Happy Holidays

Hey all...don't really have anything to write about...school is out, all the Congressmen are home, not legislating (i don't think that has anything to do with the holidays though)...not really much to write about outside of Capital One Bowl Week. Anyways, just wanted to say Merry Xmas, Happy New Years, blah blah blah. I'm off to Miami in a few days and will hopefully have some interesting, PG stories upon my return. In the meantime, enjoy some pics of Mia's first Christmas. Oh yeah, Go Eagles!!!

Happy Halloween

Nothing to write today. Just some pics of Mia since it's been a while. I know what you're thinking. How is someone this ridiculously adorable even remotely related to me? I'm not sure.

Who says vacays can't be productive?

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Between the lack of internet access at my parents' house (yes, I live with my parents - TEMPORARILY) and the lack of anything interesting to write about, it really wasn't worth the effort.

Anyways, back to the post. Today has been my most productive of my now 54-day long vacation. Well, maybe 2nd most productive. I say any day you reach the summit of a 19,000+ foot mountain is a pretty productive day (yes, more sleazy "I climbed Kili and I'm gonna gloat" comments). "What makes today so productive?", you would ask in the off chance that you actually gave a damn. Well, first of all, I FINALLY uploaded a bunch of my pictures from the last several months of my life, dating back to my last weekend in NY, which was in early April. I've added some of them here, and if you want to see all of them, let me know and I'll send you the Kodak Gallery link.

Far more importantly than uploading my pics, however, was signing my lease about 4 hours ago. Great 2-bedroom place in Santa Monica, on 5th street right off of Wilshire. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, that's 5 blocks from the ocean, 2 blocks from Wahoo's Fish Tacos, and some ability-to-spit-game from a bevy of beautiful white women. Move-in date is September 1, and out-of-towners, as always, are welcome and invited to come visit, drink, eat, sleep, sunbathe, and chase women, or men if that's the way you roll. On to the pictures...

My beautiful baby niece Mia, at 5 weeks and 3 days:

At 6 weeks and 2 days:

Which is prettier - the Indian Ocean or the Indian guy?

Sunset over the Indian Ocean in Zanzibar:

One of the many amazing views from Kili - kinda crazy looking DOWN at the clouds:

Those Porters earn every damn cent (all 3 cents per hour) they make:

Sippin on Kilis on Kili:

Man it was COOOOLLLLD, but gotta represent Da Bears!

Nile View from my Cairo Hotel:

Sunset over the Nile:

More Nile:

An Egyptian Mosque - this one's for you Haider:

Cairo Skyline:

The Pyramids at Giza:

The Sphinx:

I was in Africa, after all, so I gotta show you some wildlife:
A giraffe, in case you're an idiot:

Somewhere back there is a leopard, by far the rarest animal we saw:

White Rhino, also quite rare:

Peter and I had AMAZING ostrich filets when we returned to Nairobi...highly recommended:


That's enough for today. I AM on vacation after all. I'll try to add more pics of Africa and Europe soon.

New Addition to the Family Tree

Well, as of Thursday July 6, it's official. I'm old.

My sister Nisha delivered a healthy, beautiful baby girl yesterday a little past 10am in Los Angeles. Mia Patel (I love the name) measured in at 19.5 inches and 6 pounds, 7 ounces (even the babies in my family are underweight). She's also surprisingly fair, considering both Nisha and my brother-in-law Rajan are somewhat dark. Needless to say my mom was thrilled with Mia's complexion. (I'll post pics as soon as I upload them).

The whole process was pretty eye-opening. Rajan came out to the waiting room at around 1030 or so. I walked into the delivery room with my parents and of course the first question was "boy or girl?", which the nurses wouldn't answer. So my mom had to sneak a peak to inform us that it was a girl. Then, within 30 minutes or so of the birth, the nurses took Mia away from my sister and the delivery room to take her to the nursery. So basically, after all the hard work of pregnancy and labor, Nisha 'lost' Mia within 30 minutes, and Rajan got to hang out with her in the nursery, watch her get cleaned up, and even go back home later in the evening for a shower and some food. Doesn't seem fair.

It's also pretty damn random how small a world it is. The resident who was helping out with the baby - Anuj's friend Arul, who I've partied with a couple times. Another of the doctors (or maybe it was a nurse) helping out - the roommate of this girl I met while partying in Santa Monica last night. Hung out all day at the hospital, and partied at night with a bunch of residents. Too many damn doctors.