Where have I been?

It has been more than a month since I blogged! How time flies!

So what happened in the past one month? So many things! The long awaited return to California, our wedding anniversary, vacation, Black Friday shopping... Phew!

V got a bicycle for me! We bought it at Walmart on Black Friday. The bicycle was the only thing we did not buy online during the Black Friday! It was a struggle to get the bicycle into our trunk. And finally when we reached home, I rode the cycle in our packing lot. It still had all the pricetags, user manual and all hanging from it. :)

The last time I rode a bicycle was when I was twelve. Long time! I wasn't very good at cycling. I surprised myself; realized I could balance myself well enough! I was super excited! :)

I took it out next day too. We still did not have a helmet; so I was driving in the parking lot only. V was showing me how to apply brakes and I mimicked him...

... and fell down. Oh my God! As V said: "She fell off the bike in slow motion." I do not know if it was slow motion or not, but I hurt myself. I bruised my knee! Every time I bend my knee, the skin stretches and it hurts! It is not that bad now. It's healing!

By the way, in India, the back wheel brake is on the left handle bar. It is the opposite in the US! Little things... But they may have a greater impact while riding!

Landing a Plane

At the Astronaut Hall Of Fame, I tried a hand at landing a plane. Well! Not a real one! It was just a video game ;-)

In the very first try, I landed the plane smoothly, with no crash, nothing!!!

I felt so excited as a kid! Couldn't help taking a photo of it... and now... I am bragging about it in my blog! :-)

Miss you!

Wish we could catch up one last time before you both left for India... 
Missed you both... Miss you even more now!


Needless to say, this post is dedicated to Kash and Sravani!

Indian flag?

This was one of the first pictures that we took during our visit to Miami. We were overjoyed to see an "Indian" flag.

Later on we found the same flag on top of the Miami City Hall. 

Upon closer investigation, we realized that the centre of the flag was entirely different. And of course! It was flag of City of Miami and not our Indian flag. But it was nice to see something that reminded us of home! :)

"Pounding Flowers"

This was the title of the book that we came across in the Hobbies section of our library. The only tool required for pursuing this hobby is: a hammer!!!

What is the hobby about? It is to place a flower on a card or fabric, cover it up with a tissue  and hit on it with a hammer. The flower gets crushed and the dye sticks onto the card/fabric, making designs on the card/fabric. How strange!

So, if I understood the book correctly, to get a bouquet onto a card, I need a bouquet of flowers to stamp on! That seems crazy!

Quote...

... from Sidney Sheldon's autobiography..


When your English has an accent, it means you know one more language!

Private Screening?

We did not even know where the cinema theatre was! With GPS for our guidance, we ended up at a AAA office. Google does not show it right! 

Then we decided to get back onto the main road and proceed further. It helped! There stood the theatre all alone with very few cars in the parking lot. We were half an hour early for our show. We wandered around the theatre for sometime... then we went in and spent some more time looking at the posters and chatting about this and that! The time seemed to stand still.. or was our watch not working?! We bought popcorn and waited right in front of the screen that read: "The Rise of The Planet of Apes"

I never wanted to watch the movie and Vikram wanted to watch it on a 3-D screen. That evening we were thinking of watching Smurfs on 3-D. However the shows for the day were over and our next choice was "The Rise of The Planet of Apes". Luckily for me, the show was not a 3-D one! I am scared of watching movie without animation on 3-D screen. They seem so real.. and so much more scary!

Well, now here we were inside the theatre, just two of us. A couple of minutes later, four more people joined. But none of them were in our row, not even in the row in front of us or behind us! 

And I was the only girl who watched that show at that theatre!!!

V and I felt that it was more like watching the movie at home. We could talk with each other (discuss the scene) while we watched and there was no chance of anyone getting disturbed!

We loved the movie! And that was not it.. We got a free refill of popcorn too! ;-)

I would love to watch more movies at this theatre! It makes me feel... I am the Queen of the world! :-)

Vinayaka Chaturthi

Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi! :)


For the festival, I decided to make a Patchwork of Lord Vinayaka. It is still not complete with it borders, yet we used it for our puja this morning.


May Lord Vinayaka bless us with peace and happiness!