Fabulous! A good clean feeling! :-)

I have been meaning to blog just like another journal entry, except I haven't :) Hopefully I shall finish this post today and "publish" it... don't you write things then never publish it? ugh! Anyways...so what have I been up to besides not keeping up with everyone (I sincerely apologize for not returning calls)...
So I have been working quite long hours in Austin. I would love to take advantage of working in this city, but sadly everything but 6th street shuts down by the time I walk out of our building. I am trying to go see R.E.M. though! I love driving to work too... just because it is so sunny and crisp in the morning! :-) Gotta love the spring season here!
Besides work..what have I been up to..let's see.... I actually walk around like a ragamuffin on the weekends because I get quite exhausted after driving back and forth to Austin every week and working in an intense environment. I did have a great set of holidays this winter! The holidays were kicked off by a trip to Key Biscayne. I absolutely loved it there! It was so calm, quiet, and peaceful! During the holidays, I cooked! I made my favorite christmas bark... hung out with family, friends... basically stayed in Houston the entire time. I have realized I have no motivation to pack another bag to visit after over exhausting the "fascination" in travelling. My "thing" to do during the winter was to go to bookstores and sip of coffee or hot cocoa with friends and read/browse through books! Yeah..though its lame..this is just the way I like it :)
After the holidays, I was back in Austin for work. One of the weekends that I spent here was absolutely amazing! I love this city and I want to live here later on in life... :) I went jogging down by town lake with Anushka! went to a local bookstore... shopped at artsy little stores!... ate good food! - tex mex, italian, mama pai's pav bhaji... soo good! I also watched an Indian movie after 4 years!...and the lucky winner was Hum Tum. I like that movie..its super cute!
Besides all these fun filled activities, I have been trying to keep up with birthdays! For some odd reason, all my best friends except for 2 happen to be aquarius! soooo weird don't you think? So this calls for all sorts of activities... salsa dancing, vegas, sushi restaurants, ...
I think that recaps my past month pretty well... phew! It was such a jumble in my head, esp. since I feel like I get no time to relax and get a perspective of where I am in life...
come visit Austin! I will be here for a long long time!
Happy Valentines Day!
CHEERS! :-)

randomness

Ella everbody...
Sooo my new client is an Australian company! So during meetings there are usually several people with Australian accents, British accents, Trinidadian accents, American accents, and many more since they are a monsterous global leader in whatever they do ;) You would think it is fun to hear these accents, but to be honest when you HAVE to do work, it is very tough to understand them all at once. Though all of us are fluent in English, there is clearly a language barrier. I find it a bit funny when my brain completely pauses when switching from interpreting one accent to another. I would say for a split second, my brain just cannot interpret the language after an immediate change in accents though they are both speaking English! Anyways... I have to admit, it is fun to listen to them when its a laid back conversation about nonsense and their culture is quite liberal compared to the U.S. based companies :)

Besides my love for liberal Australian based companies, I have turned back to studying! I will be taking my first CFA exam this December. This should take much of my time in the coming months. hooray! I am already nervous :-/... but definitely excited to challenge myself :-)

makes you go hmmm

Exhibit A: Pasta - pah-stuh (American accent), pas-tuh (British accent)

Exhibit B: Garage - guh-rahzh, -rahj (American accent), gar-ij, -ahzh (British accent)

You would think it would be the other way around .... hmm or maybe it's just me :)

I meant to tag people ages ago to write about 7 things people don't know about them...here are the tagees:
1. Claire
2. Noni
3. Shilpa A
4. Shilpa N
5. You!

I am home for the weekend to celebrate my grandma's 80ths birthday! I would feel a bit guilty if I didn't attend her big day... so I figured I would fly 1500 miles for one of the ladies who molded me rather well while I was still mendable :)


My family is considering making an addition to our family! We went and saw the most adorable creature I have encountered so far :) We shall see if we get him in 2 weeks, he is only 3-4 weeks old, so he needs another 2 weeks before he can be a part of this crazy family :)

Here are a few pictures of the kiddo :)









Have a great Memorial day weekend!

just because everyone else does it :)

After helping Archana redesign her blog... reading about all kinds of konkani food on blogs... and salivating helplessly at work, I have decided to write a thing or two about something.
Since miss Arch tagged me on 7 things people don't know about me...here goes:

1. I am a horrible planner, actually more like a very precise planner;) I am the person who ends up checking in 35 mins before the flight leaves ... and the reason it is 35 is because 30 mins is the cut off time for checking in luggage :) I have cut it down to about 25 mins sometimes and they let me slide since the people at the airport know me by now. Perhaps this is the reason why I hate people who cannot efficiently go through security lines! I get sooo flustered when a person has to go through the security line more than twice. PS. I am not an angry person...so it is rare when I get so angry and edgy.

2. I do not find Angelina Jolie good looking. I think she has some weird sex appeal to her, but I do not see her at the same wavelength as 99.9% of the population. You are probably wondering why I thought of her randomly, but there is a reason behind my madness. Currently there is one poster in the room I have been assigned to work in..and guess who is on that poster - Ms. Jolie :)

3. I do not like my thighs touching each other at any given time. When I gain a few pounds, my thighs tough each other when I'm wearing pajama shorts, and it takes me ages to fall asleep. I get so exasperated in those situations. I don't like my thighs touching each other while walking either. If I sit with my legs crossed, sometimes I subconsciously keep my hand in between to avoid my thighs from touching each other :)

4. I always have a sweettooth... I am always up for something sweet. I can skip right to dessert every meal of the day :) Dessert and chips 'n guacamole will keep me pleased for the rest of my life! This is probably the reason to the 3 root canals I now have.

5. When someone irritates me, I picture them sitting on a toilet :) Oh gosh, I can't believe I said it, but it's true. I believe it started when Claire and I had an organic chemistry class together and we hated the professor, so we randomly discussed this topic and laughed about it for ages... and since then it has been the reason I chuckle in tense situations :)

6. I was born the same hour, the same day, and the same year as Indira Gandhi was shot. And these days we call it halloween :)

7. I couldn't say my own name until I was 6 :) I still remember the day when I was first able to say "Srilakshmi" all on my own!! I was the happiest kid on Earth! I remember hopping around the house chanting "srilakshmi" over and over so that I wouldn't forget how to say it the next time around. I had actually called myself "Srimili" until then; that was the closest I could get to saying my own name.

Ok..that took me ages...now off to a surf and turf dinner on the coast :) yayyuh!
I am going to make an effort to blog more regularly :-D

the blue colored tooth

So, when I flew to Atlanta this week, I saw countless people talking on their bluetooth. Since then, I could not stop but wonder why it is called a "blue" tooth as opposed to a yellowtooth or an orangetooth. This curiosity has been bugging me all week, and now here is the answer to all those of you who love to know interesting facts on tooth color.

Why is it called Bluetooth?
The Bluetooth name refers to King Harald "Bluetooth" Blaatand, a famous Danish king of the 10th century, who unified Denmark and Norway. In the beginning of the Bluetooth wireless technology era, Bluetooth was aimed at unifying the telecom and computing industries.

~That's all folks! ;-)

Being a new bee at this

So, I figured I would start a semi blog on Blogger instead of Xanga. I have to say this website is much more user friendly than Xanga. I shall be back with a few thoughts later... tata for now!