Standard Operating Procedures…

 

#Caution#Funny

1. Wont work with criticism.

2. Appreciation helps.

3.  Gifts and goodies improves performance.

4. Use the word “shopping” with caution

5. Handles multitasking with minimal effort.

6. Customized for frugal living.

7. Always responds to “Whats wrong?” with  “Nothing”

8. Directions not required.

9. Special need for Bags and shoes.

10. Wouldn’t understand the word “Wrong” .

 

“Nailed it, only 999990 to go”.  I giggled as Mr.N thought he figured out the top ten instructions of my operating manual. He believes there is an operating manual for me (lol) .

Now that I think about what he said; the man is right.

When it comes to criticism, most of us girls/women/ladies 😉 are not designed to take criticism. We can criticize, but none can criticize us (lol).

Most of us have an ocean of goodies, but we still keep collecting.All the cosmetics in the world are not enough. I open my bags, Clutches, wristlets; I can see them everywhere 😀

My goodies…I still don’t have many.

Shopping always get us high.. Be it a kitchen towel or a coach bag, we are there! Don’t get me started when things are on sale. [On a side note, I will be sharing a separate chapter of wisdom 😉 on how I overcame this habit of mine…. later.]

and yeah, most of us absolutely “believe” in frugal living;  I just ordered a lipstick holder yesterday “which was a must have”! 😀

We are born with multitasking programmed in us..Texting, talking, makeup… selfying especially while driving.. of-course!

#Multitasking#Driving

We are programmed to say “Nothing ” when asked “Whats wrong?”; oh yeah! we definitely want to talk about it, but only after asking for like fifty times.

And last thing, we are never wrong, never!. Period!!

I took a sip of my chamomile tea and wrote.. May be we all come with operating manuals 🙂

Colors on a fondant…

“Looks okay!” told myself as I placed the cake made for a little feet who was turning ONE. I was happy with the product but there still was some room for improvement; but to be honest,I was enjoying the compliments.

Let me rewind back a couple of days; it was a beautiful sunny Saturday when we landed in San Francisco and Pankaj was already waiting at the airport. This trip was one of our usual get aways which we do once in a while.

Leens and little feet were waiting for us as we reached their home. After the primary pleasantries, she showed me a picture of a cake which she thought was easy for me to make on little feet’s birthday..

“Are you serious?!” I asked . In her defense she thought “Mrs.N” can make any cake.. :P.  Her excitement and confidence induced me to say “yes” to the plan.

Party was on Wednesday and I had Monday-Tuesday to plan and put together the cake. What was I doing on Saturday and Sunday ? – visiting places, remember we were on vacation !! 😀

As Leens didn’t tell her secret plan before I left home, I didn’t have any tools handy to accomplish the task. Yeah….! I had bought a number of “baking” accessories over a period 4-5 months. Every-time something new was delivered , Mr.N opens it and says “Next one!”. I get the sarcasm but ignores it.

Without any of my favourite tools,if I make a successful cake; Mr.N clearly has a point. May be I need to reconsider the items which I buy on the run. I put those random thoughts behind, as I had a bigger fish to fry!

Mr.N was already on-board and was helping me with the design I had in my mind. Even though we liked the cake which Leens showed; I decided to try a different one. She was cool with anything except wanted a Mickey theme cake. Oh did I tell? – She is one classic Mickey- Minnie fan,so if I was making a cake for little feet, it had be a Mickey cake!

Pankaj was like -“guys, we can put this time for a better use!” and three of us asked in union “Like??” and his response was “Lets play UNO or 21″:D. He turned around and started watching tv after seeing the very same weird look on everyone’s face.

Girls did the last minute runs for shopping and I then had all the items to make the cake.  I decided to execute the project in two phases. First phase was to make Mickey’s head which was the top tier and second phase was to make the bottom layer and assembling it.

Since I didn’t have any tools,a small bowl was my cookie cutter to make Mickey’s ears and one broken leg of a table  became my fondant roller. Mr.N was always on my side waiting for any instruction and jumping to help whenever I needed a hand :).

On Wednesday morning I rolled out the last piece of fondant and stick to the cake; Mickey cake was ready 🙂

#Mickey theme cake

I looked and smiled at little feet; who was of-course oblivious to the surroundings and was busy watching rhymes, and falling down once in every couple of minutes. 🙂

The yellow devil…

It was a snowy winter afternoon and we are not expecting to see above freezing temperature until next week; I had this sudden urge to dine out..

I cheerfully got ready and we got into the car. Ever since we bought the car, Mr. N makes a great deal about it; watching out for even the minuscule things, which sometimes drives me nuts  😀

I started driving humming my seasonal favorite tune, and suddenly car jerked and bobbed wildly as it was stuck by a pile of snow underneath…

I also remember the fun things we did to get the car moving… I was driving like tiptoeing on ice, because i had to :P.

I just took the  first turn  and heard him asking “What is that..? a question mark covering his face.

“What happened Etta?” I asked in peace…

“Did you see that?.. stop the car..!”  he looked surprised, displeased and alarmed.

This was one of the rare occasions when i followed without a drama and stopped the car on the side.. 😀

“Check engine light is on” His eyes wide opened!

What? why? when? where? How? snakes were doing salsa in front of me. “How did it happen?!” I asked and wasn’t sure of my hunger anymore!

Yep, “the dreaded” check engine light — a yellow, brightly lit dashboard warning light is an ominous symptom; always gives you the impression that the car is about to blow up “movie style“.

He called up the dealer in panic and they casually told us to check whether gas cap was tightly closed and also suggested to wait for a couple of days before we call them again.

I was thinking about the enthusiasm in which they sold us the car; one year in and neither dealer nor us had that now..

We conditioned ourselves to ignore it for a couple of months;but he was getting nightmares which I overlooked – Good wife 😛

oh did i tell – The yellow light was warning us about the faulty oxygen sensor. How can a naive human relate a check engine light to an oxygen sensor…?

We finally decided to fix the light and off to the dealer we went , couldn’t keep ourselves calm…and whole mess was covered under warranty- can you believe?!?.

He came back home with a lasting glow on his face and announced “its gone!”.

We took a bite of our favorite chicken wings and breathed a sigh of relief..”Life is beautiful!!“

How i diffused a bomb at home ;)

oh.. Did I again get up late..? aah, it’s just the day light saving time…! Still enfolded in the grogginess of slumber,I squinted my eyes and glared at Mr. N, who is  already up and reading something on his iPad. I wondered how big can a 6 feet guy be, for me to open both the eyes to see him completely 😛

I looked and smiled at my plants which thrived the winter while enjoying a cup of tea. It was another traditional Sunday, where am busy with household chores with Bollywood numbers in the background and Mr. N was busy with his PS3. I also have to make a fresh batch of cookies for which I kept the butter and egg at room temperature since morning. I didn’t want to disappoint my foodie husband “again”,unless- i come up with some clever excuse- Think girl think! 😀

Late Lunch was served around 2pm, in my defense we had a late breakfast 😀 and  would also blame it on the time change where we have to mess up with our clocks you see.

Mr. N suggested we will go for a walk this beautiful day , I responded yes while doing my dishes also giving a thought that this walk can turn into a good excuse not to make the cookie.Why i dont want to bake cookies today; either I am still not over the Swan Pâte à Choux, I made the other day OR simply lazy 🙂 .

#Swan Pâte à Choux

While changing to the running gear, I managed to strike his ego and then it all started. I have this innate ability to piss people off – especially him. But when you are in that zone, all you think is -“You are right, and he is wrong”. Exactly 30 minutes later, silence was broken when Mr. N came back from walk. Yeah, I didn’t go- just to prove a point, lol!

In that half an hour, something amazing happened. I sat down and thought what was the breaking point, empathized, looked at the whole picture, analyzed and came to the bottom line of this tiff. It was ME- which came as quite a surprise, cause I  never make mistakes ;P. I knew he has a huge ego sometimes, he knew it, everyone knows it.. still am the pyro here!.

I decided to confront him, but decided to try a different approach.

“How was the sun outside?”, yeah I broke the silence…

“it was good”  and i kind of got “not interested” vibe; but I decided to take the high road.

I sat down next to him and started to massage his feet.

“Forget it etts!It happens..” and the response was “hmm“.

“Let me get you a strong tea and am sorry for that small mess”.

Mr. N jumps gets off the couch and asks in excitement “Is that the smell of Nutella cookie?” 

I responded “what you think”?  🙂

#Nutella Cookie

Note to self: Sometimes it pays to overlook a man’s ego 🙂

Eat your way to happiness

#NOLA fun#Acme-oyster house

“Louis Vuitton bag, Golden Cartier watch, my list is never ending, right etta..?“; turn around to acknowledge a strange look from Mr. N and silently expecting he will get me either of those  soon  😉

 I got home back from work to receive a settled list of food items to prepare, which Mr. N made last week while recovering from his stomach problem. Today’s item was, chicken samosa. I was thinking how his thought process works when it comes to food and now I have the settled list from all around INDIA winking at me.

Now it was my turn to prepare the never ending grocery list so that he can run around and get me those before I start preparing the delicacies in the order it was received.I have never made samosa, then thought – what’s the big deal and put on the apron. Mr. N was back with the list of items and now relaxing in the couch expecting samosas anytime.

I tried to procrastinate (as usual), but he was not buying it.  After slaving over a hot stove for an hour samosas are ready to be served.  I put them in the serving bowl and we dig in without hesitating a second. We were able to finish at least a dozen in that 10 minutes (not so proud moment!) and then regretting the fact that we actually did.

Seeing the pure bliss in Mr. N’s face, I realized “so called” slaving in the kitchen was worth it and will end this with a note, “Happiness is the art of never holding in your mind the memory of any unpleasant thing that has passed” 🙂