Soylent Green...

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?

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...

It's the season to be jolly???

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?

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?

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.

And then...

... 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.

Where in the world is J.A.?

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.

Vacation is over (really?)

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...

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

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.

Eating...

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

Finally made it to Los Cabos

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

Things are looking better...

At El Shrimp Bucket, enjoy!!!

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

This is the first reason...

Are we there yet?

(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.

I’m only happy when it rains….

...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.

Sex, lies and birthday cake.

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.