Moving to Austin

So moving week has arrived and soon it will be moving day! Movers load our stuff on the 3rd and we start our drive on the 4th. Packing has been fun. We are almost done with the major part of our packing and I am sure it will come down to one last day of hectic packing on Wednesday in order to be ready for the movers on Thursday.

We are taking a leisure roadtrip to Austin. We first hit Chicago for the long weekend, then St. Louis to see The Arch, then to Kansas City to see our friends Neha & Amol, then onto Dallas to see cousin Sriram and then onwards to Austin to move into our new apartments just in time when the movers will get to Austin.

We will miss all our friends that we had in the DC area. I met a whole bunch of awesome people at Meetin with whom I have done lots of fun stuff. The hikes, picnics, camping trips, white water rafting, beach trips, parties, and a lot more. I will never forget all of them and will fondly cherish each one of them.

Adios... till we reach Austin.

White water rafting - Ohiopyle, PA

It's been a while since I had been white water rafting and Ramya has always wanted to do it. So, finally just before we are to move to Austin, Pratik put together a trip to Ohiopyle, PA for a bunch of folks to hit some rapids on the Lower Youghiogheny river.

So on the morning of June 14th, 15 of us drove 4 hours to reach Ohiopyle from the DC area. The whole group got ready to check in at 10:30am when we were told that our group's check in time was at noon. Some people were pissed because they had to get up very early in the morning to make it to Ohiopyle in time for the check in only to realize that they could have had some extra sleep on a Saturday morning. In any case, we drove into the small, quaint town down the road and enjoyed some coffee and saw a small waterfall. Just as we were beginning to sign our waiver forms, the skies opened up and started raining like crazy. We got done with the forms and were hoarded in the buses which were to take us to the starting point for our white water rafting adventure. All of us were completely drenched by now. We would have gotten wet on the river in any case so it was no big deal!

The 15 of us were split into 3 groups of 5 each. Me, Ramya, Tatya, Sarah and Pratik were in Group1. Anand, Akki, Mohini, Reema and Gina were Group 2. Esmail, Ashraf, Zubeida, Kapil and Farah were in Group 3. We reached our starting point and were assigned guides. The lead guide walked us through the safety procedures and showed us how to paddle upon our raft guide's instructions. I was the only one in our raft to have had any prior rafting experience. So, I was at the front of the raft. After getting done with the safety procedures, we dragged our raft onto the river and off we went white water rafting.

Our guide Dan was a college kid from WVU. We hit some Class 3 rapids and some beginner Class 4 rapids which were fun. After about an hour and a half on the river, everybody stopped for lunch. After lunch, we hit most of the popular rapids on the river. On one of the rapids, Ramya fell off the raft and into the river. She didn't drift too far away as she managed to hold on to a rope which ran all around the raft. Tatya and me immediately picked her back into the raft by pulling her life jacket. She was scared a bit was it was all fun for her. The highlight of the entire trip was the entire Mahajan clan in the DC area falling off the raft and into the river. But everyone was pulled back into the raft and everybody was OK.

Finally, after covering about 7 miles on the river in just about 4 hours, we reached the end point of our adventure. We got off the river, dragged the raft back to the trailer and got onto our bus. All in all it was a fun adventure trip and a whole group of people could claim to have lost their white water rafting virginity! Thanks to Pratik for putting together the trip.

Here are the pics from the trip taken of Group 1...

Pearl Jam

Our week of concerts was topped by a Pearl Jam show at Verizon Center on the 22nd of July. We figured we had good seats to see PJ but turned out we were in the last row on the upper deck. Bummer! The only consolation was that we could see the band from the top and not from far away in the front. The opening act was Ted Leo and The Pharmacists. Seriously! No one could have cared about this band either as everyone was waiting for Eddie and the boys to come out and belt out a concert that is like no other.

PJ was exceptional this night in DC. The show lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes which is atleast 45 minutes longer than any band would perform. The house lights were turned on 2 hours and 15 minutes into the show indicating that the curfew time was up. PJ couldn't have cared less and they played for 30 more minutes. The highlight of the show for me was Even Flow, Alive, a vintage Black with an extended guitar solo by Mike McCready, Daughter, Elderly Woman and a frantically paced Rearviewmirror. As usual, Eddie used the opportunity of playing in DC to bash George Bush and the oil companies. Not that he needs a reason but still. All in all a great show and I enjoyed this performance better than the last time I saw PJ in 2003. Looking forward to next year when they should be out on the road promoting their next album.

Here's the set list...
Set 1: Hard To Imagine, Severed Hand, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Evacuation, Corduroy, I'm Open, I Am Mine, I Got Id, Daughter, Light Years, Even Flow, Green Disease, You Are, U, Who You Are, Why Go

Encore 1: Comatose, Sad, Given To Fly, Come Back, Grievance, Black, Rearviewmirror

Encore 2: No More, Last Kiss, Crazy Mary, Alive, All Along The Watchtower, Yellow Ledbetter

Here are a couple of reviews of the show...
Review 1

Review 2

Here are the pics from the show...

Iron Maiden

Raise the Horns! We went to see Iron Maiden at The Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD on the 18th of July. The Gods of Metal put on a tremendous earth shattering show. Bruce didn't seem to have lost any of his vocal pipes for a guy his age. The 3 pronged guitar attack of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers were fantastic as ever. Nicko McB was his usual force driving the rhythm for the band. And of course, Steve Harris kept the band together with his bass work.

Lauren Harris (yes! Steve's daughter) was the opening act which sucked. But who cared?! Everyone was there to see Iron Maiden and did we ever get a show cranking once "Aces High" started. And the show ended with "Hallowed Be Thy Name" to cap off a magnificent night for us. This was Ramya's first time seeing Maiden and the second time for me. The first time I saw Iron Maiden, me and some buddies were way back on the lawn at the Post. But, this time we had good seats in the house as you can tell from the pics. My head was still reeling from the metal pounding for a good couple of days. Till the next time Maiden visits America... see ya!

The setlist for the show...
01. Intro - Churchill's Speech
02. Aces High
03. 2 Minutes to Midnight
04. Revelations
05. The Trooper
06. Wasted Years
07. The Number of the Beast
08. Caught somewhere in time
09. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
10. Powerslave
11. Heaven Can Wait
12. Can I Play With Madness?
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Run too the Hills
15. Iron Maiden
------------ENCORE---------------
16. Moonchild
17. Hallowed Be Thy Name

Here's a review from the show.

Here are the pics from the show...

Bryan Adams

Me and Ramya went to see Bryan Adams' special solo performance at Recher Theater in Townson, MD. I have seen Bryan in concert a few years ago in NYC alongwith Def Leppard. Ramya had never seen him before and we both are big fans of Bryan Adams for a long time. After putting in quite the work to get two tickets to the sold out show (which included driving all the way to Recher Theater from Fairfax, VA on the day the tickets were released), we were very much looking forward to see Bryan in an acoustic setting performing his long list of hits.

The doors were to open at 7pm. We got there by around 6pm and saw about 60 people standing in the line to get in as this was a standing only show. Good thing we made it early or else we would have been way behind the crowd. The doors opened promptly at 7pm and we made a beeline into the theater to get a good standing position in front of the stage. We were about 6 rows from the stage. So Far So Good! It was only about 8:30pm that the lights dimmed and BA made his appearance in a white T-shirt and jeans with a guitar around his neck. He got down to business by playing a few of his new songs from his new album "11". This is his 11th studio album and hence the name. Most of the people in the crowd didn't know these new songs because the album "11" releases in the US on May 13. But the crowd really got into it when he started playing songs from his earlier albums.

There is something very special and wonderful about an acoustic performance. You get to the bare bones of the songs in the way it was originally written. This night, it was BA's signature voice, his guitar and the harmonica on a few songs. Nothing else stood in the way between BA and his adoring fans. He played his well known hits like Summer of 69, Heat of the night, Heaven, It's Only Love, Cuts Like a Knife, Straight From the Heart, Run to You, Can't Stop this Thing We Started, Let's Make a Night to Remember, The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You. Some of the big ones which he didn't play included Everything I Do, Please Forgive Me, Cloud No. 9, Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven, 18 'Til I Die and more. He played two encore performances and ended the show after about 90 minutes which was too short a set for most of his fans. But, I am sure it was wonderful night seeing BA perform in an intimate setting.

Here are a few pics for those who couldn't see him.

Iron Man

Me and Ramya went to see Iron Man at the Tysons Corner AMC for an early morning show on Saturday 05/03. We both loved the movie. Even though the Iron Man super-hero character is not amongst the most popular ones in comic book history, the movie is wonderful. I am not going to get into the details about the plot of the movie. You can find hundreds of reviews of the movie online. But I can tell you this. There is some sheer thrill in watching a character that you have seen only in comic books and/or TV shows come alive on the big screen. I had never read an Iron Man comic book before but was still excited to see the big screen movie. Here's the official theatrical trailer for Iron Man...




I still remember the excitement in my heart when I went in to see the Spiderman movie a few years ago. Growing up in India, Sunday mornings were reserved to see the Spiderman animated show on TV. I still remember that the show used to be sponsored by a big soft drink product "Rasna". After all the commercials were aired, I would wait for the title song to be played which went like this ... "Spiderman... Spiderman... Does whatever a spider can...". As a kid growing up, Spiderman and He-Man were the most amazing things on TV for me and my brother. I could rememeber all those Sunday mornings as I walked into the movie theater to see the Spidey movie. And when Spidey made his first appearance in the movie wearing his Spidey suit, I was thrilled as a kid in a candy store. Of course, I have seen all the three Spiderman movies that have been released so far. If only they could make He-Man and the Masters of the Universe for the big screen. We can only hope and wish! Here's the lyrics for the Spiderman theme song...

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies
Look Out!
Here comes the Spiderman.

Is he strong?
Listen bud,
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread
Take a look overhead
Hey, there
There goes the Spiderman.

In the chill of night
At the scene of a crime
Like a streak of light
He arrives just in time.

Spiderman, Spiderman
Friendly neighborhood Spiderman
Wealth and fame
He's ingnored
Action is his reward.

To him, life is a great big bang up
Whenever there's a hang up
You'll find the Spider man.


One more final thing. We are never again going to spend $10 per ticket to see a movie. We saw Iron Man at the AMC in Tysons Corner for $6 per ticket. The only hitch is that you have to see a show before noon. No problemo! If we can save $4 per ticket to see a movie on the big screen, we will do it. I don't see any reason to spend the extra money to see a movie in the evening when they charge regular price which is quite high.

Happy Wedding Anniversary

It was two years ago on 04/30/2006 that me and Ramya got married in Bangalore, India. To celebrate this occassion, we went out for dinner to an Indian restaurant Tandoori Nights in Arlington. We started out with fried papads and chutney. Then came the wine. After that, we shared Mixed Vegetable Pakoras and Aaloo Chaat Papri. The food was awesome.