My girl is 30 years old today. Let me tell you about her...She is the real deal. She has the most beautiful blue eyes you have ever seen. She doesn't like to hear the word, "no." She has a raucous, distinctive, infectuous laugh. She feels things deeply. She is a fiercely loyal friend. She is tenacious. She is oh-so-very ...
My Big, Fat, Cuban Family
Family is everything to me. I love them more than words can describe.
Family Dinners
I probably shouldn't make such a big deal about it, but I do. Family Dinners are super important to me. It has nothing to do with surveys or statistics. Although statistics are on the side of regular family dinners for keeping families connected and eating well. Family Dinners are kind of sacred around here.Confession: I don't ...
Wassup En La? Why you will love this sitcom…
Go and grab yourself a nice, hot cafecito and make yourself comfortable. This post is going to be long and newsy. I'm about to seriously dish about the new TV sitcom, Wassup En LA? with lots of details and tons of photos about the project. (This is why you love me, right?) I promised you a few weeks ago that I would write about the making of ...
99 Red Balloons
My mom, Luza, celebrated her 99th birthday in February. You may recall that she asked if she could have balloons at her party. How fabulous would it be if we could get 99 RED Balloons for the party? (Inspired by the 80's song of the same name, but that's not important right now.) I took it up just a notch and asked everyone to please ...
A Pastelito by any other name…
There are thousands of fantastic restaurants in Southern California. And I'm sure the fair city of Glendale has a bizzillion wonderful eateries. But, if we're going to be in Glendale for any reason, we must always stop at Porto's Bakery and load up on Cuban Provisions. There's no better Cuban bakery in So Cal. Lucy, Jonathan ...
Bee-ing Ourselves
Spring weather here in Southern California is like no other. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is open all the windows and doors and let the fresh air in. This is how the trouble started... I left the slider in our bedroom open the other morning, and a bee got in the house. I didn't know that that's what had happened. I ...
Cuban Word of the Day
I have been taking a hiatus to get myself well again from being sick for the first part of this year. (Thank you, Vicks VaPoRub for your constant support.) I'm 100% better and I'm ready to jump back into blog-world. I had a feeling-sorry-for-myself-emotionally-fragile moment of "I wonder if anyone even remembers me?" This ...
It Won’t Be A Surprise Party…
I had my mom, Luza, with me over the weekend. Our major activity was making plans for her upcoming birthday next month. We will be celebrating her 99 years on earth. Me: "What would you like to do for your birthday?" Luza: "I would like a party." Me: "Of course." She stops for a moment, thinking. "Can I have ...
His Descendants are Many…
When we first moved into our present home eleven years ago, I had a vision of what I wanted along the wall of the stairwell. I wanted a sepia toned collection of family photos, old and new. The black and white photos and the brown sepia tones would be the unifying factor between the Now and Then look.It all started with a photo of my dad. A ...
The Things I Didn’t Blog About in 2012 – Luza
I write just about every day in my journal. I use the pages to rant and complain so that I don't do as much of it here in this public space. In my journal, I write about my fears, my worries, my hopes, and my dreams. Some days I just write about how tired I am (which admittedly is not the best blog-fodder, but that's not important right ...
