Khana on Devon Avenue

We found a wonderful place on Devon Avenue that has excellent vegetarian food at unbelievable prices. There was one vegetarian place on Devon Ave. that we'd never tried before - Annapurna. Surprisingly, this was a Gujarati restaurant, and not a south Indian one as I had expected. We had samosas, vegetarian thali (myself), masala dosa (Linda), cham-cham (myself) and meetha pan (guess who) for under $15! OK the plates were styrofoam and the spoons were plastic and the toilet was no cleaner than a KSRTC bus stand toilet, but I didn't really care. The khana was excellent. Now, back in our hotel room, I am wondering why we didn't try this place before. I will go back to Annapurna the next time I'm in Chicago. Bilkul.
Here's a view of the Annapurna restaurant and menu, including typical Indian signage, hordes of people, crooked-finger pointing, and turquoise-blue walls! (Click on the photo for a larger view of the menu)

Columbus to Cleveland

Linda and I reached Cleveland this afternoon. We started from Columbus around 11 am, a little bit later than we had planned. We would have visited Bunty one more time if we had more time. After our slow start, and after my usual morning frantic search for the nearest Starbucks shop, we finally hit Interstate 71.

The drive from Columbus to Cleveland was very pleasant. The weather was excellent, the first sunny and warm day on our trip. The humidity was also quite low. To make matters even better, the traffic was very light all the way into the heart of Cleveland. I couldn't have asked for better driving conditions. We reached Cleveland at around 2 pm.

The Case Western Reserve Historical Society museum was our first stop in Cleveland. We saw an exhibit on American cars. Some of the old steam cars on display were quite interesting. I didn't know that they had experimented on steam cars. I also liked the display on GM Corvair. We took a walking tour of a historical home that belonged to a wealthy industrialist in Cleveland at the beginning of the 20th century.

We left the museum late in the afternoon and started looking for a hotel. We decided to check into yet another Patel motel in one of Cleveland's south western suburbs. The last sightseeing thing we did was visit the downtown lake front park. This park wasn't as beautiful as the park by Milwaukee, but at least it was free. After driving around downtown for a while, Linda and I decided to go back to our hotel.

Two Biharis Meet in Columbus, OH

Linda and I arrived here yesterday. We drove from Indianapolis in the afternoon and met Bunty and his wife at his flat. Since we didn't have wireless access for most of the day yesterday, I'll cover yesterday's events today.

The day started with our visit to the zoo in Indianapolis. The zoo is located in a very nice neighbourhood of the city, which also includes a museum, a garden, a stadium, and a few other unidentified public buildings. We chose to tour the zoo and the garden.

The Indianapolis zoo is one of the best zoos I've visited. It's not as big as the St. Louis zoo, but the animals are exhibited much better here. Taking photos at this zoo was a little easier than in other zoos. You could go very close to some of the animals, and actually pet some of the birds. I could make very good use of my new Tamron 55-200 mm lens here. Unfortunately, I won't be able to upload any of the photos until I get back to Reedsburg. I didn't bring my Rebel's USB cable along.

After the zoo visit, we drove to Columbus to meet Bunty. Bunty wasn't there when we reached his flat. However, his wife could figure out that I was the friend he was expecting. Bunty arrived after about 15 minutes. I don't think I'd seen him since circa 1992. The biggest change in his appearance was his hairstyle. Both he and I have lost almost an equal amount of hair since we last saw each other. He had his hair cut very short. Again, I'll have to wait until I reach Reedsburg to post Bunty photos.

In the evening Bunty, Ratna (his wife), Linda and I went to a Greek restaurant nearby. This was one of the few places that served anything vegetarian. Bunty's wife is a vegetarian, too. Bunty and I caught up with some Ranchi news. The Technorati tags for our conversation would probably be: kachua, tilkut, auto, cricket, mantu, manik, aftab, khaini, CIP, ashu, shibu, bihari, ranchi, kanke, and so on.

We returned to our Patel motel (yes, this one's a PM also) at almost midnight.

We haven't made plans for today yet. More later.

Chicago to Indianapolis

Linda and I just checked into Days Inn, one of the cheaper hotel chains in the US. We were quite sure that this would also be owned by a Patel. Indeed, the manager here is "Roger" (Ranjit? Rajiv? Rakesh?) Patel.

The Patel motel story is quite interesting. Apparently about 60 percent of hotels/motels (most of them cheaper ones) are run by Indian Patels (as opposed to East African or British Patels, of which there is a big number). I'm not sure how they found this niche for running motels in the US, but they sure have learned the art of buying small places, staying there for a few years, and then moving on to a slightly bigger place. Reedsburg didn't have a single foreign-owned place about 6 years back. Today four of the five motels in Reedsburg are owned by Patels! Impressive.

Anyway, we're staying at a Patel motel tonight. Getting out of Chicago was very slow this morning. The roads were jampacked with vehicles, even thought we thought we could avoid the rush hour. I suppose Chicago doesn't really have a non-rush hour traffic on some of its roads. The driving wasn't difficult. It was very, very slow, that's all. Linda took some photos of the downtown area through the car windshield. Here's a sample:
The tall building is Sears tower. The weather today was rather cloudy and, at times, rainy. It warm and a little humid (at last). I'm tired of the cold winter and am looking forward to some warm weather.

Anyway, after leaving Chicago we headed for the sand dunes of Michigan. These are the world's largest freshwater sand dunes. I didn't know that until today. The sand dunes are located inside a Michigan state park. Fortunately, the weather improved quite a bit by the time we reached the state park. We were a bit surprised to see only two or three cars in the parking area. We practically had to whole place to ourselves. Here's me with my baggage consisting of the camera bag, the tripod and the extra lens that I bought yesterday. Almost makes me look like a pro photographer....


Aagey ki kahani Linda ki zabani....

Trip to Ohio

Linda and I started our trip to Ohio yesterday. We left Reedsburg almost as soon as I got back from work. We wanted to start as soon as possible, since we planned to reach Chicago - a suburb of Chicago, actually - to spend the night.

The drive to Chicago was uneventful. The traffic wasn't very heavy near Chicago. We reached Arlington Heights, where our hotel was located, around 9:30 pm. I was quite exhausted, as I usually am at the end of a work week.

Here's a funny photo of a restaurant sign on Devon Avenue, which is not particularly appetite-stimulating!

Sunny and warm!

This is the first really nice day we have had in quite a while. I only had to work half a day, so I had a big pile of projects to tackle once I got home.

DVD project:
Aristocats
A Bug's Life
Crazy in Alabama
Cats
Fried Green Tomatoes

Projects accomplished:

fixed Grandma's Ginger jar lampshade
got the car tires rotated
Tried hemming a pair of pants with the sewing machine
took a shower
did dishes
watered plants
started packing for our trip

Mail call:
$78 for mystery shop ;)

Grandma's lamp

I picked up a $3 lampshade at the thrift store and fixed Grandma C's lamp. (Dad had left the shade exposed in the rain on the way South from Mountain and made it waterstained). It took me a several years to find a suitable white fabric lampshade because it was oversized. I removed the cut velvet chrysthanthemum, which was composed of tiny fabric pieces, and reformed the chrysthanthemum on the new shade. ;)

Ned and the blankie

I had to work all day, but my agency reporter (Avinash) has hidden footage of Ned whiling the morning away. He had somehow gotten his favorite pink blankie off the couch and had made himself a nice nest inside. Here he is surveying his domain from this cushy vantage point.

Mail call:
I hit the jackpot!
$70 from Reedsburg Schools
$75 from Columbia University
$3 from a survey
2 Regencies from Title Trader
Avinash also got $50 for a short survey on "Diversity in the workplace"

Finally - warmer!

Today is off and on sunny, but it's in the 70s today and that is most welcome! I spent the morning getting caught up in the garden.


Here is a really nice shot of an unidentified blue flower I rescued from the neighbors' garden when it was being razed.


In the ground are:
Spring planting -
bean plants
pea plants
okra (look very sick)
cucumber
zucchini
impatiens (what measly amount I was able to grow from seed - I'm not doing that again!)
strawberries
garbanzo beans (don't look too good)

Seeds planted in cells inside:
snow pea
canteloupe

Seeds planted outside:
coriander - why did I buy them when I have a whole cupboard full of seeds?

I also mowed the yard with the reel mower.

Mail call:
junk
Downy sample

surveys:
$2 paypal from some survey I don't recall
This afternoon:
More mowing. I got the Tori Amos Beekeeper CD in at the library today so I will listen to that.

Dad called and said he might be bringing Heath over to practice singing the Pearl Fisher duet.

Dad inundated

There's not much news here, so here's the latest from Pam:


Pamela Chickering
to jchickering, me
More options 8:19 pm (29 minutes ago)
Grampa came to visit today. Colleen tired him out and then piled clothes
and toys all over him. First in a series. - PCW

Dosai time!

After three years of mostly failures, the dosa batter finally came out right tonight! They came out nice and light and crispy, with a slightly sour tang. Avinash had made some onion sambar earlier, and we had the traditional dosai / sambar meal - though not at the traditional breakfast-time.



The perfect combination of factors appears to be
1) Sumeet Mixie to grind soaked urad dal and rice flour to correct batter consistancy
2) Let ferment in steel bowl for 48 hours at 54-64 degrees F (room temp in our house this time of year). The heating pad, putting in a recently-extinguished oven, putting bowl in the sun, next to the fireplace, etc, etc has not worked well for us.
3) Do not cover. I've been covering the batter all these years and maybe that's why it hasn't fermented properly. Unfermented batter is very sticky and doesn't want to come off the griddle properly. Our batter has never risen much, because of the cold, but it does seem to ferment alright anyway after a couple of days. Perhaps our wild Wisconsin yeast do not divide very fast. ;)
4) Grease cast-iron griddle with a halved onion. The griddle should be hot; the non-stick griddle doesn't make nice dosai.

Here we are making this South Indian specialty. Next week, maybe we'll try uttappam.

Another cold and drizzly day

Yesterday and today were equally cold and yucky. At least we did not get the 4" of snow which those living in the Baraboo Bluffs received! I did laundry and sat in front if the fire most of the afternoon.

Here's a photo from a couple of days ago.

DVD project:
The Office Season 1

Mail Call:
$6 from Your2cents
$5 from Pinecone

Reading:
Marion Chesney's School for Manners, a highly enjoyable series of yarns

Last night we watched a very cute movie called "Danny Deckchair". It was set in Australia and had a really charming plot; I wasn't expecting much of it because the library has a lot of goofy unknown movies. This was a nice surprise!

Cold, Rainy, Gloomy, Windy, Dreary...

A very yucky day today, weatherwise. The temperature today is 37F, which for all you metric folks out there is 2C. Not my idea of nice May weather! I put out some tender plants yesterday, since the forecast said no freezing temps before May 15, which is the normal cutoff date for frost danger. Now, however, the forecast is for light snow with a low of 38F (?). Hopefully all my little plants will make it!

Here's a good photo of Ned. He's entranced by the swinging cord on the camera.


DVD project:
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Chicago
Eddie Izzard Glorious

Household projects:
Glue and clamp dining room chair
Paint upstairs hallway

Rowena enjoying the backyard

Rowena came outside and "helped" me garden today. Here she is on top of the backyard grill.

Lilac Wednesday

Today I had the opportunity to go outside and photograph the lilacs, since it was sunnier. Here are my efforts:

Garden news:

I put a lot of the bedding plants outside today. Now in the ground are okra, zucchini, beans, peas, cabbage, tomato, and cucumber - not to mention the strawberries and onion I already planted. I also am trying an upside-down tomato plant this year.

I also dug a couple of wheelbarrow-fulls of soil to fill in the un-mowable space between the beds out front. I ma trying to kill the dandelions and weeds, and insert some more beds. I think it will take some more soil and mulch and will work on that later on.

DVD project:
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Mail:
just junk!

Survey payouts:
$20 Medimix

Dreary May weather

Today it is raining, cold, and gloomy, just like yesterday. The forecast:
Tomorrow: rain
Thu: rain and cold
Fri: rain and quite cold, down to 38.
Sat: rain.

Yuck!

Mail call:
$50 survey check
Head and Shoulders sample from Walmart
Dish bill
$6 check from ebay
Lord Stanhope's Proposal, from Title Trader
Finessing Clarissa, by Marion Chesney, from PaperbackSwap. This makes my School of Manners series complete.


I think this afternoon I will try and make some naan dough and start some dosa batter as well, which will probably take a couple of days to ferment. I would really like to get out in the garden and set some plants out, but the weather is not very conducive to that.

Here is a photo from last week. :)

Sunny and cool Saturday

We went to Madison on Saturday to do a little shopping and catch the WYSO Brass recital. We went to the new location of Curry N'Hurry, under its new incarnation as "Curry in a Box". The menu has been Thai-ified beyond recognition, and the prices took a steep hike, as well. We decided that for that kind of money, we might as well buy something we really liked, so we went to the lunch buffet at the Taj instead. Avinash enjoyed having some authentic gajjar halva with his meal. I had chicken pakoras for the first time, which were tasty, but unnecessarily red-colored on the inside.



In the evening we went to Dad's UW-Boo campus choir concert in Baraboo. I recorded the Chandos Anthem for Dad on the minidisc recorder, which he was very glad to have available for this event.


Here are some photos of
1) Crabapples blooming
2) Remodeled Hwy 12
3) Nice day on campus

Gloomy Friday

Today is cold and rather nasty. I moved the remainder of the firewood pallets down into the basement, so the ferns could have a chance to grow. Dad came over to drop off a ladder to fix the outside kitchen vent, which is covered with vines, and to pick up his birthday / father's day gift of a minidisc recorder.

Survey Payouts:
$15 from BI
$20 from medi mix
$1 from Vocallabs

Avinash said he got $15 from Sage Research, as well

Maybe I can justify buying a new minidisc recorder for myself! I gave Dad his recorder today, and now I wish I had one too, for recording piano. Too bad they cost so much. Dad's was $165 and the mike and discs were about $60, so they're not cheap at all. I just hope he doesn't a) lose it, b) drop it, or c) wreck it by sitting on it or something in the car.

Actually, I have $146 in the paypal, from various surveys, so I guess I really could justify it by those earnings. ;)

Mail call:
John Frieda hair stuff sample
Letter from Germany
Kit for upcoming secret shop

Here's a photo that Mom took a few weeks ago in front of the house before we left for Mountain.

Another glorious day

It was another nice day, if not terribly warm. I painted the trellis outside the sunroom and the garage windowsills, while listening to a 2-cd set of Alison Krauss and Union Station.

DVD project:
Goldeneye
While You Were Sleeping
Tomorrow Never Dies

Reading:

I finished the controversial How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, by Kaavya Viswanathan, which I had requested from the library before all the plagiarism furor broke out. Since I had not read any of the books which this book is allegedly copied from, I cannot make any judgements on its originality, but I did enjoy the book. I liked reading about a desi heroine, not only because I could understand all the Indian references, but because there is too much uniformity in the chick-lit genre among characters, and also Indians are not well represented in mainstream literature of any kind. I'd like to see some mysteries with desi heroines, as well! The character Opal Mehta herself was likeable, albeit a little bit senseless in that she let her scheme go too far without any protest. I can't imagine anyone compromising herself to that extent. She did have redeeming features.

Some complaints:
I'm not sure about the physics behind Opal's theorum, and I'm not too sure Kaavya knows what she is talking about, either. I know this is fiction, but it should sound plausible, at least.

The ending scene at the graduation ceremony, where she solves the "Fermiculi principle", was really overwrought. That is pretty common in books of this genre, though.

I also read Touched by Time, by Leanne Shawler. It's a rare time-travel regency. I rate it 4/5 stars - I've never read a really good time travel regency, but this was entertaining and besides the rather goofy premise, it had a good storyline. I'm always pleased when the author does not try to get all scientific and explain how the time travel actually works. It never sounds believable!

Mail Call:
Large bag of popcorn from Daleandthomas.com. I had requested a free sample and was expecting a tiny packet, and got a big box! It's nice, but soooo expensive.
DNA collection kit from Columbia university (I'm participating in a genetics study)
junk

a good day for painting

Today I painted the grape arbor. It was a beautiful day outside and I used the Walkman and listed to the 3-cd set of Dave Matthews in Central Park while I worked.

Marketplace:
Parenthood
My Cousin Vinny

DVD archive project:
Hero (Dustin Hoffman)
Pretty Woman

Reading:
I finished A Regency Valentine, an anthology by Kitty Grey, Carola Dunn, Ellen Fitzgerald, Jo Beverley, and Shiela Simonson. This one was the rare good collection of stories with no duds! I especially liked the way the 5 stories were interwoven throughout without bringing up the secondary characters in a sickeningly sweet way as so often happens in series romance.

I also recorded the Holberg Suite for Dad, so he can listen to a cd of it instead of requesting that I play it every single time he visits.

Mail Call
e-Week
flower catalog
junk

Some flower photos

I only had to work half a day on Tuesday, so I had the opportunity to try out the new camera. I'm pleased with the results so far!

Another wet day

I worked late today, but when I got home at 7:30, there was just enough light to take a few shots with my new Fuji Finepix A350 ;)

It's a lot lighter than the A330 and the controls are a little more user-friendly. The LCD screen is also bigger and flush with the back of the camera instead of inset.

Mail Call:
sample lotion aftershave from Walmart

Marketplace:
sold You've got Mail VHS tape

DVD project:
You've got Mail
Twister