What the Blog?

A couple of weeks ago, we invited (non-Indian) friends over for an Indian meal. It was the first time we've shared our homemade Indian food with someone else - and we were nervous! Especially with two new recipes. Well, the photos don't quite do it justice but it was a tasty meal! We're re ally proud... between asking moms for advice and relying on Google, we found some great & easy recipes. Chole : http://www.recipezaar.com/I-Cant-Wait-for-Chole-25632 plus extra jalapenos and cumin to taste. Baingan Bharta : My own concoction + Mom's help. Be sure to add a lot of spice to this one. I usually start with the base of tomatoes /onions / garlic / pepper and add lots of eggplant and potatoes before letting the pressure cooker do the work. Mint raita : mint from the garden, a splash of lemon juice, half-teaspoon of sugar, and mixed plain yogurt Palak Paneer : Stir fry the paneer first (try canola oil). We didn't do this and ended up with teeny tiny paneer ...

Yup... it's FALL! The smell of open windows, and crunchy leaves on the ground. It has a distinct smell of fresh air with a hint of smoky... mm.. So it's been a while. Let's recap the past, oh, 9 months. We got married, so that took up most of the year. Anika finished her first YEAR of law school. 1 down, 2 to go! We wrote all of our wedding thank-you cards, which also took a long time. And, we decided where to honeymoon - finally. We'll be going to (drumroll..) Argentina! In December, just when it's time to layer up in DC. I can't wait. And, we've harvested tons of peppers and tomatoes from our lovely little veggie garden in the front of our apartment. We've also had a lot of visitors, since we upgraded to a new apartment with a spare bedroom. It makes us feel like real adults. Amit visited, and we explored the beautiful VA wine country - we paired wine with $ 0.25 hot dogs, yum! Here's a photo of Anika and the brothers Coats...

It was a day to end all days...or maybe just help them begin. I've been up for way too long today, so I'll keep it short. I think, for the first time, I was REALLY excited about living in this fair city. Although I believe a lot of things could have been handled better (did we really have to rely on Metro for EVERYthing?), being in the center of it all was pretty amazing. In short...last minute tickets...long waits in the cold... crazy, excited, pushy, thrilled, emotional crowds... breaking down barriers (including physical ones, so that we could get closer in), witnessing history... ushering in a new era... celebrating change... walking for hours in (you guess it) the cold... sleeping to awake to what will hopefully be a turning point for a new day.

Time for the first edition of: What is that smell? Bike riding home down 19th street, between Kalorama & Biltmore (which just sounds like it's a street that would smell funny, doesn't it?), around 8:30 pm on a weeknight. What is that smell? My theory, as I scrunch my nose up in disgust, is a big dumpster full of stuff people should be composting. Yup, it smells like really rotten food. Walking along 18th street on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday during daylight hours. Reminds me (fondly? No, definitely not) of Castro street in SF during Sunday AM runs. I think it's puke from the night before, mixed with alcohol and cigarette butts. Can't be sure, but it is definitely not a pleasant odor. Hallway of our apartment complex, first floor, generally Thursday evenings: cigarette smoke mixed with macaroni and cheese? Not sure but it smells like someone either burned their dinner and decided cigarettes might cover up the stench. Or maybe it's their Thursday Night Treat. I p...

Keepin this short ... it's Columbus Day and Sapun - along with most government employees - has the day off! Lucky... This morning we attended a ceremony welcoming PM Silvio Berlusconi to the White House on the South Lawn. Dan (Sapun's old PI / current White House Fellow) got us 'in' as his guests so we waved little Italian and American flags, watched the military march around, and listened to the speeches. Very cool event, and probably not something we'll get to do all that often. Photos from that, and the weekend, below. Fall is here and it's cooling down... semester is halfway over and I've got to get back to my books! More soon!

So, it's been 1 week living here, and we've finally started to get to know the city! The apartment is...cozy. It's small, but the size forces us to get out when we can - and the metro-ability and bike-ability from where we are is pretty awesome. 1 mile to dupont circle, 1/2 a mile to adams morgan, 1 mile up to cleveland park - and unlike SF it's very flat, so not at all intimidating. That's good, because the price of metro adds up quickly. We spent yesterday wandering around the National Mall and (hopefully this is a good sign) ran into a friend of a friend at the Thomas Jefferson memorial! We ended up hanging out with some Texas friends last night, who live really closeby - and had great advice on neighborhoods, restaurants, things to do... basically exactly what we've been looking for, without having to ask. Photos below, from Anika's last day of freedom and the apartment. Classes start tonight, so this will probably be the last of my more frequent posting...

Home, sweet home. We spent the last 2 nights in Virginia, the first in Roanoke and the second in Hampton visiting friends. The drive from Nashville was long, but we managed to lounge a little and enjoy the city. Including, the only replica of the Athenian Parthenon in the world - with a full sized (huge) statue of Athena inside the temple... a replica of a statue that doesn't even exist anymore. It was neat, though I will say that the real thing was (slightly) better. Still, cool to see it. From there, we were on to Knoxville, where we found an amazing, veggie-friendly cafe in the Market Square area. Knoxville is a really cute town. I've definitely come to believe, from this trip, that college towns are generally awesome for stopping in. We were scheduled to stay in Roanoke at a B&B that night, and I was really hoping to check out Blacksburg on the way. Unfortunately, our innkeeper was going to bed at 11 so we had to book it to that town and skipped B'burg. We got there...

Not exactly the most updated blog in the world - yet - but hopefully you know enough about us (based on the fact that you're reading this) to know that we aren't awesome about keeping people updated about our lives. So today was day 1.5 of Road Trip: East Coast. The movers arrived about four hours later than we expected last night, so the day was spent waiting at home, saying goodbye, and generally not thinking about the upcoming weeks. I think for me... I feel like I'm just going on another business trip, and it's not 'farewell austin' just yet. I'm sure it will hit me soon enough. Anyway, four hours after the movers arrived, they were done and we could set off for Dallas. We didn't get home (Plano) until close to midnight, and after a delicious and heavy Indian dinner, it was off to bed for nearly eight hours (luxury!) before chugging some chai with toast, and trying to make it to Memphis in time to catch Graceland. Closing time is 5 pm, so we realized...

It’s day 4 of the road trip, and as we work our way from San Francisco to Austin via Yellowstone, Boulder, Santa Fe, and Lubbock, I am beginning to realize how much of our lovely country is pure emptiness, unused land. The hours pass, and I’m glad we’ve had the opportunities we’ve had to live where we’ve lived. It has been educational and interesting. We spent a night in Pocatello , Idaho , an extremely small college town populated 70% by Mormons – more than Salt Lake City ! Who would have guessed. The drive there was a bit too long, I think that the planner (that would be me) was slightly ambitious in the amount of mileage that we could realistically cover on the first day, after a very stressful two weeks. But, 800 miles and about 14 hours later, we arrived at our host’s house in Poky, exhausted and so grateful for our own room and a bed. Did I mention dinner places in Idaho close early? We narrowly avoided Burger King for our first dinner together when we discovered, two blocks...