WA CA Trip

WA CA Trip – what a great trip! Just came back from a wonderful road trip from WA to CA. We did a road trip from Redmond, WA stayed in a bunch of places enroute in Oregon before reaching the bay area. It was a re-union with a bunch of old friends and the 9 days just flew by. We flew back from SJC from a refreshing trip.

Thought it might be useful to provide some details on the trip in case you are planning to do one [highly recommended]

Rental Car: budget, picked up from Bellevue and dropped off in San Jose airport. $675 for 9 days with 10% discount coupon

Airfare: $85 per head 1 way from SJC –> SEA

Accomodation:

Aug 11th, 2008 

We left redmond around 11 AM, drove down I5 south, did woodburn outlet mall 3-6, did silver falls from 7-9 and retired for the day

Howard Johnson Inn, salem Oregon. 2 king size beds, fridge, microwave, 5 ppl allowed in 1 room, continental breakfast. $87 + taxes

walk behind the falls

Aug 12th

we left around 9 AM for crater lake, reached it around 12 PM, spend about 3 hrs in it. It was very relaxing and a great sight.

we stayed in the Shilo Inn, Grants Pass. 2 queen beds, fridge, microwave + continental breakfast at $112

 

Aug 13

We left for the Redwood forest along 199 and then onto 101S crossing the oregon border and getting on to California. Imagine 300+ feet trees and 1000s of them – it was a great experience, calming and humbling amidst the giant trees. We took the ‘Mystery of the Trees’ tour which was a winch ride 1000 feet up. we did the ‘drive through tour’ where you can drive your car through a tree which was fun.

We had lunch by the ocean which was magical. I love the pacific coastline which simply rocks. This was in  Crescent beach which had some fabulous scenic spots, we walked through the mist and saw a wedding take place. We stopped on the way in Trinidad beach, walked down a long set of steps and saw some great sights.

I wanted to do the hot tub in astoria but did not have time for it. So we drove on 299 to Redding, CA. It was an interesting twist and turn ride, saw a forest fire buring 100s of miles away but felt the heat.

We stayed at the Howard Johnson in Redding. the rooms were very average and I wont probably do this one again. The room had a fridge and microwave, which we got for $80

the rental car is a mere toy amidst the giant trees

 

Aug 14

We had heard good things about Shasta, so decided to travel a little north on I5 [away from our normal route] and checked out the caverns in shasta. It was ok, but panes in comparison to crater lake, redwood, the ocean, etc. we passed on Mt. shasta since it was basically a ‘winter thingy’. The temperature in Redding was 114 and it was buring hot for the chennaites as well

we reached the Days Inn in Fairfax around 5 PM and we could sense the drop in temperature as we got closer. fairfax, even though 3 hrs away from Redding was at 70 degrees. We got a room with 2 queen beds, microwave, fridge and we paid a total of $110 which included breakfast and a rolloaway bed.

 

Aug 15

We drove down to Napa Valley, did a “self” wine tour. Then we started driving towards San francisco, as we got closer to lunch time, I did a quick detour to Muir beach and had food on the beach. It was kickass weather, and it was magical. Soon we left to golden gate bridge (first time I was driving from Marin county to SFO), viewed the bridge from the “other” side on top of the hill. It was some brilliant photography (by yours truly) of the bridge and surroundings which you cannot see too often . had a quick coffee break in Sausolito and then left to lombard street, more popularly own as the “crooked’ street, my parents and in-laws enjoyed this thoroughly.

we drove down, treated ourselves to great Indian dinner at a friend’s place and then stayed at my buddy’s place in san jose for the next 3 days.

Aug 16

Given that we had to change the sacred threads, we got up early and did the ceremony. Then we left around 1 PM for lunch at a friend’s place where we had a king’s lunch, followed it up with some cricket. as always, my team own and I did a sehwag whacking the ball out of the park several times (hope this will trigger some comments on the blog ).

Aug 17

This day started off a visit to Livermore after gayathri japam, then met up with a couple of other ex-buddies from sybase days. We ended the day with dinner at another friend’s place followed up with a bunch of discussions on god, ghost, god men and cricket – very diverse topics and some light heated debates.

Aug 18

The days started perfect – we had lunch at saravana bhavan, the best restuarant but the lunch is a whopping $15 now, so much more than the $9 days when I used to frequent it several years earlier. Then we drove down to Mystery spot which time-and-again has been the most intriguing moment to most visitors I have taken – as for me, I dont even try to think too hard since the mystery is solved in my mind [dont ask me how ]

Then we drove down to monterey, did the 17 mile drive did a few clicks on the rocks. then started driving towards the bay area, met up again a couple of buddies from sybase land and ended the night with a great desi dinner at my friend’s place.

Aug 19

We had a early AM flight to SJC, dropped off the rental car and boaded the flight leaving the bay area, a place i always look back with fond memories, a great set of friends and some brilliant weather.

Overall it was a memorable and satisfying trip, getting a chance to show my parents and in-laws around, seeing their thrilling moments, seeing some new places for myself and finally meeting my buddies from years back was simply awesome. Each day was 19 hrs in total, we had the discussions from 11 PM to 5 AM with my friends – discussions from careers, real estate prices, green card, business ventures took us back to the early 2001 days

Thanks to all the guys for making this happen, and well this is just the begginning of more such trips in the future… I think.

the brett favre saga

As most of you who have been thinking watching this unfold, what is the big deal? Some guy who said he retired now wants to unretire. What is the big deal with the media? They featured his crying scene a million times when he retired and now are covering his unretirement all over the place.

But then, this is Brett Favre, one of the greatest QBs of all time, one of the stars from GB. I dont think this warrants the media to act as-if he is the only sportsman around but the Green bay management needs to think further. There have been talks of cutting Favre, trading him but not re-instating him. Why?

I agree that Favre is the short term answer and Rodgers is the future. But then why did they draft Brian Bohm? The easiest question to ask is, who gives you the chance to win a super bowl? and which is now? I think it is Brett Favre.

So the easy resolution is to trade Rodgers and make Favre the starter. Yes this is unfair to Aaron who has been in the wings, but again this is a business. I think this will make him stronger and probably displace (I hate to say this) Rex as Chicago’s starter if he is indeed good.

In NFL, Winning is all that matters, I mean the fair way not the NE way

end of an era, beginning of another

I have read more about Bill Gates in the last couple of days than ever before. There have been several articles walking through his early days chugging off hrs in lakeside with Paul Allen, his days in Harvard staying away from classes, the early deals with IBM and the numerous battles to create the software industry as we know it today.

It does not matter whether people acknowledge his efforts or still maintain that he is a business monopolist or a strategic visionary or whatever – his baby ‘Microsoft’ is the world’s largest software company, revenues running in the big Bs (billions, I mean, not amitabh bachchan). That is a vision realized.

wow, it must have been a terrific 30+ years, the amount of passion required to perform at the highest level and fighting one battle after another, must have been energy sapping. And, starting off the second career , full time in the foundation, to fight diseases and building a world where every life is equal is truly truly remarkable and speaks loads of Bill Gates, the individual.

I truly wish 15 years from now, people forget Bill Gates – the technologist, the shrewd business, the founder and ex CSA of Microsoft. I truly hope that the only Bill Gates they know is the one who removed life threatening diseases such as malaria and made the world a much better place for a lot more under priveleged people, they only remember Bill Gates, the humanitarian.

I was priveleged to witness your final send off speech and could feel the emotions that SteveB expressed. You have shown that realizing a vision / dream is possible and fruitful as long as it is backed by a tremendous amount of passion, hiring the right people, with an unrelenting pursuit of the competitors, showcasing value for customers.

Good luck.

..it happens

I have been on a number of India trpis in the last couple of years, most of them being business trips. Each time I would tell my wife that “it will be just a cabin bag this time” and then end up carrying fully packed checked-in bags (friends wanting to send stuff back home being a small factor).

This time being a personal trip, 2 checkin bags was common. We (wife, myself and brother) left our place about 2 hrs before the flight with the big suitcase in the back seat and the smaller one in the trunk (yes, I still have the small compact car but again its a 323 ). The traffic was bumper 2 bumper on 405 – as we were crawling in traffic, we were chatting about making the flight on time, etc, etc. Suddenly we saw some smoke from the bonnet which was shocking.. so we slowly made it to the shoulder of the highway and started looking underneath. The radiator can was empty and the engine was burning hot. Thoughts on missing the flight, whether I can get tickets to India for my dad’s 60th bday, fixing the car, were racing through my mind.

I called a cab and the dude wanted me to get on a cross street first, so we slowly drove the car and made it to the 9th street and 110 ave intersection in Bellevue. There was about 75 mins for the flight to take off from Seattle. So we called in the cab and decided to take only my cabin bag so that I can make the flight on time. So quickly we transferred a couple of extra shirts and I rushed to the airport. We parked the car on the roadside and decided to get it fixed later. I called in my friend (who had to drive all the way back from his home) to give a ride to my brother and wife.

On reaching the airport, I quickly paid the cabbie and darted to the ticketing counter. There was about 40 mins left and I was hoping that was enough for someone with just the carry-on. There was no huge line and the counter lady was very patient – apparently the flight was delayed by 2 hrs!!

Ah Ah .. I had always wanted to travel with the carry-on but this was frustrating. And ya, btw the airlines did not get my preference for the india veggie meal and I could not get an aisle seat but having been through what I did earlier, did not let all this affect me.

Truth is that – Shit happens. We just have to re-adjust and make things work.

dont come back, if you have a choice.

Life is all about choices we make, mostly good and some bad ones. Coming back to India is defintely one of them. Most of us NRIs are in this dilemma if coming back to India will be the sooper move that solves all our issues -  social life, sense of well being, maybe even career, entrepreneur ventures which seem hot right now, etc. Well all this may be true but there are some stark realities that we need to grasp.

I has always been thinking that things are terrible but can be got over. The traffic is just terrible, I cannot imagine it taking 45 mins to move from vadapalani at 9 PM to get to Valasaravakkam, 2 kms away – roads are bursting at the seams. Hotels are immensely crowded, in some of them you sit in a table with some strangers in the same table for lack of space – eating is a chore and not a private evening. Truth be told, I am seeing that things have gone from bad to worse. A couple of years back, the traffic after 10 PM was smooth, weekends were almost a breeze with most folks being at home. But now, there is no respite at all times. It does seem like getting back to desh seems a difficult choice to make.

But then I am talking about folks who have a choice - if you have none, might as well enjoy the ride :-)

Superbowl on Ten Sports

I had planned the India trip at the wrong time, a couple of days before super sunday…  but thanks to Ten Sports, superbowl is telecasted live. Seems like the ads are cut out. Surprised why superbowl ads not shown to the billion eye ball nation. No complaints

fantasy football “quarter machis” update

So finally our fantasy football season is coming to an end this weekend, the championship game is played between “Return of the Rams” and “The Boss”. Here is the punch dialogue:

dei dei dei …
 
seiyamalae sollaravan false
senjuttu sollaravan gloss
sollamalae seiravan class
sollittu seiravan dan da boss
 

One of these teams will join -2007 bears, 2006 hawks, 2005 eagles, 2004 panthers, 2003 raiders, 2002 rams, 2001 giants, 2000 titans

Reality is that only the winner of the superbowl matters and even that does not matter to the winner of our league anyway

chak de, akhtar

Watching the kolkata test [thanks to the free online link], it was obvious that akhtar saab was chucking certain deliveries. I captured a couple of snapshots – one where he is running and throwing [bowling] and another where he stops and throws [fielding].

 Che(u)ck this out….

Job offers – the magic numbers

I was talking to my brother about the various parameters of the job offer, tax rates. etc. Just came up with a list which might be useful to folks looking for a new job. Here it goes – let me know if I am missing something:

 Offer components
 
1 Annual Salary
2 Sign On Bonus
3 Stock Options / Awards
4 Relocation Package
 Home furniture
 Car reloc
 
 Things to evaluate an offer
1 Type of role, which company, technology
2 Annual raise
3 annual bonus
4 annual stock options , awards
5 401K match
6 ESPP plan
7 State tax
8 Rents / Home purchase prices

                                                                                                                 Useful links    

1 Federal taxes http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=150856,00.html 
2 Rents comparison    
3 Home prices    
     
     
     
     
 Offer Comparison Chart    
1 CA http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/edit/state/profiles/state_tax_Cal.asp   
2 WA 0   0
3 WI http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_statetaxrate_WI.html#taxrate   
4     
     
btw, he is graduating 12/15/2007 (if your company has openings, please send me a note )

desis night out (or is it?) – day after thanksgiving

I had done this night out a couple of times before – hanging out with a bunch of friends to get the ‘best’ deal during the thanksgiving sales. These stores do a great job selling the deals that most of us are bought into it. In th end, we come out spending a lot more than we wanted, because we got the “best” deals – in reality the stores win .

In all fun, it is great to get that adrenalin rush and seems ok when a few hrs of sleep are no big deal or so easy to overcome. Not a big fan of it today.

But I wanted my wife to experience this. So this time, on nov 22nd thursday night, we drove past the circuitcity in bellevue and at 8.30 PM saw about 30 people in line. So we went to the desi store and picked up 2 tamil movies, saw the movies till 3.15 AM and decided to go to the Kohls and Target sale. we reached there around 3.30 AM and managed to be within the first 10. At 4 AM when the shop opened, people rushed in while we simply strolled – no hurry since we did not want anything specific. In the end, did pick a few things and the billing line was about a mile long inside the store.

we went to the Target line around 5.15 AM and were the only desis around. so anytime, someone thinks we are the crazy ones searching for deals – think again, we did not have any thanksgiving dinner invitees and did not rush back to the Kohls or Target shopping lines. we were free the entire day and

we did not have to treat the Thanksgiving sale specially because it was just another day of our lives – we always need a good deal

we heard that the circuitcity line had grown to 4000 before the shop opened the next day. Maybe we need an online portal that shows the waiting time in each of these stores and folks wiating in the line can send a picture or SMS from their cell phones – ‘waitsmart.com’

cheers