Happiness is...

One of the traditions in our house is for the entire family go go have dinner in a place that is chosen by the person on their birthday.. 

People asked me "any fancy plans? going to some big name restaurant?" etc.. 

My family knew what my choice would be and promptly took me there..

The very first place I had food when I first came to visit California, a small family owned restaurant, that is still one of my favorite hangouts!

Still go there once a week almost to eat and say hi to the uncle and aunty there. 

Eating fresh rotis there with the family digging in.. and uncles heartfelt "ashirwad" made my day! He said "stay healthy" and repeated it thrice in case I didn't get the message the first time. 

Yes, that is a big part of the plan.. staying healthy!

Fourteen years fly by

Feels like yesterday this girl made me feel different about everything!

when the nurse handed her to me, my whole world changed.. everything started looking different.. like it was being seen through a pink filter! 

She continues to make me realize how wonderful this world is on a day to day basis!

That was her, all of 10 days old, giving me that same challenging look that I was already trained to receive, thanks to her mom!  I knew right then it was going to be 3:1 in the house with San, her mom and Jr. joining in "giving me that look!"... little did I know that it would become 4:1 over time...

My darling is now 14 and two weeks ago Darling 2- the sequel turned 11 ! 

The sequel has had more air time given I started blogging just before she was born. There are a few pictures that never made it before.. thanks to the Sankara Sastri in me, thinking those pictures were not blog worthy.. so here are some photos even the kids have not seen (dug them out of old Memorex CD's in some cases)

 

The sum total of prettiness of the family is a constant is what I used to say.. 

After revisiting that photo from two weeks ago, I stand corrected.. 

The sum total of "prettiness" of the family is increasing.. they are all looking prettier by the day!

Here is to many more years of the kids making me go "awwww"..

Healing fast ?

It has been a week since I burned my hand with steam from the kettle. Over the last week, I have made it to the Hot Yoga room at BYSJ five times. Had to take a break twice because the boil broke and there was just intense pain anytime I tried to stretch my hand for a day and two days ago the scab came off right in the middle of the class. So I had to take a break the next day.

(that is day7, day 5, day 3, day 2 from left to right.. it was flat on day 1 and nothing was noticeable)

Contrary to advice from folks near and dear to me that going to the hot room may not be an open idea with an exposure like that, it seems to be going fine. Not sure what the normal time is for something like this to heal. It has been a long time since I had a burn injury, so not sure. So far it does not seem to be infected although I let sweat run all over it in yoga class. It stings a lot during class and I have to make a real concerted effort in some poses and I have skipped doing the Volleyball position for the half locust pose. (give my teacher a heads up so they know ahead of time that I am going to watch others during that pose). 

It has been okay so far. My teachers did not have anything to say about this one way or another. They said "if you can do it, go for it" or "make sure you always clean it nicely after class". 

In case you are wondering if it is okay to go do Hot Yoga with a burn.. there is one data point for you on the internet.. It was okay for me.