My Holidays

Hello everyone, I hope you had the best holidays. I know I did. I spent the holidays at home in Austin with my parents and a brief visit from my brother, his wife and my baby nephew. It was great because I got to share with all of them a little bit of my day to day life, something that due to distance we don’t get to experience from each other. Small details like my mom liking toast with sour cream and apple juice like three or four times a day, my dad liking super sweet coffee, my brother being a responsible parent, my sister in law loving to bake, but doesn’t like to eat what she makes and the baby liking the bouncy game I played with him. It was all great.

We spent Christmas Eve cooking. I had invited some friend over for dinner and the Puerto Rican Christmas experience. That meant cooking a lot of the typical dishes you would find during the season; Arroz con Gandules, Pernil, Papas Majadas, Pasteles, Guineitos en Escabeche, Zorullitos, Coquito, etc. There were a couple of popular extras like Rum Cake and good Cuba Libres. The night developed into some singing and poetry recital performances. I would like to thank, Andres and Oliver for their performances. We had a great time.

Santa Clause was nice to this year too… I was expecting coal, but instead I got some nice items I’ve been wanting for a while.

New Years, was a bit tone down. My mom wanted to go to San Antonio for New Years Eve, so we did. We went sightseeing at the Alamo and River Walk. They had a blast. Later that night after eating a big Tex-Mex meal we drove back to Austin, but by the time that midnight rolled around we were all super tired. I promised Vanessa that next years we will party the new year up.

Five Steps to Make Your Holiday Guests Feel @ Home

It is holiday season and many of us will be migrating home to share our time with the rest of the family. In my case, my family is spread around the world; Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Germany. If we don’t count Germany, my home in Austin, TX turns out to be the most central location for the rest of my family to get together.  Which gives me the honor to host the Holidays for the first time.

That also means that I have to host my parents, my brother, his wife and new baby, V and I in my two bedroom townhouse. don’t get me wrong, it’s a joy to have them home, but how will I make them feel comfortable?

I have made up a list of five steps to make your home more enjoyable, welcoming and Zen for holiday visitors.

1. Complete Un-Finished Home Projects

This is not the time to take on long projects that down deep you know you will not finish on time, but it is time to complete some of those unfinished projects. I know I had quite a few; unfinished entertainment system area as well as un-hanged frames, stuff I have listed in Craigslist and paint for ‘quick’ painting jobs that never got done, all just laying around the house.

I believe that finishing such projects will give the house a feeling of home instead of a building site as well as make you feel good about finishing something you obviously wanted at one point or another.

2. De-clutter

Once the materials for those projects finished in the previous step are either used up and/or put away, the next step is to step back and take a good look at your house and see where you can reduce the content of ‘stuff.’ If you have ever watched HGTV then you are familiar with de-cluttering… They recommend it for everything, you want to sell your house? De-clutter. You want fix a room? De-clutter. Your house is falling in to pieces? De-clutter.

In this case, do you want the feeling of a roomier house? De-clutter.

• A good way to decorate while de-cluttering is to group similar small items into inexpensive deco boxes which are found in Ikea (or similar store).
• Also, it is the time of giving, try to evaluate what you don’t really need and donated to local non-profit organizations; Clothes, books, furniture and so on.
• Try selling stuff you don’t need in Craigslist.

A small article on De-cluttering, ‘Declutter 101: Where Do I Start?’

3. Clean

“A clean home is a happy home.” Sadly my home is seldom really clean, but no one can deny how good it feels when in a clean home. If you own a large house, I believe that as a present to yourself and accommodations to your guest it is really worth getting a cleaning service to do a detailing cleaning job in your home. I mean we get our cars detailed every so often, why not our house?

4. Have Hotel Like Accommodations for Guest

I do not mean have a spa and a hot tub…. See the following list:

• Have a space for them to unpack and have their own area.
• If your guest will have their own room take some time to decorate it by getting matching sheets, maybe a reading lamp, art or picture in the wall, etc.
• If you have a guest bathroom, have a little basket with grooming essentials: shampoo, soap, tooth paste, tooth brush, deodorant, etc.

The point is to provide them with a sense of privacy and comfort.

5. Set the Mood

This events are optional to your guest, but they are meant to entertain, promote sharing and setting a joyful mood.

• In this case we are talking about a holiday visit, so have holiday decorations, holiday music, holiday food, etc.
• Keep your guest entertain by scheduling events… visiting the light show or local holiday events, family game night, cooking and sharing time, etc.

I believe that even if you have no guests, these steps will provide you with a more enjoyable home for the rest of the year and a great mood to launch the year to come.

Happy Holidays and Marry Christmas!!

My Top 10 Christmas Gifts Ideas

Hello everyone, it has been in forever since I write a post. If you look in the history it all started to go down hill since the UM lost to Virginia Tech…. ‘What a terrible day?’

Anyway, I’m writing this post, because I know how hard it is for me to buy presents for others. I usually want to get them something that will seem thoughtful and different, but that they would like and use. Sometimes, giving a present that would introduce the receiver to something new is good, but the giver has to be aware that not everyone likes the same things. Just because you like bungee jumping from trees, doesn’t mean your girlfriend would find it interesting.

In the spirit of making it easy for my friends and family to shop for me, keeping away some of the queries from V and giving ideas to others with friends with the same interests as I do; I have compiled a list of 10 present ideas. These ideas are categorized on six areas that I’m interested on: Health/Fitness, Cooking, Home, Home Entertainment and Photography.

Ordered by relative price:

1. Good Eats: The Early Years      Interest: Cooking      Idea: Give the gift of new cuisines (recipe books)      Info: $19.50 in Amazon.com (here)      Effort Level (1-4): 2, May want to know the receiver’s tastes and interest I like trying new stuff and experimenting in the kitchen, a recipe book is a good way to open the doors to different tastes, techniques and experiences. Maybe you’ll get an interesting dinner out of it :-). In this case I’m a fan of Alton Brown, but with recipe books you can experiment from exotic foods from around the world to local cuisines.

2. Smugmug.com Yearly Membership      Interest: Photography      Idea: Web Platform for Sharing, Storing, Printing & Selling      Info: $39.95 per year (here)      Effort Level: 1, May want to know if using a service already If interested in photography the odds are that they are sharing their work online and depending on their level, they may be using free services for this purpose. There are benefits to have a paid service like Smugmug or Flickr including:      - Unlimited Storage      - No File Size Limitations      - Ease of sharing      - Professional Groups and Collaboration      - Backups In my case I’ve been testing Smugmug.com the last couple of days and I like their following features:      - User Interface is very Nice      - Sharing Security Features      - Visitors do not need an account to see my pics They have three membership levels, basic for regular users like me, power for users with more visitor demanding needs and pro for professionals who sell their work from the smugmug platform and make profits.

3. Play On Software      Interest: Home Entertainment      Idea: Bring the web entertainment content to the TV      Info: $39.99 (here)      Effort Level: 1 PlayOn is a software program that runs on your Windows PC, giving you access to a wide range of Internet content on your TV -- Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon VOD, and many others. In my case it is particularly useful at allowing me to watch Hulu.com content through my PlayStation 3.

4. 100% Whey Gold Standard Protein Shakes      Interest: Health/Fitness      Idea: Supplement his fitness      Info: $42.95 for 5lbs (here)      Effort Level: 2, May want to know his needs Being ‘healthy’ is an expensive business, have you seen the prices in Whole Food lately? Keeping fit ain’t easy and fitness supplementation could be very expensive. Here is when you come to the rescue with a good protein product, vitamins or any product the gift receiver is in need of. This type of gift never goes to waste. Creativity comes in on taste, but don’t get too creative. Fitness supplements are notorious for their bad taste. This is one where you may want to stick to the classics Vanilla, Chocolate or Strawberry. In my case, I’m in need of some protein. My favorite taste is Double Chocolate.

5. Wedding Tux Rental      Interest: Wedding      Idea: Help With Wedding Preparations      Info: $60 - $100      Effort Level: 3, Here you may want a recon partner Planning a wedding is very stressful project and expensive. There are major and minor expenses all over the place…. Giving your time to help with wedding preparations is always welcome and highly appreciated, but not everyone has time to do it. So here is where you can give a thoughtful minor donation to the cause by paying for a small detail needed on the wedding. For example, the groom’s tux, a table arrangement, an extra song by the band, etc.

6. Neat Image Pro Edition Software      Interest: Photography      Idea: Add to his Digital Photography Toolkit      Info: $59.90 (here)      Effort Level: 2, What does he have? In this suggestion the question is more likely to be, What does he has? than, What does he need? Because in this area, we need it all of course lol. Neat Image is an imaging noise reduction filter, similar to Noise Ninja. They have four versions:    - Home – for 8-bit images    - Home + – for 8-bit images and Photoshop Plugin    - Pro – for 16-bit photos (RAW)    - Pro+ – same as pro with Phtoshop Plugin

7. Month of Aikido Classes      Interest: Health/Fitness      Idea: Introduce him to a different way of fitness      Info: $80 a month, (here)      Effort Level: 3 In my case I take Aikido, but this can be any other type of physical activity for example, a physical trainer, salsa classes, martial arts, rock climbing, etc. If he or she already practices something you can just buy the next month for them, but if they don’t you can buy a month to something where they can experience something new.

8. Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick Wok      Interest: Cooking      Idea: Facilitate his culinary experimentation      Info: $99.99 in Amazon.com (here)      Effort Level: 2 The point of this gift is to get someone a new kitchen tool that they would not normally have in a typical American kitchen. The gift becomes much more special if you are able to match the brand, style, or colors to their already existing set thus making it look like it should be there. In this case I have owned a wok before and know how (geeky alert) cool they are, but you may want to look into different countries kitchen essential tools, for example:     - Japanese – Sushi roll tools     - Spanish – Paella pot (can be use outside)      - Indian – Masala Dani (Indian version of a spice rack)

9. Wall Art      Interest: Home      Idea: Improve decoration with his taste      Info: Insert your price range here      Effort Level: 4, Where will it go? What does he like? Guys are notorious for having a bunch of empty walls in their house. Not because we don’t like art, but mostly because we can’t stand the thought of paying so much for something that looks like a kid could have done it and then hang it in a wall….. I can buy some sort of electronic with that money. Anything that plugs into the wall has to be more useful, right? This could be a very hard present to pull off, but if done right it can be a great one. The trick is to get him something that he likes!!! This art is going to be hanged in his wall for a long time, make sure that he has a nice thought every time he looks at it. You need to know what type of art (photography, painting, etc.), style and colors he likes. It is almost as important for the art piece to go with the already existing decor.

10. Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Zoom Lens      Interest: Photography      Idea: Add to his photo gear Toolbox (or tool bag :-) )      Info: $599 in Amazon (here)      Effort Level: 2, Need to know his camera brand and mount. Photographers like ‘glass’ (photographer’s lingo for camera lenses) and enthusiast like myself like to act like real photographers. That and the fact that this is a sweet professional level lens for the price makes it a great gift. But, if you feel more generous you can get the IS version for $1132.55 in Amazon (here).