Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Here’s hoping that your Halloween was a thriller and that your pumpkins are overflowing with good candy!

Our last Halloween in the US for a while was splendid, though a bit chilly. This was the first time I’ve seen snow on Halloween and let me tell you: I am not a fan. I liked our Florida Halloweens better. In Florida, you can go Trick or Treating in your flip-flops and you can do it all night long, if you want to (not so easy with wee ones) without dying of exposure. There, you can be a princess or a fairy without having to put on a turtleneck underneath your fancy spaghetti strap costume (which looks oh, so stylish) or donning your fairy wings on top of your pink parka (which is harder than it sounds). Oh, Florida, I didn’t think I’d say this but I guess I do miss you, after all.

Aaaaah, those days are gone but I am hoping that Trick or Treating in India will be kinda like in Florida. A girl can dream, right?

So, yeah, our Halloween was fine, despite the cold. We went to a couple of parties, we carved a pumpkin and Her Cuteness got to go Trick or Treating old-style (door-to-door) in our neighborhood. Nia was supposed to be the Little Mermaid. She’s had the costume for a while but had a change of heart because she decided in the last moment that “Princesses are so baby-ish!” and I had to whip up another costume in a couple of hours. Fun times! She was a flamingo*, a little improvised but hey, I’ve seen worse.

Max had a little 6-9 month-sized alligator* costume. He is not quite 9 months old yet but the hunky babe that he is, he was busting out of it a few weeks ago, so I had to look for something larger. I found just the thing  at a yard sale - a cute little Dalmatian outfit for $1. It’s perfect - made of fleece, so it’s nice and warm on his cute little bum-bum. Plus, it’s for up to 24 months, so he just might be able to wear it next year.

Anywhoooo, without further ado, here are some pictures of the festivities for your enjoyment:

*We accidentally ended up with a Florida theme of sorts – I guess that’s our tribute to our former home state.

A Sight For Sore Eyes…

So we’ve been in Hindi for almost 7 weeks now. We can read and are starting to get into the weeds of Hindi grammar. We still can’t say much because we know only one tense (Present Habitual) and our vocabulary is pretty limited but we are getting there – slowly but surely.

In an effort to expand our Hindi vocabulary I decided to watch as many Bollywood movies as I possibly could. Paul sort of agreed to watch with me but we soon realized that most of the highly rated Bollywood movies on Netflix were 3+ hours long. Paul was not going to watch a 3+hour long movie, so the first time we looked until we found something shorter. I don’t remember the name of the first movie we saw but it was not worth it. It was way not what we expected. It was mostly in English, had no dance numbers and was about wife swapping – very weird.

The second time we sat down to watch a Bollywood movie I thought we’d try one of the longer ones, so I picked Jodha Akbar a historical drama (made in 2007), which I thought would help us not only improve our Hindi but also better understand Indian culture. The only problem was it was 3 hours and 40 minutes. Paul fell asleep after the first 30 minutes, so I watched the rest alone.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t expect much but boy, was I pleasantly surprised. I did learn a few new Hindi words and a thing or two about Indian culture and history but better than that (and I mean way better) was this:

Hubba, hubba!

You’re welcome, ladies! His name is Hrithik Roshan and he plays the Mughal Emperor Akbar (the male lead). When I saw that scene I was all Ooooh la la…

Is he hot or is he hot? I don’t know about you but I can watch that scene until I am blue in the face… (I may be turning Avatar-ish hue already, ha!)

So, yeah, I have a crush on the guy. Oooopsies! I know, I know, it’s been a couple of years since I was in high school. I shouldn’t be having crushes anymore, right? I thought that when you pass the age of 25 and/or have a kid or two, the part of your brain responsible for crushes dies. Apparently not. Now I am the butt of all kinds of jokes around our house... Whatevs…

If there are guys reading this – do not despair for the female lead (Jodha Akbar) is none other than Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the most beautiful woman in the world, according to many. Here’s a little something for you, guys:

So, though it is long, the movie is a feast for the eyes and ears. The costumes and scenery are amazing, the music and dance numbers – lovely, and the plot - very interesting. According to some reviews Akbar’s character is depicted accurately, while Jodha’s not so much but even if that’s the case I’ve forgiven the movie creators and totally, wholeheartedly recommend the movie.

Enjoy!

Georgetown Cupcake!!!

Yesterday was a rather gloomy day. It started out being cold, drizzly and just unpleasant. But it got better. A hell of a lot better…

Paul and I had to run an errand in Georgetown that was kind of a drag but on the way home I noticed a miracle of miracles: no line outside Georgetown Cupcake!!!

Boy did that make my day. I had heard people rave about Georgetown Cupcake ever since we moved back to the DC area a year and a half ago. I really wanted to try them but every time we went to Georgetown there werre unbelievable lines outside the store, sometimes going on for blocks. There was no way in hell I was going to wait for hours for cupcakes and I didn’t really understand the people who did. It’s cupcakes after all, how great could they be. And at $2.50 a piece they weren’t exactly dirt cheap. So I had sort of given up on the idea but today in the the cold, nasty drizzle those cupcakes were just calling my name.  The fact that there was no line out the door was just the icing on the (cup) cake. Pun intended.

So, yeah, I am only human. I can resist anything but, you know, temptation. I ran in quickly before Paul had a chance to change his mind and mine. Inside the door there was a little bit of a line but it was just long enough to let me make up my mind about what I wanted.

I knew I may not get these beauties again because of the insane lines, the price and because stuff like that goes straight to my badonkadonk, which is not exactly small these days, so I went for the dozen. I got Mint Cookies N Cream, Salted Caramel, Gluten Free Lava, Chocolate Birthday, Chocolate 3, Peanut Butter Fudge, Coconut, two Pumpkin Spice and two Red Velvet. There were about 15 girls working in the store, who looked like they’d never had a cupcake in their lives. They wrapped my cupcakes and put them in a beautiful pink box.

I could hardly wait the 30 or so minutes it took us to get home and eat lunch before we could try the cupcakes. And let me tell you, those things were not just pretty. They were deeeeeeelish! I think the Red Velvet and the Salted Caramel may be my faves.

They are very sweet. One is about all you can have at one sitting. And they are not very big. But they are tasty. The cake is good but that’s not that hard to do. It’s the frosting that’s pretty incredible. It’s light and fluffy and heavenly….

While I was at the store I noticed that they were promoting a book written by the two sisters who started Georgetown Cupcake. The book tells the story of how they started the company but it also has recipes. And guess what, I’ll be buying it as soon as it’s out on Nov. 8 because I have to figure out how to make that frosting. I just have to!