Welcome to Sunny, COLD, Florida!

I always thought that southern Florida was a lot like Chennai...sunny and hot all of the time. I honestly thought that I wouldn't get a break from the hot temps of India until I reached Illinois next week. Not the case though. It has been COLD here in Florida!

A cold front went through dropping the temperature down quite a bit here. Yesterday morning, it was 38 degrees when I got up (that's Fahrenheit and not Celsius). This morning it is 44 degrees. During the day, it has only been heating up into the 60's. Nice! Real nice! Especially considering that Chennai never gets cold fronts that come through...or at least not in the 9 months that I have been there. This weather is definitely welcome in my book!

So, what have I been doing since I have been here? On Wednesday, I got my computer fixed. Yippee! Then my mom and I went to Super Walmart. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Yesterday, Mom took me to the "arcade." It's actually a very small mini casino that has video slot machines. Every play costs 8 cents. Not going to go broke playing there...of course, also not going to become a millionaire either. However, my mom's friend did win $70 while we were there yesterday. I, on the other hand, lost $1. However, since they have free pop and snacks, I think I probably came out ahead in the end. Overall, a pretty fun way to spend an afternoon when it's cold outside.

So, today is leap day...February 29. How is everyone planning on spending their extra 24 hours? Well, we are having a party! OK, well the party would have taken place anyway regardless of the day as it is the annual block party at the RV park that my parents stay at. Since my mom is on the planning committee, I'll be helping to decorate and set up for the party. This year's theme...the 50's. Somehow, even on short notice of my arrival, one of the ladies here has come up with a poodle skirt for me to wear today. Stay tuned...depending on just how crazy I look, I may post the embarrassing photos of me in the outfit on here in a few days.

So, basically, just hanging out in Florida doing nothing. Pretty sweet! Planning on going fishing over the weekend when it heats up a little bit here. Probably do some more shopping...and maybe another trip to the arcade to see if I can win my dollar back!

Made It to Florida

Just wanted to let everyone know that I made it to Florida safely...about a 36 hour trip! I'll write more later when I'm somewhat functioning normally.

And The Oscar Goes To...

This morning while folding laundry and starting to pack, I decided to see if the Oscars were on TV here. I sort of figured they would be as most of the major award shows in the U.S. are shown here. Plus, Indians love movies!

Well, I couldn't exactly get into watching the Oscars as I haven't heard of any of the movies nominated for the awards. Being out of the U.S., I'm not exposed to all of the movie trailers, interviews with the movie stars, etc. I didn't even recognize the names of most of the actors and actresses up for the awards either.

So, now I'm adding to my list of things to do when I'm in the U.S. is to watch a current movie. Any suggestions on a good movie to rent or to see in the theater???

Do You Believe Everything You Read on the Internet?

There's this vicious rumor going around on the internet that I'm headed back to the U.S. this week. Now, who would have started such a rumor???

OK, OK...so it was me. I started the rumor about myself. And yes, the rumor is true. I'm headed to the U.S. this week. Don't worry, nothing is wrong. This is strictly a pleasure trip for me. It will involve a lot of rest, eating, shopping, and basically whatever else I want to do.

S got home last night from his latest business trip. Well, guess what? He is headed back out this week for another one, and then he will be home for maybe a day before going on another one that will involve numerous different countries and him being gone something like 8 days. In total, he basically won't be here for about 15 days. Since our trip to Thailand and Singapore had to be cancelled, he knew that I was a little bummed about having to be home alone so much while he is busy traveling right now. Therefore, he gave me the option to go back to the U.S. if I wanted.

This all came about Friday evening. I had absolutely no thoughts prior to that of even thinking about a trip to the U.S. any time soon. However, I found a great price on air tickets if I could leave Monday night. Not a lot of notice, but hey sometimes the best trips are the ones not planned in advance.

So, I will be headed to Florida for a week to visit my parents who are wintering there. Then I will be in Illinois for a week to visit my in-laws, my grandparents, my brother, other family, and friends. I will then fly back to Chennai and still have about a week and a half to get ready for my aunt and cousin's visit.

One thing that I have to get done while I am in the U.S. is get my computer fixed. The screen on it started to go out this week. After spending two hours with tech support, it was determined that I need a new screen. Luckily, my computer is still under warranty until June 2, so they will replace the screen for free. The only catch...I have to be in the U.S. in order for them to send a technician to switch the screen for me. So, now it should work out that I can have this done while I am in Florida.

So, that's pretty much the story on why I'm headed to the U.S. so quickly. I hope to get to see everyone when I'm there, but honestly, I doubt that this happens. I'll be in and out so quickly when I'm in Illinois and with such short notice, it just won't be possible to see everyone. However, if you would like to see me, feel free to e-mail me, and I'll see what I can do about arranging a time to meet up with you. Since S won't be with me, I won't have to work around his schedule, which should leave me to pretty much plan things how I want.

Anyway, I guess I should go as I leave my house in about 25 hours, and I haven't even started to pack yet...pretty unusual for me as I'm normally packed to go somewhere days in advance. I hope I don't forget something...oh well, I guess if I do, at least I'll have Walmart, Target, Kohl's, and everywhere else to shop at. Maybe, I'll have to intentionally forget to pack some items!

The Million Dollar Question

When am I going to be back in the U.S.?

The million dollar answer: Tuesday.

Got Ketchup?

I do. No thanks to my darling brother that is. He sent me a 7 lb 2 oz jug of ketchup in my food shipment.

He told me that he wanted to make sure that I didn't run out. Yeah, I don't think that is going to happen for a day or two!

The funny thing is that I almost went and bought ketchup this week. We are getting critically low, and I couldn't remember if I had ketchup coming in my food shipment or not. I pulled out my list and saw it was on there, so I held off on buying some here. When I was going through my food boxes, I came across a little bottle that my brother had bought for me. I remember thinking that this wasn't going to last too long, and that I should have bought a bottle here. I opened a couple of other boxes and found this monster. I think my brother got me pretty good! Just wait...he has one coming!

For those of you who don't know me, I eat ketchup on pretty much everything...and only Heinz ketchup. That other imitation stuff I can choke down if I have to, but Heinz is by far the superior ketchup in my book. This bottle should definitely last us awhile. Luckily the expiration date isn't until 2009, so I shouldn't have to worry about it going bad. Nothing worse than old nasty tasting ketchup.

Besides that, nothing terribly exciting in our food shipment this time...no ants, no dog food mixed in with cereal, no moldy cans of tomato soup. My rolls of paper towels are no longer in the shape of a roll.

I'm pretty sure whoever packs the food shipment into the boxes has no brain. They put things that can easily be crushed...i.e. paper towels, kleenex, chips, etc...into the same box with really heavy items...i.e. bottles of liquid laundry detergent, cases of pop, canned goods, etc.

I really appreciate the fact that my tissues are already crumpled up for me prior to usage. It saves me the hassle of doing it myself. I'm just waiting for one of these times the liquid laundry soap to leak all over the paper products. I guess if that happens the paper is there to absorb the mess. Really, would it be too much to ask to pack similar items together? Oh wait, these are probably the same people who worked as baggers at the grocery store and were trained to put bread and eggs on the bottom of the grocery bags.

Anyway, time to sign off...I have to go look up some recipes that use ketchup...

A Boring Tuesday Night

Nothing too exciting going on here in Chennai on a Tuesday night. Don't know if that is good or if that is bad. S left tonight to go on his business trip. He was supposed to leave tomorrow night, but as is the case with his job, things changed, and he had to fly out tonight. He'll be gone the rest of the week.

Well so far this week, I have got 1 3/4 of my 3 problems in the house resolved. The display screen on our elliptical exercise machine went haywire over the weekend. Since we bought it here in September, it is still under warranty. The company sent a technician out right away, which in and of itself is a truly amazing thing to happen here in India. The thing that really impressed me though is that he was actually forward thinking and brought a replacement computer board for the display screen with him. He anticipated that this was more than likely the problem. This sort of thing just doesn't happen here all that often, so I really appreciated this company's great customer service. (Now, I don't have any good excuses not to work out!)

The normal sequence of events here is that the repairperson (actually it's normally two or three people) would come and look at the problem (probably after not showing up when they were originally suppose to). Then there is always a big conversation about the problem between them and either my driver or security guard. Often times after that, there is then a phone call placed back to someone at their company to discuss the problem. After all of the talking, it never fails that the problem cannot be resolved at this time. Either someone else is needed or a part is needed or something. Then there is normally another phone call to our landlord to explain the situation to him, and then the phone is handed over to me to speak to our landlord (lucky for me that we have an awesome landlord who speaks great English) who will explain everything to me. It can never be easy here with this type of stuff.

This was such the case with the air conditioner that is broke in our kitchen. To make a long story short, two guys showed up today at noon. Basically the above scenario took place with our head security guard involved. Numerous trips in and out of the house to look at the unit part in the house and the compressor part that is on the outside of the house to determine what the problem was. After one hour of this, our head guard handed me a cell phone and of course it was the landlord. The part needed for the A/C is not available for 2 or 3 days (which in India time probably means at least a week). At least I wasn't told that I was making the problem up. This happened to me with these same A/C people on the same A/C unit about a month ago. Of course the problem is worse now, but I fully know that there was an issue a month ago, but that they just wouldn't listen to me (big disadvantage being female here). So this is why I said that half of the problem is fixed. Now I just have to wait for them to show back up with the replacement part...hopefully before it gets really HOT here!

The other quarter of a problem that has been resolved is with our satellite TV. One of the receivers won't pick up a signal. Well I guess the landlord has talked to the satellite company, and now I have to call the help line because they think it can be resolved over the phone. Ugh! I'm dreading this call! It's one thing to be in the U.S. and call a help line knowing that you are probably getting a call center that is in India. At least these people have been trained (somewhat) to deal with Americans. I think it is going to be a whole other story calling a help line in India and reaching a call center here that is trained to deal with Indians and not Americans. I think I'll put this off until tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Besides that, it is pretty boring around here. I'm honestly just killing time writing this blog. At 11 pm on Tuesday nights, House is on TV. Thankfully since one of our satellite receivers is still working, I can watch. S and I are addicted to House. We never watched this program in the U.S. or in China, but when we were moving from China, one of my friends recommended that I get Season One to watch. Well I was instantly hooked. S on the other hand wasn't until we got back from IL this January and started watching the DVD set because there was nothing else on. We have now watched all of the episodes of Season One at least two if not three times. I have also been able to catch most of the episodes of Season Two and Season Three on TV here. I believe the U.S. is in Season Four...and probably getting ready for new episodes now that the writers' strike is over with.

So anyway, I torture myself every Tuesday night staying up until the new episode of House that I haven't seen is on at 11 pm. Then it seems that every Wednesday morning I have to be out of the house early for some reason. That's when I feel the full effects of getting old and not being able to stay up until midnight. Wait, whom am I kidding? I've never been able to stay up until midnight! I'm totally a morning person and a person who likes her 8 plus hours of sleep every night. With S gone, I should be able to sleep in in the morning. Yeah right! Who am I kidding again? Although I like my sleep, I'm also one who has never had to set an alarm clock to wake up. I wake up pretty much the same time every morning. Here in India, that time is between 6:15 and 6:30 every single morning. Yeah, yeah, I know...what the heck am I doing getting up that early when I don't have a job, and I don't have any kids? It's called the sun comes up too darn early here. I guess because of Chennai being located so close to the equator, there is pretty much 12 to 13 hours of daylight here year round. The sun pretty much comes up at 6 am and sets at 6 pm every single day here.

Well enough of my ramblings for one night. By the time I spell check, proofread, and post this, it will be 11 pm. So good night everyone!

Elvis the Gecko

OK, this is a really long post about geckos...or in fact a really long post about one gecko that keeps reappearing in our house.

Remember the Legend of Grandpa Gecko? Well, you should since it was only a couple of posts back that I was telling his story. Remember that I was telling about Elvis the Gecko in that post? I was harassing MR about this gecko in my house and whether or not it was Grandpa Gecko. I had taken a photo of him and e-mailed it to her, and when she denied that it was Grandpa, I named the gecko Elvis. Well Elvis had successfully been escorted out of our house via the dining room sliding door that night with the assistance of S and the broom.

Well, you are not going to believe it...because I honestly don't believe it myself...but Elvis the Gecko is still around...and I have proof that it is the same gecko.

This story really begins on Thursday night, which was also Valentine's Day. I had been out all day and had picked up S at the office on the way home from work. As soon as we walked into the house, I spotted a gecko on the wall. While S went to find the broom, I was able to get a photo of the gecko, which at that point I named Cupid the Gecko. Only later would I determine that this was in fact Elvis the Gecko. (OK, OK...you know life in India is dull when I start naming the geckos!)

Anyway, here is the photo of Cupid the Gecko (who really is Elvis) that I took that night. Please forgive the quality of the photo as I had to blow it up in order to prove my point that it is Elvis. I also flipped the photo so he is facing down as I wanted all of the photos pointing in the same direction. After I took the photo that night, S escorted Cupid out the front door. I was then looking at the photo and noticed that Cupid only has 3 feet, which I think you can clearly see in the above photo. I was telling my parents, my brother, and my cousin about the 3 footed gecko that we had in our house (not 3 feet in length as my brother thought!). (OK, once again, life is a little boring so nothing better to tell my family then about our geckos). I have been trying to figure out how a gecko ends up with only 3 feet...did the 4th foot get amputated, was the gecko born deformed, will geckos drop a foot like they'll drop a tail if in danger, was it in a fight with another gecko??? Hmmm, if only geckos could talk!

So, fast forward a couple of days to Sunday (yesterday), and I was sitting at the dining table in the middle of the afternoon when this gecko comes scurrying out from behind the curtains. As S is upstairs and I don't want to lose sight of the gecko, I call S on his cell phone to come downstairs to help me get this thing out of the house. Well the stupid gecko refused to go out the sliding glass door, so after awhile, we just gave up. This morning, I spotted it again and once again, it eluded being corralled out the house, so we once again gave up.

Well, I was then talking to my cousin on the phone about what I should name this gecko. We decided to name it after our friend, Carrie, since she really liked the name of the other gecko, Elvis. So, I got off of the phone and decided to see if I could find the gecko and get a photo of it for Carrie, since I figured she would want to see her namesake.

While taking this photo this morning, I noticed that this was the same 3 footed gecko from Thursday night. It's kind of hard to tell in this photo, but definitely missing a foot plus the markings on the side of an upside down V are the same. So, I thought that this gecko was in fact Cupid and couldn't be named Carrie. Then I started wondering how the heck this guy got back into the house. He was ushered out the front door on Thursday night, but yet reappeared a couple of days later in the dining room. The logical thought would be that he was let back in by the maid, since she does clean the front porch and leaves the door cracked while doing so. However, she didn't work on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, so that possibility is out. I guess it is possible that he came scurrying back in when either S or I were coming in or out, but I think that is highly unlikely as we go in and out pretty quickly, and I think we would have noticed a gecko getting in. So, the best answer to this question is that the stupid gecko (actually pretty smart, but I like to call geckos stupid) went out under the front porch door (there is a big enough gap for this and thus the reason why the front porch is called the gecko room because it has a gazillion geckos in it at any point in time) and around the side of the house and somehow got back in the house at sliding glass doors of the dining room.

Anyway, this story gets even weirder when later today I determined that this gecko is in fact Elvis the Gecko that I first spotted in our house on Wednesday, February 6...a full 8 days before Cupid on Valentine's Day. Remember how I said I had taken a photo of that gecko...well here is the photo blown up from that date.

Notice anything familiar about this guy? Any distinguishing markings...maybe having a foot missing and an upside down V?

So basically to sum it up Elvis the Gecko is Cupid the Gecko is Carrie the Gecko...the same gecko! First spotted in house on February 6 and ushered out dining room sliding door. Next spotted in house on February 14 and ushered out front wooden door. Last spotted in house on February 17 and still at large in house. I'm thinking maybe it would just be easier to leave Elvis in the house as I have a feeling that wasting any more time or energy getting him out will be for nothing as he'll just reappear again in a few days. Maybe his name should instead be Houdini the Gecko!

Back to Normal

Life for me is pretty much back to normal...or at least as normal as one's life can be when living in India. All of my visitors have left Chennai. Only 33 days until my cousin and aunt arrive for their visit. I think I'll be recuperated by then. It was great being able to show people around Chennai. However, after 3 weeks of it, I am tired. A LOT of time in the car...and for those of you who have never experienced traffic in India (even if only riding and not driving), you won't appreciate just how tiring this can be. So, I think I'll be staying home for a few days.

Originally, S and I were to leave last night for our trip to Bangkok and then on to Singapore. However, the trip had to be cancelled as S has to go on a different business trip later this week. This is the eighth week of the year and will be his sixth business trip. Ugh! I hope this doesn't last all year long. If so, it will be a really long year.

So, this week I am committed to catching up on a bunch of paperwork...taxes, expenses...you know, all the fun things in life! Also, I'm behind in birthday cards and gifts, so I need to send out a bunch of belated ones. Let's see, this week will also bring another food shipment. I'm curious to see what surprises my brother stuck into it. Also, S is suppose to be arranging to have everything that is broke in our house fixed, so I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time waiting for repairmen to not show up on time.

Since, things are slowing down a bit here, I should be able to do some regular blog posts again. I have some photos of my outings with my visitors to post...and of course, more gecko stories to tell.

So, I guess I should stop procrastinating and do something productive...

The Legend of Grandpa Gecko

What is a legend? Well according to dictionary.com, the definition of a legend is a nonhistorical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical.

Well when MR was staying with me a couple of weeks ago, the story of Grandpa Gecko began. One night, MR and I were surfing the net at my kitchen table when she went to the bathroom that is attached to our guest bedroom. She came back from the bathroom looking like she had seen a ghost. Nope, she just "supposedly" saw a huge gecko in the bathroom. The story goes that it was a greenish color and went scurrying up the wall and out an opening above the exhaust fan. Well, I got out the good old lizard repellent and sprayed it all around the exhaust fan. Of course, I really have no clue whether or not this stuff actually works, but I think it made MR feel better. She claims that she slept that night with the lights on and her eyes open! She named the gecko Grandpa.

So, the legend of Grandpa Gecko began. She told everyone we ran into the rest of the time she was here about Grandpa. I was harassing her pretty hard about the gecko...that was of course until I saw a large gecko scurry up the wall by the staircase a few nights later. I told her that it was Grandma Gecko looking for Grandpa. Then a few nights later I saw a large gecko by the large sliding glass window in our dining room. I didn't want the gecko to leave the window so I sat staring and watching it to make sure it didn't go anywhere. I got a photo of it and e-mailed it to MR, but she said it wasn't green enough to be Grandpa. So, I named that gecko Elvis. When S got home over an hour later, Elvis left the building (with the assistance of S and the broom).

When MR left a few days ago, I gave her a green paper gecko so that she would always remember Grandpa Gecko. Her husband and I had a good laugh at her...she was also laughing. Little did I know that the last laugh would be on me.

Tonight, S and I were watching a movie in the bedroom. I got up to go in the bathroom to brush my teeth. I opened the bathroom door, which we always keep shut, went in, and flipped on the light. I turned around to shut the door, and there was a large gecko on the door frame. I'm not exactly sure what I said (plus I probably couldn't repeat it in my blog even if I did remember) but S knew something was wrong. I told him to go get the broom. Well while he took an eternity to go downstairs to get the broom, I was able to get a good look at this gecko. I'm sure it was definitely Grandpa Gecko.

The gecko was on the door frame at about the height of my head. I had to have come within an inch of it when I walked through the door. Plus how I didn't touch it when I turned the light on, I have no clue. Every night when I get up to go to the bathroom, I always turn the light on to make sure there aren't any geckos in the bathroom. The window in this bathroom has a huge opening in it, and I have been expecting every night for months now to see a gecko in the bathroom. Nothing though until tonight. This gecko was definitely greenish in color and even looked old. The thing that really freaked me out though is that it kept sticking it's tongue out at me and turning it's head. It was almost like it was taunting me and saying "na, na, boo, boo, you can't catch me." It finally started to go around the door frame and thus out of the bathroom into the bedroom. Yikes! I kept looking around the bathroom for something to nudge it back in, but I came up with nothing. Finally, just as this was happening, S got his slow behind back with the broom and was able to corral it back into the bathroom. I opened the window, and S was able to get it out. I ran and got the lizard repellent. I think I used half the can on the window!

I can no longer harass MR about Grandpa Gecko as I have came face to face with him. Lost a few years off of my life doing so, but I guess that's what I get for living in a lizard infested part of the world...and so goes the legend of Grandpa Gecko.

A Hot, Long, Tiring Week

...just when you have probably gave up hope of me ever posting again...

The daily temperatures here in Chennai are slowly starting to creep back up. January was a great month here, temperature wise. The daily highs were in the upper 70s/lower 80s every day...of course, this was without the humidity. It doesn't get much better than that here. However, the last week or so, the temperatures have been inching up a few degrees with it now being around 83 to 85 every day (once again, without the humidity...as it really feels about 10 degrees warmer than this). Of course, I can't really complain about the weather here...we could be back in Illinois suffering through the horrible winter conditions there.

If I'm going out and about during the day, I normally wear capris. Shorts just aren't really an acceptable thing for women to wear here. In fact, capris to some degree are pushing the "dress code" of Chennai when you see that the women here wear clothing that doesn't show any leg skin whatsoever. However, all the foreign women here do get by without problems with wearing capris or knee length skirts. Being that I'm not really a skirt person unless I'm dressing up for some reason, I wear capris outside of our house.

Well with the lower quarter of my legs being down right not pleasant or just plain ugly from all of the mosquito bites, I have been wearing jeans all week. Luckily all of the activities that I have been doing with my guests have pretty much been indoors this week with the exception of one day that was completely outside (boy did I pretty much overheat on that day). However, the problem with me wearing jeans is that none of my jeans fit. In the last 1 1/2 years, I have probably lost about 15 pounds. I have already gone down one size for sure and probably could easily fit into the next size smaller if I really wanted to. Since my need for jeans and dress pants is pretty much zero in Chennai, I haven't thought that it would be wise to invest any money into these items since I have lost the weight. So, this means that I have been wearing around clothing all week that hasn't fit...big and baggy! I pretty much was constantly pulling up my pants...I guess I should be thankful that I have fat hips and thus my pants didn't fall completely down!

My legs are finally starting to show the signs of healing. Calamine lotion didn't help at all with the itching. However, I found that I had some aloe vera gel that somewhat worked to stop the itching. Finally though, the best thing I found in my massive supply of medicine that I stocked up on before leaving the U.S. was some leftover prescription antibiotic skin ointment. I have a couple of functions in a few days that I will need to dress up for, and I'm hoping my legs will be healed enough that I can wear a skirt (as one of the events is outdoors, I will be sure to wear bug repellent this time). The other thing with having a million mosquito bites on my legs is that I haven't been able to shave them in a week now. Getting a little bit hairy!

Well my first friend has now returned to Beijing. We had a great couple of weeks together. Lots of laughs and good times. My other friend has been here for a few days now. However, she has gone for the weekend to Delhi to meet some other friends. She'll be back on Monday night, and I will be busy the rest of the week with her. In the meantime though, I am flat out exhausted from being out of the house every day for at least two weeks now. I have declared that I'm not leaving the house at all this weekend...and so far I have been very successful with this goal!

Ants

Haven't had any ants in the kitchen for a few days now. (Knock on wood).

However, ants have taken up residence in my computer. Maybe I should stop eating while surfing the internet?????

Remind Me to Use OFF

This is what happens in India when you are outside at dusk and forget to use insect repellent.

Last night, S and I were sitting outside for about an hour chatting with some friends waiting for our dinner table to be ready. I didn't even realize that I was getting ate alive and didn't notice the million bug bites on my legs until we got home a few hours later. The bites have only started to itch in the last few hours. I'm trying not to scratch my legs, but with this many bites, it really is hard to avoid.

I'm not sure what these bites are from. Thankfully, I don't have any bites on my arms or face. They are only on my lower legs, ankles, and feet. Anyway, I think I have learnt my lesson and will now be carrying OFF wipes in my purse at all times.

Super Bowl Monday

Yes, we do get to see the Super Bowl here in India. One of our sports channels is carrying it. Of course, with the time change, the game started around 5 am today (Monday). So, no Super Bowl parties here. I actually did turn the TV on right before the kickoff. However, I slept pretty much throughout the first half. I did wake up in time to see the halftime show, and now I am watching the second half while eating my Super Bowl snack...a bowl of cereal.

The weird/strange thing with the Super Bowl here is that it is majorly tape delayed. How do I know this? There are pretty much NO commercials whatsoever. I didn't expect to see the cool U.S. commercials, but I thought at least there would be some Indian commercials on. Nope! None of that. The only commercials they have shown are a couple that are advertising the other shows on this TV channel. Total, the commercials are only about 30 seconds long. Also, every time there is a commercial break in the U.S., doesn't necessarily mean that there is even this short commercial break here. So, this game is really going by quickly. Really though, how exciting is the Super Bowl without the commercials???

So, who am I rooting for? Well, like S would say, I'm just rooting for a good game. However, if I don't say, GO PATS, our family in Boston may disown us!

Trash Cans

Yes, India does have a few actual trash and garbage cans. Here are samples of the types of cans commonly found around Chennai:

I'm not sure I've actually ever seen what I would consider to be a "normal" looking garbage can. There is definitely a LARGE need for a lot more garbage cans around Chennai. There is trash everywhere you look. In the last week, there have been reports that people are going to start getting fined for throwing trash on the streets. Yeah right! What are they going to do, ticket every single person in Chennai?