A Mighty Wind

Also known as, we lost another tree today.

Yes, I know. The odds of us losing 2 trees to wind within a year are pretty low. Well, we're over-achievers here, so we just like to keep setting the bar high.

Here's a before glimpse of what our front landscaping used to look like:



Notice, if you will, the tall, skinny tree off the the left of the photo (helpful labels added by yours truly). Pretty. Elegant. And infested with spider mites.

By the time we knew what was wrong with it, the tree was pretty far gone. And apparently the only way to fix that problem was to douse the tree with a vigorous spray of water and soap every so often.

Since we didn't have a 40 foot ladder, this was a bit out of our league.

So we just decided to do the humane thing and let it die of natural causes at its own pace.

Last week, it was a bit windy...and I honestly thought that we'd lose the tree soon. So just about 2 days ago, we talked about calling someone to come and get it before it fell and potentially caused damage.

But we were a bit too late....

After a windy morning, we looked out the front door and saw this:



Here are some shots of the aftermath:













We had to use a circular saw, 3 extension cords, a spade, and a hand saw to cut the tree into movable pieces. Yay for manual labor!!

Just thought I'd mention...

Yet another local business that you might be interested in: Palmer Concierge

Here's a blurb from the founder:

We endeavor to give back to the community by helping busy people shrink down their t0-do lists, giving them more time to focus on the important things. Palmer Concierge can help you by shopping for groceries or gifts, organizing your office or home, taking your pet to the groomer's, wrapping gifts, making your retail returns, and bringing you coffee, lunch, or dinner. Some of our other services include event planning, photography, making your scrapbooks, and wardrobe consulting.

When you use Palmer Concierge, we commit to returning 10% of our profits to organizations that assist our fellow Austinites in need. By helping you, we are helping others, too.

And a view of their pretty flier...



I don't know about you, but this is especially timely given the holiday season. Shopping, gift wrapping, various errands...anyhow, just thought you'd want to be in on the latest scoop!

My first book

For a few Christmas presents this year, I decided to create a book on Blurb that showed some of our favorite places from our trip last year to Israel.

And you can check it out as well, if you're interested:

Book Preview

Enjoy!!

The Christmassing...and attack of the Scotties

Christmassing is in full swing at the Ramas. I have proof. And two furry black helpers.

Filling small amounts of time with randomness

Given that there was such a flurry of interest regarding the various aspects of redecoration that have occurred at our abode, I shall soon be posting the newly updated "Christmassing" of our house.

I've noticed something about myself: I tend to fill small amounts of time with tasks that I had no notion of attempting until just the last moment.

Case in point: random Christmas decorations were pulled out of the storage shed yesterday afternoon and were complete within about 90 minutes.

Done.




P.S. I just invented the word "Christmassing". You are now free to use it to your heart's delight. Enjoy!

Redecoration results

After a little shoving around of heavy things in our living room, we arrived with this:












I have a vision for what I want to do about the wall above the sofa...hoping to work on that this weekend.

I'm also wanting to add seating, since we don't have much now. Also hoping to work on that this weekend...

Cool new site...

Ok. Before you read the rest of this post, you must promise me NOT to read too much into this. I'm posting this, not out of any personal necessity, but rather to help spread the word about a neat site a friend of ours just launched.

Ready?


Are you sure?






We have a deal, right?








Ok. It's about babies.

BabysList.com is a new site that a friend of ours launched due to their own personal quest for all things baby. Here's an excerpt from Jeff's email:

I'm happy to announce the beta launch of another Austin Startup Lab company called BabysList.com. BabysList is a niche site that will serve the Austin and surrounding communities by assisting parents that want to sell, swap and search for all things baby, locally. It's my hope that this site will develop into a marketplace for parents to help others in their community that don't have the means to buy "new" baby products as well as provide a platform for letting stay at home moms and dads make additional income without the cost of shipping charges and risk of fraud.

BabysList was "born" (sorry I had to :) ) when Jen and I were shopping for Elise before she arrived. I was amazed at how much stuff we needed and what it all cost. Given the life cycle for most baby items is measured in months, I saw them as barely used, or in some cases not even used at all before the child grew out of that product. I set out to create a place where parents could market their used baby items to a very specific, local audience as well as find great bargains on all sorts of things for their baby.

This holiday season is shaping up to be a hard time for many people, so if you have any items that you were waiting for your next garage sale or were going to donate, I would ask you to consider posting them on BabysList so that local parents needing a little help with finances this holiday season have an alternative to buying "new". It's good for everyone when we all lend a helping hand.

Happy shopping!

Redecorating

I am in the mood to redecorate. And luckily, I've been able to convince Amar to help.

So tonight, we'll be completely reversing the arrangement of items in our living room. Who knows, maybe it'll work out? Maybe it won't? Our living room has perplexed me since we moved in. It's long and narrow, and we have a rather spacious couch...so even though I'd love to introduce additional seating, it has been a challenge to figure out exactly how to accomplish that.

So we're just going to move stuff around a bit to see how we like it.

Also, I made a new masthead this morning. I hope you like it!

Happy December!!

A few updates

• My boss gave me the day off, even though I didn't ask for it. A great way to start the holiday weekend, if you ask me.
• I made some kickin garlic & Parmesan mashed potatoes for our dinner group the other night. I love trying new recipes, especially when everyone loves the dish!
• In the last 4 business days, 2 managers in my group resigned. Change, anyone?
• On that note, Monday will mark me getting my 4th manager in 14 months. Given my recent track record, I preliminarily predict that she will resign in 4-6 months. (Kidding...hopefully!)
• I'm working on a book on Blurb as a Christmas gift for a few family members, and I'm really enjoying it. I'll post a link once it's fully baked.
• Medvedev is freaking me out a bit. Stay tuned.
• I'm reading a new book called Epicenter, and really loving it. If you're at all interested in the Middle East, end times, and specifically the future of Israel, you should check it out.

Anyhow, happy Thanksgiving to you all! Enjoy the long weekend!

A river runs through it

Or at least it did last night for a bit.

It seems that our neck of the woods is experiencing a little plumbing trouble. A few weeks back, Amar and I called the City after seeing water gushing up from the pavement around the corner. It was literally coming from a crack in some one's driveway.

A few hours after our call, the City crews showed up and seemed to fix the problem after some minor repairs.

Then a few days later, they were back at that same spot, ripping up the bike lane on that side of the street. It seemed the initial repair was a bit lacking.

Fast-forward to last night. As we walked to the car on our way out to get some food, Amar asked why there was water in the street. Upon further investigation, right around the corner (this time a bit closer to our house) it seemed that water was again gushing up from the ground. We called the City again and reported the issue.

Two hours later, when we returned home, water was still everywhere and there were no repair crews in sight. Amar called the City again, and they said they would have someone out there in "a few hours"...brilliant. This was around 9PM.

At midnight, we were awakened by loud thud, and another one, and another one. This went on, intermittently for about an hour. The repair crew had finally made it out to the newly formed spring.

Then this morning while walking the dogs, I wanted to survey the damage. Surely they had to have done something last night, right? Well, the whole block seemed to have traces of silt and sand that had been washed out of the construction site. And upon arriving at the scene of the crime, we saw where it came from:

A huge hole, about 15 feet long, 4 feet wide and deep enough for one guy to just barely stick his head out above ground. Half the road was closed.


(Not the actual picture of the street, but also not too far of an exaggeration...)

I mean, are we good citizens or what? We're practically on a first name basis with the 3-1-1 operator at this point.

Sometimes I surprise myself

Last night, on the way home, I started thinking about dinner. Now, this is highly unusual for me. I usually don't ever think about dinner, or if I do, it's about 5 minutes after both Amar and I get hungry.

For some reason though, yesterday was different.

I knew that I had some beef stir-fry strips in the freezer. I had bought them quite a while ago, optimistically thinking at the time that it would be fun to try that...

And I also knew that I had frozen broccoli florets as well as some left over rice.

And in a moment of sheer inspiration and sense of impending victory, I decided that I would make beef and broccoli "stir-fry"*.

Adding to the level of complexity for the evening was the following:

• Amar had a meeting to go to at 6PM. I made the decision to cook at 4:45 PM. Past cooking endeavours such as this one had dragged on for an hour or so, thus I knew I had to step it up...
• I had no recipe that I could reference, so I had to find one by digging through a few cookbooks.
• I have never made beef and broccoli, much less anything resembling "stir-fry" before.
• After locating a recipe, I realized that I didn't have any ginger. Gasp!

In the past, this would have paralyzed me. I'm a perfectionist, and I don't like to try things that I know I can't win. The above constraints would have just sent me packing.

But last night was different.

Unencumbered by self-doubt or the fear of failure, I pressed on.

I started cooking additional rice, since I didn't have enough left-over.
I started mixing the stir-fry ingredients for the sauce.
I started chopping vegetables (onions, garlic, etc.).
I started prepping everything else.

And without stressing, without snapping at Amar, without setting anything ablaze, it happened**:




And we both actually liked it.


*Note: we don't necessarily have a wok, so I made due with what we did have: Pots and pans. I know, genius.

**Note: Not an actual picture of our meal, but pretty darn close.

White House hopes...

When I took our dogs out this morning, they seemed a bit distracted. They just couldn't quite concentrate, and it wasn't because of the squirrels.

Nope.

It seems they are quite concerned as to the future of the White House: it's four-legged inhabitants, to be specific.

You see, the White House has been occupied for the past several years by two very distinguished, very proud little Scotties: Barney and Miss Beazley.

And as you might know, the Obamas will bring a new dog into the house after the Scotties move on.

While our girls will be quite sad to see such wonderful dogs move out, they are increasingly hopeful that yet another Scottie will be chosen to roam the Rose Garden. Before I left the house today, they provided me with a list to share, noting the benefits of adding a Scottie to the Obama family:

1. Scotties are quite opinionated and tenacious, thus making them valuable advisers to any policy issue that might arise on the Hill.
2. Scotties will keep the White House free of any potential rodent, specifically squirrels, which can be quite pesky. No worries of any mice on the premises when a Scottie is on the lookout.
3. Scotties will dance on command, and can be very adept at breaking any awkward silences that might occur when greeting foreign dignitaries. If any new Scottie needs training, Bella has offered to train them, as she happens to really love to dance. Her favorite song, of late, is "I like to move it, move it" as well as that Indian song at the beginning of "Inside Man".
4. Scotties can go from a day to evening look in mere minutes, requiring very little grooming.
5. Scotties like rope toys and peanut butter. (I'm not sure how this fits in with the whole "White House" theme, but I think Bella and Zoey just wanted to remind me...)

That was the extent of their list from this morning, but I'm sure it's so short simply because they got distracted and thought that they heard a squirrel.

So Obamas, please take these wise words into account when choosing your new pet.

Barney and Miss Beazley, I think Bella and Zoey speak for all Central Texas Scotties when they say that you will be missed.

Until next time...B & Z

Not to bug you too much, but...

Here's another review of I.O.U.S.A. on another blog I read. Good stuff:

Slide:ology review

Change

More embarassing pictures...

I'm beginning to think that about 80% of the pictures of me on the Internet are pretty embarrassing. Not that I mind....but I just wanted to put a number on it.

Anyhow, just to pile on a bit, here are some pictures of my Small Group Bible Study at a Halloween party last week. We've gotten rave reviews on the costumes, so no pressure, but I think you're going to enjoy them as well.

Now, I who doesn't love a good red? And I must say, that being red had it's perks for the photo shoot. I mean, you can't deny that it's a primary color, and is a critical part of so many other colors and color combos. I don't want to assume anything, but the secondary colors were looking at little envious.... ;)



The crayons, in all their glory.




Arrogant primary colors.




Red and blue make purple!




Orange was a little embarrassed by his parents. I mean, who wouldn't be? His dad was wearing a skirt!




The color wheel - wheeee!!!




I'm red. He's brown. Got a problem with that?




Girl colors - unite!

Movie Reviews

Within the past week, I've seen 2 movies, both of which I would recommend to you if you have $10 burning a hole in your pocket (or $20 if you want to see both, and spring for some popcorn).

I.O.U.S.A.



Yes, it's a movie about the national debt. And I can totally understand how you would just assume that this would be a real snoozer. But it was really good. It's hard to make a good movie about a global financial crisis, but these guys did it. I actually want to get it for people for Christmas....

You need to watch this. Even if you have no clue about the national debt, or don't care, this is an issue that requires our attention. It was really eye-opening, so if you do go see it, let me know! We can discuss :)


Body of Lies



Now, I'll be totally honest. It's never hard for me to watch Leonardo DiCaprio. However, this was not originally on my "must see" list until it became the movie chosen for our off-site at work. It's a spy movie set in the Middle East, and it was pretty entertaining. One of those that made me think about the plot for the rest of the day, trying to figure out who told who what and when and where they were and how on earth did this happen? Oy.

Anyhow, if you like action movies, or movies with plots about international spies who also happen to be fairly attractive (wink!), then you should go see this. I will warn you, there are a few scenes that I couldn't watch (violence-wise), but the rest of it was good.

One question: why do all spy movies have the same font? You know what I'm talking about. It's that all caps, computery-looking text that you can just imagine someone using to type in the coordinates of some safe house in the desert. Just something I noticed...

Enjoy!

How did we get here?

Here's another little gem about our crazy financial times. Now, I don't really care if you're pro- or anti-bailout, it's nice to have a summary of how we got here, and just how much cash has been shelled out.

And the comic is just for fun, because apparently I enjoy making fun of the government (wink!).





Image courtesy of the Consumerist

A long week...

I miss you, coffee.

Is it sad that this made my day?

This picture literally made my day. I hope it makes you smile.

To be fair, here's the caption:

US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 15, 2008.

Link to Yahoo story

Face it

We live in a world where a movie like this not only makes money, but it makes almost $30 million dollars.

Let me say again, that I do not approve of entertainment that features animals that talk. The only exception to that rule is the K-9 Advantix series of commercials. I mean seriously, how cute is that little singing puppy?!?!?




Note: if you happen to like talking animals, please don't take this post personally. I think we can still be friends, right?

My current reading list

Ever since reading the "Frantic Family" book a few weeks ago, I've been on a bit of a Patrick Lencioni kick.

For those of you familiar with his work, let me know your thoughts. For those of you that aren't incredibly familiar with his work, he is a long-time consultant who writes business narratives in order to drive home a central point, whether that be about meetings, silos, goals, etc.

And given the fact that I'm married to one of the most avid readers I know, I didn't have to go too far to start picking up some more Lencioni and diving right in.

First up, Death by Meeting



And it happened to be quite timely, because I had a little Death by Meeting experience yesterday, despite my best efforts in recent days to avoid such a travesty.

Rather than having a meeting for the sake of having a meeting, or spending hours on end in a conference room and getting nowhere, Lencioni argues that there are different formats, frequencies and agendas that one should have on their calendar. Honestly, it helped me think about work differently, which can't be a bad thing, right?

Some of what he covers in the book helped me try some different approaches to my day-to-day meetings, and I'm hoping that in the long run, my time, and my co-worker's time will be spent more effectively. I'll keep you posted.

Next up: Silos, Politics and Turf Wars



If you've spent any time in corporate America, you just might be familiar with the idea that a lot of folks have an "us vs. them" mentality in the work place. I can guarantee that folks, including myself, do at my office.

A lot of what Lencioni talks about in this book is familiar to the topics in "Frantic Family", especially the idea of setting a rallying cry to unite folks.

Man, how I wish that this were as easy to put in place as he makes it sound. The fictional story that he paints would be great if it were happening in real life, but from what I've seen, a lot of businesses are a long ways from getting there.

But I'm holding out some hope. And this did make me think of things a bit differently. I'd love to talk to some of the execs in my department about what they see as our rallying cry and what they think about working through some of the existing politics. I see how his concepts could work at a small company, but trying to get 80,000 people unified around a few core concepts is a bit of a daunting task.

And finally, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive



I'm about 1/3 of the way through this one, and I'm enjoying it. No, I am not an executive. Will I ever be? Who knows. But I don't think it can hurt to try to start thinking like one. Or to start thinking like an extraordinary one, at that ;)

Mammoth, revisited

I have to admit I was a bit shocked when the news broke this week that evidence of Steve Fossett (cash, license) had been found near Mammoth Lakes, California. And then today, they found the wreckage of the plane near that same spot.

Why was I shocked? Becuase Amar and I were just there 6 weeks ago.

Here's a write-up in the Times about the find, first discovered by a hiker and then confirmed by an air search.

This is the kind of terrain that was searched.



Massive trees. Steep cliffs. Mountains. All in all, a tough find.

Hey Sports Fans!!

I saw this today and it cracked me up, though it may be a little snarky:



Click on it to get a full size image of "September Madness"! Which bank or government entity to you think will go all the way?!

What a waste!!

That's my takeaway from today's political activities. A. Complete. Waste.

A waste of time.
A waste of tax dollars.
A waste of money.
A waste of energy.

I was watching the news tonight, and NBC's political director Chuck Todd was on with Brian Williams. His insight into today's vote really caught my attention. He said, that after some analysis on the vote, he had determined that ultimately, 1 factor indicated whether a lawmaker would vote FOR or AGAINST the bill: whether or not they were facing a hotly-contested battle for their seat in November.

If a lawmaker was pretty much a shoe-in for their seat in the fall, they voted FOR the bill.

If a lawmaker was being challenged strongly for their seat in the fall, they voted AGAINST the bill.

If that is the case, and honestly it seems rather likely to (cynical) me, then I cannot think of anything more cowardly.

But then came the finger pointing, and the blaming.

Pelosi blames Bush.
Republicans blame Pelosi.
Democrats call the Republicans whiners.
The phrase "babies sucking our thumbs" was used.

I am honestly starting to think that the 1st grade Sunday school class that we teach could have done a better job crafting legislation and voting on it.

Please, for the love of God and country, stop the whining and do your jobs!



Whew.

Ok, sorry for the rant. Sorry for the series of rants, actually. Hope you're still hanging in there.

Dog show

I took advantage of the late afternoon sun yesterday to do an impromptu photo shoot with the pups. Here's the outcome:

Passing the time

I was just lamenting to a friend that I was really behind the times this week. I haven't watched the full Tina Fey video from SNL wherein she imitates Sarah Palin.

And I'm sure that most of you have already tried out the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator...but I hadn't tried it yet, so here's my amusement for the morning:

Had I been born to Sarah Palin, I would have been named:

Bang Walmart Palin - my full name, using my maiden last name

Mustache Warthog Palin - using my shortened maiden name

Knife Pile Palin - using my full married name

Icepick Motor Palin - using my shortened married name



All are very, very flattering, as you can tell.

Who would you be, as a Palin?

Some perspective...

I know, I know - 2 posts in 1 day!

You're probably wondering how you could be so lucky as to stubmle upon 2 posts in one day here at chynmburli.

Well, sometimes it's better not to question such blessings.

So I'm still rather troubled by the many strange happenings in the market. I read an article today about the top 10 US bankruptcies in history, and to drive the point home (and given my on-going love affair with all things Excel), I created this nifty chart. (Click on it to make it bigger...this is the best that Blogger could do)



Ta da! Some perspective on what happened over the last 3 days.

These are billions of dollars.

And that freaking huge spike on the right? That's from Monday. Of this week. Like 2 days ago. The teeny blip on the far left? That's from 1987.

Here the article that I got the data from, if you're at all curious.

I read it, I said it, I stole your momma's credit

Anyone guess the movie?




And we're moving on:

Disclaimer: I'm feeling a little preachy this morning. If you don't want to read a rant about our current financial times, I suggest you just skip this one.

I read the Clark Howard piece that I linked to yesterday, and would encourage you to do the same if you want a dumbed-down, super-brief summary of what happened over the last few months.

I want to call attention to one of the minor points that is made in the story (and the one following it as well): this is not a "Bush" problem.

With all the flurry of various political campaigns going on day in and day out, both candidates were quick on the draw, blaming this party and that. Obama still seems to be on his "don't vote for 4 more years of Bush - they got us in this jam" mantra, but do not be fooled.

It takes years for financial policies, passed by our local, state and national government, to take affect. To blame the current state of Wall Street and the real estate market on any 1 term in office is not only unfair, it's wrong.

Now, I know in the past I haven't gotten too far into the political debate. But it's hitting our wallets now, and it's getting a bit personal. The government has either loaned, or made available, upwards of $280 billion dollars. And where they getting the cash? Mostly, from you. And me. And the rest of the American people.

Do I think the government should bailout these companies? It's a toss-up, simply because on one hand, the companies shouldn't have gotten themselves into this pickle in the first place. On the other hand, the companies are now so big that having them go down in flames would probably cause a HUGE wave of financial turbulence across the globe. It's a no win situation.

Indymac
Washington Mutual
Freddie
Fanny
AIG
Bear Stearns
Merrill Lynch
HBOS
Lehman Brothers

Who is next?

Money matters

I know there is a post somewhere, still forming itself in my brain, regarding the complete chaos that is the US economy over the last year or so.

However, I'm coming down with a little writer's block today, so for now, I leave you with these primers:

1) Fairly bland (i.e. it's not blaming one side or the other too terribly) summary of the most recent happenings from CNN: link

2) Just for some book learning, a refresher on what is actually meant by "subprime lending" and all of its sordid past: link

3) And just for a sanity check, please visit Clark Howard. For you AM radio listeners, hopefully you're already familiar with him. If you're not, you need to be. He has an article as well about the latest happenings, but I haven't read it yet: link, meltdown article link

Enjoy!

Looking ahead

I've never been really good at setting goals. I just am not geared for strategic thinking. Give me something tactical, and I'll dive right in and knock it out (most likely). However, I have recently been doing some corporate strategy thinking (more out of frustration than curiosity), and that's why when Amar suggested I read this book, I tore through it.



It's by a pretty well-known business author, Patrick Lencioni. Some of you in corporate America might be familiar with his other titles. Given that my past reading track record was pretty pathetic, I had heard of him, but never read any of his books. Today? I'm 2/3 of the way through my second of his set.

Anyhow, back to the yellow book.

It's basically about how to manage your family so that 1) you're not all running around like crazy people and 2) you're actually making progress towards meaningful goals that align with the unique values that make up your family.

It is not boring. I know you think it will be, but it is not. Even if you hate goals/milestones/objectives/etc., you should read it. I want to get it for people for Christmas. Seriously.

Amar and I both read it over the last week, and last night we sat down at a local coffee shop and planned out the next 2 months for our family: we outlined what made us, as a family, unique; we settled on a 'rallying cry' which is basically the highest-priority item for us over the next 2 months; we setup certain structure around how we're going to achieve that goal.

And it was great.

Seriously, I really think you should read this book.

Single? Read it.
Married? Read it.
4 kids under the age of 5? Read it.

We came up with values and a plan without too much debate (I know, this is a shocker for some of you to imagine us NOT debating!), and I'm genuinely excited about it. I'm excited about doing it again in 2 months, once we're past this initial goal. We already know what our next 2 will be.

So that's my endorsement for the week. If you do happen to pick it up and put it to use, let me know! We'll gladly welcome you to the bandwagon with us!

Mammoth Lakes: Pictures

Folks, here is a link to our pictures from our anniversary trip to Mammoth Lakes, California. Enjoy!

Pictures

Note: the first few pictures are either me goofing around or at a friend's wedding...I just haven't separated the albums yet.

Some love for the airline industry

Not to all of it, mind you. I do still have the fresh memory of being thrown under the bus by American a few months back...but Southwest Airlines deserves a bit of friendly affection, in my humble opinion.

Amar surprised me for our 2nd anniversary and booked a trip to one of my favorite places in the world: Yosemite. Actually, we stayed a little South of the park, down in Mammoth Lakes, also beautiful! More on that, with pictures, later this week.

But back to the travel - we had to fly through Las Vegas and then to Reno to get there, and the first leg of the trip was pretty smooth. No delays, no crazy passengers, no missing bags. All in all, a good experience.

The return trip, however, was not as smooth. For some weather-related reasons, all of Las Vegas was shut down in regards to air travel. So our flight out of Reno was delayed, but we didn't know this until we boarded the plane.

Now, I'm not a super-frequent flyer, but I know that when the Captain comes out to make an announcement while you're still at the gate, something is up.

And something was indeed up.

He calmly, intelligently, rationally and compassionately explained to us that we would not be leaving anytime soon, and that we needed to deplane. On any other airline, they would have 1) just kept delaying the flight and refusing to tell you why, all while forcing you to stay seated in a grimy waiting area or 2) done something else equally awful.

Anyhow, they kindly asked us to head back out to the gate and to stay close, since we could literally need to board the plane at any moment.

About an hour later, while I was happily re-reading some Harry Potter (catching up on book 6 before the [now delayed!] movie comes out next year), when they asked us to line up again, based on the honor system (since they already had our boarding passes). We lined up, in order, and waited. We waited for about 5 minutes before they came back on the loud speaker to announce yet another delay.

About 30 minutes later, they came back on the PA system and said, "Folks, we've been cleared for takeoff. If you can board this plane in 15 minutes, we'll be good to go." And then it happened: that sense of camaraderie among the group. We banded together, boarded quickly (since we all had something at stake) and made it to the friendly skies over Las Vegas all in about 20 minutes.

Kudos, Southwest. You handled that well. At no point did I feel like a cow in a herd of nameless cattle. At no point were any of the flight attendants gruff or impatient with us, even when a rather large, rather tipsy many pointed at us and yelled "THEY TOOK MY SEAT"*. You kindly handed him his seat belt extender and asked him to find another seat. And you didn't even charge me for a blanket (take that, JetBlue!).


*It was on the honor system, buddy. If you had a business select number, but you chose to down another glass of wine rather than board with the business select folks, you missed your chance. The honor system was for boarding order only, not for seat saving. This is not the 4th grade, and I didn't hear anyone chanting "same seats, same places, same people, same faces" like we used to do in elementary school. So I hope you enjoyed your flight at the "back of the bus" as you like to call it. We certainly enjoyed ours at the front!

New specs

I got glasses for the first time in 4th grade.

Due to the benevolence of my parents, I quickly upgraded to contacts in 6th grade and have been wearing them ever since.

My "backup" glasses have been the same since about Jr. High, and as you can imagine, were just a little bit out of date. Out of style, most definitely, but also very lacking in actually helping me to see anything, since my prescription has changed about 10 times since then.

That all changed last weekend. Amar and I went to get some new glasses and they just came in yesterday.

If you'd like to see the latest self-portrait, click here.

Really, I'm just trying to phase them in a bit. Since I can actually use them to see things now, I might start wearing them out in public every now and then. Brace yourselves, and thanks in advance for your support!

Happy Anniversary

It's been a wonderful 2 years...

Shout-out to the Indians out there

So I was giving Amar a hard time the other day about the seeming absence of any Indian presence for any Olympic sports. I wasn't aware at the time, but the country had yet to win any gold medals in any individual sport. Ever.

My argument:
There are over 1 billion people in the entire country. Out of that huge number of potential athletes, there have got to be at least a few people that are outstanding in various sporting events.

Anyhow, it seemed like such a loss to me that India wasn't well represented athletically....until recently.

Abhinav Bindra just won India's first individual gold. Sure, it was in men's 10m air rifle, but a gold medal is a gold medal.

So congrats, India. I know the resident Indian in my house was mighty proud!

Bah humbug