Deepta And Rajiv

Mid Summer's Night Dream...

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:19:05 -0700

Mid Summer’s Night Dream…

Hi everyone. Once again, its been much to far and few between since the last time we blogged, but we’ve been busy making the most of the summertime with traveling, barbequeing, seeing friends and family and enjoying the couple of rare heatwaves we’ve had through the ubiquitous SF fog. We also moved into a new apartment :)

We rounded up the month of May with a surprise trip for Rajiv’s 27th birthday to Vegas!! It was a complete surprise to him, and I did a great job, if I have to say so myself. We celebrated with friends the night before (perhaps a little TOO much celebrating) and headed off in the morning to Vegas! We stayed at the Palazzo, the new sister hotel attached to the Venetian, which was fabulous. Having stayed at both, I definitely think Palazzo is my new favorite hotel on the strip as far as amenities go—I mean, the blinds on the windows were remote control! We ate at some of our faves including the Wynn buffet, Todd English’s Olives and our NY favorite, Dos Caminos. We gambled (won big at CASINO ROYALE of all places) and saw “O”, the Cirque du Soleil show made of water! If you guys haven’t seen it, it is truly a must see.

Aside from Vegas, we also made a trip to Tahoe over the 4th of July. It was Rajiv’s first trip there and I hadn’t been there in a long while. We stayed at Plump Jack Inn, owned by the Newsom Family Restaurant group who also owns Jack Falstaff here in the city. Absolutely gorgeous, right at the foot of Squaw peak. We rafted, biked, hiked and jet skiied. Another highlight was meeting the wine makers at Crinella Vineyards located in the Russian River Valley. Ramona, the owner, send us a couple glasses of their wine and we were immediate fans!

The other major thing we’ve done is move out of our old apartment :( We absolutely loved our apt (especially our view!) at Avalon Mission Bay, but they increased the rent and we needed more space (for all our junk!) so we made the move—about 2 blocks down from there. It was hard saying goodbye to our old apartment—it will always have a special place in our hearts as our FIRST apartment together after getting married. But…we LOVE our new apartment. Very different—its a 3 story loft with TONS of room and light, albeit no view. Best of all, my friend Jena from work lives across the hall and we walk to and from work together. Still getting things together as far as organizing, but I know it will look great once we finish putting everything in place (including our ikea furniture….anyone handy with a hammer?).

It’s a little bit sad to know that July is almost coming to an end and we’re hitting August, but we do have one major milestone to look forward to—our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY? I can’t believe it. We are going to Cabo San Lucas to celebrate.

Anyway, will post some pictures of summer shortly but hope everyone is making the most of good weather, food and fun!!

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Thu, 08 May 2008 23:53:29 -0700

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Thu, 08 May 2008 23:51:53 -0700

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Thu, 08 May 2008 23:50:20 -0700

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Thu, 08 May 2008 23:49:15 -0700

Springtime

Thu, 08 May 2008 23:44:00 -0700

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since we last posted because we’ve been up to a lot! Since our last post, we watched Mary get married in NY, started our dining club and most recently found a new apartment!!!!! Let’s start off with Mary’s wedding. First, it was an awesome reunion with all my NY friends and especially great to hang out with our good friend Katie who is London calling! We are so happy for her, she has been wanting to go to London for a while and she’s moving in about a month! Can’t wait to go visit her. Mary’s wedding was beautiful (especially since I was not the one getting married….in a good way!) It was great just being a guest, sitting back and relaxing. Some highlights include some run ins with some real life wedding crashers and Gerard jumping on staged at the end singing along to some Guns N Roses classics (for anyone who knows them both, you will understand why that HAD to be a part of their wedding). We spent the rest of the weekend with Rajiv’s parents, doing a hike in Long Island and eating hibachi. After we came back, we started dinner club with Victor and Tracie at Jardieniere where Tracie works and had one of the best meals we’ve had in our lives—which is good considering the bill we got later :) Most exciting of all, we secured an apartment for when our lease is over in June! Moving is always a pain but we are SO EXCITED about our new place. It’s just a couple blocks down from where we live, and its a two bedroom, 3 bathroom loft—with a fireplace!! Best of all— we are living across the hall from JENA!!!! In the meantime, we are trying to enjoy all our Avalon perks while we still can, including having my fam over for dinner on Saturday (we’ll see how the food prep goes for that, its quite an undertaking!) and having a potluck bbq in a few weeks. - Deepta

Atop Diamond Head

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:36:58 -0700

Atop Diamond Head

Malasadas (before the malasada explosion of 20080

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:35:02 -0700

Malasadas (before the malasada explosion of 20080

Lots of lovin’ from my two favorite people.

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:33:29 -0700

Lots of lovin’ from my two favorite people.

Dax greeting us with leis at the airport.

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:32:43 -0700

Dax greeting us with leis at the airport.

Waikiki—about to get on the catamaran—like how I...

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:31:35 -0700

Waikiki—about to get on the catamaran—like how I made Rajiv hold my purse?

Molten lava!!

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:30:07 -0700

Molten lava!!

Black sand beach

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:29:15 -0700

Black sand beach

Hiking the Kileua Iki trail (I probably butchered the spelling)

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:27:46 -0700

Hiking the Kileua Iki trail (I probably butchered the spelling)

Inside Thurston lava tube

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:26:15 -0700

Inside Thurston lava tube

Saved By The Bell Hawaiian Style and Beyond

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:26:27 -0700

Hi everyone, Deepta here! It’s been a while since our last update but we’ve been up to a lot! First and foremost, we had a fantastic vacation in Hawaii, first stop being the Big Island and second stop Oahu with Daisy and Justin. Believe it or not it was my FIRST time in Hawaii ever (practically a crime living here in California), but it was beautiful. The two islands were very different; on the Big Island we were on the Hilo and Volcano side and all our activities centered around Volcanos, lava and volcano formed nature. In our short time, we hit up the 5 mile Kileau Iki (sp?), black sand beach, lava tube exploration, a helicopter tour and watched a live molten lava flowing into the ocean once it was dark. Pretty awesome. Another highlight was where we stayed. It was a really cute bed and breakfast in the town of Keauu between Hilo and Volcano, and we couldn’t have had a better experience. Best of all, the couple who owned it were fabulous and gave us lots of reccos, not one of which failed us. Oahu was great, but the highlight had to be visiting my best friend Dax and her boyfriend. We really miss her here so it was awesome for her to take us to all the great places and meet all her buddies she’s been talking about since she’s moved there. We went on a mai tai caterman sail at sunset, hung out at the north shore (biggest waves EVER), ate shaved ice and had an unfortunate incident with a malasada (portuguese doughnut). We fit in some snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and hiked Diamond Head and of course ate and walked around all in between.

Onee big glaring thing—our flight back was ATA and it went out of business two days before—AUGHHH! It was a pain and expensive sorting it all out but luckily we are back safe and sound. Overall though, our first bigg-ish vacation since the Honeymoon as a married couple was a success! We’re already planning the next (and sticking to big name airlines!)

This past week was busy at work for us catching up from vacation. We had a rare exceptionally warm spring weekend in SF and we took advantage of it every moment. Friday we had a happy hour—in our balcony (or lunaii as Daisy and the Hawaiians say). This was inspired by our Hawaii trip where everyone always hangs out on the lunaii. Saturday we saw our friends Rene and Martha and went to dinner. We tried to go to Schnitzelhaus in Soma, a fun German restaurant that comes with beer in a boot, but they stopped serving food by the time we got there. Instead we went to Basil Thai down that street, which was excellent. That neighborhood can be considered a bit sketchy, but after living in Berkeley for four years, I am not only not afraid, but a little endearing of homeless people! So I don’t mind. We definitely are going to hit that area up again, we passed a lot of good stuff.

Yesterday, we did our east bay rounds—Didun, my parents and on the way back stopped at Jupiter—one of my favorite bar/restaurants from the Berkeley days that has an outdoor patio. It made me miss those college days….until I saw people with their backpacks, studying ;) Don’t miss that.

Anyway, we have an exciting week ahead of us—this weekend we celebrate Victor’s birthday and are going to not one, but TWO hip hop concerts (we didnt plan it that way but they were on the same weekend)—Kanye West on Saturday and Jay Z on Sunday! I’ve seen Jay Z (or HOV, Jigga Man, Sean Carter if you plase), but I am def most excited about Kanye.

Have a great week and enjoy the nice weather while it lasts! (Unfortunately, it has already dropped 30 degrees today. Boo).

A Weekend Recovering

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:48:48 -0700

Rajiv here while Deepta is watching American Idol and blowing her nose. This weekend, we both were still recovering from being sick though we already had plans for Saturday so we pushed ourselves.

During the day on Saturday we met Martha and Renee at their apartment first to see pictures and hear about their trip to Cancun. We then all went to lunch at Sushi House in Alameda, right on the water looking at the peninsula and san francisco. Everyone shared Sushi except me because you know I don’t eat fish. I still had yummy veg bento box!

After lunch, Victor came over first and we watched Enchanted on dvd which we all liked a lot! After the movie, Mandy came over and all of us went to dinner at Azie. It was fun seeing Victor and Mandy and catching up with them! Both of them had exciting new jobs to talk about.

Sunday we ended up just resting at home all day and on Monday Deepta found out that she had bronchitis, strep throat and an ear infection. So she taking a lot of medicine right now and resting in bed.

Both of us really looking forward to going to Hawaii next week and also seeing Daisy and Justin! Hopefully both of us will be fully recovered. We excited to see the black sand beaches and volcanoes in the Big Island and then all the exciting things Daisy has planned for us in Oahu.

Stay healthy and be careful of whatever is going around the bay area.

Green Beer!

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:19:23 -0700

Green Beer!

Green Scene

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:53:58 -0700

Happy St. Patty’s Day everyone! Deepta here, just coming back from an awesome Swiss Beatz concert in the downstairs lobby of Gap. Gap puts on these concerts once in a while—Swiss Beatz is part of a marketing campaign that Gap is doing where they pick different songwriters to write about a color. Swiss Beatz of course had a song about color green. Only here at Gap can you come back from a meeting, do some hindsight analysis and then go down, drink a couple brewskis (no joke..there were kegs downstairs) and let loose (well kind of…..we still are at work after all) to some really well known hip hop! All in all, not bad for a Monday!

Everyone seems to be getting in the spirit—even our apt building who hosted a little St. Patty’s fiesta, green beer keg and all!

I spent most of last week being sick and Rajiv spent most of last weekend working, working, working (and taking care of me!). It was kind of nice to just have a chill weekend recovering and watching movies (saw some great ones—Michael Clayton, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Death at a Funeral!). Enjoyed the weather a bit yesterday and ate by the water over at Java House.

The next few weeks are going to be busy, but exciting for us! We both have a lot going on at work—Wednesday I get to have a Barcelona reunion with my good friends Katrina and Roshen, Thursday we have our LOST night with Sanders, and this weekend we get to chill with the always lovely Amanda Michele and celebrate her new job with her!

Weather still is awesome—have a great week!!!!!!!!!!

Our first blog post!

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:45:59 -0700

Hi everyone! This is our inaugural post on deeptaandrajiv.com to keep all the lovely people in our lives (plus those people who randomly google “DEPT” and get “Deepta and Rajiv’s blog” instead) informed of what’s new with us, share pictures and all kinds of fun stuff.

This past weekend was just GORGEOUS and jam packed as well. On Friday, we went to Estia, this Greek restaurant in North Beach our friend Jena recommended and ate wayyyy to much. Then it was off to a late show at Cobb’s Comedy Club to watch Hal Sparks (he’s done some TV Work, but he is the short sarcastic guy who comments on “I Love the 80’s”). Hal was hilarious, but his opening act—not so much. We both were actually on the verge of dozing off (it’s a little scary how old we feel these days!).

Saturday we spent catching up on some sleep and a visit to the Mission Bay library next door (who actually has some really good music and movies—from Tegan and Sarah to Fergie…..pretty impressive!). In the evening we celebrated with Aya’s birthday with her and James at several locations—we started off at Out the Door at the Westfield (amazing jicama and cabbage salad), and continued on to yummy margaritas at Tres Agaves and some wine and champagne at District. In true Saturday night form, we ended up back at our house and entertained ourselves with funny YouTube videos. Sunday we went to a good family friend’s son’s rice eating ceremony in the easy bay. For those of you who have no idea what that is, it is called “Anaprasan” —and you should watch or read the Namesake to get a better understanding of it—basically when a kid turns 9 months or so, there’s a ceremony where the baby has a plate of different things (book, money, an apple etc etc) that all symbolize different things and are supposed to be telling of the future. It is unique to the Bengali culture and pretty superstitious—but a very cute ceremony regardless (unless the baby screams and cries which they normally do). Our family friend’s baby touched a gold bracelet—symbolizing a life of wealth to come! Deepta touched the book—which means smarts :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend and is enjoying the weather wherever they are!