Words for today...

{via}

Have you found your perfect person? I know I have! 

P.S. Smile if it made you think of at least one person.

Is it end of may already!?

Whenever I take a blogging break, I always find it so hard to really get back into it. There is so much to tell, so much to share, so many pictures to show, its not even funny deciding where to begin! And, when you look at the calendar and see that you have the apartment move coming up, the tasks at hand really add up. In order to not let down my readers anymore, I took a break from reading/planning the move/sorting out pictures/reading more and more blogs and just picked up some random pictures of random things I have been unto these past 2-3 weeks. Though more detailed version of some may come sometimes sooner on the blog, I figured for now this collection was as good as any to let you know that I have not disappeared from the blogging world!

We sweated it out in Austin, Texas

My sister celebrated her 25th birthday many many miles away and I missed it! :(

I also got some gorgeously warm sun on my skin at Lake Travis, Austin, Texas.

This beautiful sunset welcomed us back to Seattle

We got ready to attend a photography exhibition/talk by Peter Menzel and missed it by ending up at wrong location. This has never happened to us before!

Our first meal after getting back to Seattle had to be chinese for sure I am not kidding when I say I spent around 2 hours in this bookstore 

I recently started having Bubble tea because I figured they taste as good with soy milk as they do with regular milk and late night tea drives with this guy are always fun!

Husband promised to be my workout partner from now on and we kicked it off with Bootcamp at this location

Spent  an afternoon at University District street fair. Always good fun!
Celebrated this guy's birthday! More to come on this for sure!

Finally finished watching Mission Impossible : 4 (We had to leave it in the middle when we went to theatre)

Seattle showed a *cough* few *cough* sunny days! ;)

On days like that I get to wear my sunglasses and twirl in skirts!

On others, I read books in my PJs! 

P.S. I recommend reading The Paris Wife, if anyone is taking my recommendation that is! ;)

See you soon! Or later! But, I sure will see you!

Hotel California

As you know I was recently out of town with Husband while he attended to some work. We were in Oakland, California mostly and there wasn't much I could do on my own but living alone here for 7 days was mostly nightmarish, so off I went...

... not in this plane but from this airport. Even though food at airports mostly suck but view from here completely negates it.

Speaking of food, we had chinese or anything that touched soy sauce almost every night for dinner. Much better than your Wendy's or Dominos on the market

Speaking of market, I strolled all along Market street in San Francisco one fine sunny day

Speaking of sunny day, I got to let you know that I was in land of Palm trees.

Speaking of Palm trees, there were other trees too and buildings.

Speaking of buildings, I spotted this 'Hop on Hop off' Tour bus in which we went last time we came as tourists and saw all the magnificent houses of San Francisco with which I fell in love.

 Speaking of love, don't miss the heart near Union Square.

Speaking of Union Square, here is San Francisco downtown Macy's

Speaking of 'down'town, I enjoyed some 'down'time and noted 'down' some random lines.

Speaking of lines, notice how the flag is moving with wind against the straight lines of buildings.

Speaking of wind, I let the wind take control of my hair like I normally do and waited for my lunch
Speaking of lunch, it was this.

And these are the street cars which still move on some routes. (Did you notice there was no connection or inspiration here?)

Speaking of inspiration, my next stop was a bookstore where I spent major part of my evening reading poems from this.

Speaking of poems, I sneakily clicked this short one to email my husband.

Speaking of husband, the only room available in hotel we stayed in had 2 twin beds. How do you think we made our sleeping arrangements!? ;)

Speaking of hotel, I had one or the other variation of this breakfast for 7 days!!!

Speaking of breakfast,I think it is only in California that you would get Salsa instead of tomato ketchup in breakfast.

Speaking of California, I took the Caltrain till Sunnyvale to meet family

Speaking of family, just how cute are these girls!

P.S. We are off to Austin next and should be back with lots of pictures! Keep tight till then!

Would you dare?

Would you dare eat at a restaurant where the menu looks like this!?

You would argue that a place that doesn't even care if their menu looks torn or dirty or eaten by certain species of rodents would care even less how things work in the backs of their kitchen. Or you could argue that they know their food is so good that it pulls in people instead of their shiny 7 page menu!

So, when me and husband visited Hayward, California for some business with very few good food options and did not want to step foot into that mighty burger chain whose name rhymes with Kendy, we decided to give Little Shangai in San Mateo a chance.

Also, I think I might have made a little check list of sorts to label a place 'as close to authentic as you would get outside China' , that I quickly run through my mind to give it a yes!

Look around and you would see 98% Asian customers. I bet this room could pass off easily as any restaurant in Beijing. 

You notice people speaking to servers in Chinese/Mandarin.

You find things like Pig's Stomach strips in the menu.

Your server brings out tea cups and soup bowls even before you order any soup! (Just like in Beijing)

Your server is in perpetual hurry and is programmed in such a way that as you are giving your order, his hand is outstretched to take the menu away!

When they say there is half chicken in your soup, they actually mean half uncut chicken simmering in the broth which tastes nothing like your boxed or canned chicken broths!

So what do you do when all these criteria meet? You enjoy with your good friend and talk about all the good food and real soy milk you had in China!

Obligatory restaurant picture. Sorry can't help it!

Bollywood Shollywood!

A weekend or two ago, we went to a Bollywood dance party. Apparently, it has been happening every third saturday of the month in Seattle and when my not-so-inclined-to-dancing-on-bollywood-numbers husband finally nodded a yes (not your typical indian head nod which could either mean a yes or a no depending on the context, Google it!), we made it a saturday night event with a few friends. Obviously, it needed to be documented even if these are bad and dark iphone pictures because you never know if my husband would ever ever ever ever ever ever again in our entire life agree to this again!

People were up on the stage with the DJ!

P.S. I will definitely let you know if this ever miraculously happens one fine saturday again!

Two dinner dates in one!

Have you ever tried two restaurants on one dinner date!? Let this photo stream show you how and when it happened!

It was my mom's birthday on 20th April and we had a coupon to this cool downtown lounge/bar that we had been saving for some event. So, when the event did come(also the coupon was expiring shortly after), we made a dash to Pnk Ultra Lonuge. 

This type of weather has become part of life now and we don't really mind going out even when its pouring.

But when we saw the menu and there were just 4 entrees other than salads and sandwiches, husband and I both knew we were not eating here. I knew beforehand that it was a bar/lounge but if they name their place 'Pnk Restaurant and Ultra Lounge', I assumed the menu to hold more and better things than typical bar food. Better things they did but more comprehensive menu was lacking.

So, we utilized the value of our coupon and enjoyed some appetizers and drinks...

...which were quite good!

The drinks were good because you get so see my fish face!

Baby accidentally wore a light pink shirt and looked more cuter under the pink light!

Also, the napkins were pink!

While we waited for elevator, we decided our next proper dinner spot and clicked a few pictures. We are multitasking like that, me and my husband. ;)

Off again we went back the same route in the same rain...

...to an Indian restaurant which is an 'ok' place if we really have to eat Indian food outside our home.

From an upscale downtown bar to a neighborhood indian place, this was our new food adventure of sorts and the night turned out pretty fun!

Random fact : I pick out green chillies from my curries whenever I spot one.

Also, I am little behind in saying this but it's never too late. Happy Birthday Mom! You are my strength!