There were about two hundred people at my brother-in-law's memorial service. I've never seen a chapel so packed out for a funeral. All of them came to the reception afterwards.I took this photo after about half had already left.Yes, that's Shawn Green, the baseball player, in the middle of the room. Who didn't Rafael know??More importantly, ...
Film
Geeks in Paradise
There's so much to see and do in Hawaii. Particularly on the island of Oahu. There are people on just about every corner and in every hotel brokering their own "Experience the Aloha" type sightseeing trips. It's very important that you "Experience the Aloha" and there are tons of tours available to see ...
Happy New Year!
It's a new year. And while I don't actually make resolutions, I always feel like the new year is a new beginning.A blank page.A do-over.I always have that thing in me that wants to do more, act nicer, learn things. I always want to be a little better.I think it every time.Every new year.Maybe it's because I'm Cuban.And we are a perpetually hopeful ...
Feliz Navidad
Me: Can you guys do a 30-second Noche Buena commercial spot? Them: Umm. . . Duh! Watch this . . .I want to wish all of you my very faithful blog visitors (whom I totally consider my Big, Fat, Extended Cuban-Cyberspace Family, because I'm kind of a dork like that =D) a very, very Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año ...
Why we do what we do.
We eat roast pig (lechon asado) on Christmas Eve, which we call Noche Buena. We have yuca with a garlic mojo on the side.We fight over the fried, ripe plantains.We hold hands and give thanks to God for his generous provision.We draw names for a gift exchange, but end up getting little gifts (we call those "regalos de arbol" - or ...
A Wonderful Christmastime
One week til Christmas and this right here is the very best part of it all for me: The preparations. The houseful of busy Christmas preparations. The crossing stuff off lists. The anticipation of the happy and surprised looks. Christmas music playing and busy people in the house.The girls call out for us to look at a ...
Yes, that’s Andy Garcia in our family home movie. =D
It's a week before Christmas and I find this taped to my studio door. What on earth. . .? Oh yes, it's crunch time. You see we (Amy, Lucy and I) make a Christmas film every year. We take all our home movies and set them to music and cut the clips together and give it a fun title and ta-da! it becomes a family keepsake. Okay, so ...
Counting the days . . . or making the days count?
Today's advent activity:Churros, Hot Chocolate and The Grinch. I cannot even tell you how cool this whole calendar thing has been. There's already so much anticipation! They've already established rules: 1) They open each box together. 2) No peeking ahead. 3) They immediately tell Amy and Adam what the activity will be and ask them to join ...
I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
NOTE: This post will make sense to die-hard Tolkien fans and LOTR uber-geeks (and you know who you are and in which case you'll love the links on this page) and will merely amuse the rest of you. =D In September of 1973, the author J.R.R. Tolkien died. As usually happens with notable literary or artistic figures, after their death there is ...
We didn’t even get sANDY. ;-)
So stinking hot here! It was really even too hot to think about fighting the crowds and Labor Day weekend traffic to get to the beach. I know. I can still barely believe I'd give up a beach day... But we cranked up the a/c and made it a point to move as little as possible. We just hung out and read and watched a movie. Ocean's Twelve. That's ...