Being from Sinaloa in TJ (Mexico)

Am I back?

2012-01-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

Let's see how it plays. I just posted something in a different blog that I am trying to start; for the time being I might post something every week. I do not want to call it a New Year resolution, but it is really close to one.

See you around.

Are you back?

2010-05-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well... I am not sure.

I have been postponing post after post because of whatever reason I may have at the moment.

However, there are a couple of things that are happening right now.

For starters, my birthday is coming. And as you may remember, two years ago I started writing around this time of the year combined with…

Second reason; my college classmates contacted me. 20 years ago we graduated from engineering school and they want to get together and celebrate (and you may also remember that one of my best friends died of cancer two years ago around April).

So, there you go. I am pondering about travelling to Guadalajara (where I attended college and lived for another 4 years) and meeting with my classmates (since they are all over the world it will be difficult to meet with them as it is right now).

I am thinking also about writing again; but I am not sure. You may notice later if I did, or not…

In the meantime, see you around.

Fly, flew, flow and flu

2009-10-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

As I was preparing to go to work this morning I got a phone call from a colleague mentioning that he was feeling pretty sick and he was taking the day off.

That did not worry me; until confirmation is provided I do not believe the flu will get me (crossing my fingers and knocking on wood; ouch!!); even if last Thursday I was in a car for 4 hours (travelling) with this colleague.

Then, a person whom we had lunch with last Thursday called me too; he is sick, he is at home, he is not going to work, he has the same symptoms!!!!!!!!

After starting to worry slightly (yeah right!) I decided to wait. I am not feeling sick (physically I mean, but you know that!); they both called back, in one case they already diagnosed a bacterial infection (strep throat?) and in the other is stress related (low body defenses making a cold seems like the flu). Phewwww...

Another flyaway scape from the sickness.

See you around.

Fall is here

2009-10-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

After hitting temperatures over 100 ºF in September we are here in October with temperatures hovering in the high 60s, which means that people is starting to get sick; and once they get sick they start to panic with the "swine flu"...

Since I have not known of anybody getting sick with this flu I feel like people is just overreacting; I hope I am not mistaken; let's see.

Damn, it is difficult to write when time passes and just start forgetting what I was planning to write; anyhoo, I will try to keep practicing.

Until next time.

Shame on you! Well... I mean... Me!!

2009-08-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

This summer has been unusual for us as a family. For the first time in several years we had been busy (almost) every weekend. From my birthday party (in May 30th) until July 25th we had had something social to do every weekend. Work summer picnics, kids parties, relatives birthdays, etc.

The end result of it is that I am really tired; I usually rested on Saturday or Sunday, but since we started attending all these things I hadn't had the time to rest. I feel tired now; one of the good side effects of this is that I am sleeping through the night; which I could not do in April/May, the other side of the issue is that I feel tired most of the day.

So, there you go; this is the only reason I have for not posting anything in (3?) weeks.

See you around.

Soylent Green...

2009-07-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

In Spanish; this movie was named "Cuando el destino nos alcance" ("When destiny catch up with us" or something like that).

I have been meaning to write again; it had been 6 month of pause in the blogs; 2 months ago I started to think about time (time and time again) and came to the conclusion (for the nth time) that there is no time for everything. You can only do so many things at the same time.

And my time had been lately dedicated to my selfish interests: family, work and me. The first one is great! I haven't heard any complains; the second is mandatory (because I want it that way); I have enjoyed work a lot in this year and the third is a consequence of the first two. It has included spending time with new and old friends (and ignoring others, sorry for that!), reflecting in my life and (since I got to be 40 this past May) enjoying more what life has offered. From redescovering cigars (I know!!), to reading new things and trying (without noticing, which has been great!) to enjoy more everything I do and what happens to me.

So... a little recap of 2009:
1) We started paying of all of our debt (with the great help of my wife we are now past half way the point of paying off our mortgate!)
2) My wife was concerned about my health (her family has heart failure history) and took me to the cardiologist who said that, besides being overweight and with a little high blood pressure (because of the weight!) I was in perfect condition
3) I started walking again (taking care of my body) and I have lost 18 pounds since January (yes, I am bragging a little bit)
4) We got mixed results at work; decrease in sales but increase in profitability, which means everybody still have a job
5) I celebrated my 40th birthday (this should be a post on its own, but I do not know when it will happen) and all my brothers and sisters (together with my parents) came to Tijuana to celebrate with me; it was great to see them all!
6) I had been a better father with my daughters and become more relaxed and easygoing around them (which had been difficult before, since I was playing the "strict father" role);

and last but not least
7) I have been enjoying a great time with my wife. We have been doing more things together and on our own that had allowed for a better and improved relationship (also requires its own post).

So, on one hand I started this blog because I had many things to say, and stopped because I was saying too little. I might try again; at least once a week I will post (promise to myself). I hope you will find it interesting and if not do not worry you do not have to read it!

See you around.

So, how was your year?

2008-12-31T20:17:00.000-08:00

Of course; if you follow the Chinese calendar or Muslim or Aztec or whatever else the question is moot. But I am disgressing.

You can blame it on the three glasses of St0ne 11th Anniversary Ale I had been drinking (in preparation of the arrival or 2009 in Tijuana; yes, I know already arrived in a lot of places already); my daughter Vicky got me a 2 liter growler full of 11th Anniversary Ale; and I got some more Russian Imperial Stout when picking it up; I think Bonita was not thrilled about it... In any case; the purpose of this post is to try to reflect on 2008 and to start getting ready for 2009.

So, how was 2008? It depends; overall it was good. And it is ending good; but in the middle (October) there was all the financial crisis, Vicky leaving the house, Bonita is about to lose her job (this might be a good thing...) and some other minor negative things. On the positive side; I got a promotion at work (February), Vicky graduated from college (Psychology), Mediana and Pinka did great at school (The Lion King and the basketball tournament) and the recovery after October had been great. Found old friends (it took one of them dying of cancer for this to happen, so... bittersweet) and we made GREAT new friends (even though there was an accident last time they were visiting).

So, it was business as usual. Hope 2009 will be kind of the same.

See you around.

P.S. And for those wondering; yes, the killings in TJ decreased because of all the guys taking time off because of Christmas, so, no explosion here...

Past news

2008-12-20T18:58:00.000-08:00

OK, I forgot to mention that Pinka's team (as Pinka wisely said) won the second place on the basketball tournament.

It was a hard fought game with the other team taking a bigger lead than Pinka's team could recover from... 8-1; final score 8-5. Everybody was happy; except for one of the moms that cried; really emotional moment there.

(this was to make the score 8-5)

Anyway; I just wanted to share that with you.

See you around.

Wha....

2008-12-17T21:33:00.000-08:00

I was about to keep ranting/writing on the theme-du-jour: "Tijuana is under water[, and then I got lazy. I drove last Monday under the rain from Tijuana to San Marcos, CA (close to 120 miles round trip) and I saw 6 accidents. Today it took me 45 minutes to get to work when usually is 20, I saw three convoys of ambulances, patrols and in one case a fire truck (which means more accidents). The Via Rapida was flooded, a big three-row parking lot full of water. I took some video, some pictures and then I was too tired to upload them. I will, just not today.

Tomorrow I am going to San Marcos again, it might keep raining. Hope not. In the other hand, I might stop by the St0ne brewery...

See you around.

And there were two!

2008-12-06T19:28:00.000-08:00

So; we finally knew what the tournament organizers decided to do. Play the three teams involved in the semifinal problem (Pinka's, Tortoises, Red Stars) and have the best two teams play in the Final and for the Third place. Pinka's won last Saturday over Tortoises 6-0. Tortoises were playing Red Stars today's morning and a couple of hours later Pinka's and Red Stars would play to complete the three games required to determine who was playing who.

Tortoises won their game over Red Stars 12-4. That meant that for Pinka's to go to the Final they had to win their game and losing for less than 7 points would get them to the Third place game, but the plan was to win straight.

Game started, and before two minutes passed Red Stars scored 2 points; then I noticed some people cheering very fervently every good play from Red Stars. The coach and a couple of moms of the Tortoises were there.

That was when I started thinking about how some parents (and coaches) can push the children on the teams so they forget that at the end of the day this is just a game. With rules and regulations and results and consequences. I think the coach felt responsible for accepting last Saturday the game against Pinka's; but when they lost; there was nothing else to do but accept the final score. Trying to compensate by adding support to the other team when there is nothing else you can do, is kind of annoying for the other parents (like me!).

Anyhoo; after several lead changes (2-0, 4-0, 4-3, 5-4, 6-5, 7-6) the final score was 9-6; Pinka's won. So the Final game (originally scheduled for last Sunday, rescheduled for today's afternoon and finally rescheduled for next Saturday) will have Pinka's and another team from other school. Pinka's already played them three times and lost all of them; close scores, so I think it will be an interesting game; refereeing had been much better in the playoffs and with the same discipline they had been showing in the previous two game they have a shot at the Championship. Let's wait for it.

See you around.

It's the season to be jolly???

2008-12-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

I've never really completely liked Christmas season. When I was a kid (yes, I know I will start talking about walking 10 miles in the snow without shoes... wait; it never snowed in my hometown!) most of the times I got small gifts from Santa (or my parents when I grew up) which meant that I was being naughty during the year, so I did not really enjoyed them (Note to Santa: I am exaggerating! I was extra good this year!!).

The part I really enjoyed was having my family there. When we stayed in Sinaloa, all my mother's brothers and sister would come back from wherever they were living and stayed for a couple of weeks; all my cousins would be there and even though I was the eldest grandchild of my maternal grandparents I had a great time with all of them around. There were times we went to Guadalajara, Mexico City or Orizaba (Veracruz) with my father's family and I had a great time too.

But nothing better than spending New Year's eve at my parents house, with all my brothers and sisters and eventually with all of our families (we are 4 brothers and 2 sisters; all brothers and one of the sisters are married already). I like the closeness we share at that time; I mean, extended family is great, but you can get a little tired. Specially when both my parent came from families with 6 brothers and 2 sisters; from my father's family we are 30 cousins and from my mother's we are 24 cousins; so imagine the family gatherings...

Anyway, this was not the purpose of today's post. I was about to rant more about how I dislike the "extreme" shopping that takes place in this season; how the first time that I tried to cross the border in Christmas season it took me 3 hours to get it done; after one of the homeless guys that hover around that area stood in front of a car to let me change lanes... or the people fighting for the most stupid thing at the stores; being rude, etc., etc.

But; in any case, if you like it, enjoy it; the cold invites to have a hot drink (chocolate comes to mind) and to share your time with family and friends; not going out for the sake of it.

My parents will be here tomorrow; let's see how it goes (I still feel like a child around them, sometimes).

See you around.

What is next?

2008-12-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

The league has spoken; there will be a make-up game between Pinka's team and the "forgotten team". The winner will do... I do not know; if Pinka's team wins, they will go to the Final game (as originally resulted last Saturday); but if the other team wins, I have no idea what will happen.

Let's wait for the end result.

In other order of things, my mother in law is now back in the saddle. She decided what happened could happen to anybody, then it was not personal. No need of victime-role playing or agonizing over "what if" scenarios. She is back to her previous self and that is good for all involved.

Bonita is a little worried about it anyway; she invited Vicky back home for the time being. But Vicky is at the moment being very practical about this. She really wants to try to be on her own; since eventually she will completely be. So, there you go.

At work we closed the month almost on target; everybody is happy (for the time being) and I expect they will start pushing for the grand finale of the fiscal year (coming soon! in February). Busy times ahead.

Bonita had an epiphany about her current job. She discovered money can not buy tranquility and quality time with the family; so she, who was worried about losing her job a couple of weeks ago, is now in the "let's take the money and run" mindset (Mexican labor law is particularly loaded to protect the employee in case a company fires you). So she is more relaxed on that sense. In overall, still stressed, but changed the point of focus to Vicky/family instead of work. I think this is an improvement.

My parent will be here on Saturday night (flying from Sinaloa); they have not been here since last year (I think?). It will be good to see them again (we met them at Guadalajara in the summer), and Mediana and Pinka will be temporarely more spoiled than usual, but that is the grandparents job, isn't it?

See you around.

What are people thinking?

2008-11-30T10:47:00.001-08:00

During all this time, the past months in Tijuana; I have been reluctant to discuss the violence and all the bad things happening here. Not only because I believe that people tends to magnify the stories and they love to take a protagonic role in the story ("I saw with my own eyes!") creating in the process a "negative spiral" of panic and fear. I believe that if you try to see things in a better light they become better.

But then, last Friday night, we had our close encounter with the bad side of Tijuana. My mother in law was mugged when arriving to her apartment.

Whoever did this were small thieves; not really trying to be violent or to injure her. It was supposed to be a "clean" robbery; push her out of the way, grab her handbag and run. Then her arm got tangled with the handbag and they dragged her for a couple of meters on the ground; she ended with her knee and her mouth scrapped against the floor and a semi-deep cut in her hand. Lost the bag (with a small amount of money on it), her car keys (she was driving Bonita's car but they did not make a move for it), her apartment keys, driver license, voting card, eyeglasses; minor things. Everything could be replaced easily, we replaced the locks in her apartment and cancelled bank cards that same night and yesterday my brothers in law took care of the IDs, eyeglasses and car keys. But not the tranquility.

Anyway, life has to go on; she refuses to stay at our place (or any other place) and she really thinks she got scared, but that was it; just a scare. Of course Inge (the youngest son) was at the apartment with Mediana and panicked when her mom arrived at the apartment being carried by a couple of neighbors; Bonita had to talk to Mediana to give her instructions about how to calm down her grandma (and her uncle!). Five minutes later (we were at a new bookstore that just opened when they called us with the news) everybody was there; Polaco, Flor, Vicky and us were pouring over there and trying to keep things cool to avoid more people running around as headless chickens. Pinka said hello (she was with us) and went to watch TV; I just sat there and made some comic suggestions and serious proposals about the locks and who should sleep there and everything. It ended all OK; yesterday we got all together at my house and played cards and talked. Everybody is calmed and my mother in law is looking better.

By the way, Pinka's basketball team made the playoffs and won their semifinal game; so now they are in the finals; except... there was a development after the game. They were originally in 5th place; only 1st through 4th were supposed to be in the playoffs. The 1st place team noticed but accepted to play and they got their butts kicked by Pinka's team (parity, lovely thing; anybody can beat anybody!). The parents protested after that and call the other team to complain; so the final game that was supposed to be this morning got cancelled until further notice (I think they will try to clean up the mess they created). So I will keep you posted.

Finally, I am a little hangover this morning; I drank some beers when my in-laws were here yesterday, and after they left we had Maria and Will visiting; as usual with them, we had a great time, conversation, drinks and the only change was the order of us falling asleep (usually Bonita falls asleep, then me for 5 minutes, then Will, and Maria neves does). This time I could not keep up, so they left early (1:30 am instead of the standard of 2:00 am). Great time.

Today we will meet with the family again (Polaco's birthday is on Tuesday, but since Arqui is here today, is a good idea to celebrate now). Before that we want to go and tour the bookstore we could not on Friday; let's see how it goes.

See you around.

So, what's up doc?

2008-11-27T10:57:00.000-08:00

Finally; holiday in US, means no phone calls, emails or contact from customer and/or corporate people. Just us working today in TJ (where today is "Turkey Day" and we are grateful for that!).

Do you care about today? Most of people I know (in California) do not care much for the meaning of Thanksgiving Day; just take advantage of the long weekend to take vacation or start Christmas shopping.

In Tijuana is kind of similar; "Dia del Pavo" (Turkey Day) is the beginning of the shopping season; many people will be crossing the border at midnight or Friday ealy morning (3:00 am?) to get in line in order to buy something they might not need but has a good price. Or maybe not, considering the stressful economy we are living. In my case I have never done any Black Friday shopping; it tires me just to be in line to pay something that costed 5 instead of 10. I believe my time is more valuable and shopping is not really my thing.

Anyhoo; getting back to the Thanks part of Thanksgiving; and taking a page of a tradition we do not really share I would like to thank life for so many good things that have happened to me; specially lately where I have rediscovered the love of my wife and family and the tranquility of living without hiding things from Bonita. I love her.

As a departing comment I would like to share the following text from Armando Fuentes Aguirre (in a free translation by me):

"I am preparing to sue "Fortune" magazine; because they made a mistake that makes no sense to me. It happened that they published the list of the richest people in the world and I am not listed. The Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gates, Sam Walton's family and Takichiro Mori's family are there. Queen Elizabeth of England, Stavros Niarkos and Mexicans Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcárraga. However, I am not listed.

And I am a rich man; extremely rich. If you think I am not, allow me to explain: I have life, which I receive I do not know why and health, which I keep I do not know how. I have a family: my adorable wife who gave me her life and that made my life the best; wonderful sons and daughters from whom I have received only the best; grandchildren on who I express my paternity again in a happily manner. I have brothers and sisters that are like friends and friends that are like brothers and sisters. I have people who love me sincerily in spite of my defects and whom I love sincerely even with my defects. I got four readers that I thank every day because they read well what I write badly. I have a home and inside many books (my wife would say I have many books and around them a home). I have a small piece of the world in the form of a small orchard that every year gives me apples that would had made shorter the stay of Adan and Eve in Paradise. I have a dog that waits for me to arrive before going to sleep and that greets me as I was the master of heaven and earth.

I have eyes that see and ears that hear; legs that walk and hands that caress; a brain that thinks things that somebody else thought but that I never before did. I own the standard heritage of men: Happy moments to enjoy and sad moments to be a brother of the suffering people. And I have my faith in a good God that has infinite love for me. Could it be higher riches than mine?

Why then Forture magazine did not list me as one of the richest people in Earth?"

See you around.

And then...

2008-11-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

... I realize that I still have many things to tell.

The story has not ended, we left when I had talked to some of my classmates (from the distant past when I was in college) and they told me the debt situation was a "normal" one (in the most ethimological sense); and that I have to find some other options to solve it and then live with it. Those other options have been reduced to one; stop paying the credit cards. The reason behind it is that in Mexico the law will protect the customer (not the bank); so the only consequence of doing that is that you will not be subject of credit for 5 to 10 years. Hopefully I will not need that.

Anyway; after I returned home (yes! I returned in October 23rd) Vicky moved out; or I should say, we threw her out? It was a combination of both; in any case things have calmed and everybody is doing better now; yes, we miss her a lot and she misses us a lot, but she is living 5 minutes walking from this house, so it is just OK.

Mediana still is in her ballet/jazz/flamenco dancing lessons and Pinka is in her basketball tournament (they are not doing so well, but they are improving each game) and Bonita is taking some lessons at a local college (like a certificate degree, I do not know how to call it).

I have been very busy (they are making me work!?!?!?) but it has been really satisfactory; I've never done it before! (you may think this is a joke... but maybe it isn't!). I have been staying at work for a couple of hours more than my usual time.

In other words, life is going on; the world has not stopped (as anybody can attest) and history is in the making (Obama is president of the USA!). Many things to talk about; but the one I want to share is the following:

I enjoy reading Gregg Easterbrook's column in ESPN every Tuesday; he writes about American football. But he also writes about common sense (in a very funny way). This week's column contains a couple of comments about two things: hidden calories restaurants give you without telling you; and how the financial bailout does not have any control over the companies about how they use the money American goverment is giving them. Both really amusing and with a lot of sense. By the way, do not get distracted by the picture that appears in the second link ;^).

It's getting late and I need my quality time with the family; see you around.

Hopefully is not a train...

2008-10-10T15:59:00.001-07:00

... but a light at the end of the tunnel.

Last Wednesday I went to Mission Beach to meet a friend of mine from college; we hadn't met for almost 14 years, we had a great conversation and had a good time together. Kind of the things that you need when you are down.

In the conversation he suggested (without mentioning) that he was having financial problems. He moved from Guadalajara to Dallas,TX because of his job and during the movement he never considered the amount of taxes he was going to have to pay, living in the US. He is making ends meet, fortunately; but got me thinking about how many people and what kind of people is having financial trouble.

Today I had lunch with another of my class mates; this time I mentioned that I was in a financial bind and he recognized he and many others (he mentioned at least 5 more people I know from my time in Guadalajara) are in the same situation (for many different reasons). It is not a relief; except for the advice he gave regarding a negotiation I was about to make with one of the credit cards. He said you can negotiate with the bank a credit card debt in what is call a "personal payment plan"; but once you do that you can not make advance payments (unless you want to cancel whatever is remaining at that moment). So, his recommendation is to have at least two. That way if you can get enough money to cancel one part; all the interest on that part is gone. I think is a wonderful idea; I already started on that.

And that got me thinking about how, for whatever reason, if you do not say you are in trouble, nobody can help you. Just sharing that information can lead you to get a solution or a better deal in your situation.

That was great.

Another thing that was great is that I shared with both of them (because they are sales reps for different companies, non competing) some of the contacts I have made in my time in Tijuana, and now my company got access to some of their customers too; which means more business for the factory where I work and more growth or stability (no need to worry about my job anymore! ;^)). So, seems like this sharing/telling/mentioning things really works.

See you around.

I am running on fumes...

2008-10-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

I am starting to get restless; I still do not know exactly how to fix/improve/make-more-bearable this situation we are living (Bonita and me) but I am getting tired of it.

I have been 10 days out of my house. I already moved most of my clothes and things I kept on my night table; some remain and I do not want to take them out. I am feeling like if I take out everything then it is going to be more difficult to move back in. Not only because of me, but because of the zone of comfort that will create. For the same reason I have not unpacked almost anything that I took. I am using the same cartons Lexie (the nanny) put my stuff in, instead of using the closet and drawers in Arqui's apartment.

Arqui mentioned that if I wanted I could get cable; as long as it get cancelled when I move out. Being as paranoid as I am, I think this is some kind of "unrelayed" message based on communication he gets from Bonita. I will ask her.

Same thing with the fact that my closet at home is now empty; what would Bonita do with that? Fill it up with her clothes? It does not make sense to me if the plan or the intention is that I will return there. Why would she go for the reorganizing of things twice (now to distribute her clothes, and then when I return and she would have to return to her original space)?

I do not know; I am feeling pretty paranoid lately.

Also, today Bonita called a priest that helped us 5 years ago (in a situation pretty similar to this, in some ways) to get over it and resume our life in a better (supposedly) way. We have an appointment with him next Wednesday at 8 pm. Let's see what happens.

See you around.

Where in the world is J.A.?

2008-10-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering (and I have to accept that maybe, just maybe, you weren’t) I had been here, with too many things inside of my head to be able to focus and write about one.

Among them:

1) Which direction I want the blog to take (of course, the least important first!). I have been carrying two blogs; the idea was to translate and share the same information between both blogs, but lately I have been partial to a different idea, which is to report my daily life in Spanish and then share more personal issues in English. The reason being that my family reads the blog in Spanish, but not the one in English; so I would be “safe” to rant and complain and say things that I may not want to share with them (I am talking about my parents and siblings, not my wife). This was the original reason to stop blogging.

2) I have been under a lot of pressure at work, and sharing things about work is not something I want to do. Most of times reviewing a work day is the least enjoyable part of blogging. And I do not want to be obsessing about work. But, there are some things that I can tell you about it, and will write some sooner rather than later.

3) Pure laziness. I have no other explanation.

4) And finally (and the reason I am trying to avoid mentioning), last Monday my wife finally discovered that I had put us under a lot of debt, and we were living “day to day”. We have good salaries and that had allowed us to not only survive, but also to end up spending more than we should and finally to me borrowing a lot of money in credits. As a result of that I have move out, I am living in Arqui’s apartment (he is my brother in law), hopefully for a short time (I am not sure what I should consider short), until we solve the main issue in this problem, which is the way I avoid sharing bad news and bad situations with my wife and living our marriage as partners instead of single beings. I will tell you more about it, just not now.

Shocked? Surprised? We all are.

See you around.

Strange confessions...

2008-09-19T13:38:00.001-07:00

I love "The Office". I love "History of the World, Part 1". I love Tin-Tan's movies (*). I love fish tacos. I love greasy food. I love beer. I love "stupid" movies (like Adam Sandler's "Anger Management"). I love Sinaloa's music (specially "Banda del Recodo", without vocals please!). I love the sense of "surprise" when you are travelling and things do not work out exactly as you planned. I love being silly. I love laughing until my ribcage hurts. I love that I sneeze really loudly. I love Mexican "ficheras" movies (**). I love songs sang by "Piporro"(***). I love Mexican music in general (but specially traditional, like huapango, tambora, norteño, etc.)

Not so strangely, I love my daughters, I love my wife.

See you around.

(*) Mexican comedian, that popularized the "Pachuco" style.
(**) In the 70's and 80's most of Mexican movies showed the Mexican Night clubs and brothels; the women that worked there dancing with the clientele got a token ("ficha" in Spanish) for each song danced or drink. "Fichera" was the name that designated those women.
(***) Eulalio Gonzalez "Piporro", sang norteño songs (he was from Monterrey or Chihuahua or somewhere around) with special commentary during the song. Like saying that Porfirio Cadena (a.k.a. "The glass-eyed") was a good shot because he had better vision with the glass eye ("he saw with zoom"). Really funny stuff.

Assume means…

2008-09-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

… making an ass out of you and me.

How many times has this happened? I do something or she does something and then misunderstanding happens in all directions. I just get tired of the whole exercise.

However… what is the main reason of misunderstandings? Assuming something happened because of whatever. Never asking for confirmation. Sometimes there is no opportunity to ask and when finally is, communication is in “faulty” mode. Who is to blame? Anybody but the one looking for the answer.

I have been married almost 13 years. I have been with Bonita for a little more than 13 years (yes, I am married to her!). The one thing we have not been able to solve is the communication failure. Manipulation of “self-improvement” concepts, thinking that saying “I love you” will fix anything, avoiding “touchy” subjects; anything is allowed in order to escape blame and guilt. And is not that important, you know? Because we have been together for 13 years and it has worked, but at times is tiresome.

I remember when I got to Tijuana the dynamic at work was really bad. There were two teams of people that should be working together and blasting each other and sabotaging were the “standard” practices. I was really naïve (or maybe way to much Machiavellian, I am not sure!) and then suggested an open communication exercise. You could say whatever you wanted of other people in their faces and they should listen and wait for their turn. After everyone spoke then discussion could happen. There was only one guy missing. Guess what, everyone wanted to talk to that guy!! Isn’t it amazing, the self-preservation instinct? That guy avoided the whole thing and after that nobody had the guts or the opportunity to say nothing to him.

At times, I feel like that with Bonita. It is amusing (at times) how she complains that I have to be right about anything that we discuss (regardless of the importance), but she does not recognizes that she is never wrong about situations that happen between us. Of course this is a biased opinion (I assume…).

Anyway, I am ranting; and venting. I am tired. I am tired because of reasons nothing to do with Bonita; it’s mostly work. And I know that if I do not vent/rant/write I will feel really bad later (*).

See you around.

(*) Not later “tonight-later”, more like “tomorrow/weekend-later”. Tonight we will visit Will and Maria and that alone will be an excellent opportunity to relax and enjoy spending time with good friends (and we will be civil too!!)

Patriotism...

2008-09-03T20:58:00.001-07:00

... is the value of the month in Mediana and Pinka's school.

So, during the conversation with Will (who according to his recollection was drunk but I did not notice) last Friday we talked about Mexico's history (The Heroic Cadets) and Mexican food (Chiles en Nogada).

So, I kept thinking about a comment he made about quotes and the one quote that is my favorite from the Mexican history. It has to do with the US invasion into Mexico in 1847 (almost 70 years later we retaliated with Pancho Villa! Mexico is the only country to ever invade US! and yes, I feel proud of that little known fact); after the US troops took over the Army Academy in the Castle of Chapultepec (and got the Heroic Cadets as a result of that) they battled the Mexican Army in Churubusco; beat General Pedro Maria Anaya who then was asked where was the ammunition; his answer was: "Si hubiera parque, no estaria usted aqui" ("If I had any ammunition, you would not be here"). Enough said.

See you around.

30 days has September...

2008-09-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

… and none to waste.

As busy as it was last week, it ended in a very good note. The (becoming) traditional bi-weekly blogmeet took place in a fancy restaurant in TJ; as usual Maria, Will and us were there and we had a great time, with great food and drinks. All of us were tired, but enjoyed so much that we stayed until half past midnight. Great conversations and great times!

On Saturday, Bonita and I woke up early to attend a work related event in Real del Mar; I met a lot of people I had not seen for a while and had conversations with most of them work-related, nothing really important. Had breakfast and lunch in a couple of “healthy” places; it was OK.

On Sunday, we went across the border to do a number of pending issues, like returning the “infamous” luggage carrier that opened during the vacation and to buy the replacement bar stools for the remodeled kitchen; in any case, there were we, both of us having breakfast at Achiote (which is owned by the same people as La Espadaña) when things started to go awry.

It had happened last Wednesday that we attended our monthly couples counseling session. This time we were talking about parenting and the counselor gave us homework. Related to the values we lived our lives (as individuals) when we were in the 20~25 years old and the values we have now.

Bonita hit the ground running and immediately started working on hers. I, as usual, dragged my feet, since this kind of activity has some ill effects on me. I do not like to do them. I try to delay this as much as I can. So, when on Sunday, Bonita started asking me questions about my values then and now, and started (what I felt like) pushing me to answer, I did not take that on stride. I resented the whole thing, and when we were having breakfast I snapped at her and made a comment about how she is the worst (insert adjective here) who does not do (insert activity here) for me. Out of the blue for her, I knew and later mentioned that the reason for me to do that was “revenge” because I felt pushed by her and did not want to complete the conversation.

She was hurt; I think she is still hurt. I apologized, several times already. But she is still behaving coldly with me.

Anyway, after feeling like sh1t yesterday after breakfast (I could not finish it, my mouth went sour after the discussion), I decided to try to tackle the “values” thing, at least the part when I was young(er).

So, with a small explanation for each one, here they are:

1) Independence: I lived with my parents until I was 17, after that I moved to Guadalajara, with my aunt and uncle until I was 22. The parenting style was so different that I felt trapped with them. They are really nice people, but when I was that age, I did not want my parents (least my relatives!) to be hovering over me and whatever I did! I could not “misbehave” at all: not drinking, smoking, spending the night away from home. So, basically it was no fun at all. So, I took advantage that my brother Tobal moved to Guadalajara to attend college and we moved out my relatives’ house.
2) Individuality: I loved and love my family (parents, siblings, etc.) But after a long time, I started taking vacation without them. I did a lot of things on my own those days. Like getting in a café to read the paper and not to worry about anything at all. I think I should call this differently, because what I lived then was the sensation that I had no responsibility over nobody but myself. And I enjoyed that a lot. In the same theme, I was trying to complete my identity, keeping away from the majority, whatever that meant.
3) Friends and family relationships: I like(d) to be around friends, and at the time, I developed a sense of comfort being around my family too.
4) Honesty: I disliked, and still do, people that lied. More so when they lie to take advantage of me. Only remember one case, but still stings.

There are some other values I lived at the time: Responsibility, Intellectual Status, Cooperation come to mind… in any case; the four I listed were the most important to me at the time.

I have to get to list the values I have now… tough task.

See you around.

Vacation is over (really?)

2008-08-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Was it not over like... two weeks ago?

Well, our vacation trip was over two weeks ago, but school vacation is finally over. Mediana and Pinka are back to school tomorrow. They are not so excited about it; in any case they are veterans of going back to school (Pinka goes to 3rd grade and Mediana to 6th grade), but in Mediana's case there are a couple of things that will happen this year to make it interesting.

1) This is her 10th and final year in this school; yes, she has attended since Nursery, until 6th grade all available grades there are in the school; so she is leaving. Going to Junior High, I think she is a little worried/excited over that. We are too. We already selected in which Jr. High we would like Mediana to be enrolled, so we have to be really careful not to miss the admission exam dates and all of the sort. In the other hand, we are sure it is going to be really emotional for her.

2) Will is going to be her teacher. Considering both my parents are teachers, and my mother taught me during 1st and 2nd grade I do not see anything strange about that. But in Mediana's case, is a little different. Because we are friends with him and Maria. I think she is getting more comfortable with the idea, but... at a times she looks unsure about it. I've told her there is nothing to worry about. We will behave and try not to be the overbearing parents with the addidional "complication" of being friends with the teacher. I know the feeling, but it was not a big problem for me. In any case I really believe it changes nothing. Work and life are two different things (what is what Will uses to say? "I work for a living, I do not live to work", this is it!).

So, not a big deal. The biggest deal of the vacation being over is that the practice books for both the kids did not arrive!! Bonita went to review the material on Thursday (for Mediana) and Friday and both days she ended up being the "bad" mother that did not take care of her children school requirements! On Thursday because she forgot ALL the books, the photographs and something else; and on Friday because the practice books were not here (they still are not here! I need to call the service department of the website where I bought them!) Big disappointment for all the other mothers! (Most of the mothers at the school are a little snob, and in some cases very! They look down on you when you are not "perfect"!).

In other vacation news, Pinka went to audition for a part in a Mexican movie. When Bonita asked her how it went, her answer was: "I will not repeat the audition, if you want to see what happened wait until I appear in the movie". Talk about self-confidence!!

Also, yesterday Mediana and Pinka restarted their art lessons (painting and drawing) on Saturday. Which means we will be stuck on that for the whole year; I do not really like the schedule, I rather take them on weekdays, but this is the schedule they like and in this particular case we prefer to go along with this. Maybe we will stop going to the US on weekends! (That could save some money, you know!).

And finally, I have been really busy at work. I was away two weeks; and even though I spend maybe 1 hour daily on the phone and another hour reading and answering some e-mails during the vacation, the amount of pending issues that were waiting for me was amazing. Not only that, but I had corporate visitors and a customer quarterly meeting to host. In a room with over 20 people and no air conditioning. Have I mentioned that I sweat? and not just sweat, but sweat a lot? My shirt ended stained and I had to change it. For some strange reason I had a spare at the office, so I did it; finally I got a pass, from both corporate and the customer. I have to go to Massachussetts on November, but it will be fine. So, I am back on track; this next week is end of the month, besides the shipping/production rush we have to reduce manpower. 5 people need to be let go (euphemism for firing them). Never a good thing. So, wish me luck.

See you around.

And to complete the full report...

2008-08-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

Complaining was the last part of the vacation; actually I am wrong here, I am not taking into consideration some of the strange sights we were witness during the vacation; like the cross dressing guy we saw at the road between Santa Ana and Hermosillo; or when Pinka said that a kid was driving a motorcycle (with his mother on the back, or something like that); or the tropical storm in the middle of Baja that almost got us stuck in Ciudad Constitucion. So we had our share of adventures; actually I believe we should call all of the "annoying" things adventures (I know Bonita will disagree with that!).

1) The top carrier opened as soon as we came down "La Rumorosa" (very "curvy" road, the name refers to the noise the cars that falll downhill made): Bonita got three tequilas to overcome her desire to return to Tijuana immediately and I had to buy two straps to hold the thing together. We lost a child carrier, child shoes and the suit carrier that held my clothes got ripped apart (no damage to the clothes, fortunately).

2) We saw a "police scene" when driving out of Mexicali; two federal agents were shot by the "bad guys" (whoever those are).

3) We saw a guy walking on the road wearing a red dress and high heels while we were driving from Caborca to Hermosillo (I think that was the weirdest sight!)

4) We almost got stuck in Hermosillo while Bonita was talking with her cousins, the husband of the eldest cousin got drunk and I had to cook the "carne asada"; Bonita kept getting updated news (and a ton of memorabilia, pictures and the sort!) from the family before finally deciding to move to Ciudad Obregon.

5) The windshield got broken by a pebble very close to Los Mochis; this reduce our excitement of getting to Sinaloa.

6) We saw another "crime scene" after we passed Guasave; this time we did not investigate what happened!

7) We got to Mazatlan in the middle of "high season for Mexican tourists" and the hotel we wanted was full, so we decided to "see first" if the Aquamarina was OK and Bonita registered before I could tell her it was a bad idea. Of course everything was my fault, since it was the hotel my father use to take us when we were on vacation (25~30 years ago!).

8) In Guadalajara, we were hit with hail while returning to my aunt's home. My daughters had never seen hail. There is a video somewhere.

9) In San Juan de Los Lagos we saw this:

10) In Guanajuato we were approached by a kid that was a tourist guide; he took us to the Inquisicion Museum where we saw mummies, torture instruments and a chastity belt. Then the guide disappeared and we never saw him again (he migh be one mummy now!!)

11) In Dolores Hidalgo we mistaken the church where "El Cura Hidalgo" did not yell "Viva Mexico!!"

12) This was a common sight on the roads.

13) Everything was quiet until we got to the ferry. The ferry had a problem on one of the electricity generators and the trip was delayed 13 hours, we spend 24 hours on the ferry and we were really tired and hungry by the time we left. That's where I noticed my kids and my wife are a little spoiled, they could not eat the food that was given to us on the ferry! They wanted gourmet food! (I've learned to eat whatever is available, you never know when you will eat again!).

14) We could not find the hotel in Cabo San Lucas, when we finally did it was great; but for a while Bonita was getting mad at me.

15) While driving through the central part of Baja, we ran into a tropical storm at Ciudad Constitucion; I could not take pictures but Bonita was scared. Of course Pinka decided she needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the storm; we got drenched in rain while looking for a toilette!!

16) We got to Santa Rosalia to find a creepy hotel; Bonita still thinks it was the original of "Psycho". It looked OK at daylight! And of course it was also my fault because I did not know there were only 4 (or maybe 3) hotels in Santa Rosalia!

17) We went through 7 army "retenes" during the last two days of travel; I asked for a certificate of being verified because I was getting tired of opening the top carrier every freaking time!! Could they not see we were in family travel!

Anyway; we made it back safe and sound. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously (even if the pictures show different evidence!) Thank you for your patience and your attention.

See you around

Visiting family

2008-08-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well, family is a huge deal in Mexico.

In the year I have been married, one of the differences I had had with my wife is how to manage the relationship with family. The best example is the following: in Bonita's family, when you go to a place where you have family, you go visit and that's it; in my family, when you go to a place where you have family you are EXPECTED to stay with them (provided there is enough space for all of you), and they will get offended if you don't.

So, imagine we were going on a vacation and were planning to visit 10 cities and in 8 of them you have family (one side or the other); what was going to be? Fortunately, Bonita's family wanted us to stay with them, so we crash with relatives at every opportunity.

That made the trip really interesting; because in Bonita's case, she had not been close to her family for more than 20 years. Imagine the conversations when you try to cramp all the important things you want to share with your cousins in one night!

In the other hand, my family is not so close to us (they are, but by phone, because of the distance, I am not sure I would not be overwhelmed with them if they were close in distance) but they like us to visit them. When in Guadalajara, we stayed at my aunt and uncle's house and they were delighted to have us there (I lived with them for 5 years, while in college and a little later), I believe my aunt really appreciates that I still visit them (instead of hating to be there because they mistreat me or something like that).

In any case, Mediana and Pinka had the opportunity to meet Bonita's side of the family (they did not meet them before) and also to meet some of my family for the nth time.

Everybody appreciated that; I am only waiting for Bonita to write about it.

See you around.

Intermission II (Back at school)

2008-08-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

What was I doing yesterday at 11:00 am at Cal State San Marcos?

Attending the XII Anniversary party of the St0ne Brewery, of course!

And with the opportunity to try 10 different beers from the world with the souvenir glass you get with your ticket and the party after that at KC's house, it was a good place to be.

KC got me tickets to the party, but everyone of the people that was supposed to go, either cancelled or could not go (I still feel it for will, but we had a taste of the XI anniversary beer on Friday night).

It was a little difficult to get up on Saturday morning; the party session started at 11:15 am, in San Marcos and I had to get to KC house in Escondido at 10:00 am. After several false wake up calls I finally got up at 8, woke up Vicky, who accepted to join me (since she likes speciality beer too, unusual for a girl) and we left home around 9:00. Bonita, Mediana and Pinka were to go buy the school uniforms; the school decided to change the uniforms completely (a bummer because is Mediana's last year at this school) and we waited until the end of vacations to avoid buying the wrong sizes (they had grown so much since the end of the school year); anyhoo, they were going shopping, Vicky and me were going beer sampling (to avoid saying drinking!).

Got to KC's house on time, went to pick up Dave (a Londoner who lives closeby and works at the same place than KC) and went to take the train to the place (police were patrolling the university and after drinking, driving would have been dangerous!). We did not count it was a 15 minutes walk from the train station to the party site, but we got there at 11:00, waited 15 minutes in a really LONG line (I believe close to 1000 people got there before us) and 10 more minutes to get in and then we started the sampling; we had three hours to try 10 different (or same) beers, so we pace ourselves. Here is a list of what I had:

1) Green Flash West Coast IPA -> Good, hoppy beer.
2) Alesmith Brewery IPA -> Even better than Green Flash one.
3) Lost Abby Witch's Wit -> Terrible, terrible beer. Tasted like a Michelada gone really wrong. It's not even listed on their website.
4) Tijuana Morena -> Just to take out the taste of the previous one.
5) Duvel -> This was really good.
6) La Trappen Bockbier -> I have a fixation with Bock beers; from the Mexican Nochebuena (seasonal Christmas beer), I always try to taste them.
7) Stone Arrogant Bastard -> Needed to get back to something I knew.
8) Russian River Pliny the Elder -> Last year I had a Pliny the Younger, I remember it was better.
9) Stone XII Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout -> Bitter, chocolate-y, good enough.
10) Brouwerij Verhaeghe Vichte Pils -> First sample of the day, with the sun and the heat it was really good.
11) Pizza Port Carlsbad Chronic -> Amber Ale, from San Diego. It was OK.
12) Ommegang Three Philosophers -> The best of what I had today.

Ate half a hot-dog, half a tri-tip sandwich, Arrogant Bastard onion rings and tried the Napalm Beer Cheese Spread (from Mike, the St0ne "Cheesemaster") for second consecutive year, it is really good, I hope they decide to sell it.

So, a little bit tipsy we started our travel back to KC's home. 20 minutes walking this time (to the train station) and 15 minutes on the train made the trick. By the time we got to the Escondido Station everyone was feeling better (besides the sampling glass is a 4 ounces! not enough to get you really drunk).

At KC's home, the beer was waiting for us. Oaked Arrogant Bastard (bitter than the original one), a Stone Cal-Beli (never heard of it, but it was OK, like a Heifenweizen) and I also tried a little of Wells Bombardier (Premium Ale).

Food was there too; pulled pork sandwiches in Cuban style (with ham, cheese, mustard and a pickle) and sweet potato fries. Really good time. I hope next year there will not be something that prevents more people to attend.

See you around.

Intermission I (When time flies!)

2008-08-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night we had visitors at home. They brought some snacks and we provided the drinks: beer, tequila, vodka, scotch and Coc@ Cola Light (Diet Coke).

Last time we met with them we stayed in a restaurant for almost 5 hours, way past the closing time of the place. This time, however we were meeting at our home, then there was no time limit. We ended up talking and laughing our way until 2 am, 7 hours this time.

Nobody noticed the time, it was until will started getting asleep (I had already went through that phase around 11:30 pm but recover) that he and maria decided to call it a night (they had to drive).

We talked about the holidays, our vacation, their adventure, families, youthful risk-taking, the jobs and rewards you get with them (sometimes) and every other theme available for conversation. We keep had a great time, similar to the previous time we met, and (hopefully) a preview of the next time we meet. I do not know how to end this post, in a similar fashion that we did not want the night to end last Friday.

See you around.

Eating...

2008-08-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

After seeing this picture I was surprised at myself. What was I hiding below my shirt? Would that be the 15 pounds I gain during the vacation? But, but I was taking care of myself!!

In any case it was too late then. We ate as if there was no tomorrow. From the very beginning, here is a list of restaurants or interesting meals we had:

Mexicali: We went to the Cucap@ brewery and also to a 24 hours taco restaurant with A/C (required when you are at 100 degrees at 1 am)! Good beer, great tacos. Caborca: Roasted chicken Sinaloa style (even if we were in Sonora!)

Hermosillo: "Carne asada" with the family (and more beer!)

Cd. Obregon: Outside dinner in a food court style restaurant.

Los Mochis: Tortas "Don Lupito". Yummiest tortas ever!

Mazatlan: El Shrimp Bucket (enough said!) for dinner and Pura Vida for breakfast. Great places, both of them.

Tepic: Lunch of lamb in three different styles, Pinka complained but eventually hunger is worst.

Guadalajara: Dinner at "La mesa de los sabores" with my friends (with a chance to try the "Minerva" beer; some good, some so-so) and a GREAT lunch with my parents in "La Tequila" together with the fried worms.

Leon: Brazilian restaurant; similar to the one in Tijuana.

Guanajuato: Breakfast in the economic kitchen pictured here.

San Miguel de Allende: Small restaurant with great taste.

Queretaro: Room service (provided by Pinka's ordering skills!) and breakfast with Cori (Bonita's cousin)

Irapuato: Strawberries with cream (local produced) and a pork sandwich. We were pacing ourselves because of dinner with Bonita's cousin. The strawberries were GREAT.

Zamora: Pork fillet with vegetables and a creamy sauce, Caramelized pumpkin, uchepos (sweet corn tamales) and a shrimp soup to kill for! (I think I gain most of my weight here!)

Los Mochis: Breakfast at "La Fuente", best breakfast buffet if you ask Bonita; lunch to go by my sister (Bonita ate it all, and she did not want it at the beginning!!)

Ferry: cafeteria food is SO bad, so Bonita stole my lunch my sister packed for me!!

Cabo San Lucas: seafood at my brother's house, seafood as lunch in the hotel and seafood for dinner.

After that, nothing special to report; except for the liver and onions I had in San Quintin; really good.

So, in all, we kept eating at the same pace we do in Tijuana, but the variety and taste was in many cases much better. We enjoyed most of all.

See you around

Empty!!!

2008-08-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

Guess what I'm doing now?

2008-08-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

Driving...

2008-08-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

Well, after a couple of days of my life I want back (I had some people visiting me at work and I really did not like spending that much time with them!), I finally have some time to write.

First of all: I like driving. Forecasting where I am going and seeing the scenary change slowly at first or surprisingly sometimes is something I really enjoy. I do not get bored, as I used to do when I was a child and my father did the driving on our vacations, now I enjoy most of it. But I have to recognize that people drive differently depending where in Mexico you are.

I've lived in Sinaloa, Guadalajara and Tijuana. I've drove in a lot of cities in Mexico; and basically there are four different styles of city driving:

1) Mexico City style: People sense and jump in front of you with just enough space to do it, but they're not hesitant and drive off like nothing happened. And usually, nothing happens. I am OK with it.

2) Small city/town style: People is very well educated, respect stop signs and walking people; if you are in a hurry, they would let you drive by, but you feel like you were rude and aggressive. Tijuana used to be like that. I really like this.

3) Tijuana style: People jump in front of you disregarding if there is enough space for you to brake or do whatever is necessary to avoid an accident; most of people just sees towards the front of the car, forgetting about whoever is approaching from the rear of the car, etc. It kind of works because most of people drive that way and they will be careful about what is going on in front of them. I do no like this kind of driving, but I am used to it.

4) Guadalajara style: People feel like they have to avoid driving like in Mexico City; then take great care not to cut in front of you or to do a sudden maneuver that will make you honk at them; however... they are extra hesitant and will stop in the middle of two lanes or at the entrance of the high speed part of the road to "let" you pass, but of course you cannot because they are blocking your path!!! Freaking people!! I hate this style of driving!!!

And of course I spent most of my time driving in Guadalajara...

Regarding driving on the road, I can tell you this. American people do not know how to drive in four lane roads. They do better in two lane roads, but that is because they do not have an option. Maybe I am generalizing, but every time I've been in California driving in four lane roads, all the people is trying to hog the left lane and they do not move! Even if you are right behind them at a higher speed; you would have to pass them through the right lane!! (Yes, I know that is OK in England, but California is NOT in England!).

So, in Mexico, whenever I encounter somebody with US plates (and most of the time somebody with California plates) they would be doing the same thing. Hogging the left lane and having me to pass them using the right lane.

Mexican drivers (in Central Mexico) are very sensitive to this kind of thing; they will be monitoring the rear view mirror when in the left lane, and would move right the moment they see you approaching them. I thank them!

Somebody told me yesterday about the difference between being a traveler and a tourist. I am a traveler, I like the change of scenary; the terrain and sky and road changes. The speed you have to have to let you take the whole experience. And I want to share a little of it in these pictures.

I loved it, with one exception; for some parts of the trip my kids were more interested in watching movies on the car DVD than in experimenting the whole traveling thing. I did not take that into account. In any case I am grateful for whatever they could see and appreciate, and hope we have the opportunity to repeat the experience.

See you around.

Driving, eating, visiting family and complaining...

2008-08-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

... those were our vacations.

I am still trying to find a way to tell you all about them; the best way seems to be to post about each one of those activities and then allow the blog to take us wherever is necessary (to make it interesting).

In any case, I am doing a blow-by-blow account of the vacation on the Spanish version, I think I will do the same here. It will take a couple of days.

See you around.

When I was a child...

2008-08-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

... by the way, I still am childish about some things; but I am straying. I liked photography a lot.

I got my first camera when I was 7 years old; one of those ugly K0dak cameras that used a 126 cartridge (not longer in existence, I believe). I also got a book on photography and I used to read and re-read it; until I learned most of what was there to learn. I never really got the hang of it; until my last year in Guadalajara, when I had the opportunity to use one very old Nik0n camera which had the same capabilities of a SLR camera, without being exactly an SLR (I do not know to this date how to call that camera, but you could change most of the settings; the only drawback was that you had to use the view finder, not the mirror). Until I bought an SLR camera (a Min0lta) for Vicky's photography lessons in high school I had not used a GOOD camera before. And of course with the digital cameras now available for "peanuts" I had to learn how to use one of those.

Anyway, we took more than 750 pictures during the last two weeks, and I had spend the "free" time I had today organizing them in some albums. Here is a sampler.

Sightseeing

Eating

I will also post the family pictures, but I will keep them private; if you want to see them, send me an email and I will answer back with the password.

See you around

The Eagle has landed!!

2008-08-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

86+ hours driving and that many kilometers!!

Home sweet home!

2008-08-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

So close now

2008-08-09T18:02:00.001-07:00

Ensenada

Just because I said I missed them

2008-08-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

1000+ miles of two way road...

Rise and shine!

2008-08-09T06:14:00.001-07:00

Leaving Santa Rosalia on the last day of vacation

Right side of the road

2008-08-08T19:53:00.001-07:00

Loreto again

Left side of the road

2008-08-08T18:48:00.001-07:00

Getting to Loreto

Waiting for the rain to stop

2008-08-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

In Cd. Constitucion (BCS)

Stopping for coffee on the road to Cd. Constitucion

2008-08-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

Nice little shop, with wi-fi and great service!

Over there is the gulf of Cortez (La Paz)

2008-08-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

Pacific Ocean

2008-08-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

On the way back

After all...

2008-08-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

This is worth it

Finally made it to Los Cabos

2008-08-06T18:26:00.000-07:00

And my brother was waiting for us (we were starving, almost deciding who to eat first!) with shrimps, scallops and fish "chicharrones"

Finally!!!

2008-08-06T11:49:00.001-07:00

We are getting into La Paz

I jinxed it...

2008-08-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

10 minutes after my previous post we are stuck in the ferry; one of the generators failed and we are now looking to wait 12 hours for departure...

People are not happy!!

All aboard!!

2008-08-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here we are in the ferry from Topolobampo to La Paz. We have waited for almost two hours and the thing does not move.

After 4300 Km on the road; and driving daily for at least 300 Km, I am ready for some rest. The travel time is 6 hours; so we will be getting into port at Pichilingue (which is where the docks for the ferry is located) around midnight. We already reserve a hotel there (nothing I know, but I heard several recommendations from some friends) and we have two nights at a promotional rate in Cabo San Lucas (50% discount a night in a “deluxe suite” whatever that is).

So the plan now is to get to La Paz, stay there for the night and leave “early” (our early on vacation have been around noon). Get to Cabo San Lucas with my brother and get something to eat (he’s a great cook!) before getting into the hotel. At night we want to go have dinner with my cousin Ingenua (who moved to San Jose del Cabo a year ago; and work as a buyer at one of the prettiest hotels there). Thursday will be to relax and then have dinner with my brother; finally on Friday we are to start to travel back.

I have tons of pictures and stories to share; I will be writing and preparing whatever I can during this next 6 hours and then I will post them during the night.

In the meantime; this is Topolobampo; and we are leaving port right now!

See you around.

Getting into the ferry...

2008-08-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

And Pinka is wondering if the boat is like the "Titanic" or the "Poseidon"... I hope neither!!!

And is only 8:00 am!

2008-08-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

In Los Mochis... Answering to (s)wine comment; 28 degreed was the lowest high we had had so far, the first four days (Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa) temperature was not lower than 35!!! And no rain!!!

Back in Sinaloa

2008-08-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

Going back

2008-08-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

From Guadalajara to Sinaloa. A little more than 2000 miles!!

Return to Guadalajara

2008-08-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

Under the rain (yes, I am obsessed with the rain!)

But now it's raining!!!

2008-08-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

Not like in TJ!!!

San Miguel de Allende

2008-08-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

This is beautiful!

Callejón del Beso

2008-08-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

Same as Tijuana

2008-08-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

With houses on top of hills, isn't it?

You don't have to...

2008-07-31T17:24:00.000-07:00

...go to Europe to visit a castle (this is Guanajuato)

Mission accomplished

2008-07-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

In San Juan de los Lagos

2008-07-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

We are here to visit the cathedral (and pay a promise somebody else did for us), so what are we doing first?

Welcome to Tequila-land

2008-07-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

Eating in GDL

Things are looking better...

2008-07-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

At El Shrimp Bucket, enjoy!!!

After venting...

2008-07-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Who can stay upset with this view?

(Of course now there is the issue of making it up to Bonita, any restaurant suggestion? Anyone?)

This is much more crowded than I remember it...

2008-07-28T18:31:00.001-07:00

And my wife made sure I was aware of that. We just had an argument over this hotel conditions, she says is awful and I say is terrible.

Right now I've been labeled a cheapo, which I am (most of times); in my defense I did not fill the registration card, it was done when I noticed.

I have very fond memories of my vacations with my parents in here (Mazatlan in this hotel) where we usually spent the last night of our vacations, before arriving home. However, the place is not great; for Bonita's taste, is too much middle class (which it is) and we could've stayed in a better place (also true). But (big butt here) I had accepted to stay in other place, and it was until we call from the road to know there were no rooms in that hotel that Bonita said it was OK to come here. Now is not.

I'm upset, and I'm being childish enough to post this here before finishing the discussion, but if I say something is OK, I deal with the results, I do not make a big fuss about it (I might try to laugh about it without success, but I usually do not complain). Basically I'm not a cry-baby (there, I've said it!!)

See you around (if I survive! If you do not hear again from me, please call the police!)

And this is not

2008-07-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

What I remember was much better...

So, this is a vacation...

2008-07-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

...Close to Mazatlan

Welcome to Sinaloa

2008-07-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

We are here!!! (1 hour ago)

Mr. Pulgas takes a tour of Memory Lane...

2008-07-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

These tortas used to be my lunch when I was in Jr. High school, the owner (Don Lupito, as seen in the picture) rode a bicycle with a big bread basket (I will post a picture later) full of tortas. Yummy!!!

Everything is OK now

2008-07-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Mr. Pulgas is glad that TeddyYaki is OK and will not have any side effects over his affair with Kusai!!

I'm starting to doubt we will leave Hermosillo today...

2008-07-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

This is the first reason...

Are we there yet?

2008-07-27T10:41:00.001-07:00

(Copito, TeddyYaki and Pipiolo with Mr. Pulgas)

Day two of the road trip brought some interesting developments. We finally decided to go ahead in the morning, but as usual when we visit Mexicali, we stayed longer than expected chatting and telling/hearing stories of the family. Finally, at noon, we departed the house. I used some strap and wrenches to hold the top better (of course the skull theme was not of Bonita’s liking!)

Fortunately/unfortunately, “Mexicali” lives in the western side of the city, just 5 minutes away from road that goes to Tijuana, but we were going in the other direction, so it takes 30 minutes to cross Mexicali and exit towards San Luis Rio Colorado (East), add a shooting that just happened in a Chinese restaurant and we left Mexicali around 1:00 pm.; 650 Km to drive from there to Hermosillo; meant we were going to arrive to Hermosillo really late. But leaving the hellish temperatures from Mexicali was a plus…

You read already we had Japanese food in San Luis Rio Colorado (what’s wrong with this thing?) and after that we drove towards Sonoyta (border town where the Mexican customs are located, if you are traveling from the border into Mexico you have to stop after 20~25 Km to meet customs requirements); when we arrived to Sonoyta we started remembering the last time we went there was on our way to Puerto Peñasco (a beach place in the Gulf of Cortez, Sonora side) and we hesitated for a moment.

Also, one other time, coming back from Sinaloa we stopped at this place. The worst tacos in history; we ordered one each to try and we could not eat them.
One of the straps fell down (it was correctly installed, but slipped towards the back of the car, no problem I just relocated it!) and we stopped to fix it. We took advantage to take a couple of pictures of Mr. Pulgas which also created a new fixture to the blog (see side bar).
Finally, landscape started changing and we moved from the Baja California Desert (Reserva del Pinacate) to the Altar Desert.
We stopped at Caborca for a late lunch. And finally started speeding (I started feeling confident that the luggage shell was not going to open) and finally arrived at Hermosillo at 9:30 pm
We are staying at Miri’s house (Bonita’s cousin); and we met Kusai (see picture here; there was an unfortunate accident with TeddyYaki, but he will recover). Today we have a “carne asada” and then we will decide if we continue South or we wait until tomorrow.
See you around.

(*) The title of the post is a "heads up" of what is going to happen with the kids. Pinka started already complaining that she needs to eat every hour and Mediana and her argue all the time; I started thinking this trip might not have been such a great idea! But I know we will cope with that.

Are we crazy?

2008-07-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

Or it was just the scare from yesterday that made us try japanese food in San Luis Rio Colorado?

Sorry for the advertisement you are getting with the mobile blog. I will eliminate it as soon as I can.

On the road again

2008-07-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

We are moving, we are moving!!

I’m only happy when it rains….

2008-07-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

...I’m only happy when is complicated. I woke up yesterday morning with this song on the Video Channel and also I heard it during my morning ride going to work. The name of the group is Garbage.

OK, we took off Tijuana at 4:00 p.m. going to Mexicali. The car was fully loaded and we were merrily in our way. I was trying to drive slower than normal (110-120 Km/h [70~75 Mph] when normal is 130~140 KM/h à 80~90 Mph) because we are not in a rush.

We stopped at La Rumorosa; to appreciate the view (some pictures here) and drove down to the Laguna Salada plain. I was passing a semi, when… (big dramatic pause here for effect) …Mediana said, “what is that noise?” I heard something strange and saw something flying back in the rear view mirror.

The freaking luggage carrier got open!!! I had loaded 4 luggage pieces (ours) and later my brother Nolo wanted to send some things to my sister and brother living in Sinaloa (for their kids) and I put them there. Seems like the carrier was a little overloaded and with the combination of wind, speed and load worked together to break it open. We lost the things my brother sent; my bag flew but it was unharmed.

Bonita freaked out!! Fortunately there were no weapons in the car so I am still alive. She wanted to go back to TJ immediately and start looking for planes to go somewhere else; Mediana and Pinka started to cry because after they were convinced by their parents to go on this trip. I finally calmed down everybody, close the thing and started driving to Mexicali at 80 Km/h (50 Mph). Got there and then our cousin Mexicali, gave Bonita a tequila (for the excitement, you know?). We talked, she vented, we did not agree to anything yet. I went out to buy some straps to close down better the thing and then decide what to do. I will keep you posted.

On a side note, “Mexicali” invited me to the Cucapa Brewery. Arqui, Mexicali and me went there to try to have some Cucapa draft. They did not have any. They did not know the Chupacabras version so I had a “Chope” (from Modelo, which I thought is a “Negra Modelo” in a different name, but now I know otherwise). After Arqui had 4 beers (Cucapa Light) we said enough. Mexicali and me went to eat tacos (first time I see a “Taqueria” closed and with Air Conditioning, but the temperature in Mexicali was really high).

I went to bed at 1:00 a.m. and I am now waiting to see if we take off for Hermosillo or back to Tijuana; I will let you know.

See you around.

I was going to the movies…

2008-07-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

OK, I went to see “Hellboy 2” last Friday (I took advantage of a loooong lunch break and also the fact nobody in my family wanted to see it with me) and last Sunday we went (the whole family) to see “Hancock”.

“Hancock”
Surprisingly enough, there were no “super” villains on this movie. Which makes it really interesting. In any superhero movie I’ve ever seen, there is someone with the skills or powers to counteract the superhero’s abilities. Not here. You can focus then, in what is going on with the person. Hancock is an alcoholic, irate, selfish person. With superpowers. Can fly, do not age, bullets cannot pierce his skin, etc; think of Superman. But then he is lonely. Until he saves a guy who wants to change the world and as a side project starts by trying to change Hancock. I will say no more of the story; but to me it was the best part of the movie.

The acting, direction, effects and everything else took a backseat to the story for me. I think Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman were good enough to carry their parts, and Will Smith was acceptable; he was believable, but something was missing.

Overall score: 7

“HB 2: The Golden Army”
This is a “love-it or hate-it” movie. I have to tell you that I love Guillermo del Toro as a director; I went to see “Cronos” in Guadalajara when he was starting his career and then followed him through “Mimic”, “Blade 2”, “El Espinazo del Diablo”, “HellBoy” and “El Laberinto del Fauno”. It had been one of my complains that he does not seem to work much directing (I know he has participated producing a lot more movies; but…).

Anyway; compared to HB 1, this movie lacks the fast pace and the “true” villain (Rasputin that time). However (as “Hancock” did) this allow you to pay more attention to the character and what he really thinks and the way he acts. Remember that HB is 60 years old, but mentally is like a teenager (as explained in the first movie). There are several sequences that show that, but the one that takes the price is when he and Abe Sapien get drunk while listening to Barry Manilow (!?!?!?!!!). Effects, makeup and the creativity to show that many characters (and the underground world that is hiding from us Humans) are the best. Reminded me a little of the Artemis Fowl’s universe.

I liked the movie a lot; the only “complaint” I have is that seems to me the ending was a little weak; I can only hope this was because there is a third movie on the works, but nothing has been “leaked” to the press, so I do not know.

Overall score: 8.5

And that’s the way it happened. By the way, since we are preparing for the road trip, I had been really busy lately and had not enough time to post more. I expect that to be corrected with the daily (hopefully) updates during the trip.

See you around.

Sex, lies and birthday cake.

2008-07-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Since Friday’s night we had been in a very busy schedule.

We had a party to attend, a kid’s party to attend, a party to host and (without knowing it) an expo to visit.

The party that we attended was for Luly, the only comadre we get along with (of the three we have) and it was in Chulavista, CA. We headed there Friday night with the plan to return early and do not drink too much. We only got one of them; instead of returning at 10:00 pm, we stayed until midnight (Cinderella clock finally got us). We had a good time, meeting some old friends and somebody brought a guitar and we sang and laugh an awful (and awfully sometimes) lot.

Yesterday morning, we still had to buy the present for the birthday girl and also for Arqui (my brother in law) who was going to be in TJ for us to celebrate his upcoming birthday (that was the party we were to host). We did that and return on record time to TJ. Went to the new hotel in Otay, where, next to the swimming pool the party was prepared. Mediana and Pinka jumped into the pool and only returned when we told them we were leaving; Mediana wanted to stay overnight with Alex (the birthday girl) and Pinka wanted to stay with Naty (her best friend from school), but we were going to see Arqui, so no can do.

However, Pinka stayed for a while and went to another party with Naty and in return Naty stayed overnight with her at our home.

Arqui’s celebration was very quiet. He was sleeping around 7:30 pm, just before my brother (Nolo) and his family arrived. We eat Paella and cake and the special Jello my mother in law makes for celebration (it is soooo good; with strawberries and milk!). We did not think it was going to be that way. OK, I will stray away from the post here.

Bonita and her mother are most of times complaining about each other and the way the other approaches at things. In any case, Friday morning, my mother in law arrived at my house early and she was there when I was preparing breakfast. We started talking and then Bonita came down the stairs and started preaching her mom about being more independent and to do more things by herself, etc, etc. Finally, her mom slashed back and they were about to start fighting when I said to Bonita to let it go; which she did and decided not to make a big fuss out of it. On Saturday morning, my mother in law called to set up the party for Arqui; she then started assigning responsibilities for the party and my wife said; “we have a kid’s party to attend, we can not do anything except to allow the party to be at our home (because is the only place where all of us will fit)”. My mother in law immediate response: “I knew you would do something like this!” Bonita decided not to pick this fight and during the day I convinced not to call her mom about the party preparation; at the end, everything was OK and nobody hold any bad feelings about each other.

OK, back to the original post. Nolo and family arrived; and my sister in law then made a comment about passing close to the place where the Exxxpo Erotic@ was taking place and that she was curious about it. We jumped at the idea and told her to go with us; but finally they did not really want to go.

Bonita and myself were up to the task and we took off (at 9:30 pm) to see if we could get in and take a look. One time in my life, when attending a show in Vegas (Consumer Electronics Show) somebody in the group found out about this “side” show attached to the big one and it was related to the “Adult entertainment” part of consumer electronics. We visited to have a look and were not particularly surprised, neither shocked for what we saw. Nothing really to write home about (compared that to the infamous “Donkey show” that is supposed to take place in Tijuana), but nothing that cannot be told.

OK, we almost could not get into the parking lot. It was really packed! It took us 10 minutes to find a spot to park, another 15 to get the tickets (and they were expensive, 15 dollars each!) and once we got in, it was full of people.

I was glad to see many couples there, I was a little scared to find the usual suspects (single, nerdy or biker type of guys); but it was really OK. People very open, not judging anybody else in attendance and we even saw a group of “out and proud” with T-Shirts saying “Any other way”. They had an area showing some art (pictures, sculptures and even some models in body paint).

There were around 20 stands, half of them sponsored by the big stripping clubs in TJ, the other half sponsored by Adult stores and a big stage where performers from the clubs or some shows will do their acts (a little toned down from the standard) for the people in attendance. They even let people take pictures or video of what was going on. We watched a little of a competition looking for new male stripping talent (all of them were really bad, according to Bonita; but I think she said that to keep me calm) and some of the girls dancing in a couple of stands (Boler0 and Amnesi@) and then we got tired; after 45 minutes there we returned home.

The funniest/scariest part of all, was when we were walking and talking about not meeting anybody we knew there and then the camera appeared in front of us and a microphone to ask us our opinion of the show. But we mentioned we were not us; so if you see us on TV, it weren’t us!

See you around.

So, what’s up Doc?

2008-07-20T12:27:00.001-07:00

I got home on Friday to find an unexpected visitor.

“Fleur” (Flower?) is visiting us for the weekend. Mediana and Pinka volunteered to take care of her for the weekend and return her safely to the French Alliance, where they are attending summer camp.

She is a vegetarian, does not make noise and gets on everybody good side, she has been making friend around here.

I even was tempted to ask “Tomate (Tomato)” (Mediana’s turtle) and “Fleur” to play their parts on the story of “The tortoise and the hare” but they did not want to compete for the star treatment.

“Lolo” (our dog) was really trying to get introduced to “Fleur” but I thought that it was maybe because he wanted to eat her. Not a good idea. Anyway, “Fleur” has had a good time here, jumping around in the “mini garden” we have at home and eating whatever vegetable we put in front of her. Bonita would love Mediana and Pinka to do that too!

See you around.

Atone, alone.

2008-07-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

I do not know. The story is OK, the characters lack some emotion but you can understand what is going on, the interactions seem to lack deepness, but in overall I do not think it is that bad. Of course; knowing that it comes from a book gives me a very low expectation of what it could be. I have to read the book now, I am sure there were many things left out and imagination works better when you are reading (at least for me).

Anyway; I got “Hard Candy” and yesterday night we started watching it. We were so tired that we got asleep in the first half hour. We will give it another go tonight.

The last two days I was in San Marcos, CA. And yesterday my boss wanted to have a conversation with me; but he does not like to be in the factory (the one in San Marcos, he likes to be here in Tijuana; go figures). So, he invited me for an early dinner at a Thai food restaurant. We did not make it there; since there were two more people invited, one of them (KC the sales guy) suggested we should go to the St0ne Bistro, next to the brewery. I was on the freeway when they called me and gave me directions to the place.

I’ve been considering stopping by a number of times, but did not have the will to do it. The reason being, they have a really good beer. And if I stopped by I would drink some. And then I had to drive to Tijuana later, maybe not a good idea to drive in US with alcohol in your blood stream. But, as the Mexican saying goes: “when the Captain gives orders, the sailors follow them” (this is a very loose translation, but that is the meaning).

There we were. The place is really good; it has tables inside and big window doors that open to the patio and gardens. Really good environment, there were a couple of families there (5:00 pm) and everybody was quiet and enjoying themselves. I was amazed at the number of available beers they have (I counted 105; 32 on tap and 73 on bottle) and the variety of them and the fact they changed the beer menu in a daily basis (I asked and they changed only 1 to 3 beers on tap daily and also a limited number of the bottled ones; so if you like one you have a good opportunity to repeat). The food is good; the mac’n cheese is really good and the onion rings are amazing. Everything is organic or with the least amount of conservatives; which I think this is supposed to be good.

I had a couple of beers (I couldn’t help myself here!); a Cucapa Chupacabras Pale Ale (the tap handle pictured in the middle) and an Arrogant Bastard (they had Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA on tap, but I was in control; could not let it happen; maybe next time!). And that was enough; I was tired (after the 10+ hours for each day on meeting) and didn’t want to risk myself a DUI or something like that.

In any case I headed home around 7:30, and by that time a lot of people were arriving carrying beach chairs and blankets, etc. Every Wednesday they have an event called “Late Night Movies” and people go and drink and watch movies in the garden! They were going to show “El Mariachi”. And then, the 12th anniversary party is coming (August 16th). It is a brewery meet, with food and beer tasting. You get a souvenir glass and the opportunity to try 10 different beers (is a 6 ounces glass, so overall you drink like 4 or 5 beers). I will be there again.

Well, today is a slow day; next week will be frantic (starting with the weekend; since my brother-in-law Arqui’s birthday is coming and we will celebrate Saturday or Sunday; I’m not sure now) and is month close week for us at work. But, vacations are a week away and we will surely enjoy them.

See you around.

Absent

2008-07-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

I have been stuck in a two day meeting in San Marcos, CA. I will be free of it tonight; until then, be patient; my review of Atonement will be posted.

And my wife got "Hard Candy" yesterday. This is next in the watching list!

See you around.

When in doubt, keep your mouth shut…

2008-07-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent advice; however, one I usually do not follow.

OK, here come the reviews

Juno:
Ellen Page rocks! Figuratively and literally. I do not know if they would have found a better actress to play the part; I believe that the main reason for her making it work is that she is not that known (I know she appears in “X-Men 3” and I want to see “Smart People” but not because of her). The story rocks! I also think Jennifer Gardner made a hell of an impression on the “expecting mom” character; I started to hate her for being so annoying. Which is exactly why I think she nail the role down. I enjoyed the movie; and the dad/stepmom interactions with Juno were really good. Not that I want any of my daughters to go through what Juno went, but I would like to think of me as a cool dad (like Mac McGuff). Overall score: 8.

Jumper:
As will mentions in his comment; there is a sense of unfulfillment. Too many questions without answers, I know this is based on a book by Steven Gould; and you can see for yourself what happen to good books when they are “converted” into movies. ‘Nuff said. Overall score: 6 (it is entertaining; and I got to know there is an interesting book around!)

Grace is Gone:
The parallels with my family are really interesting; both daughters’ characters mirror what I perceive Mediana and Pinka to behave at home. My wife loved it, but got asleep ¾ into it; I had to wake her up to finish the movie. In my case, I almost cried, but got over it and kept watching the film. Strong emotional story. I do not know if I would do the same in that case, but I had had to wonder, since my wife sometimes has an infatuation with the idea of dying. Overall score 8.5 (it is slow at the end; the scene between the dad and his brother really got to me).

Bonus review:
My Own Private Idaho!!!!
Finally I finished watching it; it was anticlimactic. After all the expectation and excitement I had going into it, I had to watch it at work (on my lunch time). The first hour (or so) was what I had seen before; the second part of it (what I missed the first time I set to watch it) was difficult to digest. I still will have a second look at it; this time I will watch it uninterrupted. Let’s see what happens; so far score: 8.

And this is all folks (for the moment!)

See you around.

Good/Good Weekend

2008-07-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here I am; after a really good weekend.

Every blue moon; I like to take a bath (on the bathtub we have in the second floor bathroom; I usually shower, but I was trying to relax today), today was the day; I prepare some “jamon serrano” and Manchego cheese, downed it with some beer and started reading “Mistress of the Art of Death”. I had an hour for myself to relax (which I did).

The weekend started in an alarming tone. Mi wife, because of her job was out of the house on Thursday afternoon, and “threatened” to return until midnight Friday. I was not happy; and on Wednesday night we discussed it (just the latest in a serial discussion we have every time she has to spend any personal time away from me because of her job). So I got mad at her and did not return her calls while she was away. She talked to my daughters and my mother-in-law; but when she returned on Friday it was her turn to be angry at me. We did not speak that night.

Saturday morning, Pinka started “investigating” why we were not talking to each other and then (prodded by her mother) decided to play Cupid to parents. I was downstairs and Bonita was upstairs, so Pinka started climbing the stairs up and down until she convinced us to start talking again. At the time, we were still feeling upset at each other and agreed not to hold it against each other, but also to wait until later to have the “serious” conversation.

The main reason of taking it lightly was to wait until tempers got to a safe level and the secondary reason was that Polaco’ sister in law was to be married and the party was Saturday night; and after all the anticipation (this had been on the works for over a year) we would not miss the event! Too much to gossip afterwards. So, we headed out shopping and got outfits for Mediana, Bonita and even I got a couple of shirts (I have this meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, so I have to look sharp, well sharper than usual ;^)).

When we returned, we called Vicky and learned that she was going to have lunch with the ex-boyfriend we like and we happily included ourselves in the plan. We went to this sushi place and had just something to nibble (we were not so hungry, since we had a late breakfast at the vegetarian place we like *); we had small talk with Vicky and her suitor and left early; to give them some space.

We took off to the wedding around 20:00 and were expecting the worst. Mary (Polaco’ sister in law) is not known for her taste and we were pleasantly surprised to see the good taste applied for all aspects of the wedding; except the number of people involved on the wedding (we counted 43 people showing up during the ceremony, like 4 ring bearers!). We had a good time; danced a little and drank a little (another sober night for me!!) and at midnight we returned home. We just missed on some fight within the groom’s family, but we will know the details later during the week.

Today was “Lazy Sunday”; we left early to try to pick some nice movies from Bl0ckbuster; we got “Juno” (liked very much), “Jumper” (something was missing), “Grace is gone” (OK, slow at time) and “Atonement” (**). Reviews will be posted tomorrow.

But after we watched the first three movies, Bonita and I started talking about what happened last week between us. After some back and forth accusations, we finally agreed that I do not like supporting her in this job because I do not like the way they treat her there; she is really interested in my job and we have to share and ask for what we want in a more clearer way (we were currently doing a lot of guesswork about what we wanted from each other); so I think we are doing better now. I told her I am really proud of the fact that she is well known and has an excellent reputation in the HR community and really want her to be happy doing whatever she likes to do (work, not work; change careers, stay in HR; ask for my help, do no ask; etc.) specially if she is happy about it.

So, after that I decided to take a bath. It was a stressful conversation, but not as stressful as I expected it to be. In any case I have been feeling a little winded up and needed to decompress; mission accomplished. Overall, it was a good weekend.

See you around.

(*) On a side note; we ran into our first "compadres" at the restaurante. This is a story I will write in detail later; now just know that we ended up not talking to them since 2002.

(**) My wife loved the movie; I have not seen it yet, tomorrow is the day. After that I will read the book; then I can put my two cents opinion on will and (s)wine's discussion.

Good/Bad day

2008-07-10T12:35:00.001-07:00

Today is (actual) Pinka's birthday. Since it is after the end of the school year we usually host the party before the actual date. The first two birthdays we had to celebrate on the road; two of my brothers got married in consecutive years (in Chihuahua, 2001 and in Sinaloa, 2002). Then, the third one we celebrate at home. From fourth to now, she has been having celebrations all over Tijuana (P3ter P1per Pizz@, anyone?); with her friends from school.

So, today, it is supposed to be a very good day, but something happened and I do not feel good; I have to respect Pinka’s birthday anyway. And because of that I will hold a couple of post that are screaming to be written (I may write them, but post them until tomorrow or over the weekend).

Have a nice day. See you around.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

2008-07-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

Suddenly, out of the blue; we went to the movies yesterday night. After complaining about the price of the tickets (I know is cheaper than in the US, but tickets increased almost 40% price in the last year! Bandits!); we sat down to watch “Get Smart”.

At first I was not really sure I wanted to see the movie. I was expecting a lot of stupid humor; but I was really surprised by two things: in comedy (as in many other things, [what a cliché]) timing is everything, and here the fast pace of the jokes makes them really enjoyable, I laughed out loud more several times; the second one was that only two or three jokes were non enjoyable (one of them was REALLY gross!).

I am giving the credit to the “Special Consultants” they had for the movie. They are the original writers of the series: Buck Henry and Mel Brooks (*). I am not really sure if they really participated in any aspect of this movie, but the writers and director really did a great job avoiding the typical error in comedy that is to wait to much for the joke to develop. In one of the sequences, Agent 23 (“The Rock”) is complaining about another agent for jamming the copy machine. After Agent Larabee dismisses this complain; a frustrated Agent 23 takes the stapler and then staple a paper to Larabee’s forehead. I did not see it coming and that is exactly what made it enjoyable.

Most of the jokes will develop and then the unexpected will happen; when I watched “Kung Fu Panda” I was able to tell my daughters what was about to happen prior to happening. Not this time.

Of course a lot had to do with the director going for the straight face joke and the actors running away with it; so special mention to Anne Hathaway (love her), Steve Carell (who is so enjoyable in “The Office”), Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Alan Arkin (at time I was not sure if he was really acting or just playing along) and the four guys that stayed in the office (two nerds and two agents that had to stay; really good interactions).

The only other joke I will mention is the answer to the question appearing as title of the post. Smart (Carell) and his boss (Arkin) are driving though a golf driving range, and then crash with a shack that has a swordfish in one of the walls. They stopped in front of a small airport and then Smart asks his boss: “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

(End reading if you do not want to curse me later; of course if you already watched the movie or do not have plans to watch it do not worry about this)

BIG SPOILER HERE

The boss answers: “I do not know, Were you thinking; ‘Holy shit, holy shit, a swordfish almost went though my head’? If so, then yes”.

END OF SPOILER

See you around.

(*) As comedy goes, I always liked Mel Brooks' movies. Particularly "History of the World, Part 1"; I do not why, just loved that movie.

Who teaches the teachers?

2008-07-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

My sister in law (Flor) is an elementary school teacher. My parents are elementary school teachers (my mother has been retired since 15 years ago, but still keeps the same mentality). Will is an elementary school teacher. I was a teacher (college level, not exactly the same).

My parents spent their entire career in public schools. Flor and Will teach in private schools. I’ve been around teachers my whole life. And regardless of public/private, elementary/college, etc. teachers are all the same anywhere. Well, related to the administration part of it.

My parents were strongly opinionated against the nepotism and corruption going rampant on the Teacher’s union; the most defining story about my father involves an election of representatives to the Teacher’s Union from the region my parents worked from. During the vote counting process my father noticed one of the counters trying to hide some votes. When announcing the results my father then stood up and said; “I think there is a mistake; let’s recount”. They did, in a more public way and whoever was trying to pull a fraud had to stop and recognize the right result. But trying to impose representatives and then trying to help only friends and all that was part of the “normal” way of doing things for those guys.

Now Flor is saying nothing has really changed in the public system. Union leaders do not care about the people they represent, only care about their own benefit and profit. Nothing new here.

The part that may be interesting is that in the private sector (where I also worked); you will see some similar things. Cliques and friendship will get the best of intentions and improvements. The school where Flor works is coping with people leaving the school because of the administration fighting the teachers. The teachers do not trust administration people and they do not help themselves because they do the same things they complain about; which is that people help only their friends instead of looking at the bigger picture. They got a new principal and administrator of the school; seems like he knows what he is doing this time, but they will suffer some reduction in the number of students.

When I worked at the college, we had similar issues. Administration positions will make almost twice the money a teacher would make. It was so ridiculous that it was better to have a part time, then complete the day with hourly wages in order to survive. I was there for almost five years and then left just before getting my seniority to become a “Profesor Titular” (kind of like tenured, but not exactly; you could still get fired).

Anyhoo. My point today was to ask about how teachers are being “upgraded” in their teaching methods. My mother was THE expert at Special education in the north of Sinaloa; same as my father now is one of the experts in teacher’s development. They stopped working with kids; they work (or worked in my mom’s case) with teachers. Ironically enough (or maybe not!!) teachers are more difficult to teach than students. They will refuse to apply the knowledge they get in the pre-lessons sessions; and then students will suffer. But at least Public Education System (SEP in Spanish) is still trying.

By the way, I wonder if Will has to go through this too (it is supposedly a requirement for ALL teachers ;^)).

See you around.

I did not do it!!

2008-07-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

If you see my wife and do not recognize her; it is not because of me.

She decided to dye her hair; blondish. I have to report I did not like it. But I may get used to it. And I love her anyway.

See you around.

Good times.

2008-07-05T22:28:00.001-07:00

Also yesterday we went out with will and maria; 2 months ago I ran by accident into will’s blog and after I made a comment in there and a couple of stressful days (more for him and maria than us) everything was cleared and I started this blog. We finally met maria at the play and after they attended Pinka’s party we decided to meet for dinner.

It did not start right. The French restaurant we loved is closed now. Fortunately, will and maria’s favorite restaurant is 100 meters from it; so we called and redirected ourselves to that place (Italian restaurant). Got there at 7:05 pm; and after the waiter was standing up in front of us for 30 minutes (starting at 11:30 pm) we took the hint and leave the place. I think these were the fastest 5 hours I’ve ever lived (not sleeping).

The food was good, the company and conversation were great. I only noticed today that I almost did not speak. Between Maria and Bonita and Will they took over the conversation and allowed me to do what I do best; listen.

We talked (well, they talked) about friends, personal history, work, blogs, daughters and sons, missed encounters (we had the opportunity to meet Maria some years ago, we worked in the same company and we have a lot of common acquaintances but it never happened) and how life goes around in circles.

Health, parent and parenting styles, future plans, I think we almost talked about everything (that is the impression I got) and then some. But it was cut short because the waiter wanted to go home; how rude of him! We could have stayed in the restaurant until this morning! We will go out again; but I think we better go out for lunch, that way we will have at least 11 hours to talk over!

See you around.

Movies again!

2008-07-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday I took Mediana and Pinka to the movies; to see Kung Fu Panda. I’ve read a little about the screening at Cannes and the actors doing the voices of the movie (Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane in English; Omar Chaparro, Pedro Armendariz Jr., Bruno Pinasco, Erika Edwards and Cesar Evora in Spanish); but I did not expected the movie to be that good.

We watched the movie in Spanish, I have not seen the English version yet; but for all of you that do not know; Mexico has a really good dubbing industry (40-20 years ago it was even better), Telly Savalas was known to say that he really preferred his dubbed voice in the Mexican broadcast of Kojak (hear here as the Eagle’s voice); and the Flintstones and other cartoons (Count Duckula!) were really great; the Shrek movies were also really good and they made a really good work this time. Of course, saying “Pot-Belly Panda” in Spanish sounds really funny (is Panda Panzon, with the accent in the “zon” for the curious).

The story is also good; I agree to many of the things mentioned there; specially the “there are no accidents” bit, since is part of the family philosophy. We also had great laughs, made us almost cry and ended up with a good feeling overall. I will now get the English version to compare.

See you around.

Vacation time.

2008-07-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have my daughters at work today; being 4th of July and working for an American company with (mostly) US based customers mean today is a very quiet day.

There had not been any phone call or e-mail. Basically I am sitting here, finishing some reports and some information people have requested for next week, so it is going pretty good. After a week where I was somehow stressed (work related) this is peaceful. I found out why I was being restless and why I got drunk last Sunday! Several reasons, many of them good and one of them that was the trigger (the stress!); then, if I can not say I will never do it again, at least I know what is going on (you know I am a control freak).

I will cut my day at work short and take the kids to the movies (Kung Fu Panda, anyone?). Go back home early and maybe read a little; I have not advance in two of the books I am reading, I got hooked back into Discworld and I am re-reading several of the books (Night Watch and Death series); but maybe I will continue with “The Viscount of Bragalonne” and “The Historian”. I also have pending adding books to my Goodreads account (I counted 234 books in my bedroom I have not catalogued, and I am still missing the hall bookcases and the kid’s bedroom). I have so many pending things to do that I am starting to feel bad about it (not enough to DO something about it, just feel it by now).

What is the reason why procrastinating is so easy? I am good at it (ask my wife), which sometimes does not bode well for my relationship’s wellbeing. At least I feel like something will be done later rather than sooner.

Tonight we will have dinner with friends, we expect a good time; is better to know is Friday and tomorrow we will not have to wake up early.

See you around.

What is the opposite of “hibernation”?

2008-07-01T21:31:00.001-07:00

Well, not exactly the opposite; what do you call it when because of the hot weather you enter in that sleepy mode similar to hibernation?

That has been the way I’ve felt for so many days. I start thinking about something to post and then when I get in front of the computer it goes away. I read something interesting (like this) and want to comment and I just cannot get myself to write the right comment (because OF COURSE it has to be the right comment!).

Finally I decided to give it a go. Let’s see where it takes us (yes, because you are reading this, aren’t you?)

I saw a really strange accident the other day. Well, it was more of a provoked car crash than an actual accident. This guy driving from the right side of the road, made a left turn in front of another car (cut him off?) and the second driver could not avoid him and crash (slightly) into him.

They then got off the cars and started talking and the first driver made a gesture like pointing out that the other guy cut him off previously… They were laughing and if it wasn’t because the cars were damaged I would have thought they were joking. They pulled their phones and started calling insurance (I think) but I was really intrigued. Of course I started to think about a post regarding “road rage”, but then I would have to accept that I am one of “those freaking drivers” that transform from somebody really nice (?) into a pushy, get-out-of-my-way driver. Well, I’ve got no patience for hesitant drivers. Once you start doing some maneuver you bloody finish it instead of stopping in the middle! But, let’s move away from this. It can end badly (for me!).

Pinka’s birthday party was another post (maybe still is, not at this moment). I was really surprised when only two of her classmates showed up for the party. We invited over 80 people, 40 showed up. Even in the informality we live in Mexico, when you get 50% of the attendance, I believe that is a new record low. I knew some of her friends from school went on vacation the previous day, but still there were many (I think) that could have gone. Special thanks to will and Maria that showed up with the kids and helped me out to consume the beers!

I got drunk (standard Mexican practice, you have alcohol at kids’ parties!) which also is another beginning for a post. I got drunk during my work’ summer picnic and now during Pinka’s birthday party. That is really unusual. I think my previous rate was once or twice a year. My wife is worried about me, actually I am a little worried about me… I am trying to find out a reason/cause/excuse for that to happen and I haven’t been successful yet. When I find the answer I’ll let you know.

Finally, the road trip. I kind of remember mentioning this. We will take a two weeks vacation; driving. We will go from Tijuana to Hermosillo; to Sinaloa; to Guadalajara; to the central part of Mexico (Guanajuato, Morelia, San Miguel Allende, Queretaro) and then return. The original plan was to get there quickly and then maximize our time in central Mexico. Now the plan is under review because we mentioned the trip to a friend from Los Cabos and we also mentioned that we would like to drive through the Baja. He then asked us why wouldn’t we do it this time. So we started taking times and investigating the ferry to La Paz and when we could take it and now; seems like we will return to Los Cabos and then drive back to Tijuana from there. It is a sketchy plan now, but if we pull it through we will have the opportunity to meet my new nephew (I have a brother living in Los Cabos) and see some of the prettiest beaches in Mexico. Let’s see what happens. (Red is for going and Blue is for returning in the map)

Well, we are at the end of today’s post. Only have to mention that today’s is (s)wine’s birthday and wanted to say “Felicidades!” to him.

See you around.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle…

2008-06-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

We are in the middle of a series of events for the family. Yesterday were Mediana (as Tim0n) and Pinka (as Nal@) in “The Li0n K1ng”; produced by the school (will had a lot of responsibility preparing all the actors; kudos to him) and my niece Sobrina’s (Polaco’s daughter) graduation ceremony from elementary school.

Today it was Sobrina’s graduation “party” (luncheon in a big old house, French style) and tomorrow is Pinka’s birthday party (who surprisingly will have a “The Li0n K1ng” theme! But, I think the lion won’t be happy).

My mother is here, visiting her granddaughters; with a great effort from her since she was here three weeks ago during Patita’s presentation (in the church) and next Monday is my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary.

So is celebration over and over again.

A good change after I forgot to pay the kids’ tuition and my wife could not get the report cards on time (and she felt slightly ashamed because that happened in front of all the other moms; sorry!).

Too many things happened (and are about to happen) during this week; from the month-end-closing activities at work to the preparation of the presentation and parties on the weekend.

We also had our monthly therapy session (couples therapy) and in there my wife recognized that she dislikes our therapist. We are going to skip the next session (since we will be on vacation; road trip to Central Mexico and going back through the Baja! 2 weeks of driving, walking, talking to the family! It’s going to be great!!) and return to session last week of August; it will be interesting.

We closed the month at work really close to our target. My boss will be happy, and after reviewing the next two months schedule we are in a far better position for hitting all monthly targets and the quarterly target.

I am not as tired as I was at the beginning of the week and even though this week will start with tiring activities; I looked forward to next week. Mediana and Pinka will be at school on Monday (6th year graduation) and at the movies on Tuesday (a treat from the school, for the effort they made towards a great performance yesterday). On Wednesday we are planning to have them join a “summer camp” at the French Alliance (we are pushy parents and want them to start learning French) but we are not sure that will happen. In any case, I will be reporting what happens.

See you around.

(This picture has nothing to do with this post; it is that I forgot to mention that I saw it at the entrance of the customer I went to visit in North Carolina; I wonder if is some kind of hospitality sign there!!)

Lies, lies and more lies

2008-06-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

For no reason whatsoever, everybody at my job feel sick. From stomachache, headache, dizziness, etc. I just feel tired. Still.

We had visitors today. They came from Buffalo, NY. We were complaining about the weather and on of them started laughing at us. Of course, from where he is from it is COLD (not to say freaking COLD) up there. He also did not have lunch with us. Did not want to eat or drink anything we had for them. The other guy did. This is the second time that I find an American not wanting to drink water (even bottled water from US!!) in Mexico; the other guy (on my previous job) brought 5 gallons of water with him, so he could drink during the whole week he stayed in Mexico.

For lunch we brought tacos from “Asadero Yaqui”; a place similar to “Asadero Sonora”. They use SuK@rne meat and hand made tortillas. Add some carrots and red onions in vinegar, guacamole and salsa and you will have some of the best tacos in Tijuana (but it is debatable; everybody have their own opinion about tacos). I actually rate them in second place; the reason is that I love “Tacos Poblanitos” (the one in front of Morelos Park, be careful because there are maybe around 2459 Tacos Poblanitos in TJ). And the guy did not eat any of them. His loss.

Today I am expecting to hear from my brother-in-law regarding the car that they find after two years stolen. It has been a month since I started pursuing the recovery of the car, and seems like finally we will get it back. Originally they said the car was there; then they could not find it; then offered to swap for another car (without papers, very suspicious!) and finally the car was found and is in the repair shop (on their dime!) before returning it to us. They mentioned the car will be ready today; I am thinking more of Saturday or next week. In any case, the car will be ours again. I am thinking of selling it right away; let’s wait to see what happens.

The day started strange; my wife complained about me not helping her with the breakfast this morning. Funny, because the breakfast is my responsibility; it is something I enjoy doing. It brings memories of my father giving us breakfast and then taking us to the bus stop at 6:00am when I was attending Jr. High School; that some of the things I usually do not remember of my father, because I remember better that he arrived home at 8:00 pm to sit in front of the TV and he was not to be bothered; but I appreciate now the time he put on the breakfast and the ride (1 Km away from the bus stop, it saved us 10 to 15 minutes every morning!).

So, my wife complains because I did not help. Actually is the other way around; I forgot to THANK HER for her help. I want to make a point of this, because breakfast is MY deal. Thank you Bonita (when you read this).

It has been a long day; I am about to go home. I may post something else later.

See you around.

Back to reality

2008-06-24T15:48:00.001-07:00

OK, the heat wave seemed to have passed (or is it the “to-freeze” setting on the air conditioning here?).

I’ve felt exhausted like never before. I am from Sinaloa, where in summer you can get your good 45º C (116 º F) in a sunny day (just after the raining season, in June/July) and I’ve driven to Mexicali, where there is no raining season and only sun and heat, in a car without AC in the summer. So what the hell is happening here? I’m starting to think I am getting old.

Or maybe, just maybe is the additional 3 hours it took me to get back home on Friday night. ½ hour when the plane in NC had to wait on the runway before take-off (when we pulled off the gate 5 minutes early!). Or the hour and half we had to wait in Houston between waiting for the thunderstorm to clear and disembark and waiting for the delayed plane with 15 passengers going to San Diego. Or maybe the hour I waited in San Diego airport before getting confirmation my suitcase did not arrive (this after in NC the guy in the counter gave me this “priority” tag for the suitcase to make it appear faster on the baggage claim; both of them first time, I’ve never before had delayed luggage).

Or could it be the 4 hours I got to spend in a theater without AC on Sunday afternoon; during Mediana’s dance presentation (which was very good, let me tell you!).

I do not know. But that is the main reason I have not posted lately. My brain has been deactivated because of the combination of being tired, lazy and the ambient temperature.

But hey! I’m back.

So, after yesterday I finally got the new SENTRI sticker for my wife’s car (took me about 45 minutes to cross the border and 1 hour to get the sticker) I got to work. There was a mess; this is end of the month week, and if you remember last month we are in no better condition this month. We already lost 13% of the sales this month because of a defective part and we can not recover this amount. Bad news for my boss.

Later today, I got a complain from IT regarding one of the guys in the warehouse; who decided, that it was a good idea to visit some porn websites during work hours and using the “secure” connection we use for the transactions with Massachusetts. He will be fired, and that is no good; because he will be the second person to be fired because of that in the last three years. Not good at all for the rest of us (do not worry about me: 1) I do not visit prohibited websites [at least during working hours!] and 2) I use a public connection while posting). Anyway; people behaves that way; but got me thinking. Do people abuse their job “perks” as revenge against feeling abused? I need to investigate. I will be reporting later.

See you later.

How much do I hate business travel? Let’s count the ways

2008-06-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

In case you are wondering where I am, let me tell you (in a minute); if you don’t; stop reading then!!; what the hell are you doing here??

Well, y’all; I am in Asheville, North Carolina (did you notice?). On business trip. Have I mentioned I do not like traveling on business? There are many reasons, but the main one is that I can not sleep properly in any other bed than mine, with my wife at my side. I know it sounds corny, but I really can not.

There are other reasons, like spending more than 12 hours in airports, planes and rental cars. In the three companies I have worked for; I had to travel on business multiple times: to Asia and South America; to Chicago (every month, even on winter! It’s freaking cold!!) and now to the East Coast (Massachusetts usually, now to a customer site here; twice in the last three months).

And there is also the nagging feeling that something can go wrong back at home while I am out. Like today; my car broke down. I have my wife’s car in San Diego’s airport. So, she does not have a car for tomorrow. Blagh!! (I think I will start using some profanity in my blog; but in Spanish…) Que la chin…!! (nop, I could not do it yet).

Anyway; I did not want to travel this time. We have a customer, who usually is very quiet. But lately, they have been a little on the warpath. Corporate got involved and I have to be here; we had a meeting today, 2 hours to review the new way the want to score our performance as supplier; with an unexpected twist; there is a section where we can score their performance as customer. This is a really novel and exciting idea!! I am so looking forward to it; because I can raise hell for them if we do not get the right score!!! (I feel a little vindictive now, it may pass later). Tomorrow we will continue the meeting at 8:00 am, finishing at 1:30 pm and giving me just enough time to drive back to the airport and take my flight back to San Diego.

Back to the “I did not want to travel…” part. Remember; I believe there are no accidents; I broke my “Dingleberry” phone yesterday. Which means I have no 24/7 access to my email. Which means I do not have a way of knowing what is going on with the people I work. Which means I have an excuse for later to say; “see, that’s exactly why I did not want to go” to my boss. Later, I got busy with other things and I got to the airport 5 minutes before my departure time. 2 minutes before departure time I was in the security gate (it was empty, I was the only person trying to get to the departure gate; it was strange). I arrived to the gate at the same time they were paging me. There was no escape for me; I got in the plane. 11 hours later I got to my hotel.

During the flight (and while waiting in Houston for my second flight) I finished reading “El pintor de batallas” and started and almost finished “Water for Elephants”. So it wasn’t that bad. I started changing my attitude and decided that I will enjoy the trip. So far it has been better than I have told you (like the meeting; it was interesting!) and I had a good dinner (Italian food; a nice-to-good/great place called Carraba’s) and great conversation with the people I met here. I look forward to tomorrow; but there was one thing I wanted to do and couldn’t.

This blogging thing has been a source of surprises; specially related to people that get involved in the stories and problems I have been reporting here. One of them lives close by (relatively speaking; it is a 5 hours drive from here) and I wanted to meet him, but did not have the time on this trip.

(s)wine, next time I come here (and I am pretty sure I will come back) I will make better arrangements to meet you and thank you personally for the feedback and the friendship (*). Until then…

See you around.

(*) Of course it could happen that you go to Tijuana first; in which case you will be more than welcome.

Sundays are good (sometimes)

2008-06-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

June 15th is an important date. Flor’s birthday; Salvaje’s birthday; Father’s Day (this year) and it is the anniversary of my graduation from college.

I finished college 18 years ago. Those were really good times for me, I though it was going to be really difficult to feel like that again. Curiously enough, yesterday I was feeling like never before. For some reason I started reading some of Discworld novels again. There is one that the first time I read, did not really liked enough to warrant a second look; but now, for no reason it was calling me. It is “Small Gods”.

The main character is a novice in the church of Om; his name is Brutha. He found himself in the interesting position of being the only one that can hear Om; because people have forgotten about him, Om can only take the shape of a small tortoise. The story is full of irony, satire and all the fun Terry Pratchett pours into his novels. But there was something really surprising for me, since I did not see it the first time. This novel is full of compassion. The hard complete compassion that is required for people lacking… anything. And in this book there are many of those. Especially Bruthat’s antagonist, Vorbis.

Anyway, I read it and reread it several times, trying to get the most of the message written on it and finally I could not read it more. I would start crying when reading. Even now when writing this I feel the need to cry.

This is extremely unusual; not that a book makes me cry (Porthos dying in the last part of “The viscount of Braggalonne” made and makes me cry) but that just by remembering it I want to keep crying… I had to close my office door now.

I tried to tell the story to Bonita yesterday, and started crying, she was surprised, but let it happen (which was really good). I felt so alive… and after that really enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

Family from both sides visited and stayed for "carne asada" (barbeque); we had some beers (Pacifico, because of the weather) and I got a little tipsy. My wife was bothered by it a little bit, but I think it was OK. We started watching “The Godfather”, but it was late and went to bed.

This morning everything looks great; good weather; Vicky, Mediana and Pinka woke up early and got ready on time for work and school. Bonita and me slept a little more than usual, but got out of the house in time. Good start of a beautiful day.

I got into a discussion with somebody from work on Friday, but he called me just now to patch up things and propose a solution for a problem we have (which is what I wanted since Friday, so I got it!)

Things are moving; and if they are moving we can then steer them. I know this is just a beginning (of many that exist) and we will hit some lows, but with the right attitude everything improves.

See you around.

Getting back to the saddle.

2008-06-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the weekend was full of those moments that make life so interesting. After not getting enough sleep Friday night, we were (rudely I would say) waked up by my mother-in-law at 6:00 am, when she arrived at my house to give her car a wash. After several annoying noises I finally got up and asked her politely to keep it quiet. She was embarrassed but not enough to stop completely. My wife and I started laughing after that, because we could have made such a big problem out of that, it was just not worth it.

After Vicky’s comments (and all other comments that followed!) we were expecting her to be mad at us. We knew she was upset when she commented, but for her it was a way to vent her frustration; so she was back to her normal charming self. My wife wanted to have breakfast with her, but schedules prevented that (Mediana’s rehearsal, Pinka’s medical appointment and Vicky having to go to work).

We left the house, took care of the kid’s activities and left to US for some shopping. Pinka’s birthday party is coming and Sunday was full of celebrations (Father’s Day, my sister-in-law Flor and my wife’s friend Salvaje’s birthdays) so we needed to get some things before we run out of time.

We left Mediana and Pinka in Tijuana, they did not want to go shopping (what a surprise!) and it was just Bonita and me. We talked, a lot. About Vicky, empathy, getting offended and life in general. It was really deep conversation and we had a great time.

When we came back, Vicky and Bonita went out to have lunch and talk. I stayed home, ordered some sushi for me. My brother and his family arrived and my niece Patita was in her “I like my uncle” state which is so good. We talked and waited 20 minutes for everybody else to get back. Patita and Joseantoñito love Mediana, so when they saw her their faces beamed and they ran to give her a hug. They stayed for a while at the same time we were preparing for a round of “Continental” with my in-laws. We played, had a good time; and at the end of the game, Vicky said to my wife “ok, let’s finish this and start again in a blank slate”.

So, yes. Vicky and Bonita (me too) are leaving bad feelings behind (where they should be) and looking forward to improve their relationship (and all relationships they have by extension). So it was a great way to finish Saturday.

See you around.

Selective memory or selective amnesia?

2008-06-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

When I was dating my wife (13 years ago) a family friends invited us, together with my brother-in-law and my mother-in-law, to spend a weekend out of town. We went to a ranch located between Tijuana and Tecate, in the mountains.

The day we were coming back started raining. Because if there is heavy rain you would be trapped in the place until the road is OK to drive and that could take several days. In the rush of getting out of there we pack some of the things in one car and started leaving. After 5 minutes we noticed nobody else was following us, so we stopped and my boss (who would be my “compadre” some years later) and me went back walking to see what was happening.

The other car had humidity in the ignition system and we had to wait and find a way to dry the thing. We walked to the house and on our way back, we saw a bull up the hill. We were walking perpendicular to the bull, and the people in the first car (where my mother-in-law was) could not see us because of the hill. Suddenly, my “compadre” yells at me “RUUN!!” and takes off. I followed him, never looking back and waiting for him to stop and tell me is a joke. He never did. His father-in-law was fixing the other car, but had a complete unobstructed view of the thing. When we walk past him I thought he was having a heart attack; he was laughing so hard. He still tells the story and laughs. In any case, he was the only witness; but now, my mother-in-law swears she saw it too (even though it was impossible for her to see anything at the time).

She knows the story at heart (having heard it so many times) that she actually thinks she was there watching when it happened.

Same thing with anybody. Hear a story so many times and finally you would be there, even if you weren’t.

It works the other way around; my wife hates this story when I tell it: “the second time I asked her out we kissed at the end of the date and then she told me ‘Are we dating now?’ So I never asked her to be my girlfriend”. That is what I would say, because I think it makes the story more interesting; but is not exactly what happened (for the record, I did ask her) but sometimes even I get confused because at some moments I am not sure what really happened ;^)

Anyway; why the hell am I writing at 4:00 am in the morning? Well, I woke up at 3:30, my wife woke up too (but I did not do it!) and I had a message warning in the shackle I carry from work (called a Dingleberry by my previous boss) so I read Vicky’s comment on one of the posts and started thinking about how to answer. The I read (s)wine’s comment and I decided to get up and answer both.

I have not yet. I wanted to write something else first to take my mind and wake up completely; now is 5:30 and there is nowhere to go. You can follow my trail of thoughts in the previous and this post. But I am not convinced yet of any answer. I will do it now. Let’s see how it goes.

See you around.

(Ir/Sur)reality

2008-06-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

I lived in Sinaloa with my parent until I was 17. I moved to Guadalajara to attend college. And I never thought of this before until I arrived to Tijuana, but I'd never met a divorced couple in Sinaloa. I knew of the “casa chica” (mistresses’ house) that some people had, or other families people I knew had, but never of anybody divorced.

The same way with parent-child relationships. I was never aware of the kind of problems that really exist in families. Living with my parents, brothers and sisters was an exercise on how not to communicate. I do not think my parents did, but most of my brothers/sisters lived with (at least) two personalities. In the town my parents still live none of us could do no wrong. Drinking, driving, going to the movies; any activity we did, it was reported back to my parents (they were school teachers, all the town knew them, or so it seems!) Any toe out of the line will be treated as a mortal sin. And even I was hurt at times by my parents talking about disappointment, I knew two things: 1) I was not doing anything really wrong and 2) my parents cared and loved me.

However, I attended High School and Jr. High School in Los Mochis (45 minutes away) and since there were no buses between my town and Los Mochis after 8:30 pm, if I was going to a party I have to stay overnight. Problem solved, I could do anything I wanted, since my parents never knew. My brothers did the same thing (except one of them, who did it at home and therefore is known as the party-goer/bohemian brother).

Finally going to Guadalajara was a eye-opener. I lived with relatives (my aunt, sister of my father) and they had a similar attitude against going out and having fun (partying especially). For a while it was back to square one, but I had the process set this time.

That was one of the things I did not want to do to my children. I would like them to have a clear personality, not that they don’t hide something from me, but I would like them to try not to do it or to feel comfortable not doing it. In any case, it does not work properly. But hell, we try.

See you around

After.

2008-06-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

Three weeks after I posted about how my wife Bonita and my daughter Vicky are interacting lately we found ourselves again in awkward territory.

At that time, we decided that we should not depend on Vicky’s availability for things we could handle ourselves (getting a nanny when we needed to do something at night; cooking breakfast and getting a hairdo for the kids; running some errands, etc.) That strategy had mixed results; we could not do some things we wanted and we got surprised a few times by Vicky doing some small things for us without asking her to do them.

In any case, things have not improved. Vicky is still playing the “if you did not do that for me, why should I do it for you” role which is so frustrating in so many levels. In the other hand; Bonita and me are getting tired of not getting enough “kindness” from Vicky and the fact she is showing (and teaching that way) her sisters some attitudes we do not want Mediana and Pinka to have.

Yesterday was the latest example of this. When leaving from my job, Vicky called me to see if I could pick her up; I said yes and we drove home. I had to run some errands and on our final segment of the drive I called Bonita to let her know we were on our way. She asked me for a fruit salad; I refused to stop and buy it and Bonita asked me to convince Vicky (you see the word!?!), to prepare a veggie sandwich instead.

I told Vicky about it and she was not thrilled to do it. She complained about it but, when we arrived home I had the understanding she would do it. I had to get back to where we went (I forgot my agenda there!) and when I came back Vicky was having dinner. I asked about the sandwich and she said that she would do it. 15 minutes later, while I was having dinner (some leftovers from lunch) I finally asked Mediana to make the sandwich.

Bonita got there and she got upset. I understand the logic; to make a sandwich takes around 5 minutes; all the vegetables were ready to get it done. Why didn’t Vicky do it? Bonita left to get the salad (after all, that’s what she really wanted) and after 5 minutes Mediana and Pinka commented that her mother was exaggerating!

I did not like that. Why would they judge what other person does? I do not do that (or I try not to do it); my wife does not do that; it only leaves Vicky as the person judging. And I do not want Mediana and Pinka to be judgmental. I want them to hold their ground with their opinions; but not stubborn or fanatical about anything. So, I talked to them, questioning why they thought of that and finally they said, “well, I do not know how my mom felt” which I took advantage of to say: “yes, and that is why you should not hold judgment on other people actions”.

I hope they got it.

And I hope Vicky gets it. Life is what it is. You can not change the past. You can change the present, and the future. But it means you have to change. That is the challenge I am presenting to Vicky now. Because I want her to be the best she can be (in her own eyes, not mine!), not a person that whines and feel bad about how things were (especially since there is no way to change that).

I mentioned before; you are here because of what other people did and what you are doing. And all of those decisions and combination of actions brought you here. Could you be better? Define better. You would be different, not necessarily better. Go on with life, then. Take advantage of the way life changes when you change your attitude about it. One is always young enough, brave enough, and even sometimes stupid enough to do it. It only takes this: you wanting to do it.

See you around.

Beer with me.

2008-06-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

OK, being a true Sinaloan, I like beer. I started drinking beer since I was 16. Yes, under the legal age, and yes, I would not have my daughters do the same, I am that kind of parent (some would call me hypocrite, but you should ask Vicky my point of view, at least she agreed).

In Mexico there used to be only two big beer companies: Grupo M0delo and Cerveceria Cuauhtem0c-M0ctezuma. Until a few years ago they had the complete beer market in Mexico; now there are more options being local microbreweries (Tijuana and Cucapah come to mind) and some good additions to the current leaders (like Casta).

Most of the brewing done in Mexico comes from German influence, because in the XIX century Austrian Duke Maximilian was named Emperor of Mexico. He brought master brewers from Germany and that is how Mexican beer started.

Most of the beer sold in Mexico is pilsner or pale lager beer; Corona, Tecate, Carta Blanca, Modelo, Estrella, the Light versions of them all, Dos Equis (XX) lager, Montejo, Tijuana Guera, Mexicali, Cucapah Triguena, Bohemia, Pacifico, etc. The best are Bohemia (if you like your beer hoppy) and Pacifico (of course, since is from Sinaloa! But you have to get the one brewed in Mazatlan). If you are in Tijuana, Tecate or Tijuana Guera are OK.

There are some darker beers; Negra Modelo, Victoria, Leon, Indio, Dos Equis Ambar, Tijuana Morena, Casta Morena, Bohemia Oscura, Cucapah Oscura, Nochebuena (for Christmas season), etc. Again, I like Tijuana Morena the best (draft version, not bottle), but I would drink any of those or Pacifico if there are not any dark beer.

However, last year, KC (sales rep of the company I work) invite me to taste St0ne beer. Man, I was slapped silly by the hoppiness, but once it passed I got hooked on it (I am not ashamed to say I now moved to the “Darker side” of beers). He got me samples of the Imperial Russian St0ut (10.8% alcohol; dense, black beer; almost solid), the X Anniversary (very similar to the Arr0gant Bastard, with higher alcohol content) and the Vertica1 Epic (070707 version; citrusy flavor). I tried all of the regular brews (Pale Ale, IPA, Levitati0n, Ruinati0n and of course the Arr0gant Bastard) and ender up liking most of them (Ruinati0n has a very distinctive bitterness that is way past me).

I attended the XI Anniversary party (in the brewery) and sampled several more beers (there were 32 breweries showcasing their products, I liked the Belgian beers and some German, Mexico was represented by Tijuana, Cucapah and Modelo); I specially liked the XI Anniversary Beer and the St0ne Nuclear Cheese spread (they have a bistro in the brewery); good times.

Anyway, in September there is the XII Anniversary party; I think you will find me there.

See you around.