New Shoes!!!

Well, I feel weird even writing about shoes. But I think these "dress" shoes call for that. Being vegan, buying leather shoes, belts, or anything leather or wool is out of the question. Society relies SO HEAVILY on leather, that it complicates buying shoes and belts when you are vegan. I had found some shoes at payless that were not leather, but as is expected at payless, this is not done for any ethical reasons, but for economical reasons. As a result, these shoes leave a lot to be desired when it comes to quality. They were peeling, the soles had holes in them in less than a year, it was just embarrasing to even wear them lol. I was dreading looking for shoes again because its no easy task. After looking online, I found some shoes that I decided to buy, although I did not have high expectations because they were labeled vegan, and that alone usually makes the item super expensive, even if the quality is not necessarily superior. But I ordered them anyway, after all, they were on sale and had my size. They were only $50.

When I got them, I was very pleasantly surprised. They still need to be put to the test(and the "Chuy" test is no easy test). But as far as initial quality, I am very impressed. Impressed enough to blog about them haha. They feel like good shoes, firm, yet comfortable. If they last, I am so ordering them again! So of course, it CAN be done. We don't need leather to make good quality shoes. People just choose not to, which is the sad part.

Morning Person?!

So I never expected this...but it has happened. I think I am now a morning person.

First of all, it seems that unless it is the weekend, I cannot get a full 8 hours of sleep. Ever. We try to put Sophie to bed early, but she always finds a way to delay us. She'll stall eating her dinner or find some other clever way of not going to bed on time. Then, once she is finally in bed and there is peace and quiet in the house again, there is usually something to do around the house. Whether it is getting something ready for the next day, cleaning up, etc, or even just talking to Geli(since there is finally some time to talk about stuff without Sophie interrupting and wanting attention). So i usually get to bed later than I'd like, and while I have a hard time getting up, once I am up, I am usually not sleepy during the morning or the day. Its not till around 7 or 8pm that my body reminds me that I am sleepy. If we watch a movie in the afternoon, chances are very good that I will fall asleep during the movie. I have a hard time staying up late now, anything after 11pm is out of the question unless I have some coffee or something. I am just much more alert and productive in the mornings than in the nights...

It didn't use to be that way. I used to always be falling asleep in school, or at my previous jobs when I worked in the mornings. And I used to be alert at night. Is becoming a morning person a sign of growing up? or getting old?! I don't know, but its weird....I am not used to it. I suppose it works out, since I am at work in the mornings, and I don't want to be falling asleep there. But still, I don't think I've grown up. I still want to play video games, and watch dragon ball, and like the ninja turtles, saint seiya(caballeros del zodiaco), Beavis and butt-head, etc....so what's going on?!

Gustavo = Tuca

Sophie definitely misses everyone in El Paso. She is constantly asking us to draw you guys for her. She'll bring us a paper and one of her color pencils and say "Abue Martha" or "Tia Mari" and "Gustavo" and then "Paco" and on and on with all the names she can remember. Now she will draw smiley faces and she will call them Mari, Martha, Gustavo, Paco, etc...She is always looking for patterns that to her, are someone she knows. One of the cutest and funniest is that when we would watch Pumas play, she would see Tuca Ferreti, the coach, and call him Gustavo!!! The resemblance is rather obvious, and now she has taken that to pretty much anything with a mustache(including the lorax from the Dr. Seuss book she has) is Gustavo! Here are some pictures of Tuca, in case you did not know who he is:

So I am sure she will be thrilled to visit El Paso. She is more aware now, and she will get on the "avion" which I am sure she will be excited about since she is always pointing out airplanes in the sky and she gets mega excited about that.

During last week's Pumas vs Indios game, Sophie made us laugh with a new "discovery". As we were watching the game, she would point to the screen and say "Gustavo" whenever Tuca would appear on the screen. But this time she also pointed at Juan Francisco Palencia and said "Daddy"! Which is pretty funny. I personally don't think I look like him, but I can see why she would say that. Dark skinned guy with long hair. Here he is, in case you don't know who he is:

So I don't fully understand why Sophie has to find people she knows on TV, books, and just about anything, but I find it amusing and extremely cute...

Mexican Jale!!!

So the vacuum cleaner wasn't working this weekend. The brush would not spin, and it smelled like burnt plastic when you turned it on. I don't know why, but I decided to take it apart. I wasn't expecting to be able to fix it or anything, I just wanted to see if I could see what was wrong. I am a terrible handyman, I don't know how to fix anything around the house. But I took it apart, which was more difficult than I thought it would be, since two of the screws were inside of a deep hole, so I could not see what I was doing in there. I was just assuming there was two screws in there lol. I finally took them out and was able to open the case and see the inside. It turns out it was just the belt that broke(more like melted off). We did not have any spare vacuum belts of course, so I had to improvise. I got 3 of those thick blue rubber bands we had around the kitchen(I think they come with the broccoli lol) and used that as the belt. One was too close to the edge so it rubbed against the edge and got burned off lol but the other two were working fine. The brush was now spinning and I was able to put the vacuum back together and vacuum the living room and our bedroom.

I am just surprised I was able to fix something lol and by improvising thick rubber bands as the belt! It probably wont last long, but next time we are out and about we can stop by the hardware store and get the right belt. Oh, and by the way, I hate carpets...they are just a magnet for stains and dirt, and are impossible to clean properly! Especially with Sophie around the house. Whenever we have a house, NO CARPETS!!! ANYWHERE! Maybe rugs, that can be more easily cleaned/replaced, but I really really don't like carpet. Man....I really want a house.

Oh, and Sophie is still TERRIFIED of the vacuum cleaner!!! She was scared for her life this weekend haha because she went up to it and turned it on, but I guess she did not expect it to turn on and she was SOOOO scared, more than I have ever seen her get scared. It was really funny, and heartbreaking at the same time. its a shame i didn't get it on video!!

CompTIA Security+!!!

I'll keep this one brief, because it seems like this is all I talk about! But today I took another certification exam. Today I took the CompTIA Security+ exam and passed it with an 870/900!

I was pretty sure I would pass, since I read a whole textbook on it(I had never done that before), and did some practice questions, but I definitely didn't think I would do that well. I didn't plan on reading the whole thing, but it was interesting, so I kept reading, till I finished it. Cryptography(encription), hashing,  and network security are very interesting. This brings my list to:

• CompTIA A+ Remote Support Technician
• CompTIA Network+
• CompTIA Security+
• MCP
• MCITP: Enterprise Support
• MCDST
• MCTS: Vista Configuration

Next, I will do the MCSA(Systems Administrator), since I am only missing 2 exams for it(out of 4). That will probably take me a little longer than these, since it is server stuff, and I don't have experience with that, but I will get them :)