Gator: Part II

See Part 1 here

One of the things that we decided needed to be changed was the formica countertops in the kitchen. It did look really ugly, and we had couple of coupons from granite installation companies for free estimates. So I called one of them and made an appointment for the next day at 5pm. The route home from work was still new to me and so when I got home, it was a few minutes after 5. When I looked at the front door, I saw a black bag there. Conquering my fear of unattended black bags left at front doors, I looked inside. There was a bunch of papers and some granite samples. I looked around for a car or a bike or whatever, but there was nothing. I went to the backside of the house to see if he went to the yard, but there was nobody. I was distinctly surprised. It was really weird that he would come and leave his bag there and just disappear.

When I came back to the front door, I saw Gator lurking around. I carefully avoided him and got in to the house. We were still not living there, so the house was empty. By 5:30, there was still no sign of the man and so I just went out the main door and stood outside looking out for him. Our house is close to a large lake and it was beautiful outside. There was a lovely breeze and I was enjoying the breeze and the lakeview.

Gator got tired of sleeping near our doorstep and started walking towards the road. I saw a lady walking her big Golden Retriever on the sidewalk. I thought Gator would run off when he saw the dog. I was wrong. He just looked at the dog contemptously and stretched out on the sidewalk. The dog and the owner just walked around him.

Some cat! thought I.

I then saw a lovely bird flying almost close to the ground and then alighting on one of the stone posts on my opposite neighbour's yard. It then flew again and started pecking at something on the ground. I was watching the bird's movements and thinking what a peaceful neighborhood this is. And that is when I saw Gator move stealthily towards the bird. It was almost like he was wearing rubber soled shoes or something, he made no sound at all. At this moment, my cell phone rang inside the house. I ran inside hoping that it would be the granite guy letting me know what is keeping him. Instead, it was hubby calling to see what the status was. I chatted with him a little bit and then came outside again. Gator was coming from the opposite side and he had feathers in his mouth! I have never seen that bird again in my life.

I waited till 7:00 pm and then decided that I would go back home. The guy showed no signs of showing up even to claim his bag. I went home and repeated the days events to hubby. The day after when we went to the house, the bag was gone. To this day we have not solved the mystery behind the man and the bag.

Hubby and I have a theory though. We believe that Gator ate him.

This and That

I was not feeling good at all this weekend. Nothing spectacular, just aches and pains all over. So when you are all achy and painy what is the best thing to do?

Give the kitchen a complete overhaul of course!

So that is what I found myself doing on Saturday and some of Sunday. Took out all the pantry items, rearranged everything. Initially, I was planning to work on only the pantry closet, but ended up pretty much rearranging the whole kitchen.

I also ended up with a nice leg ache for the night, but those trifle things do not bother me when I am on an OCD roll. I don't have any pictures to show, but it looked really good if I may say so myself.

Then we went mega grocery shopping on Saturday and here (Picture will be updated shortly) is what we got for $13.15. This was the single greatest couponing accomplishment EVER. (It is a long story) So inspite of the health issues, it was a pretty productive weekend.

I am going to share about a possible change in the next few days. It is not something that I expected and I don't know how everything is going to work out long-term, but for now it is definitely going to be a change. I am excited and nervous at the same time.

And that is all the notes from the weekend.

Gator: The First Meeting

Remember this? Well me neither! Anyway whenever Anne Marie writes about her cats, I feel I should write about Gator. Now who is Gator? Glad you asked. Allow me to explain.



If you think Gator is just a cat, that is where you would be completely wrong. He is more a force of nature, a power to be reckoned with and was probably the inspiration for Kipling's cat who walked by himself and to whom all places were the same.

The story of Gator needs to be told to the world. It was remiss of me not to have done it for a year, work and other obligations notwithstanding.

It was exactly an year ago to the day when it all started.

We had just purchased the new to us house and just like first time homeowners, on our first "visits" to our home before we started living there, there was always something we would think of improving. The first day we went there, there was Gator right at the doorstep. We walked towards the door, hoping he would get up and go. He did get up alright and when I opened the door, he coolly walked in. I just watched to see what he would do next. When he I saw that he was getting ready to settle in the foyer, I said shoo, scat, not your house etc. He just stretched and went to sleep.

He probably didn't think I was worth dignifying with a response.

I stepped out of the house wondering what to do and thankfully our neighbor was out there. I asked her about the cat, and she said. "Oh, he is ours. But he is such an alley cat. The previous owners had a cat and Gator always used to go there." So I learned that his name was Gator and that he had many feline sleepovers at our place. I also learned that for the next few days I was supposed to watch the door so that he will stop trying to get in every time we opened the door.

And that was our first encounter.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Book Review 2 (Updated)

Update: I think it will be helpful if I actually say which book I am talking about. It is Serve God, Save the Planet by Matthew J Sleeth

I think it is an appropriate review for today, this being celebrated as Earth Day and all. One can hardly escape it. In the bus, on TV, in the paper, in my company website, in the EPA site, in google.

I think this book gets the distinction of being one non-fiction book that I read the fastest. It is a small book, and it is divided into small chapters. It is definitely an easy read. There are some aspects that I disagree with the author, but the thing that really got me is how he advocates a turn away from materialism. His emphasis is on how we can save the environment. Whether or not you believe in the larger question of saving the environment because of our longing for a new heaven and earth, this book is well worth your time.

There were two points he presents which really struck a chord with me. One is his emphasis about the continuous cycle of buying more. The more we buy, the more we cling to the things we buy. Dusting, cleaning, maintaining. And don't I know it well? Especially since owning a house. The other point he makes is to ask yourself if God would have you buy it. I am not saying that after I read the book, I sold my house and lived in a cave. But it did open my eyes and really helped my perspective. How even our tiny actions has such an impact on the environment and not just on others here in America, but all over the world.

We are making some lifestyle changes, but it is not very easy. I feel having lived in India for 23 years, it should come easy to me. But the truth is it is not. Having used a clothesline for 23 years, and a dryer for 5 years, one would think I can easily shift to air drying clothes. A dryer, dishwasher, car are all luxuries that I got used to which is now very difficult to unlearn.

One example he gives is great. We use a power mower for mowing grass which releases all these emissions to the atmosphere and then we pay money to go to a gym in a car which releases more emissions and then use machines (which use electricity, hence more energy usage) to exercise.

A wonderful read albeit some points which gave me a slight pause. I got to warn you that if you are QF lifestyle family/individual you will not like the chapter on population fallout. Just a friendly warning.

I give the book a 9.0/10

Coming Later- The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

When it rains, might as well resign to the fact

Do have those days when you think you got everything figured out and then by one "miracle" after another absolutely everything goes wrong? Today was one of those for me.

So I got an appointment with this specialist for today. He has a 2-month waiting period, so he is no small fry. The appointment was at 10:40 in the morning and so I got the mapquest directions all ready the day before. There were two ways to get there from our house. I was initially planning to use the road we knew very well. But we had the brilliant idea to use the other one last minute because that seemed to get us there faster.

This morning we started from our home at 9:45 am. The drive time was 35 minutes. You do the math. Even with a 20 minute delay we should have made it on time. We also had checked live traffic which showed a 2 minute delay en route.

Well, we had to take a left at a street to take us to the highway and due to construction there, the street name sign was taken off. Why, oh why would they do that?)And we completely missed it. It all went downhill from there. It will take three posts to tell you all the lefts and rights and U-turns we took, so fear not, I am not going to do that. Suffice to say that at 11:15 am, we were still driving. With no end in sight. I called the doctors office again and let them know. They said since it was so late, I needed to reschedule. And they have a date only a month later.

Incidentally, I had a very busy workday and had deliverables due by Monday morning. My whole morning was wasted cruising the greater Orlando area. Sure enough it is not a matter of great joy seeing a doctor. Maybe it was the long wait to get an appointment and then it turning to be a disappointment, or hormones or the fact that I had to work late Friday evening and/or weekend to catch up with work, but I just burst out crying in the car. And I could not stop. And guess what? This was one of the few days I had put on make-up for the benefit of the doctor. After the crying episode was over, well, let us say it is good that only husband was around.

I was not a pretty sight.

Anyway the moral of the story is:
1. Do not take a road for the first time especially when you are going for something important. Always use the true and tested.
2. Do your best not to cry if you have got eyeliner on.
3. And to men: When your wife sits in the car and bursts out crying, it is not a good idea to say: "It is no big deal." You are probably right, but we don't want to hear it.

And that is all for today.

Word Verification

I used to find the word verification step in blog commenting pretty annoying. Well, I never knew that I had it on myself. Obviously when I was replying to any one of your comments, I didn't need to do that step as I was the administrator.

I figured it was only fair that I should take it off myself and so I did yesterday afternoon. And by evening there was a barrage of spam comments each one of which was as long as all my posts put together. So comment verification is back on. Sorry to those folks who find it as irritating as I do.

Book Review

It is time for another book review. Well, I say that like I do tons of book reviews here on my li'l ole' blog. Don't let the fact that I have never done one before scare you off. I didn't do too bad as far as reading goes. 13 books in 3.5 months. I want to do a review of 3 of them which I really loved.

When Life and Beliefs Collide- Carolyn Custis James

It is a book which talks about how knowing God makes a difference. It is not your usual bedtime book for sure. I wanted to write on the sides, make notes and generally say Amen. She talks about of how theology is not only just knowing words like eschatology and doctrine and orthopraxy and exegesis but knowing who God is. The characteristics and attributes of God. I am teaching Sunday School and we are learning (as opposed to I am teaching becasue it is never just that) about eternal, unchanging and sovereign God. It is one thing knowing about God, but it makes no difference as long as you don't know God. She talks about how knowing God intimately is essential to our daily life. The book is aimed at women who shy away from theology thinking that it is only for man and has three parts based on the encounters of Mary and Martha with Jesus. The book does have a slight light liberal tinge towards the end with regards to women and church (though in some ways I am a closet sympathizer-Pssst don't tell the elders), but is overall excellent. Some of the points she raised are stuff that I had always pondered-like the cultural application of Christianity and her thoughts on predestination.

In the beginning I found it to be a little repetitive or maybe it was just that I was trying to read fast as I usually do. This is one of those books you want to spend some time reading. Many times I found myself stopping and reading aloud to hubby or if he was not around, just to myself.

My Rating 9.5/10 An excellent read for a thinking woman

Coming later Serve God, Save the Planet- Dr. Matthew J Sleeth

Oh the clothes I wear

I am brave. Much braver than I gave myself credit for. Looks to show you never know. I am actually sharing my clothing choices with the www. I don't know squat about fashion and that is the truth.


Here is my everyday office wear. Except that I took this picture at Arches National Park (who would have guessed?!?!?) and was wearing it for hiking. But this is pretty much what I wear to work everyday. Tops and jeans/denim skirts. Sans the hat and sunglasses of course.

And when I get home, this is typical.

Except that this is an old picture and my poor darling Pappu is no longer with us.


Sundays are the days when I am presentable as a human being. I actually spend some time getting dressed and putting on makeup and accessories. That is only becasue I am concerned about the welfare of the people around me. At work, I only have one colleague and he pretty much got used to seeing me without makeup and jewellery. I think he would be shocked if I show up with makeup one day. Did I shock you all yet with my true confessions?



If that is a weird looking picture, that is becasue I had to get R out. Ddidn't want to put his picture here. The more I look at it, the more weird it looks. His hand by itself, the lack of one of mine...But I don't have any singles of mine all dressed up for church and if you think that I am going to go home after work and hunt the camera which will of course be without batteries and dig out the dress and take pictures, you have another think coming.


And when I go out with R, these are some of the stuff I wear. My man like skirts and dresses on me. He really does. So I make an effort to wear those twice a week. Here are some that I wear usually. I love the red shoes. And only $7.50!!!





And this White house Black Market outfit R got me for my birthday

And if it is a really special occassion, then this. Forgive the horrible chain. I knew not what I was doing.

What would I buy if money was no issue? I have no idea. Honestly. I very rarely go shopping and I never do online clothes shopping. I have no idea what is out there so I can't tell ya.


And so ends my exhibitionism fashion show.

For a virtual Fashion Show, head on over to Big Mama's Spring Fashion Fiesta.

A recipe and a language lesson

Here is a super simple recipe for gobi manchurian in the menu on my weekly plan. If I can cook it, anyone can. Incorporating veggies into your diet is good for you. But in the interest of full disclosure, I will say that this is not the healthiest dish ever.

What You Need:
Cauliflower: 1
All purpose flour: 2 cups
Corn flour: 1/2 cup
Soy sauce: 1/4 cup
Green/Red/Yellow pepper: 1
Onion: 1
Ginger: 1 tsp
Garlic: 1 tsp
(ginger and garlic are optional though)
Salt: as required
Chilli sauce: As per your taste

What You do:
Cut the cauliflower into regular size florets. Make the batter by mixing all purpose four, corn flour, salt a few drops of soy sauce and water. Make sure the batter is not too thick or watery. Dip the florets and deep fry them in oil. Take it out. (We squish the oil out with a paper towel usually). Cut the onion and the pepper and keep aside. Use some of the same oil and fry the onion and pepper. Not too much, its good that it still be a little crunchy. Add garlic and ginger. Pour the soy sauce over it. I used hot chilli sauce as well. I am not sure how it will be without the chilli sauce. You can use ketchup as well if you prefer.

Take it off the fire. Pour it over the fried cauliflower. Mix it well, so that all the pieces catch the paste. Keep it covered for a while.

What You Eat it With:
Best enjoyed with Indian flat bread called Nan or Paratha. If that is difficult to get, do what I did. I just ate it for lunch with Tortillas. Tastes great.

For more yummy recipes, please visit Randi at I have to Say
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Oh, and by the way if you haven't figured out, gobi is hindi for cauliflower. Say it with me

Go-be. (go as in go and be as in become)

Of course you don't say it hyphenated but you already knew that.

See! you learned something new today.