Judges in wigs

Apparently judges in the UK till yesterday still wore horsehair wigs in court.  I never imagined this would still be happening.  In any case, the administrative court judges (civil) will stop wearing it starting today.  However, the criminal court judges will continue on with the head gear – in case they meet a criminal that they recently sentenced in the street….

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/oct/01/9

The late night talk shows (if they exist) in the UK must be having a field day with this.

Nobelists for Obama

It seems like 61 nobel prize winners including my favorite – Peter Agre  have endorsed Obama.  Obama has promised “consistent and predictable” increases in science funding.   If he really does this it would be great for aspiring academics!

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/925/3?etoc

Preparing for Another Trip

I (Manish) am preparing for another long trip away from home and Anu… I am going to Basel again to work in Dr. M’s group and am hoping that this time will be even more productive work wise.  Anu will join me in December so it should be fun – we will probably hook up with my bro and sis-in- law and take a drive down to Spain.  I am spending countless hours in the lab trying to get things ready.  Anu has picked up knitting, and has been making some cool gear – you can see some of her work through the side bar.

In any case I signed up for a course in Basel related to my work and just found out that I won a European Union fellowship named after Marie Curie to attend the course! I feel awesome, but the truth is – this probably is due to the fact that Dr. M wrote a great recommendation and Dr. E (another collaborator) is a supervisor for the course.

Snowy weekend

We decided to go for a little walk at the Meadowbrook Prairie this weekend to check out the winter scene. We go there quite a bit during the warmer months, but winter did offer a more serene environment.

Travel Woes

Our blog was recently added to our friends Sinziana and Mark’s blog which made us realize how long it’s been since we posted. No guarantee we’ll keep this up on a regular basis, but here is an attempt to getting back into the groove of things in the blogging world.

We should be hanging out with family in the bay area in CA right now… but we’re not and are still in Champaign! We were expecting to leave bright and early this morning (planned to leave for Springfield around 4 am) so we went to sleep early. Manish jumped up in bed to his cell phone ringing thinking that the alarm he had set went off but it was a call from a 1-800 number, so he promptly went back to sleep. Then Anu got a call and she had the presence to realize that this could be more than just a junk call. American Airlines informed us that our flight was delayed out of Springfield, so we would not be able to make our connecting flight in St. Louis. So we called and had them change our tickets so that we fly out of Chambana at 3 pm. While we were driving to the airport to catch this flight our phones rang, another great message in the tune of how things had gone the whole day. Our flight was canceled and now we’re booked on a flight out of Chambana tomorrow morning connecting through Chicago. Hopefully the wind will calm down and we’ll get out of here tomorrow.

Anyway, enough griping about travel woes, at least we are at home and comfortable. Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow. On another note, we are thinking of buying a camera. We want a small upgrade over our Canon A95 (which died unexpectedly and suddenly with its eye (lens) wide open. So we are looking at the Canon S5 IS and the Canon Digital Rebel. The rebel might be more than what we need, we’ll need to do some more research on it. Hopefully we can get a deal right after Christmas. Manish has been itching to take some cool pictures of the snowy weather, and Anu has been wanting to document some of her winter projects.

What to do w/ so much time…

I’m sure this is not a problem I’ll encounter very often, and should consider myself lucky to have so much free time in my hands. With Manish gone I am left talking to myself most of the time and finding projects to stay busy.

We laid some brick tiles as a patio extension for our picnic bench, and I also put in a garden in the backyard with some perennials. Just creating the bed was such labor intensive process. The sod had to be pulled out first… I felt pretty strong just ripping it up, and at that point very excited visualizing the future garden. Manish helped out in the ripping process too, which made it go by faster. Then I learned the hard way that we have really hard clay soil which is not very easy to work with. Plants need soil that is not compacted and has enough fluff to it so the roots can spread easily. So of course, the next logical step for me was to do some tilling to break up and loosen up the soil. I had seen commercials on TV for the type of tiller that looks like a giant twisted fork – they show old women use it with ease. Ok, so off I go to Lowes and invested $25 towards the garden. Back to the garden site w/ my nice new shiny tiller, and let me tell you, those old women must be some mighty tough cookies or they were doing the digging on the beach. I had to thrust the fork into the ground, stand on it, put my whole weight into, wiggle it as much as I could, step down, and put my whole weight into it to do the twisting motion. Two weekends and plenty of sore muscles later, I had tilled up my little patch, added top soil, tilled that in, and made it somewhat workable. Now that I look back, I think I should have added more topsoil, guess I’ll just have to wait and see how the plants perform. And of course, as I was telling M about my tilling woes he says “I have an automatic tiller at home that you can borrow”… a little too late for this time around, but there will be more gardens in the future in my little yard.

On memorial day weekend I went out to Country Arbors and picked up some perennials. I identified plants that will thrive even with very low care – four lavender bushes, four silver mounds, two purple coneflowersand two brown eyed susies. I worked in quite a bit of perlite for the lavenders and silver mounds since they like very well drained soil and not much water. I am a little worried that the clay soil in the bed would still hold too much water and kill the root – we’ll just have to wait and see I guess. I put stones around the lavenders and silver mounds as it was recommended on some website – they’re supposed to reflect the sunlight and reduce moisture. The lavenders are close to the patio, so hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy the fragrance from our picnic bench. I used the silver mounds as a border on the rest of the bed, and filled it in with the coneflowers and susies , both native prairie plants. I also picked up a fuchsia which is supposed to attract hummingbirds for the back of the bed where there is more shade. The fuchsia is supposed to get up to 6′, so it’ll add nice height to the garden. I also have a pole w/bird-feeder and bird bath… I don’t think birds know about it yet. I did spot a hummingbird last week drinking out of the feeder.

So far the lavenders and fuchsia have bloomed and there are lot of buds on the prairie plants. I’m hoping to be able to enjoy the garden pretty soon. Vegetable garden will be a project for next year… and a raised bed is sounding more and more attractive than a tilled bed.

It’s summer in Basel too

Both of us have been feeling a little lonely lately. Why you ask… Manish left for Basel, Switzerland over a month ago, and I am still hanging out in Champaign. He’s doing research at the University of Basel, and is trying to get adjusted to the European lifestyle. I’ll let him write about his expriences there. I’m counting down the days till I leave to join him – 23 days now. We are planning on doing a bit a of traveling around Europe for few weeks. We’ll spend around a week hiking in the Alps, and some time in France and Belgium maybe.

It’s summer in Champaign

Ok, now fast forward to summer of 2007.  Life has been moving at a steady pace since we moved to Champaign.  Manish finished two semesters, I started working at the University, and we are enjoying our new home.  The winter was pretty brutal – apparently it was an out of the ordinary, extremely nasty one.  The University closed due to the weather for the first time since 1979!  And I thought we were bringing the pleasant weather from San Diego.  Spring was a welcomed change, and I am trying to enjoy the warm weather as much as possible now.

A belated goodbye to 2006

Ok, here’s another one we never posted…

We’re already in 2007! 2006 was a very eventful year for us – our first full year as married couple, a lot of traveling, a big move, and Manish started his student life. Here is our year in review:

January – back from India after our weddings and honeymoons

February – England trip and moved into the new apt in Glendale

March – 1st first wedding Anniversary in Mammoth (as opposed to 2nd first and 3rd first – we’ll explain this later)

April – trip out to Champaign to check out our possible new hometown and Manish accepted his admission to UofI

May – started packing,visited Anu’s sister and family

June – quit jobs, moved out of Glendale apt

July – left for South America, toured Peru and Ecuador

August – back from Costa Rica, drove cross country to our new hometown, Manish started ABCs

September – Anu started new job at the outdoor gear store

October – we turned 30 and celebrated at the Chicago marathon

November – started house hunting

December – moved into our new home

We’re hoping 2007 will be a bit slower and we’ll be able to take our time enjoying midwestern living (lot of corn)

Chicago Marathon is around the corner

Here is a post we had written up early October 2006…

Both of us have been fretting over our lack of preparation for the big Marathon which is now in approximately 3 weeks! Manish has been running in spurts with wildly varying distances every weekend. He started out with a 18 miler, ran a few 13-14 miler and then ran a 22. The 22 miler was tough on him. The only good thing was one of his professors was with him. This professor is 10 years older than him, but runs like the wind. Manish was trying to keep up with his pace of 8:15 and could not keep up for long. But in the time he could stay with him, Manish started his usual discussion on his “dream” thesis project and somehow got talked into teaching a class on design of a membrane treatment plant that he had worked on. After this he kept falling back till everybody passed him and ended up close to a 10 min pace for the complete run! Anyway, we will see how he does in the marathon.

Anu has been running rather consistently but has not done the big 20 yet. We are thinking of doing that this weekend (Sunday). It is kinda tough to run 20 miles in a town which is maybe 7-8 miles wide. We will figure something out. Anu’s job involves being on her feet all day so that has placed a lot of stress on her feet (and legs) and she sometimes feels like she is injured. After being on her feet all day she feels like she has ran a marathon already! However, she has been plugging away and trying to run as much as she can. We ordered some recovery drinks and gel packs and hopefully that will give us the kick that we have been missing at the end of our runs!

Update: We both finished the marathon!  Anu shaved off 22 minutes from her previous (and first) marathon, and Manish did rather well also.  Manish is now determined to train hard for next year’s race and beat his PR.

The haunted campground

After dinner we headed back to the campground, and found that it had another set of occupants. In the dark the campground looked eerie and somewhat ominous. Anu was a little freaked when she saw that the rain fly strap (on the tent) was unstrapped again, something she had corrected the night before. She remarked that this must be the act of some ghost as she had made sure this was fixed. Manish freaked Anu out by pointing out that the trees that populated the site were “Pipal trees” (Bo trees, Ficus religiosa) which in India is supposed to be the abode of unsatisfied spirits that do not make it to their final resting place.

During the night Anu had morbid fantasies of the three girls at the other campsite, who had eagerly offered us their flashlights, coming over and massacring us. She was a little unsettled by the fact that they did not take campground number one which we had chosen early that evening but had not left any evidence of returning, and had strategically chosen number 2, in effect setting a trap for us. After tossing and turning for what seemed like an eternity, listening to these seemingly happy spirits, Anu decided that there was a distinctively evil timbre to their laughter. In the middle of the night she woke up to what seemed like the smell of the pit toilet and was horrified at the prospect of the evil spirits, which are known to trouble gentler souls this way. After a restless night, morning came and Anu could finally gather enough courage to look outside the tent, she was taken back an panicked as the tents of the evil spirits was gone and she hurriedly woke the husband up. The husband opened his side of the tent and showed Anu that the evil camp was still there and profusely apologized for an unusually gassy night!

Hoodoos, arches and canyons

Bryce itself was amazing at first light with different shades of red and the interesting formations (hoodoos) evoking a Martian landscape. We were so excited to be there, we practically ran down the trail that lead to the bottom of the canyon and gave us a great view of the hoodoos from below.

  

After reaching Arches National Park we decided to find a place to stay before exploring the park. We found an isolated campsite surrounded by majestic red mountains next to the Colorado River, off the town of Moab and decided to return here.

In Arches we did a sunset hike to the Delicate Arch which is on the Utah license plate. As we reached the trailhead we heard a thunderstorm coming on. Foolishly and dangerously we decided to push on this 3 mile tough hike. We practically ran up the trail, panting, set on outrunning the storm. We barely made it to the arch and took some pictures when the thunderstorm moved in, with gusts of wind, with which Anu felt like she was going to get blown away. We headed back through some surreal slickrock landscape. We were pretty wet, but enjoyed the hike nevertheless.

Next morning we did a short hike to the Landscape Arch which draws visitors because of its unbelievable span. It is as wide as a football field! After the hike we headed to Canyonlands Nat’l Park which is famous for its great canyons carved the the Green and Colorado rivers. We wish we had more time to spend there, but we had to keep driving in order to make it to Colorado for that night’s stay.

Utah National Park

The entire state of Utah should be a National Park!  This was our conclusion after driving through the state and visiting Zion NP, Cedar Breaks NM, Bryce Canyon NP, Arches NP and Canyonlands NP.  These parks are strikingly magnificent and otherworldly.  However, just driving on some of the backroads (U14 and U89) and interstate 70 is an amazing experience with interesting rock formations everywhere and viewpoints every few miles.

Duckcreek Village, where we camped the first night is a beautiful area but it seems to be that real estate agents have taken over this once sleepy village!  We left early morning for Bryce to catch the sunrise and were surprised at how many deer we saw by the side of the road.

California – Nevada – Arizona – Utah

So we are finally on the road! Our destination for today was Duck Creek Village, Utah. Anu has fond memories of this place from her trip to Utah 5 years ago.

We made good time after we left from S & R’s place in Rancho Cucamonga, zoomed past the barren deserts, rocky mountains, Vegas with its continuous construction projects, short strip of AZ, and reached Utah. This is the only the second time Manish has been to Utah and he is really excited about the scenery. We made a brief stopover at the Kolob Canyon region of Zion National Park and also the Cedar Breaks National Monument. Manish could not stop clicking (with the camera) at the red rocks and Anu was like – wait till you see Bryce (where we will go tomorrow).

 

 

We reached Duck Creek Village, a small a one street village. But the setting is beautiful. We got a campsite close to a lake and found a restaurant (Pinewoods Resort) – the only one serving a full dinner after 7 pm. Surprisingly, this place has free internet and we decided to do what we have become used to, blogging!

Feeling like a tourist in LA

We already feel that LA is a destination rater than home for us. We even took pictures of the LAX sign (imagine that!) as we walked around town with the camera on Sunday. Anybody looking at us would never imagine we actually live here. Manish is working till tomorrow and Anu is enjoying the nice digs offered by Marriot et al. She even had a free manicure yesterday and was complaining that they do not have free pedicures! This after our myriad shared stinking bathroom experiences!

Back in LA – not for long

Figured out the flickr problem, looks like we do need to go pro in order to see more than 200 photos – bummer!

Now that we’re back in LA and Manish working a few days, I’m left with planning our next trip. Looks like the best route from CA to IL would be through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and then Illinois. We have about 6 days for the drive, and want to cover as many National Parks and cool places as possible. Let me know if any of you have any thoughts on where all to stop. Here is what I was thinking:

Day 1 - Drive straight to Duck Creek Village, UT (450 miles) with a short stop at Cedar Breaks Nat’l Monument which is on the way

Day 2 – Spend some time at Duck Creek, and cover any or all of the following National Parks depending on how much time it will take: Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches and stay around Arches Nat’l Park (300 miles). Which one is better? Canyonlands or Arches?

Day 3 - Drive to Denver (350 miles) and stay around there

Day 4 - Drive early morning to Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park, spend a day in the park and stay around there (65 miles)

Day 5 - Drive from Rocky Mtn to middle of Kansas (500 miles or more)

Day 6 - Reach destination! (500 miles or less)

Feel free to comment on our itinerary or suggest a better plan!

More pictures are up and need help with flickr!

We’ve posted more pictures from Ecuador and Costa Rica on flickr, so check them out through the side bar.  If you are familiar with flickr I need some help – when I uploaded the recent pictures the older ones disappered.  Is there a limit on how many pictures you are allowed to have with a regular account?  Do I need to go pro to keep more than 200 photos?  Are my old photos gone or are they archived somewhere?  Help!

We are caught up!

Our blog is finally up to date! We are heading to San Jose in an hour, and back to LA tomorrow All good things must come to an end, sadly.

Our private waterfalls

We did not want to do any more organized tours, so we decided to pack up some things and go on a hike to the San Luis waterfalls. We had no idea how far it was, we only knew that we needed six hours to do the roundtrip. The 6 hours was from a point where the bus would drop you off, but the bus was not due for another couple of hours. So we decided to hike the whole way. It turned out to be quite far, we walked about 20 kms (12 miles) that day. However, we saw a lot of birds, butterflies (including the extremely difficult to photograph Morphos), some small animals, and many varieties of plants and trees.

The waterfalls were definitely worth the long trek. It was deserted and spectacular. It must’ve been at least a 1000 ft crashing into an inviting pool of clear water. It was refreshing to be in the water, and we had a little picnic before heading back.