I pledge allegiance...

So after spending 14 years in various states of status in the US, I finally took my oath and became a bonafide US citizen. It wasn't really that I thought India was a horrible country to be identified with, or that I am now willing to bear arms for the USA - the reasons were more pragmatic. Every year I find myself traveling out of the country, and the biggest pain in the whole process is getting visas. Apparently not many countries think that Indian citizens should have an open entry policy. But ironically, the same countries that rant against American hegemony welcome American passports (and dollars) with open arms. Sooo.. more for the sake of convenience, I decided to go for it. The added benefit of getting a citizenship is that I can help vote Barak Obama into office. Hehe.

Tish and Priya went along with me. We had to leave the house at 6 in the morning. Priya was barely awake, and she was such a good sport throughout. As is not common during important events, there was a big accident going into Chicago, and the expressway was completely shut down. I heard about it 5 minutes before we were to leave, and I had to get downtown via the backroads. We made it in good time though.

The ceremony itself lasted 15 minutes. The judges lecture on good citizenship was a good deal longer than the actual oath.

Waiting in line to get in the court room

To keep Priya occupied, Tish let her play with the camera. Her smudges got all over the lens - hence the quality of the pictures to follow.

The judge and I are good friends now

Early Easter; A wish fulfilled

We had a visit from Tish's parents this weekend. It was a very short trip, but Priya had a great time. She got to color some Easter eggs, which she thought was a very interesting idea.


Tish finally had her wish of seeing Body Worlds. It was interesting, to say the least. It's definitely worth seeing it once though, so that you can say you've experienced it.

And here's a cute video, courtesy of Christy.

A Hint of Spring

These last few days were a hint of things to come when spring shows up. It was 70 degrees outside - nice and warm to play in. Priya had a play date with Skyler and the two had fun at Wicker Park. I was telling Tish how nice it will be to see Priya in summer clothes. She has such a nice complexion that contrasts well with bright colors.

In other news, I got Tish a first class ticket to fly out to Vegas to visit her sister in a few weeks. This is where mileage comes in handy. Flying first class to Vegas? That will be five bucks. Not a bad deal at all. She's looking forward to it, but she's also feeling sad about leaving us behind.

Doesn't she look so cute with a ponytail?

At least we tried

This Saturday were the big plans to go to the Museum of Science and Industry to see Body Worlds. For those that don't know, it's a slightly ghoulish exhibit with real bodies of actual dead people who have donated their bodies for the cause of science, and are arranged in macabre poses. You can see how much I'm into it... Anyway, it's been a dream of Tish's to see this (I've been hearing about it for over five years), and so when the exhibit came back, we headed out. Since I had just come back from out of town, there wasn't really much planned except getting there the next morning. Here's what we saw...

As we were standing in line (around 11:30a), an announcement went out saying that the next available entrance into the exhibit was going to be 5:20p. Well then... Our babysitter wasn't planning on staying that long...

A disappointed and slightly bewildered Tish

So we headed out to our good ol' standby - Navy Pier. It was such a nice day, and it was good to be out. We still had a good time.

Stubbly me.. Cute Tish.

The ban on eating peanuts is finally over with a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup

Cough cough

I thought I could escape this year without getting sick. But like death and taxes, I think colds and coughs are inevitable. Doesn't help that I am out of town, and working long hours. I wish I could snuggle up in bed and sleep all day.

To keep this blog alive, here are a couple of pictures. Tish is right around the half way point, and I suspect things only get bigger from here!

Get Ready to Welcome...

...the next Sen... Boy! Yes, most people guessed it correctly. We are having a boy! We ended up going in a week early for the ultrasound (for reasons of convenience) and got to see the little fella. Not unlike his sister, he kept two arms in front of his face for most of the time, and so we couldn't really get any good 3-D pictures. Here's one that at least shows some facial features. Everything looked well - heart, brain, spinal cord. There's a VHS tape that we got of the whole procedure, and I will try to digitize it so everyone has a chance to see it.

The reason why we went in a week early was because I had taken a day off to go for my citizenship interview. Ok, so some people claim that I am more "American" than most Americans my age, but that still doesn't mean that I get to stand in the 'Citizens Only' line during customs inspection. My main reason for applying for citizenship is primarily ease of travel. With international travel at least once a year, it's a pain to get visas. Bypassing that in itself is worth the price of admission. My interview lasted all of 4.5 minutes. Since we found ourselves downtown with lots of time to spare, we called in to the doctor's office to see if they could take us in without an appointment. They said come on in.

In the waiting room there was another couple who had come for scan, and we struck up a conversation with them. Wow. What a story. This is their first child, and their fifth scan. She had gotten pregnant through IV fertilization. When you get pregnant like that, they monitor you very closely. Apparently, her hormone levels stopped rising in her third week. By the sixth week, they still hadn't risen to the expected levels. The doctor at the clinic started talking about getting a DNC (an abortion) because by now the child would have been severely under-developed. Plus, they couldn't find any sign of life. They said that the doctor pretty much insisted on a DNC because he said that in his entire career he didn't know of any case that had survived. This couple went through the entire grieving process of losing a child. Then a few days before the scheduled DNC they went in for a check, and the technician gave a little shriek. She had found a heartbeat! To make a long story short, this couple ditched that clinic and found their way to the doctor that we go to for our ultrasounds. He examined them in their eight week, and said that everything looked fine and normal, and he had no idea why a D&C was being recommended. Can you believe it? This is one amazing example of the craziness of an abortion-happy culture.

In other news, my Windows Vista DVD arrived. I pretty much hate it. It looks glitzy, for sure, but there are functionalities and features that were there in Windows XP that have been either stripped off, or are currently not available. It took four installs of the operating system to get a stable computer.

And finally, some pictures of the every lovable Priya...

Hanging out at the library

Rawr! I can bite your head off...