One year later

This last weekend, we had our final exams and I completed the first year of my MBA program. Phew!!! What a journey it has been .... from the heights of Leadership foundation (literally) to the climactic finals on Saturday, it has been one tough ride. It has been a most enjoyable journey so far - made lots of new friends, learned a lot and yet there is so much to do.

For now, I am going to take the next 4 weeks easy before the mini-summer quarter begins. Soon (in 3 days), I will know what a full weekend looks like again. :)

A rare event (for me)...

It happened about a month too soon. Normally, I buy something expensive, it eventually breaks down just after the manufacturer's warranty has expired. So, Saturday night, when I plugged in my IPhone to charge, it gave me an error message: "The charging of this device is not supported with this accessory". I thought, &(^&(^. To cut a long story short, I checked user forums online and a number of suggestions but nothing helped. Last suggestion I followed was "power off the device and then on" and my phone never recovered form this bright idea.

I took it to the Apple store. The associate connected his charger and showed me that it was "charging". I bought a new charger, came home hopeful that the problem was likely resolved. Plugged it in and the same issue i.e. it wouldn't power on (since I had powered it off).

Took it back to the Apple store again today. The associate tried it out and admitted that the phone was having issues. I asked him if it was still under warranty, he checked using my email address and to my utter disbelief, I still had exactly 1 month left on the manufacturer's warranty. The guy asked me to sign one peice of paper, and gave me a brand new phone. :)

Came back and restored the phone. It took 2 freaking hours and after it was done, I found that my apps are not restored. :( But hey, my phone book and photos/videos are restored. Overall experience: Not bad.

groupon

groupon is the latest new kid on the block. Apparently, the service has caught the fancy of quiet a few people so much so that even I (I consider myself to be a late adopter) signed up. A close well wisher (?) who should remain anonymous for now, suggested that I buy this deal from them - A hair cut and straight blade shave for $20 from some fancy barber shop. :) This well wisher said, I should go for a funky hair style and I took her up on the offer. Now I am dreading what hairstyle I should go for. Well, I am safe for atleast a few weeks but the moment of truth has to arrive sooner or later. :)

end of summer

We have always been late planners when it comes to vacations - procrastinating till the very end. But no more - this time, we already booked a vacation to Florida at the end of August. Initially, we thought we would go in June, then dropped the plan to take care of some things, but then that plan got canceled but it was too late to book the vacation. So not taking any chances, we booked for end of August, when I am done from my MBA classes and just before Nalin's challenger school year starts.

Kinda weird but already looking forward to the vacation. :)

BTW, giving credit where it is due, this vacation (atleast the flights) will be courtesy Southwest Airlines Frequent Flyer program. :)

worst fears come true.

Living here in the US, I always knew that one has to turn a blind eye towards how the restaurant industry prepares food here. On one hand, we value purity of everything esp. food. Imagine all these fast food joints throwing away millions of tonnes of perfectly good food away in trash just because it was lying on the shelf for "X" mins. On the other hand, you hear about things like "beef flavoring" on McDonald's fries, gelatin being used everywhere, crushed animal bones used in allopathic medicines and even toothpaste. Yuck.

So, after coming back from LA and resting for a while, we headed out for dinner to a closeby restaurant (PP for short). We sat down, ordered our dishes, enjoyed the complementary bread etc etc. In no time, our dishes come and we start eating. I finished my dish and helped my son eat his dish. My wife ate hers and started helping my daughter finish her. Midway, my wife stopped and called the server and pointed to a piece of chicken in my daughter's vegetarian dish. Here's how the conversation went:

W: There is some chicken in our dish.
S: Let me see. Oh yes, that's chicken.
My wife is looking at her, puzzled.
S: Oh yes, it has happened before. Chicken and Pasta is boiled together.
At this point we are totally shocked. We ask her 2-3 times just to make sure we heard it right and she says yes they are boiled together.

W (a bit upset now): Now, why would you do such a thing?
S (taken aback and tries to recover): Oh, I mean, they are boiled next to each other.
W: Still how does chciken get into the pasta bowl?
S: Umm. I can get a fresh plate.
We: No thanks.

Now, we are totally disgusted and in no mood to finish out food. But we are polite and do not create a scene.

S; I can have the charge for that dish removed from the bill
W: I don't care about the money part, can you guys be careful??

Server leaves (without apologizing). A different lady comes with the bill, says that they haven't charged us for the dish, puts the bill on the table and leaves.

At that point it dawned on us that these folks just don't get it at all. Mistakes can happen and a simple apology would have fixed it.

We paid the bill and left. PP restaurant has lost our business. Aparently this problem is quite common. On our desi mailing list, quite a few people complained about finding beef and chicken in their order of vegetarian dishes at the local MG restaurant. So, Italian restaurants are definitely out for me for the next several months at least.

THIS SUCKS!!!!!

Memorial day!!!

This memorial day weekend, we decided to reclaim our long weekend. :) We decided to drive down to LA on Friday. Accordingly, both of us left work early, packed quickly and left (with the kids) for LA by around 5 pm. Traffic (as expected) was a bit heavy initially, but eased up after a while. Long story short, we reached LA and checked into the hotel by 10:45 pm that night. We had packed plenty of food for the journey, so did not need to stop anywhere for food.

Next day, we all got ready and I dropped the missus and the kids to their favorite theme park and headed over to my classes. This weeks marketing case was a weird one - contact lenses for chicken. :( The information in the case, while not unexpected, highlighted once again the kind of world we live in - one where cruelty to Animals is somehow rationalized and acceptable to most of us. But, then I am digressing...

In the evening, picked up the folks and headed over to an Indian restaurant - "Lal Mirch". The place looked average at best from the outside and as we entered, I could detect some musty smell. We were all hungry and no other good choice nearby, I braced myself for the worst and we ordered the food. In a few mins, I got used/sensitized to the smell and it no longer bothered me. The food came quickly and to our surprise it was quite delicious. A bottle of kingfisher helped (perhaps) but then the kids did not complain either.... so it was good food. :)

The next day, we headed over to the Santa Monica beach. For $10, we got parking for the whole day, right at the beach. It was a beautiful day. We spent the whole day there (liberal doses of sunscreen). It was such a joy to hear the squeals of laughter from the kids. They would keep dragging us into the chilly waters... :) and we didn't mind. Over the years, I have watched kids in our generation become some nerdy that at the back of mind it bothered me. Kids with thick glasses, no social skills, watching dvds all the time, playing video games all the time.... ugh. Whatever happened to going out and running around and having some old fashioned fun. But, at the beach, the sight was completely different. Hundreds of families, with/without kids, just having an amazing time, kids running around having a blast, no one nagging them around - I felt strangely relieved. The future of outdoor fun and play was after all secure. :)

Later in the evening, we all headed back to the hotel and that's when the reality hit us. The kids were so tired (and cranky), then getting them to take a shower was a pain. Anyway, we got everyone cleaned up and around 9:30 we headed out for dinner, barely making it to "The Olive Garden" before they closed. Son, fell asleep right in the middle of dinner. :) But overall, quite enjoyable and relaxing day.

The next day, we headed home. Reached home at a decent time, unloaded the luggage etc and relaxed for a while before heading out for dinner. It was supposed to be relaxing but turned out to be my worst nightmare... topic for a later post. :(