My boys relaxing on the couch

A Bandit is born

We have named him - Bandit, or El Bandito as shown on Telemundo, Wuhahaha! This was a picture on the first day, his drive home from PetSmart.

Here are some more from him being cute around the house:

Can you tell which side is swollen?

Yesterday, I got my one and only wisdom tooth extracted. took them 5 minutes to numb me, 2 minutes to hammer the tooth out. And, now I hurt! I cannot imagine how people get all 4 done. Lucky for me, I have 1 that's missing and 2 that are so far up that they'll never come down in my lifetime, according to my doctor.

Jeff and I are proud parents of

So, we just adopted this little orange furball at PetSmart. They had him named CJ which we don't like. We need suggestions!

There goes my stellar record

Speeding ticket!!!! MAN! This is my second ever and it's been 8 years since my first one. It's almost annoying. Yes, I was speeding, but who wasn't? The speed limit on the freeway is 55, WTH?Oh well, as I told Jeff, I have been skating along for a while, finally my karma caught up :-P

Hi, my name is Sylvie and I'm a needleaholic ...

My day today started with an appointment at the allergist at 8:15 am. I was there till 10:30. They poked me 52 times on my back, then proceeded to poke me 18 times on my forearms. Results? I found out I am not allergic to mold or dust mites anymore. I also found out I am allergic to peanuts, milk, eggs, tomatoes and wheat. I also found out that I am on way more steriods than I should be on. So, the doctor gave me some new meds and told me to stop Advair. He will also start me on allergy shots that will, in a matter of 5 years, wean me off of all medicines possible.

My day ended with a visit to my primary physician at 4:45 where I proceeded to get shots in both upper arms - Hep. A and Hep. B vaccinations. So, all in all, today I was poked by needles of varying sizes 72 times.

Accessorizing the house

Before I start, let me ask y'all out there: WHERE THE HYECK ARE YA AND WHAT'S UP??? There is just way too much quiet on your blogs. I need to know what's happening, folks :-)

And now, news from us, we've finally started filling the bare walls of our apartment with personal things. It's slowly starting to look like home. Some more pictures are up at:

http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~skhajuri/albums/accentuate_apartment/

This webspace is going to change, by the way, since we alumni don't get tp keep our webspace anymore. I'll probably move everything to Jeff's Mac account.

We also put up some lamps on our patio that we picked up at Pier 1. I have to say that store might join my favorite stores list.









P.S.: Jeff was NOT, I repeat, NOT picked up at Pier 1 and hung on our patio :-P

Privateering on the Chesapeake Bay

Today, Jeff and I forayed into Baltimore again. We went to the inner harbour area because Jeff seemed to remember there being tall ships there. so, we walked around and up to a schnoor names Pride of Baltimore II, and saw a sign that said they were doing a day sail this weekend saturday and sunday 1-4 p.m. I called them up and surprise, surprise, they had spots, so we signed up. So, after eating some wonderful crab cakes by the harbour, we went back to board at 12:45 p.m. We set sail and guess what? We had half of the normal crew on the boat, so they had us help them It was such a pretty day for sailing too. We sailed by Fort McHenry where they were doing live cannon demonstrations, so suddenly we heard cannons booming!

Check out photos at: http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~skhajuri/albums/tall_ships_baltimore/

The bed is complete now

We finally got the canopy pieces. I put it together today when Jeff was at work. I also got new lamps and a *wheeeeeeeeeeee* Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Twisting the 4th week away

I ended my 4th week at Lockheed Martin today by winning a Twist contest. They were having a Peers Awards ceremony and it was a 1950s theme. They had a hula and a twist contest. My wonderful boss dragged me into the Twisting and I won - a 1950s music CD and a burned CD of Twist music. Woohoo!

On the other hand, I still have no access to the online systems. But, I did attend a meeting yesterday for a project that's just beginning, so I don't feel all disoriented. Now, just waiting for online access so I can be a fully contributing member of the workforce.

Last weekend, Jeff and I used our very rare weekends together and went down to Historic Williamsburg and Busch Gardens. It was a very interesting trip. Jeff and I walked down a staircase that Washington is purported to have walked down and touched the bannistor his hands were on. We saw some old shops, a weaver's shop, a wheeler's place (where they were actually making wheels for a horse drawn carriage), silversmith's shop and a post office that was made to look like it would have a couple of centuries ago.

Busch Gardens was fun as well. We tried to do as much as possible before lunch time. So, we went on 2 water rides and their highest roller coaster It was so much fun!!! I held on to the lap restraint the whole time and screamed enough to lose my voice the next day. Jeff kept yelling "Why isn't this going faster?" untill I yelled at him to shutup.

Monday morning, we drove back and stopped off in Washington at the Indian consulate because I needed a new passport with my married name and Jeff needed a visa. The website stated that if we got our applications in between 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., we could pick up the passports in the evening at 4 p.m. Well, the applicationf or Jeff's visa had a spot for his photo and it said "Place 2 photos here." So we did. Mine said "place a photo here," so I placed one. When we got there, they told me I needed 4. Not only that, the fee for Jeff's visa was $150. We had stopped off at an ATM and gotten cash out, but needless to say, we got it all in 20s. They had no change at the consulate so they wouldn't accept Jeff's application either. Thank the heavens for my laptop, the GPS system on it and free wireless Internet outside the Embassy of Guyana. We found a CVS and got the photos done and money broken and went back. But, now they told us we had to come back on wednesday evening. ARGH!!!

Update: Went back wednesday and got the passports - we are on the way to India!!!

Photos from VA trip: http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~skhajuri/albums/williamsburg/
So, overall Baltimore is still treating us good.