Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Roberto's Spin-Off Thanksgiving






Roberto's is a chain of authentic Mexican
"taco stands" here in San Diego. There are also spin-offs of the Roberto's chain such as Alberto's, Humberto's, Aiberto's and on. This thanksgiving most everyone we know is either deployed, or going away for Thanksgiving, so instead of the huge Thanksgiving spread we put out every year, this year we just got involved with house projects. We re-painted one of the bedrooms (that Grant will be moving into), fixed the sump pump, stripped a bedroom door, ran electrical to two new outlets, built a shelving unit, ran telephone lines, coax cables, hung a TV, and re-routed computer lines. By the time we were hungry for food the only place we could think of that might be open was Roberto's. Of course it wasn't but one of the spin-offs, Aiberto's was. So three carne asada burritos to go later, it was time to eat and think of all the things we had to be thankful for.
Last year we had a house full of people including AJ (who is now in Iraq), AJ's mom from Prague and her good friends from London who now live in San Diego, John's mom and grandpa, my friend John Williamson who lost his mom the previous Thanksgiving, Donna who's family is in Canada, and various friends who have no family. It really was a wonderful Thanksgiving and quite different from this one. We still had lots to thankful for however. Everyone is still fine that was at last years Thanksgiving though many are very far away and in harms way. We have a home (though 80 years old) and jobs and loved ones. The fires are over for now and no one we know was injured or killed. We have the basics and we have love. What more could you ask for. Happy Thanksgiving 2007.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Halloween 2007

It was the October 30th and we were all really tired. It is an effort to breathe here with all the smoke still in the air. It just tires you out. None of us felt like putting all the effort into our "Spooky House" decorating, but...

A couple of years ago I went back to Texas to help rebuild after hurricane Katrina hit them hard. I did not get to set up "Spooky House" that year and we got trick-or-treaters that sadly asked "where is Spooky House?"

I just think that there are a lot of displaced people here in our little area and those parents will not want to disappoint their children by not having Halloween. So it is up to the rest of us who don't live in those burned out communities to pick up the slack and put on a great show. And that is exactly what we did. We put on a "Spooky House" to rival the best! The front yard became a graveyard with 3ft to 5ft tombstones. Strobe lights, glowing bones, red and blue lighting, 3 fog machines, black lights, pumpkins, two sound effects areas, 3,000 watt lightening, scary clowns with chainsaws, and lots of great candy. All in all it was a great night!