Gee, what a difference !

Born to Santha
Married to Sangeetha

sometimes "Gee" is all that is different!

Couldn't have chosen a better woman for the delayed action replay!

Sometimes it looks like one of those Sun TV Serials where at the beginning of the show, they put two photographs and say "starting today this person will play this character instead of this person".

Switch dad for me, mom for wife and some of the scenes in the house appear to be right on the same script. Maybe it all makes sense, considering there is genetic inheritance from my dad and my wife was picked because of her "momlike" qualities, sick as that might sound!

Now that is good and bad.

Good, because after being married for what appears to be 173 trillion years, my parents love each other. We know it, although they don't kiss in public, hold hands or even say it out loud. We just know it, in a way that is more of a subconscious than the obvious.

Bad, because we know what was bad in the original but there is no rewrite on the script to gloss over the bad parts. Well, maybe that is where the kids come in and maybe that is all good as well.

Another year has almost rolled by with a few days left to reminisce, recap, rethink and plan for what lies ahead.

and here is to a new year resolution to be more in sync with the rest of the family...

I know. I know. The extended family who read this would probably get a good laugh out of this post, knowing that my health is no better than it was last year and it takes friends to die, for me to give up on fries!

Getting there, one step at a time!

Next years goal, no Aloo, period!

ps. there is no need to rewrite the script. It is predictable, but one gets used to these soaps!

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Fantasy of Lights - Vasona Park

One of the local parks here (Vasona park in Los Gatos) has a Fantasy of Lights event where they put nice Christmas light displays and you drive through them at <5 miles per hour with the matching music to go on a local radio station.

The light displays were amazing! The kids were initially entertained, but they were not happy with the open passenger side window. While it accomodated the photo/videographer, it made the van too cold for their liking. This was followed by questions like

"how much longer do we have to drive like this?"
"are we going to stay here forever?"

etc. etc..

It is a good idea to teach your kids a few patience lessons before taking them on this drive...

Here is a video and some photos of the trip.









Thoroughly enjoyable!!

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Finding Santa in Santa Places

Every year on Christmas day, we seem to hit some place (usually a beach town) which starts with Santa!

Maybe it is our subconsious seeking out the old man with the beard in the white foam on the beaches, we do not know.

This year, it was a trip to Santa Cruz to visit the Natural Bridges and the Monarch Butterfly preserves. We were in two minds, what with the rain pouring down in occasional bursts all through Christmas eve, but we decided to do the drive anyways.

It was with mixed success. The storm had blown out most of the butterflies and the rest of them decided to close their wings and huddle together. When they do that, you cannot really distinguish them from the leaves on the tall eucalyptus trees. Save for the occasional lone butterfly that was fluttering aimlesslly, we did not catch any magnificent site. Well, we at least know where this place is and will make another visit next year.

On our way out, we went down to the beach to see the natural bridges. Oh, what a sight it was! The sun went behind the clouds and made the whole place look something out of this world. It was a photographers dream, for a full four minutes before the rain came down and forced us to run to our vehicles.



No photos of the butterflies, except this pink one!



The magnificence of the Natural bridge! There were two bridges, but one collapsed recently.


Playing with the lone gull that was scouring the foam




Jr.'s first photo using the Digital Rebel. Not bad!


Finally, the stitch shots...

From atop the Butterfly preserve, looking down to the beach..


6 shot stitch


16 shot stitch. If only I could get the sun shining through the hole under the bridge. Now that would be some shot!


Here is to Santa Cruz!

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