Astrovelo

On international travel, passengers can check-in 2 pieces of luggage. The baggage weight allowance for each passenger is 100 lbs.

If you check-in only one bag that weighs 60 lbs, you have to pay a $25 surcharge.

Can anyone explain to me why this is so?

Ho Ho Ho…


In his sister’s Dora jammies that he totally adores.


I just loved this pose… don’t know why.

Adit was trying to eat with his eyes closed. He had the spoon going to the right place without looking at it. :)

Adit is just one month short of his second birthday. It has been a couple of months since I wrote his last progress report. During this time, his vocabulary and verbal skills have gone through the roof. At this age, Ashwini used to talk in complete sentences with proper grammar. Considering that he is a boy, he is doing quite well.

He tries to imitate every word that he hears. Usually, he is not successful, but he says something that sounds like it. After a few tries, he mostly gets it right. The longest words that he can properly pronounce are: Cantaloupe and Temperature.

Earlier we had to phrase a question so that he could give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

Adit, do you want to eat toast? Do you want to watch Dora?

Any other question was answered by just ‘mmmmm’. Now, we can have proper conversations.

Adit, what do you want to eat? – kix and milk

Adit, what do want to watch? – Thom DVV. (it means: Thomas DVD)

Adit’s first full sentence was: Ashwini hit me. Now, his sentences are getting longer. They have all the parts but not proper grammar: Ashwini pinch me leg. Adit play choo-choo train ament. (ament means basement) Adit sit Ashwini chair. Adit done bed. go down. drink milk.

If he wants me to go with him somewhere, he grabs my finger and says: Dada, march.

Many times, we don’t understand what Adit is saying and have to get help from interpreter Ashwini. I don’t know how she can always make out what he is trying to say. She is also a very good teacher and helps him say words correctly. Here is a very funny conversation that we have heard a million times:

Ashwini singing a song: …now you are so beautiful, you have become a … Adit: fufferfly.

• No, Adit! butterfly.
• fufferfly.
• NOOOO, Adit! BUTTERFLY.
• FUFFERFLY.
• say butter…
• butter
• say fly…
• fly
• now say butterfly
• fufferfly.

All this coaching has finally paid off. After Ashwini went away on Monday, he started saying ‘butterfly’ properly. Here is a video of this song from “Little Einsteins” sung by Ashwini and at the end, I have edited in Adit’s part recorded tonight.

Adit has memorized several books and many many songs. He can complete every line, if we leave out last word or two.

His babytalk creates some very embarassing moments. He very excitedly points with his finger while screaming, “Dada, fag… Dada, fag…” when he sees a flag somewhere. When you hear him say “Swiper … faak” after he spots the great villain from Dora the explorer: Swiper the fox. From his tone, you can just imagine a similar situation of the same gravity: someone from a Star Wars movie saying… “Oh, who is that? Darth Vader… F$#K!!!”

I plan to post at least one photo of Adit every day for his Aai and big sister. Here is Adit getting out of the car at his daycare.

I just recharged my RelianceIndiaCall.com calling card for India. It came with a coupon for a hindi movie download. I am totally clueless about choosing what to get. Here is a link that lists all the movies available to me. Can anyone please suggest one that is worth watching?

Last night, Ashwini and V got on an airplane and left for Hindustan. For the next three weeks, I’ll be a single parent, caring for a 23 month old boy.

Bring out all the french fries, cookies and ice cream. Should buy a few more Thomas the train and Dora the explorer DVDs.

Looking forward to all the fun fun fun!!!

What is the largest object in our solar system?

If your answer is the Sun, then you are wrong. It is the heaviest but not the largest. Currently, that honor goes to Comet Holmes. After the unexpected event that produced a bright comet visible to naked eye, its coma has grown in size bigger than the Sun. Read more…

V made some Diwali treats and we put on lights, but due to various reasons, this year Diwali wasn’t very big in our house till the last day. The kids were very excited to celebrate Bhaubeej.


The only thing missing is a paan in his mouth.


behenji ready for some social work.
…OR…
a practice shot taken well before its time for dakhavanyasaathi kadhalela photo :)

The day started out with a trip to meet and ride in a train with Thomas the engine.

Recycling last year’s photo to wish you all a very Happy Diwali and prosperous New Year!!!

More fall colors from the same window as before.

If someone asks me, “How much money do you have in your wallet?”, I’d be clueless. Not because I have so much that I have lost the count, but because I haven’t used paper money in almost 2 months.

The last time I used cash was when I went for a haircut. These days, all my transactions are electronic. I haven’t written a check by hand in a long time either. I pay all my bills online or with a credit card. I even receive most of my bills online. Ever since I moved to my new workplace, I don’t have to use cash even to buy food in the cafeteria. My badge works as a debit card. Isn’t that convenient? Don’t have to handle cash or carry coins around in my pockets. I wish I could fund my badge directly from my paycheck, preferably before taxes, but that is not possible yet. It gets charged to a credit card that gives me reward points. Now, I get reward points for every single thing I do, even eating lunch or getting a cup of coffee in the afternoon.

I wonder how long it would take for us to become a completely cashless society.

The answer is simple. Look at the photo below. If I hadn’t pulled them around in the wagon to all those houses for trick-or-treating, there would be no candy for them to eat. It is only fair that they share their loot with me. I decided to take them in the wagon instead of the car and it was a big mistake. Our subdivision is on a hill and by the time we came home, I was sweating in 45F weather after pulling about 70 lbs of sugar in that wagon.

Finally caught it on camera before it disappears. The comet is currently heading away from the Sun. Its closest encounter was in May 2007, but the comet wasn’t very bright. It got bright last week supposedly due to collapse of cracks and release of huge amount of comet stuff: dust and gas.

These photos were taken using just the camera lens. Didn’t get around to set it up with the telescope.

A closeup with zoom lens set at 300mm; exposure time of 5sec; f/5.6; ISO1600. A bright star can be seen shining through the coma.

Introducing Mr. Blue and Ms. Tinkerbell. (Actually, Blue from “Blue’s clues” is a girl dog, but Adit likes Blue and we had Ashwini’s Halloween costume from last year that fit him very well.)





Scary enough for ya?!?

An unexpected comet, called comet 17/P Holmes is visible in the night sky for the last 3-4 days. In one day, its brightness changed from magnitude 17 to 2.5 (several million fold increase). It is visible in constellation perseus in the northern sky. It is not the usual comet with a tail, but just a green fuzzball. Looked quite pretty through my new M90. I didn’t take any photos, but there are quite a few around the net. It is a good target for binoculars and small telescopes.

Hope it will develop a tail as it moves closer to the Sun.