Friday, March 30, 2018

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday and our State government is closed, so Spouse is off today.  I'm working today but have no appointments.  I had 2 settlements scheduled for today, but since the courts are closed, the attorney's offices are closed, and since the attorney's offices are closed, the settlements were moved up to yesterday.

My mind is on Sun when we'll be in VA spending Easter with the family.  There will be good food, lots of candy, and an Easter egg hunt.  For many years we didn't have an Easter egg hunt because our nieces and nephews were too old for it.  But now 3 of our nieces/nephews have little kids so we can restart this old tradition which should be fun.

Easter egg hunts remind me of an Easter about 15 years ago or so when our nieces and nephews were still little and we had our beloved beagle, Jordan.  Spouse's sister made the mistake of hiding real hard boiled eggs for the Easter egg hunt.  Being a hound with a keen sense of smell, Jordan sniffed out all the eggs and ate them before the children had a chance!  The kids all cried and said "That's not fair!  Jordan ruined Easter!"  It was like a scene from a National Lampoon movie!  And naturally, Jordan had THE WORST GAS that night.

Lesson learned.


Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Sensible gun control

The well-spoken, concise students have been doing a great job articulating the need for sensible gun control both at the March for our Lives events last Sat and on TV since.  There were 2 local marches in my area on Sat but I was unable to attend due to work.

Of course Fox News and the NRA are trying to discredit these students (many from the school in Parkland FL) and have gone as far as calling them "crisis actors".  I just hope that these students and their many supporters don't tire out.  We need to keep up the pressure until change occurs.

If this were adopted hunting rifles and simple hand guns would still be legal.  And really, there's no reason for any civilian (non-military) to possess any other kind of gun.

It amazes me that the NRA, most Republicans, and many gun owners get so crazy at the thought of sensible gun control.  They leap from 'ban assault-style rifles' to 'take away all our guns'.

It also amazes me that the majority of the NRA, Republicans, and gun owners claim to be Christians yet reject many principles Jesus taught.  In the Bible at Matthew 25:35-36 New International Version (NIV) it reads:
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. But Republicans are against most programs that aid people in need.  This is likely a more accurate description of the Republicans' actions:

While I sometimes feel fatigued over all the politics of the day, I believe sensible gun control is important enough that we must continue to stand up and advocate, contract our representatives, and not let gun violence become normal.

Monday, March 26, 2018

Love, Simon

Yesterday Spouse & I went to see "Love, Simon".  In case you're not familiar with the film, you can watch the trailer here:

Simon is a closeted, gay 17-year old who begins an online conversation with another closeted young man from his school.  Neither knows each others' identities until Simon gets outed by another student at school.  In an email Simon tries to convince his friend to meet in person and reveal his identity but his friend is unwilling to do so.  As Simon suspects different students as his possible online crush, the film has those students narrate the emails written to Simon.  It was a clever way to keep the audience guessing.

While the story may not be 'new', it was delightfully told with the perfect blend of drama and comedy.  We both really liked it.

I also liked the giant stand-up poster in the lobby of our theatre:

Friday, March 23, 2018

What's in your cup?

This post is dedicated to Fearsome Beard, the 1st person I thought of when I read this.

So, what's in YOUR cup?


Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Off season

We recently bought some new outdoor furniture, and it snowed.

Typically you wouldn't think of buying outdoor furniture in the winter or when there's even a possibility of snow, but that's what we're forced to do now by retailers.  If you wait until the weather starts to turn warm and you can actually use your new outdoor furniture, there will only be scraps and pieces left over.  To get what you want you have to shop 'off season'.

So we went ahead and got the new outdoor furniture for our screened porch (which is currently being stored in our dining room) and within a couple days it snowed.

This irks me.  I hate that retailers of many seasonal goods force you to shop 'off season'.  Go into a department store in January and you're hard-pressed to find winter clothes.  Instead you'll find swim suits and cruise wear.

One time I went into a Dollar Tree store in Aug and saw stuff for Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  In August!!

FYI - the reason our new outdoor furniture is being stored in our dining room is because we are replacing some of our old outdoor furniture.  There isn't room on the screened porch for the new stuff until we get rid of the old stuff, which I'm going to sell, but I don't want to try and sell the old stuff while the weather is still cold enough to snow.

So, for at least a few more weeks our dining room will be packed with our dining room furniture and our outdoor furniture as well as a bunch of new pillows.

Monday, March 19, 2018

heArt

The house we rented in Palm Springs had the cutest piece of art hanging in the dining room:
Even if we didn't have 2 Chihuahuas I would still like this very much.  I like that its very colorful, textural, and a bit abstract.

Its not signed so we wondered if it might have come from HomeGoods, TJMaxx or the like.  We weren't able to easily remove it from the wall to check the back, so its origin remains a mystery.

It produced a smile each time we walked into the room and saw it.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Fri funny

When in Palm Springs I saw these tea towels which made me laugh out loud.

I thought about buying them as gag gifts but ultimately decided they were too expensive to risk they'd lay in a drawer all the time.  So I took photos of them instead of buying them.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Tags

I'd seen on Facebook a sponsored ad for Tags for Hope and really liked the concept. They make hard plastic ID tags for your pets that look like your state's drivers license.  Some proceeds from each tag is donated to no-kill shelters.  How can you NOT love that??

So I had to order them for our boys.
The interface made them super easy to upload your photos and enter your phone number, address, and idenitifying info for your dog. There's even a spot under their photos for extra info so Walter's says "My nickname is Little One" and Marvin's says "My dad calls me Pee Wee".


They arrived while we were away so the boys have been wearing them for almost a month now with no issues.  Previously Walter has chewed other tags but not this one.  They're heavy-duty plastic so I think they'll be really durable.  

I think they're super cute!!

Monday, March 12, 2018

Vacation: Wed

After a light breakfast, Spouse & I began to tidy up the house and pack.  Earlier I posted photos of the back yard and pool but I realized I hadn't taken any interior photos so I did that just before we left.
Living room

kitchen

dining room

Secondary living space
Next we had lunch at Lulu where we both enjoyed delicious kobe burgers.  Then we walked around downtown and stopped in a few stores and galleries.  Having seen my Palm Springs posts on Facebook, my friend Peter recommended we check out a unique gallery/store called AutoErotica. The artist Michael Weems is originally from MD and is friends with my friend Peter. He pioneered a process for transferring vintage male erotic images onto auto parts (fenders, hoods, doors), hence the name AutoErotica.  Fortunately Michael was in the gallery/store so we introduced ourselves and talked for a while.  He was a real hoot!  Later Spouse said he wished we'd met him earlier in our visit because he'd be a lot of fun to hang out with.  Oh, and we loved his art too!

Eventually we had to leave our desert oasis and drive back to LAX.  Fortunately we didn't experience the heavy/slow traffic the Newlyweds had experienced the day before, so we arrived in record time.  We returned the rental car, shuttled over to the airport, and had 4 hours until our plane was scheduled to leave.  We found our gate, went to the bathroom, looked at Facebook, then decided to order a pizza at the Wolfgang Puck place in airport.  Then we picked up some snacks from a store and waited to board.  We had upgraded our tickets from regular coach to premium coach so we'd have a little extra room, hoping we'd be able to sleep on the plane.  Neither of us was able to do more than doze for a few minutes.

After arriving in Baltimore we took the shuttle to the hotel where our car was parked, then drove home to DE, arriving about 8am.  We were pretty exhausted when we got home, but were thrilled to be reunited with Marvin & Walter!  The 4 of slipped into bed and slept til 1pm.  We could have slept longer but I didn't want to sleep so much that we wouldn't be able to sleep that night.  We had a little lunch, watched TV, and relaxed.  All in all the trip home was easier than the trip out there, save for the red eye flight.

We loved Palm Springs and would definitely like to return.

Friday, March 09, 2018

Vacation: Tues

Spouse's cousin Rose saw my photos and posts on Facebook and sent me a message Mon evening asking how long we'd be in Palm Springs.  She and her husband Marc were in Los Angeles and were coming to Palm Springs the next day!  Rose & Marc live in NJ so they're only about 3 hours from us, so we found it funny that we were going to see them in CA. So we gave them our address and Tues morning we lounged around the house waiting for them to arrive.

Rose & Marc got there around 11 and we all sat out by the pool and visited for a while, including the Newlyweds.  Shortly after noon we all decided to go to lunch at Kaiser Grill.  Since the Newlyweds were leaving that day, they packed their car before lunch and then left for the airport after lunch.

Rose & Marc and Spouse & I walked around downtown, poking our heads into some of the shops and window shopping for a while.  In the late afternoon they left too, heading back to Los Angeles, so it was just Spouse & me.  We spent some time in the hot tub, then both showered and dressed before meeting our friend Ed for cocktails at his house.  

We met Ed & his husband Brian about 8 years ago through the gay car club.  They moved out to Palm Springs several years ago so we planned to reconnect during our visit.  Brian was away so we only got to see Ed, but we had a nice time chatting over cocktails at their house.  Then we had dinner at El Mirasol which has a lovely courtyard dining area, probably the most quaint we saw during our trip.

Back at the house we turned on the TV for the 1st time all week to catch a little bit of the Olympics before going to bed.

Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Vacation: Mon

Mon morning 1 of the Newlyweds went for a hike while the other relaxed at home.  Spouse & I went downtown and had breakfast at Ruby's Diner, which is a chain, but fun and retro.

It was very windy and cooler that day so Spouse & I actually wore light jackets as we walked around downtown in the sunshine.

We returned to the house, picked up the Newlyweds and headed back downtown for a vintage car show.



















Afterward we ducked into some vintage shops and saw lots and lots of gorgeous stuff.
Colorful vintage glass
LOVE this china with the Sputnik motif!

So fun!


Next we went inside Shag, a modern art gallery/store.  I fell in love with the art in there and couldn't resist taking photos.  If I had more wall space and a bigger wallet I would buy all of these!  (Click on the images to enlarge them.)







Then we returned to the house for massages.  A friend of the Newlyweds from Portland relocated to Palm Springs and came over to give us massages.  I love to get a massage on vacation; its the ultimate treat.

That evening we had happy hour at Streetbar which was relaxed and fun and then dinner at Lulu.  
The vibe and atmosphere at Lulu were quintessential Palm Springs and the food was excellent.  We had a really great time at Lulu and I'd highly recommend going when you're in town.