East lake sammamish trail mile marker

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2442016

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tuls

Don't drive your passion, let your passion drive you --- Tulika Agrawal.

One more reason to love Seattle

So here is why I love Seattle. I get up in the morning, there is sunrisish outside my window. Can't see well bcoz of too many trees (don't love that part). Anyway I get up, get ready, head out to take the bus to office. The road seems slick and slippery, happy that I don't have to drive. And then I came upon this breathtaking view of Olympic ranges in front. I have never seen Olympics this clearly, different ranges were visible. And in front of that a glimpse of lake washington. The only glitch in this scenery was the hill of Seattle homes between lake and mountains. Else this was a perfect painting if nature. Made my day.

8 mile

ah, what a perfect day to run. Decided to run 8 miles today to get back on the course of preparing for marathon. It was a great run.

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tuls

Don't drive your passion, let your passion drive you --- Tulika Agrawal.

Seattle sunsets

Did I ever mention that Seattle gets the most beautiful sunsets (everytime sun is out). I have never seen a usual sunset here, every sunset is full of vivid colours over beautiful mountain range. All this is made possible by the constant cloud cover, and presence of Olympic Mountains. The combination makes every sunset unique. I am sure this is true for sunrises, but they are harder to come as cloud cover is usually thicker in the morning. And then I can see sunset from my office window, but cannot see sunrise. I think I am going to make it a point to capture all sunsets from now on, use my digicam :)

BDay

Another BDay is here. How much ever I try or want no celebration, let the day pass as a normal day and forget that one more year is over, celebrations just seem to happen in Seattle. Yesterday night Rahul made some cake (Devil's food, yummy) and then some folks came over for mid-night cake cutting.
For tonight I had happened to find a nice Italian restaurant for a quiet dinner for 2. This seemed like one of very few restaurants where i actually would like to go and eat. But when your husband refuses a romantic dinner, you know something is fishy and you hope that its a surprise party with friends!. So ya, a surprise party tonight.
Its fine, its been a good year, mummy finally visited, had a goodish trip with her, pulled off a nice Orlando vacation. Finally moved back to Seattle and getting settled here. Ran Seafair half-marathon. Did quite a few good hikes, including really challenging hoh river backpacking. Broke my hand. In all a ok year I suppose.

Dinner and A movie

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.

Hoh River Trail

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.

My thoughts on salsa

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.

"approved" laptop bags

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 ......

Indian Ocean in Seattle

Indian Ocean came to Seattle on 11th August. It was definitely one of the best concerts I have been to, and the only instrumental music that I enjoy. Their music does not really need words, each node seems to speak 100 words. And when they add words to it, lyrics are great and Asheem's and Rahul's voices are like magic. Not to mention Susmit's mischievous smile and Amit's flowing hair that add to their whole performance. After the performance we even got to talk to the band, they are really nice humble people. Great band!

drinking coffee in Seattle

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

Cannot park buckbeak?

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

Name that car

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

salsa! finally!

ok, finally finally I convinced myself to take salsa classes at Redmond Dance Works Studio. Its close its convenient and I love it. How could I not be taking the classes before. I started with the 2nd level course. After taking the first level a couple of times, its time to move on to 2nd. Though I still need to revise and work on my basics, but that will happen in time. Its all about practice and practice and I am all set to do it.
Yesterday went to century ballroom for dance social. Drove all the way to Seattle. It was ok, as predicted, since I am still learning, and did not know many people there, it was not that much fun. Its of course better to dance with people at your level so that both of you are concentrating on learning. Oh well, maybe next time.

Google Saree!!!!

They would go to any extent to cash on Google brand name and market for free.

http://www.sizzledcore.com/2008/06/19/google-saree-by-indian-designer-satya-paul/

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tuls

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

Seafair Marathon 2008

Finished with the half-marathon in 2:38, an improvement over last year.
The course http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2011049
This course was totally killing, one nasty hill after another. The beginning was at husky stadium and it took us over 520. Bridge run was good, but since it was the first 2 mile, it was kind of hard. The sun was also at full blast on the bridge. This is the time when you are warming up and everyone else is passing you by. View of rainier was great, though there was some fog. After the first water station at 2 mile, I was well warmed up. The uphill of 520 was ok, by end of the bridge I was running along nicely as if I can run forever. Till mile 6.5, first relay exchange it was nice, some shade, some sun.
After mile 7 was the killer hill. A very long all uphill stretch. I ran half of it, but the other half just had to walk. I recovered most of the time lost when going downhill. But this was just the beginning, one rolling hill after another. I tried to run most of it. The advantage of this uphill-downhill course was that mile 7 - 10 just passed by without notice. It was pretty much running one uphill to other.
Around mile 9, there was another very steep nasty hill, which everyone was walking. That made me most tired. On the way some people were out with their garden hoses, spraying water on runners, good fun for them, and keeping it cool for us.
The course was somewhat flat after mile 9. Long flat stretch. Which was a good refresher after the rolling hills. Though by this time I was really tired. Mile 10 - 12 were really tough, especially the last hill just before mile 12 was pretty much a crawl. Once mile 12 was over, it was mostly downhill from there and the last mile was much easier.

12 miles and more

Did not update for a while. There was moving and then there was cold. Now feeling good. Tried to run 12 miles last to last week. It was a total disaster, really needed those energy drinks and lighten up on full sleeves and full slacks.
Weekday runs were ok, mostly practicing hills, it was good.
Now time for practice is over! the show is this Sunday and weather looks great!

easy 6.6 mile

Among all the packing and head aches, I ran an easy 6.6 mile on Monday. I really need to start running on weekdays to build the stamina.

New shoes and almost 12 miles.

Got new shoes from Nike store in orlando. Today was the day to take them out on a loong test run. The shoes did great, fitted well, and like good running shoe did not feel new. They are not as good as Rahul's, but are +, meaning can connect to my hypothetical iPod.

Was suppose to run 12 miles today. Started around 6:30, good early start. First 4 miles were easy, surprisingly easy. Then had to take a break to meet Rahul. After that next couple of miles were ok too. After the 10th mile, it got really hard, energy totally spent. Its ok, this was just the first 12 miler and I had not been running all week. Next one will sure be better. It took a total of 3 hrs with breaks and walks etc.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1927042

almost 6 miles today

Today was a good day to run. Started out a little late for the weekday, @6:45, but it was a perfect day. Temperatures in 10C, slightly cloudy, good wind. I started out thinking will run for 30 min., then thought on 45. By the time I was 30 min into the run, I was, well, totally into it. So decided to so my pending 6 mile run. Ran to the second bridge at liberty state park, did the little uphill pilgrimage and then ran back through the first bridge. It was nice, except water was a problem. By then end of 4th mile, I was totally dehydrated. Knee and ankle had started doing funny things. Somehow survived the last 2 miles. Wasted lot of time walking around, looking for water, so took almost 1hr 10 min. But over all a very good run. Lesson learnt, always carry water. Next week its another 10 miler!

run-o-walk-o-run

Today was not a good day to run. Started out on a negative note, did not want to run. Ran a little, then was very thirsty. Spent 10 minutes looking for water at liberty state park. Found it. Ran some more, walked so more. Just no mood. By 45 min and in mile 4, I had totally given up any pretense of running. Only thing that was driving my legs to move faster was the intolerable smell of water and what not. Somehow managed to get back to VanVorst Park and then just walked home. Ran about 4 miles, 2 miles short of target. Got to make it up on Tuesday.

1st 10 miler, woohoo!

Sunday I was suppose to run 10 miles, but as usual I was lazy. So then I had to go out and run that 10 miles today. It was not fun :(. Last 2 miles were a real stretch, half walking, half running and half crawling. After that coming to office, not good. Got to go and sit in the massage chair for a bit.

uphill running

I was looking at the Seafair marathon course and after the bridge its all uphill, no kidding! That is scary. So I decided to devote my tuesdays to practice uphill running, on the treadmill as there are no hills in New York. This tuesday was a total disaster. I happily set my treadmill at elevation of 10 and speed of 4, that sounds easy. But 1 min into it, I was huffing and puffing as if I had run 10 miles. I could not do it! So then I reduced the speed to 3.7, that too was a challenge. So then I reduced the elevation to 8. Ok, that's better, I was able to run for 2 -3 min without stopping (my expectations were quite down by now).
So, that is where I am today, elecvation 8, speed 3.7, minutes 3. Lets see if this practice makes it any better.

Walking on the streets of New York

As anyone who knows me or has been following this blog would have guessed, this post is not about the dreamy narative of walking on streets of New York, mesmarized by huge building blah blah. No. This post is about a real experience of walking on the streets of New York, experience of a common person who is not getting paid by any magazine to write this.

I always wondered, when I used to live in San Francisco, I just used to love walking in downtown. I used to go out during lunch time, just walk around, or take the bus to downtown on weekends, walking places. But here in New York, I just hate it, I cannot wait to get back inside. The reason was kind of obvious, right in front of my eyes, or rather under my nose and feet.

New York is shady and dirty!! I have a short walk, 2 block, about 0.4 mile from train station to office and it is a pain, wrinkling your nose at the smell of garbage everywhere, keeping your eyes fixed on the ground to avoid canine excretes, its very very far from pleasant. And the weather, its either too hot or too cold. San Francisco of course has the advantage of mild climate, along with that its also a place of beauty. Even among the huge skyscrapers, concrete jungle, you can always glimpse the ocean, the bridges or the greenry. Being west coast it also has the advantage of being new, clean and shiny. New York on the other hand is a total concrete jungle, old, smelly, dirty. So now I know why I love San Francisco and have a totally opposite reaction to New York.

oh, well, hopefully its just a few more months!

7 mile in liberty state park

First long run in long time. It was a cloudy, misty day, temperature in lower 10s, a perfect day for long run. We started towards liberty state park, went almost behind the statue of liberty. On the way back I was confused about the miles covered as it had been only 1 hr of running, so I decided to go to the waterfront. In all covered almost 7 miles, last one running, walking and dragging myself through it.

40min run 20 min walk

Ran by NY waterfront again. A solid 40 min run and then some walk. Need to do better next time. Must have covered at least 3.5 miles. Almost same course as last wednesday.

Prepare for the next half-marathon - Seafair

I really wanted to run Jersey marathon because its course is flat, flattest. But winter practice and no running partner drowned all my enthu. Now again, I want to run. This time Seafair half-marathon, first time crossing 520 on foot. Half seems doable, I have already been running at least 3 regularly and 5 sometimes. I only need to decide, stick to my plan and do it. Starting training today, almost 2 & 1/2 months, lets see how it goes.

all is not lost - corporate green initiatives

www.nikereuseashow.com - They take your old atheletic shoes and reuse them to make sports surfaces like basketball, tennis courts, running track etc. Few drop off locations in major cities. You can always mail them the shoe. Its agreat start, given that how quickly people discard their athletic shoes. Go Nike!

3.5 mile run

summer is at our door steps and with that running outside has started. Today was a really good day, bright and sunny, temp in upper 10s. So I went out for a run. Started at 14th st and went down to Murray street, a 3.5 mile round trip. I have done 5+ miles on the treadmill, but this was first long run outside. I used to think that treadmill is hard, but now outside seems much harder. Time to get back in shape.

आत्मनिर्भरता और आजादी

आत्मनिर्भरता और आजादी दो अलग अलग चीज़ें हैं। आत्मनिर्भरता हमेशा आज़ादी नहीं लाती। आज़ादी दिल में होती है। अगर तुम यह महसूस नहीं कर सकते की तुम आजाद हो, कुछ नहीं है जो तुम्हे आगे बढ़ कर कुछ भी हासिल करने से रोक रहा है, तो आत्मनिर्भरता कुछ नहीं है। अक्सर ऐसा होता है कि हम बहूत मेहनत करते हैं। दसवीं क्लास से ले कर कॉलेज तक दिन रात पढ़ाई करते हैं। नई नौकरी में जी जान से काम करते हैं। और फिर हम उस जगह पर पहुँच जाते हैं जहाँ वो सपना सामने होता है। बस हाथ बढ़ा कर उसको पकड़ने कि देर होती है। पर उस समय क्या हम सबमे हिम्मत होती है उस सपने को पकड़ने कि? क्या उस समय हम आगे जाने के लिए आजाद होते हैं? वो एक आखरी कदम उठाने के लिए हिम्मत लगती है।

नहीं, ऐसा नहीं होता है। हम में नहीं होती है वह हिम्मत। एक डर होता है। किस बात का, मुझे नहीं पता। शायद खुश होने का डर। मानो या ना मानो, लोगों में अक्सर खुश होने का डर होता है। और सच में खुश होने के किए आजाद होना ज़रूरी है। और आजाद होने के लिए मन से खुश होना ज़रूरी है।

we shall dance ...

My latest resolution in life is to get back to Salsa dancing. Living in New York, it would be a shame to want to learn it and not do it, there are salsa clubs at every corner. I really enjoyed it back in UCSD, then forgot it all, should be easy to pick up. Here is one very close to office.
http://www.dancechelsea.com/
and there is dancesport http://www.dancesport.com/
and I am sure many more.

passed deception pass

"hearing the water of sound and the sound of water"
Another day in Seattle. Started be best way it can with a dance party at Trinity club. We had to wait in a line for about an hour to get into the club, it was semi worth it. The music was good, and it was a blast dancing again after such a long time. That's one of the things I definitely miss most about Seattle (though while in Seattle I did not go out that much, still there was a option here). We "danced it out" till 2:30a.m. We were back by almost 3:30, and I was asleep before I hit the pillow. The plan for rest of the day was a hike at Deception Pass. I think I had been there before, but maybe not, I remembered the bridge, maybe the beach, not sure. Anyway, so it was an average Seattle day, very cloudy and not raining yet. The drive was ok, been on that road about 20 times. When we got there, it was kind of cold. Though coming from New York, I did not feel it that cold. The bridge and view from bridge was really good. This is where Puget Sound meets Pacific ocean. It was cold and had started raining by the time we got out. We still managed to hike a bit to a "view point", got all wet. On the way back, we went to Thai Tom for dinner, to go.

Ride thru 520 again

ok, so not really nostalgic, because I still believe i never left. But crossing 520 bridge on a super clody day after a long time was nice. On my way to new Google office, I was also driven through salmon bay, fremont area, the places I used to run though more than a year ago. I don't know why, but I do love living in Seattle (or rather love the idea). Its not just social and work life, though they were both great here, but its in the place. Maybe because it was my first real home. But I love the rain and the cloud. Walking down from office, I realized that I actually missed walking in that slight drizzle, under the never breaking canopy of clouds, threatening to soak you at any time, but never actually doing it. Also went and visited the Kirkland waterfront when I first took my telescope out, and where I used to sit early morning to just relax and enjoy moments of solitude, again under a cloudy sky. Oh, well, I will just have to get over it, its like that thing which you know you can have any day, still you cannot have it.

wanderer

I recently saw this movie "Into the Wild" about this guy in his early 20s who sort of runs away from home to go into the wild, to find solitude. After a year or more of roaming all over US, he ends up in Alaska to spend few months "living off the land", but then ends up being dead of starvation. Other than the "being dead" part, the movie was .... (i don't have the right word for it, something good). I have often wondered what it would be like to just go away for a month, alone, away from work, city and everything that defines our life and try to rediscover yourself. I say a month as I know I definately cannot survive without a purpose for more than a month, I would want to go back to work, talk to friends, watch TV! But can I do it for a month. Can one just disappear, go away, wander around, like take a car and go coast to coast. How hard is that if you have the money and the vacations :) During the Peru trip, I did meet few europeans who had been on vacation for 6 months, roaming all over south america. That's quite close, but can I do it. More importantly would I be let to do it, is that even a valid question? I will definately update the blog if I decided to go away, after all I will take my laptop, and my GPS and cell phone along, and will surely find a way to connect to the net, can't live without my daily e-mail.

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tuls

ok one thing i found

that i like about NYC is that i do not have to worry about driving every day. Of course most of the time i hate that i cannot own a car and drive up I5 or 405, but then the everyday thing is somewhat nice. Like today, there is so much snow, suburb roads are mess, but i do not care. I will go home at my usual time by my usual train. kind of nice, especially after driving nightmare in seattle snow. At the same time NY style, I will have to walk for 10 min in super cold weather, and have to stand for another 20 min in dirty crowded train and go back to that silly small apartment with no carpet.