Day 185: Thanks Mom

Here is a plant my mother gave us for our anniversary last summer.  It's now got a new flower!  I'm very pleased.

Day 184: Casualty at the dinner party

We went to dinner at our friends Alessandro and Alice's home.  It was a really nice time despite the one casualty: Alessandro broke a chair.  Here are Tariq and S assessing the damage.

Day 183: Mashed potato pizza

We decided to go wild and try the mashed potato pizza at Bar.  Bar is not one of the 'big three' pizza places in New Haven, but it's close, and it is known for this particular type of pizza.  Mark and I thought it was interesting.  Good, but I don't think it's as good as all the hype makes it out to be.

Day 182: Mommy view

Hmm...baby appears to be growing, doesn't he?

Day 181: Another clueless guy

Driving the wrong way down the one-way street in front of my office window.

Day 180: Colorful

I love swiss chard!  So colorful during the grey weather.

Day 179: Craziness at the gas station

I picked S up at the airport, and I had spotted a gas station with cheap gas, so I suggested we stop there and fill up.  Oh my gosh, it was a nightmare.  This shot does not accurately portray the craziness, but I was nearly hit twice, there were lines of cars for every pump, and everyone was grumpy and not in the mood for the stress.  I was just glad we escaped alive.

Day 178: Dr. P takes a trip

S left for a business trip today.  Come back soon!

Day 177: Tapas party

We were invited to a 'tapas' party where the hosts made sangria and everyone brought a tapas-like dish to share.  It was really nice and people brought loads of great dishes.  We ended up bringing Spanish cheeses and jam, which was so good.  I have the feeling it wasn't pasteurized milk, but I ate a ton anyway (shhhhh).

Day 176: Baby shower

Not mine!  My coworker Sandra is having a baby boy in March, so her department threw her a surprise baby shower.  She was really surprised and touched.

Day 175: What I'm reading

I bought this at the Montague Book Mill.  I tried reading A Room With a View, but I couldn't really get in to it.  So I'm now reading Howards End.

Day 174: Ashes

Ash Wednesday.

Day 173: Pancakes and paczkis

Today was Paczki Day, which meant we had to find some paczki!  We did eventually get some at the grocery store, but best of all, our friend Blake brought back some lovely ones straight from the homeland (Chicago).  Very nice of him.  Then, of course, we also made pancakes as it was Pancake Day.  I'm not that great at making English-style pancakes (crepes) but they turned out really nicely in the end.

Day 172: Really?

Is any yogurt really worth $2.29 for 6 ounces?  I almost want to buy one just to see.

Day 171: For Nim

Well, we did it!  We made the dhokla.  It came out soooo nicely too!

Day 170: Trip to Montague

As part of Valentine's Day weekend, we took a trip out to western Mass. to see the Montague Book Mill.  It was very cool and in a lovely setting.  It was a bit too cold to spend much time out here, but S tells me in the summer, it's all set up with chairs and tables overlooking the water.

Day 169: Compliance

Much of today was spent completing online compliance courses.  I passed all of them!  This was the last one...Corporate Compliance.

Day 168: Marina's birthday

We took Marina out for her birthday dinner!  Actually she organized it all, but we did treat her.  I have no clue what Blake is doing here.

Day 167: Snowpocalypse!

Yay, the snowpocalypse has finally hit New Haven!  Here's the front of our building.  It was predicted we would get a foot or more of snow, but we really only got about 4-6 inches, at most.  More like a mini-snowpocalypse.

Day 166: New clothes

I am very fortunate...my coworker's wife lent me her maternity clothes.  I went through them and have started hanging them up as I'm starting to no longer fit in most of my work wardrobe. 

Day 165: City Hall

A shot of New Haven's City Hall taken on the way home from work.  I left early because I wasn't feeling well, so it's not as if it's this bright at 5PM, but it is getting lighter out earlier and earlier now.

Day 164: Snacks

Of course we couldn't visit the chaat house without getting some snacks for home.  Now that I have a pressure cooker, I am going to attempt to make dhokla, which are like a spongy snack cake (savory, not sweet).  We also got some bakarwadi (similar to a deep-fried spicy roll) from the famous Chitale Bandhu mithaiwalla in Pune.  Yum!

Day 163: Chaat house

We had heard from a friend that there was a store selling chaat in a neighboring town, so we thought we'd check it out.  S had a puri bhaji and I had a vada pav.  Very authentic!  We will have to bring my dad and mom when they're in town next.

Day 162: Michael Sloan and Tom Tomorrow

We went to an event featuring Michael Sloan and Tom Tomorrow, two cartoonists who happen to live in New Haven.  Michael Sloan has written his own comic books and also does illustrations for publications such as the New Yorker and the op-ed pages in the New York Times.  Tom Tomorrow writes one of my favorite cartoons, This Modern World, which can be seen at Salon and in local papers.

Day 161: Rebate

Hooray, my rebate from our new MacBookPro has arrived!  I know Dad will be happy to see this.

Day 160: Vagari

This is another kitchen implement that we purchased when we bought the pressure cooker recently.  It's a vagari, or a spoon to make vagar in.  Vagar (tarka, phodni) is the seasoning that you make to spice lentils or other Indian dishes.  We make lentils quite a lot, so we thought we would get good use out of it.  It has a little rest on the handle that allows you to set it on the stove...very handy.

Day 159: Medicine for a sick one

Vegetable soup and a book. 

Day 158: Old book

I requested a number of the books that Persephone has republished from the library, and some of them that have come in are the Persephone editions that Yale has purchased.  But some of them are the original books published back in the early 20th century, such as this one that came out in 1933.  I'm always a bit nervous to be trusted with such old books.