Please help me to raise money for our children by Clicking Here

Chandru at 1-year and 50-years old – Can you see the similarity in facial expression?

Because of your overwhelming support toward our children, together, I have been able to raise much needed funds for the kids over the last 5 years.

Support to these children is provided through the excellent counsellors of the Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital – Child Abuse Intervention Department. I have blogged on this subject for the last 5 years. You can see in these pictures and videos, the dedication of volunteers and riders in working for this cause year after year. I have included the 2011 video and a special 5-year retrospective video here as well.

Chandru at 1-year and 50-years old – Can you see the similarity in facial expression?

Because of your overwhelming support toward our children, together, I have been able to raise much needed funds for the kids over the last 5 years.

Support to these children is provided through the excellent counsellors of the Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital – Child Abuse Intervention Department. I have blogged on this subject for the last 5 years. You can see in these pictures and videos, the dedication of volunteers and riders in working for this cause year after year. I have included the 2011 video and a special 5-year retrospective video here as well.

I am also very happy to report that my employer – Crane Co. has donated through their Widows and Children’s fund, $6,000 to this fantastic cause. I have kept my consistent riding schedule to work and proudly wear the Courage Classic jerseys to continue to raise awareness for this ride.

Please Help me to raise money for our Children by Clicking Here

We will be hosting an open house to thank you for your sponsorship of the kids in 2012. Please look for a separate invitation from us in July.

Then, I proceeded to the grocery store and purchased Plantains, Sweet Potatoes, Cauliflower, Cilantro, Indian Curry Leaves and Coconut. The rest of the ingredients I had. The menu today was Plantain Kootu, Cauliflower Sambar, Ginger Rasam, and Coconut Chutney. The plantains looked lovely.

Here is the scored coconut for easy breaking

Here is a short video of me scraping the coconut once I broke it. I had to wear the helmet cam to take the movie!

   

Here is the scraped coconut, washed India curry leaves, peeled-chopped plantain & sweet potatoes, and ginger.

Now, I burst mustard seeds and wasted the neem leaves, black pepper, and black gram dal for the Cauliflower sambar. I then added coconut and ground to a paste in the magic bullet. I made a similar paste for the Kootu, except I used cumin and coriander seeds.

Then I roasted mustard seeds, asafoetida, and ginger, ground it to paste in the magic bullet with cocunut and cilantro for chutney

Here you can see the Sambar and Kootu cooking on the stove top waiting for the respective pastes to be added.

I then added the respectives pastes to the sambar and kootu. I then mashed the kootu with a mallet.

The light ginger rasam was happily cooking alongside. The Chutney was ready.

I made the chutney and voila – lunch was done. It took me 2.5 hours to make it all from start to finish (excluding the bike ride for coffee and groceries). After lunch we took a nice walk to Gas Works park.

We then came back home for afternoon tea with homemade vegan brownie (delicious!) made by Cam.

I rode with my friends Steve and Sue. I joined them in Snohomish after riding 35 miles there and couldn’t resist coffee while they joined me for the start. You could say that Steve has been my mentor when it comes to cycling here in the US. He was the one who introduced me to Courage Classic 6 years ago and gave me the confidence to ride it for the 1st time. I have done it every year since!

Steve and Sue are in their new tandem bike and will be riding it in the Courage Classic. They rode very well together. The landscape was very beautiful farmland and the weather was perfect today.

I rode in their slipstream for most of the way (the wake that is created when riding close behind another bike ahead of you). The tandem makes quite a slipstream and it was really a lot of fun.  I can beat the tandem on long uphills, but forget it on downhills. They have so much inertia (and sheer power) they just ride by you in no time. In the video below you can see what I mean! Steve and I took movies of each other using our helmet videocams and you can actually see us riding. These are some the the 1st movies where you can actually see me riding! What do you think?

   

I also rode to the Viet Market and bought the usual vegetables plus fresh Okra (Ladies Finger). Here are the results!

U Srinivas

I rode with my friend Tony for part of the ride.

I met up with my friends Rainer and Lynnette when I was riding by the Soccer Stadium towards West Seattle. It was very nice to see them and all of the buzz around the stadium.

I stopped at Verite coffee in West Seattle. I climbed up a pretty tough hill to get there. I normally go down this very steep hill to the water. Today I did that in reverse. It was 10-16% grade, very tough!

A shot of me in Smith Cove. I brought my Mom here when she visited.

At Golden Garden Park. My Mom and Dad had a picnic here.

The last of the Cherry blossoms.

It was a tough ride 103 miles and 5000+ feet of climbing. I struggled to make it home and soaked in a warm bath before dinner. You can see the strava profile below.

On Easter Sunday, I took a relaxing ride for lunch, grocery store, Indian store,

Swanson’s nursery for spring planting,

and topped off with Lighthouse Coffee.  Do you like my “53 x 11 ride for coffee” bib and jersey?

I cam home and made dinner. Here you can see I am making Ladies Finger.

After a vigorous run, here we are at the mid-point lunch stop. I am having the delicious vegetarian chili. Also notice Cam’s beautiful scarf. I got good comments about it at the lunch stop.  I purposely removed it so that I would not spill anything on it!

About to leave for the 2nd half of the ride.

A great ride is done. Now, only the bit of riding from the ferry dock to the house remains. Overall riding mileage including the ride to and from ferry was about 43 miles with about  17 miles on the ferry.

I first started by climbing up to Phinney for a cup of delicious Lighthouse coffee, then down to the International district at the Vietnamese store.

I got Radishes, Eggplant, Cauliflower, Guava, Pears, Beets, Cilantro, Shallots.and Bell Peppers.

On the way back I purchased at the Indian grocery store a big coconut, some Sounth-Indian snacks, curry leaves,mustard oil,grains and spices. I came home and contemplated cooking for a bit and took this picture.

Look at all the things that came out of my back pack! I broke the coconut for the milk which Cam and I usually like to have before dinner.

I made a Radish Sambar with two full skillets of Eggplant and Cauliflower Stir fry and a Carrot-Beet salad. I also broke the coconut for the milk, I will grind it tomorrow (I did not need that for cooking today). It was vegan today with no milk or dairy products.

I first started the brown rice and lentils in the Pressure Cooker

The Radishes and Shallots for the Sambar are being stir fried in mustard oil.

In goes the Tamarind juice

I needed two simultaneous frying pans for making all of the egg plant and cauliflower that I purchased!

Out comes the Brown Rice and Lentils which cook in their own stacked vessel simultaneously in the Pressure cooker

Add the cooked lentils and cilantro – Sambar is done

Grate the beets, and carrots, garnish with oil-burst mustard seeds, and add lime juice plus salt to taste – Carrot salad is done

Then shower and eat at a stylishly late hour of 8:00 PM. Blog about it and retire for the night. I will going on a group ride tomorrow.

Over the last 5 years our total contributions to Mary Bridge exceed $17,000, raised through generous donations from our colleagues at Crane Aerospace, many personal friends and relatives. This seems small in comparison to the daily contributions made over 20 years by the Mary Bridge staff, who care for the children in need. Our helmets off to them!!

Here is a special video compilation tribute especially made for the kids, Mary Bridge, donors and volunteers who help our kids in need. This 9-minute video covers the 5 years 2007-2011 during which we have done the Courage Classic.

We hope that you will join our team once again in 2012 in the Courage Classic Bike Ride and raise funds to help our Children!

Here is a movie of a short section of my balance board routine. The balance board is a disc with a hemisphere attached to the bottom. It takes a little getting used to. Once you have is mastered, it is a great strengthening exercise which can be a lot fun to do. My Mom’s bear is intently watching on!