Birthday happiness

Last year was 45. Folks reminded me that once you cross 45, you become less employable, etc. etc.

This year had the same birthday ingredients and that is a good thing. Last year's birthday was on the day before Thanksgiving and ended up at the company party.

This year, the birthday ended up being on Thanksgiving. The company picnic was interesting.. we had caricature artists which was a lot of fun. 

This is a collage of two different caricature artists interpretation, a selfie at the party and a picture of me the next morning.

guess the profile of how you sit down in front of the artist makes him draw you with a long face or a round face.. 

The actual birthday started with Yoga bright and early.

By the time I got back home, showered and made and drank tea, no one had woken up. That was still teh state for another hour and finally the family woke up one by one.. we were in Vacation mode, and it was a good thing!

Then came Lunch at my favorite place.. Bhavika aunty made me "mini" pooran poli's. I call them Personal-Pan-Poli's. They were absolutely yummy.  The entire Bhavika's family was surprised by my Swamiji look. Told them it is just a temporary experiment. 

Then there was a post lunch get together with friends, where again folks who had not seen me in some time were pop quizzing me on the new look. There was the group photo where the rudraksham was put outside the sweater.. so they could lay claim to having known Swamiji before he became an internet sensation.... the jokes were all good. Looks like all one has to do is:

1. Stop shaving

2. Declare an intent to add "ananda" or "saraswathi" to one name

3. be able to come up with some wise ass remarks

4. give an all knowing sarcastic smile

5. insult the intelligence of anyone who is willing to listen to you 

and a moment creates itself around you! Next thing you know, Sri Sundarananda Saraswathi is the water cooler topic.. 

There was a special banana bread for me to cut.. which was yummy.. by this time I was ready to be the acting double for the burmese python in the Harry Potter movies...

This year I also got my other wish.. an afternoon nap on my birthday! 

Then came the India women playing the England women at the World T20 Cricket semi finals and they lost big time. This was an undefeated team till the Semi finals.. and they just lost it. It was a good reminder for me that I was a lucky guy to have a lot of things go my way so far.. 

Was also thinking about my grandpa a lot be it at the company party or on my birthday. It has been 9 years since he passed away. Listented to him reciting slokas for a good 30 minutes and recited along with him. Thanks to technology this is possible!

Then we went to spend the evening with friends, have Italian food for dinner, music, games and finally called it a night. It was past midnight when we got home. 

It was a fun evening spent with smiles all around!

My friend also gave me her one word review of the beard "sahikkalai"! (unberable) which created some instant solidarity moments between the rest of my family members and her. There is a new Swami Army in town and it is hell bent on "making Swamiji Sundar again"

The only thing which we could not cram on the birthday wishlist was to go for a movie. Usually I go to a Bond movie, Harry Potter Movie or Marvel movie on my birthday with San, MIL, kids or whoever from that combination will come to the movie with me (also depends on the movie). Last year San and me went for Justice League. 

This year I wanted to see Venom first as it was already going out of a lot of theaters. It was going to be like a "Stan Lee homage visit". There were no favorable show times.. so we went to see Venom today. 

While driving there San started pop quzzing me "who is the hero? who is the heroine? etc." and I got worried. There were some expectations to set.

Me : We are going to a movie titled "venom". he is not even a good superhero. He is more like a supervillain type.. this is not a chick flick ! There are no songs, duets etc. etc.. I don't know the full story but heard there is a twist at the end of the movie. 

San was betting that no matter what, there had to be a hero, heroine, love angle, villain for any Marvel movie to work and I was shaking my head..

We came out of the movie with the realization that she was right! Both of us liked this movie. 

The birthday has now come and gone but we will use this excuse to watch another movie or two over what is left of the long weekend. Then it will be pedal to the metal again till Christmas. 

My birthday events are getting predictable and to me that is a good thing.

It has been a good week so far! Hope this year finishes off on a good note!

Happiness is...

One of the traditions in our house is for the entire family go go have dinner in a place that is chosen by the person on their birthday.. 

People asked me "any fancy plans? going to some big name restaurant?" etc.. 

My family knew what my choice would be and promptly took me there..

The very first place I had food when I first came to visit California, a small family owned restaurant, that is still one of my favorite hangouts!

Still go there once a week almost to eat and say hi to the uncle and aunty there. 

Eating fresh rotis there with the family digging in.. and uncles heartfelt "ashirwad" made my day! He said "stay healthy" and repeated it thrice in case I didn't get the message the first time. 

Yes, that is a big part of the plan.. staying healthy!

Kids crafts

The kids have been celebrating their brithday multiple times.. with classmates, family, family friends, grandparents only special, dinner at their favorite restaurant on their actual birthday etc. 

Here is a photo from yet another celebration at home!

Wish I had lighting like this at the bowling lanes...

They got  many gifts most of which are arts and crafts stuff. 

Jr. loved this dairy which she promptly bling-ed (guessing that is the right term for it?) 

Today they started working on decorative bangles where you do the decorating yourself. After 30 minutes of going nowhere, they asked me to come help. They were trying to "glue" the ribbons to the plastic bangle and the whole thing was a big mess.  So I asked them to wash the bangles and start from scratch. 

Me : Where is the instructions? 

LO : We threw it out!

Me : GO and GET it, NOW!

Jr. : Here it is. 

Me : (after reading the instruction and figuring out that you are supposed to start with the double side sticky tape before doing anything with glue). You have not even opened this packet with the tape! Why?

Jr. : We don't need the tape.

Me : Says "who?" It says here in the instructions that you have to start with the tape.. why didnt you read the instructions?

LO : It has TOO MANY WORDS!  Who will read that many words. It is not simple instructions!

We finally did restart the project and they did a great job of following the instructions step by step. 

This is what happens when your kids get used to EULA's which run pages long and they just get used to clicking "I agree" on the one hand and have instructions that are "Step 1: sticky tape. Step 2: wrap Step 3: Glue".. 

Today my job is done in this house. Have taught kids something very important.

Always start with the instruction manual!

Mickey... we see you!

The little one had her first glimpse of Mickey mouse two days ago. This is her first trip to Disneyland where she can remember things. The last time was when she was 1 1/2. Not exactly the perfect age to get hyped on the mouse.

This time she watched Mickey and we watched her and it was truly amazing to see the kid believe. She knows her parents are the real Santa, but thinks Mickey mouse is real!

We drove all Thursday to Anaheim with a quick stop at the Malibu temple.

Friday was spent at Disney from morning to night and it ended with the fireworks and an exhausted bunch of kids and adults. We spent Saturday visiting friends and drove back. Our drive back was interesting as we made 2.5 miles in one hour on I-5. It was raining and at one point folks started switching off their engines. The next exit was 6 miles away and we thought we were going to spend the night on I-5! Thankfully it started moving again and we got home a good 2 hours later than planned, but got home.

There are tons of pictures and many won't make it to the blog..

This last photo sums up the excitement.

It was great to go with friends and family to a place where "your dreams come true" and "you believe in magic" and you watch that sparkle in your five year old girls eye as she gets up and blows kisses at Mickey mouse when she can barely stand up after "walking the most in her whole world life" close to 10 in the night..

For our family thanksgiving is about being thankful..

to Eisenhower for coming up with a highway system that can get us from SFO to LA in 6 hours (okay 9 hours but we are still thankful)

to Toyota for making a van that makes it worthwhile and bearable to have two little kids and a mother in law who need a comfortable ride get there without them taking out all their anger at the driver

to friends and family who make the trip memorable and finally

to Walt Disney for having the vision to make our birthday long weekends fill up with fireworks in November!

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Trying to make a birthday gift..

Was practicing a song on the guitar to play to San as a birthday gift. My trusted aid for this kind of secret activity is Jr.

However the little one cannot stand having anyone else in front of the video camera these days...

My grandma used to complain that her singing came to an end after I was born! Used to think maybe there was a curse on me and that is why any attempt to sing seriously would stop after a year max!

Now, I say the same thing that my grandma used to say. You can see for yourself what I possibly did to grandmas music sessions based on what the little one is doing to me.

Did you see how she sang "should I off your plug.. should I off your plug.." to the same tune?

So much for all that practice.

Sangeetha heard it and said "nice.. still needs more polishing"!

We will keep the polishing going till next year.

Kids, what can we tell you?!

ps. A akka gets the credit for playing this on Piano..figured out the notes from her piano playing and used my cheat sheet.

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