Below are some pictures of our Christmas in North Carolina

Me and Anna Grace
Back yard

The street

Our House
Our Front yard taken from our porch

Our Back yard

The apple did not fall far from the tree.....

Michele, Chase, Bryce and Santa

Varsha's Trip to RTP

I neglected to post these pictures, but seeing how it is raining in Mumbai and cooling off in RTP, I thought I would. Below is Michele and Varsha. Had I known how famously they got along, I may have postponed her trip.....LOL

Below is a scene too often replayed throughout my life time. Michele talking about jewelry. Varsha and her were Best friends after this....

Wilmington, NC. The town as viewed from the boat we took for a tour.

This is the Battleship North Carolina. We would have taken this out for a spin but its stuck in the mud.

It was a nice little cruise, these two were "joined at the hip".

We have some beautiful beaches in NC. Varsha found a new home. She was shoeless as soon as we hit the beach. This was in July so it was nice and warm but always a good breeze at the beach.

Again, inseparable....When I pass on to the after life, it think Varsha will come live with Michele....and spend whatever I leave in money on jewelry....

Second to jewelry comes cooking. Michele is a great cook, but it was fun to see another great cook from Mumbai grace our kitchen. It was fun shopping for the ingredients but more fun watching Michele watch someone else cook. And Varsha was right at home, as if she had done this before....

Varsha cooked us a spicy meal. I almost felt guilty that she was doing all the work...ALMOST!

I call these "Little Brown Moons
", but I believe they are called Galob Jamins(phonetically, I am sure I spelled this entirely wrong). Satish, TOO bad you could not have been here, but I am glad you were not, we ate these for several days..Yummy.

Varsha, thank you so much for gracing our kitchen and the RTP office. Everyone enjoyed your visit in July and you were a hit...

Hallo Everyone:
I am back in Monheim, Germany. To visit friends and colleagues and work, work, work. A colleague from Accenture, Sunita Poojary, also is visiting so we are getting reacquainted and meeting some new colleagues and some old ( one is actually a year older, Sascha celebrated his Birthday on Friday.) We had many pastries supplied by Wendy who was gracious enough to give me money to bring over, and Sascha brought a cake. We danced and sang most of the day and during lunch we rode horses and played a quick game of cricket.....

On Saturday, Sunita and I left for a short walk to the Rhine river. We returned two hours later....You all are aware that I am directionally challenged.... Below is Sunita with the Rhine in the distance.

Sunita wanted to walk out into the river and I would have let her go if I knew Karl would not be upset that she floated off down stream, never to be seen again. S
he has a few studies to work on so I thought best we stay on shore.

Below is a huge barge or something. It was not accepting passengers.

I told Sunita that the water was like bath water, as in Monheim it is always sunny and a balmy 30C and that a nice dip in the Rhine would do her good.....Lucky, the dog, was having a nice swim. I call him Lucky as it was a wonder he was not frozen.

Tourists!!!! Always have to take pictures!! Sunita will have many memories to take back to Monheim. She has mentioned SEVERAL times that she LOVES Monheim and that it reminds her of her home town in India. Satish, I think she wants to move here.....However her mother has been faking a sickness and has told her on the phone to return. She leaves next Saturday.

This is on our trip back from the Rhine excursion when Sunita thought it wise to follow a map. It took us about an hour to get to the Rhine with my directions and 20 minutes to return using the map......LOL..

Sunita was wanting to ride this horse back to the hotel, she is not in the physical shape that I am, I felt sorry for her. Every step I had to worry that she would fall and not get up again. I had to carry her most of the way and she cried how tired she was the entire trip.

Below is Sunita with Brigitte, I had thought when God made me that he had broke the mold, but evidently he/she created Brigitte in Monheim. LOL, and I do mean Laugh Out Loud, she has the best sense of humor and is a joy to work with.

You can tell that I do not like this woman very much.....

After trying to survive on Pizza for 5 days, I convinced Sunita to accompany me to this Asian restaurant where we suffered through trying to order by looking at pictures on the menu we ordered an excellent meal.

Below is a sign I saw while walking Friday evening trying to get reception fro my Blackberry.

Which STILL does not let me send emails from the Hotel......

This sign has a story to tell...

Having a Cow

Ever talk to someone and they seem like they are having a cow expressing themselves? Mooooooving from once place to another is just an effort for them and they always seem to have a beef about something or a steak in the conversation. They try to steer you the wrong way? Udderly ridiculous!!!

Last night in Mumbai, First Day in Goa

Good Bye Bilu

It's hard to get out of India without someone throwing a party. But looking at all the smiling faces I recall a party at UCB when the honree could not make the party and I believe it was Sascha who said, sorry you could not see all the smiling faces........

You can not out-do the masters of throwing a party, even if if it was a lame excuse as "We are celebrating October and September birthdays...LOL..OMG that actually had me thinking...Neha....Neha ha ha ha.



Check out and see if you find Yatin NOT talking on the phone...HMMMM Romance in the air?? I hope he was paying attention when he gave me a "lift" on the back of his motocycle to the restaurant in busy time (7:00am-6:59am everyday) Mumbai traffic. I think the claw marks are still on the side of is bike.....

Deepali, PYT I will never read another horoscope without picturing you two and Anup Vijaja and Shradha.

Vishal is my resident expert on American movies from 1930 to present. Vijaya is lord of the dance.

Yatin...still on the phone. A group of ladies as fine as these come into your life once, I did not let that moment pass me by.

Rajesh and Sathish, two contagious smiles, had nothing to do with the drinks....

Manali is our resident poet. Dnyanada ( from Canada), makes her name easier to pronounce Yanada from Canada.

This is the Princess with her grandfather in the background. This older guy kept showing up at different parties and functions, a real ladies man.

Finally this is the table they prepared for me. Not sure if Yatin

Shopping trip and temple visit

This started as a shopping trip to get some jeans back in the first week of February so that I had something to work for in my weight loss challenge. they are lose on me now...Sundar....
Sunita, Yatin and Vilas took me out "shopping" and we ended up at this temple. The statues of gods were incredible.

We then went to another "temple", The Mall..LOL. and I had my picture taken with this statue...

Michele this is the size of purse you need to carry all the time.

Below is me, Sunita and Vilas( who just celebrated a birthday this Friday). You wouldn't guess it but Sunita LOVES ice cream....!!!!!

Below is Yatin( the protector) , me and Sunita waiting for our cab to take us home. This was a great weekend and I am always impressed when the team takes me out and sacrifices their time to make me feel at home, most of them had another 2 hour trip to get home after leaving me at my hotel. It is not necessary, as I keep telling them , but it is always appreciated.

I had my eyes on that cone of Sunita's since we left the ice cream shop. I ate mine in something like 10 seconds and I think she just kept enjoying hers to make me crazy.......