Labor day weekend trip

It's been long since I got a chance to write something, work's been keeping me real busy but I took a couple of days off and went on a trip to Bryce Canyon, Zion and Las Vegas.

My husband and I have been wanting to visit the national parks in Utah for a while now, this September we decided we'll make a trip to Bryce Canyon and Zion National park. Although, we could have flown into the airport at St.George, we figured we'll fly into Las Vegas, NV (primarily due to the cheaper tix). We reached Las Vegas on Saturday night (one of our friends joined us there), and we had booked our stay in a small town named Mesquite, 70 miles north of Vegas. Since it was night time and Vegas seemed busy we decided we'll first spend some time in Vegas and then head out to our destination. We spent some time in a couple of Casinos and eventually headed out to Mesquite.

We had booked a condo in Mesquite and it turned out to be a really nice place to stay, we made day trips from Mesquite to Bryce Canyon and Zion. On our first day in Mesquite, we made a trip to Bryce Canyon, it was a really long drive and there really wasn't that much scenery on the way (until you reached red canyon, which is about 10-20 mins from Bryce). The lack of scenery, hectic work from past week and staying late and playing slots at Vegas all caught up to me and I fell asleep. When we reached red canyon, I was woken up. The place looked fantastic, I haven't seen red color rocks before, so it was all the more exciting. It was different rock formations but it looked brilliant. Checkout the photos of red canyon below:

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After taking a few pics there, we were back on our way to Bryce Canyon, we reached bryce within the next half hour and we decided we'll cover all the points from last to first as recommended so that we can be at the sunset point during sunset. Bryce Canyon overall was a very photographer friendly place, I think we would have gotten wonderful pics if we had been there in the morning, it was already afternoon by the time we reached. The good thing was that the sun wasn't facing us therefore we were still able to take pics (except that the lighting wasn't as awesome as it could have been). We moved from one point to the other taking pictures of the landscape and unique rock formations that we could find in the spot we were in. We eventually got to the Bryce point, at which point things got really interesting, we loved the sight of the amphitheater, it was huge and so unique, I've never seen anything like that before, it did look like an arena full of people, which in this case were the hoodoos!! We eventually went to the sunset point, where you look right down at the maze of these hoodoos. We spent a lot of time there. I didn't take a tripod with me so I had to just sit and watch my husband and our friend taking pics of the canyon. Not having a tripod with me was sad but I was really happy to just be there and breathe in the air :).

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Apparently Bryce canyon is also famous for star gazing, too bad we couldn't stay the night there. We headed back to Mesquite after sunset. On our way back we decided to stop somewhere and have dinner, we were in a town named Panguitch and there was this restaurant which was named the "Flying M Restaurant". We were so famished, we were delighted to see a restaurant in that small town. We went in and the lady at the counter told us to wait for a few mins so that they could get a table ready for us (this lady vanished in a few mins), we stood there for more than 20 mins, desperate to just sit down and have food!! Finally another lady who was serving a few tables walked towards us, we were so happy thinking that our turn has come! She looks at us and says "we are CLOSED and have been for 10 minutes", when we told her what happened, the best excuse she could come up with was "the cook threw away everything". We wouldn't have been so disappointed if they had simply told us upfront that they were closed (despite having the open light on), instead they made us wait and this lady had stared at us so many times until she finally made up her mind to come and tell us that they were really closed!!!! Even without having to taste their food, this restaurant qualifies for a 1/5 stars!! Luckily there was a subway right across the street and it happened to be really good one too (long live that subway).

The next day morning, we headed out to Zion, it was a really hot day in Utah with temperatures over a 100F, we ate at a small cafe before boarding the shuttle, the food was expensive on top of that we were charged an $8 service fee. I forgot the name of the place but will update the post with the name sometime soon. The food really took too long to come out, finally we had our lunch and went to Zion. Zion also has points of interest and it roughly has about 8-9 points of which most of them had nothing interesting. we skipped a few and finally came to the weeping rock, I was told that it was one of the largest hanging gardens, all I got to see was a lot of moss!! we started hiking to see the hidden canyon, I went half way, the others went a lot further but we couldn't find any signs which indicated where the trail would fork for us to get to hidden canyon, with really hot weather, it was turning out to be an exercise in futility! we all headed back down. We then went to the big bend, where there is absolutely nothing, except that you get to see the same set of rocks!! In the end we got to the "temple of sinawava" which I think is Zion's saving grace (still not as awesome as it sounds, I was picturing it to be something like the stuff I saw in LOST)!! We walked alongside virgin river and got to the narrows!! It was nice walk. We didn't hike the virgin river (hiking the narrows). I was already disappointed with Zion and the weather, I decided to stop and take rest. Others headed further down the river, took a bunch of pics and returned. I was happy to board the shuttle and head back. It was really dark, close to 9 pm and on our way back, we saw a fox. We also saw a bunch of deers just hanging out. After a tiresome day, there was some excitement, when my co-travelers decided to photograph the stars and the cliffs.

We boarded the springdale shuttle at 10 pm and got off were we parked our car. Most restaurants were closed, we finally found Oscar's Cafe, where they were willing to give us a table. They were very nice and the food was really nice too, they gave generous portions and they didn't charge us any extra service fee. That was the best meal we had in our first two days of the trip.

The next day morning, there were thunderstorms and we weren't sure if we could visit the hoover dam, instead we decided to visit the Kolob Canyon, which happens to be the sister of Zion Canyon (part of Zion that has separate access). It's a 5 mile drive but what we wanted to experience in Zion, we experienced here. The huge rock formations, the gorge, etc...were wonderful. There was about 5 -8 spots and all of them happened to have unique views and made up for excellent photography. The cloud covers resulting from thunderstorms made up for even better photos :)

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we were very happy with Kolob Canyon, we headed back to Vegas slightly before sunset. Vegas wasn't as busy as it was on Saturday night, we were able to walk the streets pretty freely. We took a bunch of pictures of the Bellagio, Eiffel tower, Statue of Liberty, etc...at the beginning it was really interesting, but the fact that everything was fake started sinking in slowly and after sometime I totally lost interest, we went to the casino at Mirage and played a game of blackjack and left. We stayed at the MGM Grand and we chose to eat at the lunch buffet there. I am a vegetarian and didn't have high expectations to begin with, I thought the buffet would be decent, but I was wrong. The buffet was abysmal!! Poor choice of food offerings coupled with really cold food was terrible. Dessert buffet was decent but not great. I have been to better dessert buffets!!
We played some more games at the slot machines and then left :)

Despite Zion being a disappointment, we had a great trip overall, we were so happy to have visited Kolob Canyon which we didn't even know existed until we saw a road sign on our way to Bryce!! This was my first trip with a DSLR camera and for the first time I had the power of polarizer, which made a real difference in the kind of pics I was able to capture :). The trip made for very good learning experience when it came to using DSLR. My advise is if you're planning a trip to Bryce and Zion, set aside at least half a day to visit Kolob :). Review of the vacation rental is Mesquite would be coming soon!!!

A Pendant from Diamond Shark

Well it's been long since I wrote anything, I have been too busy with work. All the office work, cooking and cleaning caught up with me and I ended up falling sick!! I'm still recovering. Hopefully will better by the end of the week.

Well, anyways I decided that I would write about diamondshark. I needed fancy jewels and didn't like the ones I found at the major chains. I didn't need anything that would be as expensive as the gems listed on bluenile but I needed something that I can wear casually. My husband suggested that I checkout Diamond Shark. Everyday this site offers a deal on one item. The prices are really reduced compared to other stores and websites.

I finally decided to give it a try, I was skeptical and also wasn't sure how good their service would be. I ordered a pendant from this site and I got shipping info within 24 hours and the pendant arrived in 3-4 days. It had come all the way from NY to CA. Unlike some other sites which put magnified pics, the pendant appeared as per the description and was as expected. The stone was more brighter and radiant than I thought it'll be. I've seen similar pendants at other stores which sometimes have price tags nearly two or three times more than what I paid :).

I wish I had known about this site earlier, it would be a good place to consider if you want to add items to your casual jewelery collection.

Diwali

Happy Diwali everyone. It's Diwali this saturday and I figured no matter how busy I am I had to write about Diwali. Diwali aka festival of lights is one of the most important festivals in India. It's my most favorite festival, it's kinda sad that I won't be home to celebrate Diwali so I guess the next best thing to do is celebrate it here and reminisce those good old days.

I went to a christian school, so we still had to go to school the day before diwali but then the school would close early :). For the most part, I remember celebrating diwali with my cousins :). I don't have any siblings and it was always great when my cousins showed up. After I get home, I normally start firing crackers with all my friends and my mom and granny would be making sweets. Now that I look back, I cannot believe that they managed to make that much sweets and savories at home. My mom's an excellent cook and its needless to say how much we kids devoured the food :). Badhushah was my favorite, I've never seen anyone else make such wonderful badhushahs. Later in the evening my cousin and aunt would show up, then we all would show each other the clothes we got for Diwali :). Then it was my job to take all our new clothes and keep them in the pooja room.

My cousin and I really loved firing crackers and he taught me how to hold the cracker in my hand and let it off in the air at the right moment so that it would burst in the air :). Once it gets dark, we usually start the rangoli. I guess everyone wants their rangoli to be bigger and better than all the others in the neighborhood. I kinda too a liking towards rangoli and my granny had left huge books in which she had meticulously drawn all these. I always picked one of her nice designs. I am poor with coloring so my mom usually helped pick the right combination.

I remember staying thru the night for some diwali's but even if we went to sleep, we all woke up around 4 am, got ready said our prayers and wore new clothes. My cousin and I would go for some more fire crackers before everyone else gets ready. Once the morning prayers are over, we were allowed to have all the sweets and savories...it was just amazing (food everywhere). Then we have a breakfast (pongal, idli, etc...). It was usually my job to distribute the sweets to all our neighbors. Each house had a kid like me who would bring sweets from their home to ours.

We kinda rest up a little bit after a really lavish lunch, there would be tons of TV programs to watch, the elders usually are watching TV or wishing other relatives on the phone. My cousin and I would normally play chess around this time. We thought we were so good at it and we played it so often :). Usually around this time my maternal cousins would also show up, and around evening we'll start firing the mathappu, flower pot and rocket. The rocket was the coolest. No one knew where it was going to go :). Normally there's one trip to the temple as well. We usually fire crackers till late night and then save some for kaarthigai :).

When all the kids in the neighborhood decide to stop, we usually put all the remaining crackers in a big pile and set 'em on fire. It's really dangerous and I don't know why we did that. The last time I saw these three cousins of mine was at my wedding and that was a year ago. I'm sure none of us can forget how much fun we had. Later on the diwali night or the next day morning my cousin's would leave and we all had to go back to school :(. To me Diwali means getting together with friends and family and having a great time. My cousins and I would usually share stories about our schools, kadi jokes :). I really love my cousins and my parents loved them too and thats what really made it special and memorable :). I guess all festivals are about sharing, loving, giving and there was plenty of that :).

It's always during Diwali that I get maximum number of clothes, I remember once I got 10 different dresses :). Mom was always generous when it came to me. Dad always got me nice crackers, I used to go through the list with him and pick out what I want :). No matter what age I was, Diwali was always fun one way or another :).

I wish everyone a very happy diwali :)

Vaigai Restaurant Review

I had been to this South Indian restaurant Vaigai in Sunnyvale recently and would like to share my thoughts. Last weekend was not the first time I have been to this restaurant, I have had food here once before when they had just opened the restaurant.

The menu here is more or less similar to the menu in every other South Indian restaurant here in the bay area. My husband and I didn't like the restaurant that much after our first visit and that was primarily because of the high price (every dish on the menu is atleast a $1 more) coupled with low quantity of the dish that we ate. We decided to give this restaurant a second chance last weekend.

From our previous visit, we remembered liking the curd vada and ordered that along with fried idly and a couple of combo meals. My husband wanted to order channa batura and the waiter told us that it wasn't available only for us to see another waiter walk past us and serve someone else the same dish just a few moments later.

The curd vada was brought in first and the vada tasted old and whole dish was terrible, it was nowhere close to what it used to be. It costs about $6 for two relatively small old vadas dipped in plain yogurt. Instead of bringing the fried idly next the waiter ended up bringing my main course alone. After a few minutes the mini idly fry was brought in and they had no distinct flavor and once again stuff tasted old and despite being coated with red chilli powder they were not even slightly spicy and the coconut chutney ended up being watery. The fried idli was $6 and it came with very little sambar and coconut chutney and this is by far one of the worst dishes I've ever had.

We were already quite disappointed at this point and my main course was there getting cold and they still hadn't brought my husband's main course. After reminding the waiter his food was finally made it to our table. The combo which costs nearly $10 had 1 plain dosa, 1 vada, 1 small idly and a little pongal with coconut chutney and sambar looked more like rationed prison meal rather than something that you would expect to be served at a restaurant. My husband managed to get onion+tomato chutney but I didn't even though we ordered the exact same dish on the menu. The idly was okay and some parts weren't cooked that well, same was the case with dosa and it was pretty small as well compared to what you get in the other restaurants. The vada was fine and the pongal was very average. It was worse than the pongal that I normally make at home!!

At the end of it all, my husband and I were more disappointed with this restaurant compared to the previous time we dined here and we still wonder how they manage to give low quantities of not so great tasting food and charge more than the other restaurants?? Well, whatever it is we won't be going to this place ever again.

Shopping in Chennai!!

I have been wanting to write about shopping in Chennai for a long time but never really found the time. Last year when I was in India I happened to a lot of shopping before and after my marriage. Normally, I like to buy most of my clothes and accessories here in the USA but then this time my husband insisted that he take me out to some of the malls in chennai and see if I like something.

Most of the shopping that was done prior to the marriage was for stuff that I had to wear during the ceremony itself. I had a tough time when I was trying to pick a silk saree for my engagement as there were too many people trying to convince me to get what they liked. So, this time I took my parents alone and it made a real difference as I really could pick anything that I wanted. It was a lot of fun to actually go shopping for silk sarees. I went to different stores and found lots of varieties in different price ranges...even though it was a saree that I would wear for my wedding I didn't want to spend too much on it considering the fact that I won't be wearing them that frequently. I finally ended up picking two sarees around Rs.7,000 each from Kumaran silks and chennai silks. Pothy's was really terrible for my taste!!! And the sarees from some of the other stores looked too modern!!! (apparently thats the trend). Silk saree shopping wasn't over with that, I still had a 9 yards saree that I had to get and I ended up getting that at Nalli for about Rs. 12,000. My husband and I picked the 9 yards saree together :). There were sarees that were upto Rs. 30K - 40K but I stuck to moderate range as I won't be wearing these sarees frequently.

After all the silk saree purchase, I then had to buy mysore silk, I should confess that on any day I would prefer mysore silk over silk. As its a lot easier to wear and manage :). There was a specific brand called girija silks that my mother-in-law suggested that I get. I found good mysore silk sarees in Kumaran, Nalli and another store in Mount Rd (I forgot the store name).

My mom saved me some time by getting a few silk sarees ahead of time and since I happened to like them, things just got a lot more easier. Since, everyone told me that my sarees looked great I'm gonna assume that my mom and I did a great job in selecting them. I had to buy some churidars as well and I picked them out from some stores in T.Nagar (It's very important to have good casual clothes when you get married, cos my aunt still tells me how her DIL didnt have any good clothes to wear). I wore new clothes almost every other day :) :). In addition I did some salwar material shopping as well and by far I liked Chennai silks the most.

Now comes the fun part, shopping after marriage. My husband did tell me that I could get brand named apparel in India for a lot less than what I pay here in USA. Even before we got married my MIL did some searching to find out where I can get Ralph Lauren jeans and apparently you can only find them in Delhi. So, jeans was ruled out right there. Now the shopping was more for tops, footwear, etc...

Before going to India, some of my friends recommended that I go to Fab India for buying salwars and kurtis. But I didn't have any time to visit that place before marriage. But, luckily my MIL who was also keen on taking me for shopping had seen their ad on newspaper and showed it to me and asked if I was interested. I was excited and we all went shopping together. My MIL picked up salwar for herself and that one was very good. I got kurti tops and I really love to wear them here and a lot of ladies at work tell me they look very good. They even sell Men's shirts there and my hubby and FIL got them and they told me that they liked the stuff there. I thought Fab India was cool, because they had so much stuff and none of the tops shrunk that badly or faded. If you have the patience to go through their collection you can easily find a lot of tops in Rs. 300- 400 range. That's a pretty good price for good quality cotton tops.

When it came to Tshirt shopping, I totally liked shopper's stop and there the T-shirt variety was good and price ranged from Rs.300-400, sometimes even lesser. I think we should buy a larger size than our correct size as most of these tops ended up shrinking. Nevertheless some of them were good and again I got compliments.

I didn't like lifestyle (store at the city center) that much the first time I went there, I didn't like the clothes there at all, and I really wanted to get out of the store asap but my hubby convinced me to take a look at the sandals, which I did so that he wouldn't be disappointed. I bought one sandal and I totally loved it once I started using it. These sandals were exactly the way I wanted them, moderate heels and very light weight. I think I got a few pairs of sandals there.

In addition there was some fashion jewellery shopping that I did, I got some sets done at Narayana Pearls but most of these look more or less traditional. If you really want some fashion jewellery then you have to shop elsewhere. I found good stuff at Landmark (that was the only piece of fashion jewellery I got). But my husband's aunt had gotten me stuff from a store called Damini in Kotturpuram and we later went there to check that store out and found out that the stuff there is in high demand and that they sell out very fast once the new stock arrives!!! Other than there was a diamond pendant gifted to me and I found out that it was bought at Lifestyle. I never really got time to look around for similar stuff in Lifestyle store.

Thanks to my loving husband who had enough patience to drive me around town and get me all this stuff ;). Next time I go to India, I really know what's good there and what stuff should be got there and what stuff I should get here in USA!!! If you do have the time, then do checkout these stores. Happy shopping!!

Perfume shopping at Designer Fragrances

I was about to run out of perfume and so I decided I would do some perfume shopping over the weekend. I normally buy perfumes from one the following, Scented Monkey, Amazon, Perfumania or Designer Fragrances & Cosmetic Co.

This weekend I decided I would either go to Designer Fragrances or Perfumania at the Great Mall. I personally like the designer fragrances a lot as they happen to carry my favorite brand Ralph Lauren and they always have better pricing than perfumania. This store works out better for both men and women as they also carry brands like Armani, Lancome, etc... but if you want to try out different perfumes and pick one then you need to go to Perfumania.

There I was at the Designer Fragrances store and this time there was more crowd than usual. well, I guess more people have started buying stuff at outlets :). The store usually has perfumes on sale for as low as $10 or $20. Well, my husband and I picked three perfumes totally (Armani Diamonds for women, Diesel Fuel for life for women and Polo Explorer). We basically got all three for less than Armani or Polo's retail price at Macy's or Nordstrom :).

I'll write a separate review for each of these perfumes sometime soon. If you ever need to get good perfumes for a lower price I suggest that you first look at Designer Fragrances.

Follow-up on the rice scenario in the bay area

Last weekend I had to buy rice and wasn't sure if I should get the long grain rice from any of the American stores or first see if the Indian store has some rice in stock. I happened to be at a store in Sunnyvale and I found that they had lots of sona masoori rice bags and even price seems to have dropped by $10, to $24.95 for a 20lb bag.
Yaay, so I got a bag of rice this time without feeling very guilty :)

When was nonbu really?

Most of us Indians that live here have this practice of celebrating Indian festivals right on the same date as it is celebrated in India. In reality, the actual date of the festival is determined based on the position of the moon and it varies every year. It never occurred to me until my husband's cousin told us that. Now, that I think of it, when you are in a different geographic location the position of moon does differ and that would mean the auspicious time to celebrate a certain festival might not be the same date and time as it is in India.

This year karadaiyan nonbu happened to fall on Friday for us in USA but most people observed it on Saturday. I don't know if I'm very pious but I do like to observe the religious stuff at the right time, so at the beginning of this year, I went ahead and purchased the calender from the Livermore temple and use it to determine when to celebrate or perform all the religious rituals.

As I'm writing this I just realized that my mother-in-law had actually looked up the right day for the nonbu here and told me the correct date right at the first go :). That's really awesome that she made sure she gave me the right date.

Anyways, if you do care about doing things at the right time it might just be a good idea to either refer to the temple's calendar or purchase a calendar.

Poori

Yaay...my husband and I had plans of having channa batura at Dosa place this weekend but had to compromise that plan. In the end we decided to make poori at home. I had made poori once before, and that was 3 or 4 years ago. I wasn't 100% sure but still decided to make it as we still had some lasagna that we baked as back up.

Even though I knew the basics I was looking up for poori recipes online but the fancy ones were really fancy therefore I just stuck to the recipe I knew. Here's the basic recipe:

1. 2.5 cups of wheat flour (I used 160ml cups)
2. 1/2 tsp baking powder
3. oil (for mixing and then frying)
4. salt (0.5 - 1 tsp)
5. Warm water (3/4 - 1 cup)

I kinda like poori simply because the chances of screwing up is very less. Anyways, here's the directions

First mix wheat flour, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. I typically use 2 tbsp of oil when mixing the dough. First add 1 tbsp oil and some warm water and start mixing, continue adding water as required, once the dough starts to get pliable add the remaining 1 tbsp of oil and mix well. Add water sparingly during the mixing procedure as the dough shouldn't have excess water. Once the dough is pliable and doesn't stick to your fingers it's time for you to set it aside. Just cover it and leave it alone for 20-30 mins (you could continue to make poori's without leaving the dough aside as well).

Now knead the dough once more and start making small 1.5 inch rounds with the dough mixture. Now start rolling the dough rounds that you made. Typically roll them out to have 4 or 5 inch diameter. The key to making nice poori is to have uniform thickness. First roll the center nicely and then roll around the corners so that the whole thing has uniform thickness. Even when you lift it to drop in the frying pan, the shape shouldn't change. If the dough is rolled out thin, there'll be elongations where you touch 'em.

Now heat generous amount of oil in a pan, drop the rolled out poori's gently, once the dough on the side on top rises, its time to turn the poori around to cook the other side. Poori's done once both sides are cooked. If you notice that the poori's turn to deep brown instead of golden then its time to turn down the heat. I use a gas stove so I have more precise heat control, but with electric stoves, it might just be better to have the heat set at med or med-hi.

Note: You can substitute half of wheat flour with maida if you want the poori's to be more softer.

We had a really great meal last night and I still think poori is one of the easiest dishes to make.

Orkut and Facebook predicament

Ever had to approve friend requests simply because you don't want to seem rude? Orkut and facebook as awesome as they are for staying in touch and finding old friends they pose this problem of unwanted people finding us.

I've had to approve friend requests from certain people who I know do nothing but criticize my actions or fabricate stories about me. In reality, if not for these sites I could simply get away from these people by simply not staying in touch. In all honesty, approving such friend requests never leads to anything useful, the other person probably just wants to be friend to pry.

There were times I used to feel guilty about not staying in touch with certain old acquaintances, relatives, etc..., every time I think of it, I remember this conversation I had with a friend of mine who never responded to any mails from another friend of mine. When I asked her, "don't you think you'll be hurting her feelings?" she simply told me it would be even worse if I acted like I respect and like her when I really don't. Well, she had a point.

Sometimes, I feel the same way too. Having said all this, I seriously think facebook is a little better as I can find the people that I don't want to get request from and block them completely. It's really useful simply because you'll never receive the friend request you always dread and they would never know. This way no one feels hurt probably ;)

But then, most of the time the kind of feeling (like or hate) between two people is very mutual, it might just be better for some people to not add me as friend, cos except for the initial Hi, I practically am not gonna have a conversation with them and they do the same too. I always wonder if these people ever feel bad about adding someone and then not even having the common decency to say hi to them. It's more like basic manners 101. Sometimes, I say hi and ask them how they do (so that I don't feel guilty of having ignored them or being rude) and they would simply reply saying "ya fine", I sort of find that rude, neither do they thank you for asking nor do they ask you how you are doing. Yea, they pry on me but this is what I really worry about.

I might be the only one that feels this way, as I have seen several others that bad mouth each other to others going about greeting and wishing each other. Every time I see this, I go "what a phony". I don't know how people still feel good about themselves when they don't like someone and still woo them. Well, their business is their business.

As for me, I felt like writing this and I wrote it...