Our dream car!

Finally the zoom zoom zoom is here! Yay, we got our new car home delivered this Monday afternoon. It's classy, it's gorgeous, it's sharp, and it's Black in color. The model we have got is Mazda CX 9. Motor Trend announced this car as the 2008 Sport/Utility of the Year. Some call it SUV [Sports Utility Vehicle] and some CUV [Cross over Vehicle].

Getting a new car can be one hellva job! Seriously, it’s been almost 2 months and over since we started the car hunting exercise. And we know how much energy we have drained into short listing cars, going through consumer reports, going to various dealers, trying to find out if the specific model matches the specs we are looking at. Hats off to Amit for working on this day and night, sending faxes to the dealers, calling them and doing the research, just to find out the dream car of ours!

In the end, all I can say is that it was worth it :).



Now that it's here, we took her (I guess I would call her she :)), on road first time yesterday. And her first visit was to the temple. We offered our prayers and seeked blessing for the new vehicle. I will post pictures soon of the ceremony. Amit is quite cautious while driving this new car as its bigger, heavy and new! And we both are too nervous and vigilant to make our car have a single dust particle. Wow! can you imagine how possessive we can be for our new vehicle!

We are now hoping to take this beauty for a long drive and for that we have to plan a long trip soon. I am hoping to accumulate some of my vacation time to zoom zoom zoom on our dream car soon!

Weekend is over

Why does the weekend goes by super fast? This weekend flew by fast and slow. When I wanted to spend more time resting, it was already time to wake up and rush to work. What did I do this weekend? Now couple of things...

- Shopping. We went to Kissimmee, which is about an hr drive to hunt for some good gifts for our India visit. In turn, I bought a bunch of stuff for myself!! Yeah, thats how we gurls are, aren't we??
- We went to Mustafa's birthday. He turned 31 this year. Amazing how time flies. When I came here to US, he was among the first few friends of Amit that I met and Motiwala's son was just born. And now, their son, Armaan is 2 years, all up and running around and asking us to chase him. Gosh, seems i have been here since ages!

Well, there is nothing more fruitful that we did this past weekend. Next weekend might just be a bit more happening, as a Mata ki Chauki invitation is lined up and I am looking forward to it.

Ciao for now :)

Motorola lays off employees

It’s rather a very sad news. I was shocked when I received Amit’s email today sharing this breaking news. My heart started pounding hoping that Amit’s job was intact. And God willingly, yes his job was secure. I called him soon after reading his email. Motorola cut down its strength by 10% here in the Orlando premises. I am not sure who all would have been in the list and I am hoping none of the sole bread earners are there in that list (Fingers crossed).

I looked up on the web and found these two articles which were posted in may, declaring Motorola’s plan of laying of 4000 people just to make a profit margin by June 2007. This computer industry is insane when it comes down to cost cutting or profit making. I have been in the shoes once when I had to call my team members and ask them to leave. It was rather hard for me to utter those harsh words to the team who works day and night and sweat out to roll out the good products in the market. There is this bond that comes and asking them to leave just for the mere financial reasons is so crazy. I felt what they were going through however I couldn’t help switch the decision coz it was coming from higher ups. Isn’t it so sad that the decision makers never face the ugly facet but bring there managers in front to face the brunt. I wish these companies realize what the people go through when they are called out like that and laid off! I am sure they are not inhuman however they are not on this side of the boat either. My heart cries out to those people who actually go through the misery of such lavish companies and are target of lay offs.

God bless these big manufacturing companies!

Greencard

Yeah!!!!

Amit got an email this morning about his Greencard approval. Time to celebrate! yeah. I was so happy and glad to hear this awesome news. We have been waiting for this for years!

Thats one reason, our marriage happened in such a fast manner. And today, I am so happy coz Amit is happy :). We got excited and called up both Amit's and my folks back at home to share this awesome news. Later did we realize to check with the attorney and got to know that Amit's GC is approved however mine is still in pending status.

Never mind... i am still happy and my level of excitement is still the same as before...coz as I said earlier..I am happy coz Amit is happy :)

Yeah!!!!

~The Enchanted Frog~

Once upon a time, there was a king, who had a very beautiful daughter... Wait wait.. I ain’t narrating any fairy tale here. This is about the encounter I had with this fellow in the morning today! I met him in my bathroom- ewwwww!! And it looked so creepy and terrible that I cant explain. His black eyes were popping out and as soon as I got a glimpse of him, I screamed, yelled and jumped out of the floor and started crying! I guess it was the most weird reaction I had in the recent times.

I felt so foolish, yet vulnerable when I saw this eerie looking fella and to top it all, his ghostly image is still haunting my memories. Thank goodness, Amit was right next to the door that I could I swing by him for help. Thanks hun!

Reminded me of Ma, when Amit told me to be bold and strong . Mom is such a strong pillar in the family, that I don’t know how she gathers the courage to pick up these nasty creatures, whenever she comes across ‘em and throws them outta the door. I wish Ma, I could genetically get that strength of yours.

Friday Blues..

Yes you read it write. Everyone talks about Monday blues, but I actually encountered Friday blues.

Well, this was the day, when I was feeling all so nauseous, with butterfly in my stomach. Wondering why? Well, it was the day of the Webinar at eguild. The day started off and passed on to hrs and then to minutes and here I was – live presenting to the eGuild audience.

Ohh, and just hrs before, I felt as if I am joining this new job, where I don't know anything, but right after talking to Amit, I felt relaxed and comforted. I refused him to attend it as I felt I would be more nervous then ever!! Wow what a height of anxiety. This was the first ever presentation to the elearning audience here in US and fortunately, it went well :). And after I finisged the presentation, I felt such a big burden off of my shoulders. Reminded me of my school days when I used to come back home after my finals’.

Not to miss, I also received a shout out from Karen *host of elearning team, saying:

You both did a very good job and are a good team. This quote from a participant says a lot: “Very impressive concept and work - I'm ready to leave corporate America and work for the public library system!”

It was overall a nice experience …glad I planned to present it.

Tweety Color

Amit, who is currently on his vacation, has taken up a project on painting our office room. Now deciding upon what color to paint was pretty tough decision. This time, he choose to paint the room with the color of his choice & thought of not sharing any details whatsoever with me. He also bought a software that could replicate the house in 3D format. I must admit, that he is a perfectionist!! He wants to be sure of the stuff before buying or doing it. That was cool. He actually went ahead and re-did the entire house in the 3D (computer) software, and based on the scheme, he started working on what colors to choose from.

Finally he gave me a pleasant surprise- he picked up the Tweety color- which is my favorite cartoon, and I am sure by now you might be aware of it too, after all this blog is based on the same theme! Tweety color looks good, bright, energetic and nice.

He also took help of some tools to decide the color- like behr and Sherwin and Williams website. These two are actually extermely helpful tools in case anyone wants to visualize their room before doing the paint job.

He plans to make the room something like this:



I am impressed and excited to see once he completes the project.

Good Luck Amit!!

Are you Game?

Well- everywhere you go, someone or the other is talking about Gaming! Its become as an essential commodity for everyone. And why not, its a freaking good way to keep you entertained!

Least expected, yesterday my work friend also bought XBOX 360!! Amazing! I never thought she would be into games :). Another work friend of mine is crazy about games. As soon he hears the word "game"; he would stop working and share his stories about the various games he is into. World craft, Madden, Tiger Woods and what not!

Now why go far, there are two gamers in our home itself. One being - Amit. These days he is addicted to game called "Arthur and the Invisible" . He likes strategical games- where one is given a challenge to hunt the goal, increase skill points as you play and is story driven. This particular game ties up with the movie that got released few months back.

Earlier his addiction was Ratchet and clank-infact he has nearly completed the entire series. As a matter of fact- I got PS2 as my birthday present coz I initially was a gamer and now its more used by him :p

Gaming is fun! So why don't we all join this big bandwagon and make it a fun way to play...