Week in Review

so, it's been a while since i've written anything. what can i say, life has been crazy! the two big things going on in my life right now are running and buying a house.

1. running - first, i've only run a total of 3 times in the past few weeks, but when i'm not running (which is most of the time), i'm thinking about running - er, i'm thinking about how to get out of running. i didn't run at all this weekend - not 1 time. not good considering i'm supposed to run a 5k next saturday. i did run 3 miles last sunday and it was fine - i pushed through it, but it took me forever. i'm the slowest runner on the planet.

the other issue with running is that i need better music. i love disturbia, forever, and stronger, but they can only keep me going for so long - so definitely let me know if you've got some suggestions.

2. buying a house - so, we've been house hunting since march, put offers on 3 houses, and we've FINALLY gotten one! it's good that we didn't get the first two though, because we definitely like this one the most. we went under contract on tuesday and close on november 12th - SUPER fast! but we really can't wait. the biggest thing that we have to do now is rent our townhouse - so let me know if you can think of any takers!

other than that, we're just enjoying the weather... :) hope everyone had a happy halloween - i boycotted it this year (i hate dressing up) and voted instead!

Crazy times...

The last week+ has been crazy busy for us... on October 2nd, we flew to Phoenix for my cousin Neil and Rekha's wedding. We met up with Oliver's parents who also came in for the wedding.

The wedding was great and I got a chance to take some more fun pictures. It helped that the bride was stunning...

The boys greeting my cousin Neil...

While in AZ, we ventured out of Scottsdale and headed to Sedona. Everything that I've heard about Sedona made it sound magical, but unfortunately for us, it rained so it wasn't that great. We did enjoy hanging out with the family.

Sunday morning, Oliver's dad treated us to our first ever hot air balloon ride - it was a really fantastic experience.

We flew back to Atlanta on the 5th, but Oliver's parents stayed in AZ until Thursday, 10/9, when they flew to Atlanta to spend about a week with us. Friday afternoon, we met up with my parents and went to Oktoberfest thrown by the German cultural institute of Atlanta. It was actually a lot of fun - Oktoberfest in Atlanta at a French restaurant...

sunday, we went to the new world of Coke. It made me feel guilty for my newfound love of mountain dew. i LOVE coke - and i think it's time to get back to my roots. no more green bottles, just red - what was i thinking?

I thought this was a cool reflection picture of the Bank of America building...

the week with oliver's parents ended with another family celebration for our 2 year wedding anniversary. we went to nava (my favorite restaurant) and had a really nice evening. it's hard to believe that it's already been two years, but at the same time, it's hard to believe that it's only been two years. i have a hard time remembering when oliver wasn't around. that may also have to do with the brain tumor that is eating up my memory...

anyway, happy anniversary husband - in case i forget that the last 2 years have been great, i'm writing it down... :)

New Boyfriend...

move over Oliver, hello Sanjay Gupta...

last night at a benefit for CARE, we met Sanjay Gupta. Now, I will admit that I originally just wanted to meet him to tell him about my friends Brett and Kajal (mainly Brett), but after talking to him for a bit, I've discovered that he's a little bit dreamy.

He is nice, humble, gracious, friendly, super cute, my size, and has a pretty good sense of humor. And he autographed a pic of my favorite girl, Dilan, for her dad... All in all, the perfect boyfriend.

Oliver witnessed the stalking (he also took the above picture) and didn't seem to mind, so I think it's ok... :)

Sad to see you go...

Thursday night we had dinner with our friends Kelly and Adrian and their sweet son Tyler. Saturday they get in their car and drive up north to start the next chapter of their life in chicago. i'm excited because now i have friends in chicago, but i'm so sad because now i won't get to see them regularly.

i met kelly in october of 1998 when she interviewed me for my first job at E&Y. I then worked with her on my first project and we've been friends ever since. A lot of friends have moved and all have been sad for me, but this seems a little different. Kelly really has been one of the biggest influences, if not the biggest influence, in my career and my adult life.

Oldies but Goodies..

i have a lot of other good pics that i haven't posted... here are a few.

we went to Jen and Ben's wedding back in August. Jen was a beautiful bride - here are a couple of good ones from then BGC (before good camera)...


and Kajal and Anne came over and brought Dilan and Cora to play. Cora's another super cute baby - and super chill... she just hung out while Dilan tried to eat her head a few times! a really fun personality.
I'm still having trouble with indoor pictures - I need to play around more with that - these were using the natural lighting from outside. I probably needed more light.

Got some other good ones of Dilan. Yup, I'm obsessed with this girl! Can you blame me???

Torture...

i hate running. there aren't many things that i hate more. but i've signed up to a 5k. i know, i know. you're saying "that's only 3 miles. what's wrong with you? i run a 5k everyday to start off my morning". well, if you keep up that attitude, i'm going to group you in the same category as running. my 5k is november 8th. the last 5k i ran was probably around the same time last year.

on top of that, my crazy husband is training for a half marathon. why??? i don't understand it. don't you get bored when you run that much? i mean, i'm planning on bringing rihanna and chris with me when i run, but they can only do so much. and i can't really dance while running - or at least i haven't tried yet.

which brings me to my last point. today i was turning over a new leaf and was going to run in the morning. it's now the afternoon, i've taken a shower, and no running has happened. this evening i'll say "well, it's too hot, and i'm already clean, and we have plans" essentially procrastinating the run.

my girlfriend just ran a half-marathon and is rewarding herself with some really fancy boots. i think i should reward myself with more than just nice boots, because she LIKES to run and i don't. so clearly my 3 miles is harder for me than her 13 miles were for her, right?
so, i'm looking for some incentives people... all suggestions are welcome...

calling all women...

last week while watching the today show (my main news source), i found out about the Army of Women. what is it, you ask? well, it's a partnership between the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and the Avon Foundation (both leaders in the fight to cure breast cancer) which has 2 initiatives:

• To recruit one million healthy women of every age and ethnicity, including breast cancer survivors and women at high-risk for the disease, to partner with breast cancer researchers and directly participate in the research that will eradicate breast cancer once and for all.
• To challenge the scientific community to expand its current focus to include breast cancer prevention research conducted on healthy women.

One of the things that was said on the today show is that one reason that a cure has not been found is because there are not enough volunteers to help with the research...

So, on this site you first register as a volunteer, and then you start receiving emails announcing new reserach studies - including research project and who and what the researchers need. If you fit the criteria and wantto participate, you can reply to the email. If you don't think it's the right fit, right time, right project, you don't have to reply. Pretty simple. There's a FAQ that's pretty good - the question of interest to me was "What might a study require?"

"There are many different types of studies. Some might require you to complete a questionnaire, while others might need a sample of blood, urine, saliva, breast fluid, or breast tissue. Some studies might be clinical trials testing a new detection marker or drug. You decide which studies you want to take part in."

Anyway, it's a great cause and by now we all know someone who has been affected by cancer so it's an easy way to make a difference... I registered and I think you should too (or get your wife/girlfriend to)!

Field Trip

So, last weekend (the Sunday morning after the UGA game - ugh...) our photography class had a field trip to the Oakland Cemetary. It's a pretty cool site - really historic.

Anyway, here are a few pics...

This was my attempt to capture the water falling off of the umbrella in the fountain...

In these pictures, I was playing with white balance. The second one is correct, but the first one still looks cool...

Athens...

i've been avoiding blogging about last saturday. it was a total letdown. my first game of the season in athens, where i actually go to the game, and the Dawgs lose. BADLY. so let's not talk about it. instead, let's talk about tailgating. oliver, myles and i got to athens around 10ish and spent the entire day with a bunch of friends. oliver was skeptical about tailgating for that long (10-7pm) but he ended up having a pretty good time. some pics from the day...

No idea what Drew was doing here...

This was pretty funny - Erin, Tui, and I were taking a picture when Ryan decided to throw the football at Erin. She's apparently 'wishing away' the football or trying to teleport somewhere else...

Please don't stop the music...

so, i've been a little slack about writing lately...it's probably because i can't stop dancing. i'm not sure when this started, but it feels like it's been a couple of months now. for those of you who know me, you know that i can't help but sing along to a good tune when i hear one, but dance??? that's not me. i have friends (ok, one friend) who would turn on mtv and dance along to naughty girl, just to learn the new beyonce moves - she can actually dance - but me on the other hand - trust me people, it's not pretty.

oliver mainly just laughs at me, but i really don't care - i guess we're at the point in our marriage where i'm perfectly ok making a complete ass of myself at any point in front of him - is this normal?

anyway, the dancing. i'm not even sure that's what you would call it - i essentially just jump around to a beat - i look like a combination of a headbanger and a 5 year old. i will say that it's a euphoric feeling, so maybe it just a method of relaxation for me - but whatever it is, i plan to continue it, so i'll go ahead and apologize in advance to those of you who come visit - if Rihanna's Disturbia come on, i can't control myself...

Photography...

So, now that we have a new camera, I had to sign up for a photography class... Our friend Kenny, told us about a class he took in Atlanta, so I'm now taking it. Last week focused on white balance and ISO light sensitivity. My favorite subject happened to be in town and I got this cute picture of her...

I got a lot of other great pics - more of Dilan and then some of Cora, Anne's adorable little girl...I'll definitely post them later (I'm currently on my laptop, pics are on the home computer).

I had my second class tonight and we focused on shutter speed and aperture. Not sure how well I understood it all, but I'll be taking pics this weeked to practice those techniques...

Calling all football fans...

i love UGA football. and as it turns out i've developed a love for college football as a whole. this is fun and all, but my husband doesn't like it. he humors me and yells "Go Dawgs" every once in a while, but honestly, he just doesn't care... he's Euro and all - watches 'soccer', but i really don't get it - we're in week 2 of the season, ranked #2 in the country - how can he not want to watch football all day on a saturday to see how the competition stacks up? and it's not like i make him sit at home and watch on our little tv - i offer to take him to a great sports bar (with good beer) or even to athens... he's just not that in to it...

so, i'm looking for a football friend. just someone who wants to watch football with me every saturday for the next 10 weeks (SEC championship and bowl games are optional). please let me know if you're interested... i make really good brownies and i don't ask too many dumb football questions...

blast from the past...

i just spent the last 2 hours of my life watching the new 90210, and i must say that it was 2 hours well spent. if you liked the old 90210 and the OC, you will love it! this will absolutely be my new guilty pleasure. i loved every second of it and the previews for next week make me wish that it was already tuesday.

for those of you who haven't seen it yet, set your tivo for next week. you won't be disappointed!

Weekend Events

so, one of oliver's friends spent the labor day weekend with us... Akbar... now, i've met him several times, but haven't had the pleasure of spending this much time with the guy - he is fun.

on sunday, we also celebrated my dad's birthday and his retirement from IBM. mom and i threw him a surprise party, which ended up really being a surprise to him. he seriously had no idea which was pretty impressive since there were 130 people at the party and we were pretty certain someone would blow the surprise...

This is dad after people have just yelled surprise - it took him a while to take it all in!

the fam...

Oliver and his friend Akbar...

South America

So, on Wednesday I got back from a 2 week trip in South America, in Peru, Argentina, and Brazil. It was a crazy trip... For those of you who I hadn't talked to before the trip, I went with my parents and 50 other Indians. Why, you ask? Well...

Last October/November, my parents were telling Oliver and I about a trip that they were taking in South America. They have taken a few trips with many of their Indian friends over the past few years and have really loved them. Anyway, Oliver suggested that I tag along with my parents, since he had spent 2 months traveling there in high school, and doesn't have the desire to head back there until he has seen the rest of the world. I brought this up with my parents, (suggested that they may want to pay for me to travel with them) and when they agreed, I signed up!

Hence the trip with 50 Indians... So, it was a unique experience to say the least - mainly because traveling through foreign countries with that many people is always challenging. Trying to cater to the needs of a group of 6 people is hard enough, but add 44 more people, most of who are vegetarians, tour guides with heavy accents, flight cancelations, lots of different interests, different traveling speeds, desires, and you get craziness!!! But it was actually a really fun trip that was very well organized and planned. It also helped that there were 3 other girls on the trip who are all around the same age whom I have known since I was young - we had a lot of fun together!

One of the best parts of the trip for me was my new camera. While my pictures may not be indicative of a new, fancy camera, I certainly had fun taking pictures!

Peru Highlights

Our first day in Lima, we toured the city. My parents and I at General San Martin's square.

This is a cool picture of the stained glass window in the Cathedral of Lima.

We also went to a winery in Lima, but none of my pictures came out well. I was experimenting with inside/dark lighting... It may have also had something to do with all of the Pisco we drank followed by all of the wine...

In Cusco, we went to an Alpaca/Llama farm and fed the animals...Here's mom and an Alpaca.

They look like stuffed animals...

Driving through Sacred Valley, we took a group shot (well, a partial group shot)...

Out drinking in the town of Machu Picchu with the girls... this is a terrible picture, but I obviously let some random stranger use the camera and as I'm having trouble getting pictures in focus, we can't really blame him/her...

After our late night drinking, I got up at 5:15 to go on a nature/bird/orchid walk. This humming-bird picture looked cooler in the camera viewfinder, but it's still pretty cool...

A picture of one of the million types of orchids in Peru...

Machu Picchu in focus, my parents out of focus...apparently I haven't mastered that yet...
Last night in Peru...

Argentina Highlights


We went on a city tour of Buenos Aires. I apparently didn't really take many pictures. Here's one of a really cute cat that I saw on the way to Eva Peron's grave site...

This is a picture of a bunch of the Indians going on a carriage ride at the ranch that we went to...

This guy really liked my mom... I had trouble with the action/dancing shot...

Iguazu Falls is a pretty amazing site. Having already been to Victoria Falls and thinking that was the coolest waterfall ever, I didn't have high expectations, but this blew it out of the water. Unfortunately, the pictures don't do it justice...

Brazil Highlights

The Falls from the Brazilian side...

Now, Rio is a very cool city... a picture with the girls...
Mom and Dad and the view of Copacabana... We went to a Brazilian steakhouse and the waiters invited us back into the kitchen...

I have about 1,400 more pictures... I may pic some good ones and upload them to picasa - I'll post the link when I do that...