I don’t think I told most of you about the course I had been taken for Web Design. I started earlier this year a free course (paid by the government, for any unemployed person) . It was a subject I was very interested in and since I stopped working in February I decided that why not give something new a shot.

I went to an academy called Maga Informatica where along with about 10 others we were taught all we needed to know about web design. Programs such as dreamweaver, fireworks and flash. Our teacher Juan Carlos was I think the most patient person I have ever met, also very knowledgeable and helpful. The acadamy gave us all the books we needed, an external hard drive, and other accessories to help get us on our way.

I’m proud to say that my end of school project received a perfect 10 and I had the second highest grade in the class overall.. (the other guy was a graphic designer..doesn’t count hahahahaha). I think it is the first time in my life I have ever gotten such good grades (those of you who have known me for a long time and gone to school with me know what I’m talking about).

And so on Monday was our last day of school and I’m on my own. I will be working on Matt’s web page which needs a lot of work, and then on to some other projects. So, if you need a website or a blog now you know where to go..

photo flckr clevercupcakes

My good friend Misty has recently left her job at Talbots in pursuit of better opportunities. Sick of the retail life she wants to explore different facets of the job market. In a time of crisis job hunting is a difficult thing and we sometimes will accept any job offer or interview without second thought. And this is what happens when we do this against our better judgement and intuition.

Job hunting is tedious and frustrating, so when we see an offer that looks interesting we go for it. That is what Misty did (well, what Misty’s fiancee Shane suggested she do). There was a job listing for a marketing position that Shane thought would be perfect for Misty, she was not so sure and had a hunch, a sense that this would not be right, but decided, why not..

She applied for the job and was told she had an interview from 9 am to 5 pm. Ok, this should have been the first sign of weirdness, but many companies do hold long interviews where you are given several psychological and practical test so she agreed. On the day of the interview, they called her at 8:30 am to make sure she would be going in.. sign number 2 this was just funny..but she said yes, I will be there…and so she showed up, right on time. They made her wait in the lobby for more than an hour,(sign number 3), she was getting ready to just say forget this.. when a man came out and took her to the back.. He explained that the best way for her to learn what this was all about was to be matched up with a worker and he would show her the ropes..

Dallas, (yes that is a real name, and should have been sign number 4) was Misty’s match along with two other poor souls who had been on the job for about a week. They all get in a car and drive from Raleigh to Durham . Along the way Dallas explains that they will go door to door selling a coupon book of several neighborhood stores and restaurants, (sign number 5 and probably the last sign Misty needed to know this was definitely not going well). They get to Durham and it is poring down rain, Misty is wearing her best job interview suit although she thanked God that the pants were cropped and when they all stepped out of the car the puddles did not affect her as they did the other poor girl with them that was drenched from ankle to knee!!

They proceed to go door to door , all four of them under one umbrella, trying to sell this coupon book that people in this part of town don’t give a shit about and even if they did probably couldn’t afford the $20 bucks.. When all else failed they go into a CVS pharmacy and tried to sell the coupon book to an over sized cashier, Dallas begins to explain to her all the benefits of the coupon book and tells her there are great coupons to restaurants such as….He opens the book and points to one of the restaurants, the girl takes the book throws it across the room and says: “That was the restaurant where I caught my ex with his new ho and now they gonna have a baby” as she starts to cry!!

By this time it is already 5 pm and they are still in Durham, Misty has decided by now (well, she decided the day she saw the ad) that this was not for her.. Dallas then tells her that when they get back to Raleigh she needs to take a test to regurgitate all the information she had heard and then do an interview... Misty politely said she was not interested and was freed about an hour later.. where as she said to me… I will never forget this interview the rest of my life..

Thankful now for being unemployed she continues her search with an open mind and an alertness to her intuition. Good Luck Misty.. I’m sure you will find something great and if not, you call always call DALLAS…….

It sounds silly but when the kids finally learn how to shower themselves and you don’t have to give them a bath it is one less step we have to deal with in the nightly routine. Bella has actually been taken showers on her own but yesterday was the first time that she did the entire process all by herself.

She went in to her bedroom and picked out her pajamas, went to the bathroom got her towel ready and started the shower. She went in, shampooed her hair, put conditioner on, comb it out, washed hair body and rinsed off. She got out dried herself, put cream on,  put her pj’s on, wrapped a towel around her hair, and ran out to show me how well she did. I couldn’t resist taking a picture as I can’t resist now telling you the story.

As soon as I finished taking the picture she went back in the bathroom, blow dried her hair, put some cologne on and brushed her teeth…she is 4 going on 21…..

A couple of weeks ago I entered this blog Marco & Bella in a blog contest that a very popular Spanish newspaper called 20 minutos was holding. My intention was to enter my other blog about LaPlayaSanJuan in the category of best blog of your city , which I did, but when I saw there was a category for foreign language I figured well, heck why not..

I honestly thought maybe my Playa San Juan blog would get some votes but, today I happened to check out how the voting was going (which started on October 15th and ends on Novemeber 2nd ) and well, not one person has voted for my Playa San Juan blog, but somehow this blog has received 3 votes placing me in 9th place..

So, here is a big THANK YOU to the 3 people who voted, it has come as a big surprise since entering was not even my intention.  I know winning is not entirely an option at this point but being in the top 10 motivates me to keep on writing..

My little boy is growing up! I went to pick him up from judo class on Friday and he handed me his tooth, I said what the heck do you guys do in judo? But, I knew very well that his top tooth had been moving for a while and today it finally decided to fall off. He was so proud staring and smiling at me with his sort of pumpkin smile…

The first thing he said was that he wanted to make sure Ratoncito Perez was coming to leave him someting under his pillow because the Tooth Fairy was for girls..I already went over this whole dilema in an earlier post. I assured him one of them would come and leave him a little something.

I know I say it all the time, but time does go by very fast.. The tooth falling thing is a passage of time, it is a transition into adulthood, it reminds us we are all getting older everyday, and that we need to cherish all these wonderful moments we are having, knowing that it all passes by way to quickly.

It is a bittersweet moment that I’m sure many of you have been through, thanks for reading and letting me share these special times with all of you.

Matt (I’m working on his new webpage) has been away since the beginning of October doing his yearly shows, last Saturday he completed the Andre Agassi Vegas show which this year was the first time to be close to the public and the second is coming up next Wednesday for Mcafee which is also in Vegas. He was lucky enough to stay in the new Wynn Hotel and now I think he is in a suite at the Signature MGM... Must be nice!!

While back home the poor kids are going to school (as am I) and we are not in a 5 star hotel but in our our 5 star apartment, slot machines?, No, we don’t have any but I don’t need to gamble to win and the machine sounds and whistles are very similar to Bella’s screams and hollers, so there you have it we are even.  (Honey, if you are reading this, I hope you are having a great time!!)

foto flickr ballyoos 

Yes, it’s time Marco and Bella learn to blog.. (well, Bella is just learning the alphabet so we will wait a bit on her but Marco..) They always see me attached to the computer and wonder what the hell I’m doing.. so I tried to explain it to Marco and he said “that sounds cool, could I write one”, and I said “Ok” so here goes Marco’s first post…

Today I was walking Precious and I step in a snail. I was sad, really sad and I got home and I watched pasapalabra. Mama tried to cheer me up and now I’m not sad.

Ok, I guess he didn’t have much to say today.. I will elaborate a little more on what he just said. I picked him up from soccer practice and he was so excited that his coach said that he had improved a lot from last year, then he got home and was even more excited when he found that his Nintendo DS was back from the Nintendo “hospital” (the kids had dropped it a couple of times and the screen went caput..but Nintendo was nice enough to not only pick it up from our house for free but repair it and send it back for free, via messenger). Anyway, he played a little, then did his homework and then said he wanted to go walk Precious with me. We had a nice walk, we talked about school and things and on the way back just a few feet in front of our front door to our building he stepped on something that went crack and skishhhh…. He looked back and saw it was a snail…You would not believe how sad he was, he started sobbing uncontrollably and felt so bad he had killed a snail….He couldn’t stop crying and even refused dinner!!!! Anyway, we talked and he is better now so I told him it would be good to write about it..Hence this post… Oh and Pasapalabra is a game show he likes to watch with my mom.. Until next time..

Over the weekend we went to the Volvo Ocean Race that this years sets off from Alicante. The entire marina was full of all the sailboats and there was a mini amusement park all through the port. The kids had a blast, there a a “real life” pirate boat which we got to go in and visit.. Marco and Bella looked for pirates and lo and he hold they saw one down in the deck (It was really a worker, fixing something, but he looked pretty scarry ) and Bella took off running and screaming, Marco was not that thrilled to see him either.

We had a great time, we plan on going back again this weekend to finish seeing all the things we didn’t get to see…

Yes, it is finally here the dreaded 40! Do you remember thinking how old that was when you were little? I do, I don’t know, I guess as young children we don’t think we will ever be that old, I mean we hope we will grow old, but in the meaning of being alive not with the all things it brings.. and by that I mean, the wrinkles, the aches and pains, the forgetfullness, the weight gain… but there is also the things is does bring, like the fact that we are better the wiser, we usually don’t repeat too many mistakes, we know who we are and are comfortable in our own skin, we are more knowledgeable and less gullible..

So, Happy Happy Birthday to me! through my 40 years I have met and stayed in touch with some wonderful friends, thank you all for the great memories.. Much love to my father and mother whom without them I wouldn’t be here to write this post, my brother who put up with my temper tantrums… I could go on and on, but this post is not a recollection of my life until now, it is simply a birthday wish I place upon myself.

Am I where I thought I would be at this age? Well, not exactly but I’m sure not many people are.. I’m though exactly where I need to be and where I want to be.