Quite a lot goes into her stuffing, including ham, bacon, and frozen veggies. Her potato skins are creamy due to the potato filling, sour cream, and other items like more bacon, etc…

Aside from these two things, she usually cooks a turkey, which in my early years, would come out very dry. Sorry mom, but it is true! Not until one year when I gave her some basting suggestions like adding some butter under the skin and other such suggestions. Ever since then, the turkey has always come out moist and delicious.

This year it is different. This year, mom and my younger, of the two, sisters along with five other family members went to Mexico. They went to Mexico to accompany my grandfather’s body. He passed on November 12th at about 12:30pm.

This left dad, my sister Yesenia, and myself with a bit of a conundrum. A quandary, per say. I didn’t want to not celebrate Thanksgiving. I mean I am still very thankful for the full life my grandfather had among other things. Also, if we did not do anything, that would be kind of depressing. I decided I’d take care of dinner. So I placed an order with Boston Market for a holiday meal.

Serves 4-6 people, but we are just three. Let’s invite an uncle and cousin since the wife, mom’s sister, is also in Mexico! Then other cousins had nowhere to go with their families also in Mexico. Suddenly, we have a count of 12.

This Thanksgiving will definitely be different. My grandfather will not be there for one. His oxygen tank in the corner with a line to him. Walking from the living room to the kitchen and back whenever he got bored of the tv or the people. My mom or my sister Yoselin, or several aunts and cousins won’t be there. My mom’s cooking will definitely be missed. Sure, I could try to do the cooking myself, I mean I can probably almost repeat her recipes since I’ve seen her make it year after year. But, no. I won’t do her justice. Not yet at least.

Anyway, I leave you with this as you all {U.S. peeps} prepare for the day of thanks; Tell your loved ones you love them. Don’t wait. You never know when the last time you will see someone alive. I will never forget the last time I saw him conscious. He had fallen so we decided to take him to the emergency room just in case. I looked at him, right in the eyes as he was in the ambulance and as the doors closed. There was a calm sadness about him. Had I’d known that would be my last real opportunity, I would had told him one last time how much I loved him.

I do.

I love you grandpa.

Rest in peace, Jose Angel Ramos. 1931 - 2011

Short URL: http://is.gd/thanksgiving2011

“Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year has gone by and how little we’ve grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it’s not to be, that for the rest of our sad, wretched pathetic lives, this is who we areto the bitter end. Inevitably, irrevocably; happy birthday? No such thing.” – Jerry Seinfeld

I’d like to disprove Jerry this year. How better than to have a Karaoke Birthday Party! I’ve done this for a few years now, and it is SO MUCH FUN! Join me, on Saturday, April 10th from 7pm and on for some wacky fun. As one of my close friends called it, my “Dirty Thirty” is upon me… I aim to celebrate. I have so much to give thanks for, one of which is you. You, my friends. I thank that you are in my life, so come on out, bring your friends and let’s party it up!

I set up a Facebook Event, so friend me if you haven’t, or just comment here if you can make it. I’d like a head count, we MAY need more than one room… one year we bled out into the hallways of the establishment lol.

Lincoln Karaoke is an awesome place with PRIVATE ROOMS, so no need waiting for the “DJ” to “pull” your name, when they’re really just calling up their friends and best tippers. Located just south of Bryn Mawr on Lincoln Ave. Check them out here: http://www.lincolnkaraoke.com. There’s a full bar and an appetizer menu. Here’s a small set of pictures of my bday in 2008, it shows one of the rooms http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsutphin/sets/72157608769139593/

So please mark your calendars and bring your singing voices!

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln (Karaoke)

I’d like to say that my friends on twitter are most definitely “Leet” I currently have 1337 followers.

Thought this geeky achievement was worthy of noting… I usually don’t talk about my numbers because, as I’ve said before, it isn’t really the follows you have, but the followings you yourself have made. Most, not all, of the people I follow on twitter, I have met or made some sort of connection and would love to meet. Mostly, if someone interacts with me and makes a point to do so, I end up following back.

I avoid following most celebrities, unless I just really enjoy them or they are friends with someone I know. I will be proud when I hit 1k follows because I would have known most of them personally.

Anyway, as a geek, 1337 has a special meaning and it is the reason for today’s post.

Have a wonderful day!

Well, really I was being silly and I just wanted to make a fool of myself by singing stuff…

I wanted to make up a song and the first thing that came to mind was a parody of Puttin on the Ritz called Puttin up with Fitz. Unfortunately, it came off as an insult, which I quickly fixed (I hope I did) because it wasn’t so at all. It goes with the parody.

At the time @leahjones was featured on a news story in the Chicago Tribune, and we were in the midst of tweetups and lunches with twitter pals (@1god). @BleuCaldwell was setting up some meetups or something through twitter at the time too, I think.

@gar_cia and @ceelos would also complain about a stinky coworker (not @Fitz) that would poop and not properly flush, along with other even more gross things he would do.

My sister had just joined twitter and I joked that her handle @yeseningles was one word but I really knew it was Yes en ingles (Yes in English). I think that properly tells all the inside jokes…

Oh no… Prima Nalgotas… @gar_cia‘s cousin was dubbed Prima Nalgotas and we would, from time to time, ask where she is on twitter “Donde estas Prima Nalgotas?”

For your enjoyment:

Ahhh, the good old days…

Later that day I found out he was found dead.

I knew very little of the man. I saw him a few times growing up, and again a year ago in Mexico. I could tell he was a loving man. He leaves behind a wife, my mom’s sister, a daughter, my cousin, and an older son from a previous marriage. All he wanted to do was to provide for his wife and daughter. As some immigrants, he fell into some hard times and paid for some mistakes.

My aunt and cousin lived with us for years. They were a part of our immediate family. When my uncle paid his debt, he went back to Mexico wife and daughter in tow to start a new honest life. He opened a successful tortilla shop in his home town. Towns where my parents and he are from are small, dirt roads, and lots of lands… it takes about an hour or less to get to the next similar town and even more to get to the city. They would basically drive to all the towns nearby to sell their tortillas.

My cousin spent another two years with us to finish high school then went right back to her family.

For years, the situation in Mexico has been progressively getting worse. Some of you may have heard of the civil unrest in the southern portions of Mexico with guerrillas and fighting. Not many know of the corruption within the military, or the recent uprising of mafia cartels and gang activities in the north.

Here is an article of his death on a Mexican website. Here it is using Google’s translator.

What sticks out the most is:

Inhabitants of El Oro demand greater military presence since the kidnappings, “surge” and murders are the order of the day. In this regard, the headquarters of EI Oro notes that they are extremely active in prosecuting crime.

El Oro is one of the municipalities where the most bloodshed is recorded, apparently, several groups operate there.

Inhabitants of the municipality of El Oro seek support to end the climate of insecurity and violence in the north of the state.

I remember visiting him about a year ago or so in Mexico. He was happy. He was with his family. This was his second chance. I’ll never forget his smile and the lifetime behind his eyes.

My heart goes out to my aunt and my cousin who are still in Mexico, in fear. Last I heard, they plan to remain there and continue the business. They’ll always have a home with us should they elect to come back to Chicago.

Rest in eternal peace, Gabriel Monarrez Favela. Know that we are here for your family, for they are our family as well.

People are so busy dreaming the American Dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they’re all asleep at the switch. Consequently we are living in the Age of Human Error. – Florence King

Some of you may or may not have seen this tweet this weekend:

To my chagrin, I awaited my call, for I had won a text message contest after sending but two txt messages with the correct word into the number provided, soon there was a woman on the radio that was considered the winner. What?

Yeah, something was up and I was not going to sit idly. Calling their station number only resulted in busy signals, which I rarely hear lately, or “cannot be completed” or “all circuits are busy” messages. I also texted in that I was waiting for my call. Lastly, because I am proactive, I went on their website, found their promotions department and sent them an email asking if there was something wrong with this contest.

See, I’ve never attended their concerts in the past, for I could never afford it, nor justify purchasing tickets so with the chance to go for free, I jumped at the chance, especially with the lineup promoted.

I promptly went about my business that Saturday, going to a boat architectural tour with my sisters and cousin. Along the way, the promotions person called me and told me she received my email and explained the situation.

It seems that some sort of “glitch” had happened which caused false winning texts to be sent out after the winner was chosen and I was actually not the winner. I know what you’re thinking at this point, as I was at the time. Not my fault and I should still get tickets, but I wasn’t about to express this right away, I am patient and I let her continue. See, the email I sent wasn’t angry nor accusatory. It was more of is there something wrong type of email. She continued by letting me know that even though I did not win, she would still give me a pair of tickets since I had received this message. She also said someone would contact me during the week for my information.

This is where I am currently am, and I am very hopeful that I will receive a pair of tickets, and I plan on taking one of my sisters, depending on the age limit they have for this venue. So although I didn’t really win, I still ended up a winner since I was promised my own pair of tickets and I didn’t have to stress about it either. I never really felt entitled, which is a difference from thinking I should still get tickets to thinking I deserve the tickets, and by just living a positive life and trying for the tickets did I get them. If I hadn’t gotten them, oh well, big whoop.

The cool thing is that I have Lisa Lampanelli tickets the weekend after for myself and @yeseningles. This was my birthday present to her. June will be a fun month for sure.

Disease does not occur unexpectedly, it is the result of constant violation of Nature’s laws. Spreading and accumulation of such violations transpire suddenly in the form of a disease – but it only seems sudden. – Hippocrates

I knew it was coming, I saw it coming… I mean, I had high blood pressure and I am pretty overweight. No surprise here. It still stung when the doctor told me I had the d-word. Two weeks ago, I went in to have my glucose levels tested. I think its called the oral glucose test, which is done to pregnant women usually. They draw blood three times, the first while fasting, then they give me this orange goo that is very sugary and every hour they draw more blood for two hours.

Basically, in my case, my cells aren’t very glucose-hungry. It seems that insulin is used to coax cells to “eat” glucose to burn it for energy. In some types of diabetes, the body isn’t producing enough insulin, while in others that level is fine, its just that the cells don’t want/need much sugar/glucose as in my case. The medicine prescribed will make them want to. This is my understanding from what I read about it.

Ultimately, it was caught early enough, and during my Year of the Edgar, which means that I can easily deal with this and more than likely it can and will go away. This morning I tested myself when I woke up and the number was 176. The doctor says that “normal” levels are between 70 and 120. Today was also the first day of taking the medicine, which I took after testing myself. Two hours after lunch, two hours after a meal is preferred, I tested myself again and the number was 121. Excellent, right? Possibly, if I can keep my sugar down, I may also lose my high blood pressure. Pretty cool, eh?

Bottom line, watch what you eat. If you deem that its not healthy, too much fast foods, or high in sugar, carbs, and/or fat, get yourself tested. Definitely get tested if you are overweight, especially if its obesity. If you don’t have insurance, then please find a free clinic or save up some money to do this… your health is VERY important.

This just gives me more incentive to lose weight. It will definitely be a good year.

This is Nacho usual tweetup...

And thus proclaimed the great Amy J Fisher, “Let there be Nachos!” And the Nachos ran abundant for tables and tables, filled with hungry and anticipating people, ready for the bountiful delights of the Nachos.

Yeah so… We had a tweetup where we ate nachos. It was fun. Contrary to @silverbell‘s expression over yonder. A nice-sized crowd showed up and I even met some new friends. Let me just say that we all mingled very well. It probably helped that there was also liquor and it was flowing freely.

I have uploaded my pictures to my flickr so feel free to view and comment on them. If you missed the tweetup, it is but a sampling of what was missed. You can imagine what pictures I chose not to put up is all I am saying.

One of my favorite pictures, and I have many is this one of @Fitz and @LeahJones taking a picture with nachos and beer, which Leah yelled out “Nachos and Beer!” This explains the tweetup very nicely.

Speaking of @Fitz, John decided to take what’s been referred as a “sexy pose”… Being sexy is his business, and business is good!

I can sit here and post every single picture I took, but you can go ahead and view my latest set from the tweetup.

I did want to point out that I was wearing my photoshop’d shirt, which has a back-story. I watch The Guild as well as admin their website. Its a great web series by Felicia Day. She plays a gamer of an online game and finds one of her online gaming friends at her doorstep, Zaboo (played by Sandeep Parikh). Zaboo is basically a stalker and one of the things he does is photoshops a picture of him and of Codex, Felicia’s character. So, I was to meet Felicia and Sandeep last year and thought it would be really funny to make a t-shirt of me and him photoshop’d. It was a hit. Well, Sandeep thought it creepy, which made it even better. So, at the Nacho Tweetup, I had a name tag for myself and I placed it on the t-shirt me, so I gave t-shirt Sandeep his own name tag as well. You can see me wearing two name tags, because mine has my twitter handle and http://yearoftheedgar.com while the other one has Sandeep’s twitter handle and http://effinfunny.com. The great thing was that about half of the people there knew the inside joke of it, which is awesome. Lastly, Sandeep also created Legend of Neil, a hilarious web series about a guy named Neil who finds himself in the Legend of Zelda game and has to find away out.

After the gym, or a night of drinking... same look.

I haven’t been to the gym in a month. FAIL, I know… but I HAVE been doing stuff for this health goal. Since I started working at my current job, my coworkers have been very supportive and have even given me tips and suggestions about cutting out lots of things from my diet.

I started to, but I would quickly revert and indulge much too much on food. Its just so tasty! Now, I also read about it being a lifestyle change, but never really heeded it. Then I take a four-day trip out to Los Angeles to hob-nob with some celebs. Here is where I met Ryon, programmer and health enthusiast among so many other interesting things. We literally spent hours discussing health and diet and nutrition and other things related. It was very interesting too. This man can present.

I took to heart what everyone has been telling me at that point and began to actively watch my eating habits and choosing better choices. Its not perfect, I still enjoy bad-no-no food, but less so.

Last night, I went to the gym, with my coworker/gym buddy, and found out I had lost about 20 lbs. in this time. Wonderful news! My changes have now shown some success! Yes folks, this is, in fact, happening.

As 2008 ended, I thought to myself about how I could make 2009 better. This is one facet of my Year of the Edgar (all rights reserved) idea. Since its my year, I decided to actively work towards better health. Simply because I want to. Its an alien idea, I know, but I am tired of wanting to do something and then think “but I know I won’t do it.” That’s bunk and I am about to prove to everyone that if you want it, and do it, it will happen (within reason, don’t stalk someone!).

I say again, make this year as active as possible and write that script/book/whatever, or film that short/movie/skit, or get healthy/workout more, or learn a new language/an instrument/ a new hobby, or network and meet new people… whatever your heart desires is just but a “do” away.

Its my year baby!

2008 is but a memory. I had a wonderful year full of several fun events and meeting new people and just being plain old me. Its been one of the better years in my life and I have no other place to go but up. This year needs to be even better than the last one. Simply because I feel like it and I said so.

I am of the belief that you should be filled with as much confidence as possible. Its better that way. There’s a term called self-fulfilling prophecy, negative people end up making their fears happen. Why can’t positive people end up making their desires come true too? With that in mind, I decided to make this Year of the Edgar. Its obviously a chinese zodiac reference, also, some of the Guildies have, for some reason, been referencing me as “the Edgar”. It all works out!

Here’s the thing… http://yearoftheedgar.com <- this is my new website. It will chronicle my awesome year as well as anyone having great experiences while following my philosophy. There’s even a banner you can add to your website. Please do. I will make me smile greatly if you can use my mug on your website(s).

Welcome to the Year of the Edgar.