Taking a spring hike

....in the Shenandoah valley.

First for this season, first for the year. Picked two trails- one that led down to some watershed and the other up to a vista point. And by the end of this ambitious hiking trip, exhaustion wasnt even the right word to use. Its been hot and humid already and spring is not officially even over yet. The green foliage at Shenandoah Valley is breathtaking, if only there had been some rains previously- the waterfall would've been even more spectacular.
Using the embedded slideshow feature from picasaweb(thanks NN!) to showcase some pictures.

This long weekend appears to be a welcome change for many people, considering it is the first for this year. Just chilling at home with a cool drink sounds inviting and making elaborate plans to head to the beach appears tiring. Some lunch and dinner invites, a hike or two, some chores, reading, spring cleaning.....not bad at all!

Favorite drinks for upcoming summer days : Watermelon juice and strawberry smoothie.

Baking project for the weekend : Eggless maple pecan cake . Yumm-o

At the box-office :
Shrek 3 - Very passable fare, nothing new to report about Shrek the 3rd. The lines and story werent as unusual or catchy as the first. Shrek 2 itself went downhill, now Shrek 3 just collapsed without much to rave about.
The Queen on DVD : Worth a watch. Helen Mirren's acting definitely warrants a mention.

Another masterpiece from KH

The Kite Runner did this to me. I had to finish it in ONE read. And it was the same with A thousand splendid suns. I had to finish it, find out what happened to Mariam and Laila, experience their agonies, ecstasies, their trials and tribulations, laugh with them, cry for them...yes yet another masterpiece from the Afghan master storyteller.




Its a moving story about Mariam as she journeys through her life and the unjust hand of cards that life deals to her. Surprisingly for a story set in Afghanistan during the troubled times right from Soviet occupation to the tryanny of Taliban rule, the central characters in the book are women, women with strength and determination. While The Kite Runner was moving and impactful in a different sense, one sees the same great style of writing with A thousand splendid suns as well. I was apprehensive about how impressive KH's next book would turn out to be, most authors these days just emerge to be one-book-wonders. But no, KH doesnt fail his readers....

And NOW I can get moving on my chores for the day!

So next in the reading cart...William Dalrymple's City of Djinns(NN: Watch out, a sore kick will be delivered your way if this doesnt promise to be as good as you SAID it would be!).

All for "not want" of a nail

“For three days after death, hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off.”
-Johnny Carson

I am proof personified for the latter claim about fingernails. To begin with, I generally never have let my finger or toe nails grow for too long before my mild OCD takes over and drives me up the wall if left unattended. I cut them so close that there is no room for the nails to breathe, if they ever have to do so. And it bothers me while using the keyboard. So I have a nail clipper handy NOT ONLY in my toilet kit, but also in my dresser, the living room candy jar and study table pen stand! I was even contemplating leaving one at work, JUST IN CASE.
Yes, weird- tell me about it.

Every time I attempt to go for a manicure(I have tested this in multiple cities and multiple nail salons within my own with the same discouraging result) its only a matter of minutes before the lady looks at my hands and guffaws loudly , continues to giggle like a school kid and finally asks "You want to have a manicure with THESE nails?????". Alright, I got the point lady!! And then with her most earnest face she tells me that I should grow them some more and THEN come back for a manicure. I sit and huff and puff at the massage chair and try to come up with nasty ways to give her a hard time while she pedicures. Touchy subject, you know!

Pedicures are fine, I let my toe nails grow to a cm more than finger nails. But within 3 or 4 weeks of a pedicure, I am chopping the toe nails and ruining all the effort that goes into it.

Therein I come to the latest issue of mine. My fingernails seem to be growing too soon. I find myself chopping them every couple of weeks as opposed to once a month that it used to be. No, people, I haven't taken to drinking milk everyday or calcium overdoses. Nothing is different, yet I notice this change. I find it aggravating to have to cut them so frequently and on the other hand find it unbearable to let them grow. And my next concern is what if they start growing on a weekly basis, and then daily?????? Yet, I will not give in and let them grow in peace.

Its me or them nails. Bring it on!

6th Target

The latest James Patterson novel featuring the Women's murder club leaves the reader with a sense of utter disappointment. There was no strong projection of the plot and the central story was a chain of three different murder cases- each disjoint from the other. None of the Women's murder club" girls were given a decent chance to project their strong individual personalities. Well finish it I did, like I always do of all his books. Surprisingly thrillers make me do that even though sometimes the ending is quite evident.

To sum up, this was nothing close to any of the Alex Cross series (the Alex Cross series was getting repetitive and predictable, btw).

So moving on to James Patterson's books....there is a story behind my initiation into reading his books. When I first moved to Virginia, on a transfer from down south, the only person I knew at work was my director C. He lived in Philly and would drive to DC every Monday and drive back on Thursdays. He lived in a studio apt for the week and would stock up on books and music to tide him through the week. So when I moved and had settled down, he stopped by one day to ask how I was doing. And the first thing I told him was that I was settled otherwise except that I was looking for the closest library to get a membership from. So that same day, at lunch time, he drove me to the county library where I gleefully got my membership.

When the paperwork was done and I proudly held on to my card, he had checked out about 4-5 books...............all James Patterson's!!!

Well, with my curiosity aroused, I had to ask about the author and his books. C, as is evident, was a big fan of his. So he made me borrow my first James Patterson novel(my memory fails me as to which one it was! but it was surely an Alex Cross one). And so I got hooked. The best part of the story is that psychopaths and serial killer mysteries so had me engrossed that I finished all of his books within 2 months!!!!

I was even more encouraged because it was a sure topic for hallway conversation with C where we'd exchange books or even review them. At one point he was lagging so far behind , I remember he sat overnight to finish a couple of them JUST so he was caught up with me. I am quite sure if it weren't for that kind of reading company and constant goading, I'd never have gone this far. It wasn't that I was into psychopaths and serial killer mysteries that much, but it was definitely suspense-worthy for an attention-deficit person like me to hang on till the end.

And thus ends the tale. Now I have moved onto to better and more challenging employment opportunities and have lost track of C, but recall him, I do, every time I read a James Patterson novel.

So C, if you are out there AND miraculously happen to read this post AND haven't read 6th Target YET, then firstly don't! and secondly nya nya nya me first, AGAIN! ;)

Next in the reading cart (rubbing hands) : Khalid Hosseini's "A thousand splendid suns".

The druid's latest

"When it rains, it pours" is surely a time-tested idiom.

There was a time when I had nothing to read. Well, let me rephrase, nothing interested me enough to warrant an investment of reading time. And then May seemed to come around with a flurry of new book releases, perhaps in time for Mother's day gifts.

So just got done with PC's Witch of Portobello. The story telling technique was different- the character of Athena was presented as seen by multiple first person accounts of people who interact with her and define how they perceive her. For most part, these accounts were too detailed and sometimes disparate/disconnected that it would be easy to lose focus on the central character, Athena. Secondly the ending fell apart and couldnt hold the story together. Of course, there were too many religious references but that appears to have become PC's trademark these days. I'd give it a 3.5 star rating, but thats just my take.

Currently in the reading cart is James Patterson's 6th Target.

Following that is either City of Djinns(per NN's suggestion) or Khalid Hosseini's A thousand spendid suns.

Woot! Memorial Day weekend charts seem to foresee a lot of couch time with books. Maybe I should be stocking up on them munchies.

Snippet of a conversation with the crabby kind!

Ring, Ring

Me : Hello

Voice : Hey

Me : Whats up? Are you gonna help me with this furniture.

Voice : Yes yes I am on my way back from my meeting, so I'll call you as soon as I get there.

Me : Erm, there as in am I meeting you at your place or are you coming over to mine?

Voice : I'll stop by your place. I'll call you as soon as I get home.

Me : Erm, I thought you said you were coming to my place....

Voice : Yes, thats right. I'll call as soon as I get home....

Me : Argh, if YOU are coming to MY place, why would you call me as soon as you get home?(slightly raising voice due to exasperation).

Voice : Oh, I was planning to stop by my place, change and then head over. Hence I said I'll call when I get home. Btw, whats with the irritability?

Me : Argggggggggggggh. How the HELL am I supposed to know you planned to go to YOUR place and change before coming?

Voice : Why would I have to explain that to you? When I say I'll stop by your place, does it matter what I do before getting there? Geez, this anger and irritability of yours is becoming unmanageable! Really!



So is it just me or was there not a slight inexplicable disconnect?

Cancerians Bah!

Footnote : Cancerians out there, pliss to not throw rotten tomatoes and eggs at the mint, the mint loves all sun and moon signs without any pride or prejudice.

Spidey 3 - its a thumbs...

... down Bollywood flick.

We've seen Mission Impossible going the spiced up chaat way, now its Spidey.

Spidey 1 was probably the most entertaining with the right dosage of Superhuman'ness and thrill. Spidey 2, ah well, not too bad- tolerable. Oh my God, Spidey 3 is a total masala chaat concoction replete with a love triangle, music, drama, hatred, revenge, perfect and happy ending- so on and so forth. There is also a scene with Peter Parker and MJ in a spider hammock watching shooting stars. Erm, seems familiar, doesnt it? Yes imagine 2 and 1/2 hours of this drivel and makes you wonder if infiltration of Bollywood masala into Hollywood movies is such a great thing.

All in all, the movie was too long for its own good, the ending was ho-hum and in totality felt like a colossal waste of good time and money.

Disgruntlemint

"You need to control your anger, Altoid!"

"This is unreasonable, the way you lose your temper at random and as often as you do. There's no way to predict what COULD make you angry. One day it could be the neighbor's dog barking too loud, the other day it could be the rains!"

"Geeez, Altoid- you cant get angry over such silly things...."

And so on and so forth. Yes, enough for one to conclude that perhaps Altoid might need some anger management classes.

While I will admit that I do lose my temper, in my mind, you see, its all justified. There is a reason for my outburst- every time, all the time :D. Be that as it may, I think what happens is that I show my anger at people or things unrelated to the actualy cause or source of anger. This morning and the entire day's events have put me in a cranky mood for the rest of the day, a perfect example for the case above. This in turn cascades on to bursts of rage which I distribute quite randomly to people around me. Yes, Taureans are known to be generous.

What happened was this. For 3 days now, rather nights, I have been asked by a store owner to call him after 10pm to remind him to set aside empty packing boxes for my upcoming move. So every night I call Sam and remind him and he in turn tells me to stop by at 8am the next morning to pick them up. 8am finds me scouring the store in search of Sam who gets paged and still doesnt show up. After about 45 mins of frantic searching, I find Sam who tells me he forgot to set aside boxes. "Can you call me tonight and remind me so you can pick up some tomorrow?" he asks politely. Since I'm the one asking for a favour, I suck it up and oblige.

This ritual has gone on for 3 days. So today at 9am, when I should have been at work, I am getting Sam paged for the 10 time. Wonder of wonder, he shows up with a cart full of empty boxes. *delighted look on my face*. As I wheel the cart out of the store, I am stopped at the main door by the Manager. "I am sorry Ma'am, you are not allowed to take these boxes out....". "But Sam gave them to me" I say. "Yes, I will talk to Sam, but you cannot take these out!" and he grabs the cart away. Long story short, after another 30 mins Sam comes up sheepishly to tell me to come around on Saturday and continue with the drama all over again.

After a polite smile(I still DO need them d**** boxes), I walk out and drive to work.

I log in see a work pile as tall as I am. To top it, I have missed a meeting and some frikking updates need to be installed in the laptop which in turn requests a reboot. It took 10 mins to boot in the first place!! Some paperwork that should have been done 3 weeks ago is just getting stalled for no apparent reason. Daily followup just isnt cutting it. Can I do anything about it?-Nada. I have to wait for the stars to line up and the person in charge to sign. Some days I just tempted to land at this person's office and strangle him with the telephone cord. (One anger management test asks innocently if I feel homicidal when I am angry...what do YOU think?).

Arghhhhhhhhhh!

So anyway, these tips that one finds to get out of bad moods suggest that one think about something funny or some pleasant vacation or something that takes one's mind off the current frustrations.
My question is usually when one is in a bad mood, one flares because there are too many things going on that need to be dealt with and hence adds to the stress right? How is one supposed to take an hour off to dream of such pleasant thoughts?

Yes yes, yoga, meditation etc etc.... I get it. You cant change the world, the only person you can change is yourself. Very true. I am sure I am quite unbearable when I am angry- heck sometimes I cant put up with my own self. I can see how irrational my outbursts are....

Huh? How did I get rid of my bad mood, you ask?

I just yelled at a handful of people, sulked, shed a few tears and I think the anger has abated now. I've heard "bull in a china shop" is an apt phrase for angry Taureans.

Mixed bag

This week in Movies :

Nishabd : Watched this AB starrer about a father falling in love with his daughter's friend who is visiting his estate. The 18 yr old girl, played by newcomer Jiah Khan. Much has been talked about the bold topic, the distasteful idea etc etc. But for most part, the story, in my opinion is just plain unconvincing. The way Jiah flirts with her friend's dad comes out as a little girl trying to wear big shoes. For such an older man to fall for such immaturity and consequently to confess to the wife thus causing a permanent rift in such a long standing marriage, again comes across as stupidity on his part as well. So all in all, along with the terrible aftertaste of the concept in general, the movie falls apart by failing to come to a powerful ending("closure" as Rachel from Friends would like to say).

This week amidst Books :

Hallelujah! The druid has a new book "The Witch of Portobello".
Note to self : If I ever get to publish books, they would be released on Fridays, so ardent fans and readers would have a peaceful weekend to finish reading them instead of trying to snatch every few minutes possible during the week. Review of this wonderful book forthcoming....

This week in miscellanous thoughts :

Washington Post regularly publishes an updated list of US casualties in Iraq, current count is at 3398, about 339 in Afghanistan and these are military personnel. The civilian count for WTC was at 2973.
So is this what is called as revenge?

Them undocumented games from yore

Recently while talking about "Lagori" and "Kho" and such other undocumented games that were played in school, I recalled another of those weird ones- it involved a decently long piece of elastic thread wound around the legs of two girls. And a third or fourth or the rest of the girls would jump across the elastic forming different patterns. I mentioned this to a few other friends and no one seems to remember having played this game.

I have not kept in touch with my schoolmates to have them vouch for this, so now it appears that I might just have made it all up!! For the life of me, I cant recall a name for this game, as always it was transitional. We probably played for a couple of months and then moved onto something else, something different, something just as whacky!

So if anyone recalls having played/seen this game specially around "The Home School" area in Basavanagudi, pliss to drop me an email!

So, moving on, hop-scotch of course was another all-time favorite. I hated Lagori, but would play just to not be left out. I might have played kabaddi a handful of times, again, not one of my favorites. And to think, in 1990, it was established as an official game at the Asian Games. Whad'ya know!

For rainy days, cool summer holidays, indoor board games were welcome to stay away from weather constraints as well as to keep us occupied with the Indian version of Mancala, Carrom, Scrabble and does anyone remember Ludo?

Anyone else have any other of these undocumented games?

Game time and TGIF!

Ma day in May

I probably lived for 25+ yrs under the same roof as "Amma" and never once wished her for Mother's Day or realised there would/could be a day dedicated solely for her. When I did hear about it, I was tens of thousands of miles away, but it definitely made me realise what a wonderful idea it was. No wonder greeting cards and gifts sell like hot cakes on this day.
To dedicate one day of the year solely to that one person in every person's life, it is my next favorite day after Teacher's day in India. What a wonderful gesture that was by our ex-President Dr. Radhakrishnan.

So here it is, this post is for my mother(Amma). All personal details aside, she has been the source of encouragement and support every step of the way. And I am very sure, when she sees this post, she is sure to ask why I have a picture of a flower.

Well Ma, thats because I didnt find a suitable picture of you to post, when I do, I will update the blog. For now, this could be considered a dedication to your green thumb!

MY MOMMY AND ME

© Craig A.Shames

My Mommy and Me

Once upon a time there was a woman named Shirley
Born and raised in Brooklyn this is who gave birth to me

That would make her my mommy and for that I'm thankful
She's a strong, compassionate, caring person and that's no bull

I couldn't ask for a better mommy and I'm not just saying that
She's never done anything wrong, even if she did replace our cat

She's always been there for me no matter the situation
Her daily calls and 'nagging' is what got me through to graduation

She only wants what's best for me, which is why she let me quit the Army
From shopping at the Gap to send caring packages she's always thinking of me

She might not like everything about me, especially my hair
But she'll always be there to pay my train fare

And I know I can always count on her when I have conflict or strife
She's been my rock, the pillar of strength in my life

I can't imagine what my life would be like without her
I'm just so glad that we're always going to be together

That's because my mommy and me get along so great
Even if I am complaining about what I just ate

Now, we haven't gotten to see each that much over the last few years
But I'll be moving back home soon so there's no need to shed any tears

From going to the beach to having a BBQ there will be lots to do
We should get along great just so long as I don't have to pick up any dodo

I'll always remember the years she spent at Yellow Book
Since she married Mark she no longer has to cook

Working two jobs for all those years to support me must have been hard
I appreciate all she's done, that's why I wrote this poem instead of sending a card

I like the things that I have and the situation I'm in
I couldn't have asked for a better kin

My mommy and me make a great team
Now stop crying and go make me some ice cream

Ta-da! Its a new Hobbit-at

Well, it wasnt with the same enthusiasm that I received the bad news that Blogger templates were messed up on this Saturday morning. My favorite image in my previous template- the lonely girl- was lost and appeared lost forever. And hence started a scramble to rebuild into the new blogger(some thing which I have been trying to avoid for a while now, yes you guessed it- we mints dont take to change easily).

I had to set aside the rest of the chores for the day to build a new habitat for my blog. And here we are. Most of the old scripts have been moved over and NOW I can go back to my chores in peace.

The reading cart has Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants(an impulse buy for a change, no reviews have been checked out), the dvd rack has "Dreamgirls". Some painting plans have been made.

Yes, sounds like an interesting weekend, except for this small hiccup.

Its all good now, or so it seems.

Pi(e)ning

I picked up some apples
At the farmer's market this week
Red, juicy and deelish,
A pie is what the tastebuds seek

Swoosh went in the sugar and flour
A mix and a whip and all it needs
Is chopped apples and some spice
And out go the cores and the seeds

Moving on to the crust
Again the flour comes in handy
Whip in the butter and shortening
And the crust is all fine and dandy

Roll the crust and pour the filling
Top it with a lid and bake till done
Grab a fork , dig into heaven
Yumm! This was SO much fun!