One of the Inland Empire .NET User's Group sponsors, Red Gate Software, invited me to become a "Friend of Red Gate". I've used the trial versions of their tools in the past, and they provide licenses to their ANTS Profiler for a raffle prize to the group, and I just have to say, that having access to their entire library is like, so totally cool!

Red Gate makes exceptional database tools, and you should really check them out. And if you need a demo of what they have and how to use them, then just let me know. I'll be more than happy to show you.

As time permits, I'm planning on posting some messages about how I use their tools in my day-to-day work.

James.... Friend of Red Gate

In order to generate more of a sense of community in the User Group, I started the Most Valuable Community Participant and Most Valuable Member program for the group. Basically members can get points for posting on the UG forums and participating in the community. The top three winners will win significant prizes.

So, where is everyone? No one goes to the forums, the last post was three weeks ago. Are forums dead for networking and communication? Is it because we're in the Inland Empire? I sure would like to know.

 

I've been doing a lot of Ajax and Javascript development lately. Recently I gave a presentation to the Inland Empire .NET User's Group on how I use my own libraries and JQuery to build my sites. You can download the slides and source code here. Look for "HomeGrownAjaxandJavascripting.zip"

Ricki, my brother-in-law has been staying with us for a month. He's a good guy, sometimes makes the wrong turn in life, but has a full heart and is pretty smart. He's decided to learn how web development so he can help us out with our sites. I have always felt that if a person can peck their way around a keyboard and has some basic common sense, they can learn to program. I have offered to teach people what I do, most jump at the chance, then fade away after a day or two.

Ricki is different. Like totally different. He is devouring the books I have given him, is always asking questions, building sample sites, soaking up CSS and HTML tags like a sponge and has pretty much mastered getting around in Visual Web Developer Express. He's even jumped feet first into Photoshop and is getting the knack of that.

He has the ambition, the courage to learn something new and confusing, and the same "stick to it until you get it right" attitdue that both Carmina and I have.

I am so damn proud of my cunado (Spanish for brother-in-law). He's gonna make it.

It's been a fast year. Carmina and I have just finished up our 20th site, and more are in the pipline. The last three weeks we've pumped out 10 sites. What have I learned about all this?

1. CSS is my friend. At first I couldn't get my head wrapped around it, but now I'm a convert.
2. Be as simple as you can, while still putting that "sparkle" on a project
3. Don't let my ego get in the way. Carmina is the one who talks with the clients, knows what they want and like, even if its a mint green background with yellow borders. The customer is king.
4. Use GoDaddy for the brochure sites
5. Pace yourself. Don't try to do it all in an evening, spend time to learn new things, sharpen the saw
6. Most importantly, have a great partner by your side, who appreciates what you're doing.

Today was my 44th birthday. And my parent's 45th anniversary...you do the math. This morning we went to meet with Tia Dora Alicia (Carmina's Aunt) at the Hogar Moraga Orphanage to take some pictures so that I can start hitting you all up for donations of clothing, shoes, sporting goods and other items.

I had previously thought the orphanage was both boys and girls, but Dora Alicia told us it was just girls, ages 6 to 18, some are full-time residents and about a quarter come to the facility during the week as sort of a boarding school. When we arrived, Dora Alicia greeted us and showed us around the facility where the girls sleep and eat and introduced us to a few of the women that work in the kitchen and laundry. She took us to the basketball court - if you could call it that - where the older girls were playing a pick-up game. She gathered them all around and introduced us as I took a few pictures, then the little girls came in ready for their pictures.

Everyone was happy and bubbilng with excitement as to what this tall, heavyset "Americano" and his Salvadoran esposa were going to do.

Tia Dora Alicia and two of the girl's teachers got the girls lined up in a small patio, on either side of a small statue of the Virgin Mary. Everyone posed, giggled, smiled and I snapped a few shots. As soon as I said "finito" I was instantly mobbed by the girls all wanting to see their picture on the camera. The younger girls all started tugging on my shirts asking "otra foto mi". I had to oblige these sweet little girls. As they flocked around me, some started hamming it up for the camera, others using their fingers to make rabbit ears behind their friends, and still others making sure thier hair and their friend's hair and dresses were just right. After each picture, the girls would mob me again wanting to see what they looked like. While I was taking pictures of the little girls, I noticed the older girls had left assuming they had gone back to their basketball game.

All of a sudden I heard singing! Tia Dora Alicia had remembered today was my birthday and had gotten all the girls to give me a present of three celebratory songs...in Spanish of course. I pretended I was wiping sweat, instead of tears, from my eyes.

The majority of these girls are up for adoption. They are well behaved, sweet and very charming. Two sisters are in the process of being adopted to the United States. One little girl in particular really captured mine and Carmina's heart.

Please take a look at the pictures in the gallery titled, "Hogar Moraga Orphanage" and consider helping them out with a donation. They need clothes (girl clothes of course), athletic shoes, hair things (barrettes, clips, scrunchies), little things to make a girl feel pretty and, sporting goods. Their basketball court needs new rims, backboards and nets. I had previously written they could use comptuers and such, but at this time I think the things I just listed will be better used.

J

We traveled about 2 hours east to go to Costa del Sol, a beautiful south facing beach. All the beaches in this area are private – either homes or hotels – so we paid $20 per person to spend the day at the Pacific Paradise Hotel. It was twenty dollars well spent as it included soft drinks, a lunch from a well rounded menu and a semi-private patio right on the sand complete with hammocks. The sand was awesome dark grains on the bottom with gold-flaked, yellow sand on top. And like the water at the other beach, it was very warm and pleasant to be in. There was a strong rip-tide at the time, so the lifeguard wouldn’t let us go too far out, but it was fun none-the-less.

Today was a trip back to San Salvador for more shopping and then a trip to more Mayan ruins at San Andreas. Unfortunately the batteries we bought for the camera were crap, so we didn’t get as many as we had hoped.

Tomorrow is our last day here…sigh… so it will be a day of packing and trying to figure out how to get all our treasures safely stored in our bags. Then it’s a birthday celebration at Mauricio and Estella’s restaurant for yours truly. We get to wake up at 4 am on Sunday for the plane ride home. Yahoo!

I’ll write more on the plane. I promise.

j

After a day of resting, we ventured back into the mountains. This time we traveled to Cerro Verde, home of the Los Volcanoes National Park. It was a beautiful drive up the mountain with great views of Santa Ana and San Salvador on the left and, Lago Coatepeque on the right. The weather was cool and breezy with large puffy clouds and thousands of brightly colored butterflies flying around. The butterflies are a common feature of El Salvador and we have seen a wide variety of them. Brown, red, purple, large yellow ones, and small blue ones. I wish I had brought my entomology books with me. After driving up the mountain for close to 45 minutes we reached the gate, only to be told that the park service had recently limited admittance to the park to 300 guests per day, and tickets were sold in Santa Ana. Mauricio spoke with the ranger and explained we were “Americanos” and visiting their wonderful country. It took about five minutes of negotiation, but finally the ranger agreed to let us in, after we gave him our names and places of residence.

It’s interesting that the government makes these changes – remember the Guatemala trip – and the citizens aren’t totally informed of them. A sign at the bottom of the mountain at least would’ve been nice.

We entered the parking lot and were greeted by several young Salvadorans, offering to give us guided tours for a fee. We talked to several of them and decided to go with Diego, a small, friendly 11 year old who told us he knew a lot about the park and would only charge us $0.25 per person. What an amazing little boy! He has confidence of an adult with the knowledge of an encyclopedia with the bright-eyed innocence of a kid. He was very serious during his talks, but would occasionally skip along the trail. As we started the tour we thought he had just memorized a script, but we soon found out we were wrong. He answered, in great detail, any question we asked. During our trip we asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. He answered with “be a biologist and work to save the forest.”

The trail was 2 kilometers, rose to 1500 meters and went deep into the rain forest. It was filled with bromeliads, ferns, large vines, tremendously huge trees, hundreds of birds and the ever-present butterflies. The rain forest is truly a sight to see as all things within it all live together symbiotically. Living in the city for 10 days, the peace and quiet of the forest was a nice change. Standing still, you could sense the energy of the forest and several of the pictures we took had the now familiar “energy orbs” in them.

The trail ended at a closed down restaurant. The restaurant was built on the edge of an active volcano, but the earthquake ten years ago severely damaged the building and there has not been enough money to make it sound. The volcano had been active since the 1700’s and Diego told us investors decided to build here as tourists liked to come and see the lava and flames. They felt this would be a good site to put the restaurant. However, the day before the restaurant opened, the volcano went dormant.

During our trip, a storm started moving in, so our view of the volcano was obscured by heavy cloud cover. Even though we didn’t get to see it, the entire trip was well worth it. Returning to the park, we stopped to eat and talk about what we had seen. As we piled into the van to start back downhill, the clouds broke and we were given the chance to see the volcano perfectly, complete with steam rising from its crater. We could see several people on the edge of the crater and were told they were geologists monitoring the volcano as it has started showing signs of become active once again.

Tommorow is a trip to Playa del Sol, about 2 hours east of Santa Ana, where the sand is yellow. We'll be staying at a private beach, where it costs $35 per person to get in and includes all food, drinks and sundries. Should be fun, check back soon.

J

Hello dear readers…

Well this trip has taken a turn for the worse. I haven’t been able to write, because I’ve been captured by rebel guerillas and held hostage. The ransom was a free copy of ArcView 3.1 and the October 1973 issue of Sports Illustrated. Fortunately, I had a copy ArcView on my laptop and Marta had the magazine, so Carmina was able to get me free.

Now that I have your attention….

This trip continues to amaze. We are all so relaxed and feel no pressure at all. A routine has settled in as we explore the country, come home to relax, shower, plan the next day’s events, and then fall asleep. The past few days have been truly amazing.

At night, the house is locked up tight. On Saturday morning I was feeling antsy and wanted to take a walk to the main road and buy some breakfast. With my broken Spanish, I asked Marta to “abrir la puerta”. I thought I had asked her to close the door behind me. Instead I asked her to open it. I stepped out and took off. Marta panicked and ran back to Carmina, yelling “Nina CeCi. Se me salio su esposo.” (your husband got out)

Once I made my apologies to Marta and things calmed down, we went to visit Tia Dora Alicia, Carmina’s aunt. Tia Dora is a nun, who works in an orphanage. She is short, sweet, bubbly and full of life. Carmina and Dora haven’t seen each other for six years, and the tearful and genuinely joyous reunion would bring a tear to even the meanest curmudgeon. The orphanage was built in 1913 and currently has 50 children, ages 6 to 18. It is a large building, with a beautiful courtyard and sitting with Dora a complete sense of calm and peace filled the space. Of course, she kept having to run off to take care of this and that, but she did it all with a broad smile on her face. While we were there, we met two little girls, Claudia and Myrna, who were washing clothes. I took a few pictures of them and we chatted for a bit. It turns out they’ve been learning English and asked me how long it took for me to learn. :) The orphanage takes older kids who are harder to adopt out. The kids are taught vocational skills and, as all orphanages, seem to need a lot of everything. When we return, I am going to start soliciting donations of clothing, cash and computers to donate to Dora and the kids.

After our trip to see Tia Dora, we set off for Juayua, high up in the mountains of the Sonsonate departmento. It is about 30 miles south of Santa Ana, but since it is through the mountains, and because of the inevitable rain, it took close to 90 minutes to get there. Sonsonate is the primary coffee growing region of El Salvador. The coffee fields are high on the mountain sides with the bushes grown in rows. Between every 10-15 rows is a line of large trees, which have been trimmed to provide shade for the coffee beans. Juayua is a tourist-centric town, so the citizens keep it quite clean. There is a large open-air market with Salvadorans and Guatemalans selling items. Like all Salvadoran towns, there is a large Catholic Church on one side of a large central park. The town itself is very hilly and with cobblestone streets, it was reminiscent of San Francisco. After our visit we stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant. I had my first cup of genuine El Salvadoran coffee…strong, black, and brewed with black pepper and cinnamon. It was extremely good. That evening we met and had dinner with Martha, Carmina’s new sister-in-law.

Yesterday was a day of relaxing. Mauricio has a good friend who owns a hacienda on the beach at Costa Azul. What a great day that was. The weather was warm with a calm tropical breeze. The beach is black sand, long and flat. The waves break about 100 yards out, and the water is so warm, it feels like bath water. We all piled into Herman’s 4x4 and drove along the beach to a small estuary where the family played in the water while Niles and I walked along the beach, picking up sand dollars, small shells and coconut husks. When we got back we feasted on grilled beef, snail ceviche, raw oysters, tortillas, beer and fresh coconut water. After lunch it was time to soak in the pool, and then take a siesta in one of their several hammocks.
 
Today, Monday, we got up early, piled into a chartered bus and took off for Esquipulas, Guatemala. The trip took 90 minutes to get to the border where we had to have our passports stamped. El Salvador and Guatemala have a treaty where citizens of both countries can pass freely, just by showing their identification cards. However sometime during the past year, in order to stop the child smuggling trade, El Salvador changed the requirements and minors need to have a passport. We didn’t know this and didn’t have Denise’s passport with us. After a brief family discussion it was decided that Marta would take a taxi back home, get the passport, return to the border while we stayed and waited. So, with all our passports and documentation in hand we “checked out” of El Salvador and crossed the border to Guatemala. The Salvadoran border patrol is very thorough and actually spends time examining the documents and comparing pictures to actual people. Guatemala was quite different, a stamp on the passport, a “Buenas” and a wave through the border. When we arrived at the border from El Salvador, close to ten money changers, stormed the van trying to get us to change dollars to quetzals, the Guatemalan currency.

Esquipulas is the home of the “black” Christ, a crucifix made of black wood in 1597. The church the crucifix is in is made of granite, large, very ornate, and full of candles. Over the years the candle flames have covered the wall with soot, and the main entrances to the church are slippery with wax. Outside the grounds of the church are vendors selling rosaries and candles, all of which have a very negotiable price. The crucifix is at the head of the church with a long curved ramp up to and around the glass enclosure. As you leave the area, you walk backwards, as you are not supposed to turn your back on Christ. Carmina told us during the weekends the whole church grounds are packed with people making a pilgrimage, often with people walking on their knees to and from the crucifix. Interestingly enough, there are signs posted on all the entrances not to go into the church with either your cell phone or your hand gun. While we walked around the grounds a priest was blessing several families with holy water.

We stopped for lunch, then walked through the Mercado. What a difference! The vendors are pushy, there is trash everywhere. In fact we carried our empty water bottles around because there are no trash cans. Just about every vendor sells some sort of food, primarily candy and the bees swarming around was disgusting. There were several other vendor stalls inside the building but in the dark, musty and humid environment it wasn’t fun at all. Every stall had the same selection of blankets, leather wallets and cowboy hats. Some items even had stickers “made in China”. We left for home soon after. It was strange having a “I’m glad to be home” feeling.

This trip just keeps getting better and better. Everyone is happy, there has yet to be an episode of someone getting on someone else’s nerves. We’re healthy, with only the occasional mosquito bite. This is supposed to be the “bad” time of year to be down here, but the weather has been great. Mid 80’s, some humidity, usually a hard rain either in the morning or evening, then bright blue skies with white puffy clouds. Steam is rising from the seven volcanoes surrounding the area. As we drive through the mountains, you can smell a distinct sulphur laced odor. The people here are friendly and our Spanish skills are getting better. I haven’t seen the parrots and wildlife I thought I’d see, but there are plenty of Salvadoran deer and ostriches running around. I will post some pictures as soon as I can. There are two geckos living in the patio. Each night we are greeted with a loud “raaak, raaak”. Each morning Estella and Marta are busy preparing deserts for the restaurant and fill the house with the smell of cheesecake, tiramisu and pan dulce.

Being able to spend quality time with this fantastic family is terrific. I can't remember when I've seen Niles smile as much as he has on this trip. It has been great, having the chance to see where Carmina has come from, and what things in her life have made her the wonderful woman she is today. I feel great.

More later...

J

We finally got our luggage. Well all of it except for Willie's suitcase. Carmina got in an argument with the United Airlines customer service agent ( I think I will start a site called UnitedAirlinesSucks.com), because he wouldn't reimburse us for clothing and medicine today. Buying clothing here was easy...getting receipts wasn't. And we had to buy $80 of our various medicines down here and they don't reimburse for that. As I mentioned before, Estella owns a clothing company, so getting a "receipt" for the $375 will be easy, but it totally sucks that they won't pay for the meds. Since we didn't have the receipts handy, we have to wait until we get back home and send in a claim to UA headquarters in Chicago.

Excuse me Mr Glenn F. Tilton but I paid you to take both my family AND my luggage to El Salvador, not pad your ludicrous bonus package!

On the way back home we were talking about it and figured out what probably happened. While we were waiting in line, several (almost 3/4's) of the passengers were checking in with way too many bags, or bags that were obviously too heavy. Since an airplane can only take a certain amount of weight on the plane, the heavier bags were loaded first, then the lighter, later arriving, bags were jettisoned to either another plane or the cargo holding area.

Ok, enough of a rant. It's a pisser, but not enough to ruin this wonderful vacation. We have our own clothes, our various and sundry items and plans to travel to the mountain town of Juayúa in Sonsonate. Here's a preview. Information on Juayúa for gringos can be seen here. For the rest of you, here.