My First Born is Moving In!

Hello readers, this is just a small announcement - I have made a relatively significant change in my blog space right here. As some of you may know, I have another blog called 'Ad Libitum' over at http://janeadlibitum.blogspot.com. This is my older weirder blog-child that just won't take form the way my second one is. She's (no clue why, but I just automatically decided it's a girl) always been a little lanky, under-nourished, and low-profile. I just cannot understand why. And when the second, more robust, blog-child came along, he (again, I just decided that) took so much of my attention that my older blog-child has been left unattended for quite a while.

As a good responsible mom of the blogosphere, I have decided that my first-born's voice, however feeble, should be heard too. So, I have imported all my content over from the 'Ad Libitum' blog to sit over here. This, though primarily a review blog, will also talk about my personal life and other interesting snippets that I would like to bring to the family dinner table.

I must sheepishly confess that the fact that this relatively newer blog was receiving more views and comments than my older child, was one of the deciding factors that drove me to scoot my older child in here, so she can share the spotlight. Also, this url comes up easier in a Google search than the other one... :P

So, before I wear this metaphor thin till you hear the logic snap, let me just alert you to the fact that as you scroll down, you will see all my posts from the other blog. If you have never visited me at Ad Libitum, well, there you go - I made sure that you are not spared! If you have, then you know that all my *air-quotes* words of wisdom *close air-quotes* are safe here, even after I have deleted the other blog. Now, please, for heaven's sake don't ask me (as I am asking myself right now) how I can use the word 'delete' when talking about a metaphorical first born. This is the Internet, and I just did. So there!

Aaaainyway, I will leave that blog up for a while, along with a redirect message. And after a while, it's gonna go. So, please continue to drop by here. I look forward to many conversations with you about stretched metaphors and tummy muscles... sorry.. tmi...

Wordpress sent me this... Hey Wordpress Admin? You guys could have been this nice when I was on Wordpress. Anyway... good to know... Happy New Year!

Team WordPress.com + Stats Helper Monkeys January 2nd, 2011, 07:22am

Your 2010 year in blogging

Happy New Year from WordPress.com! To kick off the year, we'd like to share with you data on how your blog has been doing. Here's a high level summary of your overall blog health:

Wow

Blog-Health-o-Meter™

We think you did great!

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,700 times in 2010. That's about 9 full 747s.
In 2010, you wrote 26 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 53 posts. You uploaded 70 pictures, taking up a total of 70mb. That's about 1 pictures per week.
Your busiest day of the year was May 9th with 478 views. The most popular post that day was Growing Pains on Mother’s Day.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, facebook.com, mail.redegginfoexpert.com, janehamilton.blogspot.com, and lovejoneslane.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for mother's day clip art, happy mothers day, happy mother's day, mothers day clip art, and happy mother's day clip art.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010. You can see all of the year's most-viewed posts and pages in your Site Stats.

1

Growing Pains on Mother’s DayMay 2009

2

About the Blogger

3

Top 10 Movies that Left Me Speechless!May 2010
2 comments

4

"Baby Einstein Made My Child Dumb"! Yeah, Right!October 2009

5

About the Blog
4 comments

Some of your most popular posts were written before 2010. Your writing has staying power! Consider writing about those topics again.

Of New Friends and 'First Times'...

I never thought I would ever say this, but here it goes, "I guest-blogged this week"...Oh no wait, that was the wrong font... People, I GUEST-BLOGGED this week!!!!!! ....Okay, that's better... whoa! how did that happen...? Flashback..scene fade...

It was two weeks ago, that I registered myself into 20SomethingBloggers... I know, that was like saying, "Yesterday I watched Titanic the movie"...(sometimes I come across as being pathetically ancient, and I am totally aware of it...). Anyway, I was immediately given a warm welcome by a couple of really sweet bloggers who introduced themselves, and even read my blogs...That's where I met the lovely Charreah Jackson who writes an interesting blog on love at Love Jones Lane. (Visit her sometime, she has some cool stuff to say about love and marriage, and why they drive us crazy!)

Here's where it gets exciting! She visited my blog, and actually asked me to write a guest post for her blog, on Love and Marriage in India!!! Okay, I think I need to go easy on those exclamation marks!!! So, I was like, 'Really? Is this happening to me?!!' Anyway, as she says, "Believing is half the battle".... so, I wrote a post, and hoped I didn't disappoint her terribly, and emailed the write-up to her...

Turns out she liked my post enough to actually put it up right there, along with her other posts. She also said some nice things about me, that are totally undeserved! So, go on over to her blog, and read my post entitled, "Marriage in India - I Chose Love".

Happy Birthday, G.J. Hamilton

"The only way to keep or receive love it to give it unconditionally and selflessly". This is the quote for 12 March, on my quote holder on my desk.

I can't think of a quote that applies more for my wonderful husband than this. His patience stretches so long that I still haven't done something to snap it! Thank God for that...

Stuff he loves: music (some classical western music is always playing on a speaker somewhere if he is home!), aetheikka appam (plantain fritters) - he loves the stuff...his staple food if he is traveling!, spending time with Debbie (lot of wrestling...a grown man and a 2-year-old?... Go figure!...sigh..., singing at the top of their voices, watching YouTube videos of Mickey Mouse and Pingu, etc.), choral singing (my husband has one of the best tenor voices I have heard...I am being partial here, but I don't care :P), reading up on his latest interest (he will read up like crazy on whatever occupies his mind at the moment...everything from kidney stones, rheumatism (for me), train timings in Tamil Nadu, universities across the world, management skills, MBA courses, Dr.Chidambaram, heart surgery (for his Dad), things to consider while traveling abroad, how to use his camera, what do 2-year-olds eat?, everything, everything... Note: this is probably one of the reasons he has never really read this blog!... Anyway, Hamilton belongs to the clan of people who believe that information is power...so he reads... Don't be shocked if, soon, our family moves out, to make place for his books (*rolling eyes here*). He loves Sachin Tendulkar...a die-hard fan of the cricketer! Loves him so much, if he starts talking about the guy, it usually turns into an epic!

Hates: Nothing. That's it. Hate is a strong word that this man prefers not to use...What can I say?...Other than, "Why the heck is he with me?!?!!"

One unforgettable thing about him: How he cried along with me, when we heard my Dad passed away. The look of pain in his eyes, when he saw my pain... Well, he is one reason my family was able to stay strong through it...

What he has, I wish I had: His unwavering unshaken faith in God, and his spirituality. I wish I had that.

Happy Birthday Hamilton...You are Special!!

In Memorium

It has been a really long time since I posted here.  The past couple of weeks have been especially hard for me.  My dad (Mr. C. Mohandoss) passed away on 13th June, 2009.  He was 57 years old and died of a massive heart attack.  My family, especially my mother, is devastated.  Mom (Mrs. Vijaya Mohandoss) cannot imagine a life without my dad, but is forced to swallow her grief and get on with life for the sake of my little sister (Jone Dorothy, age 22) and my brother (Jacob Timothy, age 18).

We still can't believe that he is gone.  At the funeral, for the first time, I saw how so many people had been touched through my dad's life and testimony.  He was a man of God, and a wonderful human being.  I can only hope to be half as good as him.

I wish he were still here, because we feel we lost the corner stone that supported this family. But we owe it to his memory to be strong and to be the best at whatever we do, just like he was during his life on earth, and just like he wanted us to be.

My father, who taught me confidence, self-respect, enthusiasm and creativity; who inspired in me the love for writing, books, and music; my dad will be missed for as long as this family goes on.

Dad, we love you forever....

My Dad with Debbie