Cinco de Mayo

Living in a state that borders México we have a great influence of México's culture and history. This coming up week is Cinco de Mayo. For those of you who don't speak any foreign languages, Cinco de Mayo is May 5th. What is Cinco de Mayo? Despite popular belief, it is not Mexico's independence from Spain. Or as I heard yesterday, Mexico's independence from the United States (just FYI, Mexico has never been part of the USA).

Mexico had its independence from Spain in 1821. After the battle for independence and a number of internal political takeovers and wars, Mexico had mostly wiped out the national economy. During this period of struggle Mexico had accumulated heavy debts to several nations, including Spain, England and France, who were demanding payment. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. France had alternative motives. France was eager to add to its empire at that time and was using the Mexican debt issue to establish its own leadership in the country. When Mexico finally stopped making any loan payments, France took action on it's own to install Napoleon's relative, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, as ruler of Mexico.

Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. A few months before May 5, the French army was at Vera Cruz, but decided it was time to take Mexico City. The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did. Here's where Texas (and the USA) comes in. Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico's president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes.

When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz' superb horsemen miles away. The Mexicans had won a great victory.

The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico, City. In gratitude for what the States had done for Mexico, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for America.

Mexicans, you see, never forget who their friends are, and neither do Americans. That's why Cinco de Mayo is such a party -- A party that celebrates freedom and liberty. There are two ideals which Mexicans and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder to protect, ever since the 5th of May, 1862. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!

Bath time!

Maddy got a bath yesterday. Though you can't tell it by this picture she is getting bigger. And slowly her hair is turning blonde. She's so cute!

Lesson Number One

This past weekend I had the chance to experience something for the first time...food poisoning. And may it be said, it is not a pleasurable experience. What exactly is food poisoning? It is when the body is introduced foreign substances via food that were never meant to be digested. So what did I eat? Yogurt. It wasn't green and there were no fur balls on the yogurt. But when yogurt pours out of its container like melted ice cream, it has gone bad. So the lesson learned...never eat yogurt that has the consistency of melted ice cream.

The great outdoors...

Arbor Hills is a park across town. A girlfriend and I have started going to the park a couple of times a month. There's nothing like sunshine and trees to leave you rejuvenated and ready to tackle a new week.

The park is actually a nature preserve. Of course, when one thinks of nature preserve, a certain image comes to mind…nature untouched, a piece of land that has been preserved from the concrete city and left to be. Yes, the area has been preserved from the concrete city that surrounds it, but nature has been touched up a little. Arbor Hills is beautifully landscaped. The park captures the different landscapes of Texas. In some areas, large limestone walls have been erected along the path (definitely not found in Dallas). Also, you will also find various different trees. You will see the bush you find in North Texas and further west; and then further down the walk, you will see the trees normally found in higher climates.

All through the park are trails for hikers or cyclists. The trails wind through the various landscapes of Texas. This time when Ari and I went to the park, there were families with their kids; singletons jogging or cycling; and groups of cyclists meeting and ready to try a new path in Arbor Hills. On a beautiful day, there are fewer better places to spend an evening or afternoon than outdoors.

Here I am!

Accomplishment

Yesterday I went to the dentist. Finally, after two years, I returned for a teeth cleaning.

The last time I went to the dentist I had major work done. One of my baby teeth never fell out. There wasn't a permanent tooth under it so the baby tooth never had reason to move. Well, I thought it was all well and good. The tooth was still in great shape. Why bother something that isn't broken? Well, the problem wasn't the baby tooth on the bottom of my mouth. The problem was the permanent tooth directly above the baby tooth. The permanent tooth was slowly falling. The baby tooth was so much lower than all of my other permanent teeth which was causing the permanent tooth directly above it to slowly falling into the gap. Well, the dentist said that if I didn't fix that baby tooth, eventually I would also have to remove the tooth above. That would mean two bridges and four crowns instead of one bridge and two crowns. So over the course of two months I had the baby tooth removed, a bridge and two crowns put in. If you have ever had your nerves drilled down you know the pain. Who in their right mind would go back for more?

So I finally got over the pain and returned for a teeth cleaning. And I must say that my teeth are sparkling. And just FYI, a teeth cleaning is much less painful than the previous work done.

Cooking lessons...

I've been trying out some new recipes. The last recipe I conquered was fried rice with ginger sesame chicken and stir fry veggies. That may not sound like much, but the fried rice was a huge accomplishment. My girlfriend's husband cooks great fried rice. One evening when I was over for dinner, I had him teach me step by step the techniques to cooking friend rice. Though my first try was barely edible, I have come a long way! My fried rice is right up there beside a fine restaurant's fried rice.

Tonight, I made a delicious turkey chili. Now I realize that most people don't eat as many legumes and veggies as I do, but I promise it was great. I started off with sautéing onions and garlic. Next the ground turkey was added and browned. Then the rest of the ingredients. On the spice list, I added cocoa (it really did add and didn't make the chili taste like chocolate), cumin, bay leaves, salt, and chili powder. The veggies/fruits included tomatoes, squash and zucchini. And for legumes, black beans and red kidney beans. I let chili simmer for 20 minutes and what was left was a wonderful masterpiece. Pour a cup of the chili over brown rice, add a heaping spoon of guacamole and dinner is served! Yumm!

The Weekend...

The weekend has come to an end. It was a good weekend. For the first time in a long time, I just did stuff around the house. I know it's hard to believe. I never just stay home for the weekend; I'm always on the go, helping someone do something.

So what did I get done? Well, my big project was to hang the bedroom curtains. And we got it done! I did not say that I got it done, but we. I called my cousin Matt to help me put up the rods. That was the hardest part! One of the curtains is 117" long. When we hung the rod, it was mounted at 120". That's tall and not even our put-it-together extension ladder would work...three pieces was too short, four too high. So we opened the window, took out the screen and brought the extension ladder through the window. Once we finally got a ladder into the room, mounting the rod was no big deal. But what an ordeal the ladder was.

So after four months (the curtains were made in December), the curtains now hang beautifully in my room. Yeah!

A Rabbit Chase

Tonight as Mom and I drove into the garage, we caught something move at the front of the garage. What could it be? I climbed out of the car and went to take a closer look. I was really hoping it wasn't a rat or mouse. Luckily, it wasn't. A baby rabbit had found it's way into our garage. For the next twenty minutes, I tried to coax the rabbit out. First, I grabbed a broom. I did manage to get her out of her hiding place, but she ran across the garage and took refuge behind a few boards. I slowly pulled each board away from the wall and shooed her away from that hiding place. Did she run forward, straight out of the garage? Nope. She went back to her original hiding place. Back to the beginning. This time I grabbed a 2x4 to block one of her escapes, but she managed to climb behind something and I could not find her despite all of my digging and moving. Finally, we gave up and decided that she would get to spend the night in the garage. We pulled the cars back into the garage. We closed the garage door, but left a small crack. Hopefully tonight she will find her way out of the garage and join her family (who I think lives next door in the grass beside our neighbor's house).

Meet Maddy!

Maddy is a two month old Lhaso Apso. For the longest time, Melanie has wanted to get a new dog. She wanted a small lap dog and a dog she could take to her apartment. Each third weekend of the month there is a trade day about twenty minutes from the house. So last month on trade day, she and Mom headed to the park to see if there were any cute dogs. And there she was, just as cute as she can be. Her real name is Madison, but we all call her Maddy. For the most part she stays with us, instead of Melanie. Melanie finally decided that since her apartment doesn't allow pets that she shouldn't take Maddy with her. So what do you think? Isn't she precious?

Getting up and running again...

My home computer is up and running again. For two weeks now, I've had internet access (though I haven't used it very wisely...sorry for the delayed posting). Though I haven't managed to all my programs up and running yet, I did manage to download a few things to my work computer so that I can post pics to my blogger.

So now for the sad news...everything that was saved on my old hard drive has been lost. Dad is still working on getting the drive to boot, but I do not hold out much hope that anything will be salvaged. Another lesson...save everything to a thumb drive.

Ahh, the little things in life

I just got back from Target. I picked up the neatest thing. Nowadays you can pick up bleach-in-a-pin for spot treatment on whites. Not only do you get the cool pin that has bleach in it, but you get a case. This is not any case. It has a magnetic strip along the back of it. Sooooooo, you can attach the magnetic case to your washer. Never again will the bleach pin get lost! How cool is that?