Autumn happenings

A whole autumn has passed us by, so I'm going to quickly play catch-up, and then we'll be completely up to date.

Fik and I ran our first full marathon, which was pretty cool to finally check off the bucket list.

Karen made us these sweet signs.

And Ritika came for morale support.

Poor Fik got lost because he blazed ahead of me the last three miles of the race.  I hit a serious wall and had to sit down.  I had a cell with me, so I easily reunited with the ladies, but Fik took a solid hour or so to find us.  So technically he crossed the finish line first, but I accomplished all the objectives first.  My cell phone no longer works properly because of all the water I was pouring over it during the race.  My space bar, function key, and end call key now all function as the "initiate camera" key.

Notice how we're leaning against a wall for support after the race.  One of the hardest things I've ever done.

Later on in late October (?) Ritika and I celebrated Diwali.  I had a bunch of candles still lying around the house leftover from Dr. Gids' proposal to his fiancee.

Later we went to a Diwali party in traditional Indian drab.  Ritika looked amazing, so I'm posting her pic.  I looked...well...interesting.

This is just a random date night.  Got some extra cash, so we went somewhere fancy.

And we dressed fancy.

For our department holiday party, Ritika decided to show off her wild side.  That's actually how her hair looks naturally.  You might be able to tell I'm doing something a little different with my hair too.  You can actually see it now.

Right now, we're eagerly anticipating Christmas.  We were a little late getting a Christmas tree, so we went economical.

I'm pretty excited at how stuffed my stocking looks now.

Just two more days!  Merry Christmas Everyone!

West Coast Part V -- MicroTAS

Alright, here are the final pics from my trip to the west coast.  Twas a long time ago...Sorry it took so long to get everything up.  The ultimate reason why we went out to Seattle was for a conference related to my research.  Learned a lot of great stuff, but didn't forget to keep enjoying the local cuisine.  

Us at group lunch.

Daria and Sachit sharing a laugh.

We're both usually happy after eating.

We adopted Melikhan for a day.

The ladies looking good.

Amit, future faculty extraordinaire.

Pals.

Mmmmm...Ethiopian food.  Never had this before.  Communal style, with a bunch of stuff tossed on a huge piece of bread.  Very cool.

The first starbucks.

Outside Pike's place.

$8 candied apples.

Clam chowder goodness.

Inside the public library.

Moshi for dessert.

And last, but certainly not least, the old gang from Ismagilov's group.  We survived!

West Coast Part IV -- Birthday Time

Sorry, it's taking me awhile to get through these pictures from the West Coast, but we're almost there.  We got back into Seattle on my birthday (remember this is back in October...), and from now on, most of the pictures will involve eating.

The first place we went to after getting back was this kinda fancy looking Thai place by the airport.  I initially thought it would be kinda dumb and overpriced, but it turns out that this restaurant had the best tom yum soup we've ever tasted.  Mango Thai - remember if you're in Seattle.

There it is.  We got it with shrimp.  I think one reason I liked it was that they somehow kept the soup really "clean", as in no little random chunks of weirdness floating around.

We returned the car in the morning and then went to the waterfront to grab some grub.  Ivar's is a great place to grab a quick fish 'n chips.

Here's Ritika about to chow on some chowder.

You can feed the seagulls outside your leftovers.  This one became good friends with Ritz.

Another awkward shot with a seagull.

That stone french fry looked so much better than the starbucks at the time.

"We have ice cream"...and a freakishly huge mammal.

We've been watching Grey's Anatomy on TV, and it seems like most of the characters like riding the ferry boats in Seattle, so we got ourselves a ride.

There's the space needle.

Space needle and the couple.

Space needle sans couple.

Couple sans space needle.

We went to Bainbridge Island, which was really different than downtown.  Did some wine tasting.

I'm acting like I understood all the things the waitress told me about this one particular glass of wine.

Then we found ANOTHER Thai place, so of course we had to try the tom yum soup.  Not as great as Mango Thai, but it had a unique flavor.  I'm talking to Fik about the Chicago Marathon, which I was supposed to be training for at the time...

Back to downtown...

...where Ritika treated me to a four-star hotel for my birthday!  Kimpton hotels are bomb.  YOU GET YOUR OWN GOLDFISH!!!

So many balloons :)

And wine hour.  Man, I love pretending to be rich.

The grand finale: Ritika also got me dinner at the space needle.  Rotating restaurant?  Yes please.

See how happy I am?  The shirt is from Ritika's parents when they came into town.  Fits great.  Thanks uncle, auntie.

I got to eat this...

...while looking at this (See the shooting star?).

Ritz, you're awesome!

After dinner, sleep ensued, then a gigantic breakfast courtesy of AAA in the morning.  Love that card.  Every guy with a car as old as mine should get an AAA membership.  It's saved my butt so many times.  And this time, it got me a ginormous breakfast burrito.

One more post, and we'll be done!  Going to Rochester tomorrow for Thanksgiving!