This ThanxGiving Vkend!

After a long time I feel like blogging ..i dunno why but before I can crystallize my thoughts into words they evaporate and i dont feel like generating them again!!

Anyways..after a long time this was a long weekend where we did not plan anything. I guess we had enough after our India trip. Anyways its usually me who makes all the plans and arrangements to whereever we decide to go. Didnt have any energy or enthusiam to plan anything.

So I was dreading how I am going to cope up 4 days at home. My hubby loves to laze at home whereas I have got to go out and meet more people. He keeps teasing me that I need more than him to keep me happy. Upon thoughts i feel "maybe". I got to meet and talk to lot of people. And hubby is my haven to come back to bearing my joy or sadness that comes about with outside contact. Anyways Am digressing...

So on Thursday I managed to make a sumptous breakfast of Muli Parantha. So by 10 AM i was raring to go out. Planned to go to the Harry Potter 4. Eagerly planned it up with a good friend of mine and we were scooting about to get to the 12:30 Imax show at the nearest theatre which was like 20 miles away. Anyway we reached there by 12:40 but my God there was so much crowd and the tickets got sold out. So we settled to watch the movie in the normal theatre. Anyways the movie was really worth it...I liked it. But it can never be compared to the book. My imagination was more larger and more vivid than what the director could come up!! Had the director asked me I would have made the movie more grander .ha ha ha ha!!!

Later in the evening we went to dinner at friends place....And 11 PM i was so tired that i slept through to Friday..the Black Friday, till my friend called me at 8 AM for shopping. We went shopping to half of the shops and malls here...it was so much fun. Though we didnt buy anything substantial, the brevity of the sitiuation made us have lot of fun. Had breakfast at a Mexican joint and did shopping till 2 PM. Then headed back home....cooked a whole lot of food...had a tummy full and slept for 2 hrs. Come 5PM, it saw me and hubby do the second round of shopping...The Shopping marathon continues...We got a DVD writer and some other general stuff. And by 10PM both were tired and hit the bed early as we had planned on a one day outing to the Lake of Ozarks.

Lake of Ozarks.

Me n Hubby with another family G and P with their BIL set out at about 8 AM in the morning in our CRV towards OSAGE Beach. The weather was so awesome. We made it there by good time and i had already researched on a resort near the lake. When we got there.. we absolutely adored that place. It was swell. We rented a 2 bedroom 2 bath with full kitchennette for the night. The apartment was just on the lake so we could the water lapping on the shores and the gentle breeze across was so soothing. There were few motorboats that were making us want to be on them. But those were privately owned ones. The rentals were closed for the season so we had to settle just to watching them. We had our first lunch which we had already cooked at the balcony overlooking the lake. It was the best meal we ever had. The atmosphere was simply superb.

After lunch we headed to the bridal caves....nuthing fancy here....except maybe the entrance fee...we felt it was quite high...then headed to the HA ha tonka state park.

Hubby was making fun of me all the time as i had originally suggested a year back to head to this place as a one day visit. i was harping about the castle ruins that was there. When we really got to look at the castle ruins...it was just that ....RUINS!!

The history of the place says that one Mr. Snyder wanted biuld a castle like that in Europe in the wilderness of Missouri and made progress with it until he died before it can be completed. His sons completed this mammoth project. But in another 20 years due to a fire accident the whole castle burned to the grounds and all that remains now is the four stone walls and some broken architecture.

Itseems hubby dear had dreams that night of how the castle could have had 60 rooms given the layout of what we saw - Very funny !!!!

We saw the Bagnell dam (Nothing great about it) and we huddled back to our dear apartment for a quick snack. We made Bread Chat...had coffee and generally relaxed for an hour. Then went shopping to the local mall...got three lovely sweaters. And the weather was so lovely.

Got back for a round of cards and general talks...watched a movie we had taken...had dinner with the left overs....so passed one of the beautiful days deep in winter.

Sunday morning dawn in that apartment was really amazing. The lake was shining new. But there was no sun...it was a cloudy day. But still the weather was awesome. A morning walk near the pristine clear water was a head start to a gloroius day. A yummmy breakfast of Pav Bhaji on the balcony and then our drive back home was uneventful.

Rest of the day passed on in a daze.

Monday Morning Blues....Back to work. I realised that the 4 days holidays i had gotten as early as 4 AM in the morning and I didnt feel like going to work. You know what...I just called my collegue to say I am on leave due to running nose and popped right back into bed. That was a fitting end to this great weekend!!!

Birthday Bashes!!

Its so funny how birthday are so significant in our lives, though all it does is increase an year in our already aging body, but has our mind matured to reflect the age of its package?? thats a different ball game altogether.....

Mine falls invariably on the 15th of the first month of every year(?)!! Coupled with the celebrations of Pongal/Sankranthi sometimes it goes unnoticed..but later the second day of pongal was remembered for my birthday by my near's & dear's...funny aint it especially when the second day of Pongal is Mattu Pongal., a day dedicated to cows for all the slogging they do the whole year.....you can guess what ragging i undergo every year!!

When I was younger, i used to be awed at the Birthday parties happenning at my friends houses. My main aim those days was to have my own party where I could blow candles and cut the cake. Have presents, open them and be pleasantly suprised!! But having parties and cutting cakes are not part of our house tradition and culture. We get to wear a new dress, distribute choclates at school and go to the temple in the evening!! Amma makes my favorite semiya payasam that day specially for me. But that is it!! Having a party is unheard off....

I could not convince my parents for party for myself so I had a birthday party celebration for my doll. I was about 6 years old then. I remember amma made me a rava kesari in the form of cake and she made my doll dress with choclate wrappers. My dad named my doll that day. It was an old doll, a family heirloom kinds!! He named it Muditha (For happiness)!! From that day on we called her Muditha. My friends came home and we cut the kesari with great aplomb, had fun and ate lot goodies which amma usually makes!!

I was 12 years old when I had a tantrum that I want to have a party with all the frills of cutting cake etc etc.......This time my parents conceded defeat and got me a cakes, candles and all the drill!! I had my pictures taken too! But I dont remember much about that day, but I remember that I felt very special and happy...

zoooooommmmm...vrooooooom.....Back to the present day!!! Jan 14th midnight, am fast asleep. Am woken up by my friend calling me to wish me!! Am like "er!! what!! Oh!! Thank u!!" She is like " My goodness! I stayed awake to wish you and you are fast asleep"!!
I slowly wake up to find the house in darkness!! Where's dear hubby!!
Just then I hear the key on the door slowly turning and my hubby peeping in to see why there is light in the hall when he knew i was fast asleep in the bedroom!! He find me standing in the hallway foolishly clutching the phone and still not comprehending what is happening!!

He comes in wishing me Happy Birthday with cake, flowers and champagne ..... in that order!!
What a suprise!!

This has been the routine for the past 3 birthdays as a married woman! One of the many occasions i truly am happy to have a doting husband!!
Let's see how many years I get to enjoy such luxuries!!