Back in town..

Daddy Narayanan has been traveling over the last few weeks, busy with work.

We also did some travel as a family to Reno and back. Today we spent a few hours in San Francisco visiting the Ripley's Believe it or not, followed by ice cream at our favorite joint..

The skies were a bright red, white and blue and the lights had just come on.. could not resist an attempt to make a composite HDR image..

Definitely going to buy this Photomatix software next time there is a discount coupon!

More photos of trips and funny events around the house later..

ps. The image was a composite of three images shot with self timer by placing camera on a table in the restaurant using my iPhone under the lens to lift it up..

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The Trees must be crazy!

It is not even mid February yet and the Magnolia got confused.. somehow it decided it was spring time and decided to bloom!

One of the reasons we fell in love with this house six years ago was this tree and its pretty flowers. It would be sad if the tree is losing its mind and this is a sign of this tree aging.

Took the camera out after almost three weeks and captured the flowers. Please god, please let this tree live on for a long time to come. It makes five people happy every April..or February!

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Masala hoarder

San to me : Can you please clean up the bottom draw in the kitchen where you store Maggi. It is getting ridiculous!

Me to San : Not really. Let me check..

Well, what do you know. Over the years the girls have started liking my "Sambar podi" flavored Maggi noddles over Nestle's patented concoction which is a "crowd favorite", to say the least..and that means the packets of Maggi "Masala Taste maker" gets tossed at the bottom.

We have now over a few hundred of these packets!

Me to San : Don't want to throw them away. In case there is a ban on Maggi imports into the USA someday, we can still use those packets with Ramen noodles and get the Maggi flavor!

San gave me her trademark look that usually suggests "How can a guy be smart and stupid at the same time?!"

It is true that Indian rice imports got restricted to the US and two or three years ago rice went from $7.99 for a 20 lb bag to $ 31.99 !! Who knows, the US foreign policy is as fickle today as it was three years ago if not worse.

Still one will always have the Sambar podi to make noodles right? Wrong.

Here is a small table that explains why :

Noodles Tastemaker Taste
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Maggi Sundar's mix Yummmmmmy
Maggi Maggi masala Yummmmy
Ramen Maggi masala Yumy
Ramen Raman mix Yucky
Ramen Sundar's mix Yuckkkkky

So it might not be a bad idea to hold on to the tastemaker packets after all!!!

For now, I get to store them in the garage...

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