Fred Weller

I've seen Fred Weller in a number of things. The best was when we saw him in Take Me Out, showing his naked self alongside lovely Daniel Sunjata and other naked men. Even before seeing him without his clothes (a beautiful sight, by the way), I found him sexy. There's just something about him that gets my heart beating faster.



Tonight, we're watching the movie Stonewall. It was made in 1995, and Fred Weller is one of the stars. OMG, he is so sexy in this!

I couldn't find good photos of him from this, but someone did this set of screen captures (nice shot of him in the top right and of his butt in the bottom left)...



He seems to be doing a pretty good acting job, but it's hard for me to concentrate on that. Every time they show enough of him to see those tight jeans, I'm hopelessly distracted! Man, he is such a hottie!

He's certainly comfortable playing gay (he's done it in other things, too), but I understand the man has a wife. Such a waste! ;)

John McCain leads the charge on morality

Marc and I are together 13 years and never have cheated on one another. Someone want to tell me how our marrying would be a threat to straight marriage? Seems to me "good" conservative Republicans like Mr. McCain have done far more damage to straight marriage!

Robert Wuhl is fabulous!

If you've never seen this video, called Assume the Position, take the time to watch it...



As a history buff, I particularly enjoyed it, but that really doesn't matter, because it's a fine piece of humor, too. It's almost half an hour long, but it's worth the time!

By the way, this is my 1,000th post! Amazing! Over four years ago, after much urging from our friend Patrick, I finally gave in and started this blog during a trip to the Pacific Northwest. Powerhouse of the blogging world it is not, but I've enjoyed it and plan to continue enjoying it, with thanks to my faithful readers and friends!

Now, enjoy that video!

If I were like one of those right-wing religious nuts...

...I think I'd say that God is sending a hurricane toward New Orleans, in order to sabotage the Republicans, keeping them from getting the news coverage they want. I also think I'd say that He wants to send a gigantic reminder of how badly the current Republican administration fucked up when the people of that city needed help three years ago. After all, those people the GOP loves seem to think He creates disasters in order to send messages, conveniently ignoring the times that a tornado levels a church or an earthquake drops a building on good people.

Of course, I'm not one of those people, so I won't presume to speak for the Almighty. Instead, I'll hope that no one else gets hurt by this storm.

Oh yeah, I'll also sit here and snicker, as the country focuses on the storm and forgets that there's anything else going on this week.

Excellent choice!

Today, in a surprise move, John McCain chose Michael Palin to be his runningmate. I had no idea he was in the running, but a moment's reflection shows how inspired a choice this is! I have to admit to being thrilled when I saw McCain Chooses Palin as Running Mate on the NY Times website!

Mr. Palin brings a great deal of foreign experience with him, just some of which can be seen in his shows Full Circle and Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days. Also, he has long-established government service experience, including his unparalleled work with John Cleese in the Ministry of Silly Walks!

As he is a native Briton, I didn't think he was eligible to be one heartbeat away from our Presidency, but I must be mistaken. However this happened, I can't fault the choice! This is a quality VP candidate!

(Think this is silly? Then try reading about the real person McCain chose, a less-than-two-years-governor of a state with a tiny population who has no federal government or foreign policy experience, and bear in mind that McCain is 74 and has had four bouts with cancer, making the VP nominee a very serious matter. If nothing else, this should gut the credibility of McCain's people calling Barack Obama too inexperienced!)

Almost makes me want to enlist...

Now, that's my kind of Marine! Okay, so he's not the world's best dancer, but, for some reason, I don't mind!

We now return you to our regular blogramming

Okay, having dispensed with the unexpected drama, let's go back to some lighter stuff.

On Saturday, we had a party for my office. Since I began working there almost a year and a half ago, we've had three parties here at the house for my co-workers (or cow-orkers... I'm never sure). I didn't ask them about posting their photos, so I won't do that, but I can share photos of our Friday night prep and of the food from Saturday. So let's do that!


Flowered collies


Marc prepares other vegetables to go with the flowered collies, along with a yummy dip (because you have to be crazy to eat plain vegetables!). :)


Sous Chef Dodger


Mandy, in a relaxed and completely dignified moment.


Jeff stayed over and helped out. Here, we see Jeff & Marc taking a break for refreshments!


Bernice T. Dog, Super Genius (or, as Dodger calls her, "that bitch")


Marc's new favorite vodka.


The bucket from Marc's new ice cream freezer.


The paddle* from the ice cream freezer.

*I'm not sure if "paddle" is the right term for it, but it's the part that goes into the canister to make the ice cream. The paddle goes into the metal canister, the canister goes into the bucket (which is filled with ice and rock salt) and then the motor gets mounted on top. Marc makes his mixes from scratch, and the result is fabulous!


Marc empties out his vanilla ice cream, made with freshly scraped-out vanilla beans.


Jeff holds a container of the vanilla ice cream. Marc's efforts filled two-and-a-half of these.


Mandy decides to come check out the progress.

Now, let's jump forward to the day of the party. As usual, there just wasn't much food around. Typical Marc! ;)


This is after it was all picked over. This is what's left!


The remains of the fresh tomato, basil & mozzarella salad. Yummy!


Lentil salad--despite this not being made by Marc, it was quite good!


Leftover hot dogs--I made lots of burgers and dogs! No one was leaving here hungry!


Balls of cookie dough

Marc made the cookie dough and refrigerated it the night before, but he waited until the main meal was done before he baked them, so the house would fill with the smell of the cookies baking. Once they were done, they were served with ice cream. Fabulous!


A little nosh (cashews and chocolate-covered raisins) that was put out during the party.


That watermelon wasn't a big seller, for some reason. Gee, I wonder why!

We did slice up the watermelon and put it out. I had a little, and it was good. Then, as the party was breaking up and the dogs were allowed to say hello to everyone, we took our eyes off the melon and Bernice for a bit too long. It actually happened very quickly, but she managed to reach up to the counter, take a slice of watermelon and devour it. By the time we saw what she had done, most of it (including the rind!) was gone. We worried that she would be sick, but nothing bad has happened.

And the real highlight of the party? The pink lemonade martinis...


Really, as much as everyone liked these, the food was secondary!

My hubby does know how to throw a party! Yes, I did the grilling and a lot of other work, too, but Marc makes the parties special! (And with thanks to Jeff for all his work, too!)

More thoughts on this latest bit of drama

As you can see from Will's comment on my prior post, our suspicions have been confirmed. Our online friend Matt has taken down his blog--or, at least, one of them. His other blog is still online, with his latest post titled, Deleting My Blog. I'm not sure what to make of this. Does Matt really exist, or is he as fictional as the recently cyber-departed "Nicky"?

Whether he's real or not, this is a sad day for me. Either he is a young man who did something dumb and won't own up to it, or there is someone out there who created this person and deceived me/us.

I didn't really expect an apology, but wouldn't that be refreshing? Part of me wants to go to the remaining blog and let his commenters know the truth, but then there's the part of me that is just sad for whoever is behind this. Marc, Will and I offered nothing but friendship and support, only to find that our trust has been betrayed.

As I said to Will, I will fight any urge to be more cynical and distrustful. One must take cyber-friendships with a grain of salt, at least until such time as one can meet the person in question. Perhaps some can build to higher levels with the ancient communication device known as the telephone (in fact, a friend we met through blogging called us just tonight, and we always get along wonderfully with him). Even so, until flesh and blood are caught in a big glad-to-meet-you bear hug, it's hard to be absolutely sure of anything.

With that said, I will repeat what I've said before. To my circle of friends whom I've met in more traditional means, I've added some wonderful friends through the world of blogging. Real-life friends who started out online. I won't give that up. Might I get fooled again? Perhaps, but I do think the real shame for that falls on the person who is dishonest, not on me or other kind-hearted souls like Marc and Will who just open ourselves up to these people.

Not again!

Fool me twice, shame on me? Maybe so.

Many of us got fooled by "Nicky," the blogger who turned out to be a complete fabrication, concocted by a middle-aged woman in Canada.

More recently, Marc and I became online friends with another young man. This one struck us as sweet and well-grounded. He really pulled us in, since we always love seeing a young gay man who seems to have a bright future and a good head on his shoulders. So we left comments on his blog, exchanged e-mail, chatted with him online and felt we were building a nice online friendship. We even watched as he had his first real boyfriend and reached some important "firsts" in the life of a young man in the arms of his boyfriend.

Recently, I had a few troubling thoughts, wondering how someone so young (18 years old) possessed such wisdom. Still, despite having been burned by Nicky, I dismissed the thoughts.

Then tonight, something made me wonder if I should pursue these thoughts. What's the harm in doing some investigating? If our friend was the real deal, all that would happen would be my putting fears to rest.

So I picked some posts from the blog in question and, using Google, I started my hunt. I found that this person has another site, a blog that mirrors the one we read but has a much larger readership. Okay, no problem there. But then I found that there are whole sentences, paragraphs and even entire posts that have been lifted from other blogs, including one on the other side of the Atlantic.

So either our young friend is guilty of repeated plagiarism or he doesn't even exist at all.

I can't tell you how upsetting this is. I won't turn away from the blogging world. We've made some wonderful, real-life, flesh-and-blood friends through this medium. Even so, this is a real blow. Aside from feeling like a fool, I'm saddened that someone I thought was a wonderful young man probably isn't even real.

Brilliant!

Courtesy of the ONION:

Bush Told To Sign Birthday Treaty For Someone Named 'Kyoto'

WASHINGTON—Enlisted by members of the House and Senate, presidential aide Rebecca Tandy brought a copy of the international climate-change treaty to President Bush's desk Monday and asked him to sign a birthday document for a Japanese dignitary named "Kyoto Protocol." "Mr. Protocol really likes treaties, so we got him this treaty instead of a card, so if you could just—all the other countries have already signed it," a nervous Tandy reportedly said to Bush, who quickly scrawled his signature on the treaty and told her to tell Kyoto he said "hi." "And now, if you could just initial here, and here, and here, and, oh, you can ignore all that stuff about sulfides. That's just an inside joke." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi later attempted to get Bush to sign a "bar mitzvah stop-use agreement" for the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Clusterbomb.

If only someone had thought of this 7 or so years ago!

VP nominee--the word is out!

You heard it here first! We know who will the nominee for Vice President!

Yes, a female has been chosen, but, surprisingly, she's not white! She's black!

I have sources who have revealed the choice to me, and I'm going to break the news right now!

Are you ready?

She's crafty.

She has plenty of life experience, as her hints of white hair reveal.

She has dealt with tough conditions and has come through as strong as ever.

So here she is. Presenting the next Vice President...


VP nominee Mandy Moosedog

Note the touch of gray on the chin and that she has no problem dealing with harsh conditions. She's tough and experienced, and she'll be a great VP of her pack.

What? What did you think this post was about? Pack positions are of the utmost importance around here!

:)

Derek Redmond video, David Oliver photos and a few thoughts

If you've been watching the Olympics, you've probably seen a commercial that Visa made from this. It's really inspiring to watch, both to show the determination of a man to finish what he started, as well as the love and support of a father for his son.

I watch this and know that my Dad would have done the same thing. My Dad was someone who I saw do things like running into traffic to scoop up a fallen cyclist and carry her to safety (while we held our collective breath and prayed he wouldn't get hit by a car). And he would do anything for his family. I was lucky to have a father like him.

This video isn't about him. It's about someone else's dad. But it's about love, and that love reminds me of my wonderful parents and brings tears to my eyes as I watch this touching scene and feel how much I miss my Dad (and my Mom).

Okay, I don't want to be a complete downer, so let me share some Olympic eye candy. Marc are I have been admiring hurdler David Oliver. In case you didn't see him, have a look...

My chef

Marc is so creative. Tonight for dinner, we had a dish he has made before. It's a version of ham salad (something I think is more common/popular in the South and Midwest), but we don't eat pork. So Marc makes a vegetarian version of it.

He uses turkey ham! What? That's vegetarian. Turkey is a vegetable!

Yes, it is! It's my blog, and I say turkey is a vegetable! So there! :)

So it's turkey ham (which is very salty but otherwise pretty good), mayo, celery, relish, mustard and onion. It's quite good.

I know this isn't anything fancy, but sometimes I marvel at how even the simple dishes Marc makes are so good. There are plenty of other (better) reasons why I'm lucky to have him. This is just one little example.

Marc is going to kill me for this!

I probably shouldn't antagonize my partner on a day that is both his birthday and our 13th anniversary. On the other hand, he certainly doesn't expect me to behave myself. That's just not me! :) So, here goes...

Separated at birth?

Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte...



And Fast Times at Ridgemont High's Jeff Spicoli...



You be the judge! (BTW, watching an interview of Ryan helps!)

*snicker*

(Oh, I am in such trouble!)

Lots of driving and lots of food

Today was On the Bay, a charity event we helped sponsor. We had a long drive to get to the location out in the Hamptons. The event was okay. Not as good as last year's, but okay. The main thing is that we had good friends with us. Jeff came out to stay with us last night, and Michael and Anthony joined us today. So the five of us went to the event.

After On the Bay, we went to Smokin' Al's, our favorite barbecue restaurant. Having Michael, a born and bred Kentucky boy, along with us made me wonder what the verdict would be. We always loved the place, but Michael would bring a different point of view. Happily, he was pleased with his food.

After Smokin' Al's, we came back to the house, and Marc, with Jeff's assistance, began making cherry pie ice cream. Not cherry ice cream. Cherry pie ice cream! The difference is that he makes a graham cracker crust and puts pieces in the final product. Made from scratch, this is amazing stuff! Not good for anyone's diet, but it's so worth the cheat!

Anthony has to work in the morning, so he and Michael had to head home this evening. However, Jeff is staying over. I, for one, am hoping that he, Marc and I will have a relaxing day tomorrow! I'm tired! ;)

...with a chance of scattered tornadoes

What's with our weather lately? Even my other half, a born and bred Kansan, is impressed with the thunderstorms we've been getting. Earlier this evening, while I was still at work, we had pouring rain, countless bolts of lightning and hail! Yes, hail! This is Long Island, not Kansas or Oklahoma! Not that we don't occasionally get such storms, but this has happened a number of times in the past couple of weeks.

Today's storms were especially intense. I wasn't in a position to save a shot of the weather radar picture when it was coming down, but here's one from a little while ago...



See the storms off the south shore? All of those pretty colors? That's what rolled through.

Traffic lights were blown out, streets were flooded, and we came home to find our phone service fried. But the lights are on, and that matters a lot more than the phone!

On a happier note, Marc has fired up the new ice cream freezer. He had a little ice cream maker, but it had serious flaws. Aside from being small, it worked by putting the mixture into a bucket that was in the freezer before use. The result was always a soft ice cream in the center and a rock-hard layer stuck to the sides.

This new machine is much larger and works the traditional way. That is, the mix goes into a metal container with paddles inside it. Outside, there is a mixture of ice and rock salt. Let me tell you, this thing is LOUD. Still, Marc assures me it will do a wonderful job.

Oy vey. He just stopped it and is doing a pleased-sounding evil scientist laugh, so I guess things went well. One good thing, from my perspective, is that he made low-carb ice cream, so I can have some without screwing up my diet. Isn't he good?

Mmmm. I just took a blogging break (could you tell?), so I could go try some. Yummy! And it did make a lot more than the little ice cream maker. Most of it went into the freezer for enjoying later and tomorrow and the day after (yes, it makes a lot).

I hope the weather is good where you are and that someone is making yummy ice cream for you, too!

More fun with the Olympics

I love watching the swimmers. Okay, I love watching the men. Because I love the sport, of course. ;)

Tonight, I'm enjoying another sport. It's similar, in that a pool is involved. Tonight's little slice of joy is synchronized diving. There are a few pairs of men worth watching.

One man of particular note is American David Boudia. I've been watching him dive with his partner Thomas Finchum. Diving partner, I mean. Not suggesting they're using those tight bodies for anything else!

Okay, I feel like a bit of a perv. Lovely Mr. Boudia is only 19 years old! I grabbed a few photos off the web...


Thomas Finchum and David Boudia


David Boudia. I know he's only 19, but... *drool*


David Boudia, mid-dive.

Okay, time to go back to paying attention to the Olympics! :)

Humor and sadness

First, a little fun. I found this ad using the "StumbleUpon" (a random webpage finder that I occasionally use if I want to find something new)...



Now, really? The kitten is cute, but the husband... oh, come on! :)

On a sadder note, this weekend saw the loss of Bernie Mac at the young age of 50, and now comes this:
Soul legend Isaac Hayes dies

I know he will be remembered more for his music, and that's as it should be, but I can't help thinking, "Rest in Peace, Chef."

BTW, one Isaac Hayes-related thought. One day when I was a teenager, I was watching a TV show with my parents. I think it was Kate & Allie. The plot of that episode revolved around something to do with a woman who wasn't a good parent. One of them (Kate or Allie?) says to the other, "she's a bad mother." The other replies, "You mean like Shaft was a bad mother?"

I burst out laughing, and my parents both looked at me with looks that showed they had no idea what I was laughing at. They weren't prudes, but how could I, as a teen, possibly explain that one to them?!

If you don't get the "bad mother" reference (as I know Shaft is before the time of some of you--well, actually, it's really before my time, too), go here. Forget the somewhat odd Youtube video and just listen to the words of the song!

Lying politicians and European wars

Bad enough that John Edwards cheated on his wife while she was battling cancer (how Newt Gingrich of him!), but to continue a run for President while this was going on was the absolute height of selfishness! What if he had come out on top in the primaries? Then the GOP would now be poised for an easy win in November! As scummy as it is to cheat on a sick spouse, lots of people have done such things and that's largely a marital issue, but to continue that campaign... what a selfish fuck!

In other happy news, the former Soviet republics of Russia and Georgia are at war. I hope the hostilities come to a swift end, but the very thought is disturbing. As bad as any war is, the idea of Russia going on the attack brings back Cold War memories. I know some young friends of ours wouldn't remember such things (don't worry, Matt, another 20 years or so and you'll be telling younger guys, "you know, when I was a kid..." *grin*), but I remember all too well how we were taught in elementary school what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Yes, like anything would help if that happened, but we were taught the best places to take shelter, that we should stay away from windows, how to sit and curl ourselves up, etc. Ah, the good old days.

So let's hope for better news in the days ahead. We should have fun this weekend. Deidre is coming to visit, and we're planning to head out to the east end of the island.

By the way, we were watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics earlier this evening, and I'm wondering something. As impressive as much of it was, was anyone else somewhat disturbed by parts of the presentation? Perhaps I'm too much of a history buff (and remember things like the huge Chinese human wave attacks in the Korean War), but the mass of drummers and such had a disturbing quality. Perhaps it's not history bothering me. Perhaps it's more recent stories of China's ongoing attempts to control the masses. Whatever the case, something bothered me... but it still was a good show.

Okay, now on with the weekend!

So much for change

Barack Obama has given me cause for concern, taking politically expedient positions more conservative than I thought he would. Now comes this:

Obama Calls for Tapping of Oil Stockpiles

Anything else, Barack? Be sure to give in to every politically popular whim! Clearly, he's adopting that old political philosophy, "You want it, you got it!"

I'll vote for him (what's the alternative?), but I'll clearly need anti-nausea medication, just like so many times in the past.

Storms fear him

Time for an earth science lesson. Storms are afraid of Dodger. I bet you didn't know that.

Today, we have thunderstorms in the area, but most of them are breaking up before they get to us. We watch them form and reach a nice, nasty red color on the weather radar, only to break up before they get to us. The explanation? They're frightened of getting too close to Dodger.

The handful of storms that have dared to go over our house in the past have received a fierce barking, and, without fail, they have fled. Not a single storm from the past remains. All were scared away!

That's how these things work!