Houston

Only in Texas: Rodeo Round Up for the Lunch Hour

By in Cositas Latinas, Culture, Food, Lifestyle, Los Metiches 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So RodeoHouston is right around the corner.  If you’re not familiar… the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the world’s largest live entertainment and livestock exhibition.  It takes place here,  every year, for 20 consecutive days at the end of February and the beginning of March, and features some of the music industry’s biggest acts.  No, we are not simply talking country music here!

Beyonce, Selena, Enrique Iglesias, Mary J. Blige, Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez are just a few of the big name acts who’ve played RodeoHouston… although country music is the big star at the mostly sold out concerts.

In any event, yesterday the city of Houston was hosting a kick off or “Rodeo Round Up” to once again welcome RodeoHouston.  As soon as they said they would be giving away free bar-b-que sandwiches, I was sold!  ¡Pa’ya vamos!

Where else but Texas will you get a rodeo in the middle of the day in downtown?

Obviously I wasn’t the only one with bar-b-que on my mind!

¡Creo que sí!

I do believe that sign may be correct…

Real Life Texas Longhorns!

Wow!  The Texas longhorn in front of City Hall was awesome!  I really wanted to ride the thing, but the line was way too long.  Les viera dicho ¡Quitense!

It was pretty packed at the Round Up!

That’s the mob that was waiting for their turn to ride the longhorn!

Volunteers from various RodeoHouston committees were on hand sharing info.

So instead I decided to scope out some of the booths being hosted by RodeoHouston volunteer committees.  Don’t know which committee this is, but that cowgirl looks pretty country-glam.  Yeah, that’s an actual style here in Texas!

These were really, really soft... kind of creepy though.

These decorative rugs or throws are made from some type of llama fur.  They are so soft!  Too bad I’m not much of a fur or decorative anything fan.

This guy was just having a great time!

I think this guy is one of the clowns who tries to distract bulls from attacking their riders during the bull-riding portion of RodeoHouston.

Saddle up, y'all!

Only thing missing is the horse…

Hardly anyone could lasso that there bull...

Lasso that bull!  My dad was actually pretty good at this when we were kids.  We grew up around animals in the Valley so there was plenty of time for practice.

Get in my belly! Once I had the bar-b-que I was good to go.

And finally I got my hands on a Texas style bar-b-que sandwich!  It was totally worth the wait in that long line… if only they would have given me another one.

For more information visit RodeoHouston.

I’m Speaking at the 26th Annual Career and Education Day

By in Cositas Latinas, Lifestyle, Los Metiches 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , ,

This weekend I’ll be participating in the Houston Hispanic Forum’s 26th Annual Career and Education Day by serving as a panelist for the first-of-its-kind Bloggers Panel.  I am a little nervous and very excited about taking part in this event because, on the one hand, I’ve never actually explained what it is that I do to a group of young people exploring career options, and on the other, because it’s very thrilling to me personally to know that blogging and social media are finally being recognized as viable career options for young people.  Who knows what is going to come out of my mouth?

Whatever it is, I hope it makes sense!

Houston Hispanic Forum 26th Annual Career and Education Day

What I do know is that I would like these jovenes and their parents to take away from our panel – I’m amongst great company by the way – that you can definitely achieve great things when you give your personal education and enrichment the commitment it deserves.  If nothing else, my journey is a testament to what a little blind faith can do.  As a kid growing up, and later in college, even at the beginning of my career, years later, I could have never predicted that Juan of Words would become the main outlet for my creative expression.  Much less that it would open up so many doors, including this one to motivate other young people to pursue their higher education goals.

In any event, the free Career Day activities will take place on Saturday, February 25, 2012, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the George R. Brown Convention Center.  I will be speaking from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. if you’re interested in coming by.

Here’s some more information on what you can expect:

- Free admission to attend!

- Meet with college representatives

- Attend student and parent workshops

- Learn about careers

- Apply for Financial Aid

- Apply for college admission

For more information please visit http://hispanic-forum.org/.

El Paso, Dallas & Houston: Enter to Win Tickets to the Screenings of “Warrior” and “Contagion”

By in Giveaway, Lifestyle, Los Metiches 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Warrior

I’ll get straight to the point on this one.  If you’re in El Paso, Dallas or Houston and would like to attend the film screenings of two new movies – which to me look pretty good, by the way – next week on Wednesday or Thursday evenings, keep reading and make sure to follow the instructions on how to enter this particular giveaway from yours truly, in partnership with Checa LA movie.

There is no cost involved to participate, of course, unless you are like me and have to have the biggest bucket of popcorn and a jumbo sized coke to watch a movie agusto in the theater.  In that case, you’re on your own with the snacks.  Sorri for you!

But seriously now, the two movies that are screening in these three Texas cities are ‘Contagion’ and ‘Warrior’, which are set to hit the box office for the masses in a couple of days, but you, desde luego, would be the first ones in your cities to watch them before all of your friends and everyone else (just thought I’d throw that in, in case that is a factor for you).  So here are the dates and times for each city:

EL PASO
Warrior                 Wednesday, September 7, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.
Contagion           Thursday, September 8, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.

DALLAS
Warrior                 Thursday, September 7, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.
*sorry no Contagion screening here

HOUSTON
Contagion           Wednesday, September 7, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.
Warrior                 Thursday, September 8, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.

The goal is to give away the tickets to you in pairs, so if you’re interested in attending, here is what you need to do.  You must enter by Sunday, Sep. 4, 2011, for a chance to win tickets.  I will let you know if you received tickets to the movie by Tuesday, Sep. 6th at the latest.  Sin más borlote, this is what you need to leave in the comments section of this blog post in order to enter the giveaway:

YOUR NAME
YOUR CITY
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS (or a link to your Facebook or Twitter profile so that I can notify you that you have won)
HOW MANY TICKETS YOU WOULD LIKE
WHICH MOVIE, DATE & TIME YOU’RE INTERESTED IN

If you’re not in Texas, and would like a chance to win movie tickets to the screenings of these two films, check out my friend Teresa’s blog at: www.checalamovie.net for more screening dates and times.

Mucha suerte and maybe nos vemos en las movies!

CONTAGION OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwNMGdWyjcc]

WARRIOR OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54vrgCP5nlc]

We Might Not Have Won, But We Certainly Didn’t Lose. Gracias!

By in Giveaway, Lifestyle, Los Metiches 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Houston, you made a big difference!

Pues como quien dice, you win some, you lose some… y esta vez, me toco perder, but not entirely.  In a lot of ways we all won.  Not only did we get the opportunity to showcase Houston as one of only eight cities participating in this nationwide competition, but we were able to pull together as a community (both online and offline) to raise awareness about the importance of supporting our schools.  When I was asked to put together a community event to as part of this challenge, I knew immediately that Denver Harbor would be the focus of our efforts.

This often overlooked, very historical, and bien Latino community has managed to steal my heart in the couple of years that I’ve called it home, and it was very rewarding to be able to give something back to precisely my neighborhood.

To everyone that voted for me, asked others to vote for me (maybe even harassed a couple of people, lol), donated items, attended our event, volunteered, or did anything else, no matter how big or small, to support my efforts in the Ford F-150 EcoBoost Challenge, thank you so very much por todo. I am indebted to you.  Anjelica and all of her family were wonderful, and I honestly don’t know how we would have pulled off this event without their support.  A very special thank you for that… it really meant a lot to me.  And then of course, so much gratitude to the Ford Motor Company, my new buddy Jackie, all of the marketing folks in Austin and Dallas, and the great people at the Harris County Department of Education for allowing us to sponsor local school Pugh Head Start, as well as hold our event there.  ¡Muchísimas gracias!

And now, without further ado, here are the pictures from our Ford-Denver Harbor Community Yard Sale & Back to School Benefit:

Tweety and Winnie the Pooh stole the show... for good reason. They were dancing tribal, LOL!

The shoppers were ready to shop, for a good cause, with more reason.

Our Official DJ, Element Entertainment really kept the house rocking. They're great, just FYI!

Y'all know Anjelica! On the right is my sister Irma, and on the left my sis-in-law Rosa.

The arts & crafts section of the event were a huge hit with all the kids... hasta uno que otro grandote!

As were the face paintings by this local artist who was kind enough to volunteer her time and creativity.

Once again, gracias a todos por el apoyo and all of the hard work!!

Let’s Win Some Free Gas!!

By in Giveaway, Lifestyle, Los Metiches 3 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

Un doble honor it is for me to have been asked to represent the city of Houston and the Great State of Texas, as well as the Latino community – I’m the only Latino blogger in this competition – this month, in the Ford Motor Company’s F-150 EcoBoost Challenge! In a nutshell, Ford will be delivering a brand new F-150 EcoBoost to me and seven others across the United States on Sunday, August 21, 2011, so that we can participate in a nationwide challenge that will measure how each one of us bloggers maximize our miles per gallon on the trucks from the 22nd until the 26th.

The competition

What’s at stake you ask?  FREE Nitrogen Enriched Gasoline, not only for me, but for all of you in the city of Houston at two select Shell locations, on September 2, 2011 (Labor Day Weekend), if we can pull off being the # 1 City in this competition.

I won’t bore you with the details of how exactly Ford will select one of us bloggers as the overall winner, but it does involve a community event which I’ll be putting together over the course of the next week, and, most importantly, your VOTES!!!  Yes, part of the measurement will be your votes.  So please vote for me and vote often (if that’s allowed).  As far as the miles per gallon, I think I’ve got that covered (soy mexicano after all, we’re used to stretching things out to get the most out of them), but if you have tips I’m all ears!

Here's the ride I'll be using for the challenge. Sweet, huh?

Stay tuned and I’ll let you know how else you can help secure that free gas for Houston.  In the meantime, VOTE!!

Our First Official Meet Up

By in Giveaway, Lifestyle, Los Metiches 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , ,

¿Qué les puedo decir? Tonight was everything I expected and much, much, more!  To all of you who made it out for the First Official Juan of Words Meet Up, that’s sounds kind of silly in writing, but it’s late y no puedo pensar en algo más ahorita, so perdon… thank you very much!

We met up at the “Green Lantern” Advance Screening in Houston, and really had a great time hanging out, albeit kind of briefly, before and after the movie.  It was in 3D, something we were all very pleasantly surprised with since we hadn’t been made aware of this until the last minute, and all in all it was a pretty good movie.  I could go on and on, pero mejor aquí están las fotos.

Alyssa, Isidoro, JJ, Jacob y yo

With my buddy & compadre, Paco

Michelle, pues yo otra vez, y Sarah

Rosemary, me, and Paco. Too bad the pic is fuzzy...

Con Rocio.

And of course, with my wife Anjelica

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