Glenda's Pimento Cheese

It's been almost two years since my Glenda died. She was one of my grandmother's best friends; she was like a second mother to my mother; she was my bonus grandmother. Glenda was also an amazing Southern cook: butter or sugar or bacon made everything better. She could bake the best desserts and bread. She could fry the best fish, and her side dishes always played more than a supporting role at mealtime. In the summers at lunch I loved to drink a cold glass of her iced tea and watch her pull endless amounts of food from her refrigerator. It was always a delicious feast.

I was thinking about Glenda this week, and so today I came home after work and made her pimento cheese. Glenda always sliced two thick pieces of bread from one of her homemade loaves, she buttered the sides, toasted the slices on her skillet, loaded each side up with her pimento cheese, and then she placed the two slices together to make the best pimento cheese sandwich. It was always a lovely treat.

Today while eating my pimento cheese sandwich alone in my kitchen I became incredibly grateful that for the first 28 years of my life I had a bonus grandmother...

Strays

Sometimes I dream about living on the lake at our primary residence or owning a lake cabin as a second home. Water is such an important part of my husband's life; he was reared on the shores of a lake.

However, if we lived on the lake I don't think I'd enjoy seeing the stray dogs that get dumped at the lake. At least a dozen times a year dogs are abandoned by their owners at my husband's parent's lake house, and it makes me sad to see them wandering in search of food and a new pack leader. At least the dogs won't die of dehydration.

I love this! Too funny.

In our homophobic society straight guys have lost the ability to be intimate with each other; perhaps it is out of fear of being perceived as homosexual? It's incredibly endearing and entertaining when two guys are fearless and have the ability to joke around with each other. This video cracks me up.

Whew. Goodbye June!

Today is the last day of June 2010, and I am happily singing "so long, farewell auf weidersehen, goodbye..." to this month. I'm not singing goodbye to June because of boredom, but rather I'm singing goodbye because our June schedule was a hectic nonstop blur of activity. My husband was away on business during the week trying to close deals, and every weekend we were away from home: Waxahachie, Austin, Los Angeles, Nocona. We had an exciting month, but I'm ready to dial it down a bit and just live in a quiet weekend...

Regatta Weekend

We just had a big family weekend with my husband's family. His people are from Lake Nocona, and this weekend was the Lake Nocona Sailboat Regatta. My husband's people are sailors. Damn good sailors.

My husband's uncle and his crew won the race, and my husband's father and his crew (the two of us!) came in second place. Maybe we'd have won if I wasn't on the boat? To be honest, I didn't realize the race had started, and we kept getting farther and farther from the starting line, and I asked why we were going so far out? My husband looked at me, and asked if I was kidding? I was not. He then said that the race had started- five minutes ago. Oh. Well, no one told me. I also struggled a bit because my husband and his father DO NOT use words when they sail. They are always in sync by some unspoken means. I had to remind them I can follow orders, but the orders have to be given with audible English words. So for the rest of the race I responded to things like "boom vang" and "jib" and "we're about to tack." My job was to pull the purple rope, the blue rope, the white rope and the gray rope appropriately.

Sailing with my husband and his father is great fun.

B-I-B-L-E, that's the book for me.

My brother sent me this link to a letter that maps out all the ridiculous things in Leviticus, one of which is that homosexuality is an abomination. I've never understood why millions and millions of people enjoy a selective reading of the Bible. Sure, they bash us homos while quoting Leviticus, but they ignore the parts in Leviticus about how it's okay to own slaves, stone to death your neighbor, and it's also an abomination to eat shrimp.

True Blood is back.

The third season of HBO's True Blood started a few weeks ago. We don't have HBO. I'm in search for new friends in Dallas that have HBO. My husband is out of town all week and his Hilton has HBO. He's completely caught up on season three while I'm still stuck in season two.

Saving for Babies

The husband and I had a financial meeting on Sunday. We reviewed our expenses, and we strategized on how to increase our savings, ASAP. We need an extra $100K to pay for surrogacy, and I turn 30 next month and we'd like to have children before we turn 50!

Our new plan for saving is that we won't spend more than $25 each weekday. It seems like a lot of money for expenses, right? I thought this was going to be easy. We'd have $100K by next Thursday.

On Monday, I spent $50 on gas for my 4Runner, $35 at Williams-Sonoma for a cake pan, and $12 at lunch. FAIL.

On Tuesday I spent $20 at the dry cleaners, $8 on lunch, and $70 at eBay. FAIL.

Today, I spent $8 at lunch. SUCCESS!

Takeaway: Saving for our extra $100K is going to be tough, and in the future I'm going to ask my husband to pick up the dry cleaning.

Bowls and Fans

I have an addiction. I am addicted to mixing bowls and oscillating fans. I have standards. I am only addicted to quality mixing bowls and oscillating fans, but it's an addiction still the same. If I see one that's worthwhile, then I really want to buy it and bring it home. Two nights ago while my husband was away on business I was in a bidding war on eBay. I was really excited about the vintage "Pyrex Cinderella Mixing Bowls" in the "Friendship" pattern. I get excited about awesome mixing bowls and really nice oscillating fans.

How did my life get to this point?

We love you Dads.

Today is father's day, and I want to remind you that we are the sons of great fathers. This was a great week for us. We had a Wicked adventure with my father on Tuesday, and an Austin adventure with my husband's father on Saturday and Sunday.

We are lucky to still have adventures in life with our fathers.

Thanks Russ!

My husband's cousin is Bobby. Bobby's partner is Russ. Russ took us along with my husband's parents sailing on Lake Travis in Austin this weekend. Lake Travis was more spectacular than I remembered. The water was deep and refreshing, the sailing on the Beneteau 31 was exciting, and we had so much fun together on the lake. Russ hosted the entire event and we were his appreciative guests. He wined and dined and sailed us. It was a treat.

It's fun to be me!

Horrible

My parents attended a party on Friday night at the home of one of my father's colleagues. My father's colleague and his wife are avid big game hunters. They go to exotic places around the world, buy the hunting permits, and then shoot and kill animals for sport. They DO NOT shoot and kill animals for food. They shoot and kill animals for fun. My mother sent me some photos from the inside of their home where they have many taxidermy animals. Elephant ears, elephant tusk, elephant feet, a giraffe head, a zebra, some big cats, and numerous other birds and smaller animals are displayed around their home.

I will never understand the killing of wild animals for sport. For fun. We are animals too, and it seems like we should honor all living animals, insects, and plants.

It takes a tremendous amount of entitlement to point a gun at an adult elephant roaming the wilderness of Africa and shoot and kill it so you can mount the ears in your living room walls in Texas. It's horrible that they killed a wild elephant so they could make footstools out of elephant feet.

The world will be a better place if we lived in harmony with our fellow animals.

Yellow

Last weekend in LA we watched our friend Del Shores' newest play Yellow. This week the critics have written their reviews, and they enjoyed this powerful play almost as much as we did. I am so happy for Del! If you are in LA this summer, then make sure you go see this great show.

Wicked Dallas

My parents haven't seen Wicked. The husband and I have seen Wicked 2 times, once on Broadway and once in Dallas. It's a show everyone should see at least once, or twice, or three times. This year Wicked returned to Dallas and we got great tickets with my parents to the show the only night it worked with all four of our schedules- last night. However, right before the show started my father felt ill and excused himself from the theater. My mother was worried about my father and so she left the theater before intermission. All four of us left at intermission, because we didn't want my father to get sick at the show. My parents still haven't seen Wicked. The husband and I have seen Wicked 2.5 times. We still had a great little adventure together.

WWJD?

This weekend, just like many times before, we went to the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade, and while there are still protesters at this event the group is getting smaller. They protest our gay pride celebration in the name of the Bible, but honestly if Jesus was on earth today do you really think he'd be protesting our celebration of love, freedom, and acceptance?

Home again, home again.

We're home again. We spent a long weekend in Los Angeles visiting our friends in West Hollywood, and today on our way home from the airport we stopped and saw Paxten (Presley was at school) for a very brief moment. Paxten is an incredible welcoming committee.

Barr Mansion

Oh No! The Barr Mansion in Austin Texas burned down last night. I have such a strong emotional attachment to that place, and it makes me sad to think that it is destroyed. This was where the husband and I stood in front of our most loved friends and family and publicly proclaimed our love for each other, and we vowed to love and honor each other forever.

For me, our wedding was the closest thing to heaven. That night all the baggage that comes with being gay in a conservative state had vanished. We celebrated our love with the people we love. It was magic.

Desert Rose

My desert rose is in full bloom, and it's beautiful. My green thumb has faded a bit this year; my disease resistance knock-out roses have a disease, my oak leaf hydrangeas have black spots, and my Japanese maple died. However, my desert rose is as beautiful as ever.

Go Lakers

I don't really enjoy basketball. It's a game that always seems to come down to what happens in the last two minutes of the game. Why not just play a two-minute game? However, I saw this photo and now I'm cheering for the Lakers. Is that wrong?

Squirrel Hunt

When my 4-legged niece Cady visit us she like to hunt squirrels from the top of our couch. When a squirrel gets low enough on the tree in the back yard she jumps down and runs out the doggie door to chase the squirrel. She does it again, and again, and again...she's addicted to hunting.

Dooley & Derrick

On Saturday, we met Dooley and Derrick at the lake. We had Friday night plans. They had Sunday night plans. So we seized the 24 hours we had together at the lake. We toured the lake in the pontoon boat. We swam in the deep part of the lake. We sailed around the lake, we relaxed in the sunshine, and they saved us from multiple spider attacks. We played with the dogs. We cooked a delicious meal together of salmon and rib eye, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and salad. Together we made a late night emergency run to CVS in search of something to sooth my husband's sunburned shoulders.

On Sunday morning we kept the party going and feasted again together, and then we had to get on the road to get back to our lives. The entire twenty-four hours we talked and discussed ideas and points of views. It was a spectacular time. It was a glorious time.

Here's to making the most of 24 hours with friends!

True Love

My beloved friend Dooley is now a vegetarian. She knows I love her poblano pepper soup, which includes chicken, and even though she no longer eats meat she made me the soup! Isn't that the most amazing gift? I am honored. She made me soup with an ingredient that she does not eat. She handed me the soup and said she couldn't taste test it so she hopes it's good. I thought that was funny. I love Dooley.

Gay Sharks?!

My dear friend Missy is in love. She plans to marry her current boyfriend, and it appears that he wants to marry Missy too. Love is a wonderful thing. Although they are not officially engaged, they are making plans to move to the same city and start building a life together. They have a fun love story; Missy dated him for two years in high school, but they lost track of each other after high school. This fall, after ten years apart, they reconnected on Facebook. They are in love.

They had a wedding in Dallas so they stayed at our house this weekend. Friday night was the first time we've met Missy's boyfriend. I was excited to meet him because she's spent the past six months talking about him. My husband and I went to dinner with the two of them on Friday night, and we had a great evening, but it had two incredibly awkward moments. (Remember the two of them were having dinner with the two of us, and don't forget that the two of us are homosexuals a.k.a. gay.)

First, we were talking about how fantastic it was that they rediscovered each other on Facebook. Missy's boyfriend told us that he doesn't like to tell people that because it's gay.

The second awkward moment of the night was when we were discussing their upcoming vacation to the Bahamas. I told them how my husband took me on a tropical vacation as a graduation present, and he took me to do something I'd always wanted to do: swim with dolphins! Immediately Missy turned to her boyfriend and said that she wanted to swim with the dolphins when they go to the Bahamas! Missy's boyfriend said no way because dolphins are just gay sharks, and then he laughed.

Both times I didn't know how to handle the situation. He is most likely going to marry one of my great college friends. He was staying at our house all weekend; he was our guest. This was also the first time we've ever met him. As a gentleman I did not immediately want to call him out on how offensive his comments were to us, because we were at dinner.

When we were leaving dinner Missy pulled us away from him and apologized to us on his behalf and said she'd talk to him...

Kindergarteners

A kindergarten teacher from our neighborhood elementary school who has been teaching for over 30 years was quoted as saying the following upon her retirement:


“Kids are capable of doing difficult tasks if we present it to them in a fun and interesting way,” she says. “The kindergarteners used to color and finger paint, now they read and write in journals.”

I found her quote to be powerful, because it's not the 5-year-olds that have changed in the 30 years. I think it's adults expectations of 5-year-olds that have changed. We expect our kids to learn to read and write as soon as possible, and so they do. That is a powerful idea.