Even Littuler Birdie

This morning, when I got off the bus at 1455 Research Boulevard I saw a Humming Bird!!!! hovering in front of one of the bushes. I thinkkkk this is the first time I have seen one. I could see the head and beak distinctly as it hovered, but the rest of it's body was a greyish blurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It was hovering exactlly like in the photo. After 2 seconds it was gone!!!!! It was too tiny for my to find it after it disappeared into the trees :)

Jasmine on my Desk! :)

This morning, when I got to work, I placed my nook on the desk and began to check my email. I picked up the nook later to look at the form underneath it and there lay a little Jasmine. Houda had got me one from one of her pots at home. Love love love the fragrance! :)

Champagne Grapes and Baby Kiwis

A trip to Trader Joe's this afternoon resulted in the buying of a new fruit. A new fruit to me, that is. Champagne Grapes. They are itty bitty purple grapes and a bunch of them has many of them closely placed. Quite delish! :)

This Trader Joe's I go to from work usually has some interesting fruit or the other. Another time I went, they had baby kiwis! Those were POSITIVELY DELICIOUS!!!!

My Only Successful Monument at Night Photo

Washington Monument + Red Moon + Father and Son

Thai Green Curry? or Green Tea Ice Cream?

Monuments at Night

Saurabh redeemed part of his birthday gift last night for a photography course teaching him how to take photographs of the monuments in the night. I went with him for the ride. I have always wanted to go to see the monuments in the night, and this was a good excuse. I took a book 'coz I figured I would get bored with all the million photos they'd take.

We met the instructor, David Luria, in front of the World War II Memorial. There was a class of 17 students that day. The first thing he taught them was how to make moving cars and people disappear from your photo. It is pretty darn cool what a tripod and increased shutter speeds can accomplish.

Making people disappear - If you look closely on the bottom right corner you can see the person's feet. The rest of him is gone! I picked a photo with feet showing up to prove the disappearing act! :)

After, they took photos of the Washington Monument, they moved on to the fountains in the WWII Memorial. At the WWII Memorial, I grabbed a seat and another lady who also had come along for the ride joined me. Reading was put to one side and Jill and I conversed for the remaining 3 hours of this class. She and her husband Pete had moved to DC from Cambridge about 9 months back for a total for 3ish years in the US.

The WWII Memorial looked absolutely gorgeous in the night, with the water and the lights. I LOVED it. (I am going to have a hard time picking a photo for the blog)

World War II Memorial with the Lincoln Memorial in the background

The class then moved onto a ramp in the WWII Memorial. Jill and I were busy talking, we checked on them one moment, and the next they were gone! Luckily Saurabh called me and we caught up with them at the Korean War Memorial. The Korean War Memorial is very interesting. The soldiers are captured as if in combat. They are all lit from below by a single source. David told them, that if they take photos in black and white the statues look like real people. However, in colour they look like statues.

World War II Memorial from the Ramp

Korean War Memorial

From there, the troop headed to the Lincoln Memorial to take photos of the memorial, the man himself and the reflecting pool. The reflection in the reflecting pool at night is simply gorgeous. Last night was also windless, thereby making the water still and creating perfect reflections.

Lincoln!!

When the evening started we saw no moon in the sky, however, by the time we got to the Lincoln Memorial the moon was rising and was an orangish-red ball. It looked stunning!!!

Red Moon!!!! + Washington Monument + Capitol + Reflecting Pool

Once they had their fill of photos at the Lincoln Memorial, we headed to the Vietnam Memorial. There, they took photos of the 3 soldiers. It was past 11 by then, so David left. A few students headed by themselves to the Einstein Memorial where the class was supposed to end. I had never actually been to this memorial before though I had passed by it many times on foot and in a car. It's an excellent memorial and I love how they have done Einstein's Celestial Map on the base of the memorial.

Vietnam War Memorial

Einstein Memorial + Me!!!!

We got done by around 11:20 and headed home then.

-photo credits go to Saurabh :)

Yes, More Pilates! :D

I got an email last evening letting us know that they moved things around and that the Pilates class will now be at 6:50AM instead of the usual 6:45AM! Yay!! A 5 minute change is no big deal! Weeee! :D :D :D :D

Whiteouts. Fire Hydrant. Windshield Wiper.

This morning in boot camps Edwin had has do these different work outs that I thought had interesting names.

Whiteout

This one was BAD. We had to get into a squat position and then for 10 seconds jump taking our legs in and out. Then, right after 10 seconds of holding a squat. Repeat! This we did fora minute straight. After a little break, we did it for 40 seconds!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Fire Hydrant

Basically, this is like getting into a dog pee-ing position, as the photos shows. It kills the glutes! We did it 10 times on each side and repeated that thrice.

After this basic one we had to rotate our legs. One at a time. First going forward. Doing 2 sets of 10 on eachside . Then going backwards. Again, doing 2 sets of 10 on each side.

Windshield Wiper

We had our legs up straight, not bent like in this photo

We lied down on our back with our legs lifted at a 90 degree angle to our torso. Then, we moved them to one side and then to ther other, so it looked like a windshield wiper working.

RIP Mr Joe (or Mr Theo Albrecht)!!

Thank you for all the wonderful foods your brought into my life. They brought me much happyness!!

Mr Albrecht passed away on July 24th, 2010. He was a German businessman who brought the Trader Joe's grocery chain to the United States. He and his brother, Karl, made their fortune after taking over their parents' grocery store. They turned it into the international Aldi chain.

No More Pilates :(

This morning after class Erin informed us that there was going to be a change in the timings for the pilates class to 9:00/9:30 in the morning. It is impossible for me to make class at that time, so I am going to be limited to pilates only on Sundays. I had this going so well for 2 months! Boo! :(. I kinda did see it coming since I was often the only person in the class. siiiigh! I will miss you immensely, pilates!