la casa de trand

humpin around

2009-12-27T22:00:00.004-05:00

today was a good day.
it was sunny. oscar got to go to two dog parks.
and jes tried out a new veggie pot pie recipe that was DELICIOUS.

but before we go there, let me tell you about my new niecey.
her name is zoe jean and she is perfect.
i had been sending my sister positive energy from yoga for a quick and easy labor, and i think she got it. pitocin, an epidural, and one push, and out came zoe jean. sweet buddy.
here are a few pictures of her:

I get to see her in a few weeks when we go and visit. i am really excited. also excited to see the boys. last time i was there zach was a little blob and now he is a holy terror. a really cute holy terror.

on to humping:

this morning we decided to take oscar to a new dog park at piedmont park. this was not a great idea. there was a huge golden lab who would not stop trying to hump him and then this posse of big mean dogs with scrotums just kept on attacking him. he stuck his butt down, he rolled on his back to show that he wanted to play and then when they cornered him, he showed his teeth and got a little angry. we decided he was still a little too small for that park so we went to the park closer to our house. here he had a wonderful time but still go humped some more. first by this teeny tiny dog named roscoe. they would play and then roscoe would TRY to hump oscar, and then they would play. then this other bigger black and white dog named finn went to town on him. finally a curly furry brown dog arrived and finn got more interested in him. oscar was so good about it and he was super sweet to all the kids he encountered at both parks. it made me very proud of him. when we got home we gave him a bath since he ran through AND rolled in the mud at the dog park and then he took a four hour nap. i joined him for two hours while jes made an amazing veggie pot pie. we had nikki and christina over and they loved it too. then we played family feud on the wii. they totally won.

last thing i want to write about it last night. jes and i headed over to our friends new restaurant for a drink and dessert. this couple came and stood next to us at the bar because all the bar stools were taken. they lived in the neighborhood and were excited to try a new restaurant. i chatted back some. the guy was pretty drunk and the woman was on her way. the guy told jes she looked like a deerhunter b/c she had on this black and red plaid hoody. he said to the bartender "i'll have what the hunter is having." he was REAL interested in her for one of three possible reasons:

a) he was trying to figure out her gender
b) he thought she was a boy and he was gay and he wanted to get with her
c) he sensed her innate dislike for strangers touching her and therefore was drawn immediately to her

he came over and was rubbing her shoulders and her back and she just clammed up. when we left i went to go say goodbye to a friend and i had to walk past him and he wanted a hug. so i gave him a hug. whatevs. then he gave jes a hug and whispered in her ear "she's a good one (referring to me), you should keep her." jes's skin was CRAWLING. it was totally fucking hilarious. i cackled the entire way home b/c inevitably drunk people are just drawn to her and want to hug her. little kids are fascinated with her too generally and she just sort of pats their heads. its a weird phenomenon to observe and i am not sure how to interrupt it. i mean its clear i will chat with them all day long, but they don't care, they want her.

ok it's been a long day. i am going to hit the hay.
back to work tomorrow. fyah.

exciting november

2009-12-06T16:24:00.011-05:00

While the month of November started out sort of sad, it got a lot better.
We headed to San Francisco to begin the celebration of Jes's 30th birthday.
While there we walked on the beach with the dogs, went to the hill with the dogs and ate more food than you can shake a stick at. The food highlight for me was the chicken pot pie at Liberty Cafe. It is unholy how good it was. My goal is to find a recipe that tries to come close.

Here is a picture of the beach where we walk the dogs. I can't tell you how at home I feel near the water. I could seriously sit and look at the waves all day. It is so relaxing to me.

We also went to Davis one day so Jes could see how California does a "college town." It was a sunny brisk day and we walked all over campus and the beltway and then stopped and got lunch. Here is the crew as we embark on our walk:

We also spent some quality time just laying around, playing bananagrams and eating various delicious desserts that Mary made. I think my favorite was the sweet potato cake with a sweet glaze. Good shit yall. Here are some lounging with Davis puppy pics:

We also got to visit a few friends other than Mary and Dusty. Jes got to see her old roomie Drew. We walked around the Mission with him, bought some papel picado banners for Jes's bday party and he and Jes got some "secret breakfast" (read: bourbon and cornflakes) ice cream. It actually tasted real good but was way too creamy for my stomach. On Sunday we got brunch with Nifa, her wife Maya and their babygirl Zuri. This was my first time meeting Maya and Zuri and seeing Nifa's house in Oakland Hills. It was a really lovely time. Here is a picture of the gorgeous family in front of their house:

I sang a lot to Zuri and I think she liked it.

On our last night in San Francisco, we had a beautiful and delicious dinner made by Mary and hung out and then I think I might have taken a disco nap. We took a red eye from SF back to Atlanta and then I slept for hours when we got home. Not a big fan of the red eye overall.

I had to work late on Jes's actual bday (November 17th) so we just went to El Myr with Nikki for a burrito and a pitcher of beer. It was kind of perfect really. Then that weekend we had a little get together to really celebrate her bday. It was just how I wanted it: good food and good friends. We got some dips from Taqueria del Sol, some ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen and we made a big pot of three bean chili. We also had a tiny keg of Miller Lite which I visited too many times. Thank heavens for Tylenol and water if you know what I mean.

So here are a few photos from the party. First up, Kim and Sarah looking cute like they do:

Then Nikki and Leah who ALSO turned thirty just recently:

And here is one of me and Jes after the party ended, tired as hell:

I am embarrassed to report that it ended just about midnight.

Tonight I am going to see The Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater with my friend Angie. Jes is in Boston for a Lawyer conference.

Hope your December is shaping up nicely!

some bad news

2009-11-16T15:11:00.007-05:00

this is my 201st post for this blog and i wish i could start it better than i have to.
last week after 19 years of an amazing life, we put our sweet boy larry kitty down.
his health had been deteriorating pretty quickly over the last six months and he weighed a little over four pounds.

it was a very rough decision for jes and me and we really went back and forth about it. i know he is in a more calm place now but i also know that he was loved like no other cat. it's hardest most when we are home. strange how such a little skinny old man cat can take up so much space in our house.

horace has really stepped it up and is becoming a total lover. he even lays in the bed with us at night, by our feet (not up near my chest where i want him), but maybe after time...

anywho, i just wanted to post a few pics of my sweet boy and let my friends and family know he is in the kitty condo in the sky with sweet emily.

Rest in Peace Larrykitty.

36!

2009-09-25T00:14:00.002-04:00

So yesterday was my birthday.
I am 36 now.

What might I be doing on the first night of slumber as a 36 year old?

Not slumbering sadly, but instead up, looking at facebook, not doing work work or school work like I should be (why not be "productive")? Instead I am FINALLY blogging again after months.

Larry woke me up and now cramps are keeping me up, so i figured there is no time like the present to get present if you know what I mean.

the rest of summer was really very good. i worked a lot and then played on the weekends either at the pool, working in our yard, or going on bike rides with jes and angie b. it was seriously the most relaxing summer i have had in a long time because i didn't have some "project" that i was working on like my dissertation, a revision of my dissertation, finding a house, etc. even though we did work a BUNCH on our yard and such, it didn't feel as burdensome as some of those other projects. i feel like i got to spend time with friends more than i had in a while and that was really nice. i guess that was my "project" this summer: learn how to relax and connect with friends. good one, dt.

horace is scampering across the floor like a sidewinder snake. i think he is hopped up on catnip. we celebrate his bday with mine. we are both libras. then we celebrate larry's bday with jes's. they are both scorpios. go figure.

even though i had cramps for a good part of the day, it was an outstanding bday. i got so much facebook love, text love, voicemail love, and also IN PERSON love. it was sort of ridiculous. i am still trying to soak it all in and savor it. my co workers got me cupcakes from this local place. i had a banana bread one and it was GOOD. then i had a meeting with the ESL working group and they sang happy bday to me over a chocolate brownie with a candle in it. we had dinner with the crimmins and i got lots of giggles and snuggles from becker while nolan slept and got real sweaty. they got me this card, well really an envelope shaped like a boom box and when you open it, the song "the right stuff" by the new kids on the block plays." i couldn't stop opening it. i think jes was getting annoyed. i thought it was hilarious.

also, when i went down to move the laundry from washer to dryer I found my bday present from jes: a wheelbarrow (!), a push broom (!) and TWO PLANTS for my office. it was pretty much the most perfect gift ever. i have wanted a wheelbarrow since we moved in and now i have one. i think it is going to make the raking of our dead front lawn so much easier.

i also got THREE serenades today: first my sister and nephew ben sang happy bday to me. zach sat by quietly wishing he knew the words. then azad called and sang a stevie wonder version of happy birthday. it was very extensive and sort of ended in a rap, but i couldn't understand all the words. and then right before bed i got a piano serenade from rolita with finn in the background yelling "donna" or "donald" (what he calls me) and maybe some other stuff i could not make out. totally adorable. it helped me go to sleep very happy.

we lost the cord that connects the camera to our computers to download pictures, so hopefully we can get another one and i can download some photos from various things we have been up to the past few months.

until then...

blame it on facebook

2009-06-29T21:39:00.007-04:00

i know i have been so remiss about writing
but honestly it's b/c i just post short quips on facebook
i know, no excuse really but let me just say this:

there is an owl hanging out in our newly cleared out backyard.
i have named hir oscar. i think ze is either a barred owl or a spotted owl
let me show you a few pics of each:

barred owl:

and here is the spotted owl:

oscar is more rectangular or boxy than the spotted, but hir markings are similar. jes thinks ze is a barred owl. i have put in a text to my friend stacia who is the closest thing to an owl expert that i know. i will let you know what her thoughts are on this. or perhaps if she reads this she can comment so everyone can learn from her.

i don't know why i am so excited about this owl. some say owls are bad luck, but others say they are sign of good luck and prosperity. i am going to go with that. i am also going to go with the fact that ze just wants a human friend. i told her i was excited to get to know hir and that i loved her (too much too soon you think?). ze just looked at me (intently listening i believe) while perched on ernestine and angela's clothesline. we MUST put our clothesline this weekend! jes is also looking into how to build an owl house.

stay tuned.

what i have not told you about: the clearing of where the wild things are in the backyard, my bout with poison ivy, mary's wonderful visit, jes's trip to new york, the ridiculous heat here in the atl, and nolan and becker's half birthday.

who knows if i will ever get to it.
oh yeah, and what about michael jackson dying? i still can't wrap my head around it.

anywho, gotta watch true blood now.

sunday morning

2009-06-07T08:47:00.007-04:00

it's a lovely sunny and warm sunday morning
jes is still sleeping, the kitties are lounging, and i am blogging

i got up, cleaned up all the "presents" larry left me overnight, and did the dishes left over from our mother's day/father's day celebration we had last night.
jes's folks were in italy for mother's day so we celebrated last night. we made a delicious dinner of peach/ginger/chipotle pepper grilled chicken, grilled zucchini, and grilled beets with feta cheese. for dessert we had HOMEMADE strawberry rhubarb pie (jes made it!)it was so good yall, seriously.

jes's dad put up these new railings on our front porch because there used to be an awning and they cut it off and so there was all these sharp edges from where they cut it off. i think jes and i are going to caulk and sand it today and then paint it black (to match the black iron the railing is made of. jes's dad also helped up take down our old mailbox that had no door on it and then put up the BRAND NEW mailbox i bought months ago. i absolutely love it. i mean it's now chicago bears helmet mailbox, but it is really nice and new.

i wanted to post a few pictures from our housewarming party. the first one is of nolan and becker chilaxin on the couch:

and here is a picture of me with baj, robby and christian:

and here is the sundress crew: nikki, christian, christina, and andi:

lastly, me and jes in the glow of the party (and the summer heat):

it was a really lovely day filled with delicious food and great friends. jes's mom brought all this great stuff. the thing i think i liked the best were rosemary cashews. i also loved these spicy little potato cakes that seema made from a recipe in the indian food cook books she got us.

other than that, not much to report. i have poison ivy and i hate it. it itches all the time. i have a bunch of stuff to put on it and i think i might try to see a doctor about it tomorrow. oy i need to put some cream on it now.

happy sunday!

what is my problem?

2009-06-07T08:33:00.003-04:00

why can't i get it together and blog people?
i blame it on the house and the nice weather really.
here is my first installment, really just an excuse to post a recent picture of maya and nifa's babygirl zuri:

i mean can you handle it?
i don't think you can handle it.

more in a minute...

i love this photo

2009-05-20T22:40:00.002-04:00

i got this photo from this blog i read called "Anti-Racist Parent."
The author wrote about how this picture demonstrates the importance of having a man of color or biracial man as President of the United States.

The little boy asked Barack Obama if he could touch his hair because he wanted to know "if it felt the same as his."

God Bless America

a new addition to the family

2009-05-17T21:01:00.001-04:00

i am very excited to announce that azad and sam got a new kitten
her name is bella and she is ADORABLE
az is generally very allergic to cats but apparently bella is magical and does not make him sneeze

here are some pics of her:

i am looking forward to meeting her!

h.o.t.n.e.s.s.

2009-05-15T22:42:00.003-04:00

This is the chuck bass i love:

where the hell yall been?
oh, right it's my turn to write.
i promise to get on that this weekend.

happy friday.

a few new additions

2009-04-16T22:30:00.004-04:00

so i have two new babies and one new puppy to announce.

1. i posted earlier about nifa and maya's new babygirl. they have named her zuri (zoo-ri). it means beautiful in swahili. look at how lovely she is:

2. my friends tony and laura also had a baby a few weeks ago. i have posted in the past about their first son diego. here is a picture of their sweet baby jesse:

3. the last baby has a tail. it's molly, the dog. my friend angie got her a few weeks ago. jes and i met her today and she is adorable. here is her picture:

i am thrilled to welcome each one into my life!

great weekend

2009-04-12T21:13:00.003-04:00

yall

i had a great weekend with lots of friends and lots of sunshine. I am totally tuckered out but my goal is to write this blog post, then do my bills, and THEN i can go sleep.

so glennda and nancy arrived on friday afternoon and we all went and got taqueria del sol for lunch. after that we headed to piedmont park and walked around and looked at the cute puppies at the dog park. after that we got a drink at midway and sat outside and watched the world go by.

glennda and i were exhausted after that so we took a little nappy on the couch (separate couches folks) while jes and nancy checked email and made dinner. i was woken up by a knock at the door. jes opened it and it was this guy who said he was renting a room from our next door neighbor and could he use our wireless internet if he paid us. for the next hour he tried to make it work and even brought over his own fancy mac router. in the end, it didn't work and he left feeling defeated. it was sort of random and weird and we all made jokes about how he could be stealing our identities (which, actually is totally possible).

anywho after we finished eating our black bean burgers, onion rings and/or chik patties it started to rain pretty bad. and then the hail came and it sort of felt like it was the end of the world, but after about thirty minutes it passed and we were ok, but it was bad enough to convince us to stay inside b/c the rain kept going and we didn't want to schlep out that bad weather.

then we saw the cop car pull into the driveway of our across the street neighbors. and then more cops came. and then for the next hour we watched these cops go up and down our street, down our driveway, and through our backyard. finally i went outside and asked if we needed to be concerned. the cop explained a house was broken into a few blocks over and the burglar went on run through our neighborhood. i described the neighbor who asked to use our wireless and luckily it did not fit the description of the burglar. soon after, we hit the hay b/c stakeouts are exhausting.

on saturday morning we walked to thumbs up and got some delicious breakfast. then we walked back, got the car, and headed to atlantic station to shop. after that we got some lunch at fellini's and then we had to drop nancy off at the airport. :(
then it was back home, shower, and off to the bowling alley where we saw our softball friends. they played all these old school jams that made me feel like i was 13. after that we headed to this bar bellissima. it was ok. we had a lot of fun taking pictures and acting silly and then once they started showing videos i pretty much checked out and started watching. we came home and crashed around midnight.

this morning we ate breakfast here and took glennda to the airport pretty early. :(
then we came home and putzed around a bit and then headed to this bar in inman park where we *thought* our friend was deejaying. it was sunny and warm so we rode our bikes. it was a good ride and i know i will be really sore tomorrow. ohio friends julie an liv met us there and we chatted and then headed to marta, took the train and then walked back to our house. we all sat around in our living and caught up on our lives. it was such a nice time. around dinner time we drove them back to marta so that they could train back to their friends griff and chad's house in east point.

now jes is watching rock of love and i guess i am too. i am so very tired.
i love long sunny weekends of friends and such. i hope there are plenty this summer!

welcome baby girl!

2009-04-12T08:29:00.003-04:00

Behold Nifa and Maya's baby girl. She was born yesterday. The only specifics I know is that Maya was hella overdue and she and Nifa posted a video of them trying to "dance" the baby out. Clearly it worked.

I think she is perfect.

Congratulations to the happy family!

our new house part deux

2009-04-06T22:08:00.013-04:00

right now bill maher is talking to this guy who plays jesus at this theme park in florida. totally bonkers.

ok jes wants her computer back so let me hurry it up. here are some before and afters of the living room:

is it extra bad we are watching this the week of passover and easter?

ok here is the dining room and kitchen:

ok so i have a few more pics to share with you. the first is of horace and orangina. orangina is a cat statue that leah painted. horace thought it was a real cat and he went bonkers and swatted at it. it's pretty cute:

and here is a picture of our first dinner guest. it's our realtor (and friend) gerry and he is showing us the tree he got us. we call it gerry the cherry kwanzaa tree. it started blooming this past weekend. love it:

gerry came over and we had pasta with vodka sauce, a nice spinach salad, and then guinness chocolate cake (jes made it). it was so good!

also, a few weeks ago sarah and kim celebrated the legal adoption of their boys. here is a picture of them on their special day and then a picture of us at the celebration afterwards:

ok lastly, here is a picture of jes and me happy in our new house:

ok now bill is talking to gay muslim activists. he is still making me nervous.
happy monday yall.

so about our new house FINALLY

2009-04-06T21:34:00.012-04:00

yall,

it's been a month since we closed on this house, and let me tell you this:

1. i love it
2. it's a lot of work
3. we have done a lot
4. we have a lot more to do

so every weekend i say to myself "self this is the weekend you are going to blog about the new house" and then i painted something or collapsed on the couch or whatever. but here i am now, watching religulous, which is sort of hilarious so far.

so my hope is that i can do this before and after thing. it may take a few posts. and in reality, we are more in the middle than "after" but just humor me for now. let's get started.

here is our room "before":

and here is our room "after":

let me just interrupt myself and say that this movie is making me VERY NERVOUS. Bill Maher is so inappropriate, but hella funny. It might give me the hives.

Ok moving on. Here are some photos of the middle room which is the office. It comes in three stages: before, middle, and after. Here we go:

the middle room is the room that has made the most change. i mean we tore down the walls and then put some back up. glennda and nancy are coming this weekend so things are going to be pretty in order, so i will put up more pics after the weekend.

ok moving on to the "guest room" which is now known as "the pink room." check it out:

after thursday, we will have a bed in there so i will take pictures of it all done up. i think rather than overwhelm you with before and afters of the whole house i will stop there and then do another post about the rest of the house. let me tell you this though, last night we had katie and leah over for drinks and picture hanging. leah frames photos for a living and is an artist so she can just eyeball shit and hang it up. she is like a wizard! so we broke out the crown and ginger and got some pictures hung. i really did nothing but sit on the couch with katie and watch a show about women who didn't know they were pregnant and then had their babies in the toilet at work. totally bonkers. i unpacked our shoe box and found my high heels that i bought for julie and liv's wedding. i put them on with my jammies and paraded around the house. leah and katie almost fell over laughing. jes did this faux pin up pic of me:

ok let me get this up and then get to work on another post about the FRONT of the house. i am wondering, was this worth the wait?

i mean seriously...can you handle it?

2009-03-02T22:13:00.001-05:00

i give you becker:

and his twin brother nolan:

sarah and kim make some cute ass babies people.
can i get an amen?

one more thing

2009-03-01T12:27:00.002-05:00

it is snowing like a blizzard here in atlanta!
WTF?
i thought i left this weather behind when i left the midwest.
the kids in our neighborhood are going APESHIT, as is jes.
i, on the other hand, have on pjs, smartwools, my bears sweatshirt and my woolcap.
when oh when is spring going to start?
i hate it.

just a quickie

2009-03-01T09:14:00.005-05:00

it's been a busy and challenging week and i don't to go into it just yet, but i do want to post a few pics.

first up is mary and dusty's dog blue. he got surgery on friday and made it through with flying colors and an elizabethean collar. how cute is he?

second is my other girlfriend, pink, waiting for me in her car. i'm coming pink, be there in a sec:

and to those of you who know me from ohio state, i wanted to brag and let you know i had a glass of wine with nancy campbell last night. you're jealous. she was in town for a conference and we met for a nice drink and some conversation. you are so jelly.

lastly, my neck and shoulders are jacked up right now and i think its because i slept funky but it hurts to hold my head up or look down. no me gusta.

happy sunday!

sunday morning

2009-02-15T08:37:00.004-05:00

Hi All

And Happy Sunday morning.

I don't have all that much to report really. Jes and I spent all day looking at stuff for houses. We looked at couches and stoves and frigs and washer and dryers. We also continued to worry over what shade grey to paint the living room and what color green would look good in the kitchen. do we own a home? no, not yet. but keep your fingers crossed. All I know is that I could NEVER be a personal shopper for a living. It wears me out and makes me real cranky real quick.

We also have watched a few movies lately. We watched "Nick and Norah's playlist" or whatever it is called. I love the guy that plays Nick, but that has been true since Juno. It's pretty funny. A little slow in places, but worth a rental. We also watched "Secret Life of Bees" a definite must watch if not only b/c Queen Latifah AND Alicia Keyes are in it, and other people. And then we watched "Death at a Funeral" a sort of funny british comedy. Jes wasn't feeling it. Parts of it were funny, but if you miss it, its not the end of the world.

Today I have some work to do and then I hope to go to the Think Pink women's basketball game to show my support. I think Jes is going for a bike ride with Angie B. this morning. She went with Angie T. last weekend. She only rides bikes with people named Angie. Just kidding.

Anywho my sister sent me some lovely pictures of her family. Or maybe I stole them off Facebook. Either way, here are a few.

Let us begin with Zach and a cupcake for his first birthday:

ooh i want to eat that belly.

Next is the boys (ben and zach) together. cuties:

and finally the whole family. how lovely.

ok that is that. I need to give larry purrbox his pills and get jes's hiney out of bed.

welcome etta

2009-02-10T17:55:00.003-05:00

i am thrilled to present the newest baby in my life: etta pearl

and here is one of her with her moms christie (holding her) and becky. what a lovely family:

almost one year old vs. cupcake

2009-02-08T22:49:00.002-05:00

you tell me who won:

happy almost birthday baby boy zach
love, auntie donna who lives so far away
:(

our friday

2009-02-07T08:51:00.005-05:00

good morning dear readers,

I hope this blog finds you happy and well rested.
it is sunny here in the ATL and word on the street is that its supposed to be in the 60's. this is a much needed break from the ridiculous cold we have been dealing with. i am ready for spring already.

so this is going to be a sponsored blog entry, brought you by mary and dusty's two babies.

First up, Blue the wonder dog. Don't you just want to snuggle him?

Blue is joined by his sister Davis. Also a little sweet muffin:

Ok, now that we have the sponsors out of the way, let me tell you about our night last night. Jes and I got spontaneous yesterday and she picked me up from work and we headed to Atlantic Station, which is this mega mall sort of town within a city. There are condos and lofts there and seriously you could never leave there and be ok. Because it was Friday night, it was filled with MANY irritating people, but we were on a mission so that didn't matter.

We went to see the two exhibits there. One is called "Dialogues in the Dark" and the other is "Bodies." Y'all, you should check these out. I am pretty sure both are in other cities, so google it if you can. Thank god, Billy Joel just started to play a jaunty tune to accompany my blogging. Heaven forbid I type in silence. Anywho we went to Dialogues in the Dark first. My student told me about it the other day and I was like "oh I have got to take Jes to that" so I did. Basically Dialogues in the Dark simulates what it is like to be blind. Yall it was bananas. Me, Jes, and eight people from Alabama (for real, that is not an "Alabama joke") were all ushered into a darkly lit room with canes in our hands. They say a little ditty, then the lights go off and it is pitch black. You can not see your hand in front of your face. It's the weirdest thing ever. So in comes Margaret, our guide. She takes us through a "park," a "grocery store" (where we feel the produce and bags of rice), on a "boat ride," through a "city" (this was the only place I had a moment of panic b/c I got stuck b/w some construction--i think-- and a car maybe)and then finally to a "cafe" where she sat us down and told us about how she lost her sight. She was hilarious and boisterous and totally understanding when I stepped on her foot and ran into her a million times. She kept saying "come to the sound of my voice" really loud b/c all the Alabamians were talking and yelling a lot. If you have the time and the money, seriously check it out. It was a great exercise in using your other senses AND being reminded of what a privilege it is to see. Seriously.

After that we went to an adjacent exhibit called "Bodies." This is where they basically take the skin off of people and let you see all their muscles and organs and shit. It was really intense as well. We were both pretty worn out from the Dialogues in the Dark so we didn't read every single thing in bodies, but it was still really visually engaging. I especially liked the stuff on the digestive system and fetal development. Oh and the comparison of healthy lungs to lungs of a smoker. There is a place you can deposit your pack of cigarettes if you feel so moved. I would suggest you do one, then maybe go get lunch and then come back for the other, or do them on two separate days. Its a lot to take in, but I am so glad we checked them both out. Once a science geek, always a science geek.

Anywho, after that we went to dinner and then came home, I watched the rest of "Sober House" and then fell asleep on the couch. It's a good thing I went to bed so early b/c Larry meowed the entire night. Seriously I was up (though Jes got up and fed them much more than I did) it felt like every hour. This was a great way to break up the anxiety dreams I was having all night. FUN TIMES.

Ok Jes is going for a bike ride with Angie T. today and I am going to my office to get some students recs and a review article done and to begin on the second set of revisions of my dissertation manuscript. I also hope to work out.

Happy Saturday yall!

higgins vist

2009-02-01T14:08:00.013-05:00

So far this has been a stellar weekend, and I feel like it is only going to get better.
On Friday night after work, Jes and I met up with Higgins and had drinks and dinner at U Joint. Jes caught Higgins up on all the trashy television we watch: Rock of Love, Double Shot at Love, and the L Word. I am certain she must think less of us, but that's ok, we love the trash.

Saturday morning we got up and go to doing some errands. It was sunny and warm (in the 50's) and I was immediately in a good mood. I also got to go to TWO of my favorite places: target and the post office. Who can complain? We met up with Sarah, Kim, the boys, and Kir and Higgs for lunch at Mellow Mushroom. It felt so good to just have some of the gang together AND not only were we celebrating Higgs visit, we were also celebrating Nolan and Becker's first social outing (i.e. lunch with us). Look at them, they are overwhelmed with glee. First Becker:

and here is Nolan, also estatic:

We all had delicious sammies, except Higgins who had a delicious spinach salad with tofu of course. As an appetizer, we got these garlic cheese pretzel things. The gang loved them. On our way out, I tried to capture a few pictures of everyone on a lovely Saturday afternoon. Here are a few pics:

Can you tell what is different? It's like one of those "Goofus and Galant" things from the "Highlights" magazines we used to read as kids.

Anywho after lunch, Higgs and Kir came back to our house (we carpooled) and we all chatted for a minute in the parking lot where it was warm and sunny. Then they went on their way to Zesto for ice cream and then on to a walk I think. Higgs departed today (oh bother) but I think we convinced her to try and return in the summer with her hubby Bobby. Here we are before they leave:

After that Jes and I ran a few more errands and then met up with Emma and John for a hot minute at Joe's coffee house in East Atlanta. Emma asked Jes and me to be in this feature of GO! Magazine where they talk about lesbo couples who have been together for a long time. They needed a picture of us, so Jes asked Emma to do an impromptu photo shoot. Overall, it was pretty painful b/c I have double chins and hate how I look in most pictures, but it was fun nonetheless. Here is the winning shot:

when we got home we wrote a little ditty to go in the mag and sent it off. then we made dinner (it was not that good) and watched "vicky christina barcelona" also not great even though there were all kinds of beautiful people in it.

today we are going to superbowl it up with softball folks and then off to sarah and kim's for more superbowl and the hell word (read: L word). Keep your fingers crossed that Jenny actually dies today and Max finds a razor and shaves his ridiculous beard.

Oh, here are two pics that John and Emma think could be our album cover should Jes and I ever start a band:

Happy Sunday and Go Steelers!

mumbai and pushin' it

2009-01-25T09:12:00.004-05:00

Good Sunday Morning Yall:

After a glorious night of very vivid dreams I woke up to the sun shining in my face (read: I woke up at 8am when the sun was actually up, not a minute before) and larry on my chest meowing.

I have a full agenda today including brunch with neighbors, grocery shopping, cooking not one but TWO soups for sarah, kim, and the boys- italian wedding soup and rustic shrimp stew- and recycling. i think we are going to work out somewheres in there too.

Surprisingly we had a pretty full weekend, which, when juxtaposed with my slothlike and sleepy existence of last weekend, is pretty funny. On Friday night we met up with Nikki and Christina and saw Slumdog Millionaire. Yall, this is a powerful movie. First of all, the plot, though some reviewers have called it trite, I think is imaginative. An orphan from the slums of Mumbai, makes it to the Indian version of "So You Want to be a Millionaire" and knows all the answers because of the specific life he has led. I love so many of the actors in it, especially the main character, Jamal as a little boy. He is such a mufffin:

I also love the man who plays the investigator in the film. He also played the dad in the "The Namesake." I think he is so handsome. So, back to the film: interesting plot, great acting, and visually breathtaking. The director? producer? used some really interesting techniques: these really jumpy shots, saturated colors, and then just some really jarring images of the juxtaposition of serious poverty and serious wealth. All in all, I loved the film and think you should go and see. I mean it ends in this Bollywood type dance number. Who doesn't love that? (this is while the credits are running). If you see it, let me know what you think.

We spent Saturday morning running around doing errands like picking up cats pills and getting necessities at Target and such. Then we went and hung out with Jes's parents and ate dinner. Once again her mom came through with this delicious Lemon Tuscan grilled chicken. Good stuff yall. After dinner and discussion with the parentals, we headed home, gave larry his pills and then headed out to Buford Highway to do Karaoke with Angie and Elin and friends for Elin's birthday. In general, karaoke is kind of crazy to me, but what was the craziest is how I clearly do not know most of the words to songs I grew up singing. I have only done karaoke (actually sung) once before and that was at my friend Molly's 30th bday. I sang "Music" with Molly. I was horrible. This time I sang "Love Shack" with Elin and then, as a present to her I sang "Push It" by Salt n Pepa. I didn't even really need to look at the words b/c I had that shit memorized. Don't remember how fly SnP were? Take a look:

My favorite was Spinderella, the dj, she is in the middle in this picture. Anywho after I pushed it (dance moves included) we pushed it on out the door and came home and passed the fuck out b/c we were T.I.R.E.D.

Overall, great weekend. Looking forward to our social engagements today and then off to another week of work at my awesome new job.

Happy Sunday yall!

my date with jes

2009-01-21T20:17:00.002-05:00

tonight, jes picked me up from work and we went to the gym to work out
everybody and their brother, mother, gramma, and next door neighbor was at the gym so we only worked out for 30 minutes.

after that we went out to dinner at this place we have been wanting to try. its a middle eastern restaurant called mezza. it was delicious. we shared hummus, these cilantro garlic potatoes, and chicken swarma. for dessert we had some weird banana nut ice cream. it tasted pretty good but the texture was not so good. the potatoes were crispy and divine. the hummus was nice and garlicky and lemony but had too much tahini for me. the chicken, alas, was not as good as pita inn, but was good in its own way.

it was a lovely date with my lovah.

not much else to report except i love our new president. i feel hopeful and happy and i hope that doesn't go away. oh and i hate the cold weather.

peace.

two reasons why i love today

2009-01-20T21:55:00.004-05:00

1. this is who is in charge of america:

1. this is who is in charge of my belly (the fake dog version):

i spent most of the morning crying in a room full of my co-workers. then i got back to work, then i came home and we watched the neighborhood ball with our friends and cried some more.

for dinner jes and i ate the (fake) pigs in the blanket we were going to bring to nikki and christina's party. we couldn't go there b/c our car is broken. so we stayed home and jes watched it on tivo. oh yeah, i cried then too.

my friend nifa went to the inauguration with her pregnant partner. they stood and waited and froze their butts off, but she said it was amazing. the pictures of them waiting in some tunnel to get to their seats gave me anxiety just looking at them. but i bet it was amazing to feel the energy of the crowd, you know?

anywho, i am spent. all this hope and joy and change can take a lot out of you, you know?

happy first day of the best thing that has happened to this country in a REAL.LONG.TIME.

Friday Night Blogging

2009-01-16T19:43:00.002-05:00

It's me and the boys tonight. Jes is out getting drinks with friends.

I am watching house hunters while I drink yet another hot toddy.

I am trying to rally until 9pm when I plan to take some generic nyquil pills and hit the hay. Y'all I am OVER this cold. For real. Today my nose and eyes just starting running and really have not stopped. I look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and my sinus are just throbbing. I almost used an entire box of kleenex at work and then finally I gave up and came home.

Billy Joel next door has stopped playing and I hope it stays that way b/c earlier when he was playing I seriously almost started crying (technically I already was b/c my eyes won't stop tearing up, but you get the point). The noise just made my head hurt.

My second week of work was as good as my first week. I got my computer, a phone, and my office supplies so I ready to go! I am off on Monday for Martin Luther King's bday and then I am excited to watch the inauguration on Tuesday with co-workers. I think I am going to make some red, white, and blue cupcakes for the occasion. GOBAMA! That looks like I am cheering for Alabama State, so let me revise: GO OBAMA!

Not much else to report here. It's just been work and fighting off illness here in the mansion. I am willing myself healthy so I can hang with Sarah, Kim, the boys, and Ruthie this weekend. If I can't get healthy, I will take a rain check, but I will be so so sad.

Ok Everybody Hates Chris is on. Happy Friday!

california peeps

2009-01-05T21:24:00.007-05:00

so now i am blogging during gossip girl and then i think 90210 is next
we just watched this crazy disturbing movie called "towelhead"- let me know if you have seen it and what you think about it. it made my stomach hurt the whole time.

so on to better news
this weekend we did a lot of running around and hanging with friends
on saturday afternoon we hung out with sarah, kim, the boys and both their grammas!
i got to feed nolan and jes go to feed becker and they are both perfect and little and expressive. it was so nice to catch up for a bit with sarah and kim and to meet sarah's mom.

after that we met up with kennie, kelli and their daughter em who were visiting from california. on saturday we went to one jumping place and on sunday we went to another. the first one was less busy and more bouncy and the second one was packed, had lots of kids, and had these really cool high slides. i think em liked both. they both smelled like feet. here are some pictures:

my favorite parts of our time with em were these:

1. when kennie and and em went down this huge slide she said "daddy that was a daisy" (instead of doozie). so cute

2. when we were about to leave kennie and kelli told em that she had one more jumpy thing and then we were leaving. she went on the jumpy thing, bounced off, and then send said "ok, it's time to go!"

3. i bought em some balloons and on the way out, one popped and then kelli accidentally let go of the other two and they floated up to the sky. i *really* thought em was going to lose it and you know what kelli did? she got on my cell phone and "called" some character from the little einsteins and asked him to go up in his rocket, catch the balloons and bring them back to their house in california. em was like "oh ok." how fucking GENIUS is that? i mean jes and i were floored.

ok that is it for now. by the way, i hate the new chuck bass. he is a weiner.

new years eve

2009-01-04T21:51:00.007-05:00

new years eve was a good day
i worked during the day (to make up for missing monday while we were in tampa)
and then we ate dinner- i think we went to u joint and i got a delish chicken philly with my favorite: TATER TOTS.
we went over to angie's house for some little yummy treats and a drink then we headed over to beth and odette's house for their new years eve party
it was a really great party- at first it was kind of chill with just few people and then more and more people showed up and it got more rowdy. i had a great time.

here is a pic of jes and me before we left for angies:

and here is one of us and angie:

here is odette and jenna:

and here is one of jes, andi and leigh after i said "say cheesus christ":

and here is the gang with baj:

at midnight we were in the basement dancing and i couldn't think of a better way to bring in the new year. we headed home around 1am and hit the hay. tomorrow i start my new job and i am really excited about it.
happy sunday!

beach

2009-01-04T21:13:00.008-05:00

hi people
so here i am blogging while jes watches "rock of love bus" on VH1
hot.tranny.mess
she has just realized that she went to high school with the brunette from atlanta
apparently she stole jes's boyfriend in 8th grade
i think she is a lesbian

right after christmas jes and i rented a car and drove down to tampa to see mary and dusty who were visiting mary's mom. i was SO EXCITED to get to see them for a few days i didn't really think about where we were going. yall it is sunny and warm in tampa in december so we were able to go to the beach, swim at the pool and get a tan! it was so lovely. mary's moms house was really beautiful and open and there were all these breezes, it was so lovely. here are some pics from tampa:

The last day we were there we went to the Big Cat Rescue, a sanctuary for lions, tigers, panthers and so on. it was so amazing. you were so close and the cats were all so cute. my favorites were the ocelots and the white tiger who played a game of chase with her boyfriend the lion. so cute.

the weekend was sunny and divine and relaxing. mary's mom pam made all this food, i got to see mary's bro joe and meet his sweet gfriend catharine, and i ate WAY TOO MANY of mary's delish homemade cookies. it was a great time.

i will keep you posted on the brunette.

i just can't stop yall

2008-12-31T19:21:00.003-05:00

i promise i will try and slow down on the pics of the boys, but they are so cute, its hard not to share. here are some pics of jes and me feeding baby boy nolan:

i love how baby boy is holding my finger. it makes my heart explode.

so we are gearing up for our new years eve night. i am so cold yall. i know its probably colder where most of you are, but i want the warm breezy sunshine of tampa.
i can't wait to just "flop" (this is a katie lebesco term) around on the couch tomorrow with jes. i need a nice day with the kitties doing a whole lotta nothing.

i hope you have an outstanding new years eve and new years day. be safe, have fun, and get yer groove on.

all i want for christmas is two baby boys...

2008-12-25T21:26:00.005-05:00

HO!HO!HO! y'all.

i hope you are all enjoying your holidays.
i have had a nice relaxing few days and i think the next few days will be much of the same.

i am thrilled to announce that Sarah and Kim had their baby boys earlier this week. Nolan and Becker were born on Sunday and both they, Kim, and Sarah are all doing well.

Jes and I got to see everyone on Monday and hold both boys. They are both really adorable. Nolan came out first (butt first to be specific) and he has huge cheeks. Next came Becker who weighs less than Nolan (less cheeks) but is longer. I can not wait to get to know these boys and watch them grow. What a wonderful holiday treat.

So- here is the most important part- the pictures.

First up, one of the boys in their supa dupa cadillac crib:

and here is one of mr cheeky mc cheekerson Nolan:

and then one of his little bro Becker:

Happy Holidays Yall!

random stuff because i am awake

2008-12-06T05:02:00.006-05:00

so larry woke me up at 4:30 am to feed him and i can't fall asleep.
i play this game with myself when this happens. what i do is give myself a deadline and if i don't fall asleep by that time, i have to get up and do work. while this is hardly "work" here i am on the couch with VH1 on and horace on the red chair next to me.

i have had a bunch of pictures on my desktop waiting to be blogged about, so i thought i would do a catch all post. before the pictures though, let me tell you about my anniversary dinner with jes last night. our friend mia had told us about this mexican restaurant called Nuevo Laredo and since Jes would eat mexican food everyday for the rest of her life if she could swing it, we decided to check it out. mia told us about this thing called a "holy taco"- it's MASHED POTATOES, CHEESE, ONIONS and then normally it comes with cabbage too, but we got that on the side b/c it hurts my belly. it was so good. we also got chicken enchiladas, which jes was bonkers over. i liked the sauce and i think it was a corn tortilla, but it was dark meat and the fattiness of dark meat sometimes makes me sick. we also had guacamole and sangria that was delicious as well.

we were both stuffed to the gills when we left so i had to take a little nappy to digest and such. then we went over to nikki and christina's for a little conversation and mexican train dominoes.

ok so lets get on to the pics. first up is one of me and katie from when i met up with her, john, and molly in brooklyn:

and then here are some of my nephews. the first one is of ben and zach going sledding last week where they live in colorado. the second pic is of my nephew ben on his 5th bday. kath got someone to bring snakes and lizards and stuff for the kids to play with. how fun!

and then last but most certainly not least, is my friend from high school maria's son liam. how cute is he?

ok david cook's video (american idol winner)is on for the SECOND time since i have been up on vh1. i mean really, could they not find anything else to play?

happy saturday yall.

just so you know...

2008-12-03T22:13:00.001-05:00

i have been butt nuts in love with jes for seven years yall!

happy anniversary to us.

a few things i forgot

2008-12-02T21:28:00.003-05:00

1. the madonna concert was good. we went with nikki and christina and everyone had fun. she played a lot of oldies but goodies and of course the dancing was rindonkulous.

2. on the way to the madonna concert, on the marta, jes found my VERY FIRST GREY HAIR. she pulled it out and i put in my pocket, but it's not there anymore. oh bother. it is my first step to being a silver fox. hells yeah!

3. tomorrow jes and i celebrate our 7 year anniversary. i have a good feeling about this year for us. 7 is my favorite number.

happy december yall.

since you been gone...

2008-11-30T18:02:00.020-05:00

so it's been a minute, but i am going to do my best to catch you up.
here is the agenda:

1. sarah and kim's baby shower
2. halloween
3. our trip to new york
4. the madonna concert

here we go:

so like a month ago angie, elin, jes and me threw sarah and kim a baby shower.it was a lovely afternoon- good friends, good food, the celebration of two baby boys. after we ate they opened presents and then we made some onesies. jes and i made a pair that said "hot" on one and then "mess" on the other. we made another pair that had "beer" on one and then "wine" on the other.

here is everyone at the dinner table:

and here is one of angie, elin, sarah, kim, jes and me:

the weekend after the shower was halloween. jes and i decided we wanted to dress up but it had to be low budget, comfortable, and easy. we decided to go on salt and pepper shakers. here is a picture:

and here is an upclose of jes's belt buckle, it says JESQ, short for Jesquire because Jes passed the bar. HOT!

and here is one of jes and me with lindsey, who was dressed as sarah palin from the early days (beauty queen):

and here is one of nikki and christina, they were sweeny todd and the lady who makes the meat pies in the movie:

in celebration of jes passing the bar and to celebrate her 29th (yes the big 30 next year), we went to new york to see glennda and our other friends. it was such a great trip filled with good food, drinks with friends and nice walks through brooklyn and manhattan. here is a picture of glennda, jes and me waiting for the F train:

we met up with lawyer folks at the bar nowhere. here is a picture of jes, linda, and erica:

and here is one of jes and pony:

on saturday morning jes and glennda relaxed at the homestead while i walked up to tea lounge to meet up with katie, john, and their baby girl molly. look at how cute she is:

and here is one of the whole family:

how cute are they? pretty cute.

on saturday night we went to cattyshack, but before we left we played a little sexy dress up. first up, sexy glennda:

and then TWO sexy jes pictures. work it girl:

while at the cattyshack i was texting with azad and he referred to glennda as "the girl who looks like vigo mortenson (sp?). glennda didn't like that, so she took this picture to send a message to az:

knuckle sandwich

on sunday morning nancy got to new york so we got to hang out for a minute before we left to come back to atlanta. we got one last shot with the family before we came back:

since we got back we have just been working and freezing our butts off. we had a great thanksgiving with jes's folks filled with great food and lots of relaxation.

so to round out this post let me leave you with two pictures of my sweet babies:

larito:

an mr. ho ho:

just a taste

2008-11-12T06:52:00.003-05:00

i owe you a lot:

pictures and stories of sarah and kim's shower
pictures and stories about halloween
pictures and stories about our trip to new york
my thoughts on barack obama being elected our 44th president

but for now all you get is katie and john's daughter molly nibbling on my face when i met her for the first time in brooklyn last weekend.

happy wednesday!

THIS JUST IN!!!!

2008-11-01T09:31:00.002-04:00

JES PASSED THE BAR
YEAH JES!!!

Below you will see the card my co-workers made Jes. They were looking at Cosmo before they made it and clearly that influenced their design.

I am bursting with pride and joy over my sexy smart lawyer.
HOLLER!

until tomorrow

2008-10-25T21:24:00.003-04:00

two little pieces to keep you happy until i post again

first up:
my nephew zach who is hoping for change:

and the other is molly, my friend katie's baby girl who is a dollface (that loves penn state):'

finally a free monday night

2008-10-13T19:29:00.002-04:00

yall

life has been crazy busy these last few weeks and i think i am only getting a short hiatus because its fall break, so that means i am not teaching this week.

so what do i have to report? here's the news of my life in no real order:

1. my friend alyson (mama to ro ro and finn) ran the chicago marathon yesterday. isn't that bonkers? she said she felt good afterward. i guess it got real hard at like mile 20 but what was great is that nicole met her and ran with her for like three miles and she said that really helped get her second wind. how sweet is that?

2. yesterday jes and i volunteered at the Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative (ALHI) Garden Party. We got to hang out with Sarah and Angie B. for a few hours and then we had to sell raffle tickets for a free trip to Costa Rica. We were so excited b/c we bought a bunch of tickets, but alas we did not win. Oh bother. It was really fun and they had all these delicious nibbles around-- I ate way too many sweets. There were definitely some tipsy folks there but that worked in our favor b/c a) we looked cuter so they wanted to talk to us and b) they were more giving of their money which means more funds for ALHI, so YEAH!

3. we went over to Sarah and Kim's house on Saturday for some seriously delicious dips and Mexican Train dominoes. I ate WAY TOO MUCH of sarah's divine seven layer dip. we also got to feel the babies moving in Kim. they (especially nilla pudding) were kicking up a storm. i can't wait until they are on the outside. i am going to eat them up.

4. on saturday afternoon both jes and i got MUCH NEEDED hair cuts at sweetgrass and as we were leaving we decided we wanted to get something to eat and then i checked my voicemail and angie and elin had called to ask if we wanted to meet them like two blocks away for a bite to eat. isn't that a weird coincidence? we ate greasy friend food and talked about bikes and music. it was a good time. oh and weirdly, i saw my friend joyce who i know through mary. we hung out some when i lived in sf ten years ago (yikes it HAS been that long). anywho i saw her when she walked it but did not know a)if she would recognize me or b)if it was her or her twin sister i do not know. after a few minutes she called my name and then we hugged and caught up. she was in town for an MBA conference. it was great to see her.

5. two of my friends got married in the last few weeks. first higgins and bobby tied the knot up in maine. she sent me pictures and seriously its like a j. crew catalog. everyone is lovely and fashionable and her and bobby are glowing will love. i am so happy for them. and then last weekend my friend erin got married to her love matt. i have not seen pictures yet, but reports from alyson and nicole are that erin was a vision in blue. oh and alyson got certified or whatever as a preacher and she did the ceremony. how hilarious is that?

ok that is about it. kim (of kim and sarah) has her bday on friday, so Happy Birthday Kim! Hope your day is lovely and filled with foot rubs and naps.

mi cumpleanos

2008-09-28T20:48:00.011-04:00

yall

though my actual day of birth was hampered a bit by the weird swollen gland neck ache, my birthday weekend was outstanding.

on Friday night we had an early softball game and we WON! the other team was real nice and we had lots of fun. after the game jes went out to eat with nikki and i had dinner with my work folks at la fonda. after that we went over to one of our teammate jen's house. she had this really lovely house and an amazing backyard with a fire pit. we watched some of the debate and then went outside, chatted and played catchphrase. my team lost TWICE. ugh.

on saturday jes and i went recycling, got cat food, i bought some running shoes (thanks jes's parents) and we went to the batting cages. after a little nap and a shower we headed to east atlanta to the midway pub for drinks, tater tots and lots of friends. it was so great to see everyone and take a minute to chat with them. we had the place to ourselves almost for the first hour and then this guy came and set up a huge screen because they were showing the UGA v. Alabama game. Slowly but surely all kinds of folks be-decked in UGA gear started filling up the tables and sort of glaring at us. We finished up at the midway and then some of us proceeded to mary's a gay bar down the road.

here is a photo of jes and me:

here is one of baj, his sweetie robby and me. i didn't get to talk to them too much b/c they were at the other end of the table, but baj promised to find some time so we could all hang out. aren't they adorable?

here's one of sarah, kim and dawn:

and angie and elin:

a couple of our new softball friends came too. here is a picture of beth, odette, and andi:

some folks from from the bsl office stopped by too. i not only got to see seema and lindsey, but anthony was in town too, so we got to chat about medical school and chicago and da bears. like all the other pictures, i am the shortest one:

as things started wrapping up at the midway, and the dawgs fans got more drunk, most folks headed home and we headed to mary's for a few more drinks. i dropped some idke flyers at sisters and this woman named "moonshine" followed me back to mary's. she kept telling me how cute i was and when i introduced her to jes she asked jes if she could "borrow" me. she was real real drunk and pretty much hijacked our table and the conversation. she just kept saying the same thing over and over and wanted me to give her some of my wine. it got so bad that nikki and ria moved to another table. this has actually happened to us a few times when we sit outside at mary's-it just attracts the nutballs i guess. anywho left eventually and we had a great time chatting.

here is me and nikki and if you can see the boobs on the other side of nikki, those are moonshine's:

i didn't get to talk to angie b. much at the first bar but it was ok because we got to talk a bunch at mary's. here is a picture of us:

at the end there were only four of us left: jes, me, kiki, and ria. i am not sure why we were laughing so hard in this picture, but i think its cute. jes says its b/c the guy taking the picture pointed at her and said "you gotta smile"-- either way, i like it:

i was dead tired when we got home but didn't get to sleep in that much because larry woke me up and then billy joel next door kept me up.

we saw "burn after reading" this afternoon. it was pretty good- darker and more violent that i was prepared for, but great characters and a few twists and turns. jes doesn't recommend it as a theater movie, more a dvd movie. i think it could go either way.

i'm tired so i am going to hit the hay.
today is my friend emma's bday. happy bday emma c.!

dj bday retrospective

2008-09-28T10:24:00.009-04:00

before i post about my amazing birthday weekend THIS YEAR...

lets take a photo walk down memory lane to see how my birthdays went for the last three years (that is how long we have had our digital camera). really what this is about is if i can tell i am aging. my friend dawn told me you don't really age from 30-33 and then from 33-35 you really age. lets see if she's right.

Ok, September 2005: we had just moved to Brooklyn and Jes and I spent my bday having a picnic on the beach at Fire Island. It was dreamy:

Then September 2006: we are still living in brooklyn but LUCKILY angie and elin got married the day before my bday, so here is a picture of a bunch of us at that splendid event (happy late anniversary yall, by the way) and then a picture of the two blushing brides and their sweet muffin niecey:

Last year (September 2007): we had just moved back to atlanta a few months earlier so we were getting back into the swing of things. some friends met us up at the standard for drinks and maybe a tater tot or two:

and then finally as a teaser, here is where it started this year: me and jes at the midway pub BEFORE they started to show the UGA vs. Alabama game:

i think what you will find across the years is this:

1. i have some hot friends

2. many of the same folks are showing up in the pictures over the years, which shows you that my friends are not only hot, but also close to my heart. shoot i am welling up in the eyes.

3. there is quite a bit of hairstyle changes (even for me!) and that in general i think the kids i hang with have some pretty good fashion

4. i think i have aged, what do you think (be honest it won't hurt my feelings- like cheese and wine i think age makes you better).

oh by the way, billy joel is playing "i'm squishing up my baby bumblebee" on the piano, in case you are wondering. again, great for a hangover.

sleepy sunday

2008-09-21T20:04:00.003-04:00

it was a good weekend filled with lots of fun
i am a bit sad its sunday because that means tomorrow is monday

the boys are circling because they want to be fed for the twelfth time today
so lemme give you a little run down of how it went

1. friday night i had a softball game. it was hilarious nightmare. we played this team that was CLEARLY not a rec team, but instead a competitive team. they annihilated us. i mean seriously one inning they scored over ten runs on us. home run after home run over the fence. they even got a grand slam. i think my shining moment of the game was when they hit a ball to right field (where I was playing) and i ran for it, missed it, and the momentum of my speedy running kept me moving and i crashed into the chain link fence, fell down, got up and then got the ball and threw it to my cut off. they scored a few runs while i made an ass of myself, but at least i stuck with it. after the game we had a couple beers at our coach's house. we chatted and had fun, and then come home and went to bed.

2. on saturday morning i did a little work and drank some coffee. then jes and i suited up and rode our bikes to east atlanta for the the east atlanta strut. it was a hard ride in places, but we got to go through so many lovely neighborhoods that i am glad we did it. i was a sweaty mess when we arrived, but i don't think anyone cared. i got to see lots of friends while i was there and distribute some IDKE flyers so it was all about multitasking. we ate some bbq and watched the parade and just chatted and stuff. my favorite part was the marching band from some high school. they really rocked it out. the ride home was easier than the ride there and though i was sweaty, it was a good work out. my favorite part of going to the strut was that jes said before we left "i wish we could bring aaden with us to the strut." yes that is right, jes wanted us to take aaden from jon and kate plus 8 with us. he is our favorite:

they call him "the professor"

3. last night jes's folks took us to la taviola for my birthday. we had a nice chianti, an antipasta with olives and delicious parmesan cheese, and then for dinner i had a wonderful pasta with mushrooms and pecorino cheese. and then for dessert we had this amazing flourless chocolate cake with- get this- olive oil and sea salt. jes LOVES the mixture of chocolate and sea salt now. we talked about politics and it got a little heated, but we all made friends in the end. lets just say her dad was talking about marxism and we were laughing at the fact that we were defending a somewhat centrist democratic party. after we left her parents we went and got a drink at everybody's with our friend christina. christina gives the best hugs ever. its like a hug AND a spinal adjustment. after that, it was home and to bed.

4. this morning i got up kind of late (like 9am) and then did some work. we fed leah and katie's cats, got some groceries, and then did some more work. then this evening we went and tried to register folks to vote at the kroger on dekalb industrial. we only registered one guy. everyone else either glared at us or had already registered. i was encouraged by the fact that most folks we talked to had already registered. after that we picked up a pizza came home and now we are watching nancy drew. larry is zonked out on jes's lap and horace is asleep on the floor. pretty soon i am going to be asleep too.

hope you have a great week!

more babies than you can shake a stick at

2008-09-13T09:29:00.003-04:00

yall

I am happy to announce the birth of Baltazar James.
His moms are Donna B. (we used to do drag together) and Suzanne.
He is only a few days old and looks pretty perfect to me:

this morning i am exhausted from a long work week. i had something pretty much every day after work and yesterday along with working all day, i also did yoga during lunch (it was amazing) and then had a softball double header (i played in the first one and then just batted in the second one). i am much less sore than i thought i would be, i think b/c i did yoga, so my plan is to keep that up on fridays so i can make it through our friday games.

let me just interrupt my blog to say that some little kid is outside SCREAMING at the top of his lungs. this, of course, comes right after billy joel stopped playing the piano, which he started at 8:18 THIS MORNING. i know you wish you were here.

so after our game last night we went out to trackside with some of our softball folks and it was really fun. i had one too many beers (read: three) and i am nursing a bit of a headache because of it. jes and i played a little pool (we lost) and then she played some darts too. it was just nice to get to know the folks we play with a little bit better.

Today is about errands, maybe some work and then a birthday party tonight. I am going to get me some decaf coffee.

Happy Saturday!

so yeah...

2008-09-07T08:15:00.003-04:00

good morning all

i have been up since before 7am because larry woke me up and my brain started working and then there was no going back to bed. i intend to take a nap today to make it up.

it's 8:26 a.m. on a Sunday morning and our next door neighbor started playing "mary had a little lamb" on the piano about ten minutes ago. explain to me why they think that is ok ON A FUCKING WEEEKEND?

jes is asleep. i was waiting to grind my coffee beans so i wouldn't wake them up and here they go playing their motherfucking piano that early on a sunday. what gives? i like our neighbors. they are nice people with a four month old baby that i NEVER hear crying but i am about to write a letter about the piano. seriously, it gives me a headache.

anywho... i don't have any real funny stories or exciting news to report here. i haven't been posting b/c work and teaching have been kicking my ass really. i feel like i am moving a the speed of light most days and i can't wait to get in bed most nights. today is a beautiful sunny day. i plan to do a bunch of work, maybe do some laundry, and then i have a meeting at 4pm. but first i will make some decaf coffee.

i am excited to report that i have begun playing on a softball team. its a woman's league which means the majority of the folks playing are lesbians, so that is kind of cool. i played on friday and am so sore because of it. this is even AFTER i did 1.5 hours of yoga AND got a massage. yes, folks, i am getting old. its official. i played second base. i wasn't great, but it was my first game in almost ten years, so i think i should cut myself some slack. i was a little bit better batting, but not much. i just hope they let me play again.

i have two pictures for you today. the first is of ali and baby harvey. its about the sweetest thing i have ever seen:

and the next one is of my doppleganger, also known as my nephew ben. i got him some batman temporary tattoos and here he is sporting one:

hope those two pics brighten your morning.

happy sunday!

aye carumba

2008-08-21T21:54:00.016-04:00

my people
my people

i can't seem to get it together
i have wanted to sit down and blog this post for a while but just haven't had the time
so here i am at 10pm on thursday night FINALLY finding the time

a few weeks ago we finally took a post graduation (for us both) and post bar vacation.
we headed out west to see mary, dusty, their new house (they moved in two years ago) and of course davis, blue and coco ray (the animals). we stayed for almost a week. totally unheard of.

we left early on friday morning, so early we arrived on the west coast by noon. dusty picked us up after taking the dogs she walks/trains to the beach so it was me, jes, dusty and a bunch of dogs. we got to their beautiful house, checked things out, got some lunch, and then took a nap. after the nap mary and i went and did yoga while jes and dusty hung out and then we went back to their house and had a DELICIOUS dinner of lasagna and mary's peach and blackberry pie. yall, it was seriously the best pie i have ever had. the crust was TO DIE FOR. i miss it. anywho, here is a cute picture of dusty and blue:

and here is one of mary and blue surfing the web:

here is davis watching the olympics:

and here is the best picture ever of mary and her family from back in the day:

like most nights, on friday night we played some dominoes and watched the olympics. i pretty much passed out on the couch by like 9:30pm west coast time (after midnight here in the atl).

on saturday morning we went to the beach with the dogs. it was a cold and foggy morning but it felt good compared to the overwhelming heat of the last few months here in atlanta. after that we did a little shopping and then headed to a bday party for our friend sarah little bangs (that is what i call her). there was homemade pizza and delicious organic ice cream. i liked the salty caramel, jes liked the honey lavender. i think it tasted like soap.

on sunday we went to a baseball game: giants vs. dodgers. it was so much fun. after the foggy cold morning on saturday the rest of our time there was warm and lovely. i was worried i would be cold at the game b/c the park is on the water so i brought a jacket. instead we were sweating buckets b/c the sun was beating down on us. mary got an organic grass fed hot dog and the rest of us got veggie dogs and then we also got these amazing garlic fries. jes and i also got a beer. it was so much fun. the bleachers were definitely where it is at. i think we all took naps after the game b/c the sun wore us out, but then we got up and had this really nice dinner at this place called the liberty cafe. jes and i shared an amazing chicken pot pie and i got a divine glass of pinot noir. back at home it was all dominoes and olympics. here's a picture of all of us at dinner:

and here is one of the cutest cat in california, co co ray:

on monday we headed out to inner sunset to walk around and then to go to golden gate park. before we walked around the park we stopped at the botanical gardens which were FREE to get into (score!) we saw so many lovely plants that i have never seen anywhere else. jes got all artsy and took a bunch of amazing photos. here are a few:

after the botanical garden we headed to the conservatory to see all the flowers. when i lived in san francisco after my masters i worked in golden gate park at a non profit that worked to raise money to save the conservatory. it was in bad ways and now it looks like its really been re done. my favorite part was the fields of dahlias. after that we walked through the haight and then the castro and got some sammies and hung out in dolores park.

on tuesday morning we got coffee and pastries and then jes and i headed to the east bay to eat lunch with my friends mel, krista and mel's baby boy julian. mel's partner tanner had to work so we didn't get to see him. it was great to catch up with them b/c i usually only see them at IDKE once a year. here is a picture of mel and julian:

i mean how cute is that kid?

and here is krista, mel and me:

after lunch krista had to go to the airport on her way to the femme conference in chicago and mel had to go back to work too. so jes and i took the bart back to the city, got off at embarcadero and walked all the way to the castro where we met up with erica and heidi who were vacationing from brooklyn. jes had never really been to the water up by fisherman's wharf so we walked over so she could see it. here is us with the bridge:

erica and heidi were staying at a bed and breakfast in the castro so we met up with them, walked them around a bit so they could see dolores park, the women's building in the mission, and some pretty views of the city. after that, we headed to the lexington club for a few drinks. it was nice to reconnect with them and relax with a few black and tans. here is a picture of jes with erica and heidi:

so after drinks we headed back to mary and dusty's for our final meal. instead of going out to eat, we just wanted to eat a nice simple meal at home. we decided on grilled cheese sandwiches. mary made a kale salad to go with it. where i come from you don't eat kale ever (i have IBS people) but you CERTAINLY don't eat it with grilled cheese. so jes and i decided we had to get some frozen french fries to combat the kale. now two beers on fairly empty stomach makes donna and jes a little drunkadoozles. so we laughed and punched each other (don't ask) the whole way home. ok, i will explain: jes was set on getting the fries at safeway a few blocks passed mary's house, but i wanted to check each and every bodega along the way. i failed and we got them at safeway. now the other thing you need to know is that jes MUST have mayo with her fries. mary + dusty = NO MAYO ever. they DID have nanonaise (fake mayo) but that WOULD NOT DO for jes. so she stops at the fucking burger king across from their house to get some mayo and the lady WOULD NOT GIVE IT TO HER. she told jes they were "out." jes was so mad she mad this face at our camera:

how fucking hilarious is that?

for the record, the fries were a huge hit, we ate the whole bag AND the kale salad was delicious, but i only at a little b/c my belly can't handle it. after that we chillaxed and probably watched the olympics. it was an amazing trip. super relaxing and filled with sunshine, great food and lots of love. it was hard to leave and we really miss mary and dusty, but we were happy to get back to the cats.

i will leave you with a picture of my favorite part of mary and dusty's house: their gorgeous kitchen:

ohmygod it took me 1.5 hours to write this post. i did watch miami ink and the cho show while doing it. forever the multitasker.

peace.

so funny i had to post it

2008-07-31T06:56:00.001-04:00

The three questions my nephew ben asked his dad greg on the way back from the
airport tonight:

1. Is god a man or a women
2. Is Chuckie Cheese real
3. Is chuckie cheese god's helper

holy shizz yall... she's done

2008-07-30T19:33:00.012-04:00

yes, its true, jes is DONE with the bar
she finished today and not thirty minutes after she got home, we headed to taq del sol for a celebratory meal (thanks kath and greg!)
my stomach has been funky the past few days so today all i ate was saltine crackers
surprisingly i am feeling ok after a chicken enchilada (with no cheese) and some guacamole. i really believe that guacamole has healing powers.

anywho, let me say it again YEAH JES IS DONE WITH THE BAR. no more studying, no more stressing, no more flash cards, and no more outlines. she got so much love from everyone supporting her and i hope it buoyed her up and she will pass. we won't know for a couple of months. keep your fingers crossed.

so other then jes making it through the bar, i also have my osu women's studies reunion to report on. i went a few weekends ago and it was so much fun. i headed up to columbus real early on thursday morning. jes dropped me off at the airport and nancy picked me up in dayton (the tix straight to columbus were too expensive). we got some lunch at this cute place called northstar and then went back to nancy's so i could take a little nap on her porch while she did...work (of course). then we headed to the columbus airport to pick up glennda. from their we went to get dinner and drinks. we went to this real cute place called U or something. there were gays everywhere. our favorites were the drunk lesbos with mullets who were drunkadoozles and making out at their table-- HAWT! after that we went home and went to bed. i was tuckered out. oh but right before i went to bed nancy and glennda gave me this great book called "what is your poo telling you." it is seriously one of the best books i have ever read. totally hilarious and sort of informative. you should buy it for someone in your life too.

on friday morning we got up and headed to campus to chat with some ws administrators before we headed to sam's club to buy groceries for the whole weekend. it took us HOURS to get the three carts-full of groceries. here is a picture of glennda and nancy with the carts:

while gt and nancy put away the groceries and started making food for the friday night meet and greet at nancy's house, i went and got a few more groceries, picked up chairs and coolers from folks around town. by the time i got back to nancy's house there were all kinds of folks there. i promptly asked dave (kim's husband) to put together the meat grill (nancy already had a big fancy veggie grill) and headed into the house to try and help out with the food prep. in the end i think the night was as success. folks seemed to have a good time, the food was delicious and it was too hot. by the end the bugs were eating me up though, so i was happy to go inside at the end of the night. here is a picture of nicole, alyson, rowan and finn on nancy's wonderful hammock:

seriously, how beautiful is that family?

the next day we slept in a little and then got geared up for the pool party. julie found this local neighborhood pool that we could all just go to. they reserved the little covered shelterhouse for us, so we set up our food there and then just played in the pool all day long. it was totally like the pool i grew up going to. it had a slide into the deep water but it was like a slide you would find on a playground. i totally thought the pool would be a hit for the kids, but in reality, the adults went bananas. they were going down the slides and jumping off the diving board. it was amazing.

here is a picture of gt, nancy and me when the pool party started:

and here is the best picture ever of becky and kami's little girl harvest. how fucking funny is the look on her face?

not only did women's studies folks come to events during the weekend, i also invited folks from the community that were directly connected to the ws program. i was so excited to see a bunch of the folks i used to do drag with. here is a photo of some of the kings i used to perform with. they are (from left to right): nicole, me, alyson, donna b., heidi, julie and becky:

after the pool party we headed home, cleaned up and got ready for the networking happy hour. gt cleaned up real good. look how pretty she is:

p.s. i took that picture, not bad, huh?

the networking happy hour went well and lots of folks i didn't know so well showed up so i got to know some new people, which was nice. after that was the saturday night party at sile and erin's. they had this amazing set up with tents and lights and music and again, i think folks had a real good time. here is a picture of sile, jenrose, misty and julie. class of 1997 and 1998 represent!

the whirlwind weekend ended with a brunch at dave's parents house (kim's in laws). they have this amazing home in german village that is so airy and open with these lovely manicured gardens. it was the perfect setting for our final event. i can't list everyone in these next two pictures b/c it is too much, but the first one is ws folks and the second one is ws folks + partners and babies. what a lovely bunch:

and that was the weekend. an amazing time with so many people i love and miss on a daily basis.

the rest of this week is about RELAXATION for jes and then some celebration this weekend.i can't wait. stayed tuned for pictures and stories.

an appetizer of sorts

2008-07-30T19:30:00.002-04:00

these two pics of my nephew zach have been on my desktop for the last week or so
i have been so busy i couldn't get around to posting it until today
isn't he adorable?

long time no talk

2008-07-12T19:39:00.005-04:00

so I just got done watching the movie "the diving bell and the butterfly."

it took me over a week to watch it because i have just been too busy to sit and watch the whole thing in one sitting. it is one of the most lovely films i have ever seen and crazy deep. its a french film so its in english subtitles (i.e. you have to read the movie) but don't let that dissuade you. it's really amazing. check it out.

so other than that, i got a bunch of errands done this morning and then laid around like a lump on a log the rest of the afternoon. didn't do the laundry, didn't work on my class, didn't write any letters. just laid on the couch and watched a project runway marathon and napping off and on. i hope to get more done tomorrow. i think my lethargy was a combination of the mixture of cramps and the fact that it was hot as hades today. i mean seriously, i don't know how hot it really was but every time i left the house i felt like i was stepping on the sun. miserable.

last weekend we went up to the north georgia mountains with nikki, christina, christian, jenna, andi and bonnie to relax and have a little fun. friday was the fourth of july, so i didn't have to work, but i went in and put in a half day to make up some hours and get some stuff done with no one around. jes joined me in my very quiet office and studied for a few hours. late in the afternoon we packed up the car and headed up to jasper or ellijay, i'm not sure. the cabin was a friends parents and it was really pretty. the first night we got there we had a little dinner and then went to the drive in and saw the movie "wall-e." now i haven't been to a drive in since high school and when i did go it wasn't to watch the movie, it was to make out with my boyfriend adam, so it was really fun to go again. the movie is pretty interesting. in places problematic, but the little robot wall-e is adorable and i also took a liking to his best friend the cockroach. go figure. after the movie we headed home and i fell asleep on the couch with my head on jes's lap.

on saturday morning we hung around the cabin shooting the shit and what not and then loaded up the cars and headed to the toccoa river to go TUBING! the stretch we were going on was about six miles and when the river is high it takes about 1.5 hours, but since the river was real low, it took us about four hours. we were all REAL DONE by about 2.5 hours so most of us took to paddling and rowing to get to the end quicker. here is a picture of me and jes in our tubes:

and here is one of the whole group when we were done:

and here is a cute one of nikki and christina:

after tubing we got bbq at jimmy carter's favorite place in cherry hill? log? georgia called the pink pig. i got a grilled chicken sandwich and it was pretty good. i especially liked "bud's spuds" which were these yummy fries. we went home and played a little apples to apples and shot the shit and i went to bed pretty early. the tubing wore me out. what i think was kind of cool about the weekend is i got to know some folks that i just knew a little bit. i think i realized i really love hearing people's life stories and when they let me, i really like to almost interview them. and i guess i realized how crazy it is that you can sort of know someone but not really know anything about their past or their family or anything. so it was cool that i got to know some folks better.

on sunday we got back to atlanta in the early afternoon and i had planned on participating in some pride events but i just couldn't do it. i was so tired from the weekend. it ended up monsoon raining on the pride parade, so maybe it was good i was tuckered out. overall i had a pretty busy week: drinks with stacia on monday, des ark show on tuesday, team gina on wednesday, mel on thursday, and then last night i babysat for the advisor of my dissertation committee. she and her husband have two sons: one is seven and the baby is, well a baby. the baby slept the whole time i was there but me and the seven year old got to watch some charlie brown, talk about fishing and read about the winning celtics team in sports illustrated. he was really a joy to be around. it was really fun.

i think jes is almost done with her night study session and i think we are going to get some dairy queen, so i will leave you with this photo of the flowers in our front garden. i don't know how to rotate the photo, so you will have to turn your head. aren't my mandivilla so pretty?

happy saturday yall.

just so you know...

2008-07-02T21:07:00.002-04:00

jes is working on her flash cards for the bar and she just said to me

"did you know you can marry your first cousin in georgia?"

we can't get married
and in most counties in the state jes can't adopt our child legally should we have one
but you bet your patootie if she wants to marry her male cousin the courts will have NO PROBLEM with that.

hot.

just a cute kid

2008-07-01T20:18:00.003-04:00

so here is a picture of kami and becky's babygirl
her name is harvest
i like to call her lil' harvey

how cute is she?
pretty cute.

art, babies, and tattoos

2008-06-29T09:09:00.007-04:00

happy last sunday of june people

i hope this posting finds you well.

this past week flew by and kind of whupped my butt, though the weekend moved at a more leisurely pace. i think part of why the week went so fast is that i kept pretty busy. jes has bar classes, then studies all afternoon, then we come home and eat dinner, and then she studies for a few more hours at night and THEN we get to watch whatever is on the tivo.

so the challenge for me is to stay out of her way during the after dinner study session. this week i did laundry, did the grocery shopping, went and hung with my friend mel and played at the pool with my friend angie. it worked out great! but by the end of the week i was tuckered out yo!

on friday night we played with jes's new wii fit. this has been her latest obsession, and she finally got it on friday. yall, that is some fun shit. for reals. first we did the body test where the wii tests your general fitness mostly through balance exercises. in the first go round jes had a wii fit age of 26 (she's really 28) and i had a wii fit age of 46 (i am 34). this, of course, hurt my feelings. we did the tests over and over and i only got down to 43 (what the fuck?) and she got up into the 40's somewhere (ha ha). we did some yoga moves, some strength training (ugh the lunges) and then i did the hula hoop game too. jes tried a bunch of other stuff like skiing and hitting soccer balls with her head (and a few soccer cleats). sadly, we were both sore the next day. go figure.

saturday morning we got up, did some work and then went to brunch with sarah and kim at ria's. jes got the special which was a banana nut bread french toast with apple compote- it was divine. i got soysage, a biscuit, potatoes, and fruit. jes and i shared everything half and half. it was divine. after that we came home and jes did work and i took a nap. then more work and a few phone calls and off to the gym. it was cool b/c while we ran looking out over the roof of the building and this huge rain storm came through. then we came home, more work, shower and off to an art opening for this local artist, R. Land. This guys stuff is all around town, and I really love it, so it was cool to go and see a showing of his work. They also had free food and beer and rocket pops! Here are some images of his, so you get an idea of what i am talking about:

He had some huge pieces that I would have LOVED to buy, but they cost too much. Some day, when I win the lottery....

In other news, my friend Nancy aka Ali aka Hazelteen aka dj reckless got some more added to her tattoo. Next thing you know she will be totally sleeved. Here is a pic of the new addition:

i love a star tattoo, so i am excited for her.

and lastly, and CERTAINLY not leastly, here is the latest pic of my sweet baby nephew zach. look at those eyes, look at those cheeks:

if that doesn't start your sunday off right, i am not sure what can.

for all you gays out there, hope your pride was divine (ours here in atlanta isn't until next weekend). and happy 4th of july week coming up for the rest of youze. enjoy your day off if you get one.

nyc in the atl

2008-06-24T22:11:00.009-04:00

life has been chugging along here
this past weekend jes's classmate erica and her sweetie heidi came and visited
the three of them spent a lot of time together while jes was living in new york this past semester, so i was excited to spend some time with them.

they arrived on thursday night we tried to go to el myr for dinner but it was too packed, so we went to u joint instead. i had a delicious chicken philly sandwich and a PBR. i think after we finished it was pretty late and we were all tired so we went home and hit the hay.

i got up friday morning and went to work for half a day while they drove around and got breakfast. we spent the afternoon in the pool which was really fun and relaxing. when we got hungry we headed to taq del sol where they too began to fall in love. on friday night we went to this night called "heaven" (far from it) at this bar called bellisima.the bar was in fact, very pretty, and the crowd was pretty eclectic. the music pretty much sucked ass, so once we realized we could take our drinks outside, i think things began to look up. here is a picture of jes, heidi and erica before we went in:

and here is one of us all outside the bar:

we spent saturday morning sleeping in and playing mexican train dominoes. they had never played and now they, like many others, are hooked. we had a late lunch at el myr, ran some errands in little five and then headed to the midway for... beer and more dominoes. when we played at home jes seriously won every game. once we got to midway, erica and i won a few games at first. here is a pic of erica strategizing and heidi looking on:

and here is one of heidi after her first win. look at the joy on her face:

between all the food at el myr and the beer and dominoes at midway, we had to go home and take naps. when we woke up we decided that instead of going out and hooping it up with some mullets (non ironic) we would hang out at home and play more dominoes and chat. we never even got out of our napping jammies:

on sunday morning, we all went out to breakfast at thumbs up. jes and erica got greek scrambles, i got a soysage and cheese biscuit and heidi got... CHICKEN AND WAFFLES

she loved it and felt it completed her trip down south.

it was so much fun to have them visit. heidi told hilarious stories about the kids she teaches in new york. my two favorites focused on the hand signals she taught them so they didn't have to talk or call her name in class. one finger in the air means they need the pencil sharpener. two fingers in the air means they need the bathroom. she and erica also told us about one of the kids favorites songs whose lyrics are "chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side." my co worker told me today that lil' mama sings that song. either way, it ran through my head all weekend long.

we were sad to see them go, and i got one last picture of them before we took them to the airport:

we hope they come back for that baby shower in october.
ok i am exhausted and larry won't stop meowing.
happy tuesday.

jesquire in the house

2008-06-08T09:38:00.011-04:00

hi yall

its a hot and sunny day here in atlanta.
jes is studying for the bar, and larry is laid out next to me. horace is probably upstairs in his room.

this past? passed? week was pretty eventful. jes graduated from law school! we headed to new york on tuesday afternoon and her ceremony was on wednesday afternoon. it was in avery fisher hall near where the new york opera and ballet building are. the auditorium was totally lovely. the ceremony was hella long: it started at 2:30 and ended just before 6pm. we got there at about 1pm, so needless to say, it was a long day. but the ending was worth it: jes has her J.D.! and she didn't pass out/throw up or trip on stage.

so on tuesday night we had dinner with her folks in little italy. delish. then we headed to brooklyn to meet up with supper club and other law school folks. after dropping off our bags at glennda and kim's and loving on bambino for a minute, we headed to a local bar. there we met up with a bunch of folks. i FINALLY got to meet ben, jes's new gay boyfriend. this spring all she could talk about was ben's chicken curry salad and how good it was. so luckily he brought her a big sammie of it to eat that night. i tried it, it is delish. here is a pic of her and him:

supper club was also there. i was so excited to see kim, glennda and ali. i hadn't seen kim and gt for OVER A YEAR! and i hadn't seen nancy since september or october. way too long.

many of jes's classmates were there too, namely erica and beth. erica and jes are like two little brothers together, especially when a camera is around. here is their best tough guy pose:

and here is a picture of kim and ali. ali is so tan b/c she spent hours working on her garden and weeding the weekend before:

we stayed out too late that night and fell asleep immediately in the jes suite (i.e. gt and kim's second bedroom). we were up early the next morning b/c we had tickets to go to the top of the rock before jes's graduation, but the visibility was so low, we rescheduled for thursday morning. when we got to avery fisher hall we met up with erica and beth (and their families) almost immediately. folks joked that jes and erica looked like servers in a restaurant and beth was the hostess. i think they all look adorable:

and here is jes with her parents. aren't they cute too?

once we got inside the building and got in line for the graduation it was pretty chaotic. also there was only one bathroom for like twelve million people, so i waited in line to pee with everyone's gramma. they were these hilarious spunky old women who were like "you would think they would have more bathrooms" and suggesting we go use the men's room. luckily jes and i could text throughout the ceremony so we were able to make jokes and comment on the shit people on stage were saying or doing. when it was over, we took a few pictures and then headed out to dinner. here is one of me and jes while she is still in her robes and her mushroom hat. i think she looks like harry potter:

we first met at blockheads to get mexican food but they dicked us over on their wait list so we left and went to some other mexican restaurant down the street. it was fancier but still delicious. i ordered some AVOCADO FRIES that everyone loved. Bobby even ordered more. it was jes, me, her folks, glennda and kim (ali had to get to dc for work) and then bobby and higgins. i think everyone had a great time. jes's parents got to see us in action with our friends, higgins knocked over a glass of water onto her and me while gesticulating as she told a story, and everyone seemed to like their food. this was the first time we saw higgs and bobby since their engagement so they practiced a pose for their engagement photo:

after dinner we were pretty tired so we headed back to brooklyn and watched top chef. i fell asleep promptly on the red chair and jes was like "babe get up and go to bed" so i did. on thursday morning we got a bagel at terrace (so delish) and then headed to manhattan to meet up with her folks for the top of the rock. it was cool to see the skyline from that vantage point. jes and i took a pic of us with the chrysler building in the back. its my favorite sky scraper there:

our trip home was pretty uneventful. when we got back to atlanta is was a sauna and it hasn't let up since. yesterday i went to the virginia highlands festival with angie and then we went to swimming pool. it was so fun, but i got a little burned on shoulders. no matter how much sunscreen i put on my shoulders, they always burn. i don't get it.

today is about studying and errands and trying to stay cool.
happy sunday.

a very sad day

2008-06-01T11:03:00.004-04:00

yesterday was an incredibly draining and sad day

jes and i had to put our girl kitty emily down after a fast fight with mouth cancer
the doctors were amazing
we were hot tranny messes
the day felt like it was 50 hours long

we will miss her terribly
the two black dots on her nose
her big oven mitt paws
and the way she would sleep "in the valley" between jes and me and purr and purr and purr.

but i feel blessed to have had her in my life for 13 years and in jes's life for almost 7.

now its just me, jes, and the boys, who i have dubbed the "three fang gang" (b/c each has had a fang pulled during a teeth cleaning).

rest in peace emilina.

may days

2008-05-26T09:46:00.008-04:00

hi yall

i know it has been a minute since i posted
actually, more like fifteen days, but who is counting.

before i launch into my hilarious narrative about what has been happening in my life, let me first shout out to my little friend rolita, who turns 6 today.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RO RO! I LOVE YOU!

so first up: JES IS HOME FINALLY
she got home on the 12th and we haven't looked back since.
i think her return is part of why i haven't posted since before she arrived
less time sitting around twiddling my thumbs, more time running around town like bonnie and clyde.

we had a little get together to celebrate jes's graduation (which actually takes place in brooklyn in a few weeks) and it was a really good time. the weather cooperated (it was sunny, warm, and breezy) and folks seemed to get along quite well. here are some pics:

jes and nikki kicking it live one time:

and here is angie t. and dawn chillaxin on the couch:

and here is me and angie b:

after a little while, jes broke out the wii. here is a pic of lindsey and seema playing duck hunt:

after everyone left, our neighbors leah and katie stuck around to chat and drink sangria and such. leah's sister and brother in law were just getting into town after a long drive from kansas, so they came by and got some proper food. did i mention taq del sol catered? jes was in HEAVEN. really, so were the rest of us too. their food is so good! when the night was over, jes and i did a little ten minute tidy and then headed to bed. here is a pic of us after the tidy in the kitchen:

and then here is one of the kitties loving on each other after being locked up in our room for most of the afternoon:

how cute are they?

so other than that, i have been working- strangely work was pretty busy these last few weeks. just random things that take up the day. jes is getting into the flow of bar prep classes. she goes to class for a few hours in the morning and then has lunch with me and then studies on campus and then we head home together most days. it has been nice b/c she forces me to walk to campus instead of ride the free shuttle. my legs and heart are thankful for it.

we also attended mondohomo festivities this weekend. on saturday we sold merch all night long- from 6-midnight or so. i actually like it b/c we can sit down, watch and hear the show, and get to chat with folks. there was a lot of good music. my favorite was "making friends". i think tami hart has a really lovely voice, and i also appreciate her hairstyle. we also heard the "dead betties." one of the guys in the band, bless his heart, was drunkadoozles and chatted with us a bunch. after them was "pariahpiranha" (or maybe vice versa, can't remember) and then after that was "8 inch betsy" from chicago. they were real nice. after them was tim m west, who i liked a lot, and then big nugg, dalyrical and unecc. unecc was adorable and from columbus, ohio. it made me sad b/c the last four (tim, nugg, dalyrical and unecc) were on this homohop tour and i know my friend sumira, who passed years ago and used to rap as lynq would have been amazing on that tour. i just wish it could have happened sooner so they could have met her.

anywho, it was good music, pbr on tap (until they ran out then it was miller lite on tap) and we got to see some folks we had not seen in a while. my friend emma was en fuego and hilarious with a green bow tie on, and the sweet bartender kept giving us free shots of delicious fruitiness. i also got to see the subversive or progressive marching band (not sure what they are called, but i love them). this one girl that jes knows from lawyer stuff is in it, and she plays a tuba like instrument that looks like a dragon or a dinosaur. it has spikes on it. anywho i told jes if we ever got married (we won't) that i would want them to play at our ceremony. they are rowdy and bawdy and divine. and they can play a good beat too.

we built up quite an appetite selling merch for six hours so after we left lenny's we headed to waffle house for some delicious greasy food. jes got hash browns and raisin toast. i got hash browns and grilled cheese. it was just what the doctor ordered.

yesterday we went to the park events for mondohomo just for a minute and then headed to the Atlanta Dream game. The Atlanta Dream is Atlanta's professional women's basketball team. They played the L.A. Sparks, including Lisa Leslie the always rebounding giant. She really is amazing. It was a lot of fun. At first it was pretty empty but by the middle of the first quarter, Phillips Arena was pretty full. It was a nice mix of black folks and white folks (and other races but those were the two main ones). Mostly random families, sports camps, and lesbians. We left before the end of the game and our team was losing but they made this big comeback right before we left. I think my favorite is #8, but I am not sure yet. I can't wait to go to the next game. We play Chicago!

ok i am tired from typing so much. that should catch you up pretty much on our lives.
i think i am going to sit in the sun for a while and call the birthday girl.

happy memorial day!

mother's day & tornadoes

2008-05-11T22:08:00.002-04:00

just a quickie before i go to bed.

first of all, happy mother's day!
word up to all the mamas

second of all, larry woke me up at 3:11 this morning
i could not fall back to sleep (even though i had just gone to be two hours earlier)
so i came down stairs to watch tv and check email
all of the sudden i hear tornado sirens (it was storming out)
i put on the news and sure enough we were under a tornado warning
the lady on the tv said she was very scared at what she was seeing outside (she was an off duty meterologist)
and that she was going to the closet under her stairs for safety

i started to panic a bit b/c the idea of a. clearing out our closet under the stairs in our house and b. rounding up all the cats to get in there at about 4am sounded hard. i called jes (in brooklyn) and woke her up to ask her what she thought i should do. she said "get in the closet." so i yanked EVERYTHING out of the closet onto the living floor, put a blanket in there with a few bowls of cat food and continued to watch the news hoping for a sign if the tornado was going to hit. luckily all the cats were staying downstairs with me, so i think i could have gotten them pretty easily. eventually the bad part of the storm passed and we didn't have to go into the closet. i fell back to sleep at sunrise, around 7am and slept until 8:30. i tried to nap throughout the day and i just couldn't. i am real tired

third of all, emilykitty, has a cancerous growth on her chin.
i took her to two doctors and they both agree it is cancer and right now the most we can do is make her comfy and happy until it is her time to go. this makes me very sad, but i am glad that jes is home TOMORROW so she will get time to love on her and maybe give me input on her behavior. for the most part, she is acting normal, but of course i just caught her pissing on the carpet in the dining room about four feet from the clean litter box i bought and placed AT THE FRONT DOOR. as you may imagine, it makes coming in the front door smell REALLY GOOD. i am not sure if the peeing out of the box is connected to the cancer. i am starting to think it is.

fourth of all, i spent a good part of the day scavenging at the dorms at a nearby university.
it is AMAZING the shit those students just throw away
perfect brand new stuff that still has the tags on it- from TARGET
needless to say, we got some new stuff in our because of it.
good times.

fifth and last of all,
my baby comes home tomorrow and i could not be more thrilled
i have missed her so much!

happy sunday yall!

cute baby update

2008-04-30T22:09:00.002-04:00

as you may remember, there were three babies born into my life earlier this year:

1. zach, my nephew
2. molly, my friend katie & john's daughter
3. julian, my friend mel & tanner's son

i think i posted a pic of zach in my last post, so here is an update on molly:

and here is one of julian.

pretty f-in cute, no?

not much else to report here. the weather is lovely, jes will be home for good in 12 days and larry keeps meowing at me and its making me want to scream. is that bad?

19 days...

2008-04-22T21:13:00.004-04:00

until jes comes home

also, my nephew ben created this robot/transformer outfit
check him out

sunday lovely sunday

2008-04-20T18:56:00.007-04:00

hey yall

i am tired today but i got a lot done
last night i went to a party with some new friends, had a great time but made the mistake of drinking wine and doing two shots of vodka (over many hours) but nonetheless it left me with a headache this morning.

on friday afternoon i had the honor of meeting and talking to dorothy allison, one of my favorite authors. i love her book Bastard Out of Carolina but i think i love Cavedweller more maybe. either way i am proud to report i DID NOT throw up on her but i did sweat profusely b/c i was so nervous. she's a real regular person and she loves toni morrison's book Sula too so that is good. another faculty member at the reception thought i was an undergrad and when she realized i was adjunct faculty she encouraged me to have some wine (since i was of age). i am thinking of dyeing (sp?) my hair gray so people will see me as a grown up. give me your thoughts on this.

other than that, life is pretty boring. jes will be home in about 23 days and i am thrilled. the weather has been lovely, and i love the smell and the look of all the blooming trees and bushes. soon it will be hotter than hades.

so i have some photos to post. the first three are of my friend tony and laura's son diego. tony and i went to graduate school together here in atlanta. now he teaches at memphis state university. diego, as you will soon see, is a total muffin.

i mean seriously.

and here is an up to date of my nephew smiley zach. i sort of feel like he looks like an entirely different kid. its weird how babies go through that where they look one way and then like two weeks later they are a completely different kid. either way, he is adorable here:

hope your night goes well. today is my friend Nicole's bday. Happy Birthday Nicole!

hi people

2008-04-13T15:49:00.003-04:00

hey yall

so here i am, on a sunny sunday afternoon in decatur
em is purring and meowing at me, larry is laying to my right and horace is somewhere else.
i dropped jes off at the airport (FOR THE LAST TIME THIS SEMESTER...HOLLER!) and then did the recycling, dropped a movie off at blockbuster and now i am here. i am tired, but i can't allow myself to take a nap as i already took one nap today.

this morning we got up and had breakfast with sarah and kim at ria's.
it was delish as per usual. we were home by 10am and took a nap then jes got up and showered and finished packing.
last night i made some pasta and a spinach salad and some garlic bread and we had leah and katie over for dinner and mexican train dominoes.

on friday night we got taqueria del sol (of course) and then met emma out for drinks in the monsoon rain. we had planned on going to u joint to sit outside and then the rain began, so we ended up at the WAY TOO SMOKY AND LOUD 97 estoria. emma got a burger, jes got a pbr and i got a nice glass of red wine. my belly was a bit funky, early cramps i think, and the red wine took good care of it. thanks red wine!

most of our days this weekend were filled up with running errands. it was crazy b/c we made a list each day and actually got EVERYTHING done. i mean we did not miss one thing. this is quite unusual for us. i have to say running errands is so much more fun with jes then it is alone. i just like having the time to shoot the shit and catch up on stuff. and honest to blog, when she laid down next to me in the bed on thursday i thought i was going to melt. it was SO NICE to have the warmth of her body next to mine. i haven't really minded sleeping alone since she has been gone, i just lay diagonal (sp?) and hope some kitties will join me. but honestly, its much better to have her there.

she will be home in one month from tomorrow FOR GOOD and i am THRILLED!
ok i think i am going to try and make some green tea and grade some papers. oy i want to take another nap.
we watched "kite runner" yesterday. what a lovely story. jes fell in love with the book and i plan to read it this summer.
you should check it out.

happy sunday.

update

2008-04-07T21:33:00.003-04:00

please strike from the record that emily peed TWICE outside the box and make that THREE TIMES, because shortly after i logged off of blogger, i went and got the kitties some catnip (aka kitty crack) b/c i am going to have to vacuum on wed before jes gets here anyway.

i laid out piles all over and returned to the couch where i was going through mail and paying bills. i hear something and look over and there is emily, peeing straight onto a pile of catnip which is located on the carpet. i tell her to stop and miraculously she does and then starts walking around and maybe squatting and then i pick her up and take her to the litter boxes upstairs and she wants nothing to do with them. so then i clean up the pee best i can and douse the carpet with this kitty cat stain and odor remover. who knows if that will get it out.

right now she is fast asleep next to me SNORING as she does. horace is on his scratchy box snoozing and larry is at his post next to the entry way table.

another fun fact is that our next door neighbors, the ones with the kid who needs ritalin and a very pregnant mom (yeah for impending crying newborns while jes is studying for the bar exam), also got a PIANO or some sort of electric keyboard. this means boy who needs ritalin is LEARNING HOW TO PLAY PIANO. you can imagine the joyous noises coming through our paper thin walls.

it is as if baby jesus is begging us to buy a house. i feel like he (baby j) is testing me like, who was that he tested in the bible? job? abraham? well whatever f-ing guy god tested, and i am sure he tested more than one, i feel like that fucking guy. he is saying to all the angels and good dead people in heaven "lets see how much dt can take: roaches, peeing and pooping kitties, neighbors playing religious songs and the cello on one side and introductory piano and bouncing boy on the other side. lets see how long before she goes running from the apartment" and then all the angels and other heaven folk giggle and say "fun game baby jesus/god, we love playing it."

ok enough of my pity party.

hey peeps

2008-04-07T19:34:00.003-04:00

i don't have all that much to talk about
its been raining alot
emily is not only pooping outside the box but has also peed out side the box twice
i took her to the vet today and we are checking for a UTI.
she did a great job with a new doctor, didn't scream or try to bite her.

i hung out with emma on sunday doing school work and getting breakfast at gato bizco.
yall everyone who works there is HIZZOT
and then i had dinner at kim and sarah's on sunday night
sarah made all this delicious asian food-that woman can COOK

yeah and while jes was working at the library on sunday she made this:

glad to see she is putting that new computer to use
ok i am going to eat some hagen daaz coffee ice cream. so good

mi familia de colorado

2008-03-22T20:24:00.007-04:00

so i am almost completely over the flu.
i am still coughing a bit, especially after going to a bar last night in tucker where folks were smoking like crazy while playing poker.
but overall i am feeling so much better. ESPECIALLY since it was warm and sunny all day. the house was just flooded with sunlight and the kitties moved from sunbeam to sunbeam. so cute.

jes left today which stinks. we got to spend more quality time with each other toward the end of the week and today we went for a walk in the warm morning sun so that was nice. we got to spend some time with sarah and kim last night at the smoky bar in tucker and then back here to play dominoes. and earlier in the week we got to eat with dawn and the boys and see some bands play at eyedrum, so that was good. larry has been hanging out in various rooms meowing. i think he is wondering where jes is hiding. sweet buddy. i keep telling him its only a few more weeks until her next visit. i don't think he is hearing it right now.

so while this weekend is about relaxing in the sun and getting the house in order, last weekend was about relaxing in the warmth of my sister's house while it was blustery and snowy outside. last saturday i traveled to colorado springs to see my sister, her husband greg, their two boys ben and zach and my mom. we mostly just hung out, made food and watched tv b/c it was so cold and gross out. i got to spend some quality time with ben, who at one point said " i really love you a lot auntie donna" to which i replied "i really love you a lot ben." i also got to love on my brand new nephew zach who is a little muffin.

kath was getting over an infection in her uterus (from the birth) and so she was pretty tired and on huge doses of antibiotics. this meant no breastfeeding, so baby zach was drinking formula and it was messing with his belly a bit. he finally had a blow out the second day i was there and seemed much happier once the funk exited his butt.

so here are some pics of me and the boys. somewhat serious ben and me:

and then a goofy one of him and me:

and here is one of me and zach. it was kind of cute b/c a few times when i got up close to him, i would squeeze his cheeks and ask him to give me a smile and he did. now maybe it was just gas, but he looked cute either way:

and then here is one of the whole family (at least all the folks without tails):

and lastly, but certainly not leastly, here is the picture kath gave out with zach's birth announcement. what a cute muffin:

it was a short trip, but it was good to see everyone and get to meet zach. there is talk of them coming this way to visit the beach this summer.

oh jebus i am watching this show called "high school reunion" its a hot tranny mess.

almost back with the living

2008-03-13T20:16:00.005-04:00

yall

i have been down for the count for the last two days with the flu.
seriously i have been in the bed or on the couch for the last day and a half.
it came on pretty quick and i am hoping it leaves real quick too.

i started having pains in my chest on monday during work but was convinced by my boss that i pulled something working out at the gym on sunday afternoon. on monday night i went to the earl and saw hey willpower and MEN. emma met me there and we danced our asses off. i mean really i have not danced that hard in a long time and it felt great. at one point in my dancing frenzy i felt like i couldn't breathe, but i figured it was because the front of the earl allows smoking (the room with the performers was non-smoking). when i left (AFTER MIDNIGHT!) my lungs were really hurting but i blamed it all on the smokers (damn them).

at work on tuesday i started coughing and my throat started hurting and by 2pm i was hurtin for certain. i was home and in the bed by 3pm where i stayed for the rest of the night save for pee breaks and feed the kitty breaks. i woke up wednesday morning with a fever and i felt like all the blood had been drained out of my body. it seriously hurt my skin when my pj pants rubbed against it. i went to the doctor and he told me i have the flu. thanks dude, i already knew that. on my way home i stopped and got two bottles of juice, more robutussin, and a frozen pizza. i got home, got into my pjs and slept off and on for the next 15 hours.

i still felt crappy this morning and it was sort of getting me down. jes gets here tomorrow night and then on saturday morning i am supposed to go and meet my new nephew in colorado. i told myself i felt better and didn't have a fever i would go. and as of this morning i felt like ass and i had a fever. but then i had some pizza for lunch and took a glorious nap, woke up soaking wet with sweat (probably b/c it was 75 here today and i was wearing a bears hoodie and smart wool socks under a super warm blanket) and since then i am feeling a little bit better. i was able to do a little laundry and i got some work stuff done this afternoon too. so i am going to keep positive, keep drinking my juice, and taking my robutussin.

ok enough about this sickness stuff. on to happier things: mel and tanner's new baby. i got some pictures and here they are. first up, baby julian:

and baby boy with mama mel:

and finally the whole lovely family:

pretty cute, huh?

so that is that, now you have seen pics of all three spring babies in my life: zach, molly and julian. stay tuned for more as they grow and change.

since you been gone

2008-03-09T09:50:00.005-04:00

big surprise... not much has happened in my immediate day to day.
i go to to work. i do yoga on MWF and LOVE it. I teach on Tu/Th and am exhausted after it. and then i come home.

I did go to the pride banquet on wed and i got to sit at saralyn's table which was nice. the table set up was lovely like a wedding and the food was impressive but too rich for me. on friday night i had dinner with dawn at el myr and tried the bbq chicken. it was divine. last night i went over to seema's and made penne with vodka sauce and learned the layout of her place for when i watch her cat nonni. today i have letter writing, work out, recycle, maybe grade a bit and then i head to mel's for the afternoon. then hell word with sarah and kim. i got a new bottle of wine we are going to try. it was recommended by my friend cowboy. i will let you know how it goes.

so my only other topic of discussion is: BABIES. see i had three people in my life having babies within a few weeks of each other. i have this dream of doing a longitudinal study on each of them and discuss environment and family of origin. does anyone else out there think like this? most just send flowers, i set up sociological studies in my head.

anywho, baby #1 is zach, my new little nephew. he was born just before valentine's day in colorado springs. baby #2 is katie and john's baby in new york. she was born on february 28th. here are some pics of her. her name is molly. i call this one sweet babygirl:

and this one is sweet family:

and this one is called what-the-fuck-have-you-done-to-me-get-me-the-fuck-out-of-here-i-am-PISSED:

of course that one is my favorite.

now baby #3 comes to us from oakland california via mel and tanner. baby julian was born on march 7th, and i don't have any pics yet, but when i do, i will post them.

so that is it for babies for a while. i have a a high school friend maria who is pregnant, but i think we have a few months before that one comes out.

oh, i also saw "no country for old men" yesterday. what a beautiful (but violent) film. OH AND ONE MORE THING: my friend dusty graduated from doggy training academy WITH HONORS (of course). I am so proud of her.

happy time change day yall!

miscellany

2008-02-23T08:31:00.010-05:00

hi yall

i am not sure why, but i haven't been the best blogger.
i can't say it's because i have been busy partying it up. i haven't.
jes came into town last weekend so i was pretty focused on that.
we had a good time. got some valentine's dinner at the standard (klassy), went to a benefit for this local bike coop and listened to some good music, and i think each of us was belly sick one night. oh yeah and we went over to emma and kristina's for a drink one night and to sarah and kim's for the hell word the other night. and we went shopping. i got some jeans and underwear. see, this is why i didn't blog. not much to say.

i do have some pictures though, so let me post those.
they come in three categories:
prom, alaska, and baby nephew.
seems unrelated, doesn't it? well the connection is ME!

first up:

got a few more pics from the prom. its hard to choose which is the most hilarious. would love to hear your thoughts on it.
we have an artsy black and white (my fav), an americana artsy pic from john (with antlers in the back), and one where the photog was like "don't look at me, look at each other, do something fun":

that is some good shit, no?
fyi, i am watching one of the finest movies ever made: The Goonies.
it's on TBS. you're jealous.

so second on the agenda is ali and alaska.
my friend ali went to alaska for her job and spent a few extra days there exploring the area.
she said it was lovely, and so i want to share a few photos with you.
one is of the landscape, one of ali and the landscape, and one is of the ice hotel she checked out but did not check into:

and last but certainly not least, more of my nephew. one is him, a moses basket and a cat namel samuel who wants the WHOLE moses basket. the other is of him with some bear slippers on. pretty cute, no?

so that's it yall
it dreary today, but at least its not raining
happy saturday!

presenting...

2008-02-12T20:29:00.000-05:00

zachary james

here he is fresh out of the over:

and here his angry at the paparazzi:

and here he is as a sweet sleeping muffin:

this just in

2008-02-12T06:27:00.000-05:00

and by "just in" i mean "i found out last night in the bed as i was falling asleep"

my sister kath and her husband greg had their second baby boy last night!
his name is zachary james (i think) and he is about seven pounds and pretty long
kath pushed him out in like five hours with NO DRUGS-- what a champ!

pictures and precise measurements to follow.

yeah for new baby boys!

what a weekend

2008-02-10T10:24:00.000-05:00

happy sunday morning yall

its sunny and warm here in atlanta and me and all the kitties are on the couch soaking in the sun.

i had an outstanding weekend, and i am still tired from it. just to update you on the kitty pooping in the hallway, my i-will-clean-the-litterbox-everyday-plan worked for ONE DAY. on friday nobody pooped in the hallway. VICTORY. but then on saturday i got a morning AND afternoon poop pile. so i have given up. i moved both litter boxes back into the second bedroom and i am just going to keep picking it up and i will buy some stronger odor zapper and hope for the best. this is my life. the life of a pooper picker upper.

so i had a pretty packed weekend. on friday night after work i went over to dawn and gators FINALLY (every single one of them had a fever over the last week. i tried to go over there THREE TIMES to give bailey his three year old present and someone was always sick. i finally just took a chance and went on friday). it was a great time. i was greeted at the door by dawn and a very naked and ready for bath time baby cade. his belly is to die for. both boys bathed together (so cute) and sufficiently got twelve gallons of water up gator's nose. poor buddy. then after boys were in jammies we hung out and played in the living room.

first, cade (8 months) showed me how he can crawl. check him out in action:

then bailey opened his presents from me and jes for his third birthday. we got him a book called "my world my colors/mis mundo mis colores." it's in english and spanish and follows a little girl who loves the colors of the desert where she lives. pretty cute. very colorful. and then we got him three matchbox cars. the one pick up truck that i got him was called the troca, which is almost like my last name. total coincidence. anywho here is a picture of bailito with the libro:

his hair is so long he looks a little like he is in the beatles or something. after the boys went to sleep we ate dinner and sat and chatted. we were all pretty beat so i headed home around 10pm and watched a celebrity rehab on tivo and then hit the hay.

on saturday i was up around 8am and kim came by around 10 so that we could go looking for some components to our outfits for the east point PROM we were attending that night. she hooked us up with some sweet shirts. all we needed was cumberbunds and bowties. after looking around some at thrift stores and whatnot, we find some at stefan's vintage clothing in little five. we also got some $5 cufflinks. mine were white to match my tie and cumberbund and kim's were black to match hers. once we dropped off kim's taxes to her accountant lady we went and got some lunch at noodle in decatur. i had never been there but it is really delish. good to have another place to eat.

after kim dropped me off i graded some papers while sitting in the warm sun out in front of the house and gchatted with jes and glennda. i also took a glorious nap to prepare myself for a late night at the prom. i had to meet kim at 7pm at her house. but first i had to pick up our boutineers at the kroger florist. i got a few looks in the kroger for shizzle. here is a pic of me as i was heading out:

when i got to kim's she was completely ready. she had on her ruffled shirt, white with blue ruffles, black pants and a black bow tie and cumberbund. she also had on her gramma's (may she rest in peace) black VELVET blazer. i was jelly of her jacket, all i had was jes's black brooklyn hoodie in case i got cold. luckily, she also borrowed (along with the ruffled shirts) two HUGE while blazers. i was like "should i wear it" and then i put it on and kim almost peed in her pants laughing b/c it is a white jacket and i looked like i was in a polka band AND because the shoulder pads were so huge i looked like i should be in a talking heads video or something. ridonkulous.

so we left for the east point prom, which was at the american legion town hall. we park, walk up some stone steps and immediately walk into a wood paneled restaurant bar where the average age was about 62. everyone is smoking (no me gusta) and drinking and eating their six dollar steak dinner. it was like the music stopped and everyone looks at me and kim the queer polka brothers. we were like "is this where it is?" and then i looked beyond the room and saw pink balloons and streamers and realized we had to walk through the bar to get to the hall. there we found all of kim's east point friends.

here is a picture of her with cindy and bob (sarah and kim's savior who helped them hook up their new washer and dryer. we love him).

along with the strongest fucking jack and coke you will ever have, the east point american legion prom also offers tj, the singing dj. he took to the dance floor with a hometown favorite "strokin." luckily, he found kim's firefighter friend who is probably the shyest of the group and asked her when the last time she made love was. i think she wanted to crawl into her suit:

and thank god he threw a few pelvic thrusts into his dance:

kim and i spent most of our time dancing our asses off to music from every decade except this one. well he did play one justin timberlake song. kim also got hit on by a very drunk older woman who kept asking:

1. if kim and i were a couple
2. where we lived
3. what kim did for a living

she invited us to another bar after the prom and we respectfully declined. i tried to get a good picture of the two of us in our ruffle shirts, but here is a cute one of kim and my twelve chins:

and here is the cutest picture of kim and the wife of bob (who saved the day. i forget her name but i was calling her peggy sue b/c she looked like peggy sue got married. she was adorable:

and finally is a picture of me, kim and this wonderful older woman named patrice. when we first got there and we waited about 15 minutes (for real) to order our jack with a splash of coke drinks, we saw this adorable woman who had this thin wispy grey hair that was sort of in a faux hawk. she was also rocking a blue sweatshirt that said "DALLAS" in rhinestones i think. and some stretch pants. anywho, kim and i called her our girlfriend and i was going to ask her to dance but i chickened out. but kim went up and talked to her and we got her picture. she was there with her husband of 36 years. they were just getting drinks and dinner the american legion and made their way into the prom. she told kim that "straight people don't know how to party" and the next time we have a prom she will come dressed to impress. she was very concerned about her hair, she had just lost it after treatment from cancer (for the third time) and kim assured her she is beautiful and we love her hair. anywho, he she is:

how cute is she?

ok i need to get a move on. i have a million errands to run before i have a meeting at 4pm. i hope your day is great.

ok people

2008-02-05T19:43:00.000-05:00

here is what i should be doing:

1. working on my lecture on south asian immigration to the u.s. for thursday
2. grading papers
3. reading "the namesake" for class on thursday
4. writing my gramma jo a letter
5. wrapping bailey's birthday present

here is what i am doing:

1. blogging
2. making italian wedding soup for my friend mel who i am going to hang out with tomorrow evening

last week, for the second half of the week my boss was out of town attending a conference in new york city. at the end of every day, i wrote him an email filling him in on the happenings of the day. i started to think that the format would be good for blogging. you know, spend some time on sunday mornings recounting to you, dear reader(s) (?) what i did that previous week. sadly, i have not implemented this new system, nor do i think i really have enough exciting stuff to write about after only one week. so let me try to piece together some stuff over the last few weeks:

1. my friends higgins and bobby got engaged. i have known higgins for almost a decade. can you believe that? bonkers. i met bobby shortly after they started dating while we were living in brooklyn. i love bobby. he's the (non dairy) cheese and higgins is the (wheat) macaroni. really. they are great together. not only does bobby have gastrointestinal problems like me (what could be better?), he loves buddha, and he is also secretly in love with our cat larry. because they are all outdoorsy and athletic they ran up the stairs in philly like rocky and then got engaged. here are a few pics of them:

2. last saturday i helped jes's folks completely demolish the bathroom connected to their bedroom down to the wood studs and wood floor. i got there right before 10am and I did not walk into my house until 8pm that night. It was intensely physically demanding work, and my hands and wrists and back and hips hurt so bad i could almost cry when we were done. not only was it hard work, it was completely rewarding work. it was amazing to see the bathroom when we were done and to think "i helped do that." i think i most definitely impressed her folks with my strength and perserverance, or at least made them laugh when i would curse at the tile or concrete as i slammed it with the sledgehammer. they began to call me "donna the destroyer." when we were done, jes's dad and i had the most delicious pbr in a bottle i have ever had, and her mom had a dirty martini. they also fed me lunch AND dinner. both were divine as usual.

3. on sunday i ran errands and did some work in the morning and afternoon and then went to a superbowl party with kim and sarah. it was at their friend lynn's house. lynn is adorable, a lawyer (ooh sexy) and she has one of the prettiest houses i have ever seen in grant park. i mean its like the kind of house you just walk into and feel at ease. there was all kinds of good food (as is often true at sarah & kim's friends parties) and kim and i downed a few crown royal & cokes b/c that is how we roll. i am pretty sure everyone in the room except me was from mississippi or louisiana, but i just said "yall" a lot and smiled. somewhere in the third quarter we headed back to sarah and kim's to watch that TERRIBLE lesbian show we watch every sunday night as some sort of community service or something. then we put the game back on JUST IN TIME to see the game winning touchdown they threw to lexipro (i know that is not his name but that is what i call him). both kim and sarah (more kim than sarah) were ELATED that eli (a NOLA boy) won. i liked how lexipro cried when they won. i like when big football dudes cry. reminds me they are human.

4. this morning i got up as ASS CRACK (i.e. 5am) to finish preparing for class and to get ready and head to the polls to vote. it only took 15 minutes (sweet!) and there were these cute gay boys behind me in line who JOGGED to the polling place. where do you think they kept their i.d.? ew. sweaty i.d. i even took a picture of my vote and my voter reg card with my phone just in case my vote gets "lost." i had a day filled with meetings and teaching, and then after work i headed to this pharmacy to pick up a chicken flavored suspension of larry's heart medicine which is 1/3 the price of the pills. he seemed to like it ok. i am a little timid squirting the 1ml of chicken flavored meds in his mouth but after i did, he licked the syringe, so i think that is good. i was supposed to go over to dawn's tonight to hang out and give her 3yearold son bailey his bday present, but now he has a fever. the last two times i was supposed to see them baby cade had a fever and then dawn had a fever. i am going to try again on friday i think.

5. i feel like sickness is all around me. my students are sick, my coworkers are sick, my coworkers kids are sick, my friends are sick, and my friends kids are sick. i am just trying to drink my juice, take and emergenc every so often and keep up with yoga. i am hoping that will keep me healthy.

yall i wish my blog was scratch and sniff b/c if you could smell how good this homemade wedding soup smells you would fall over. i hope mel and his roomies like it.

what else can i tell you? one or all of the cats is shitting in the hallway. i bought some odor and stain remover and sprayed it all over the hallway and that very same day someone shit right on top of that odor remover. i sprayed it again and no one has pooped yet (knock on wood). so we'll see. maybe its a delayed reaction. i don't think its b/c anyone is sick, and i KNOW its not b/c the litter boxes are dirty, so i am chalking it up to "we miss jes." what if i just pooped in the middle of my office every time i missed jes, or every time i had to have a meeting with someone i don't like. wouldn't that be hilarious (and terrifying if you know me).

i am thinking about doing a little shopping. maybe i will wait until jes gets home for her next visit. i think i just need a few more shirts for work and maybe one more pair of pants. now that i am wearing teacher clothes five days a week i am realizing i have some stuff i never wear. so i want to get rid of it and replace it with stuff i will wear. not a total overhaul. maybe just a few key pieces. i also think i need to get some black work shoes that are not boots or shell toe adidas and are comfie and easy to walk in. i also need to get more formal brown shoes. again, i plan to take my time with this, but i think i have mentally commited to spending some money on this stuff. yes, this is my process. please don't make fun.

ok that is it. i have nothing else to say really. hopefully i will have more to report soon. i am going to a prom with kim on saturday. we might wear tuxedos. that has to yield a few good pics, don't you think?

happy fat tuesday.

jes visit #1

2008-01-27T16:56:00.000-05:00

ok yall

jes just left on a jet airplane back to crooklyn
we had a great time and got to hang out with a lot of folks
we got to play some dominoes with sarah and kim and i think sarah won every game. here is the result of one of the games:

and here is a look at the smokin hot players:

we also got to meet up with angie and elin at this bowling alley outside the perimeter for elin's bday. it was huge and fancy and played amazing videos from the 80's on screens right above the bowling pins. I saw criss cross and lionel richie, and most important, michael jackson's "beat it."

last night we had dinner with jes's folks at taqueria del sol and jes ate herself just short of uncomfortable with all the chips and dips and this morning we got breakfast at ria's. what was really great is we got to see our friend mel, who was in a real bad accident several months ago and really should have died. he was spunky as ever and i am excited because we made plans for me to bring some food over every once in a while. i think i am going to start with italian wedding soup. simple, but delicious.

i also am ready to post pictures of our tattoos. i really wanted to get a picture of mine and then juxtapose that with jes's. the image is of a little blue ghost, his name is mr. fangs and he is a tag (graffiti) that you can find in a lot of the neighborhoods we hang out in here in atlanta. i love him and he makes me happy so we decided to get him for our six year anniversary. jes also got a little chicken leg on hers b/c that stands for how delish southern food is. mine totally looks like crap and is scarred, jes's looks great and is solid. you judge for yourself:

here is mine:

and here is jes's:

and here is one of them together:

i think when she comes into town next time we will go and talk to the tattoo place and see what they can do for me. all i know is i don't want the same guy touching it up.

so that is that for my weekend. its just me and the cats now. em has finally descended to the first floor from her blue blanket heaven upstairs, and the boys are meowing at me for food.

here is a pic of me and jes from right before we left for the airport. i miss her already:

you can run but you can't hide...

2008-01-20T16:40:00.000-05:00

soon you too will fall in love with mexican train dominoes.
here are some pictures of us playing last weekend

doesn't it look like so much fun?

i moved to the south to get away from this shit

2008-01-19T19:21:00.000-05:00

happy saturday yall
i woke up this morning (thanks to larry) and went down to feed him and here is what i found:

now i am not sure if the mouse was set aside to make way for the cat food
or if the mouse is also eating the cat food
either way, i thought it was a cute juxtaposition
that is a fake mouse, by the way.

after eating breakfast and putzing around i looked outside and lo and behold: it was snowing
like, for real. big wet flakes.
since jes has moved to brooklyn it has not snowed there even once
it has snowed here TWICE
what the f yall?

here is a picture of the snow in georgia:

after going out this morning/early afternoon to work out and run some errands, i have spent the remainder of the day watching tv and talking on the phone. the kitties have been LOVING IT. speaking of kitties, i need to give them their pills.

hope your long weekend is great and filled with rest.

FINALLY a cute picture to post

2008-01-16T17:53:00.001-05:00

check it out
its my sister and my nephew
my sister is the pregnant one
:)

just kicking it

2008-01-15T20:19:00.000-05:00

this is how bad tv is tonight:
i am watching the E True Hollywood story about Jenna Jameson.
Pathetic? Yes.
They are interviewing her and I think she is drunk or high.

Anywho, this past weekend I had some fun. On Saturday, I went to Joe's coffee house with Emma and worked on school stuff
Then that night we met up with Angie and Elin at their place and I introduced them to the joy that is Mexican Train dominoes. Everyone was completely hooked after the first round. And each of us won a couple times, so that was good too. What was totally weird is that we were all Midwestern. Emma is from Indiana, me from Illinois, Elin from Wisconsin and Angie from Minnesota (or vice versa-- i should know). Anywho, the midwest was representing at that game night for shizzle.

On Sunday I went to another party/game night at our new neighbors Leah & Katie. No dominoes here, we played apples to apples, but they did love my veggie dogs in a blanket. Usually Jes makes these, so I didn't know how many crescent rolls I needed, so I didn't bring many and they were gone pretty quick. It was a fun time, I met some new people and we talked about all kinds of stuff.

After that I headed over to Kim and Sarah's to watch the L Word. That show sucks so bad I can't stand it. I mean really, its so poorly written and acted I don't even want to go into it. It's unacceptable with as many good queer women writers and actors as there are.

My tattoo is getting better slowly, but now that the angry crusties are gone, the skin still feels kind of weird. Jes will be here next weekend and I am going to compare it to hers and then see if I should go to a dermatologist or back to the tattoo joint or what. the color is so horrible. i mean really it looks like someone colored it with a blue marker that was running out. i am still glad we got them, i just wish they would have turned out better.

that is about all i have to report. larry let me sleep through the night last night for the first time since jes left. i slept for seven glorious hours. hoping we will get a repeat tonight.

today is my sister's bday. happy birthday kath!

hi peeps

2008-01-09T20:56:00.000-05:00

well i wish i had more to report, but life has been pretty slow.

my tattoo is still healing, and it looks pretty gross so IF it ever heals, i will post a picture of it
i have set a deadline that if the gross crustiness is not gone by sunday i am going to go to the doctor
it is still pretty red and very tender to the touch and after reading about cellulitis and staph infections from tattoos i am a wee bit freaked out. i am sure it will be fine, but i just wish it would HEAL already. it double sucks that jes has the SAME EXACT TATTOO and got it at the SAME EXACT TIME and hers is healing better so i can't really play the "what if" game, b/c i sort of have a direct thing to compare it to, you know?

tv tonight is SO BAD i turned the fucking tv off. pathetique.

my weekend was pretty slow too. watched nanny diaries on saturday night (cuz i am cool like that) and then on sunday went to sarah and kim's for the lword premiere. what a disappointment. totally over the top and ridonkulous. why do i watch it? no fucking idea. its like a car crash, i just have to look.

monday night i went back over to kim and sarah's (b/c really they CAN'T get enough of me) and we watched the LSU vs. OSU football game-- the BCS championship. it started out pretty good for OSU but quickly went into the shitter. i was so tired that i left a bit after half time b/c i was afraid i would fall asleep on the drive home. i am quickly realizing how much i benefitted from jes driving everywhere: didn't matter how tired i was b/c i could always fall asleep in the passenger seat. kim was pretty gracious even though her team (LSU) spanked the hell out of my team (OSU). ruthie also kept her farts to a minimum, which i appreciated.

on friday night i am going to taqueria del sol with angie, so that should be fun. i will probably spend a greater part of the weekend preparing for my class (it starts on January 17th!) AAAHHHH! where did the holiday break go? i also use the weekends to run errands and tidy up some. for the record, the joint is much cleaner. i am not saying its BECAUSE jes isn't here, but it is a coincidence, don't you think? ooh snap, i am certain i will get some comments on that one.

another exciting thing is that i registered for this continuing education or evening class. its a dance/martial art/yoga class. see, i have wanted to take a dance class for some time now and i thought that maybe ballet would help me get in shape, work on my core and balance and grace, so that is what i was going to take. then i found out the class i was looking at (discounted through my employer) was held in BUCKHEAD at 6:30 pm (rush hour) and i was like "hell no." this one i found is in avondale estates, just a hop skip and jump away. i hope it doesn't suck and more importantly, i hope i don't suck at it.

in preparation for my american studies class i am teaching, i read the first chapter of barbara kingsolver's book "animal, vegetable, miracle" and it was so fascinating. i am going to teach some of it in my class. jes is completely entranced by "kite runner." she found a used copy at one of the bookstores in brooklyn. i am excited to read it when she is done.

i have spent much of the time since jes left for brooklyn developing routines and patterns that bring me comfort. i have pretty much got the feeding, pilling, watering, and cleaning litterbox schedule down. i was worried about taking on all the cat responbilities by myself, but really they are not that bad. except the wake me up in the middle of the night one.

normally jes would get up with them at like 2am or 4am b/c if i did, i can't go back to sleep and i am a zombie all day. then i would get up with them around 6am or so. well now i am it, so they wake me up both times. luckily last night, i rallied until about midnight and set my alarm for 6am and larry did not wake me up until 5am and then let me sleep until 6:30 or 7, which was nice. my hypothesis is this: the later i give them their pills (closer to 8pm instead of 6pm) and the later i stay up, the later they wake me up to be fed or pilled or to just hang out with them. this, is in some ways, killing me b/c if i could, i would finish this blog and be in the bed by 10pm. but i have to try and soldier through.

oh, also have three new years resolutions:

1. floss every night. i know most of you already do this and its just good hygiene, but i get so tired at night i often skip it. not in 2008. i am flossing every night AND gargling with listerine. it burns my mouth.

2. breast exam once a month. prolly on the 11th depending on my menstrual cycle. also, i know i should be doing this anyway, but i am COMMITTING in public to do it, for the health of my boobs.

3. do cardio at the gym at least three times a week. i went on sunday and today and i am going to go tomorrow and at least once this weekend. someday soon i will add in weights too. then i will get real buff.

that's about it yall. emily is asleep next to me on the couch curled up in a tiny ball. larry is on his favorite chair in the dining room and horace is prolly upstairs on the futon in his room. i am so tired, but i think i am going to try and read.

happy wednesday yall.

flying solo

2008-01-06T07:49:00.000-05:00

good morning yall:

well i made it through my first night without jes.
the cats only woke me up twice: 2:30am & 5:30am
and now emily is laying next to me, larry is on a chair in the dining room, and horace is running around the house playing "crazy cat" (up and down the stairs, across the back of the couch, through the living room and then back up the stairs).

it has been a pretty slow weekend. i took jes to the airport with her two huge bags and two carry ons and she got on her plane to brooklyn around 3pm. she is finishing her last semester of law school back at brooklyn law school. after i dropped her off i went and got some more heart pills for larry and then hung out with my friend angie's cat lois. i spent the night on the couch with the cats, chillaxin and watching "nanny diaries." it was surprisingly more critical than i thought it would be. and scarlett johansson and alicia keyes are not bad to look at AND the little boy was super cute, so it was pretty good overall.

today i have a bunch of errands to run: recycle, work out, hang with lois, and meet someone at thumbs up to talk about getting in the ILA, the department i got my ph.d. from and then tonight is the L Work Premiere! I get to watch it with Kim and Sarah and Ruthie, while Jes watches it with Kim and Glennda and Bambino. And then after that (yeah right!) I am going to try and video conference with supper club (including jes in brooklyn) to discuss how heinous the premiere was.

It looks like the sun is completely up, so I should get my day started. I hope your Sunday is outstanding!

feliz ano nuevo yall

2008-01-01T16:55:00.000-05:00

so its 2008
how do you feel about that?

i feel pretty good, overall
i was having a bit of a hard time yesterday, REALLY unmotivated
but today i have accomplished more, so b/c me accomplishing = happy in my life, i am feeling pretty good today
first of all, it is nice and sunny but windy and coldish here in the atl
not loving the cold, but luckily i have some flannel pj's, smartwools and a chicago bears sweatshirt on, so i am toasty
the rosebowl, featuring my alma mater, university of illinois is about to start: HOW EXCITING!
and i am going to make a delish cayenne rubbed chicken breast with avocado salsa for dinner. nice way to start the year, no?

i finished my book today while taking care of my friend angie's cat lois
it's called "A Map of Ireland," and my friend Stephanie Grant wrote it. Its about a young white girl in south boston in the 70's and her experiences with the desegregation of her school and the Black Power movement in Boston. I loved Steph's first book "The Passion of Alice," and I loved this one too. It's not out in stores yet, but when it is, pick up a copy.

Today Jes and I finally unpacked our shit from Mexico and I did some laundry. We had a nice big breakfast of eggs and toast and white gravy, and I even changed our sheets and towels and kitchen towels. so the household is CLEAN yall. well, mostly clean.

ok the coin toss of the game is about to happen and the players on each team are holding hands. i like that. ok so usc won the toss and they are going to kick off first. Jes loves juice williams and I think i might too. all the kitties are on the couch with us, cheering on illinois (except horace, i bet he is cheering for usc just to be contrary-- such a teenager)

anywho the last thing i wanted to post about yesterday but couldn't get to b/c i was knee deep in intervention episodes is our trip to mexico. like last year, jes and i headed to sayulita, mexico to spend some time with mary, dusty, shoshana, and her sweetie laurel. it was a lovely few days filled with a little bit of sun, lots of dominoes, puzzles, paint by numbers and, of course, margaritas and guacamole. when we got there on tuesday, these are the lovely faces we saw:

so the good news upon our arrival was that it was warm and sunny, the bad news is that dusty was fighting a cold or a flu or something. i brought her some benadyrl sinus and flu or some shit and i think that, along with lots of rest, turned her around. the first few days they were there, dusty was hurtin for certain and had quarantined herself and the puzzle she was working on. jes wasn't skeered, and got on that puzzle with dusty asap. here is a picture of the 1500 piece puzzle when we arrived:

along with puzzling, we also did a lot of paint by numbers. dusty had these paint by numbers made from photos she took. ours is of the pool at casa brava. i didn't do too much work on it, but jes did. it was hilarious, at one point, all the kids were working on their paint by numbers. crazy bunch:

most days we got up, drank coffee or juice, ate a little something, read our books, checked email, shosh studied for her nursing test, mary wrote, you know, whatever floated our boats. then we headed into town to hit the beach. the weather was not the greatest, lots of clouds and a cool breeze. the ocean, though very calm, was cold as hell. here is a picture of jes and me while walking through town:

oh shitballs. usc just go their SECOND touchdown. its early. its still anybody's game. i got to believe.

back to mexico. shoshana's gfriend laurel arrived a couple days after we did. she was super bonkers on the evening she was coming. by super bonkers i mean really excited to see her. here is a picture of her waiting in her booty shorts:

and here they are that night with shosh's favorite town dog she named "bambi":

and here they are on the beach:

after much dedication and concentration, jes and dusty finished the puzzle. it was a joyous moment. here is a picture of the puzzle completed:

we introduced mary, dusty, shosh, and laurel to a wonderful new game we recently learned: mexican train dominoes. i am not sure why the train is mexican, nor do i know if that is a defamatory name, but what I do know is that mary fell in love with the game. she really could not get enough of it, AND though she loved it, she did not become a crazy competitive person like she *sometimes* does.

WAIT: Illinois just intercepted a pass. it was brewtiful.

anywho, the bottom line about the dominoes, we played a lot and it was hella fun. thanks to sarah and kim for introducing us to the game AND for getting us our own set of dominoes. loves ya.

the best day weather wise was friday. it was warm and sunny enough early on that we spent a few hours at the cemetery beach (our favorite beach in town). i even got into the FREEZING cold ocean b/c it was my last chance. i got a few good pics of mary and dusty with the water behind them:

aren't they pretty?

and finally, here is a picture from our last night in sayulita. it took us a minute to get the timer to work, but it finally did:

it was sad to say goodbye to the gang on saturday, both b/c i was already missing them and because it was the first sunny and really warm day. perfect for the beach. but instead, we packed up and headed to the airport which was filled with rude fucknut americans who were all more important than us and therefore could push, cut off and/or stare at us incessantly. i was happy to get on the plane and get to watching "dexter" on my ipod. i was also happy to get home and get some serious kitty loving.

ok i am running out of battery and i need to get to preparing dinner. illinois is not doing so well, but its still the first half, so i am not going to get too worried.

happy 2008 yall.

should i be concerned...

2007-12-31T19:23:00.000-05:00

that i am addicted to the show "intervention"?
seriously, its an intervention marathon on A & E and I can't stop watching it
we have watched it all day long on tivo, so we can fast forward through the irritating commercials

we also had an hour long video conference with nancy. her and glennda and kim got us a web cam so that when we talk to each other on sundays, we can see each other. it's really nice but i get a bit caught up in looking at myself on the little box. anywho it was lots of fun and she got to see our cats and we got to see batu. i guess nala was busy sleeping downstairs on the berber carpeting.

so right before the holidays, i headed to chicago to see alyson, nicole, rowan, and meet their new baby boy finn. i also got to see azad and meet his new girlfriend sam. and i got to see erin (which was a nice surprise b/c i didn't know i would). so the first night i got there, nicole's mom had sent them this thing where she put pictures of their faces on these elves dancing. rowan was entranced by it. here she is on the computer. how adorable:

and here is one of the whole family:

that night we had a big dinner with everyone: aly, nik, ro, finn, erin, azad and sam. we had delicious salmon tacos and green beans. it was SO GOOD. and it was really fun to have everyone together, like a mini chicago family reunion. here is a picture of az, sam and ro:

and here is one of me, erin, finn & ro:

and here is one of just erin and me:

while i was there we hung out, played games (rowan taught me the game "princess and the squid"-- i was the squid, she was the princess), we even went sledding. it was so fucking cold while i was there. i mean i *know* its cold in chicago, but seriously it was bonkers cold and snowing, which of course, was great for sledding. rowan's was a total champ. i would wait at the top of the hill, she would come up and then we would get her situated and i would push her down the hill. when she got to the bottom, i would jump up and down cheering and she would give me a thumbs up and head back up the hill. it was a lot of fun.

Another night I made Italian wedding soup and we all just hung out and ate. Finn had on the cutest Illinois shirt ever. Check it out:

one morning, alyson and i drove out to a western suburb of chicago to see my gramma. she has gotten sicker and sicker over the past two years and my mom's siblings decided to put her into a nursing home. its run by some seriously catholic folks, so i was a little worried they were going to give me grief, but they didn't. i was real nervous and i didn't know what to expect b/c the last time i saw her was at my aunt dee dee's funeral and she was real out of it. it was real sad to see her, in a wheelchair, unable to speak. i didn't know if she would know who i was, but i think she recognized me. when i said who i was, and who my mom was, she started sort of laughing and shaking her head like "yes." we talked for a little while, well really i talked at her and i showed her pictures of my sister and her family and she seemed to like those too. i am not sure when i will see her again, so i took a picture of her. one thing that i loved is that she still had purple fingernail polish on. her favorite color is purple:

as sad as i was, i am glad i went. and even if she didn't really know exactly who i was, she at least got a visitor for a little while.

i spent one night at azad's house too. his apartment is so beautiful and he brings me platters with tea and little bowls of yummy things like candied ginger and nuts and i took a nap in the sunshine while he took a shower. on my last day we all went out to breakfast, which was wonderful and then we went back to azad's to just hang out until i had to catch my plane. az showed alyson and nicole his lovely jewelry that he makes and i think they bought a few of these rings:

we also did a little photo shoot. here is one of alyson, nicole and finn (ro was at school):

and here is one of az and me in front of his tree:

it was great to see all the folks i love and to meet finn and az's girlfriend sam. finn is a sweet baby and very happy and chunky. i loved just holding him or dancing with him. it took me my whole trip to figure out that he kept urping on me b/c of the way i was sitting with him. he doesn't have much of a waist right now so i would sit him up and it kind of put stress on his belly and it made him urp. once i got that he preferred to recline a little more (actually nicole suggested it) he seemed a lot happier. i miss all of them already and i am not sure when i will get back to chicago. i just hope its warmer when i visit next time.

ok more intervention is calling my name.
happy new year!

number 118

2007-12-31T14:26:00.000-05:00

hi all

this is my 118th post of this blog
and if i can swing it, it will be the first of THREE THREE THREE today
i had hoped to get blogging sooner but i just can't get it together
i think its a mixture of jet lag, recovery from a tattoo yesterday and many injections of kitty sleepy serum
right now larry is laying on my belly in front of the computer (thus making it a challenge to type) while emily is next to me curled in a teeny tiny ball. horace just walked past my legs with a bit of a scowl. just like him.

ok so what started out to be a miserable cold and FOGGY morning (i know this b/c i was doing payroll at my job at 9am) has turned out to be a clear and sunny day. not sure if it is warm outside. its pretty cold in the apartment but sometimes that happens.

so let me tell you briefly about a little swaree (how do you spell that?) we went to before the celebration of the birth of baby jesus. this party was to celebrate the birth of kristina of "emma and kristina." they had a holiday, happy birthday and house warming party and we swung by there after having a nice dinner at wahoo with jes's folks for her dad's bday. we got there right before the pecan pie was brought out (YAHOOO). they threw some pretty candles up in it and we began to sing. here is a picture of kristina cheering for her cake while emma holds it:

while i did not have a piece of that pie that night, we did get lots of left overs from them b/c they were leaving town and we were the last folks at the party. that's right. that's how we roll: shutting the place dizzown. anywho the pecan pie was divine. after pie/cake, they opened some presents. as a housewarming present, emma got a shrimp cookbook. she loves the seafood. here she is doing the universal sign for shrimp:

i am pretty sure this will be the last time the four of us hang out for a while because emma is with her family for a few more days and kristina is going to africa and jes is heading back to brooklyn to finish her last semester of law school (yes i will be bacherloring it up REAL SOON-- no me gusta) so we did a little photo shoot with the four of us. here is one of them:

oh yeah, i got my hair cut a few weeks ago. i guess this is the first picture of it. still trying to figure out how to fix it. i know this much: it looks a lot better dirty than it does clean.

ok this concludes post number uno. stay tuned for numero dos. jes just got back from lunch with will and we are going to begin our intervention marathon.

one more thing

2007-12-09T20:34:00.000-05:00

i got a couple of pictures of little baby harvey
(becky & kami's new baby girl):

how cute it she?

thanksgiving in colorado and thereafter

2007-12-09T17:44:00.000-05:00

i am still behind yall
seriously, i think once i am done teaching things will ease up a bit.
at least that is what i am telling myself.
anywho, i know it is weeks later, but lemme tell you about thanksgiving.

we went to see my sister, her husband greg and their son (my favorite nephew) ben.
not only were we spending turkey time with them, thanksgiving thursday was also ben's birthday
so really it was a two for one.

our flight to colorado was pretty uneventful. we left hella early so we were tired, but what was great is that the flight was not so full so both jes and i got to get our own row and catch some zzz's.
when i woke up i sat back up with her and we watched an episode of "dexter" on my ipod jes got me for graduation.
first of all, love my ipod that lets me watch video, second of all, love "dexter." seriously, it's a show about a guy who kills people (only bad people) but kills them nonetheless, and i love it. at times it can be heavy headed and the acting isn't always great, but in general, i can't wait to watch the next episode.

our first day there we just hung out and relaxed.

on thursday morning we got up and ben opened his presents and then we spent the entire day cooking.
we made mashed potatoes, sweet potato caserole, green beans, and stuffing muffins. we also helped kath with turkey which was ginormous. folks were coming over at 4pm and we almost got everything done before they started arriving. kath had invited a bunch of her friends and most of them have kids and/or are pregnant. after i finished eating, i got to hold a six week old baby girl while her mom ate. she was perfect and tiny and a little bit gassy. good times!

after dinner and perhaps too much wine, i went upstairs just to "lay down for a minute" which quickly turned into a two hour nap. i woke up and everyone was gone. it was totally bonkers. we watched ratatouille, which is actually a pretty good kids movie. i recommend it.

on friday greg, ben, my mom and i all went to "the jumping place" while kath stayed home (she didn't feel great) and so did jes (she needed to study for finals). it was a pretty fun place and much less crowded than i thought it would be. its basically all these blown up huge toy things you just bounce around on. here is a picture of ben before we started a jumpin:

i also didn't expect that all that bouncing and climbing would wear me out like it did. i was a huffing and a puffing all through the joint. i think what it made clear to me is that i need to get back on some cardio and pronto. i was able to catch my breath while greg and ben played a little air hockey:

and here is a picture of me and ben just kicking it:

now we got ben two presents for his birthday: a pair of spidey pj's with webs under the arms. please see the photo below:

while he looks pretty happy about them here, he was not so crazy about them when he opened them, but he was THRILLED for present #2: an optimus prime (transformer) toy. kath and greg's mom have been searching for this toy for a long time and we found it (VICTORY!) he was really happy to get it but also a bit frustrated by the process of transforming it. i really couldn't help him, but jes could b/c she had transformers when she was a kid. he carried it around with him the entire day, it was kind of cute. that night we watched the movie "transformers" which was pretty entertaining.

like i said a couple of the ladies at thanksgiving and one of those ladies is my sister. from the back you can't really tell she is pregnant, but from the side you can:

she is due in february, so stay tuned for the birth of my OTHER favorite nephew!

saturday morning we got up and headed to the airport for another early flight. before we left, we took a few last photos:

i wish i could say the flight home was uneventful like the flight out to colorado, but i can't.

about ten minutes into the flight, the "fasten seatbelt" light went off and a woman two seats in front of me got up and started walking toward the bathroom. when she got one seat behind mine she began vomiting in the aisle. instead of continuing to the bathroom, she just stood in the aisle and kept puking. i pushed the flight attendant light and they came a running and immediately threw down some packets of coffee to deal with the smell (so smart, right?). the next hour was spent cleaning up the mess and tending to the sick lady (who seemed pretty out of it). the good news? we got free tv b/c she threw up near us. the bad news? a little of her hurl splattered on my jacket. i promptly took it off and put it in my bag. while it was a little scary during it, we totally laugh about it now.

the night we got back, sarah and kim came over for a little wii and mexican dominoes. neither of them had played wii but i think they both really liked it. especially the boxing. here is a picture of them bringing the heat:

they also taught us how to play mexican dominoes. it was this really fun. i was super apprehensive about learning the game, and while i don't think i had the best strategery, i still had a lot of fun and i drank a lot of wine, but it was good wine, so i had fun doing it.

on sunday we got up and i noticed that larry was kind of breathing weird. i didn't think too much of it. on monday i went to work and jes called me there and said she thought that we should take larry in b/c his breathing was really labored. she came and got me on the way to the vet and she was really upset. i didn't get it, i assumed larry had a cold or *maybe* an upper respiratory infection or something.

we got to the vet and she agreed his breathing was weird. then she told us she could not hear his lungs so good on one side and ordered a chest xray. a few minutes later she came back with the xray and told us we needed to go to these specialists outside of the perimeter (read: far away in traffic and in the land of suv's and coach purses). she told us that the xray showed either a lot of fluid in his chest or a mass (read: cancer). jes and i were both stunned. we got our referral and directions to the specialists and hit the road.

while he was sort of panting, larry seemed normal otherwise. he had been eating, sleeping, peeing and pooping, so we just didn't understand what was going on. long story short: we finally talk to the emergency doctor there and she tells us she is almost certain its a cancerous mass and there is nothing we can do (outside of thoracic surgery and/or chemotherapy). jes and i just took turns losing our shit. she said they would drain the fluid from his chest and then in the morning, the internal medicine doc on duty would do an ultrasound of larry's thorax. all this costs loads of money and guaranteed nothing. it was one of the worst nights of our lives. when we left we both thought we were coming back in the morning to put larry down.

the next day at work was the worst. everytime the fucking phone rang i was sure it was the doctor telling me larry had died. by 2pm he had not called and i was about to lose it, so i called and they couldn't tell me shit except the doctor was going to call me after he finished the tests. one the one hand, jes and i were furious b/c they were leaving us hanging for so fucking long. on the other hand, we figured if he was really bad they would have called us first thing. finally at 3pm the doctor called me and told me that he was certain it WAS NOT a mass (this was very good news) but that he thought larry has restrictive cardiomyopathy which really means congestive heart failure and/or heart disease. now in the long run, this sucks b/c it means his life span will probably be shorter than we thought. in the short run it means that larry is still alive and kicking, he is taking a diuertic to keep the fluid out of his chest cavity and some heart medication to help his heart pump right. right this second he is getting a bath from his sister while sitting on jes's lap.

we went to the cardiologist on thursday to have her check his chest and take some blood. his chest looked great: no fluid! but his kidney levels are really high b/c of the meds he is taking. unfortunately, when it comes to kitties, drugs that are good for the heart are not so good for the kidneys. because larry and emily are older (17 years old!) they are both in the beginning stages of kidney failure. while we are both alarmed by his kidney levels, our vet here in decatur said we need to focus on his health now, and enjoy every day he is with us. so that is what we are trying to do. just love him and hug him and kiss him as much as we can.

here are some cute pics of him post emergency vet visit. he has a few shaved spots that are so cute:

and here is one of larry with his #1 lovah:

i am not joking when i say that he is seriously crazy in love with her.

ok this has been a long ass post yall. i need to rest and drink a glass of wine.
today was so gorgeous. seriously like late spring/early summer gorgeous. in the 70's and sunny.
i walked to the gym at school and i was like "oy i love the south!"
i hope you had a great sunday wherever you are.

birthday

2007-12-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

i am blogging while watching "intervention" on tivo
this show makes me never want to do drugs or drink ever again
for reals
it is stunning what folks do for the addicts in their life
i know i don't understand it because its not my life, but seriously. i don't understand it.

anywho, on to happier things: jes's bday.
on the night of her bday, jes and i went and got this delicious tapas dinner
i mean seriously everything was so good.
i really liked the patatas bravas with romesco sauce
and of course i loved the olives (aceitunas) and roasted almonds.
their sangria was really good too.

after dinner, we went over to emma and kristina's to hang out with some folks, eat some cupcakes and play wii
it was so much fun. first of all, they have this really amazing house. and it is all set up so nice and pretty.
they put up streamers all over the house and bought these really cute pirate candles for the cupcakes.
here is a picture of some folks before the wii smackdown began:

christina and jes were up first with boxing. they both did an outstanding job.
both were old pros at it, so it was a pretty close fight. i don't remember who won, but here is a picture of them going at it:

now emma, kristina, dawn and nikki had not yet played wii. jes, christina and i were pros (and by pros i mean we have played before). nikki and emma either boxed or played tennis, either way, here they are working it out. i love how intense they both look:

most of us were sweating, and all of us were sore the next day, but a good time was had by all. here is a picture of the gang. what a good looking bunch, no?

big thanks to emma and kristina for letting us play at their house
it was so much fun
ok its getting late and i need to stop looking at this computer.

tomorrow is our six year anniversary.
can you believe it? i have been in love with jes for SIX YEARS!
i am so lucky.

i know i know

2007-12-02T20:37:00.000-05:00

it's been way too long
but i swear i have a number of good reasons why.
i have a bunch of stuff to update you on, so i am going to try and do it, bird by bird.

first off, many weeks ago, we went and visited ali in columbus, ohio.
it was divine
we got to stay in her lovely new home that is so cozy and clean and perfect.
we also got to see our niece and nephew (cats) nala and batu.

here is a picture of each of them respectively:

it was such a fun and relaxing weekend. we did some shopping at easton (its like a huge shopping town. so bonkers). we also got to watch the ohio state vs. university of illinois football game. both are my alma mater, so i didn't really care who won. pretty much everyone watching the game with us was for ohio state. illinois won. not only was it fun to watch the game, we also got to eat some delicious food. here is a picture of jes and ali cooking something up. maybe fake pigs in a blanket:

we ate like kings and drank some beers. it was so much fun. it was jes, ali, becky, kami and me. we kept joking with kami (who was very very pregnant the day we watched the game) that she couldn't go into labor until after the game and that it would be great if she had her baby the weekend we were there. she actually DID go into labor that night, but didn't have the baby until the next day, i think. it took a long time, but finally baby harvest lila came into the world. i have not yet seen a picture, but i bet she is perfect.

so here, in this picture the two on the left, kami and becky are MOMS! and then that's ali and me. GO BUCKEYES:

on saturday night, we went to this new bar called "east village." it's a gay bar and it used to be called union station. earlier i posted a pic of jes and ali with frou frou drinks, that was at east village. after east village, we went to one of our old stomping grounds, the largest lesbo bar in OHIO yall, yup, you guessed it, wall street. not much has changed there really. though i feel like music is better. less 4 non blondes and melissa etheridge mega mixes and more contemporary stuff like kanye west and nelly furtado. actually, when her song "promiscious girl" came on, me and ali re-enacted a time when her and this colleague from the women's studies program got up on the risers (b/c they were drunkadoozles) and got funky.

here is it is in stages:

stage 1: we prepare ourselves for the hilarity that will ensue:

now i wore my ohio state shirt (that i had purchased at easton in the "buckeye corner" store) so that i would blend at the bar. next ali and i prepare to stand up on the riser. now remember, when this really happened oh so many years ago, it was ali and another woman and they were really getting their freak on. here is stage 2:

ali was so stunned by my "moves" that she never quite made it out of stage 2. here is my stage 3:

and lastly, VICTORY! i am up on the riser, people in the crowd (read: the other ten lesbos in the bar) were cheering me on (for reals, how funny is that) and nancy was frozen, perhaps entranced by my crazy dance moves. or she was laughing so hard she feared if she stood up she would pee her pants. thank heavens for jes's steady hand with the camera:

i give you, stage 4:

after that we left and went home and watched some tv in ali's cozy tv room downstairs. it was a really great trip and i can't wait until we can go back again.

ok then that is one post down, three to go! holla.

it's jes's bday

2007-11-17T09:01:00.000-05:00

hey yall
i know i owe you a few blog posts and some day soon i will get to them.
but for now, let's celebrate the love of my life, jes, who turns 28 today!
sweet young thing.

here is a picture of jes and some brooklyn friends on her 26th bday

and here is one of her from that same year here in atlanta. she is holding the card game "spite and malice" (kim and sarah got it for her) and wearing what is obviously her favorite hoody that year:

now here are a few pics from jes's 27th bday (also in new york). nikki and christina came to visit and we walked around williamsburg and froze our asses off. here is nikki and jes:

notice the new hoody (its mine) and new jacket (its hers). if only the pictures showed all the different shoes she was wearing.
here is another picture from her bday last year. we went on a bus tour of upper manhattan. we were also freezing here:

and now here is a picture from last week, not quite jes's bday, but at least you can compare and contrast during this short retrospective of my sweet honey jes:

ali and jes (dressed like twinkies in all black) are toasting with their girly fru fru drinks at this bar in columbus, ohio called, of course, "east village." while they were not technically toasting jes's bday, it does look festive, so that is the one i am going to go with.

we are going to spend most of today work on school stuff (jes outlining and me preparing for my class) but in there i will recycle and grocery shop and take care of ruthie dog. tonight she and i are going to get a romantical dinner at a tapas restaurant and then head over to emma and kristina's to meet up with some folks and play wii and hang out. i think it will be fun and chill all at once.

i will most def take pictures and post them forthwith.
happy saturday yall.

p.s. my friends kami and becky (b-e-c-k-beckybeckybecky) had their baby this week. her name is harvest lila. i plan to call her harvey. so cute.

it's been so long...

2007-11-03T22:15:00.000-04:00

since we last talked.
my bad.

i was out of town
then sick
then busy with work and teaching
and still sick
and now here i am FINALLY blogging

so lets start at the beginning.
first of all, the boston red sox won the world series
and kim in new york and her puppy bambino were so very sad (they are yankees fans)
here is a picture of bam contemplating the future of the yankess:

so...
two weekends ago we traveled to vancouver, british columbia for the ninth international drag king extravaganza.
we flew into seattle and then drove up to vancouver. it was pretty cold and rainy for most of the trip, but the drive was kind of nice. i was *really* ready to be out of the car by the time we got to the hotel though. overall, it was a nice weekend. we got there thursday, checked in, took a nap, got some dinner and then stopped off at the meet and greet.

on friday i helped facilitate a race panel and jes and i walked down to the water to see the ocean and the mountains. even though it was a little overcast, it was still really beautiful. here is a picture of us in front of the water:

on friday night we headed to dragdom, at this bar called the penthouse. here is a picture of the marquee, how cool:

there were a lot of good numbers. two different groups did "dick in a box"- both were hilarious. we got to chat a bunch with my friend mel, which was nice. here is a picture of dd & mandy from austin:

on saturday morning i had to get up early and go to an idke board meeting at this restaurant. we got a lot done, in not so much time, which was really nice. here is a picture of us after our meeting. we are (from left to right): sammy tomato, dd, erin, jodi, mel, kentucky fried woman, kristin, and then julie and me up front. a bunch of folks from the board could not make it to vancouver, so they aren't in the picture. oh bother.

saturday brought more panels and whatnot. we were really hungry for dinner and walked around looking for some place, and we came upon this place called moxie's grill. seriously, it was one of the nicest looking restaurants i have ever been to. and we went sort of in between lunch and dinner, so it wasn't very crowded. first of all, the bathrooms were ridiculous. i made jes take a picture of them b/c they were so amazing. there was a FLAT SCREEN TV in the bathroom and just so you get a sampling, here is a picture of the sinks. i LOVE them:

so we ordered some beers (jes got local on draft and i got a corona, of course) and look at the delicious frosty mug i got with my corona. i thought atlanta kim would LOVE it:

so we were not crazy hungry, but we wanted some protein b/c we felt like all we were eating was carbs like muffins and such. so jes ordered some chicken and i ordered some salmon. OH MY GOD WAS IT GOOD. jes got a grilled chicken breast covered in pesto, a green olive tapenade, feta cheese, and tomato. it was divine. i figured since i was in the northwest, i thought i would get salmon since they just like pull it out of the water down the street. it had this sweet glaze on it and was seriously so good. we were both very satisfied with our meal, which was good b/c on friday night we got mexican food (i know why mexcan in canada) and it was horrible.

saturday night was the showcase and it was really good. it was in this lovely old theater and there were lots of good acts. i was video taping and jes took some photos, but most of them were kind of far away. so really the only photos we have are of folks off stage. here is a picture of max voltage and jodi bon jodi and the two other folks in their number (don't know their names, sorry):

and here is butch tap. they did this crazy tap dance number. outstanding:

and then here are just some pics of cuties. first up, supriya (one of the vancouver kings) and my twelve chins. good god:

and here is julie, jes and their new favorite canadian beer in a can:

and here is a picture of fe & erin at the showcase:

there were a lot of good numbers. a sordid collective from chicago did this sort of turn of the century freak show thing, boys r us from tuscon arizona did this great number about how race, power, privilege and production work, and austin did this cute number about hierarchies of power at service sector jobs. there were other good numbers but it is almost midnight and i am tired.

i will post more about the last two weeks tomorrow.
good night.
happy daylight savings time.

more cuteness yall

2007-10-16T19:43:00.000-04:00

seriously
if i post this many pictures of someone else's kids
what do you think i will do when we start a family of our own
its gonna be off the hook

here is what finn looks like this week:

this one is my favorite. so thoughtful:

lazy sunday in decatur

2007-10-14T09:29:00.000-04:00

and by lazy, i mean filled with work.

life has been flying by me these last few weeks filled with work and teaching and friends.
i thought for a second this posting would have no pictures then i thought back to what i did last weekend, and i remembered i have pictures from that. let me start there and i will move forward to this weekend.

last weekend our friends kennie, kellie and their amost two year old daughter emalee came to stay with us. while we have seen emalee once before when they visited, we didn't really get to know her. luckily, this trip we did get to meet her. she is totally adorable, and hella quirky. she has her own funky sense of humor and it kept jes and i laughing the whole weekend.

her favorite (cat) toy in the house was the cardboard cat scratcher we got horace for his 7th bday last month. here she is, about to bite it. along with being adorable and quirky, she was also teething. all four eye teeth (maybe they are called canines-you know the fangs) AT THE SAME TIME. poor buddy. she did real good with it but by the end of the night they really started hurting. kennie figured out that a popsicle really helped numb the pain. anywho, here is em with the cat scratcher:

luckily, emily and larry were pretty ok with this:

along with getting to spend some quality time with them, we also got introduced to a great book called "dot and dash." its the story of a ladybug (dot) and a turtle (dash) who are best friends and their journeys. somehow dot fucks up her antennae and they have to go to this special wishing forest or something to get it fixed. when they get to the forest she says "bing bang banana, fix my atennae" and then dash pulls on it and it goes "TWAIIIINNNNGGGG" and its fixed. why am i telling you this? well b/c the whole weekend we kept saying "bing bang banana, fix my antennae." and then cutey mc cuterson emalee would often say "TWANG." you sort of had to be there, but really it was cute. here is a pic of kennie reading her the book. look at her michelin man arms. so cute:

and then here is one of the whole family. (i didn't do such a great job getting pics b/c it was a busy and tiring weekend. to all you readers that are either parents and/or take care of kids in some way. how do you do it? i simply had a kid in my house for a few days and it is exhausting. i just kept worrying she was going to fall down the stairs or hit her eye on the corner of the coffee table or some shit. our house is SO NOT CHILDPROOFED).

so that was last weekend. this past week was filled mostly with work and teaching. my job is going well and i am bonkers about teaching. my students are so smart and engaged and EXCITED to talk about class materials. i love it. but it takes a lot of time and is exhausting so on mondays and wednesdays i am pretty useless. though on mondays we go to sarah and kim's to watch weeds which is wonderful. last week instead of watching weeds we watched this new lesbian show called "exes and ohs." it was embarassingly horrible. i mean it makes l word look like an award winner. i think i decided i need to start writing tv shows. fuck this blog thing. the world needs a REAL GOOD lesbian show. maybe after i publish my dissertation i will work on that.

on friday jes went to some sort of real estate firm work fair thing. i am not sure what it is called. oh i just asked her and she said it was an "informational interview." anywho it went really well and gave her hope and encouragement for the future. and she wore her suit so she looked like a sexy lawyer. i didn't get to see this b/c i was already at work (oh bother) but nonetheless, i KNOW she looked fly. friday night we spent in and did twelve hundred loads of laundry, and just got our lives together b/c we had been rushing through our week so much. it felt so good to just chillax, hang with the cats and eat a nice spinach salad and some cheese quesadillas.

yesterday we got up pretty early and got out of the house. jes had to return her saddle to her parents house (she is selling them. did you know she was an award winning equestrian. she was. true story.) anywho so we dropped that off and then headed out to dawsonsville, georgia to do some serious shopping at the outlet mall there. see for my bday i got some money and gift cards from a few folks because i am in dire need of some teaching clothes. i have some nice stuff but the nicest outfits i have are really all comprised of jes's clothes and some day soon she will need them so i had to get my own shit (which of course i will share with her). yall jes and i were fucking shopping machines. for reals. we had a list and a mission. we would go in, find what we needed then go into the dressing room together and i would try all my stuff on and she hers and then we would switch, b/c pretty much everything we go we were sharing. then we have the "keeps" and the "give backs" and then we would be on our way. i don't really like shopping but b/c we were systematic about it AND most everything we got was on crazy sale, it was ok. we both were almost crying by the end b/c were were tired, my back was KILLING me and her neck was KILLING her and we both had low blood sugar. here is what we got:

new adidas comptown shoes, black and chartruese (not on the list but only $20)- dj
new adidas skate 3/4 shoes, black, olive and white (also not on the list but only $21)-jh
black v neck sweater
grey v neck sweater
wheat sweater
blue men's button down
wine women's button down
black men's zip up sort of formal jacket
a women's grey pinstriped suit that was hella on sale- holla
dark grey egyptian cotton pinstriped men's pants (they feel like jammies)
light grey women's trousers
brown women's trousers
cute shorts that were less than 4$ and look like postal service workers shorts without the stripes
brown work shoes-jh (it took her seriously three minutes to find them. hate her for that)
cute brown plaid hat for jes
5 pair of socks
a brown belt

isn't that BONKERS?!?

what i did NOT get is some more work shoes. i did really try and i even tried some on, but they were just a little too big (even though they were my size) so i figured i would wait until i find just the right size and just the right kind. its really hard for me to find what i want with work shoes b/c i need to be able to walk to work in them but they also have to look ok with trousers. i have been rocking some all black shell toes and when its warm i have some nice work sandles, but i need something that is a step up from the shell toes. they are out there. i will find them.

then last night we met up with sarah and kim and angie and elin (and some others) to celebrate kim's bday. we met them up at eddie's attic to see sonia leigh and this woman adrianne. no last name. it was SO GREAT to see them and to hear a little local music. after sonia leigh was over we headed over to this very weird lesbian bar in downtown decatur called Paris. they were VERY HAPPY to see us there. we got free food and free shots and folks just wouldn't leave us alone. people kept singing happy birthday to kim and she was wanting to crawl into the floor i think. luckily she deflected some of the attention to me and this random dude started saying defamatory things about latinos and talking about margaret cho to me. i told kim just b/c we were celebrating her bday does not mean i can't still pop her on the mouth. she just laughed and laughed. finally, he went away.

today jes and i are volunteering at this fundraiser for our friend mel who was in a motorcycle wreck about a month ago. it's called "blue lights in the basement" and it's at msr. i hope we help raise thousands and thousands of dollars for him b/c he mos def needs it.

ok jes is up, the cats are meowing for food and i need a cup of decaf.
have an outstanding sunday yall.
a few bdays this week:
my friend kim's is october 18. and my friend azad's is october 20. i love me some libras.

one more thing about my birthday

2007-10-06T09:36:00.000-04:00

the last thing i want to say about my birthday is that azad left me this hilarious message on my voicemail on my birthday.
he explained to me that my last year was my "jesus year" (jesus was crucified when he was 33 years old). here is a picture in case you have forgotten:

well azad told me that THIS year (my 34th year) is my "sweetness year." and for you sorry non-chicago folks, sweetness was the knick name of the greatest Chicago Bear ever, #34, Mr. Walter Payton:

so there you have it. i have officially declared this my sweetness year. may the power of payton bring me great things this year.

a tale of two birthdays-part three

2007-10-02T22:14:00.000-04:00

on friday we headed up to the north georgia mountains to celebrate emma's bday at a total cush cabin
all the rooms had robes and slippers (for when you went in the hot tub) and little bags of toiletries. much nicer than any cabin i have ever stayed in. once again, emma was totally surprised. both by jes and i and our other friends kiki and ria.
it was a totally chill time. we talked and ate and hung out in the hot tub and then the kids played poker while i read trashy magazines, gave them emotional support and eventually, i went to bed.

here is a picture of the cabin:

it was really amazing. getting there at night was a wee bit scary b/c it was so dark and the woods were so thick, but rocking on the porch while looking up at the twinkling stars really made up for everything. in the morning we got up earlier than everyone else to make it back home to emily, who was working her way out of a funk. the views from that same porch in the morning were breathtaking. the air was so crisp and clean. i really can't wait to go back.

the best part of the cabin was our room. it had a horse theme which i thought was very fitting for jes. here is a picture of our headboard:

and here is our quilt. loves it:

even though it was a very classy joint, we found one of the wine glasses had been taped together. here kiki models how klassy with a "k" it was:

speaking of classy, check out the folks in the hot tub:

not sure what everyone was looking up at.

here is one of jes and i before we got into the hot tub:

and finally, one of 30 year old emma with a killer handful of kings:

we got home fairly early on saturday and emily seemed to be doing better. we saw her eat a few times on friday (she had not eaten the two days before) so we think maybe she had some sort of a belly ache. we spent saturday and sunday getting some work done, soaking up some sun and having a delish burrito with sarah, kim, nikki and christina. it was a lovely weekend altogether.

this weekend kelli, kennie and their daughter emmalee are coming to stay with us. i look forward to spending some time with them. ok, getting pretty tired. good night.

a tale of two birthdays-part two

2007-10-02T21:38:00.000-04:00

i am not quite tired enough to fall asleep
and jes is watching the first episode of heroes on tivo, so i thought i would blog
so the second bday i want to tell you about is my friend emma's
she turned 30 on friday, september 28th but the excitement started sooner than that
on wednesday, emma's sweetie kristina surprised her with a little fun at log jam at mary's

the surprise was us, some balloons and most importantly, some cupcakes
our friend christina (with a "c") made these divine cupcakes. take a look;

if you want some too, you can go to her website at:

http://www.sugarmamascupcakery.com/home.html

here is a picture of christina with nikki. how cute are they?

pretty fing cute. also cute was shannon. she dressed up for the theme "gym class":

and here is one of me me and jes:

we set up the cupcakes and balloons and stuff and then emma and kristina showed up with their friend nico from new york and diana from michigan. it was one surprise after another. here is a picture of emma blowing out the candles:

and here is one of her and her bday posse. holla!

i think she was really surprised and felt pretty loved, so mission accomplished. wednesday is a school night, so we couldn't stay out too late. we were home and in the bed shortly after midnight.

stay tuned for part three.