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Kiran

I needed a break from

…planning my menu > cooking my planned menu > cleaning after cooking my planned menu > vacuuming > scrubbing > dusting > planning another menu.. not again! Le sigh.. the endless list of household chores!

So, last weekend was a blast {literally} with a trip to Kennedy Space Center – NASA. Some might quote me as geeky, but I heart NASA 🙂 If only, whilst growing up, my parents had coaxed me more towards space engineering. Anyone out there, dream of being an astronaut? You have my blessings for sure 🙂

This is a lengthy post, filled with photos. Don’t steal, ask for permission before using any photos. Considered warned 🙂

If you are a Floridian, I would suggest getting the yearly pass to NASA, or for that matter, any Disney theme parks! Total tour takes a whole lot of time. With unlimited returns to NASA via a yearly pass, you can plan your trip and cover every nook and cranny. You have 1 year to do that anyways 😉 There’s a whole lot of exhibits, tours and gadgets to see, test-drive and familiarize with. We arrived around noon and was greeted by some gracious security personnel at the check point. It was a fast and easy-peasy process. They were absolutely friendly. I heart friendliness. After a click of the above photo, me and Tarun were famished and begin our tour by visiting the Orbit Cafe for a scrumptious meal of chicken fingers and fries. It’s fast food for us whenever we are on the road.

With a happy tummy, we proceeded for our first bus tour. This is not our first trip to NASA. We skipped visiting a couple of exhibition sites that we’ve visited before and instead, choose to enjoy the informational bus tours and clicked away endlessly with our Nikon 🙂 These photo’s below are some of scenery’s taken from the bus:

Awaiting to board the tourist bus

This is where the orbiter is fitted & engineered with the Solid Rocket Boosters 😉

The Crawler is used to transport the orbiter to the launchpad for the countdown 😉

Pebbled pathway for the enormous Crawler!

We returned to the Visitor’s Centre Rocket Garden and enjoyed a full blown view of orbiters, shuttle rocket booster and experienced a whooping simulation of a shuttle launch. Goodness! It was so thrilling! No photos allowed in the simulation as it was a very shaky ride. Wouldn’t want to hurt yourself or any one else! I could never understand how these astronauts are able to handle such working conditions, riskiness and pressures. Kudos to them, I can never do it because of my vertigo. And the fact that I am very well under-qualified 😉 Sigh… this is the little astronaut in me, spewing words from the beyond 😀 Enough of me, let’s get back to more photos:

A model of a solid rocket booster!

A model of an Orbiter, where astronaut's are housed during shuttle missions.

The Launch Simulation Hall.. Exhilirating!!!

That’s it for now! Stay tuned for Part 2 – our visit to the Astronaut’s Hall of Fame. Yes, this tour was a long and enjoyable one!

On a separate note, we want to take this opportunity to thank our readers and well-wishers for your continued support, love and participation during the 2009 Orbbies: Orlando’s Rockin’ Blogs competition. We are eternally grateful 🙂

So, what are your plans for the weekend? Anything in the lines of … 3…2…1… Lift Off?

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Make-over

I know, the title is very cliche. As you’ve noticed, the blog is going through some serious face-lift. I’d struggle to find the perfect theme for my blog. The hunt and journey has finally come to end, with satisfactory results of course. The weird part is, I’ve been sucked into a journey of self-learning. Well, I never had the knack or patience in html, css and countless technology jargon’s anyways.

Now if you are like me, looking for a perfect, easy customizations yet affordable theme for your blog, look no further. Thesis is the one! No mess, no fuss, Thesis by Chris Pearson is the only theme you would need to kick off a beautiful blog. It is packed with loads of easy buttons, knicks and knacks for a basic self-learning programmer like myself. While some might argue the need to pay $87 for Thesis, it is every bit worthy of your penny. Sigh. If only I’d discovered this theme sooner. Well, better late than never 😉 The main reason I spent money on Thesis is for their amazing Thesis Support Community. All questions and doubts are generally just a “search” button away! Isn’t that simple? More time to blog, less time coding 🙂 That’s my kind of fun time! If you are already a Thesis user, congratulations! This might be your wisest purchase ever.

Every Thesis purchase option comes with killer benefits, including:

Lifetime theme upgrades

Complete access to the Thesis forums

Downloadable “stuff” that you can use to customize and enhance your theme (like background images and styles)

Support from the creator himself, Chris Pearson 🙂

I chose to write a review on Thesis because I am so happy with it! If you are a beginner looking for more information on this fabulous theme, feel free to leave your queries, comments or concerns in the comment section below. I would be more than glad to help and guide you on how I’ve customized my blog thus far. I’ve never been so excited for something this technical. Thesis made this excitement possible 😀 Stay tuned for simple step-by-step Thesis customization on Chatterbox. Soon.

Voting for the 2009 Orbbies ends on Friday, Nov. 20 at 5 pm (US Eastern Time). Have you cast your vote for us yet?

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And the award goes to…

I am often questioned, “why do I blog“? Well, personally, I find it to be very nurturing, a form of my stress-reliever and a hobby. But penning just these reasons aren’t enough. As I’ve mentioned in the about-us page, blogging is one of the most essential tool of communication with our families back home. It is often used to chronology our travels or daily rants for the ease of our family’s to keep abreast of our activities.

Ever since I was introduced to the blogging world, I’ve discovered many hidden gems. Some of their writings are based on fiction, comedy, personal rants, politics, social and much more. The possibilities are endless. One of my favorite blogger is Reema, from My Random Thoughts. Not only because she has recently bestowed the immaculate Addicting Blog Award to Chatterbox, but the way she manages to make blogging look so simple and exciting. She rants about her daily life as a college professor, a M.E. student, friend, daughter and a sister. Her blog carries multiple topics and tones. An array of spices for different moods, I’d say 🙂 Head over to Random Thoughts and get to know Reema your self 🙂

I'm loving it 😉

Thank you Reema, for this wonderful award! Now, let’s not be too greedy and keep this to myself. I would love to bestow this award onto some of my favorite bloggers who have supported us with great reads:

Drum rolls………

And the Addicting Blog Award goes to: Amreekandesi, eLekhni, Solilo, Museditions, The Mad Momma, Meena, Su Yin, Priyank, Ching Ya, Frat Mustard, Holly, Jaden, Ruhi, Shefaly, and Dinu.

Congratulations!!! 🙂

Voting for the 2009 Orbbies begins Nov. 2 at 10 am and ends on Friday, Nov. 20 at 5 pm (US Eastern Time). Have you cast your vote for us yet?

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Busy week!

… spending quality time with friends. We were invited for a dinner party last weekend. It was a food galore! Assortments of Iranian delicacies. With gob-smacking taste-buds, we indulged like there was no tomorrow 😀 If only the photo’s could speak for itself:

Yummylicious Iranian Dinner 🙂

Homemade yogurt!

Assortments of dessert! My fav 😀

Thinking of joining school for perhaps a 2nd MBA or PhD. It’s exciting to just shop around for more information. Still unsure whether should I do my 2nd Masters or PhD. Kind of back and forth over so many options. And the list of things to do in order to get an admission? God help me! It’s a load of elbow grease let me tell you this. It’s worth it if you are selected into one of many US accredited university or college. I have started preparing for GMAT. And I have visitors over for this weekend. Good lord! So much to do, so less time 🙂 October has proven to be one of our busiest month after a long time. A productive one for sure. November is showing the same signs.

The banker, winner and expert negotiator, grinning away 🙂

Last weekend, we played monopoly till wee hours. There were many illegal negotiations and bribery in order to get out of jail and debts. A blast from the past for sure. What should we play next? Gilli danda?

Voting for the 2009 Orbbies begins Nov. 2 at 10 am and ends on Friday, Nov. 20 at 5 pm (US Eastern Time). Have you cast your vote for us yet?

p/s: Have a safe and great trip Bahar 🙂 Send our regards to your family. I would miss you 🙂

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Orbbies: Orlando's Rockin' Blogs

Being absent from the blogosphere does come with many surprises. New comments from new readers, hundreds of spam comments and unread feed reads. A lot to catch on. The sweetest surprise of all is to know that Chatterbox (my blog) and Shutterbox (my photo-blog) is nominated at Orbbies: Orlando’s Rockin’ Blogs organized by Orlando Sentinel.

The Orlando Sentinel Orbbies Contest is looking for Orlando’s best local blogs. I am very appreciative if you could find the time and vote daily for my blog and photo-blog. This is so exciting 🙂 I’ve created two separate banners as below for ease of voting. Please click on each to vote separately, one for our blog and the other, for my photo-blog. The badge on the top-right sidebar is click-able as well, for voting. You would have to register with a user id and password in order to cast your vote. But if you’re a fellow Orlandoan, and you are yet to register, there is no excuse of unfamiliarity with Orlando Sentinel. It would be shocking! Thank you guys, you are the best! Wish us luck!

Vote for my Photo-Blog!

Vote for Chatterbox!

Rules of voting as stated on Orlando Sentinel:

Voting for the 2009 Orbbies begins Nov. 2 at 10 am and ends on Friday, Nov. 20 at 5 pm.

You may vote once per category, per day. You may also vote once per day for Best Overall Blog (BOB). You must log in to your OrlandoSentinel.com account in order to vote.

Winners in each category and for “best overall” will be notified by e-mail before 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 25. The winner in each category will receive an ad campaign of 20,000 impressions on OrlandoSentinel.com and a rockin’ certificate. If a blog wins in more than one category (it can win in up to three), the runner-up will receive the ad campaign. If there are not enough nominations within a category like categories may be merged or a prize may not be issued for that category.

Voting for the 2009 Orbbies begins Nov. 2 at 10 am and ends on Friday, Nov. 20 at 5 pm (US Eastern Time). Have you cast your vote for us yet?

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