Saturday, December 26, 2015

Happy First Wedding Anniversary!

Video from our first anniversary wedding in Las Vegas! Beautiful moments to cherish all our lives :) 


        

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Manoj's Big 3-0!

Turning 30 is a big deal for some people, atleast it is for me. I do not want to turn 30 anytime soon... As if I had an option :'( But this year my love turned 30! For me leaving twenties is like leaving your youth and officially embarking a grown up life. It is actually a good thing but to me somehow it is a little scary. 

Even though being 30 sounds scary to me I was super excited for him turning thirty :) I wanted to celebrate it with style;) I started planning his birthday right from my birthday in August and I registered both of us for our first ever half marathon and trust me it was once in a lifetime experience for us. First times are always very special. You can read more about our marathon experience here

We celebrated his Big 3-0 with many of his different groups of friends. His birthday falls on November 9th but the celebrations began on Oct 31st  - yes on the night of Halloween! We were at a halloween party at our neighbors place and on the same day one of Manoj's under-grad friends was visiting SF from India. Some of his other under-grad friends planned a get together on the same night and we decided to catch them up after the halloween party. We managed to sneak out of the party at neighbors place to join the other party ;) All of them met for dinner and we joined them right on time - post dinner. On meeting them he had such a blast - taking a stroll down the memory lane and recalling their days of youth. He with five of his other friends were giggling out so loud in the restaurant that everyone around was watching us! Oh my God! I saw him so super duper happy :) Before the restaurant people kick us out we decided to take a walk to Santana-row for some desert. This is where we had his birthday cake cutting with some coffee at Cocola :-) 


Halloweenie birthday fun! 

PS: Yes, we were dressed up in our halloween avatars which made it soooo much fun to walk on the roads and watch other crazy people! It was quite halloweenie!

The next celebration was with all the scorpions of our gang :) This is the tradition of our group since quite some years now :) This time it was primarily organized by Shivali for Herat's 30th birthday on Nov 1st. It was an amazing night as we went out for the Escape room game where they lock us all in a small room and give us a number of clues to come out of that room. Although we lost the game :P and couldn't solve all the clues to get out of the room, it was an awesome experience! Post this game we went for dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant. My contribution for this party - I made Tiramisu cake for the evening. It came out real yummy... :) Here are few pics from the night

Escape room game night and dinner with friends :)

The four scorpions! L-R: Prince.Shrusti.Herat.Manoj. Missing Ami

Next was 8th of November when we ran our first half marathon :) It was awe-inspiring running with him on this day with spectacular views of Golden Gate Bridge celebrating love's birthday, listening to his awesome playlist with a little bit of drizzle as we cross the GGB with 'Tum Hi Ho' playing right on time which added the icing on the cake. Just can't describe in words. We made our first records to complete the half marathon in little under 2:45 hours. On completion, it felt like we were on the top of this world :) 

Marathon Madness!

On a scale of 1-10 we're perfect 13.1 :)

Our race bibs!

Then came the surprise part! I had called his friends to Crissy fields for his Big 3-0 surprsie moment. And luckily it was very well executed. He had no clue everyone was coming :) Here are few pictures of fun moments at Crissy fields where he was dipped in the ice cold water by his friends. I guess it was a good way to quickly recover post marathon :)





Post this Crissy fields madness we went to his favorite cuising restaurant in SF. It is called Thai Idea Vegetarian. The best part of this restaurant is their presentation of food. An absolutely must visit place just for the presentation. Here is the link - Thai Idea Vegetarian. Totally loved it. 
On a scale of 1-10 you're perfect 30!
Hungryyy!!!


Wow so much fun it was on the 8th !!!

Next day Nov 9th was his actual birthday. We had done so much the previous day but how can I leave the excitement on the day of his birthday :) We had another celebration at home in the evening with family this time and to my surprise no technical difficulties :) Everyone I invited came on google hangout and on time! Couldn't get better than this. This was the best and most unexpected celebration he said it was :) 

For the coffee lovers :)
Birthday boy!

Google hangout craziness!

Playing with google avatars!


Post family celebration we went out for dinner to a michelin star 1 south-indian restaurant. Yes, there is a michelin star south Indian restaurant in bay area. While I was looking for michelin star restaurants options to take him out for his birthday dinner, I immediately booked this place as soon as I found there was a south-indian restaurant of this class. He totally loves south indian food. We had lots of good food and fun at Rasa. Here is the link - Rasa

Birthday treat @ Rasa (Michelin star 1)! 

Monday, November 23, 2015

Home. Sweet. Home!

Its been a year since we moved into our sweet little home :) Since quite some time I wanted to make a small video of all the memories that made our home sweet home. Nov 23rd last year is when we did our house warming party with friends and family and today after exactly one year I have my video ready to be shared with everyone. Here you go!


Saturday, November 21, 2015

First Half Marathon!

This story began on my birthday this year when we were discussing about doing something different and out of our comfort zone before the two of us turn 30! Both of us came up with lots of crazy and wild ideas but then we settled on giving it a try for a half marathon. As soon as both of us agreed to this, I immediately registered for the Golden Gate Half marathon which was exactly in 12 weeks after my birthday and on the day of his birthday (Nov 8). We did not even have any idea about what it meant to run 13.1 miles. We just knew we want to do it! 

Ok, registration was done. Then we started looking for how to begin. We came across a lot of articles and figured out that it wasn't as easy as we thought. People on internet were talking about 6-8 months of training to do half marathon the right way and injury-free. There were other set of people/training-groups who were recommending 12 weeks of aggressive training. Well, we had exactly 12 weeks and we had registered so we had no second thoughts. So I picked one of the training plans available online and decided to follow it religiously. Here is a picture of our ideal 12 week training program :)

Aggressive 12 week training program!

We went on our first run on the morning of my birthday itself. All energetic, excited and full of enthusiasm. After a mile we realized what 'one' mile running meant. 13.1 miles felt impossible at the bottom of my heart but I never brought it to my lips. We just did 2 miles on that day and were dead tired. The whole day in office I felt too tired and felt too sleepy :P

Day 1 @ Guadalupe trail

After the first day, we decided to move our running schedule to evenings. As days passed we kept our discipline and went for running every day. It was not easy in the beginning. Each one of us would inspire the other and let the running spirit go on. Very soon our dinner time TV channels changed to youtube videos to learn tips and tricks for running half marathon. I used to browse a lot regarding stretching and strengthening exercises and all other good practices for beginner runners. Running became the spark in our life and both of us would come up with new ideas about various exercises, different products, diet, etc for runners. Our weekends used to be going for long-runs and relaxing on a couch and browsing/shopping for shoes, fitness tracker, waist belts, compression bands etc. 

All set for running with our new shoes and the trackers 
We did the Black Light 5k Run as a practice for the half marathon!

Our first-ever Race bibs :)

We also did the American Heart and Stroke Walk (5k) for creating
awareness about heart diseases.  
We had joined the 'Founder-Run' meet up group and used to go to shoreline lake for weekend 6 mile run. This meet-up was a group of engineers and founders who were also passionate about running. This group was very motivating and we met some really interesting people. The views of Shoreline lake were breath-taking. After running here is when we realized the energy coming from the people around you and the views make a lot of difference in how you feel after a long run. 

Beautiful Shoreline views

6 weeks before the half marathon, Manoj got injured after one of our 7 mile run. He sprained his ankle and could not even walk. It took him around 4-5 weeks to recover fully which means he couldn't come for running. But I was determined to go for practice at least 4 times a week if not daily. We were not sure if he should be running the marathon but we kept that decision for the last minute. 

3 weeks before the marathon, I did my first longest run of 10 miles at Shoreline lake with the  same Founder-run meet up group. They normally do a 6 mile run but I got two other enthusiasts who accompanied me and encouraged me to achieve my 10 mile goal. Whoa! What a feeling it was. I felt so energetic after the run. It was the best feeling :) I remembered our day 1 when things seem to be impossible and I had reached so far in about 9 weeks of time. I felt so proud of myself.  On that same day, I was thinking about what running has taught me. Running has really given me a new perspective in my life. Something that seemed to be impossible 2 months back seemed quite possible. Until now I had always been complaining that I don't have time to do this and do that but after I started running I felt more energetic. Even though running would take away 2 hours of my schedule, I would infact get more things done in a day than I would do otherwise. Running has also taught me a healthy way of living. I have decided to continue running or pursue any other form of exercise even after the half marathon. 

Few days before the Marathon, we loaded ourselves with lots of carbs. The day before the marathon we went to the expo and enjoyed the sun in the city. That night we relished a nice bowl of Pasta! On the day of the marathon, we got up at 4am in the morning and boosted our energy levels, packed our bags and headed to San Francisco in full form :) We were there to have fun and celebrate Manoj's 30th birthday :) Here are a few pics from the finale:

Marathon Madness!

Race Bibs!

Breath-taking views of Golden gate

Almost near the end :)


Hurray! At the finish line :)


Look who ran with us :) - Pankaj 

Pankaj-Jiya

Stats from UP Move and Runkeeper!

Showing off our blings!

The course through the Presidio, across the Golden Gate Bridge, past the Palace of Fine Arts out to Fort Mason was amazingly beautiful and a little drizzle while running over the Golden Gate Bridge was icing on the cake. The experience was breath-taking and worth having! In addition to the views, it was the energy in the crowd and the playlist that I had playing while running that made it possible. It was more about the journey than the finish line. But touching the finish line was in itself a very big moment of achievement! 

Our Medal - A piece of GOLD!

This story would be incomplete without my motivations who led me take this challenge up. Shrushti and Pooja and a colleague named Samatha were my inspiration throughout this journey. A brief conversation with any of them would recharge me as much to last for couple of weeks. Whenever I felt the spark going down I would simply talk to one of them and would get my excitement and energy back to its peak!


Sunday, November 15, 2015

Shravan 2015

Welcome back to the Shravan series at beingdhriti :) I know its November already, but its never too late to write a post. Its always better late than never. Here are some of our pictures from different festivals from the month of shravan this year :) This is a picture-only post.


Independence Day!

Baked this Independence themed house warming cake for Pankaj-Jiya :)

Independence Mood!

Office potluck !

Baked this M&M's surprise cake for office potluck :)

Rakshabandhan time - Time to send post cards to brothers :)
  


Rakshabandhan!

Abhishek!

Smile please...

Prachi bhabhi and Manoj!
                                             


With AB and bhabhi. Missed you - Piyush and bhabhi!


Manoj and his rakhees :)

Sagarrrrr and me!



Mehendi time - Teejri :)

MJ 

He put mehendi for me for the first time ever :)
Mandatory pose ;)
Look who was home for Teejri pooja <3 - Reema :)


Love you to the moon and back ;)

Look who visited us the next day :)

Pose 2 ;)

There are no pictures for Saatam and Janmashtami as we were on vacation to Yellowstone during the most important festivals of the month of Shravan! No worries will celebrate next year :)