Togetherness is so addictive that you feel the need of other person in every moment when you are not together...
I miss my husband.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Being Miser
I sometimes wonder why I am such a miser (Kanjus in Hindi). I can't spend money and I hate it, but still I can't spend it. It is not related to if I am earning or I am not earning. It is just my mindset. When it comes to giving gifts, I can buy $100 worth of jewellery for someone, but I have never bought anything worth even $50 for myself. I am not sure what is the reason, but it is just that I can't change it.
Again, I will blame it on my genes. :-) I want to change this attitude, not sure how. After buying something expensive I keep thinking, do I really need it, is it worth it, bla bla bla... God, help me!
Again, I will blame it on my genes. :-) I want to change this attitude, not sure how. After buying something expensive I keep thinking, do I really need it, is it worth it, bla bla bla... God, help me!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tears still roll down my eyes as I keep reading about the death of a great man Steve Jobs...
I was in denial mode till yesterday, woke up an hour early today without the alarm, and the mind just couldn't get over the thoughts of him. I didn't know him personally but I know what he meant to the technology industry and to the world. I am sad, very sad. I end up thinking how he must have felt as he got near to the moment, the thought of leaving behind your legacy and family at this young age. He was such a motivator, even 3 months back he gave a presentation to the Cupertino City Council about the new Apple Head Quarters. He wanted to do so much more...
:(
I was in denial mode till yesterday, woke up an hour early today without the alarm, and the mind just couldn't get over the thoughts of him. I didn't know him personally but I know what he meant to the technology industry and to the world. I am sad, very sad. I end up thinking how he must have felt as he got near to the moment, the thought of leaving behind your legacy and family at this young age. He was such a motivator, even 3 months back he gave a presentation to the Cupertino City Council about the new Apple Head Quarters. He wanted to do so much more...
:(
Saturday, October 1, 2011
A new hobby - Cooking!
Looking back 6 years, I hardly knew cooking... I still remember my first few days in US, I stayed with my room mates Dolly and Mansi. I was so new to cooking that I was trying to heat oil in a wet pan. aah... that oil splatter hurt. I learnt cooking from my room mates, trying to manage our every day meals. I liked good tasty food, but not so much that I would learn cooking for that. But slowly, I got some basics cleared, could manage making a "sabji" or "sag" and daal.
And then, when I started working and was not a student anymore, I cooked more often. Still basic food most of the time, and something special once in a blue moon. It all started with Indonesian Peanut Saute from Noodles and Company. They have the best Indonesian Peanut Saute. I got a recipe online and made the sauce which turned out really well. It was a motivation factor!
Then I got married to a guy who LOVES food. Well all men love food, so nothing special. :-). The fact that he likes cooking and trying out new recipes motivated me more. And the quest to try new recipes started. We have been trying to cook all the things that we like eating out like pizza, jalapeno pretzels, thai curry, chinese and of course Indian. It is so rewarding to eat the delicious food you cooked and learned one new thing in life... We have been trying to cook one new recipe every week, though it is as simple as making Daal Dhokli (a north indian dish), its new to me. It has been fun overall...
For this new hobby, I went to a Asian grocery store yesterday to get some rice paper for Spring rolls. This store was huge, with so many varieties! I went to buy one thing and instead got ten and it cost me $10. That store was cheap. Safeway or any American grocery store is way so expensive compared to that store. The only thing I didn't like was the store had a stinky meat smell all over. Another thing my five basic sense have learnt to ignore after coming to US.
So, today I am going to make spring rolls with peanut sauce. The same peanut sauce with which this new hobby started! And hence a blog post. :-)
Hope you have a great weekend!
-P
And then, when I started working and was not a student anymore, I cooked more often. Still basic food most of the time, and something special once in a blue moon. It all started with Indonesian Peanut Saute from Noodles and Company. They have the best Indonesian Peanut Saute. I got a recipe online and made the sauce which turned out really well. It was a motivation factor!
Then I got married to a guy who LOVES food. Well all men love food, so nothing special. :-). The fact that he likes cooking and trying out new recipes motivated me more. And the quest to try new recipes started. We have been trying to cook all the things that we like eating out like pizza, jalapeno pretzels, thai curry, chinese and of course Indian. It is so rewarding to eat the delicious food you cooked and learned one new thing in life... We have been trying to cook one new recipe every week, though it is as simple as making Daal Dhokli (a north indian dish), its new to me. It has been fun overall...
For this new hobby, I went to a Asian grocery store yesterday to get some rice paper for Spring rolls. This store was huge, with so many varieties! I went to buy one thing and instead got ten and it cost me $10. That store was cheap. Safeway or any American grocery store is way so expensive compared to that store. The only thing I didn't like was the store had a stinky meat smell all over. Another thing my five basic sense have learnt to ignore after coming to US.
So, today I am going to make spring rolls with peanut sauce. The same peanut sauce with which this new hobby started! And hence a blog post. :-)
Hope you have a great weekend!
-P
Friday, September 9, 2011
Columbia River Gorge
For the Labor Day long weekend we went to Columbia River Gorge... I initially thought of writing a travelogue because it was an awesome trip. But half way through it, I thought it was getting boring. So I scrapped it.
Columbia River Gorge is place for waterfall lovers... such beautiful waterfalls and so many of them! We just covered 4-5 waterfalls of the lot. Two of them were superb - Punch Bowl Falls and Oneonta Falls. The hike to Punch Bowl falls was very unique. It was an easy 2 mile hike but the trail path was on the edge of the cliff. We missed the fork that takes you down to the falls and reached overlooking point. A guy and a girl were preparing to dive into the falls! And three of their friends were watching from where we were. People are crazy! It was almost 150 feet drop from where those two crazy kids where standing. We were desperate to go down to the falls from where you get a better view and in that desperation we were taking a very risky path down. It was then when a couple warned us not to take that path down. I am a little superstitious when someone says a "No" to something I am doing. I have had not very good experiences in such cases. So we turned back hoping that there might be an actual path down to the falls. On our way back, we saw a fork which took us down to the falls. See, that's why I am superstitious. :). The view from that place was amazing. We went late in the day so not may people at the falls. In fact just two other. We had some good time taking pictures and looking around that place.
That evening we went to the only brewery in White Salmon. White Salmon is the city where we stayed. They were celebrating their three year anniversary. We had a good burrito and enjoyed the live band... Next day was Rafting day! I was a little scared since it had been 5 years since I went rafting. But once on the raft it was fun. I wish I had gone on the Houston falls, which was 15 feet fall. The raft guide brain washed us so much saying how risky it was... but looking at it afterwards and seeing other people do it, I was sad that I did not go. Next time, may be.
Sunday evening we wanted to do Oneonta Falls, but we ended up on a wrong trail! Went on a strenuous hike and ended up on a different falls. My knees started hurting... :(. We came back from the hike and went to see Crown Point, did some night photography trying to take pictures of stars. But the moon and continuous traffic did not help. :(
We went back to hotel and I did more research on the Oneonta Falls hike. There is no special trail for this falls. You have to scramble through big wooden logs and walk through the stream a website said. Next day morning we went back to the same place and this time we took the right trail. We walked through the stream and then made our way through the tree logs only to reach a 6 feet deep stream! We had our camera bag and tripod bag on top of it. Ashutosh, my husband, managed to carry the camera bag until he could touch his legs to the bottom of the stream. I swam across and then took the camera bag from him. While swimming my tripod fell from the bag into the stream. Super adventure! Ashutosh then had to do some under water diving to get the tripod. We successfully made it to the falls while keeping the camera dry. So much fun. We took some pictures, took bath in the waterfall and then got back to the car.
Oh I forgot to mention our trip to fruit farm... Apples, Green Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Strawberry so many of them. Again took pictures and ate some fruits. The only sad part about the trip was, there was a fire near Mount Hood. So we could not get good view of the mountain. There is something about these mountains in northwest, they stand alone and hence so clearly visible! Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Mount Helen, Mount Shuksan... I can already recognize these from the pictures.
Overall a super fun and adventurous trip. And if you have not heard Indian Ocean's Kandisa album, do check it out. It is so much fun singing the songs along. I wish they had more lyrics!
If you want to see some pictures they are here -
Punch Bowl Falls
Oneonta Falls
Columbia River Gorge is place for waterfall lovers... such beautiful waterfalls and so many of them! We just covered 4-5 waterfalls of the lot. Two of them were superb - Punch Bowl Falls and Oneonta Falls. The hike to Punch Bowl falls was very unique. It was an easy 2 mile hike but the trail path was on the edge of the cliff. We missed the fork that takes you down to the falls and reached overlooking point. A guy and a girl were preparing to dive into the falls! And three of their friends were watching from where we were. People are crazy! It was almost 150 feet drop from where those two crazy kids where standing. We were desperate to go down to the falls from where you get a better view and in that desperation we were taking a very risky path down. It was then when a couple warned us not to take that path down. I am a little superstitious when someone says a "No" to something I am doing. I have had not very good experiences in such cases. So we turned back hoping that there might be an actual path down to the falls. On our way back, we saw a fork which took us down to the falls. See, that's why I am superstitious. :). The view from that place was amazing. We went late in the day so not may people at the falls. In fact just two other. We had some good time taking pictures and looking around that place.
That evening we went to the only brewery in White Salmon. White Salmon is the city where we stayed. They were celebrating their three year anniversary. We had a good burrito and enjoyed the live band... Next day was Rafting day! I was a little scared since it had been 5 years since I went rafting. But once on the raft it was fun. I wish I had gone on the Houston falls, which was 15 feet fall. The raft guide brain washed us so much saying how risky it was... but looking at it afterwards and seeing other people do it, I was sad that I did not go. Next time, may be.
Sunday evening we wanted to do Oneonta Falls, but we ended up on a wrong trail! Went on a strenuous hike and ended up on a different falls. My knees started hurting... :(. We came back from the hike and went to see Crown Point, did some night photography trying to take pictures of stars. But the moon and continuous traffic did not help. :(
We went back to hotel and I did more research on the Oneonta Falls hike. There is no special trail for this falls. You have to scramble through big wooden logs and walk through the stream a website said. Next day morning we went back to the same place and this time we took the right trail. We walked through the stream and then made our way through the tree logs only to reach a 6 feet deep stream! We had our camera bag and tripod bag on top of it. Ashutosh, my husband, managed to carry the camera bag until he could touch his legs to the bottom of the stream. I swam across and then took the camera bag from him. While swimming my tripod fell from the bag into the stream. Super adventure! Ashutosh then had to do some under water diving to get the tripod. We successfully made it to the falls while keeping the camera dry. So much fun. We took some pictures, took bath in the waterfall and then got back to the car.
Oh I forgot to mention our trip to fruit farm... Apples, Green Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Strawberry so many of them. Again took pictures and ate some fruits. The only sad part about the trip was, there was a fire near Mount Hood. So we could not get good view of the mountain. There is something about these mountains in northwest, they stand alone and hence so clearly visible! Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Mount Helen, Mount Shuksan... I can already recognize these from the pictures.
Overall a super fun and adventurous trip. And if you have not heard Indian Ocean's Kandisa album, do check it out. It is so much fun singing the songs along. I wish they had more lyrics!
If you want to see some pictures they are here -
Punch Bowl Falls
Oneonta Falls
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