Led by Riverdave, Ben P organized the should-be Yuppies Outdoors adventure. We paddled inflatable rafts from West Point on the Eno up the river to an amazing but cold swimming hole, protected by slippery rocks. After wafting, took a walk through the Eno woods and then drove to Hillsborough to S...  read more

Mishti if off for a school picnic and we had the weekend to ourselves. So last night, I decided to give the weekend cooking a miss and we headed out to the newly opened Masala Mantar a hop away from my house. It being a saturday, we were warned of a waiting time of about 40 minutes, but we decid...  read more

This sleeping-in late thing has got to stop.  We almost missed our dives this morning -- the last ones of the trip. The two dives today were at Palancar Caves and Cedral Wall.  Both dives were fantastic: crystal clear water, lots of incredible coral formations and sea life, gentle curr...  read more

It was another late morning today.  Damn, it's going to be hard to go back to work.  After a slow, relaxing breakfast we caught a taxi to San Miguel. We spent several hours just browsing around the town and popping in and out of shops.  There was an unusual number of jewelry store...  read more

I wanted so much for our first big marriage milestone to be a big memorable escapade somewhere exotic, but two small children and tight finances conspired against me.It is our tenth wedding anniversary on June 21, 2007.  What to do, what to do?  I thought about it for weeks.  I hav...  read more

I have been trying to balance my time between studying for my exam and visiting interesting places. It is not easy to do. It would be better if I were one or the other, but then I wouldn't exchange this life experience for anything. Last week, my cousin's college friend Nancy arrived from China. ...  read more

This is when our family restaurant, Oriental Jade, first opened. It's been pretty much the same since.

In the lovely Rotterdam restaurant Zinc I proposed to my future wife. It was a bit too early for her liking, so she gave me a tentative "yes" suggesting we get married a year later.

Started the day a little late. Drove the mini to Julian to see Steph's parents who took the new fifthwheel there. Ended up seeing some of the friends of the family who were there camping with them. Jerry, Martha, Steph and I went and did some winetasting. Had a nice picnic nearby with a bottle ...  read more