Maps

A post or two ago I was struck that I don't know where anything is in Hyderabad, let alone even where I live! Decided to do something about that and looked at a map.
Here's one that was OK. Circled in red on the upper left hand side is our little section of the city, which I now know is called CYBERABAD. Cool huh? CYBORGABAD. In the far upper left of the circled section is a rough estimate of where our office (and us) resides. So, as you can see, we're on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The main city is focused around that large lake in the center. Some of the neighborhoods we hang out in are Madhapur, Jubilee Hills (where the Tollywood stars live!), and Banjara Hills. Traffic is terrible, so even though some other places aren't technically that far away distance wise, they take forever to get to.

Inspired by this map effort, I decided to do another, showing where travels have taken us so far...

Pretty rudimentary effort, but it gives you an idea. We've been sticking with South India mostly, train, plane, and taxi. :) Future plans are for even more exotic locales -- Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand, Andaman Islands, Mt. Everest? Fun stuff, there are so many possibilities. On the map above, "Mahabs" is Mahabalipuram/Mamallapuram. The locals call it Mahabs and since we've been there so many times, we're locals too, might as well act the part. And it was a lot shorter to try and scribble than MAHABALIPURAM/MAMALLAPURAM. (lots of cities in India have two names now. They recently have been changing cities names from the British given names back to the traditional Indian names, but interestingly, people are slow to adjust, and still call them by the old British names. Makes things a bit confusing, but you figure it out quickly enough.)

Turkey Cookies, A Bennett Family Thanksgiving Tradition

Turkey Cookies!!!!

Turkey cookies are a Bennett family Thanksgiving tradition going back to as far as I can remember. The basic ingredients for a Bennett Family Thanksgiving Tradition Turkey Cookie are ginger snaps, red hots, candy corns, cashews, Reeses peanut butter cups, and melted chocolate chips. Sounds delicious, right?

Now, whether any of these strange creatures shown here can actually be called "Turkey Cookies" is up for debate...but I guess when you've been making these guys for 20 something years, you have to start thinking outside the box!! Nice work on the new breed Chomper Cookie, bro.

Enjoy, wish I was there with you all to help but I'm glad to see you managed w/o me (barely). Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello all, Happy thanksgiving!! I really wish I could be at home right now with everybody. Miss you all and am thinking of you. I'm thankful for good family and good food. Tonight we ate a turkey dinner at Roy and his family's house, which was excellent, but nothin' on our traditional family feast. I do wish I was there. Love ya, -Nic

Hyderabad Globetrotters

What, nobody told you the Harlem Globetrotters relocated to India? Get with the times!!! The economy is booming over here, basketball is starting to catch on...and did I mention the labor cost savings?!!! Haha OK no reason to scare you. I modified the above picture myself, utilizing my considerable skills in Microsoft Paint. Don't worry, the Globetrotters are still representing Harlem, where they've been doing their thing for 80 years. But...that didn't stop them from coming to Hyderabad last week, as part of their India tour. :) As part of their duties as world basketball ambassadors, they're doing a month long tour of India, with stops in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai (I think).

Anyways, a bunch of us expats -- and also the local checkout team (they made it their offsite) -- caught their performance last Wednesday night. It was a great time. Here are some pics (all courtesy of Stacy, I did not bring my camera. Thanks Stacy!)

After the game, there was a big meet and greet... all 200 people or so in attendance got to go out on the court and get autographs and photos with the players. That was a lot of fun. As for there only being 200 people in attendance, that was a bit of a disappointment, both for us and more so for the players. I think it took a little out of them. This was their first game in Hyderabad, and apparently they'll have to step up their marketing efforts. They did say the Friday night game was sold out at least, and that their games before (in Bangalore) had been packed houses. So, Hyderabad just has to wake up...and actually get out and do something on a weeknight! (Good luck making that happen. Hyderabad is pretty sleepy). Anyway this picture is of a couple players and a lot of Checkout team members.
Muggin' w/ the kids.

OK. There is a story here. This character climbing over the rail and into the stands is Globie, the Globetrotters official mascot. He is coming right towards me. Word of advice, if you're at a Globetrotters game, and Globie comes right at you in the crowd, unless you WANT to be pulled on to the court and made fun of, don't stand up and start waving your arms. Sit there, be quiet, avoid eye contact...or be like me and wave your arms. You'll probably then get pulled out onto the middle of the court, where Globie will either make you dance, do some sort of routine, play musical chairs, or who knows what all to the enjoyment of the audience. :) Ha, it's all in good fun. Globie's alright. I guess.


Globie's routine goes like this. He comes in to the stands and pulls me out. We walk to center court. He tells me with hand motions (Globie doesn't talk) that he's going to jump over me. OK...so I stand there. Globie runs down to the far end of the court, turns around, and starts running towards me. A few steps away, he stops. He's a sissy, he's not jumping over me standing up!! So he tells me to sit down. I sit down. Globie runs down to the far end of the court, turns around, and starts running to me. A few steps away, he stops. I'm still too tall. OK Globie. He tells me to lie down. So I lie down. Globie runs down to the far end of the court, turns around, and starts running at me. A few steps away, he stops. Yeah, you guessed it...still too tall. Real funny Globie. OK this time, he senses my frustration, so he says he's really going to jump over me. Tells me to crouch down. I crouch down...Globie runs down to the far end of the court...and doesn't jump over me again!! This is getting ridiculous. Also, at this time, Stacy must have gotten bored, as she stops taking photos. Anyways, I think EVERYONE is getting a bit impatient, so Globie realizes it's time to step up to the plate. He assures me he'll jump over me, STANDING up. He tells me turn around. He doesn't want me getting scared, so he says to cover my eyes. I'm playing along w/ this routine, so I do as I'm asked. I'm standing there, mid court, eyes covered...Globie runs down to the far end of the court...and keeps on running! Right off the court and into the locker room. Leaving poor me standing with my hands over my eyes at center court. Ha Ha Ha. It doesn't take me long to catch on that no Globies are going to be jumping over me, but the damage is already done. After some brief laughter from the crowd, Globie comes running out of the locker room and gives me a high 5, and I get to go sit back down again. All part of the show. Anyways, it was cool being at center court and a part of the Globetrotters act...but next time Globie is coming towards me in the stands...I think I'll sit on my hands instead of waving them around like an idiot. :)

Yep. We're doing the 'YMCA.'

You better not be making any moves on my girl, Globie. :) Anna, Selin, Globie, Stacy.

mr. bo...BANGLES!

A few weekends ago Selin and I stuck around in Hyderabad, and went to Charminar on a Saturday morning. (in fact, that was THE ONLY Saturday morning in almost 2 months that I havent been on a plane, train, or somewhere away from home...travellin' man!) Charminar is an old monument/gateway thing in Secunderabad, which is the "old city": the original Hyderabad I guess. (Why do they call it Secunderabad then? I don't know.) (update: Selin informs me she thinks Charminar is not in Secunderabad, rather it is in Old City Hyderabad, as I stated. That would make sense I suppose, as there would be no reason "old Hyderabad" would actually be Secunderabad.) Where Google is and where we all live and work is really actually not Hyderabad at all, it's technically called a different city name, which I'm blanking on right now...Hi Tech City is one thing I've heard it called, but there are other names as well. On that note, one thing I haven't learned very well, in all my time here, is the city of Hyderabad itself. It's a little confusing, as it is one sprawling mess of a place, and I haven't ever really seen a map. Plus since we're driven around everywhere, I really don't ever learn where anything is or what anything is called -- the drivers take care of those details. Anyways the entire Hi Tech City area is all really new, it's pretty much sprawled out of the ground all within the last 5 years or so. In talking with one of our drivers Niranjan (who drives us everywhere, super friendly guy) he said that what is now Hi Tech City was just a small village on the outskirts of Hyderabad just 5-10 years ago, nothing at all like it is now. It's just recently w/ the boom in economy and tech jobs that the area has exploded...to what it is now, which is buildings everywhere, roads everywhere, traffic everywhere, and more buildings sprouting up everwhere else. I asked Niranjan what he prefers, whether he liked the village or the town as it is now, he said that the town now brings jobs and money and so it's better, even though traffic is a nightmare.

But I'm supposed to be talking about Charminar! Let's get to the point here. I'll include some pictures below and give more details. Charminar is obviously famous for the monument Charminar itself, but it is also very well known for the market shopping area surrounding it: best place in town to pick up bangles, which are traditional Hindi jewelry: little sparkly bracelet things that Selin (and all girls in general) enjoys. Also, if you're brave and know a lot about pearls, it's also apparently a good place to get those too...but you better really know your pearls or you're gonna get swindled. From what I'm told, for every reputable pearl place...there are 3 or 4 others selling fakes. My advice: stick to bangles.

Need to know Charminar information.

The view of Charminar from down one of the side streets, lined with bangle shop after bangle shop. Notice the Muslim dress -- Old Hyderabad is the predominantly Muslim part of the city, so you definitely notice that a lot more than other places in town, which are predominantly Hindi.

This one is interesting. The ticket counter to get into Charminar. Guess what our entrance fee was? Haha, not 5 rupees. :) All the monuments have hugely inflated prices for non-Indian residents (20x in this case). It's not a big deal, as entrance is still cheap, just thought it was worth posting.

Here is the view from the base of Charminar. One of the pillars has a narrow winding staircase you walk up to get to the top.
And here's the view once you're up there! This is looking down the side street lined with bangle shops. That sort of madness is normal here, people everywhere...apparently, if you think that looks hectic, you should see Charminar on a Sunday -- there are 3 times as many people!!

Selin posing in front of one of the many bangle shops, jammed full of sparkling bangles...and haggling bangle buyers.


Bangle Salesman.



















Future bangle salesman. While Selin was busy seeing how many bangles she could fit on her wrist, I hung out w/ this guy. Like most kids, he loved the camera.












And he loved it even more once I gave it to him and let him start taking some pics. Here's one he took of Selin and me. :)


This guy outside was selling some sort of nut thing. Not as sparkly as bangles, but they taste a lot better...pretty good actually. (side note: notice the store in the background called 'Decent Collection.' Haha, let's go buy some clothes! They're decent!!! Yeah!!)

Alright, that sums up the Charminar and bangle experience. If anybody back home really wants some bangles, let me know and I'll pick some up for you. We know a good place. :)

Dieting

Been neglecting the ol' PaneerBelly a bit lately! Apologies. In truth, the internet situation at our house has gotten so bad that I can no longer stand to wait the ~4 minutes it takes to load a single photo (with about a 50% success rate) and have been keeping my dang laptop closed and turned off during normal peak blogging hours (9 PM to midnight). Hopefully, we can figure something out about this internet situation, it's like I'm in 1995 all over again on the old Corvallis ProAxis dial-up connection!! (!!!!!remember that? -- wow, the internets has come a long way)... Now the internet situation at work is far more civilized -- it's quite speedy -- but unfortunately I'm not paid to blog. (I wish!)

Anyway, just a quick note letting you know all is not lost, the belly is not abandoned, and I'm still alive and well over here in India. Really enjoying this experience a ton, and learning so much about the opposite side of the world and all there is to see and explore.

I'm going to see what I can do about getting some pictures up, and supposedly progress is being made on our internet connection, so hopefully I'll have more for you soon. Until then, "selavu!" (that's goodbye in Telugu -- the native language here in Hyderabad).

Catch of the day

One of the best things about travelling to the coast of India (besides the warm water, beatiful beaches, palm trees) is definitely the SEAFOOD. It is delicious, it is fresh, and like everything else, it is cheap. Not quite 150 rupee scooter rental cheap, but cheap none the less -- a gigantic lobster, from a fancy hotel restaurant (probably the most expensive dining option in town) won't set you back more than US $25. How much would that lobster cost in the US? I don't know -- I don't eat lobster in the US -- it costs too much. But eat your heart out in India. That lobster we ordered last weekend was enormous.
$25 worth of Indian lobster

But the lobster is not even the best part. (I just started with it, because Selin loves lobster and crab, and it's something you're all familiar with back home). In my opinion, better than the lobster is the fresh fish. Of which there are many varieties: Kingfish (not to be confused with Kingfisher the beer. Or the airline), red snapper, tuna, pomfret (delicious), mackerel, rock cod fish, indian salmon, sardines, tiger prawns, king prawns...and those are just from what I can remember! There are others I've never heard of. And then you've got the different cooking styles...of which I'm certainly no expert, but you've got just cooked plain (boring), fried, in some sort of curry, or my favorite, in the tandoor! A tandoor is essentially an Indian oven. Typical way to cook a fish here is to: 1) smother the fish in some sort of spicy sauce/flavoring/curry, 2) skewer the entire thing onto a stick, 3) place it into the tandoor, 4) cook it, 5) take it out, put the whole thing on a plate, and serve it up!! Dig in...watch out for bones.

Anyway, as you should know by now, the seafood is delicious. Even if there's no surf (which has been more or less the case our last two beach trips), I certainly have no complaints just due to the fantastic culinary experiences. Pick any one of those delicious fresh fish, add some hot butter naan (also cooked out of the tandoor), a cold beer or two, and a seat by the ocean...whooo I'm making myself hungry!!

Here are some pictures of the dining experience at the little family hotel we stayed at in Goa, at Agonda Beach. The place was called Dercy guest house, I highly recommend it. It is named after the owner's daughter, and is a small clean place just across the street from the ocean, maybe 10 rooms or so, but the #1 place to stay in Agonda Beach. Agonda beach is just a few kilometers from Palolem (hippy central), but not even remotely as touristy or commercialized -- it is still relatively the untouched little one-street sleepy fishing town. There aren't many places to stay, but Dercy's is solid. A good find.

For 500 rupees a night, with this view, they can hang as many blue tarps as they want. :) The front of our room at Dercy's.

Here are the people behind Dercy's. Not pictured are the 10 or so other kids that work at this place...(the entire wait staff was kids. For a while, I wasn't sure what to think about this...child labor laws? shouldn't these kids be in school? But then I talked to the boy in this picture, and he said that they were all out of school for Diwali, and the kids work there over the break so they can get paid. So, I guess that's OK. There aren't that many jobs in Agonda after all.)...I could be mistaken, but from what I gathered this is son, mother, and father pictured above. The son was the primary waiter -- the head honcho of all the kids. He definitely was top-dog amongst the 14 and under category. The mom ran most of the hotel booking and cleaning, and the dad was the grill (tandoor) master. Deeeeelicious. :) The kid was really friendly and a smart guy, personable and bright little bugger.

The meal begins by making your selection of fish. Why settle for picking off a menu, when you can have the real thing?? Fresh catch from that morning.

Here is the food, getting cooked to perfection in the tandoor. So, if you were too lazy to read the wikipedia link, a tandoor is a big clay (I think? I didn't read the wikipedia either) oven, which has coals in it, and gets really hot, that food is cooked in. Here you can see our tandoori chicken appetizer on the left, a pomfret in the middle, and another fish on the right. I don't remember what kind. No naan is included in this picture, but it was fascinating to watch that being made...they make it right there from scratch, and just stick the dough on the side of the tandoor, where it heats up. Once it's ready they peel it off the tandoor wall and serve it up hot!

Time for the main course. I don't normally pose like that for a meal. Before...

and after. Good eatin'. I'll learn how to eat the head next time.

Boo!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween in Hyderabad!

Halloween may not have exactly reached the general population of India quite yet...but it's celebrated in full force at the Google office. On the 31st we arrived at work to find the entire building decorated w/ lots of festive Halloween decorations...lots of orange, lots of black, lots of ghosts goblins and ghouls...just like home. We had been encouraged all week long to come dressed up for the occassion...and many people were showing their spirit. Halloween is still in it's early stages here, which means people still mostly dress up as scary looking costumes: witches, (lots of witches), ghosts, mummies, vampires, faces painted white with varying amounts of red blood incorporated...that kind of stuff. The holiday hasn't quite transgressed to the stage it has in the US where people will dress up as anything and everything, especially if it allows girls to wear little skimpy outfits. Anyways, it was quite a lot of fun to see everybody in costume, and having a good time with the day.

When 4 rolled around, we got to leave our desks early and head to the cafe, where there was a full-blown Halloween party in effect. To be honest, it had seemed like a lot of people hadn't dressed up earlier in the day...but they were just saving their costumes for the party. Lots of people were looking quite scary. There was a costume contest, which was fun, which I got talked into entering...and won runner-up in the 'creative' category! (much more competition in the 'scary' category). That was pretty sweet, first time in any sort of costume contest, certainly the first time winning anything. :) Even Roy the big boss man over here was dressed up, looking sharp in a black suit as "Gilbert, Roy Gilbert" (James Bond).

Happy Halloween!!!

Gilbert, Roy Gilbert and a pair of dice.

Selin, always the creative one, decked herself out as a houseplant. Quick, which one's Selin and which is the plant??? :)

Here's me! I'm an Indian street-vendor. So over the weekends, I've picked up a lot of goodies...sort of funny really, as a few weeks ago, we were traveling with a bunch of expats, who were talking about the street vendors, who are all over the place. Basically they were saying "who would buy that stuff? Balloons? drums? etc?" Well, as they were saying that, I walked up....playing my drum and holding my pack of balloons. :) Guess I'm a street-vendors dream...but hey, I like the stuff. Other people can buy the expensive things...keep the little crafts, the drums, the balloons, the tshirts, the bootleg CD's comin' my way! Selin (little miss creative) came up with the idea for my costume a few nights before Halloween, as we were trying to figure out what to be.

Matt Schweitz (a fisherman) and me


"Best Price Best Price!! I give you good deal!!" Here I am in action, putting on my best bargaining face. Must've been pretty good, I guess, as I was rewarded a 500 rupee gift certificate at the end of it all! Those trinkets just paid for themselves, booooyah!!!



Joel & Selin sharing a laugh (likely at my expense)

Joel (Scary), Selin, and Joanne (Power Ranger)

Some more very scary HydraGooglers wishing you a haunted Halloween!!!

Happy Smanibersaberry!

Happy 3 years! I know I'm a few days late...but the beach is for relaxing, long walks, and sunsets... not blog posts!!

sarang heyo!

MTV Cribs - India Style

Anyone with a blog will tell you that there is not much in this world more annoying than losing a blog post. It sucks. I lost probably the best post ever earlier this week, and I'm just now recovering and coming to terms with it...trying to get over my loss...I tried earlier this week but I wasn't emotionally ready. Traumatic experience, I would not wish it upon anyone. Here's my best attempt to re-create what will forever be lost...(Speaking of LOST...Selin and I are now watching that show on DVD. It's not as good as Prison Break. Not nearly as good. But I'll have to give it more time...maybe one day it will warrant it's own blog post. Not yet.) Anyways here's a feeble attempt to recreate the week's earlier blog magic.

I was feeling rather sick on Monday this week. Not an entirely unusual experience, since arriving in India, I've found my stomach is rather normally in a bit of a state of disagreement, from some food or another, just adapting to the different cuisine and sanitation standards...but this was the worst yet. Delhi Belly 2.0. Woke up feeling ill, but as I'm such a soldier trekked in to work, hoping I'd feel better...I lasted til around 1. Pretty good effort, but between the throwing up and numerous other bathroom trips, I wasn't being that effective. I headed home for some sleep. Before curling up and dying I managed to take a few pictures of home...take a look. we've got it pretty nice over here.

On the right: 2 pictures from my bedroom. You'll notice...the gynormously huge bed. It's gigantic! And it's also impossible to miss, as it makes up the vast majority of the room...it's almost a complete square. In fact I'm lying on it now and i think it might very well be a complete square. You can sleep on it horizontally or vertically, and it does not make a difference. Notice how nicely it is made also...yep, it's like that every day. Our man Suravanan or another guy whose name unfortunately I do not recall (I will have to be sure to ask again -- names are VERY difficult to remember here. Take the difficulty of remembering people's names in the US -- Rob, Thomas, James, etc... -- hard enough, now make those names crazy words and sounds you've never ever imagined before and that's what it's like. Challenging, I've taken to writing names down as that's the only way I remember) make up the room every day. Anyway you'll also notice Brewer the surfboard there, perched behind the bed where he stays cooped up most of the time (not tomorrow though--headed to Mamallapuram!!). Also the other shot is taken from laying in bed, looking into the attached bathroom. Interesting note about the bathroom, in India there are traditional Indian bathrooms and Western bathrooms. Western bathrooms use probably about 5x as much water as an Indian bathroom (primarily due to the difference in shower tactics -- here it is customary to fill a bucket with water, and then use the water in the bucket as the shower, as opposed to just running the shower continuously. Now I think about it that is probably a lot more than 5x as much water, maybe 50x as much!). My bathroom is an Indian style bathroom, but only in design. I still shower the American way...gonna be pretty tough to get me showering out of a bucket. I love the feeling of a warm water shower far too much...but anyway the bathroom is sort of interesting, because there is no tub or anything, no separation of the shower from the rest of the bathroom. You just turn on the shower, and the whole bathroom starts getting wet...haha it's like that in all these bathrooms. Interesting. They are designed (well, in theory) to have a bit of a slope so the water will drain to the corner where there is a large drain. But it's sort of fun to take a shower and have the whole bathroom get wet, the toilet, the sink, the entire floor. Just takes a little getting used to (or using a bucket). You'll also see in that picture if you open it up bigger a cool knife I got in Hampi, that they say is from Nepal but I give about a 30% chance of actually being from Nepal, but it only cost $12 so OK, a cool drum from Mumbai, a cool fish picture from Goa, a hat from Goa, a super sweet laser from Bigha, my dirty clothes hamper (which also gets emptied every day if I so inclined, I've taken to keeping dirty clothes in my closet and only putting them in the hamper once a week or so), the TV, the mini-fridge (yep, in room mini fridge!), our new plant which Murali (our main house guy) got for us the other day, and a few family pics. :) speaking of the family pics, the other day I was talking w/ some of the house guys, and they were saying they had seen the pics, and didn't know who was who between Joel and me! they got a kick out of that. They also asked when you all are coming to visit. What should I tell them? :)

Next up are some shots taken from outside, in front of the house. We live in a gated neighborhood of probably about 25 different homes or so I'd guess...they all look similar to ours. Very new, hate-to-say it but cookie-cutter home development type homes. That said though they're some of the nicest places to live in Hyderabad. Each guest house has 4 different bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen. There's also a deck you can see out in front on the 2nd floor, but it's entirely empty right now, and also a roof deck too, which is also empty except for the solar power panel. In my house, I live with Selin, and also Rob (from Ireland), and Paul (from Scotland). Both Rob and Paul work out of the Dublin office, and are both stellar blokes and a whole lot of fun to live with. I learn as much from those guys as I do from Indians!!! Sometimes the two of them will talk and I have no clue as to what they are talking about. There are so many expressions I've never heard before...that unfortunately I am blanking on right now but are well worth a blog post at some point. Haha, funny guys, both of 'em...very quick-witted and just good conversationalists, and I suspect they get a bit of amusement out of watching me try and decipher what ever the heck they are saying and will turn it up a notch from time to time, Paul coming up with crazy Scottish things and Rob doing the Irish equivalent...Anyways, quite a lot of fun, living in a house with two Euros (and a third, Stephan, from the UK, usually is over for dinner at our place...he lives next door with a bunch of girls, so naturally he comes over to our crib for dinner as it's a much better crowd). I'm glad to be living with these guys, as it really even makes coming home an international experience!

In the first pic, mom please make special note of the uniformed guard, standing watch 24 hours a day to ensure our safety... :) haha actually there always is a guard, good thing as there isn't a lock on the front door. The guards are always super friendly, always stand up and come open the gate, ask how was your day sir, always extremely friendly. At least most of the time, tonight the guard was sleeping when I came home. (don't read that mom).

Next up you'll see a picture of the living room...this is taken from the front entrance. Notice the marble (or is it granite?) flooring...livin' large you know!!!!!!! Lots of stuff is actually made from that stone here. This is the dining room table -- where we eat breakfast and dinner. Lastly, here's a shot from the roof...amazingly each house has it's own solar power panel!
And OK one final one for good measure. Here is a picture taken from the deck, looking across and down our street. As you can see there is construction across the street, just like at home in San Jose!! :) Luckily it's not as noisy though, as they do EVERYTHING by hand. Far as I can tell, they don't use any machines or anything, it's all manual labor. This picture is also worth a closer look just to see that they hold up the construction with STICKS...lots and lots of wooden sticks. This is not a one-off situation either -- seriously huge high rises are built with scaffolding made entirely of sticks and branches and tied together with rope, and people climb all over this scaffolding and build these things. It's something to behold, Dad you'd get a kick out of it as I bet Joel would too.

Alright time for bed, got a big day tomorrow...3 year Anniversary big!!!! g'nite...

AND AGAIN HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!!! :)