Friday, August 31, 2007

It's football time, baby!!!

After a long wait, College football is back. Saturdays won't be the same hereafter. Just wait for another week, NFL will make a grand entrance. After several months of draft talks, Nick Saban's $32 million contract talks, pre- season polls, controversies 'cos of the polls......and finally all comes down to this!!!

Games to watch this week!!!

1. LSU tigers take on Miss. State this Thursday. (I saw the game today and it went tigers' way)

2. Virginia Tech vs East Carolina (Noon, Saturday). After the Tech tragedy, the whole US is waiting for this day. I don't think any other college football team will play with such emotional backdrop as the Hokies this season. When the Hokies emerge from the tunnel with metallica's "Enter Sandman" being played, they will be cheered not only by the 66000 people at the stadium but also by the whole of the United States. "United we stand".

3. Notre Dame vs Georgia Tech (3PM, saturday). Did Charlie Weis reveal the quarterback's name for the opener or is it still a secret?

4. Kansas State vs Auburn (7 PM, saturday). Wildcats' season opener against #18 Auburn. Go wildcats.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Plan a Perfect Day!!!

Narashiman once mentioned that one should have a whole day planned to the T and then have it executed perfectly. (A perfect day for me is plenty of fun, lots of food and no books:) )

The following is my suggestion for a perfect saturday.

Manhattan or "Little Apple" as we fondly call is a pretty decent place to have some fun.

1. Start your day off by going to "Early Edition" down by Kimball Avenue and have a nice breakfast. Though it is a bit pricey, you won't regret it.

2. Play some golf. Colbert Hills Golf course has a fantastic driving range and 9-hole par-3 that costs just under $10. Lower your car window panes, increase your car- speaker volume, speed up your car to 40mph and then, just let the winds guide you.

3. A fulfilling (stomach- filling) lunch is a must after hitting some golf balls. Drive all the way to the other end of the town to "Carlos O' Kelly's" and taste some fine Mexican food and delish margarita's. If you want to taste something american, my suggestion would be Hibachi Hut down in the Ville.

4. Next, it's movie- time. Just watch some movie at Sethchilds Cinemas. Enjoy the movie in digital projection and more importantly some respite from the scorching heat. (Just pay $6, grab a last-row seat and sleep!!!)

5. It's evening. Some exercise(walking) and some shopping at the same time- walk down the mall at poyntz avenue.

6. Dinner at Houlihan's. Sit at the bar and taste the 3- kind margarita's and some beer. Move over to the restaraunt and order some great food from the good choice of American/Mexican dishes they had to offer.

7. 7.05PM--it's time to watch some baseball.

and finally

8. Get some sleep. Lower your room temperature to the high 60's, grab a comforter and just tuck yourselves in.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Cowboys' Road trip to Wildcat Land!!!

Last weekend....

Manjesh, Varun Rao and Navin came to town(or city?!!). They drove from Dallas and reached manhattan at around 2 AM saturday morning. We were actually in the middle of our "Sakthi got a RA position" party. (All we need is a reason to drink!!). By the way: Sakthi, Congrats!!!. The first question we Wildcats asked as soon as the Cowboys came home: "Did you guys bring any desi food for us to eat?". The answer was a resounding "Yes". And we showed them why UNION IS always STRENGTH. 10 of us sitting around in our living room finished everything that they got for us from Dallas.

Drinking, Eating and Gossiping took two full rotation of the hour dial in my watch. We decided to get up very early the next day (at 11 AM!!!) as we had lots of things planned for the day. Surprisingly we did get up at the planned time and we were ready by 12 noon. We had lunch at Hibachi Hut (Food, by the way was excellent) and then decided to watch a movie in the afternoon. We were not crazy enough to do something outdoors in this unforgiving summer. (Varun Rao made an interesting comment: "Dallas weather was very much better than manhattan's"). We rented "The Perfume" from Blockbuster and decided to watch it in KLN's place (Why? 1. He got a big TV and 2. He promised he will serve us Tea after the movie time). The movie was mind blowing (Those of you who had already watched the movie will know why and those who are planning to watch it in the future: Enjoy). After our Tea- time, it was Tee- time. We went to Wildcat creek driving range to hit some golf balls. It was more fun as none of us had ever played golf before. It was a very good 'first time'. Hope by next Open championship some of us will be ready to compete with Tiger (You will all see!!).

At dusk, we went to Little Apple Brewery to taste some local beers. We came home, had dinner and were all set to watch 4th day of the final test match between India and England. It was a surprising decision by Dravid to not enforce the follow on and he made his team's task much harder by his batting. On the other hand, Sourav was a revelation. Watching him bat so fluently, while all his teammates struggling was a pure delight.

On Sunday, we got up late, had lunch at Carlos O' Kelly's and 1. Cowboys returned to their home after a short, tiring but successful road trip 2. Some of us witnessed history as Tiger Woods' won his first major with Sam Alexis by his side (which happened to be his first major of this year) and 3. The rest were watching Federer succumb to Djokovic (Hmm..It should be a great US Open this year as Djokovic and Nadal will be a threat to Federer's goal of winning his 12th Major)

Saturday, August 04, 2007

A- Rod Hits 500 HR's





After a long wait, A- Rod finally hits his 500th HR....Everyone including me was waiting for this moment a very long time...and here it was...finally!!!!

Congrats...A-Rod...

Expecting more from you..

My Fav Sachin Tendulkar Quotes!!!





1. "I just keep it simple. Watch the ball and play it on merit".

2. "If one man is representing India in cricket, then yes, blame that person when things go wrong".

3. "It is my job to make runs for the country and win. That is the job I have to do".

4. "My point of view is that when I am playing cricket I cannot think that this game is less or more important".

5. "At least with me, the match starts much, much earlier than the actual match".

6. "I hate losing and cricket being my first love, once I enter the ground it's a different zone altogether and that hunger for winning is always there".

And finally...my all time favorite Sachin quote...

"But eventually it is a game of cricket".

Thursday, August 02, 2007

My Apartment!!!









Wednesday, August 01, 2007

India won the second test against England!!!



It was a great test match altogether, barring the "jellygate" and the shoulder-barging incident. The famed Indian batting line-up finally delivered- "Big-time". Sourav and Zaheer's successful return to Test cricket imposes us a big question- "When low in confidence, do players need a break to re access their game?". The answer seems to be "Yes" when you see how much Sourav and Zaheer had improved their batting and bowling respectively and more importantly their attitude when playing. Zaheer, out of the test team for a long time, came back strongly and finally performed to the level expected from him by the people and more importantly, Team India.

Cricket lacked such intense games for a long time. Before this test series, all we had were West Indies' tour of England, India's tour of Bangladesh, Bangladesh's tour of SriLanka and India's tour of Ireland- all of which were nothing but a "David Vs Goliath " battle. Just when people started to yawn even when someone said "Test Cricket", Pataudi Series happened.

Thanks a lot for both England Cricket Team and Team India for making this series interesting. Best of luck for the next match. Hope it will too live up to the expectations.

P.S: It's nothing related to Cricket, but Congrats to Gunjan for getting a car. It is just a little "Trick" for getting a "Treat"!!!!