Gift

I received a lovely gift in the mail from Anne Marie!

How adorable is this Chihuahua bag?!?! And how sweet and thoughtful of Anne Marie to send it to me!!

I must admit, Marvin & Walter were a bit jealous.  I heard them talking in the other room (they didn't think I could hear them) saying "I thought WE were enough.  But now Daddy & Papa have OTHER Chihuahuas in the house."

So I made sure to tell them both how much we love them, that no Chihuahuas on a bag would change that, and gave them extra head scratches and belly rubs.  All seems to be right in the home again.

Pittsburgh

Sat morning Spouse & I drove to DC and picked up my aunt Mary and then drove to Pittsburgh to join the rest of the family.  The total drive time with 1 stop for food and restroom was 7 hours. We checked into the hotel and then met up with the family who' already arrived.  That evening we all went to dinner at Lidia's.  Most of had the pasta tasting trio which was amazing.  We had a wonderful meal and had a lot of fun.

David the college graduate and me

Anna, Gabby, and Randy

Paul, Evelyn and David

Mary & Eric (parents) and Evelyn

My handsome Spouse

Karen, Louis, Eric

The next morning I met fellow/former blogger David for breakfast at Pamela's Diner in the Strip District.  The family thought I was crazy for making breakfast plans with a stranger, but I explained that we 'know' each other through our blogs.

Me and David

The conversation was easy and we had a really nice visit over a delicious breakfast, and then David offered to give me a tour of Pittsburgh.  He drove me around and pointed out many noteworthy buildings, parks, stadiums, as well as shared lots of historic info only a true native would know.  We ended up at the top of Mount Washington where I took these photos:

I feel like Pittsburgh is an under-valued city for tourism.  There's so much to see and do here it surprises me that I haven't heard more people talk about going there.  I enjoyed it very much and wished I had more time to explore.  I hope to go back again, but its a long way to go for a weekend.

After returning to I hotel met up with most of the family and sat outside and talked for a while in the covered patio area, then everyone got dressed for the graduation.  First there was a small reception with sandwiches, salads, cookies, and drinks, then the diploma ceremony. 

The general commencement ceremony was early in the morning.  We all decided just to attend the diploma ceremony for his specific group in the Tepper Business School.  David's major was Business Administration with a 2nd major in Creative Writing.  He's already gotten a job with a DC consulting firm starting in July.  We're all very proud of his accomplishments.  Afterward David posed for photos with all the family.  Here are just two:

Me, David, Aunt Mary, Spouse

Proud parents Eric & Mary with David

Afterward the family went a park for a picnic dinner of pizza, wings, and subs.  But I made plans to see some of my family.  My cousin April's daughters Chelsea (and her husband Gabe) and Micah (and her fiance Justin) live in Pittsburgh so we made plans to get together for dinner.  Unfortunately Micah had to go on a business trip, but I did get to meet her fiance Justin.  Chelsea & Gabe invited me to dinner at their house and since the weather was so nice we ate outdoors.

Chelsea

We had a wonderful time catching up on each other's lives, talking about real estate investing, and Justin & Micah's upcoming wedding.  It was really, really great... such sweet folks.

When I got back to the hotel several of the family had gathered in our room and we talked and ate cookies that Karen had made.

The next morning Spouse & I and Aunt Mary headed back home.  It was a great weekend full of quality time with friends and both sides of my family.

Sean & Jeffrey

This evening we had the pleasure of celebrating a birthday dinner with Sean & Jeffrey!  

They planned a long weekend with friends Ken & nearby and invited us to join them for Jeffrey's 50th birthday dinner at Dos Locos.  Of course no birthday at a Mexican restaurant is complete without the birthday boy being serenaded while wearing a giant sombrero.

Selfie of Jeffrey and me

I should have looked at this photo of Sean and then taken a better one

We had a great meal, delicious cocktails, and fun conversation.  Then we went over to the house they'd rented for more cocktails and delicious, gluten-free German chocolate birthday cake.

Sean ordered this from a bakery who delivered it right to their door

I'll admit we were all a bit unsure of how a gluten-free German chocolate cake would turn out but it was super tasty.

As Spouse & I were touring the house, we both felt some deja-vue.  Then Spouse said "Isn't this the house that Pete & Alex rented a few summers ago for Alex's birthday?"  Sure enough, it was!  How weird that we'd been invited to the same house twice by friends who'd rented it for a birthday!!

We had a lovely visit with the Breens and promised to not let so much time lapse before we visit again.

The affect of your words

Many fellow bloggers will relate when I say that sometimes it is difficult to know what to write.  From time to time I 2nd guess myself and my topics.  Many times I write about the goings on in my life (visitors, weekend plans, haircuts, home projects, etc) and later wonder if it is interesting at all to anyone.  Sometimes people leave comments on those posts which is a bit of an indicator, but my blog stats always show that there are far more visitors than commentors, so again I sometimes wonder about the level of interest.  When one is unsure of this, it makes one wonder if they should continue blogging.

Two things happened recently that really made me re-examine my blog motivation and re-affirmed my desire to continue:

1. While looking for something within my blog I reread a post where I described a time in my life before I was 'out' or really knew gay people.  I witnessed what I believed to be 4 gay couples having Sun brunch at a diner.  Although I didn't speak to them and they likely never saw me, their very presence there eating, talking, laughing, and just living their (gay) lives had an affect on me.  It made me happy and a little excited.  This was several years before the internet, but I now think that blogging can have a similar affect.  A closeted person might stumble upon my blog and read about me, Spouse, and our friends eating, talking, laughing, and just living our (gay) lives and that may have a positive affect on them.  They may read this and think "I want to have that some day."  Not that my life is enviable by any means - but a life lived openly and authentically.
2. I recently received an email from a reader I'll refer to as "B".  His email in part said "I wanted to thank you for mentioning you were planning to get an undercut hairstyle. I asked my hairstylist if an undercut would work for me. Personally, I think of if as a kind of modified "high and tight" like Marines get. It was a success! My partner loves it, got lots of compliments on it when I visited my family for Mothers' Day and went to church with them (ugh), compliments at the doctors' offices, and compliments at the pharmacy! Thanks again for talking about your life on your blog, because otherwise it would never have occurred to me to try something new."  As you can imagine, this email made my day!  But more than that, it made me see the affect that my blogging can have on others.  The world is a prettier place thanks to my blog!  Kidding aside, B read/implemented an idea found on my blog and has had great results.

Literally as I was typing this post, I remembered another occasion where my blog resulted in good for someone else.  The editor of a small/local newspaper printed one of my blog posts word-for-word in the paper to drum up business for the restaurant I wrote about.  The owners were so happy they framed the article and it hangs on the wall to this day.

So the point of this entire post is:  blog about your life!  Be it glamorous or mundane, you just never know the affect your words might have on others.

Censorship

So I log into Blogger yesterday or today (I forget which) and happen to see this notice at the top of the dashboard about a change to blog content beginning in late March.  I clicked on the link and read the notice.  Blogs that contain nudity that isn't considered 'artistic' or 'educational' will have to either remove that content or Blogger will make the blog private.  

I guess it remains to be seen how 'artistic' is defined.  I mean, I find almost all nudity to be artistic.

The interesting thing is that some blog writers received the notice via email, indicating their blog would likely be affected.  I did not get the email, so I'm assuming mine is not affected, but I'm really not sure.  My blog does not contain nude genitalia so I do not have content advisory that other blogs do.  Maybe that has something to do with it.  But my blog definitely does have nudity, so I'm not sure if nudity without showing genitalia is 'artistic' or not.

But I must say that I find all of this disappointing and bothersome.  YouTube and Facebook have always censored content and prohibited nudity.  I believe a big part of Blogger's popularity has been the fact that it did NOT censor content.  Blogger writers have been able to say and post whatever they want, be it 'artistic', 'educational', titillating, or smutty.  Its the very reason why we're HERE and not on Facebook and YouTube.

If blogs are forced to go 'private', how does a blog writer invite readers to the newly private blog?  How does a reader ask to be invited to a private blog?

I guess the other option is for blog writers to change platforms.  But whose to say that WordPress and other blog platforms won't follow suit?

I'm really not sure what to think about this whole situation, but I definitely feel disappointed that Blogger has decided to censor blog content.

Goodbye

If you've commented on my blog posts in the past you may have seen comments from Wayne Da'Cajun.  He and I have read and commented on each other's blogs for a couple years now.  I learned that he passed away very early yesterday morning, after a long and valiant fight with cancer.  How fitting that Da'Cajun (originally from New Orleans) would choose Fat Tuesday to depart this world.

I'm not going to pretend that we were close friends.  In reality, we 'knew' each other mostly from reading each others blogs.  He worked at a restaurant I frequent, so we've met in person several times but had no time for substantive conversation there.  We also met at the blogger meet-up here in DE back in 2013, where we had more opportunity to spend time together.

I can say with confidence that Wayne was a lovely person.  His thoughtful and intelligent blog posts were very different from my style of writing, but they were completely him.

He was known for his smile, which everyone who knew him will sorely miss.

Photo lifted from Wayne's facebook page

10th Blogiversary!

Managing milestones is a big part of my job as a realtor, so it is absolutely CRAZY to me that I realized today that I missed acknowledging this blog's 10th blogiversary on Dec 28!

Yep, that's right - I've been blogging since Dec 28, 2004. 

Its kind of hard to believe I've been doing this for 10 years.  My 1st couple of years of posting was just text - no photos.  This was because smart phones hadn't been invented yet or weren't prevalent, and uploading digital photos from the camera to the computer to the blog was tedious.  But the quality of my posts was probably better back then, as I couldn't rely on photos to fill up a post, or BE a post.  I'm going to take a little time and read some of my early writing to provide me with inspiration for better future posts. 

Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting over the years!  Its fun to share my life and thoughts with you guys.  Thanks to blogging I have met quite a few great folks in person whom I consider real friends.  While keeping up my blog isn't always easy or convenient, it feels like a real accomplishment to say I've done it for 10 years now, and have no plans to stop.

Cheers!!

Progress

Marriage equality made great progress this week!

On Mon the Supreme Court (yes, I typed it out... I have the acronym SCOTUS) decided not to take up any of the pending cases in 5 states, which meant the lower court rulings declaring anti-gay marriage laws to be unconstitutional were upheld.  This meant marriage equality became a reality in Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia.

Yes, Virginia!

I am the most surprised about Virginia because when Spouse & I lived there a terribly-written law went into effect that not only blocked same-sex marriage, but basically also said 2 people of the same sex couldn't do anything that might try to imply the same rights and benefits as marriage!  In other words, a guy couldn't leave his cabin in the woods to his male childhood friend in his will because this might be seen as trying to imply a right or benefit of marriage.  Both the content and the wording of the law were so reprehensible and offensive it was actually 1 of the main reasons Spouse & I decided to move out of Virginia.  Thankfully that is all behind us now and we look forward to receiving wedding invitations from many of our friends still living there.

With days, more states like Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Kansas, and West Virginia joined the bandwagon, and its not over.  Keep your ears open for announcements in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wyoming.

My blogger buddy Bob & his fiance Carlos are getting married soon in Washington (near Bob's dad) and hope that their marriage will be recognized in their home state of South Carolina by the time they return home!  How great would that be?!?!  For continuing, up-to-date info on Bob & Carlos' wedding AND states joining the equality march, be sure to visit Bob's blog HERE. 

Blogger visit

I've had the honor of meeting several bloggers over the years, and I must say that I am never disappointed. They have all been just as 'real' as their blog posts, and usually even more charming.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of welcoming Tornwordo from Sticky Crows and his husband Serge who live in Montreal.  They are on a week-long Mid-Atlantic/Northeastern roadtrip and included my little seaside hamlet.

They arrived around noon, so after hugs and a short visit with Marvin, I took them to Rehoboth Beach for lunch.  We ate at the Green Turtle, a 2nd floor restaurant overlooking the ocean, which on a clear day would afford spectacular views.  Unfortunately it was overcast and gray so the view was not so spectacular.  But we talked over lunch and snapped a selfie before leaving.

Me, Serge, Tornwordo

Next we went for a walk on the boardwalk.  We actually ducked into a souvenir shop for a possible sweatshirt purchase for Serge since the chilly breeze was coming off the ocean and it was only in the 50s. But a brisk walk helped warm us up.  Back in the car, I showed them around town a bit, and then we headed back home, with a couple detours around my little hamlet.  More conversation, stories, and the next thing I knew, Spouse was coming home from work.  How the time flew by!  The 4 of us went to dinner at Fins Ale House & Raw Bar.

Tornwordo behind my dirty martini

I had the fried oyster dinner with seasonal veggies and tater tots.  Spouse had the balsamic glazed salmon, and Tornwordo had the lobster roll and Serge had Mediterranean pasta.  Everything was delicious and our dinner was made even better by the great conversations.

Smiles all around!

Once back at home Tornwordo introduced us to a game called Heads Up, which is kind of like charades, except just 1 person is trying to guess the word from clues given by the rest of the folks.  Serge was trying to guess the word "Yoda" so Tornwordo was imitating Yoda's voice and common phrases.  Then I said that it rhymes with the word soda.  Serge said "Sparacus!" and we all burst into laughter.  Later, Tornwordo was trying to guess the word "Pegasus" so my clue was a horse with a horn on its head.  He correctly said what I described which is a unicorn, so then Spouse corrected me by saying "a horse with wings".  Again, laughter nearly crippled us for several minutes.  All that brainwork and laughing made us thirsty so we had a couple glasses of Proseco with St Germaine before going to bed at midnight.

The next morning Spouse said his goodbyes before heading off to work and the 3 of us enjoyed coffee and more conversations.  After quick showers we walked to JD's Cafe for breakfast, and then my friends from the great white north were on their way to their next fantastic destination.  Although we'd never met in person before, it certainly didn't feel like I'd spent 24 hours with strangers.  Rather, it seemed like time spent with friends I hadn't seen in a long time.

Blogiversary

Tomorrow, Sat the 28th is my 9th blogiversary! 

Its hard to believe that I've been doing this for 9 years.  Although I've been posting daily Mon-Fri for the last few years, I didn't always do that. If you'd like to read the post where I introduced myself and Joe here on this blog, click here.

I sincerely appreciate all who return to my blog to read, laugh, and share in the comments.  I've had the pleasure of meeting some of you in person due to this blog so it has definitely been worth the effort to try and find new and interesting things to write about and share.

Now, on to the next 9 years!!

Marry Me, Bill

Today beloved blogger and friend Ron is getting married to his partner Bill on the 49th anniversary of the day they met.  Its been a long wait for them, but the happy day has finally arrived.

Read Ron's blog post, written this morning prior to the nuptuals.

I imagine Ron has been singing this song to Bill in anticipation of their big day.  Congratulations to Ron & Bill on their wedding day and 49th anniversary!!

Breen with envy

Don't be jealous, but the Breens of Idle Eyes and a Dormy fame are en-route to our house!

During Sean & Jeffrey's visit to our fair hamlet for the Blogger Meet-Up in Feb, we had the opportunity to have dinner with them - not once, but - twice and got along like old friends.  They expressed an interest in coming back so we invited them for the long, Memorial Day holiday weekend.

It appears the weather won't be conducive to lying on the beach, but I'm sure we'll find plenty to drink, do.  We don't really have a 'plan' for the weekend, but we've got several options to go over with the Breens and I'm confident the weekend will pass much too quickly.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everybody!!

Blogger Meet-up

I had a late client on Fri, so after finally getting home I called the Breens and arranged to pick them

up at their hotel.  It was like greeting an old friend I hadn't seen in years, when in reality we'd never met in person.

We went to Saketumi and Sean & I ordered Cosmos, of course, while Spouse & Jeffrey ordered less glamorous cocktails.  We talked and talked, finally forcing ourselves to stop and review the menu so we could eat!  We had an absolutely fabulous time together and I can see us spending more time together in the future.

Sat morning I had to show homes to a client, but then Spouse & I joined a good sized group of bloggers for a late lunch at Dos Locos.  I was able to meet everyone who'd arrived before we ate lunch and get to know those sitting near me as we ate.

After lunch many of us went back to the host hotel (Inn at Canal Square) and visited with each other in the hospitality suite.  Before we knew it it was time for the main event to start, so I ran home to change clothes, pick up Spouse and return for the cocktail hour.  We had drinks and light hors d'ouevres as we talked and laughed with our fellow bloggers, followed by a tasty buffet dinner catered by Nage.  As we finished dinner there were a few door prizes awarded and our host Ron presented some gifts to Michael. 

What a joy it was to meet everyone!  I've been reading Java's blog and The Cajun's blog (off and on) for years.  I will be reading several others going forward, such as Jay in VA, Our Simple Lives, David & Barry, Michael and David.  At one point Anne Marie voiced what I believe everyone was thinking and feeling when she said "There sure is a lot of LOVE in this room."  I couldn't have agreed more.  Check out some fab photos here. 

The event seemed to end all to quickly, so I was happy to find out that the party was basically moving from the banquet room of the Inn to the hospitality suite.  Many of us continued to enjoy cocktails, talk and laugh well into the night.  It was truly a wonderful time!

Sun I was scheduled to work 10am-4pm.  Most of the bloggers had breakfast together and then eventually left, one by one, except the Breens and Anne Marie and her husband.  We tentatively planned for the 4 of them to have dinner with Spouse & me Sun evening, but it began to snow.  The forecast was worse up north where Anne Marie and her husband were going, so they opted to leave Sun evening rather than drive into it Mon morning. 

So the Breens came over to our house to meet and play with Marvin Parker for a while, and then we went to dinner at Pickled Pig Pub as it snowed like crazy.  It was too warm for the snow to stick but it provided a beautiful 'Normal Rockwell' backdrop as it fell.  The 4 of us eat, drank, talked, laughed, and enjoyed a second lovely night together.

To those who do not blog, it often sounds strange that us bloggers would reserve a weekend of our lives and pay money to travel to another state and stay in a hotel in order to meet and visit with "strangers".  But that's the point of blogging: to share our lives in words and photos online so that we connect with others and don't feel like strangers.

Excited

I'm excited about the upcoming blogger meet-up!

The official event is Sat from 5-9pm, but I know that Sean & Jeffery Breen are arriving today so Spouse & I are meeting them for dinner this evening when I finish work.  I have been reading Sean's blog for years and have always felt a connection based on this thoughts and writing, so I am particularly looking forward to meeting him.

I am also looking forward to seeing Larry again.  We met in Oct 2009 at the National Equality March in Washington DC but haven't seen each other since.

I am also looking forward to seeing Anne Marie again.  She came to visit in 2011 after attending a work retreat not too far from where Spouse & I live.

I am also excited about meeting all the other folks whose blogs I've not read before.  It is sure to be a good time!

Blogger meet-up

I'm getting excited because of the fast-approaching East Coast Blogger Meet-up on Sat March 23.

I think it started from a planned visit from Spo and his partner to Delaware to visit Ron, and from there it grew into a full-fledged blogger meet-up.

So often we read about the joys and struggles of people on their blogs.  We leave comments of praise or encouragement, and we become 'friends' even though we've never met in person.  In some cases we know more personal stuff about our blogger friends than we do our local, in-person friends.  

Fortunately this weekend will allow about a dozen of us to actually meet in person, after years of sharing online.

Spouse & I met several great folks in 2009 at a blogger meet-up in NYC and had a great time.

So if you can get away on the 23rd, come to the blogger meet-up in historic Lewes, DE!

For more details about this event, contact Ron OR read this post.

Make it sexy!

This year Halloween is on a Wed, so all the costume parties seem to be happening this coming Sat.  Spouse & I are going to a costume party/potluck, and will then go to the Blue Moon to see lots of other folks in costumes.  We're recycling costumes from previous years since we aren't likely to run into the same people at this party. 

Fellow blogger BosGuy included this article about 10 Rules for Sexy Gay Homosexual Halloween Costumes.  (I'm not sure why the need to include 'Gay' and 'Homosexual', but whatever.)  There are several examples of regular costumes made sexy by The Gays.  I thought the article was cute and encourage you to take a look at it.

Its not that hard - you can make almost any Halloween costume sexy simply by removing all non-essential pieces of clothing.

Regular Indian:

Sexy Indian:

Regular Firefighter:

Sexy Firefighter:

Honestly, which would YOU rather run into at a party??

Whatever costume you choose this year, please be SAFE and have FUN!!

Rugby

Thanks to fellow blogger BosGuy for keeping me on top of what's going on down under.

Apparently there is a nude rugby team called The Nude Blacks (although the term 'black' has nothing to do with race or uniform color since they don't wear uniforms) that's been playing for 10 years now.  How did I not hear of this before now, I ask you?  

Check out BosGuy's post here.  And then if you want more, check out this NSFW video here.

Busted

OK - I admit it.  I've been busted.

My work and personal life have been SOOO busy that I have not been able to keep up with my blog.  For several years now I've been posting once daily Mon-Fri but lately I've gotten very behind.

So I've been creating posts and back-dating them so my blog shows no gaps in posts, and a couple of you readers busted me.  Apparently you have alerts that notify you when post and you catch my back-dating.

I know, its kind of like cheating, but I didn't know what else to do.  I don't want to have a gap of several days (or several weeks!) on my blog.  I know this hectic pace won't last forever so I will eventually be able to catch back up and post in 'real time'.

So forgive me for being shady and back-dating my posts.  I promise to try and do better!

Mystery of the porcelain banana

Yesterday I was doing laundry and when I opened the cabinet in the laundry room to get the detergent, on the shelf next to the bleach was a porcelain banana.

I was taken aback for a moment, wondering who in the world (or in my life) would place a porcelain banana in our laundry room cabinet. The possibilities began to trickle into my mind...

Was it Spouse's nephews? They love to play jokes on people and do silly, unexpected things. But a porcelain banana just didn't seem like their style. Beside, it didn't seem likely that they'd have access to a porcelain banana or that they'd even think one was that funny.

Was it Anne Marie? She told me the story of the traveling shirt that is being mailed to bloggers who then wear the shirt and post photos of themselves in it on their blog. But there didn't seem to be any connection between the traveling shirt and a porcelain banana, nor had I seen any mention of a traveling porcelain banana on any blogs I frequent.

So it remains a mystery, the mystery of the porcelain banana!

Friday fragments

Welcome to Friday fragments, my weekly recap of topics too big to forget, yet too small to be their own post.

I've decided I don't care for it when Glee does 'original' songs. I prefer when they do covers of songs we know.

Why do people say 'navy blue'? There is only 1 color that has a shade called navy, and that's blue, so its rather redundant to say 'navy blue'. You wouldn't say 'ebony black', would you?

My friend Nick sent me this and I laughed out loud!
Some of you have noticed that my posts are showing up in your readers several days 'late'. No, there's nothing wrong with your readers. When I get behind and can't post for a few days I change the creation date of the posts so they appear to occur every day. So when it actually gets posted and sent to your reader a few days have gone by. Sorry for the confusion.

Our weather has been so hot and dry lately. We haven't had much more than a quick sprinkle in weeks, and the temperatures have been in the 90s for about as long. We had 2 days when it broke 100 degrees - in early June! Spouse has been watering his 2 new rose bushes every evening, but our grass is brown and crispy. You can hear a crunching sound when you walk on it. We're supposed to get scattered thunderstorms sometime over the weekend and for once I hope that actually happens.

My friend Terry sent me this, and I like it a lot. Want to know how to have more JOY in your life? Watch this.

The White House website contains a proclamation from President Obama that June is LGBT Pride month. Have previous presidents (Clinton?) done that? I think its great.

My friend Kathryn sent me this amazing video. Man, talk about high-value real estate!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!