the city and the sea

on a coldish Sunday of June
i took my friend to the Coronado island
this is the view of San Diego from Coronado



and a smooth electronic song, Deep Blue Sea
written by my best friend (d.j.ix aka perro)
under his musical-pen name Looprication


to go with the imagery

[click on the panorama to see full size]

Easter

yesterday was Easter Sunday
my friends m&m shared a wonderful
American Easter Sunday feast
it was a lovely day, thank you!


our dinner of: Ham with pineapples, Macaroni and Cheese,
Mashed potatoes, Green collards, fresh baked rolls,
and pumpkin pie (not photo here)


the ham was so sweet, hope the pork forgives me



Mione's macaroni and cheese were the tastiest surprise
stronger cheese flavor without all the melted cheese
perfectly crunchy!


the nice hosts


Gibby, the 16 year-old nephew-cat



Indio, the lustrous cool cat

Ghalab El Hawa, ginger snaps, and chardonnay

i started writing this last night
and then i didn't finished it
i miss my blog, i miss my life
i miss my mom, and sure going to miss my boss!

this January really started with some core changes to my life
my boss of 6, almost 7 years, that btw, has been my best friend
of 10 years, is quitting the job
tomorrow is his last day, and even if he's a fair person
and doesn't let me get away with 'bad' behavior at work
surely it has been great to have your best friend as boss

now all will change, i am on my own in this company
i know the co-workers very well now, and most of them
are really nice and understandable people, yet
being a small non-profit company we tend to be
a bit on the disorganized side

oh well...

and then i miss my mom like hell
she was here with me for a bit over a month
she was sooo much help! she took care of the Gatos
of the food, of the cleaning, and was always waiting
for me with a warm plate of home re-friend beans
and whole grain bread and tortillas
and a hot cup of rooibos tea

i've always been a fairly independent person
i am much of a loner, and i always had some
sort of trouble towards authoritative figures

and now... i cannot believe i am missing
my mom, and my boss

oh well, life does change

so last night i was curing myself
by drinking little sips of cheap chardonnay
accompanied of ginger snaps while listening
to this moody Iranian (?) song
Ghalab El Hawa

and contemplating some photos of my mom
i took in December, like this one where she's holding
a San Francisco de Asis photography book



those were the times!
now, only 1 month later, all has changed

pre-Labor day burgers & the fading of the Summer

i have mostly cut red meat from my diet
but when Sunday night my friend perro & his lovely wife m (m&m)
invited me to have some hamburgers, knowing perro's dedication
and detail to food, i gladly accepted...

so may the cows and pigs forgive me but i ate one of these!
delicious grilled hamburgers made of grass-fed beef
with bacon, grated Gruyere cheese, spicy guacamole,
tomatoes, and served on his own baked kaiser rolls

all made from scratch!






delicious stuff! the finished product below, before i munched it down



now the 3 day weekend is coming to an end
and that melancholy that belongs to Sunday nights
now it's here on a Monday of Labor day
i am glad to have a job, but i would love a couple of extra days off

Labor day marks the end of the Summer
although we barely had a summer here in San Diego
only a handful of days it was hot, most days were cool and some nights
were very cold, i personally prefer cool temperatures
so i was delighted, but the absence of heat made the summer fade faster

today was unusually coldish, gray, and windy, it felt
like the Autumn and having had a Holiday
i ended up thinking of Christmas!!

and to celebrate the end of my summer
which is always wasted, a lovely song
A Summer Wasting by Belle & Sebastian
from one of my most listened albums The Boy with the Arab Strap



Summer in winter,
Winter in springtime,
You heard the birds sing:
Everything will be fine.

I spent the summer wasting,
The time was passed so easily.
But if the summer's wasted
How come that I could feel so free?
I spent the summer wasting,
The sky was blue beyond compare.
A photograph of myself
Is all I have to show for
~A Summer Wasting, Belle & Sebastian

Iceland, by el Perro

"Kirkjufell, a giant mountain in the ocean just off the coast."
words and photo by el mísmisimo Perro

my friend el Perro has been "trudging"
across Iceland for the 2nd time!

his blog is full of beautiful & remote landscapes
and cheerful anecdotes from that other side
of the world! visit it for more:
I speak Icelandic

Ps. I learn today the word "trudging"
he left that word in his Out of the Office reply
I never heard that word in English before
I didn't find a literal translation for it in Spanish either
the closest equivalent is: el caminar penosamente
i guess something like walking laboriously...

Requiem for the Boa

mister boa in a bag

today is a very sad day for the feline world
a super cool specimen of cat has died
my beloved friend Boa
who my beloved friend Perro took care of
for over 15 years of his little furry life
he had to be put to sleep today

after living with Perro for 15 years
Boa, the cat left us a trace of memories and adventures
hard to forget
i had the pleasure to roommate with Boa
for about 1 year and a half
and i've been knowing him as long as i've been
knowing Perro, that is, since June 2001

Boa had a great 'personality'
he wasn't your regular shy cat
oh not at all! maybe 'cause he was a stray
before meeting Perro, he indeed captured
the cheerfulness and savviness from the
streets of San Diego

I remember him, 'hanging out' at parties with us
his brother, cat Gibby, more like a 'normal' cat
(and not that Gibby is normal but...) but Gibby
would go to Perro's room and sort of hide of the
group of friends while we were drinking beer
and talking out loud... but not Boa!
he would just seat around us, even if falling asleep
paying attention to what anybody would say
fighting to keep himself awake
with a group a lunatic humans
(i bet he thought that of us...)
and he always behaved as a part of the 'gang'
& whenever there were people around
he would jump on some unknown guest lap
specially on laps of pretty girls
he was not a silly cat!
he really liked girls' laps
and he indeed made his human dad Perro
very mad at many times, jumping on top
of counters, decks, and forbidden spaces
until a couple of days ago
Perro tried to educate him
Boa always got away with whatever he wanted
and being his crazy self active cat
until this his last day in the land of the living


Gibby (full name Gibson) and Boa, back in 2005

and just as it seems to happen with humans
the cool ones seems to go faster, somehow
but I am glad that the Boa lived to age 16
and of having meeting him and getting
some of his feline cheerfulness

sure he's already having a blast
in cat heaven, rolling on heavenly catnip
and eating cloudy endless fish at all times

here a couple of photos of him from 23
a couple have several comments
worth mentioning, from friends in Europe
and New York city
Boa had his
moments of internet stardom too!

and as i've been learning
specially on this 2009
death is the only certain part of life
but anyhow...

long live the Boa cat in our hearts!

Coachella by el perro

my super friend perro
has been writing these amazing
reviews from the Coachella festival
if you like 'indie-alternative' music
rock, or whatever that means
you'll truly enjoy them
full of the richest media!

here one of my favorite videos
this is what i call being in a rock festival

classy dessert rescues pesky Monday

last Monday, yesterday
had all the inevitable symptoms
of a blue Monday

cumulus of neurosis and apathy
climbing up & down my spine
traces and hope and lost alternated in me
and mood swings were frequents
and switched between minutes
and sometimes seconds, intervals
and no coffee amount was enough to bring to me
the urgently required spark

the smell of carpet glue lingering in the office
from last week's repairs
soporific loads of work
regrets of a not well-enjoyed weekend
having missed a party among friends
were bringing me down...
in 4 colloquial words:
i felt like shit!

but about 1/2 working day
after lunch and the Mondays staff meeting
my pinche best friend and boss
reminded me that he had brought to the office
some left overs from his party the day before of
"molten chocolate cake with vanilla creme freaiche, and raspberry coulis"

oh so all went so much better then!!!
and i truly appreciated
el perro's dedication to deliver the dish
so properly!
he carried each ingredient in separate containers
and instructed me to warm up for 7 seconds the molten cake
in the microwave at the lunch room in the office
once the cake was warm
he dropped carefully the creme freaiche on top
and told me to place the three coulis
i must confess all lasted little after served
barely enough for the shot,
promptly i devoured it all!

the cake was soft and moist and just warm in the inside
and the creme was still cold and the raspberries crispy
all served on an office paper plate
was great! top chef delivered at my desk

i am glad my friend is into cooking so professionally!
ah! i got many great meals already, ha! but not just that
i am also glad to hear every day more people get the importance of home-made cooking
the importance of food and the role of it in our lives
on how nutrition can alter one's body chemistry for better or
worse; it seems to me that, gladly, food is recovering a new importance
on people lives, all these chef TV programs, cooking contests, etc. seem to encourage this new age where we respect fresh and interestingly cooked food instead of industrialized pre-fabricated so-called food factories have been feeding us. I just find it beautiful, all this food & cooking renaissance!
and i guess...

i just love to see people playing with their food again!