Cute Little Visitors

Today several of us, including Dr. Bajaj, agreed to go to the Indian restaurant for lunch. She surprised us by having her nanny bring the kids from home and join us (we all really love to see her children so it's a treat.) These pictures were taken back at the office after lunch. Children are like cats - they don't hold still long enough for you to take a good picture. Plus many of the staff were trying to interact with them so the pics could be better, but you can't fail to see how cute they are.

A little shy at first.

Aashna showing us her cute tummy.

Nikhil says his tummy's cute too.

Nikhil is definitely in love with his mommy.

Actually they're both really in love with their mommy.

It's hard to see, but they both have beautiful blue eyes.

This pic was so dark you couldn't even see Nick's face, but this is in the dictation area where Dr. Bajaj and Melvette hang out during the day between patients.

Dr. Bajaj shows Aashna and Nickil photos of the babies she's delivered.

Vegan Indian Pizza

What do you do when you have leftover Channa Masala that you don't want to eat with rice one more time? Make "pizza"! You toast a roti or nan, spread the hot channa masala on top, sprinkle with the toppings of your choice (cilantro and fresh tomatoes in this case) and what do you have? You have vegan Indian pizza. Love those 10 minute meals!

Tita's New Job :-)

We received a cheerful phone call from Tita yesterday that she got the job she very much wanted. Yay! Since I'm still learning about the organization I can't write much about it, but they have a great website that explains everything. The organization is called "Girls For Change" and its purpose is to promote leadership qualities in teenage girls and encourage them to become active in changing their communities. The more I read about what they do the more excited I get! Tita will be the program manager for the Silicon Valley branch. I can't think of a better job for Tita to use her skills and talents. She starts Monday. Here are some pics I took from their website:

And here's their intro: Girls For A Change (GFC) is a national organization that empowers thousands of teen girls to create and lead social change. GFC provides girls with professional female role models, leadership training and the inspiration to work together in teams to solve persistent societal problems in their communities. Explore our web site to learn more about how you can join our movement and how girls are transforming our world--and reinventing girl culture--through GFC!

Ronaldinho

Over a year ago (just before the World Cup Soccer tournament) Anahita forwarded me a video of Ronaldinho, the Brazilian soccer whiz. A collection of some of his best moves, I felt like I was watching perfection in action. It was set to some pretty jammin' music and I found myself mesmerized. I watched it over and over again. Was it the pure joy of watching a virtuoso in action? Was it the music? I think it was the two together.

Here it is more than a year later, and I can still watch this video and be enthralled. I've even purchased the CD of the music by Offer Nissim. At the time the CD was backordered from Israel; it took 10 months to get here! Now it's easily available on Amazon. I think after this video many people attempted to order it. Anyway, for what it's worth, here it is: Ronaldinho Video

A Vet Student's Sunday

When you're a vet student a large part of your time is spent studying. It must be hard when everyone around you is doing "normal" weekend things, but that's the way it goes. Apparently the way the student gets around feeling left out is by studying nearby. I found that as I was doing my weekend activities this human attached to a laptop followed me around. Here she is studying at the top of the stairs while I'm on the computer.

And in the livingroom while I'm folding laundry.
(notice Obi and Tippy behind the chair)

One can only study so long before the eyelids droop, so we went on a walk and met up with Maggie, our neighbor's dog. Everytime Cha Cha used to walk in our neighborhood he would get all excited and start to pull when we neared Maggie's house. Maggie is wonderful, but she has a pet herself...

... who does nothing but bark at the potential intruders. Maggie's owner introduces her to Shirin.

She decides she likes Shirin, but she sees new people to bark at...

... and Maggie reassures the new dog that Whitey's bark is worse than her bite.

The walk made us hungry so Shirin whipped up one of her famous Asian soups.

Saeed loves Shirin's hot and sour soup. More than a few limes gave up their lives for this soup.

Mmmm.. pure bliss. Gabriel got to eat too but was busy at this moment installing my new printer. Thank you Gabriel!

And even though she doesn't have DVM after her name yet she is the source of much of our family's pet advice. Here she is talking with her Uncle Masud about a problem with a family dog. And I'm sure you want to see that mitten up close...

...Obi, and his irresistable mitten.

Saturday Night

After Shirin and Gabriel came home last night Shirin took the best seat in the house and chatted with us before going to bed. We caught up on what's going on with school, friends, etc.

Somehow Gabriel's legs withstood the assault. Here he is petting Chappu, with a big tumor on his lap.

The legs are holding up; the attention is not. These are all stories he's probably heard before, but her parents are riveted.

Reading some heavy-duty vet stuff before going to sleep.

Layli takes advantage of a warm horizontal body that is willing to scratch all the right places.

Even Calvin and Hobbes lose out to the demands of Layli!

Finally! Flavors of India

I'm happy to announce that our local Indian restaurant just opened. I went the first day it was open (yesterday at lunch) with three of my coworkers and then again today with Saeed, Shirin and Gabriel. I must say the food is very good; even Saeed loved it and he's hard to please. I'll start out with a few pictures of just a few of my favorite Indian dishes.

Paneer MakhniDaal

All-time favorite: Palak Paneer

The buffet at Flavors of India, this being only the second day open, is still a work in progress and the owner says it'll be larger with even more items. I was more than happy with what they had... couldn't even fit it all on my plate.

I think a good judge of an ethnic restaurant is how many of their own come to eat there. There were more Indians there than Americans.

The paintings on the wall were actually done by a local artist.

Here I am with three of my adventurous coworkers. They loved it.

And today with the family. Saeed silly as ever.

Leapin' Lizard!

We have a lot of these cute little lizards around our house. We love them but they are shy and run away if they can. This little guy was brave and stuck around for me to take pictures. The problem is that sometimes they accidently come into the house where nine cats live. More than once we have found a dead little lizard on the floor, but happily we've also saved quite a few. Continue with the photographs and you'll see what I mean.

Teddie discovers a toy lizard on the bed.

If this lizard were real he would've detached his tail by now and attempted an escape.

Soon Lupe has to investigate what Teddie is doing.

If that lizard were alive it wouldn't be for long.

Either Teddie got tired of it or Lupe stole it.

That lizard is toast!