I find it hard to accept when I hear someone killed himself/herself. Even worse is when I hear a father killed the whole family and then killed himself. Seriously – what can be sooo bad that you have to take a life/lives? If you have the courage to kill your innocent 4-5 year old kids, what is out there that you can not face? I’ve seen multiple cases recently where the family is losing their homes, losing jobs and then as a last act of desperation, killing the whole family and themselves. Why?!!! Why?? Why?? People get set on a type of a lifestyle and they just can not see themselves living a lesser of a lifestyle. Atleast that’s one reason I see behind these killings. When did we become so vain?

P.S. This and this prompted this post. And I just found this!!! God help us!

I had totally forgotten that I changed the template for Zeenotes!!!!

1) Potty train Zoya
2) Throw away more stuff from the house
3) Clean the garage
4) Update photos on smugmug
5) Watch plenty of movies
6) Read some books
7) and obviously try to get in some workout done in between all those things I am planning to do! (I did workout couple of times, but not nearly as many times as I could have!)

5 out of 7 - not bad, huh?

Yet another year went by and I still weigh about the same as I did at the beginning of the year, if not more! No clear muscle definition is visible either! So it's not like I've lost fat and gained muscle! On top of that, Tanveer has gone all out on health and fitness this year! As some of you already know, he did the Livestrong challenge this year. He is planning on doing it again in 09. He is also digging up all these core strengthening exercises from the web and actually doing them! He has made a lot of changes to his eating habit and I can see the results of all these, yet I still am not motivated enough to do those things for myself! How sad is that!? Oh did I mention he actually bought a treadmill for me since I always said that if we had one at home, it will be easier for me to workout? Meanwhile, yet another of my uncles suffered a stroke this year. This one brings the number to FIVE strokes/heart attacks on my mom's side of the family! So I am a high risk too.

I secretly wish for my pre-pregnancy body back. I fantasize about how I will work out, eat healthy and become a size four again, but put any food in front of me and I forget all about eating healthy, getting that body back, let alone be more responsible for my health. I tell myself I'll work out when I get home, but when I get home, I feel too lazy/find excuses not to exercise. It scares me to think what would happen to the kids if I am not there to take care of them, but I obviously don't feel strongly enough to make becoming healthier a priority. What an awful person I am!

I've been soooooo down last couple of days. What can I do that would not let me forget what my priorities should be when there is a box of cookies in front of me? I don't need to go to a body building competition. I don't even need to look good in a dress. I need to be healthy - for myself, for my kids, for my family.

I have come to the conclusion that I don't ever want to watch a romantic movie that has a sad ending! I watched "Mr. and Mrs. Iyer" last night. If you haven't watched the movie yet, stop reading here. Major spoilers ahead. Why the hell couldn't she go with him? She should have just gone off to the jungle with him and had dinner with him under the moonlight while getting bitten by the mosquitos! AND she would have been happier! Who cares that there is no running water? Who gives a damn that they are from different religions? After all, they are not real! Its only a movie! Just make the audience happy!!!!!!!!!!

Same goes for "Lust, Caution". Its only a movie people! Just let the general save the poor girl and let her wear her quail diamond ring and her nice clothes and let her lust after him. Done. everyone is happy. What's so hard to understand with this concept?

I think I am going to watch more hindi movies from now on. 100% guaratee that the guy is going to get the girl, no matter how many twists there are in the plotline. One movie gives you romance, action, suspense: what more do you want??!!

We were eating lunch when his phone rang. He looked at the number and excused himself to answer the phone. Within seconds, I could see the smile getting wiped off of his face. He is usually always smiling, somewhat of a goofball. It was really unsettling to see the range of emotions playing on his face, none of them a familiar look on him. Looked like he wanted to cry. After he hung up, he told me his grandmother just passed away in India. He is moving back to India in a week. I spent a lot of my drive home imagining him as a little kid, being spoiled by his grandmother. Hope he is doing ok.

7:48 pm
It must be surreal for the candidates to sit there and watch the numbers

7:57 pm
I hope and hope and hope that I NEVER, EVER have to see Sarah Palin after tonight. Not even on 2012! Please go away!

8:21 pm
Huffington Post is saying: Obama 103, McCain 34!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

8:47 pm
I want something sweet...

8:55 pm
Was trying to convince Neetha to come over. Didn't work :-(

9:09 pm
Glad to hear that Toot's vote for Obama will be counted :-)

9:26 pm
THANK YOU OHIO!

9:48 pm
Can't wait for Obama's victory speech. I think I'll most definitely cry! :-P

10:01 pm
Found THREE old friends on FB

11:04 pm
HELL YA!!!!!!!!!! OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA!

11:38 pm
Proud to be a part of this historical moment in this great country

11:43 pm
What is Anderson Cooper going to do from tomorrow? :-P

12:26 am
(sigh of relief) Yes we can!

Those who say they are going to vote for McCain because they like Palin, scare the shit out of me. Come on people! Do you not realize that, God forbid, if something happens to McCain, it will be her running the country!?! Didn't we learn anything from EIGHT embarrassing years under Bush?! Come to think of it, compared to her, Bush seems intelligent! She is just too bubbly, too pageant like! I don't want my VP to be an intellectual featherweight! I don’t think I've ever disliked any woman this much without really knowing her! Every time I hear the expression that Palin is "only a heartbeat away from the presidency", my heart skips a beat! God forbid, if they make it to the White House, I’ll have to start praying for McCain’s good health!

BTW, Tina Fey was just ridiculously awesome as Palin! :-P

It just rained over here. Well, there really wasn't any raindrops! It was all hail. This was picked up after another five minutes of rain and still look at the size!

I got a chuckle out of this piece as I was listening to it on the radio on my way to work this morning. You could read the article here but I'd say listen to it. It was kinda funny! Or maybe its just my weird sense of humor :-P

I went to get some books for the kids from the library yesterday and the first book caught my eye! How cool! Needless to say, I brought it home, but we were not able to read it cause a little girl was intent on reading "Run, mouse, run". Most of the words were simple enough that she could read them on her own and I think this new found achievement made her want to read it over and over and over again. Raffae patiently waited, and waited and waited for his turn, but I was not allowed to put "Run, mouse, run" down. I'll have to make sure we read Raffae's pick first tonight.

I wanted to try a new route to work this morning. So I wrote down the directions on paper as our printer is not working. I also took the GPS with me just in case. I did not mean to turn the GPS on as it tries to take me the usual way which is exactly what I was trying to avoid.

I was taking back-roads to get to the highway and I am not too familiar with this area. Everything was going according to plan when I hit a detour. Since my hand-written directions were useless at that point, and I noticed the detour signs were quite far apart from each other, I turned the GPS on for my sanity check. In less then ten minutes, my GPS goes “Lost Satellite Connection”!!!!!!! WTH!!!! I decided to keep looking for the detour signs. I drove for another 10-15 minutes and I was still not on my planned route. I was getting increasingly worried by this time! I wasn’t even sure if I was going in the right direction or if I have crossed the state line and gone into Pennsylvania which is not too far from where we live!!!!!!!! I couldn’t even stop and ask for directions because I was going through farmland. There was no one in sight unless I wanted to show up at someone’s doorstep or walk through cow dung to go to some barn to find someone who could give me directions! Ok, I exaggerate a bit, but seriously, it was the boondocks.

What kept me grounded was the beautiful scenery. It was breath-taking. The mountains, the fog, the trees, the river – just gorgeous. I was looking at cows grazing; people getting into tractors and other farming equipments; other farm workers getting ready to start the day; beautiful houses with wrap around porches; tall, sleeping willows with white benches in their shades; flag flying on every porch; antique stores; vineyards (Gotta check it out soon); funky looking bed and breakfasts (one had a red polka dotted window shutters); cheap gas ($4.05/gallon!! Cheapest we can get in our area is $4.15). So pretty!!!!! Thank God I was driving slowly, otherwise I might have not seen these beautiful things we have all around us but are too busy to notice.

I was driving the other day and wasn’t really paying attention to the radio. Something must have caught my ears and I started listening to the interviewer talking to some Hillary supporters, asking them if they are ready to support Obama. This one guys says something like “I don’t trust Osama, I mean Obama. I’m sorry. Their names are very similar. His middle name is Hussain. He used to live in a Muslim country. I am just not sure if I can trust someone like that.” I swear I wanted to hurt this guy violently. I mean seriously! How can you be this close minded?! As far as I am concerned, you are occupying valuable space on this earth. Could I please hurl you out of this earth into the vast space where you can be just space junk?!

Our local shopping center opened a Coffee shop and we have been meaning to take the kids there to see how they behave! So on Saturday morning, put some coloring books, crayons, books etc in a bag and took the kids there! They LOVED it and were content to sit there on the couch/rug and color! At one point, Zoya was laying on the couch with her feet propped on the back of the couch, eating her apple! Looked very comfy! :-)

Then we went back home, filled up the small backyard pool/slide combo my sister sent for the kids and let them play in there for a while. We have had trouble with getting Zoya into the pool in the past, cause she thinks the pool is just an extension of the bathtub and wants to take off ALL her clothes when she gets to the pool! So when we saw that she was happily playing in the small pool, we decided to take the kids to the community pool. She just jumped right into the pool and never came out! She was in 2.5 feet of water, floating holding one of those foam noodle thingy! Raffae has been going to the pool for the past two years and still can't float! She is just such an daredevil! I should also mention that she was wearing a mickey mouse swimming trunk and nothing else. So a lot of people thought she was a boy! :-P I couldn't get her to wear any of the pink/yellow girls swim suits!!!!!! So I got her the trunk thinking she would probably wear this since she loves Mickey Mouse. Now she refuses to wear anything else, even a top! LOL

I then went to a co-worker's wedding reception which was fun, cause I got to dress up and all my non-desi co-workers were completely at awe at my saree!!!!!!!! I am such an attention hogger!

On Sunday, we got up late and went to a birthday lunch party. Within two minutes of arriving there, Zoya got hit on her nose by a frisbee! It was ugly! There was blood everywhere and I had to spend the rest of the time there, trying to placate her! I was just glad her nose was ok!

So didn't do anything this weekend as far as laundry, cooking etc is concerned but did have loads of fun and the weekend just ended way too quickly!

John McCain is appearing at a news conference with Bobby Jindal this afternoon! Could we have a McCain - Jindal ticket for the presidential election? I think so! Now even though I don't want three presidents in the White House, I am thinking a "McCain Jindal" and a "Obama Clinton" ticket would be awesome in the sense that it would represent America like no other ticket has ever done before! Let us wait and see.........

BTW, I updated my voter registration info this morning! :-P Have you?