Life of a Bug

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Do not be too creative

sometimes you can learn from the mistakes people make. No as you may think, I am not talking about marriage- everyone has his own personal opinion.these are few things I learnt the hard way.
Pointer 1: You get these frozen ready to eat roties that you can heat . NEVER EVER use a knife to separate them, no matter how hard it is to separate them.Reason: When the knife punctures thru the skin...it would not matter if its half and inch deep or a quarter- guess it hurts the same. For those of you who know palmistry- do I need to worry if I got a cut across on my 'head line? does it indicate anything?

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

bug special- palak ka saag

Here its no Tarla Dalaal but your very own bug- on how to make palak saag.

1. Buy twice the quantity of Spinach than wht you need. Knowing fully wel lthat it is going to turn out tasty and has to last two days.

3. Wash the Spinach.Wash it well.
4. Boil it in a container.
5. make the regular "TADKA" ready, with Tomato or our not so good spices(that you got from the indian store - paying thrice the regular price)
6. What- it just stuck that - leaves are bigger than usual Spinach? Is it really Spinach? Or is it Lettuce or some other leafy vege... God blessAmerica . Everything is big here.
7. Take a small bite of leaf- is it Spinach? hmmm Every damn leaf tastesthe same.Hmmmmm. Searching for the purchase recpt wont help as they usually wontmention the vegetable name and may use a generic term like – product XYZ$....
8. Anyways- since you have nothing better to cook..just proceed. So wht ifits Lettuce Saag (yuck- can imagine the smell) Lets see how it tastes. Maybe its good- none ever tried it anyways.You know- I cannt waste anything..
9. SMELL- hopefully its smell like spinach. Once hopeful..proceed.
10. Put the boiled whtever green leaves...into blender and turn theprocessor.
11. Did I tell you to chk that some blenders now have the jars tht have theblades that can be unscrewed? Dont forget to tighten it.Else once you havechurned the whole boiling thing ....it starts to leak....Leakheavily.....so you may panic and put your palm underneath....may cause mildburning sensation- which wont subside unless u put ur hand under water for3-4 min. Lets not even talk abt the green mess arnd.12. Anyway- If you manage to pass thru step 11- successfully and still havesome green thing left...add it to the all set tadka.13. let it boil for 5-10 min.14. Serve it with love and care to urself.
15. Hopefully - it was Spinach...whtever it was- it tasted good..if notbetter , nothing less than spinach.
Lesson Learnt- Add step 2 in the recipe.
2. READ- READ ONCE AGAIN- And ONCE MORE that it is written SPINACH that youare buying.
For all our indian Food fans- it goes without saying...do not forget tocook with all the windows open and leave it open for another hour...elsethe whole house would smell like Kitchen after a week.Better still that u leave the windows open the whole day next day while u away at work......................
Thats all for now.
more later.
bUG.

Subj1: Sorry guys- there is nothing to tell today. Subj2: Here is how bug got screwed.

I had a tough time deciding wht subject to use for this edition of bUG's life.
knowing me how undecisive I get when I have options...so I just used both the subject lines.Never thought before -you can have multiple cc/bcc/To.... how come you cant keep two subjects to a mail? Am I the first person ever in such a dilemma?
Anyways...I guess am used to have an alternate solution to the problems.So looking at timestamp of the mail....I got the machine at home now. My Laptop. Funny I never felt the need of it ever before. This time first time I was in the rush to have this soul mate of mine. As it was all very silent - if I dont speak and I usually wont speak to myself...so now there is someone to make some noise at home.I was under the impression that I wont have anything to write today. There was nothing out of ordinary that happened today.
I waited till I cooked (brinjal curry- tired of Daal) and finished eating expecting some material for my my beloved readers..but then there was nothing. sorry...Thats the sad part of being settled. You know how to do things right the first time.No goof ups...nothing for anyone to laugh about.
1.You know to ensure u buying Spinach- no doubts.
2.You know how salty the salt is- so you put little salt the first time itself - thus avoiding having to put the whole big (american big) cauliflower to balance the salt, instead of half....and ending up eating it for the next 3 days for lunch/dinner/brkfst(sandwitch).
3.You do not forget ur access code to home.
4.Got comfortor for cold nights: no more adjusting heater whole night- no more hot as furnace or cold as rain at night....etc..Simple routined planned life. Guess I am settling into it. Dont think will have much to write...goodbye to bug stories.They will all become routing updates.went to office...came back...ate....slept.
So u see- there is nothing for me to say today.Just configured my laptop. Looks like ok. Though I was waiting to order one...have a company...honestly...I was just getting used to the silence.Now I am multi tasking and watching "Rang De Basanti" movie....its 12:12 am. I would have slept by now. SO this is the end of simple bug life. Now I wont be sleeping 7-8 hrs....I will be on the web late night.... eh! Bug got screwed ( you got tempted by subject line, uh?? )
Strange thought came to mind- ever thought how ppl lived before this web/computer/music/noise...technology...they would have just lead a simple life. Peaceful life. :) Is not it fun to make life complicated.Anyways..lets go with the flow...and explore.:) Just wanted to tell you- Nothing out of ordinary happened in bugs life today. And also - I am back- CONNECTED.scroll up - this long a mail when I had nothing to say...imagine If I had to tell you a new story....Mom was right abt me...I talk A L O T. Shall stop -
more for later....Urs sincerely,bUG.

bug- and his six pack

So here it goes...this is 10/Oct.
Finally I decided that it's important to not to get affected by the dull/sleepy surroundings and involve self into some physical exercise of some sort. Since one of the key factors of deciding on the current apartment was the Club house- why not use it?It may take a lot of dedication and few lifetimes for me to wake up before early and hit the gym arnd 6am, So I decided to do it in the evening after work. I had a friend coming over later to drop of a package...but I scheduled it so neatly that it does not fall into my work out timings. So all set to workout...i pull out my running shoes and get into my track pants.I reach there sharp at 7 pm...just to find a small note. "We are closing early today at 6pm for the maintenance. Sorry".

hmmmmm...should I be surprised?There is a saying- where there is a will there's a way. I managed to get six pack anyhow. There is a good bitter German beer comes in little bottles of happiness.

The Indian Curry.

After having told you how lively the restaurant scene is here, I had no choice but to start cooking at the earliest.I had done some shopping on sat but had to buy lots of stuff from an Indian store.So yesterday after work was the best time.The Indian store is EXPENSIVE- reason being that its the only Indian store in the city.Anyways...I reached home to realize- cannot make Daal as there is no pressure cooker. Hmm still there is one moong dal tht does not take much time to cook..so may be right choice.Have to put tomato but I realize there are no knives....hmmm then I had to use what we call 'Jugaad'- used the cutlery knife to cut the tomatoes.just when I managed to get handle of all things and the food was almost done- I realized the bag having pack of salt is missing. Must have forgotten there at the store.hmmmm...had to rush the nearest safeway to pick it up. The thing that I did- I did not turn off the stove and made heat to min. No- nothing burnt but it set a clock ticking in my mind, which made it impossible to locate salt in the whole big alley and also the made me forget the entry code thru the gates of the apartment.I was just laughing at myself all the time. Quiet an eventful dinner.But then as they - all well that ends well. I called it the day with an extra scoop of chocolate chips as desserts.

How is my work?Wht do these long mails indicate?

a background to first time reader

Do not really know how it really started and I ended up creating this blog.
Funny- I am not sure if the memoirs of bug were really funny but anyways I decided to try bloggin'.
To be honest- life of a bug may sound funny to you as you know me but to the rest who do not know me or hardly know me at all...may not find it funny at all..
Anyways...this is for you.
To begin with...
This is about just another IT consultant who migrated to THE USA in search of something he is not really sure of what.
Took up an assignment in a suburb near Seattle. Having quite an exciting life in Bangalore and NYC the move to NEAR Seattle was something bug had to adjust to.
and here goes- 'Life of a bUG'.

Monday, October 23, 2006

A new start....

This day marks the birth of 'Life of a Bug'.