Just-discovered on Netflix

 Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

Much Ado is supposed to be the story of Claudio and Hero. But really, Beatrice and Benedict take over right from the beginning. They have everything going for them: looks, wit, comedy, and high drama. And Benedict is a real man- he doesn't rely on anybody else's opinion or on Don Pedro's intervention to get him his girl. Claudio, on the other hand, is such a boy. No wonder nobody remembers Claudio/Hero.

Of course, it's also more uncomfortable to think of them... one wonders if one shouldn't pull aside Hero and ask her, "Really?  Aren't you settling for less? Why not wait a bit to find someone who is a bit more mature?"

I had watched the Kenneth Branagh version some time ago. But I really like this modern retelling.
 

A Wild and Wonderful Trip

West Virginia is exotic. People might laugh when they read this, but truly, its hills, forests, rivers, even its cuisine and its people with their lovely Southern drawl all make a visitor feel like they might, with a bit of imagination, be able to picture themselves as being in old-time America, as the country must have been a long, long time ago.

I find it fascinating that just a one hour drive west of Pittsburgh can get us into a place which is so typically Southern, in terms of accents and lassitude, so typically Appalachian, in terms of scenery and cuisine and so typically rural American, in terms of obesity and general views of strangers.

Last weekend, RK and I decided we had to do something fun, get away from home and Pittsburgh for a while. So we called a bunch of state parks nearby and found one which had vacancies available for that very night, all the way in Southern WV, called Twin Falls State Park Resort.



Twin Falls State Park, circled in red. Pittsburgh is all way to the north, near that corner of the rectangle, where you might imagine I79 and I70 meeting.

It was a beautiful drive. At this time of year, not all trees have leaves. But the trees that have "woken up" are in full bloom. Deeper south, the flowering Dogwoods were out in full force, dotting a brown landscape with dashes of white or delicate pink.



My favorite flowering tree. Is there anything more captivating than a dogwood in bloom? Picture from an online source

Very common and extremely beautiful were also these pink flowered-trees, which I think were Eastern Redbuds

The Eastern Redbud, another beautiful tree. Pic is not mine... somewhere online. So much for correct referencing...

We stayed at the resort in a room with some wonderful views

View from bedroom window

View from porch of hotel room

RK took the kids for a little walk while I got ready. There were a bunch of acorns on the ground beneath a few trees. Ani and Durga collected many of them. There were also many squirrels bounding from one tree to another. Durga looked at them, clutched her acorns to her heart and squealed, "No! Mine!"
:)

A mile or so from the hotel room was this lake. Some deer had come to visit. Can you see them?

All the way on the far side, near the trees are three yellow dots. A family of deer.

On the way, we saw this little guy:

Male ovenbird. Image from allaboutbirds.com

RK thinks these ovenbirds are probably also found in our neighborhood Frick Park. But I guess some times, some birds wait for you to come all the way to a different part of the world before they let you see them.

We also saw many turkey vultures.

Kinda ugly, no? Huge bird.



It was past 11am by the time we reached the two falls this state park is named for. There's a mile-long hike between the falls, and the kids loved splashing in the puddles on the way.

A snapshot of some of the surrounding forest

The second fall.

Look! You can get behind it!

From behind the falls

Awesome trip, all in all.

Wisdom.... slow in gain, hopefully long-lasting

When my son Ani was born, I exclaimed to my mom, "You know, if I had been born 50 years ago, I would have probably died in labor. I would have been one of those statistics. Thank God, I was born when I was"

You know why? Because I was told that going too many days past your due date (I had gone 10) was risky, that I ought to get pitocin, then I was suggested an epidural and then I had a C-section because my labor stalled and the fetal heart rate dropped.

Now, I am realizing that none of those need to have happened. That there were alternatives to pitocin and to epidurals and that I could have gotten the natural childbirth that I wanted.

I'm watching "The Business of Being Born" and groaning with all this knowledge that has come too late for me. Hopefully I can share this with other new moms and help them make choices that are right for them.

I have to keep reminding myself:

a) It's okay that I missed out on this experience (twice). I have to make up for it by being the best mom I can to my kids (even if I yell at them once in a while).
b) It's okay that even an educated woman like me who's online 90% of her day reading and critiquing things didn't know about these alternatives. It doesn't make me kinda stupid. It just makes me part of the extremely large number of other women who trust their doctors and health care system without questioning it at all.

Suddenly, I realize that the biggest lesson I need to take from this whole thing is that I shouldn't stop questioning anybody, especially doctors. Even when my own husband is one and even if he suggests that I trust my doctor.

*****************************************************************************************

Update: Aaarrrgghhh.... the more I watch this video, the more idiotic I feel.
I need to stop obsessing about all the ways I could have changed the course of my labors. Because seriously, at the end of the day, I have two kids who are healthy and happy and it's my job to keep them that way.
And what has happened has happened. And whatever happens, happens for the best.

So move ON, already, Varsh. Snap out.

Midnight art

For Ani's birthday, there was no question about what the theme was going to be. Since his every conversation, every waking moment, every decision automatically either centers around the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or has them playing a significant role, why would his party have any other theme?

The decorations were easy to handle, but the big question was the cake. I tend to shy away from cakes that one actually has to cut. In parties, cutting and passing out pieces of cake ends up being the default role of the mom and I don't like it. There's so much stress! Kids come up to you and say, I want this piece, or that piece right in the center and sometimes they say, you gave me a little piece, I want a bigger one. Jeez. And there's the ever-blooming fact that the rate limiting step in the whole process of getting all the people their cake is you.Like I said, too much pressure.

Not that I have ever actually cut a cake all the way to the very end. Thankfully what usually happens is that one of the guests sees me puzzle over the cake cutting, sees me increasingly agitated and sweaty, takes pity, steps up and says, "Do you want me to cut the cake, Varsh?", whereupon I gratefully pass the knife and collapse in a heap of gratitude. Yaay sisterhood!

Instead of a cake horror, think of a cupcake. So easy! Your kid blows out the candles and instead of immediately grabbing hold of the knife and sawing away at the cake in a frenzy, you smile easily, point to the cupcake tray and say, "Please help yourself!" and walk away to chat. Perfect.

So no contest. Of course we were going to have cupcakes. But how to get a TMNT-themed cupcake? Bakeries nearby quoted insane amounts. Any bakery item is worth the money if a) you don't know how to make it and b) you know how to make it, but you don't know how to make it well. Cupcakes are easy enough. After viewing a bunch of Google results for "TMNT cupcakes", I saw this. Easy enough to make the green faces and the eyes and mouth. But the bandana? The recipe called for chewy fruit flavored snacks, but how would you get purple or blue colored snacks without artificial colors? Plus, chewy fruit-flavored snacks? Not exactly the best choice, are they?

I figured out the perfect alternative, to get the right colors and the right look without using too many artificial colorings or preservatives: white chocolate!

So here's how it all turned out.
First the cupcakes, baked with the help of my new friend P:

If I had any aspirations towards food photography, this picture with its incompletely filled tray and the half-eaten cupcake on the top left corner in the frame would have ensured my immediate failure

Then the frosting:

Still more signs of flunking food photography 

You know what colors I used?

Guess what they make their colors out of? Yellow is from turmeric, red is from beetroots and blue is vegetable juice! Nice, eh? To get green, you have to add yellow and blue. I cheated a bit, though. I got worried about the amount of yellow and blue I was using up to make the green and thought I wouldn't have any left for the bandanas. So I added a couple of drops of artificial green as well. In hindsight (and since I know how much I actually used for the whole project), I could have just stuck to the natural colors and I would have been fine. Oh well. A lesson for next time. 

Then, the bandanas:

First melted some white chocolate

Then squeezed some red into it.

Mixed like crazy. 

Flattened out with fingers and a rolling pin and stuck in the freezer for a couple of minutes.
Pink in picture =red in real life

Eyes and mouth with writing gel. Tada!

Not bad, eh? Total cost? About $40. The most expensive item were the colors (about $15 at Whole Foods), but I think it was worth it.

Result: Kids loved, loved, loved it. The best part was being able to choose whom they wanted to eat. Next time, I ought to make some TMNT villians (hmm... Shredder's blades with kale chips! Kraang as an upside down cupcake with tentacles made of frosting) as well as make it more girl-friendly. A couple of girls were looking for April and I had to admit to making a male-only cast. Maybe for Durga's birthday next year, I shall make an April-Karai themed party.

Alleluia!

One and half decades after I first learned about Eigen Vectors in the 1st semester of Engineering College, I finally, FINALLY understood its application, thanks to this brilliant presentation on Analytical Hierarchy Process. Dr.Haas and Dr. Meixner, if only I had had you to explain this while we were studying "Caxstic Equations" (as our teacher, Mr. Thirumurugan of Anna University, used to pronounce them... it's supposed to be "Characteristic Equations", though characteristic of what, he never explained. But we calculated millions of Eigen Values and Eigen Vectors without having a clue what they were).

Raptures!

I swear, this is one of the best books I have read.

YA fiction, I had no idea such treasures abounded within you!

Musings about house and home-selling

I think our house is finally on the market. I say "I think" because I still can't find its listing online anywhere, but our real estate agent assures us that it will be online any moment now.

I have learned some things during this process. It is unnecessary to say just how much work putting up a house for sale is, but it's a work that is very satisfying, because in the end, you are left with a  sparkling home and a sense that very few material things are required for a family to thrive.

Things I am happy about during this phase:

a) For sticking to my guns and packing up stuff. Left to RK, we would still have the books out, the clothes unsorted and the toys everywhere. His idea of a house staging is to have it exactly the way we have had it for the past 3 years and leave it up to the potential buyers to decide whether or not it would suit them. I am fervently glad I cleaned up the place.

b) For my staging ideas:
-covering the weird stains (were they made by yogurt? ice-cream? God knows. They are white, ugly and stubborn) on the couch with pretty drapes and throws;
-having nothing on any of the kitchen counters or stoves (Shoving everything inside drawers, cupboards and out of sight backfired though- I still can't find my salt shaker that I hid some weeks back before a showing);
-heaving our floor mattress in the first bedroom atop the bed in the second bedroom, so that the first bedroom looks marvelously spacious and we don't look like crackheads for having a mattress on the floor (remember that line? 2 Broke Girls? Whatever happened to them anyway?)

c) My packing. It isn't stellar, but it's reasonably organized. I write down a number on the inside flap of a box, take a picture of its contents with the number showing and write down the same number on the outside of the box so that I have an idea what number corresponds to what content. This would work out really well if I had the patience to take multiple pictures as I filled up the box, instead of taking one picture right at the end before I close it up. But well, what's life for if not to strive towards perfection?

So, we have had a few pre-listing viewings, mainly by other clients of our real estate agent. They've been okay. I think the main drawback to our house is our super-steep driveway which intimidates everyone the first time they drive or walk up it. It's already cost us a few potential buyers. Oh well. It only takes one- hopefully somewhere there's a guy who sees it as a challenge and not an obstacle.

Confession

I have a mortifying reason for dropping off the radar recently. 

Apparently, my push-ups are not really push-ups. 

Real push-up

My push-up

So, my little crow about being about to do some extraordinarily high number of ...whatever the hell I was doing? Pffffttt.