I usually schedule some home projects when parents visit and so this summer it was to build our deck, the wood on it was wilting and the railings could no longer take the blows from my sons Power Ranger actions.
I quickly realized there were tons of choices to replace the deck with, you had all kinds of wood to choose from, then there were composite decking materials. And so the research began to come up with the most effective solution.
I looked at ceder and red wood and pressure treated pine, then among composite's itself there were choices in that if the fastners are hidden or screwed on top and the costs varied wildly. Composite's had another issue in that the distance between the joists could be no longer than 16 iches for a straight lay, or 12 for a diagonal laying of the plank. Another factor that had to be considered is to replace the railings, The costs for railings as it related to composites were exorbitant.
The way the companies make their money is by selling the small things to complete its assembly as individual pieces, everything form the brackets, to the railings and the posts and screws. They added up to put the costs way beyond my budget.
And so the final plan was to replace my aging cedar diagonally laid boards with composite flooring laid straight with wooden railings. The only thing I had not planned for was how to get rid of the material that was replaced and even as I compose this posting I don't have a solution.

Most of the project went as planned, My 5 year old chordless drill died mid way into the project, and so I made a trip to check out the alternatives. I could get a single replacement battery for $45(approx) or buy a new drill with 2 new batteries for $80. All this talk about going green, recycling and saving the planet seems no more than an marketing propoganda. I settled for a chorded drill instead.

Things I liked about doing this project
1) Planing, designing and executing the project
2) The expression on the kids face and excitment when I was breaking the deck.
Everybody form their doctor to random folks at the pool and other encounters knew about the project.
3) "Lets leave Acha alone, he is busy with the deck work" attitude from the kids
4) The enthusiasm shown by my father-in-law.

Things I disliked in doing this project
1) Time consuming
2) The service at home depot
3) The incredulous ways the various companies take you for a ride through their pricing.

Month of Birthdays

May is the month of birthdays. Nishanth had his day in school where he was the star of the class.
He even got to blow a candle over an imaginary cake. The kids were in smiles only when Veena joined them with popsicles.










Over the weekend we celebrated at home with another year of lightning McQueen cake.








Neetu's birthday celebration was at Kansas City over Memorial day weekend. Thanks to Suneethi, Nandita had her very first surprise birthday. We could not really tell what she made of the surprise but she sure did feel important. One of the highlights of the party was all of us went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner afterwards and Neetu was again in the spot light when the entire staff showed up with a cake and candle and sang a song for her.

Krishnan's claim of having some knowledge of Spanish was put to test here. The first waitress on hearing the words ran back inside to seek additional help. The second guy stood nervously as Krishnan fired away. He manages to translate it to something close to what KK had told us it was, so we acknowledged KK truly learnt something form his project in Mexico.

The birthday was special in other ways as well. Satish and family flew in from PA, Pradeep and family from VA. Sudarshan and Mala from Denver with KK and Suneethi being the gracious host. So it was a house buzzing with kids. ..err Elephants, Yes Elephants..! That's how the neighbors downstairs put it when they knocked on our door one evening to complain.

Do these 3 look like Elephants to you? NO.

The true big elephant is missing in this picture.

And then we had Veena's B'day. I love her very much but I just can't recall what we did. See, my first post told you why I started blogging.

Getting kids on board

So after the Mexico trip was booked we made our pitch to the kids. There is beach, sand, water and all we will do is have fun for a whole week.

That was not good enough for Nishanth. He argued, instead of going to Mexico we can go to San Diego. There is beach, sand, water over there also but we can also have fun with Arjun and Abhishek! That sounded like an exciting prospect to me as well as it would be a softer blow on the wallet, but then it is not a true vacation. When I told Mali and Rajesh they disagreed, she made her pitch to leave the kids there while Veena and I take a vacation.

This argument from Nishanth took a while to die down. Then our destination changed, Neetu is getting savvy with Maps and anytime we travel she looks up the big map on the wall to see where she was going. Pretty soon she scanned the map and got all the details about how we were traveling and realized that our stopover in LA is just by San Diego. Now she made her pitch at meeting Arjun and Abhishek since we were so close that a finger barely fit in the space between San Diego and LA on the map.

Adventures with vacation planning and booking

One of the biggest disadvantages of staying so far away from immediate family members is that most of the vacation time and $'s just vanish form such a trip. However this year being our 10th wedding anniversary I was determined to make a trip to some place fun.

We had just returned form an India trip late January and I was also burnt from building a house, after several days of on-line shopping for a good vacation while trying to juggle the times between kids school, my school/work along with Veena's work and another dimension the price tag I honed in on Cozumel, Mexico. It was booked mid Feb and scheduled for a week starting May 28th, now I have one less item on my 'to do' list.

Well, as it turns out that was not the end. Ever since it was booked stories about drug wars in Mexico started becoming more prominent and the news portrayed it as a dangerous place to be. I was now committed and had few options. Sure enough the US Government comes out with a travel advisory in time for spring break time in march. Well, I'll just worry for now and we'll see what happens.

Was that it? no. Veena soon found herself hunting for a new job I wasn't too worried knowing her capabilities. I was more worried about if she found one will the new company be willing to let her take off. I quickly found out I was right about her capabilities and wrong about the worry.

Did it end there? no, Swine flue was next and this was serious stuff. Mid April grim news started coming out of Mexico, calls to the agencies through whom I booked my trip only expressed their sympathy that I may have to cough up more money to make changes. "You did not take trip Insurance sir.. we can't make changes without a cost...."

By May the news only got grimmer and as much as I hate to say it, I was happy. By May 10th or so Airlines were cancelling flights and relaxing cancelation/re-booking rules, and I was back on-line shopping. Hawaii was too costly while I was shopping earlier, not anymore. I re-booked to Maui added another day to the vacation and also managed to get a refund of about $80.00. I could not be happier.

First Post

Well, I did it finally. I have created this blog to primarily keep track of how each year goes by and help me remember the various things that happened. It is going to be more of a dairy for myself. I hope I don't loose the zing of posting over time.