Good News (edited)

She said "Yes".

The ring is on the finger. Repeat, the ring is on the finger!

So now for the details ... The Lady has already given her own account, but I thought it'd be nice to write about it from my perspective ... that is, not like a teenage girl at a boy band concert :-)

The whole operation was planned 2 weeks ago. The biggest variable (and ultimately, cause for complaint) was the weather. Seriously, it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

The Lady had told me ... way back when, in the misty dawn of our relationship, that she'd always wanted to go to Tavern on the Green. Apparently, it's considered a romantic spot. She'd always talked about how going to Tavern on the Green, followed by a walk in the park would be the most romantic setting she could think of for the proposal. Honestly, I don't know how she didn't see the proposal coming when the taxi dropped us off at 67th & Central Park West. :-)

I'd booked a table for two for brunch, along with what I thought would be a pink strawberry cake (you know, romantically pink). Turned out to be a sponge cake with strawberries in a layer, but the lettering ("Together, Forever") made that glitch quite trivial. Brunch itself was decent. A photographer even comes around to take a photo

of the occasion (and then sells it to you, but who can put a price on a romantic moment, eh? Tavern on the Green can, that's who!). I apologize for the shocking clarity of the photo scan but my HP Scanner doesn't seem to be able to produce a good scan on the Mac (good scans on Windows though).

Post brunch, we stepped out to find a horse carriage

ready and waiting for us. We had a nice romantic trot around the neighborhood. As I'd said earlier, it was pretty damn cold, but what better weather than to snuggle in, eh?

At this point, I was pretty much stumped for a convenient location to go down on one knee. I was pretty sure that there was no way she would take a walk in the park. I had (unwisely, perhaps) chosen to wear my new suit ... which was 110 count wool, and hence pretty darned thin. Well, we were only a few blocks from Strawberry Fields (the John Lennon memorial, for those wondering), and since I'd never actually seen it (dunno why, it just never struck me to go over there), I asked The Lady if she minded heading up there. Luckily she knows what a big Beatles fan I am, and agreed.

We were both miserably cold once we got there, and we sat down to take in the scene. There really isn't much, you know. Just a circle in the ground with the word "Imagine", some Japanese tourists taking photos (hey, I don't make the stereotypes, I just report them), and a guy on an acoustic guitar singing Beatles & Lennon songs ... but then again, I was a few minutes away from hypothermia, so excuse my disdain.

The Lady by this point was throughly fed up with the cold (-3 C or 27F, if the reports are to be believed), and begged to go home. Just as I resigned myself to proposing to her in my apartment, serendipity came to my rescue, as the hippie started up "And I Love Her". What more could a guy ask for?

I went down on one knee, to her complete shock and surprise. Very classic Hollywood scene. Once she said "Yes", I put the ring on her finger, and the gathered crowd applauded. Another couple came over to congratulate us, and take our photograph. At that point, alarmed by the lack of feeling in our extremities, we went up to the street and hailed a cab back to my apartment.

So that's the story behind that magical moment. A moment in time to treasure and savor for years to come. :-)

Well, I finally took the plunge ...

... And ordered an iMac.

20" iMac, 2GHz Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, 256 MB ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card, wireless keyboard & mouse, and Final Cut HD. All with Apple's measly 6% discount through the Employee Purchase Program.

It should be with me by the end of the week.

I'm a first time Mac owner (used my friend's a few times, to surf and such). I shiver in dreaded anticipation.

Long, lazy days

I've postponed my trip by a few days - leaving Tuesday night now - which at least gives me a chance to unwind a bit at home. What with one thing and another, that's been lacking in this trip over.

Mom's a bit of a Raymond fan, and over the last couple of years, I've been gifting her season-pack DVDs. I've spent the last couple of days watching some of them. Raymond reruns can be seen on TBS & WB, and I've never really figured out what season each episode was from (and that can be figured out from the introductory piece during the credits). I'm surprised how much of Seasons 1 & 2 I've actually watched. But no matter, they're well-written funny episodes, and a delight to watch.

I'd also visited a bookstore and picked up a few comic books - "Asterix and the Class Act", "Tintin in the Congo" (technically, I have the original comic in scanned format that I'd downloaded years ago), and "Valley of Cobras".

It feels good to settle back with an Asterix or Tintin comic again. While Tintin books are available in the US (usually in the small size compendium volumes), there's something about reading these comic books in larger editions. Maybe its nostalgia for childhood here, I dunno. But whatever the reason, I've decided that I am going to have a collection of Asterix & Tintin comics in a few years.

On the subject of comic books, I would trade my 25 grams for English (translated, that is) copies of "Leonard" and "Lucky Luke" comics, but alas they've been out of print for years.

Attention Comic Book Lovers!

Attention true comic book lovers! LXG:III is coming out next year!

Be warned, LXG (the comic) is not meant for the faint of heart. It's probably not meant for anyone under the age of 18, either. It can be pretty ... umm ... intense, unlike the sanitized, bastardized Hollywood movie.

Pick up a copy ... or two ... and see for yourself.

PS: I also found this while fishing around Amazon.com

Found via Wil Wheaton.

An Evening With Friends

I finally got round to meeting some friends a couple of nights ago ... this, a week after arriving in Bangalore, and 3 days before I leave for the US, too!

First stop, KLA & Priya's post-modernist abode

, a delight to architects everywhere. Very open and airy

in construction, with a few interestingly new (to me, at least) designs

, such as clay pots in the ceiling. I also got to meet Maya

, their two-month old (almost) bundle of joy

& tiny waving fists (of fury?).

Next stop, Rubal & Mona's place ... which you know is going to be a lot of fun once you enter their converted living room. We went out to a place called Jukebox, in Koramangala, just down the road from Raheja Arcade. Good food, I must say. The quirk to this place is the incongruity between it's decor and the music played. The joint has numerous pictures on the theme of jazz - photos of artists, scribbles & sketches of instruments, and so on - yet played only classic, hard, and prog rock while I was there. But nonetheless - good meal, good company, and good music. What more could a guy ask for?