4 Lessons Learned from the Past Few Days

1.) Do not attempt to make nationally authentic food for a person who is authentically from that country. Case in point: I had my friend Srinivas over Wednesday Night. Srini is from Bangalore, India and he is now doing his extended studies at Purdue University. Anyway, I attempted to make Bhaji, an indian dish which is basically a potato-cauliflower-pea stew with a myriad of spices. About halfway through the process, he graciously took over my cooking job and spent an extended period of time getting the mixture of spices (turmeric, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, salt, etc.) and the consistency JUST RIGHT. He even taught me that his family added a bit of sugar to the mix to enhance the taste. He was super cool about it and had a lot of fun cooking (and I, a lot of fun learning...). It was just kind of funny, that's all. It'd be like me living in Tibet and having people invite ME over to their house where they graciously cook me a gourmet pizza without having a damn clue how to do it.

2.) Babies who consistently sleep through the night apparently also have the capability of waking up 4 times in one evening. Maybe it was the Indian food?

3.) If the heater in your car isn't working, maybe there's something wrong with your radiator. Yeah, I got stranded on a "long stretch of nowhere" about 2.5 hours from home last week. Sure, I saw that the meter was pegged on HOT for a few miles, but I'm car ignorant, and thought something was wrong with my dash. When the radiator hose finally blew, it was like something out of Nascar... at least that's what they tell me (I dunno... I don't watch the stuff). Luckily, a man behind us knew about cars, knew what to do, and spend an hour out of his day to get us back on the road. Apparently God drives a pickup.

4.) Tonic Water, Gin, Limes, and Ice mixed together make a really dee-lish beverage. Enough said.