Communication (phones)

So, just to give you an idea on the phones that we have in the house....

Vim's Cell, Dev's Cell, Spare Cell (my parents are using it now), Vonage phone, and the 'land-line'. Of course in between all the working phones there is Milan's non-working cell phone. If you recall, Milan used to take his 'fake' phone and have real conversations.

Well, those one-side-fake conversations have diminished. Now he is moving on to 'real' communication!! Since we have all these 'phones' in the house, he wanted in on the action.

No, he did not get his own working cell phone.... he has figured out how to use the 'land-line' phone. The best part, the land-line phone is connected to all the houses in the complex. So basically, you type a 4 digit extension, and you can talk to anyone in the complex. The best part - the extension is the same as the house number.... it makes it easy for those of us that are exceeding memory capacity!!

Anyways, now Milan calls his buddy Sajan everyday (often several times a day). He will have a general conversation (boys stuff). Every so often you will hear 'sweeeeet' and 'awesome'. It is pretty funny to listen too!!! So much for the 'fake phone'..... he has moved on to the real thing!!

By the way..... 8 months down...... hard to believe. It was a year ago that things were official about the move. So much has happened in just one year!! wow!!

Hyderbad

Trip to Hyderabad was good!!!

We attended the wedding which was really nice. With the family being from Michigan, there was a pretty large crowd that travelled for the wedding from Michigan. It was nice to see the familiar faces!! I will post some pictures soon.

Hyderabad was a nice city.... very typical Indian town, densely populated, and slightly run down (at least the areas that we saw). We were able to make a shopping trip on Sunday. Hyderabad is known for jewelry, especially pearls.... say no more!! I was able to get some new jewels for myself!! It was fun shopping!!

The kids survived just fine at home with my dad! Not that we were worried... OK, maybe some of us were worried (my mom!!)!!

Now we are looking forward to the trip at the end of the month....

Weekend Trip

We are off to Hyderbad for the weekend. We have a wedding to go to. So the wedding is for a family that my parents know from back in Michigan. This family moved here at the same time we did thru GM as well. Well their daughter is getting married this weekend. Vim, my mom, and Me are heading off to the wedding. There will be a few families from Michigan travelling to the wedding so it will be nice!!

Milan and Mira opted to stay back with my dad! Actually they are really excited about it!! Mira keeps saying that they are going to 'party' when we are gone.... should we be worried????

The Oscars...

8 Awards for Slumdog.... WOW!

Did anyone catch the name of the lead actor.... yep.... Dev.... Patel!!

He stole my name... But that is OK because he has made now made the name famous.... So, by association... I too am famous!!! right??

Go Dev!!

Security.....

The bombings that happened in Mumbai back in November have changed things here in Bangalore (actually all around India for that matter).

Some of the changes are small, and others are big.....

The little things is a metal detector that you need to pass thru when entering public places where crowds can gather such as a mall, or hotel. The interesting thing, half the time you walk thru them and wonder if it is on or not. Or in some cases it beeps, and you just keep going.

Usually next to the metal detector, there is usually a bag check where some takes a fraction of a second to see if you 'have' anything.

At all hotels (or at least the big ones), they have a mandatory car check. They check the trunk, usually a quick glance. Open all the door to see who is in the car. And the best part, they take a small mirror on wheels and check underneath the car.

At my work, they have stepped up security too...

All of this begs the question.... it is really going to stop someone that wants to do harm??? Or is it just a front to give people a sense of security?

I will take pictures of these things to share with you...

Long Time No Post.....

Sorry for the delay in my posts..... been busy....

Will try to catch you up....

Milan is loving having my parents around. He is enjoying the attention from both my parents!! It is really sweet. Over the weekend, he was out cruising on his bike (yes, pretending it was a motorcycle, I am sure), and CRASH.... into the back of a car!! Bloody nose, bloody lip..... and a bruised ego!! He is doing better, but he can not ride his bike for a few days. I am sure that this is not the last of his spills on his bike. When will he learn???? Vim is worried that his nose will scar, I think that if it does, it will make for a good story when he is on a date!! Right??

Some of you remember Milan's flair for style back at home. When going to school, he would wear a shirt and tie, and style his hair. Well, he is not sporting the shirt and tie as often here, but he is now doing the daily hair-gel thing. Some days he get out the hair dryer to get a nice style going.... should we be worried???? In the morning he won't let anyone touch his hair (his masterpiece)! He is afraid we will mess it up.

Milan is really loving his Bakugons! Now, these things are a big craze her in Ozone. Is it all the rage back at home too??? So now that Milan has his own bakugan's he feels that he is part of the 'bakugan-club'. However, we put a rule down to him that he can not trade his Bakugans. He has to wait until my parents leave to trade (it seemed like a good date out in the future). Well now he asks how many more days before Nana goes home??? Ironic, eh! He was counting down for them to arrive, now he is counting down for them to leave.... I know that it is just the bakugan trading that he counting down for!

Mira is enjoying doing craft and art projects with my dad. Everyday the get up to something creative. It is really sweet!

Mira is enjoying have "nana's cooking"!! Manjula is learning more Gujarati cooking!! It is really nice. Let me tell ya, I am getting really spoiled!!! Honestly, I can't remember the last time I cooked a full meal.... seriously!!

My dad's brother and dad's sister from our village in Gujarat have come to visit us too. They are currently travelling the south. They will be back tomorrow. Mira and Milan are enjoying their time with all of them, especially with Jadu Bapa (my dad's younger brother)!!

We have some travel plans coming up..... We have a wedding to go to in Hyderabad the last weekend of the month! And, we planned our trip for the week that the kids have off at the end of March. We are doing a whirl-wind tour of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. It will be a quick spin thru each place, but enough to get a flavor of each place.

In between all of that...... we have more visitors!!! YEAH!!! Vim's cousin from Toronto will be coming over to visit with us for a weekend in March.

Needless to say.... we are busy.... it is a good busy!!! It is making the time really fly by!!

Heat Wave!!

I have been tracking the heat wave that has hit the Midwest!!

I hope you are enjoying the un-seasonable warm weather!!

I am sure that you all enjoying the break from the brutal winter that you have had so far!!

Hopefully this is a signal that winter is on its way out!!

One can wish, right.....