So much for that resolution.

Well the blogging has taken a backseat as I have been focusing on doing more in my life.  More cooking, more romantic searching, more going on dates (but no actual S.O.), and just being more social (kind of).  Although lately a general malaise has settled over my life and I'm bummed.  But since there's no sense in complaining about it here, or at all for that matter.  So, I'll just deal and be back soon.

I'm too sick or allergy-riffic to be as angry about this as I want

 I read an article from Rolling Stone magazine, that was published earlier this month.  You can find it here.  I feel like I could be more angry but thanks to the fact that we haven't had a winter, and now that it's warmer, allergy season started freakishly early and my allergies decided to get a jump start on making me miserable.  So heavily medicated it is.

My only question regarding this article is where do we draw the line between allowing freedom of religion and allowing the religious to dictate the rights of others because it "infringes" on their "religious freedom"?  I'm going to write more about that idea later, but my drug addled brain isn't angry or passionate enough to articulate a coherent argument.  Look for that when I get my allergies under control and the passion of my ire is roused more fully.

In other news, the recipe for this week is still up for debate.  Last week was enchiladas (which turned out amazing), Shepherds pie (layers in order: Meatloaf, green beans, herbed mashed potatoes, and shredded cheese), and Swedish meatballs the cheating way.  Everything turned out amazing.  I think this week I'm going to make an attempt at blackened chicken and dirty rice.

Last week was pretty good and decently quiet.  Did work, and life, had a date on Friday night, and gaming on Saturday. All in all it wasn't bad. 

So this week is making it through this week without having my brains run out my sinuses, shopping and lunch with guy #1, gaming on Wednesday, and heading to Janesville for my mothers birthday on Saturday.  

Should have finished on Friday

I sat down on Friday with the intention of writing a blog entry, and thought to myself that I'd have time on Saturday to do so.  I was wrong.  So here's last weeks entry.  Maybe I'll have to start writing on Sunday mornings about the previous week, since that seems to be the way things are going.

Prop 8 was ruled unconstitutional this past week, taking marriage equality another step further.  I think the next step is the Supreme Court.  And while the whole decision is carefully worded to pertain only to California, a decision by the SC would create a precedent that could be used throughout the US.  An interesting editorial by USAToday I read (which can be found here)  has pretty good take on the whole thing.

Made Jambalaya last week, which turned out to be a raving success.  It's good everyone likes it because I made a whole huge pot of it and have tons left over.  This week's recipe research and dish to make is enchiladas because mexican was the request.  Having never made enchiladas or not really liking mexican food all that much, this should be quite a fun adventure.

I'm hopefully going to have a less busy week this week, and spend more time at home.  Finally decided to pick up a book that I own, and haven't read yet while at work, the Silmarillion by Tolkien.  I discovered that while dickens is good, he's a little difficult to get into when you're interrupted every 3.5 seconds or so.  At least the Silmarillion is like reading a history book, so there's less to actually get into and more information dumping.  But it's still a good story. 

Here's to a less hectic week.

I'm so bad at staying up to date.

So this is last weeks blog entry.  I was so incredibly busy with life, that I didn't have time to sit down and blog.  As my friend Sunshine would say, I am being an epic "do-er".

Monday was a date with a new guy, who also is musically inclined and a vocal coach, as well as a choir director for 2 choirs in the Chicago area.  This is guy #2 I'm seeing.  The first is a pianist and composer.  Oddly enough, right before I started seeing these gentleman, I had made a decision to try to get back into singing.  And then these 2 fell into my lap, proverbially.  So hopefully a collaboration for a cabaret act is in the stars/cards/what-have-you.

Tuesday was working and prepping for Wednesday, which was supposedly my day off.

Wednesday I went to Penzey's Spices and spent more than I should have, but not too much.  Ran to the bank, stopped at a kitchen store, got quoted a price for island countertops for my kitchen at Home Depot.  Which by the way, I will endeavor not to shop at anymore, as I was told that because the countertop that I wanted was for an island, it had to be a special order, and they have a $200 minium for special orders.  My kitchen is not that large, and neither is the island I wanted to put in.  So the total for the countertop was only $97 or so.  Ergo, they wouldn't sell to me.  So, I went to Lowes, where they had no such minimum for custom orders.  Then I ran to the store and picked up a few things, and a new 12 inch skillet so that I could make Curry Chicken and Rice for a friend.  After making homemade chicken stock and having 2 people call me asking me to make them my Chicken Noodle Soup, I had a dinner date with guy #1, and then I had gaming (because I'm a huge nerd), and then I came home and finished making my Curry chicken and rice at 1am.

Thursday was work, and then swing dancing with my friend Liz, and then to visit my friend and bring her the Curry Chicken and Rice, and help her out with some things and commiserate a little bit.

Friday was dealing with a hangover from a little too much commiseration, and thank God for V8 and ibuprofen.  Made it through work and then met up with guy #2 and some other friends for about an hour.  Then got gas, food, home, ate and sleep!

Saturday was getting the aforementioned island, running to the Art Museum to support my baby sister and her accomplishments as a self taught artist.  Then home for gaming, which ended rather abruptly, walked over to see a friend for an hour, then home to spend quality time with the puppy.

Today was blogging, and doing research on this weeks dish of Jambalaya.  Whee for another awesome week, and hopefully a little more time for sleep and whatnot!  Hopefully I'll have a minute or 2 to jot down something on Wednesday this week.  That's my goal.  Jeez, it's only February, and I've already had a whirlwind of a year.  Let's keep that momentum going!

A missed week.

Alright, so I missed my last week post, because I got back from TX and had a surprise waiting for me at work.  I requested to have off from Monday to Monday, 6 days of work, 8 total days of vacation, and 48 hours of work.  Meaning I had Monday off, which was good because it was my friend Sal's birthday and I made her an amazing marinara sauce over rotini.  It was fab!

Anyway, so I get to work on Tuesday and discover that my request had been altered to not include Monday, which left me with a no call no show on for that Monday.  After the initial shock wore off, I was more or less angry at the fact that there was no recourse left to me to deal with it.  Obliviously I don't do that (my record of 2 years with nary a one of those should speak for itself) and my request for 48 hours of PTO, which I spoke to 2 supervisors about before I left (why would I double check to make sure I had 48 hours of PTO if I only took 40 hours of vacation?) should have been appropriate to at least instigate an investigation for a possible computer error.  But no, I'm just a peon and I don't warrant that kind of effort, so I had to take the disciplinary action.  Which I was fine with in the end, but I was more angry about the lack of effort to look into my claims that I had actually done everything correctly, and the lack of employee ability to force such an investigation. 

Anyway, Austin was fun.  Got to see a neat city, and visit a pretty cool gay bar.  Met some interesting people, most notable was a couple of people who were obviously transients, who travelled via train hopping.  I didn't realize that people did that anymore, but you learn something new every day.  They also had a really cute big dog named Duke.  I hope their lifestyle and the dog mesh.  If not I wish the best for the pooch.

Tried brisket for the first time in an authentic TX BBQ joint.  Along with seasoned smoked turkey and some amazing sausage.  I will say that despite my depredations about the south, they do have a certain flair for doing barbeque.  So maybe it's not all bad.  Kinda.

And now I'm back in the frigid north, and hoping to make the most of my return to the land of cheese.  Happy Sunday!

A Cultural Moment with Elwë

Week 3 of 2012 finds me traveling.  I am currently approximately 1100 miles from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  

Things learned and seen on my road trip.

I saw the St. Louis Arch for the first time.

I know where the worlds largest rocking chair is (Missouri if you’re curious, at least that’s what the sign said)

I know the location of a Vacuum museum (also Missouri)

I saw a shop called “Allen’s Quik Lube” and it made me think of my friend Sunshine.

I found Electric Avenue (It’s in Oklahoma)

Happy Days moved from Milwaukee to Oklahoma (It’s a hotel in Oklahoma)

Texas apparently thinks gun stores can be a family affair.

I also have never been out of the midwest in the winter months.  So when I arrived and it was 85 degrees with low humidity and I heard that Wisconsin had 10 inches of snow and it was -13 degrees 2 nights ago, I thought it was rather fortuitous that I was 1200 miles away. 

I also realized, again, that I cannot live outside of Milwaukee.  Some of my habits are too expensive anywhere else.

There's also a really interesting restaurant chain that I discovered called Which Wich.  Not sure if it would make it in Milwaukee, because Jimmy Johns has a huge customer base.  But it certainly would be fun.

I think that Texas has way too much space, as evidenced by the fact that all of their interchanges for highways and such end up 50 feet in the air.  Also, apparently nobody told them that "Dubya" isn't president anymore, because they have "President George W. Bush Parkway" in Dallas. 

So off to a day of sightseeing in balmy 80-something degree weather.  I think I'll wear shorts. 

2012 - Week 2

So, it's week 2 of 2012 and the end of the world is (hopefully) that much closer, and I have zany stories regarding my NYRs to share.

First, the return to online dating.  Now I understand that when you're putting yourself out there you also have to be aware that you're also putting yourself out there for criticism.  Some guys are just assholes enough to take advantage of your putting yourself out there and make you feel like crap.  Case in point, I joined a website, created a profile, and all that crap.  Some young little bastard messaged me and his first words to me were, "God u need a makeover".  Naturally, I didn't read his message before I looked at his picture, so I was all drawn in by a pretty face.  So my reply was "And you need a personality transplant", and then I proceeded to block him, which is why we have those options on dating sites.

But I just wanted to bitch for a minute about something.  I have friends who are approaching 30, which is (according to some) "gay death", and I have friends who are well past that mark.  Now, lots of young(er) gay guys refuse to date over a certain age (usually somewhere in their early 20s), and don't want "fats, fems, or old guys".  Speaking as someone who's reached what you could call "gay middle age" I guess (late 20s), I really take offense to this.  Mostly because young, tight, svelte bodies will fade, and rapidly (usually considering the stereotypical party weekends that young guys have), but it can be extended by eating right and spending ungodly amounts of time at the gym.  But let's be clear here guys, looks *will* fade, and then what will you have?  As I'm fond of saying, "Looks fade, but bitchy is forever".  Which is to say, that maybe we should be spending more time on our personalities and intellects so that when we're not pretty, or young anymore we still have something to offer.

Another thing I'd like to mention is rounding.  Mostly all the rounding people do and don't do.  Dan Savage mentions sexuality rounding, wherein a Bisexual person will round themselves up or down depending on who they're dating.  I would like to mention that at some point we all have to round a whole bunch of other things.  Mostly regarding age and looks and such.  I mean, who really could be considered a 10?  Mostly I guess we have a hell of a lot of 5, 6, and 7s running around with inflated senses of themselves.  But I think Dan Savage said it best.






I think things would be easier if more people were cognizant of the fact that to get through life, there's going to be a lot of rounding.

I also came across this little video and it made me giggle, so I figured I'd share.  Happy Friday!

In the Closet - watch more funny videos

Blog! Languish no more!

I'm back.  For at least 52 new updates.  It's part of my NYR's (New Years Resolutions).  My goal is to blog once a week for a whole year, a week being Sunday to Saturday.  Therefore this would constitute week one.  The goal also includes blogging when I don't think I have anything to say, because that's never a problem in real life, so why would it be a problem in cyberspace?

So, what to blog about?  How about I'm happy that the bat shit crazy lady is no longer running for president, but I'm sorry that Santorum is really in the lead.  But I'm very glad that the GOP is apparently so fractured and reduced to infighting that they don't even have any non-crazy candidates to put forward for election year.

I think this year is going to be the year of cooking.  I had a recipe pop into my head for a seafood alfredo lasagna.  Involving crab, shrimp, scallops, layers of basil and spinach and cheese.  It looks good in my head, but I think I need to research scallops a bit before I go forward because I've never cooked them, or bought them for that matter.  So here's hoping.

What else?  Oh, I decided to get back into online dating after last years NYR of not.  But after being matched with people I'm acquainted with who have turned me down. Some for really stupid reasons (i.e. "we know too many of the same people").  I mean isn't that kind of the point?  The movie Latter Days (I recommend it, go find it and watch it)  has a quote where it says the LA is a city where everybody danced with one eye on the door, waiting for something better to come in.  But would they know it if it did?  I'd like to take that one step further and say that idea applies to gay culture, because that's what it is.  I get that nobody is willing to settle, but as Dan Savage is fond of saying, let's get into rounding.  So the guy that's interested in you isn't a 10, or even an 8 or 9.  Maybe he's a 5 or a 6 or even a 4.  But round up.  You have to give a little to get a little.  I wish more guys understood that prior to the age of 30.  But at this point that's a pot and kettle situation. 

Happy Saturday!