Lift Line Landmarks

People travel from all over the world to ski here in the Colorado Rocky Mountains... so I thought it would be fun to play a little game I created called “Lift Line Landmarks”. I discovered that it's easier to play if you are skiing alone, which I like to do. The game requires gathering information from the strangers that join you on the chair lift or share your table at lunch. The object of the game is to try to check off all 50 states... the checks indicate that you have met someone from that state. After only a few days, I have 8 states checked and have added 2 countries to the list.

There's the grandma from Vermont skiing with her 2 sons and their families, the college kids from Nebraska on break who drove 10 hours to get here, the guy stricken with altitude sickness from Florida who upchucked right over the edge of the chair, the father and son from New Jersey who owned a condo in Ocean City, Md, the firefighter from Texas who left the 80 degree weather for the cold white blanket of snow, the 30-something buddies from Arkansas who had frozen chunks of ice in their short beards, the lady from California in the lodge moving her sleeping toddler from bench to bench while he napped, the boarders from Brazil and Priya's ski school instructor from Argentina with a heavy accent.

Perhaps the most memorable though was a little girl from Illinois. She was just a wee bit older than Priya... maybe 7 or 8 and she was headed up the lift with her ski school just in front of us. As it turns out, her ski got stuck on the gate and so her 3 ski schoolmates made it on the chair, but she was left behind to ride with a couple of strangers. Being a real beginner, this was her first time on a high-speed quad chair and her first time to the TOP of the mountain. As soon as the chair took off from the loading area... she was visibly shaken and started to comment on how fast the chair was traveling and how high we were above the trees. She was filled with a nervous excitement that made her talk, talk and, did I mention, talk. All the way up she was chattering about something or the other while Bartee and I tried to calm her worries about the speed of the chair and what to do when it reaches the top. She was so adorable and I just soaked in the freshness of her experience.

I Miss My Bumblebee

This week has been trying for us in many ways, but the one who is suffering the most is Sanjay. It is Sanjay's first time in a full day childcare situation... and he's not just dipping his toes in, he's getting fully soaked. In order for us to take advantage of the full week skiing, we arranged for him to attend the local preschool 4 days this week. By the second day, it was a little tough on us as well... and as we were driving back from skiing at Vail, Daddy says, “I miss my Bumblebee”. This elicited a response from Priya that we've come to expect... complete and utter jealousy. She wants Daddy to miss her, too... and just as much if not more than he misses Sanjay. So, she suggests that “tomorrow I'll ski with Mommy all day so that you'll miss me”. And, her voice was serious and downhearted as the words came out.

When she acts this way, there's nothing I can do to avoid seeing myself in her. This particular incident reminds me of a time in elementary school when my sister broke her arm and seeing all the attention she was getting, I really wished that I too had a broken limb. Ugh... all the bad things. Why do they have to mimic and adopt all the poor habits and behaviors? Granted, my personality is quite flawed so there's a lot to choose from. I only wish that the things I want to change about myself (if I hadn't been practicing them now for nearly 40 years), I could at least hide from my children.

Charging Gadgets

The cell phone is charging... the camera is charging... the iPod is charging. As we are packing the car with food and suitcases, my electronic gadgets are getting ready for the week-long vacation, too.

If you are actually a regular reader... don't be sad. I've not given up, just simply disappeared for a week or so to the beautiful snow-capped mountains of Colorado. I'll try to post from there, but cannot make any promises... we'll be busy skiing.

Public Service Announcement by Sandy (i.e. - not official)

I don't know if you're following this story or not, but it's really fascinating to me and I'm anxious to see what's going to happen. A satellite launched in December 2006 never quite made it to its intended orbit and has since been making its way back to Earth. They expect it will reach the atmosphere during the first week of March, however about ½ of this 5,000 pound spacecraft will not disintegrate on re-entry.

What does this mean for us? Unfortunately they don't know where the satellite will land and won't know until it is 59 miles above the Earth... that'll give us 30 minutes to get to a safer place if we're in harms way. But, considering the Earth is about 75% water, it is likely that the debris (2,500 lbs of it) will land in the ocean. However... this was a spy satellite which means its orbit was designed to primarily keep it over land... so look out! Actually, the chances of any of us being hit by the satellite are one in a trillion. So the odds are more likely that you'll be struck by lightning (1 in 1.4 million).

Anyway, keep an eye in the sky the first week of March... we should at least see a nice light show... hopefully off in the distance over an ocean somewhere far, far away from where the people live.

Sanjay's Size

Sanjay had his annual check-up today... he falls into the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. If he continues along this path, he'll reach 6'1" and weight about 160 lbs as an adult. Our pediatrician thinks it's fun to extrapolate the graph and I love to imagine what they'll look like at this size. At the moment, I cannot recall what she said about Priya, but the next time I'll be sure to document it.

Roomali Roti

People often ask where I learned Indian cooking and how I'm able to make it so authentically having grown up the first 25 years of my life completely without it. I have to give most of the credit to my husband, grudgingly, and the rest to his Mom, of course. She has very patiently and graciously dictated and demonstrated recipes to me over the years. Bartee has a different style of improving my cooking... it's called criticism, which I think he would prefer me to call "constructive criticism". He almost always has something to say about the food I put on his plate... "not enough salt", "there should be more gravy, it's too dry", "the dahl in here was a mistake", "the lentils should be more separated... not so mushy", "there should be big chunks of tomatoes", etc. On the flip side however, on the rare occasion when something is cooked just right... he is my biggest fan. "Wow, Mommy cooked a delicious dinner tonight... this is really tasty, the rice is cooked perfectly". Over the years I have really grown to appreciate this judgement and criticism, as I know without it, my sambhar and rasam would still taste as unexciting and amateur as it did back in 1999. He is well-known in his family for his honesty when it comes to his appreciation, or lack thereof, of the meals prepared for him. Often, he is asked to be the taste-tester... to judge whether something needs more salt or additional spice.

So that's the background, now let's get to today's story. I tell him that I'm planning mutter paneer with chappathi for dinner and it's no surprise that he would like to alter the dinner plan a bit. He asks me to make Roomali "meaning handkerchief" Roti instead of chappathi. So, I'm up for the challenge even though I have never seen or heard of this roti, let alone tasted it, ever in my life. It wasn't too difficult to find the recipe online... however, the steps were overwhelming. And it turns out they make a special appliance (oven) for cooking this type of bread, because it's so difficult to make. It should be cooked on a wok-shaped pan, without a non-stick surface, turned upside down on the gas burner (we have an electric stove).

What have I gotten myself into?

The dough is already made, so I can't back out now. I'm rolling the dough, which according to the recipe, should be "as thin as a tissue". And I think this is where I went wrong... the recipe says, "try to swing the roti in the air circling your wrist in a counterclockwise motion". I'm pretty sure I spun mine clockwise and in doing so... my Roomali Roti came out almost exactly as my chappathi's do. So, he was a bit disappointed when these Handkerchief Roti's looked, felt and tasted just like the same old bread I usually make with mutter paneer.

Had I discovered this step-by-step video for making them before attempting it alone... things may have turned out differently. They do look mighty tasty!

What's Gonna Work? Teamwork!

So, today marks Priya's 100th day of Kindergarten. To celebrate, they had a party at school with various craft tables. Each craft is somehow related to the number 100. They made some very interesting glasses where 0's were punched out for the eyes, a Fruit Loop necklace with 100 colorful bites of cereal, and they had to roll dice continuously until the sum of the rolls reached 100.

Indeed it was a fun day at school, but leading up to this day... Priya had a project assignment to be completed at home. Turns out... it was really fun for the family to work together on it. The students had to assemble 100 "things" on a poster board. After brainstorming over dinner one night (100 q-tips?, 100 toothpicks?, 100 cotton balls?), Priya chose to cut out 100 diamonds from various colored construction paper. She cut 20 green diamonds, 20 yellow diamonds, 20 blue diamonds, 20 brown diamonds and 20 pink diamonds. They were displayed on the poster board in groups of 5... and we had a little assembly line going of choosing the diamond, putting glue on the back and then placing it in the correct spot on the poster board. Teamwork at its best.