Late February and a whole in the world...

So there is some news this week: looks like I’ll be spending my workdays a bit differently starting in the middle of March. I don't want to post details just yet, as I'm waiting for a couple of things to settle, but I'm really excited about the road up ahead.

So what have I been up to lately??? This possible change in career paths has been really stressing me out and taking some of my free time. Then again, I've still found time for: XL party on Thursday night at the new place to be in Guate (Soho), been down to Antigua a couple of times (one time there was a small brawl outside of Monoloco that we just stood there and watched), won my first game of Phase 10, enjoyed some really good carne asada at friend's BBQ, had some excellent Sushi and Japanese beer (Sapporo and Kirin Ichiban), watched the movie Fearless (Jet Li's last movie, really cool fight scenes), and had the best ceviche in a long time at this new place I found called Cevichito (new to me at least).

On sports news, I played my first basketball game of the year, which went pretty decent, except for the fact that I made 1 out of 6 free throws... pathetic! We have another game tonight, I wish I could say I've practiced since my last game, but haven’t had the time. The George Mason Patriots are not looking good this year, hope other CAA teams do well in upcoming the NCAA tournament. Bosox spring training is up and running… I think this is gonna be a good year for the Sox.

By the way, not sure if any of you saw this, but apparently because of some brake in the sewer system, a "small" hole appeared in the middle of Zone 6 in the city. 3 people were reported missing afterewards...Crap!!!

How is everybody else doing? Drop me a line so I know what you’re up to…

Aloha and keep your feet on the ground... if you can,
Carlos

P.S. - Judster is officially in Peten, good luck with that... hope he's not afraid of monkeys!!!
P.S. II - Kevin found some herb to put into beer that makes it taste like an ALE… so freaking good! I really wish we had a selection of ALE beers down here.
P.S. III - Another Late Show Top Ten…

Late Show’s Top Ten Signs You've Been Stuck On A Plane For Ten Hours

10. You've categorized your fellow passengers according to the order in which you would eat them
9. President Bush calls pilot, says he's doing a "heck of a job"
8. You discover that every passenger and crew member is related to Kevin Bacon
7. Your rear end has become a flotation device
6. The pilots have both sobered up
5. You've finally managed to open a packet of peanuts
4. Dr. Phil is starting to make a lot of sense
3. Everyone on board has had sex with Ralph Fiennes
2. You get so loopy you begin to think you're the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby
1. Britney Spears has been in and out of rehab five times since you boarded

Seasons of my life...

As some of you might know, I was in Miami recently for some personal business… I’m happy to report that things are moving along well, and a decision could be made soon (very exciting and scary at the same time). I will keep you guys posted and let you know once it’s final. Can I sail through the changing ocean tides, can I handle the seasons of my life... (Fleetwood Mac in da house!)

What else? Work has been going ok, for some reason ever since we got back from Cancun, it seems that we’ve had tons of more work. I know I shouldn’t complain, but still, I’ve been leaving work around 7 - 8 PM most days.

On happier news, we celebrated Lucky’s b-day last week at Villa Los Añejos (this bar / lounge place owned by La Licorera). I was able to get Lucky a discount on the bottles of rum for the event, which we amazingly finished quite fast (4 bottles of Casa Botran Añejo 12 and 2 bottles of XL). A band plays there every Friday night, so we had very cool ambiance and great company.

On other drinking news, about two weeks ago, we had a bar crawling night in Antigua with my gringo friends. Jud had arranged the entire thing, and we had a specified time to spend at each bar. We all contributed to a pot of money for the drinks, which included about 5 or 6 bars. I missed out on the first stop, which was La Chimenea, but caught up with the crew at Reds. Some pics from that night:

So I missed the first stop, but the second one was at REDS...

At Reilly's... after this it was off to Ricky's (were all we did was use the bathroom)

El Club or something like that... huge Rum and Coke!

Singing kareoke, where I delighted the crowd with a rendition of Hey Jude and The Gambler.

Our last stop, Monoloco... Jud checking out if he's in any of the pictures.

After coming out of Monoloco, we decided to climb (or at least tried) this wall that's infront of the bar... I helped Jud get up on the wall.


Here I am trying to get up...

Thanks for the help Kevin... did I make it all the way up???

NOPE!!! Failed miserably... I'm guessing I was too tired and not too weak. Besides, Bob also fell down after I tried to help him up, but his crash was much worse (fell on his back)... or at least it appeared that way, he was fine though.

Later dudes,
CRCP

P.S. - I start my basketball season again tonight… we’ll see how that goes… no injuries please!
P.S. II - Saw the movie Borat on Tuesday, I though it was quite funny… but expected to laugh a bit more.
P.S. III - Ricardo Arjona won a Latin Grammy on Sunday for best Latin Album (he’s from Guate).. and what was up with the Dixie Chicks winning every single freaking award!!!
P.S. IV - Survivor started again last Thursday, looks like we’re in for another great season.
P.S. V - Happy Valentine’s Day to all the girls I’ve loved before…
P.S. VI - Another Late Show Top Ten…

Late Show’s Top Ten Signs Bill Gates is your Secret Valentine

10. You couldn't read your Valentine card due to the 32-bit encryption scheme
9. You're invited to a romantic evening at Circuit City
8. Love notes written in C++
7. You get a card, a box of chocolates and Rhode Island
6. The Valentine's Card you received is a poor imitation of the one Steve Jobs sent out 5 years ago
5. Valentine's card asks for the password to your "inbox"
4. You get a lovely note inviting you to "help me convert my floppy to a hard drive"
3. Couldn't decide on a card, so he bought you Hallmark instead
2. Before sex, he needs to run an antivirus on you
1. Melinda Gates drives 900 miles in adult diapers to mace you

DC + friends + family...

I was in DC this past weekend… Woohoo!!! The whole trip happened really last minute, as I was schedule to travel to Miami for some personal business, and it ended up being that it was easier / cheaper for me to travel to DC after stopping by Miami, than just traveling to Miami and back. I didn’t finalize the plans till late Thursday afternoon, and I sent a quick e-mail to my ARC and DC friends to meet me up at Mr. Smith’s in Georgetown for some drinks and catching up (plus the piano man is the best!). I called my dad to let him know of the good news, and got really excited about my travel weekend.

Left Guatemala early Friday morning (didn’t get that much sleep since I was so excited), stopped by Miami and took care of my personal business, finally it was off to DC… where I landed around 8:20 PM and went directly to Mr. Smith’s (with luggage and all). A whole bunch of friends were there, some were missing (losers!), but it was a great evening overall… Here’s the evidence... and somebody pucked after leaving Mr. Smith's... it wasn't me, one of my friends... let's see if you can figure out which one:

Tammy, Will, and Felicia... hey! Where's Kaya...

Daniel Vazquez and your host... Hey! Where's the "fiancee"???

The beginning of a wonderful evening.... shots for everybody!!!

Your host and Felicia... she really wanted one of those Mr. Smith's glasses.

Tuk and I... with the tongue hanging.

Piano man... you rock! Sang Sweet Caroline, The Gambler, Country Roads, and other favorites...

Bulchi did not stop talking on the phone for the pic...

Friday night I stayed at Mickey B’s house (really nice digs), we had a couple of more drinks before crashing out (around 4 AM), and woke up around 9:30 AM on Saturday to meet up with my dad. Took the Metro to Dunn Loring Station (Orange Line), went back to my dad’s place and stayed there for a couple of hours. We then ran errands, had lunch, hit the mall and ended the night with some nice dinner.

Metro station at Courthouse... public transportation in DC is pretty good.

At my dad's place.... really thankful to have spent time with him.

I then left to meet up with friends, since it was Karthik’s b-day celebration and didn’t leave there till around 1:30 AM, headed back to my dad’s place, packed my stuff and went to bed around 2 AM… only to wake up around 4:15 AM to catch my plane back to Guatemala (I was so freaking tired, it wasn’t even funny). After sleeping in both plane rides, I finally got back to Guate around 2 PM, had some lunch, watched the Superbowl (which I thought was pretty messy as far as execution goes and not really that interesting), finally went to bed around 9 PM… which is the earliest I’ve gone to bed in a long time. I’m still a bit tired from the weekend events, but very glad I was able to see a bunch of my DC friends… Thanks for stopping bye amigos!

Karthik giving his bday speech in Hindi or something... I have no clue what he was saying... maybe it was the tequila!

See ya soon and thanks for coming out this weekend,
CRCP

P.S. – I did buy four CDs while there: Grammys 2007, MJB – Reflections, DMB – Best of what’s around, and Forrest Gump Soundtrack! Still not able to find the M. Ward CD, looks like I’ll be getting it on-line.