Morgan Territory Park Hike

First thing in the morning, when I got to kitchen, I was reminded that if I plan on staying home for a while, I’m going to need lots of patience. It’s only Sunday! My first day off isn’t even till tomorrow and I’m already dreading it! :( Not having support from one person that you should be able to count on, doesn’t help the matters.

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Anyway… I had laid out the plan for entire day. I had decided to make Khaman for lunch, but then, JK mentioned about sev-khamani. So, I told him that we have some in the freezer that we can have on the side. So, we had khaman and sev-khamani for lunch. Neil had been craving for tortillini for 2-3 days, so I let him make some of that too.

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I really wanted to go visit mom with kids in the afternoon, but that plan got chopped off. Pooja wanted us to go hiking at Morgan territory anyway, so that’s what we did. It was such a beautiful hike! The trees and atmosphere is almost like rain forest. I can not believe that we’ve never been there for all this years. It’s right in Livermore!!! As Pooja and Neil mentioned, we have so much beauty right here in our own town and we drive 3 hours to go looking for it! Of course, nothing can compare to beauty of Yosemite, but this one is a great substitute when you only have 2-3 hours.

20140223-230432.jpgOn our way to the park, we spotted one really futuristic spaceship looking vehicle. It was so cool and interesting! At first, we thought it was one of those remote control car or something. As we got closer to it, we noticed that there was a man sitting in there riding it! I had to post it on Facebook right away to find out what it is. Turns out, it’s Recumbent. Darcy’s dad in making one of those!

20140223-231326.jpgAs soon as we got home, it was time for me and Avni to go to Safeway to sell Girl Scout cookies. I was the only adult there. I usually look forward to cookie booths to catch up with Melanie. But this year, she refused to sell cookies because of the higher prices. They raised the prices from $4 per box to $5 per box this year. It wasn’t too bad being alone. I had fun joking around with girls. It was much needed tome away from home.

On our way home, Avni and I stopped by at Mr. Guido’s home to pick up harness that we forgot from last week’s rock climbing. Then, stopped at Target to buy bananas and apples. JK had made pizza on tortilla for dinner.

 

Palak paneer!

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There was a function for senior citizens at Livermore temple today. JK took Ba-dada to the temple at 10 and then, went to office. Pooja was working at library at 12, so I made masala pasta from last night’s leftover pasta. As I was cooking corn with jalapeño, garlic, ‘lasaniu marchoo’ and garam masala, Neil came to kitchen and frowned at the thought that we still needed to finish the pasta from last night. Just then, I dumped entire container of pasta in corn! LOL He was just shocked at that. he didn’t see that coming! LOL

Avni had soccer practice at 1, so I dropped her off at the park. I would’ve let her take the car, but I was expecting a call from Ba-Dada at 2, to pick them up from temple. JK ended up picking up Avni from the park as he was just leaving from office. I asked him to pick up milk from Costco on his way home as we were completely out and would save me a trip. Just as he was picking up Avni, I got call from Ba, so I had JK pick them up too. I saved myself 3 trips!!!

Pinka was on FB and we ended up talking for a bit. Then, I just decided to call her instead. Once I gave a phone to JK, that was end of it! We had been talking to her over hour and half. I had to remind him that it’s already midnight for her in UK! She’s going to Mansarovar, India in June and want me to join her. That would be one awesome trip. Let’s see how things go by then!

JK had picked up baby spinach from Costco to make masala palak paneer. He wanted to try it out after it was posted on ShowMeTheCurry yesterday. It turned out really good! He had told Pinika that he’s making it tonight, so he wanted to make sure that I post the photo on FB and give him the credit for it! :) Neil didn’t get to try it because he was gone for birthday party at his friend Andrew’s home. But he made sure that we save it for him for tomorrow. He hates it when we try out new recipe in his absence.

I did my one last splurge on scrapping supplies. But I got really great deal at $8. I got 5 items (journaling cards, alpha, templates.. ) from Julie Billingsley and photo masks, alpha, notecards, paint cards by Misty Cato. I had $13 coupon from Juile. On top of this, I got 3 mega kits for FREE!  Couldn’t beat that! But this is it. I won’t be buying anything more until I have better income. Oh, I also got mega journal card sampler pack from the Lily Pad. The pack contained 50+ cards!!! What a great freebie! There are some really good cards in that pack!

I made tiny progress on my Project Life page. I want to finish journaling on it before I go to sleep! Let’s see if I can make it happen!

New Journey!

So, today was my last day of job. I don’t know what future holds for me. But I have a feeling that I’m really off to a great start! Let’s see how my day went today. It was full of little bursts of happiness!

I woke up at my regular Friday morning routine at 4:30, but hit the snooze button twice and finally got out of bed at around 4:50. I don’t know how, but I found myself with so much extra time before I was supposed to leave home. Even though, I took my time making smoothie, getting ready, I got to my CrossFit training almost 15 minutes early! Oh, and on the way, I called MJ. I told him that it was my last day of work. I also told him that I was ok with it and that everything will be ok. He told me that his blessings are always with me and that I’ll be fine. It was just so good to talk to him after so long!

At CrossFit, I hit 135 wall balls in 12 minutes. I was hoping to finish 150 in 12 minutes, but ran short by just a few. However, I didn’t feel it as painful or annoying as others did. I don’t even feel any kind of soreness or anything. I know that I should’ve used 14# ball rather than 10#. But I wanted to see it first if I can finish it with 10# before I move on to 14#.

On my way to work, I called Hasumasi in Nadiad. I haven’t talk to her in a while either! It was great to catch up with her.

Just as I parked my car at work and I was looking at Facebook, I saw that Kalpu had posted a photo of sunrise from her early morning hike. Just as I was about to type a response to her, she called me! She was planned to go to Mt. Diablo in afternoon with Sapna and wanted to see if I would want to join her. After some back and forth, I agreed to join her. since it was going to take same amount of time as I usually go to her home for lunch.

When I got in office, I checked my emails and guess what? I had a message that I had won $13 gift certificate to one of the designer for my scrapping goodies!

Now, if you’re keeping count, that’s 5 happy moments. And it’s only 8 o’clock!!!!

I had few emails of goodbyes and how they’re going to miss working with me. It was heartwarming that they actually marked their calendar for today!

At 12, Kalpu and Sapna came to pick me up for our drive to Mt. Diablo. Weather was gorgeous! We stayed up at the summit for about half an hour before heading down. It was just so refreshing! As Janis said, that was my little celebration for my last day of the job.

Because of our drive, I missed having lunch at home with mom. So, mom called me later asking me about lunch. But I just couldn’t take another half hour for lunch after coming back from Diablo. I’ll have to make it up another day.

Kalpana was still around when I got back, so I had a chance to talk to her for few minutes and say proper goodbyes. Kerry had Dr. appointment, so she came to hug goodbye before leaving.

Hardest was to say goodbye to Tina. Oh, I’m sooooo going to miss talking to her! :( But even she had some good news to share with me. She is pregnant!!!!! I’m so happy for her! It was just so emotional to turn off my Q from her. Finally, I just had to shut it off. Otherwise, I would’ve been there for another hour and wouldn’t want to let go of her! I didn’t think it would be so hard for me, knowing we still stay in touch by text messages and emails over the weekends. We can still do the same on daily basis. We both agreed that it just won’t be the same!

Finally, I went to Janis and said that I’m ready to leave. That was another hard one. Not emotionally as charged as with Tina, but I’ve worked with her for 5 years. We had some great times and laughter over some wacky test cases. She had been a great boss to me. I can’t deny that.

After work, I was meeting Jody for dinner at Chili’s. Linda Funderburk was there too. I had a great time talking to them. After the dinner was over, Jody and I talked in parking lot by my car for over 40 minutes! It felt good to have some heart to heart talk.

Got home at about 9, soon after, Neil and Avni came home too. They had gone out with friends. Today was Avni’s first day with car all by herself. Spent some time with Pooja and Avni , hung out with them for few to catch up with them.

Overall, it had been a great day!!! I couldn’t have asked for a better beginning of my new journey to wherever it’s taking me!