And Then They Danced For Me

Ha, ha, ha bunch of liars, you keep telling me that the suspense is killing you, well I am here to wrap it all up. So far it's all been fun, and we haven't even started dancing yet. Some of my friends had to leave early and they were starting to say good bye when mi chica stopped them and asked them to sit down just for a few more minutes.

Next thing I know my microphone shy chica is holding a microphone and talking to the guests. She told us that all the girls in my life (at least they represented all of them) had prepared a dance for me and they were about to perform it. She proceeded to let us know that my two daughters, two of my grand daughters, my goddaughter, three of my sisters, my sister in law, and my daughter in law, along with my nieces were going to perform their original version of "El Jarabe Zapatio". (Yeah, she even changed the name of the song).



I had no idea they had planned this for me and I was overwhelmed with emotion. I was told they practiced maybe once back in June and then again before they actually performed it. My goddaughter wasn't even part of the group but she learned it in just a few minutes.



I was surprised to see that the Mexican motif carried even in the way they were all dressed. They all looked so pretty as "The Adelitas" with their rebozos. I caught a glimpse of mi chica dancing along with all of them from the side lines like a proud mama.

After that awesome performance we started to dance and kept dancing until past midnight. For the first time in a long time we were not asked to turn things off by the cops. We ended the fiesta when we wanted and not when the neighbors wanted.

I don't normally drink and yet I got five or six bottles of tequila. We opened two of them and we started drinking shots. I kept up with everyone else and yet didn't even feel buzzed. Oh, I was drunk alright but I felt fine all the time. The same could not be said for some of my drinking partners. (can you say barf) All I can say is... lightweights. lol -- My hangover consisted of a mild headache which was immediately taken care of by two aspirins.

Well, that pretty much sums up the fiesta. It was extremely well planned and executed, the guests had fun, my family had fun, but most importantly I had a blast. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful wife... errr chica that loves me enough to put herself through months of stress just to carry this through.

Thanks to all that participated and celebrated with me this milestone in my life.






































All images on this post courtesy of Michelle Duckworth Photograhy.
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A Charro Came and Sang For Us...

Not one, not two, not three but four cakes. How awesome was that?
So, the guests started coming in and it didn't take long until we had a pretty full backyard. My biker buddies, Mustang fellow club members, karaoke friends, work mates, and of course my huge family.

There was still plenty of daylight, mi chica asked everyone to please take a seat, I was still taking pictures when she said, "To you I order you to take a seat". I knew then she had some sort of a surprise. The music started playing a little louder than before, it was a popular Mexican song and I was about to start singing on my own when this mariachi looking señor comes out from inside the house microphone in hand and singing a the top of his lungs.

This guy was great, good singing backed up by good comedy. Gabriel Garcia is his name and besides singing he also teaches music. He gives guitar lessons, singing lessons, art lessons, and acting lessons. (480) 522-9515 and (480) 329-1035 or email at principecharro07@yahoo.com

Wow, mi chica had hired an entertainer to sing to us while we ate. LOL Except the food people were an hour late which thanks to the singer was not too bad a wait. Besides the food was worth the wait as the tacos were sooooooo tasty. It has become very popular among us Mexicanos to hire a caterer that prepares what we call a "taquisa". The plate consisted of tacos with three different choices of meat, salsa bar, rice and beans, ummmmm, ummmmmm, ummmmmm, tacos, you can't ever go wrong if you serve tacos at a party.

The tacos were so good the line was solid for well over an hour. Many came back for seconds, and so did I.

The entertainer had been hired for two hours but he stayed an additional hour courtesy of my brother in law and my sister. This guy not only sang nice but he also kept us laughing with a plethora of jokes. And additional surprise and definite crowd please was when his son whom I estimate was about seven or eight years old came out also dressed in his charro outfit and sang two songs to every ones delight.

El Charrito sang so good that he got the biggest ovation.

Even I had a turn at the mic as he graciously offer it to anyone who wanted to sing. So my sister and I sang a song but she claimed I kept singing in her tone. Hey I never claimed to be a professional. lol

My sister and I doing a duet.

As far as the food go, there was plenty of it. Normally food runs out within the two allotted hours for dinner, mi chica made sure and ordered enough to ensure that everyone was fed, heck most of us went for seconds and still the food didn't run out. Way to go baby!

The taco line kept forming for almost two hours, poor taco guy, he probably needed a brake but that was not about to happen. All of a sudden I saw mi chica take center stage holding a mic, she asked for our attention and pretty much came out with yet another surprise...

But that story will have to wait for the next post.

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The Fiesta

What an elaborate set up, there were plenty of tables for all the guests.
Notice the black clouds in the sky. Looked like rain.

And finally the day of the party came. Our California relatives got here on Friday night and Saturday morning. Everything was ready but to me everything was still a mystery, all I knew was there was a party about to happen but I had no idea of what mi chica had in store fore me.

I spent most of my morning in anticipation of what was to come, to kindda take my mind off things I run some errands in the morning, my black slacks were no where to be found so I had to go and find me a new pair, also buying some more beer and fresh flowers was in my to do list. Once that was accomplished I went back home and took a little nap, I found out earlier in life that naps are great time killers.

At around 5:00 pm mi chica and I headed out to my sister's house where the party would take place. Driving into Phoenix I noticed that the sky threatened to spoil things a bit, dark clouds had move in and we thought for sure a monsoon would visit.

Upon getting there they started putting the table decorations which had a plethora of Mexican related articles such as a Mexican hat, a Mexican soda, Mexican candy, and some Mexican toys. The flower vases were made out of "Salsa del Pato" hot sauce cans, and there was a tin luminary on each table. I am sure I mentioned before the party had a Mexican motif.



There definitely was a feeling that a Mexican Fiesta was about to happen. Just look at all those table decorations.

It took a good forty minutes to set all the table arrangements, everything look so good and pretty and then all of a sudden a gust of wind came and in 30 seconds undid every thing they had made so far, yes Mother Nature wanted to crash my party and it did.

Obviously I started taking pictures and capturing images as soon as I got there. The weather was a little on the hot side but it was bearable, normally our California guests complain a lot but I don't think I heard even one complain. Actually once the sun went down and the threat of a monsoon passed, we were getting this rather nice wind gusts that felt so good.

Ah, for those of you that still haven't met mi chica please allow me to introduce her to you. She planned this moment for the past six months along with my daughter. Yes I am lucky and I know it.

Exactly at 5:30 pm guests started showing up, and little by little a once empty backyard started getting full. The DJ got there early and immediately set his equipment up, the soft welcoming music started playing, yes we had all the makings of a fun party.

The DJ set up pretty early and started jammin' even before the guests had arrived.

But what happened next I leave for another post.

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Fortune Cookie

On the eve of the big 5-0

My Chinese fortune cookie read:

Unexpected romantic and financial
gifts surprise and delight you!

I say, bring it on.

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And here is another present I just received, my dear friend Chris was just in time to post it as soon as I turned 50.

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!


Thank you Chris for this past two years of good friendship. And hoping for more. Also thanks for the birthday shout out.
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It's Getting Closer

So here is my question, are students back to school in full force or are people back to work? For the past two weeks I have been catching traffic on the freeway that I had not seen almost all year long. This morning it was bumper to bumper traffic. At least the weather has changed so nicely that a top down was all I needed to enjoy the commute to work, traffic and all.

The countdown continues, two more days for my birthday, yey. Did I mention that the cake's flavor will be French Vanilla, ummmm que rico! Once again Linda will be baking it, I am not a cake eater but Linda's cakes are the best. I told you I would pass on the information as it was leaked. lol

There will be a DJ, unfortunately it won't be my brother as he's hectic scheduled did not allow him to DJ for me. It's sort of a bummer but what can you do. However mi chica is very resourceful and found one where she least expected it... at work.

I am really excited to be reaching the 5-0 mark. I try to think of me as a fine wine that only gets better with time. OK, if I don't tell that to myself who will right?

OK, until I am a little hungry so I am going to heat up one of my burritos so I can have breakfast. Until the next time.


My dear friend Wanda captured this image a couple of years back and published it in her blog. Eventually she water painted her own rendition of it.

This week the mailman brought this envelope and it contained an original print of this very image signed by her as my birthday present. Pretty soon I will post of picture of that but first it must be framed.

This has been one of my favorites ever since.

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The Anticipation Mounts

The day is getting closer, comes Friday the 18th I'll be 50 years old and the buzz around this place is that a big fiesta is going to be taking place. It's obvious that something this big could not be kept a secret so I've known about it for quite a while as mi chica and my daughter have been planning this for quited a while now. However some of the details have been leaked and I am letting you in the secret.

The fiesta will definitely have a Mexican motif. The invitations were pretty cute and mimicked a Mexican serape. The beer and sodas are of the Mexican kind, heck I'm even having pinatas. But knowing mi chica and my family there is probably so much more going on that they are definitely not telling this old soul. Well I know some of it had to be kept secret.

Since the fiesta will take place in the backyard at my sister's house in Phoenix, we are praying and hoping for a break in the weather. Yes, it's still hot here believe it or not.

I am sure that I will be blogging about it for a few days after it all happens, I get the feeling that there will be plenty to blog about.

My co-workers, my fellow car club members, my biker friends, my karaoke family, even some of my blogger friends were invited, not too mention the one or two hundred family members that will most likely be here.

That I remember I have only had one birthday celebration fiesta about three years ago but I know it pales in comparison to this one. To say I am excited is an understatement, after all the big 5-0 is indeed a milestone in anybodies life. I am ready to get there and to embrace it, I have never been afraid of getting old, in my case I am thankful that God is allowing me to continue getting old.

But what is old, really? I am still in good shape, I am not on meds yet, and I pretty much still do the things I like to do without a problem. Yep, as far as I'm concerned and like the song says, God is good, life is great, and people are crazy but that's what makes the world spin. Me... not old by a long shot.

Stay tuned for more as it is revealed to me. Also I want to thank my dear friend Wanda of Brushstrokes from the heart for the awesome present she sent me for my birthday, she know how much I cherish her original artwork and the original print she sent me will take a nice chunk of space in one of my walls pretty soon. More on this to come as well, stay tuned.

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Movie Night

I should have a peaceful quiet weekend, the younger crowd in this family is camping and mi chica has to go to work which means I should catch up on some of my chores, run some errands, and go exchange a couple of items at the store. The car needs washing and so do our house windows but I don't know if I'll get to those.

I'm watching "The Circuit", a cheese karate movie with Olivier Gruner, no plot other than the underground illegal fights where the hero always save the day at the end. Yeah, for stupid plots with lots of action and fighting sequences. Wax on, wax off, wax... oh excuse me wrong movie.

I am now into the second feature. "Exit Speed", another cheese action type movie. The info. info. read as follows: Ten bus passengers become stranded and must fight off murderous bikers from inside a scrap yard. At first I thought it would be the outlaw kindda bikers but this movie turned out to be young bikers on rice burners doing tricks and killing for no reason at all. Lea Thompson is on this one.

Sometimes it's just fun to watch B movies, stupid as they may be sometimes they are fun.

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September 11

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The Squirrel in Disguise

OK, my daughter and her family went camping last week, on their way to the camping site they saw what she calls a gray and white squirrel. Below is the image she captured of it.


Of course I argued that it didn't look like a squirrel but she defended her position on the issue and said it was. So, with all the technology at my finger tips I decided to get to the bottom of this and cropped the image then enhanced the colors, and in the end I was right, it was not a squirrel, here is the end result of my investigation.


I'm enjoying the short workweek, can you believe tomorrow is Friday again. It's still hot here in Phoenix but I think the weather is trying to change, it won't be until next month that we will finally start seeing two digit temperatures but to us even a 102 degree day is a good day.

Mi chica has been planing this big birthday fiesta for me (more on that later in the week). It's scheduled for Saturday the 19th, I hope the weather will give us a break that day since it's going to be in the backyard at my sister's house.

Well, today my mom hooked me up with some home made burritos and our HR person just notified me that she'll be bringing pasta and bread stick. Umm yummy! I'm hungry already just thinking about it.

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Song... Viva Mexico.

Mi chica and I dancing. Viva la Salsa!

Film by: Araceli (Chely) Melo

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Don Chente

My little sister (whom will be celebrating her Quiceanera X3 in three weeks)took us to Don Chente, a new bar and grill in he city of Huntington Park. Her friends used to perform there but on Sunday night there was a duet that used recorded tracks but sang live, not karaoke but really sing. Their specialty was tropical music. Cumbias, salsa, merengue, zoka, and a few boleros. They really, really sang them very well.



As it turned out, I was not properly dressed for such a nice place, not that they denied me entrance or anything like that but I looked more like a biker than a salsa dancer. Fortunately no matter how I was dressed that was not going to stop me from dancing. Since both mi chica and my lil sis are dancers I had to dance back to back while they had a song or two to rest. Needless to say I had a really good workout.

Towards the end of the night we went out to the patio and the waiter came out and said to mi chica, "Excuse me, aren't you from TV?" We started laughing and mi chica asked him what he meant by from TV. He said he thought she was a comic or something like that. Again we started laughing and my sister said, you mean like "The Chupitos" or "La Quatro". He got all embarrassed "Oh no, that is more like an insult" and went back inside. We just continued to laugh as we thought that was funny.

La Chupitos y La Cuatro, two famous Latin comics.

It was now closing time so they very politely kicked us out. lol Not really, we were waiting for a friend of ours that performs there and was talking to the owner. The waiter was leaving and he once again said he was embarrassed and tried to apologise but instead we asked him to pose with mi chica for a picture to remember the moment.



You must know that it is not uncommon for Latin celebrities to go to Don Chente thus the reason why the waiter got mi chica confused, we asked him whom he thought she was but he could not remember the name of that particular celebrity.

Well all in all we had a great outing. Here are some more scenes from the night.







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First Friday

People waiting for the shuttle at the Phoenix Art Museum parking lot.
Finally we did our first "First Friday" over at Downtown Phoenix. My sister in law and my niece were my partners in crime for this outing. We left the house at around 6:30 pm got on the freeway and in about 20 minutes we got to the Phoenix Art Museum to pick up the free route maps.

We waited for about 15 minutes for the shuttle but then decided to get the van and drive down to Roosevelt and 3rd, it was already crowded and we noticed that people had to park far to get to the event. I turned on a street here, and the on a street there and voila a parking spot was right there just waiting for us to park. Only two short blocks away and we were eaten by the crowds.
The temperature was hot and a bit humid, they had predicted rains all afternoon for Phoenix but does anybody really trust the Weather Forecasters, I think not. We started by going into the first gallery, an artist working on a painting, a band playing live in the corner, a few vendors selling hand made jewelry and friendly people just having fun watching the different products on display.

Then on to our second gallery, this one had some pictures just hanging from a string, you could tell the images were captured with a good camera, my little point and shoot will never accomplish the clarity of those images, I didn't see any prices though.

You find out that there is no particular kind of people there, it's a great mix of people of all kinds, trust me when I say all kinds. lol








Our third gallery tour showed a big collection of framed black and white images. I started to peruse the images and was already in my mind saying, "I have better images than this in my repertoire" my sister in law said the very same thing I was thinking and then under each picture in a little, tiny, weeny, card we saw the prices. $900.00 or $700.00 unframed. A regular size picture in a 5 X 7 frame $500.00 or $300.00 unframed.

My sister in law and her daughter admiring the photographs..
My goddaughter and I.
Humm do they think I am made of money. That's it I'm buying from my brother in law.

My sister in law said, "There is hope for you guys". I don't know what separates a pro from an amateur but if it's all the same to you all from now all call me "artist". I am artist Joe Cool and my captures will be found in a gallery on E Roosevelt St. Starting prices at the low $1000s and if my works sell maybe I won't get to be a starving artist.


Seriously, I offer my pictures starting at $25.00 and at this time my most expensive one is about $70.00. But there I think I have to start pricing them at $100.00 all the way to $800.00.

I didn't realize that the crowds were in the thousands. I thought maybe I would see a few groups here and there, well, think again Mr. Joe Cool.

The crowd.

I really enjoy this kind of outing, I hate crowds but I know how to ignore people when I want to and I don't let it get to me. Most likely we will be going again next month. The area where this galleries and studios are is so huge that there is no way everything can be seen in one day, or two, or three.





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First Friday and More

It's Friday once again, the nice thing about this weekend is that it will be long, I know many will complain and challenge me by saying that it's not long enough but all things considered for mi chica and I it will be. It is rare for mi chica to have two consecutive days off from work so we will take this rare opportunity and take a quick impromptu road trip to California.

In the meantime tonight I am planning to go to "First Friday" in Downtown Phoenix.

First Friday in Phoenix.
Open studios tours are a good way to experience art and artists. Every first Friday evening of each month you can take a free self-guided tour of downtown Phoenix galleries, studios and art spaces. It's called First Friday. First Friday is organized by Artlink, a nonprofit organization "...dedicated to bringing together artists, the public, and businesses for a greater understanding, appreciation, and promotion of the arts and the development of a strong and vital downtown Phoenix arts community."

Free shuttle rides will take you from one gallerie to the next during "First Friday".
Since I started doing the frames I have been interested in finding out ways of promoting them. Everybody keeps telling me that "First Friday" would be a perfect venue for me to promote and sell our frame images. So, tonight we are going to go and explore the possibilites.


All images on this post borrowed from the Internet.
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Another Road Trip

Again the week is going too fast, just two more days and another weekend is here. This one I know many of you are really looking forward to as it's a long weekend. Since mi chica normally only rests on Sunday she will have a two day weekend for a change, so we decided to take a quick trip to California.

Since we are creatures of habit we will be leaving as soon as she comes home on Saturday and hope to get there before midnight just in time for... yeap you guessed it Rambo's Tacos. For us going to Rambo's must be the first order of business upon arriving there.

Sunday will be the day we have available to go out and do something. Mi chica is not a fan of taking pictures like I am so I doubt I'll be photo hunting again but thankfully my camera is small enough to travel with me in my pants' pocket. You never know when a good capture may present itself. Then on Monday we'll be back on the road again on our way to Phoenix.

There's always some sort of plan or itinerary when we go to Cali but I also like it when there's no plan and we decide on what to do as we go along. The main goal is to visit mi chica's brother(s) as well as my sister and family. It should be fun and it will be great to get away from Phoenix.

I must admit I am dreading the California heat which normally is very humid, yes I live in the desert and it's very hot but our houses are equiped to handle it. There we'll be lucky if they can open all the windows and maybe have a fan or two.

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