what the heckles, mr. speckles?

I haven’t really had much to say lately. Not much has been going on. Lots of work. On my day off Thursday, I ran to the garden center and picked up a couple flats of annuals. Came home and got them in the ground. Yea, for getting something accomplished.

Loving the new washing machine. Besides not leaking, it has a larger capacity. It feels like we’re doing laundry less often. And it’s incredibly quiet compared to its predecessor. Unfortunately, the old washer is still hanging out in the garage waiting for someone from State Farm Insurance to pick it up.

Headed to Jimmy John’s for the first time last night for dinner with David and Marc. It was pretty good. It’s like a step up from Subway. After dinner we headed to the cinema to catch the new Pixar flick, Up. What a wonderful movie. Had me choked up in the first ten minutes. Also, I don’t think it would be a great movie for real little kids. The story-line is a little more sophisticated.

Working an event today, then off tomorrow. I’m looking forward to next weekend’s two-day break from work.  And the trip to the beach with nearly all of my father’s side of the family is fast approaching.

Finally, congrats to the fine state of New Hampshire, who’s state legislature and Governor approved same-sex marriage. That’s six states. I’m even more sure today, that I’ll see full marriage equality across our country in my lifetime.

feta salsa

Happy Saturday everyone! I actually have a Saturday off work, and it’s been delightful. Greg and I went to the movies and saw the Academy Award nominated Slumdog Millionaire. It was really good. Greg has decided that he would like to become a Bollywood dancer. We’ll see how that turns out. We’ve been invited to game night with the girls at David and Marc’s. I decided to make a recipe for feta salsa that I saw on my favorite food blog Smitten Kitchen. She makes the most delicious recipes and takes the most beautiful photos of the food as she works through the recipe.

I tweaked the recipe a bit. I’m not a fan of scallions, so I left them out. I also added about a tablespoon of fresh lemon zest. Here are a few of the pictures of my process today. I’m so incredibly happy with the new camera that Greg got me for my birthday. It’s taking great pictures. Greg was also my hero for finding the tripod buried in the downstairs closet.

we're heading to broadway!

There are rumors that the cult-film Waiting for Guffman may become a full-on Broadway Musical. If that’s the case, we’re heading to NYC for opening night. Read all about the rumor here. After you’ve read the article watch one of my favorite clips from the movie.

show of hands, please

Ok, so who thought that actor Ricardo Montalban had already left us for the great dinner theater in the sky? I must confess, I loved me some Fantasy Island back in the day.

our christmas

At the Chinese Restaurant on Christmas night before going to the movie with the guys.

movie night

Last night Greg and I stopped by our neighborhood Blockbuster to find some flicks to watch this weekend. We came across an interesting title along the new release wall, For the Bible Tells Me So. Here's the description of the documentary:

Does God really condemn loving homosexual relationships? Is the chasm
separating Christianity from gays and lesbians too wide to cross? Is
the Bible an excuse to hate? These questions and more are answered in
this award-winning documentary, which brilliantly reconciles
homosexuality and Biblical scripture – and reveals that religious
anti-gay bias is based almost solely upon a misinterpretation of the
Bible.

Through the experiences of five very normal, Christian, American
families – including those of former House Majority Leader Richard
Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson – we discover how people of
faith handle the realization of having a gay child or family member. 

Offering healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in
the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity, this landmark film
“boldly takes on a loaded topic and examines it both intellectually and
emotionally; the result may well leave you blinking away a few tears” (Seattle Times).

It was an amazing film that had both of us in tears by the time that the credits began to roll.  It was so interesting to hear from actual biblical scholars and their interpretations of the several biblical passages that are used against homosexuals. This is a film that I want to share with others that are struggling to
reconcile their religious beliefs and accepting the gays in their lives. Personally, I've been searching for a spiritual home since coming out. This film gives me a great deal of hope that there are churches out there that would welcome me. As a child I went to our church nearly every Sunday. It would be good to have that in my life again.

movies and burgers

Saturday was a very good day. After Greg’s haircut in the morning (it looks very nice David) we headed to the movies. We checked out the Disney/Pixar flick Wall-E. The animation was stunning. And the story was quite sweet. There were many lessons to be learned. I think the most amazing part of the movie was the absence of dialogue for most of the first part of the movie. How so much emotion could be conveyed without a single word of dialogue was so beautiful. 

Saturday night, I worked the Storytelling Concert at work. It was a fun evening that thoroughly enjoyed.

I slept in until 8:45 this morning. That’s very late for me. We met Megan and Michele for breakfast. We planned to go to Wally Waffle, but the line was really long. Greg estimated that there were thousands of people on line. I think he may have slightly exaggerated that number. Instead we headed over to Bob Evan’s. We had a nice time, followed by games of Wii bowling and tennis at home. My tennis game needs a lot of work. A lot. Later, we are heading to the Hamburger Festival downtown. We’re also DVRing last season’s highly acclaimed Mad Men for viewing before the new season begins later this month.

sure it's this weekend, but what about last weekend?

I had one whole day off last weekend. That’s ok, we managed to cram a whole lot into it. We decided to be proud and headed up to Cleveland with David and Marc to Pride. We caught the parade between rain drops. It’s no Macy’s parade with big floating balloons, but it was still fun. My highlight was the marching band performing the Aqua hit, Barbie Girl. Phil, Tom and Brett caught up with us and toured the festival. Basically a bunch of information and vendor tables. Lots of tote bags and flyers were collected.

By now it was mid-afternoon and we were all starving. After a brief discussion we headed to Fat Fish Blue where we ate and celebrated Phil’s birthday. The food was phenomenal. I feasted on the pecan crusted chicken with a bourbon glaze. Delightful! Greg and I shared a special tower of dessert. It was called the carpet bagger, it was a lunch bag sized chocolate bag filled with sponge cake, Godiva white chocolate moose and fresh berries. It also came to the table with a lighted sparkler.

After lunch we toured Tower City (there’s a candy store there) for awhile and then walked several blocks in pouring down rain back to the parking garage.

Later that night we caught a screening of the new Get Smart flick. We went in with low expectaions and were quite pleased with how fun and great the movie was. I highly recommend it.