The Drive Thru
I was in a rush this morning cause I had to be in Mississauga by 8:30 am for a Training Class. I left the house at 6:45 thinking that would be enough time. It actually turned out to be okay cause I got to work around 7:45 so it only took me an hour. Now the problem was - I was early so what should I do?

I decided to visit the neighbourhood Timmy's at 401 and Mississauga Road. I saw the drive-thru line and thought..."Hell no, I ain't doing that. I am just gonna go inside, eat a bagel, drink some tea and relax". And that is exactly what I did. While I was "relaxing", I decided to make some simple human observations (cause I was sitting right by the window facing the place where people order their morning coffees, breakfasts, etc). This made for a very fun morning. I saw many different people, from all walks of life with many different mannerisms. Here's a highlight:

1. The cell phone talker who orders midsentence and then continues on their call
2. The hockey mom (you know who she is)
3. The prim and proper asian girl
4. The snow plow guy/plumber/electrician in their trade vehicle
5. The business man in his beamer
6. The chain smoker with smoke bellowing out of his car as he opens the window
7. The paranoid girl who opens up her window just a crack
8. The slick gino racing guy in his souped up car

So many people look up in the air as they order and a lot also closed their eyes. Not sure what that was about. There was this one cute girl who was ordering and when she was done, she looked through the window and saw me looking at her. She smiled and then quickly looked away, all shy and stuff. I am no Don Juan or anything but I guess I have that effect on the ladies. Well probably not but it's early...why not have some fun with me. The most popular cars (in the sample size of about 40 that I saw) were definitely SUVs - anything from Ford Escapes, Land Rovers, CRV, Saturns, Jeep Libertys...you name it. I also saw 3 Protege 5's (last years hit). All in all it was quite a funny morning.

All of them were so different (in the cars they drive, the clothes the wear, the way they talk) but something was the same - they all had $2.04 (just like me) to by a coffee/tea and a bagel.

Have a good day folks...

White Christmas?
Wow folks. Now that is some snow. We got about 20-25 cm last night and there is some serious blowing wind today. Apparently there are some ice pellets and some freezing rain as well. I shovelled last night (what else is new?) and woke up this morning only to find all my work has been covered again. That said...I think it was good for me to shovel cause now the base layer won't be hard and icy. I can now just quickly shovel the layer that has accumulated since midnight.

I need to be in the office for training at 12:30 today. I'll probably leave around 10:00 to make sure I get there in time. This week - training everyday from 7:30 - 6:00 pm each day (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and 8:00 - 1:00 pm (Saturday). Allz I gots to say is...it's certainly white outside, but it doesn't feel like Christmas.

world travels
hey karen - thanks for referring this site...it's pretty cool.

you can check out all the countries i've travelled so far. it's 10 or 11 countries but only 5% of the world. what does that mean? there is still 95% more world out there for me to go and visit.
what will be next???




check it out at World66.com.

is it already sunday night?
wow...these weekends go by much too fast. let's go back a few days to start out. on thursday night january 22, my friend was over and her car was parked across the street on my road. i told her to give me her keys cause, as i said "I don't want your car to get hit" (cause that's what happened to our honda accord about 2 months ago. i was just finishing something on the computer and what do you know but i hear this loud "BANG". i look outside. i see her car rolling forward. i see this other car really mashed up against the snow on the curb. immediately, i go running downstairs...tell her and grab my jacket. i go outside and the guy who hit her car is just getting out of his car (kind of in a daze cause of what he just did). alls i gots to say is - wow that was damn annoying. basically, every since that happened...my plans (and her plans) had to completely change and we were trying to figure out all these little stupid details for the past 2 days (finally resolving something yesterday afternoon). he didn't want to go through insurance cause he was recently in an accident and his rates would have skyrocketed. we'll help this guy out but he better not stiff us. that's why it won't be totally good and finalized until that guys meets her at the honda dealership on tuesday morning to pay honda to have the car fixed. then, we'll breath a sigh of relief. until then - it's day to day ;o)

last night, i was supposed to have a "guys night" at my place. a bit of poker. some hockey. some beers. maybe some video games. it ended up being a complete flop. only eric and thomas showed up so thanks guys. i'm not sure what the heck happened. i actually didn't hear back from a bunch of the guys (so, thanks for that you fools!). anyway, maybe i'll try to do it again sometime soon. no guarantees though. we did watch T3 (my second time seeing it). i think i may have been a little dense during the summer cause the ending was kinda cool and definitely a twist from the norm that most of us were probably expecting. still though - no james cameron = a lot of b.s. arnold cheeky humour and a bunch of dumbass one liners like "talk to the hand", which as eric pointed out was from like 5 or 6 years ago.

i called my brother this morning and guess where he was. on a bus in austria. why you ask? well, he was off for a snowboarding week in austria. pretty wicked trip, eh? on another note - i might be going to glen eden with eric and some of his work buddies this tuesday for some boarding. somehow, it just doesn't compare. not exactly sure if i can pinpoint why but i just know that glen eden is probably the size of an ant-hill in austria.

today was a busy day. had brunch at summit grill at yonge and eglinton with sach, "melanie" and our friend fresh_resh who was visiting from vancouver. it was cool to catch up with those guys and i had a lot of fun. the food (especially the omelets and sweet potatoe fries) were very yummy. after, i went to my aunt claire's house for some afternoon chilling and swiss chalet for dinner. i taught her how to use her dvd player so hopefully she gets some good use out of it. as i was driving home from her house, some punk ass kids through a snow/ice ball at my car as i was passing them on don mills. what the fugg is that??? if i was more antagonistic...i probably would have stopped the car and cussed them out. instead, i went with the common passive agressive canadian mentality of bickering about it to myself throughout the rest of the drive home.

guess who is keeping me awake right now. going along with that passive agressive statement - what the fugg else can i do with this fool? he is just an inconsiderate idiot. i would like to think that if i ignore him for the time being, it'll go away but this is 4 straight nights now and there's no end in sight. should i blare hindi music at 6:00 am? what would that solve? he would just play his $hit louder and later at night. the police don't do anything either. you call them with a noise complaint. they take about 1 hour (or sometimes more) to respond. by then, the noise is off and the complainer looks silly. there really isn't a solution. this sucks big time.

gotta go and get the rest of my sunday night routine finished. laundry. bills. paperwork.
night

sorry in advance
i apologize for the tone of the folllowing blog and if any profanities come out. i've got something quick to say - i hate my neighbour. i want to kick him in the head. i want to step all over him and i want to kick his face repeatedly and shove his speakers and all of his CD's down his throat.

have a good night.
i know i won't.

Day to Day
I hate when I listen to the Fan 590 and they talk about injury updates on chumps like Vince and they describe them as day-to-day. It is quite annoying. I mean - I don't know how serious his injury is...he was rolling around as if he had his nuts kicked in. It's probably not that bad but I still question is heart, intensity and passion. Vince just seems to float around. He has flashes of brilliance but it's never 100%. Look at Iverson. Look at Garnett. Those are warriors who battle every minute of every game for their teams. Vince has done that... (well you can probably count the number of times he's done it on one hand this season).

I was at the Raptors - T-Wolves game last night and it was quite frustrating. They played well for certain pieces of the game but couldn't put together an entire 100% 48 minute effort. It seemed that Garnett, Sprewell and Cassell were just toying with the Raptors as well. They could just turn it on like a light switch.

Vince has it in him. He is just happy being a wuss and floating around. Why go crazy and rush back from an injury and play hard when you have a guaranteed contract? He needs a good kick in the ass from guys like Iverson or Garnett. Maybe all that Oakley talk is just - maybe the Raptors should give him a try. I can't see him really messing up anything more than it already is. He's good for 10 - 15 minutes/game, 4 - 6 rebounds, 3 - 4 hard fouls per game and the best part - he'll get in Vince's face and under his skin (like he used to).

I wonder what Vince's mom thinks of this? I think she's the one that ran Oakley out of town last time.

It's off to Pizza Pizza now to collect my free slice of pizza cause the Raptors scored more than 91 points last night.

LOTR
I finally saw The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King today and I must say that it definitely lived up to the hype in my eyes. I really liked the entire story - can't say which movie (if any) I liked more than the other because there are certainly parts of each that are better than other Overall though - all I can say is that Tolkien was such an imaginative person to come up with all of that. He created a fantasy world, the history behind it, several different elvish dialects and languages as well. It's so cool to see everything that he's actually done for the movie. There were some holes and I've got some questions. I do look forward to the extended DVD when it is released...probably this summer I think. I wonder if they will ever make the prequel movie (based on the book The Hobbit).

By the way folks...if you have a few seconds - please check out this website. It is absolutely one of the funniest things I've seen in a VERY long time. Enjoy http://www.threefaces.net/gimmethelight.wmv.

Iron Chef
I hosted a dinner party for 7 people last night. I was in the kitchen preparing and cooking from 9:30 am until 6:00 pm. I made a full Marathi dinner from scratch (other than one thing - the chapathis). It all turned out pretty well. Here was the menu:

1) Homemade Yogurt - dhai for you Marathi's out there
2) Cucumber Raita
3) Baighan Bhartha (eggplant, tomatoes, onions)
4) Chole (chick peas, tomatoes, onions)
5) Chawli Usal (black eyed peas, tomatoes, onions, green peas for a twist)
6) Tandoori Chicken
7 Waran (lentil soup)
8) Basmathi Rice

4) and 5) were both really good dishes and I was quite happy with them. I wasn't too fond of the texture of 3) and 6) became too dry. The taste of the chicken was really good cause I marinated it for almost 24 hours but the problem with chicken is that it dries out so easily. I was really impressed with 1) cause I've never made homemade yogurt before but now that I have - it's an absolute piece of cake. I'll definitely attempt that again.

This was the first time I cooked for so many people but it was definitely a really awesome treat and I can't wait to host my next dinner party. What's on the menu that time? Perhaps some Thai or maybe Mexican.

Driving and Shovelling
Man o Man...It is wintery and quite snowy outside. I was out all day today at customer sites in Hamilton and Waterloo. Drove around like a mofo so it was absolutely nuts. And all day, it was snowing. I got home to Scaborough tonight at around 10:30 after dinner with Kris. While I was driving, I almost got in an accident with myself and the guardrail at 403 and Cawthra. The roads were quite slippery but despite my 4x4 - I slipped and started fishtailing for about 6 or 7 seconds. It was quite scary cause I couldn't control the car at all. Totally a weird sensation. I was so cautious the rest of the way home. Once I returned home, I then had to shovel out my driveway and I was outside for over an hour doing that, as well as salting and cleaning off the Protege. I shovelled yesterday too. And, the day before. Man - this is nuts. And actually...I'm sure this is just the beginning cause I am definitely gonna be doing more.

I just spoke to my parents in the motherland. They arrived on Tuesday night after a couple of days in Dubai (which they said was awesome). While it's -28 with the windchill here, it's probably about +28 degrees there if you were curious.

I also did a spinning class today at the gym that absolutely kicked my @$$. As a result, I've gotta go to bed now cause I am falling asleep as I type. I have so much work to do tomorrow...hopefully it all gets done.

Good night.

The Bachelor
Not quite the bachelor by the literal definition. I am on my own for the next month though. The 'rents are gone to the motherland. Dropped them at the airport on Friday. It's been a good and eventful weekend without them. But, now - it's back to the work week (starting in 7 hours). I've got a lot to write about but unfortunately...don't quite have the time I would like to blog right now. In a truncated update - here you go:

- Finally re-watched LOTR: The Two Towers. That was a great movie. It's definitely good to watch the extended version and I'm really glad that I watched it again cause I had forgotten a lot of stuff. Now, I'm ready to watch LOTR: The Return of the King
- Got the computer reset. Bought 256MB RAM which will definitely help. Got WIN-XP re-installed as well as a bunch of hardware. All I can say is a whole-hearted Thanks to Mr. Toh. You are a super bud! Thanks man!
- Saturday night - Cristine's 26th b-day party at Revival. It was Mod night so not totally our scene but everyone had a great time and Cris was definitely very very very happy. It was a blast! Cris - you were hilarious! Can't wait to see pictures...
- Nitin's Bachelor Party was today. Ntin is my buddy Kdot's older brother. It was a lot of fun. We had brunch at the Hot House cafe (at Front and Church) - lots of yummy food! Then, it was the Raptors-Blazers game. Raptors won (they looked much better than the last two games - like they actually wanted to win). Pool at V.I.P. and then back to Kdot's place for some za and cake and fun times.
- Saw my niece Ankita tonight for a couple of hours too. She was absolutely cute last night and didn't want me to leave. She was trying to coax and trick me into staying. It was amazing.
- Got home and shovelled the snow at 10:30 pm. Got it done in about 45 minutes and the driveway looks spotless now. Hopefully it doesn't snow too much over night.

C'est ca. C'est toute.
Bon Nuit.

Props to Chooey
Just read your first blog of 2003 and Chooey, I must say...nice reference to Feni! That is some good $h!t. That stuff reminded me of some good times while I was in Goa. The highlight memory was definintely drinking Feni on the beach with a Swedish couple and a girl from the UK. We were all drinking Feni and Limca and playing Carrom right on the beach. It was such a surreal experience cause it was the first time I had played carrom in years. I used to play all the time with my dad and brother. It's such a fun game and when I get my own place, I am definitely gonna take out board with me. Also, great pictures Chooey - especially the enhanced ones. I like the "plastic" effect and the "impressionist" one is super cool.

Dissapointment on Ice
The Canadian Juniors lost the gold medal today. The Americans did not win it. The Canadians were up 3-1 going into the third and like they've done the last two years, they lost the lead going into the third and ended up with the Silver Medal. Man, that was such a gut wrenching game. I'm glad I didn't see the winning goal live...that would have absolutely sunk me. Seeing the highlights is enough. Man, that was just bad bad bad luck. Fleury did what he thought he needed to. In retrospect, he should have played it differently but really, it's a game of inches and split second decisions.

Good work boys! You played your hearts out. It just wasn't enough today. Next year, you'll have to take that medal from the U.S. in their own backyard in Montana.

The Break is OVER
Just like that, the last couple weeks of pseudo-work are done and it's back to the "grind" as some would call it. We are supposed to get 10-15 cm of snow tonight so tomorrow could be a crazy morning for all the drivers on the 401 and everywhere else. I have a conference call in the morning that I'm going to take from home and head in to the office in the afternoon if I have to. That way I don't have to deal with stupid traffic first thing in the morning.

The past weekend has been great. Friday night was a get-together at Ian and Haruko's place. It was a housewarming and a lot of the old L'Am posse were there. We had a really good time playing the pop culture Trivial Pursuit game and another game called Name Droppers. Some of the highlights included my $10 victory when I was able to recall that the 1994 NBA final was between the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets. I did so under severe pressure after Tai bet me I couldn't remember it. Man, I don't know how I did it...but I definitely pulled that out of my @$$. It's funny how much useless (mostly sports) knowledge is in my head. During the Name Droppers game, I was definitely embarrased cause at one point, Linda was trying to do a sounds like for someone named Larry. She couldn't thing of anything until she blurted out "Aneil's Back". Immediately her teammates answered "Hairy" and it was over. Everyone was laughing their asses off and I was looking for the nearest closet. For the record...MY BACK AIN'T THAT HAIRY (despite what Eric has to say).

I finished my London scrapbook from this summer cause I finally got my digital prints printed. For all y'all that want prints - go to Loblaws or www.photolab.ca cause you can get digital prints (Glossy With Borders) for $0.29 each if you have 20 or more and $0.39 each for 20 or less. That is much less than the Future Shop $0.49 per without borders. If you do it online, they can ship to a Loblaws store and then you don't have to pay for shipping either.

Yesterday, watched the rest of LOTR 1. Gonna re-watch LOTR 2 (The extended edition) this week and then hopefully will see LOTR 3 next weekend.

Tonight, Christine was in town for some not so great family business. The gang did manage to get together for a couple of hours though for some bubble tea which made for a good evening. It's always great to hang with close buddies and catch up. We all shared New Years stories and Kevin talked about Cuba. This week is Cris' birthday so I'm sure the upcoming festivities this weekend will be great.

Tomorrow is the World Junior Championships Gold Medal game between Canada and the U.S. It should be an excellent game as the two teams match up very well with each other. If you have some time - check it out! GO CANADA GO!!!

2004 Resolutions

They say that you have to verbalize and write down things you want to do....so here goes for me

1. Keep on top of all my finances. Understand where it is all is. What it's doing. Where it needs to be, etc. I have MS Money 2004 to help me out.

2. Spend MORE QUALITY time with my CLOSE friends. I often spend lots of time with "periphery" friends and don't see my close friends as much as I should.

3. Spend at least 1 night/day per week with my niece Ankita. She is leaving Toronto at the end of the school year (May, 2004) and it's going to be tough to see her leave.

4. Start doing Situps and Pushups at home or hotel or wherever every day. Start with ~50-100 crunches and ~25 pushups. We'll see where I end up.

5. Read more. First book of 2004 - The Life of Pi (I am going to restart it and get through it properly this time).

New Day in a New Year

My first blog of 2004 and I must say that the year has started out as great as possible. I spent new years eve having dinner with my parents and a close friend. The 4 of us had a wonderful feast of quiche and pasta that my mom prepared. We also started with Goks' Guacamole and some spinach dip with pumpernickel bread (What is pumpernickel bread anyway?)

I left home at around 9:30, on my way to NS's place to pick her up and then we made our way over to Kdot & Raq's place. We got there and the rest of the peeps were already there: G, Andrea and MRock. Chilled out there for a bit and then at around 11:15 we bundled up and made our way to Nathan Phillips Square for my first ever (in 25 years) Downtown Toronto New Years Eve Celebration. It was packed and quite fun although we couldn't really see anything. We did hear the new mayor David Miller say some stuff and the singers from the cast of Mamma Mia performed as well. We left by about 12:15 and made our way back to Kdot's house.

The walk to/from Nathan Phillips Square was a lot of fun. There were all sorts of charcters on the street walking around and everyone was in a good mood. That whole Dundas Square area (right by the Eaton Centre) is quite lively and our version of Times Square. I couldn't understand how many people were driving around downtown last night. That was just nuts cause the traffic was horrible. It must have been so annoying to be driving during all that.

Today, I woke up around 11:45 cause I went to bed quite late. At 2:00 pm, I played roller hockey with some of the Marathi and L'Am posses. It was fun to get out on the blades again and an excellent way to start the new year out. We gots to get out there more and more...

Have a safe and happy new year folks.