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Inbetween holiday parties, chores, and working out, I 've been playing Tomb raider: Angel of Darkness. It was one of several $10 games I picked up at Best Buy. I love finding classic games that are still fun to play, but cheap.

It is a pretty good game, and not nearly as violent as I expected. Mostly you get to watch Laura Croft run, jump, and shimmy around obsticles. There are mazes and puzzles too. Occasionally you shoot someone. I also have come to appreciate the appeal of playing a video game with a super-sexy main character.

Christmas 05

I had a busy Christmas weekend. Saturday I wrapped all our holiday presents and then headed down to Orange County to visit Gary's parents. We had a wonderful homecooked feast and watched some of the James Bond marathon.

Sunday afternoon I saw Brokeback Mountain with my family, and friends Arlan and David. The movie was excellent - moving, but sad. Talking to Arlan and David afterwards about the film reminded me how courageous openly gay folks are. And I have to say I really admire Arlan and David for being vegetarian, openly-gay, Jews by choice. Anyone of those things by itself is tough enough in this world. But I digress... After the movie we all went back to my parents house to celebrate the first night of Hannuka.

Monday my family drove up to Santa Barbara to visit my Grandpa George who supposedly turned 83 this year (know one really knows his real birthdate). It was good to see my grandparents to celebrate his birthday and Hannuka, and a whole passel of my brother's friends showed up too. The main downside was the poor service and limited choices at the restaurant we went to.

Oh, and I finally uploaded my pictures from my Mexico trip. Check them out at my shutterfly album.

HP 4 reviews

Other Potterphiles out there will enjoy these two in depth reviews of the lastest Harry Potter film.

Some snipets from the The Underground Lake include "I predict Emma Watson will become the new Keira Knightley once Keira Knightley stops being the current Keira Knightley." and "I realize that most of us could have tolerated a Gone With The Wind-sized epic that was a strict adaptation, and I promise if I get to direct Seven, (which would be my dream), I will do my best to make it so. However, believe it or not, Warner Bros. did not make this movie just for us."

The U-bend review was also good, especially if you like a shorter article.

back from Mexico

I'm on my second day back from Mexico and I'm still trying to dig myself out from all the messages, charsts, results, and emails that have built up at work. But it is good to be back home. I'll try to get some photos from my trip up soon.

Mas de Mexico

Things are still going well in Mexico. I had a great weekend. Saturday I got to go swimming at a local hot springs and later in the afternoon I went to see Harry Potter 4. (A ticket only cost $3!) It was cool to see the movie again and even cooler to follow along in Spanish.

Sunday was better though. The five other students and I got up early to go on a field trip. We spent most of the day at an incredible site at Teotihuacan. We climbed all the way up to the top of the 2000 year-old pyramid of the sun, which according to the ancient indiginous beliefs, is the center of the universe. We also got to see were they made human sacrifices. Although most of the other students gave up on the names of the ancient dieties, I loved them. My favorite is the head of the pantheon - Queztlcoatl.

We also went to the capital, Mexico City, and saw a presidential/conquistedor palace of Chapultepec, and the city's main cathedral. It was very interesting and the group was alot of fun. I will post pictures once I get back home.

The Spanish Instute of Puebla is turning out to me an excellent experience. I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in an intensive Spanish edcuation program.

Hola

Hola de Mexico.

I am very fortunate to have my employer send me to a for two weeks in Spanish emersion program in Mexcio . I'm staying with a host family in the town of Puebla, about two hours from Mexico city, and attending a Spanish language school. I took a couple semsters of Spanish in college and am able to communicate okay with patients at work, but I can definitely use some more education.

So far the program is pretty good. In the morning we get four hours of grammar and vocabulary. There is just one other student in my class. We get to eat lunch at a local restaurant and then have a guide show us around the city one-on-one. I get to choose what to do in the afternoon - see a museum, watch a movie, shop, etc. As long as I'm speaking Spanish. My classmate is from Ireland and is a big soccer (football) fan. He takes his guide to various bars or pool hall to watch soccer games. And the program seems to be working, because my Spanish is getting better everyday.

My host family is an older couple with grown children and a big empty house. They are very sweet, always making sure I take my sweater when I go outside. Sometimes I have hard time communicating, but I get by. Also, the food is excellent. My host family eats very healthy and I get to eat REAL homemade Mexican food. I have had three different types of tamales and some excellent chicken with mole sauce.

We also get to go on tours of the area. Today we go to Chalula, an old native american city with several big pyramids. It sounds very cool. I will try to post some pictures once I get home.

Kick boxing

I was getting kind of bored of my exercise routine so I decided to try something new. I still am addicted to working out, but my regular mix of swim, bike, and run was getting dull. But I wanted to do something that was still a good workout, no yoga or anything slow.

The best thing would be to get out to the snow. I wish I could get some cross country skiing in - it is so much fun and an excellent workout.

Tuesday I tried the one hour cardio kick boxing class at my gym. It was a good change of pace, still challenging, but different. I was able to keep up with the clase aerobically, I didn't get out of breath or feel tired, but I could not do all the fancy kicks and keep in step with the rest of the class. It takes some major balance, speed and coordination to follow along - somethings I am lacking. But it felt good to feel sore in new places.