Pre-Bedtime Bored Jar

Week day evenings are so chaotic. There is this rush to cook, feed, eat and packup so we can go to bed as soon as possible. But because we parents are so busy with these main chores, week after week go away and we spend a small % of the day doing some quality stuff with the kids.

I truly like the idea of Bored Jar. Here is my tailored version, for those Weekday evenings. This will help me when my brain can't step away from the chores to think of some short activity with kids. These things are lying around neatly organised. All kids need is something interesting to get started and then they are off doing more by them-self.

Pre-Bedtime Bored Jar

1. Country & Capital / Atlas
2. Ludo or Snakes N Ladder
3. Chess Or Checkers 
4. Catch Ball
5. Draw / Color
6. Amar Chitra Katha  / Comics
7. India History
8. India States
9. USA States
10. Rubic Cube
11. Jump Rope
12. Hula-Hoop
13. Origami / Paper Craft
14. Book 
15. Reading
16. I-Spy
17. Write / Draw in Journal
18. Puppets
19. Build Fort
20. Shower / Bath
21. Water Plants
22. Phone Grandparents
23. 5-minute Hindi
24. 5-Minute Tulu
25. Astronomy
26. Cleanup Tables
27. Cleanup Closets
28. Cleanup Lego
29. Dance steps 
30. Jig Saw
31.  Puzzle
32. Card 
33. Games
34. Board Games
35. 2 Pages of Workbook
36. Make Beds
37. Hop Scotch
38. Tic-Tac-toe
39. Connect Dots
40. Doodle

My Bucket List

Am going to keep this post live & updated to latest dates. Something like the Pinned post feature on FB.

Bucket List

1. Watch an all-nighter Yakshagana show.
2. Visit Leh. Drive, walk, click the whole 10 days.
3. Spend a leisurely month in North-East India. Safari and spend a night at the Kaziranga National Park. Walk the streets of Shillong. Visit Kamakhya temple in Sibsagar. Nostalgia trip across Dibrugarh. Tour Guwahati, Aizwal, Arunachal.
4. Visit China. Shanghai for city, deserts and rural place as well.
5. Make a huge artwork , something like 72 inch by 98 inch. A really good one.

Complete:

1. Atleast 1 Marathon - Ya that's done ! Ran Minneapolis Marathon 2015 !

Four Teacups

Found something I had published - it said - 15 years ago ! It even had 6 interesting comments !
Wow ! It's that long back , that I was so caught up in Sulekha !
Found everything interesting, like I did not write it, someone else did. That must be the way most of the writers & film-maker feel about their old works - detached. Its only the audience who associates the work with the creator.
I feel like I should save that text here before internet does some purge.
I feel so exciiiited !!!

The Cleaning Liquid

Prithi Shetty / 15 yrs ago / 

  6

Tarun looked at his wristwatch. It was digital and showed 3:32 PM. He had always insisted on precise timings. He glanced up and scanned the computer screen. The entire screen was occupied by crampedly written C code. He was trying to find an elusive bug. The bug, which would allow voice recording to play for 21 seconds among other things. Yesterday the playtime had been 14 seconds. And today, an attempt to run the program displayed hundred and twenty one errors. Again he glanced down at his watch. 3:34 PM.

Eleven minutes and the PL (Project Leader) would be here. PL and "those esteemed members of the industry" who would fund the project. Forget achieving the optimum value, the program even refused to run on the demo-day. Panic, rising from the core of his being, had now reached his skin.

He stood up with a start and in effect pushed his chair. The chair rolled away till it bumped off a table. Now he began pacing around in the non-cluttered center of the room. All the computer-tables were lined along the walls. All his colleagues were away and hence no one was around to share his agony. He hit his clenched right fist to his left palm. Looked around the room. Left. Right. Eyes scanned the entire expanse of the room on one side and then roved over his table. Again he looked at his console screen. Bent towards the keyboard, he pressed the down key and scanned the entire program again. Where lies the evasive change? How was he to find it in eight minutes? A quick look at the watch showed 3:37 PM.

He felt sick. He wished he was sick. He was going to be fired. This is it. This is the end. Over. It's all finished. Finished. Standing straight upright, all he could see was...was a bottle. He took a second look. A rather large, amber colored bottle was lying on the overhead panel of his computer table. It contained alcohol based cleaning liquid. Raghunath, the office assistant, had left it there, after the Friday cleaning. Tarun picked up the bottle. The label read, "...contains Benzene..."

His eyes on the bottle, a smile escaped his lips.

The room resounded with their boisterous laughter. They had just finished their gossip cum ribbing session and were moving out for lunch. As Abhijit got up from his chair he exclaimed, "Hey! Look at this," pointing at the overhead panel of Tarun's computer table. Three bottles stood there, side by side, all labels facing the audience. Assuming the demeanor of a performer, he intoned, "Look, if you are deep in coding or debugging and tired, you drink from this Bisleri bottle. If you had a successful execution of your program, you are thrilled -- you drink from this Cola bottle. And if your program refused to run, you drink this chemical. Howz that?" The room resounded with another bout of laughter.

Tarun uncapped the amber colored bottle, swigged the contents in one gulp. Then he stood still for a second and gulped down water from the Bisleri bottle. The expression on his face suggested that cleaning liquids don't taste good. Okay, so now he had to fall sick. And soon. Very soon. In seven minutes flat.

At 4:00 PM sharp Mr. Suraj Kapoor walked into the research Lab. He was Tarun's PL. Along with him walked in Mr. Sonawale from FocuSys. At 4:25 PM sharp, both of them left. There was no Demonstration of the project, as Mr. Sonawale had another urgent meeting to attend. The three discussed the market aspects of the project.

Tarun sat quietly in his chair. Exhausted with relief. Now he was not alone. All his colleagues were back and the usual cacophony reigned the room. He was not sure what he felt like. "To laugh or not to laugh, is the question."

The phone on the next table rang shrilly. Blankly he reached for it and answered with a "Hello". On hearing the voice on the other end, he came out of his reverie. "Yes, speaking." Gradually, his face brightened and his slick demeanor came back.

"Ah ha. Is that you? Glad to meet you. But have we ever met?"

A pause. He listened intently.

"Okay I will wait for you. You know the address?"

A pause again. The smile on his face grew larger and larger.

"Okay then. I will be at the Tiffany's sharp at five. Well frankly I did not expect you to be a female. I am happy you are. See you."

Tarun moved with his chair, towards his table. With his chin resting on his fists, he stared at the console screen. This time he was hunting for no bug. He had a silly grin on his face and his mind was lost in cyberspace.

The call had been from his keyboard-pal, with whom he had been communicating by email for the past four months. Till half an hour ago, he knew no personal details of the person, not even the gender, though he had shared most of his. And now he was going to meet her in person. He was thrilled.

All of a sudden his grin disappeared. A groan escaped his lips. Clutching his stomach he ran out of the room. His neighbor Adi, startled out of his concentration, stared at him go.

Comments from this story in Sulekha site:

 

Salad Matrix

Filling Salad for Dinner

This is matrix I use to build my lunch salad or even dinner sometimes. Just grab one or more items from each row and load it in a box or bowl. I have one copy hanging on the fridge and the other works as my grocery shopping list.

Greens	Lettuce And more …..
Fresh Veggies	Pepper - sweet multi colored Carrot Cucumber Celery Radish Sweet Pea
Boiled veggies	Boiled Potatoes (chopped  cubes or slices) Eggs (Hard boiled or Poached) Broccoli (steamed)
Frozen / Canned  Veggies	Edamame Corn Peas Beets Artichoke
Carbs	Pasta Quinoa Couscous
Fruits	Cranberry Dates Apricot Watermelon Apple Orange / Mandarin / Cuties Cantaloupe Grapes Mango Dehydrated fruits (like shaved apples, dried pinapple, peaches, prunes...)

Carry these items in separate box, so they don’t get soggy. Mix them at the time of eating.

Crunch	Croutons Breads Tortilla chips
Nuts	Groundnut Cashew Almonds Pecan
Cheese	Feta Parmesan
Dressing	Olive oil Lemon juice Vinegar Lite Mayo Hummus Soya sauce Yogurt/Curd/ Ranch
Cooked Sabji	Channa Chole Brown channa Rajma Green Beans Black eyed Peas Squash Aloo bhaja (spiced strong with green chilly) A whole bunch of Indian cuisine Sabji’s & Poriyal go really well with a green salad, making you feel full.

Salad in box for office lunch

For more ideas with great pictures, check these links:

• 18 Mason Jar Salads That Make Perfect Healthy Lunches
• 27 Summer Salads For When You Just Can’t Eat Another Burger
• 14 Summery Salads That Prove Eating Healthy Can Be Delicious
• 23 Incredible Salads You’ll Actually Want To Eat
• 27 Insanely Delicious Salads You Need For Thanksgiving
• 37 Colorful And Healthy Winter Salads
• 21 Warm Winter Salads That Will Make You Love The Cold
• 23 Delicious Salads To Get You Through Winter
• 27 Insanely Delicious Salads You Need For Thanksgiving
• 16 Warm Salads To Make This Winter
• 19 Delicious Salads For Fall
• 18 Fall Salads You Need In Your Life Right Now
• 12 Salads Even Your Lazy Ass Can Make In 2017

Salad lunch at Picnic

Minneapolis Marathon 2015 - Race Recap

Got up at 4-430 AM; left home at 5:30 AM; race start at 6:30 AM at Theodore Wirth Parkway

It winded from there to NE Minneapolis via Art District. Downtown was in view and I thought, "So 20 miles is this close !" But Half Marathoner turned towards Guthrie Theater, while we Full were diverted to UofM hills towards Minnehaha Park. Now that took up like the rest of 15 miles.

On the way, everyone cheered "Keep Going", "Good Job", "Keep chugging". At Mile 19 turn-back, I looked back to see only few specks for company. And the 6:00 Pacer was gaining. I remembered the cutoff was 6 hours and rest would have to take SAG Wag. I tried to muster all my strength to go faster. But impossible. Then the 6:00 pacer caught up with me and his pep talk helped. I let out a desperate "I want to finish under 6" cry. He was like - you can do it, stick with me and you will be under 6, you have trained. He did the run-walk and I stuck with his pace from 19 to 23. After Mile 23, there was one last hill of this road and the beginning of the crazy UofM hills. So I gave up and said I will walk now.

6:00 hour Pacer

At around Mile 24 the SAG vehicle came around and said in polite US-English, "Aaja meri gadi mein baitja".
I said, "Chal hath saale"
He gave me water & said this was the last glass. I am ever grateful to him for that.
Every water stop & orange markers were being removed.
At one last confusing junction , the cycle volunteer pointed us to the correct turn.

Everyone was dismantling everything at Guthrie Theater. They had removed the last chip reader but Clock showed 6:11. Since I had started in a late corral, I knew my time would be even less. Some kids were playing around. I was simply thrilled to reach the end point and was running in the winner pose - arms up in air, smiles wide . I asked to no one, "Where is the finish line ?" and a helpful girl pointed, "At that no-parking sign annnnnnd you are done" Yeaaaa ! Then the chip-reader owner came running with a machine and marked me complete. And that's it - My First Full Marathon was complete !

Volunteers helped me with my bag check, food packets, medal & photos. All water stop volunteers were super efficient, cheered all along & bike marshals were helpful and the medic I consulted was helpful. I am so thankful to all of them and the 6:00 Pacer.

At around 1 pm, one super-senior arrived for his finish and I wished him & pointed him to the food store and walked away for my new destination. I thought I would have to walk all the way, but  luckily found a taxi. Rode to best-friend's hotel where my kids were on play-date. Driver politely asked about the race. He joked that once he signed up for what he thought was 10K but turned out to be 10M ! I was too happy & relaxed.

Among injuries I found my first under-feet blister, my big toe is throbbing bad, my bra line is completely chaffed and burning . Sunburn on my arms & legs are itchy. Once Aleve wears out, my knee & shin pain along with soreness will set in. New kind of chaffing was my bicep rubbed the shirt - it started after the hour 3. But boy am I happy - I finished a real Full Marathon.

In this race, my outfit  and weather were perfect. Temp was 45 F at 5:30 but I did not overdress like I usually do. No jackets or layers. Not a single extra gram of weight. That's my learning, in this year of running.

1. ASICS Women's GT-2000 3 Running Shoes - which I had trained in. So no shin swelling this time.
2. Single Technical Tee and capri pants
3. Golf cap to shade from the sun and prevent my hair from flying away.
4. Carried Gu packets in my hands and ate one every hour
5. Huge spray of sunscreen
6. Chap-stick - lips get dry & burn because of wind, sun and sticky powerade
7. Body glide / vaseline to prevent chaffing

Full race started at 6:30 AM and Half started at 7:30 AM (one hour after the Full started). While I chugged at Mile 9, the Half leaders passed me by. Some muttered encouragements to me. And on the road to Minnehaha, where the other side was for the turnback runners, I could see the leaders and the middle. I know most of them were Relay runners, but it was very demotivating till Mile 19. And scary after Mile 19 for the fear of disqualification. Then for my bicep chaffing, I stopped at the medic for some bandaid or vaseline. There was a chair out there and I slide in to tighten (or loosen) my shoe-laces. That totally changed my momentum. I now know I should'nt ever do that.

Running beyond 3 hours is kind-of boring. Or maybe the scare of SAG's disqualifying me was the thing. I could have saved my 11 9 minutes in a lot of places. I should have slept well at night instead of waking up every hour and dreaming all dreadful things. I need not be so nervous for weeks. I should have trained better/seriously. That's hindsight. But this was my first & I finished it! So everything is excused now ! It also erases all bad memories of last year's cancelled Half Marathon due to thunderstorm.

It took me almost 2 years to dream, dare and try. And one item from my bucket list is ticked off now.

Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon - 2015 - Race Recap

I registered for Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon on an impulse. Just to bolster my confidence for the upcoming Marathon. I had it on my calendar but never did register till few days back. I did not trust my schedule to let me any long run before Marathon and opted to pay for a long run with the convenience of water & other support. Plus I got curious to see the route. I have never run this race before.

Packet pickup was on Saturday. We had not been to this area, so it was useful to scout the route to start line. And on 3rd May Sunday morning, all of us left home early.  Hubby dropped me at the school for the shuttle bus to starting line and then off he went with kids for breakfast. It was a pleasant 75F, with summer just about to start, and so a pretty good crowd. Just the right kind of day to be outside.

The starting corral was very slow moving. It was in a quint little town streets, with cute shops and sculptures everywhere. Soon after the race started, there they were. Hills. And then around some lakes. And then hill again and ponds, and hill and lake and that's how it went. By the time I reached 5.5 mile, where relay exchange happened, I realized there were freaking hills in like every single mile. I was muttering fk in pretty much every breath. And here, my feet cushion below my toes started hurting. Like I had cement for sole in my shoes. I was worried I would have to dropout, but turns out I was stronger than that. The pain disappeared after 2-3 miles.

Rest of the route wounded around the large part of a lake, right in front of the houses. But it was hilly throughout. There were lake houses dotting the route throughout. At 10 mile point , a father was working in his lawn and kid was eating ice-cream, I heard the kid say, "But they are not running" :D And father clarified, "Ya they have run a lot & are tired." Good to hear the defense. At the starting line, I had seen an Indian couple in their late 40's and then at mile 11, where the lady had some knee pain. But they stuck together and I saw them at the finish line later.

I could not appreciate the views - tiny towns, greenery, houses with acres for front-yard, ponds & lakes. They were beautiful. People stepped out of their house to cheer the crowds run. Reminded me of the Lola Half route in Waconia from last year. I won't be doing Lola this year because its 1 week after my scheduled marathon. Both were similar views. I so wish I had carried my iPod for pictures. But all my summer races without jacket are without any route pictures. I did not train to run with the shoulder patch or belt to carry the iPod.

This race was 10 days after the Get in Gear, which had my personal worst performance. So I could use the learning's which were fresh in my mind. My outfit was minimal. No jacket at all. Shoes were well-worn.

The finish line was at a beautiful location in Excelsior. Commons Park was at a beautiful rocky beach of Lake Minnetonka. It was soothing to sit by the side, pleasant water spray and waves.
. 

This event also had a kids run. It was fun for my kids, who met another friend. They are always thrilled to get the Medal, Shirt and  Mall of America Nickelodeon tickets.

My T-shirt and Medal for this race were quite good.

My Lake Minnetonka Half: 2018 | 2017 | 2015 |

Arsenal for Kids studytime

My arsenal for kids homework. It make kids homework time , a lot more fun - for Parents ! And this is focused on Pre-K, K and 1st grade kids.

Half the time, kids give ideas on how to use the same-old tool in different way. Nothing can beat our jaded brains than the freshly minted creativity of a kids.
And the other half-time, I rely on homeschool blogs. They have done so much hard work and shared their knowledge. Hats off to those home-schooling parents.

What better tools to learn new words than flash cards, magnetic letters or Scrabble letters and Marker pens. 

Here I enclosed Read-Build-Write printouts in plastic.

Eventually practice with spelling tests.

Name-Place-animal-Things game - nostalgic and awesome tool for all round development of language. Older kids have to brain-storm through their data mine and achieve speed. But younger kids can hunt the right word on maps or books and write the entries. that will build their database.

Number grid - the most powerful tool of all. Can teach a variety of things - like count by 2,3,4,5,10; additions, subtractions. Because seriously, how many times can you write these things, over and over again ? And how will it reveal the stuff between the lines ? 
By using it like a board games - that's how !
So we used:

1. 2 players
2. pair of dice (pink ones at that)
3. printed number grid
4. Barbie shoes for keys

And practice additions, subtractions & mystery numbers with pebbles, toy-cars and other small objects.

Links:

1. Materials & methods to keep toddlers busy.
2. Math paper generator: Math-aids
3. Math worksheets: math-salamanders 
4. Word games & word-shape Worksheet generator: softschools 
5. Printable worksheets: tlsbooks
6. Flashcards: havefunteaching
7. Graphing: kidslearningstation
8. Blog: Confessions of a Homeschooler

Get in Gear 2015 - Half Marathan - Race Recap

I signed up for Get in Gear - Half Marathon well in advance and was looking forward to this one. Backstory is that I ran their 10K last year in 2014. At that point, I had run only 5Ks and this was the looming Half-Marathon which I could aim for. But at the time of registration I chickened out and choose 10K. It was a great running experience. The starting point from Minnehaha Falls was superbly organised. At packet pickup, they gave a lovely see-thorough backpack, which I use even now when I go far for any long runs. And the route was beautiful on the road by the Mississippi. At the turnaround, I longingly looked at the Half Marathoners go past. And at that point, the pacer bike cleared us to pave way for the Half-Marathon leader. That was a wow experience. But it was in April 2014 and since then I did 5 Halfs. I was looking forward to this Spring Half Mara. And especially after my disappointing performance in Polar Dash and Securian Winter. Again, my training had not been perfect. Yet I looked forward to this .

25-April was a great Saturday morning. Temperatures remained at around 62F. It was energizing to see crowds walk-in from different directions to the Start point. The park is spread out and many were already on their warm-up run. Standing in my corral, I could hear interesting stories from those around. One guy in 50s, behind me was telling the other about another friend, who ran a full Marathon recently and then collapsed at the end. Turned out his heart was blocked and he had to undergo bypass. And then after the surgery, he was able to run more and better because now his heart was pumping blood better after being unblocked ! The things you hear in a crowd. I regret forgetting my device to take the most interesting pictures. 

Soon the band played the USA national anthem under a large USA flag mounted on a crane. And the race began. I dressed well enough for the day. Eventually though, my jacket turned out to be too hot. But I am too attached to it to throw it away.

1. ASICS Women's GT-2000 3 Running Shoes - they were new and powered my legs more than I thought I was capable of
2. C9 Compression tights which were just right for the temp
3. Half-sleeved & Full sleeved technical shirts
4. Jacket to carry my heavy duty stuff like phone, energy bar, handkerchief, lip-balm
5. Cap - which was very useful again the sun & wind. Flying hair is very painful in a run.

Route winded from the Minnehaha Park onto the road along the Mississippi. That is a beautiful non-distracting sight while running. We crossed the bridge and went ahead till Shepard Road and turn around at a mid point. Till the point of Shepard Road, the route is well shade by thick tree. And Shepard Road is wide open and sunny. I ran here in Jan and was scarily reminded of the heat from that run. I had lagged from this point and soon as it happens in every race, Senior Citizens passed me. There was a pair of senior ladies who were very jovial and consistently went on ahead. Later a 70+ gentleman passed me saying, "I was wondering when I will pass you" :) Soon I was back to the last water stop and I asked one for the time. They said it was 10 minutes to noon and 1.5 miles to go. No way I could go in sub-10 pace which I would need as they will close the route at 12. The last bridge was crushing and I was cursing. This bridge is far off from the park, yet I met so many other finishers who were returning home with their medal and family. They cheered me to finish.

I finally made it to the finish line. Clock showed 3:08. Volunteers were so awesome and stayed back and were everywhere. They asked me nicely if anyone was behind me and I said no. Young boy handed me the medal and I was so happy. Last year till I crossed the line I felt there was medal for 10K and I actually demanded one; they clarified its only for Half. I had never got one before so I was looking forward to this one in 10K. That is one cause for my medal fixation. And now I finally got it for the Half !

Here I met the pair of 50+ ladies who had passed me and one of who completed the Half much before me. I gave a thumbs-up saying "You are an inspiration" and she smiled ! Other one added "and this after cancer recovery", I was wide eyed and repeated, "you are indeed an inspiration !" We hugged.

And everything was fine.

I slowly limped to the food stall though I was not hungry. Usually I am not hungry immediately after a race, but I grabbed all I could as I would want it later. They had a lot and unlike many where they run out, GIG had more than enough food for all. I do long for water. My cap was soaked in my sweat. I sat on the park bench, looked longingly at the massage tent and drank water, waiting for my family & friends to finish their morning chores and meet me for the scheduled picnic lunch.

Race was very well organised. I was left wanting in no department.

Water stops were perfect at 3 miles with both water and Powerades. After the race, unofficial results were published. but mine was missing. The last entry was at 2:59. So I followed up with GIG, saying I started in the later corral and the time limit was 3:30, so they should publish my results. Not publishing was usually demoralizing for me. And I was actually interested in knowing the splits to analyse my performance. And 10 days later, when they published the official results, they did publish it and even replied to my mail to checkup. That was really sweet of GIG people. I finished at 3:02:14 chip time. I can only say that this is a sequel year, I am going to races without perfect training and that's showing in the results. Well that's life and we can only try and improve :)

Kiddie Birthday Party Planner 101

Kids party planning is nothing less than a project planning. After immense research I came up with this checklist. I stuck through it for 2 parties for age group 5 to 8. I really wonder if I will ever go through it again. The execution of that 2 hour party is exhaustive and it takes 2 days for me to recover :) Nevertheless I want to have this checklist ready.

In this Birthday party Planner template, replace 'Theme' with the theme you are going with and walah! you have a instruction set and a shopping list.

Shopping Checklist

Decisions	Choose a Theme Choose a Location Make the Guest list
Food	Theme Pizza Theme Cookies & rest Chips & Dips Fruits – Watermelon & Strawberry Jello Snacks, Chips, Mixture
Drinks	Juice-box covered with print of Theme drawings Mango juice
Photo-booth	Theme background (wallpaper/gift paper) Theme Props
Piñata	Theme Piñata
Decorations	Theme candles Theme bunting Theme plates Theme cups (Red & yellow cups) Table covers in color scheme Straws with Theme picture stuck in top half Ribbons / Decorations Balloons Theme crown for Birthday kid Theme labels on condiment bottles
Cake	Theme cake Theme cup-cakes
Games	Pin head on Theme picture Bubble maker
Other stuff	Handwash / Sanitiser with Theme objects inside  or Theme label outside. Thrashcans DollarShop containers (for storage)
Return Gift	Goodie bags in theme décor & objects inside Colorful M&M in plastic
Invitation	Email & FB share – Image invitation

DIY Ideas pool:

1. 32 Unbelievably Cheap And Beautiful DIY Photo Backdrops
2. How To Throw The Ultimate LEGO Birthday Party and another Lego party
3. Buzzfeed | How To Throw The Most Awesome Superhero Party Ever
4. Buzzfeed | 22 Adorable Ideas For An Epic Robot-Themed Birthday Party
5. For Party Favour: Online Lego Shop