I just simply imagine my favorite things...

and then I don't feel so bad.
This picture is currently on the desktop of our computer...I have been doing A TON of work on the computer lately so I look at it often, and then I chuckle, the then beam with pride, and then my eyes well up with tears because I miss Ray Ray and E!

I will probably have this picture on my desktop until she is 20...yes I will be one of those embarrassing aunts - that's just how I roll. 

Curry Land beauty secrets

Curry Landers take their beauty regime very serious...there are very strong opinions offered on what one should use, how one should look, length of hair, fairness of skin, eyebrow shape...its endless. For me, I just take it in one ear and out the other...Especially when they start talking about henna. I love henna on hands!

See, not so bad...but it is when henna is applied to hair that I start trying to find a way out of the 'beauty' department of conversation. My hair is not jet black so I cringe at the thought of what this potent natural die would do...especially when day to day I see this:

please note that these old men have red/orange beards...this is due to henna applications...I am pretty sure my hair would end up the same color as their beards...Eeek! 

"Open Up It's the Police!"

Wednesday night...or I guess you could say Thursday morning since it was after midnight, we were startled awake by someone incessantly ring our gate bell. Z threw on some clothes...and by some I mean the bare essentials...and went out to the gate. To his surprise it was the police. And as you can ascertain yes they did say 'Open up it's the police'...but Z knows Curry Land pretty well and said 'no, it's the middle of the night, what do you want?' They really could not answer that question because they really had no business coming to our gate in the middle of the night. I would not suggest saying 'no' to police officers in most of the world...and the entire night we could not sleep due to worry that they would come back to our gate and bust through our house...probably because of what I have seen in movies.
By the way we have consulted many friends and they all have said that Z did the right thing.

Technical Support is only a phone call away...

Most companies now have all their customer service and technical support calls routed to Curry Land. So for Z and I technical support is only a couple of doorsteps away...but to my dismay they rarely come out and do house calls, I still have to call the 1800 numbers...I still get lousy service...and like most of you the phone call ends with me demanding to speak to their manager while rubbing my fingers over my temples due to the call center induced splitting headache. Yes, you've guessed it, I have recently had the pleasure of making one of these calls in regards to our laptop...We actually got them to agree to send a technician with a replacement part to us...and then the next day they canceled on us...so close...next time I will try to get their location...and will never have to make a service call again - that my friends is my Thursday morning diabolical plan.

The 'we were locked out of our house' story

Without further ado...the drama you have been waiting for - (disclaimer: I'm still a little bitter about being locked out of our house so please forgive the rants).

Z came home from our retreat on the bike, I was a couple of hours behind him riding some friends in their car...I chickened out of riding back on the bike for 61/2 hours. When Z got to the house the lock on our gate had been changed...weary from traveling Z went to the hardware store and bought a tool to try to cut the new lock off...the new lock was not budging. A neighbor saw Z trying to remove the lock and started interrogating him. neighbor: 'What are You doing?!?' Z: 'I live here and someone changed the lock!' neighbor: 'oh...your next door neighbor has the key to that lock, someone tried to break in while you were gone.' Z had to track down our other neighbors who happened to be at their brothers' wedding. When Z got to the wedding he got the key and also was invited to stay and eat...Z politely declined because all he wanted to do was go home, take a shower, and rest. Then the neighbor had a request...they wanted to use our upstairs patio/balcony area for the next days wedding festivities. He also asked Z if we were vegetarians...we are not, but that didn't put a damper on his plans for using our house for the vegetarian only guests.
I arrived home just as Z had got back from retrieving our key...we got into the house and checked all the doors for the supposable 'robber'. No door was messed with...there were dusty footprints up the stairs to the upstairs patio/balcony area...hmmm???
We quickly surmised that the neighbors were responsible for locking us out of our house...they were going to use our house for their wedding whether they had our permission or not!
The next day they came over to the house with the caterers...Z gave them strict orders that they only could use the upstairs (we don't use the upstairs of this house, we have plenty of room for the two of us on the first floor). Well the neighbors got a little testy about that and said that they had received permission from our landlord to use whatever part of the house they wanted. And this my friends is when our neighbors started causing drama and acting like 4 year olds. Z told them that the house is under contract to us the tenants and that they need our permission...so what did our neighbors do? they called our landlord. The phone call didn't go as they had hoped, the landlord was on our side, especially when we told him that we were locked out of our home due to these yahoos. The neighbors were fighting a losing battle, but instead of apologizing they threw more tantrums...at this point I started to refer to my neighbor as 'Groomzilla'.
We graciously told them that they can still use the upstairs and the upstairs only as long as they agree to clean up after themselves. The wedding went on as planned, Zach attended but I did not...these people had broken the lock off our gate! I will be keeping my distance.
The next morning they cleaned thoroughly...and they promised to bring me food leftover from the wedding...guess what folks they did not bring any food over...strike 3! 

Holiday inches

I miss family, I miss Z, and I miss friends...so to cope I made brownies...and then ate a third of them straight out of the pan...not proud of myself, but those are the facts folks.
Thank goodness Z comes home tomorrow...there is way too much chocolate stashed in this house.

motorcycle road trip, tiger attacks, chow mein...Thanksgiving revisited

Here are the highlights of the fun, mundane and wierd events during our Curry Land Thanksgiving holiday...

• Rode six and a half hours on the bike for a fall retreat in a national park / tiger reserve. The roads were really, really rough...for the sake of my spinal cord we had to stop at a Honda service shop and get the shock for the back tire tightened.
• Before heading out on our adventure Z removed the saddle bag on the bike and  creatively tied a small duffle bag and bookbag and both sides of the bike and then I had to wedge my legs and feet behind the luggage. So even though the ride was reall really rough, I was not going anywhere, pretty well wedged! When we arrived and unpacked our luggage Z notice a hole in our duffle...the bag had slipped a little off of the muffler guard and was singed...also my black 'weekend' pants were singed :(
• We stayed at a quiet resort by a peaceful river...a tiger park was only 3 km away...and a recent tiger attack was only 1 and 1/2 km away...During our one week stay three village women had been killed by tigers while they were gathering wood. I did not go hiking.
• Some friends and I decorated diyas (clay bowls that are used as oil lamps) for Thanksgiving decor...nothing says retreat like arts & crafts.
• For Thanksgiving we ate salty chineese food and fish...after dinner some of the service staff at the resort 'lifted' three of the prettier diyas that were made, I confronted the sales manager about it hoping that he would be able to make the diyas magically appear...no luck
• Z went fishing with a friend...didn't catch a single fish but he did happen to get his blackberry wet and now it will not turn on...he is back to using the fake blackberry until we can get the water damaged one fixed.
• When we got back to our house...we were locked out...and NO we did not loose our keys, someone had changed our lock - and that story my friends will have wait for another blog post.