Once again, I went to Monterrey last Friday. Joana was there with Liat and Joelle (who are now 13 months old). The girls are awesome but they like Moi more than they like me. That’s not surprising, most people like Moi more than they like me.

The drive home was quite an adventure, including a trip to downtown San Antonio to pick my cousing Becky up, a nice chat with a law enforcement officer in Pearsall Texas, a trip to the 26th km inside of Mexico, then back to Nuevo Laredo to get a tourist visa for Shaina, then back to the 26th km, and a burned alternator.

On Saturday, I got to go to Ilana and Yoni’s wedding which was very nice. There were a ton of Monterrey Exiles (a group I’m proudly a member of) that made the trip for what was the first wedding in the community in three or four years (how sad is that?). Very nice seeing them all, and also very nice to hear some of them actually read this blog (yeah, there’s a good chance that I’m talking about you). The photo of my dad sitting in a shoestore holding my mom’s purse seemed to be especially popular.

Last, but not least, on Sunday I bought 70 tacos from the always tasty Tacos Lara (proudly clogging arteries since 1968). I don’t remember the exact breakdown but we bought everything except for carnitas. I didn’t eat all of them by myself though. If I had, the drive back would have been rough for the other passengers.

Because you asked for it:

Moi set up a website in which to upload photos from the wedding.
I collected and cleaned up around 300 photos from 4 different cameras (thanks to Chocho and Joel for sending their photos right away).

You can add your witty comments to the photos, so do it.

Also, come back soon, I have two funny videos I will be posting shortly.

Congratulations to Jacquie and Eli. I wish them a happy life, lots of naches and lots of cousins for me.

http://laboda.sandler.com.mx

At around 10 PM last night I got back from a full of adventures, fun and exciting weekend in Mexico City. I saw many friends and family that I hadn’t seen in years. Moi and I are in the process of collecting the many memory cards filled with photos and will post them online soon.

Many of you know that as of Sunday I became the oldest member of my extended family who’s still single, on both the Kirsch and the Sandler sides. Some say: "the pressure is on". I say: "A picture is worth a thousand words".

Below: A crappy cellphone photo of my dad, sitting in a shoestore, holding my mom’s purse.

The label reads (translated to English):

This bottle will be exchanged for a
bottle of Champagne the day of my wedding.
Thanks for accompanying me in
my Bar Mitzvah.
Yoni
January 18, 1992

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I will go great lengths to get free stuff (I once drove 60 minutes and made a two hour line to get a free $5.50 burrito… and it was worth it).

So, in January 18, 1992 I put away this little bottle, saved it for 13 years, went to Monterrey last April, brought it to Austin, took it to Boston and finally carried it in my pocket to Yoni and Einat’s wedding last Sunday (is that a small kosher wine bottle in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? people kept saying, for some reason). Needless to say, I expect my champagne bottle to arrive in the mail anytime now.

On a more serious note, it was of course nice to see so many people I hadn’t seen in years and to be at my friends’ wedding. Thanks to Ricky (Big Richard) Berner for hosting me and taking me to eat schwarma.

Some pictures from the weekend have been posted. Click here to see them.

We went down to New Braunfels for tubing today. We were a total of 11 people and 3 coolers (so 14 tubes). You basically sit on a rubber tire for 4 hours or so while drinking beer (or any other liquid you bring). Usually you get horribly sunburned, scarred and disfigured for life; but a good combination of industrial strength sunscreen lotion (did you ever see RoboCop?) and clouds saved me.

Some advise for future floaters: avoid banging your head with the rocks!

Last Saturday, my friend and former roommate (in Jerusalem) Abraham Braverman got married to Galit Margolis. Of course I flew to Mexico City. I got to see tons of people, some of them I hadn’t seen in almost ten years! (shit I’m old – and yet I look just as young and full of energy).

Brian Anderson, Product Marketing Dude (I believe that’s his official title) for the Signal Generators group at NI is leaving the company, dropping “Product Marketing” from his title to become simple Dude and going on a 10,000 mile motorcycle trip around the US and Canada. After that he’s going back to school.

In order to let others know he’s still alive, he will be updating his blog on a regular basis (or so he says). Link added to sidebar.

Good luck and have a great trip Brian!

PS: I think “The Motorcycle Diaries” would have been a better title for his blog.

I spent the weekend winning it big in Las Vegas. Too bad I lost. Photos will be posted soon.

Update 3/31/2005: Photos are online. Click on the sidebar.

Today I travel to tropical paradise Cleveland OH. Temperature: -6 (feels like -13). Lovely.

Of course, that’s Celsius, but it’s quite cold.