Happy Holidays 2009

We hope that you are having a lovely holiday season wherever you are and that 2009 is wrapping up well!

As we write to you from Lindsie's mother's house in Michigan, it is 19 degrees outside-a rude awakening as we have adjusted to our comfy California temps. We did, however, experience 32 degree weather in Palo Alto recently. The frost on the ground was quite a sight. This is the first year we have worn our winter coats, though pride may have something to do with that!

We have been fortunate to spend much of 2009 with family and explore more of California and the west. Lindsie went to Los Angeles twice, once for work where she met Stevie Wonder at a conference, and the second time Pratik took her to Disneyland for her birthday. We went to Las Vegas for Labor Day with Pratik's parents and brother while they visited in September, as well as a camping trip to Santa Cruz for Pratik's mother's birthday. We have also made more of an effort to tour San Francisco, especially during the holidays. Lindsie surprised Pratik with a holiday tea date at the Ritz Carlton.

We also went on a tour of San Francisco's holiday lights via cable car.

The highlight of Lindsie's year was touring Haight Ashbury with her college pal, Deah, who visited in July. Finally, the California of her dreams! (The California of 40 years ago...) We also visited Alcatraz, as well as Napa where we dined at their finest establishment, the A&W. (In Deah's words, at least we had a barrel-aged beverage.) We have been to Napa 3 times and still have little appreciation for wine. It is Lindsie's goal to visit the Korbel Champagne cellars in 2010 as she has much more of an appreciation for bubbly beverages...

Molly turned 7 years old this year and enjoyed a birthday party with her close doggie pals. She continues to enjoy her dachshund meetup group and was able to sit on Santa's lap this year, rather than make a mad dash to get away from the scary, bearded fellow. While she is enjoying her time with pal Grace here at mom's in Michigan, we're not so sure Grace is enjoying sharing the attention! Also, Molly's not so sure about this snow...she looks at me when we go outside as if to say "perhaps if we try this other door, mom, it won't be so cold..."

We have many more photos in our Picasa Albums (www.picasaweb.google.com/mrsverma) as well as on Lindsie's Facebook profile.
2009 has kept us very busy, and there is no sign of slowing down in 2010 as Pratik is hoping to wrap up his graduate studies at Stanford. He is looking forward to presenting at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in San Francisco this March. If you'll be at the meeting, come check out his talk! We are hoping to visit Pratik's family in India when he graduates. After that, we look forward to finding out where the wind will take us next...our door is open to visitors. Come enjoy California with us!

We wish you a happy holiday season and a very prosperous 2010!

Lindsie, Pratik & Molly

The Lovely Bones

Movies have been my latest obsession. I have been waiting (impatiently) and driving people crazy talking about my favorite book, the Lovely Bones, and its big screen debut slated for this December. I've been googling and (impatiently) waiting for the trailer to come out--and after months of waiting I FINALLY got to see it today! It moved me to tears...Check it out here: http://www.lovelybones.com/

My love for the book likely feeds off my obsession with decades past as it is set in the 1970s. Combine that with many parallels to my life (an Indian love interest, tragedy/death, and a girl named "Lindsey" in the story) and you begin to understand why I couldn't put this book down on my honeymoon. Poor Pratik! He kept threatening to take the book away so I would quit crying over it...only I bring along morbid stories to read on the happiest trip of our lives. Ah, well, the phase of learning about each other started early!

I was a little worried that I might be disappointed with the interpretation of the book, even in the hands of "the" Peter Jackson, especially because I'm NOT a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fan. Plus, I wasn't sure how the afterlife theme of the story was going to play out, especially because it is described so uniquely in the book. The trailer only served to make me even more hyped up about this particular part of the story...

To top this whole day of movie trailer excitement off, I find out that one of my favorite childhood actresses, Anna Chlumsky, is making a comeback. She starred in the My Girl movies, the second of which was my favorite. I had a really bad summer when I was about 13 where I had casts on both of my legs after surgery and the only thing that would cheer me up was watching My Girl 2 on repeat, another movie that fed my obsession with decades past. I can still repeat the first line...I'll spare you.

I don't claim to have amazing taste in movies. I'll watch and generally enjoy anything that's not horror or sci-fi. I hate Lord of the Rings and I'm petrified to this day of ET...but I'm fairly confident in predicting Oscar nominations for this film. Do check out the trailer, the book, and eventually the movie! I'll be first in line at midnight on December 11th! Sorry, I won't be able to wait until I go back to Michigan for Christmas to see it with those of you that I've forced into reading the book...but I will be easily swayed to see it again!

Happy Anniversary

Dear Pratik,
Of all the words I could use to describe myself, "traditional" would not be one of them. I never really aspired to have the picket fence and 2.5 kids, but I did know that I wanted someone equally as quirky to share my life with. I always wanted to be married, but knew it would take an incredibly special and patient man to put up with me.

God has a sense of humor.

My worn-out joke is that I prayed to marry a doctor, but I should have specified an MD…and when I prayed for someone who likes to travel, I didn't exactly mean someone who is so nomadic that I wonder if we'll ever have dining chairs to go with our fancy table. And honestly, do we really have ANYTHING in common? Your ideal birthday gift is a class on structural molecular biology, while I ask for a murder tour in Los Angeles.

I've learned in our short two years of marriage that the advantage to marrying your opposite is how much you learn from one another. It was difficult for me to adjust to living with someone who wasn't just able to keep up with me intellectually, but is my intellectual superior. Those late night lectures on the stock market may put me to sleep faster than the sandman, but if I've learned anything from you, my chemist, it is that osmosis really does work. Your argumentative nature has taught me how to be a more critical thinker. Most ladies swoon over flowers…I melt over my man's ability to play the devil's advocate.

But of all the gifts you've given me, the best you've ever given me is the world. Home really is where the heart is, and you've made the world my abode. There will never be a better gift to me than the travels and moves we've made to world-class cities. I used to see the world's cities as destinations. Now, I see them as possible places of residence. What an amazing sense of freedom and adventure you have instilled in me.

I always knew growing up the man for me lived somewhere on the other side of the globe and that he would have to embrace my sense of adventure, my love of learning, and my natural affinity to the "unusual." Never in my life did I imagine I would marry a Stanford PhD from India whose brain is so full of complex information, he can't remember how to drive home…and that I would come to love these quirks more than any of his other traits.

Happy Anniversary to you, the quirky man of my dreams, who never ceases to remind me of how small the world is and how big our lives can be.
Love,
Lindsie

I met Stevie Wonder!

I met Stevie Wonder at the CSUN Conference in Los Angeles this past March! Mr. Wonder is a regular attendee at the CSUN conference, which focuses on technology and people with disabilities. It was a great honor to meet him, as I've been raised on his wonderful music!

Dear Mr. President....Love, Molly

Dear Mr. President and family,

My name is Molly Verma. I am 6 years old and I live in California with my mom and dad. I hear that you are getting a dog soon and wanted to tell you all about my breed, the dachshund.

While I know that we are not a hypoallergenic breed, a girl can try, can't she?! After all, you make me believe that hope is alive, sir.

The dachshund originated in Germany. Our name means "badger dog," "dachs" meaning badger, and "hund" of course meaning dog. We were bred to go into small spaces and flush out prey for our masters. If I may say so myself, we are the most tenacious breed out there! While I have never flushed a badger out of its home, I have chased away many a squirrel off of our patio. Indoors, I have a stuffed squirrel Grandma gave me for hunting practice. I haven't caught a real one yet, because mom won't let me, but judging by the amount of stuffing around the house from my squirrel toy...I could take one on!

In addition to being hunters, we are also very loving. I love nothing more than to curl up with mom and dad and watch TV. Anything, so long as I am by their side. This demonstrates my very loyal nature. If I hear a noise, I am off like a shot to scare it away with my booming bark. I will do anything to protect my family.

Finally, our dashing good looks make us the perfect dog for the White House. We come in a variety of colors from red, like me, to dapple. In addition, we have 3 coat types: short-haired, long-haired, and wirehaired. Everywhere my parents take me, I attract attention. We cannot get through a store without people stopping to admire me or tell me all about who they know that has a dog just like me. Toy breeds are a dime a dozen, but dachshunds are the real deal in the looks department and my many admirers in the public know it! I am the perfect dog for men, because I have a big dog mentality, but I come in a small package which appeals to ladies. My breed is ranked lucky number 7 in popularity in the United States according to the AKC's 2007 stats.

We dachshunds have it all-bravery, brains, and loyalty. This makes us the perfect American dog. It can't hurt that we're so good looking, either. We are all the things a First Dog should be. We are all the things great Americans should be-brave, intelligent, and loyal. This is why you will be a great leader.

Mr. President and family, it is my hope that you will consider the dachshund when choosing a dog. It would fulfill my dream of seeing doxie(s) on the White House lawn! But take it from me, of utmost importance is that you choose a shelter dog. When I was 4 years old, my original family decided that they could no longer afford to keep my sisters and I. Dottie and I ended up at the South Bay Purebred Rescue in San Jose. I am not sure what happened to my sister Betty. We had been kept outdoors for most of our lives and were covered in itchy fleas. We were well fed, according to my girlish figure, but we hadn't received adequate medical care. Lucky for me the Purebred Rescue is such a wonderful and caring organization that had the means to keep me until I found another home (thanks to the support of donors.) My good looks were also appealing enough to make me highly adoptable. I shudder to think what would have happened to me if I hadn't been so lucky to end up at a rescue group. There are thousands more stories just like mine, but that don't have happy endings. Please keep your first promise to America, sir, and choose a shelter dog. You could help to begin breaking the cycle of unwanted dogs and overcrowded shelters.

Good luck tomorrow on your Inauguration Day. I am so happy to see this day finally come.

Woof,
Molly Verma