Brenna's Graduation and Engagement Prep

May 18 - 24

Sketchy's, Infiniti fx35, while luxurious and pretty, was on a gas eating rampage. It was getting up there in miles. Not shocking considering he had been using it for at least a year to drive from Crystal City to Frederick, MD (100 miles daily). Yes. Sketchy drives 100 miles a day for work, so stop complaining about your commute. 

I had started driving the car about a year ago to alleviate Sketchy's gas burden even though my car is also a v6 gas burner -- at least we could put something less than premium in it. 

At any rate, I don't like the Infiniti, it is such a man car even if it looks girly. The engine is ooc and the steering wheel gives you a workout. I've been bugging him about trading in for a cheaper, more fuel efficient, and a tiny bit bigger SUV for over a year now. We said once we got the house, we'd really start looking. As promised, we started test driving things in February of this year. 

So we looked at a few cars online, and then honed in on a few we liked. We really liked the ford explorer but the starting model was too expensive for what it was. Sketchy really wanted a four-door wrangler which we test drove and I actually started considering (but thank god we didn't end up with that). We then looked at the GMC acadia which was nice and big but again was expensive. Then we thought about the terrain for a while. Test drove the terrain a few times actually and was pretty close to pulling the trigger last month. 

Sketchy had been very picky with what brand he would go with. I had constantly seen this suv on the road that I always pointed out asking, "hey what's that one??" and it was always the same. The equinox. But it was Chevy which sketchy wanted no part of. 

Finally when going back to get the terrain we took a look at the equinox. Same inside, a little bigger and a little cheaper which meant we could get more features for less price! We test drove and loved it. We checked a couple dealerships over the months and test drove a couple times. Then we walked into Ourisman and there on the show floor was the most glorious equinox we had seen. Chrome package look with pretty wheels and everything we wanted. so we went for it.

cheaper -- check

more fuel efficient -- check (put 10.00 in infiniti got maybe 46 miles. put 10.00 in equinox and got about 100 miles)

larger -- check! three can fit more comfortably in the backseat and the trunk actually holds things! will be perfect for the dogs on their rides down to fburg. 

Saturday May 18, 2013, We had a new member of the family: 

Sunday Brenna graduated on the Georgetown Campus. Both ceremonies were nice. The first ceremony was on a lawn in front of a very impressive georgetown typical enormous stone building. The second ceremony was in a ballroom and was just the presentation of the diplomas so they were smaller ceremonies organized by section. Everything flowed well and seemed to be perfect! 

view of stage with large Georgetown building in background

better view of stage

procession. Brenna is in this picture. 

zoomed in, maybe you can find her more easily. She's looking right in my direction.

The section ceremony procession was super fast. people just started walking in out of no where!

got just one picture. 

The whole after ceremony situation was ridiculously crowded in the hallways. People were rushing off to return gowns, while some parents and students were trying to have conversation, and others trying to get to the very pretty and delicious looking h'orderves. Couldn't get many pictures with it being a madhouse. 

Did get a picture of these G cookies -- so cute!

Brenna and her G cookie.

me and Brenna

Brenna and her Padres and... THE DIPLOMA!

Pretty picture of Brenna and her mom.

Afterwards we went to Carmines for a Family Style Italian Dinner. First time in the restaurant. It was REALLY good! The chicken parm is really great. Definitely will be going there again.

Monday I saw a free screening of Fast and Furious 6 with Sketchy and Brenna. I, for one, pretty much loved it. This is all ridiculous because before I met sketchy I would never in a million years have watched any of the series. When 5 was coming out in theaters, Sketchy made me watch 1, 2, 3 and 4 on dvd so that we could go watch 5 when it came out. I hated 1 and 2. Absolutely lacked words and plot. Three made NO SENSE in life. Four was good, finally a plot! I liked 5 and then after five realized why i now liked three. It was interesting to me how well the directors/creators of F&F were able to work backwards and tell a story of the lives of the people in part 3. all in all 6 was good and i've actually seen it again in theaters since. lol

Tuesday Rabia and Rovi got into town in the evening. We went out to Vapianos for dinner and then took a scenic tour through dc on the way back home to call it an early night. They seemed to have lived Vapianos since they planned to go back the next day for lunch! lol

On Wednesday I went down to Fburg to pick up Sapna. She took off Wednesday - Sunday for engagement festivities. We went to a few stores to look for table clothes, fabric and various other materials for decorating the hall. 

Thursday very early in the morning Natasha got into town. Natasha, Sapna and I headed straight into errands to buy everything needed for saturday. Natasha and Sapna were helpful in helping choose colors and such. We were trying to do so much in so little time. I was getting extremely stressed out. Mid-day we dropped natasha off to nap and relax at home while Sapna and I hit the stores again. By the afternoon Kate and Jim had arrived. I was making dinner for some of sketchy's cousins that evening and still needed to hit one more store and the grocery store so would see Kate and Jim when they got back from dinner which they had planned to do with Natasha and other DC friends -- Vapianos. 

Thursday evening was the first time that week i relaxed a bit while i cooked -- three lasagnas. Two meat and one little cheese for sapna. Made the cheese lasagna in a cute little corningware baking dish i got in a set from Lindsay! cooking relaxes me, and it's not something i had been able to do before the engagement or much since. very upsetting. anyways dinner was good. 

Kate and Jim got back when we were finishing dinner. gave them the tour, met Jim (in all my greasy glory -- not sure when the last I had showered from Tuesday -- guess that was only a day). I don't think i got a proper picture of the two of them but they were very cute in person! 

Friday more family got into town. lots of aunts. friends and bridesmaids were over for mehendi night. We were getting short on time but i believe in the end everyone who wanted mehendi got it done. The aunts were fed and happy with lots of veggie chinese food and hopefully the white folks were kept entertained and happy with pizza and company downstairs. 

I feel like people had taken pictures of the mehendi on their phones, but not sure who or where they are. Suppose they'll turn up in a year. 

Photographs, TSwift, and Yard Stuff

May 11 - 17

Saturday night I went to the TSwift concert with Brenna. Her new album is called Red. As such, everyone dresses up in red for the concert. Brenna and I did red lipstick. This was new and adventurous for me but I actually ended up REALLY liking red lipstick! I had an amazing time. i hadn't seen tswift in concert since she opened up for Rascal Flatts and didn't even have her own real album yet! Our seats were dead center in the upper level. She sounded great in concert and played some of my favorite songs from the older album! 

She was also very entertaining during the concert. I loved when she started out and said something like I can't believe there are 15000 people here who have on their own decided to spend their saturday night listening to me sing all about my feelings. she made fun of the fact that people make fun of her for that aspect of her music which i thought was nice. 

Sunday was mother's day. we did yard work and then headed to fburg to see sketchy's mom.  

Monday was probably more yard word -- see the special yard post. 

Tuesday I went with Brenna to Meadowlarke Botanical Gardens and took some graduation pictures for her. They came out awesome. I still need to edit and send to her! will do that tomorrow! Here are a few:

this one seriously looks like a fake background. can't get over it. 

Brenna also did a really really cute sign for her mom for mother's day 

Wednesday Sketchy discovered Kitchen Nightmares and made me watch a few episodes. I still am not a huge chef ramsey fan but I watched a couple. Ended up watching an episode that made me so mad i don't think i can watch any more. It was some crazy lady and her husband with a pizza place in Arizona i think? The lady was legit out of her damn mind.

Thursday I attempted to check out the DJ situation at bottomline to hire for the engagement situation. Turns out that the guys who DJ are actually just employees there, except for sometimes they have a dj group. Too many to choose from. Really i just had a beer lunch with diana and called it productive. 

Friday, Sketchy's uncle, two cousins (Nilesh and Lisa) and his dad came over to help with the last of what we could get done with the yard. It was really helpful and super nice of them all to pitch in!

Special Post -- The Yard In Progress

So for those of you who had seen the house from the beginning stages, you knew the disaster that was the yard. we bought in the winter so there were no leaves or trees or bushes, just twigs and branches. When May hit, it was a whole different story back there. I have no pictures of the before work during spring with all the trees and such, only the first picture from when we purchased. Since then I've tried to take pictures of the stages. This whole week was basically dedicated to yard work, delivery of patio things, learning about and ordering giant 4 ton trash things that take up whole driveways and basically realizing that yard work is NO JOKE. Here we go:

This was the first picture. Covered in english Ivy, you couldn't even see the hill or any of the firepit area in the bottom corner. 

This was the area near the door -- there was a rotten wood deck and two large trees that should have been bushes.

here's a picture from behind that show the two large trees! 

first we removed all of the english ivy -- deep roots. a tiller couldn't do it because the roots were too thick. hand pulled those suckers.

another shot of the yard cleared. even from the first picture to this one it looked like a lot had been done.

then we had to remove this bush that flowered and the rotten wood. also the silver hanging thing will go too but as you saw during the bbq it is still there.

flowering bush gone. thank you chainsaw.

next to go were the big trees.

big trees gone!

let's take a moment to remember what that looked like with trees.

and now without trees. also this is where the leveling and digging began to outline where the two tier patio would go.

raking, digging and leveling

then with some serious help from sketchy's uncle we were able to start building the framing. the framing will be removed once the stones are placed and the stone wall will be set in place of the framing.

more framing.

completely framed

completely framed plus one level of brick

brick still needs to be set straight and sealed

so now that we've seen how far we've come, here's the vision (slightly, not exact obviously):

the area circled in red is a neat bar situation where the lower tier is where the stools would go. if we look here:

That's what we've designed this top level for. we're going to put a 3.5 foot wall up with the grill IN the wall and make that a counter space. the stools will be on the lower level making it into a nice square bar like that in the nice picture above.

further plans are as such. we'll put in stairs of course to get to the lower level, there will be pretty patio furniture and all of the lower level will have pavers as well, a little firepit will be where the rounded part is (that's why it's rounded -- to complement the circle stone firepit) and we'll have an opening and stairs going down beyond the firepit. the rest of the framing will become brick walls as the border. 

All the brick is around the corner of the house, we just have to put it together, which we can do leisurely and stress-free now that the engagement situation is over. 

We also had a lot of help from sketchy's cousins lisa and nilesh!

Can't wait for end of summer and early fall to just enjoy this space. AND get it fenced so the doggies can enjoy the space too. Our goal is end of summer. If we get it done we're going to do a lobster boil/crab feast to celebrate the yard being done! 

Yard Work Commences and Engagement Ceremony Nerves Set In

May 4 - 10

This weekend we began yard work. Finally some good weather -- but it's only a couple weeks before the engagement ceremony which is supposed to be held in the backyard. Sigh. 

Sunday Kerry came over and helped get the yard seriously together. All of the english ivy was removed and Sketchy and Kerry chainsawed the shit out of the yard. So many bushes and trees appeared out of no where once May hit (real spring finally happened). 

I'll have a whole post just on the transition of the yard so no pictures for now. 

Sunday we went to kickball. Kerry was a special guest. We were terrible, but fun, as always. Diana had the great idea of doing margaritas in Victory Jug for Cinco De Kickball. Most people ended up not drinking and leaving poor Diana and Dan handling the whole of Victory Jug. ooc. We came home early to try to get more yard work done.

Kerry left Monday morning for work but was so so helpful with the yard! 

The rest of this week was a blur of yard work and nothing else. Friday I sent out an evite updating everyone on the time of events and plan including the party bus idea. At this point I started to feel like this event was more real than ever, and that we were less prepared than ever before. 

More Engagement Planning and Law School Situation

April 27 - May 3

This past Saturday Sketchy and I were up at the crackass of dawn (5-6am). We went to NYC for a day trip with his parents. We stopped in Edison, NJ thinking there might be good deals on indian clothing, but that was a giant fail. We then made two stops in NY to grab shalwars for the bridesmaids, saris for me, sapna and sketchy's mom and a sherwani for sketchy. We were pretty much successful by the end of the day but we got home really late! I had gotten a few saris because I kept deciding that the next place had a prettier sari. In the end, and what is most ridiculous/funny, I ended up wearing a Sari that sketchy's mom had sitting at home the whole time. It's okay, the other saris will be worn at some point and we did still get sapna, sketchy's mom and sketchy outfits! 

arriving into city

leaving city

On Monday, Sketchy and I printed invitations for the engagement ceremony and sent them out. I went to the doctors to get a lot of random things figured out -- i hardly ever go so that was good to get it off the list of things to do in life. We also found out via facebook check-in that Kerry was in Georgetown. lol 

Not really sure what happened on Tuesday. 

Wednesday I went out to Mister Days with Brenna and Diana to celebrate the decision to put a deposit down and go to American University's Washington College of Law part-time. Wednesday was also my cousin, Anup's birthday. I'm not sure if i actually got that written on his wall in time but throughout the day I kept telling myself not to forget to tell him! There are few people in this world whose birthdays I remember by heart -- his is one!  Happy Birthday Anup, even though you probably never read this and especially this post since there are no pictures! lol 

Thursday I put in the deposit. I think most people know how huge this was for me. The only way to really explain the achievement I felt is to say, getting into law school has always been my ultimate goal. I've changed what kind of attorney i want to be countless times, but my desire to go to law school has never changed. Everything I've ever done was for that moment and to finally hear that I was accepted and that it is really happening was surreal. This moment justified me going to GW and moving away and everything else I've said and done thus far. 

Friday, Sketchy made dinner for me. I went out with some co-workers and had to run an errand. My phone as always was dead. It got late and sketchy thought I was dead. He then alerted other folks and made them believe I was dead. Here was sketchy's panic plan:

1. check a local bar (what is my life that this is the first place he looked?)
2. call the local emergency rooms
3. call a co-worker (co-worker eventually looked at phone and had me call him back)

I still feel bad about this. He had a nice dinner waiting at home for me and i didn't get home until 10ish. Bad Nalini! Here's my public apology -- I'm sorry Sketchy! 

Kickball, Baseball, Engagement Planning and NFL Draft Week!

April 20-26.

This past weekend we planned on starting some yard work but we ended up with flurries and cold cold weather! Cold weather makes the ground harder and thus impossible to do any yard work. Saturday I'm honestly not sure what happened or what we did. It's funny how the only way I remember my life is by reading the blog to see what I did. 

Sunday was a ridiculous marathon drinking kickball kind of day. We lost, which is normal but then we went to flip cup for a few hours and then decided Bottomline was a good idea afterwards. It was not. It never is. 

Sunday was also our 1 year anniversary of being engaged. Can't believe the time has passed so quickly. We were going to plant a tree for earth day (something i've always wanted to do) but we couldn't pick a tree and the weather wasn't good and it was all just too stressful. I ended up being extremely angry and sad about it but I guess there's always next year. sigh. 

Monday I did some computer application things. One test was a typing test. Results: 

I've always had 100wpm on my resume but I always make one or two mistakes. This was ooc! I used to love playing typing games, like TyperShark on yahoo! It came in handy. This is one of the main reasons I was always able to write a 5-7 page paper in under 2 hours or a 15-20 page research paper in 8-10 hours. 

Tuesday we got a package. I found one not so surprising item and one surprising item! 

Not surprising: 

Surprising was a pretty neat black and copper Jaguars hoodie! Today the Jaguars also had the uniform release party. I usually don't like change but the uniforms look pretty neat. I think there was way too much psychoanalyticalness going on with it but whatevs. i want to get a new jersey but not sure who to get. I want Shorts but I'm worried he'll leave soon or something! Don't want Blackmon... really don't like him and obviously cannot handle Gabbert. Sigh. 

Tuesday night we went to the nationals/cardinals game. That was disappointing and there were also way too many cardinals fans at the game. 

Wednesday I booked the mehendi artist with Nimisha's help and sent out an invite. One thing done, 1 million to go. I also went out to Old Town with Sam who, despite living here for about 7 years, never made it out there! Blew my mind, given that I've worked in that area for about 4 years! We walked around the waterfront and had some ice cream. 

Thursday was the NFL first round draft. We failed last year and this year, but we're definitely going to make it to NYC next year for the draft. Perhaps I'll have another first pick lol. We ended up watching with some friends at a local bar in Springfield. Said bar is out of control amazing. 2.00 GIANT beers and about 8 giant screens -- would be perfect for Sunday football, except there is smoking indoors. sigh. 

On Friday, Scott, Miriam, Hailey and Penny came over for a sleep over. Scott brought some pretty awesome Asian beer and we ordered pizza. We watched the draft and then talked for a while before we realized it was 2 in the morning!

Yet another eventful week and one without pictures! sigh.

Baby Shower, NFL Schedule, and Taco Night

In an effort to catch up on the blog situation I'm going to do posts for a whole week of activity. It's honestly the only way I'll catch up and I really don't have many pictures since the whole phone situation. Mid-June, you and my new iphone can't come quick enough! 

So here we go April 13-19. This past weekend we went to a nationals game and Umesh and Nimisha's Baby Shower. So i'll start by saying, n brown people baby shower is very different than a white people baby shower. Let's get cultured. 

1. There are indian outfits. This is Nimisha ready for the cake cutting: 

2. There are brown things and decorations: 

3. There are lots of brown aunties causing chaos at all times:

4. There is some weird tradition where the youngest unmarried male cousin slaps the mother-to-be with red dye. I have no idea what this tradition represents or why it's done. Perhaps i'll google it one day. And yes, i have pictures: 

nimisha getting prepared to be slapped by Akash's red hand 

here it goes!

and there it lands.

haha love this one.

all done! 

Okay so for the most part brown baby showers are different, but there are some similarities.

1. Everyone takes lots of pictures with the mother-to-be. Here's just one:

2. There are games and activities:

 bib/onesie decorating. Personally love the pink and yellow. Their parents are Quiznos owners. 

Sketchy was proud of his bib!

this was my personal favorite.

food tasting/guessing game. All the guys played this one.

discussing the color and texture of what they're about to eat.

3. There are always other mothers and babies there!

Lisa and Pria and Minal and Reina

Sketchy loves Pria's big cheeks.

and Pria loves Sketchy's big cheeks (and beards -- she's fascinated by them)

Monday we went out with Melanie to see a free screening of Disconnect. Sidenote: Sketchy has become a ninja at getting these free screenings. Best thing I ever showed him how to do! We have screening passes to Fast and Furious 6, The Internship (Vince Vaughn) and The Heat (Sandra Bullock and the bigger chick from Bridesmaids) lined up in the next couple weeks! 

Disconnect had Jason Bateman in it and a few other familiar faces. It was a serious movie that follow four stories that all connect in the end. Similar to a "Crash" type of movie. It was definitely a little dark and a mindtwist. I'd suggest for folks who like darker movies. 

On Tuesday I went to the National Zoo to check out the new American Exhibit with Sam. Since she was moving that weekend I wanted to maximize my time with her. There was a bald eagle which was in hiding and lots of walking involved. It was so so so hot and my allergies were no joke, but all in all was a fun outing. 

weird otter/beaver thing.

weird otter/beaver thing

some tiger thing or maybe white fox?

this guy was fun. =)

Wednesday I was going to have dinner with Kelsey and Catherine, but Kelsey evidently killed her ankle when she took a bad fall. She ended up having to go to the emergency room. We were going to reschedule but that never happened. Bad Nalini. Now that engagement is over, definitely need to get on that and do dinner with them soon! 

Thursday was the release of the NFL schedule. Sketchy, Catherine, Diana and I went out to Front Page for happy hour and to watch the release but it was too crowded and they were not playing the release special. After happy hour we ended up parting ways with Diana and heading over to buffalo billiards to catch the release. The release was exciting because we immediately began planning which games of the season we'd be going to! Sketchy's very excited for his Thanksgiving week. Monday night is the niners/skins game. I was looking for an opportunity to get to Candlestick before they blow that up at the end of this upcoming season. Think I found the perfect situation. Around Sketchy's birthday in August there is a game at candlestick on a sunday and then a game at CenturyLink Stadium the next Thursday. Roadtrip from San Fran to Seattle seeing a variety of these places: San Fran, Yosemite, Napa, Redwood National Park, Mt. St. Helens OR Mt. Ranier, Seattle.

On Friday, Catherine and Matt came over for a taco/chipotle style dinner and to spend the night. We watched the end of the Boston Standoff before we had dinner. That whole thing was depressing and miserable. I was happy to know that my friends and their families in boston were safe but obviously my heart goes out to the victims and their families. We watched Moneyball which was a good movie, not sure if i like the message of the movie but good nonetheless. 

And that was that week. Sigh. this is so much easier when done daily.