Celebration weekend...

Thirteen years ago, this day saw a major turning point in our life. Got married to a girl I had just met!

While every astrologer worth his salt in south India had predicted that San and me will live a happy life for a long time to come and our parents were so sure of the future, we did not know what the future held for us. At least we had an open mind to things being unpredictable.

So far, it has been an interesting 13 years. We have grown to accept each other over time and yes, cannot imagine anyone else having the ability to put up with me the way she does. She was definitely given some special skills just to deal with me and we are destined to be together or at least that is what it feels like!

We usually do three things on our anniversary if we are here at home. A visit to the temple, lunch or dinner at Chat House in Sunnyvale and ice cream at Ghirardeli square in SFO and a visit to the golden gate vista point.

Today we started off with the temple visit but plans changed. It was a 107 degrees in Livermore and by the time we walked barefoot into the temple from the parking lot the oldies and the kids had a tough time recovering from the heat. So we took it easy, cancelled the ice cream trip and decided to eat closer to home as well.

With age comes some realizations and flexibility.

Tomorrow is fathers day. So to all the dads out there who are about to be suprised by their kids with trinkets, I wish you the ability to smile and rejoice at the gift. To the others, happy fathers day. This year my dad is with me and that is our gift. I am not big on the whole special days for different relatives thing. At the most it shows you how the world has moved to having one day at least in a year where you have to try something special for a certain relative when you should be doing that everyday anyways!

If my kids can promise to behave on fathers day, why not every day? One can always hope!

The little one was moping today because apparently she had made a special card for me and mom had thrown it in the garbage without realizing it was for me! Told her that the best fathers day gift for me is a kiss from my two girls. If not for them, I would not be a father, would I?

That logic seemed to work with her and she cheered up. My own gift this year for this weekend?

Varupayaru! "What the ?" is what is going through your mind. Will explain...

When we went to Seattle recently for the BIL/SIL's baby shower, as part of the ceremony they gave us all this snack which was mixed dry-roasted grains. It is a tradition and it is a good source of protein for the pregnant woman (and guessing if it is good for her it is good for everyone!).

It has nine grains in it. Tried to find out recipes for this and finally had to reach out to older relatives to get the recipe.

San was initially not for my cooking experiement with soaking grains, drying them and roasting them etc. because she thought this would be one huge waste of expensive raw material.. but she relented.

So here we are at step 2. The grains were all soaked in different vessels and now are nicely drying out on bounty towels. Tomorrow..... Roasting time!

Will let you know how it comes out. . .

Happy Fathers day to all who celebrate it. The rest of you who think every day should be fathers day.. well, dream on!