AOL Latino

August 8th was my brother, Ernesto's, 38th birthday. Wow how time flies!! We gathered at his place on Wednesday evening and had a bbq with his wife, Lisa and his son Rodrigo, as well as my sister, Monica, brother in law, Chito, my niece, Monet, and my mother and father, Mirna and Eduardo. Here is a picture of my brother getting ready to blow out the candles with my niece and nephew on his lap.

I tried my best to make the rest of the week a normal week at home. It's hard when I'm traveling so much, especially because I am getting ready to leave L.A. for more than a month. I'm taking a vacation to Europe in between two shows and I won't have a chance to come home. It's the first time I'm leaving for this long since I've started running many businesses. Wish me luck!! I know my team will hold down the fort, but it still makes me nervous.

Had dinner on Thursday night at Ketchup with Richard Perez-Feria and a couple of other friends. (See Beautiful California Blog 2/5/07 for previous review of Ketchup)

As you can see in the picture above, the windows of one of the sides of the restaurant opens up completely to Sunset blvd. Since it was evening when we ate, the view was spectacular. These windows weren't open the first time I went so I was much more impressed this time. I thought that this was a good sign towards a better review of the restaurant. I was wrong. We ordered their specialty, three different kinds of French fries with five different kinds of ketchup. When I asked the server for his favorite kind of ketchup, he responded, "I don't like ketchup"! REALLY??? I need not say more. It was all down hill from there.

Friday night, my great friend and Producer on Extreme Makeover :Home Edition, Herb Ankrom, had a private dinner at Club Social in Hollywood, which is a members only club. About 20 of us sat down to a meal in the Green Room's private dining room. See www.socialhollywood.com. After dinner, the party was opened up to several hundred of Herb's closest friends. He's a popular guy!! Happy birthday Herb!
Here is a picture of Herb and me at another event, but I wanted everyone to know who I was talking about ...


On Sunday I attended a benefit fundraiser for GLAAD in the beautiful home Wes Walraven in Hancock Park, which is a beautiful older neighborhood in Los Angeles. My good friend, and President of GLAAD, Neil Giuliano, asked me to help raise some money by raffling myself off for a lunch. Luckily I was able to raise $1600.00.

I was accompanied by many friends as well as by my power agent at United Talent Agency, Carlos Carreras who was recently named as one of the 50 most influential Latinos in the entertainment business by the Hollywood Reporter as well as one of the most powerful and influential Latinos in Hollywood by the Imagen Awards organization. Congrats Carlos! Here is a picture of Carlos and I at the event.


Well, I'm getting ready to go on a long trip. For the next month I will be coming to you from 5 different places around the world. Yes! I'm going international. Until then, be happy, healthy and prosperous!

Eduardo Xol