Kick!

And I want to write something down. I am tired. Babs is sick again. I have a dentist appointment and life goes on.

I made breakfast this morning for work. It was my turn for the breakfast club at work. I made a frittata and a huge fruit bowl. I will put the recipe for the frittata on the girlsgonecookin.wordpress.com website soon. I made one mid-size tray and two mini ones. I sent one with G for his work, kept one for safety and the mid-size one and fruit bowl came to work with me. All is well.

I almost took the day off this morning because Babs had a fever the whole night but both her baby sitter and G told me not to worry about it unless the temperature runs high. AG, my colleague picked up the breakfast for me from home while I dropped Babs and came to work.

Like everyone wants to know how sucky my day was.

Anyways, I am watching the Telugu movie Kick, finally. I say finally because there is a funny story.

I do not know to read or write Telugu. I can only speak the language and I love the language but cannot write it. Dad tried three times to teach me and all three times I did not go past A and Aa. Learning to write Tamil was a necessity because I lived in Chennai but Telugu was just a luxury which I could live without happily.

Anyway, coming back to my story. I went to the store, asked for Kick, the guy handed me a DVD that said Kick written on it. Came home, saw the movie, it was decent, time pass and I was happy that I had seen the very popular movie.

Next day, I am talking to another Telugu friend to whom I proudly mentioned that I saw Kick and it was decent. He asked me, "so you like Ravi Teja?"

"No, I think he is ugly and old. But how does that matter, Kick has Allu Arjun in it."

He laughed and said, "nope, Kick has RT in it and Illeana."

I argued saying that he saw the wrong movie, "I should know, I saw the movie."

"What is the story."

I told him the synopsis.

"That movie is Parugu."

I was stunned. I had seen an entire movie thinking it was another movie. Had only I known to read Telugu, this mistake could have been averted, although I always fast forward the first 10 minutes. I was super embarrassed. I went to the store and demanded a return.

So, I am half way through watching Kick. I still cannot stand Ravi Teja. He is way too ugly, and old and Illeana is cute and such a mismatch for him. So when I finish it off, I will write more on the movie.

I have few other movies to watch over the weekend and hopefully I will have enough time. This is the first weekend in many when I have absolutely no plans and hopefully I will make the best use of it. Also, I pray and hope that Babs will get better soon and that I can take her out tomorrow if the weather permits.

With all that said.

I am signing off

ART

Taggggggg

So Megha put me up for this foodie tag. Yes, the truth is I love to eat although I hate to pay more attention to how it is made unless it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare a dish. And almost all my memories of good food is from my amma's kitchen and my growing up days...

• Deepavali mornings when my mom used to make Idli/dosa and Vadakari for breakfast. You should eat it once to know how yummy it is. I remember smelling the yummy Vadakari (the smell of cilantro and cloves) when you walk into the house after a fresh round of bursting crackers on the street.

• Krishna Jayanthi. Mom made boat loads of food for this day. More so on the line of sweets. It would range from laddu, murukku, sweet seedai, spicy seedai, thattai, somas, karasev, karaboondi, golbela, diamond cuts, mixture, etc. She used to at least make 13 items every Krishna jayanthi. Her preps for this festival would start a week ahead and she would cook these items and hide them from us because she did not want us to eat up everything before the festival itself. Every evening when I came back home from school I could smell what she had prepared and it would make me go hungry instantly. Mom always saved up some scraps for all of us to eat up in the evening...miss those days.

• I remember the days when we used to go to the pool during summer vacation, spend an entire noon there. Get tired and hungry instantly. Dad would buy us goldspot or some soda at the club and then buy us either bonda from the club or mom would have made fresh bread bajji's for us...those used to taste like nectar. My brothers and I would gobble them up as soon as they got out of the frying oil. Bread bajji and sauce, bonda and chutney, just plain ol' bajji and chutney...my childhood.

• This is going to sound weird, but the first time I ate Rajma made by G during our K-State days. I had never eaten that bean before ever. And when I came home from a tiring day at school, I gobbled up on this dish and then learned to cook it too. Later I cooked it so much that I began to hate it and quit eating it for almost three years. Now I cook it once in a while.

• Then Kandha Poha and chai for breakfast that G makes on Saturdays...yummm...he makes the best breakfast ever, er...he cooks the best ever next only to my amma.

Ok Tag time...Sum, Puja, Shilpa, Vimmmu, Arshiya...go on take it up...write it down.

Love

ART

Finally...

A long hiatus and I am back...I just could not get myself to write stuff here anymore. On top of it I am still contemplating a move to Wordpress. I just like so many things there that are not here in Blogspot. It is like Blogspot on steroids. But, then it is my first blog and it is close to my heart. It would feel like leaving my home for another one. A home I created with these two hands (literally) to another one. Although, I just might move...don't we all make changes for convenience???

Anyways, topic at hand. So the weekend of Deepavali was hectic. All three days. No kidding.

Babs turned two On Oct 17th. I could not believe it. I still cannot believe that she talks to me in perfectly understandable language. She tells me stories and gives me explanations. She is a little adult already. Feels like yesterday. Time sure flies when you are busy with life. And boy, was I busy!!!

For her birthday this year, we, as in G, his mom, me and Babs went to the aquarium. She had fun seeing the different animals in the rain forest zoo and then seeing her favorite fishes!! I am sure we will go there again probably next year.

Then on the next day, we had a small party at Chuck E Cheese for her and her kiddie friends. I decided that this year, I will not put all my friends with no kids through the misery of attending a kiddie party and pretending to enjoy it. So it was just Babs and six other kids and whose parents were also happy to get their toddlers out for a fun Sunday evening. I had fun and I hope others did too and that was day 3 of a very long weekend!

Oh! I did not tell you what we did on Day 1 right? Friday night I organized and threw this party for G's birthday. It was a surprise party. He did not have an idea about it and all he knew was that we were going to a friend's house for Deepavali dinner. Closer towards the party he started smelling something fishy but he was surprised and happy nevertheless. His mom offered to keep the little one at home so that mom and dad could get drunk, dance and party while the baby was kept safe sleeping on her own bed with her grandma.

We got back home around 4.00 in the morning and wished the little devil for her birthday. It was perfect. The weather, the brat and all of us together.

So ya...that was a helluva packed weekend. Actually all our weekends since the third weekend of September has been packed. It will be a packed one coming up too. I am hoping that we are a little chilled out next week. But honestly, I wont complain. Having family and friends around shows me that the beautiful Indian network of support system still exists, even though in small part there is always someone to help you out.

With that said, I would like to sign off on this beautiful Friday evening. See y'all around the corner soon.

Yours

ART