Last year for Halloween our friend Carolina gave Trigger a pirate costume (which he did not enjoy wearing) and Martha a princess costume. It was so funny because girlfriend had some shoulders and they were too wide for her costume- such is the life of a French bulldog. Our dogs bring/brought us so much joy.
I got off the couch this weekend. To my husband's delight, I got off the couch this weekend and rejoined society. I got a hair cut. I went to yoga. I took Trigger Monkey on a walk. Before this weekend I thought about living as a hermit for the rest of my life, but that feeling subsided with time. 
I love this picture of Owen. He's jumping in the ocean water and it looks like he's having lots of fun.
My father called me yesterday. He said he knew Martha Fauker was a special dog, and so on the third day he checked on her grave to see if she had risen. He reported that she had not like he was surprised. I don't know why, but this made me laugh...
After a series of strokes Martha died this week. Here's the email I sent out announcing her death...
To My Family and Friends That Loved Martha Fauker:
It is with a hurting heart that I must inform you that Martha Fauker passed away Tuesday evening. Tuesday night I drove her body to my home town. (She always loved spending time in my home town.) My mother and I had a silent moment under the night sky as my father covered her grave. It was a nice moment of appreciation for her life and sadness that her life had ended. Martha is gone. She will be missed. We loved her so very much.
An outsider would see Martha as a French bulldog. To us she was so much more than just a dog. She was an extension of my personality- my husband always said I was living vicariously through Martha with her blinged-out collars, her pretty princess outfits (yes, she had outfits) and the way I pampered her existence. She was a giver of unconditional love- her main goal was to be in the same room with us. She loved to sit at our feet, at our bedside, or next to our chair, and when we moved rooms, she moved with us. She was an important member of our family.
From the moment I rescued her, over 8 years ago, she had my heart. She was smart. Determined. She had a very interesting little personality. Martha Fauker always believed that she was the boss and as a result the other dogs she encountered (even physically superior dogs) treated her as the boss…as the queen! That was one of the philosophical lesson Martha Fauker taught me- to believe you’re boss and you’ll be boss! Any time I had a moment of self doubt, my husband would always tell me to “Be Martha,” which meant that I had to believe in myself.
Tuesday night, after I drove back to Dallas and my husband flew back to Dallas (Martha’s death interrupted his business trip), we went to bed. I was unaccustomed to the quietness that was present in our room without the snoring sounds of Martha.
You recall that we had work people over to the house last Friday? We have our framed diplomas proudly displayed in our home, and one of our directors made the following comment to me:
The restrooms in our office are in the middle of our building and they do not have any windows. My team made a pit stop on our way to a meeting; all three of us were standing up at a urinal using the restroom when a 50-year-old director turned out the lights and left. So the three of us were standing in a pitch black bathroom peeing. It was hilarious. We couldn't stop laughing at the third grade prank.
Hot Dog! Yes, we're one of "those". We buy Halloween costumes for our dogs. Trigger was not happy about being dressed up as a hot dog, but it made his two fathers laugh. Trigger stopped moving while the hot dog costume was on his body.
Even though I know that if you want to build a new house in our part of Dallas, then you have to buy a house and tear it down; I know this, however, I will never get used to the speed at which a house can be destroyed. One day this house was there, and the next day it was a pile of wood and bricks. For 50+ years someone called this house a home, and now it's gone. It's an interesting dynamic.
We had my work team over for dinner on Friday night, and it was great fun! One couple had been married for 10 years longer than us and they had two sons, another couple was newlywed, and the last couple had been dating since May. We were the only homos in the bunch, and everyone had a lovely night. It gives me great pleasure to host dinner in our home with my husband.
Is this what we have to look forward to? If I'm lucky enough to live to be an old man, then perhaps I too will get stuck in the corner. Martha Fauker has started wandering around the house, without purpose or a destination, and sometimes she gets stuck in the corners. She turns left and hits the wall, and she turns right and hits the wall; so she stops and stands with her nose in the corner.
My Aunt Jan has been dead for 15+ years, but every time I make her apple pie she's alive again. I love that food has the ability to transport me to another place and time. We had a dinner party on Friday night for my work colleagues, and for dessert we served Aunt Jan's apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
Good friends are good friends, because you can do "nothing" and it's still thrilling. Last night Dooley stayed in our home. My husband was out of town on business, as he often is, and so Dooley and I went to dinner at Kathleen's Sky Diner where we had great conversation and delicious food. She had shrimp and grits and I had Hawaiian salmon. After dinner we went back to the house and sat around the kitchen table talking, looking at cookbooks, and flipping pages in House Beautiful and Atomic Ranch, and we even took a moment to make fun of the homes in Architectural Digest. I also had a moment of "show and tell." I showed off my autographed cookbook from Ina. I also showed off my poster board of interior design ideas.
We were so inspired by watching Ina (The Barefoot Contessa) make her Spanokopita appetizers this weekend that my husband created a version of the dish. He rolled up our spinach and artichoke dip in phyllo dough. It was delicious. I love getting inspired to do something, and then doing it. Way to go Honey!
Did you read the New York Times this weekend? Did you read about how the Republican candidate for New York governor, Carl Paladino, said the following in a speech:
I love white mums, and apparently everyone else does too, because they were hard to find in Dallas this weekend. Dallas has loads of orange mums, purple mums, and brown mums for sale, but you have to hunt to find white mums to buy. (Question: why on earth would anyone buy a brown mum? Brown is the color of dirt.)
Martha Fauker no longer uses the doggie door. Either she's forgotten how to use the doggie door (like old people do old dogs become senile?) OR she doesn't like to use the doggie door (maybe it's hard on her joints to climb over the hump?). She stands in front of the doggie door and waits for someone to open it. 
My husband and I spent half of Saturday with my brother, his wife, their girls, and my mom and dad at a fall festival. The eight of us always have so much fun together. Right now I cannot get enough of Paxten, because she's in that perfect six-month-old-baby phase. I just want to hold her and squeeze her and make her smile. It's nice to see her personality starting to emerge too.
For lunch today the husband and I ordered to-go from Blue Goose; my husband enjoys the taco salad with shredded dark chicken and I enjoy the Taluca salad (minus the goat cheese) with fajita chicken. We also added goose eggs (jalapenos stuffed with cheese and fried) to our order. 
The Pew Research Center just released the results of a new survey on gay marriage, and it appears that more people this year support gay marriage than did last year. Hooray! I love progress. Also, it appears that there is a huge generation divide when it comes to views on gay marriage; the older you are the less likely you are to be in favor of gay marriage. This is good news to me...as more and more older adults die then our population will be replaced by voters that favor gay marriage! 
Hooray for the State Fair of Texas! My parents were at our house before 9:30 AM this morning, and while the rest of Dallas was at church or sleeping late we were eating corny dogs, touring the children's zoo, looking at new cars, and exploring the midway at the State Fair of Texas. We had a terrific morning together, and as we were leaving around 1:00 PM the fair was starting to get packed full of people. It was my parents' idea to do the fair as soon as it opened. My parents are geniuses.
We were in our favorite city in the whole world, Austin, for approximately one hour on Saturday. We drove to Austin from Dallas pulling a U HAUL to pick up our prior weekend purchases from Four Hands. Four Hands is an importer, wholesaler, and manufacture of home furnishings, and they are in business to supply furniture stores and designers. However, they have one not-easy-to-find showroom connected to their warehouse in Austin, which is open to the public. 
On Friday after work I got to hang out with Presley, Paxten, my brother and his wife. My brother asked Presley what was my husband's name, and she without hesitation correctly said the name of my husband. I was touched.
Tyler Clementi was outed over the Internet by his college roommate. He then posted "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." to his Facebook account, and on Thursday a body was recovered and identified as Tyler's. 
