Swimmin' in the Rain
They say that Gene Kelly had a temperature of 103 when he did his song and dance sequence. Singing in the rain is one of those pleasures that Life gives us for free. Today there is a really good rain that reminded me of the monsoon. I went swimming today and it occurred to me that there are no outdoor pools here so one of life's great pleasures cannot be enjoyed in the NCRB( Rec bldg).
Its great to have thunder overhead and it pouring. While you swim you cannot get wetter. Its fun being totally immune to what is really a great damper(haha) sometimes

Have you ever had this feeling of being in a huge bathtub with the shower also on. Also I forget to mention the water's cold. That's the real fun..

Hummus and Pita
Strangely this Friday's update column is too about food. This might give readers the wrong idea that I am mostly upto eating. Trust me that is not true. I rather talk about something else than the boring exam week.
I hopped(literally did) to Jerusalem Garden to have my hummus and pita. I ended up ordering a falafel plate. Of course the piece de resistance was eating the walnut baklava. The best description can be of a khari type layers soaked in sugar syrup with a filling of walnut and 'mava' in it. It is dee-licious. My aunt often made about a huge box of them each time she came. It's really great. Sinfully great! It cost a buck. What do you get these days for less than a buck?
Without my asking the waitress packed and made a nice little box for me to go. I wish she had asked, "For here or to go". Since I let her decide, I acquiesced with here wishes and left.
I wonder why people here cannot sit and eat? Why is food always on the move. Or atleast it has to always somewhere else than where you paid for it? Weird...

Thai food
Ann Arbor is famous for its great restaurants. Though it does not have too many Thai restaurants. Today I discovered the best of them all. Siam Cuisine is in a little back alley of Main tucked away in a corner. The service and the speed are excellent. What finally counts is the food though. Thai food is more about the aroma than anything. On this count this restaurant scores great. Two scents are predominant-coconut and chili which are then colored by the other exotic herbs and spices. I love the Tom Kha soup and I liked the kothmir sprinkled in it. The other two entrees I don't remember the names. Of late my taste in Thai food has exponenentially increased though my capacity for remembering the names of the dishes has not.
In a way that is good so I don't(cannot) order the same dish again.
What was great about this restaurant is that they offered a fixed dinner menu. This is good cause then you get the correct combination of dishes in the way they are supposed to be ordered rather than a hit-and-miss philosophy when you are in an exotic restaurant.
Only crib is that in Thai restaurants they dont give you a Fortune Cookie.

Time to blog
Looking at most post dates I realise that I have time to blog only on weekends.

Daylight Saving (not Savings) Time
A few days ago this part of the world turned the clock ahead an hour to change from EST to EDT. The website below is amazing resource for what I think extremely peculiar. Thanks to that I lost one hour of sleep. Which IS A LOT OKAY? Also it is now dark at about only 8:30pm or so which actually should be 7:30 EST.
Link on Daylight Saving Time

Does it save energy?
Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that Daylight Saving Time trims the entire country's electricity usage by a significant, but small amount, of less than one percent each day with Daylight Saving Time. We save energy in both the evening and the morning because we use less electricity for lighting and appliances.

A rather sloppily written sentence. I dont think that it does save too much energy but the greatest advantage is the more daylight hours in the evening. More time to play ( if I were a schoolboy) and being up and about along with the sun. ( look who's talking?)

Let's bomb Texas they have oil too
The war in Iraq is not yet over. On TV they say that 67 % of Americans support the war now that it has begun. I dont trust the American media one bit. In this land of the free the big media is the least free and always a pawn in someone elses hand. I trust my nose and all the people that I met and spoke to seem dead against it and more against George W. Its a senseless war which will have big repercussions on Bush. Also I predict that he is not going to die in his bed an old man.
I really dont understand the US foreign policy vis a vis the people here. Here there is so much of protest and the freedom to protest. In fact today I missed seeing the most famous item on Ann Arbor's annual calender. "Hash Bash" where flower power junkies, college students, liberty activists gather to legalise 'grass'. The university seems to have clamped down on this in a big way. Most of the times its just more tourists than the actual protesters. Need to check up on this debate.