About Siyona..

So I walk into Sia's daycare to pick her up. She is very happy to see me and comes running towards me, all good as usual. But then her teacher drops the bomb. I get her first complaint - sort of. Her teacher said that she has been pushing around other kids, literally; for no reason. I am in such dichotomy over this. On one side, I am upset that she is not behaving and on the other I am secretly glad that she is not a very seedha-saadha child.

Everybody who grew up in India can probably identify with what I am going to talk about next. As a baby or toddler, whenever I stumbled or hit something;my parents  would kind of hit the accused floor or wall or toy and say 'hat re'. Now, we were doing the same thing with Sia. It works wonders; very quick calming down. So yesterday while leaving home, we forgot Sia'a baby inside. We came back inside and I left her by the door and ran inside to gt her doll. I wasn't paying attention and hit my shoulder on the wall. My reaction was a big Ouch but I kept moving. And I heard Sai saying 'hat re'. I turn back to see her hitting the wall and saying 'hat re' multiple times. It was adorable, at least according to me.

Trip to Mackinac Island, MI

I haven't posted anything in a while. I am way too lazy to do it but I am going to try again. Hopefully, I will be more regular.  I want to at least document things about Siyona before I forget them. I have wanted to do that since the day she was born. But here I am twenty months later, writing up the first one.

I needed to do "something" for Memorial Day Weekend. When it comes to me, "something" usually translates to travel. So I was scouting places. My first choice was Shenandoah National Park but for various reasons, it did not work out. So we decided to go to our almost default option - Michigan. And Mackinac Island near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan won the lottery this time. Sumeet had never been there so it was a good choice.

We were leaving on Friday evening. The plan was to fly to Detroit, stay at a friend's place and start driving on Saturday morning. We were planning to visit a couple of places on the drive to Mackinac Island. We wanted to get on the island by late afternoon. Of course, things never go according to plan.

The flying to Detroit part was uneventful. Which is great when you are flying with a toddler. To save money, we did not buy Siyona a seat. So she took turns by sitting in my lap or Sumeet's. She is still small enough to be able to stand in the space in front of the seat. At one point, she slid down to the space, stood up and says to me- Sia's turn. I had to get up and give her my seat. She sat on it and tried to put the seat belt on! I am always amazed at what she comes up with. After this, Sia and I took turns sitting on Sumeet's lap. Win-win!

That's her "cheese" expression

Running away with my sunglasses

We were late leaving the next morning, nothing unexpected there. Zhendan, Chen and their new family member Carolyn were joining us too. We all couldn't fit in one car so we drove separately. We stopped by on the way at Zhendan's new house. Very nice place and I loved their kitchen lights. Good choice, Chen!

Siyona was very excited to see Carolyn and she could say her name too, quite clearly. Sumeet and I sometimes think that we hallucinate and hear her talk so much.I started taking pictures right away, and guess what? Siyona posed so well with the Xue family. I dont believe the three of us have any picture together, that is that good. Don't they all look happy and great together?

We were planning to drive through a scenic road  called Tunnel of trees. It goes from Harbor Springs to Cross Village, a very pretty drive by the shores of Lake Michigan. We had driven across the same road in 2011, with Siddhu and Preeti. It was fall that time and incredibly beautiful. On the drive there, Siyona slept for almost 3 hours. What an angel! There are only sometimes that you can call her an angel, most other times she is too naughty for that particular word. But I definitely don't mind her being naughty.

 We stopped at a place called 'Bearded Dog Lounge' for lunch. Even with that name, they did not let Carolyn join us for food. So Chen and Zhendan took turns babysitting her. The food was great,even Siyona enjoyed it. Some more pictures and back on the road again.

We reached Harbor Springs and by this time we had realized that there was going to be no tunnel of trees. The trees were there for sure, but they were all still bare- zero leaves. So we drove and stopped at places to take in the lake views, which were stunning. And we stopped at the same place we had stopped at two years ago, let Siyona and Carolyn run around a bit. Even though the trees were bare, the ground was carpeted with white flowers.


After all the dilly-dallying, we finally reach Mackinaw City and got ready to take the ferry across to the island. The car ride along the curvy tunnel of trees road had already made me queasy. I was not looking forward to a 40 minute boat ride. But the ferry ride was only 18 minutes. Misleading internet research but I did heave a hugh sigh of relief.

This was Siyona's first boat ride. Can you imagine, we live in Florida and we had to fly to Detroit, drive for 4 hours to get her on a boat? Anyway, she really enjoyed it. Thankfully she did not get my motion sickness gene. The boat had three levels. The lowermost one was covered and the upper two were decks. We went to the top one and it was cold. Sia kind of liked the wind; but did not as well. She wanted to be in it but would turn her face around immediately. For the last 10 minutes, we went to the secure, non-windy first level of the boat. Sia still enjoyed watching the waves from the window.

On reaching the island, we had to wait for an hour for our taxi. That was quite boring. It finally arrived and it took us about 30 minutes to get to our hotel which was about 2 miles away. The reason: look at the taxi.

The ride was very very pretty. We rode on to a hill and the views of the lake were stunning. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures. We made it to the hotel and the restaurant in our hotel was closing. As we were too tired for another carriage ride, we had dinner at out hotel itself. Unfortunately, that meant we had to skip the sunset viewing. But it worked out. The restaurant had a pretty good view of the lake with Mackinac bridge. And after dinner, we let Sia play in the lawn and we enjoyed a glass of wine together. A wonderful evening!

Siyona looking through the menu

Wine and sunset...

Mackinac bridge

All three of us headed back to our room and literally were asleep in minutes. Barely, any lullaby or stories for Siyona.

Next morning, we slept in a bit, had breakfast and headed to town. The difference between having a baby and not having one - By the time we started our bike ride around the island, Zhendan and Chen had already finished theirs. Actually, we should not blame the child. We have never made it out early, even just the two of us. But I did manage to take some pictures of Sia on the hotel's lawn/meadow.

Anyway, the lines for the bikes were long. We finally got the bikes and started our ride. It was a beautiful day, the water sparkled blue and the sun felt good. We started riding, took a few stops. One of them was Arch rock, quite pretty. Further along the ride, we bumped into another of his colleagues. You could see the difference between a Michigan kid and a Florida one. Sia was all bundled up and he was in shorts :-)

Arch Rock

Somewhere along the middle of our ride, little miss Siyona decides that she has had enough of the burley and starts howling. Sumeet carries her for a bit while I drag the tandem bike and the burley. We took turns with Siyona and the bike and the bike was easier, at least according to me. Sumeet had this brilliant idea that I sit in the burley with her and he can ride the bike on his own. He really knows his daughter because that worked! Soon, we got to a little cafe, where Siyona got pizza and a milkshake. After that, she had no problems sitting in the burley by herself. She was just hungry.

We had to head back to main land soon after returning to main street unfotunately. When we got back on the ferry, Siyona started saying"Uppar jana hai" which translated to "want to go upstairs". I am surprised that she remembered that the boat had levels. We were planning to sit downstairs but she wouldnt let us.

We reached back, had dinner at a place Sia chose- a pizza place. I can't believe we are already listening to her. At the restuarant, she kept saying "pizza, pizza" everytime someone else's order was delivered. The pizza we ordered had banana peppers on them and I was picking them off for her. She tried one and loved them. Another surprise.

We stayed to watch sunset over Lake Huron and then headed home. We went back and forth over staying for the sunset. We had a four hour drive in front of us and sunset was at 9:15 pm. Boy, did we pay for that? Sia woke up at around 12:45 and was very upset. She did not calm down even after a couple of stops. Finally, she calmed down with m&ms. Lesson learnt, always always carry chocolate.

It was a very short trip but great. We had a laid back vacation for once and those kind are growing on me. I would have no problem going back to island and spending a few days. There were tons of things that I wanted to do there. But an experience that I highly recommend.

Something to think about ...

Everybody probably heard about the Troy Davis execution last week. Lack of evidence made almost everybody question whether the conviction was even valid. Got me thinking. Couple of months ago, there was another trial going on. The Casey Anthony trial. The verdict, of course as everyone is aware of, not guilty. And there was a huge uproar. Majority of people were convinced that the jury made a mistake. A guilty verdict would have lead to capital punishment. The common thing between the two trial was the lack of evidence. In case of Troy Davis, there was evidence initially but quite a few of the witness's statements were recanted. Does that ensure at least a retrial for the convicted ? Constitutionally, I am not sure. But logically, one would think so. Now let's consider Casey Anthony's trial. Barely any evidence linking her to the crime. In the former case, there were protests to save the convicted. In the latter though, protests were against the 'not guilty' verdict. Why was there such a huge difference in public reaction to the two cases ? I don't even have a clue to the answer. Did the media portray the two cases and the accused differently ? Would the people protesting against capital punishment for Troy Davis do the same for Casey Anthony, if convicted. Not sure about any of it. But very interesting social human behavior, if that's the correct term.

Details about the two cases, just fyi.

From wikipedia about Troy Davis:

Troy Anthony Davis (October 9, 1968 – September 21, 2011)^[1][2] was an American man convicted of and executed for the August 19, 1989, murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger Kingrestaurant when he intervened to defend a man being assaulted in a nearby parking lot. During Davis's 1991 trial, seven witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail, and two others testified that Davis had confessed the murder to them among 34 witnesses that testified for the prosecution, and six others for the defense, including Davis. Although the murder weapon was not recovered, ballistic evidence presented at trial linked bullets recovered at or near the scene to those at another shooting in which Davis was also charged. He was convicted of murder and various lesser charges, including the earlier shooting, and was sentenced to deathin August 1991.

Davis maintained his innocence until his execution. In the 20 years between his conviction and execution, Davis and his defenders secured support from the public, celebrities, and human rights groups. Amnesty International and other groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took up Davis's cause. Prominent politicians and leaders, including formerPresident Jimmy Carter, Rev. Al Sharpton, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. Congressman from Georgia and presidential candidate Bob Barr, and former FBI Director and judge William S. Sessions called upon the courts to grant Davis a new trial or evidentiary hearing. In July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008, execution dates were scheduled, but each execution was stayed shortly before it was to take place.

In 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to consider whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis's] innocence". The evidentiary hearing was held in June 2010. The defense presented affidavits from seven of the nine trial witnesses whose original testimony had identified Davis as the murderer, but who it contended had changed or recanted their previous testimony. Some of these writings disavowed parts of prior testimony, or implicated Sylvester "Redd" Coles, whom Davis contended was the actual triggerman. The state presented witnesses, including the police investigators and original prosecutors, who described a careful investigation of the crime, without any coercion. Davis did not call some of the witnesses who had supposedly recanted, despite their presence in the courthouse; accordingly their affidavits were given little weight by the judge. Evidence that Coles had confessed to the killing was excluded as hearsay because Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense to rebut it. In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld. The court described defense efforts to upset the conviction as "largely smoke and mirrors" and found that several of the proffered affidavits were not recantations at all. Subsequent appeals, including to the Supreme Court, were rejected, and a fourth execution date was set for September 21, 2011. Nearly one million people signed petitions urging the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency.^[3]The Board denied clemency^[4] and, on September 21, it refused to reconsider its decision.^[5] After a last minute appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied, the sentence was carried out through lethal injection on September 21, 2011.^[6]

Casey Anthony's wikepedia details:

Caylee Marie Anthony (August 9, 2005 – June 16, 2008) was an American two-year-old girl who was reported missing in Orlando, Florida in July 2008, and whose remains were found in a wooded area near her home in December 2008. Her 22-year-old mother,Casey Marie Anthony, was tried for the first degree murder of Caylee but was acquitted. She was, however, convicted of lying to police officers. Anthony's televised murder trial in 2011 was described by Time magazine as "the social media trial of the century."^[1]

Caylee lived with her mother, Casey, and her maternal grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony. On July 15, 2008, Caylee was reported missing to 9-1-1 by Cindy, who said she had not seen Caylee for 31 days and that Casey's car smelled like a dead bodyhad been inside of it. She said Casey had given varied explanations as to Caylee's whereabouts and finally admitted that day that she had not seen her daughter for weeks.^[2] Casey fabricated various stories, including telling detectives the child had been kidnapped by a fictitious nanny on June 9, and that she had been trying to find her, too frightened to alert the authorities.^[3] With the child still missing, Casey was charged with first degree murder in October and pled not guilty. On December 11, Caylee's skeletal remains were found with a blanket inside a trash bag in a wooded area near the family home.^[4][5] Investigative reports and trial testimony altered between duct tape being found near the front of the skull^[6] and on the mouth of the skull.^[4][7][8][9] The medical examiner mentioned duct tape as one reason she ruled the death a homicide, but officially listed it as "death by undetermined means".^[10]

The trial lasted six weeks, from May to July 2011. The prosecution sought the death penalty^[11] and alleged Casey murdered her daughter by administering chloroform, then applying duct tape, because she wanted her freedom. The defense team, led by Jose Baez, countered that the child had drowned accidentally in the family's swimming pool on June 16, 2008, and that Casey lied about this and other issues because of a dysfunctional upbringing, which they said included sexual abuse by her father. The defense did not present evidence as to how Caylee died, nor evidence that Casey was sexually abused as a child,^[12] but challenged every piece of the prosecution's evidence, calling much of it "fantasy forensics".^[13] Casey did not testify during the trial.

On July 5, the jury found Casey not guilty of murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child, but guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.^[14] With credit for time served, she was released on July 17. The verdict was greeted with public outrage, and was both attacked and defended by media and legal commentators. Some complained that the jury misunderstood the meaning of reasonable doubt,^[15] while others said the prosecution relied too heavily on the defendant's allegedly poor moral character because they had been unable to show conclusively how the victim had died.^[16]

My first week as a thirty year old...

I typed this out a long time ago, did not get a chance to post it. So it is a little outdated :-)
I turned thirty two days ago. Do I feel any different ? Any older and wiser feeling ? I don' think so. Definitely not the older part ;-). I had a very quiet birthday celebration, Sumeet was here for the weekend. I wanted to drive to Key Largo over the weekend but it was raining heavily.  So we ended up staying in, which actually turned out to be great. But I did get a new bed, a gift from me to me. From my dear husband, I got a Mac. He is trying to convert me over to the Apple cult. First the phone and now the computer. Initially I was not that thrilled, I really wanted a lens for my camera. I did realize that my current system was getting old and slow. Even some of my friends will attest to that. I am already a believer in two days.
On my big special day, I worked. But my Boss took us all out to lunch and Sumeet got to meet everyone as well. On the way back to work, one of my colleagues commented "You are married to a very nice man, what did you do to trick him ?". I wonder what he really thinks of me. We concluded my birthday with a very nice dinner at a place on the beach. Good food, great wine :-).  I am on my way to San Francisco now, to attend a workshop. It is titled "How to create products that customers love". Should be interesting. I get to meet my roommate from grad school days, a friend whom I have known forever and  a friend from high school whom I haven't seen for almost twelve years. I am looking forward to all of that.

A weekend trip...

A week or so ago, we made a last minute plan to visit one of Sumeet's college roommates. His other roommate was coming from Cincinnati. So off we go. I had a good time. But the couple we were visiting probably had a hard time. His friends wife gets carsick very easily and we drove everywhere. She was a good sport about it though. But we just made things harder for her.
On Saturday, we drove all the way to a small town called Mystic This is where the Julia Roberts movie "Mystic Pizza" was shot. We even had pizza there and it was pretty good. The fact that they had this sign impressed me more than the movie trivia.

On the way there we stopped at a beach. We decided to have an impromptu photo shoot. We made the boys run along the beach  and jump. It looked like lot of fun so the girls decided to give it a try.

On Sunday, we spent most of the time in the car. I wanted to see a couple of my friends from Buffalo. They lived  on the other side of town. For some unknown insane reason, we decided to drive. The last fifteen minutes took us more than an hour to get there. As a result, all we had time for was a quick meal with my friends. I was hoping to spend about half a day.

I am back in Florida and I played badminton again yesterday. I managed to drag a couple of my colleagues this time. We had fun. I hope I can go regularly from now on. Lost update: Almost done with Season 5. Yipeee!

Past two weeks..

It has been very busy lately. I am working harder than before. But I am having fun with that so no complains. I attended my very first cadaver lab on Friday. It wasn't as gross as I expected it to be. I think I did learn a lot.
So far Florida has been really really warm. I miss the cooler weather. I guess soon, I will be one of those who complain about the cold weather when it is 50 degrees outside.
I got my things from the movers last week sometime. After all the delay, they manged to lose a few things. One of lost boxes contained one of my wedding dresses. I really really hope they find it. One good thing that happened this week was that my living room carpet got replaced. No more stinky rooms, they have the new carpet smell now.
Yesterday, I played badminton. After what seems like eternity. It felt good but I missed playing with my friends. The people here play four times a week, Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. They have four courts and no board or anything. There aren't that many people to need one. I wanted to go back today but I still have a couple of boxes to unpack. So I will get back to that.
One last update, I am hooked onto 'Lost' now. My friends talked about it all the time and I had no clue what they were talking about. I started watching it when I started packing. I am onto Season four now. It has been a big help during the whole packing/unpacking process :-)

The first one !

This blog is Sabrina's idea and I thought I should try it.Well, here it goes!
I still miss Colorado, no surprises there. I miss my friends, badminton, my dance classes, the mountains. I miss being there.
Enough whining ! Coming to Florida details, I survived my first week here ! 'Survive' is too strong a verb maybe. I got a lot accomplished (according to me at least) with Sumeet's help. We found an apartment and moved in, managed to get through my first week at work, found a badminton club. The fun part was when Sumeet was here. We explored the place a little bit. And Sumeet got to go to the beach last Friday. We walked around and had a pretty good meal at a Turkish place.

                                           Sumeet enjoying some turkish tea... 
We tried out a Trinidadian place for lunch, the food was great. It was greatly influenced by Indian food, so we had curry and roti. It wasn't as spicy as Indian food but extremely flavorful. And the roti's were huge. We ordered three and we could barely finish one. Another place worth mentioning is a persian place where we had dinner. The food was awesome, we had a chicken cooked in walnut and pomegranate sauce. Yummy!
I ordered a yogurt drink, thinking that it will be like lassi. It was, but it was carbonated. I am not sure if I like that.

On Sunday, we went to a safari, Sumeet wanted to see giraffes. So we went. It was fun, the place was split into seven areas, representing different environments from different continents. There was quite a variety from the grasslands in South America to Gir Forest in India. Sumeet was most excited to see the lions and the giraffes, of course.