My tomatoes are turning red!

FINALLY!

Michigan via Buttermilk Parkway & the science of rocknroll

We drove to Detroit this weekend so Jonathan could go across to Canada and check out apartments for me in Windsor. We settled on one and are so happy with it! I move in on labor day weekend to wait out my US immigration process.

It was a 10.5 hour drive that Jonathan reduced to around 9.5 hours :-P . But honestly, he wasn't all that fast :) I always feel safe when he drives.

We drove through Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan to reach our destination. To keep my brain busy I noted down all the different states I saw on number plates as well as what time we reached each big city/town. We even saw a few big semi-trucks from Ontario!

A few interesting things I saw on the way  -

The water tower at Florence, a suburb of Cincinnati. Southern much? :)

 Buttermilk Parkway?! Hehe.

 Cincinnati's skyline as we drove by :)

 Sunset in Ohio

Fireworks in Ohio as we drove by!










We spent the first night at my cousins' and the second at my aunt's. On Saturday my cousins, Jonathan and I headed to the Michigan Science Center which has a really fun science museum and planetarium. One floor was dedicated to nutrition .. it was all about healthy foods, heart health bla bla.

 

Three couch potatoes :-P

The highlight of the museum was an entire floor dedicated to the 'science of rock n roll'! They had a little recording studio where you could go sing and get yourself recorded, drums and guitars you could play on etc. We of course tried everything. So much fun!

That evening we drove to my aunt's house and had dinner with the family so they could all finally meet Jonathan!

We began our drive back home to Murray at around 11.30 a.m CST on Sunday morning. However, on the way, an outlet mall near Cincinnati slightly distracted us and a 9.5 hr journey turned into a 12 hr one because of our "small" shopping break :-D .

I saw Ellen DeGeneres while camping out - 4th of july

I've never been camping before so I had a good time despite the bugs and such ^.^

The Hart twins picked me up and Jonathan just joined us at the camping site a few hours later since he was driving straight from Nashville.  We got the tent set up and the canoe down to water (by we I mean the Harts ... I kind of just stood and watched because I'm a weakling) .

I learned how to properly skip stones and canoe, make smores, and avoid sitting on poison ivy while trying to use the back of a bush as a bathroom :-P .

We also managed to watch the beautiful sunset over the water :) 

Throughout the night I heard a constant buzzing sound. It soon started driving me nuts! I woke Jonathan up and he told me to go back to bed and that it was just the insect repellent machine. I wasn't too convinced though because the buzzing was loud! I kept waking up and looking around for the insect that was making the sound but to no avail. Just could not find it! In the morning I realized that we had pitched our tent ON the insect and it was directly under me! Jonathan finally believed me when I poked the area I was lying on and the creature started buzzing again. So I was right after all :( !

The twins had hammock tents that I thought were so cool !



The next day we went to 'Belews' for lunch and I saw Ellen DeGeneres getting out of a convertible Pontiac. Well, at least I thought it was. Turns out it was a teenage boy in wayfarers. A common mistake, I'm sure :-P.

My tomato plant's arch enemy

I was about to go water my plant when I saw this through the window -

The wild hare that I've been admiring everyday and calling cute is now my plant's and my arch enemy because, evidently, I caught it eyeing my tomatoes when it thought nobody was watching. 

If I find a tomato missing I'm going to buy a BB gun and it's bye bye mister bunny.

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 ^.^ !