22 January 2023

This reminded me of the UK

These days, since the weekend morning Farmers’ Market trip has stopped (due to the season), we have started a new routine of walking to a coffee shop in downtown and having a lazy cappuccino/latte time. My goal during that lazy time is not to touch the phone at all. And just observe all the customers coming in and out. Or talk to Sharmila.

Today was rainy and damp. Sitting at a corner in Warm Waves coffee shop, the environment reminded me of days in London and specially its suburbs. (At one time, I use to go there multiple times a year for work).

Customers were coming in with their umbrellas. It was drizzling outside with totally overcast sky. Even the brick walls of the buildings on the other side reminded me of smaller towns outside London.

21 January 2023

From the bartender’s corner – Satan’s Whiskers

Made this from a cocktail book that Natasha had given me as a Christmas present. This is a fairly old gin cocktail. And I replaced orange juice with mango juice to make it a little sweeter.

One of the interesting things about the book is that it gives some trivia with every drink recipe. For this it had – “Did you know that a cat’s whiskers go out for the same length as the width of the cat’s body? This allows them to judge if they can fit in thru a hole!”

Back to the drink – this is gin, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, orange juice and orange bitters.

21 January 2023

Lynette and Nathan!!!

Lynette, her mom Lia and her dad Matt were my running partners when I used to run in groups. Lia was undoubtedly the one in the family with who I ran the most. One unique quality about Lynette is her love for reading, literature and books. I remember discussing P.G. Wodehouse with her those days. Not too many people who have grown up in the US is aware of this incredibly humorous British author. Google “funny lines from PG Wodehouse” to check me out!

Two and a half years back, Lynette got married to Nathan. As luck would have it, he teaches English !!

During our conversation on Lynette’s birthday a few weeks back, we talked about learning new languages. She inspired me to pick up a new one. I am thinking Arabic. We also promised that we will have a coffee together and I will get to meet Nathan soon!!

Today was that day!! Wonderful conversations!

I wish this young couple all the best that life can offer to them!!!

21 January 2023

Finally solved the cold fingertips problem

Got myself a pair of heated gloves. Heated not from the motorcycle battery but two rechargeable battery packs in the gloves itself. I should have gone for a size smaller, I think – but I will manage.

The hands were nicely warm and toasty through out the cold ride today.

Next target – to see if I can ride when the temperatures are in the 30s!!

21 January 2023

Rewind-Pause: First visit to Niagara Falls

This was in 1994. Went with Sharmila and a few of my office colleagues including Ramkumar, Balaji and Manjit in this picture. I think Sharmila took this picture.

We are now all over the place. I am not sure where Ramkumar is (either Japan on New Jersey), Manjit is in Dallas, we are in Atlanta and unfortunately, not much is known about Balaji. Life was very rough on him. I hope he is happy wherever he is.

Incidentally, I am the one with the large camera bag over my shoulders.

19 January 2023

Curious minds want to know

If you come out of O’hare airport or approach the same, you are likely to notice a lot of signs helping you to the Kiss ‘N Fly parking lot. Seeing such a sign from the train that I boarded from the rental car center to the terminals, two questions immediately popped to my mind.

1. First, is this where you kiss the wrong spouse and subsequent events inspire you to fly? (or for that matter, why insist on the kissing part?)

2. Why Kiss and then Fly? This is where you wait for incoming passengers – to pick them up. When you drop them you take them straight to the departure area at the terminal. Should it not be “Fly and Kiss” or perhaps “Kiss and Drive” away? The chronological flow betrays the knowledge of grammatical sequencers.

What did you say? I need some serious help? đŸ™‚

15 January 2023

From the bartender’s corner: A Tasmanian gin!

Ever since I finished the “Great Gin Experiment” (some 42 gins from 15 different countries), I have mostly been staying out of the gin scene. Recently Matt Tebbe – my friend of 12 years or so – brought me a gin bottle from Tasmania. I opened it this evening.

Simply great gin!

The lavender notes are very soothing to the nose and the juniper leaves a fairly good effect on the palate. I used Fever Tree tonic water and used more ice than normal.

I could not find too much literature on this gin. In fact, I could not even locate the distillery’s website thru multiple Google searches. The only thing the bottle mentions is it uses copper stills for distilling. (which is fairly standard).

Thank you Matt! This was a great throwback to the years when I was experimenting with gin a lot!