life is beautiful

without the dinner of course. So yesterday I decided not to go for dinner and movie with the guys. No surprises there, neither in the fact that I was confused till the last moment. Then a car shows up at my doorsteps without giving me a final chance to say no. So I was like, what the hell, dinner (not eating) only takes about 1/2 an hr and then I will be back in no time and do some house work (haa haa haa haa haa). So I change, put on lenses and comb hair in record time and out of the door. Dinner was pleasant, I was still elated at having finally met all deadlines, checked in code, borken build and fixed it and have my manager tell me relax, you are doing good. Ok, not all deadlines some review stuff still left, but you don't expect me to care about that! After dinner, movie time. uhm, I don't like movies, they make my head hurt, especially the english ones. But someone without deciding, I saw myself deciding to go for it. Come on, what are you going to do at home anyway, house work! haa haa. Our intended 9:40 show was sold out, a sign Tulika, go back home. But at that point I was pretty much stuck in Bellevue. So went along for the 10:25 show. Burn after Reading. For one I did not understand the title for long time, till someone actually said it during the movie! And it turned out to be a total timepass movie, hans hans ke pet mein dard ho gaya. Koi story nahin, sirf comedy. Isko Bheja Fry ke saath compare kar sakte hein!
Lesson learnt: Sometimes imprompto non-decidsions for dinner and movie turn out good.

The ultimate backpacking experience....
No they did not pay me ask me to write a ad for them.
This weekend we went on a 34 mile backpacking trail to Glacier Meadows along Hoh River in Olympic national park. We planned it as a 3 day backpack, with first and last day flat walk with backpacks and second day loong 14 mile hike without backpack. I was apprehensive about the 14 mile, it involved a 4000ft+ height gain and loss. Oh well, its going to be a challenge, big deal.

Day1: As usual we started more than an hr later than planned. Packing took quite sometime as lot of things need to be divided. Everyone's pack was around 30lbs, I would guess same as Grand Canyon pack. The trail started out as very flat and in a very dense forest. Dense as in temperate rain forest dense, huge moss covered trees. I would say almost spooky.

So its been 2 months since I am going for salsa classes, and ya, I do like it and getting better at it. It will still be another 3 - 4 months before I can really be confident, still getting there. Now salsa is a interested choice for someone who does know what the meaning of "follow" is. I mean, me, doing something where I do not know and control what the next move is, something is terribly wrong with this picture! But still, here I am, learning salsa and want to learn more of the ballroom dances. I guess its a balancing act, let go and have someone else do the thinking, for once. Focus on following the lead, because it does need lot of focus especially when leaders are people who have no idea what they are doing. ya, me wondering now if I should invent the new form of dance where both can lead ;). We can call it salsa roja (pronounced as roha), salsa with spices.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1829687,00.html?cnn=yes

To qualify as "checkpoint friendly," a bag must have a designated laptop-only section that unfolds to lie flat on the X-ray machine belt and contains no metal snaps, zippers or buckles and no pockets.

Obviously the security people are not going to look at each laptop bag and tell you to either take the laptop out or leave it in. That would totally defeat the purpose. So in the end it will boil down to are you carrying the laptop bag with approval seal. One more way for manufacturers to charge an insane amount for their "authority approved" merchandise, like the ziplock bags. What's next, approved shoes, approved shampoo and conditioner, approved knife, gun ......

Now I am a true Seattlite. I am on to my second coffee of the week (TGIF). Makes me wonder, how could I live in Seattle and love Seattle and not drink coffee! It started on a very tired and sleepy Wednesday morning. I thought what the hell, lets give that fancy coffee thingy a try, if nothing it will pass some time and wake me up. So I took a cup of Kona coffee, put it in the machine and took out #6 amount of coffee. Filled up my cup with milk, reheated everything. Tasted yuck! So added a packet of sugar, grudgingly! and vola! you got a coffee for yourself. Not bad. Been doing some research and its very addictive and not good. So no more than 2 cups a week for me. Today again in middle of dozing off while making some never ending unittest changes, I drank another cup. I think like dark chocolate and wine, it just starts growing on you after a while. But last thing I want is another addiction in my life, so limiting it to 2 cups a week! No coffee on weekends.
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tuls

For some reason, I am finding it amazingly difficult to park buckbeak. While with my old Corolla, I could park it into tinyest of compact spaces, parallel park it and even reverse angle park it. But now I just cannot get it to park well even in a non-compact spaces on left side, which is like the easier thing. I guess part of the reason is that I cannot see the nose at all and cannot estimate rear length either, its like sitting in a black box (literally and figuratively). I got my old parking spot in office garage back, but this car just refuses to get in there. In Seattle, it was impossible to parallel park this guy in a space good enough for a van, just impossible! Someone please teach me how to park a car!

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tuls

http://tulika-run.blogspot.com - marathon blog

Got my car. Finally did end up buying Scion Tc, automatic, but in grey colour. But that's ok, its a popular colour (though that is what makes is little uncool). Don't ask why I bought it, no reason, just wanted to buy a Scion Tc. Actually really really wanted to buy a Acura RSX, but they stopped producing that, so this was closest match. Calling it Buckbeak. For those who live in caves and do not know the history behind this name - Buckbeak is a Hippogriff, owned originally by Hagrid. He saved Sirius from Minisrty of Magic at a point. If you do not know who Hagrid and Sirius are, I cannot help you. Wake up and look here http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Buckbeak.
So back to the car. It has been named Buckbeak, good thing that its grey. Hope lives upto the repu.

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tuls