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...

New Toy!!!

So, after years of me asking Oliver for a nice camera, he finally gave in. We recently welcomed a new Canon Rebel XSi into our family. So far the verdict is that the camera is complicated. When I did the research, I understood in theory the argument that you should not spend this much on a camera if you're just going to use it in auto mode. The problem with that thought process is that you have to figure out the manual modes, which are pretty time consuming and will have you shooting the same subject about 100 times to try and get 1 good picture. This one below (not ever sure if this is that good) is one of Kat sitting on the bed next to Oliver's computer. I took about 20 of this same pose and they all look different. Anyway, you can look forward to many more pictures of the cats as they seem to be willing to have their pictures taken for now...

I may become a Jersey girl...

That's right people. I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert and I LOVED it! How could I have thought that he was old and boring? I even told Oliver hours before the concert that Bruce just isn't an entertainer. What was I thinking? Obviously I had never been to a show before because that statement is just blasphemous. For those of you who secretly dream of being a rock-star, imagine selling out Giants stadium for 3 days in a row - 65K people screaming as you come on stage - it doesn't get better than that... Needless to say, we loved it.

However, we weren't in Jersey just for Bruce, we first spent the weekend with Kajal, Brett, and cutie-pie Dilan. Oliver and I are seriously thinking about just stealing Dilan for ourselves. I mean, we could pass her off as ours (Indian-German mix) and it's just much easier. Kajal has done a lot of the hard work - pregnancy, birth, getting her to sleep through the night, etc - and Dilan is more fun now than when she was born, so I think it's something worth considering. They are coming to visit in September. We need to start working on our plan now...