Our first baseball game in USA

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Saturday the 19th of July, 2008, was memorable, for 2 things. we did a overall cleaning of our home, including taking out the washer-drye to clean there,a dn turns out my dryer timer has stopped functioning. It keeps running, unil we go amnd push it to stop mode.

The second thing was, Madhu and I went to our very first baseball game in US. The games in AZ are held in a large baseball filed, called as ball park here, in Phoenix. The one we went to is called Chase field, after the Chase bank.

the game was between Arizona Diamondbacks, Az home team,and the Los Angeles Dodgers, from California. The fiels is huge, the biggest flaty screen HDTV available for such games is here, I believe, adn tehre are lots of display screens that keep coming out with sponsors details,a dn getting the crowd to participate. These display screens would suddenly come out and show things like, Make some Noise, or Beat L.A., or Clap your hands, Lets Go Dbacks, eyc,a dn the crowd would obligingly do just that. Any time the ball came near the audience, everyone would stand up and look where it was going. Like Cricket, if a ball kept on rolling, adn hit the ground boundary line, its called a home run. And that got enthusiastic cheering from the audience

Madhu and I were caught up in the frenzy,and we also cheered and booed, with the audience. We were also accompanied by our friend, Mary, and her son. Her son was one who told us the basic ground rules of the game, and was thinking of new slogans to shout back at the supporters of the other team.

How did we get to enjoy all this? Courtesy of the American Red Cross. The Phoenix chapter of the Red Cross had its volunteer recognition event, recently,and all volunteers got passes for the home game of Diamondbacks( a home game is when the team plays in its own state). So we went,and took our friends too. Volunteering with the Red Cross does have its perks. Oh, and did I tell you, the Dbacks won!!!

Dog Writes Book on How to Live With Humans

source: Annanova

Dog writes book on understanding and living with humans

A pet dog has been promoting her debut book offering fellow canines advice on living with humans.

Dennis Fried says his dog Genevieve "bark-tated" Memoirs of a Papillon to him.

Both owner and dog signed autographs at Miami Book Fair International which hosted more than 200 local and international authors.

Mr Fried from Sarasota says the book is a must read for dogs wanting to learn about the minds of their owners.

"She barktated it to me, and I translated it from dog into English. It's all true. Genevieve may have exaggerated once or twice, but she didn't make any of it up," he told the Miami Herald.

The 158-page book offers driving tips for dogs, discusses the tragedy of doorbells in TV commercials, and how to convert a house into an agility course.

AN INSPIRATIONAL STORY

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*THE CRACKED POT *

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck.. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, thecracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house." The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house"

*/Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them./*

life and work

Long back,
a person who sacrificed his sleep,
forgot his family,
forgot his food,
forgot laughter were called
"Saints"

But now they are called..

"IT professionals"
_______________________________________

A Banner cum Sign Board In front of an IT company..

Drive Slowly, Don't kill our Employees...

Leave that to us !!!!

__________________________________________

Road Safety

An interesting line written at the back of a Biker's T Shirt:

" If you are able to see this, Please tell me that my girlfriend has fallen off"

_____________________________________________

American Life

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Everyone knows that Americans have a different system. here, it is each man for himself, or woman for that matter. Indians might find it very strange.

Here are a few examples i came across, among our neighbours.

A lady living here alone. She has a grandchild. Call her Lady A.
Until recently, she was at home because she fell down, broke her wrists,and couldn't work.
A couple of months back, she was talking to me, and she told me she had to take care of her grandson for a few days, because her daughter n son -in-law had to go out of station. Since this lady has no other source of income(she wasn't on disability pension, because she gt laid off from her job just 4 days before she got injured), she told her daughter to pay her, as she would pay any other baby sitter.
Her logic was " I needed the money, and she could afford it. So she did."

Now she is slowly healing, and on the lookout for jobs like babysitters/ nanny, I find her flyer's everywhere i take frisky for a walk. Loving grandma, flexible hours. etc etc.
Loving grandma, yes, but no qualms in taking money from her daughter to look after her own grandson.

Lady B. She was the one we had left frisky with, when we had gone to Vegas. She touted herself as the lovable pet sitter,and the few times Frisky had been around her, he seemed to like her. So we left him with her for 4 days.

We came back, and she had a litany of complaints. He has chewed her computer wire, broken her window blinds while jumping to look at another dog outside, had not eaten properly. Later, we found out, no one had sen her walk frisky around the condos. Probably she had just taken him outside her apartment and let him pee etc.Frisky doesn't like that. He likes to be walked, and needs a min of 30 minutes to do his business. God knows what she did in the 4 days.
We had a bad experience with her, as far as Frisky was concerned. We ended up paying for her computer wire. Now he is scared to even go near her apartment.

This lady went around proclaiming herself to be the "Social Director" of the condominiums. She refused to let another lady walk dogs, or do pet sitting, and actually tore off flyer's of Lady A, where she had advertised for pet sitting, and baby sitting. Now, Lady B has he job of baby sitting a school going kid, twice a week. pick her up from school, give her lunch, monitor her till her parents come back.

We also recently met another couple at one of the get together arranged by the management. Their son is in New york, and has apparently lost a bit of money recently. All they know is that he is struggling to get back in financial stability.
However, they haven;t given him any money to support himself.

So ultimately, one can say that Americans become independent at an early age, by working in places like McDonald's, etc and once they achieve a certain age, they do not want to stay with their parents, and vice versa.

Watching cases on Judge Mathis, Law and Order etc, also gives an idea, that children pay rent to their parents, if they are financially stable and stay with them.
Would Indians also go this way soon, I wonder??

Frisky's own Blog page

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Hey all,

Now Frisky has his own blog page on this new doggie website in India, called www.dogspot.in

His blog is titled, Ta(i)ls From America.

So go to the website, click on the link Dog Blog, and view his blog.
He just started today, so will be writing regularly in the future.
No picture of his is up yet, cos the size of pictures we have is too big.
And the website isnt accepting.

Cheers, n Woofs

Gold Story continues

Video on MSN Money
Gold at a record

The US dollar's decline is a big reason gold hit the $1,000 mark March 13.

"I have mortgage brokers, real-estate agents, retail-shop owners. They're nervous; you can see the stress on their faces," Vela said. "Many haven't been to a pawnshop before; they want to know how it works. Some don't want to let go of their gold. (But) gold is cash to them."

Silver also is stirring customers to sell more, with prices having more than tripled from $6 per troy ounce two years ago to more than $20.

The stories are similar elsewhere.

At Gold Star Pawn Shop in Eastlake, Ohio, where the Cleveland-area economy is suffering, manager Marc Berman said people come in regularly with broken gold chains, rings with marks on them and scrap gold to get more money in their pockets.

"I think it's more about gas prices than anything else," he said. "People are bringing in anything to try to get money to put a few gallons in the tank."

Some seniors come in monthly to pawn gold items in order to make it through until their next Social Security checks arrive, Berman said.

Shoe boxes full of baubles
The clientele at Palace Pawnbrokers in downtown San Diego has gone more upscale as gold prices have soared. Owner Jeff Bernard said it's a mixture of those who seem to need the money more than ever and those who want it.

"It's a combination of many factors: the state of the economy, the price of a gallon of unleaded gas going for $3.60 here," he said. "People are saying, 'We've just got to do something.' With gold knocking on the $1,000 door, they can actually pay off a bill, do something significant with it."

One woman recently lugged a safety deposit box full of old wedding rings, chains and gaudy 14-karat jewelry from the 1970s to Scott Goldstein's Super Pawn shop in Round Lake Beach, Ill. Others have arrived carrying shoe boxes full of jewelry, and a 92-year-old man brought in 80 gold coins. Customers have brought in as much as 40 ounces of gold to sell, Goldstein said.

"It's people going through hard times and the crazy prices," Goldstein said of the crush that began there after Christmas. "With all the foreclosures nowadays, you hear people more and more saying, 'I've got a mortgage to pay.'"

Video on MSN Money
Gold at a record

The US dollar's decline is a big reason gold hit the $1,000 mark March 13.

Midge Elias watched prices rise for months until she gave in to the temptation and walked into a Manhattan coin shop with two mounted Liberty Walking gold pieces she'd once worn on long chains. She left with a check for $1,150.

"It felt like a little gift," Elias said. "Of course, there's always the possibility of gold going way higher. But hey, those are the risks."

This article was reported and written by Dave Carpenter of The Associated Press.


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