Astrovelo

I didn’t really want to come back, but, here I am after a nice more than 2 week long vacation. I wanted to post some things during my vacation, but, didn’t find much time during continuous partying. ;)

Dec. 23rd, 2003: Ashwini’s first long road trip. 510 miles to Washington DC in 9 hours. She behaved extremely well through the journey. Slept 4 hours of the journey and played with V during the rest. We were ready to make an overnight stop on the way if she couldn’t sit through, but, she pleasantly surprised us.

Dec. 24th, 2003: Very enjoyable Christmas-eve party at V’s aunt and uncle’s place.

Dec. 25th, 2003: Santa was very good to Ashwini. She received a ton of presents. We were glad to have driven in that mini-van.

Dec. 26th, 2003: Left Ashwini with grandparents, and went out to watch Lord Of The Rings: part III. This was an excellent choice for our first movie in a theater after Ashwini’s birth. It was extremely good. Much better than part II. I felt it dragged a little. The third part is very well done just like the first one. Didn’t feel like we were sitting there for 3 hours.

Dec. 27th, 2003: Met with my dear school-friend from London and his family in Baltimore. Packed them up in our mini-van and started our journey back home. Both the kids behaved themselves through 9 hours of trip. It was such a nice experience, that we may plan another road trip soon.

Dec. 28th, 2003 - Jan. 2nd, 2004: Several days of partying. Chatting and catching up with old friend.

Jan. 2nd, 2004 - Jan. 4th, 2004: Getting ready to get back to work.

Update to my earlier post about putting your own picture on your office wall…

Finally one of us asked this intern nicely about photographs on her desk. Her reply: “Aren’t they nice? I look so good in them.”

What more can I say?

Donated blood this morning. Feeling my usual high: the false sense of achievement that one gets from donating blood. Feels good that I did something useful, maybe it will save someone’s life. But, without really doing anything other than lying down for 10 minutes, getting poked and thanked by nurses with a cup of apple juice and a cookie.

I am AB+. The universal recipient. How much more selfish can I be? Thankfully, there aren’t too many of us. Only 3% of the population is AB+.

Vision without a plan is hallucination.

Finally, I watched it last night. I decided to ignore minor things like: after ordering a double espresso at Starbucks, Naina walks out with a huge 20 oz cup. But, still a lot of things bothered me making this just another ordinary movie not meeting the hyped-up pre-release expectations.

• The whole Gia episode was completely unnecessary. Why do some characters in Hindi movies (Jaya Bachhan in this one) need to be better than God? Isn’t it sufficient for them to be just good or simply ‘not bad’?

• Aman seemed quite healthy for someone with a weak heart that needs a heart transplant. He was jumping around and dancing around, which was definitely not helping his heart condition. He probably would have had a better chance of getting that transplant in India. There is such a big line of patients needing a transplant and not enough donors in the US.

• Meeting between Naina and Dr. Priya at the shopping center was just a pathetic attempt to extend the movie for another 15-20 minutes. It didn’t add any complexity to the plot, just made it boring when I was expecting it to end. I would have liked to see Aman die while dancing at the wedding.

• In the end, what kind of life do Naina and Rohit expect to lead with the big cloud of Aman hanging over all the time. His love, his sacrifice, etc. It is a marriage perfectly ripe for divorce.

It was a nice long weekend. Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. It is so close to Diwali in spirit as well as in timing. This year, on our 6th occasion of hosting Thanksgiving, we had about 20 people from all over the place including Virginia and New Jersey. Interestingly, noone from work was there. Took Wednesday off to do most of the cooking. We figured it would be hard to do much on Thursday with Ashwini around. Here is the menu…

Appetizers:

• Brandied green apples with goat cheese
• Chex mix chivda
• Cheese and crackers

Entrees:

• Green bean casserole
• Mashed potatoes and vegan gravy
• Cranberry delight
• Lime Jello with Pomegranate
• Pasta salad
• Broccoli salad
• Acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, cranberries and hazelnuts

Desserts:

• Death by chocolate
• White chocolate and raspberry cheesecake
• Mango Pie

Beverages:

• Hot spiced apple cider (with optional brandy)
• Chilled sparkling apple cider
• A selection of Souvignon Blanc, Boujolais and Merlot wines
• Kahlua and Bailey’s Irish cream for coffee with desserts

The Broccoli salad was a new item this year and was a big hit. It had broccoli, colby and munster cheese, grapes, green onion with a dressing made of Mayonnaise and vinegar. All these disparate flavors come together so well, but, I wouldn’t have thought of mixing them before seeing the recipe. All in all, it was tiring, but, a very successful and enjoyable Thanksgiving with a bunch of family and friends. Hopefully, more people will join us next year.

I haven’t seen this movie yet. Was planning to, but, reading this review on Rediff was enough to change my mind. It is an interesting dissection of the movie by someone who lives in New York. Worth reading…

Watched a movie called ‘Green Card Fever’. It was well made. Lots of serious issues with the right amount of humor without going overboard with the sterotypical Indian guy jokes. It is a story of an Indian guy who is trying get a Green Card illegally and is cheated by lawyers. I knew about some software professionals working on gas stations, pumping gas after losing their computer jobs just to pay the bills and avoid going back to India. But, the people shown in this movie seemed to be without any qualification or job and were quite desperate to get that Green Card. Maybe, I always worked in the academic environment and didn’t bump into someone like this.

I liked one scene from the movie that captured the differences between the cultures so well. The hero and some friends are shown in a restaurant. One of them lets out a burp and an American lady sitting on the next table frowns at them. The very next moment, she picks up her napkin and blows her nose in it making a big noise. Now, it is these guys who frown at her behavious. It is so interesting to see that one kind of behaviour is quite acceptable in one culture but no to another while the reverse is true for an equally vile act.

I have just read and signed the online petition:

“Issuance of US Postal Service stamp on Diwali”

hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition service.

I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think many of you readers will, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider signing yourself.

It seemed like the sky was boiling….

On the way to work today, my car turned over 122,000 miles. Way to go! I hope to see 150,000 on this gal.

I scored 60.5.

 <a href="http://www.yetanotherdot.com/asp/80s.html"> <img src="https://parag.micro.blog/uploads/2023/454a1381b3.jpg" border="0"> </a> 

Thanks, Sampada.