Day 247: Lead or follow?

I went to NYC with my colleague and, as usual, forgot to take any photos in the city. But when we were on the train home, I thought I'd lost my ticket and was going through my bag and found this button. This is a button I bought at my first swing dance here in New Haven. In lindy and other similar partner dances, you have to be either a lead or a follow. Usually women are the followers. I can do both but I'm a better follower. So my button is meant to tell leads to ask me to dance. Anyway, this button has nothing to do with the actual day other than I was happy when I found it in my bag.

Day 246: Amish friendship bread

Our assistant at work gave me a starter to make Amish friendship bread. I had never heard of it before but it's sort of like a chain letter idea, but with bread at the end. You get a starter of batter in a bag and feed it and in 10 days, you bake bread. I was skeptical but it worked! I made two loaves of cinnamon bread. I am giving her a starter back (she actually passed it to me without making any) and sending one to my sister.

Day 245: More firefighting!

The same thing that happened in Day 232 happened again today, except this time we didn't have a chance to fight the fires because the professionals showed up! We saw the smoke and flames and someone must have called the fire department because they pulled up with sirens blaring and lights flashing. There were a few small fires again and more flames than last time. I wonder if they are going to do anything to prevent this from happening again?

Day 244: Tennis anyone?

In the afternoon, our friend David rang to ask if we wanted to play tennis after work. It was a beautiful day so we decided to take advantage of it. We met a guy who was there to practice his serves, and he, David, and S played a lopsided game of doubles. It was a nice way to spend an evening.

Day 243: Regatta

S had a regatta today in town (actually about 15 miles away but that is the where the local boathouse is). He raced in a visiting boat because they were short rowers and needed someone to fill in. So he had to race against his own teammates! Yale won anyway though. Here he looks like he is waving but I think he's actually doing something with the oar.

Day 242: Road trip to the beach

We took a mini road trip today which actually ended up being a trip within 20 miles of our apartment. We discovered a beach! It's the Hammonasset Beach State Park. We had a small picnic and walked along the water. It was good to take advantage of a warm day.

Day 241: Party

Our friend David had an end-of-year party at his place. This is Miss Iravati, showing me her prettiest smile. I had fun playing with her for a good part of the evening. The party was a grand success.

Day 240: Ganpati

I was looking at the little Ganeshes we had in our cabinet and was trying to take photos of them. None came out really well because the lighting was too dark. This one was one we got at a wedding we went to in 2002, I think.

Day 239: Bangles

Tonight I decided to go through my bangles. I think I need a proper bangle box for all of them!

Day 238: Tomb

Following on my post from last week's Tap Night, here is an example of a tomb. A tomb is a sort of clubhouse for the secret societies. This one is for the second oldest society, Scroll and Key.

Day 237: New recipe

Tonight I tried a new recipe. Although these might look like very thick potato wedges, they're actually pieces of acorn squash. This was Roasted Acorn Squash with Chili Vinaigrette. It turned out to be very good.

Day 236: Cherry Blossom Festival

Today after I got back from New York, I met S and we stopped at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Wooster Square. We were so lucky to get wonderful weather and the trees were really amazing. They might not be as famous as Washington DC's cherry blossoms but it was a really beautiful sight!

Day 235: Joshy!

I went to visit Stacey at her parents' place on Long Island. I had a great time seeing her and Josh and meeting her parents, sister, and friends. Josh is just as cute as ever and talks so much. I spent some quality time playing with him and his friend Sebastian. Isn't his shirt great? Clearly his parents have very good taste!

Day 234: Thinking of Paris

I've been reading a few things about Paris lately and it's got me dreaming of another visit. I wonder when that will be?

Day 233: Tap Night

Do you see this person in the black robes and white mask? This person is dressed up for Tap Night. Tap Night is the strange annual ritual that happens every year at Yale where students get selected for secret societies. I still don't understand the whole concept but it's just another part of undergrad life at Yale.

Day 232: Firefighting

I was sitting at my desk and happened to look out the window, and I saw white smoke rising from the mulch next to the sidewalk. I watched it for a while, not sure what it was, and eventually I saw small flames rising from the smoke! I assumed it must have been a cigarette that someone had thrown there. A pedestrian stopped and tried to put it out by pouring sand over it from the parking lot nearby, but after he left, the smoke started back up again. My colleague and I decided to go over there with some water and take care of it. There were actually a few tiny fires around the main one that must have been the result of sparks (as seen in the photo). We felt we'd done a good deed for the day.

Day 231: Easter candy

I think I went a little overboard buying Easter candy. That's what 40 days of no sugar does to a person.

Day 230: Guess who's a procrastinator

Yep, that would be me! I spent a good few hours working on it but due to technical difficulties, I ended up filing for an extension.

Day 229: Happy Easter

We finished the egg dying tonight. S's were the nicest - purple and blue. I did a nice yellow one using turmeric! Next year I might try to do mostly natural dyes.

Day 228: Dinner

Although it was unfortunate that S's conference fell on Easter weekend, one consolation was the yummy food we were served over the past few days. This was the spread for dinner on the first day. The dahi papri (center) was my favorite.

Day 227: Kabir singers

Tonight we attended a concert with musicians from India who sang songs of Kabir. Kabir was a 15th century poet-saint. The musicians were very good and I really enjoyed the concert.

Day 226: Surgery

The lowlight of the day was my surgery. It went as well as could be expected. They took good care of me.

Day 225: Signs of spring

It sure looks like spring is here...but I'm still not convinced.

Day 224: View from the driver's seat

How strange is it for me to be able to drive to the store after work?! It felt like such a novelty. S picked me up at the office, I dropped him back off at his office, and then I went to a couple stores and bought some groceries for dinner. Very mundane things but highly unusual for me!

Day 223: Thali

I was ambitious tonight and decided to cook a proper dinner for the first time in a while. Here is a humble version of the classic Maharashtrian thali. Everything is meant to be in a proper order on the plate, down to the lemon and salt in the upper right hand corner. Mine only has one vegetable and no chutney but it's not too bad of an attempt.

Day 222: Spotted at Trader Joe's

Baby kiwis! How cute! I don't like kiwis much but I might make an exception for baby kiwis.

Day 221: We have wheels

We did it! It's our new car. It's a 2006 Infiniti G35X. I'm very excited!

Day 220: Champagne

Our belated anniversary dinner at Tre Scalini.

Day 219: Anniversary flowers

Happy anniversary to us!

Day 218: Court

I went to court today to have my ticket from December taken off my record. It was a bit bizarre. There were about 7 prosecutors and they were calling names left and right. Each person took about 2 minutes with a prosecutor. Mine spent more time discussing how terribly my name was spelled rather than the ticket. Anyway, don't worry, Dad, the ticket has been thrown out.