I've been asked a couple times whether we would hear Fede's side of the story about how we met. (Mine is here.) Fede has refused to write it. So, I'm going to do it for him. I am taking a lot of literary liberties in the telling of this tale. But here goes.

***

I came to Seattle in 2002, a small Mexican boy with big Mexican dreams. Microsoft was not only a job, but a built-in community. Other Mexican boys had also come to Microsoft to find their soul mates. Okay, maybe not at Microsoft. But we had had seen the American girls who visit Cancun. They were blond, cute, and very friendly. The MEROL (Mexican Engineers Running On Liquor) boys and I all believed we would find our own blond gringa to marry.

We started by going to the dance clubs. Carlos prepared by putting on a thick cloud of cologne and unbuttoning his shirt. We believed faithfully that this is what turns on women. Carlos spotted a cute girl and proudly delivered his come-on line: "I work at Microsoft." To which the perky blond replied: "Wow. At which cafeteria?"

Needless to say, Carlos was not happy.

I decided that maybe finding women in dance clubs (with that horrible music droning on and on) was not the proper method for me. Like the true engineer that I am, I tried online dating. I inputted exact specifications, trusting that the internet would compute the perfect girl for me. Sadly, there must have been some errors in the calculations, because I did not meet any interesting women.

Still, that dream blond girl beckoned to me. I knew there must be a way to find her. Aha, speed dating. Surely a cute blond gringa would be there. Back to the computers to do a search for speed dating events. HurryDate seemed appropriate. I was very happy that it was only 4 minutes with each person. It was testing the limits of my small-talk capabilities--but it was worth the risk.

So, on a dark Tuesday night in March, I drove around in circles looking for the damn bar where the speed-dating event was taking place. I kept passing by that stupid statue of Lenin (or was it Stalin?). I cursed the streets of Seattle. Lost in this stupid city again.

But eventually, I did find the bar (strangely, just across the street from Lenin--I swear it wasn't there the first three times I drove by). I was only 15 minutes late. Right on Mexican time.

I met several women. One I really liked. She seemed perfect. Blond, cute, played video games. In fact, not only did she play video games, she and I shared the love for Final Fantasy. We eventually went out on a first date, to her favorite restaurant: Applebee's. This was great. Applebee's is the perfect date spot in Mexico too!

But, there was that other girl. She was Asian, and had a great laugh. Hmmm...she's not blond, but I had never been on a date with an Asian girl before. I decided I had nothing to lose. Maybe this Sallie girl likes video games too.

We had dinner at a cozy restaurant. Unfortunately, I spent most of dinner trying not to vomit. Sallie had ordered mussels--and the odor was revolting. I also had the misfortune of ordering some disgusting ravioli. Thankfully, there were no mushrooms in sight. But it made me really wish we were at Applebee's. Why did I have to be chivalrous and let Sallie pick the restaurant?

After dinner, we went to see Motorcycle Diaries, at this horribly cheap cinema, where I had to sit quietly with a spring up my butt. I was starting to question Sallie's judgment. But, the movie was good (and in Spanish!) and I really liked Sallie's laugh. Maybe just one more date to see if there was something to pursue.

I'm tired of editing videos. Is anyone even watching these?

We took a lot of videos. Here's one more, from July 4th.

A video of one of the parks we visited...and Fede lounging in the back of the RV while Sallie drives.

This is our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean--just south of Monterey, California. It is beautiful. We stopped along the side of the road many times to enjoy the view.

This is part 2 of our fourth day, after we finished paragliding. Sorry, I'm not posting these in any particular order...

Can you tell I'm editing these videos as fast as I can?

This is a little tour of our RV.

Federico's mother LOVES squirrels. This video is dedicated to her.

I still can't decide whether the squirrel at the end is stupid, or smart.

We finally had time to get pictures from Marlene Chen. She took some great pictures, some of which were in the cool slideshow video she made. Here are some more.

(Click on a thumbnail to enlarge.)

This is a bit long...some of it fun...some of it a bit quiet. Enjoy.