for the design I'm going to make. It's a peacock! That's all you get for now ;) We'll see how well this plan goes LOL! If it doesn't work, I will fall back to my usual floral something.

I was talking to a friend at work about this and she asked if I'm making any sweets. Because she is going to. Crap. I'm supposed to make sweets? She said no no don't do it just because she said it! Peer pressure is NOT good for me. I'm thinking Coconut Burfi. I have to ask MIL for the recipe. She makes awesome Burfi.

The night of Diwali, we are getting out in the neighborhood for some firecrackers. I am hanging the lights outside tonight, and will put rows of candles and diyas that day. Totally traditional this time. Oh, and I might even wear a sari. Don't know that yet. Although it would be totally cool to wear a sari when I am not starving and feeling like I'm about to die. Mehul will wear a traditional Kurta as well.

There is also a neighborhood dinner plan in works. I'm taking the back seat in that. Already have too much to do. So watch for Rangoli and firecrackers pictures end of the week!

You make me smile

Aww Jenni gave me this -


And I give it to these fabulous blogs who manage to brighten my day.
Sene
Melissa
Erin
Christine
Susan
Jenni
Karin
and a few Digiscrappers
Buddhini
Michelle Coleman
I would add Gina Miller here but her blog is no more :( Bad guys got to her and she shut it down.

HomeOffice Makeover Photos

Before


After





I think I'm in love with the wallpaper. I love the look and putting it up wasn't too bad either. Current plan is to do it in Mehul's room, Dining room and possibly, Powder Room. It depends on finding the right paper. If nothing inspires me then we're going with paint.

TGIF

DH took me out to lunch today. That's the benefit of working within 10 minutes of each other. We went to Olive Garden. That's a bit of a drive, but it was a slow day at work. I must have gone there after about 2 years! I used to work in the complex where this restaurant is located and would go there often for lunch, but ever since leaving that company, I haven't been back for some reason. It was nice to go back.

Two of my friends came home in the evening and while we were chatting, DH made us some potato-tikki sandwiches. He rarely cooks so it really nice gesture on his part. The tikkis were pre-made frozen ones but still.
Tomorrow, I am going with them to Diwali Festival. Should be fun! I haven't been to one of those in years. I am looking forward to the chaat (snacks)! And the dresses too.

Why is this post all about food? Moving on to some other topic -
Mehul is doing well now. That cough was hard to hear! It sounded much worse than it actually felt (as it says online). He was back in daycare in time for the Halloween Parade at school. We went Trick-or-treating in the evening. Here he is in his Horse Rider dress (picture taken earlier last month). Those are my parents in the background. I promise to put some nice pictures of them up here.


That's all I got. I'll be back with Library makeover pictures. Wallpaper and paint are done, now we just need to hang the curtains and move the furniture back in.

Yes, it is Croup. The pediatrician said we were already doing what she was going to suggest - give him steam, keep the humidifier going to help with the symptoms. We gave a treatment or two of Xopenex via nebulizer to help open up his airways. It's mainly used for lungs but does help with the throat in a pinch. He had immediate relief from the treatment. Thankfully, we already had some Xopenex at home. She wrote another prescription as well. He is doing better today but I kept him home for another day.

Karwachowth yesterday was awesome (except the headache from dehydration and caffeine withdrawal LOL!) The three of us (neighbors) who are really close wore saris and did evening puja together. Then we hung around in Monika's place until moon-rise and meanwhile put our husbands and kids on Spot_The_Moon duty. Moonrise was at 8:55 PM yesterday but we didn't see it until 9:30. We cooked together and had tea (an exception I made due to the headache. I normally don't have anything until after moonrise). I spotted the moon from the Kitchen window through the blinds. We are supposed to see the moon for the first time through a sieve and it was funny how I spotted it through the blinds. After performing the rites, we all had dinner together and left around 10:30.

Few picture DH took at home. There are some in Ira's camera but I don't have them yet.

Croup? and KarwaChowth

Mehul had a low grade fever and trouble breathing last night. His voice became horse and his cough sounded very strange. My instant thought was croup. After some reading this morning, it's almost confirmed. We will take him to the doctor tomorrow as our pediatricians office is closed today. Sadly, there isn't much we can do about it other than try to fix the symptoms. We tried giving him steam but that didn't go very well. He is acting fine and eating well so it can wait till tomorrow.
I wasn't well yesterday either. The house is a mess. I don't need anymore illnesses around here, please!

Tomorrow is my day-long fast of KarwaChowth. I blogged about this last year. This time there are many Indian neighbors who will be keeping the fast as well, so this should be fun! Last year, when DH took me out looking for the moon, an oncoming car killed a Skunk right in front of us! Please, no smelly killings this time around!

Blog Musings

It's all her fault :) She asked me to look over her new blog before the debut. I had been contemplating a blog re-do for my best friend Sene but just didn't hadn't sat down to do it. Well, after looking over Erin's Awesome Blog, I started searching for a new template for Sene. Have you looked recently? OMG! There are so many cool new templates for Blogger available now that weren't when I last looked. I just finished Sene's blog update - take a look at the result if you would like. She asked for pink and she sure got it LOL! Hope you like it, Sene!

And I have also started a new Food blog - Ginger and Garlic Blog. Why Ginger and Garlic? Because I don't know how to cook without them LOL. It's going to be my daily kitchen diary. Hope I will be able to keep up with the 2 blogs. I like the simple template for that. The template is in Spanish (which I don't know at all). Regardless of the strangers sometimes trying to talk to *me* in Spanish. So I can't customize it much. The Search feature is really cool, though.

I want to thank my readers and those who comment. It brightens up my day to get a comment, and I don't say thanks always so I wanted to take a moment. Thank you and have a wonderful weekend.

Pictures!

Let's get right to it.

You've already seen my first scarf ever.

My second scarf. Look how messy my edges are. They are improving now :)

Pattern:
Knit 4 rows
K3 *(K2tog Yo K) repeat from * K3

Mom made this one. It's plain garter stitch.


Same pattern as the one above. Only wider.
The picture in the background is a Paint-by-Number done by my sister!


I like this one the most. This is in Mehul's school colors and my most recent finish. Love it. Excuse the pillow fibers please! They shed more than my hair. LOL!

Pattern:
K3 *(K2P1) repeat K3
Knit next row

The bootie! A bit tight for Mehul but I love it. I'll be making the other one soon. Ran out of the gray yarn.

Pattern : here (pdf). I didn't add the straps because I am having issues with doing them. Still need to make the other one.

Dishcloths. Both started by me and finished by Mom. LOL! I don't like the cotton yarn much.

Pattern: Feather and Fan.


Can't remember what this pattern is called.

I started the Black and White striped scarf today after much frustration yesterday with it. I got some wonderful advice on the Wagon. It's looking nice:)

Anyone need a scarf?

Parents are gone. We had a 4 day weekend (no holiday, just vacation time). I have been knitting. A lot. DH is very bored and missing *my* parents more than I am. Does anyone else think there is something wrong with that? Besides me.

So, in order to distract myself from the emptiness of the house after my parents left on Friday, I started a scarf for Mehul. And this morning, I put the last stitches (knits/purls?) into it. It's the best one yet. Wait till you see it :D Pictures coming soon. There might be a booty in there as well :D

I was watching a hindi movie (Kabhi Alwida Na Kehna) and started noticing the scarves the actors were wearing. Instantly, I opened photoshop and noted a lot of the ideas. And came up with a bunch of new ones. Now I'm definitely a knitter, right? Because I'm coming up with scarf ideas :) I have plans to make vertical striped scarf and a boxy scarf. And a black and white very stripy scarf. We'll see how far I get. I usually have grand ideas, not so grand execution.

What else is new? I got wallpaper for the Library. Yes, wallpaper! Sometime in near future, we'll be putting it up. Hubby refused to co-operate last night or we'd have a nicely done wall by now. The plan is to do only one wall first, see if we like it, then finish the remaining 2.5 walls. Wish us luck with this one! If this goes well, we plan on putting wallpaper in Mehul's room and possibly the dining room as well.

Nooo!!!!

Their flight is tomorrow and not Monday!! That's 3 days early than we were thinking. Their travel agent changed the dates and never informed them back! I know they were trying to change the dates BEFORE they ever came here but were told that it can't be done. Arghhh! We only came to know when DH called today to confirm and to set meal choices for them :(

Thanks for the wishes! The party went well. We had to move indoors as it was just too hot out. But other than that, everything went as planned. Everyone loved the food, the kids enjoyed a lot, the adults enjoyed too. Mehul's playroom was the main playground for the kids and by the evening it looked like a tornado had gone through! LOL In the evening as the guests started leaving, the neighbor's kids came right back outside and played on the bouncy. I was so happy to see it getting used as well.

I have so many pictures to post but no time this week. Mummy papa are leaving on Monday - 15th October. Yes, Already!! We are going to miss them but Mehul will miss them the most. It will be hard on him for a while. He looks for papa first thing in the morning. It doesn't help that he is supposed to be transitioned to the next class (Gard 3) starting tuesday. We're going to talk with the Director tomorrow when we go to drop him and try to delay the transitioning. Normally we wouldn't do that but seeing that he hasn't been regular in the daycare for almost 2 months and starting to be fussy when we do leave him there, it's necessary.

We have taken Friday and Monday off to do something fun with them. We might get to some of the touristy places still left to visit or might just stay and spend the last days with them at home. Sunday, we have a block party in the neighborhood - the first one in this new community so we have to be there as well. I think I signed up for salad and trash bags. Hopefully this will be our last busy weekend for a while. I miss my stitching and scrapping.

A Day Late

Happy Birthday to my Big Boy! He is 3 as of yesterday! And he got a big boy bicycle.

I have started layouts for his first year album. Here is what I have so far..


Credits: Papers from Michelle Coleman, Alpha from Gina Miller, Brushes & Stars from Michelle Coleman, Staple from Jenn Patrick

Credits: Papers, Elements from Michelle Coleman, Alpha and Swirl from Miki Ferkul

And a recent picture -


I know I've cheated and chosen the picture that had my first scarf finish hehe. I loved the colors in this yarn and Mehul named all the colors the first time he saw this. I actually liked another yarn with girlish colors that Jenni very wisely steered me away from LOL! Mehul loves his scarf. Speaking of her, she and I met today for lunch and she taught me baby booties! I can't wait to make a start on those. I am surrounded by pregnant women at the moment and would love to be able to make booties for them. Hopefully. We'll see.

I gotta run. I'm making the chutney for his birthday. Lots to do before the party..

Amazing how days are flying..

Another weekend gone! Now we just have Mummy papa for 2 more weekends here. This weekend was entirely too busy. Friday was dinner at a friend's place. Visited another friend on Saturday and brunch at yet another friend's on Sunday.

I finalized the details of the party this weekend. And gave a test run to a new Jeera Chicken recipe. It's easy, quick and yum (from those who ate it. I don't do chicken.) Somehow the discussion that started with "All food will be catered. Don't Make Anything." ended with "I'm making everything but one dish". LOL!! DH is not talking to me.

I finished the purple scarf. So now I have done 3 scarves and mom has done 2. That's too many scarves! I need to learn something else. Jenni and I are meeting for lunch so she can hopefully teach me something else. I'm useless without a teacher.

Planning a party

For the little one. He's turning 3 in less than 10 days! Actually, there will be a smaller party at the daycare on the day of, and a bigger party at home where close friends and neighbors are invited the following weekend.

I made the invitation card for the party last night. That's pretty much the progress as of now. Oh, and we got the bouncy for the kids from a friend. *Now* I'm getting excited about the party. So far, DH and I were planning on making this birthday a quiet one with just the daycare kids to celebrate at a location other than his daycare (something like Yucky Cheese), but then thought that since my parents are here we should do something. It won't be a big celebration like his first birthday (in India), but fun nonetheless. We don't even know that many people here LOL!


Now I need to come up with 2 sets of return gifts, order Cake for the party, cupcakes for the daycare, food and drinks for party at home, tables & chairs to put in the yard, and a million things I'm forgetting! Oh, and the dresses for M (and me)! I feel a panic attack is coming. Yeah, now it feels like a party.

Ah, the fun has ended

I was on vacation for the last week. Went to Niagara Falls and New York City with mummy papa. The whole trip was so much fun, but it was lightning fast, specially in NY City. We had a flat tire 30 minutes away from our hotel while arriving that threatened to spoil the vacation, but we hadn't planned on driving in the city anyway. We took the local train couple of blocks from the hotel while the car was at the dealership. All in all, it was a fun, memorable trip. (Luray pics are from August. I just hadn't posted them yet. I also have tons of DC pics to edit. Statue of Liberty island pics are missing from here too.)

Now back to reality tomorrow. A new set of enhancements begins tomorrow so I assume I'll be very busy for the next couple of weeks, but I enjoyed the break so can't complain.

I've added the pictures in my Flickr album. Click on the pictures to see the entire albums.


Niagara Falls Album

NY City Album

Luray Caverns Album

In other news, I picked up my Angel of Love today! Last time I made any significant progress was in May. I have no idea what I did the entire summer!!

My favorite photo

Recently, I've taken loads of photos but this one is by far my favorite. This will (hopefully) go as a 20x16 poster in M's room! This was taken at the beach last weekend. I just LOVE the sand on his nose.

Mr. M

Sorry I'm not finding too much time for blogging. Work is busy as usual, and we're out/doing something almost daily at home. This weekend we're going to hit some museums in DC - Natural History, Air & Space, and probably the National Art Museum. Hopefully, we'll go to the National Zoo as well. Mehul wants to ride on a bus so we'll be taking the Fairfax Connector to the Metro and go by Metro. As far as I can remember, he has never been on a bus!! Except the shuttle at the airport which goes from terminal to terminal. We always drive to the Metro station, or we drive straight into DC. And ofcourse, this will give my parents a chance to see the buses here. This should be fun :)

Enjoy the 3-day weekend!

Busy Busy

Since mummy papa have arrived here, we've been very busy. I don't get as much putter-time as before. We went to the beach on friday and returned yesterday. Visited the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum today. And we've been to Luray Caverns. It has only been 8 days LOL! So much to see, so little time. I'll post some pics later.

Excited

Mummy papa land here in 40 minutes! We're off to the airport as soon as everyone is cleaned up and ready to go! There was some snafu with their seats and I'm hoping they got somewhat decent ones assigned at the airport. They're not carrying a cell phone so we couldn't ask.

I have been cleaning the house pretty much since morning. The last weekend was spent for work so the house wasn't nearly as clean as I'd like.

I'm ready to talk about last week now. I got a lot of appreciation for the work last week. And an out of turn bonus!! I wasn't expecting anything beyond making my co-working whom I substituted for (T), happy. T is extremely thankful as he was able to take his first vacation of the year, and is taking me out to lunch once he gets back from vacation. He said he wouldn't check his email on his vacation, but he did, just to know what happened last week! The work I did was originally assigned to him. He couldn't finish in time because of some scheduling error on someone else's part. I stepped up and took over his entire work (much of which was new to me, which explains 88 hours in my timesheet for the week). What can I say, I like challenges (LOL!) It turned out to be a bigger challenge when the machine he had configured was discovered to be throwing erros on something that was important for the work. It wasn't a matter of mere backup/recovery. That stuff hadn't worked in forever! We (I had help!) configured a brand new machine, got everything configured all over again, and finished in time for the customer demo. Everyone was pleased as demo went very well.

Best of all, I got to learn a bunch of new things, I got a compensatory off whenever I wanted (TODAY). Plus, a nice bonus just for this :) Sweet! On top of this, my coworker thinks the world of me if his email is any indication :) I'm such a people pleaser LOL!

I'm off to get M out of the bath and do something with my hair. 30 minutes to go!

I'm alive

Just have had the week from hell. Everything's fine but I'm just tired and cranky. Not sure I want to bore everyone with details but it is work related again.

Few LOs of the Toronto pics I had done earlier..

Top of the World

Credits:
Papers from Meredith Fenwick
Various Elements from Michelle Coleman, Lori Wile, Lie Fhung, Lori Barnhurst

Rainforest Cafe

Everything from Lie Fhung

Soar

Evening at Niagara

Everything from Lie Fhung

July? Gone?

When did that happen? Slow down, summer!

So I finished the scarf I was knitting. I had to make a restart when I made a mistake and couldn't fix. I mulled over it for *2 entire days*. Could have finished it 2 days sooner. It was so quick. I initially started it at the stitching GTG last Saturday. I was happy with the restart because in the beginning my tension wasn't even, so the scarf had taken a weird shape. I restarted it with the new Bamboo needles I got from AC Moore. So much lighter than the long steel needles I was using! I'll have a picture up here soon. Mehul loves the new scarf and can name all the colors in it :) Now I need to get new yarn for another scarf. This one might be for me or my younger sister.

In other news, my parents are (finally) coming to visit! They are arriving in 12 days from today. I'm so excited. This will be their first visit to the US. I have planned all these trips for the 2 months they'll be spending with us here. I asked Papa if there was any place in particular they wanted to visit while they were here, ofcourse I have planned stuff but if there was something in particular? He said he wanted to visit *us* :) Isn't he sweet!

Work is still busy. I did get a lot of recognition for the work I did over the weekend, specially because of the short notice of the deadline. The customer was happy, and all was well in the end. It still could have been managed a lot better but that's not my call to make. The good news is that this isn't going to be my regular project, the bad news is that I'll be standing by for emergencies, and that this is bound to repeat. Sigh.

Among some happy news, one of my lunch-buddies told us this week that she's pregnant. I told her I had known for 2 whole months LOL! Initially I just had a hunch..she had asked me one day if I was wearing a new shirt (I was), and said that the shirt smells like it's new. Come on, people. Only pregnant ladies can tell a shirt is new by *smelling* from *far away* LOL! And a little while after this she started cutting us off at lunch time, saying she had too much work. And she was munching a little bit *all the time*. The hunch was confirmed when she asked me for a GYN recommendation near work that was a group practice. Doesn't get much clearer than this. I didn't ask her because I knew she'd tell when she wanted. She isn't even showing yet. The look on her face was very amusing upon hearing that I knew. LOL!

Have a happy friday and a great weekend. We don't have any specific plans. DH will be picking up the new tags for my car. His birthday is on Sunday so we might do something.

Pink explosion :)

Since I was home on a working day i.e. sans_DH_And_DS, I had to keep myself busy. So I managed to do 2 loads of laundry, fold 2 (older) loads, clean the master bath, load dishwasher, and attempted to straighten up playroom. I did take a nap as well. Did 2 layouts and went for a walk in the evening.

I wanted the blog to appear clean and fresh after the dark theme I had going since March. I believe this is the longest I've gone without making changes. I do like the pink (though I already think there is too much of it). It is reminding me of Umbridge LOL. As long as there's no lace, we're good!

Weekend ups and downs

Stitching GTG at Debby's was good. I learned knitting. I liked it. Until I screwed up. Now I'm unable to fix it. I'm pretty sure it's fixable, but I just don't know how :(

Boating on Sunday was great. Our community has a nice sized lake where we can do boating. Only available to members, so it was pretty much like this. "Hey, the weather's nice." while passing the lake "Let's go boating." "Ok. Let's go." Lunch after boating was good too (Love Baja Fresh).

Upon reaching home around 4, friends called and said they're dropping by. Sure, I'll just check my work email meanwhile. Hadn't heard anything about how testing was going. They were supposed to start this morning. I had finished all my work on friday and was only supposed to support the testing effort, and stand by to fix issues. Well, that's where the trouble started. After placing a few calls, I made them start testing (not part of my job but we *all* would be in trouble if something isn't working). This issue has been escalated *already* to the highest level in both my company and the client. They're expecting everything to work on Monday. Don't you think it should be tested? Turns out that out of the two *very time consuming* tasks I had done friday evening, one file has gone corrupt. No recovery from that. It's an xml that is generated by the software and it can't be hand-fixed. The other developer had to delete a whole bunch of data (and took hours to do that) and I had to redo part of my work after that. Fun. I finally finished at 2 AM. I do have to say that DH stayed up with me until 1 AM and made me a mug of Tim Horton's before going to bed. He's a sweetie pie :)

The upside is that everything is working now, and that I took the day off. They better compensate this. Grrrr.

So I'm grumpy today. I don't like taking naps but today is a day for it.

Shoot me!

There is a lot of work drama happening that started with my asking a very valid question. Sigh. I did the right thing, but many others are under fire. I might even have to work on Sunday because of all this (their) mess.

I refused to work on Saturday because I have to go to the DC Area Stitching GTG that I've tried to attend before (3 years ago!) and couldn't. Mehul had decided to make his appearance that weekend :) Work isn't going to stop me this time around. Now I just have to find the time between now and Saturday to do grocery shopping and make the dish I want to take.

The friend I had mentioned here before, the one who was pregnant and separated from her husband, she had her baby girl yesterday. They are both doing well. I hope to get away on Sunday for a little while to see them. The idiot husband has not returned her message about the baby and not visited yet. He's pretty much out of the picture now. Grrrr.

I have this LO uploaded that hasn't been posted yet. The picture is of a lamp on my nightstand.

The journaling is about taking pictures and my Rebel. I'll have to increase the font before printing!
Credits: Shadows are by me following Misty Cato's Realistic Shadow Tutorial
Rest of the credits will be updated later.

Finished! (no spoilers)

The series has ended. I finished reading yesterday afternoon. Didn't want to rush this one so I kept the book down several times. Not through the last couple of chapters, though. Lots happening! I am going to start rereading today. I always find things I'd initially missed.

I can hardly stand it!

Harry Potter comes out in less than 14 hours. I wasn't thinking of going to get in line at midnight but I just might. I don't think I can wait until the morning. It's getting hard to concentrate at work! I can't wait for the evening to arrive. I have to read the last few chapters of the book 6 tonight too. So excited..

So there might not be any blogging until I'm done with the book 7 :)

Take Two meme

Stolen from Erin. Feel free to snag.

Two names you go by:
1. Shalini
2. Mama

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Black top
2. Khaki Pants

Two things you want (or have) in a relationship:
1. Fun
2. Understanding

Two of your favorite things to do (at the moment they are):
1. Digital Scrapbooking
2. Reading

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. Vacation so I can finish Harry Potter Book 6
2. Harry Potter Book 7

Two people who will fill this out:
1. No idea!
2. Really no idea!

Two things you did last night:
1. Read Book 6
2. Scrapped our 'Rainforest Cafe' photos

Two things you ate today:
1. Rye Bread
2. Funyums Onion Rings

Two people you last talked to:
1. Mehul ("Bye Mehul! I'll see you in the evening.")
2. DH ("Bye!")

Things you're doing this week/weekend:
1. Reading HP7.
2. Scrapping when my eyes get tired but my brain doesn't want to switch off!

Two longest car rides:
1. Northern VA to Toronto (9.5 hours).
2. and back. (LOL!)

Two favorite holidays:
1. Diwali!
2. Christmas (since last year when we got our own tree and ornies)!

Busy weekend

I took 'Work from Home' day today. There are about 6 loads of laundry to be folded. I didn't get time to do it last weekend. I also need to get to the library at some point today as 2 books are overdue. The weekend activities include - house warming party at a neighbor's, a birthday party at ChuckeCheese for one of Mehul's classmates, and Car puja (rites) for the new car. Busy busy. Work is thankfully very light at the moment so I don't feel guilty about staying home..

This morning, I put Mehul in the new 'Cars' underwear. So far we've been in Training pants and now we're trying the next step! So the conversation went something like this -

Me: Mehul, you've got Lightning McQueen on your underwear!
Mehul: Lightning McQueen! Kaa-Chow!!

LOL! He's so cute. We've been doing ok on Potty Training. He's had one accident at the daycare so far and a few at home. Daycare is much better about regular potty breaks. Whenever he has an accident, DH starts talking about putting him back in diapers. Ugh. He IS ready. We have to be ready too. I haven't pushed Mehul in potty training *at all*. Whenever he started resisting sitting on potty, I eased back. But I'm not about to let go of all the progress just because it is easier. Ok. Now I'm ranting.

I got new shoes! At a bargain to boot (no pun intended). This is the first time I've had blue shoes. Or polka dots.



A few LOs I'd done before leaving for vacation.


My beautiful kitty. I miss him still!
Credits:
Lisa Whitney's Little Dudette kit at ScrapArtist.


Credits:
Miki Ferkul's Paraiso at Scrapbook Elements


Credits:
Diamante Designs by Lori Wiley at Scrapbook Bytes (and very soon her own store at loriwileydesigns.com)


Credits:
Ribbons, background from Michelle Coleman. Various kits.
Bronze button from Lori Wiley
Swirl from Lori Wiley - Swish
Clock, string knot over button from Ztampf
Staples from Jenn Patrick at The Digi Shoppe

Off to fold the laundry! Have a great weekend.

Part 2 (contd..)

Sunday July 1st, 2007 - Canada Day

We slept in this morning as we were still tired from the previous day. Had a late brunch and decided to go to Niagara Falls to watch the fireworks at night. We wanted to go to the CN tower as well so thought we'd do that first and then go to Niagara at night. Plan sounded good at that time not realizing that EVERYONE will be going to see fireworks at Niagara that night. It was Canada Day, afterall. Gawd, the traffic! A 1.5 hour drive took 3 hours. Anyhow, the CN tower looked good :) Visibility was excellent that day.


Taken by Sony DSC P73


Taken by Canon Rebel XT


Taken by Canon Rebel XT

I found it very disheartening that there was a Starbucks but not a Tim Horton's at the CN Tower. That just isn't right ;) Anyhow, we had tea and snacks there and hung around for more time than we should have. We had used our 'Express passes' to get past the crowd downstairs, and were confident we'd be using those. Not so! The passes are only for the first floor. Here, we had to stand in the queue for 1 hour. Crap. Anyhow, more pictures -





We went down to the Glass Floor while Arjun was holding our place in the queue. I JUMPED on the GLASS FLOOR at the height of 1,122 ft. Eeeekkk! Girish didn't even walk on it. Just put his foot there to take a picture. Mehul and I were all over it. LOL!


Technically, that isn't my foot but that's a better picture with someone else's foot. The floor is made of 2.5 inch thick glass. No way it would break :0

Anyhow, more pictures were taken from the Sky Pod, which is at the height of 1,465 ft. I'm sure they're mixed up with the photos above. By the time we came downstairs and met Uncle and Massi, it was 6:30.

Karan had gone to work in the morning and was back home by this time. He had called and upon learning we were still in Toronto, he wanted to go along with us to Niagara as well. We went back home to pick him up and Mehul stayed home with Uncle and Massi. No way it was appropriate to take him with us now, since it was so late. So we went and sat in traffic for hours. Watched the fireworks from the car. I think we finally reached around 11PM. Had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe at Niagara. We have been to the one in a mall at Boston but Karan and Arjun were there for the first time. They LOVED it. Wish Mehul was there with us. We have one in Tyson's mall here in VA that we'll be taking him to very soon. Girish's birthday is coming :)

I hadn't charged my camera battery the previous night. Crap. I was not letting anyone review the images on the viewfinder. We got out of the restaurant at 12 and checked out the area around. We FINALLY went to see the Falls at 2 AM. The lights were OFF. Damn. I didn't take a single picture of the falls that night. Too depressing LOL! Surely we'll be coming back next day in daylight and staying till night.

We went to the Casino after leaving Arjun at the Arcade. He's underage to go to the Casino. I lost money at the slot machines. Girish and Karan made double at some table. It was a lot of fun. When we went back to the arcade, Arjun had won so many tickets. I think he had something like 1,200 tickets collected. He got some cars for Mehul from the loot.
We reached home at 4:30 AM. Mehul was sleeping in Massi's bedroom with them. He'd pushed uncle to the side of the bed. LOL!

Monday July 2nd

Woke up late as usual. Mehul was already up and playing with Uncle. He slept well the previous night and asked for me one time only after he woke up. That makes me feel good. Both that he asked for me and that he was distracted soon after. Hehe After shower we (Karan, Arjun and me) dressed him as a punk. Complete with the gel in his hair. Alas, the hair was too wet for it to hold up. Look for yourself -


The clothes are 3T hence they're oversized and long. Adds to the punk look we were going for. The waist was altered to fit him.

Ok. The first picture I have of the Falls was taken at 6:30PM. I have no idea we were that late.

American Falls view from Canada

Canadian Falls (also known as Horseshoe Falls)

I love this closeup of Horseshoe Falls

.

Girish and Mehul

And finally, one more time because it's so cool.

Falls at night

I love this picture. I took it by setting the camera on a surface. Hand holding the camera was making the night pictures blurry. I took a ton of bad shots before I realized exactly what was going on. And I realized the same thing had happened in the Aquarium at Zoo. I love that there isn't any noise in this photo. That can happen in long exposure situation.

Tuesday we just took it easy and didn't do anything. Just rested, roamed around the local area and had chinese food for dinner. Back home on Wednesday.