Here goes

2010-01-19T22:43:00.001-08:00

Finally done- The cove lighting at the top of the wall is not green- it just looks that way in these pictures!!

2008-11-17T21:08:00.000-08:00

Well, the colors in these pictures are anything but true to life!! The cove lighting looks neon green in every picture when in fact its nearly colorless. It's just a warm glow that surrounds the room. The paint is a bluish, greenish grey depending on how you look at it, but some how in the pictures it looks like a hospital blue-- yuck! I guess if you really want to experience it for yourselves you will just have to come and visit...

We still need some finishing touches. Some floor and table lamps will be added as well as some art work, but for now most of the major work is done. We couldn't be happier to be back home. I think we are both still in shock over how beautiful it turned out!

There is a missing cabinet panel in the front of the sink- it will be added very soon...(there are still a few more things to do)!

New living room- We had to get rid of the fire place but now the space doesn't need angled furniture to make sense. By loosing the fire place we actually were able to free up a lot more space and make the walk way between the kitchen and the living room more practical

The room on the left (see picture below) use to be the kitchen. We moved the kitchen forward and added pocketing doors and created a new TV room/ Guest bedroom.

We had a little fun with the colors in the TV room. The room is quite small, about 9x10, so it's really hard to get pictures in there. We cut a hole in the wall and used one of the upper cabinets in the kitchen to house the TV equipment. We still want to build a smoky glass door for that, but we haven't gotten to that yet. The You can remove the chase part of the sofa and then it folds out in to a full size bed. It is supposedly the most comfortable sofa bed ever made. Esther, what do you say??

Another few days.......

2008-10-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

We are moving in on Sat. They started putting in counters today. They look awesome! Tomorrow they finish countertops, plumbing gets finished and the housekeeper comes Thursday. They have to take Thursday and Friday off to work on another job of mine and will come back to install appliances on Saturday while we move!

I can't wait!!!!

What's going on over there???

2008-10-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

I know you guys are wondering what the hell it's looking like over here, but I've decided you're just going to have to wait! The paint is almost done. It's looking amazing! What a difference a smooth wall finish makes! Wait until you see the crazy TV room! The kitchen counters go in on Monday! Some new furniture is delivered on Tuesday! Everything is looking beautiful! But, i feel a picture will be better when the finished product is installed. Not that any project is ever finished. In fact, we are out of money and there are a few things that will have to wait....such as, art for the walls, wallpaper for the front of the island, some new lights, rugs, and the list could go on and on, but I won't bore you! The list of things construction wise that need to be done to this old house is even longer and way more expensive, but for now we'll just enjoy our new kitchen, flooring and TV room and hope that we can keep our house in this crazy economy.

The house truly has some lacking quality features that we never noticed. Today we found out that when the previous owners installed the new "California" closet, they removed a wall between the two bedrooms. I guess they just figured it probably wasn't structural since it was in the middle of the house, wrong! I had never noticed my sloping ceilings, but now that they've been pointed out, it's really obvious. We are going to have to unexpectedly tare down the sheet rock and put in a header and some two by fours to create a wall! It's all good, at this point it's only money.....

Counters Templated

2008-10-09T17:22:00.000-07:00

So the countertops were templated on Wen. It takes 2 weeks minimum for them to fabricate. We are getting a product called Ceaserstone which is a quarts resin composite, it's comparable to granite in durability, heat resistance and price but it is a bit more contemporary as it doesn't have all that crazy color variation or veining in it. The color we went with is ment to look like concrete. I'd love to have done concrete but it's actually a lot more expensive and a nightmare to take care of. There were a lot of materials that id have loved to have had actually but this was the best we could afford. Again, this process is paining me because of all the things that I put into my clients homes that i can't afford to put into my own home...i know cry me a river right!

So tomorrow they start painting! The floors were hopefully done today... they were a pain in the butt and took a lot longer then anyone expected but they are beautiful. They will still need four coats of poly before we can call it completely done.

Cabinets and flooring going in Day #46

2008-10-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

The cabinets and flooring are being installed. This is a really time consuming part of the project because there are a lot of unexpected complications that need to be figured out. The cabinets are always a challenge. Little things need to be tweaked and rearranged in order to be perfect. The floor has a weird issue with looking different from different directions so it has to be turned 180 degrees to look the same as the adjacent tiles.. We only figured that out after installing a few hundred square feet. Hopefully we'll have enough to replace those pieces.

All I want for my Bday is my House! (day #31)

2008-09-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

Living room- the fire place use to be there. We took it out because it threw off the symmetry and furniture plan off the room. We could have left on the dry wall, but i hate the look of texture so instead of trying to sand it all down to fix it we just removed it. Who ever did the construction before did a really half ass job, so there was quite a bit to fix....

All lighting and electrical is done and Sheetrock is going back up!!!!
This is the sink wall of the kitchen. (Below)

Recessed cans are installed in the ceiling and the ceiling is reinforced.

Pocket door hardware is installed in TV room

Electrical and Plumbing

2008-09-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Plumbing on island.

Plumbing at main stink (TV/Guest room behind)

Ceiling is taped out to show where the lighting will go. When I drew the lighting plan I didn't know where the studs were in the ceiling so unfortunately some of it had to be reworked.

The journey to a new home

2008-09-09T19:25:00.001-07:00

The wall for the island is built. This will allow us to run plumbing over for a second sink in the Island. A temporary structural support wall is built while joist in the ceiling are being removed, replaced and reinforced.

All 50 year old insulation is rotting and is removed. The sliver stuff was put in more recently when the previous owners did an expansion.

The drywall, ceiling and cabinets are removed

One thing that is really interesting is to see each layer stripped off your house. It's really interesting to try and figure out what they were doing or what they were thinking using certain materials or building things certain ways. Last year when we removed our large, beautiful but unfragrant tree I found that something under the carpet had warped to make a big hill in my carpet. After removing the carpet we found that they used some really cheap plywood, I don' t even know if you can call it plywood and so it swelled when i over watered the tree. I' m not sure we'll do a tree again. It's a lot of work, but i really love it.

The journey to a new home

2008-09-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well we are going on day 21 of being out of our house. The crew, unfortunately hasn't been able to be there the whole time due to another job that has needed attention. In the time they have been there though they have really done a lot. The first week was the most exciting. The feeling that comes over you when you see your house torn down to studs is one of sheer terror mixed with a rush of excitement. It's like nothing I've ever felt before. I had a lot of wacked out nerves and stress but I am feeling much better now.

Here are some before pictures:

Week one- Demo- a wall came down, and a new one was built creating a tv room behind what is now our current kitchen. All the carpet was removed and taken to a local recycling center. We wanted to donate our cabinets but no one from habitat for humanity would return our calls so they were broken down and sent to the dump. The raised floor that created my dining room was removed.

Week two- the ceiling where we had a some really bad damage from a rain storm (only EIGHT months ago) was removed and we found that the one by ones holding the roof up were sagging so those were replaced and reinforced.

Week three- the plumbing is installed and the electrical is in progress. All new recessed cans will be put in. A cove for perimeter lighting will be built. Praveen researched and purchased the speakers which will be in the ceiling throughout the house. I am really excited about that part. I can't wait to listen to fox news in my bathroom in the morning! All the speakers have separate zones so Praveen can sit on the new sofa bed in the new tv room and watch tv while I jam out in the kitchen.

Money is flying out the window like crazy. It's very strange to spend so much money on a daily basis. We've been saving for this for a long time, so it's rewarding and exciting at the same time.

Govi, the poor guy's apartment that we have taken over, has been very chill. I'm sure he can't wait for us to leave but you'd never know it. He leaves next week for Europe for three weeks and hopefully when he gets back we will be ready to move back home.

If all goes well this will be our schedule:
This week- finish Electrical, lighting- start drywall
Next week- Dry wall
Week of 22nd- Put down cork flooring
Week of 29th Finish floors install cabinets- start finish work- template counter tops (7-10 days to fabricate)
Install tile back splash- install under cabinet lighting
Oct 6th- Finish cabinets- paint/ finish work-
13th Counters installed- finish work
Week of 22nd and 29th- finish work
First week of November move home.

I'd say one of the hard parts about your house being under construction is not knowing where anything is. We packed and moved two car loads of stuff to govi's and since then probably three more worth of forgotten stuff. I had forgotten that September is pretty hot around these parts and I packed the SF usual, cashmere sweaters, jeans ect. Finally Sunday i broke down and broke into my closet which the contractor had nicely taped up so nothing would get dusty. I grabbed a bunch of summer stuff and guess what now its cold again.

I went back to the house the other day to get my bike, my biking shoes, all my gear, but when i got home i realized i had forgotten my padded shorts.

When i went to NYC i was missing my travel pillow, my backpack, my sleeping pills and host of other things....anyway, life goes on, but it does make it interesting. I want to post more pictures for you but last week i couldn't find the batteries to Praveen's camera so i started using my camera but now i can't find the USB cable to down load the pictures! It's fun!

This weekend we're going to Yosemite and it looks like i might need new hiking shoes or something as i can' find those either! The funny thing is when i pack, i remember where everything is, but Praveen actually did much of the packing while i helped a friend with a wedding party. If I packed it I generally know exactly the box it's in but now it's all fair game.

More Beijing

2008-05-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Great Wall

2008-05-20T11:12:00.001-07:00

Pictures of Beijing

2008-05-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

Temple

Hot pot

Forbidden City

Tiananmen Square

Pumpkin stuffed with bean curd. Yummm

That is all oil with some fish and some chilies. Those little black things they call flowering pepper. They make your tongue numb. They are tpyical in schezwan food. I don't like them too much.

The Western Media Lies and Ruth Rants

2008-05-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

I had this interesting conversation with my guide yesterday. He was telling me that he felt the world was against China. He sighted several examples of how the Western media has said terrible things about China. Most recently there was some kind of parallel made between China's government and Hitler. I didn't get the details. These things are taken very personally by the Chinese people, who apparently have a ton of nationalism. He asked if I heard of various rallies around the world in support of China (re: the Olympics) and I said that I hadn't, but that I hadn't been looking and I wasn't surprised that there was people around the world supporting China. In SF, when the torch was there, there were large numbers who showed up to support and protest the Olympics in China.

Anyway, he was pretty passionate about the fact that the world is misinformed because the Western media lies to us and we don't understand what is going on. He went on about how these Tibetan monks had killed and burned a bunch of people and did I know about it? No I didn't. So, I went and did some reading,which is some what hard to do here considering the access issues. I decided to check out this site that he asked me to look at www.anti-cnn.com. A really good thread if your interested is at http://www.anti-cnn.com/forum/en/thread-18-2-1.html
There is a guy in the US and a two Guys here in China debating back and forth. It's an interesting read if you have the time or inclination.

Anyway, I have to say I am surprised at the effectiveness of the brainwashing. I am not claiming for one minute that Americans have never been lead astray or that Media is unbiased. There are tons of things that have been effectively hidden from the American people, though I think it is getting harder to do this with the Internet.

As a current example, I was shocked to see the numbers of Americans (sorry if you are one of them) who bought into the sound bites of news during the beginning of the Iraq war. I remember hearing some of the crap that was broadcast-- IE: that stupid picture the showed where there was for sure "weapons of mass destruction" and thinking, how in the hell can anyone with an average intelligence be falling for this? Or how about the crazy link that was suddenly made between September 11th (which we bombed Afghanistan for) and Iraq? We had to go into Iraq because we THOUGHT there was weapons of mass destruction and we wanted to find them. Yet, when Korea told us- hey we are going to make a bomb...what did we do about it? Nothing, apparently we'd rather fight off a country that might have weapons of mass destruction then one we know for sure has a bomb. The reasoning just doesn't add up. Despite everything, Americans overwhelmingly supported the war and EVEN reelected the wonderful man who got us into the mess and has since made a further disaster of our nation and economy.

Where was I? Sorry for the rant, but is is important to note that people do tend to believe what they want, not necessarily the facts. Oh yeah, china....

Here they have an excuse for being misinformed. Currently news sights like the BBC, CCN, even wikapedia and even my blog are ban in China! Even if these news sites were not ban they don't have access to China therefor there are only two views that the Chinese people can read, the one from their government and if there lucky enough to get access, the one the rest of the world is trying to piece together with only partial information. It is no wonder that when they hear an entirely different account of what happened from outside that they would question it. The thing I can't understand is, why would they even believe anything in the news here? The Chinese government has every reason to lie and no incentive to tell the truth.

I explained this to my guide. Also, I wanted to know, why would the western media want to make up lies about the Chinese people or government? I asked, unless you have a friend who saw the monks killing people or you saw it yourself how can you believe it? And if the Chinese government doesn't have anything to hide why not let the outside media in? Even if it is not American, English or German media? What about the Indian or Malaysian media?

Oh, I found out why there are no beggars or homeless people in Shanghai. It turns out that you actually have to be born in Shanghai to live in Shanghai without permission. So you get issued this ID card and that card only entitles you to go certain places without permission. This is one way the government is hoping to keep the poor people in the country side farming and the business people here. It seems that it really kind of creates a system where you really get stuck in a certain economic pattern unless you are lucky enough to be in one of the cities where the economy is booming.

On a side note: I read today that breathing the air in Beijing, where we will go tomorrow, is equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes a day.

Old Shanghai

2008-05-14T02:49:00.000-07:00

So we went to the only Confucius temple in Shangahi. It was almost completely destroyed during the "cultural revolution" but has since been rebuilt.

We also went to a Buddhist temple. One thing I learned about Chinese style Buddhisms is that when when Buddhisms was first introduced to the Chinese they rejected it because they thought it discriminated against women. It was only after they introduced female incarnates of Buddha that the religion was accepted.

Old Town/ Yuyan Gardens

More Shanghai

2008-05-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

At home in the US my feet are unusually wide. I can never find any dress shoes that fit properly. If I can get my wide foot in the front then the back is usually too big and the heals slip off my feet when I walk. On the rare occasion that I find one that fits in the front and back, my arch is still so high that the shoe does not support it which means that my feet get very tired very quickly. Ok... and I'm a baby, I'll admit that. I know tons of women with scares all over their feet that wear heals all the time and never say a word! Anyway when I read on line about this place called "Hot Shots" that makes custom shoes and does a great job, I decided to check them out. It was not cheep. I spent about the same as I would in the US. (I don't get too crazy on shoes, but i believe in buying something high quality that lasts a long time). I got one pair of boots for $210. And two pairs of heals for $100 each. If they work out then I will be so, so happy and the store has kept my measurements on file so that I can order more over email if I want. I can't wait. I won't have the shoes for at least a month because I don't want to pay for air mail. I had a dream last night that when I got them they were the wrong color, and the wrong style.

I went for a fabulous Shanghai style Dim sum lunch yesterday at a place called Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant. It was so, so good. For that I really didn't need hot sauce. The natural flavors of the food were completely showcased.

The bumpy deep fried ball on the assorted plate in the back is a steamed bun with crab row stuffing. It was one of my favorites. The shrimp is ground up into a paste stuffed rolled into a ball, steamed and then possibly flash fried. The Adkins diet fans could make an excellent case here. The Chinese people (at least in Shanghai) seem to eat a ton of meat, and very little else. I expected that there would be rice with every meal but that is not the case at all. What little carbs there are are in a light exterior, but there is tons of protein and TONS of oil. I can't believe how oily things are. (the meal above is more of an exception to the oil because in dim sum most everything is steamed. My absolute favorite thing that I have eaten so far is in the far back of that assorted plate and you can't even really see it. It's a cake with salty cashew nuts covered by black sesame seeds. I am not sure what was in it other then the obviously stated but it was amazing. The green veg dish on the left is some kind of greens with lilies. You eat both. It tastes like kale.

The pastry thing with the straw coming out if it is basically like a seafood stock. You drink the inside and leave everything else. The other things in the bamboo baskets are called Nanxiang Steamed Buns. You put them on a deep spoon, bite a little hole in the side, suck out the juices (Which is delicious) then drop it in this vinegar, ginger mixture which fills the pastry part back up, then eat the whole thing. It's quite good. Insides are stuffed with various things like crab, mushrooms and shrimp.

Above, picture of them making dim sum.

As I have mentioned in previous posts there is a China town with in Shanghai. Here you will find more traditional style Chinese architecture. Most of Shanghai is made up of very tall sky scrapers. On a side note, It is really unbelievable how big and how developed this city is. Despite the fact that there is a ton of smog, the city is very, very clean. There are virtually NO beggars and NO homeless people and no crime. On the surface it appears that in this aspect communism really works. There are other really terrible things like all of the the relics and buildings that were thousands of years old that were destroyed in the 1950s "cultural revolution." Obviously people had to give up even the most basic freedoms of religion, freedom of the press, to name a few, but one can't help but wonder if some how this system could be adjusted to work. After having traveled in Mexico and India where the people are starving, the city's are trashed and tons of people are living on the streets one begins to wonder what would those people give up to have shelter and food? Hell even in SF the city is trashed and everywhere you look there is a strung out homeless person begging for money. I don't know...I know I bought my own car when i was 16 because I didn't want my parents to be able to take away the keys (the freedom of a teen). The problem with the government providing you with everything is that then then they can totally control you. The other problem is motivating people and getting innovation. How do you motivate someone to work harder when everyone gets paid the same? How do you get the Microsofts or the Googles of the world when everyone is taught to be a robot and do what they are told? In a communist system, you go in put in your time and go home? Anyway, lots to think about. I was just expecting to see all this poverty and even after driving through the country side I don't see it. Maybe they do like India did at one time (during what i think they called the "beautification" of the cities) where they round up all the really poor people and take them to concentration style camps, sterilize them (through castration or other means) and make them work for nothing.

Ok...i got of track...and now i have to run...more later.

Food and Shanghai

2008-05-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

I find the food particularly fascinating in China. I had a guide yesterday so I felt a little more adventurous. I have never minded trying really weird stuff but I want to know what I am trying and I prefer to watch someone else eat it before me. This approach as managed to land some things in my mouth that I found particularly disgusting. A fish eye in Belize and a cow brain in Mexico were the worst thus far. I have however enjoyed many of the strange things I have had such as cow tongue tacos. For me traveling is as much about the food as seeing the city. I have luckily never gotten sick eating random dishes or street food in other countries.

China host a whole other level for the courageously adventurous and I have to say, I am certain there are things served here I that will put my spirit of adventure to the test. Yesterday I tried a few new things. To start-- duck chin.... (See below)

The Duck Chin was really good. It was less greasy then duck with a nice crispy exterior and very flavorful. My guide told me the best part was the tongue but I disagree. The tongue just tasted like crispy skin with fat. The other dishes that you see up there are mushrooms (center), crispy shrimp imperial rolls (left), bbq pork covered in a flaky pastry far left, and egg clustered (far center). I also had jelly fish, which I thought was crunchy in a gelatinous way as opposed to a fried way, but very bland. It didn't taste like anything. (see below)

One thing I am loving here are all the mushrooms. They seem to have a lot of different varieties pan fried and topped with a delicious sauce. I have found it surprising that much of the food is some what bland. It varies from region to region and I think Shanghai, in particular, has a sweeter, blander food. Praveen and I find ourselves asking for hot sauce all the time. I was reading this morning that the spicier dishes are usually the ones that aren't fresh. I read that Chinese people feel that a lot of spices covers up the taste of the food and therefore only want to season it heavily when the food is bad! I guess I'll just keep ordering my hot sauce on the side. There are other regions though where more spices are used like Hunan or Schezwan. I haven't seen those styles on too many menus here though.

I love the Dim Sum!!! Today I am going for some Shanghai style Dim Sum.

Vincent, my guide, was making fun of me yesterday because I was eating the garnishes. He told me when a vegetable accompanies a meat dish it is usually just to balance the ying and the yang (I think what we call presentation). It's not like parsley though, yesterday it was bok chow, which I like and I will keep eating, garnish or not.

One thing I haven't eaten that I do find interesting is the amount of pickled meat that they eat here. If you walk in to a convenience store you will see tons of packages of vacuum sealed chicken wings, chicken feet, pork and all kinds of stuff. I had the weirdest thing on the mountain. It looked like a hot dog but I think it was a SPAM dog!!! People were eating them like popcorn. On our hike instead of cliff bars they would be toting around tons of packages of various meets and then at little rest stops everyone would stop to eat the SPAM dogs. It was good in a sick and twisted kind of hot dog way.

Here are some pictures from my adventure yesterday.

This was a beautiful bride on the street posing for pictures. I learned that in china they have two bridal dresses- the white dress then the more traditional red dress.

This is a TV tower. I think its cool. This whole area was built in the 90s. The development over here is insane! The newer area of Shanghai has this very futuristic look and the older area has a more traditional Chinese look mixed in with a lot of other architectural styles like French and English who came here and built a ton of stuff before they fled in 1949. I like the contrast. The futuristic stuff reminds me of the Jetsons. You can also see the smog is really intense. I got a headache mid way through the day that never went away. It's really, really bad.

They also have this tunnel through the water that you see above. It takes five minutes and costs $7. I guess only tourists can afford to use it. It's really crazy. It feels like a cross between a Disneyland ride, a Pink Floyd show and a mushroom trip. The subway like car you sit in is all glass and there are lights flashing everywhere and these plasma like screens that raise and lower in front of the tracks with swimming fish and meteor showers. The strangely dark thing was the blow up human shaped dolls that look as if they jump in front of you only to be smashed (see below)

More Pictures

2008-05-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

Can't view my blog- pictures

2008-05-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

So I can edit my blog, but I can't view it. I am assuming it is censored. I also can't get on the slide website which means i have to load up each picture individually. Humm. Interesting. I am off with a guide here in a minute. Praveen is at work. We had a great day yesterday except each of us is so sore we really can hardly move.

My back, despite the three hour walk down the mountain with Praveen's backpack (he carried mine) is great. I was really expecting that if the medicine man fixed anything it would be ruined from that hike. We had written down some of what he said and found someone to read it to us. Apparently part of what he was saying is that my blood in the lower part of my back is so clogged it's black. Praveen did say that it was pretty dark. Isn't your blood always black or blue before oxygen gets to it? Anyway, whatever. If my back is better- I'm happy. I'd do it all over again!

There was this weird tradition on this mountain to buy a lock and engrave the name of your lover on there and put in on one of the chain links up on top of the mountain. There were hundreds of thousands of locks up there. Praveen thought it was stupid but I thought it was fun so we did it.

Sunday Huangshan and Qijong

2008-05-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

The way that they built the trails on this hike was crazy. There were lots of places where they just some how added stairs and trails right to the side of the mountain.

I don't think many of the Chinese people are accustom to our version of outdoor activities. This hike was intense. I can hardly walk today! There were lots of women out there in the middle of no where walking around in high heels???
One big cultural differences that I just don't understand is that here in China everyone travels in a tour group. On Sunday the trails were so packed that we couldn't even enjoy ourselves. You literally had to fight for your piece of ground. If that wasn't bad enough, every once in a while you'd be lucky enough to be standing next to one of the tour group leaders and his loud speaker blaring into your ear!! Thank God Saturday was better! Why when you live in a country so populated would you want to join hundreds of others IN A GROUP on vacation????

So after seeing loads of guys carrying things like this, I realized one reason why things up here on the mountain were so expensive. You have to hike several miles around the mountain all up and down steep hills to get to the different hotels. If i had to carry everything I wanted to eat in, I'd probably be eating cliff bars.

Sunday: So we've been in Huangshan for the last few days which is this exorbitantly expensive park in Eastern China. Although it has been an expensive trip, it is really breathtakingly beautiful. It is suppose to have a lot of clouds, but the weather has been beautiful here so we have had nothing but clear blue sky. The clear sky is a nice change from Shanghai, where I am told that it is grey because of the pollution nearly all of the time. I was hoping that there would be clouds today but no such luck. It looks like it will be another beautiful clear day! Oh well!

The park is surrounded by majestic peaks with trees that look like what ever that tree was on the "Karate Kid." There are also Rhododendrons- huge ones everywhere and they are all in bloom. The paved trail runs dangerously close to the edge of the mountain. If I were scared of heights this would have been a pretty scary hike. Also the stairs winding up and down are not for the unfit, though we saw plenty of people young and old out there taking their time and struggling to get up and down the hills. When we returned to the hotel the craziest thing happened. We decided that it was time to get a foot massage and have a beer. I've never had a professional foot massage before and though everything up here on this mountain seems over priced $20 for 50 minutes seemed like a deal waiting for me. The massage itself was painful, but in a good way. Praveen was there with his little translation book trying to communicate with the guys massaging us. My masseuse had mastered the phrase,"No pain. No gain." Personally I'd prefer that they shut up and get to work on my legs and feet, but it was cute watching Praveen chat with them. The guy rubbing me hit a couple of unbearably sore spots in my feet which he told me were related to my lower back and my neck.

My lower back has given me problems for years. My neck however is was only sore because I get a big fat failing mark in the art of packing. Praveen had told me we needed to hike a half hour from where the tram dropped us and the hotel. There are no cars up here. If you want any easier transportation you have to have someone carry you, which they will do for a fee. They have these chairs that you can sit in supported by two poles with a guy at either end. I might consider that for the trip down. So anyway, by the time we reached the hotel my back was killing me from carrying my bag. What Praveen didn't tell me until after we got here is that he expects me to walk back down for three hours with that pack. Anyone who has done any serious hiking knows the down hill is the hardest on the knees- especially for me. My knees are not that good.

Back to the massage. After this guy was done giving me this foot massage, turned leg massage,turned back massage- which was freaking fabulous- he told me my back was not so good and asked me to stay put. He brings back this other guy who takes a wet towel puts it below my feet, sits in front of me- does these tai-chi type movements with his hands, sticks his finger out and with out touching me begins to send electric shocks though my hands. I was so taken back I almost cried. It was completely amazing. He ran his finger, above but along my thumb and strong electric shocks jolted me. It wasn't painful but did make me jump a little. He then went over my pointer finger and I had the same reaction, but when he went over my middle finger I felt nothing. He repeated the process over my entire hand and each time I felt an electric shock on every finger except my middle finger. Some how between the translation book, Praveen and this other guy's very broken English they communicated to me the reason I couldn't feel anything in my middle finger was because there was a blockage that was not allowing the blood to flow in my back and that this was all connected. I am certain I have several "blockages" of some kind, I have always had very poor circulation and though bikrum yoga helps, I've never really found a way to cure it. So this guy tells me that for $70 he can fix my lower back and neck using something called Qijong. I am totally, perplexed, intrigued and emotional from this strange experience so I agree. Praveen is suspicious so he joins me in this little back room. Now it's just me and Praveen and this medicine man that can't even communicate a little bit in English. We played some charades to try and communicate. I really wish we could have talked because what follows only gets wierder.

I am glad Praveen was in the room because I had no idea what was happening so he was able to tell me about it later. So the guy directs me to sit on this bed. Then he takes this small bowl that looks like a small goldfish bowl. He puts some kind of camphor in it and lights it on fire. He then puts the bowl with the open side towards my skin on my back and my skin begins to get sucked inside forming a bubble like thing. Like I said, I didn't know any of this was happening. What I thought was happening is that he had some kind of hot clamps that he clamped down on my back and some how as my muscles released so too, did the clamps until they almost fell off. He does this in five spots and leaves them there until the fire goes out. He then motions to Praveen to come and take a look at something on my back. In the small of my back some how blood has come out. He shows Praveen what looks like a small pin prick but there was no pin and I never felt a prick. I am a little weirded out. No one is speaking English and I don't know what's happening. Praveen seems totally freaked and asked me several times if I am okay. I am fine, but I am trying to figure out what the blood is. I thought for a second he removed some kind of worm from my back and that totally freaked me out. Turns out there was no worm, just blood. I am still not sure what that was about. So this medicine man then puts several bandages with something that feels like tiger balm on them and we again play charades until we figure out that I am not to remove them and not to take a shower for 12 hours. He again asks me to lay down and does this electrical current thing over my entire body, which he has done three other times by now. This time I can feel the electricity jolting my body pretty much everywhere as he runs his finger up and down over my major veins. One really weird thing is that aside from just feeling this very strong electrical voltage running through my veins, when he got close to my ears, I could hear the electricity. It sounded like a mosquito buzzing in my ear. Tired and perplexed Praveen and I paid the guy the 500RMB ($70) and went to bed.

This morning we woke up to try and see the sunrise. At 4.15am my body was asking me why the hell I was climbing up to the top of a mountain with out coffee and with a poor night's sleep. I was hoping it would be worth while, unfortunately there were thousands of other people there as well and it was really hard to find a place to see the sun. Oh well. Back to the hotel for some coffee and to start a new adventure,,,,

China- Shanghai

2008-05-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

We arrived in China a few days ago after a 13.5 hour painful plane ride. Mentally I had prepared myself for 10 hours, so the extra time was tough. I managed to keep myself awake reading a book called "The Namesake," which I have been meaning to read forever. It's about some kids born to an first generation Indian couple and their experience growing up in the US not knowing if they are Indian or American. Though I think the subject is fascinating and could make a fabulous book, this one wasn't it. Why it made it on the NY Times best seller list I'll never know, but it's now off my list.

Praveen's company owns an apartment in Shanghai. It's a cute, contemporary style place
with American style toilets, which I love and Asian style beds, which I hate. Basically you sleep on an elevated floor. Its so freaking hard that if you sleep on your side for any length of time your shoulder gets practically displaced.

Before going to bed, Praveen wanted to get something to eat so we ventured out.
Since he has been here on business before he knows his way around a bit and much to
my surprise seems to have a knack for picking up the language, which I have to say
seems practically impossible. Every combination of letters makes a completely different sound to what it would in English. Even if you get the sound combinations correct there are like 4 different "tones" you have to master, which I find totally difficult.

His company has these index cards that you can give to cab drivers that will get you to and from the apartment. They have English one one side and Chinese on the other.
Praveen has been managing to get the pronunciations right when we get in a cab and need to go somewhere. I am totally impressed. He keeps asking where my phrase book is and I hate to sound like a dumb American, but though I have looked at it, it seems nearly impossible for me to grasp any of it. Language is definitely not a strength of mine.

Okay so back to the food experience. First off, I hate bad Chinese food. When i think of bad Chinese food the first thing that comes to mind is The China Palace, a little Chinese place in my home town which is edible but not very appetizing. I never knew there was any "other" kind of Chinese until I moved to SF and tasted some really good varieties. Obviously we have no idea what to order being that there were no English translations and no English speakers. Luckily there were pictures. So we took our chances and ordered something that looked like beef and I think tasted like beef. Hopefully it was, I'll pretend it was anyway. It was not very good. Kinda like the China Palace. Oh well. Time for bed.

That night I was so tired, the rock hard bed didn't matter. I sleep tell around four then took my favorite new companion on over seas flights- ambien- a very gentle but effective sleeping pill that doesn't leave you tired or groggy when you wake up.

The following morning we needed to start with something easy so we went to the spa.
The spa building has 7 or 8 stories. Apparently in China they work all day then go to the spa. You can even stay overnight for an extra $3. They have restaurants,
bars, game rooms, and lots of different body treatments. I saw some weird treatments like eyelash combing. I wonder what that is???

I was escorted to my locker by a lovely lady that spoke a little English. She could understand me enough to tell me that despite the fact I didn't see any other naked people, I should be totally undressed, at least I had hoped that is what she was saying. The spa wasn't busy since it was the middle of the day and I guess everyone else was at work. The people working there all had clothes on, which makes sense and since labor is cheap, there were tons of them. They seem to have this similar infatuation with westerners as I experienced in India. I am not sure where that comes from, but I don't mind it. It's better then the alternative, I suppose.

So I walk into what looks like an area that has a hot tub and I think I am going to get in but this lady guides me to the shower, where she shakes a finger at me when I begin to use soap, so I assume, no soap. I rinse off then let her guide me to a table where she puts on a luffa in the shape of a grove and begins rubbing my cold, naked body. I remember Praveen telling me about a similar experience and I now understand how he got himself into it. I figure, everyone needs a full body exfoliation and I remember how soft and silky his skin was upon his return. A few times through out the somewhat painful scrub she pulls out an unidentifiable packet of something and asks (i think) "do you want this?" Not really sure what
"it" is I just sit back and enjoy the ride and nod "yes." I was a little worried because I was suppose to meet Praveen on the third floor in 20 minutes (from the time I got there) and I began to realize that every time I said yes to something, I was agreeing to another treatment. First the body scrub, then the 20 minute milk bath, then some bamboo scrub. Finally I learned to say no. I went up to find praveen still patently waiting. Anyway, it was fun.

We went to this street that sounded like 'cheap' street in English- where they have all the knock
offs. The weather report for where we were going over the weekend said it was going to be raining the whole time and I hadn't brought a rain
jacket so we went there to buy one. I got a North face jacket that looks pretty darn good
for $40. These really annoying mafia guys followed us the whole time. Apparently they hassle
the shop keepers for a cut of what you buy. There were 7 of them. They were awful. If I had
a weapon I probably would have hurt one of them. I grasped my umbrella a few times and really
resisted wacking them with it. I can't imagine what the cost must be on this GORTEX jacket
if they sell it for $40, the shop keeper has his up keep, then the Mafia needs paid after that.

Anyway. We took a flight last night to Huangshan, where we are going to spend a few days hiking through
the clouds.

Yoga

2007-11-30T03:42:00.000-08:00

This is a yoga/meditation center that we went to. It is about an hours drive from Praveen's parent's house. The drive, though very bumpy, is nice. I like to ride through the back country of India. It's amazing that so close to civilization people live in such conditions. Actually they live that way even in civilization, but it some how looks a little less painful when there are hills, trees and farms everywhere. I saw some people doing thier laundry in the pond in the city then laying it on the dirt to dry. At least in the country you can lay it on some grass or something. Also I always think that they must be able to sustain themselves a little easier living off the land then digging through garbage bins, but what do I know?

We didn't do yoga. In fact, I have had no exercise in two and half weeks and have been eating three very full, gee filled, meals a day. I have managed to put on about five lbs that I will have to get rid of upon returning. Yoga is different in India, there are no one or two hour "classes" to go to. You can go to a 3 day-1 month training session then you are expected to practice on your own at home. Next time we come I will come out here and go to the three day session and see how it is. I really liked the place. It is quite beautiful and peaceful. Inside that round building below they have this phallic looking big, black lingam. I think it's made of granite. Inside is completely quite and in the wall they have carved out these places for people to sit and meditate. We sat there for about 20 minutes. It was nice.

They also have this area where you can go and swim in water that is imported from the Ganges river. It's quite beautiful. They have made this waterfall thing and have another lingam in the center to swim around.

We leave India tonight. We will arrive in Thailand tomorrow am where we will stay for a day and a half before jumping on our two day journey to return home on Monday night. I am very much looking forward to my bed and returning to work.

Handmade

2007-11-30T03:25:00.001-08:00

It’s pretty amazing how much stuff is done here by hand. When you buy a sari all the threads are hand woven, every bead hand stitched. When you buy a handicraft each god or elephant is hand carved. When a house is built soil is carried out by hand on what looks like a wok on top of the head. The ground is dug with hand trowels and shovels. Each rock is moved and placed by hand. I was watching the cook make chutney and she sat on the floor with this chair with a point on the end and hand ground each coconut. It’s hard for me to take pictures of things like that because I always feel like someone is going to think I am harassing them or something. It’s hard to explain. Here is a few that I did take though.

When I buy an item on the street form China or India for $1 or $2 I will think about it in a different light. For some reason I always pictured that stuff being mass produced somewhere. And I guess it is, just not on a machine.

These ladies are weeding the grass. (Left)

This yoga place we went to was covered in Granite stone, the pilers the floors, the steps, the statutes are all hand carved, with very basic tools. These guys are chipping away and these huge pilers and making them smooth. (Below)

Favorite baby pictures of praveen

2007-11-30T02:58:00.001-08:00

So I have had too much fun grabbing my favorite pictures of Praveen gowning up. Here are some of my favorites. We have Michael Jackson below and Tarzan down further.

A day at the beach

2007-11-26T23:27:00.001-08:00

One last reception in Madras!

2007-11-26T23:20:00.001-08:00

This picture of Sandyha is the funniest thing ever. In India the photos that are professionally taken for your wedding are totally cheesy. This is an example of what I mean. They added a bindi which is a photo of Karthic to Sandyha's forehead!

I wish I had it in me to write about the second reception (the third wedding function) but to be honest at this point I am so over the wedding thing that I have my doubts if I will ever have it in me to attend another wedding in India. It was beautiful and nice, but I think we are all tired and ready to move on.

Wedding pictures

2007-11-23T07:29:00.001-08:00

Mehndi

2007-11-23T04:25:00.001-08:00

My nephews have got moves like I have never seen! If I hadn’t seen them dancing I would have never believed it for myself. They were amazing and they are 3 years old. They have all the bollywood moves down. They both got up on a chair and were shaking their booties like you only see in the movies. It was a riot! When we turned the music off to eat one of them started crying.

So last night was the Mehndi, which is where we got painted with henna and danced the night away. Mehndi is not a South Indian thing, but I had it and Sandhya wanted it too so we did it. I think it will be my last henna painting session. I only got one hand painted this time. It’s not the easiest thing. After sitting there and getting it done you need to keep this paint on your hands for several hours until it falls away. You can’t wash your hands for 24 hours. This time I just waited until morning. Since it’s not my wedding I wasn’t so concerned about it turning out perfectly. It looks good though. The problem is that it stinks. Even after you wash it you can still smell it and there’s something about putting a stinky hand on my face that doesn’t really work for me. If I was smart I would have had my left hand done instead of my right so that I could still eat.

Today is the reception so everyone is running around like busy bees to get everything done. Weddings in India are so much work and money for the family that it blows me away. Even after having had my own wedding here and knowing full well the financial implications, I still find myself stunned. The family is obligated not only to transport people to and from the airport and railway station to the hotel and back to the wedding hall, but also to pay for the accommodations. Keep in mind that the average Indian wedding is 500-1000 people so that means the families are paying for the wedding, plus the accommodation, transportation and food for all those who come from out of town. Food is not only provided at the wedding but the days that precede and follow the wedding as well. Then there is the cost of everything. Here we are in a country where people don’t make US wages (though that is changing) but pay US prices for some services that are often times not up to par with the services you receive in the US. There are tremendous business opportunities EVERYWHERE here.

Oh and another funny thing is that people don’t RSVP. Imagine, having to book hotel rooms without knowing who will come to the wedding. Luckily, I haven’t had to be too involved with the logistics. Praveen’s parents seem to have it down really well after planning our wedding. Bless them!!! The parents do the majority of the planning for the kids here, so the bride and groom pretty much just show up. It definitely makes the wedding less stressful and likely more enjoyable, assuming they are marrying someone of their own choosing.

That brings up another point. Arranged marriages are still the norm in India. That’s how Praveen and I met of courseJ Ha, just kidding. Sandhya, however did chose her own groom. She took the opportunity during my wedding to introduce him to the family while every one was overwhelmed with something else. She’s a smart girl. I think also after the drama with Praveen and I getting married, her choosing someone from a different caste, who is also Indian, probably seemed more acceptable.

Anyways, there are a lot of things that are different here when compared to the US. We chose our own mates, and often our parents have no say so in who that person is. We also usually plan our own weddings and many brides get the stressed out earning them the title of ‘bridezilla’. As a guest, you buy a nice gift intended to get the new couple on their feet. Oh and of course gifts are chosen off of a registry, so you can’t go wrong. The average wedding gift in the US is $50-$100 depending on your income status and how close you are to the bride and groom. And of course, you pay for your room and transportation. One good thing is that before I go to someone’s wedding, I think to myself, is this person really worth it to me? If it is out of town on average you’ll be spending $500 just to attend, assuming that you don’t need a plane ticket. So if that couple isn’t really special to me, then I don’t go and I save the couple $40-100 in food and liqueur costs. Anyway it’s all very different. There is no need to compare which is better or worse, but the observations of differences are interesting.

Mehndi

2007-11-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

Superstition and Birthdays

2007-11-19T23:52:00.001-08:00

November 20^th

Well, I am not blogging well this time around! I have a feeling that this blog will be more of a list of ramblings then anything else. There is not a lot that is new to me here so I have fewer things to reflect upon then I did two years ago during my first visit. Since Praveen doesn’t make it home much we really just want to concentrate on spending as much time with his family as possible.

We may do something but at this point I am not sure what. One thing that we are planning which I am excited about is a trip to the leaf reader. There is apparently someone here who claims that thousands of years ago some amazing person was given the gift to know the future of every soul on earth. He wrote down everyone’s future on palm leaves. To find the leaf with your future, they need your finger print, what time you were born and some other random info. Apparently they don’t have everyone’s leaves-- only those who have pervious lives of a certain spiritual status. Anyway, we are going to go to this man and see what he has to say.

---------------------

That is one thing about this part of the world that is very interesting. It seems to be very superstitious. Praveen’s parents had a visit from an architect yesterday who has suggested some major structural changes to the house in order to increase good luck. Praveen’s father would really like to make the changes, but is being pressured by both his children not to. There is a laundry list of things that have been tried over the years including butchering goats and various prayers and pilgrimages. It seems when things are going right it is believed that the reason why is because of all these adjustments. The things that go wrong are blamed on not enough adjustments.

Praveen’s uncle, who is a doctor, told us that when his house was built a few years ago a priest came over with a cow. The priest let the cow wonder around the house walking all over the very high-end floor. The cow climbed up the stairs and back down and finally back through the living room without leaving a scratch. The cow crossed back to the center of the living room and took a big dump and pee right in the middle!!! The priest said, of course, “this is very good luck!” The priest then said that the mess needed to be left for a full day AND Praveen’s uncle needed to sleep that night in the living room. The next day some girls were sent over to clean the mess. Wow!!! That’s all I can say!

Anyway, I wouldn’t say I lack superstition. I have been to card readers, palm readers and had my fair share of interesting encounters. I do believe in reincarnation, karma, clairvoyance, and energy among other things. I also think that if something has been practiced for thousands of years there may be some merit to it.

Yesterday was a long social day. Socializing always wears me out more then anything else. I am always trying to figure out what people are saying because even though most people in the South speak English often time it is difficult to understand each other. Praveen’s Grandfather, who is one of the most important figures in the family, had an 80^th birthday celebration. Praveen’s grandfather lives in a neighboring state called Kerala, which is my favorite state in India thus far. It is really beautiful. There are lots of trees and greenery. I can’t say I have been around much of Tamil Nadu, the state where Praveen’s parents live, but what I have seen of it doesn’t do much for me. The town is large but nothing like an American city. It is very dusty, dirty and well “developing.” The parts of India that I have really enjoyed have been either the ‘back’ country, like Sampath’s farm, the back waters (of Kerala), or some of the more decorative towns like Jaipur. What is important about Coimbatore is the people and that is why we are here. Being able to spend time with his family has been really, really beautiful.

Okay, so back to the birthday party. The family hired some traditional dance group to come and perform a story. Normally this dance is five hours long. It has a lot of singing and acting, but few people understand the language because it is a much more traditional formal dialect then they speak. Luckily the group has a written version of the story in English so you can follow along. Praveen’s mother talked them into reducing the time down to 3 hours, which is the shortest time they would agree to. I mostly kept myself occupied playing with my cute niece and nephews, who I truly adore.

After the play we had a traditional Kerala style lunch which was very similar to the meal we had at our wedding. It was various chutneys served on a banana leaf that you eat, of course, with your hands. Eating with your hands is one of the interesting things about the south and I hadn’t done it since our last trip to India, but I quickly found some nail clippers and adjusted.

I really do like south Indian style food. It does have to grow on you though. Many of the things I love now, I had no taste for the first few times I ate them. Thank god too that I like it because there really are no other alternatives and this trip could be really miserable other wise.

Arriving in India

2007-11-19T23:32:00.000-08:00

11/17/07

We arrived to Praveen’s parents’ house yesterday after what was the longest trip of my life. We left SFO at 12am on Thursday and flew 13 hours to Hong Kong. We had a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong then flew four hours to Singapore. We then had a 9 hour layover in Singapore then flew 4 hours to Chennai where we had a 8 hour layover then finally flew an hour to Praveen’s home town. Phew! We booked the trip originally this way so we could spend a week in Thailand but due to some work obligations we had to cut that trip out of our itinerary.

I have to say if you are going to be stuck for nine hours in an airport Singapore is the one to be in. There is a hotel within the airport where you can rent rooms by the hour! Wow, how exciting! That was my first time ever renting a room by the hour, though Praveen tells me he has done it on many occasions :/ . The room was great. We took a shower, worked out in the gym, went to the pool, took another shower, got a pedicure and ate some nasty food. A good restaurant is all the airport lacks. When we arrived in India the adventure began. A few of Praveen’s very devoted friends showed up to pick us up at 12.30 am and take us to a hotel. When we arrived at the hotel I noticed my carry on bag was missing. I always pack only the most important stuff in my carry on so that it is ALWAYS with me and I don’t have to worry about someone riffling through it and stealing something. I had packed my laptop, Sandhya’s wedding gift (a set of pearls), recently purchased cosmetics (because I forgot my makeup bag), both our cameras and other random stuff. Oh, also some very expensive face cream that I had been sparingly using because of the price (A lady who gave me a facial in SF had guilted me into buying it. It has ‘breast milk’ among other things and it is supposed to make me beautiful and reduce all signs of aging. Anyway, we knew the bag was on the cart, which was loaded by a driver sent by the hotel, for some reason he never loaded that bag. Praveen’s friends, who are very sweet and protective, proceeded to take me on a high speed chase back to the airport to find my bag, which I was sure I had lost. I was fighting back tears, trying to focus on the positive and not focus on what it would be like to be laid up in an Indian hospital should we crash into one of the thousand motorbikes, oxen or other cars coming directly towards us. For those of you who aren’t aware, there are no rules when it comes to driving in India. It’s crazy to say the least.

When we arrived back at the airport we paced the parking lot and did not find the bag. One of Praveen’s friends proceeded to ask a police officer about the bag. I had written it off and at this point and finally broke down in tears. I was trying to figure out how in the world I was going to live with out my laptop for two weeks. I had all these plans that included my laptop and with out it I thought I’d surely die. I began negotiating in my head, trying to figure out what could and couldn’t be replaced. Everything except the cosmetics and the laptop could be replaced in India. Even the laptop could though probably not with one that I’d want or with the programs I need to work while here.

The cop said they had found the bag and taken it to security in the airport. I don’t think I am an expert on the third world by any means, but I have been around enough to know that even with this news I wasn’t necessary going to see my bag and if
I did see it I wasn’t sure that anything would be inside. Actually had I left it in SFO or STL international I wouldn’t expect it to be there either, but it would be different. We proceed to the place where we thought the cop was directing us, luckily it was not the place he intended we go, because luck had turned. We ended up in the office of an angelic airport manager, who was a very feisty woman, who wanted to help. After a recent trip to Mexico where we were ushered from one place to another looking for bags I was still not hopeful, but I knew enough to know that this woman was a rarity. After several phone calls to the police who were looking for a bribe to bring back the bag, they brought it to her were I inspected it. I would have happily paid them what they wanted, but the airport manager was determined to get it without the BS. The only item missing was a bag of my liquid cosmetics, face lotion and some random shampoos, deodorants, ect. I am sure it got tossed aside by accident while they were looking for what they could use for a bribe. I was Elated! Finally we returned to the hotel at 2am for a few drinks before getting 3 hours of shut eye.

The really ironic thing is that this is the same bag that I had left at home by accident. When we got to SFO, we realized we didn’t have it so we actually drove back home to get it. AHHHH! From now on I am committed to being the only one responsible for my carry on and counting all bags loaded in any car.

Anyway, since arriving at Praveen’s parents we have been relaxing and getting ready for the wedding which is a few days away. I was very pleased to find that a Sari left over from my wedding (that I never wore) and several items borrowed from an Indian friend in the US were approved for wearing at various events, so that I don’t have to buy anything! Since shopping is such an exhausting event, this makes me very happy.

Praveen and his sister have quickly reverted back to their brother and sister games. He woke form a nap yesterday to find post-its all over his face. They are really cute together.

Praveen’s parents were nice enough to install a shower for me. Showering out of a bucket my last trip was a first for me, but not one I particularly minded. As long as I can take a shower, I am good. Anyway, no more buckets. The shower has jets that shoot in every direction, although since the bathrooms here are wet, therefore open, I don’t think I’ll be using the jets. Also the water is not warm and is in short supply so I basically use it very similarly to how I’d used the bucket. I drench myself, do what I got to do and get out of there. I totally understand why all the Indian women I know are into waxing. I am a daily shaver. When you are soaping up with cold water and your legs have goose bumps on them, it makes for a pretty rough shave.

It’s good to have home cooked food though praveen is very disappointed that there is again a hired cook doing the cooking rather than his mother who is busy preparing for the wedding and catching up with guests.

Mexico

2007-07-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Whistler - Blackcomb

2007-07-29T12:40:00.001-07:00

yosemite

2007-07-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

Trip home June 07

2007-07-29T11:13:00.001-07:00

Can’t stay away from Caulker

2006-09-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

picuture at I and I Regee Bar- they have swings everywhere instead of chairs. It is a pretty cool idea.

We arrived back in Caye Caulker on my Birthday! Thank you everyone for your warm wishes. It took me an hour to get through my emails. I was feeling quite ill, probably from something this *&()#$ served me at one of the only open restaurants in Placentia. She tried to convince me she had brought me baked brie, but it was actually Babaganoush! Finally, she admitted her mistake after praveen couldn’t quite be convinced that baked brie is baked egg plant with almonds. I was going to let it slide.

Anyway we have grown quite fond of Caye Caulker. There are only 700 residents on the island and we seem to know all of them. Everyone was happy we were "home" and were saying hello and telling us that we would never leave. It is nice to know people. I guess that is the small town charm. I know at some point there would be plenty of people here I wouldn’t want to know and wouldn’t want to run into. I feel that way pretty much every time I go to Wal-Mart in Fulton. But for now, it’s great. There are only two cars on the island. Every one else either walks, rides a bike or rides around in a golf cart.

So we did it! We dove the Blue hole. We have tons of underwater pictures but we will have to wait to developed them until we return home. I feel so fortunate for seeing some of the great things we have seen. We have swam with dolphins, sharks, sting rays, manatees, tons of fish that I don’t even know, big groupers, yellow tails snappers, sergeant majors, turtles, lobsters, and the list goes on and on.

So the Big Blue Hole, well it is just that a big ass blue hole. It is something like 1,000 feet in diameter. Getting there is hell. It’s about 1.5 hours of boating thought waves upto 10 ft high. You feel like you are on a roller costar and you’re not sure if the driver is licensed. The waves are big and I was sure despite the Dramamine, I would be sick before we arrived. If I wasn’t, I thought Praveen would be, but we managed to keep our stomachs inside our bodies.

We got in the water and everyone began descending downward. The blue hole has a white sandy rim about 40 feet deep from the surface. We descended to this white bottom. From there, you basically leap or float off the edge over the blue hole, this very dark, a little scary, bottomless pit of water, where you know there are sharks. About 100 feet down I started feeling fucked up. I knew I was 'narced'. I think I told you about nitrogen narcosis or in diving parlance, 'narced'. I looked around I couldn’t see Praveen anywhere. The water was cold and some what dark. There were no fish to be seen just these big stalagmites. I looked down at my gauge and I couldn’t tell what depth I was at. I knew then I was really messed up. What was the conversion again? I keep thinking to convert meters I needed to multiply by 10. We stopped our descent at 145 feet. Knowing I was going to do something stupid, I closely followed the dive master. I tried to think positively about the whereabouts of my husband. We had a long discussion about the importance of staying together. I could have waited for him but I would have risked losing my group and any chance I had for being saved should I start doing cartwheels or freaking out and going up to fast. I tried to remember all the things I learned about staying calm while being out of my head back in my high school and college days. I took deep breaths trying to remember to breathe in and breathe out. I pushed Praveen’s safety out of my mind knowing that there was an instructor following behind and he likely waited and was with him. I also reminded myself he was a man and didn’t need me to take care of him. I wished that I could talk to someone and communicate that I really wanted to know where my husband was, but there was no way to do that. I should have told the instructor I was feeling narcosis. I could have done this with underwater signs that they teach in the certification classes. I didn’t but I think he knew. I tried to just breathe deep and relax. The cure is to ascend, but I didn’t have a buddy to ascend with and then I would miss the dive. I thought back to all the times I have been able to handle situations while out of my head and I knew I would be fine. Getting narced is like being drunk. At 150 feet, the effect is the equivalent of three martinis on an empty stomach. Unfortunately all the time I have had building up my tolerance to alcohol didn't help with nitrogen. We were in a big group, too big, and I was trying not to kick the girl behind me even though it is her responsibility not follow too close. I finally turned around and I saw Praveen and I instantly felt like my bad trip just got better. I think that was about 5 minutes of hell. I looked around and saw a big black grouper. It was probably about three feet long maybe four. It is hard to tell because things are 33% larger underwater. It swam close enough to reach out and touch if you wanted.

Then the sharks came. I remember thinking I was glad to be high because I wasn’t the slightest bit worried. I didn’t however swim close to them. I think they may have been feeding them on top because as we swam up they all seemed to follow. I think they were about 15 or 20 feet long. So that was it. All the hype about the big blue hole- we had finally experienced it for ourselves.. We had finally done it! I guess there is not many places that you get to swim with sharks or fish that big and that is the fun of it. Also there is some pretty interesting history. The blue hole is 400 feet deep. It used to be a cave that was above land. It is believed that there was ice on top of the cave that melted in and finally crushed the top. Some of the stalagmites are said to be 150 feet long. It is interesting swimming through them and around them. I think if we had more experience diving I would have enjoyed it more, but I am still glad we did it and we came out safe and sound.

The two following dives were really nice. We dove a coral wall face called Half-moon wall and Long Caye. Long Caye, our last dive was my all time favorite. It was absolutely amazing. The colors, the fish and the visibility were perfect. What a nice way to end a perfect vacation!

2006-09-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Sailing down South

2006-09-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

We swam with dolphins the other day. In between our dives at St. Georges Key, we suddenly we saw some dolphins splashing in the distance. The captain headed full speed towards them and we dove in the water and chased them around. It was really cool.

We took the sailing trip down south. It was pretty fun. I fried my buns the first day and I couldn’t sit down for the following three days with out having a towel under my ass. It was a pretty bad burn. I snorkeled the following days in a long sleeved shirt and pants.

When I first saw the boat I nearly backed out. I had pictured hammocks, chairs, shady spots, and well, a large open area to rest and be comfortable. The boat was about thirty feel long and very small. There were no chairs and no hammocks. The toilet had no door, no tp and all of the luggage was in the same very small space. We managed to use mats around the top and the side and some how make ourselves quite confortable.

Highlights:
Praveen catching a big read snapper, which was quite tasty.
Getting a guided tour around the corals with a guy who as 35 years of experience on the water. I learned about sea cucumbers, I got to hold two kinds of sea urchin, which I wanted to eat but didn’t know how.
Watched the boat captain hunt for lobsters.
Sitting in the sun reading another book
Relaxing
Listening to the ocean.
Cuddling up with praveen.

The first night we slept on Rendezvous Key. It is a very small island. It was about 70 feet long and 30 feet wide. There is nothing on it except a handful of coconut trees and sand, oh and tons of crabs, but not the good eating kind. They are these little cockroach like creatures that you have to worry about stepping on. We snorkeled for a bit then ate the dinner that we caught earlier in the day- Snapper and Barracuda. It was delicious!!!

The Barracudas are quite scary. They have these big teeth. I didn’t like being too close when they were being pulled into the boat. I did catch one though on the second day. Harry, the captain, talked me into trying its eye ball after it was cooked. I have to say, it was gross. It felt like thick paste. It tasted fishy but not too fishy. After I sucked and chewed the nasty paste off I was left with this hard marble, which I swallowed. After I swallowed it Harry told me that most people spit it out.

We caught some Conch and pulled it out of the shell and made ceviche. I liked it best just raw right out of the shell. It was sweet and delicious.

That night it stormed pretty badly. There was a bit of lightning that was frightening because we were on this little island in the middle of the ocean. We were obviously one of the higher points in a sea of nothingness. Praveen counted the time between lighting and thunder. The closest was one mile away! I slept poorly. I was in some pretty serious pain, my sun burn was so bad. Half the night I held the tent away from me with my feet because the wind was blowing the walls right over me, smothering me.

Around 4.30 I woke up and waited for it to start getting light. I didn’t want to go outside and risk stepping on the sea cockroaches (crabs). Finally around 5.15 We got up and watched the sun come up.

We were able to have one gallon of water to wash up with. It was a little slice of heaven. I have never been so excited about a gallon of water in my life.

The next day we sailed to Tobacco Key. We stopped and snorkeled around a bit. Caught some more fish and relaxed. When we got to the island Praveen smoked his Cuban cigar and read his Bill Clinton book. The island was pretty much shut down but when we arrived the opened the bar on the beach and we started a little party with the locals. We ate lobster we caught that day. It was to die for. Harry and Charlie (the captains) turned out to be pretty good chefs.

The Island was about five times the size of Rendezvous Key and had showers and bathrooms. I was finally able to attend to that BM that needed to move through my system. The showers were not fancy, but they were wonderful, despite their simplicity.

The sleep that night was wonderful. We were very lucky our tent held up. Somehow one of the poles split in the storm the previous night and we had to pull duct tape off various objects, reuse it and tape our pole together. The wind was quite and the rain was light. My sunburn was finally subsiding!

The trip was restful, peaceful and very beautiful.

The next morning we woke up and came back to the place we can’t seem to escape. Caye Caulker.

diving

2006-09-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

Sept 19th

Diving….

Thrashing waves.
Head bobbing
Scared.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Anxiety.
Breathe.
Go Down.
Equalize.
Go slowly.
Not sinking.
Equalize.
Still at the top.
Everyone is leaving.
Relax.
Breathe
Equalize.
Keep breathing.
Relax.
Sinking.
Slowly going.
Fish.
Corals.
Breathing.
Deep long breaths of air.
Equalize.
Beautiful colors.
Beautiful sand.
Clear water.
Breathe.
Underwater turtles.
Fish schools of them.
Sergeant majors swimming all around.
Flipping turning.
Every where you see
Peace.
Fun.
Weightless

Sept 14th, Still in Caye Caulker

2006-09-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry no pictures yet, but check back in about four days, I will try and get some up when we get back on land.

Well it is official we are certifiably addicted to diving. It is good though, that it seems we have a similar appetite for adventures. With diving though, I really think we may have a problem. We had decided to book a three day sailing/snorkeling trip to the south of Belize. We have vacillated on the plan for many days due to various factors, primarily fear of sea sickness. The lack of showers was another concern for me. Being in the sea all day for three days with no shower sounds down right nasty, but supposedly one night there will be a real shower and the other night a bag or a bucket with fresh water. That will work, I think. I went and bought and extra tub of wet wipes, which I think will come in handy for the quick wipe down. We dove St. Georges Caye today and we said it was our last dive. We are now certified to dive to 60 feet unsupervised.

There is an area here called the Blue Hole which is 140 feet and you swim with sharks and other cool stuff. It is one of the top ten dive sites in the world. We never had any intention of diving there. The blue hole is this natural wonder where it is an endless hole. There are several things that could be a bit frightening. Firstly, vertigo, after about 100 feet you loose the top from the bottom. Secondly, narcosis, which is your body absorbing too much nitrogen, you and you get to feeling intoxicated and do something stupid, and really that is about it. There are loads of other things that could go wrong but none that we haven’t trained on. We will also be with a guide who will be monitoring everyone really closely.

Oh, so the crazy part is, we are traveling all the way BACK to Caye Caulker to dive the Blue Hole before we go home. This is going to be a bit out of the way and also means that we have to give up all of our plans for traveling in and around Belize. Honestly, it is an easy choice. It is rather and inefficient way to travel, but totally island style, I suppose. We are flying by the seat of our pants. We were under the impression that you needed a special certification but you really don’t you only need to be going with a specially trained diver if you don’t have it. The dive companies here are supper professional. I have felt really safe in their care every dive.

As Praveen and I listened to this girl talk about her experience there we just knew we could not leave Belize with out going to see this place for ourselves. So I can’t wait. There will be a load of relaxing and snorkeling between now and then though. We are off on a three day trip to see five islands. We’ll be fishing for our dinner and cooking it on the beach then camping out. The good thing is if we don’t catch anything then we can eat what the professionals catch. Several of the islands are surrounded by atolls, which is a reef surrounding the entire island. There will be no shortage of food or rum on this trip. Next time I post I will have seen the great Blue Hole………………….:)

Caye Caulker, Belize

2006-09-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

Sept 12th

We arrived in Belize four lovely days ago. Upon checking the weather before leaving I didn’t think we would be staying for long. According to the report there would be thundershowers everyday for ten solid days. After those ten days they didn’t have a report, but I had a feeling it wasn’t good. The flight was not great. I usually travel with two litres of water and the recent regulations say you can’t have any on board! I managed to smuggle 12oz or so on board, but thank god since the first leg was 6hrs and American Airlines ran out of water an hour into the flight. What bull @#$%! At least if they aren’t going to let you take water they could provide you with some, or hell sell you some!

Anyway in effort to distract myself from dehydration, I threw myself in to BG's copy of “Kite Runner.” What a fast read. I nearly finished it on the way over. Now I am left with nothing to read!

We arrived in Belize City the next day at around 11 am. It was humid and hot, but otherwise dry. We headed straight for Caye Caulker, an island about a 45 minute ferry ride way. The sleepy little island has about 700 inhabitants, who are all quite friendly. There are no cars on the island, which i like. Several people have golf carts. Belize was once occupied by none other than the English, so everyone here speaks English quite well. All the signs and everything are in English, at least so far. The island is a small one. In certain parts you can see the ocean on either side of you. This means I could actually watch the sun rise in the morning and then go to the same place in the evening and watch it set.

We spoiled ourselves the first few days and checked into a nice hotel. I wanted a hotel with a pool so I could practice my swimming for my dive test so we got one. The pool area was gorgeous, from the pool there was a lovely view of the beach. The water tasted like human sweat. I am guessing they don’t change it very often. Praveen says I should think of it as salt water (like the sea) and not sweet. I am pretty sure it is sweat though. Oh and it is only about 10 feet across-- So much for swimming laps.

That night we went out and had a few drinks. The island is very laid back. There are signs everywhere that say “No shoes, No Shirt, No shit, No problem.” The food is surprisingly good. It is a mix of Creole style and Mexican. They have a lot of red beans and rice, stewed chicken, burritos, seafood, oh…and LOBSTER, tons of it. I have had lobster almost everyday. It is the only thing here that is significantly cheaper than back home. You can have a lobster omelet, lobster curry, lobster sandwich (kind of like a crab cake) and then in variety of ways whole, garlic, spicy, I don’t know what else…..the lobsters here don’t have claws though! At first I thought the rainbow restaurant was ripping me off. “Where are my claws?”, I asked the waiter when he brought me my plate. Anyway, it is not as sweet as a Maine lobster and it is a hair over cooked, but it is good. I have a favorite restaurant here too called Syds. I want to eat there every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner but praveen is trying to talk me into trying more of the random mediocre places. Syds, is pretty cheap and DELICIOUS!!!

Oh, so after a night of drinking we showed up to our dive class a few hours late. Luckily we were the only ones in it and that day we only had to watch some DVDs and read a shit load of material. For the last four days we've done nothing but read, eat, sleep and breathe diving. I have learned and seen so much! Today we did our dive down to 60 ft (the last one for the certification) and we took a camera with us. I am hoping we got some good pictures but I will not be able to develop and post them until we are back home.

The first day we got in the water I experienced claustrophobia for the first time ever. I was supposed to be going down to the bottom of about 10 feet to practice pulling a regulator (a breathing tube) in and out of my mouth without drowning and some other exercises, but I couldn’t make myself sink. Everything was closing in on me and I felt trapped and I wanted out!!! I was thinking, about how I’d just have to sit on the beach and drink 'panty rippers' while Praveen got certified. What a shame! I knew there was a whole new world of experiences waiting for me and there was no way in hell I was going to be able to do this! Then I managed to breathe a little deeper and calm myself down. It is pretty interesting that you can remove your mask under water, put it back on and get the water out, all while still under water.

The training they give you for a certification is very thorough. We also learned how to use each others' back-up regulators in case one of us runs low on air and or runs out. There were some very scary moments when both of us wondered what the hell we were doing out there.

Yesterday the water was extremely choppy. Everyone was sea sick, some more than others. Getting into the water and waiting to go down was the worst part. Once we finally got underwater it was great.

I like how peaceful it is underwater. You feel a sense of weightlessness like never before. I kind of felt like an astronaut. The views are spectacular. Today we saw some green eel, a big turtle, a bunch of yellowtail and some nurse sharks. There was a bunch of other stuff too that I didn’t know what was. I will have to start studying up on all these fish and coral.

Praveen snorkeled down and got me a conch but since there was still a live conch (the animal that lives in a conch shell!) inside we were not allowed to take it home and kill it. Too bad it would look really pretty in my garden or somewhere.

So now, it is time to have a drink. We have had to study and be up every day at 7.30 am. Also they say that drugs and alcohol increase your chances of experiencing some of the illnesses brought on by diving, honestly I don’t remember which of the three sicknesses it is right now. So I will maybe find you at the bottom of my tequila shot…..until next time………ruth

Another wedding???

2006-07-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

My biggest worry was the weather. I didn’t realize until a month prior that the room my sister so graciously donated was not air-conditioned. Missouri in the dead of summer is not only hot, but very humid.

The previous night as we were decorating it was almost unbearable in the area where we were having the party. Amazingly, just after the wedding, a storm blew in and the temperature dropped by about 20 degrees. We were so lucky. I have to say we have really been fortunate with weather all the way around. The party that we had here in California fell on a perfect day but it had rained every day before or after for about 25 days straight.

We had the actual wedding at Garry and Rebekah’s restaurant. She and her husband own a three story historic building in my hometown of Fulton. We actually walked in through the front door and oddly enough they did not shut down the restaurant so there were a few people in there eating dinner when the wedding march came on and Praveen and I walked inside. Everyone was waiting on the mezzanine watching as we walked up the stairs and then met the minister. We had written our own vows, which neither of us had heard before and ironically they both turned out to be funny and cute.

After the wedding we played one of our favorite songs Bob Marley’s , Is this love as we walked out in the street. Garry has a mic that is hooked up to the speakers that run downtown Fulton and he was screaming words of congratulations for the whole town to hear. It was really cute.

I am glad the wedding we small. Sure I could have invited a bunch of people that I haven’t seen since highschool, but why? Not that I wouldn’t love to see some of them, but it was nice to be able to just focus on the people I feel are still a really important part of my life.

A few of Praveen’s friends flew in and so it was great to bring together some people we both love.

I feel like I got to experience almost every wedding experience that I have ever heard of. I had the big wedding (which was in a foreign land w/ foreign customs), The small wedding and the big party. Over all I think that the wedding in India was probably the most enjoyable because I didn’t know what to expect and I really didn’t plan any of it so I wasn’t worried about much of anything. I felt emotional and sentimental, where in Fulton I was too nervous to feel that way, mostly I felt numb.

I was surprised at how nervous I was. I was really worried I would forget my vows. I can’t imagine how it would have been if I would have had to memorize something meaningful and regurgitate it in front of the 500 people in India that I didn’t even know.

After the ceremony though, I was able to let loose and have a blast and that part I can’t compare. To have Naomi sing our first dance, my father sing a few songs, BG and my mom give beautiful toasts….and the lists goes on… The food was amazing, the music was fun, and overall I think everyone had a wonderful time. Celebrating with my friends and my family really was priceless.

My hardest party was the one here in California. I didn’t feel like I got to have a real conversation with anyone the entire day. I felt like I worked too hard and spent too much money for – what? I am not sure. I was so busy trying to prepare wonderful food that I forgot to focus on anything wedding like. There was no toast, no speech, but boy was there ever food! We really thought it was important to be able to celebrate with everyone here, but really we didn’t because there were too many people to celebrate with that we ended up not celebrating with anyone. I guess at heart I really am just a small town girl.

So now it is official and we have the paper work to prove it. We are married and I have to say I don’t think I could have ever found a better partner to spend the rest of my life with.

Living in SF

2006-07-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

So I am often asked the question, why San Francisco? I usually mumble something about the surrounding areas, the night life and the people. The other day I told my friend who lives in the little town of Mokane Missouri, population maybe 75, that I liked that there were a lot of liberals around. Praveen mentioned to me later that it probably wasn’t the best choice of words.

As I sat out on Sallie’s deck and watched her two beautiful children freely chasing firefly and running over to say hi to their pony I thought to myself, do I have it all wrong? Here she lives in a house that was 60K (half of the second mortgage on my house), she doesn’t work and she is happy, but would I be? Could I be? I like to think I could be happy in any situation but part of my quest over the past few years is to figure out what it is that makes me REALLY happy and get it.

Some times I wonder though, am I part of a big rat race? I have nearly a million dollar mortgage and I could never stay home with my kids, but would I want to? I often times wonder if I would go crazy and need something more than kids. I do know I would love the option not to work. Am I tricked into working the rest of my life in order to pay for the things I need?

So what is that drives me to stay in this place were I will have to work until the rest of my life?
I do love the city. I love that there are always things to do, if I want. I don’t always want to do something, but when I do there are always things to do. I love the open mindedness. You can have a tattoo or a nose ring and be a professional were in most cities that is not an option. There is a certain freedom that comes with that nonjudgmental mentality. Partially it comes from the boom time where thousands of people my age were made millionaires over night and now because of that I can visit a 10 or 20 million dollar open houses while the people wonder if Praveen may be a founder of Google or some other big start up that made thousands rich. There is a certain freedom and mystery to the idea that anyone could be a millionaire. It leaves the bouncers and bars questioning whether they should deny the guy in flip-flops and they seldom do. it leaves the hostess at Fleur de Lys wondering if he should ask you to put on a jacket to come in the fancy establishment. I love that about this city. Where I came from young people weren’t as respected as they are here. Seemingly, because they didn’t have money, and I guess that is what it takes to be respected by certain parts of society, but here it is different because none knows who has money and who doesn’t. That makes a more level playing field. After all what does money have to do with human worth anyway?
I said primarily it came from the boom time, but actually I think it came long before then. One thing I was really looking for was a place that was culturally diverse. In SF I defiantly found that, and even married it. It is really great that all these people from all these places live all in one city and most people really are interested in not only accepting them but learning more about them. Today there was a gay parade and there were thousands of people straight and gay who came out to celebrate that they are free to be gay. In SF I have learned about the Russian culture, Chinese, Indian, Irish, Thai people, Japanese and many more, I always thought I would have to travel to learn all of this but really I just have to live right here. I love that!

A lot of what I love, I think, mostly comes down to the people. I was driving down 280 today and there was a sign that read, “Spare the Air. Go the speed limit.” I thought to myself oh yeah, I can do that, and I slowed down. I love that there are people here that are thinking about the big picture and remembering that we all can make a difference with one step everyday. Often times when I am home in Missouri I notice the majority of people don’t recycle and I think, wow what a different world we would live in if the rest of the country could be more like SF. Everyone has the right to live how they want and I respect that some people don’t feel the way I do, but when it comes to the kinds of people I want to be around everyday, I think I’d like for them to be more like me. I also want to be around people that are exceeding my limits so that I can drawl from them and perhaps be inspired by them. Most of my friends are as educated or more educated them myself, which drives me to do something more with my own life. Most of the people I know are traveling to other countries to experience the world and may of them are volunteering for organizations they believe in, even though they already live very busy lives. This reminds me that yes, I too can make time to make a difference. I know several people who, though it is less then convent and they have cars, they take public transit to work a few days a week. These are all things I admire and part of what makes the Bay Area a great place to live in.

There is also the whole fitness and eating thing. Most of the people I know take time to fit exercise somewhere into their every day lifestyle. I know several people who go to the gym 5 or even 6 days a week. Probably about 40% of the people I know here have run a marathon at one time or another. It is not that they are supernatural just that they have learned to believe in themselves and that they can do it. They are not all thin or super athletes. In fact, you’d look at a few of them and think to yourself, “REALLY?” I love that I can draw inspiration from all these people. It is just something I never found living in Missouri. In fact as many places as I have traveled I have never found it all in one place, anywhere.

I won’t even start on the quality of food here. It could be better. The high end restaurants are some of the best in the world, but in NY I found much more healthy food on the street for every day lunches and that is important.

That is not to say that I don’t have people I love and respect in Missouri. I love my family and I have some of the best friends of my life in Missouri. Some of my college friends are not only like minded in terms of politics and world travel but they have special other qualities. Where else will I ever have ART night? Or be able to spend so little money on a night in, but have so much fun stilling around drinking beer in my living room, of course BYOB. I like all the free stuff in STL as well, I love the botanical gardens where you can BYOB and picnic. We have as similar thing here called Stern grove and it always reminds me of STL. I guess the thing is that I feel my friends are a hard to find exception to many of the standard people that I have found in the Midwest which is one big reason why I decided to leave in the first place. I looked around and thought is this where I want to settle and the answer was for now, no.

I explain to my clients on almost an everyday bases the importance of deciding what is important form or function. Soon I will have to make these choices. I will try my hardest to raise kids here, but if I can’t then well I can’t.

I guess the biggest thing is that I would like to find a balance where I don’t always feel like I need to buy the best kitchen or a hot tub for my back yard. I don’t think these things would even occur to me if I lived somewhere else but here I feel like it is almost necessary. It’s weird. I really feel some times like I NEED a new kitchen or a new hot tub. When I take a step back I realize how absurd this is (particularly at the level I wish to build it).

For now I will do the best I can to stretch my income to pay a mortgage that is very high, I will say it is hard. Some times I feel that our generation really got screwed with the housing prices here. I have a very modest house and despite a very fortunately generous double income we can barely make it work. As for appreciation, it doesn’t look like we will see much of it. We bought a house in what looks like the peak of the pricing cap and now, well, we’re happy that we are actually one of the lucky ones in our generation who found a way to make it work.

Anyway, I will say that I am happy. I have a wonderful husband, friends and family that I love dearly a beautiful house and a job that I love. What more can I ask for?

Life In The Suburbs

2006-05-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

So Praveen and I have spent an unreal amount of time working in our front yard. We started by digging up all the weeds. Then we dug about 8 trenches by hand. We later found out that they have this really cool thing you can rent called a trencher. Ooops, too late! Next we put together a sprinkler system, buried it. Then, we went to India and all the weeds came back. We spent another few back breaking weekends pulling weeds until we could no longer walk before deciding, roundup was looking pretty good, despite whatever harmful things it does. We bought about $800 worth of rocks and built a rock wall. Our landscaper neighbor told us we did it wrong, so we did it again. Then we had $400 of dirt delivered. I think by this time some of our sprinkler heads were damaged so we replaced them. We spread the dirt around and finally we could begin planting. Planting is a tad bit challenging in Pacifica because EVERYTHING has to go into a gopher basket, which mean deeper holes and more hassle.

Finally we are now close to the finish line. We need a few more plants and we need the plants that we have to grow. The landscaper suggested a big rock near the front, but we’ll see.

Since Praveen never remembers anything how it WAS, I have taken some pictures of our baby plants so that one day we can look back at how grown up they have become.

Now it’s time to sit back and relax.

We have a bunch more work to do on this side:(

We also made a cute little pathway with some beutiful flat rocks, but you can't really tell how nice they are in this picture.

The orange room

2006-05-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well we are almost finished with the "orange room." While we were in India the ceiling of our guest bedroom fell so we had to have the carpet removed and the ceiling replaced. Since we already had to have contactors here, we also decided it would be a good time to add recessed lights. Four months have gone by. We’ve had our dealings with contractors, insurance adjustments and quite a few paint colors. We have finally arrived at something we like.

Orange has to be the hardest color I have ever dealt with on a wall.

I also decided that no house should be with out at least one red wall. We now have a red entrance.

SANTA CRUZ

2006-04-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

Wedding Reception- Cali

2006-03-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

(By the way, for those of you who don't know, there was a hat contest)

Wow! It's been a while. I decided it is time i should get some pictures up for everyone of the reception. Life has been quickly passing us by. I will try to address the question everyone asks, "what is it like to be married?" Well, it's not too much different, but there are differences, which actually surprises me. I love Praveen with all my heart and that never changed, but now i feel even closer to him then before. I really want to be the best wife I can be and there are things I know I could do better. I do try and keep those in the forefront of my mind so I can work on them. I will say I do like being married; especially to some one I trust and love so deeply. I feel very lucky to have found the man that I can now call my husband, even though when i say husband it still sounds weird to me.

I feel really lucky that our reception was on the most beautiful day out of 30 before it or after it. It think the gods were smiling on us. Everything turned out wonderfully. I realized, again, I have really wonderful friends. Ross helped me plan and coordinate the whole thing and the night before I looked around and there was Becky, Rose, Ross, Praveen, Shivani and Ranjani exhausted but still working hard until around 2am to pull this thing off. I can't say I would do it again, but it was great to have everyone together to celebrate this time that we feel is one of the most important times of our lives. Thank you to all of you who came to love us and support us. We love you! Cheers!

To view more pix click on the link on the right (regrettably I didn't have the chance to take as many pictures as i would have liked).

more wedding pictures...

2005-12-31T02:53:00.000-08:00

The happy couple..

A stop by the grandparents homes

2005-12-30T23:29:00.000-08:00

On the way to Alleppey we stopped in to visit both of Praveen’s Grandparents homes. Both his father’s parents are gone, but his sister now stays in the family home. It is a Nair tradition for the property to go to the oldest daughter. The Nair traditions are matrilineal so the woman is actually the most powerful member of the family.

Praveen spent much of his early years with his Grandfather (Mutachen) so it was nice to see where he had grown up. I noticed an instant change in Mutachen as soon as the wedding was over. I suddenly felt accepted were prior I wasn’t so sure. Praveen says he is just traditional so he has to do everything in the proper order.

Avaneesh and Akilesh

2005-12-30T23:25:00.000-08:00

I have inherited two new cousins, Avaneesh and Akilesh. They are totally adorable. Unlike many kids their age, they don’t shy away from hugs or kisses. I like that in a child.

Unfortunately, one of their current signs of affection is biting and I mean hard. I was happy it took some time for me to get into this select group of people. After the wedding people slowly began to disperse, leaving just a core group of us in Coimbatore. After people started to leave, the twins really started to warm up to us. I think they were understandably very overwhelmed.

Kovalam Dec 29th

2005-12-30T22:57:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Kovalam late in the night and had to take a boat to the island where we were staying. The resort was on freshwater, but about 100 feet away there was a sand bar where the ocean hit the beach. The waves were big and very powerful. I managed to sprain my ankle while being tossed around by one of these waves and I have been hobbling around ever since.

The beach was really nice.

We sat around drank some beers, swam and played with the local kids. They are always happy to hang around and have their picture taken. They love to see the digital images of themselves. Shaggy had bought a cricket bat and he, Ang and BG played a game of cricket with the kids and then gifted the bat and ball it to them. They were really happy with their prize.

For lunch we took a boat to a close by floating restaurant where they made some fish fry. We had a Snapper and some Seer Fish. I have been pleasantly surprised how much I have loved the fish here. Fish is one of my favorite foods, but I am very particular about how or rather, how much, it is cooked. Typically I have found it to be cooked perfectly. This was another one of my favorite meals. We also had a cheese parotta, which I found to be quite lovely. I am sure it is made specifically for tourists, as Indian cooking doesn’t use much cheese. The closest thing they have is something called paneer, which I am also quite fond of. It is more of a hardened cottage cheese that is often times cooked in curry.

Again, it was really cool to see the local village communities coexisting with the modern day world. We watched villagers in boats carved out of logs. The kids who were clothed were wearing a short skirt like cloth that some how managed to stay on them in the rough sea water. We watched kids bathing cows in the river as well as mothers doing laundry.

The trip is winding down. Our Paramount airlines flight was canceled so now we are stuck driving 11 hours back to Coimbatore. We will chill there for a few days then we will head back home….

Kerala Dec 28th

2005-12-30T22:56:00.000-08:00

Sreedhar, Vijay, Angela, Greg my mom and I arrived in Kerala last night. It is so beautiful here. They call it “God’s own country.” The hotel we stayed at was right on the water with private decks that you could sit on and check out the water with the coconut trees surrounding it. It was totally romantic, especially with the 7 of usJ Actually, the group honeymoon isn’t too shabby. I get the best of all worlds- family, friends and my new husband. I’ll never get bored. Today we jumped on a beautiful houseboat which is apparently all made by hand.

It is constructed primarily with the leaves of coconut trees and rope. The top of the boat had a nice little sun deck that we could lie on soaking up sun and plenty of beer. For lunch they made us a fabulous array of curries. Beet root, one of my favorites, was on the list. We had stopped to pick up some fresh prawns . Well that is what they called them. They were about 2 feet long. The food was some of the best I have had in India. Although I have had some really good food over the past few weeks. I had the best Dal of my life in Delhi, then we had some really good food at praveen’s grandparents the other day. Then there is the chef that has been cooking at praveen’s house and she also does a good job…Anyway, the food on the boat was good for sure. It may have seemed better because the hotel food was pretty lousy. It’s funny if there is one white person in a group the restaurant will usually totally kill any spice or flavor so that the whitey can handle it. It drives me nuts.

The cruise was about 5 hours long. We floated along very romantic little water ways. Along the way we saw lots of local villagers doing laundry, swimming and building boats. It was pretty fascinating. I loved to see how people live in small villages here. The kids are always totally fascinated and happy to see white people.

About half way through the boys and ang went for a swim. I had ripped open my foot the evening before and I didn’t want to risk infection so I just watched.

We also stopped along the way to pick up a local liquor called toddy. It is extracted from the coconut tree. I think it comes from a kind of sap like stuff that is near the top of the tree. They collect it in the mornings and evenings and it ferments very quickly. We had some old and some new. The older stuff I couldn’t handle. It was quit vinegary. The fresh stuff was very sweet and coconuty. It was really nice. One of praveen’s friends had tried to get some for me in Tamil Nadu, but he couldn’t because it is illegal there. It does something controversial to the trees. Or maybe they just don’t want people drinking it. I was reading the back of a beer label the other day and it said, “Liquor kills, country, family and life.” Wow! I was shocked. Drinking in the south is generally not seen as acceptable. I guess in a country where you either make it or you don’t many things are live or die and you don’t want to risk anything by dabbling in something that may destroy your life.

Anyway now we are in the middle of a four hour drive from Alleppy to Kovalam.

The Bedroom

2005-12-30T22:51:00.000-08:00

Ang and my mom decorated the bedroom for the first night. It was really beautiful with rose petals everywhere. they used the resources that they had available. I found one of my skirts draped around the lamp for extra mood lighting. The only part that was a little weird was when my mom invited praveen's dad in to see their work!!?

Wedding and Reception

2005-12-30T22:13:00.000-08:00

Dec 26th

Well we’ve done it. The big day had finally come and passed. It was a really nice experience to get to be an Indian princess for a day. Angela, Greg and my mom all ended up participating in the ceremony and it was so nice to have them around for some support. Ang was my right hand girl- checking in on my powder and tequila to make sure all was in order and available when ever I needed it. The reception was held first and the wedding the following day. Unfortunately, we had to be up at 8 am to get ready for the wedding so a late night was out of the question. Praveen’s family did a great job organizing everything on their own. Typically it is the girl’s family that does most of the arranging but in our case that just wasn’t possible. My favorite part was probably the band. They played all Bollywood songs, just like I dreamt about, and we all danced. One of Sandhya’s friends is a small time actor or something and he was leading several of the dances and we all just followed along. I kept waiting for him to start making us do pushups or headstands or something. Anyway, it was good to have a leader. When I wasn’t following him I was following Sandhya, who is also a very good dancer.

Meeting Sandhya was probably one of the biggest highlights of the trip. She is a very well composed and beautiful person inside and out. I can see why Praveen is so attached to her. I saw some pictures of them in their very early years and even then you could see how happy he was to have her there. She however, looked a bit scared of him. I guess because he spent much of his childhood in boarding school she would often forget that she had a brother and when he came back she didn’t always know who he was. It must have been difficult for the whole family.

Well, we have tons of pictures. I will try and get them uploaded so you can look at more of them but it is difficult because the connections here are very slow.

I will see if I can recollect some of the events of the last few days. The reception was interesting. Praveen and I sat on some chairs that looked like they had been hijacked from the Palace of Versailles or something. Everyone lined up to come and shake our hands and congratulate us. Apparently the bride is not really supposed to touch any men and I think there is suppose to be no hugging. I skipped those guidelines, but only because I had permission from Praveen. (on a side note Praveen has been really great juggling what his parents, his society and what I want- this has to be one of the hardest jobs of the trip). I can’t help but hug the people that want to be hugged and maybe even a few who don’t. I had a hard time being able to NOT show affection to people I care about. I find it really strange that Indians typically have no public displays of affection and it seems to be looked down upon between men and woman even after they are married. At the same time, you see lots of men walking down the street holding hands or with their arms around each other. I asked a few people if they could explain this phenomenon to me, but no one seems to know. One of the best things about being married is now I’m free to touch Praveen when I want to touch him. I guess some cultures are more open and touchy then others. I know when I was in Europe there were times that I would be really uncomfortable with people coming inside of my little bubble. I learned there that Americans have a reputation of being very cold and standoffish. I had never realized that before. I really learned to appreciate the additional affection that people would give. Upon meeting someone they often times would hug or kiss. I adopted this tradition and took it home with me. I have noticed even friends that Praveen has had for a long time, are not always comfortable with that level of touching so I have backed off. It has become so much a part of me that it feels really unnatural now to say good bye to some one I really like without hugging them, but I can respect others boundaries.

Okay I think I am done with that tangent. Now where was I? The reception….After saying hello to around 400 people ( I am guessing) we went to eat. I was somewhat surprised that after shaking all these hands I had no option to wash my hands with soap before eating with them. Normally I carry hand sanitizer everywhere but I didn’t really have an option to carry a bag with me. Despite my concern, I did eat and the food was good.

The next day I got up around 7:30 to take a shower and get ready. Amma had hired someone to come and help me get ready. She did a pretty good job on my hair the day before with some guidance. She suggested that I do my own makeup since I knew my colors and after looking at her makeup bag I was really glad. The choices consisted of some very loud, low quality material. I decided not to wash my hair because I was going to have the hired “professional” add some curl to it before covering it with the traditional flower arrangement. I was suppose to leave the hotel by 9:15 to be at the wedding early so that we could get in without being seen. The stylist arrived with Sandhya at 9:20. I was livid. To top it off, she didn’t bother to bring a curling iron with her. Had I known I would have washed and blow-dried my hair. After throwing a small temper tantrum by slamming a bathroom door instead of slamming her face, which is really what I wanted to do, Sandhya helped me work with her to do something with my hair. I asked Sandhya if it was acceptable for someone to be so late for a wedding styling and she said “no.” I just had to check because the time schedule here is much more loose then the tight time schedule that we keep in the US. When I got to the hall several people asked me who had dressed me. Apparently, she also did a terrible job putting on the Sari. There are many rules about exactly how the pleats should go, how many there should be and a bunch of other stuff I am sure I will never understand. Anyway, I am still working on letting go of that one. Poor Sandhya was in such a rush trying to put everyone together that her Sari was half cocked, she had no makeup on and she still needed to be down stairs to be welcomed into the hall with the rest of Praveen’s family as is customary in the Nair families. She managed to pull it all together and get to where she needed to be and still looked fabulous.

So several of Sandhya’s friends, who were supposed to be my wedding party came out to welcome the family. At this time in the wedding it is customary for all the eligible bachelor’s families to check out the single friends of the bride. If there is some interest then the talks between families can begin and perhaps an arrangement can be made for a wedding. For a wedding to be arranged the two candidates should be from the same caste so that they have several of the same traditions and customs. Also, this would insure that they speak the same language. Every state in India has its own language and several different dialects. Praveen, since he is from Kerala speaks Malayalam but he was raised in Tamil Nadu so he also speaks Tamil. He only speaks Malayalam with his family. He cannot write or read in either language as he was schooled in English. He has several friends from various parts of India that the only language they have in common is English.

After Praveen and his family were welcomed to the stage the same bridal party came to get me out of a back room. Angela and my mom walked me out and stayed on stage with me. The wedding was massive chaos! I had asked several people what to expect and what I needed to know and I was told not to worry that I would be told everything as I needed to know it. Organization is not one of the strong suits of the Indian culture, I’ve observed and this can be quite disturbing. When I got up on stage Praveen was waiting and I was ushered around here and there- making three trips around the stage first with an Aunt then with Praveen, both of whom I had to tell to slow way down so that I wouldn’t trip on this Sari in front of all these people. Apparently no one knows why these things happen in threes only that it was an auspicious number and there are many things that happen in threes. I find this is a common answer when I ask why certain customs are performed. Most people don’t know why they’re doing something, only that they that is just the way it has always been done. We have similar things in our culture that we, ourselves, wouldn’t think of because we have just always been doing it this way.

Okay, so then I bowed at several important peoples feet including Achen (Praveen’s dad), Amma (Praveen’s mother), my mother, Praveen’s grandfather (Mutachen), His uncle and Aunt (Mohan Mamma and Veena) and I can’t remember who else…..then I think we exchanged rings. Things where happening so fast I can’t remember what was going on. Mostly I remember being very confused. At some point Greg was pulled on the stage to do I have no idea what, then there was a necklace put on my neck as a gift from Achen and Amma (it was gorgeous) then a gold bracelets from Mohan Mamma and Veena, then we exchanged some clothes as gifts from my family to his family and visa versa. At some point we exchanged rings. The most important thing was Praveen put the Thali on me and Sandhya tied it, which I think is when the marriage is really set. Oh and there was also an exchange of a lime, which I also don’ t know what was for. The whole thing really was about ten minutes long. The decorations were really nice. Everything looked beautiful. After shaking more hands and getting congratulated by hundreds more people we went down to eat. We were served on banana leaves, which is customary. This is the event that I had been practicing for and it was actually quite simple. Under the banana leaves they used puppy chow paper to cover the tables as a make shift tablecloth. I was shocked. After spending money for a professional decorator and caterer it was hard for me to understand the oversight. I let it slide. It’ll be one of those things I can laugh about the wedding sometime in the future. Praveen spoke to the caterer who basically professed his ignorance that he had not noticed and didn’t think about the puppy chow being offensive or unappetizing. Idiots. After that they turned over the paper but pretty much everyone had already eaten. Good times, good laughs.

I mentioned to Sandhya that for her wedding we should have a rehearsal so that she knows what is going on and she can enjoy the ceremony and she said that chaos is part of the fun. Praveen had a similar reaction to my suggestion. I guess some people are comfortable with such things and some are not. It is interesting that in the US where most weddings are pretty similar there is always a rehearsal, yet here were most weddings are totally different they just go with the flow. Again it’s a difference in culture.

Anyway, all of these things are what make the experience fun and interesting. Over all the wedding and reception when very well and I am totally happy to have a much larger, beautiful family.

On the way to Agra- December 20, 2005

2005-12-22T10:45:00.002-08:00

Visit to see Praveen's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin (Valeamma, Valeache, Jayanthi Chache, and PakashChetten and Rohon) in Bangalore.

Greg w/ Driver Praveen.

I am currently on the way to Agra, the drive from Jaipur is about 4 hours and it has been an interesting trip. We had a pretty bumpy ride for part of the way. There must have been at least an hour of potholes and I was in the lucky seat- the back of an SUV. I got a bit thrown around from one side to the other. The driving is insane, particularly in Agra. There are tons of bikes, carts pulled by oxen and camels, pedestrians and cars all in the same street going different ways and the only rule is look out for yourself. It is quite frightening. We hired a car and our driver did a great job keeping us alive. I asked if he has ever run anyone over before and he said, “Thanks to God, I haven’t.”

We arrived in Delhi on Saturday and rushed off to the international airport to pick up two of my best friends, Greg and Angela. We were very fortunate to find each other because we never were able to exchange any kind of contact information so we were just crossing our fingers that everything would work out okay, and it did. Surprisingly, even a 20 hour flight had not depleted Angela of her energy. Praveen checked her back to see if there was some kind of battery that was keeping her going. She has an amazingly undeletable source of energy. Our driver, (also called Praveen) took us back to a very luxurious house owned by a friend of ours in the states. The place was incredible and the people were beyond hospitable.

The following day we cruised through GK market and looked for a Lehenga (a north Indian style dress with a separate top) for myself and possibly one for Angela. The prices continue to baffle me completely. I have decided that the whole marriage push in the Indian society is actually an attempt to keep their economy going. I couldn’t find any even halfway decent looking Lehengas for less than $300us! What the #$%@. I have heard from my Indian girlfriends back in the states that this is the case, but I guess it just didn’t sink in until my credit card was being charged. By the time all the accessories and everything is finished I will have spent close to $1000, in Indian alone, on wedding attire. I guess it could be worse in the US. Anyway, after settling for a Lehenga that I felt was overpriced and I wasn’t passionate about, I was happy to be finished with the main shopping. If I never shop again until I die I wouldn’t care. Okay so maybe that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but I find shopping stressful when you have a timeline that you have to buy for and you can’t wait to get what you truly want.

I will say I had been really looking forward to having something custom tailored so I bought some extra material to match the skirt to my Lehenga and had it made. Because we were short on time, it was delivered to me with out being able to check it, they did an awful job, and I was completely disappointed.

We drove through Old Delhi, which seemed pretty crazy. There were people, camels and cattle everywhere in the street. It seemed like a fun place to get lost in, but we couldn’t find any parking anywhere. We had the driver drop us at The Red Fort, which was built sometime in the 1600s….anyway that was about it in dehli. Shopping took ¾ of the day, yet again.

Off to Jaipur we went. We stopped off at a place called Amber Fort which use to protect the city. It seems there are tons of fortresses here in Northern India. Most of them date back to the 16 or 1700’s. It seems that there was plenty of money to spend back then on some pretty elaborate architecture. We decided the best form of transportation to the top of the fort (which sits on a hill) was by elephant! Mom was, of course, not sure if she wanted to ride on the Elephant but opted in after all. I was hopping to dance on top of an elephant at my wedding but I have now realized that it just is not possible. When you sit on the elephant you shake back and forth as if you are on a very rocky boat- during a storm. I just can’t see dancing during a hurricane. So that dream has been laid to rest.

In Japure we wanted to do some shopping and check out the “pink” city, which is actually terracotta. Now I know what the problem was in that Sari shop when I kept asking for blue and they would bring me yellow or green. In the US we must work off a different color chart. Jaipur seemed nice. It was very busy but the shopping seemed great. We arrived so late that we couldn’t do very much at all. It would have been great to spend another day there getting lost in the crowds of people. Jaipur is known for its textiles and a big market that sells everything. I managed to find some really fancy bed sheets that I bargained down a few thousand rupees. I normally don’t like bargaining too much but I have found it a good source of some fun here in India. It really does make a difference if you speak the language and when I bargained it has always been in English.

We had dinner at this really cool place called Chokki Dhani. It was a traditional Rajasthan style meal. I guess it was suppose to be the same kind of food that they eat in the villages. The food was fabulous. The waiters again, thought that Praveen was the guide, which we all found amusing. The place was quite quaint, with little lights and performances everywhere. They had everything from little kid dancers to camel rides to a Ferris wheel with out a motor.

On the way to Agra we passed some 10-15 people who had captured a black bear, tied it up and pulled out all their teeth. They were making them stand up and do tricks for the drivers passing by. I read something about it being illegal, but you would never know it on this road. The bears looked famished and sad. I tried to take a picture but I didn’t want to give the guy any money and encourage this practice so I missed it.

Just out side of Agra is a deserted city called Fatehpur Sikri. It was pretty cool. Apparently this king built it about 600 years ago and then after living there for 14 years the water dried up so everyone left the town. Emperor Akbar (the guy who built it) seems pretty interesting. He was Muslim but had a Christian wife, a Muslim wife and a Hindu wife. Oh, and about 300 other girl friends. The guy was totally into talks on religion and managed to incorporate much of the Muslim, Hindu and Christian architectural styles and symbols into each building.

The Taj Mahal was really beautiful. The thing that makes it so breath taking is really the enormous size of the structure. It is so huge! I was surprised that once you get inside there is a very small, dimly lit room with the fake tombs of the king who built it and the wife he built it for and that is it. The place is huge but our guide says there are no other rooms to see. I think there must be some secret really special rooms in there, right? There is a bunch of precious and semiprecious inlayed stones, but you can’t see the ones inside because it is too dark. If I went again, I’d bring a flash light. The summitry is truly spectacular. The whole thing is symmetric and everything including the three buildings that surround it use the same symmetry.

The Coconut Farm

2005-12-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

Friday 16th of December…

Today was fabulous. Thank you to all of you who wrote to tell me that my spelling is atrocious. I only spell this way so that I can provide amusement to all of you! I know I am careless, but guess what? too bad. I am easily frustrated and I really just want to get down what I can on paper (or screen) and get on with it. I was plagued by a very bad spelling gene. It seems to have hit several in my family so at least I know a few understand. If you need a good laugh I recommend you keep reading my blog.

Okay, so today we went back to the Sari shop to get one more Sari, which I couldn’t get my mind off of. I had bought two but then when I got back to the hotel to look at the pictures I decided that maybe the one that I didn’t buy was the right choice. I still haven’t decided which to wear. I have three and I can only wear two. Two of them are close in color so it seems I should wear the other which is different, but I really like the two close in color….tough choices. Anyway, it was easy this time, as I knew what I wanted. We were in and out. Mom wanted to be dropped off at the hotel where she could finally work on her pictures and blog and be alone.

After dropping Mom, Praveen took me to Sampath’s place and he and Sangeetha took us for a ride out to a village where Sampath’s family owns a coconut grove. It was so beautiful. I was reminded of one of the things I love about traveling. With all the preparations for the wedding, we have been doing little other than shopping and visiting, so it was nice to get out and see something new. I felt really bad my mom didn’t go, because I know she would have really enjoyed it. She has been such a trooper with the wedding preparations. We just have to remind ourselves how much work happened before we arrived that we had nothing to do with, which was pretty much EVERYTHING. Thank you Amma, Achen and Sandhya.

Okay, back to the village. We drove deep into a forest of coconut trees. The sun was streaming through the leaves leaving that magical, heavenly light on everything. I instantly felt at ease. When we arrived Sampath’s family was waiting with the carts and the bulls to give us a ride. Man, can those things get up and run! Sangeetha and I were in one cart and Praveen and Sampath in the other. We had a few short drag races. It was a ball. We drove through the village, it was like a parade, everyone came out to line the streets and see the foreigners. I did my duchess wave for the kids and they laughed and screamed with glee. It was really cute.

Sampath‘s family were really nice. They split open some fresh coconuts for us to drink and made us feel like royalty. It was truly a beautiful day. Okay, I am off to bed then to Delhi tomorrow.

Thursday, December 15th.

2005-12-15T04:27:00.000-08:00

Well the majority of the shopping is done. I still need one more sari, some jewelry and we (my mom and ) I need to buy a few sets of clothes for Praveen. The tradition is that during the wedding ceremony the groom’s side gives the bride two sets of clothes and the brides side gives the groom two sets of clothes. I will ware one of the Sari’s that Praveen’s parents give me home from the wedding. That will be my only change of clothes- not too bad!

Okay so the shopping was crazy. We came in and everyone in the store stopped to watch the white girl put on a sari. The owner of the store came over to introduce us to some famous film director, as if we would know who he was, and himself. It was quite flattering. The attention was overwhelming but I tried to take it all in stride and have fun with it. Here is a pix of my two moma and amma. My mother is wearing her new outfit purchased for the reception.

When we were leaving they put all of our newly purchased garments into a suitcase. I felt as if I was part of a very special drug deal. See below (right) Amma with our special suitcase.

We shopped for a North Indian dress for Praveen it is called a Kuta ( I will have to get proper spelling later). It makes him look like a prince.

I managed to get some fun shots in the streets as well. I had my first fresh grape juice today. I decided that at this point my body can probably take some processed water. Let’s hope we’re right. It would really suck to get really sick before the wedding.

Arriving Coimbatore

2005-12-14T03:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Dec 13th
We arrived in Coimbatore today, praveens home town. His parents and several friends met us at the airport.

The town is a bit smaller than Chennai and a bit cleaner as well. We checked in to a local hotel that has no broadband internet and a lovely smell resonating through out the room resembling urine. Tomorrow will probably be a good time to go and check out something else. Praveen, his family and his friends have been very careful of seeing to it that we are as comfortable as possible. I have been a bit of a terror, as I don’t handle lack of sleep or not feeling well particularly well. I am hoping my moodiness subsides soon. I have been feeling like there is this evil demon waiting to get out of my body and I can’t seem to figure out how to let it go. I think it is just a matter of time and rest.

I finally had a chance to read my mothers blog and I am realizing I might as well save my breath. I don’t think she has left out any details of the trip. I have let her have my computer for the last few days as I know that she sleeps really weird hours and may need it to occupy her time. Now that I have it back, I get to read her blog to find out what we have been doing. I have been walking around in such a daze it was really nice to read a recap.

The jet lag is finally wearing off but days are still exhausting. I find it very difficult to be “ON” every minute of the day. I have realized that for me it is essential that I have some down time away from the crowds of people I have come all this way to see otherwise I just spaz out. So after lunch I took a trip back to the hotel for some decompression time, which included sitting in front of my computer sipping some fine Tequila and catching up.

So I went and got a massage in the hotel spa the other day. It was quite an interesting experience. I will say that any massage is a good one, even if it is not, particularly when you have been sitting on a plane for 23 hours. When I arrived the room was freezing. It think that AC is such a luxury that perhaps it was suppose to feel good but laying naked on a bed with a cool breeze chilling you to the bones wasn’t my idea of a relaxing experience so I requested it would be turned of and it promptly was. “Yes, ma'am. Anything else ma'am?” The hotel workers are super formal and polite and now I have a better understanding of why it is that Praveen always tells me to quit telling him thank you. To me it is the polite way in which I treat everyone, but to him it sounds to formal and should be reserved for people he is not close to (like the help, I suppose). I am not sure I will ever be able to accommodate him on that request. I like to say thank you and let people know when I really appreciate things they have done for me.

Anyway, where was I? Back to the bone chilling cold. So I layed there while my body was scrubbed down with some herbs. The only identifiable ones were lavender and mint. The untrained “masseuse” was rubbed me down completely. I was a bit uncomfortable at times when she came extremely close to my rather private parts. She really didn’t miss a thing. I have never had my breasts massaged, at least not during a massage and I found that a little strange. An hour later after showering off the body scrub and getting a rather puff and fluff massage (I like my massages deep not gentle) I was ushered off to a steam room, which was my favorite part of the experience. I have never been in a wet sauna before and I found it really nice to sweet a bit. It think I am missing my sweaty yoga rutine. I have however, been able to get to the gym quite frequently. The toughest thing to get use to is someone watching you ready to help you in case you drop your towel, but then again, a Duchess should be pampered, right?

After arriving in Coimbatore, We made a trip to Amma and Achen’s (Praveen’s parents) house and had some lunch. My mom and I are getting good at eating with the hands. It is not something that I am particularly fond of at this moment in time but I think that it probably just takes some getting use to. I do understand the arguments about how Stainless Steel in your mouth with food tends to taint the flavoring of the food. My problem is that I am just not use to stuff all over my hands while eating. It is a cultural thing where I feel some how dirty eating this way, but while I am here I’d like to try it out and see how it is.

The house is quite nice. It is a three bedroom, three bath home with an office upstairs. It was a traditional style at one time where you could see straight through three small rooms to the end of the house. They have since renovated and made the three small rooms one room that has a beautiful curtain, which can close, off the dinning room to the living room.

I was quite worried about my mom hating the food as she is not the most adventurous sprits when it comes to trying new food items, but she has been doing great. Her endless hours of research seem to have paid off and continuously impress myself and everyone we encounter. She was explaining to Praveen the other day what she read about how exactly to eat with three fingers and flick it into your mouth without letting your hands enter your mouth and he, being raised eating in this fashion, had never thought of it and found it amusing to realize that that is, in fact, how it works.

The other thing that I was worried about for myself and my mother was the busy streets. I had spoken to her shortly after a trip to Chicago and she told me how frightening she found the traffic. I immediately called my doctor to ask for a prescription of Zanex so that I could feed it to her should she start to wig out. Although the streets are crazy and noone seems to follow any sort of rules, people only drive about 30 miles per hour so, it is not to bad, even for my mom.

Dehli, I am still a bit worried about. We visited some ancient temples carved out of one rock, which were very impressive. They are about 1500 years old. We had a few people bothering us to buy this or that and she was a bit perturbed as anyone would be. I explained to her that this is only a small portion of what we will later encounter. I can only imagine the Taj where there is thousands of tourist a day with vultures waiting to capitalize on their visit. It is difficult but I guess you have to turn on a little switch inside your head that says, “I am ready to deal with this now.” It always takes me a minute as well. I have had a bit of practice on this in MEX when I studied there my senior year.

So much for saving my breath- I guess it runs in the family- gotta run. RM

We're Here

2005-12-13T04:08:00.000-08:00

Well after 23 hours of flying we arrived in Chennai. I had forgotten how miserable jet lag is. My head hearts my body aches and my stomach is in knots. We got to the hotel at 2 am and finally made it to bed an hour later. I started the day off feeling pretty good. I hit the gym where I was greeted by constant “hellos” and “thank yous.” I can’t say I am totally comfortable with someone watching me work out just in case I need something, but the customer service is unbeatable. I am just pretending to be royalty as everyone turns to greet me every step of the way. “Ruth the Duchess”- I love it! We are staying in a beautiful hotel called the Residency. I wouldn’t mind hanging out all day in the spa getting pampered but we will only be here for a few days so in a bit we will step out in to the real world and see what I have long awaited to see….INDIA.

Talk to you soon! Ruth the Duchess

India Overview

2005-12-13T04:06:00.000-08:00

I am currently in India for my first time. I have never been anywhere in Asia before so this is really exciting. I fell head over heals for an Indian man, Praveen. We will be getting married on the 25th of December, that’s right Christmas day. I know it is kind of weird but since I come from a rather strange family where Christmas was never celebrated and he is Hindu it will make an otherwise meaningless day, special. Always being off work on your anniversary is anther plus to getting married on a major holiday.

My mother is traveling with us and she is an expert blogger. I will do my best to keep you all up to date, but if you want the micro details, perhaps you should check out her blog at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/deb65251/
I think she already has 6 entries and we just got her last night. Thank god for those website enthusiasts!

Well please join me as I embrace upon a journey that is sure to change my life forever.

- Ruth

india

2005-02-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

lonely planet
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/indian_subcontinent/india/facts.htm

Some guys journal of S India
http://traveldoug.com/04i3.html

Number for the indian consulate
415-668-0662

New Town house

2005-01-21T23:00:00.000-08:00

tile place recomended by Mike Shine- one in Emeryville and one in San Rafael.
http://www.italics-stone.com/

**1- to be done before we move in
**2- shortly after
**3 when we can
KITCHEN

Replace stove and hood (looking for best deal) arox cost $2K **(1)
Paint **(1)

DEN
paint **2

MASTER BEDROOM
Paint **(1)
Replace carpet **(1)
Replace windows **3

BATH- **2

move wall and make bathroom larger put sink inside and build new vanity outside.
-or-
Leave wall but remove bath and replace with tiled shower. Retile floors. Full mirror on right. Paint. New toilet.

LIVINGROOM DINNING ROOM

Replace carpet with wood or laminate flooring. **(1)
Replace acoustic ceiling with sheet rock flat ceiling **2
Remove bar area all together or replace

DOWN SAIRS

New closet doors (need two or three?) (**2)
New carpet **3
Paint **(1)

BATH
Move wall to laundry room and put in larger tub **3
Replace vanity **3
Good coat of kills and paint **(1)
New tile and flooring **3

reasearching flooring ideas

Bamboo- A relative newcomer in the industry is bamboo flooring. Its natural beauty and strength make bamboo one of the most elegant and versatile flooring choices available. Because bamboo is a natively tropical plant, it is resistant to moisture and less susceptible to expansion and contraction as compared to hardwood floors.

http://www.floorshop.com/EnviroChoice-Solid-Bamboo-Floor/Store/Subcategory.cfm?subcat_id=6776

looks good $3sqf

info on bamboo
http://www.shakuhachi.com/BambooFlooring.html

cork- improves insulations and sound proffing..
http://www.wecork.com/floating_floors.html

Carpet Comparison Chart

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1204941492.1106378332@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdiadddjgddjhicgelceffdfgidgnl.0&CNTTYPE=NAVIGATION&CNTKEY=services/installation.jsp&MID=9876&
pos=p08

Questions about carpet installation…Do they uninstall? Extra charge?

Carpet styles- sounds like a textured plush is the way to go. On the after installation page it says Complete any touchup painting required on walls, doors or trim- II wonder if they plan to mess u p walls?

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1204941492.1106378332@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdiadddjgddjhicgelceffdfgidgnl.0&CNTTYPE=NAVIGATION&CNTKEY=services/installation.jsp&MID=9876&pos=p08

toilets are around $200 and up….

California Carpet
1197 Folsom @ 8th 415-487-3636
rugs, hardwood, vinal, stone, laminates and tile

Contractor recommended by Stuart
Sing Wong 415-665-4203.- apt feb 2nd 11am
Known to be cheep yet very good.

Check out “Integrated Resources” for ideas on stone
275 Valley Dr
Brisbane CA 94005
415-657-0280

Mirror closet doors $100-$200
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productList&catalogId=MIRROR_DOORS

2004-10-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Doubtful Sound

2004-10-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

We're having fun now!

2004-10-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

what a view!

2004-10-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the Vertical Descent.........

New Zealand- Part Two

2004-10-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back in SF. We arrived earlier today. I must say that the "no jet lag" pills from NZ worked. I think. I feel pretty good. Everyone said coming back was the worst but for me it was worse going over. We had three seats instead of two coming home and I think that may have helped. As I have gotten older, my knees have started giving me a lot of problems while flying- even short distances, so I was particularly worried about the 13 hr flight. The way back my knees were great. I guess I just have to start buying two seats!

Anyway, the trip...Where to start? Things only kept getting better. I would defiantly advise anyone one doing NZ to start at the top and work down because if you started at the bottom (the most beautiful) then you would probably be continuously disappointed as you worked back up.

We did a lot of driving the good thing is that the drive was so beautiful it is truly an event in itself. I didn't even hardly pick up my book the whole trip and only got about half way through the "101 hard questions." The "101 hard questions" is a book, which Praveen LOVES:) all about how to make sure a long term relationship is successful. Very type A, I know, but I love that stuff.

So let me see, I can't say what my most favorite part of the trip was, but I can say what my least favorite part was. I hated the food. I am sure I am partially spoiled by the food in SF, but it seemed no matter how much money we were willing to fork out-it never got any better. It was very bland with not only no spice, but no seasoning what-so-ever! How about some salt or onions or garlic?? Nothing. Even the most basic things that you think it would be impossible to screw up-like an egg sandwich, were wrong. But, the Oysters were fabulous. Usually I only like the smaller ones but these were quite large (Pacific Rock oysters) and they were yummy. They always wanted to give you some weird sauce to put with it but thats okay. I prefer just lemon and vinegar myself. The dairy was also really good. Praveen loved the milk...OH, the beer is also quite nice. I really enjoyed it.

So on to the good stuff. The train ride across the Island was nice, but it was a little less than I expected in terms of scenery. It was foggy part of the way so we may have very well missed the best parts. After that though, the weather was totally in our favor the rest of the trip. Everywhere we went it seemed to be rainy when we got there, but when we were ready to play the sun was with us. We rented a car in Graymouth. I didn't think they made a car as basic as what we got. We got some kind of Honda or another, but it didn't even have an FM radio? I had planned to bring along some CDs for the drive and I am glad I didn't. We had to make due with the songs I knew by heart. Praveen says he doesn't like it but I know deep down he wishes he could sing along.

The drive to Fox Glacier was stunning and it just kept getting better all the time. At Fox we hiked up the glacier. I was a little worried that it was going to be tough but it was quite easy really. I was also really worried about the cold, but it was a nice day and we were warm for most of it. I have never been on a glacier before and I quite fancied it. We opted for the all day hike based on some advice from a friend and I am really glad we did, it was about 6hrs and most of it was chilled- in the laid back sense. Part of it went through a rain forest. Isn't it weird to have a rain forest right next to a glacier? The pictures do a great job at showing an accurate view so I wont bore you with the details.

The next morning we got an early start and saw the sunrise as we drove down to Queenstown. The drive again was even more spectacular than before. I wish we had more time because there were lots of road side trails and such that would have been nice little journeys but we had to make to with what time we had.

There was this really funny BRA fence. That's right everyone stripped off their bras and hung them on the fence. There must have been a hundred of them. No, to answer your question...i didn't leave mine.

In Queenstown we went Sky diving! I had never been before and Praveen had been but in Texas. I thought if I was going to ever do it this is the time to do it. There is a tremendous amount of pressure to do something scary in Queenstown. The bungee was invented there and that set the tone for life there after. There are crazy buggies everywhere, sky diving, paragliding and anything else you could imagine. I was afraid I would chicken out on the bungee and knew on the sky dive I couldn't (since someone else jumps with you). I am so glad we went. The drive to the skydiving place was up to a town called Glenorchy and it was the best yet! much of the Lord of the Rings was filmed there so you can imagine. The plane ride was also great. To be so close to those snow capped mountains and get a view from high up was really something. I had a permeate grin the whole way up.

I don't remember much of the free fall. I think it was kind like a roller coaster. I don"t really think I was scared, but maybe shocked in some ways. I was really trying to concentrate on taking everything possible in and thinking how incredibly lucky I was to be doing this in this part of the world. I wasn't prepared for the big bang in my ears that happened as we fell. It makes sense your ears would pop, but I hadn't really thought of it. Praveen and I were high on that for the rest of the day.it was wonderful.

The next morning we drove to Doubtful Sound. Milford Sound is the more famous one, a little to the north, but Praveen had done some research and though that Doubtful would be better. We had booked an overnight curse and originally it was for a double room, for a million dollars! not wanting to spend a million we opted for a quad room and it turns out that the boat wasn't full so we go our own room anyway. The cruse was nice. The weather was cold, rainy and foggy, but it was suppose to be that way.
In many ways the fog really added to the romantic and beautiful look of it all. We sucked it up and stayed outside for a good portion of the trip. We were rewarded with some great scenery and some dolphins, birds and a few penguins that came along to say hello. It was nice to sleep on the water because the weather was different both days. The first day was pretty rainy, which got a lot of the waterfalls flowing. I have never seen so many waterfalls. The second day was much nicer weather, but not nearly as many falls...we go the best of both worlds.

There is more, but I think that is the best of it. I would highly recommend NZ for a vacation. It is a bit more expensive than I expected to be prepared to get out your check book!

I am trying my hardest to post some pictures to this site, but it is giving me a bit of a challenge. In the mean time if you would like to see more pictures from the trip go to....
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAOXDNy1cs2jCNg
there are lots.

NZ part one

2004-10-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings from down under,

Well, it has been along time since i have written a mass post from another country....must say, i am glad to be doing it. Praveen and i arrived in Auckland, NZ on...Friday, Sat not really sure...we missed a day on the flight, which wasn't too bad actually. I am extraordinarily happy to be exploring an new country and i feel so fortunate that it is one of the most beautiful i have seen before.

Praveen has a friend, Mathew, in Auckland who showed us around a bit. It is a really nice, beautiful city,with about a million people right on the water. It reminded me of SF a bit actually. Lots of parks and nice shops. The coolest thing there was this big volcanic crater. Praveen and i walked all the way down inside. Then back up- that was the hard part...Auckland was FREEZING. i had checked the weather, it was suppose to be 65- it had to be like 30 with a -25 wind chill.

We took a flight out the next morning to Wellington,where i meet some locals and had a beer or two while praveen showered. Then we jumped on a beautiful ferry ride across Marlborough Sounds. It was again really cold. praveen, who was to stubborn to buy a hat and gloves had his PJ pants wrapped up around his neck for warmth. We were a sight to see.

There were nice mountains all around us. Later, when we were settled, we took a Kayak around....it was cool. I wasn't thrilled about the idea because of the temp, but the sun came out and it was a beautiful day (today). I even got burnt up to a crisp. So in the water there were thousands of jelly fish. I got a little petrified for a minute worried about falling in and all if them eating me. I was scared to put my paddle in the water for fear that one might jump on and try and get inside the boat. Those jelly fish can be sneaky you know.

Anyway, we have already done a fair share of hiking. We are getting plenty of exercise...there are hardly any fatties here, so they must be all climbing the hills too. Oh, the bus ride down here to Christchurch was really beautiful. there are black sand beaches all along the east coast side of the island and they are reallyspectacular. The food has left little to be desired thus far...fishand chips are everywhere...i am still looking out for some good sea food and oysters...yummmm.
So that is about it for now. We are off to take a train across the south island. It is suppose to be the most beautiful train ride in the world. I can believe it. I am looking forward to the snow capped mountains.

More Kombucha

2004-10-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well, i don't recall what the time line was, but i think i finished my second week of the Kumbacha. I have gone through a gallon and just bottled my second brew. I decided this time to be a little more adventurous and use green tea instead of black. It seems the green lets in a bit more of the already vinegar taste, but also tastes a little more like tea. I also dropped a few slices of ginger in for flavor.

It was interesting to learn from Becky the other day that she started buying a bottled commercial version of kombucha at Whole Foods. She says they run about $3 for 16oz. She has been drinking it everyday and seems to like it. I tasted a little of her grape flavored and it was quite tasty, nothing like the strong cider taste that i have her at home. I suppose people may not pay for that.

So what has my experience been. Well the first week, i've already described. The night sweets have seemed to pass for now. There was a pretty stinky body odor going for a while. I seldom wear deodorant anymore and don't have a problem stinking, but that changed with the introduction of this new K-tea. I don't know if the deodorant is hiding it or if it is gradually going away. I am too scared to find out. I think I'll stick to the deodorant for a while. I quit drinking K tea all together for two days when my gums became so inflamed i could hardly brush my teeth. I introduced Listerine to my mouth and that seemed to help. My body is particularly sensitive to acid so i think that the initial results manifested as cancer soars and, well, swollen tongue and inflamed gums. Lets see what else....i think that is it....right now i feel fine.

Becky said she experiences some what of a drunk feeling when drinking the 16oz from Whole Foods. Uhmmm, perhaps i need to bump up the dosage.

NEW ZEALAND

2004-10-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

i can't say i have been this excited about a trip since Europe. Praveen and i leave for our 10 day trip to New Zealand on the 13th of October only a week and a half way. We are mostly going to concentrate on the south island. It seems to be the one packed with the most beauty and fun.

Day one Friday 15th of october
Arrive in Aukland 11am
Options:
Sky tower- good for sunset
alhoha Surf School 09-489-2846
Tepid Baths- Spa. Gym. Sauna. Steam rooms 09-379-4754
Dolphin swimming – Haurake Gulf 09-237-1466 www.dolphinexplorer.com

Day Two SAT October 16th Fly to Wellington 9am? (1hr)
1. Maybe hang out- good cafes cute town
1. Take ferry to picton (3hrs) Interislander 930am, 2pm and 530pm $52 per person
3. Hike or Kayak tour
maybe stay there?

Day three SUN – Oct 17th – drive to christh church (5hrs by bus Myriad shuttle buses)
Banks peninsula- secluded bays and golden beaches

Day four Mon October 18th – take train to Graymouth 4.5hrs
Trans alpine leaves at 8.15 arrives at 130
http://www.tranzscenic.co.nz/services/alpine.aspx
there is a cave rafting trip that sounds pretty cool
Maybe drive to foxglacer 2hrs?

Day five Tues- October 19th- hike fox glacier to top
6-7hrs hrs $70 leaves at 930 am – boots and equipment provided. Pack lunch
alpine guides 64-3-751-0825 toll free 0800-11-1600
http://www.foxguides.co.nz/alldaywalk.asp

Day 6 Wen October 20th Queens town
1. SPA
http://www.millbrook.co.nz/health.htm http://spas.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.travelindex.co.nz/queenstown/shopping/bodysanctum.htm
2. bungee jumping?
3. Scenic drive on milford dr to te anau is suppose to be breath taking- small hikes around as well
4. Guided nature walks- Queenstown http://www.nzwalks.com/lakeshore&wine.htm

Day 7 Thrus October 21st- Overnight cruse of doubtford sound.

1. booked an overnight trip on Thurs the 21st at 728NZ- call 48hrs in advance for detials. to cancel or change dates call 24 hrs in advance.
http://www.fiordlandtravel.co.nz/Main/Doubtfulovernight/ 1230pm -1230pm

Day 8 Friday October 22- drive to Christchruch- maybe camp along the way 8hr drive

Day 9 Sat fly back to Auckland

Sun Fly home.

Other links

Scott Yost's Adventures http://www.vic.com/new_Zealand/

NZ dollar

http://www.x-rates.com/d/NZD/table.html

kombucha

2004-09-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

I came across this funky stuff looking for a cure to some recently experienced stomach pain. It seems the older i get, the more sensitive my stomach has become. A year ago i had no idea what heart burn or too much stomach acid felt like. Now i am becoming an exert, but i am going to beet it.

As a result I now have colonies of "mushrooms," growing in my closet. They look more like thick layers of slime and no, there is no magic found thus far. It has been interesting though, i have been drinking this tea for about a week and so far the result seems to be very, very sweaty nights (I wake up completely drenched) and canker sores. Nothing worth mentioning eh?

I can't wait until i get to the improved stomach function, weight loss, smooth skin, increased sex drive, and better circulation days start. This stuff is suppose to cure pretty much anything there is....Cancer, aids, you name it.

It is interesting the live bacteria seems to get more and more active. The activity produces carbonation. It is probably their farts...Gross, i know. Anyway the site i constantly have to check to see if i have mold or if those spots are normal is
http://www.happyherbalist.com/kombucha.htm

If anyone wants to try it, i can save you the trouble of having the starter shipped and give you some of mine.

Jet lag

2004-09-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

So I am taking my first really long fight. I flew to Europe in 99 and the Jet Lag was hell. I remember Being completely disoriented. In October Praveen and i fly to New Zealand and in Jan were off to Malaysia...Below I will post some links for the jet lag I plan to fight off.

http://www.nojetlag.com/jetlag4.html

http://www.doctor-travel.com/jetlag.html

We'll see...

2004-09-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well i have thought about doing this for a while and since i can't seem to post a comment on my mom's blog until i have one of my own, here goes. I do enjoy writing and pretty much totally stopped journaling two years ago. I find it very dificult these days to sit down with a pen and paper and write. My thinking seems to work better on a keybord then on paper. Man, i never thought i'd see the day. I also find that when you are generally happy, there is a lot less to write about then when your not. Oh, then there is the busy factor....I get so busy sometimes i forget to check in with myself and find out if i am happy or not. At these times, I lose my generally anal sence of direction....so anyway, we'll see.