One of the reasons I decided to move back to California is the sunshine. I missed it terribly when I lived in DC. A few days ago we had one of those unbelievably beautiful days in San Diego. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze. Perfect weather for a walk. I wondered around my new neighborhood and snapped some photos of the interesting things I saw. Here are a few of my favorites.

left to right, top to bottom: North Park sign, mural near Wang’s restaurant, a crime scene–poor stuffed panda, beautiful hanging succulent garden, the water tower that makes this song run through my head, cheap and local towing, my favorite coffee shop Claire de Lune (no wifi!), Toronado–a local bar I still need to visit.

Vacationing at my parents’ house in Palm Springs involves many things,  chores, lots of family, pool time, long talks, shopping, and rescuing lizards. See, my parents have two cats, Flower and Suki. Flower and Suki enjoy the sunshine and cool grass all morning and then at the suns peak they come inside for some A/C. Of course, they know how spoiled they are and in return bring us presents. These presents are lizards. And sometimes birds.

Around noon my mom came home. I was still in my pajamas after a glorious 12 hours of sleep. My mom walked in and said “Ohhh, there’s a lizard!” A small one. My mom grabbed the broom and the dustpan. She attempted to sweep it up when the little thing bolted and ran straight into my father’s closet. My mom shrugged her shoulders, “your daddy can deal with that one.”

I was about to ask my mom about her morning when I noticed bonsai tree stamps on the counter. I laughed and immediately thought of a darling friend of mine who in May proudly proclaimed that she had big and exciting summer plans! She was going to grow a bonsai tree! I was about to tell this story to my mother when I spotted Flower. Flower was moving quickly and sure enough a giant lizard was running for dear life in front of her. “No! Flower!” Bonsai tree stamps still in hand, I ran and grabbed the 17 pound Flower. The lizard cowered in the corner.

That’s when the phone rang. I am convinced the phone never stops ringing at my parents’ house. Very popular people, my parents.

I tossed the cat in the spare bedroom and closed the door. My mom was on the phone, disgruntled. I watched the lizard from behind the wall of the kitchen. It was huge and hiding by the cat food. Excellent location choice, Mr. Lizard.

My mom hung up the phone, let out an exasperated sigh, and said she had to go back to the hospital (that’s a whole other story). My mom left. I stood there with my bonsai tree stamps for a good 30 seconds before I realized what she had done. I ran outside and flagged her down. She rolled down the car window, “Mom! You are leaving me with the lizard!?” Yup. I would later learn that this is a common theme with my mother. She waits for someone else to tackle lizard duty.

I sighed and walked back in the house. I peered around the corner. The lizard was still hiding by the cat food.

Generally, I consider myself a brave person and calm under pressure. When something needs to be done, I do it. My friends and family can count on me for that. The thing is, my bravery is strongly linked to other people. When I am alone I don’t have to be brave. There is no one else to be brave for. My bravery does not go away when I am alone, I simply allow myself some wiggle room.

Of course, we are talking about a lizard here, but there is a certain amount of bravery that is needed to deal with wildlife.

I quickly made a game plane while I did a “I don’t want to touch the lizard” dance. I grabbed some gloves and a cloth. Then I shimmied onto the counter next to the cat food. I looked down at the lizard, quickly took its picture, and then dropped the cloth on it.  I almost picked it up several times when I suddenly realized that if I made a barricade with the cat food I could open the side door and shoo the lizard outside.

As I am sure you’ve guessed, it worked. The lizard ran outside and I slammed the door behind it. I was just about to free the cat from her confinement when I wondered where the lizard had gone. I walked outside to find the lizard right outside the door. Honestly, Mr. Lizard. You just escaped a cat and you are just going to chill outside the door?

This was lizard number three just today. Don’t these lizards tell each other about our house? Not wanting another dead lizard in the house (the first one I found at 10am was dead), I decided to chase this one further into the yard. You’d think this would be an easy thing to do. Unfortunately, these lizards are really stupid. The darn thing crawled up the screen door directly next to the cat/dog door. And not high enough to escape a jumping cat.

Eventually I was able to get the lizard into the yard. The entire time I gave him warnings about our house and told him to tell his lizard friends not to return.

When my dad called later I told him about the lizard. He sounded proud that I handled it. I told him, “of course! I’m not afraid of a lizard!” I may have left out the part about crawling on the counter and doing the little dance.

I guess my mom doesn’t call our house “la casa de las lagartijas” for nothing. As for the other lizard, I’m pretty sure it’s still in my dad’s closet.

 Reasons I Love Being Home

1. My abuelita complaining about the length of my skirt.

2. Delicious, stinky Mexican cheese–direct from Mexico–in the fridge.

3. Pets that are incredibly excited that I am home.

4. Parents that are incredibly excited that I am home.

5. An amazing view of the mountains.

6. The feel of the sun on my skin.

7. The smiling faces of mi familia.

8. Babies!

9. Family visiting all the time.

10. Watching the little ones grow up to be amazing little people.

11. The calm.

12. Friends that I’ve known for years and still make me laugh.

13. The Palo Verde tree in the backyard.

14. Grapefruit and oranges straight from the tree.

15. Hugs.

16. Spanish.

Last weekend Rafael was in town for a visit. It was wonderful to see him. He had never been to Palm Springs before so we gave him a little tour of this beautiful city.

On Monday we headed to the Indian Canyons. The canyons are gorgeous and are owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. For a small fee you can spend the day at the canyons. Water runs through the area year around and there are waterfalls and small ponds to swim in.

We took a short hike through Andres Canyon. Palm tress shaded us most of the way and we took a short dip in the water. Well, I fell in, but it was very refreshing. There are lots of hiking trails throughout the area of various difficulty levels. My mother grew up visiting the canyons and has continued the tradition with us.

If you ever make it out to Palm Springs be sure to take a trip to the Indian Canyons and bring your swimsuit!

*Since I have not lived at home for seven years I plan on blogging about my hometown as I “re discover” it.

Palm Springs is hot in the summer. Really hot. Since I grew up here I’m used to it. As my cousin said today on facebook: “How is it people still complain about the weather here.. If you were born here or have been here for over 15 years.. STFU! You’ve been acclimated.”

It made me laugh to read that. I does surprise me when people that have grown up here still complain about it. Even after being away for three years coming back to the summer heat was easy. I know what to expect and stay inside during the hottest hours.

Unfortunately for me today is one of the hottest we have had all summer and I had to run to the store for some cleaning supplies. I considered waiting until the evening but then I wouldn’t want to clean anymore. So I braved the heat.

My car happens to have leather seats. It used to be my dads or else I would have chosen fabric. As you can imagine leather seats in the desert are killer. I had to put a towel on the seat to not get burned. On my way back home I glanced down at the car thermometer and saw this:

It’s a scorcher out there folks. This is why I’m never hot. Until you’ve lived in the desert you don’t know what hot is.

On Saturday we celebrated my abuela’s 80th birthday. My grandmother wanted pictures with as many of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as possible. Almost everyone was there and we had a great time.

In honor of her 80 years we decorated tables to represent significant birthdays in her life. 1, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80. A few of my favorites: The first year included pictures of each of her eight children as babies since we do not have a photo of her as a baby. We figure she probably looked like one of them. For 50, two nopales (her favorite food) and her tortilla press that she has now used for 61 years. Year 40 included a cut out of the Sun Bus (local bus line) with my abuela as the driver and grandchildren as passengers. My abuela takes the bus everywhere! We even thought about posting her party invitation there.

Each table also had a cake or cupcakes and my grandmother went to each table to blow out a candle while we alternated singing happy birthday in English and Spanish. It was a joyous evening with delicious food made by my cousins, great music and a family slideshow. I loved seeing everyone together.

I made a banana caramel cake (pictured) for the nopales table that my mom decorated. The cake was a big hit but the most loved desserts were the cupcakes. The kids went crazy for them. Especially the giant ones my aunt brought.

Ma’ Maria (as we call her) loves roses and nopales. It felt like everyone brought roses or nopales for her. My cousin and nephew even made a beautiful nopal from foam and tissue paper.

This party is just another reminder of why I am back in California. My family is amazing and I can’t wait to spend more time with all of them. Especially my abuelita.

The photos above (from left to right, top to bottom) Ma’ Maria’s children, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, nopales table, Ma’ Maria-24 years old, the food table, sun bus table, Ma’ Maria and banana caramel cake, Ma’ Maria’s children-1966 Mexico (including a cousin and the youngest is my Uncle Justin who died in 2002)

For Christmas, Santa gave me a Kitchenaid Mixer. I was overjoyed and ready to start using it immediately. Yesterday I woke up positively giddy. I had looked through my new Martha Stewart Baking Handbook (thank you, Daddy) and decided that Cinnamon Raisin Bread would be the first thing I made. My dad loves Cinnamon Raisin Bread and since I am a daddy’s girl, it was an easy pick.

I literally danced around the entire house as I made the bread. As you may know, bread takes a long time to make. It has to be kneaded and then set aside several times before it is finally put in the oven. After each step I announced to everyone in the house what was going on. I was really happy.

This was my first time making bread and I must say, it was fairly easy. Time consuming, sure. But overall it was a very basic process. Usually the trouble people have is killing the yeast but as long as the water or milk you use is at 110 degrees F or less you’ll be fine. Hopefully this will continue to be my experience.

And now, what you have all been waiting for–the pictures.

Oh and the Kitchenaid works very well. Look out for a slew of food posts for the next couple weeks.

Tamales are a Christmas tradition at my house–as it is for many Mexican families. Tamales are an all day process. We literally begin at 9am and do not finish until after 5pm. And this is with many people helping. Usually the women do all the work but a few years ago my mother decided that everyone had to help. If you wanted tamales you had to help make them. As you can imagine, we finished in record time that year.

This year we had a small team. Myself, my mother, a cousin and her 4-year-old son. It took a long time but we had a blast. The tamales were delicious too. Many people have asked me for the recipe but the truth is, I don’t know it. The recipe has been passed down through the generations from mother to daughter and many alterations have been made along the way. I still need my moms help to make them. It takes time to really learn this time honored tradition. Someday I will take the time to measure everything out and create a recipe. But for now, if you want tamales, you better come over and help.

 

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

There was a time when I actually liked you a little. I thought you listened to all sides of the argument (well, sometimes) and were doing an ok job considering your non-political past. I know that Cali is going through the worst economic crisis but I just can’t imagine that cutting funding for education, state parks and domestic violence programs is the way to fix it. Please stop cutting funding for programs that are necessary for the people of California.