Time flies…

I know it’s only been a month since I posted something new, but, let me tell ya…it feels like it’s been a frigging year. I don’t know what y’all have been up to, but this has been one seriously long-ass month around here, amigos.

On April 1st (which was my birthday, for anyone still shopping for gifts) my sister-in-law, Laura, was hospitalized for what at first looked like a stroke. As if that wasn’t scary enough, it turns out that the stroke was brought on by a rare neurological condition called Moyamoya Syndrome. In the simplest terms — which are the only one’s I can wrap my unscientific mind around — Moyamoya is an inherited disease that causes certain arteries in the brain to become constricted which can often lead to blockages and strokes. When the main arteries get blocked, they sometimes generate tiny offshoot blood vessels that resemble a cloud of smoke in X-rays, hence the name Moyamoya, which translates as “puff of cigar smoke” in Japanese.

Once the doctors realized what they were dealing with, Laura was moved to UCLA Medical Center where she sailed through brain surgery like a bad ass and is now in the rehab wing across the street. It will be a long road to a full recovery, but she is already way further along than most people are at this stage, so we are  all very optimistic. And did I mention how punk she looks with a rad, half-shaved head? Awesome!

Anyway, the good news is that, if all goes well, Laura will be coming home on Friday to complete her rehab from home in Glendale. Yay! I’m sure she’s dying to get back to some semblance of normality and being home will totally help in that respect. Hell, I think she’ll be happy to just have her own Tivo back!

And of course we’ll all be happy to be done with hospitals, not to mention that obscenely over-priced parking structure at UCLA! I’m sorry, man, but hospitals suck so bad. And trying to keep Greta from touching every shiny, germy surface in sight when we visit is next to impossible. Urgh, I practically bathed her in hand-sanitizer that first week we visited.

So, as things ever-so-slowly ramp back up to normal, or the “new normal” as my brother Ryan calls it, I just wanted to thank everybody out there for bearing with us as we completely abandoned our blog. Sorry…

And as far as the month of April goes, I usually love you, baby, but you kinda sucked this year…here’s hoping May is a whole lot better for everyone. Most especially for our favorite little puff of smoke herself, Auntie Laura. Get well soon, sweetie…we love you!

Dia de los Muertos 2008

Since our usual Day of the Dead menu is a bit of a hodge podge — one year we had tuna casserole and taco salad! — this year we decided to make something a little more unified. So, though it took a while to prepare, I ended up making some kick-ass chicken enchilladas and beans. OK, I didn’t actually make the beans, but I did make the enchilladas, and they were awesome.

Christine’s been having some problems with spicy foods lately, so I toned down the hot chiles this time, but, even milder than usual, those things were delicious.

Another kind of weird thing happened in the drink department…usually we serve something sweet and yummy for my little sister Brittany, tuna juice or milk for our cats Frida and Lourdes, something non-alcoholic for Christine’s Dad, Buster, and beer for my Grandpa Romero.

So, I’m looking through my fridge for some Mexican beer for Grandpa and there, in the very back of the fridge is a San Miguel that I have no recollection of ever buying, just waiting to be opened. Crazy, huh? I’m sure my brother brought the beer over sometime when he was housesitting or something, but it was odd to find one lone bottle of Mexican beer just when I — not to mention my Grandpa! — wanted it most. Weird…

Per tradition, Christine and I served up one plate of food for our loved one’s to share, set out some pictures and mementos from their lives, poured them their favorite drinks and got down to some serious eating.

Another change this year was that we left our Halloween pumpkins on the table this year too, which, aside from looking pretty damn cool, also made the whole thing much more festive.

And though we bought the ingredients to make Pumpkin Pie ice cream milk shakes for dessert, we were so full by the time we finished eating that we just had a couple slices of that amazing, pink-sugar-coated Pan de Muerto (pictured above) and called it a night.

Feliz Dia de los Muertos everyone…and to our family and feline loved ones who have gone before, hope you liked the grub and see ya next year!