Weekend highlights

Our friends Liz & Rob and their children Jonathan and Rachel arrived on Fri.  Rob was a roommate of mine nearly 30 years ago, and Liz was a family friend.

They wanted to go to the boardwalk and have pizza at Grottos so we did.  Rob & I are usually the 'minorities' because we like all kinds of 'garbage' on our pizza, so since we were together and ordered multiple pizzas, we actually got what we like on our pizza for a change.  Spouse, Liz & the kids wanted just pepperoni.  After we ate, we walked along the boardwalk for a little while, but it began to

sprinkle.  Rather than just taking temporary cover, we decided to head back to the car before the rain really got started.  On our way back to the house we talked about the new Sweet Frog frozen yogurt bar that opened here.  I'd never heard of it but Liz raved about it, so we stopped in.  OMG, there are about a dozen flavors of frozen yogart, and you can select as much or as little of as many or as few flavors as you want.  But that's not all... next you add as much or as little as you want of the 50 or so toppings onto your frozen yogart.  Its like a giant sundae bar!!

Sat morning after coffee we walked over to the farmers market, and then to the canalside park.  On our way to the park we ran into former clients of mine and had a short but lovely conversation with them.  Liz was in the mood for Mexican for lunch so we went to La Tonalteca.  Yum!  From there Spouse & I went back home and relaxed while Rob & Liz and the kids went to the beach. Once they returned and showered, we headed over to Saketumi for Joe P's birthday dinner.  Since Joe P had never met our guests before, we decided to play a little prank on Joe P.  We sent Rachel (age 12) over to Joe P with a birthday balloon.  She handed it to him and said "Hey Mister... happy birthday" and then walked

away.  A minute later Jonathan did the exact same thing.  Then it was Liz's turn, andfinally Rob's turn.  Meanwhile, Spouse & I could hear Joe P and the other birthday dinner guests laughing as this parade of strangers brought him birthday balloons.  Then all 6 of us joined the dinner and Joe realized the strangers with the balloons were our friends.  It was a fun prank!  We had a terrific dinner at Saketumi (as usual) and Joe P really had a nice time.  Again, on the way home we had to stop at Sweet Frog!

Sun morning Spouse made a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, blueberry pancakes, and English muffins.  Shortly afterward, Rob & Liz and the kids headed home and Spouse & I hung out at home.  Later that evening we had dinner with Joe P and Steven & Thad at Big Sissies.

It was a full and enjoyable weekend.

The Psychic

Fri evening Spouse & I got the house in shape for our friends/guests before joining 'the usual suspects' for dinner at the Miltonian. Not long after we'd returned, Liz & Rob arrived.

I know I've mentioned them before, but don't think I've explained the various connections between us. First I met Liz when she and her mother moved to the area and started going to the church I attended. Then I met Randy at a party. He was visiting from WI. We became friends and Randy moved to the area and became my roommate. Randy convinced me to let Rob move in with us. I was friends with Rob's mother but didn't know Rob well at all. He needed a place badly so I agreed. All of us attended the same church so we all knew each other on some level. Randy and Liz dated, got married, moved to WI and then to GA. We lost touch after a few years. Rob went into the military, got married, and came back to the area when he got out of the military. He and I lost touch for many years.

Then about 4 years ago I got a call from Liz & Rob. They told me Liz & Randy split up, she got in touch with Rob, and now they were dating. They looked up my name in the phone book and called every one until they found me. Shortly thereafter we met for dinner, got reacquainted, and caught up on the last few years. Liz & Rob were later married.

They are both quite busy. They both work full-time, plus they take photography classes and have a part-time photography business shooting weddings. But they made time in their schedule to visit Spouse & I and have a relaxing weekend. Although it has been at least a year since we saw them, we talked and laughed as if it were yesterday.

We had coffee and talked on the screened porch until nearly 11:00, at which time we walked over to the Blue Plate Diner and had breakfast, then walked around downtown a bit. They'd been to our beach place before but we'd not really showed them around downtown. Then we sat in the living room for a while, just relaxing, talking, and laughing. Spouse needed to make a dish for the Block Party, so we relocated to the screened porch (off the kitchen) so he could stay involved in the conversation while he cooked.

Prior to the start of the Block Party the pet psychic arrived. I walked over to our neighbor's porch and listened as she verbalized the pictures the pets sent, and communicated pet owners' comments back to the pets. She's not just a pet psychic, but she also communicates with people who have passed on. During our neighbors Larry & Rob's session with their 3 dogs she interrupted by saying that she had the presence of a friend of Rob's who had passed away recently. Rob looked startled. Then she repeated the friend's name and Rob looked at Larry in disbelief. Indeed his friend by that name had passed away recently! She gave Rob a message from the friend, then returned to facilitating communication between Larry, Rob, and their 3 dogs.

Next it was Jordan's turn! The psychic indicated that Jordan wanted us to know that she was happy living here and enjoyed it more than the other place. That wasn't surprising, since Jordan gets walked at least twice a day here, which she loves, as opposed to simply having time in the backyard at our other house. Jordan also wanted us to know that she was getting enough exercise and water. She said we should be careful when lifting her into the car because sometimes it made her back legs hurt. Okay, I thought to myself, that's not very generic. Indeed, sometimes Jordan yelped when Spouse lifted her into the car. Then she said that although she was being quiet at the moment, she liked being vocal at times. That is her way of expressing her excitement. That was true, she hadn't barked at all with the psychic and she does bark at home, especially when we return from being away. So far, interesting but nothing too surprising.

The psychic said that Jordan was telling her that there was a cat in the house, and that the cat believes he is the boss, and that she didn't mind. Okay, now she had my attention. How could the psychic know we had a cat, just 1 cat, that the cat was a 'he', and that he felt dominant? Pretty interesting!

The psychic asked if there was anything I wanted to find out from Jordan. I felt a little caught off-guard, as I hadn't anticipated asking anything of Jordan, so I told the psychic we were proud of Jordan for learning how to ride in the car without getting sick. She told Jordan what I'd said, and she responded that Jordan said it had taken a little while, but she'd eventually become comfortable with it. Then I asked the psychic to ask Jordan to please not get into the trash can anymore because she could eat something dangerous. The psychic relayed my message and Jordan responded that she would work on that.

When Spouse became available he walked over and joined the session, which was nearly over. As soon as he walked over Jordan went to him and wagged her tail furiously as he petted her. The psychic looked at Spouse and said she felt the presence of 2 males in spirit (passed on) who were related to him, one was his father. She asked if he had died from cancer or something to do with the heart, since she saw a picture indicating pressure in the chest. He replied that no, he'd died of leukemia. Spouse took this as a 'failed guess' but I reminded him that although his father's death was due to leukemia, he also had a stroke. The psychic said his father was not alone in the spirit world, but that next to him was a female whose name began with the letter M. Spouse's father's deceased sister is Margie. Spouse told me he'd heard an expose' on psychics say that the most common names begin with the letter M, so he chalked this up to a 'correct guess'. Then the psychic told Spouse that his father wanted him to know that although they had not had the best or closest relationship, he stilled loved him and was proud of him. I thought this was indeed true, but Spouse (the critic) thought it was another 'correct guess', as the chances are high that gay men often have not-so-close relationships with their fathers.

So, Spouse was far less convinced of the psychic's abilities than I. This led to an interesting conversation between the 2 of us and Rob & Liz about whether psychics use physical clues and people's responses to make 'guesses' about them. Then we joined the Block Party.

Everyone brought a dish to share, and Jim & Barb generously provided all the meat and drinks. We had a nice time talking to the neighbors we already knew as well as meeting some of the neighbors we'd not met before. Jim had his iPod hooked up to big speakers which provided music for the soiree'. It was a lot of fun.

I spoke to our neighbor Brenda, whose dog Molly had also had a session with the psychic. Brenda related that the psychic told her that Molly had indicated she really liked the bandanna with the pumpkins on it and wanted Brenda to put that one on her. Brenda said just that morning she'd taken the pumpkin bandanna off Molly so it could be washed. The psychic also said that Molly enjoyed having that other dog in the house for a while, but did not want Brenda to get another dog permanently. This stumped Brenda, as she had never owned another dog while she'd had Molly. The psychic closed her eyes again to communicate with Molly, then said that it was a small terrier that had stayed with them. Ding ding ding!!! Brenda remembered that she had helped a friend out by taking in a foster dog for 6 weeks - a small terrier! I was sure to relate these two gems to my disbelieving Spouse.

We returned home to feed Jordan, and then the 4 of us took her for a walk. Rob & Liz took some photos of the beautiful church on Second St, which is lit up marvelously at night. Then we sat in the living room and talked for several more hours before going to bed, just before 1:00.

Sun we had coffee on the porch again, followed by blueberry cake and bacon which Spouse had made us for breakfast. After talking for a while, we went to Rehoboth Beach and walked along the boardwalk. Liz & Rob took pictures, and then we had lunch at Cafe Sole'. We returned home, they packed their things and left at 3:00.

Spouse & I changed into our swimsuits and headed back to Rehoboth Beach to meet Rick & Nick, who'd left us a message indicating they were already at the beach. But just after we'd gotten on the road they called to say they were leaving the beach, so we turned around and went home. Spouse said he really wanted to take a nap anyway, so he wasn't disappointed. While he napped I sat out on the screened porch for over 2 hours and read several magazines. The weather was so lovely I just didn't want to stay inside. Sept is my favorite month of the year. Spouse & I had cereal for dinner, then he watched crappy TV downstairs while I watched a crappy DVD (Mulholland Drive) upstairs.

More and more construction equipment returned today, meaning more noise and dirt in the air. I have a feeling I will be writing this many more times in the future.

Drag Queen name of the day: Dee Lourdes Myshepherd

Lots to do

The last few days have been rather busy with my job. Plus we're at the end of the month so I have more than the usual work to do in order to have the billing info ready for Finance.

Our friends Liz & Rob are coming for a visit this weekend, which means we will need to clean the house and make sure everything is presentable before they arrive tonight. I did some of it during my lunch break today, but still need to vacuum make the bed in the guestroom while Spouse cleans all of the bathrooms.

Tomorrow our neighbors are having a Block Party, with food, drinks, music, and a pet psychic! I'm looking forward to this annual extravaganza, as I've heard its the bomb.

Have a great weekend!

Drag Queen name of the day: Amanda Callmyown

Surprise - the furniture is ready

It was Friday, my catch-up day at work, and I'm thinking about the fact that we didn't hear from the furniture store about the furniture we ordered. We bought it at a very reasonably priced furniture store up at the beach. Although not so convenient for delivery, the price was right AND there is no sales tax in DE. They had said 2-3 weeks, but thought it might be 2 weeks. I was hoping it would be 2 weeks, as we'd be able to pick it up right away. If it were going to be ready in 3 weeks, we'd have to wait another week after that, as we already had plans to be out of town the 3rd weekend.

So since it appeared we weren't going to be tied up with the furniture, I emailed our friends Liz & Robert, with whom we had 'back-up' plans for dinner on Sat, in case the furniture wasn't ready. But Liz & Robert decided to go to Williamsburg for the weekend. They invited us to go, but we really have no interest in visiting Williamsburg so we politely declined. Besides, we didn't have any arrangements for our dog.

So then I began trolling my friends via email to see who was doing what this weekend. Since Halloween is on Mon, I figured some of our friends may want to go downtown on Sat night to the clubs and bars and see all the boys in their costumes. But everyone I contacted either had other plans or didn't respond to my email.

I began to think 'Man, we really are losers. Here it is, Halloween weekend, and we have absolutely NO plans what-so-ever.' So I called Joe and asked him how he felt about just going downtown the two of us and checking out the Halloween costumes. He didn't want to. So I braced myself for a truly uneventful weekend.

When I got home from work on Fri, Joe said "Surprise - the furniture is ready." The store had called and left a message saying the furniture had just come in. Suddenly I was kind of glad that none of my attempts to make plans for the weekend had worked out! We began to make our new plans.

Our existing TV room sofa was going to Joe's brother's house in Bowie. We had hoped he could come and pick it up, but with such short notice, that wasn't going to happen. Fortunately, his house is on the way to the beach, so we put the sofa in our Suburban and dropped it off on the way. The love seat was going to Joe's sister in Alexandria, but we didn't have time to deliver it on Fri, so we left it in the TV room for some future delivery date.

We were both dreading getting the existing sofa and love seat out of the house, as we remembered how hard it was to get in. We couldn't use the front door because the furniture was too big to go around the corner to get into the TV room. We had to bring the furniture in through the exterior door to the TV room, which is not as wide as the front door. It just barely squeezed through - only after totally removing the door off of its hinge. So with great strain tempered with excitement, we finally extracted the old furniture to make way for the new stuff.

When we went to pick up the new furniture we really didn't think they'd be able to get both pieces inside the Suburban. We planned to take one piece home Sat morning, drive back to the beach Sat night, and take the second piece home on Sun. But we'd removed the 3rd row seat and flipped down the 2nd row seats, creating an impressive amount of space, so the loading guys were optimistic. It took a couple tries and several configurations, but amazingly they got both pieces into our truck!

With both pieces of furniture snugly in the truck and the weather forecast at the beach being good, we thought we'd stay up there for the weekend, and then unload the furniture on Sun evening. But after driving around at the beach with that load of furniture for about 20 minutes, we both agreed to just go home. We were excited to transform our TV room.

We got home around 4pm on Sat and unloaded the furniture, took all the protective plastic and cardboard off, and screwed on the feet. Then we placed the furniture on the wall where the TV/VCR/DVD had been, moved the area rugs, and decided to call it quits. It was 7pm and we were both ready for a shower and some food.

This morning we made a quick trip to our local hardware/variety store to pick up a few necessities and got back to work. Since we wanted to turn the room around and put the furniture where the TV had been, we needed to get the cable over to the other wall where the furniture had been. Fortunately I could pull the cable from the basement and poke it up threw a pre-drilled hole in exactly the right place. Then we put the TV/VCR/DVD onto the new entertainment center we'd bought last weekend from the scratch-n-dent area at Ikea (you can't even find the flaw) and placed it on the wall where the furniture had been. We replaced the lightbulbs in the overhead light that were too bright with some more appropriate lower watt bulbs, and slipped some rubber anti-skid discs under the eight feet of our new furniture, threw the ottoman back in and voila! It looks fabulous!

The new furniture is an ivory chenile, two-piece sectional. There is a sofa with a left arm, and a chaise with a right arm. Put them together and add the toss pillows with a graphic red & ivory design and add our existing red ottoman and you get a stunning designer look. (Michael: this is WAY better than the furniture you remember!) We even had time to deliver the old love seat to Joe's sister, and have an early dinner with his mom.

So much for weekends with no plans!