My husband the squirrel murderer

I forgot to mention this in my previous blog post.

We were on the way to our friend's house to go fishing when I suddenly saw the cutest little squirrel with the bushiest tail ever dart across the road. I was admiring it saying "Awww, look!" when it suddenly disappeared and I heard a little thud as the car wheel hit something.


Jonathan consoled me by saying that the squirrel could not have kicked the bucket but was just probably stunned. So I was happy again!



But then I saw him smirk.





In other words, there is now a squirrel shaped smear on Furches Trail, Murray, KY.

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?!?!