Happy New Year! And Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa!

Cindy and I spent New Years Eve this year with Mom, Dad, Marty, Lindsay, and Grandpa Joe. It’s Grandpa’s 90th birthday this year, which is something we can all be proud of. It was fun shooting the breeze with him, and getting to catch up with everyone else as well. We were even able to patch in Elisabeth all the way from Florence, thanks to Skype.

During the day, we walked by the barbershop where Dad had his first haircut. There were some new barbers, but otherwise the place had stood the test of time. We also swung by the Fabulous 40’s, a section of well kept, WW II/ Pre WW II homes. The area went all out for the Holidays; one block strung lights from tree to tree down the entire block, draping arcs of light across the street.

Grandpa was also kind enough to share some of Grandma Pulido’s paintings with us. Grandma got a degree in art, and liked to paint landscapes, nature, and occasionally cityscapes as well. She would travel with a group of artists throughout the greater Sacramento area, selecting a particular scene for inspiration. We’re glad to have that memory of her.

As Grandpa put it to us: “Do you know if you’ll be here tomorrow? Do you? You? No one does, so we got to make the most of every moment.” And for one weekend, we did.

Merry Christmas!

Cindy and I would like to wish all of you a Happy Holiday season. We hope that you have enjoyed your it as we have. We also figured we'd give you all an update as we haven't written in this blog for a while.

Cindy has enjoyed her Part Time MBA program at USC Marshall's School of Business. She has done very well in her classes and has proven adept at mastering a wide variety of business skills. Most importantly, she's been highly motivated and has worked hard, studying well ahead of time to perform well on her exams. During her time between next quarter's classes, Cindy has taken up a Pilates class and is becoming quite strong. She can do quite a few pushups now. I've even adopted a couple of her ab exercises - they're pretty killer.

Fortunately, Cindy stills finds time for me despite her busy schedule. We're still exploring new restaurants in our corner of West LA and sometimes find something new we haven't tried before. Recently we ate at a gourmet cafeteria style restaurant called Lemonade that we enjoy quite a bit. The stews are excellent, as are the side dishes. And it's only a few miles a way, so we can go whenever we are feeling lazy after a workout.

I've enjoyed transitioning from student life to working life, as funny as that may sound. While sleeping in til 10 am can be nice, so too is having a direction and a goal for one's professional life. I have enjoyed rotational program at Toyota, and currently I analyze the long term product strategy of the company. It has proven rewarding and challenging, and a good use of the skills I honed both in Advertising and B-School. New rotations are in the offing, so I will have a new position to learn in March.

To keep myself occupied when Cindy is away at class, I have private lessons in Wing Tsun kung fu. The new techniques I am learning are challenging; I'm also taking the time to relearn some previous material to make sure I have it down pat. I haven't had the ability to take group classes as frequently as of late, so I have placed more of an emphasis on private lessons, personal practice and trying to get together with a training partner when schedules allow.

And of course, there are the things Cindy and I do to rot our brains when we're tired. Cindy just got a Kindle for Christmas and just used it to blast through another novel. I recently hacked and slashed my way through Dragon Age: Online and saved the kingdom of Ferelden from certain destruction at the hands of a mindless, monstrous horde.

We hope you've enjoyed our update, and have a Happy New Year!

Super Post Update

Things have been hectic to say the least. Joe and I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. Because my MBA program was due to begin on July 31st, Joe and I went down to Orange County the weekend of July 18th to celebrate my brother's birthday. We had an awesome time with my family. We went shopping, played Attack Uno, went bowling (I bowled a dismal 41), and had yummy strawberry shortcake from Angel Maid. It was good to catch up with everyone before I have to hunker down for school.

The weekend of July 25th, Joe and I went down to San Luis Obispo with his family to visit Hearst's Castle. We all rented Ford Mustang convertibles and drove up the coast. Road trips are always fun because you get a chance to catch up with everyone while in the car. Hearst's Castle was impressive - the rooms were filled with invaluable works of art and relics of history. My favorite room was the indoor pool with the gold tiles. On the way back from Hearst's Castle, we stopped by the Madonna Inn for dinner and massive slices of cake. Needless to say, I was happy camper (I love cake!!). The rest of the trip consisted of star gazing and scenic drives along the coast.

And now, this brings us to the weekend of July 31st - a horrendously busy weekend! Joe and I decided to move into a larger apartment in our complex. We bit the bullet and signed a new lease for a 2 bedroom apartment. Unfortunately, we had to move by August 1st. Needless to say, things were stressful. I had class all weekend from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. In addition to class, I also had tons of homework and reading to do. Thank goodness for family and friends! Thanks to the Pulidos, Trans, and Gautum, Joe was able to paint and move all of our stuff in by August 1st. We can't thank you everyone enough!!! We'll post pictures of the new place once we get situated.

(500) Days of Summer

So, Cindy dragged us to a romantic comedy last night, which she promised me had received an excellent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Given the track record of previous romantic comedies I had been compelled to see, such as Failure to Launch, I had low expectations. Those expectations were pleasantly excelled in every way.

Rather than review the movie and reveal major plotlines, let me just say that if you can find some time in your busy schedule, go see it. You'll enjoy it.

Here's a link to rottentomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/500_days_of_summer/

Nuestra querida Madrid

Cindy and I had an amazing 4 days in Madrid. Our night of arrival, a good friend of Joe's from High School, Carlos Candil, took us around town. Carlos - you did an amazing job! Thank you! We went to a great tapas bar, then headed to Twixtu restaurant (a great restaurant where Real Madrid players hang out before games), and finally finished the night off on a rooftop club/bar. It was a great night, and I hope to be able to show my guests around LA just as well as Carlos did us. Also, it was a real treat getting to catch up with Carlos, as we hadn't seen each other in 12 years or so. Congrats on getting engaged btw, Carlos!

The following day we headed to the Reina Sofia to see the exhibitions there. Their main collection with Dali, Picasso, and many other Spanish painters in the modern era is very good. I wasn't so much into the temporary work on exhibition, however. After a brief siesta, Cindy and I headed to the Palacio Real, or Royal Palace. It's too bad we don't have any pictures, but sufficeth to say that the Spaniards refused to be outdone by the French, and they built a ridiculously sumptuous royal palace. While the gardens do not compare to Versailles, many of the interior rooms are as good or better than Versailles. In fact, it gets hard to compare the two, because they are both so incredible.

Tuesday I managed to coax Cindy out of bed and we took the high speed rail to Toledo. It gets you there in only 30 minutes. I wanted Cindy to see an older, medieval city, different from the much more modern Madrid and Barcelona. We had a great time and managed to bring back a lot of unique ceramica (Spanish pottery). Now that I'm a bit older, I appreciate the ceramica, but I remember when we lived there and I was a teenager, I used to hate it when my Mom and Dad would pop into yet another ceramica. On a somewhat different vein, believe it or not, Toledo's cathedral was actually more spectacular than Notre Dame, both in size and in spectacle. It's too bad that they didn't let us take pictures inside, but that was a common problem in Spain that we didn't have in France - no pictures, even if you removed the flash. The last thing about Toledo that I should mention is that I bought a really cool sword there by Marciano Zamorano. Sr. Zamorano is the real deal; he smiths his own swords and forges them the old fashioned way. He makes swords for fighting, and he has two missing fingers to prove it :P. You can check out his website here http://www.marianozamorano.com/english/Empresa.htm. I'll post a picture of the sword as soon as I get it from Delta; it hasn't yet made it back from Spain :P

Wednesday we spent at the Prado Museum, which was closed on Monday. Although the primary collection is very good, after a while you can only see so many paintings of religious martyrdom, battles, and royalty. Which is why Cindy and I fell in love with their temporary exhibition of Joaquin Sorolla. I've never seen such a master of painting before. The paintings captured the bright colors of the moments of everyday life. Unlike a photo, his paintings captured motion, sensuality, and expressed the emotion of a place. In addition, Joe also liked Goya's Black Paintings, which were from the latter part of his life we he contemplated death from a much more raw place.

Which leads me to the end of our journey, wanting to sum it up in a few sentences. What I can say is this - we had a unique life experience, we grew closer together, and we learned more about our place in the world. Oh, and we lost weight. Despite eating like pigs on our trip, we lost two pounds each! Cindy and I are convinced this is because of the copious amount of walking we did. Just goes to show you that you can eat fatty food, as long as you walk your buns off.

Nos encanta Barcelona

The first thing you might notice is that this section of our trip was not broken up by days. That is for two reasons: first, we were having a blast and didn’t take the time, and second, we were so tired from all the walking that we just kinda passed out when we were in the hotel room.

Cindy and I arrived in Barcelona on Thursday and were immediately pleased to find that Hotel Villa Emilia was a 4 star hotel that I had managed to nail at an amazing price. After our small hotel in Paris it was a huge relief. Also, the staff was very helpful, and as you will see in the pictures, the hotel had a very cool modern look.

Our first night I showed Cindy around an El Corte Inglés, and the hanging legs of jamón serrano. She told me that while it was definitely more shocking than US supermarkets, the Spanish didn’t have anything on the Chinese what with their hacking up livestock (the key being the live part) on the spot. I had to give her that one.

Later on we walked along the Rambla and found some great jackets for awesome prices at Zara. We then finished our evening with Tapas at 7Sins, which had a live burlesque show/poetry reading. After attending quite a few of my Mom’s poetry readings at Casa Romantica, I wasn’t too impressed by the poetry, but the band and atmosphere were good.

Our second day in Barcelona, we spent seeing the architecture of Gaudi. I took Cindy to Parc Güell, which required a long walk up a hill. I had conveniently forgotten that walk, or maybe we didn’t even do it, because last time I was in Barcelona I’m pretty sure we had a car. The view and park were well worth the climb, and we enjoyed it. Next, we headed to La Sagrada Familia. I noticed that in the 15 years since I had last seen it, they actually had completed a significant amount of the cathedral. They were also charging visitors a significant amount more than they used to, but supposedly these funds were going towards the construction of the cathedral, so I could justify that by feeling like my money was going towards making history. It looks even more impressive now than before, and they’re making progress on the tower of the Virgen. Supposedly they will finish enough of the cathedral to start mass services by 2010, though I wouldn’t place any bets on that date of completion.

After seeing Gaudi’s other works like Casa Batlló, we headed back to the hotel for a nap. In the evening, we decided to salsa dance Barcelona at La Antilla; it was a good club that got packed around midnight. We could only hold on for so long as we had walked so much all day and our feet were raw, but it was fun. After having gone to many salsa clubs in LA, I would give it a good on the fun meter; it’s not the best club I’ve been do but it was good.

Saturday, the third day, we headed to the Gothic district. We ate at this amazing restaurant called Montiel, which was highly recommended on tripadvisor. We had catalan toasted bread with tomato and garlic, a tasty tuna tomato salad, followed by tuna tartar garnished with caviar, a tender cochinillo which was the epitome of culinary art, and a French style flan and crema catalana to finish us off with desert. If you ever make it to Barcelona in your travels, we highly recommend Montiel.

The rest of the day we wandered around the Gothic district, in and out of tiny shops. Although we didn’t buy anything, it was fun to window shop and see the area. We also saw a small Dali exhibition, with some pieces we had never seen before. But the best part, was wandering the Gothic quarter itself. You just got yourself lost and wandered around twisting streets that had been there for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Now we’re at the train station off to Madrid to continue our adventures in Spain. More tomorrow.

Paris Day 5 - Le Marais

Cindy and I had heard from a couple at the Bistro Deux Theatres that the place to go for shopping in Paris was Le Marais, and that if we asked for "Le Marais" after getting out of the Metro at St. Paul, we should find it. So, we set out in that general direction, and actually ended up in completely the wrong district of town.

This ended up being fortuitous, as Cindy ran into a designer store where she found some amazing necklaces, and it turned out the designer was just around the corner. After leaving with lighter wallets and a few necklaces, we headed in the right direction towards the Marais. Although we didn't find that much that interested us, Cindy did find a couple of things. And, the area was just a lot of fun to walk around.

Our last night there, we also enjoyed Petel restaurant per Jean-Francois, and the cuisine was most excellent! We had tasty sea bass and lamb ribs, and the raspberry dessert was exquisite. It was a great small and authentic restaurant, nearby our hotel. From here, it's on from Paris to Barcelona!