Big stuff with little brother...

My little brother A.J.

I cannot begin to tell you how great it's been for me to get back in the saddle as a Big Brother. A.J. and I have been having some great times together and I really look forward to every meeting.

On Saturday we went flea marketing in Raleigh and then headed over to the Fiesta del Pueblo (the Latino culture festival). The flea market was fruitful. I scored some vintage luggage and some sheet music and AJ scored some books, then we went to get some food before the Fiesta started. At noon we hit the festival and AJ immediately went for the games and "funland" type stuff. I was struck, right off the bat, with the amount of branding going on. "Ninolandia", the play area with blow up bouncers, slides, and games was sponsored by Mc Donald's. Greasy beef=FUN was the message in ninolandia. But who am I to deny a ten year old a ride or game based on my political views? Yeah, that's what they count on.

From there, we headed (read=were assaulted by) the "Pepsi Zone" where kids can play games for prizes imprinted with the logo of America's favorite beverage. Blah! What bastards (Pepsi, I mean, not the children)!

And, of course, the political parties were out in force. For some odd reason the Republicans had a larger booth in a high traffic area and the Demos were stuck in back next to a man selling puppets. WTF!

Thankfully, the rest of the festival actually had something to do with Latino culture and we had a great time looking at the art show, doing some science projects, and listening to some Salsa bands.

I'm continually amazed by what a great kid AJ is. He's so open to things and he doesn't seem the least bit interested in material stuff. Kudos to mom for that. Makes my job really easy.