Boricua en la Lima

Well it was way too cold in Cincinnati so after two straight snow days we decided to make a quick trip down to Puerto Rico. Even though it was mostly rainy (our visit apparently ended a 2 month drought!) it was still 80 degrees or so, we can't complain about that. I visisted a day care right next to Abuela Marta's house for a while (shout out to my Peek-a-Boo friends!), and then had lots of great food at yummy places, and also had a chance to go to the beach for a little while and the pool at titi Charmin's house to see friends of mine like Mauricio, Camila, Nico and Mariana. The picture above is me at Ocean Park. Can't wait to go back in April for tio Jero's wedding! - Gabi-Wabi

So after months and months of planning we finally made it into warm and sunny Miami...NOT!!! I meet up with my girlfriends in Sushi Samba down in Lincoln Road, I am in full puertorrican "jibara" gear with my suitcase in the middle of Miami Beach, how uncool! I am dressed for 80 degree weather and it's -- wait, what??? -- freaking 45 degrees! If I was in bachelorette party hell before then I guess that means hell has frozen over...The cold has caused all those Miami fashionistas to pull out their leather coats and Ugg boots which they never get to use unless they're skiing in Aspen. What will all those purse dogs wear now! Oh I know, a Burberry coat to match the Burberry purse they're being toted around in. :) I had a lot of catch-up drinking to do since my friends were about 5 mojitos ahead of me. Luckily I'm quick at many things -- I'm a quick talker, quick walker, quick drinker and more importantly (and unfortunately), I'm very quick to judge. Which ...

My husband took me to a really nice restaurant tonight that we hadn't been to before, Cumin. My friend Mara offered to babysit and we luckily found a place. I think it's because people have been canceling their reservations left and right because of the damn snow/ice in this city. Anyway, I was too exhausted to even want to go out because I've had to stay home with Gabi for 2 straight days due to day care being closed (again, because of the snow/ice). But it was a must to get out if only for a little while! Now, and I never thought I would say this, I can't wait to go back to work tomorrow. Only 2 days til Miami! This image is from a Coors Light ad that was placed in Puerto Rico today for Valentine's Day. My husband's good friend Juanchi works for Coors Light and emailed it to him. It says "even though on the outside we may seem different, we're the same deep down inside". Cute. Anyway, hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day!

This friend of ours (the one who is getting married in April in Puerto Rico and is the fiance of our honoree from our bachelorette party weekend in Miami) has been called "Borat" at work lately by his co-workers. Mind you he's Spanish, his name is Jeronimo, and he is probably as far removed from Borat as anyone can be if you're thinking Kevin Bacon's degrees of separation...but that's gringos for you. I guess the name Borat is easier to pronounce than Jeronimo, but whatever the case may be they have even started to call him Borat in work-related emails! They also changed his nameplate on his cubicle at work to Borat. Oh, and did I mention my friend doesn't even have a mustache? Anyway, I posted these short video clips on Google Video recently, it's from a dinner party where we all had a little too much to drink. Maybe Sacha Baron Cohen will actually pick these up for his sketches? Maybe he'll create a Spaniard character called Jeronimo. Maybe...

Often times people from work who are planning on taking a trip to Puerto Rico ask me for recommendations on where to go, where to stay, what to see, what to eat, etc. I am creating this blog entry as a "living breathing" document to house all the recommendations I would make to people on Puerto Rico. I hope anyone who's interested can use, and please feel free to send me your suggestions, especially those friends of mine who still live in PR and know it a lot better these days... Two great web sites to go to are Welcome to Puerto Rico and Go to Puerto Rico . Rachel Ray recently did a show on PR on the Food Network - one of those $40 a day episodes . Pass the Ritz Rachel! • For breakfast she recommended La Bombonera (mayorcas are their specialty) - it's a pastry shop in Old San Juan that has been around forever, which is a testament to how good they are. • For lunch she recommended "La Casita Blanca" - this one is not in Old San Juan it's like 10 min fro...

Shortly after giving birth to my daughter Gabriela, my old friends from MIT started a string of emails in which Cindy, the queen of sarcasm, asked me if I had stopped cursing since everyone she knew who had babies had stopped cursing and now said things like "darn" instead of "damn", "sugar" instead of "shit", "gosh" instead of "god", etc. To which I responded the following: No Cindy, I haven't stopped cursing, I am cursing as much as ever if not more. The only difference I have noticed is in my CHOICE of curse words. Whereas before I used to say FUCK a lot now I say SHIT all the time, maybe because there's a lot less fucking and a whole lot more shitting...

UVA/UBV rays? Check. Pollution? Check. Wind, infrared rays, free radicals? Check, check, check. For those of you who thought you had all your bases covered with a hyper-advanced protective day cream, there is a new culprit to be aware of: cell phones. According to scientists at Clarins, electromagnetic waves emitted from cell phones cause skin's intercellular "cement" to break down, resulting in dehydration and destabilization that leads to peeling, redness, and a loss of radiance -- in other words, accelerating the aging process. Hence the development of Expertise 3P mist, which uses plant extracts to form an "invisible screen" against wave damage. It also contains an anti-pollution complex with white tea to guard against free radicals and "urban pollution". With increased global urbanization combined with a growing emphasis on protection, we may begin to see more products like this in the future (us.clarins.com). I can clearly hear in my head Janea...

So some of you know that I fell in love with a house sometime in August and we decided to buy it before selling the home we were living in at the moment. So our old house has been on sale since more or less September 2006 but because of the real-estate downturn it hasn't been quite as easy selling it as I originally thought it would be. Combine that with the apartment we still own in PR and we're in quite a bit of debt (hence the reference about needing to sell stuff on eBay to be able to afford my bachelorette party weekend in Miami this weekend!). Not even the supposedly fool-proof St. Joseph house-selling kit that my friend Tom recommended has been able to do the trick. Anyhoo, we recently re-listed our home with a new real estate agent when we got back form vacation in Peru. So far we've had a few leads so that's encouraging. This last weekened there was an open house from 2-4 PM on Sunday, after which our real estate agent calls us to say "You might want...

I am headed to Miami this weekend for a bachelorette party. Two very good friends of ours from work are getting married in a couple of months back in Puerto Rico. So overall I am pretty happy that I "absolutely have to" go to Miami and Puerto Rico so I can be a good friend to this couple. Any excuse! Sounds good so far, right? Not quite... My friend Lety who's been on sabbatical from work for a few months now has been helping plan this thing all the way from France and Italy. Apparently she's missing some structure in her overwhelmingly carefree life, because just to give you an idea of how structured this thing is going to be, I'm attaching the latest email with the updates on the trip. These are our reservations for the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait.......we have options for the clubs depending on what Elika wants. Thanks to all for the recommendations. DO NOT FORGET TO BRING A NICE GIFT FOR ELIKA FOR SATURDAY........ try to ALSO bring one as a joke as w...

You know how every parent tells to a non-parent some story and then says, "you don't understand now, but you will when you're a parent"? One of the clichés I hate the most on this earth. But as with most clichés they usually harbor some truth behind them. In this case I'm talking about my previous "son" Borges, who has now been demoted to just my cat Borges instead of my son. Yep, he's been shoved way down in the food chain with the arrival of our daughter Gabriela. I remember I read in Jenny McCarthy's book "Baby Laughs" about how her dog or dogs went from being #1 to her to being a very distant bottom of her list of priorities and I never thought that would be me. But that's me. Now I'm jealous of my friends Tom and Jamie (co-workers of mine) who still talk about their dogs Shelby and Chloe like they are their beloved children. But I'm even more jealous of my friend Rachel who not only treats her two dogs also like they...

We are a mix of the best of every race. Our legal drinking age is 18. We can't care less what other people think of us. We are not only bilingual but we can speak "Spanglish" Our women are the most beautiful in the world, (5 Miss Universe) We are LATIN, and yet AMERICANS Mofongo (that's all I have to say) In PR, any road will take you to a beach..... or a pub. We are the only "territory" of another country with our own Olympic teams. We do everything under the sun... because we CAN! Because even though we are a territory we are still a whole NATION. We don't need to take vacations to be in a tropical paradise. In PR everything is really close. I can call you sir ("USTED"), and insult you in the same sentence. Our Spanish is completely different than any other Spanish speaking country. We all have cool nicknames. We have the best athletes in the world. We make some of the best coffee of the world. WE CAN DANCE!!!!!!!!! They come from around the ...

Daniel Meade's Mom: "Would you like a bloody mary?" Ugly Betty: "It's 10 o'clock in the morning..." Daniel Meade's Mom: "You're right, I should move on to martinis".

I've been reading the blog of a friend of mine from work and find it pretty hilarious so I thought it might be good to give him a plug, although he might get mad at me for it! I'll leave it here until I hear otherwise. :) You can find him right here on blogger.com under "bloggingthewillow" . Anyway, I need some distraction so that I don't keep staring at my eBay screen. I've been trying to sell stuff so I can make some spending money to go to Miami and Puerto Rico in a couple of weeks. Who would've thunk it? I'm probably in the top 1% of the country in terms of income and I have no spending money. Speaking of who would have thunk, I can't believe Jack Bauer's dad is evil and that he killed his own son. Completely random and beside the point but because I get the 24 Podcast and pretty much listen to it religiously I am constantly up to speed on the show (including getting spoilers before the show -- which then always makes me mad because ...