2010.05.15

• An artist date to the sculpture exhibition of Joaquín Conde. The exhibition was interesting to see as it was made with recyclable materials and mixed media, but it is not the kind of art I enjoy. I found it somewhat violent in its use of metal and wire that wrap ceramic bodies. It is a good effort that the university puts up this historic building for free exhibitions for people to attend in this small town.
• I haven’t gone out much lately, so it felt great to be out and about a little today. It was not more than a couple hours as the sun was scorching —I believe it will be at the zenith sometime in the following week. Just before I entered the sculpture exhibition, the brass band began to play across the entrance of the church across the street; very-loud firecrackers accompanied the celebration. When I came back out, more firecrackers were launched on cue when the congregation began cheering the Virgin inside the church. With bicycles coming and going, and people walking around the main square, it all added to the general atmosphere.
• Coming up with The perfect Margarita for me: delicious, refreshing, aaaaahhhh!

See more progress on: enjoy life

Margarita

In my quest for a better margarita cocktail, today I tweaked my previous recipe, and this time, it came out fabulous! For my taste, this one is it.

3 oz Tequila Cuervo Tradicional (this one is my favorite for margaritas, and if it’s chilled, much better)
1 oz Controy (orange liquor —in my opinion, better than triple sec)
3 small limes, their juice (smaller than the pic)
1 small orange, its juice
2 oz sugar syrup
4 ice cubes (optional: crushed)
1 dash Grand Marnier

Shake well and serve (optional: in a glass with salt on the rim). Serves 2.

See more progress on: try a new recipe every week

Thanks to saraband's inspiration

I’m taking this goal a bit farther: from 10 to 43 things.
I know I have way more than 43 things, but, in accordance to this-month’s objective of mindfulness and keeping it simple, I’ll do just that to come up with my list.

See more progress on: achieve 43 things that nag and eat away at me so I can be free of them and feel smugly pleased instead :)

Done, done, done!! ::doing the happy dance::

The top 5 cms took me for-ev-er. Decreasing with cables was hard to figure out. It did not come out perfect, but it looks very decent. If I clean out my pattern jottings, I might even think about submitting the instructions to a pattern company —hmmm… I’ll just put this one on the back-burner…
I thought of adding a pompom on top to camouflage any imperfections, but frankly, I don’t think it goes with the hat’s design —besides, I doubt my brother would like it.
I’m so happy with the final result because he likes this shape of hat. It will be such a surprise for him :)

See more progress on: knit a hat

2010.05.11

• Last night’s fireworks. Nice, brief display just a couple blocks away from my house. At least this time they were sparkling and not just stupid noise from firecrackers that plagues our days —and nights. Uma wasn’t too happy about them either way. On a side note, it’s incredible that no matter where you point your camera in this town, you’re always going to cross your path with cables.
• Catching up with my brother, and talking for an hour or so. Big, unexpected news that he’s taking a new job. We also talked about my ever-changing plans, but it sounded as Plan L might happen sooner than later. Aaaaahhhh, I need to get my butt moving if this is really happening…
• The air feels a lot less polluted than in the past weeks. It’s not great yet, but a lot better.

See more progress on: enjoy life

2010.05.10

• The first rain of the season. Not only will the dryness be less so, but a lot of the accumulated pollution of the last weeks is fairly gone. So much pollution has had me down lately and has impacted negatively not only on my diminished participation here, but also in accomplishing goals and just getting things done. Hopefully these rains will lift my spirits.
• My brother had another birthday over the weekend. We spoke briefly yet warmly. Our connection was poor, but I’m happy that we have a very close relation, and we keep in touch very regularly.
• A mini spa hour with a mini pedi & mani. I was inspired by K~’sentry of giving up a spa day, but I suggested to do a less-ambitious goal and try instead half-day or a couple of hours only. Of course, a spa day would be great, but an hour was OK —better than nothing—, but I’d like to add another couple hours during the week.

See more progress on: enjoy life

2010.05.04

• My brother sent me a photo where he’s wearing his new sweater I knitted for him. It fitted perfectly. And it arrived just in time for the few last days of lousy weather Seattle has been getting lately. So at least he’s getting to wear it a little before the nicer weather comes.
• Although I’ve been feeling rather lousy lately —and I could’ve easily make an excuse to not go out (as I’ve done previously)—, I decided to get out of my funk and attend the last event of the “Festival Barroquísimo” in Puebla. I had arranged to meet with my good friends M & I. Yet, I felt that ultimately I had made an appointment with myself, not only as an artist date but that I owed it to myself to get out of my rut, and that can only happen when you get out and make things happen. It was the closing concert for the three-week-long festival and Baaba Maal would be performing. He and his band were outstanding, and they had everyone on their feet dancing to the great rhythm of their songs. I’ll be posting about this later on. I’m just so happy I did leave home to have this experience and not regret later on the things I didn’t do —such as the cello octet that performed at the Cathedral of Puebla the week before :S
• After getting a ride back home from the concert, I told M & I to wait in the car so I could bring back to them a present I had for them in my house. I had finished a garden journal that I bound by hand, and I presented it for them for their first garden they’re growing this year. They were very thankful and took the opportunity to invite me again to do a little more work in their garden, which I happily will :)

See more progress on: enjoy life

Lousy week #2

I improved 1% over the last week, but it’s still within failing territory :( Despite my said moment of clarity —which, given its ephemerality, I can’t even remember it—, I see that my recent forced change of plans impacted negatively not only on the bootcamp but in my overall peace of mind as well.

The good news is that I see that drinking two liters of water a day has become an established habit at 99% (just plain water, and not counting other liquids such as tea or fruit water). So at least this is a small accomplishment that it’s worth acknowledging. Also, I’ve reached 87% effectiveness of avoiding junk food and soda.

Onto May…

See more progress on: April Bootcamp: Springtime Two-A-Days