Viva la Revolucion!

OK, there was no revolution while I was there. I had a nice 4 day trip to Monterrey, Mexico. I was mostly in a very limited section of the city, but aside from signs in Spanish- you'd never know you weren't in the US. Cars and building styles were very similar in the city anyway.

A few facts. Monterrey is the 3rd largest city in Mexico with about 4 million people. Up until a couple years ago when the drug issues crept in, it was consistently the safest city in Latin America.

Similar to what we saw in the UK and Brazil as well, people will push to get their kids in good schools or sacrifice and pay for private school. Then University is very good and quite cheap. At work I was with just people with college degrees and they seemed quite content with life in Mexico. Minimum wage is the equivalent of $4 per day, so they are not surprised that the vast uneducated masses would still find it easier to 'get ahead' by making $4 per HOUR in the US. Of course, getting kids access to good education for free is by far the biggest perk of coming to the US.

One perspective was that it is America's fault that crime has exploded in Mexico. The US cracked down on drug importation and drug cartels then had to sell drugs in Mexico at of course much lower prices. Well, you don't do illegal activity for 'low-margin' activity, so then the started the Kidnapping, extortion, and the required violence to enforce payments in Northern Mexico. They don't mind the US enforcing drug laws, but think we should supply more resources to help Mexico with their phase of the drug business. Interesting.


The view from my temporary office. They say the humped mountain in the Middle is an 'M' for Monterrey.

Another mountain is 'Chair' mountain.


A large mountain on the way from the airport to the city.

The Cat Financial office is in one of those lovely purple towers. I suppose you never lose your building when it's painted that color.

May be a bit hard to see, but many traffic lanes were separated by these large attached humps in the road. It didn't always keep the traffic separated, but did make for bumpier rides.

I didn't drive past much 'normal' city housing, but this seemed more standard than the high rises where my hotel was. Not exactly the same as Brazil, but the gated front yards and driveways were definitely the same.

They had very good Mexican food. Two mornings a week the office provides fruit for breakfast. I decided to be local and put some 'pepper powder' on the fruit. Turns out it has a lot of lime mixed in, so it was really quite a nice addition.

Not what I would think of as Mexican, but this was the best cup of french onion soup I've ever had.

Forgot to take a photo until I was half done, but everything was covered with avocado or guacamole. Even these taquitos were awfully good when smothered with the right sauce.

Overall it was a very nice trip.

Hoot, Scoot & Boogie

The annual "Hoot, Scoot & Boogie"is our school's one and only fundraising event for the year and it is a BIG DEAL.  Do you like the play on words?  Oak View's mascot is the Owl and since we are in the bountiful 'burbs of Nashville, it's far too easy to adopt a good ol' country tune to ramp up the party.  At HS&B there's food from local vendors, carnival games, a cake walk, bouncy castles and...

Yep, even pony rides.

The auction is actually the main attraction.  Here, one can purchase anything from handmade jewelry to a mountain bike.  Or a boat.  Or even Botox injections (seriously).

All the items/tickets are donated and all the money raised goes directly to the school PTA.  Last year they raised over $22,000!

For the silent auction, I ended up crafting the gift basket for Amy's 3rd grade class.  Nobody else volunteered and after several email pleas from the teacher, I obliged. The first task was coming up with a theme. I wanted something original that would not be duplicated, and also appeal to children (since I learned that most of the basekts in the past were along the lines of gardening, cooking, pampering, etc. and appealed more to adults)

Matt suggested making a pirate treasure chest and even acquired the 'basket' at a significant discount.

After embracing the pirate theme, I solicited the help of the other 3rd grade parents in Amy's class to donate items or money to go towards the treasure chest's contents. Even though none of them wanted to create the basket, they were quick and generous in contributing. I ended up with $190 in cash and gift cards and thus began a thrilling bargain shopping adventure.

I had a stash of coupons for various craft stores and online promotions. When I was limited to one coupon per transaction, I convinced Matt and the kids to each check out with items on their own. They were all super helpers and I came away with a great bundle of valuable and interesting stuff to fill the treasure chest: model ships, Lego sets and games, a grow-your-own tropical biosphere, Build-a-Bear with pirate costume, plus Magic Tree House books, Pirate apparel, DVDs, etc. all blanketed in a pile of chocolate gold coins and ring pops.

Some of the other baskets:

An inflatable boat filled with water/beach toys.

An entire industrical kitchen shelf full of cooking and baking accessories and supplies.

 (I think the idea of 'basket' had a broad interpretation here) It sold for over $800.

We bought this one: Camper's Paradise.

 Full of all sorts of goodies useful for our backyard fire pit, it also contained picnic supplies, camp chairs, sleeping bags, card games, dutch oven cookbooks, hiking gear, portable cooking gadgets, etc.  So far we've tried out everything but the tent.

In addition to the gift baskets, each class was assigned to create a project to be auctioned off as well. The kids were supposed to participate in some way. For Amy's class (to go along with the Pirate theme) I cut up remnants of white flannel, had the kids draw treasure maps on them, then sewed them together to make a "rag time" style quilt. The seams are sewn outwards, then snipped with special scissors, washed and dried.  The result was really cute (and cozy):

 

 I backed it with a Pirate-y cotton print. 

It sold at auction for $40. (Cost me $15 to make... courtesy of the scrap fabric, already owning the fabric markers and a really great clearance price on the flannel)

For Emily's class I designed and made this appliqued owl quilt:

I traced the kids' handprints and transferred to autumn-colored fabrics to serve as the leaves on the tree.  Cost was $25 (plus many hours).  Sold for $45.  Probably not a good return on investment when you consider the amount of work it was (I might just donate $20 next year instead) but a little girl in Emily's class was really happy to take it home.

With 5 classes per grade and a school with kindergarten through 5th grades, you can see that the silent auction alone brings in a good chunk of cash.  Businesses and celebrities (plenty of local musicians) contributed the other items.  It was a pretty impressive spread and I am really a fan of the big one-time event in lieu of magazine and wrapping paper sales!  It will be interesting to hear what this year's income is...