Posts filed under 'Life'
Its Memorial day on Monday and a long weekend….. and we are going on a mini vacation :).
Chitra is coming down to Kingsport from Houston for the weekend, and we have planned a trip to the city of Virginia Beach (Google maps link). We would also be visiting the Busch Gardens (theme park) at Williams Burg, VA.
We plan to start today (i.e., Friday) at around 3.30 PM and reach the city of Virginia Beach by night. Its a 7 hrs drive from Kingpsort. Spend Saturday on the beach. On Sunday, we plan to visit the Busch gardens. Monday morning, start back! So, we should be back in Kingsport by Monday evening.
We are a group of 10. So, it should be fun! Will post photographs once I am back!
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May 26th, 2006 at 10:18am
Well, I am a religious follower of Dilbert and Garfield!. Never miss it, thanks to bloglines. Have been following both these series for over two years now.
Why Dilbert ?
Short Answer : I work in IT industry :).
Its just true to life. You can relate almost everything that’s going around you at your work to Dilbert :). The pointy haired boss character is soo real. The catbert….. I remember HR folks of my company whenever i see catbert :))
Why Garfield ?
Well, somehow I can relate myself to the Garfield character pretty well…:)… (ya.. more than half the men out there think so … .. hehehe)Never heard of Dilbert and Garfield ?… Check these article on wikipedia on
Dilbert and
Garfield. They are very informative.
So, which cartoon series do you follow and like the most ?…. Do leave a comment.
Oh yes, in the animated world, I love Tom and Jerry :) Cute. :)
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May 18th, 2006 at 10:54pm
After months of car search, finally found the right car to buy!!
Its a Tan colored 1998 Toyota Camry LE. Came to know about this car from the tpost.com last Friday. Called up the seller and got the details. Ran a carfax check on the car. It came out clean. We then went to Johnson City to see the car on Friday, did a test ride, and found it pretty neat. Then on Saturday, we took the car to a Auto shop to do a 30 point checkup and found that the Car was in pretty good shape. Closed the deal on Saturday itself.
However, the car needed some attention to its breaks. So, fixed it, and took the delivery today.
Some Specs :
- 1998 Toyota Camry LE
- Automatic
- 4D Sedan
- Tan Colored
- Power Windows
- Power Locks
- Cruise Control
Here are some snaps :
Looking forward for a safe and fun filled driving experience in United States!
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May 8th, 2006 at 11:50pm
Had been to the Watauga lake on Sunday. Its about a hours drive from Kingsport. Its pretty close to Elizabethton. Watauga lake is the highest lake in Tennessee and the third cleanest lake in North America! … and very beautiful too!. This lake was formed due to the construction of a Dam across the Watauga river. The lake is appx 19 miles long with around 106 miles of shoreline!!
Walk to the Watauga Lake - (Click to Zoom)
Watauga Lake - (Click to Zoom)
Watauga Lake - (Click to Zoom)
Sail Boat at Watauga Lake - (Click to Zoom)
Sail Boat at Watauga Lake - (Click to Zoom)
Watauga Lake - (Click to Zoom)
Watauga Lake - (Click to Zoom)
Watauga Lake - Panorama - (Click to Zoom)
The word “Watauga” is supposedly a Native American word meaning “beautiful river”.
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May 1st, 2006 at 04:11pm
Its been quite sometime since I wrote here. Yes, you guessed is right. Work. As I had mentioned in one of my previous post, we have a milestone around this week. Most of the work from my end has been done well in advance. Except for a few minor hitches, everything is going on smoothly. But the last couple of days have been kind of hectic. And, the next couple of days would be hectic too.
This weekend was pretty lazy and relaxing. My car-hunt is on. Finding it very difficult to find a decent car. On saturday, we had been to Johnson City (around 15 miles from Kingsport) to see a car. Before going, I had checked with the seller on the condition of the car, the vechicle history etc… The car was supposed to have a little hail damage., and the seller told me that he was the first owner of the car and the car had a clean history.
We did manage to see the car, but could not meet the seller. He wasn’t there!! He had told us that he would be around!! But we did manage to get the VIN number. Came back, did a carfax check on the VIN number only to find that the odometer of the car had been rolled back! No wonder the car had low miles on it! besides, the car has already had 3 owners! So, the hunt continues….
Sunday, saw Taxi No 9211. Timepass movie. Nothing special. Two characters all bent upon screwing each other. No storyline……….nothing. I am just wondering about the fact that there is a page at wikipedia for this movie. LOL!!!
Also saw the award winning movie ‘Crash‘ (Official Site). Was good. Some scences were very touching. Would rate around 8.5 on a scale of 10. Oh. Yes, I subscribed to blockbuster.com online.
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April 24th, 2006 at 04:37pm
The Organizational Chart which explains “Why its better to be the boss!”
Very true. Isn’t it ?
It gets worse if one or more of your boss’es fly away and someone new comes in! :)
Were are you currently?
[via DaTaste]
Please note : Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental
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April 15th, 2006 at 10:08pm
Went to Ice Age : The Meltdown movie yesterday (i.e., Friday). First day first show.
Good movie. I liked it. There is no strong story line as such, but its got lot of humor which would make you laugh.
The animation too is great.
From Wikipedia…. :
The working title for this movie was Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. For the movie’s final release, they decided to remove the number 2, calling it Ice Age: The Meltdown, as the creators considered the movie not a sequel but an entirely new movie. However, in the UK, Ireland and Australia, its title is promoted as Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.
More Info & reviews at the IMDB.
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April 1st, 2006 at 08:41pm
One more weekend got past…. Weekdays get over fast, but weekends get over twice the speed. My weekdays are pretty hectic. Specially the past couple of weeks. We have a major milestone ahead of us. So, it would continue to be hectic for the next couple of weeks.
This weekend was fun. On Saturday afternoon, we had been to a near by lake. The South Holston lake is around 1 hour drive from our place. Its close to the city of Bristol, Virginia. The drive was beautiful and quite scenic. The lake itself is very vast and beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me. But my friends have clicked a lot of snaps. Will post them once I get my hands on them.
In US, lot of people in this area (i.e., the area close to a lake) own their own boats (speed boats/small boats etc). They tow it to their cars and come over to the lake to have a boat ride! So, its pretty common to see boats on the roads here! (off-course towed!)
After spending sometime at the lake, we then went to the city of Bristol. Is a small town, but much bigger compared to Kingsport. We went to the Bristol Mall, spend some time there doing some window shopping. Some of my friends did some shopping too. We reached back home at around 8.30 PM. After reaching home, we went to a nearby restaurant called “Riverfront” for dinner. They specialize in sea food. I had a fish called Tilapia. I don’t know what its called in India, but it was good and tasted more or less like the fish we get back home in India.
Sunday was fun.. played cricket for nearly 2 hours. I guess, the last time I played cricket was some 3-4 years back!. I don’t even remember!! So, it was fun. Played four 5 over matches. Fun! And..Since I am not used to these sports activities, i can feel the body pain already :) Specially my shoulders. But that’s fine. Should be back to normal in the next couple of days.
So.. that’s the update. Back to office/work tomorrow!
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March 20th, 2006 at 10:36am
The weekend passed by with a blink of an eye. This was by far the most memorable weekend in US. This was my second visit to a big city in US. The first one was Charlotte (around 2 weeks back). But the city of Houston is much bigger then Charlotte.
Almost everything went on as planned and I am writing this on an Airplane heading back to Kingsport. I started off on Friday evening from Kingsport at around 5 PM, and since there are no direct flights from Kingsport to Houston, I had to take a flight via Atlanta. The flight was pretty much on time, and I didn’t have too much of time with me to explore the Atlanta airport. Reached Houston at around 8.15 PM CST, pretty much on time.
We had made an online reservation couple of days back for a rental car for the weekend from National car rental. We had actually booked for a Compact car to go around. But when we went to pick up the car from National on Saturday, they told us that they did not have a compact car with them to offer us …. and guess what? … they upgraded it to a SUV for free. Jeep - Grand Cherokee. Wow… Both of us (me and Chitra) were thrilled!! Well … this was my first (major) driving, and what a vehicle to drive. It was almost brand new, with just 1750 Miles on it, and it rocked.
The rental Jeep that we got! - (Click to Zoom)
So, at around 9 AM on Saturday morning, we started our journey to the NASA Space center. Driving through the big city traffic thought a maze of flyovers and exits was a good experience and was much easier that I had actually thought. My wife had done all the homework of getting routes and maps to reach NASA. We reached NASA space center at around 9.40 AM. We had to wait for a couple of mins for the Space Center to open up, but that was not a problem.
Space center entrance - (Click to Zoom)
The NASA space center is a must see if you are to Houston, especially if you are interested in space, science and technology.
Controls Inside the Space Shuttle Cockpit - (Click to Zoom)
Controls Inside the Space Shuttle Cockpit - Top - (Click to Zoom)
Some Capsule - (Click to Zoom)
Lunar Vehicle - (Click to Zoom)
Skylab mockup - (Click to Zoom)
They showed us a couple of movies and then there was a Tram tour of the NASA facility at Houston. They showed us the Historic Mission control center, from where more then 100 space missions were controlled. They have preserved it with all the original equipments. i.e., we are talking about the equipments that were present in the 1960s and 70s timeframe.
The Historic Mission Control Center - (Click to Zoom)
After that, they took us to the current Mission control center. Actually there are two; one is for the space shuttle program, and the other one for the International space station program. And, since there is no Shuttle in orbit as of now, there were no people at the Shuttle mission control center. But we did see people working at the International space station Mission control center. Live. Real people. Real stuff! And everything is just state of the art!
Space Shuttle Mission Control Center - (Click to Zoom)
International Space Station Mission Control Center - (Click to Zoom)
From NASA space center we travel to a place near by called Kemah Board Walk. It’s a recreation center in the Galveston bay area. And that was too good. This place has a mini amusement park, and lot of fun. Both of us enjoyed it thoroughly.
Kemah Tower - (Click to Zoom)
From the top of the tower - (Click to Zoom)
Kemah Area - (Click to Zoom)
Kemah Parking - (Click to Zoom)
We specially enjoyed the “Beast” speed boat ride. It’s a super speed boat which can carry around 60 people, and it cruises at full speeds splashing water all over. In fact, many of the passengers sitting at the rear end of the boat get fully wet!
Boat Ride (not the one we rode on… this one is a slow moving boat)- (Click to Zoom)
Sunset - (Click to Zoom)
It was 6.30 PM by now, and we were already late. Actually, we had decided to have a dinner/get together with Chitra’s lovely & very helpful friends at a restaurant called London Sizzler on Hilcroft Ave. And we had a map with us showing how to go from our house to this place. But we did not know exactly where this place was. The map showed us the end point, but it wasn’t detailed enough. And the end result was, we were going round and round the same area to find the restaurant. And to make it worse, we did not have any contact numbers with us. (I know its stupid… but that’s precisely what Murphy’s Law states!) After around 45 mins of searching, going round and round, we managed to find the place. It was like so close but still far. We knew it was just somewhere round the corner, but just could not locate it.…. and by this time, all the people had already come and were waiting for us, and were worried too!
It was a major relief for us as well as all others to see each other
The food at the restaurant was good, but the company was better. We had a nice time chatting. The best part was the surprise at the end………:) A birthday cake! Yes… my birthday is just around the corner… March 7th.
My Birthday Cake - (Click to Zoom)
Was a wonderful evening! On the way back home from the restaurant to home, we made sure that we had numbers of all the people with us, and that we knew the route properly. Reached home safely at around 11.45 PMish.
Today morning we went out again, but this time to a shopping mall called “Galleria“. It’s a pretty big mall. We spend some 2 hours in the mall, had some food, went around etc. There is a huge Ice skating ring in the mall, but we weren’t adventurous enough to try it out (also, the timings for public staking did not fit our schedule).
We started back home at around 11: 30 AM. Returned our rental SUV back to Nationals at around 1 PM. Athul & Saki (Chitra’s friends) were kind enough to drop me back to the IAH airport. And that too on a Merc!! Wow!…
My return flight to Kingsport is via Cincinnati and it started of a bit late. I.e., by around 30 mins. But I have a 1.5 hr stop over at Cincinnati, which should take care of the delay!
All in all, a great weekend!
Update : Also I would say I am lucky to have some great friends at Kingsport!. Sugatha dropped me all the way to the Airport on Friday, and Andy picked me up on the way back!.. Had dinner at Andy’s house on saturday night. Thank you guys!
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March 7th, 2006 at 06:50am
“Houston, can you hear me?
Ground control, can you feel me?
Need permission to land”
- from Robbie Williams › Rock Dj
I would be off to Houston this weekend to meet my Wife who has been there for nearly 3 months now. Would be flying today evening i.e, Friday evening, and would be back Sunday night at Kingsport.
We plan to visit the NASA space center at Houston and some other places around…. …again, its just a plan. Lets see how it goes. Will try to get some snaps and post it here in the next couple of days! :)
And..Because there is no direct flight between Kingsport and Houston, its going to be a long journey!
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March 4th, 2006 at 01:06am
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