Zac Efron, I love you.

We're fans of Zac Efron, especially when he wears a shirt that says: "Some dudes marry dudes.  Get over it."

David Koch, I love you.

I think they should put this slogan on the doors at Republican Party field offices around the country.

I've finally found a high-ranking white male Republican with some signs of intelligence.  First, a side note:  In general I think white males are running and ruining the Republican party with their anti-gay, anti-women rights, Fox News smoke-and-mirror routines.  Did you watch the convention?  Sure, I believe that the Republican party is the party of women and Latinos.  (Excuse me while I giggle to myself.)

Anyway,  I wish David Koch would run for President, because he seems to care about what's important to me...I saw this on The Daily Beast.

"David Koch, the billionaire industrial leader who raised millions for Romney and Republican campaigns, says that he disagrees with the GOP standpoint on a variety of issues. Talking to Politico after a reception held for him at the RNC, the New York delegate said he believes in gay marriage and also that the U.S. should consider raising taxes and cutting military spending. He also said he hoped America would withdraw from the Middle East. “We got to come close to balancing the budget; otherwise, we’re in a terrible deep problem,” Koch told reporters. In the past, the mogul has identified as a libertarian, but says he now considers himself a Republican."

QOTD

"Thrilled Ann Romney says ModFam is her favorite show. We’ll offer her the role of officiant at Mitch & Cam’s wedding. As soon as it’s legal.”

Steve Levitan, Co-Creator of ABC's Modern Family

Bachelorette

My husband and I were laughing all through the new movie Bachelorette, and I highly recommend this movie for anyone born after 1964.  (This movie might be too edgy for baby boomers and boomer parents!)  I love Kristin Dunst's performance in this film; she's a ruthless control freak, but she's likable too!

This film's message is clear: it's impossible to be separated from the one you love!

Eye Candy

I've been in the professional world over 8 years, and I've worked at three firms.  All three firms have hired super hot "eye candy" as receptionists.  They are all beautiful females that look like they spend their entire paychecks on clothes, hair, and makeup.  It's like the firms I work for are using 1960's airline flight attendant hiring standards to find receptionists.  Am I the only one that sees a pattern?  Is this fair?  When I rule the world I'm going to hire super hot males as receptionist to balance out this trend.

White Dog Hill

If you are ever in western Oklahoma, then you should stop by White Dog Hill for dinner.  The building  has a colorful history.  It was a country club, a speakeasy, a strip club, a private residence, and then it was abandoned for a decade.  The current owners have restored the main building to its historic glory.   The caretakers house is restored as a bar. The main building has a garden to table type restaurant concept.  Their menu is edited to a few excellent dishes.  I had steak (rare!), with roasted corn casserole, and asparagus with string beans.  We started with an artisan cheese board and fresh mixed green salads.  It was delicious food, and I love what an old building with a colorful history adds to a dinning experience.

True Blood

Our friends Dave and Myranda came over last night for steaks, twice baked potatoes, grilled corn, salad, and cornbread muffins.  After dinner we watched the season finale of True Blood.

The second half of this season was spectacular.  The highlights include Pam/Tara storyline, Lafayette acting like classic Lafayette, Jessica/Jason/Hoyt love triangle, and Eric!  I am now officially on team Eric.  Bill annoys me and I wish he'd go away!  I need to find a fairy baby momma, because last night watching the fairy give birth to four girls was awesome!

The problem with being a True Blood fan is that HBO will make us wait until June for a new season.

My Little Cupcake

The family got together to celebrate the birth of my mother last night at Joe T.'s.  I was lucky enough to sit next to my youngest niece, Paxten.  These are pictures of her enjoying a Sprinkles cupcake.  She's my little cupcake!  Such sweetness.  I love her.

I want to know...

...can I put my 57 year old (today's her birthday) mother in a nursing home?!  I think she'll be thirty years younger than everyone else, but maybe she'll be safer?  She accidentally fell last week.  She's okay.  But I'm not okay!  In December she fractured her skull and suffered a traumatic brain injury, which is healing still.  I worry about her.  Mothers are supposed to worry about their sons- that's normal.  This son doesn't like worrying about his mother- I don't want that to become normal.

At least my mother gets up after she gets knocked down- figuratively and literally.  Happy Birthday mom.  I love you.  Now, don't accidentally fall down any more.

My Parsimonious Goal

My husband and I have solid finances.  We don't live above our means, we're saving for retirement, we're saving for a baby, and the only debt we carry is on the house and one of our cars.  However, I could always spend less and save more, right?

I'm worried I'm being controlled by my habit of purchasing stuff for the house.  I love furniture and art and kitchen accessories.  I get a chemical rush in my brain when I go shopping at Anthropologie, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, MeCox, Wisteria, DWR, Crate&Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma.  I get lost in the pages of Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Country Living, Atomic Ranch, and Architectural Digest.  I have a never-ending list of household improvement projects, which is why I'm worried about myself.

To ensure I'm not being controlled by my habits, for the rest of this month and the entire month of September I'm going to not shop for myself or the house.  Yes Honey, I'm going to try to not spend money.  I hope the Dallas economy doesn't crater.  Ha!

I hope to overcome my weakness.  I don't like having weaknesses.  It's an obtainable goal - 45 days of not shopping.  Maybe I'll reprogram myself in the next 45 days so my husband doesn't have to monitor our credit card statement to see how much money I've spent on the house.  And so I don't have to try to hide new purchases around the house so that when eventually my husband discovers something it's no longer new.  "No, Honey,  that's not new we've had that..."

Looking Out

We've been keeping my husband's parents' dog, Beau, and one more dog makes our pack more exciting.  Everything that happens in the house is attended to with more enthusiasm.  My husband walked to the mailbox this weekend and it cracked me up how all three of the dogs ran to the door to watch him.  They barked a few times too.

Our dogs add so much joy to our household.

A Good Call

Last week one of my father's colleagues died suddenly; he was 46 years old with a stay-at-home wife and two young sons.  My mother and father attended the funeral.  Later that night my father called me.  I had just returned from yoga.  I was sweaty, tired, and still trying to cool down when I picked up the phone.

My father said; "I love you.  I'm proud of you.  I don't tell you that enough, and I wanted you to know that."

I thanked him, and then told him that I loved him too.  We quickly got off the phone because it was getting too sad/touching...my voice had already cracked.

Of all my father's achievements in his life, he has succeeded most in fatherhood, which benefits my brother and me.  Thanks dad.

Eating Color

We had a really colorful dinner tonight.  It was tasty.

Circus

While my husband stayed home and studied, I met up with my father and my brother's family at the circus. After ten minutes Paxten was saying "no more," and I think Presley was more excited about the rainbow snow cone my father purchased for her than the circus itself.  Nonetheless, it was a great family outing.  I love my family.

Tea and Sympathy

This week, while in my hotel room working, I stumbled across Tea and Sympathy on TCM.  I was shocked that this film from the early 1950's had such a strong homosexual theme.  I was actually surprised an audience from that era would watch such a film, but it's edginess was captivating, still.  A boy is tormented for being different at his boarding prep school.  He has an overbearing father, that is embarrassed his son's nickname is "sister boy."  The boy tries to prove his manliness by visiting a prostitute but fails.  Eventually, the boy falls in love with the high school coach's wife.  Shocking.

Dulce de Leche

My husband's favorite cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory is Dulce de Leche.  So when I saw dulce de leche Cheerios I thought I had to buy them for my husband!  However, when I showed them to my husband he was less than thrilled.

"Honey, that's weird.  How does cheesecake translate to cereal."

Cake is Love

My grandmother always baked, especially for me, her sour cream pound cake on my birthday.  It was a tradition.  Last year my mother offered to take over the tradition, since my grandmother really couldn't bake any more.  This year my mother once again baked me her pound cake on my birthday.  It was delicious.  I wrapped up several slices and froze the divine cake my mother baked especially for me.  This weekend I ate the last slice.  I love this cake.  I also love that eating the cake some how some way connects me to both my grandmother and mother.

Thanks mom!  I love you.

Burt's Bees Addict

Both my husband and I enjoy Burt's Bees lip balm.  This summer we discovered the grapefruit flavored Burt's, which I would highly recommend.  I also bought some Burt's super glossy lip shine in zesty red.  My husband said I was buying lipstick.  I disagreed.  I put it on my lips and asked my husband if it looked natural?  He informed me that nothing called "zesty red" would look natural.  I disagree.

My 2 year old niece, Paxten, was at our house asking for "lip-tick," which my brother thought was odd.  My mother usually provides the lipstick to her granddaughters, and my mother was not around.  Of course, my brother thought it was more odd when I handed Paxten some lipstick...oh, I mean lip shine.

Bed

Pottery Barn was having a big sale, and I took the opportunity to update our bedding.  It's a bright and colorful flowery forest print.  It might not be what most men would want, but the bright colors on our dark wood makes me smile.  Plus, as a bonus, it's the exact bedding my mother has in my old bedroom at my parents' house.  One time my niece, Presley, was staying with my parents and she didn't believe that she was sleeping in my old room.  Presley thought it looked like a girl's bed.

House of Huntresses

My brother, his wife, and his girls spent the week at the beach.  My brother's dog, Cady, spent the week at our house.  Does this look like the picture of a killer?  Don't let this cute Jack Russell Terrier fool you, Cady is a huntress.  In her week at the house she's killed many of the frogs in our back yard.  She tried to kill a few squirrels.  Our small Dallas backyard is alive with many frogs, lizards, and earthworms, and small snakes, which is one of the side effects of using organic yard stuff.

This week I even caught Dooley killing a baby grass snake.  The snake was less than four inches long, but, still, I wonder if Dooley's cousin Cady taught her to kill?  Oh, wait, Dooley was already a killer.

Butterfly

Presley discovered a dead butterfly in our backyard.  At first she thought it was sleeping and she used the end of the garden hose to push it along- she was trying to wake it up and get it to fly.  I had to explain to her that it wasn't sleeping it was dead.  She wanted to know why it was not alive, and she kept asking what happened to it.

Once she accepted that the butterfly was dead she then tried to feed it to Dooley.  I told her not to give Dooley the dead butterfly.  She again asked why.  I told her dogs don't eat butterflies (right?), but then she informed me that some dogs eat bunny rabbits.  (Immediately I flashed back to my brother telling me about their dog Cady killing a wild rabbit in front of both his girls.)  She trusted me when I told her our dogs only eat dog food.

I love Presley.  She makes life more interesting.

$259M

I saw this in Newsweek: "$259M - Boost to New York City's economy from same-sex marriages since they were legalized one year ago."

Dear Texas,

If you want to legalize same-sex marriage for no other reason than to bank the increased tax base...I think I'm okay with that.

Sincerely,

Me

QOTD

"Every morning we are born again.  What we do today is what matters most."

- Buddha (not really Buddha?)

Weekend

My husband and I had a lovely weekend together.  He studied all weekend, but we still found time to mingle with friends.

• Friday night we met Dave and Myranda for dinner at Gloria's.
• Saturday night we had dinner at Jim and Donna's resort-like home.  We played a few games of water volleyball before Jim fired up the grill for steaks, chicken, asparagus, and corn.  Their only child, Emma, starts college in the fall.  I first met Emma when she was around 7 years old, and after we watched a few of her high school graduation highlight films I was overwhelmed with the "where did the time go?" question.  Life happens in a hurry, right?
• Sunday morning we met Adam for breakfast.  He was in town visiting his family, but he made time for us.

The weekend also had yoga, laundry, shopping, playing with the dogs, and getting ready for another week...

Where's the love?

This Chick-fil-a drama won't stop.  It hurts me to see so many people rallying behind a company that hates gay people.  And it's completely, totally misguided to say that this is about "free speech."  This has NOTHING to do with free speech.  These people are rallying behind Chick-fil-a because they agree with the Cathy family value that gay people are less than (not equal to) straight people.  Think about it.  It's all about the content of what the Cathy family is saying.  This has NOTHING to do with their right to say it.

Being gay isn't something you do. It's who you are.  Gay is not an action.  It's not a choice.  When did you choose to be straight?  Do you remember the first time you knew you were heterosexual?   Those are silly questions, right?  It's silly when people ask me when I first knew I was gay too.

This gives me tired head, because it's clear to me that a large group of people are supporting hate.  They are supporting the Cathy family's hatred of homosexuals.

I'm gay.  My husband's gay.  Because we're gay we're in a minority group, and it makes me sad and uncomfortable to see a majority being hateful.

Where's the love?

A Fast July

July zoomed by in a hurry.  The older I get the faster time moves, which is something I remember old people saying when I was a child.  I'm so engaged in my new-ish job during the week.  We're playing catch up on the weekends.  There's never enough time.

Go, go go!  We're always on the go.

July marked the end of the first three months of my husband's 24-month MBA journey.  At this rate, July 2014 will be here in no time.  And after my husband earns his graduate degree, then we're going to go find some babies to adopt!