Pua's visit

Wow, did we have fun! Now, if we had a hot male blogger and his two hot sons visit, you'd read that and say, "I'm sure you did!" Perhaps you'd even roll your eyes. ;) However, we were visited by three lovely women, and we had tons of fun all the same! Yes, the lovely Pua and her gorgeous* daughters, Averie and Caris, came to stay with us, and we really did have a wonderful time! (*Pua, if I weren't so completely gay, I'd do my best to see if either of those girls likes older men! Wow, they're hot--and so polite, too!)

They arrived last Tuesday night and stayed until yesterday morning. Make that EARLY yesterday morning. Their flight departed at 6:10am from LaGuardia Airport, so we all got up at 3:30am to get ready and take them there.

Friday night and Saturday were the high points of the visit for Marc and me. On Friday, we had a number of mutual friends over for a dinner party, and, on Saturday, we took Pua, Averie and Caris out east for some sightseeing.

I only shot a handful of photos during their visit (bad me!). For this post, I'll stick to Friday's dinner & drinks get-together.


The always handsome Jase


More straightgirl beauty, in the form of Deidre


Three lovelies: Caris, Averie and my Bokey


Pua and Patrick D


Pua and Patrick L


Wayne, who never seems to age


Pua had to step away a few times, to make sure California keeps running in her absence!


After thoroughly inspecting and cuddling with the guests, Mandy went to guard the sofa


A certain Famous Author was in attendance. Feel free to caption this one yourselves! ;)


I love how this shot of Deidre turned out. Deidre, honey, if I were straight and we both were single...


The pups got lots of love from Pua, Averie and Caris. We've had lots of canine sulking since they left!


If this looks like one giant dog, that's because Mandy moved into the shot--probably moving in for a butt sniff while Bernice was sharing love with Pua.

This really was a great visit. Pua, Averie and Caris are wonderful and lots of fun. On top of that, they're very courteous guests! They don't leave messes behind them (if you've had many houseguests, you'll appreciate how nice that is!), and they always thought of how they could make things easier on us. Our thanks to all three of them for being so thoughtful and for all the fun we had during their visit!

I'll have a bit about Saturday in a separate post (and I'm sure Marc and Pua will have more to share on their blogs).

I really should blog more

I keep thinking of things to share here on the blog. Sometimes I take the lazy way out and put them on Facebook--it's not the same, but it's easier--and sometimes I just let the thoughts slip away.

We have lots of things going on around here. We've been getting various things done--none really exciting enough to be worth your reading time! But there is one very exciting thing that is worth sharing: Pua and her daughters will be visiting us next week!

We had a visit from Jeff this past weekend. Yes, I know, huge surprise! An old friend commented the other day that he suspected Jeff lived in our attic. Well, not quite, but we're very close to him, and he's only a LIRR train ride away, so we do see him a fair amount.

We had some nice weather this weekend, too. After Jeff headed home (not that I can't do this with him here), I even managed some time in the hammock, finishing a novel I was reading.

So things are pretty good around here. Work has been quite busy, but hey, I'm working, so, in this economy, no complaints! (Actually, I work at a great place, and I really can't complain, in any case!)

And, on that note, let's continue where we left off with the rugby photos...


















Yes, he's got something shoved up his nose--it stops the bleeding!






Guy on another team warming up...but feel free to imagine your own caption. :)

And I think we'll end it there. That does it for the tournament, but I didn't share anywhere near all of the photos. If you want to see the whole set, go here.

More Gotham Rugby?

Various things have happened recently. Some good, some not so good. I'm certainly hoping the recent spate of deaths has passed. We knew too many people who lost loved ones. So I hope that's done for quite a while!

On the plus side, we went to see Hair on Broadway. The tickets were a birthday gift from our old friend Jeff (he bought them around my birthday, but he had to buy this far out, so we could get good seats). The show was great! It's the best show I've seen in a long time. [I'm back to amend this post. Marc tells me it actually was a wedding gift. Well, that was the same day as my birthday, so I was close.]

I know I mentioned something about posting more photos from the Kansas trip. Not that there were that many, but Marc is posting them on his blog. There are some nice ones, so go check out his blog, if you haven't yet.

Since I still have rugby photos left (somewhat fog-shrouded though many of them are), I figured I'd keep going with those.


That can't be comfy!














Another effort (as you may recall from a prior post), but that shirt just won't let go!







I guess that's enough for one post. Hope you like them!

Worth reading

"Confirmed: God is slightly gay
Just ask the animals. As soon as they stop having all that homosexual sex"

Wichita visit

We went to Wichita for a couple of reasons. One was a family reunion for Marc, and the other was to catch up with some friends.

I took some photos during the trip, but I have yet to find the time to go through them and upload some. Not that there are many--it wasn't that kind of trip--but I just haven't found enough time to go through the few that I took.

For now, I have a photo of one of our hosts. We spent much of our time with our friends Brad and Bob, but the photo isn't of them. They're pretty cool guys, but the photo is of the coolest guy at their place. His name is Vincent, and he's quite the cool cat. ;) Here he is...


Notice something missing? From the top of his head on one side? Hence the name.

He's a real character. At first, he was a bit standoffish. You know, kind of like a cat. Then, while I was sitting beside the pool, he came over and let me scratch him. After I did that for a little while, he reached up and grabbed my hand with his paws, keeping his claws retracted, and began licking my hand. It was a very nice "thank you." The problem is, when I played with him later, he got friskier and then there was some claw action. He didn't leave a scratch, but I could have lived without that! :)

No, I don't have a photo of the pool (it's a big in-ground pool that was lovely on a hot day) or their fabulous house. I was more focused on relaxing than documenting the visit. The guys are great to hang out with, and I hope they know how much we appreciate their hospitality. All in all, it was a great visit! Thanks, guys!

Let's keep going with the Long Island Rugby Tournament

Lacking anything more exciting to share, let's look at more rugby photos. But before we do that, let me say that we had a nice time today at a brunch hosted by the Long Island GLBT Network. The special guest at the event was Congressman Steve Israel. We really like him, and not just because he's an equal rights supporter. He also is an intelligent, articulate man with a record of speaking his mind and splitting from his party when he thinks they're wrong.

So that was nice, but now let's look at more rugby photos...





There are a few more in this series, but let's skip ahead to my favorite two...




Is it so much to ask for the shirt to have ripped off of him? But nooooo, it has to be well made! Damn.









Okay, time to go see what my husband's doing and then get in his way. :)

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Might as well post more rugby photos

I never did finish posting rugby photos, so I might as well share some more. Yes, Farrah Fawcett died today, although that was somewhat expected, as did Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson's passing is shocking, and I find myself really sad over it. He was a musical genius and a troubled soul, as so many geniuses seem to be. By coincidence, Marc and I were discussing that very subject relative to Mr. Jackson just a few days ago.

Today's news, just days after the empathetic pain from two friends losing loved ones, is downright depressing.

Anyhow, rather than dwell upon these sad losses, let's look at some lovely rugby players...










This young lady was being driven nuts, watching rugby balls flying around but being unable to get to them!

















As always, you'll get bigger versions if you click on them. Hope you enjoy them!

A great Christian explains traditional marriage

An impressive storm

We're in Wichita, Kansas. We went out to dinner with our friends Brad and Bob. Now we're back at our hotel, sitting in a room on the 15th floor of the Hyatt Regency. On the way here, we endured blinding rain, and our car got pelted with hail.

From our windows (it's a corner room, so it's great for observing), we've watched some impressive wall clouds head our way. As I type this, rain is pelting the window, there are bolts of lightning all over, and we can see things being blown sideways in the outside lights.

I don't think we're in much danger. The weather radar was showing reds and purples heading our way (and hail isn't a great sign), but we can head to the bathroom or a stairwell if there's any sign of a tornado. Even a big one shouldn't do too much damage to a building like this. We just need to make sure we're not near any windows!

I'll stop now, since we may lose the Internet connection (the TV's already out--amazing this still works). Back to watching the light show!

Out Idol

Long Island Gay & Lesbian Youth (LIGALY) runs an annual competition called Out Idol. There's a similar competition on television--if you've heard of it, you may know that it's a singing competition, as it Out Idol (on which the TV show is based, if I'm not mistaken). ;)

We have been judges at the competition for a number of years. I'd like to say it's our excellent ability as judges of singing, but I suspect our giving money to LIGALY and their parent, the Long Island GLBT Services Network, probably doesn't hurt!

This year, there was some serious competition. Usually, we get a couple of decent singers, as well as a group of nice kids who aren't going to be turning out albums anytime soon. This year was different. The three finalists all were excellent. The winner had an off night, but he still did great.

Unfortunately, the only video of it was taken with a little handheld camera, and it doesn't pick up the sound too well at points (watching the video, our winner doesn't sound nearly as good as he did in person). Even so, this gives you some idea of his sound.



It doesn't hurt that Jimmy's a good looking kid (too bad this doesn't get close enough for you to see his beautiful blue eyes). I suppose it also doesn't hurt his allure that he's reporting for duty with the US Marines in July (yes, he's a gutsy kid, especially since he's sticking his neck out beyond the way Marines usually do--the venue for this competition should explain that well enough). But he really won because he has a terrific voice.

And if you're at all interested, if you watch to the end, you can see me and Marc. I speak third and Marc is fourth.

When we tallied our votes and the audience votes, we were in a dilemma. We had the unusual situation of, in effect (the math is a little weird), a tie for second. Jimmy had won and the other two singers were in a tie. What's funny is that Jimmy wasn't always an audience favorite and apparently took the "tie" the wrong way. He thought the other two were tied in a way that left him in third. Then a friend of his in the audience says, "you won!" (you can barely hear it in the video), and the look on his face is priceless. Take a look...