This is the first post I'm able to put together from Paris. Since the Eiffel Tower is the quintessential image of Paris, I couldn't resist putting its picture beside this. Also, since I took the picture, I'm rather proud of it as well.

Our trip to Paris was quite interesting. Let me describe how things went from then until today in three separate posts, one for each day.

Spring Cleaning

Okay - so I'm in the middle of cleaning stuff up at home this week. You could think of it as the proverbial Spring Cleaning. However, the rationale for this clean-up jaunt is simply to ensure that we are lean and mean when it May/June swings around and we have to move. You see, the Boss will need to move to Raleigh nearer to NC State. She will be living there for another year, which should culminate in her receiving an American bachelors degree in engineering. Woo hoo! I, have no idea where I will be located right now. My company's HR personnel have yet to inform me of the location of my first rotation. But in any case, having things tidied up at home will make the move to wherever a heck of a lot easier.

Today, I just got through our store room, my tool kit, the medicine cabinet and the bathroom closet. Things seem better arranged and stored away in little labeled boxes. I hope that this will make things easier on us later.

Did I mention that I like to clean stuff? It gives me quite a bit of pleasure to tidy up, arrange, organize. The Boss says that I'm obsessive compulsive. Perhaps...but whatever flips one's pancakes, right?

Sarah P. Duke Gardens

The Boss and I went for a walk to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens today. It was a wonderful day, blue skies and 85 degrees. While the Boss obviously thought that I was up for a romantic walk in the park, I had ulterior motives. I wanted to test drive my new digital SLR. We ended up spending a good two hours at Duke, taking a bunch of portraits and landscapes. It's clear to me that I am desperately out of practice and need to hone my picture taking skills. The new camera is incentive enough to do just that.

With this post, I'm hoping to jump back into the blogging spirit. More to follow...hopefully...

Middle Age

I was thinking to myself these past few days that I'm a middle aged guy. Well, traditionally, middle age is 30's to 40's, right? So I'm 30. So I'm middle aged. I can't fathom that in my head though. I mean, something just doesn't compute when I try to think about myself as middle aged. I still think I'm a spring chicken. But the signs that this is not the case keep popping up.

For example, when I make a dash to the bus stop to catch a bus, I find there are there these parts of my body that jiggle. I read about these amazing students who've accomplished this, that and the other thing and they've born in the nineties. . Of course, a giveaway should have been that the Boss was born in the eighties. Doh! She never ceases to say that I'm a different generation that her. Which is probably true. I grew up in India when Noni was this cute VJ on MTV. The Boss claims that this is some woman I've made up in my pathetic attempts to be cool when I was growing up. Her 'generation' grew up with Rahul Khanna as the MTV VJ and goodness knows who else.

Did I mention that my body jiggles all over these days? It's horrible. I keep telling myself that I ought to pull myself into shape. But it's awfully hard to do so when you're restrictred to swimming (which I hate intensely) and walking (which does nearly burn enough calories to be truly effective). It also doesn't help that I love to eat. All of this doesn't lend to what can be called a healthy lifestyle.

Sometimes that's how the cookies crumbles, right?

Wither History

I'm beginning to wonder what the worth of History is. Is there any tangible benefit to keeping extensive records of historical events, especially if the events are atrocities that were committed? I used to subscribe to the thought that the advantage of knowing history is the ability to learn from it. Ergo, not allow history to repeat itself. But honestly, how often does this happen? I mean, atrocities in the world continue to be committed. Political errors continue to be committed (identical to the idiocities that have been committed before). But the most sadly ironic part of these facts are that many of today's atrocities are committed in the name of history. Sure, there are communal and racial reasons for violence and discrimination. But they are all based in the annals of a history book or historical account.

If this is what history gets us, I say we shouldn't have any more history. Who cares about the past when the present and the future is what we need to truly worry about?

Nothing like a good read

So I'm reading a book called "Freedom at Midnight", which gives the reader an account of the events that led to Indian and Pakistani Independence in 1946/1947. It's a fascinating read, going into the details of the various political dynamics that existed at that time. What it also does in a very elegant fashion, is paint a lucid picture of the personality traits of the various characters in this saga. I am assuming that the reseach that went into this book is accurate, and that the facts are correct. And while I haven't completed it, I already feel like I have such a clearer understanding of the issues that were at the forefront in 1947. One more thing that is worth mentioning is the prose that is used in the book to describe scene after scene is very descriptive in a beautiful way. It was very easy to conjure up images of the scenes described due to the sheer ability of the authors to articulate it.

I will comment on the book again after I complete it.

This past weekend, I started exercising again. And lo and behold, my entire body is racked with muscular aches today. The only way to ease the pain away is regularity of exercise, but given the mercurial weather in Atlanta these days, who can tell if I can do so.

Memorial Day - not so memorable

So the 3-day weekend came and went. I had somewhat grandiose plans of going hiking over the weekend. Unfortunately, those plans went to naught because of a rather truculent weather system that hovered around the Atlanta area. Actually, there's more where it came from - it's been raining for the past 6 days. But it's provided for a nice atmosphere to be sleepy and lounge around. I watched a marathon session of Law & Order over the weekend and learned more than I care to about the American Legal System. This is a good show - the kinds of dilemmas that I find that these lawyers are up against are truly demanding of one's ethics and morals.

The Boss is having a good time in India, being fed alls kinds of yummy stuff. I'm really envious of her. She's going to be home soon, and I'm really looking forward to that. After nearly three years of marriage, it's not easy to get used to living in an empty house. I will sure live it up when she gets back (by irritating the heck out of her). .