My Life experiences ... and more

Funny how learnt about this ... daughter had a playdate with her friend. The friend's mother casually asked if she could borrow daughter's snow suit. I asked her if they were going skiing and she mentioned about this farm ... not too far from home, where they had arranged for snow tubing using artificial snow.

This year, Lake Tahoe has not had as much snow and we had cancelled our annual ski trip. But this farm sounded like a good alternative. The only problem was that we were going there on the last day before closure and we were invited for lunch at the friend's place on the same day. Determined to go there, we booked the tickets online for 5pm ... managed lunch and left home around 3:15pm. Luckily the traffic was not bad and reached the farm well on time. The girls also got to enjoy some hay stacks / climb up tire stacks before tubing.

The tubing gates opened on time and we managed to go down the slide to our heart's content. We were back to our area by 7:45pm and headed straight to Sitar Express... a quaint Indian restaurant. Packed food. .. went home .. showered and enjoyed a lovely dinner. (must add rich ... because we ate Paneer tikka masala and Shahi panner and Naan for dinner)

The first day of the year was well spent.

@10:00am - Tad late ... but not too bad.

Immediately goes to get a cup of coffee ...

while loudly saying Hello to everyone in the path between his cube and coffee vending machine.

Once done with coffee ... starts calling his friends ....

discusses about stocks, vacations, lunch, dinner etc etc .... LOUDLY ... very very irritating

Time for lunch now ... and goes to heat his food

Lunch done in an hour.

Checks emails and strolls around for few more minutes ...

Coffee break again...

In between attends one or two office calls for 30 mins ...

WHEN DOES THIS PERSON WORK ??? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

She was done with her work in the next 30 mins ... now had the option to go for lunch. She had our office cafe, subway, home and other restaurants and drive through as her options. She also mentioned to me that her hadn't had her breakfast that morning and was really hungry ... "Go get a sandwich" I suggested. She listened and pondered about how to deal with her hunger. (The time she spent thinking about this, she could have got herself a sandwich)

She then stepped out ... went to the vending machine and bought a packet of pretzels. The lady in question is on the stouter side and tells me she is trying to reduce her weight. I have seen her cave in for sweets / pizzas / donuts when offered by others in the office ... and when she was really hungry she bought Pretzels ??? WHY ??

Should I remind her of her weight goals ?? Should I remind her of the healthy food habits ? Should I remind her that skipping meals is not the best idea to lose weight ??

We had plans of skiing on Christmas day at Lake Tahoe... but the weather played spoilsport. We decided to go to Monterey instead and enjoy the Aquarium. Before we drove to Monterey, enjoyed breakfast at Komala Vilas. Aquarium was good and the kids co-operated, but I felt it was slightly over priced for what it had to offer. As we walked towards our car, we noticed folks biking by the bay ... my sister insisted we check out bike rentals and we did. And boy, what a lovely experience it turned out to be !! My little one and nephew (chunnu and munnu as they are affectionately called) were seated in the front row and took up the responsibility of ringing the bell when instructed. It was very cute to see them ring the bell everytime someone requested "Bell please" ... my little girl would ring immediately ... and nephew followed suit.

The bike had 3 rows and was perfect for 2 families. We biked for an hour and headed home.

On 26th, we hosted dinner for one of our friends' family who are moving back to India. The menu was Methi paratha, Chole, Bende Kayi gojju, Kayi sasive anna, mosaranna and Badaam Halwa... and oh, the cucumber - tomato - carrot puri chat was delicious.

Cousins and their families visited us on 28th for dinner. We went out to "The Jungle" before having garam garam Masala Dose, Avare KaLu saaru, mosaranna, Basundi (prepared by sister) and fruit salad for dinner.

I was just browsing the weather site when I noticed that Jan 1st and 2nd had snow storm predictions in Tahoe which meant, our Ski trip would further get pushed. So hubby made instant decision to go skiing on 31st. The only problem was we had already committed to a New year get together for the evening. After some browsing / consulting, we booked a room for 30th and headed to Tahoe. We spent the night at the hotel (played Sequence after a long time) and headed to Tahoe on 31st. It was a bright sunny day ... perfect for skiing... if only the kids co-operated and rentals did not have long queue. We braved all odds and still managed so go tubing and kids enjoyed snow rides after much persuasion.

We came back home around 6:30pm and went for the party at 8:00pm. We played Dumb cherads / 20 questions ... and had yummy food and welcomed new year by cutting a nice cake. We were home around 12:30, wished family members and hit the sack.

Apart from all the activities above, managed to watch some movies (all movies were watched late night starting at 10:30pm)

Overall a great break ... and the grind begins now :)

Happy 2011 !

She calls out "Hi S" the moment he steps into our house .... and the little fella responds with "P .. P.." calling out her name. My 6 year old then gives him a tight hug and he is only too pleased to be cuddled. Then starts their "Game" of running around the house scream some war zone cries at the top of their lungs.

The way this game is initiated is simple ... one of the toddlers screams out the high pitch cry and starts running ... turns back after 8-10 steps and looks at the other. Signal enough for the other to join the fun.

I as much as I see the little ones bond, I so wish my 6 year old had a similar play date as well :)

My daughter has been biking since she turned 3 (with training wheels) and 4, with out training wheels. That was quite an early start, we thought. (parents's pride)

But I don't see many kids biking to school or other classes here in the US. I understand there is a lot of traffic here and the speed of the automobiles is quite high ...

But is that the reasons for fewer kids biking to school or it is more parent's not approving biking for other reasons ???

My daughter is going to be 6 in 2 days, and I do not plan to send her biking to school atleast the next 2 years.