Memorial Day 2006

I really needed a break, so was excited to head to Seattle. Hari, Sesha and I were planning to go around Washington State for the long weekend. Rain welcomed me to Seattle and little did I know that it was just the start of more impending rain.

After renting the car, we headed to Tacoma and stayed there overnight to head to Mount Rainier the next morning. It was of course raining all the way to Mount Rainier and once we went up to 4000 ft it was snowing and was impossible to go any further. We headed to Seattle downtown to make our day a little more active...After a visit to the Pikes Market Place; we headed to Space Needle where we attended the "NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL". It was a fun filled evening watching all the performances, listening to music and going around visiting the stalls.

Saturday - We drove to Olympic National Park. The weather was very decent compared to the rest of the week; it did not rain as much though it was cloudy. We trekked almost 10 miles totally. Olympic National Park is a beautiful place to visit; it has everything from snow capped mountains, rain forests to beaches. We hiked to the Sol Duc Falls and we then headed to Hoh Rain Forest where we hiked the "Spruce Nature Trail" and "Hall of Mosses Trail" and we started driving towards the beaches of Olympic NP. After visiting the First, Second and Third Beaches we hiked the "Rialto Beach Trail" and went up to the "Hole-in-the-wall". We were all tired by the end of the day.

Sunday - The least planned day of the trip. We wanted to go whale watching in the San Juan Islands. We of course started driving to Anacortes on a raining morning. All the whale watching outfitters did not have any available space for us. We immaterial decided to take the ferry from Anacortes to Orca Island, we took our car along as well (The WA State Ferry is relatively cheap - they charged us only 65 bucks for the car and 3 passengers). At the end of the day we were not able to make it on to any of the whale watching boats; we just drove/walked around the island.

Monday - After a "wet" and nice time in WA we headed back to our places. Seattle is a nice place....but I would not want to live there - it is too depressing for me to live in a place where it rains most of the time.

Anyways back to work now...

Till Next,
~M

'Duh' Vinci Code

I headed home (RIC) after 3 weeks...it is always good to be home. I had enough of eating outside that I just wanted to cook and have my meal which is exactly what I did.

I am sure most of you would have read the very popular fiction 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown. I wanted to see the motion picture which released this past weekend. Lester and I headed to the movies on Saturday and entered a full theatre to watch the movie. Personally, I felt that the movie did not do justice to the very entertaining book. The movie lacked the quick pace which the book offered. Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing and Jean Reno as Bezu Fache were excellent. It was a long 2 and half hours movie.

Back in Los Angeles after a very brief relaxing weekend in Richmond. I can't wait for the Memorial Day weekend to enjoy the break :)

Till Next,
~M

Back in SFO

Wanting to relax after a hectic work week, headed to SFO and met up with Lester, Sesha and Badri. Of course it has become a protocol to go to Saravanna Bhavan when I am in the Bay area. Also watched MI-3, a total logic-less time-pass movie.

Saturday - Lester, Sesha and I drove along Route-1 heading south and went all the way till Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. It was of course a beautiful drive and I was stuck by awe watching the McWay waterfall - This waterfall empties itself to the Pacific Ocean. One can also see the ocean is the true aqua-marine color - an awesome sight. We headed back to San Mateo.

Sunday was a more relaxed day. After lunch at Amici's pizza, which is by the way one of the best pizzerias I have been to, we went to the 'Book Buyers' store and after hanging there for sometime I flew back to L.A.

Till Next,

~M

82 not out!!

So TamilNadu swings to DMK this time around...TN maintains the alternating party governance trend.
Karunanidhi will be sworn in the Chief Minister for the fifth time. A coalition rule in TN is going to be an interesting change in the political landscape of the state. 'Captain' Vijaykanth was sure a surprising factor this elections. The IITian party Lok Paritran put up a good fight against some political heavy weights as well.

Hope the winning party gives good governance and not just some 'color' TVs.

~M

THE Buddhas Meet

Met bunch of good old buddies from undergrad - a.k.a Buddhas, in Richmond, VA. Though most of us are meeting again after a month - we all gathered to meet Kishan a.k.a Mapillai. The meet started in Guru's place with tasty breakfast prepared by Guru's mom. Guys then headed over to my place for lunch prepared by Vishak and I. Evening was game time - we played football or should I say touch football or may be delayed touch football. The concept - no clue who devised it - is one of the linebackers (basically the whole defense) counts up to 10 before tackling the QB so that the QB has enough time to pass the ball (feel that you are missing the concept of the real football - well I feel the guys like offense more than the defense). Also to add, there is no need to cover yards and get first down conversions - the only aim is to score a touch down. Alright so we played this overly complicated simplified game of football. We went back to my place for dinner which was followed by ‘vetti kottam’. The grand finale for the night came in form of Captain's movie -Narasimma. Sesha and Ranga, if you are reading I have got 7 more dynamic Captain fans for 'the club' now :) Let’s start the mizzon!!(misson)

Sunday morning - Good byes to Sachin who is heading to India for his vacation - Have a great trip back home dude..and Shreyas who is going home to get married - Advanced Best Wishes!! After lunch and final hugs - I had to leave to head to L.A.

Kishan - It was a pleasure meeting you and thanks guys for driving/flying to Richmond. I hope you guys enjoyed the time together and the nightstay.

Vishak - Congrats dude...you know for what!! Keep us posted on the happenings...or else Guru would tell us :)

Take Care..Till Next

~M