Patio Makeover - Part II: Alumawood Patio Cover

Remember that old Target Gazebo from the previous post? IT'S GONE!!!

A few weeks have gone by and our kit from PatioKits.com set has arrived. We have been hard at work building the patio cover since Thursday. Henry's dad is visiting and, like all good hosts, we put him to work!

Check out our new 12'x16'aluminum cover to finish out our patio. Nice, huh?

Patio Makeover - Part I: Concrete Staining

My back hurts, my feet are sore and I'm walking like I have a turd in my undies. Yes... it's another back-breaking project brought to you by Josue and Henry.

The weather is now nice enough that we can take full advantage of our outdoor living space. Yes, while our Target gazebo has sufficed until now, it has since deteriorated due to wind and sun exposure. Our solution has been to erect a new aluminum patio cover where the existing gazebo sits.

Master Closet Makeover

I'm so glad the heat of summer is finally over. I've longed for 76°F weather for months! That, of course, means that there's lots of pre-winter projects that were in store.

So we've been tossing the idea of redoing our master closet to make it more useable for us. We found nice modular ClosetMaid pieces at our local Home Depot that we both decided we liked. Henry helped tearing down the old shelves and poles and all the supporting hardware in between. After a quick cleaning came a base coat of paint. Originally I wanted a solid khaki paint (which looks nice against a maple finish), but I decided to go all out and try a sponging technique with cream paint and a khaki glaze. So on goes the base coat. Immediately after, I started sponging on the khaki glaze. Henry likes contrast, so I tried to make it as "contrasty" as possible to make the two colors pop. Next came the furinture assembly. Crank out corner pieces, drawers and cabinets. Installing them was a breeze. Finally we cleaned up and voila! A new closet custom made just for us. Awww... :)

4th of July - Puerto Vallarta

Average temperatures are now peaking at around 102°F and cloud coverage is becoming increasingly sparse.

Every summer Henry and I try to plan a weekend getaway around the 4th of July. This year, however, since the holiday lands on a Wednesday, NISD has given us that Wednesday through Friday off. It seemed obvious to also take Monday and Tuesday off to get a full week's vacation. So I did. This year, we traveled across to the Pacific and visited Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Yeah, I might've gained all the weight I lost on South Beach but it was an all-inclusive hotel and I want my money's worth dammit!!!

Meet my next car

This year Infiniti is releasing the much anticipated 2008 G37 Sport Coupe.

I'd better start saving money now if I plan to upgrade my '04 G35 later this year. :)

Computer Room Makeover

So this month Henry and I have been working on renovating our computer room. We've been having issues with the carpet getting excessively worn where we sit at our computer desks so we finally decided to pursue laminate flooring. So this month's "Project of the Month" it's been the COMPUTER ROOM MAKEOVER.

Happy, happy birthday!

I had an early celebration at NISD on March 9th where the Budget Department took me out to lunch at Milano's Cafe and afterwords shared a delicious Italian Creme Cake at the office. It was really awesome. Thanks guys!


March 10th I flew down to the valley to celebrate Abuelita Lupita's 87th birthday on March 11th. The family gathered at my Aunt Duvi's house where we enjoyed great food, good company and yummy cake. [I have pictures. I'll upload them when I find my camera adapter.]


My birthday, March 19th, landed on the Monday after Spring Break. It was a busy day; I had an impending project and was in a time crunch. Welcomed breaks from work occured frequently as family and friends chimed in to wish me a happy birthday (and to pick up the flower arrangement Henry sent to me at work). Henry and I celebrated during dinner at Zio's Italian Kitchen where a delicious four-course meal concluded our day.

UPDATE: As promised, here are the pictures from Grandma's birthday bash in Reynosa.

Hello, stranger...

Wow... it's so cool to be able to reconnect with friends and family I've lost touch for a long while.

My younger brother Erik and I have been sending e-mails back and forth for a few weeks. Last time I saw Erik was when he and my mom came down for my college graduation in May, 2000.

Also, Cristina Tobola (formerly Viramontes), made contact with me a few months ago via e-mail. I am delighted to learn she and her husband Daniel are doing very well in Houston, TX. Cristina and I were friends since junior high; she introduced me to the awesome 90's sounds of Roxette. To this day, whenever I hear Roxette playing on the radio, I can't help taking a mind-trip back to a simpler time, just singing my heart out: "She says, Hello... you fool... I love you. Come on, join the joyride." Thank you, Cristy... Thank you.

Oh, So Skinny...

Two weeks ago, Henry and I came to a realization that we needed to better our eating habits to manage our obesity and reduce health risks. We decided to adopt the South Beach diet as our guide to better nutrition.

Sunday was a day of banishing; ridding our home of yummy no-no's we've grown to love (potato chips, white bread, egg rolls, chicken fried steaks, ice cream, bacon, hot dogs, cereal, mashed potatoes, etc...) After planning out our week's menus, we were off to do our grocery shopping--which turned out to be more of a scavenger hunt for food we've heard of but never knew what they looked like. After a few hours, our cart was full of high-fiber, high-protein, and low-fat, low-sugar foods (lettuce, asparagus, spinach, tomatoes, spinach, turkey, roast beef, salmon, halibut, nuts, etc...). Banished from most temptations, we commenced Phase I on Monday.

Right away it became obvious that the diet keeps you eating: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner & dessert, not to mention the other snacks in between! Every couple of hours I had something to eat, which kept me full and craving-free. Lunches consist mostly of salads: Greek salad, chef salad, chicken caesar salad, etc... Dinner feast was mostly fish, poultry or meat accompanied by generous portions of high-fiber vegetables.

So in two weeks, Henry and I have each managed to lose over 10 pounds. I've managed to go from 232 lbs. when we started down to 221.5 lbs. today. I'm hopeful that I'll break the 200# mark by my birthday in mid-March. YAY!

Happy 2007!

Well, it's been a while since I last updated my blog. Believe you mee... It's been a pretty intense transition into 2007.

Henry and I took off to the Valley for a quick weekend getaway on December 15th. We drove down Saturday afternoon and had lunch with my folks. Late afternoon we drove down to Hidalgo and crossed over to downtown Reynosa. That was a pretty interesting excursion, as Reynosa has significantly changed since I lived there years ago. Anyhow, my fashion-fab friend, Monica.

Henry's attempt to get a loaded Infiniti G35 Sedan finally came through and on December 23rd, we drove off the lot with a Slate blue exterior / Stone interior with only 9 miles. It's GORGEOUS! ;-)

December 29th marked a major milestone in my professional career... After 3 years as a Systems Developer, said goodbye to the folks at Rackspace.

On January 3rd, I began my new role as a Senior Systems Analyst for the Northside Independent School District. It's been off to a rough start, but things are looking much better than they did the first week. ;-)