California... Again!

Traveling in my car always makes me think of Disneyland. I wonder why?
Well as always the weekend came and went way much too fast, but that's OK I will be repeating this trip yet one more time in about three weeks. Both Abby and my lil sister had been here last week so I was going to skip this trip but expected unexpected changes in my life allowed me to just saddle up the pony sort of speak and one more time ride the highway.

This time I left Phoenix promptly at 11:30 a.m. which means nothing but daylight all the way which also translates into lots of stops along the way for picture taking, eating, resting, and just plain ol' relaxing and enjoying the trip. My travel mug was constantly being filled with Mountain Dew and the ice I put in it lasted almost all the way.

It was the middle of nowhere and it had many awesome things to photograph.



It was a nice enjoyable trip and I finally made it to La Puente. My sister had gone out prospecting for a job while Abby was at a stand still somewhere on the 14 and then the 5 highways so I had to kill some time and since I was hungry from the trip I went to eat pupusas at El Salvadoreno. I had been marking my places on facebook so my niece knew of my whereabouts. After eating I got on the car and decided to text my sister, then as I was about to leave I heard a noise on my passenger door and to my surprise my niece was standing there.

"Do you have room for an ice cream date?" She said, I got out of my car and got in hers and we drove to a Basking Robins for some needed desert. Most of you already know that I have a weakness for ice cream. Ummm yummy! This is when I realize that traffic in Hacienda Heights at 5:30 p.m. totally sucks. A mile stretch took us forever to cross and my niece winded up cheating by leaving the boulevard and going through some residential areas.

Ummm Ice cream... Yummy! Abducted by my niece.
The rest of the night was pretty much a routine of what we normally do on a Friday night. Karaoke at Casa Cabral in the City of Commerce to celebrate my sister's birthday. I think one too many Long Island Ice teas and tequila shots were served because my normally happy singers couldn't even follow a line in the songs.

Bottom line, at the end of the night we all agreed we had had a fantastic time even though I fell asleep in the car the last hour or two before turning in. Fun times!

ABC Wednesday -- Letter "K"

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ABC Wednesday, today it's Letter "K"

And the only thing I can think of is:



KARAOKE!

My Birthday Party!

Here I am with my mom and my four sisters. Too bad my brother couldn't make it.
For and impromptu birthday party all the people that matter the most were present with the exception of my brother whom happened to be busy. There was food galore, and the ranchero meat my sister brought was not even cooked. What? No carne asada? Yep, that's exactly what happened and yet we were all full from all the other dishes that materialized on that table.

I had not one but two cakes and everybody seemed to have a great time just eating and being around each other.

Two of my favorite people, my babe and my baby sister being cool enough to hang around this old fool and not only that but they love me, at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And did I mention they both came from California just to be with me during this my birthday weekend.

Food materialized rather quick and both the kitchen and dinning room tables were filled to capacity with hungry visitors.


Above my son posing with me and with Abby. Bottom picture is a favorite of mine as all my ten grandkids were there on Sunday and they are all in this picture.

My daughter Michelle and I.
My daughter Nikki with Abby and I. A happy birthday indeed.
Thanks to my lil sister for all the images which I very smoothly stole from her Facebook page.

ABC Wednesday -- Letter "J"

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ABC Wednesday, today it's Letter "J"

z"Joe Cool"
Double "J" -- Juan and Jose.

Joe Cool's Birthday Weekend.

Of course she was my date for the whole weekend but soon she will be my date for ever.
How do I even begin to tell you what an awesome birthday weekend I had. It pretty much started on Thursday night when my fiance and my little sister decided to surprise me by showing up a whole day in advance. Yes I knew they were coming but was expecting them by Friday night, so that was a heck of a pleasant surprise.

My California surprises, Abby and Chely. These two have been best friends since like forever.

Needless to say I called in to work on Friday as I took one of the many personal days that are available to me, because believe it or not and even with all those California trips I have managed to only take a small portion of my allotted personal and vacation time. Smart time management is the name of the game.

So, the next morning Abby and I had brunch at Village Inn in Avondale. I had been there before and was not impressed but this time the food was really good and so was the service which made it for a nice time while we were there. Next we went over to the furniture to just kindda see what they had and winded up buying a brand new set of mattresses. Trust me, if I already sleep a lot once these things make it to my house I will sleep all the time because they are totally and awesomely comfortable.

It was a non stop weekend. We went from shopping, to visiting my mom, to going out dancing, to singing at church, and then to coming to my sister's for an impromptu birthday party for me which was so much fun I want another one next week. All my kids were there as were my mom and sisters, my sister Adela was also there and that was a super treat as I hardly ever get to see her.

My niece Marya better known as Maryita and I.
Joe Cool feeling very loved right now.
Las cuatro mosqueteras, bueno en realidad no son mosqueteras pero si son cuatro.
Abby and I had better things to do than to pose for pictures.

As always the best part of the after party is the food, and this time Salsitas provided with some very delicious tacos. Ummm que ricos!

I didn't have my camera handy so I am going to rely on some images caught by my lil sister and I may add more as I can steal more from family members that mey post them on facebook. Yeah, I know what a cheater.

Tidbits

Looking forward to this upcoming weekend I will be getting a very special visitor from California. *Wink, wink* Heard my lil sis is taggin' along as well so that right there is a double treat. What's not a treat is that on Sunday I will be turning 52 years old. Boo! Birthdays can slow down starting right now. Slow them down please! Lot's going on so I have no idea what we will accomplish but I think going out dancing is in the agenda. A treat for my visitors will be temperatures below 100 degrees, yey they should appreciate that very much.

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So, last Tuesday I was getting ready to go out to lunch when a trucking company rep showed up and then winded up staying here just talking for well over an hour. Since by the time he left it was too late for me to eat as I didn't want to spoil my appetite for my mom's home cooked meal I decided to go wash my car instead. It was very hot and very sunny so it seemed like an awesome idea since my car really needed to be washed. I came back to work in as if by magic within the next 30 minutes the sky went from clear and sunny to dark and cloudy. By the time I left it started to sprinkle, by the time I got to my mom's it had rained. Let's say my car went from dirty to clean to dirty in just 60 minutes.

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If you still haven't visited my new blog or subscribed to it now is a good time to do it. Just CLICK HERE and go do it, don't think about it, what are you waiting for? I have not been able to start taking pictures but I have been recycling some of my favorites and I have also added a few new ones. So, don't be shy and come and visit.

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Singing at mass tonight. Last Thursday our priest sorta came into the room where we practice and "asked" if we could sing today's mass. Ha, ha, his asking is more like see you guys (at least some of us) in mass next Thursday. So tonight we sing and then we also have our scheduled practice for Sunday's mass. I really enjoy singing with the choir even though my niece constantly tells me "Tio you have to sing louder".

ABC Wednesday -- Letter "I"

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ABC Wednesday, today it's Letter "I"

"I" is for Image.
Interior.
I have always liked the interior of my fox bodied Mustang.
Idea, as in decorating idea.

Why I Hate Shopping

Woke up and decided I would not waste my Saturday just sitting at home doing nada so after I enjoyed my morning coffee, surfed the net a little bit, and took a nice long shower I headed out on a 28 mile round trip of my neighbourhood.

First stop West Valley Vision where I bought this super expensive glasses that keep falling apart. I lost one of the little plastic nose thingies about three weeks ago and today I am finally getting it replaced... or not, it would have help for me to know that on Saturday they close at 12:30 p.m. so me getting there a little bit past 1:00 p.m. was not going to get this accomplished. Oh well, what the heck I will wait another week, luckily this glasses are so light that it doesn't imprint the metal into my nose. Well, on to stop number two, Target.



Target is where I usually get my underwear, socks, muscle shirts etc. So I go to the one in Litchfield since I am on that side of town anyway. What I like about Target stores is that they all have the same configuration and they are easy to navigate. Ha, they had a surprise in store for me. They are changing the whole store configuration so trying to find anything there was a challenge and a quest.

Still, I located the socks, briefs, and shirts I needed and then I asked out of curiosity where was the shoe department. Oh it's on the other side past the ladies clothes in front of the infant stuff. Oh thanks I will find them, ha! I did but they only had one style of the tennis shoes I like. So much for variety, before I get in a bad mood I am just going to pay for this and hit my next target (get it I said target but obviously not another Target store. My shopping experience there, well not so good today.

Well I need to clear my mind before I hit my next stop and I knew just the perfect way to do that. Go to a motorcycle dealership and browse, mount every bike I like, pretend I am rich enough to get me one of each and have them delivered to my garage. Yey, success... at least in the dreaming part. lol



Left the dealership and headed towards Old Avondale, I am getting hungry and there are a couple of restaurants there that I like, so I stopped a couple of times took some pictures, thought about the food, and then my fiance texts me and suggest that I have a hamburger because she has been craving one since Friday and won't eat in the name of having a fantastic figure (Which I am happy to attest, she does). So there are hamburgers and then there are Smash Burgers. Ummmm yummy!





I get to Smash Burger and opt for the very tasty Arizona Smashburger complete with abanero cheese, guacamole, jalapeno pepper slices and their very tasty fries. Hey, at least my eating experience was a nice one, thanks honey for suggesting it. Love ya! lol




On a full stomach now I can go walk the food off at Walmart, there is only one Walmart I like and that is the one by my house on Camelback Ave. I go in grab a cart start going isle by aisle picking only those items that I needed and that were on my mental list, 45 minutes later I am ready to leave but decide to go check out the clothes. I found some blue jeans I liked in my size and a nice polo shirt, how awesome now I have an outfit for church tomorrow... Wrong!

I was looking for a magazine so I parked my cart and went real quick to check the magazine rack, I walked an isle here and and isle there but couldn't find the darn rack so I said forget it let's just go home. So I headed to where I parked my cart with all the stuff I had picked except guess what? I found the cart parked exactly where I left it but all the stuff I was buying was gone, gone with the wind. I guess they wanted to hold my stuff for ransom but I was not going to pay so after wasting a little bit over an hour in the store I had to walk up empty handed. I was not about to go look for all the items again. My shopping experience there, not so good.

Well, I have an extra AMC theater movie ticked, why don't I go by myself and watch Saving Private Perez. So I check the times and basically find out that it doesn't matter what time it is, they do not have that movie in their movie roster. My movie watching experience, not so good.

So now I am here at home resting from going all over town sharing with you my faithful readers the why's I hate going shopping. Shopping and Jose mix... not so good. Hey at least I did grab the underwear which I almost left at Target since I was going to Walmart.

A Colonoscopy - The Sequel

Two years and a few days give or take and I am due for another colonoscopy. Second time I am at a hospital and for the very same procedure. This time it was at a different hospital however it was the same doctor performing the deed.

Dr. Cruz, my specialist has proven to be very gentle and trustworthy; she always knows what to tell me before the procedure to put me at ease. Then the nurses come in and they hit you with the heavy stuff such as, “Do you have a living will”, and “Who do we contact in case of an emergency if something goes wrong”. So much for easing my mind to the upcoming event. Right?

It was a very fast and uneventful procedure; it took some juggling for me to get there and then to be picked up. My wonderful sister was nice enough to take me in; she dropped me in front of the building, wished me well, and then left. Well, it would have been nice if I would have directed her to the correct building. I was totally wrong and so I had to walk all the way to the other side of the campus to the correct building. Oops my bad, so I won’t blame her.

Went in and followed registration protocol and before I knew it I was in a big room full of people undressing myself and getting into this sexy green gown and matching hat. The socks they gave me were brown though and totally messed up my outfit. No I didn’t give them a strip tease show; they actually pulled the curtain on my act. L lol

Mr. Melo we are going to put this gas and inject you with this so that it --- r e l a x e s y o u and puts you to sleep, and blah blah blah zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Next thing I know I am opening my eyes in a big room and this nice nurse asks me if I am awake. No, ma’am I sleep with my eyes open. Dr Cruz then comes over and praises me for being such a trooper and for doing so good. Ummm wait, what in the heck did I do? Somebody, tell me!

“We called your daughter so you can be picked up” is what the nurse told me, except my daughter had a diaper changing crisis and picked me up almost an hour later. In the meantime I sat there in a wheel chair on a corner as they needed the space for other patients. Yes, for the first time in my life I was placed on “will call”.

Well, I finally made it home. My daughter got me some Chinese food, I ate some of it and pretty much slept for the rest of the day.

Disaster Zone

So, I am in the middle of a demolition derby of sorts, no room has been left untouched, most of the good furniture is out and what remains will be tossed. Lots of packing too. The idea is to give this house a total makeover and that's exactly what I will accomplish.



I imagine it will take a while for it to get to where it needs to be in it's new form but it has to be done. Well at this point there's no turning back anyway, as I said most of my stuff found a new home already.



For sure it will receive a fresh coat or two of paint through the whole house, then a new carpet, and tile in the master bedroom will have to be installed. And then lots of finishing touches here and there. Sounds like a lot but heck I am not the one that will be performing these tasks, I leave those for the pros.



I really have no clue what the final look will be but I hope that in a not too distant future I will be able to share it with you. Tell you the truth I too am curious so I will probably show me first, then sll of you. lol