Taking the Plunge

I was watching some videos on Monday that inspired me once again. I read "The 4-Hour Workweek" back in February and have been thinking about starting my own business ever since. Actually, I started thinking about my own business a long time ago but I really started to get more serious after reading that book. Ever since I saw the movie "Father of the Bride" I have wanted to own a small manufacturing company. I don't know why that movie inspired me, but it did.

I feel like I need to create something tangible. I love technology and know that is the future...and present...but I just need to create something that I can put my hands on. At least I feel like that is my ultimate goal. I have flip flopped a little bit though after what I saw on Monday. I feel like I just need to create a revenue stream as soon as possible. I am not going to take the complete plunge and quite my job. I will just get my toes wet and start a new source of income until I am ready to take the plunge.

I love the idea of reducing my things, but it is just not in the cards right now. The Queen and the girls are not ready to give up there things, even if it means that we can travel the world. They are so entrenched in American culture that they believe that they need things. Don't get me wrong, I have my things as well and am not completely ready to give them up. I think I am closer to that than they are though.

Besides leading a simpler life and not having bills to worry about and upkeep of cars and a home. It is more in line with the greener lifestyle I desire. It would be great to get our from under the weight of the world and just do whatever I want to do. If I want to go to Mexico for six months or a year, so be it. If I want to travel farther South from there and end up at the tip of South America I could do that to.

I could start the non-profit that I have been thinking about since reading the book. I could show my kids the world and not worry about anything else. That would be a great life, but we are not yet ready for that. I just need to take the first step and getting a second income coming in first. That is my three month goal. Even if it is just an extra five-hundred dollars a month. Every little bit helps.

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My Independent MBA

I have been thinking a lot lately about my reading list. As I have mentioned before, it is my goal to read one book every month this year. I started to slip while I was reading "The Toyota Way," but I am back on schedule after taking a few trips in June. I got a lot of reading done on my flights to the Midwest and Mexico.

Last week while I was driving back from Los Angeles I started thinking about my reading this year being the first year of my own personal MBA. I have been very open-minded while putting together my reading list and while reading the books themselves. I am focused on learning new ideas that I can implement in my own life. My reading has already been put to use in my career.

I have given a lot of advice to some of my coworkers ranging from lean techniques I learned from Toyota to people management skills I learned from "Delivering Happiness." I even dispensed some advice to my sister last night about making sure your employees are happy. She doesn't think that is her job, so I was trying to show her how valuable it can be.

Last month I finished reading "Rework" and "Delivering Happiness." I have now moved on to "Linchpin" by Seth Godin and I am enjoying it so far. The Queen actually picked it up while we were in Los Angeles and we had a nice conversation about the book on our drive home.

I am going to put a lot more thought into the rest of my reading list for this year to maximize its value. I really want to learn as much as I can from many different sources. Next year will just be my second year of my independent MBA studies.

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Reunion in Los Angeles

The Queen, Meg and I took her dad to LAX for his trip to Tzintzuntzan. Now that both of The Queen's grandparents have passed away, I expected her parents trips to Mexico to stopy. They proved me wrong and are spending the summer in Mexico again this year. I guess they are just creatures of habit.

A few weeks ago I learned that a few of my college friends who live in the bay area were heading down to Los Angeles for the Fourth of July weekend. They were planning to spend the weekend with another college friend and her family. I thought it might be nice to visit all of them for the weekend since The Queen and I had not seen them for about six years. I persuaded The Queen's dad to make his trip work with this trip.

My friend Kelly's family recently purchased a condo near downtown Los Angeles at the corner of Wilshire and Western, directly across the street from the Wiltern Theater. She offered for us to stay at her condo, but we decided to get a hotel instead. I found a pretty good rate at the Wilshire Plaza hotel. It was just down the street from her condo and the reviews were not too bad, so I booked it. When I was booking it online I got a good price, then as soon as I booked it my confirmation showed a price almost fifty dollars higher in price. I had to call them to get the rate corrected. They told me that the price was correct, but that I should send them and email. I did and a few hours later they adjusted my rate back to the correct rate.

We ended up having The Queen's dad drive to the airport in his Caddy. We just thought that he would be more comforatable in it than in my Prius. After dropping him off at the Crowne Plaza, we headed to the hotel to check in. The hotel was in a pretty good area and looked good from the outside. We we got into the lobby, I was pleasantly surprised. It look pretty nice. We checked in and headed to the elevator. The room I booked was supposed to be a "view" room, so when we got to the sixth floor I could not wait to show Meg the Hollywood hills.

The room key did not work at first. It took several times sliding the card in and out before the door finally unlocked. I opened the door and was very dissappointed. The carpet was stained and in horrible shape. I walked in and looked around and discovered that one of the access panels in the ceiling was hanging down and that the ceiling had a large water stain. I pulled back the drapes to see the view and got a view of the building next door and a slight glimpse of the Hollywood hills. I was not very happy at all, but we did not have time to complain.

We got ready and headed over to Kelly's condo. We got there and had to call to the reception desk to get into the parking garage. We headed up to the reception desk. From there we had to be escorted to another elevator and out to the pool deck. We walked across and finally saw our friends in the function room. It was great to see them all and meet a lot of new people. Kelly and her husband were in the pool with their two daughters, so we walked out there to say hi. We talked a while and then went back in to catch up.

I found out that my college room mate is still living in Oakland and now has a son and a daughter. One of my other college friends who most people thought was gay is now married with a fifteen month old son. The other two friends I saw on the trip are still single with no marriage in sight.

We hung out and talked most of the evening and then we started playing Trivial Pursuit. I have never been good at that game. The Queen and I struggled along and Meg really started to get bored. We played a little longer before deciding to go back to our hotel.

I initially thought that my friends had all changed a lot. After thinking about it some more, I guess I am the one who has changed. They were still doing everything that we did when we used to spend a lot of time together back in college and after we graduated. I guess I just find it boring now. They are really into movies and TV shows, just like they were then. I just don't have the patience for those discussions anymore since I don't watch many movies or TV show.

I really need to give them another shot in a smaller gathering to see if we can reconnect.

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New Lens for Mexico

I have been looking for a new lens to replace the kit lens that came with my Digital Rebel camera. The Wednesday before I left for Mexico I stopped into my local camera shop and they recommended a lens to me. I ended up buying the Tamron 18-270mm lens from Amazon because my local camera shop was sixty dollars more expensive and they would not budge on price. They even quoted me a lower price on Wednesday and then when I went back in on Thursday they told me they gave me the wrong price and told me a higher price. They have always been dificult to deal with.

I rushed to purchase the lens after reading reviews on line because I wanted to use it on my trip to Mexico. I thought I might have time to take a tour to Teotihuacan and I wanted to try out the new lens. Here are some photos from the trip.

This is where pulque comes from.





The Avenue of the Dead. Notice all of the people trying to sell items to tourists.

Detail in the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

I bought some obsidian figures of the sun and moon that this man carved.

Piramide Del Sol.

I climbed all the way to the top of the Piramide Del Sol.

View of the Pyramid of the Moon from the Pyramid of the Sun.

I ended up at the Pyramid of the Moon.


This was a great trip. I would recommend Teotihuacan to anyone who is planning on visiting Mexico.

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Teotihuacan

As long as I have been coming to Mexico there have been two places I have wanted to visit, Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. I can now cross Teotihuacan off my list. As I posted yesterday, I took a seven hour tour to Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan was the largest pre-Columbian city with a population of more than two-hundred thousand people. All of the records of the city were destroyed by the Spaniards when they conquered the area, so nobody knows exactly who the people were who inhabited the city.

Our tour started at the Citadel. Our tour giude gave us a brief introduction to the site and then set us free to explore for two hours. I made my way to Templo de Quetzalcotl, or the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. It was only thirty-nine steps to the top, but at more than seven-thousand feet above sea level I was breathing hard when I reached the top. Archeologists were working around the temple, which was very interesting.

From there, I started my 1.6KM journey down the Avenue of the Dead to the Pyramid of the Moon. After going up and down many steps, I was approached by at least one hundred people trying to seel me something. I finally gave in and purchased obsidian carved figures of the sun and of the moon from the man who claimed to have carved them. They are carved out of the same local obsidian that I wrote about yesterday. It is not pure black, but has a goldish tone to it.

I walked up and down many more steps before I reached the Pyramid of the Sun. I was taking many photos along the way. At the Pyramid of the Sun there is a ramp at the base and then two-hundred and forty-five steps to get to the top. Actually, you do not reach the top until you walk up a mound that is about five feet in height. At that point I tried to take a picture of the view and found out that my camera battery was dead. I switched to my iPhone at that point. I was very dissappointed that after all of that hard work I could not even get any photos. I guess that means I will have to go back.

I walked back down all the steps and headed back down the Avenue of the Dead. The structures along the avenue were much more intact between the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. It was a great experience walking down the avenue. Our tour guide told us that we would not be able to walk to the top of the Pyramid of the Moon because archeologists are excavating inside of it. I still had to walk up as high as I could, which turned out to be forty-eight steps. I could not even get to the halfway point of the pyramid.

Archeologists are excavating inside the pyramid to see if they can find anything that will give them clues as to who built Teotihuacan. They have also left the lower fourth of the Pyramid of the Sun on the north side covered in grass the way it was found. It is interesting to get a glimpse of what the site looked like before it was excavated.

I really enjoyed my trip to Teotihuacan and would recommend it to anyone. I really made me want to visit Chichen Itza though.

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Long Day

Father's Day was exhausting for me. I exercised, mowed the lawns, went to my parent's house, went to The Queen's parent's house then took a short nap. And after all of that, I hit the road to the airport headed to Mexico City.

I got to my hotel at about ten o'clock local time, went to my room to freshen up and then went downstairs to meet my tour guide. I went on the "Pyramids and Guadalupe Shrine" tour, which turned out to be about seven hours long. It was great, but I must say that I am now really exhausted. With me on the tour were our guide Angel, our driver Albert, an older couple from Colombia, a young man from Israel and an older man from Norway.

The Guadalupe Shrine is supposedly the third most important religious center in the world behind Mecca and St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. It is a complex that consists of the Antigua Basilica dating from 1536, several small chapels and the new Basilica of Guadalupe that was completed in 1976. You can read more about the shrine on your own time. I must admit that I really was not that impressed. I was more impressed by the Cathedral in the Zócalo.

The new Basilica of Guadalupe looks like a modern building from the seventies that is just out of date, which it is. There is nothing impressive about the building other than the unique doors and the Our Lady of Guadalupe painting that is supposedly made on cloth from a cactus that should not lost as long as it has. It is also supposed to be the image that appeared on Juan Diego's apron miraculously. I don't know what is true, but there are a series of about five moving sidewalks that take you past the original so you can view it up close and even photograph it.

Our tour left the shrine after a short while and we headed out to Teotihuacan. Before getting there we made a stop at a place that houses artisans who work in obsidian and silver. They gave us a small tour and told us how the artisans work with the unique obsidian of the area and silver.

They showed us the maguey agave plant (cactus) and told us all of the items that the cactus provided for the local residents. You can peel paper from its heart, use the needles for sewing the threads that can be peeled away from the plant and even make a fermented "wine" named pulque. Then we got a chance to drink some pulque and tequila. The pulque had a sweet, easy drinking flavor. We were told that it is more watery now because of all of the rain they have had lately. When the weather gets hot, the pulque gets a lot more milky and has a strange texture. I liked it.

After that we got the hard sales pitch in their store. They kept following each of us around and commenting about how nice the piece was we were looking at. I resisted temptation and did not purchase anything at their store. They kept telling us that you cannot by any obsidian or silver anywhere else that is the same quality. We left after a short while and headed to Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan was amazing. I will write another post all about it tomorrow. I was taking a lot of photos, but by the time I reached the Pirámide del Sol, my camera battery was dead. I started taking photos with my iPhone, hoping they will turn out OK. We spent over two hours at Teotihuacan and I walked more steps than I ever have in my life.

We left Teotihuacan and went to have lunch at a restaurant near by. The Moctezuma Restaurant was another tourist trap that our tour guide took us to. He suggested we order the especial, Molcajete Moctazuma. The fix a mixture of meats, onion, nopales and a special sauce that uses pulque in a molcajete. They serve it to you in the molcajete along with corn tortillas. You then make your own tacos. It was a lot of food, but it was pretty expensive at one-hundred and eight pesos. For comparisons sake, I can get a steak sandwich for less by ordering room service at my hotel. I was not able to finish all of the food, but it was really good. About three quarters of the way through our meal, a man dressed as an Aztec indian started dancing around and singing while his wife was banging on a drum. He finished and left us alone, but he did ask for a tip as we left.

We headed back on our hour drive back to our hotels. I got to my room at about six o'clock and about a half hour later it started pouring rain. It is a thunderstorm like we do not see back home. The thunder is very loud and continues for hours while the rain alternates between a downpour and a consistent rain storm. It is great weather as long as you are not out in it.

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My Story

I awoke this morning too late to exercise. I guess I am still feeling the affects of my sinus infection.

I laid in bed and my mind started going crazy. I remembered a dream that I had last night. In my dream I ran into my college room mate whom I have not seen for almost ten years. We were talking about life and our careers and he told me that he was thinking about going back to school to become a doctor. He started out as Pre-Med in college and then changed his major to business after taking Organic Chemistry.

In my dream we continued to talk about our lives and future opportunities. He kept talking about medical school. I told him that I would love to go back to school, but that I cannot afford it. I asked him how he would support his family if he did go back to school. He told me that it would not be that difficult for him since he would get a scholarship to attend. I told him that was great for him, but that I am still paying my student loans and am starting to pay my wife's student loans as well. He asked me if there was anyone who I could lean on for support and I told him that there was not. That is when I woke up.

I laid in bed for fifteen more minutes thinking about my life and how I got to the point I am at today. My life has been a struggle. Not in the traditional sense of struggling to stay alive or out of jail, but in a much different way. I have struggled my whole life to do what I am supposed to do. To do what other people think that I should do. I think about this almost every day. I am a very private person for this very reason. I only share the parts of my life that I feel are appropriate for my station in life. The things that I am expected to be experiencing.

I would absolutely love to go back to school. I want to be able to make a difference in the world. I want to make life better for people who are less fortunate. I would like to travel to Africa and help build a school for a village. I would like to travel to Mexico and teach life lessons to kids in a remote village. I would like to travel the world and learn from people of different cultures. I just cannot afford to do this. I don't have the time or the money.

I told The Queen this morning that I am thinking about writing my autobiography. I told her that my life has not been exciting, but that there are things that I have kept to myself my entire life that I feel like I am ready to share. She questioned me about those things and I told her that I did not want to burden her. She kept asking so I told her that I do not share my true feelings about how much things affect me. In particular, our financial situation weighs on me every single day. By American standards, we are in great shape financially. I am just not happy with where we are.

So Maybe I will start writing my autobiography today. Or maybe I won't. Who knows.

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Loss

Loss is always difficult to deal with and it always seems like it is a shock to everyone, even when it is expected. We all deal with it differently because we all have different relationships with the person we lost and we all express our emotions differently. Some of us are silent while we deal with our emotions on the inside while others have no problem letting their emotions show to the world.

We all know that death is inevitable. We cannot deny that, but we are never really prepared for it to come. It seems like we always have regrets. We wish we could have told the person that we loved them or we wish we would have made up with them. There always seems to be something that bugs us when that time comes. I guess the answer would be to live your life with no regrets, but that is easier said than done.

Is it better to lose a loved one suddenly or to lose them over time as they are dealing with an illness that we know will eventually take their life? I don't have the answer to and I think it is an individual preference anyway. No matter how you answer that question, I don't think you will ever be prepared for the day anyway.

It is really interesting to hear people justify the loss of a loved one. I guess that is just something that is hard-wired into humans. You often hear some say, "they lived a full life." Or you may hear someone say, "they have gone to a better place" or that "they are no longer suffering." This is just our way of trying to move on in our own lives. We want to believe there is a purpose to everything that happens, so we use these phrases to make us feel that way.

My family experienced the loss of a loved one this past Friday. The Queen's grandfather passed away in Mexico not even two years after her grandmother passed away. This "sudden" loss really took everyone by surprise even though his health had deteriorated over the last six months or so. I regret that I did not get to spend more time with him to get to know him better. From what I know, he was a good man with a great work ethic who loved his family very much. He made a lot of sacrifices for his family. Rest in peace Damian.

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Where I Belong

I was at Fresno State yesterday for their spring career fair and I must say that it is always interesting when I go there. There is just something about that campus that does not feel right to me. I just don't feel like it is a university. It has the feel of a junior college to me. I guess that is why you really need to visit any potential college you are considering before making a decision.

I made my college decision without making a visit. I did not actually visit the campus until orientation over the summer. The good thing is that I felt comfortable on campus. My only regret is that I did not get the chance to live in the dorms my freshman year. It was not by choice, but I still regret it. It is so easy to make a lot of new friends when you live in the dorms. I would encourage everyone to do it their first year of college, especially if they have left their home town and don't know anyone like I did.

College was a great time in my life. I got to escape from my home town and meet people that were very different than I was. For instance, I did not know any black kids in my hometown. When I got to college I lived just down the hall from a few. Later in college I met a few more. I also only knew a few asians in my home town, but in college I met a lot of asian guys and girls. My junior and senior years I ended up living in a house with an asian guy and four asian girls. For some reason, I just did not click with a lot of white people in college. I was definately more comfortable with minorities and I think that had to do with the fact that I was a minority while going to school in my home town.

To this day I feel extremely comfortable when I travel to different parts of Mexico. I also felt comfortable when I traveled to Puerto Rico earlier this year and to China a few years ago. The places I really start to feel uncomfortable is areas of California that are traditionally known for having wealthy populations. I just don't fit in with that whole keeping up with the Jones' mentality and you are what you wear attitudes.

My other regret is that I didn't do something more exciting and helpful when I graduated from college. As I think back, I realize that it would have been a great experience to have joined the Peace Corp and traveled around the world helping disadvantaged people. I just wish it would have happened.

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Americans Killed in Mexico

I saw on the news this morning that a couple of Americans were gunned down by a drug cartel in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico over the weekend. An American consulate worker and her husband were shot while driving in their car. Their seven-month-old daughter was in the car with them and was not shot. This is just the latest drug cartel related killing of Americans in Mexico.

This is a social issue, not a law-enforcement issue. The people of Mexico are afraid of the drug cartels and they are worried that if they step forward to try to stop them they will be targeted. This is the problem in most developing countries that have crime problems. It will continue until the people stop accepting the criminal activity and stand together to put a stop to it. The police and other law enforcement departments can only do so much to try to stop them. The biggest problem is that these governmental agencies typically have limited funds and manpower when compared to the criminal groups.

The Mexican government has realized that this is a social issue and has begun focusing on changing the social issues in Ciudad Juarez. The United States has continued to provide monetary support to the Mexican government allowing agencies to purchase x-ray machines and even helicopters. The FBI and DEA continue to provide support for investigations when American citizens are involved in the drug cartel violence.

My biggest problem with all of this is that if Mexico really wants to change, the people will need to be the leaders of that change. They cannot sit back and wait for the Mexican government to make the change happen, which is what they typically prefer to do. Mexico is not known for major social change happening organically at the hands of the people anymore. In the past they have had change happen in this manner, but it seems like the people have become more accepting and less active in recent history.

I personally love to visit Mexico. I find the culture and people very interesting. There is a lot of history to explore. My wife's grandfather still lives in a small mountain village in central Mexico. We have visited him there twice and have really enjoyed the trips. The village is in Michoacan, which has had a lot of drug cartel violence recently. We have been talking about going back, but I don't know if this year will be a good time with all of the violence that is happening.

Ciudad Juarez is located just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with a current population of about 1.5 million people. Juarez and El Paso make up one of the largest binational metropolitan areas in the world with a combined population of about 2.4 million people. The Juarez-El Paso border crossing is one of the busiest US-Mexico border crossings with more than 600,000 people crossing every day.

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'Tis the Season for Tamales

I love this time of year for one major reason...tamales. I cannot get enough of them. Tamales are probably my favorite Mexican food.

This year, The Queen and Chachi are making them with The Queen's mom. They are making some pork, some cheese and jalapeño and maybe even some beef. I personally prefer the cheese and jalapeño and the beef. I had a few of the first batch today for lunch and they were great.

If we end up with enough, I may share. There just aren't any guarantees though.

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The Colors of Mexico

When you visit another country, you realize how boring we are in the United States. Even a poor country such as Mexico has a lot more color than we have back home. I have not visited other parts of Latin America, buy from what I have seen they are just like Mexico in this regard.

I spent a lot of time on the road today travelling from Mexico City to Puebla on business. I had a lot of time to observe my surroundings. On the road to Puebla there we passed hundreds, if not thousands, of people walking or riding biks on the pilgrimage for the festivities of Our Lady of Guadalupe. My friend from Mexico City told me that as many as 5 million people from all over Mexico make the pilgrimage for the festivities that take place December 12. He said that some of the pilgrims actually walk much of the distance on their knees and arrive at the Basílica of Guadalupe with blood dripping. Are these people crazy or are they just devout Catholics?

Read more about the festivities of Our Lady of Guadalupe here.

The other thing I noticed, which I have seen on all my visits to Mexico, are the colors. There are colorful signs painted on buildings, colorful cars and trucks, people wearing colorful clothing and colorful houses. These things are not just colorful, but they are pairings of colors that you just don't see very often in the United States. It makes for very interesting sights to see.

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Mexico City Here I Come...Again.

I am off to Mexico City again tomorrow. This will be my third trip to Mexico City this year. This trip, like the other two, is for business. The only difference is that this time it is just a quick trip for a meeting.

I will arrive in Mexico City late tomorrow night. Stay at a hotel connected to the airport for 2 nights and then fly home on Thursday, getting back home after midnight. A whirlwind trip for an early morning meeting on Wednesday. I would love to have more time in the city, but unfortunately I will not get it on this trip.

I really hated Mexico City after my first visit. I stayed at a hotel in an industrial area and spent all day in a trade show. All I saw of the city was that almost every space was covered in graffiti. I did not have any free time to go anywhere.

On my second trip, I found the city much more interesting. I stayed in a better part of the city. I could walk around the area and explore the restaurants, shops and Chapultapec Park. I drove by the famous golden angel and got to see much more of the city on this trip. I even made it downtown to Templo Mayor and got a tour of the city. I was really impressed.

I am sorry I will not have any time on this trip. I just can't wait to get back when I will have some free time to explore more of the city.

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I am an Art Snob

I have decided that I am an art snob. I joke with a guy at work that he is a food snob, a tequila snob and is a snob about various other items. Now, I have realized that I to am a snob.

I really like the Autumn because my two favorite events happen this time of year. Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. My only problem is that I am very picky about the type of decorations that I like. First of all, they have to be fairly unique. Second, they can't just be slasher type items. I like the items to have a folksy or almost cartoon feel to them. They need to have unique colors and textures and have to tell a story.

I think this is why I am drawn to Dia de los Muertos so much. Most of the artwork for this "holiday" is hand made and has a Mexican folk art feel to it. I really like this style a lot. I wish that there were more Halloween decorations with the same feel available.

I have scoured the internet looking for items that I like. I have tried ebay and etsy with not much luck. Most of the items on etsy are just really small. I have found some I like, but I need things that are larger in scale for my home. I like the work by Flor Lario which can be found here. I also like the work of Lupe Flores. I would like to be able to purchase larger, original paintings by these two artists, but I have only found the smaller pieces and prints of their paintings.

I am not giving up. I will start looking much earlier next year. I think I may even try to construct a Dia de los Muertos alter for next year.

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Halloween Recap

We spent our first Halloween in our house and I am exhausted. Because Tina's mom is in Mexico for Dia de los Muertos, we decided to do Halloween night at our house. We also decided to have a friend birthday party for Meg at our house in the afternoon.

The afternoon friend party went off without a hitch, but Meg's friends are a wild bunch. I see why she likes them. They played hide-and-go-seek, bounced on the trampoline and just ran around the house playing. The parents picked up their children at almost exactly 3:00, so we had some time to rest before the night crowd started showing up at 5:00.

Everyone started gathering around 5:00 and the kids were ready to go trick-or-treating by about 6:30. I wasn't sure what to expect since it was the first year to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. Some of our neighbors went all out with decorations. I would say a little more than 50% of the people were home. There was a pretty good crowd of kids walking through the neighborhood. The trick-or-treating at our house was over by about 8:30 which was surprising since it was a Saturday night.

Meg was the daughter of Captain America, I was Nacho Libre the monastery cook and Tina was Sister Encarnación. My parents showed up dressed as Superman and Supergirl. Kathleen and Lisa were both dressed as witches and Jaime was a vampire. Most people did not get who I was, but that was OK. It was a long night.

The Halloween song playlists I prepared disappeared into the background, which I thought would happen. They did help to set the mood.

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Halloween

I have been really busy updating our decorations for Halloween, and Meg's birthday which are one in the same. I find most of the Halloween decorations to be either ugly or just cheap looking. Most people have no problem with this, but I really do love this time of year and am very particular about what I buy.

On our last trip to Disneyland, we added a few items from the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. We bought a Jack Skellington bobble head and two Jack tea light holders. They are just Jack's head. In addition, my sister bought Meg both a Jack doll and a Sally doll for her birthday.

I mix in my collection of Dia de los Muertos items and masks from Mexico along with our Halloween docorations adn they go great together. I am more partial to creative Halloween items rather than just the horror type items a lot of stores sell. It is really hard to find stuff, so this will be a collection that grows as the years go by. Maybe at some point I will just start creating my own items. Who knows?

I can't wait until Meg is ready to go to her first haunted house/forest/attraction. The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is just not scary at all.

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El Dia de los Muertos

I really love the idea and imagery of Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican celebration of loved ones who have passed away. Many people may see the sugar skulls and Catrina dolls and think that this is a morbid holiday. It is quite the opposite.

For Dia de los Muertos, grave sites are decorated very elaborately with marigolds, sugar skulls and the favorite food and beverages of the departed. Pan de Muerto bread is eaten and the life of the person is celebrated. It is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day, which occurs on November 1st, and All Souls' Day, which occurs on November 2nd.

The celebration can be traced back to an Aztec ritual to honor the deaths of ancestors. The festivities were dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, known as the "Lady of the Dead." This is the origin of the modern Catrina dolls.

I have collected a few Catrinas on my trips to Mexico. I really like them and what they stand for. They are very traditional and the good ones are extremely delicate. I have spent many days gluing fingers back onto the dolls after they have been broken in transport. I don't think I have one that has not been broken.

Two of the best Dia de los Muertos celebrations take place in Tzintzuntzan and Janitzio in Michoacan. I have really wanted to visit there for the holiday and will make it there sooner than later.

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Good Food, Good Drinks & Good Conversation

We decided to have dinner at Henry Salazar's last night. I ordered a michelada and because we sat near the bar, I could here our waiter, the bartender and one of the owners of the restaurant discussing how to make the drink. I heard one of them say something about Clamato, so I got up to tell them I did not want Clamato in the drink. They gave me the option of a "bloody beer" or a beer with lime in it. I decided on the "bloody beer."

After our waiter brought me the drink, the owner came to our table and asked me if that was what I was looking for. I told him it was. I told him that in different parts of Mexico they have different recipes for the drink and that in Mexico City it was a beer with lime and ice in it and in Guadalajara it was made with tomato juice and spices. We started talking about Mexico and he asked me when was the last time I was in Mexico City and what I thought about it. I told him that after my first visit I was very disappointed, but on my second visit I actually got to take a tour and really got to see the good side of the city.

He said that he was scared to go from everything he had heard. He asked me where to go and what hotel I stayed in. I told him to stay in Polanco and that I stayed in the Camino Real next to Chapultapec Park. I told him it was a great place to stay.

A little later, we overheard him telling someone else about our conversation. He and the other gentleman came over to our table. He introduced us to his partner, Henry Salazar. We started talking about Mexico again. We talked about Michoacan and Mexico City. We talked about the art, Dia de los Muertos and many other topics. They told us that they buy most of their decor from a store named Polanco in San Francisco. We told them about Del Sol, where we have bought pottery in Visalia. It was a great conversation. We definitely will not wait so long to go back.

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