driving test.

I don't remember whether I mentioned that earlier I helped my state meet its budget shortfall by getting a ticket close to work. Not only did I end up paying close to 500 bucks, I also had to go through an online driving school course to avoid the points on my record. oh gosh!!! The course is a pain no matter how mych you prepare yourself mentally. They give you several months to finish it and guess when did I finish mine? yep, 1 day before the deadline. Dude, am I glad to be done with it??

Today in my area, as I was driving to pick up my dad and in-laws from someone's house, I found out that the cops were doing a surprise DUI check for everyone on the street. This is the first time in 17 years (that I have been here) that I saw this one being done. Of course I passed...but I did see quite a few cars pulled up to the side ...I didn't realize that DUI is so rampant here. :(

Old Jalopy is giving trouble. A couple of days ago, all the coolant drained out while driving. Took her to the mechanic today and he suspected the house...did a quick fix for free and we were on our way. By the evening, all the coolant was gone again. Went to the rock star again and he claims that the water pump has gone bad (300+ bucks). Just a few months ago, for the same problem he had changed the radiator (another 300+ bucks). Its hard to tell if this stud has any clue what he is talking about but if I take ol' Jalopy to the dealer, she is going to burn a hole in my pocket. Suddenly, the govt's offer of 4500 bucks for the vehicle sounds attractive but not sure what would be the replacement...not another SUV I hope but thats what ruchi likes to drive. :( In addition a new one is going to cost a lot more.... yep, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We are licked for sure this time around. :(

whew!! that was tough...

I will keep this a bit sparse since personal information involved in this. Nalin has allergies (environmental) and as a result enlarged adenoids. Also enlarged tonsils etc. Got a couple of sleep studies down and the docs recommendation was to get the tonsils and adenoids removed. A very tough decision for us as parents but we decided to go for it keeping his best interests in mind. Didn't tell him anything till the evening before the surgery (didn't want to scare him). When I broke the news to him, I did that gently and borrowed a phrase from his doc (golf balls in his throat... need to get them removed). The next day we were at the hospital bright and early and the 1 hr 30 mins were really tense and nerve wracking for us. To cut a long story short, the poor guy suffered through extreme pain for the next several days (tears flowing down his cheeks) but is doing ok now. I thought he would hate us for putting him through so much but even in pain he would tell me that I "am" hsi best friend in the world. :)

Some unfortunate events at work where people had to be let go...can't go into details here since this is a public forum. but again, very painful.

Finally July 18th arrived and I flew with a bunch of friends to the much awaited event. It was a rousing success and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The next one is on August 8th and I am tempted to go...will await more details before deciding but the real action begins in September beginning.

Taking the kids and in-laws to a baseball game this wednesday. A first for everyone :) It's during the day so hopefully it will be fun. :)

catching up

It's been a long long time since I last blogged...or so it seems. Life is breezing by (I guess if I add "at a fast pace", that would be an oxymoron). :)

Nalin's school is over. So we organized a few playdates with some of his class fellows. The first one was at Fowler creek park and the kids had fun which prompted the mommies to set up a second date at Boggini park. That day was jam packed for us (birthday party in the morning, race across town for swimming classes, come home and prepare our dish for the play date potluck, rush to the park). So, we (the parents) were pretty tired by the time we reached the park. The kids were full of energy and started playing while the parents got into socializing etc. Food/snack were good but the hit was the ice cold water I took with me... it was a very wamr day and everyone appreciated the cold water. As things cooled down, the weather became very pleasant and we chatted away into dusk. At that moment I felt quite happy. This was similar to the childhood I had in the sense that the kids were playing around unrestricted without being told "don't do this or don't do that....". I always feel we as parents are always sitting on their heads monitoring and telling them what to do and what not to do... so this was a welcome break....and safe. So good time all around... the next weekend (last weekend) was 4th of july...so no date.

Fourth of july weekend we went camping - nearby county part (about 25-30 min driving) on Mount Hamilton Road. There were 4 familes with 8 kids in our group. Quite relaxing... we had several hiking trips, trip to the Observatory, camp fires, s'mores and what not. On one of our hiking trails (just me, ruchi, shruti and Nalin) we saw a coyote at relatively close quarters. This was our first camping trip with kids (before kids, Ruchi and I used to go camping quite often... Sequoia, crater lake etc etc). We spent two nights there and as usual woke up early enough to see a spectacular sunrise. We made tea and food on charcoals.... :) very nice experience for everyone in the family. We feel emboldened to try more camping adventures with the kids next time around. :)

We were back on sunday morning, quickly unloaded the cars, took showers and went to the gurudwara for langar. They were offering chilled rooh-afza milk and vanilla ice-creams in addition to the regular langar (dal, matar paneer, raita, carrot-peats roti, burfi, salad ). A very sumptuous meal. Came home and slept for a good three hours.

Start of the week now and legs ache... :)