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Had a birthday on October 15. Celebrated my wedding anniversary October 16. The celebrations began early, and continue:

My colleagues at the Mexican Cultural Institute threw me a "surprise" birthday party last Friday. Actually, getting me down to the location wasn't working out, so one of the planners sent me a text early that morning to let me know so that I would show up and not spoil the fun. I did show up, put on my surprise face, and it was fun.

Here's a photo of granddaughters Ryanne, Valentina, Mila and Jewel celebrating.

The next day, on my actual birthday, my daughter Ana and son Michael brought their families over to our home and we had leftovers from the night before: enchiladas, arroz, frijoles, salad and cake from Las Anitas at Olvera Street, plus another cake and some great wine. Here's a photo of the cake Samina made, topped by a Lego figures sent to me by my son Cristofer, who is currently stationed in Iraq:

The next day, the 16, Linda and I celebrated our anniversary by driving out to the desert. Our first stop, the Integratron. Please click on the link. Hard to explain. But we did the Sound Bath thing, and it was marvelously crazy and fun. Here are a couple of pics:

We drove down to Palm Springs, our traditional anniversary getaway, and spent the night at Los Arboles Hotel, a refurbished hotel on the north end of the city. Great location, relaxed atmosphere and a nice restaurant - El Marisol - on the property. Sorry, no photos.

On Tuesday, Lalo Alcaraz came down to the MCI to take down his exhibit: Lalo Alcaraz Heritage Month: 500 Years of Art/Comics/Satire. He gifted me with a painting and T-shirt depicting his homage to Steve Jobs. You can see them on the table in the foreground of this photo (that's Lalo on the cellphone):

Today, my in-laws, Lou and Kenny, took Linda, Samina and I to the Original Fish Company in Los Alamitos. Actually, it was pay-off for when we took care of their cat Sam and dog Suzi during some time they drove down to Las Vegas, but they saluted my birthday and our anniversary while we were there. Pictured, the remains of the free dessert:

Also, we used a gift certificate we got from Ana at Octopus in downtown L.A. We also have a gift card for the Cheesecake Factory we got from somebody. And Ana's boyfriend Cris and his family are treating us to dinner tomorrow.

Not a bad haul, not at all.

¡Gracias!