Fish eat hot dogs too

On Sunday, a friend from church  invited us over to her house this week to do some fishing. So that's what we decided to do today!

She has a barn in her backyard that houses two PONIES and a huge horse called Gabriel :) This was the first time I had ever been in a real barn and seen actual ponies so I was very excited! The horse kind of scared me but the ponies were adorable and small. 

She also has a huge pond in her backyard and a green meadow next to it for her ponies and horse to run about and graze. 

We used hot dogs as bait to catch fish. This is America. Even fish eat junk food. 

We threw our lines into the water and before we knew it, a fish was tugging at mine! 

After I caught mine, Jonathan pouted and sulked and kept sighing sadly for a long time because he was having some rotten luck and not catching any :-) . Feeling sorry for him, I put my fishing rod down and waited for him to catch one. That was, however, in vain so I eventually picked my rod up again, put a hot dog on the hook and threw the line into the pond. And AGAIN, before I knew it, I felt a big tug and reeled in another Blue Gill. Poor Jonathan was not pleased :-D. He did, however, manage to eventually catch some :). We caught 4 Blue Gill each. 

Unhooking the fish to throw them back into the pond was unpleasant. Jonathan and I are scaredy cats. But, in our defense, touching a fish is really not fun! Scaly, slimy... ugh! And the way they thrash around, gasping for air, gives me the heebie jeebies. So we figured out a way to do it without actually touching them. We reeled them in, laid them flat on the wood and, without touching them, slowly eased the hook out of their mouths. Once the hook was out, the fish would jump into the water itself or we would push it into the water with a flat rod. 

We also managed to catch the beautiful sunset and watch the horse and ponies race about the meadow. I don't think the horse liked me very much because every time I went near the fence to look at it and take a picture it would stare at me suspiciously and stomp its foot on the ground. I guess my good luck ended with the fish. 

Here are more pictures - 

Look at that willow tree ^ ! :-)

All this happened in her backyard :-) . Imagine that! After 23 years in congested Chennai this was beyond unbelievable! 

Experiments with salmon

I made fried fish for the first time EVER, today!

I marinated two fillets of salmon for an hour in a mixture of ginger garlic paste, chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and lemon juice. Then I fried it on a grilling pan with some olive oil. It turned out amazingly well and I actually enjoyed every last bit of it! (this coming from a person who does not like fish)

I also made some yummy spinach dal with masoor dal and baby spinach. Jonathan complained about the little pieces of ginger in it but admitted that the dal tasted really nice with rice.

Today was a good cooking day, folks ^.^ !

Now you don't !

I finally watched 'Now you see me' on Sunday! For those of you who haven't watched it yet, WHAT are you waiting for?!?! I love Woody Harrelson :D . Anyway, the movie is captivating and will keep you guessing till the very end. And who can resist a good magic trick :) ?

Jesse Eisenberg's all grown up now ^.^ I kind of miss the dorky kid from Zombieland! Speaking of Zombieland, I watched that also again on friday night. I nearly choked on my asparagus from laughing so hard.

So fattys, beware. 

The sugar challenge

As most of you know I'm addicted to sugar!

A few days ago I watched a really scary video on how sugar is toxic and it's adverse effects are numerous, diabetes being only one. At the end of the video I had made up my mind - I was going to challenge myself and cut all sugar out of my life including hidden sugars like corn syrup, cereal, ketchup etc, on weekdays :P (I'm too weak to completely eliminate it :P)

I went grocery shopping and re-stocked my fridge with fresh veggies, almond milk (for healthy smoothies), salmon, chicken breast, almonds, oatmeal etc.  I tend to eat bad food when I'm bored or I have nothing better to do or if it's just lying around. I have bad self control and cannot say no to sweet stuff. So I realized that the only solution available was to completely eliminate these foods from my house to prevent any form of temptation and replace them with good food like fruit. So that's what I did.

Good luck to me and bye bye oreo cookies?! It's going to be SO tough!! When I walk through a supermarket I am constantly staring at the cookies, ice cream etc.

My plan to keep myself on track is to keep a record of every single thing I eat every day so that I can make sure I stick to the plan.

Last night I went to the drive in movie theater with Jonathan and watched 'Epic'. First time at a drive in for both of us :-) . Drive in movie tip - always take pillows :) !! Drive in movies aren't the same without any snuggling :) .

Radio gaga

So one of Jonathan's friends who works for a radio station here wanted us to tell 'our story' for a radio program she's working on. The program is about several people who have different, interesting stories to tell, not only about marriage but also their lives. And ours being a rather unique one was one of their picks.

So we headed to the recording studio last night and they interviewed us about how we met, how we decided to get married, how Jonathan proposed, the wedding, Indian culture etc. It was fun and we really enjoyed telling our funny, amazing story about how my family met his dad on the Israel trip, how Jonathan and I got talking, how I wore my spongebob t shirt when I first skyped with him (lol) etc :-) .

For the sound test they asked me to say my full name into the mic and I said "Meghna Paul". Then Jonathan cleared his throat and loudly said "Ahem ... Meghna RAJ".  

OOPS (I did it again?) 

Peanut butter blueberry smoothie

My husband and I were flicking through channels on tv and the travel channel was airing a show called "Grills gone wild". Suddenly he screamed "YAYY", dove forward, grabbed the remote and stared intently at the screen because he misread "GRILLS" as "GIRLS"!

LOL . Men! He assures me that it's a common mistake but I have my doubts :-D . 

Tonight I didn't feel like cooking so I quickly whipped up a  smoothie with the blueberries I picked last week. My crazy concoction consisted of blueberries, peanut butter, greek yogurt, honey, strawberry puree and milk. Healthy, simple and a meal in itself!   

Is anybody else watching the finale of 'The Voice' right now? WHAT in the world is Cher wearing?!?!  

Berry blue

Quick update about blueberry picking yesterday.

Matt, Jonathan and I went to some place nearby. We picked around 5.5 lbs each and it was fuuun.

Some tips for berry picking:
1. Wear a hat and sunglasses! It may get pretty hot.
2. Take plenty of water to drink.
3. Take a bucket/bag to put all your berries in, to take home
4. Wear clothes you dont mind dirtying. It won't get very dirty but you never know! When I was picking I had to squeeze myself between bushes to get to some big berries. So occasionally my T shirt would get caught on branches.
5. Wear closed-toed shoes! Sometimes there are spiders and bugs on the plants. You want to concentrate on picking rather than a pesky spider climbing on your toesies.
6. Take small change - dollar bills, five dollar bills, ten dollar bills. Noone at a blueberry farm is going to have change for a $50 or $100 note.
7. Take your camera :-) You don't want to miss capturing these moments on film :-) !
8. If you're a girl it's better to tie your hair up in a ponytail. I left mine loose and it keep getting caught on branches :-O !! Not a pleasant feeling to extract yourself from a big blueberry bush.

Bob, Bobette and some cake

One of my birthday presents was a tomato plant from my mother in law :-) . I must admit that for the first couple of days I completely forgot about it. But I eventually remembered and to prevent any more mess-ups I wrote 'TOMATO PLANT' on a note and stuck it on my fridge as a constant reminder.

My note has clearly worked because on returning from my Louisville trip I found that my plant had begun sprouting little, green tomatoes.  I would have never imagined, in my wildest dreams, that five green tomatoes would one day excite Meghna Paul so much :-O .

So Jonathan and I decided to name them because they're so special right now (and we had nothing else to do last night).

I therefore present to you my tomatoes Bob (the oldest), Bobette, Harry, Baby Harriette and Jules :

Apart from naming my tomatoes, I've actually been doing some good cooking and even baked a delicious devils food cake with chocolate and strawberry frosting using the strawberries I picked last week.

I also did some GRE prep (quite sincerely, mind you) and Jonathan's giving me a mock test in two weeks. So you see, I haven't been all that unproductive. 

Dudes in tutus - The color run '13, Louisville KY

So today I attended the only event in the world at which you will be lucky enough to see grown men flaunting sparkly pink tutus - the color run.

For those of you who aren't familiar with what the color run is, you can check this video out.

Doesn't it look like incredible fun?!!?! Yea, I thought so too :-D . And it was.

It's basically a 5 kilometer marathon (you can walk too if you aren't much of a runner .. it's not a serious marathon!) and you get sprayed with powdered color at 5 color stations along the way - pink, blue, green, yellow and orange. Very much like the festival 'Holi' in India.

So today around a 1000 (im guessing!) excited people crowded downtown Louisville, all set for this year's color run.



Here are some of our pics from this fun day -

If you haven't participated in a color run yet, what are you waitng for?! GO! And if the color isn't incentive enough then the men in tutus have GOT to be :-). 

Love at first... skype!

June 4, 2012 

Jonathan's dad, uncle and aunt were coming over to check me out. My email conversation with my best friend went like this (timings are off because my gmail has changed time zones):

On Jun 4, 2012 12:02 PM, "Meghna Paul"  wrote:

Marriage folks coming home this evening . So awkward for me . It's so not me :S .

On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 2:33 AM, Meghna Paul wrote:

Not him . His dad , aunt and uncle . Yikes.

On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 9:07 AM, Meghna Paul  wrote:

They are coming now! Waiting in the living room . So weird . So not me.

On Jun 4, 2012 6:38 PM, "edelweiss.89"  wrote:

omg. sooo awkward. youre going to just stay in your room? or have to see them formally?!?!?!! NOT for you. 

 On Jun 4, 2012 6:42 PM, "Meghna Paul"  wrote:

| It's a very very casual visit . Nothing formal . So I will meet them too. My parents said check the guy out and back out if you're not interested, no problem :p They're late!

On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 9:14 AM, Meghna Paul wrote:

So we're waiting . Thinkk theyre here . Lolllllll . This is sooo funny! 

On Jun 4, 2012 6:47 PM, "edelweiss.89"  wrote:

YES. exactly what i was thinking!! marriage !!!! for you :O and just realized we're like so grown up now...OK let me know HOW IT GOESSSS. 

From: Meghna Paul 

Date: Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 10:12 AM

To: "edelweiss.89" 

| Went fine :) Veryyyy casual :) not awkward 

June 6, 2012 

Found that email lying in my inbox :-) The email is funny and it holds my attention and I don't lose interest.. which is a really good sign :-D. 

June 8, 2012 

I was wearing a spongebob squarepants t shirt the entire day. Jonathan and I were furiously texting each other and he suddenly asked if I wanted to skype. I agreed but told myself that I refuse to change into a nice outfit and get all dolled up for some guy and that if it was meant to be he'd love me despite my quirky T shirts :-P. So I stayed in my spongebob T, much to his amusement :-D.  The skype session went unbelievably well. We both signed out feeling .. different :-). 

June 15, 2012 

 I'm leaving for Kenya today for 10 days. We both realize we won't be able to speak to each other for these 10 days so Jonathan confesses what he feels for me, finally!

6/15/12 1:47:36 PM: Jonathan Raj: Since our first Skype session, I honestly had this crazy feeling that Friday night that I couldn't shake off. Haven't had that feeling since high school. Freaked me out honestly. I feel there is a lot of electricity between us and it makes me excited. On top of that, it's really hard to get you out of my head.  So there you go, that's a peek in side doc bollywooods heart :) .

I board the plane feeling ecstatic :-). I feel the same way. 

Ten days later, after no contact with him (which was awful!!),  I am more than a 100% sure that he's the one I want to marry. 

September 26, 2012

Jonathan sends me an itinerary 'by mistake' with details about his surprise visit in 'november'. I get really suspicious, email it to my cousin Anisha and we analyze it with a fine tooth comb and finally conclude that it's fake and that he is visiting much sooner. But I'm still scared to believe that he'll be here soon just in case the nov itinerary really isn't fake at all. 

October 4, 2012 

Jonathan lands up in my house on a surprise visit!!! I wasn't exactly clueless about his coming because there were a few giveaways (like my mom furiously cleaning the house .. lol!) but I still wasn't 100% sure just in case he didn't come. I barely slept that night.. I was texting him literally every five mins (he got wi fi on the plane so I don't get suspicious).  And there he was in the morning :') .  That night he proposed to me at the Hilton with a diamond ring and a 100 roses :-). 

January 7, 2013

Meghna Paul actually gets married. 

And the rest, as they say, is history :-) . 

Indian movie night

It was Indian movie night tonight so Jonathan and I watched a Tamil movie called 'Minnale' which means 'lightning'. Thankfully it had subtitles so I managed to understand all the jokes. Generally when I watch a tamil movie I suddenly realize that everyone is laughing and I haven't a clue why. So I just laugh along and pretend I totally understand what's going on :-P. Thank goodness for subtitles. Hail subtitles! 

The point of this post, however, was to post pics of the scrumptious dinner we just had. Fresh strawberry salad with the strawberries I picked yday mixed with baby spinach, pecan nuts, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, honey, lemon juice, blueberries and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. It was fantastic; the perfect summer salad! We also made spaghetti and meat sauce, which turned out great! 

Strawberry fields forever

Strawberry picking has been on my to-do list for as long as I can remember. I shared this with Jonathan a long time ago so he, being the thoughtful person that he is, kept that in mind and, today, took me strawberry picking to a farm near Murray. 

The farm was so typical- like all the farms I've seen in cartoons and the movies... I loved it :-D ! It had a big rundown barn, tractors parked under a tree, a big red truck with piles of wooden planks in the back, cows wandering around, chickens scuttling about and, OF COURSE, a cat and a Collie :D . NO farm is complete without a fluffy, faithful Collie :-D. 

Farmer Palmer (it rhymes! it rhymes!) was positively intrigued that two Indians landed up at his doorstep, wanting to pick strawberries. He was even more intrigued that Jonathan went all the way to India to get a wife and, of course, immediately asked us if it was an arranged marriage and how long we had been married. That's when I completely messed up and said 3 months instead of 5 and Jonathan shot me a dirty look :-P. Oops. And  no, in case you're wondering, I haven't forgotten when I got married :-P . I've just absolutely lost track of time! 

We reached the strawberry field and I excitedly began picking strawberries and filling my bowl. They were so beautiful to look at! 

We picked 2.5 pounds and then Jonathan had to literally force me to stop :-P I didn't want to.. it was too much fun!

What am I going to do with 2.5 lbs of strawberries?  Well, for starters, Vaishu and I have decided to bake this heavenly cheesecake on monday  

  

Refer: http://laurenconrad.com/recipes/view/2568141/white-chocolate-and-strawberry-cheesecake 

And strawberry/spinach/pecan salad tonight :) !

Sigh :) Check No. 2 off my bucket list. (No. 1 on the list was fitting into skinny jeans :P Victory was mine, aha!)

What's your word?

So today my husband and I decided to spend saturday at home and be lazy since the past few weeks have been activity-filled and busy. I also had 3 band aids on me, a huge lump on my forearm from a tuberculosis test and an aching upper arm from an MMR vaccine (we decided to go ahead and finish up the medical requirements for my immigration process). The only thing that made me (remotely) happy was that my band aids had tweety bird on them. 

We were watching the movie 'Eat, Pray, Love' and Julia Roberts was talking about one, single word to describe herself. So I asked Jonathan what his word would be. "Charming", he says (I tell ya, modest would not be word I use to describe my husband :-P) . "What's your word?", he asks me. I initially thought I'd be able to answer this question real quick but... I couldn't. I had to think about it for an entire day! It was so difficult because there are so many sides to my personality, so many qualities that I cannot leave out while describing myself. I am also a bundle of contradictions so I struggled to come up with a word. I was .. different, I thought. But isn't everyone? I was quirky, yes. But .. that didn't sum me up as a person. I was smart and lazy, thoughtful and selfish, loving and mean, passionate and emotionless, sensitive and strong, expressive and cold, funny and quiet, brave and scared, introvert and extrovert ... I was a lot of things. And a lot of things contradicted themselves. Also, I'm pretty certain I don't know myself too well. So I was completely at sea!

I decided to ask Jonathan for help becuase, afterall, isn't your husband supposed to know you best? He said 'enigma'.

Me an enigma? Hmm, I still wasn't convinced that that was my word.

So I finally settled on one word that, in my opinion, encompasses everything. It may not directly point out each of my qualities (that is impossible) and my character simply cannot be pinned down to one big quality.

Multifarious. That's my word. That's my word without judging myself , without sounding positive or negative - an absolutely neutral yet all-encompassing word.

Think about yours :-) .