B.B. Goes Over The Rainbow Bridge

B.B. stands for Beautiful Bird. His original name, given by Shirin, was Peetri, but Saeed never could attach to that name and kept calling him, "my beautiful bird." Eventually that name stuck. We actually had two parakeets but B.B.'s partner died early on. He made the best of it and seemed very happy in his cage singing, talking to the birdies in his mirrors, and taunting the cats to come closer only to scoot away at the last minute. In fact he used to imitate Teddie's meow so well I couldn't always tell who it was, and more than once turned around to pet Teddie only to find out it was B.B.

It's hard to understand how two adult humans could feel so saddened, so affected by B.B.'s death. Some would surely say he was "just a parakeet." But he was so much more, so much more. When you're an animal lover, a true animal lover, you form an intimate relationship with your pet. Saeed worried about his comfort all the time, to the point that he made me uncomfortable so B.B. wouldn't be too hot, too cold, or in the artificial light too late at night.

From what I know about parakeets, B.B. lived a good long life. It wasn't long enough for us, but he gave life his best and then he just wore out. We'll miss him. Saeed buried him right out in front of our kitchen window so we can look out and see him easily.

In my opinion, our culture tries to make death as clean and sterile as possible. We try to get past it as quickly as possible. If we look at some of the other cultures who express their sorrow much more openly it makes us uncomfortable. I think "cleaning it up" does a disservice to the memory of the one who has died.

We'll leave the cage out for a while. The house sounds very silent. We'll never get more birds. First of all you can never replace the one you loved, but more importantly we decided that caging a beautiful flying creature who really should have been born and allowed to stay in the jungle is not in keeping with our beliefs about the rights of the animals on our earth. Animals were not created for our entertainment. Animals exist for their own purposes and if we find them entertaining we should enjoy them in their own realms. Goodbye B.B. .... we'll miss you.

Make Your Own Jack-o-Lantern

For those of you who are short on time or don't like to get your hands dirty here's the perfect solution to carving a pumpkin. Go to the following link and carve away!

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.