Weekend highlights

Sat morning Spouse went for his work out while I fed and walked the dog, drank coffee, and watched several back-to-back episodes of 'Sell This House'. I love this little Sat morning routine.

Spouse and I ran a few errands including stopping in at the stained glass studio. Unfortunately they did not have the right glass colors in stock, but they offered to order what was needed and have us come in later to approve the colors. I also inquired about classes and found that its a full day (10am-5pm) where you learn the techniques, how to use the tools, and actually work in the studio with them. I love this idea, rather than several weeks worth of 2-hour classes. I think I'm going to sign up for this at some point, perhaps in Jan or Feb when there's not much else going on.

We had lunch and then went to Steve & Thad's to see Thad's vintage hat boxes (I will borrow a few for the car show) and to visit. We had a nice time seeing their house, talking about Thad's upcoming birthday party, and just getting to know each other better. Afterward we went to a state Democratic fundraiser held at the pavilion at the beach. The 'Beach Jamboree' was fun and we saw and listened to short speeches by the Governor, Lt. Governor, former Governor, and many other Democratic politicos. The food was good, too. The tickets were a gift from our friends Scott & Dave who are very politically active. Afterward we had a relaxing night watching TV.

After breakfast on Sun, Spouse went to the store while I stayed home and did some housecleaning. As much as I am enjoying watching the progress of the addition, it is a dusty process. We have given ourselves lots of leeway with housecleaning during this process, knowing that deep cleaning every weekend would be a huge waste of time. So our weekend housecleaning is more about trying to minimize the tracking around of dirt and dust. When the job is done we'll hire someone to clean the entire house thoroughly.

Then we met up with Steve & Thad, Bob, Jason, and Mark at the beach. It was a beautiful day! It was in the mid 80s but the humidity had dropped and there was a nice breeze coming off the water so it was a perfect beach day. The after effects of hurricane Danny left the water warm but kind of wild. The waves were much higher than normal and looked kind of dangerous, so we only got into the water about knee high. But it was really fun to be on the beach with friends on such a beautiful day. After showering and feeding/walking the dog, we met Steve & Thad at the Miltonian Pizzeria & Wing House for pizza and wings. What a great way to end a great day!

Later that night I watch Design Star and was kind of unimpressed by the team's answer to the big backyard challenge. I thought the finished yard looked nice, but I agreed with judge Candace Olsen who said everything looked purchased rather than designed. It looked nice and the homeowners were happy with it, but it just didn't look like 4 aspiring designers had 'designed' a backyard retreat. Despite Dan's mistake with the budget, Torrie was sent home for her lack of leadership as the team captain.

Crush du Jour: Jason Giambi

Weekend highlights

Recently we've been spending time with and getting to know Steven & Thad better. Thad was intrigued to learn that I have been writing this blog for 4 1/2 years and has become a loyal reader.

He recently gave me a little grief because I had not mentioned in my blog a very enjoyable dinner we had. (He was kidding, of course.) In reality, the dinner occurred last Mon night and I simply forgot to include it in my Friday fragments.

This past weekend we spent a good bit of time with Steven & Thad, so I'm sure Thad will be happy to see that I am mentioning him, several times. It was a very 'Thad' weekend!

Sat morning after Spouse returned from his personal trainer appointment, we picked up Big Ella from the storage center (her temporary home until the garage is done) and went to a car show at 1st State Chevrolet. It was hosted by a Corvette club so there were probably 30-40 Corvettes in every color, old and new, convertibles, targa tops, and T-tops, along with a smattering of other collectible cars. Rick & Nick entered their Corvette and Viper in the show. We drove Big Ella but did not enter her since we arrived after the registration period had ended. However I parked her near the entries so observers could appreciate her anyway. Steven & Thad also came, and we walked around together for 30 minutes or so, looking at the great samples of automobile Americana. It was about 90 degrees and extremely humid.

Afterward we had lunch with Steven & Thad at Pizza Palace, a spot where Thad had eaten lunch several times before, since he works nearby. The food was pretty tasty and very reasonably priced. Unfortunately Steven's 'lunch flow' was irreparably thrown out of whack when the waitress brought his slice of pizza at the same time as his cheeseburger. The slice was supposed to be an appetizer! Once home again, Spouse took a nap and I prepared some blog stuff. Later we went out for a ride in Big Ella, then returned her to the storage place just as it began to sprinkle. We stopped at the grocery store, then went home and watched TV.

Sun morning we had coffee and watched a little TV, then did some housecleaning. Our DVD stopped working correctly so I pulled an extra one out of the attic and used it to replace the 'bad' one. The 'bad' one would play for a while, then freeze. The remote and panel buttons did nothing. The only way to free it up was to turn the player off completely, then turn it back on and skip through the chapters to find where we'd left off. This happened like 8 times while trying to watch a DVD and was very frustrating! Anybody else every heard of this?

After showers we went to Chris & Jason's house for Chris' birthday party/dinner. Jason made delicious lasagna and other food. I couldn't believe we stayed for 5 hours, but we were enjoying meeting some new folks and talking with folks we already knew, like Chris & Jason, the Bobs, and Steven & Thad. We had a lot of fun!

Shortly after returning home I watched 'Design Star'. For the 2nd week in a row, Jason said "functionable" (not a real word) instead of "functional". After viewing his 'high energy' hosting skills during the room reveal, Jason said to the judges "I am SO gay." DUH!!! But yet again, he could not complete his room in the allotted time and the judges thought it looked amateurish. Buh-bye Jason. I wonder if Thad watched 'Design Star'?


Crush du Jour: Arap Bethke

Things on TV I like

I've never been a fan of Paris Hilton. She's not really an actor, although she did appear with Nicole Ritchie in the short-lived Fox reality show 'The Simple Life'. But I must admit that I found her new political TV ad to be genius! I don't know if she came up with the idea, wrote the script, or just delivered it, but I think its great.

I'm also enjoying Del Shores' 'Sorted Lives: The Series'. I loved the film and have watched it several times with different friends over the years. There's something about southerners I find endearing. My two favorite characters are Brother Boy played by Leslie Jordan and Sissy played by Beth Grant.

But all the characters in the film and TV series truly are characters.

And speaking of characters, this season of 'Project Runway' has a few interesting characters, although none compare with the fierce, hot tranny mess that is Christian Siriano.

I've been pretty impressed with several of the designers' outfits, and am surprised that I find myself agreeing with the judges a lot more this season.

I was enjoying HGTV's 'Design Star', but it ended last Sun when Jennifer won. I must say that I was surprised because I thought Matt was going to win.

But I thought both of them were good designers so I'm not disappointed with the outcome. However, I was disappointed that Mikey V was not invited to be in the season finale with all the other designer-contestants. Apparently word spread to HGVT that Mikey V had been in a porn video years ago, so HGTV un-invited him to participate in the finale, with no explanation to the audience.

However, Bravo has their version of 'Design Star' called 'Top Design', and season 2 starts Sept 3. I liked the 1st season so hopefully season 2 won't disappoint. How can you go wrong with queens/designers like Todd Oldham and Johnathon Adler as judges?And, of course, like all good gays, I watch Kathy Griffin's 'My Life on the D List'. I do think Kathy is funny, and I like that she always allows her jokes to get raunchy. Although a 'reality' show, hers seems to keep the momentum going and never gets boring for me.
This makes it sound like I watch TV all the time. I do watch TV every night, usually for about 3 hours. But I am NOT one of those people who DVRs every episode of 57 different shows so that they never miss a single thing. I try not to miss the shows above, but if I do, I know I can catch them later in the week or when everything is a re-run.

Crush du Jour: Daniel Marvin

Wonderful weekend until...

Ron & James and Mike & Clark arrived Fri afternoon and I knocked off work early. We sat in the living room and talked for a while, then we migrated to the kitchen so Spouse & I could finish the dinner preparations and still be in the conversations.

We had everything ready so that when 'the usual suspects' arrived at 7:00 we simply set up the food (buffet style) on the peninsula. There were 13 of 'the usual suspects, plus our 4 visiting friends, plus Spouse & me, totally 19 for dinner. It went off without a hitch, thanks to our keeping the menu simple, but tasty. Since we were celebrating 3 birthday and all 3 are different ages, I decided to re-use the '3' and '0' candles we'd used for The Newlywed's 30th birthday and suggested to everyone what a coincidence it was that all 3 birthday boys were all turning 30. Everyone laughed, and we sang 'Happy birthday'. Everyone said the food and cake were great, and our visiting friends mixed seamlessly with 'the usual suspects'. I believe everyone enjoyed themselves.

'The usual suspects' left at around 9:30. Spouse & I stayed up talking with our visiting friends until almost 1am.

Sat morning we had a simple breakfast of bagels, little fruit-filled pastries, juice and coffee, then sat around discussing everything and anything. It was so nice to get updates on many of the folks we knew from the church where we had been members from 1997-2004. Ron & James and Mike & Clark went to this church too.

We had chicken salad sandwiches and chips for lunch, then went to the beach. There was a fantastic cool breeze coming off the water that made our time at the beach practically euphoric. It was 12 degrees cooler at the beach than at home! We had a great time checking out the 'scenery', walking, and talking with the roar of the waves in the background.
Once we'd returned home everyone showered and dressed for dinner. We still had time for cocktail hour before our 7:00 reservation. I made Blue PomeCosmos for everyone.

Then we walked the 2 blocks into town for dinner at Beseme. Spouse & I had never eaten there before, but Ron had gotten a recommendation for it from one of 'the usual suspects' so we decided to give it a try. The name Beseme ("kiss me" in Spanish) made us think it might be a tapas place, but the food had a distinct French influence. There were many crepe specialties which you don't often find in other restaurants. I had Ropa Viejo, a spicy Cuban pulled pork dish with rice and plantains. It was delicious! Spouse had plantain encrusted Mahi with saffron rice and chunky mango salsa. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals, and Spouse said he would definitely return.

On the short walk home we decided to take advantage of the warm but breezy summer night by going for a walk on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. Since none of us ordered dessert at the restaurant we felt no shame in stopping for funnel cake and Kohr Brothers frozen custard along the boardwalk. It was really delightful to be at the boardwalk, seeing all the happy people enjoying themselves. There's an amazing amount of positive energy there. It was nearly midnight when we returned home but we sat up until 1am again talking and laughing.

Sun morning Spouse made a delicious sausage/egg/cheese breakfast casserole and oatmeal blueberry pancakes for breakfast. We lingered over our juice and coffee until almost noon when our friends decided to pack up their stuff and head home. When they left Spouse & I tidied up the kitchen a bit and then met Rick & Nick at the beach. Again we enjoyed a fabulously warm but breezy afternoon at the ocean. I didn't want to come home.

I made nachos for dinner and then Spouse was on the computer while I watched Design Star. I liked all 3 contestants' rooms but did feel like Trish's was a little too predictable and bordered on boring. I wasn't sure she'd be eliminated though because she seems to have the strongest hosting ability. But in the end the judges chose design over hosting ability and Trish went home.

It was truly a wonderful weekend, until we got ready to go to bed. As I was brushing my teeth I heard this 'clink' sound, looked down at the vanity, and saw that a huge filling and fallen out of my tooth! Its my #1 tooth on this chart:

I noticed some sensitivity over the last week or so, then last evening I thought it felt like my teeth didn't quite come together when I chewed like they used to. I had no idea that gigantic, old filling was about to fall out. So this morning I checked my insurance and then found a local dentist who was taking new patients and made an appointment for this afternoon. The dentist was on vacation last week and is busy this week so the lady who scheduled the appointment said the dentist would probably just see me today to determine what needed to be done exactly, and that I would likely need to come back for the actual re-filling.

The fact that this happened last night just before bed caused me to have a difficult time falling asleep. Once I finally got to sleep I had a crazy dream about moving our previous house to a different location. The truck pulling the huge flatbed trailer with our former house on it was being driven by these 2 young (21-23 year old) girls and I kept telling them to slow down and be more careful. Of course they didn't, and the trailer containing our house came loose from the truck and sailing down the street. Needless to say that although I was asleep, I was certainly not resting. This morning I felt like hell, so knowing I'd have to take off for a dental appointment anyway, I called him sick today. This is only the 2nd time in 6 years I've called in sick so I don't feel guilty at all.

Crush du Jour: Robert Buckley