A winner and an apology

Update: I wrote this post long back. The only reason I didn't post it is because I was waiting to post the pictures as well to make the post interesting and I should have remembered that I am really bad at posting pictures, so should have just announced the winner and for that I apologize to my dear readers and hope that you will continue to read my blog and pick pictures for me and answer all my questions about life, home making and receipes becasue I know that this blog without you all is like a PB &J sandwich without the PB &J.


Thank you all for participating in the great photo pick of 2008. Since there were not too many people who commented, I had great fun writing your names out, putting it in a container and have my husband pick out a name.

Look who he picked out!

Congratulations, Anne Marie - For your surprise gift, I have decided (after much brain things in my head) that I will send you a $25 Amazon gift card. Please email me so that I can be sure of your correct email address.


I loved doing this. Hope all of you had fun looking at the pictures.

Food overload

This weekend will go down in our house as the Saturday we ate so much we could not get out of the chair.

There is a celebration (where my husband and I are from) called Onam generally in the month of August/September. It is the harvest festival and there is mythology behind it and to cut a long story short, it is the Kerala Christmas. In the sense that there are lot of sales, people spend lots of money and eat a lot. Very much like Christmas and Thanksgiving combined here.

There is a special kind of sari that women wear on that day. White with a cream/gold border. Now the eating part is tricky. Food is eaten on a banana leaf, all the dishes are pure vegetarian and there should be at least 8 dishes or so with the main dish which is rice.

Growing up, we never celebrated any festivals including Christmas. So, I had no intention of cooking an 8 dish meal and was happily at work on Friday when I happened to go on my orkut page. Almost all of my friends had pictures uploaded from the feast. At the end of the day I started thinking that it might nor be a bad idea to make one myself. Peer pressure, not a good thing my friends. Steer clear of it.

Anyway, one thing led to another and there it was.



We even dressed up for the occassion with our traditional outfits. It was great fun.



My husband and I held hands and I prayed over the food and the many blessings in our life. It was a very special time. We also have enough food to last us for the next year.

At least the next week for sure.

And the tired out cook

Pick three get one free

I want to ask a favor from y'all. I am submitting the following pictures for my company calendar and I want your top 3 favorites. So please comment on this post with the names of the pix in the order of your preference.

For spending your valuable time evaluating this, I will pick a winner from the commenters. The winner will get something nice. I am not sure at this point what it will be, but it will be something fun. And if you want to pick your favorite but do not want the gift, you can mention that. Please pick away while I meditate on your gift. The more comments, the better, so please spread the word.

1) YellowStone2



2) Yosemite 1



3) Yosemite 2



4) Horseshoe



5) Kerala Farmer



6) Mirror Lake



7) Painted Forest



8) Yellowstone 1



9) Bridge



10) Diamond Rock



11) Grand Canyon 1



12) Grand Canyon 2



13) Grand Canyon 3

Bears and Mountains and Snakes Oh My!

We went to Smoky Mountains for the labor day weekend. A couple friend from Atlanta also joined us. If truth be told, I didn't want to go on this trip.

Case in point: Our black suitcase which has been in our bedroom since the last week of June.

Last week of June, DH went to Utah for 3 days. One week later, he went on a 2.5 week trip to India. Then I had to be in Marco Island for 3 days and 1 week later, I had to be in Naples for a week.

The suitcase has never left the bedroom. Now it is still there waiting for the packing for the cruise.

And all this travel had made me want to curl up into a ball and sleep through the entire long weekend. Enrgetic hubby had other ideas. I agreed to tag along as long as I could sleep in the car and not do any trip planning. The terms were agreed to by both parties and we set off on Friday. We have been to Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone etc, so Smoky Mountains pales a little in comparison for us with regard to beauty. But bears and mountains? Never a bad deal. Plus, it was a good time with friends.

But something happened during the trip which made it very memorable.

We were on a hike to see a waterfall. I was walking a bit ahead and my husband and the other couple were behind. At one point they were far behind, but they soon caught up. Or in other words, I really slowed down. I just kept plugging along and suddenly I heard my husband call my name.

LOUDLY.

I stopped immediately. And looked down.

One single step ahead of me was a snake.

I didn't realize it was a poisonous rattle snake. Moments later, he told me that it was shaking it's rattle and ready to strike. I was close enough for the snake to feel threatened. When I heard that, I felt my whole body going weak and had to sit down on a nearby stone. I felt the trees around me spinning. It was a while before I could get up and continue walking.

The rest of the vacation went on without incident. I came back and read about rattlesnakes in wikipedia. Considering that we were kind of in the middle of nowhere (more than half way up the hill) and it would have taken a while to get proper medical help, the possibilities were very sobering. A loss of limb being one of them.

I thank God for his protection, that we are back safe and sound. But I realize how tenuous is the thread that separates life from death and how in that one instant our lives could have been irrevocably changed. That in one step, concepts like death, loss of limb suddenly could have gone from abstract "happen to other people" to concrete reality.