Botanical Gardens

We took Amma and Appa to botanical gardens over the weekend. I know what you are thinking. Desert and botanical gardens? Well they had several varieties of cacti and that's what we saw. The herb garden was nice but all the chili plants in there seem to have died. It was a nice trip after all only because this was the first weekend after we came to the valley that Prabu hasn't worked over the weekend and gave me and Vikram his 100% attention:).

Here is a picture of V in one of the huts that was on display. You might not get pictures from me for a little while because our camera broke(ask Prabu what he did. I have no hand in that.) And it might take some time before we research into which one is good.

How to make Chapathi Dough?

You watch how Ammamma is mixing it.



Grab the vessel from her.



Mix it like there is no tomorrow.

Good Luck from Jersey

Swetha visited us over the weekend since she had Monday off from Hospital. She will soon be Dr. Swetha ;) and I get to brag about how my little sis is a doctor. Not only did she make my weekend by coming over but also brought some luck because we bought me a car. You heard that right. 2 weeks ( or even earlier) from now, I will be proud owner of a 2007..... suspense. Wait and see for the pictures of my new baby ;).

We took Swetha to Grand Canyon and drove around Scottsdale the next day. We also made her say, "I think I want to get out of Jersey soon". We saw Jab we met, talked for long and it was just a very very nice weekend.

Here is a picture of us sisters. I uploaded more here.

Sankranthi

Happy Sankranthi and/or Happy Pongal :)

Bhogi

Today is bhogi and tomorrow Sankranthi, harvest festival in Andhra. You can read up all about it on Wiki (as usual).

We did the "Bhogi Pallu" ceremony for Vikram.

Here are all the pictures.

Wishing everyone who celebrate this festival a Happy Sankranthi.

And it finally arrived...

after 2 weeks and way past the birthday. Appa's gift that is. I ordered him this few weeks before his birthday but due to holidays and other reasons its showed up yesterday. Nevertheless, he was so happily surprised and showed it off immediately :).

Starting of Celebration Season

It was Appa's birthday yesterday, which starts this year's celebrations. Next comes mom and dad's anniversary, Sankranthi and then before we know, we are celebrating New Year's eve again :). Amma made nice breakfast and lunch and we went out to Dinner for some Thai food. It was Saritha's birthday too yesterday and we tagged her along for dinner:) and had two cakes in honor of their birthdays ;).

Talking about cakes, I made the cake for Appa from scratch including frosting and coloring and wording. As I was telling Dolls, hand me that medal now;).



That fugly picture you are seeing is of a coconut cake with butter cream frosting. Got the recipe from Ina Garten's cookbook. I have so much respect for her. She is the only one I know who worked as a budget analyst in White house under Gerald Ford and Jimmy carter. Looks like she was involved in writing nuclear energy budget and policy papers on nuclear centrifuge plants.

Coming back to birthday's and cakes, here is a picture of V with the Gparents.

Onion Rider

New year...New Time

I come up with really good reasons (coughcoughexcusescoughcough) to buy stuff. I wanted a watch and told hubby dear that new year and new times so I need a new watch. Poor guy always gets sucked into my lame ass logic. And this time was no different, he bought me new watch today. Yo Dolls, before you ask, here is the watch (I bought brown with gold dial);).

V is starting scream and throw tantrums. Surprisingly he understands the concept of "I need to stop screaming by the time momma counts 3" which is working out well for me so far. He also gets super duper excited when we turn the TV on in our master bedroom. he doesn't watch tv but just turning it on excites him. Want proof?



Here is him giving me a pose for the camera.


I uploaded more pictures here.

2008 - Year of .....

I don't know. It could be year of anything.I make no resolutions and as far as I know my man doesn't either. We had a nice dinner and Som and Saritha's for New Year's Eve. V didn't want to sleep 10 in the night but finally managed some how. Talking of V, he is doing much better now and growing up way too fast :). He is picking up few words and wants to be in the kitchen all the time making dosas(pancakes). He loves to hang out with momma in the kitchen. Prabu is afraid I will make him the next Jamie Oliver. LOL.

I got bunch of movies form Sarita and have been watching once a day for the last week. So the delay in blogging. I also need to upload bunch of pictures. I will do that soon. I promise.