2007 Christmas Letter

We thought we were going to mail these, but the envelopes for mailing them in ended up under some boxes in our move and weren't found until after the mailing deadline! So, if you're interested in a summary of our latest adventures, go here!

A happy and safe Christmas to everyone!

Geni.com

After checking out many "web 2.0" genealogy sites, I found that I really like Geni.com. I started poking around, adding family, and so forth.

Then I tried out their search, and found a second cousin I didn't know about, and she not only lives in Los Angeles, she also answers her messages!

We're "friends" now, but when Geni.com releases their much anticipated tree-merging feature, we're both going to have some fun learning new things! Will keep you posted on that.

My mom Beatriz's mom Josefina has a brother Ismael, who has a daughter Dolores, whose daughter is my new friend. =)

Guess I'm staying on Geni.com!

I'm a very, very bad blogger!

I didn't blog at all during the whole month of November! Isn't that horrible? So, here's what you've missed (if you haven't been reading my Twitter, anyway): I spoke with USC and UCR representatives about transfer requirements. Next on my list of people to talk to is UCLA. I gave blood. Harmless process. =) I went to my sister-in-law's baptism, which was lovely. =) Went to a few free concerts at school, and to Annie with Charles. All awesome shows! Charles and I have tickets to see Alice in Wonderland (a children's opera that my piano professor wrote) on Saturday night. I watched Star Trek Menagerie with my "brothers." Great nerd night. Then we checked out the new school together. My brother Rufus and I went to an orientation at the new school. Had Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws, not our customary two Thanksgivings due to my parents being out of the country. My sister Irma came to my in-laws' house with us (as did a friend of Charles), which was great. The next morning I went to Radio Shack to partake in some Black Friday shopping. When I came home from Black Friday shopping, I got word that my uncle had been in the hospital (in Mexico) since  Monday, November 19th. He's still in the hospital now, but they're anticipating that he'll recover at this point. We also got word that my mom's half brother passed away in early November. Charles's car had an electrical issue. I'm glad we got it to start eventually, because I haven't figured out how you get a tow truck into the garage or push the car up the ramp! Our customary mechanic took care of it for us. We got the keys to our new apartment on the 1st, and have already started to move stuff in. I sent cards with our new address to a dozen or so people, those were out in today's mail. I also have what is hopefully a final draft of our Christmas letter ready, just need to buy more ink for the printer or run the pdf to Kinko's for many copies of color pictures. About 60 people on our mailing list, and I'm not counting people in Mexico, simply because I haven't begun to think about translating yet! Christmas letters should be in the mail next week at a guess. =) No pdf upload until they're in the mail, that would be cheating! School update: Speech Class: I got 75/75 on persuasive speech. Term paper due a week from yesterday, visual aid speech a week from tomorrow, and then the final. Also, this class factors in attendance and participation grades that I can't quantify (but should be good). Health Class: Average of three exams is a B. Professor says in the end it'll be an A, however. He's got some logic for that. I can't explain all the subtle nuances of it, but I assume it's attendance/participation/etc. Nothing else here is graded until the final. Piano Class: I got my first B(+) in the class today. I'm sure I'm getting an A in the class, however. There's a quiz on Tuesday the 11th, and then another "quiz" for our final on Tuesday the 18th Chicano Studies Class: Have to finish workbooks by the day of the final. I'd call them 75% done or so. Everything else so far is A's. I can't believe the semester is almost done. December seemed so far away when we started! I'll try to post more, promise. (Perhaps my wifi working again will help. ) Until then, Twitter is my friend, because it listens to me when I'm away from the internet!