This year Halloween was interesting.. a busy day. There was a potluck planned at work. I forgot to tell San about the potluck and she packed my lunch. Once I got to work and realized the Potluck was on, called the local Indian store and got some of my favorite samosas. The guy says minimum tray order is 50 samosas and I go "okay".
Now we still have 15 or so left at home.
We had the kids dress up as a scarecrow and a devil but the little one does not want her photo on the blog. So this year there will be only one picture..
She made that stuff up herself with no help from anyone.
They went trick or treating with different friend groups. But one thing they have been doing for years?
Grab a lot of dads favorite candy (or the ones he can eat safely with no peanuts).. Twix and Milky ways..
This was waiting for me on the table !!!
Daddy is happy that he has his candy.. then again, all Twix are not created equal. Some of the Twix are old and some are new..
Have a bag of candy at work always.. Eat one for a post lunch snack every day. . . one of lives little pleasures.
This will add to that post lunch bag and it was collected with a lot of love from my darlings!
It has been a long time doing the Triangle pose as part of Yoga class. Every type of yoga class in the US does some variation of this triangle pose is what I am told. It is also called as Warrior pose and is a lunge and stretch at the same time.
It is not an easy pose as you pretty much have to stretch in every direction.
However, .. there is always a "However", on the recent workshop with Joseph Encina, he mentioned something I have heard for the first time.
It is not a SINGLE triangle that we are striving for! It is THREE triangles. THREE freaking triangles.
The first and second one are dependent on how flat your thighs are with respect to the ground and how perpendicular you make the bent leg to the floor.
The third one (which is the one I focus on) is dependent on how you stretch your hands away from each other and how you stretch the crown of your head away from your foot while still keeping that same line. That part I understood, but am not close to getting the 90 degrees. (have tried this on ice/ snow!)
Have tried to graphically capture this below.
In class I am almost 90 degrees for all three. This was a late night attempt do a blog post with a tummy full of samosas, sundal, sakkari pongal, venn pongal, just to name a few of the tasty treats being eaten at 25 minute intervals all afternoon and evening as part of the Navarathri festival.
The fact that you even see any geometric shapes in that photo after all that eating is a medical miracle!
Will try to get this pic either in the hot room itself or right after coming home from class (provided one of my three angels is willing to be the photographer) and update this post.
Jr. gets the same advice from me for pretty much everything this year. Given Jr. is in Jr. year, it is by far the most critical from a college preparation stand point.
First she decided to have the Arangetram this year. I told her not to do it but if she did, it better be good and it better not compromise school.
Second, she decided to go for her driving permit in summer. I told her not to do it but if she did, it better be good and it better not compromise school.
Third, she decided to take Marching band this year in school so she can do band and marching band to get PE credits. I told her not to do it but if she did, it better be good and it better not compromise school.
She has a tendency to try multiple things, not do well on multiple things and point fingers at other activities.
The Arangetram is done and the fallout of that w.r.t. exams is still being felt in the house. She did do a good job of it.
She has stopped driving temporarily and will resume in a month. While she did drive me around, she was a good and careful driver. Thank god she doesn't have mom's driving gene.
The marching band is still going on and it is one big time sink. There is three hours plus of practice twice a week and a game almost every week where it is another 4-5 hours. She likes it and is happy doing it, but it might be the one thing that helps Jr. point fingers at for grade misses.
In any case, I can only watch her dress up and do marching band and enjoy her enjoying it. On top of all the games and practice there was a high school marching band expo where all high schools had their bands display the routines. I got to see this from the front row. It was great to see all the kids put in so much effort into this.
Jr.'s high school music teacher was hesitant at first when he got the marching band back again last year after a long gap, but this is definitely a plus. The kids seem to thoroughly enjoy it and this builds a team spirit among the kids and it teaches them co-ordination within the instruments coupled with co-ordination with other members while moving around.
Have been watching them practice since summer and they have improved significantly as a group in just 3 months!
Here is Jr. in her marching band uniform..
and a video of the Monta Vista school marching band at the expo..
At this rate we don't know were all this is going. We know she is doing a bunch of things and she is happy doing them.
Given I never went through any of this in high school and grew up in a different place in a different time, all this just makes me happy and scared simultaneously.
Hope she uses what she learns here to some value in real life and more than anything, hope she does go to college and have a career that makes her happy.
She made that stuff up herself with no help from anyone. 
