Book of the month : January

Knowing that this is not going to be very easy, I picked up something that I know I would surely enjoy - Asimov's short stories. The book was thoroughly enjoyable, for someone who enjoys Asimov's writing. I must thank one of my friend's - Murr for introducing me to Asimov's wonderful world. What started as an obsession with the Foundation series, slowly increased to the Robot series, Clarke's Space Odyssey, Clarke's Rama series, Frank Herbert's Dune series and a bunch of other books (including Ender's Game which I really liked). The best thing about Asimov's short stories is that they are fast paced and never have a dull moment. If you are like me, it will leave you with a smile on your face - the same feeling you get when you read Jeffrey Archer's short stories, or a PG Wodehouse story or a brilliant Sherlock Holmes' story (written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). There are few writers who seem to take a lot of pleasure in writing, and I would place Asimov right there at the top. The energy seems to transfer through the power of their words and it transfers right to the readers. Lately, the Harry Potter books did the same to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the narration and savored each book, hoping that they would never end.

One month down and I am already liking this resolution.

Day 1 of our Dec 2009 Vacation

Woke up at 9 a.m. at home, had dosas for breakfast, while I unplugged several chargers and packed them. I counted 9 batteries that we charged before leaving. I dumped some movies on my laptop for good measure. We contemplated having breakfast at ihop but ended up eating dosas and coconut chutney at home. Turned out to be a fantastic decision. Within the extra 30 mins that we stayed, the USPS delivery person showed up with my Canon 18-55 mm lens that I had ordered a while ago!! I had really given up hopes on getting this lens in time for my trip. That would have meant that I would not have any wide angle lens for the trip. I swear that just picked up my mood!!

We made a quick stop at walmart, picked up some essentials and went to the airport. We bumped in to someone from Columbus, that we knew (Joseph and Sangati) who happened to be flying with us for the first leg of the flight. We had a nice talk with them, till we had to part ways. Southwest airlines has a weird seating policy where you get to pick any seat of your choice based on the order in which you checked your luggage in. Since we checked-in only 2 hours earlier to the departure, we were pretty low on the boarding order. Consequently, our seats were not together. Oh well, just a 1 hour journey to Chicago. The next flight was better, we sat together but we slept most of that leg anyway! The air hostess was very nice to us. She offered us a drink after we woke up, since she missed us while we were sleeping. Next stop, Orlando!

Orlando was nice and warm when we arrived. It took us a good 45 mins to get out of the airport in our rental car. We went to our hotel, dropped of our luggage and drove to TGIF one of the few restaurants, that was open on Christmas eve, at 10 pm in the night. The waitress was once again nice to us, pointed out veggie dishes and made suggestions. Turned out to be a great dinner, even though I was not hungry :) That was way too much work for the first day of our vacation. Hoping for better days to follow.

Keeping up with the resolutions

Firstly, I am sorry for conjuring up images of a dysfunctional family that has now began to claw its way into main stream television by dating NBA and NFL stars. Secondly, I am kicked at being able to keep up with my resolutions so far. I know its a tall ask, but hey, I will take any credit I can give myself.

So, here's my entry about the "Dish a month (new)" or as my wife would exclaim each time she encouters this - "Damn!"

This month, I attempted a Vegetarian Quiche. I found its recipe on the web, while looking for dishes that can be made with feta cheese. Ironically, I ended up not using much feta cheese. I give myself a 6 on 10 for effort and taste, on this dish. It is one of the easiest things I have made in a while. Given that I have not cooked in a while, I would actually give myself a pat on the back for not screwing this up royally. I made this as a potato crust based quiche, with vegetable and cheese filling. It sounds rather yummy and would probably have been a lot better too. My first reaction was that it was too salty, but I realized later that the salt had not mixed well. My second reaction was that the potato had not baked uniformly, especially under the pie. So while, I had an overall good consistency, I would have liked it if the potato had solidified all around. The final thoughts I had were that this might have been a good dish but I had no reference to compare this to, and hence I declare this a success :)

An interesting thing happened when I popped the first piece into my mouth and realized it was a little salty. I turned to my wife who was also sampling her first piece and said

"Ok, my resolution said I have to cook a new dish every month but no one said it had to taste good. So I guess this cuts the bill"

Once again, without wasting a second, my wife chimed in with

"Of course, honey. No one said it had to taste good. I agree with you."

Back to the dentist

About six months ago, I made a trip to the dentist and wrote about it here. I set up a recurring appointment then, as my company paid for preventive cleaning done every six months. I went back recently, and had a similar experience to my first visit.

Firstly, a note to self : Make sure you wear good shoes before going to the dentist.

When you are standing normally, your trousers cover a good portion of your shoes and even if they are not, its a long way down for someone to be looking, if they wanted to see your shoes. At the dentist's office, when you are lying down, your feet are raised to little below the dentist's eye level. And if you are like me, wearing company shoes, that are rarely polished, then you know what I am talking about.

Anyway, back to my dentist experience - how do you differentiate between a yes and a no, when your mouth is wide open and you are trying to decide what to do your tongue so that it is not in the way of the dentist ? While I am trying my best, to keep up with this uncomfortable position, the dentist is whistling to himself happily and pops a question.

"So Phani, did you make any new resolutions this year ?"

"Uh..huh.."

"Oh yeah ? I will have to ask you what those are."

"What the hell ? With all the construction crew you have in my mouth ??"

"Let me rinse your mouth first."

So he proceeds to rinse my mouth and I tell him about my resolutions. All this while, he is holding some more equipment, looking rather impatient as if he would rather just get along with his work. After I finish, he thrusts more tools into my mouth (oops I just made an inappropriate joke, didn't I ?). As I lie down, he asks almost immediately

"So what book are you reading now ?"

"Err...??"

"Yes, I know. Let me wait till I rinse you again"

This went on a couple of more times. Lesson learnt. Next time the dentist asks me questions, I will answer in a way, that leaves no room for follow-up questions.

"Did you make any new year resolutions ?"

"No"

"No ? Why not ?"

(shrugs shoulders) "uhh.."

A trip full of firsts

Uma and I just returned from our vacation. We went to Florida and the Bahamas, it was the most exotic vacation we have had so far. I have typically not enjoyed two popular activities - swimming or anything to do with water, and dancing. On this vacation I did both of these, and enjoyed the water activities.

The vacation had a lot of firsts for me. These are the ones that I can share with family audiences :)

1. The first time I opened my eyes under water. This happened at the coast of Bahamas. Clear waters, also saw some fish. The salt water does sting a bit, and it was far too blurry for me, but it was a lot of fun!

2. Floated on water! This is a big achievement for me. I have tried this a couple of times and failed miserably. This time I got some tips from Uma and was able to successfully float on my back. I got greedy and attempted the backstroke, but failed :)

3. 30 minutes under water with an oxygen tank. The underwater sub adventure gave me a chance to do this. I hope to post a video of this soon and boast about it for a long time.

4. Parasailing: Frankly, it was a little too hyped for me. However, I can see why this is popular and enjoyed it a bit. The views are spectacular and it makes for some great pictures. I regret not having taken a camera with me when I was doing this. I strongly recommend that you take a handheld camera with you, if you do this.

5. Going on a cruise: It was just a 2 day cruise to Bahamas and back. I loved every minute of it. I was a little bit skeptical of how much I would be able to enjoy myself, and if the activities would be in sync with my energy levels. However, there is a little bit for people of all energy levels on this cruise. I had a whole bunch of firsts on this cruise, sadly not all of which can be mentioned on this blog!

6. Eat 4 dinners in a single evening: Yes, crazy as it sounds, I did it. There's an unlimited buffet on the cruise. The unlimited means that you can leave and come back as many times as you want. There was food in some form or the other till 1130 in the night. And no, I did not just have dessert in one of these 4 dinners. Starting at 6:30 pm, I came back 3 other times and had something or the other from the main course!

New Year's resolutions

I always try to make resolutions for the New Year. I like the idea of bringing some changes to my lifestyle and I think the resolutions are a good way of enforcing that. This year I wanted to make 3 resolutions which are not related to each other. I have so far come up with two.

1. Read at least one new book a month.

2. Cook at least one new dish a month.

I will try and post about what I cooked, or what I read each month. That way I can try and keep track of my resolutions. And speaking of resolutions, this is what I had resolved to do in the past years

1. 2006 - My resolution was to finish everything I ordered to eat, at a restaurant. Of course, buffets were exempt from this. Getting left-overs was not an option. This turned out to be a fun resolution. For the first half of the month, I ended up stuffing myself so badly. There was one particular trying moment at a Chinese restaurant which was close to Grand Junction, Colorado. This was on my trip from Denver to Salt Lake City, Utah with a couple of my office colleagues. We stopped by for dinner and I ordered Moo-Shu vegetables. Given the price, I expected something small. I was not prepared for the one entree serves three kind of dish! I immediately realized what I had to do. I had to eat before my body sent out feedback saying I was full. I am glad to report I kept my resolution that year!

2. 2007 - Do not eat chocolates unless someone offers them to you. I kept up with this for a good amount of time. I initially thought I will plainly stop eating chocolates or candy of any form. Then I realized there are quite a few occasions when people would offer my candy, and I did not want to draw unnecessary attention. The funny thing about chocolates is that I love them. However, three months in to this resolution, I had no craving for candy. Ofcourse, I am back to devouring chocolates now. Esp, white chocolates!

3. 2008 - Run a mile a day. I like to keep up with my running habits. I started running in Colorado in 2004. After slowly having picked up some stamina, I lost it completely in 2007. I came up with this resolution to get back to enjoying running. I maintained a blog of my running thoughts. I used to run at least twice a week and I ran at least 3.5 miles each time. Towards the third quarter of that year, I started developing cramps in my leg and could not continue this. I thought that doing the elliptical was a good alternative. I matched the number of calories, and the intensity of the workout on the elliptical for a while. I think I accumulated around 310 miles that year. We were building a house in the later half of the year, and I had to compromise with all the work that was going on for that.

4. 2009 - Try at least one new, exotic restaurant a month. I think this was my weakest year in terms of resolutions. I did a poor job of keeping up with this one. Sadly, this was one resolution that my wife was looking forward to. I hope to make it up this year, with my resolution to cook at least one new dish a month. We did try a few exotic restaurants throughout this year, just did not keep track of doing one a month. I think our favorite new restaurant this year was Stir Crazy - a Chinese/Mongolian place where you can pick your veggies and sauces and the cook stir fries them for you.

How the Earth was made

I volunteer for a program called Book Buddies. Every week, I spend an hour with two kids helping them to read books. This includes helping them with pronunciation and comprehension. Since these are kids from the second grade, it is really a fun thing to do and the hour usually flies by very quickly. Today was a special day, since it was our last meeting for this year. The co-ordinators for the program gave the volunteers some gifts (a card, a picture of the two kids, a pencil, candy and a calendar). What's better, they had the kids hand out the gifts to the volunteers.

Typically every week, I help the kids read two books, learn some new words and play a word-game in 30 minutes. Today, one of the kids got to read a book in which a baby bear asks its mother for a bed time story. After we were done reading the book, I got talking with the kid about the story. Here's what happened.

"So, do you like to listen to a story when you go to sleep ?"

"Yes"

"Who reads to you at night ?"

"My Dad"

"Oh really ? Thats nice. What does he read to you ?"

"I forgot its name, but he read to me about how the Earth was made."

"Oh wow! So tell me, how was the Earth made ?"

"Well, there were these boy and girl called Adam and Eve. There was a poisonous snake. They had two kids and the two kids died..."

"..."

Trip to India

I had an amazing trip to India. I visited a total of 6 different cities during my 2 week stay. Let's see now - I was in
1. Hyderabad from Aug 7th to Aug 10th, 13th to 15th and 17th to 18th
2. Tirupati from Aug 11th to Aug 12th
3. Karimnagar on Aug 12th
4. Chennai from 15th to 16th
5. Delhi from 18th to 19th
6. Agra from 19th to 20th

The trip was so great that I keep telling everyone I enjoyed every moment of the trip including the time I was sick! My only regret is that I could not get as much of Indian food as I would have liked - esp Chaat! :( The highlights of the trip are my brother's wedding, meeting almost all of my cousins (Phani, Vamsi, Siri, Pratyu, Srikanth and Rohit on my Mom's side; Balu Annayya, Nani Bava and Bunny Vadina on my father's side) at the wedding and spending quality time with all of them, meeting my cousin's kids - Atul and Aparanji, the dinner at my brother's wedding, eating Tawa sweet for the first time (and understanding what is meant by experiencing a piece of heaven!), shopping with my wife at the new malls in Hyd, celebrating my Dad's 60th birthday, tasting my Mom's cooking, our train travel to Tirupati, eating junk food in the train, shopping at the street-side vendors in Tirupati, buying comics and magazines at the railway station, our fabulous trip to Karimnagar and my sister-in-law's village, watching a telugu movie (Magadheera) at Radhika theatre, buying black tickets for that movie, eating at Ohris, drive on Tank Bund, eating American Chopsuey at Chutney's, beating my Dad to paying the bill at the restaurants, our trip to Chennai, eating Kaima Idly and Mixed Veg Parota at Saravana bhavan, ordering food for my Mom at the restaurant, eating Sundal at T Nagar, seeing the mad rush for Gold at GRT, dealing with a Govt official for a birth certificate at the Muncipal office, shopping for movie CDs at Sangeet Sagar, drinking entire cartons of Real Juice (Guava, Tomato and Mixed Fruit flavors), our stay at the Delhi guest house, visit to Lotus Temple, our unforgettable trip to Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, the guide (Ashok) who ripped us off at Agra, the unbelievably good handicrafts we saw at Agra, bargaining with the shop vendors at Agra, chiding the shop keepers about their excessive use of English, the enjoyable stay at Imperial Palace in Agra, the amazingly good dinner that we had there, the awesome omlettes that Hari made at the Delhi guest house, and lastly the two samosas I had at the Delhi airport before flying back.

In short, I enjoyed EVERY moment. As you can see, I am a sucker for everything Indian. Maybe, its due to the fact that I was there for a short time, or maybe it is due to the fact that I hadn't been there in a while, or maybe its because I really like being in India.

Stages of music appreciation

Stages that I go through when I like a new song

1. Instant appreciation.

2. Listen repeatedly till I scare myself into hating the song.

3. Stop listening to the song and desparately try to get hooked to something else.

4. Forget what the song's tune was and recreate the wrong tune in my mind.

5. Give in to the song and listen to it again.

6. Get blown away a second time and realize that I did not observe the nuances during my first hearing.

7. Try to sing the song whenever/wherever and do a horrible job.

8. Hate the song because it is not easy to sing.

9. Praise all artists involved in the song and accept that singing is not for everyone.

A week of firsts and something to think about...

It has been a week of firsts of all sorts. I had beetroot sambar for the first time in my life. Its amazing how I have had beetroot and sambar independently but this is the first time I had it together. You have to get past the different color but then it is a good taste.

Other than that I have had my first good dental experience. I have had a cavity bothering me for a little while now and with lot of hesitation, I took an appointment with this dentist that Uma had seen earlier. The doctor was very friendly and made me feel very comfortable. However, I cannot get past the idea of a dentist talking to me while I have a plumber's kit in my mouth. You see, the dentist was filling my cavity, so he stuck a device under my lips to keep my mouth pried open. Seeing that, this was not enough he wedged a bean shaped thing at my molars so that I could not bite down any more. Leaving me in this awkware position, he reclined my chair a little further than 180 degrees so that I felt a little bit upside down. He and the nurse then stare down my mouth while I try hard not to fog up his tiny mirror that he is using to see the underside of my tooth! While doing this, he told me some stories about his daughter and explained what he was doing with my teeth. I could not understand if he expected me to answer back or acknowledge that I heard him. At one point, he asked me if I was doing alright too!

At the end of the day as we were driving back after watching Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, I told U about my experience with the dentist. I told her that I found it awkward to listen to a one-sided conversation without being able to acknowledge it. Without missing a beat she remarked

"Vaadiki entha bore kodithe vachina prati addamaina vedhava tho vaadi inti sangatulu cheptaadu ??"

(Loosely translated: "How bored must this guy be to narrate his personal stories to every dumbass who visits him ?")

When the wife is right...

It seemed like a bad idea. It had taken us a lot of effort and quite a few months of labour to get our lawn in shape. The idea of ripping out a piece of it felt just wrong. U tried to explain to me that it wasn't that bad. You see, we did not have a clear path from our front door to our mail box. We usually walked on the lawn and I did not mind. I did not mind when the Pizza delivery guy walked on the lawn to get to our door either. So, I had my reservations against clearing out a part in front of our door to get the stepping stones. I resisted the idea because it involved more work, something that I have gotten used to not doing :) But you know how the wife is right on most things. Yes, it is true. For most part, she knows exactly what to do, where we should be investing, when we should be spending and when we should be saving. She convinced me that it was a good idea to invest in landscaping. It would look great and would increase our curb appeal (another word I hated due to HGTV). So anyway, the wife is right on most accounts and I know it. I look for stupid things like maths, science fiction and "art" movies to convince myself that I can appreciate certain things better than her. But in things that *actually* matter, I had to hand it to her.

We drove to this nursery that she found about and walked around the shrubs and trees they had there. She suggested that we plant a tree in our lawn as we could enjoy the shade later. I shot it down (another thing that I would probably regret in years to come). When we came to the stepping stones, I actually liked them. They were shaped like rounds of a pine tree and were named "Pine round stepping stones". They were also painted to look like they were actually cut from a pine tree. I was sold on the idea but they cost around 7.5$ a piece. A little on the higher end, I thought. They seemed to be about a feet or feet and a half in diameter. So I asked U, how many she thought we needed. I had already calculated in my head that we would not need more than five. She gave me the thinking sound "umm...." and said ten.

"What ?? Ten ?? I thing thats too many. Our lawn is not that long."

"Well, I think its about 20 feet, right ? So ten sounds about right"

I was about to argue back when she looked at a man who seemed to be working at the store and asked him

"We are trying to fill a 20 feet distance with these stones. We might want to place them about 6 inches away. How many stones do you think we would need ?"

The man asked questions to which she had already given him the answers

"What kind of stones do you want ? How far apart do you want to place them ? How much distance do you want to cover ?"

After checking that we were interested enough to survive his stupidity, he turned his back on us and pulled out his cell phone. He called up someone and repeated our question to him! The mathematical wizard that he called, told him that we would need ten or eleven stones. I wanted to tell my wife how this was too many and that we might not have a distance of 20 feet to cover, when she turned to me and said

"So shall we buy 10 then ? "
I had to agree. No point arguing in front of the shop owner. Later that eveni

ng, we got to work laying out the stones. The sun was shining brightly even thought it was past fi

ve. I was exhausted having spent some time on the treadmill. As I began digging, U walked

out with two glasses of lemonade with ice in them. It was perfect because I had to end up taking a break every 10 mins to sip the lemonade. By the time I was done with the lemonade, I looked back to see our stepping stones all laid out perfectly. All ten of them. I was dying to find out. So I swallowed my ego and asked

"How did you know ? How did you know we would need exactly ten ?"

I was hoping she would say she got lucky, or that she had manipulated the layout in to fitting exactly ten of them. She picked up the lemonade glasses and walked back in to the house. Not before saying

"Isn't it simple math ?"