snagabag

I’m happy to announce Aparna & I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this past weekend! It’s hard to believe it’s been 5 years since I rode a horse in Corpus Christi. (yes, that is a link to me on a horse at my wedding in the last sentence!)

And what an anniversary weekend it was! We spent a lot of time together, and a lot of time with friends. Also known as “the best of both worlds.”

On Friday Aparna & I visited Rohan and family (always fun), and then she & I had dinner at the Y Bar and Grill. It’s a great restaurant that Aparna & I only go to on special occasions.

The two of us went to brunch at Trudy’s (which is always tasty) on Saturday, and we topped it off with a visit to the Alamo Drafthouse that evening to see Madagascar. The Alamo Drafthouse is a fantastic place to see a movie. They serve food and drinks which is nice, but the whole venue has a great, irreverent, doesn’t-take-itself-too-seriously vibe that I love. Madagascar was ok. It seemed to go by too quickly, and I never really felt any attachment to the characters. In fact, I thought of them more as the actors playing the speaking roles, than the animals they represented on the screen. I wouldn’t recommend it. You’re better off renting The Lion King or Finding Nemo instead.

On Sunday we took it easy at home during the day, and had a great dinner with Mike, Amy, Garrett, Amy and Missy at Z Tejas, which is a very good restaurant.

Granted, not everything was perfect. I did have to head to Target 3 times in 2 days, and we did have to explain to our waitress at Z Tejas we were giving her a 20% tip, not a 50% tip, but what is life without challenges?

Finally, on Monday Dimple, Rahul, Garrett, and Amy hosted a baby shower for us at Dimple & Rahul’s place …but that will have to wait until my next post.

Q: Who does Mo know with (realtively) new blogs?

A Cousin:
My couz Vivek in Toronto has started a blog of his own. It’s the place to go when you want the Indian-Canadian-Bedding Seller perspective!

A Cat:
My friend Missy’s cat, Keiko, has a blog. This is not a typo. It’s not a blog about Keiko. It’s a blog by Keiko. Really, a typing cat is amazing enough, but a blogging cat? Incredible! Interestingly enough, the title of Keiko’s blog is the same title I originally named my one blog, “What Can Brown Do For You?” Oh yeah, and be sure to check out Keiko’s “biodata.”

A Friend:
A blog from across the pond! My pal Taruna has started her own blog on Friendster. Read it regularly to find out what she’s blown up lately.

Speaking of Taruna, she only recently moved to London, and I finally put up photos from one of the many going away parties her friends threw for her. Check ‘em out here. (standard request: vote & comment)

Well, before the holiday weekend begins, I wanted to let you know that I’ve put up photos from my trip last weekend to Los Angeles. It was a fantastic trip. It was nice to be back in California again, even though I had just visited SF two weeks earlier. Sigh, I do miss California.

I was able to spend time with friends and family while in LA. (Pretty much a best case scenario.) Exercise caution when viewing the photos as some are not pretty, and by not pretty I mean Jay without a shirt on.

You can click on any of the pictures above, or just click here. Be sure to check out Rummy (& Jay!) as Darth Vadar, and the short movie of Roshan cruising down a slide! As always, feel free to vote on your favorites and leave comments!

After you’ve finished viewing my photos, be sure to check out a few more from Roshan’s birthday party. It was after I left on Sunday, but Rummy took some and put them online here.

Congratulations to my sister and jija (& to my mom and dad!) on the birth of Rani Savitri Shrivastava :!:

I’m so happy & excited I’m a little lightheaded!! Rani and her parents are doing well. Aparna & I will be visiting them in a week or so. WOO-HOO!!! :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

I am a Star Wars fan. Yes, I even waited in line way back in 1999 to see Episode I at midnight the day it opened.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, I can comfortably admit I saw Revenge of the Sith 2 times in 2 days. Due to my disappointment with Episode I and Episode II, I wasn’t willing to attend the midnight showing (I saved that for the Lord of the Rings movies, but that’s another post). So at noon on opening day here in Austin I saw it for the first time, and I saw it at noon again on Friday in Los Angeles.

My verdict? It’s good. It’s not great, and really, the first two-thirds I could live without, but the final 45 minutes makes for great entertainment. I suspect the main reason I like the movie is because it ties directly to the original Star Wars (and thus the original trilogy) which I grew up with and are 3 of my all time favorite movies.

After warning people not to see the last two Star Wars movies, I’m happy to recommend this one!

If only I was making this up…

After waking up late one beautiful morning while Aparna & I were vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, I was eager to get the day started. We had been up late the night before so I was a bit groggy (one of the benefits of not being 21 anymore).

So I head into the bathroom and am confronted with a familiar scene:

So I grabbed my toothbrush and covered it with toothpaste. Something about the toothpaste seemed a bit “off,” so I glanced at the tube.

I figured this was some funky Mexican toothpaste the hotel had supplied, so I proceeded to begin vigorously brushing me teeth.

It was at this moment that I realized something was indeed not “right” with the toothpaste, so I quickly took a closer look at the “toothpaste”.

My thoughts at this point happened in rapid fire fashion.

Is that a “NO MOSQUITO” symbol??!?!
IT IS!!!!
OH CRAP!!
SPIT! SPIT! SPIT!

Yes, I had not only covered my toothbrush with a fair amount of mosquito ointment without realizing it, I then covered the inside of my mouth with said mosquito ointment. Ahhhh, the joys of being Mo.

No, I did not take pictures while it was happening. The above pictures were taken months later to better recreate the dramatic turn of events!

I’m glad to see that some “dot com” perks still exist. This Thursday (opening day!), at 11:30am, the company I work for is treating us all to a private showing of Star Wars Episode 3!

Yes, I was burned by the previous too movies, but here I am again …giddy with anticipation to see the final chapter in the Star Wars saga! sigh… please don’t let it be as bad as the previous two films!!

The one thing it has going for it is the viewing time… any movie you see during work hours is automatically better!

The pace of baby events is starting to pick up. We’ve had 2 “birthing” classes and 1 baby shower in the last 10 days..

The Lakanpals hosted a wonderful baby shower for us on Saturday. It was fun to see so many friends, including many aunties (and a few uncles). I’ve now had my family, Aparna’s family, my friends, and Aparna’s friends all utter variations of this phrase, “I can picture Aparna as a mom, but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t picture you as a dad Mo.” Of course, those of you who know me really well know that statement is essentially a compliment to me. A strange validiation of spending 30 years being the ‘class clown.’ (and no, that’s not a “how long was Mo in college” joke!)

So we also have attended a couple of “birthing” classes. These are where they describe what happens on the BIG DAY.
At the first class they showed us a video. I won’t describe it, but it is safe to say that video will never make it onto my NetFlix queue! Oh man…
At the second class we practiced breathing techniques. We were told to look each other in the eye and do the following breathing pattern: “Hee-Hee-Hee-Ha.” HOWEVER, being back in ‘class’ meant that I couldn’t be serious, and so Aparna & I kept giggling, and our breathing pattern more closely resembled “Hee-Hee-Hee-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-HA-HA-HA-HA.”

I’ll post pictures from the weekend soon.

The weekend before last weekend Aparna & I visited San Francisco for the first time since we moved. I must say it was nice to be in SF again. Even with all its problems, I do miss the city. We went to the beach, did a little shopping, ate some great food, and visited with friends. Of course, it helped that we didn’t have to deal with any crazy neighbors!

We spent a lot of time outside of San Francisco. We have family in Foster City, Menlo Park, San Jose, and Washington, D.C. We were able to visit with all of them. Ok, Raj and Monica came to the Bay from D.C., but we did see them!

Speaking of Raj, please join me in congratulating him on successfully completing a triathlon!!! He finished in under 3 hours and 30 minutes!! Way to go Raj!

I posted some photos from the weekend at my Gallery, or you can just click on any of the photos in this post.

Well, as it turns out, today my dad is in the paper! Specifically, the Dallas Morning News. Ok, he’s not really following me either, as he’s been in the paper many more times than me.

The interesting thing is I didn’t know he was in the paper. I went to their website as I normally do (usually to check up on Dallas sports), and I saw an interesting headline, “Prayer event exclusionary, some say.” I clicked on it, and lo and behold, I see my dad’s name!

"at City Hall, it should be interfaith and intercultural ... inclusionary, not exclusionary," said Madan Goyal, a Plano resident and Hindu layman who helped organize the last two events at City Hall."

It’s a good article talking about the dynamic between evangelical Christians and religious non-Christians.

Click on the headline above to read the article, and if asked, you can use the following username and password to read it:

user: mo@ticnet.com
pass: dallas

Hi Everyone!

If you have access to the New York Times, I suggest you grab a copy today.

Why?

Well, I’m featured mentioned in an article!

Here’s a sampling:

“Mr. Goyal is an early adopter of technology, and his experience is most likely to sound too good to be true…”

You can also read the article online by clicking HERE.

You can use the following username and password if you don’t have one, don’t want to create one, don’t remember yours, etc:

username: sadsad3
password: sadsad

“All the news that’s fit to print” indeed!

Thanks to Lisa Guernsey for interviewing me for the article, and to Irma for thinking of me when Lisa asked her if she knew any geeks (or a “dork” as my sister so lovingly calls me)

p.s. - I should mention the article is about using your cell phone to search the internet. It’s very well written. (& accurate on the technical details!)