black soap

The Grandmother

2009-10-15T13:03:00.000-05:00

Dallas, Texas -- Mid-1960s

The Grandfather

2009-10-15T13:01:00.001-05:00

The Gay One

My Drag Queen Roommate

2009-08-31T17:32:00.002-05:00

In the last post I mentioned that the subject of my next post would be the roommate (technically, housemate since we shared a 3-story dwelling and had separate rooms) whose friend brought the LSD.

Even though we lived on separate floors of the house, my 3rd floor bedroom had the nicest bathroom which of course meant that Toney and all his drag queen friends would be using it to get ready for a night of clubbing.

I had seen Toney do a phenomenal Grace Jones once. I finally coerced him into doing a replay just for me and my camera which was surprising given how much time it took for him to make this transformation. I got several photos and then we went for a drive around Little Rock with him still in drag!

Check out those heels!

It's entirely possible Grace is taller than him though!

Out of drag you'd never imagine he could pull this off. He was quite the artist.

A couple of years prior to this was when I was living in London and working at the HMV Shop where a VHS collection of Grace Jones video was played almost daily on a wall of TVs. That was my first introduction to Grace and after the first couple of weeks at the shop, I began to pop that video in almost daily. Some of my co-workers got very annoyed after a few months of that.

About to Trip

2009-08-13T18:05:00.002-05:00

Back around 1986 while living in Little Rock, I had a roommate (more on him in the next post) who had invited friends from Memphis to stay at our house. They brought LSD. It was the only time I've ever dropped acid, despite having the nickname of "Acid Head" back in 8th grade.

I got dressed up for a night of dancing at the gay club and snapped a picture. Too bad it wasn't in color because I was vibrant!

At the Pinnacle

2009-03-15T17:31:00.002-05:00

August, 1978 at Pinnacle Mountain State Park just outside Little Rock. That's Pinnacle Mountain just to the left of my head. It's a nice hike to the top and the reward is an incredible view. This view is not so bad either. God, my fashion sense just rocked back then! LOL...

My Brother: 1949

2009-02-15T11:02:00.003-06:00

I always thought this picture was interesting on many levels. I'm also fascinated by seeing family pictures before I was born. This picture, sixty years old, seems ancient and yet I would be conceived a mere ten years later.

My parents dressed him kind of funny as well. He looks like an Amish child or something.

On on this day in 1905 our grandmother was born. This is her circa August, 1906, which was almost 103 years ago. That is hard to comprehend.

konagod on the beach 2

2009-01-24T19:24:00.004-06:00

June, 1972

This was definitely Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. That white sand is unforgettable.

konagod on the beach

2009-01-10T08:48:00.002-06:00

It sounds like a cocktail name.

May, 1975

This was probably Ft. Walton Beach, Florida although it's hard to tell because the color is so washed out. Otherwise it would be Padre Island, Texas.

25 Twenty SIX Years Ago Today...

2008-12-30T18:56:00.003-06:00

...my dad died. Hard to believe it's been that long.

It's very hard to find pictures of him from this era since he was the one with a camera fetish. I suspect my mother or my brother took this shot in October, 1965.

Christmas, 1965

2008-12-25T08:12:00.001-06:00

Homes: Part 7 - Austin

2008-12-24T17:35:00.003-06:00

I will never forget the stress in the final days and hours as we prepared ourselves for the move from Los Angeles to Austin. Samantha had an ear infection and we were concerned about how she might be affected by the flight. The vet had given her a clean health report in case the airline needed it.

I had fretted for weeks about how to get my goldfish transported. A friend of ours at work had given us one of the goldfish not long after txrad started working at the agency. After the Northridge earthquake it slowly began losing the gold color and within weeks or months was completely white.

The evening before our departure I came to the conclusion that the logical thing to do was to take the fish to a pet store and donate it. txrad actually had to do the deed as I sat in the car sobbing. I know it was just a fish but I was attached to it.

Our flight from Los Angeles to Austin was non-stop which was a definite plus with a cat on the trip although that didn't come off without a hitch either. Upon checking in at the airport and being told we could take the cat on the plane with us, we were stopped in the gate as we were boarding the plane and told that the pet carrier was too large and would have to go into cargo. I was gasping for air as they took the pet carrier from me. That 2.5 hour flight was nothing but stressful.

Upon arrival in Austin we were reunited with Samantha who was fine although possibly traumatized. We got everything in a rental car and headed out into the dark night in search of our temporary corporate apartment. After a few wrong turns we arrived after having to stop at a supermarket to pick up a cat box and litter.

This entire ordeal must have caused me to take leave of my senses because I'm sure it was the following weekend that I scheduled a get-away to Orlando to visit Epcot for the weekend. We left on a Friday and returned on Sunday. I suppose I felt like I needed a mini-vacation after all we had been through. For the record, it wasn't much fun, Epcot didn't do anything for me, and I felt guilty for leaving Samantha alone in the apartment after a stressful relocation. When we got home was when Samantha started sleeping on the bed between us.

It was only another week, probably the next Friday, when we were able to close on our house and sign our names to mountains of paperwork. Afterward, the sellers met us here at the house and gave us some tips and pointers on a few things, and suddenly we were the proud owners of a house on a one-acre lot just outside the city limits of Austin.

Our home, photographed December 24, 2008, just moments after completing this post.

To this day, over 11 years later, I still feel the same joy as I stand at the kitchen sink looking out at trees and a rustic street. Unfortunately, as we would soon learn, having an acre doesn't necessarily mean you can garden to your heart's content. There is only about 3 or 4 inches of soil before you hit limestone. I suppose the two pre-existing raised garden beds in the backyard should have been a clue. There are trade offs in life and this was one we had to make.

txrad working in the raised garden.

A big plus was our work situation. txrad managed to get hired at the agency a couple of weeks after we moved here. We not only had a short commute, but we were driving away from the city and therefore against any traffic heading into Austin. We also had a rather unusual work environment.

I mentioned in the LA post (part 6) that the agency here was started by the owner of the agency where we worked in Santa Monica. She was a devotee and a big financial supporter of a Hindu temple which was built a few miles outside Austin, and the advertising agency where we now worked was located on the temple grounds, complete with peacocks. Some of the devotees we knew had previously lived in LA and worked for the Santa Monica agency, then moved here after the temple was constructed. However, most of the employees were not devotees at either agency.

Since txrad and I were both vegetarians when we moved here, it was no big inconvenience for us that no meat products were allowed on the temple grounds which included the office. Other employees who were not content to bring a veggie dish for lunch had to make the 10-12 mile drive to the nearest eateries for lunch! There were occasional brave souls who attempted to defy the rules. But the devotees would routinely perform inspections of the frozen entrees in the company fridge and occasionally an item would be discovered which contained meat or chicken. It would immediately be deposited in the trash -- a tactic which struck me as odd considering there was still meat on the premises; it just wasn't going to be ingested by the person who bought it.

Business at the agency was increasing at a frenzied pace with a bright future for the first 12 months or so. Then the foundation began to quiver. It was not an earthquake. I had been in the advertising business long enough to spot early warning signs. We had too much business and the company infrastructure was not being built as fast as needed to handle the work. Things began to get sloppy. And when things get sloppy in business, especially in the accounting department, the writing is on the wall.

The mantra of any agency in the particular variety of advertising we handled was always "cash in advance" from clients. A couple of clients fell behind or suddenly ceased operations -- a very common thing in our breed of advertising. All it takes is a product that was a good idea, but is manufactured very badly, or one which results in lawsuits, etc.

One day someone discovered a huge stack of checks payable to television stations but which were never mailed. They were stashed away in the desk drawer of someone in the accounting department. One or more clients were behind and there were not enough funds in the bank to cover the checks.

This situation which had been building for a few months prior was one reason I decided to start drinking again. I'd been alcohol-free for seven years. Having left a great job in Los Angeles to move to Austin and now facing the prospect that the agency might not survive was weighing heavily on me. Not only that, we had specifically purchased our home for the proximity to this employer!

Late in 1998 plans were being made to rename the agency with new management pulled from within, and phase out the old agency name. Needless to say, the rumor mill was running rampant outside our agency as well as inside it. Stations which were owed money were not going to be paid. Surprisingly, this switch-a-roo was pulled off successfully although it not only required changing the agency name, but also involved changing the name of our "street" to make it appear as if we were a completely different agency operating at a completely different address. I was able to keep my position there as did txrad. But the excitement and drama wasn't over yet.

Well into 1999 with new management in place I began to sense that things were not going as well as they should. I took on additional responsibilities and was given a substantial cut in pay. And I learned another valuable lesson in life: Never speak ill of management via company email. Yes, dear friends and loyal readers, my email was being monitored without my knowledge by the management.

One Friday afternoon I was working on a project involving an elaborate Excel spreadsheet which I presented to management and received a big thumbs up for the work in progress. As I wanted to continue working on it over the weekend, I emailed it to my home.

On the following Monday morning in early January I was in for the shock of my life. I was met at the door as I entered and instructed not to go to my desk upstairs, to drop my bag, and go directly to the conference room where I was met with the stern faces of management. Not only was I fired and then escorted out of the building, leaving txrad to gather my personal belongings to bring home later, but I was accused of stealing company property -- i.e. the spreadsheet which I had emailed to myself on Friday.

Although I was stunned, my drive home felt quite liberating. I was gone from the madness at last. A new chapter in my book was about to begin. My advertising career which I could trace back to 1991 under the same lineage had ceased to exist. It was quite odd for the next few weeks as I stayed home unemployed while txrad continued working there.

I don't even remember what was going through my mind during this time in terms of the work I was seeking. I'm sure a relocation was on the table if I got an offer from another agency in another city. In February I received a tip about an agency in another state which did utilize media buyers from their homes. I followed up on the tip and sent my resume to the media director. A couple of weeks went by with no response. The person who tipped me to this possible position suggested I follow up as the media director was quite busy. That did the trick.

This media director lived in Santa Fe, working for the Iowa-based agency. I was flown out to Albuquerque, rented a car and drove to Santa Fe for the interview and then back to Albuquerque for my Austin flight late that same day! The interview went very well and in a couple of days I was offered a position which I accepted. This necessitated me flying back to Santa Fe for a week of systems training with the media director and then the two of us would fly to Iowa over the weekend for another week of hands-on training in Iowa!

It helped that during my career I was comfortable bringing work home and had no trouble with the discipline required to actually do work at home. Although I've heard many people can't handle the isolation and discipline required, I adjusted to it immediately upon my return to Austin. However, the salary was even a tad less than the substantial pay cut I had received at the previous job.

From 2000-2003 I worked from home for this agency, leaving in 2003 because I received another job offer to work at home for a small start-up agency which involved a huge salary increase, putting me back at the level in my 1999 heyday. In addition, this job had an opportunity for txrad and he quit his position to work from home with me. That was actually a wise decision by txrad. That agency where he continued to work after I was fired was in the process of being acquired by another "player" in the industry and his job would have shifted to a location downtown. Not only that, but the entire operation shut down just weeks after the acquisition. Make a mental note of that "player" because he resurfaces later.

Again, this scenario with both of us working at home would be a short-lived euphoria before imploding in early 2005. After that I was flying solo with my own agency with only txrad at my side. Even that died a pretty quick death -- I disobeyed the "cash-in-advance" mantra and spiraled into a nasty crash at the end of 2006. I was in denial throughout the holidays from Thanksgiving until New Year's Day, 2007. On January 2, 2007 I woke up with the stark realization that I was left holding nothing but a company in name only and a ton of debt.

I'm not sure why but I have this trend of being unemployed around the beginning of the year and then rebounding quickly when I least expect it. And thus it was in 2007. Depressed and facing uncertainty, with both of us having no income, I wasn't sure what miracle could bail us out.

Then came an email in late February from none other than one of the managers from the agency which had fired me in 2000, and whose own agency had disintegrated after being acquired by that other "player." Coincidentally, she was also the one who had given us the goldfish back in Los Angeles.

She was now working for a huge traditional advertising agency downtown on an account for a major telecommunications giant (hint: it has an A, a T, and another T in the name and I'll admit that's rather a cryptic clue) and needed a media buyer. Seriously, at that agency and for an account of that stature, I didn't even think I was qualified but I agreed to interview. I had no choice. And one of the people who interviewed me was that "player" who had lost his holdings and was now the department head overseeing this large account at this large agency.

The large downtown agency with the large telecommunications giant client.

I was hired and started on January 29, 2007 in a position referred to as a temporary contract employee. I had no benefits, accrued no vacation or sick time, but it was not without perks. The pay was more than I had ever made, and there was time and a half for any hours over 40 in a week. There were LOTS of extra hours. Most months my overtime pay alone was enough to cover our mortgage!

My primary co-worker was a woman who had also worked at the same agency we worked when we moved to Austin but she had left there around the time we started. She had also worked for the Iowa agency where I worked from 2000-2003 and grew up in the same small town in Iowa where that agency was based. And yet we had never worked together until now.

2007 was shaping up as the best year of my life in terms of career. Always being mindful of how unstable things could be and the fact I was in a temporary position which might last years or only months, I never let any of this go to my head. I began saving as much of this excess money as I could. Also, in May, they had hired txrad as a media assistant, so we had two incomes again! By August I was getting the first whiff that my instincts were correct: the telecommunications giant had decided to put the agency up for review, meaning they were entertaining the possibility of moving the account elsewhere. We were all trying to keep our chins up and hope for the best, but I knew in my core we were going to lose the account to another agency.

By November it was more or less official. There were lots of layoffs in November, 2007 and txrad was one of them. My co-worker and I were to stay on until the end of December to wrap up the last of the 4th quarter media before the account would be moved to an agency in New York. She and I were laid off on December 21.

Once again I was starting a new year unemployed but I had stockpiled a significant savings and txrad and I were both eligible for unemployment compensation, so I wasn't depressed about it initially. I considered going to work for the agency which was awarded the account, but that would have necessitated a move to New York. They would not seriously consider any work-at-home employees. I love my home too much to leave it for New York!

This stretch of unemployment was longer than I expected. I'm not a firm believer in aggressively looking for work. In this industry I've never really had to; it usually finds me. But in 2008 I was getting rather concerned as January became February and February became March. April even passed without a glimmer of hope.

I had remained in contact with people at the agency in case something else came up. There were rumors and possibilities each month but always ending in another delay and uncertainty. Finally, when I was losing all hope, a position did open up there again in May, and it was a full-time permanent job with benefits which were generous. The downside was that my salary would be about half what I was making last year, and not even enough for txrad and I to meet our basic expenses, and he was still unemployed.

I had to take it. At least I would have my foot in the door again and some income is better than none at all. The job duties were quite different from what I had been doing these past few years and I was actually working harder than I ever had before (and I'll say it again: for less money).

Back in April, before I started the job in May, I had planned to apply back at the agency in Iowa. I really didn't want to backtrack, even though I had left in 2003 on very positive terms. But at least they were by far the most stable agency in my long career. Or until now that had been the case. I found out they had just laid off a dozen or so people! I jokingly told them I was going to send my resume anyway because I had to meet a job search quota in order to continue receiving unemployment checks. That was honestly the only resume I recall sending out during my five months of unemployment because, as I mentioned earlier, jobs tend to find me.

In July, just as I was getting my feet firmly replanted in employment, the media director from the Iowa agency called me. We talked for a bit. He called me a few days later and, much to my surprise, offered me a job! And at a salary level where I could support myself and txrad again. It's not the level of 2007 but it beats was I was making in round #2 at the downtown agency.

I accepted that position and started July 21 -- working from home again. And that guy who offered me the job -- the media director this time around -- is the guy I mentioned back in the LA post who lived in our neighborhood where we bought our first home in the San Fernando Valley, and he worked at the first agency in Santa Monica where my career in advertising first got started.

Crazy, isn't it? I'm not sure if that's just life, or if it's just my life, or if it's just the career I've chosen. But it's fascinating.

In April I was so distraught I honestly thought we might have to sell this house and move. I began using all the funds I had stockpiled in 2007 to renovate. I started with a new roof and new windows since that was critical. Then I had the exterior painted and painted all the interior rooms myself. After becoming employed in July at a livable salary level, I took what was left and spent it on my beloved travertine floors.

Now I love our home as much or more than I ever have and apparently we're not moving anywhere else yet. If and when we do, that will be part 8.

A view to the west -- the towns of Bee Cave and Lakeway -- as seen from the Austin Zoo near our home.

Homes - Part 6: Los Angeles

2008-12-14T13:27:00.003-06:00

Leaving txrad behind in San Diego while I moved north to Los Angeles with KD was a strange sensation. My agenda was to find a job as soon as possible and then get my own apartment so txrad could quit his job and join me.

KD had already signed a lease on a one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood which had a view from the balcony of an apartment building where txrad and I would later live. KD took the bedroom and I set up my sleeping area with a futon in the living room.

The future apartment.

I wasted no time in starting my job search. Still blessed with an extravagant streak when it comes to spending money on things I didn't really need, I went to Montgomery Ward and paid $400 for a thermal paper fax machine. In 1991 that was quite a deal. Being able to utter the phrase, "I'll fax you," was the height of trendy.

Five days at a time was about as long as I could stand being away from txrad so when Friday rolled around, the job hunting stopped and I hit the road for San Diego. One time I took the train from LA to San Diego and then boarded another train which took me to the suburb east of San Diego where txrad picked me up. These weekend trips didn't make KD very happy since her expectation from this move to LA was that I would forget about txrad.

January rolled into February and the job prospects weren't looking very good. I knew I couldn't just take any part-time fun job like I'd done in previous cities. This had to be for real, and with a salary that would allow me to rent an apartment and actually survive. I really wanted a job in the TV or film industry and obviously the competition was fierce.

I only recall having one interview for an accounting-related position on a movie project which was going to involve being on location in Europe for months. It sounded exciting but that didn't exactly fit my plans.

By the time March arrived I was feeling desperate. I swallowed my pride and faxed my resume to a company in Santa Monica which had a data entry position open. Data entry was always something I could do since I had so much experience but I was not excited at the prospect of falling back into that boring rut.

The phone rang a day or so later and it was a woman calling from that company wanting to set up an interview. She didn't exactly describe the nature of the business very well because I was under the impression I was going to interview at a firm which produced a magazine similar to TV Guide. I got myself dressed up and drove to Santa Monica to a building in what was then a rather shabby area of town, a windowless warehouse actually, next to abandoned railroad tracks.

The interview went well and I learned that the company was in fact an advertising agency specializing in the placement of infomercials on television stations across the US. A day or so after the interview I received a call offering me the position and I started on March 13 at a salary around $18,000. It wasn't much but I knew I could afford an apartment and be united with txrad again. However, he would need a job also for us to make ends meet.

I had my heart set on that apartment building I could see from KD's apartment. It looked so glamorous and was a new construction. I believe the rent was probably around $800 a month which would eat up more than half my income. It was a small one-bedroom but comfortable. And to still be living in Hollywood was a perk. txrad gave his 2-weeks' notice at Wendy's and moved up to join me just before my birthday in mid-April.

txrad on the rooftop deck of our first Hollywood apartment. That's the famed Hollywood sign on the hill in the upper right.

On one level I was in a bit of shock that I was in love, my boyfriend actually quit a job and moved to a new city to be with me, and that I was working to provide for us. I might not have realized it immediately, but I was finally growing up at the age of 31.

Money was tight. txrad was not having any luck finding work and I think he must have been severely depressed for months. I really wanted to find something to do besides data entry work but at least I had a job and it was a fun and casual environment. My boss was impressed with my work and my speed, and other people were taking notice. I had only been in that position a few months when I was given a huge promotion opportunity. The woman who managed the tape traffic department was leaving and someone had the good sense to realize I would be a perfect fit for the position.

I would be responsible for making sure video tapes got to the stations prior to the airdates and it involved working with various tape duplication facilities and coordinating the shipments. I took the position which came with a generous increase in pay and suddenly found myself in love with my job. At the start of 1992 they had a need to hire an office assistant/receptionist. I suggested txrad. He interviewed and was hired. Life suddenly seemed wonderful in a two-income household.

Several vegetarians worked at the agency and this was when I became one. I also quit smoking and quit drinking any alcohol. That would last a grand total of seven years.

After things started settling down and we seemed to have security, we decided it was time to find a better apartment with a bit more space, one not quite so new with a bit of old Los Angeles character. We eventually moved into a 1950s-era building just off Wilshire Boulevard and west of Crenshaw. No longer were we walking distance from Mann's Chinese Theatre but that was fine. Hollywood was loud and dirty and our apartment was more serene with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a larger kitchen, and a balcony overlooking a courtyard. And we could walk to Melrose!

817 South Windsor

Our balcony from the courtyard.

We lived in that apartment longer than I had ever lived in any one place. And I had one unforgettable experience there which happened at 4:30 AM on January 17, 1994. The Northridge quake was a whopper. I bolted out of bed and braced myself in the bedroom doorway and the building rocked back and forth. I remember shouting, "this is the big one."

I saw a burst of bright light as a power transformer exploded and then we were in pitch black darkness. I thought the apartment building was going to actually flip over. Then it stopped. It was dark and quiet, except for the sound of the wind chimes hanging in the kitchen which I had bought for txrad as a birthday gift the prior year, and the sound of water dripping on the carpet in the living room. We had an aquarium and I imagined the tank had been knocked to the floor and the fish were flopping on the carpet.

txrad grabbed a flashlight and fortunately the aquarium was intact and still on the table. Water had sloshed out though. Luckily there was no damage to the apartment at all. Then we had an aftershock, and that was followed by many more. This went on for days and weeks although infrequently and much smaller.

This event was to change my personality in a way which still holds true today: I am a morning person instead of a night person as a result of that quake. We learned of the collapse of Interstate 10 which was our route to work in Santa Monica and realized we would be driving streets to reach Santa Monica for months to come. This meant getting up much earlier than usual in an effort to beat the worst traffic.

My work situation continued to improve. I got more promotions and salary increases and was managing two departments as well as working with the IT department to implement programming improvements which enabled us to get more work done and faster while automating as many functions as possible.

In the following year we were discussing something which seemed unthinkable just four years earlier. I wanted to buy a house. We really didn't have any savings built up for any kind of down-payment. We could have been saving money but I was wanting to show txrad the world. Within a six-month period we had taken two European vacations -- once to London in November, and then to Paris the following April for my birthday, with that January earthquake wedged between those trips.

Even before we were financially more comfortable, I had already splurged on a trip to Singapore after finding some really cheap tickets, and we really didn't have enough funds for a decent hotel room, opting instead for a YMCA.

We vowed to start saving money and by 1996 we were looking at homes even though I didn't see how it would be possible since we only had a fraction of what would be required for 20% down. I was finally bold enough to get in touch with a realtor who explained that it would be possible to finance the down-payment separately. How clever!

The most affordable homes at the time were in the San Fernando Valley. We were shown a 5-bedroom ranch-style home between Woodland Hills and Chatsworth in a neighborhood of rolling hills. Although it sounds excessive and we certainly didn't need 5 bedrooms, we felt good about the house. The kitchen was huge although in need of updating, and the backyard was quite large. So we made an offer and purchased the house for $175,000. And now we would be 23 miles from work. This necessitated a continuation of the early morning commute to avoid heavy traffic.

Our first home together, as it appeared on move-in day.

One of our co-workers lived only a couple of miles from this house. He is now my boss at my current agency.

There's something about living in a house and having a desire for pets. We discussed getting a cat although txrad swears it was all my idea. It wasn't long until we had adopted Samantha from a shelter.

One of the first lessons I learned about owning a home is one that I'm still learning today. Ideas for improvements never cease and you can't do everything at once! But those kitchen cabinets were atrocious and needed to be painted. We also had the exterior of the house painted which was a big improvement.

The kitchen had an electric cooktop and we had really wanted a gas cooktop. The fireplace in the den was gas so it was no big deal to call someone and have them install a gas line into the kitchen. In 1997 I bought a really nice gas cooktop as well as a new oven. I honestly can't remember if we ever really got to use either of those appliances because 1997 was the year in which another major event would happen: I was offered a position with a similar advertising agency in Austin, Texas.

We had only been in our home about a year and the dust hadn't even settled yet. But the commute was getting on my nerves, the LA traffic in general was tiresome, and my attitude about the city itself was undergoing a radical change. Reality was settling in. I was in a career I enjoyed which had nothing to do with why I thought I had wanted to live in LA -- to work in the film industry.

All the signs were pointing to another move. The agency in Austin was started by the same person who started the one in Santa Monica. The two agencies were close and shared systems and processes, and some employees had previously left and moved to work in the Austin agency. I had flown to Austin a few weeks earlier to do some consulting work for them.

The head of the agency called me up and asked me if I'd be interested in moving there. He offered me even more money than I was making in LA, despite a significantly lower cost of living in Austin, to do essentially the same work. The idea of being able to buy a better home, closer to work, perhaps even on some acreage where we could garden, was all too tempting.

I contacted a realtor in LA who sized up our house and provided a rough figure of what it might sell for, which was a big concern. I was afraid we might have to take a loss. Meanwhile, txrad and I flew to Austin over a weekend and had a realtor here showing us homes. We must have looked at 8 or 10 over the weekend and they all had pros and cons. If the lots were huge -- 5 or 10 acres -- the houses left something to be desired. Fortunately, we found a house that fit our style. I had a clear picture in my mind what I wanted: a home with rock siding, specifically the white limestone so common around Austin, relatively new, and definitely a short and easy drive to work. The compromise was that the home we selected was on just one acre as opposed to several.

Having made an offer on the house, we flew back to LA with the hope that ours would sell quickly. Things all came together with remarkable ease. A large extended family made an offer on our 5-bedroom home, and we sold it for around $190,000 which was enough to cover the realtor fees and we didn't lose a dime except for what we spent on appliances.

My new employer was paying all moving expenses including hiring movers to ship our stuff and the car. I worked on a Friday at the old job, the movers had collected all our stuff, and the car was in transit. That night we left Samantha alone in the house and we checked into a nearby hotel for the night. The next morning we drove in our rental car to pick up a slightly sedated Samantha, and left our first home for the last time.

We were off to the airport for a flight to Austin. I would be starting my new job on Monday. However, we would not be closing on our next home for about 2 more weeks. A corporate apartment would be our home in the interim.

txrad and konagod: November 1991, somewhere in the environs of Los Angeles.

Homes - Part 5: San Diego

2008-11-09T09:14:00.004-06:00

My first few days in San Diego after a crazy move from Denver involving two round trips is a bit of a blur. I was living in a new city where I'd never spent any time and knew no one except KD, a person I'd known for barely a year. But her brother lived there and she knew the city rather well.

KD had found us a small house to rent in Ocean Beach on Brighton Avenue, about half a mile from the end (or the beginning) of Interstate 8. Our house was just about a five-minute walk from the Pacific Ocean, and a short main drag of small shops and bars with a definite rustic beach ambiance.

It was pretty cool to be able to walk to the ocean and hang out at night in the bar with her brother drinking pints of beer and throwing darts, with an occasional game of pool. Sometimes we'd have a fish taco from a nearby shack prior to stumbling back to the cottage.

On the employment front, I remained in the same mindset I had in Denver. Despite the fact that I needed x amount of dollars in order to actually support myself, I found a job doing something easy in a fun environment: cashiering at the bookstore at San Diego State University which was quite a drive east from Ocean Beach down I-8.

San Diego fascinated me with its micro-climates. Where I lived it was mild and usually rather humid thanks to the ocean breeze. SDSU which was -- I'm guessing -- maybe 12 miles to the east was drier with more of a desert vibe. And a few more miles to the east, folks could be scraping ice from their car windows some winter mornings.

4754 Brighton Avenue

KD and I would venture into other parts of San Diego, visiting coffee shops downtown, and nightclubs in the Hillcrest neighborhood which was San Diego's answer to the Castro district of San Francisco. (In a very Republican San Diego kind of way.)

One Hillcrest club we visited a few times was the Metro which boasted a couple of bars, a big dance floor, lights and loud music. I doubt whether we had been living in San Diego more than six weeks when we planned another night out at the Metro. It was late August in 1990. The 24th day of the month to be precise.

I believe I was already experiencing the doldrums after a few short weeks. My only friends were KD and her brother. We didn't spend time with him every night so it was usually just KD and me hitting the bars together.

That particular night started off fun, but after a few drinks, KD was dancing and maybe chatting with some guy somewhere, I don't even remember. I was sitting at a table in a dark part of the bar off the dance floor, nursing a beer and facing what appeared to be a black wall. And that fit my mood rather nicely. I was literally sitting there wondering about my life, why I was 30 years old and had never had a long-term relationship with anyone, bored with the music, trying to figure out why I had even come to San Diego, and if there was a reason for it all.

My thoughts were then abruptly interrupted when I noticed my view of the black wall was obstructed by a figure dressed in black standing at the edge of my table. I looked up to see a face looking down at me. My heart skipped several beats. I looked back down at my beer for a few seconds wondering if this was real. This guy was hot and he was looking at me! I glanced back up and he was still looking. Now my heart was racing. I leaned forward on the table, nervously fidgeted with my beer while looking at his hand which was hanging there literally an inch or two from mine.

Normally I would not have been quite this bold unless I was really very drunk (and honestly, I probably was quite buzzed if not drunk), but there was something about this guy which just had me mesmerized already, and there was no way he was going to get away from me without an attempt on my part to reach out, so to speak. And that's exactly what I did. I rubbed the edge of his hand, not quite sure what to expect. He didn't recoil or walk away; in fact, he moved closer.

I took my left pinky finger and hooked it around his left pinky finger. I could feel his grip tightening a bit, as did mine. And so this moment, which lasted many seconds, perhaps for as long as a minute, will never be forgotten by me. It was my first encounter with txrad, and it was filled with passion. Who knows what happened next. I was undergoing an abrupt mood swing from dismal to euphoric within a span of about five minutes.

We exchanged names and txrad introduced me to his friend with whom he had come to the club, a young and Gothic-looking Italian woman I'll refer to as AA. I had completely lost track of KD during all this. When we were getting ready to leave, txrad and I were both drunk, and both agreeing we'd meet up here again. AA, realizing that txrad was showing signs of happiness tonight which she hadn't seen in some time, made damn sure she got my number for txrad and vice-versa. I think she grabbed a pen and paper from inside the bar while we were standing outside about to leave. She rightly sensed this was a relationship which was meant to happen.

While this was probably the most exciting night I'd ever experienced, it was also the beginning of the most difficult and painful 6 or 7 months of my life. KD may have exhibited initial support and enthusiasm for my new fling but that would not last long.

txrad and I got together again in a few days (it may have been as early as the following Sunday night that same weekend) at the same club. And the passion brewed. AA was always his designated driver and while she would still be socializing in the club, I'd lure txrad out to my car and we'd make out in the back seat, fogging up the windows. Later we got a bit more brave and began making out on the dance floor or sitting at the edge of it, French kissing with such amazing intensity that we were once told by a member of the staff to "cool it" or leave.

That was enough to take some of the luster off this club so we began going out together with AA to other clubs, which offered a bit more tolerance to people outside the mainstream. One such club was called Red Tape. The music was strictly hardcore alternative, the club was dark and the colors seemed to be primarily red and black in several rooms with lots of black curtains, and smaller intimate dance floors where we'd dance through the night to songs by the likes of Ministry and Sisters of Mercy in between beers and multiple shots of ice-cold Jägermeister.

A souvenir "membership card" from Red Tape.

At this point I was spending hardly any time with KD except during the weekdays. I had started sleeping most weekend nights with txrad at his apartment in Santee, a gritty eastern suburb of San Diego. This actually worked out pretty well because that area was not too far from where I worked at SDSU.

In retrospect, I look back at this life in San Diego and realize that in some way I was a kind of strange art project for KD, as she attempted to make me into the kind of person she thought I should be. She bought me a skateboard, and one for herself. I'd never been on a skateboard in my life, and had troubles even with roller skates as a kid. I just don't do small wheels very well. I believe she envisioned us as some beatnik hippie best friends, and perhaps more, who were living the beach life. I also got a surfboard during the brief time I was under her spell. After taking a lesson one Saturday morning, I tried catching a few waves for several weeks until I realized I was just a goofy failure.

There are some things which come natural to me. Dressing in black and dancing to alternative music all night was one of them. Riding a skateboard five blocks down to the beach with a surfboard under my arm was definitely not one of them. Both boards soon became unused parts of the decor in the cottage.

KD had perhaps met txrad once, I'm not even sure. But I wanted txrad to come down to our house one night, hang out and watch a movie. I think I still remember what I rented: The Man Who Fell To Earth. I was giddy with excitement, having my boy on the sofa with me in my house for a change, and when KD walked in the door, there was a brief exchange of greetings and very small talk. Then I blurted something out of my mouth, an attempt at humor, which went horribly awry. It was directed to KD and was something like, "Don't be surprised at anything that might happen on this sofa tonight; if that's going to bother you, then you might not want to be here."

It was said in jest, to break the ice in a way, and the response I expected from her, and didn't get, would have been something like, "Oh you two just enjoy the movie, have fun and don't mind me."

No, that was not the response I got in any way whatsoever. And the ice was not broken. In fact, a big chill enveloped the room. She interpreted my remark as, "this is my house and you should leave." We watched the movie, probably not paying much attention to it, and we cuddled, held hands and maybe kissed a few times, briefly. There's not much I remember except The Big Chill, and that's not a movie we rented. I don't even think txrad stayed for the night. And that was the only night we spent time together at the little beach house.

KD began to develop a rather testy demeanor in the following days and weeks. We'd still go down to Tuba Man's some nights, have some fun and throw some darts, but there was definite tension in our friendship. Her mantra, when the subject of txrad would come up, was a terse "He's NOT the one!"

I began spending even more nights during the week with txrad, the two of us sleeping together (for perhaps only 2 or 3 hours some nights) in his twin bed! Yeah, that was comfortable! But it was even more unpleasant when I'd go back to Ocean Beach.
One night KD and I were meeting her brother at Tuba Man's, and we had a lot to drink. Lots of beers and probably some shots as well. Our friendship began to seriously melt away that night. We got into a nasty spat and ended up down at the beach having an argument. We walked back to our house and got into it again. There was lots of yelling, KD threw a dish into the sink and broke it, and then the anger got physical. She wrestled me to the floor, climbed on top of me while screaming into my face, and then shocked the living hell out of me by leaning down and pushing her tongue into my mouth. I quickly got her off me and retreated to my bedroom.

She became even more unstable in the next few days and I remember not being very comfortable with her access to the knives in the kitchen. I don't remember what she said directly or insinuated since my memory was somewhat clouded by alcohol, but I distinctly remember locking my bedroom door, and calling txrad on the phone while huddled under the sheets to muffle my voice. KD was stomping around the house. I was scared shitless and wanted out of there.

After a few days of silence, something strange began to happen. She started to warm up a bit and became conversational. She even suggested we make a day trip to Los Angeles, a city I had obviously raved about and a place she had never visited. I love taking someone on a tour of a city I know and love so I was excited to participate.

We drove up to the City of Angels, found a coffee shop on Highland Avenue which was Bohemian and fun, drove around Hollywood and out to Santa Monica. KD fell in love with the city. I had never seen her so enthusiastic about anything. Suddenly she was the old KD I knew from Denver, or so it seemed at the time.

Once back in San Diego, she was eager for another LA trip, so we did a second visit. We popped in at the Highland Avenue coffee shop again, and I mentioned how hot the kid was who was working there. No doubt about it, he was hot. Yes, I was in love with txrad and that was not going to change, but I can still notice another hot guy. That's human nature. But KD interpreted this as an opportunity.

Her theme, or mantra, changed from "He's NOT the one," referring to txrad, to one of "independent," or free to move about the cabin, so to speak. We passed a billboard for a local TV station in LA, KCOP Channel 9, which was simply one word with their logo in red and black: Independent. She seized upon that as a sign that she was right and I was being rehabilitated under her watchful eye. I was quickly realizing she was up to more dirty tricks, and I played along just to placate her and keep her docile and happy. The last thing I wanted was a replay of Knife Night while we were in LA and she had the keys to the car.

It was on one of these visits that I introduced her to a friend of mine from Little Rock, SF, who was now living in LA. You might remember her from my Little Rock chapter of this series, the woman who basically introduced me to gay Little Rock and perhaps initiated this long journey. KD and SF hit it off remarkably well.

KD was in love with Los Angeles and began talk of moving there. This was going on late in the year, probably only four months after we had moved to San Diego! The visits to LA had also rekindled my love for the city and aside from txrad, I had nothing in San Diego tying me there. I hadn't been there long enough to put down roots, and much of the experience had been negative. I had moved on from SDSU to a job at another bookstore at the University of California - San Diego in another very upscale beach community known as La Jolla. It paid better wages, and was a much more interesting environment, but it was still a job in a bookstore.

I also did a short stint at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club in their accounting department. That was a hoot and this hippie in love with a Goth didn't exactly fit in there. Taking a smoke break out on the veranda in a chair overlooking the Pacific Ocean was nice, but I knew that was not a job I was going to cherish for very long.

So KD plotted the big move to LA, for both of us. In her mind, she was getting me away from txrad and off to a life of so-called "independence" in which I would apparently be allowed and encouraged to have occasional sex with any boy brewing up a decent cup of joe, but I would be living with her and that was all that mattered. In my mind, I had an aid willing to do all the leg work to get me to a city where I was excited about living, and I'd bring txrad up later once I had a job and could get my own apartment. I just didn't say that out loud very often.

Slightly less than six months after moving into the Brighton Avenue cottage, we were ending our lease. KD picked out a one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood and we were on the move again in January.

But that's another home and another story. Meanwhile, I was finally in love, for real.

Homes - Part 4 1/2: The Frontier Hotel & Casino

2008-10-17T15:04:00.003-05:00

Doing a post solely about the journey to San Diego and the layover in Las Vegas was not my intent, but after I started writing this I realized it needed to be part 4 1/2 of the series.

Even as I was heading out of Denver driving a big U-Haul and towing a piece of crap VW Bug on my way to a new life in San Diego with KD and her cat, I think I must have known I was going to be just about 3 hours from Los Angeles, the city where I wanted to live after leaving London. But I'm not sure I was thinking San Diego was just a short pit-stop on the way to Hollywood. Knowing me, I probably was pondering such a possibility.

Change is always exciting and I was just happy to be leaving Denver behind. KD and I were eager to get this labor-intensive move behind us and spend some time in Vegas. I hadn't been there since I was 14 with my parents and we set up camp in our motor home behind the Circus Circus. Back in those days I think they actually had an RV park behind the hotel.

Driving a big U-Haul into Vegas and parking at the Frontier Hotel & Casino brought back some memories. That was the quick in & out portion of the trip. The real Vegas party would be on the 2nd trip as this move actually involved two round-trips between Denver and San Diego. Once in a hurry with the U-Haul, and a more leisurely paced trip in our separate vehicles, all in the span of a week or so, not counting the lengthy Vegas layover which was to be our treat after the moving frenzy.

The long drive in the U-Haul was fairly uneventful itself aside from one painful incident. It's never a good ideal to allow a cat out of his carrier while driving. KD decided to let her normally docile feline out to roam around the cabin of the truck. The cat kicked over his water bowl and went on a wild clawing frenzy. I was the lucky recipient of the claw action. I'm quite surprised I didn't wreck the U-Haul. We had to pull over at a store and get me some medication because I was actually having chills from the scratches.

While returning the empty U-Haul back to Denver, we pulled into a cheap motel after a long 14-hour drive. I was instructed to park the U-Haul as close to the back side of the motel as I could because the parking lot was full. I did what I was told. I was tired, it was dark and I just didn't notice the overhead concrete walkway on the 2nd floor of the motel. This resulted in a nice sized puncture near the roof of the U-Haul and probably startled a few sleeping motel guests in nearby rooms.

Once we got the U-Haul returned and settled the insurance claim on the damage, we got in our respective vehicles and headed southwest again and looking forward to several days of rest and Sin City relaxation in a lovely room in the new wing of the Frontier overlooking the construction site of a new pool area. Ironically, all of that was demolished awhile back to make room for a new resort.

KD and konagod on the balcony of our room at the Frontier Hotel & Casino

This was my first time in Vegas without my parents and of legal age. KD had been filling my head with enticing ideas like free cocktails while playing slots. What I was unprepared for were some of the other interesting perks to make gambling more fun and addictive, like the slot club cards which were a form of frequent gambler rewards. You insert the card into the slot machine and start playing. After so many plays you earn points and continue. Twenty plays might earn you 20 points. But if you stopped at 18 plays you didn't earn points for that session. Clever way to keep you playing. And needless to say, the dollar slots would earn you points faster than the same amount of money spent on nickel and quarter slots.

You'll notice I had two cards from the Frontier. Why not? I have two hands and two arms both of which can feed the slots simultaneously!

I also discovered a nifty trick -- a bug in the system if you wish -- in which I could accumulate points faster and for less outlay of cash. If the last person playing the slot had walked away after their 15th play, I could insert my card and only play 5 times to get the next round of points. (This "bug" had been fixed by the time I visited Vegas a few months later.)

This became my new game: going from slot to slot looking for easy points. Hitting an occasional small jackpot was just the icing on the cake.

It wasn't just slot club cards getting a workout on this trip. We kept the "cocktail wenches" as KD referred to them, quite busy supplying us with Bloody Marys and Cuba Libres and we would slow down on feeding the one-armed bandits if we knew it was time to move on and were simply waiting on the next round of drinks.

In addition to my slot club card staying quite warm, my credit cards were being fed into ATMs for generous cash advances to keep this frenzy going. I was like an unsupervised child in a toy store, having a vacation the likes of which I'd never experienced. Unsupervised and intoxicated for several days. Think Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, only without the other drugs. We might start gambling at 10 AM and, after losing track of time, would decide it was time to "hit a new casino." Upon exiting this casino I was shocked to see it was dark outside already. As in evening!

Time to find another cocktail -- a shrimp cocktail for 99-cents -- and then resume the search for the loosest slots on the strip. The cheap shrimp cocktails were usually to be found down on the sleazy end of the strip, in the Circus Circus area and this always necessitated swinging through Slots-A-Fun for a frozen daiquiri and some quick slot action.

I never needed an excuse to "detour through casino."

We stumbled around like this for days, carrying our cocktails from casino to casino, barely able to walk by nightfall. I'm speculating we were there from a Sunday through Thursday when the rates were cheap at the hotels. By the time we packed up and left for San Diego I had accumulated enough points on my Frontier slot club card for a "free" night or two with a room upgrade. And boy, did I work hard to earn it. Best of all, it only cost me about $3,000 on credit. You gotta love Vegas!

KD had never been to the Grand Canyon so we made one detour which wasn't "through a casino" and it was the better deal financially. For some reason I only had black & white film in my camera at the time, but it makes the photos seem just a bit more surreal.

Just a couple of hippies roaming the desert. Summer, 1990.
Or Mickey and Mallory Knox.

konagod at the Grand Canyon looking rather Bohemian... a young James McMurtry perhaps.

KD looking rather Janis Joplinesque.

Yes, the desert can be windy.

I was having such a blast on this trip with my new best friend, and obviously having no clue as to what would transpire in the coming few weeks as we settled down in San Diego.

Homes - Part 4: Denver

2008-09-22T10:25:00.004-05:00

After spending a few months in southeast Arkansas, Denver was an abrupt change of pace. JH had rented a loft apartment on 16th Street in downtown Denver in a building which had at one time housed a large department store. It was a small one bedroom adjacent to a fairly spacious kitchen and a living area which became my "bedroom." Actually I got the better deal because I had two huge windows looking out onto the bustle of Denver.

Being responsible for half the rent, I had to find a job. Soon I was working just a few minutes walk down the street at a bank in their credit card payment processing department. It was about as thrilling as it sounds: pulling checks and payment stubs from an envelope and running them through a processing machine which would read the data and post the payment to the customer account. Then repeat. And do this thousands of times a week.

The weather in Denver was also a bit unpredictable. I'll never forget waking up one morning and putting on a t-shirt for my short walk to work. At noon I went out for lunch and it was a beautiful day, sunny and mild temps suitable for my attire. When I left work at 5:00, it was breezy and about 2°F.

Then there was the afternoon around Memorial Day when I went to the movies and came out to find five inches of snow on the ground.

The nice lofty kitchen.

Denver didn't excite me for the job. But the job provided for me to have a fun nightlife, dancing at clubs until the wee morning hours and/or lingering in a smoky coffeehouse called Muddy's until the wee-er hours. What better way to spend a cold winter's night than huddled with friends around a table clutching mugs of hot coffee, smoking cigarettes, and watching the snow fall outside.

Cassanova getting ready to go seduce the boys.

It was during one such night when I became friends with a woman I'll call KD. This was a friendship which clicked immediately and built into a close bond. Sometimes those last and sometimes they flicker after awhile and burn to a cinder. This friend would prove to be the latter scenario.

My Toyota Corolla was grossly mismatched to the climate and altitude of Denver. I was prowling various car dealerships looking for a replacement when I spied what was probably a 1978 BMW 530i, silver with red leather interior. The owner was there trading it in on a jeep and I bought it that day for $3,300. As you might expect, it had high mileage. I seem to recall 133,000 being the number. But it drove wonderfully and had a sunroof which worked if you coaxed it correctly.

As nice as the downtown apartment was, I needed my own space after a few months. I searched around and finally decided on a "penthouse" apartment in this building which backed against Cheesman Park, a very gay-friendly Denver neighborhood. (In the same sense that San Francisco is gay-friendly!)

It wasn't exactly luxurious. It was just a studio apartment, no separate bedroom. But the kitchen was ample and my futon was on the living area floor next to a sliding glass door which lead onto a small balcony.

That's my futon covered in a red blanket in the foreground. There was a small closet in the back which did house a washer/dryer combo (very nice!) and a small bathroom to the right.

While Denver was a blast, it was becoming obvious to me after a year that I was merely at a temporary stopping point on a longer journey. I had already quit my job at the bank and begun working as a cashier in a nearby university bookstore. That really wasn't paying the bills but the people were more fun than those who worked in the bank.

The relationship situation wasn't working out either. I had a notable slut-puppy episode which makes me laugh to this day.

I was out at a dance club one night. They had a slightly elevated stage at the back of the club which on that particular night had a white curtain drawn across the front of it. I would occasionally see the silhouette of someone dancing behind the curtain. In my slightly intoxicated and horny state, I decided to go back there and check this guy out.

He was most definitely sizzling hot, and dancing alone holding a beer between his legs very suggestively. A konagod has gotta do what a konagod does best. I thought it might be a treat to provide the other club patrons with a shadow show behind the curtain. I slid down on my knees in front of this hottie while he was holding the beer bottle fully "erect" from his crotch, and I slid my mouth several inches down the neck of his bottle. Then he put his thumb over the bottle mouth, shook it, and sprayed beer in my mouth.

Apparently that was just enough to get us hot to trot, and trot we did... right back to my futon for some unbridled passion and a rather awkward unsuccessful attempt at sex, which abruptly ended around 5:00am when I realized he car was in danger of being towed from where he parked on the street. After telling him he had to get dressed and go move his car, I never saw him again.

There were other strange things going on. Like the guy I met who took me to his place and wanted us to bathe together in his big tub by candlelight. He also had a lot of amulets he was waving around to ward off bad spirits and to "protect us." Wow, I was kind of happy to get away from that one.

KD was encouraging me to purchase a VW Beetle. It would suit my style better than that BMW she insisted. So we shopped around and finally found an orange one which I purchased for around $600 from a woman who seemed very nice. She needed to get her hands on the title and promised she'd have it in the next day or so. Her demeanor immediately went from nice to completely insane within the span of 48 hours. She would be hostile when I called to inquire about the title. I think she said she was going to call the cops and tell them I was harassing her.

This stalling for time went on for a few weeks and KD would call her as well. KD's brother in San Diego was a lawyer so I think with some veiled threats, the woman finally caved in and said she'd fork over the title. I hired a notary willing to travel to her home to collect the title rather than go there myself. When he showed up at my place with the title, I was so relieved to have this ugly scene behind me.

The car was a piece of crap. I kept the BMW for the days when the VW wouldn't start or had a flat tire or dead battery.

During the final few months in Denver when that was going on, I was also having a different type of relationship with a guy named Hank who played in a band. It was different in the sense that it wasn't based on lust or love, more of a convenience situation, and the fact that it went on for the better part of a year was surprising to me. Hank needed to get very drunk in order to be very gay. I was feeling trapped and not sure how to end this. We weren't really friends at all. We got together when we needed to get off. He'd twist the top off a bottle of vodka and then we'd end up in bed. Then I'd drop him off at work the next morning.

Meanwhile my friend KD was plotting a move to San Diego and had been trying to convince me to move out there with her so we could split expenses. She wanted to be closer to her brother. She loved the city kept telling me I needed to get out of Denver, with her, for a new life.

Having always been drawn to the west coast, I decided this was the move I needed to make. And because I knew for some odd reason that my best hope of finding a real partner in life was there. So I quietly began packing my stuff, gave notice of my intent to vacate my apartment, and on moving day, I simply left. No farewells to many of my friends, or to Hank. I just disappeared.

Certainly there are other ways to get out of a dead-end relationship, but this was at least clean and easy. And I was on the road again, with a U-Haul full of KD's stuff, and her cat, as well as what few things I owned, and my orange VW Beetle in tow. I'd have to fly back later and pick up the BMW which I did. And I haven't been back to Denver since.

A lot happened in that city in a short span of time. I moved there in January, 1989 and was out of there in the summer of 1990. And it was a fun time, aside from the time I was knocked head over heels off my bicycle by a car. That still hurts to think about.

Next up: Road trip to San Diego with a lengthy blistering hangover in Las Vegas!

Homes - Part 3: Floating Around for Awhile

2008-09-06T09:35:00.000-05:00

Being ejected from England on a visa violation was a blow. It was also an exciting opportunity as I did not have a clue what was to come, but at least I had the power to make the decision.

It was pretty obvious I had to return to the US where I could legally work. I considered moving to Boston because the city was like London in some ways with an excellent subway system and public transit. I wouldn't need the burden of a vehicle. Miami also crossed my mind because it would be a drastic change and also I'd be warm again after a year in London.

In the end I opted for the familiarity of Los Angeles, a city I had visited when I was 14 and which had always pulled me magnetically. I can't remember how much cash I had when I arrived at LAX but it was probably not even $2,000, and in an expensive city I only had a week or two in which to find an affordable place to live and some form of employment.

A so-so hotel along Sunset Boulevard in the West Hollywood area offered weekly rates at a few hundred dollars and that was my home for the brief time I'd be in that city.

I awoke in the middle of the night with a strange light in my eyes. I quickly realized the door to my room was wide open. I quickly got up to close the door and was wondering what happened. Then I noticed my wallet was missing from the table next to the bed. My world suddenly collapsed.

I had no cash, no credit cards, no identification. and was alone in a city 1,500 miles away from anyone I knew.

Much of this experience is a blur. My mother probably wired some money and I was soon on a flight bound for Arkansas. I spent some time with my mother and then eventually moved back to Little Rock and enrolled in college again to finish my degree.

As I look back on the chain of events, it's as if everything was happening to steer me in a direction which would ultimately connect me to the thing I wanted most: a loving relationship with a life partner. I'm not suggesting the events were divine in nature or merely my subconscious knowing where I needed to go to find that which I was seeking.

At the time, from 1985 until 1990, it seemed to be an eternity. To realize now what happened in a span of only five years is quite mind-boggling.

Having been openly gay in London for the first time in my life, I was feeling a bit more secure with myself closer to home. And my friendless life in Little Rock was about to be blown open by a woman with whom I worked at a yogurt store.

She recommended a band I should see at a cavernous club known as SOB. It was an enormous restaurant by day serving shrimp, oysters, and beer -- hence the name. At night it was converted into a live music venue with plenty of room for dancing. I hadn't been out to see live music since I lived in London and obviously my expectations were low. It would not be Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Psychedelic Furs, or the Cramps I'd be seeing in Little Rock. And it didn't matter. I needed a social life on some level.

I met two young women who seemed to have no problem with the fact that I was gay. One of them began to introduce me to her circle of friends. She also sensed that I needed a little assistance in getting exposed to other gay people and offered to take me to a gay bar. Soon I was a regular fixture in the Little Rock nightlife, dancing until closing time at SOB, and frequenting the gay bar where I was developing my own circle of friends. And that was not without some weirdness and odd relationships.

There were a series of love interests in which I thought I was in love, only to have my hopes dashed within two weeks or so. The first such "boyfriend" had just broken up with his boyfriend who it turned out was someone I'd just met and we were developing a friendship. Yeah, that was odd. Not quite as odd as the morning I woke up in bed with a red-headed boy after taking LSD the night before, and feeling horrible guilt for "cheating" on the guy who didn't want to be in a relationship anyway. I got up, dressed and drove to his house to confess my deeds while sobbing.

I was also fired from my job at the yogurt store that day for failing to show up.

JH was another friend with whom I developed a tight bond. We spent a lot of time together and through that friendship I actually got a job at the gay club handling the light show over the dance floor and well as for the drag shows in another room of the club. That was quite a lot of fun for me but I eventually quit because I was tired of the sexual harassment coming from the DJ.

Honestly, I could write a book about this short span of time in my life. What you are getting is the bare minimalist version. It was finally a time of normalcy for me in the sense that I finally had friends and a social life, queer as it was. I also had several different apartments in that span of a few short years and before I left the city, I had evolved into a person with more eclectic views and desires, thanks to hanging around artistic people.

(There was a summer spent in Dallas during this time which I may come back to in another post.)

In the final few months in Little Rock, I had finished my BA degree in liberal arts, I was living in an older apartment with character downtown in a historic district, just steps away from my friend, JH. I had also fallen in love again, this time with someone not from my tight social circle, per se, although I was introduced to him by a woman in my clan. This was also not meant to last. If I thought I was still confused and trying to figure out where I was going in life at 28, this 18-year-old with whom I had a brief steaming-hot romance was worse.

JH was also going through a break-up with his boyfriend and was toying with the idea of moving to Denver to get a fresh start in life. I was also frustrated and heartbroken that every relationship I had seemed to fizzle in 14 days. JH was uncertain about the prospect of moving to Denver alone and tried to convince me to go with him so we could split expenses. I didn't feel ready yet for such a move and was still trying to salvage something from this latest boy toy who kept breaking up and then coming back for more.

In the early autumn of 1988, my best friend in the world packed up and went to Denver. After it became clear I was no longer in a real relationship with a very confused boy who was about to pack up and move away to college himself, I moved out of my apartment and went back to southeast Arkansas to spend some quality time with my mother.

It was also a time for me to disengage from my wild life of booze, experimentation with drugs, and all-night parties under disco lights. I painted several rooms in my mom's house (serenaded by k.d. lang on CD whom I had just discovered) and had a pretty quiet and easy life until December when it became obvious to me I was racing toward my 30s with no job, no future unless I wanted to work at Wal-Mart, and no friends.

Just before the holidays, I called up JH in Denver and said, "I've decided I'm coming out there."

I packed up my decade-old Toyota Corolla (complete with Grateful Dead bumper sticker), which I had purchased in Little Rock for $575, and embarked upon a journey which would ultimately lead me to where I sit today: home.

Homes - Part 2: London

2008-08-25T06:09:00.003-05:00

My dad died on December 30, 1982 and was buried the next day. About a week later I started back to college in Little Rock. I know this had to be a tough time for my mother to deal with losing a spouse and having no one around to help her get all the financial matters under control.

I was dealing with the loss in another way: plotting to leave the country. As a student I was able to secure a student exchange work permit which granted me the right to work in England for six months. Late in the summer of 1983 I packed my bags. In retrospect, this was terrible timing on my part. My mother was still struggling with various issues and didn't like living alone out on the farm. In fact she moved in with my aunt who had also lost her husband awhile back.

I arrived in London and immediately began searching for a place to live. I don't remember if I was shown any other flats. This may have been the first one and I took it.

My room (and it was just a room) was on the 4th floor, and I believe it had two of the three windows. The landlord was a proper and meticulous woman. She asked me to sign some papers agreeing not to ever sue her for anything because, as she put it, "Americans are so litigious."

And then I moved in. There was a bed in one corner, a big dresser, a table with a couple of chairs, a small sink and a little cooking unit. And a small refrigerator. That was it.

The location was perfect for me. South Kensington is so convenient to everything in central London. I could walk to Chelsea. Harrods in Knightsbridge was only a 15-minute walk.

In September I was offered a job as a sales clerk on the 3rd floor of the HVM Shop's flagship store at 363 Oxford Street. (Yes, I still remember the address.) That floor housed the video portion of the business as well as a tiny PC department and the fledgling compact disc offerings which at that time were limited to a rack smaller than my current storage needs!

The HMV attracted tourists from around the globe as well as celebrities and musicians. The most notable one I remember seeing was George Michael who caught my attention because he was checking me out! Once while I was cashiering I looked up and a guy I knew from the University of Arkansas was standing there. He was a Londoner though so I guess it wasn't that much of a coincidence.

London was a very happy place for me. I was comfortable enough to come out of the closet with my co-workers and I wanted this to continue indefinitely. Unfortunately, you can't easily live in London (not with my tastes!) on a sales clerk salary.

As my six-month work permit was nearing the expiration date, I learned of an option to request an extension. It was a long shot, and would likely be rejected, but I could continue my employment while the extension request was under review. That process took months. In the end I remained employed there for about 13 months, but the end was not sweet.

My biggest mistake was to schedule a vacation in August to travel back to Arkansas to visit my mother. I stayed a week or two, and upon my return to London, I was nabbed by immigration authorities for overstaying my visa. I was put on a bus and sent to a detention center for almost the entire day where I was questioned repeatedly about my purpose in coming back to England, etc.

At the end of the day I was released on the condition that I adhere to the one-month visa extension and then return to the States. And since I was no longer permitted to work, that basically brought an end to my life in London.

Back in the early 90s, txrad and I went to London on vacation in November. He took my picture on the front steps of the building where I lived.

It was an odd feeling then and it still brings back so many vibrant memories. Even those steps are fresh in my mind, as if all this happened only three or four years ago.

Homes: A Series. In Chronological Order.

2008-08-18T18:16:00.007-05:00

In retrospect, my life in the farm house was great. I miss that house a lot. I lived there until I went away to college at 18, and lived there periodically after that until I was in my 20s. Life on the farm gave me plenty of opportunity for contemplation. It also made me feel restrained by the time I was a teen. I wanted to get away and see the world.

Even at two, I looked like an angry demon. I thought life was hard then. It was nothing compared to being 48.

One of the things I loved about life on the farm were the sunsets. Here I was around my 14th birthday. The sunrises were often more spectacular but I wasn't often awake for those. Damn, this is a young kona.

My dad prided himself on what he could build. One day I was out with the shovel in the backyard digging a hole. My parents asked me what I was doing and I said I was digging a hole for a swimming pool. Well, that was about all it took for my dad to decide he could do that, and he did.

Here's another kona shot at 14, living the life of leisure, and probably plotting how to be rich and retired and driving a Mercedes by the time I was 21.

By the time I was 19 going on 20 I had already been to Europe on my own several times. You can see the pins in the map on the wall showing places where I had visited. England was taking a toll on me musically. I wanted to be so very British. I just didn't have the hair for it. That would plague me for years.

Oh, and that kick-ass stereo rack? My dad built it.

And that damn hi-fi was one reason I rarely saw a sunrise. I was up too late listening to punk rock, and various other British bands. Interesting that I was into the Jam because later I would actually see Paul Weller, the front man, in London. But that's a later post on another home series.

Here I was in the front yard. I still remember that windbreaker I was wearing. It was an odd, almost plastic-like material. I bought it at a department store in Stockholm either going to and coming from Finland where I visited a pen-pal.

My mother sold that farm house and 5 acres for something like $65,000 a few years after my dad died in 1982. I harbored notions that someday I could buy it back for about the same price. I would love to live in that house today. My dad and his dad built it. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground a few years ago after the new owners spent a ton of money renovating it. I have suspicions about that but we won't go down that road.

And I may not have been rich or retired by 21, but at least I achieved one of my objectives.

Spoiled brat. Damn I liked that car though. A 1969 280S if I recall. May have been a 68.

Wine, Tequila and Dominoes

2008-08-15T18:14:00.007-05:00

Oh it's gonna be a fun night at the kona ranch!

I sent txrad out for tequila and he came home with tequila and a $17 bottle of Robert Oatley Chardonnay from the family estate in Mudgee, Australia. He had a sample at the store and apparently was impressed.

And our pal, the manager of the store, gave him some promotional Hornitos dominoes. I've forgotten how to play.

Oh, and for the record, we're not opening the wine tonight. Tequila is ample.

Meme Across the Blogs 2

2008-08-12T19:47:00.008-05:00

This meme is going to run in conjunction with the meme on the konagod blog. Because this meme is probably difficult at best, consider this to be your clues, and it's a damn fine idea for a meme on its own.

Here's der rules:

Set your MP3 to random play.
Find a photo of the album cover of the first 20 (or 10, or 5 if you're a lazy fucker) albums
Photoshop it to distort the image.
Make people guess the artist and album name.

Way better than that other meme because you can't cheat!

That's it! Meme concluded!

Pussy Boy

2008-08-07T07:46:00.005-05:00

I was digging around through some old photographs and found this. I don't know what year this was taken but I suspect it was around 2000. It's been a long time since I drank Red Stripe and those glasses I'm wearing were bought in LA and I replaced them in 2001 if I recall.

Anyway, here's a drunk and possibly stoned daddy with his girls.

Samantha, on my lap, died on July 25, 2007 -- the same day as my grandmother. (Not the same year though.)

Jezebel, the recipient of the belly rub, died on May 31, 2004. I can hardly believe it's been that long.

Sissy, far left, is still with us.

Mango Lassi

2008-08-04T18:41:00.004-05:00

txrad bought a couple of mangoes last weekend and this afternoon he made something special for us.

Take these, peel them and seed them. Place pulp in a food processor. Then transfer to a vessel of your choice for mixing and pouring.

Add some of this bovine nectar..

Add just a little of this to taste... (not a lot)

And you get this. A gift from god. Or txrad.

This Blog Is NOT Dead.

2008-07-29T21:29:00.001-05:00

I'm just busy clearing out my old music.

Heard today on KLBJ 95.something or another.

2008-07-25T20:09:00.002-05:00

For some reason I just remembered driving around the streets of Fort Worth when I was about 16 listening to this on the 8-track.

Lemon Ice Cream

2008-07-14T19:19:00.002-05:00

I decided to make some yesterday afternoon. Here it is in progress.

I left it to freeze more solid overnight in the freezer and when I got home today, txrad said, "you need to taste it."

He thought it was some of the best ice cream he's ever tasted. And I agree.

Perfect for hot weather. And perfect for cold weather but we don't have that luxury currently.

My Next Job Site

2008-07-10T17:37:00.002-05:00

Right here is where I'll be working at my next job and it's starting to freak me out. Guess what I'll probably be doing this weekend?

If you guessed de-cluttering, cleaning and organizing, you'd be correct. The desks are still pulled away from the windows because we are still waiting on the crew to come out and finish their work and replace one last window in the bedroom. I'm getting annoyed with them. I know the window was delivered to them over 2 weeks ago.

Yes, We Had No Bananas

2008-07-04T17:58:00.003-05:00

Actually we did have four but four does not make 2 cups of mashed bananas, so txrad had to drive to the store -- about 7 miles roundtrip to fetch more. I had him grab some beer just to maximize the value out of the gas wasted.

Our next house needs to be closer to a supermarket -- which might be pretty damn hard considering I'd like to be on about 20 acres.

Banana cake starts out like this.

A Plastic Explosion

2008-07-02T13:25:00.003-05:00

We save plastic bags for things like cat poop, cat vomit, etc. I needed to clean the litter box this morning and when I opened the drawer it was as if the bags were spring-loaded. They came flying out.

OK. Not really. txrad gets really annoyed with me when I do this but it needed to be done. The damn bags were so tightly packed in that drawer I could barely open it, and I certainly could not pick through them looking for the size. Now I have to go clean them up.

txrad joined Facebook...

2008-06-29T18:50:00.003-05:00

at 8:41 this morning. Finally. And I don't think he's all that impressed with it.

He wanted me to get a picture and that was his choice. Personally I would have liked for him to use one of his official company photographs from his ex-employer last year. This is one of them which I like a lot.

Yes, we worked for a groovy company, and I do again.

Korn

2008-06-25T19:51:00.004-05:00

I haven't been ignoring this blog since Sunday. I've actually been having performance issues with my scanner. But after several reboots of both PC and scanner, I seem to have resolved the problem.

My mother sent me some pictures recently of our farm and this one really made me feel good, particularly since corn prices are so high and we have not been plagued with the flooding they've had in the midwest.

That area at the back with the trees is what we called the "break." I'm not sure where that term originates, but it was formerly a bayou which changed course and is now just a swampy muck of stanky water. I would find quite a few lovely blackberries back there in the season, around this time of year.

I used to go out in that area of the field after a rain and pick up Injun artifacts... pieces of pottery, arrowheads, etc. It used to amaze me that families lived on "our" farm before we did.

I'd be happy if they were still there.

We Now Resume Irregular Programming

2008-06-22T15:07:00.003-05:00

March 1978. That's me in the white shirt on the left getting baptized Methodist-style in the Jordan River. And that's not John the Baptist -- he was just some preacher who organized the trip.

And that woman on the right in blue -- she was not part of our group. She was just sitting there when the preacher got some wild hare up his ass and asked, "who wants to be baptized while we're here?" I often wonder if she thought we were a bunch of freaks. Oh wait, we were!

Please Stand By

2008-06-22T10:53:00.001-05:00

This Blog Is Dead

2008-06-16T20:50:00.004-05:00

God Save The Blog

Don't worry. Things only get better from here.

I decided to finish something I started 9 months ago

2008-06-15T19:40:00.003-05:00

Back in September when I was doing all the painting I decided to paint the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. I'm not sure why since you can't really see the paint with all the clothes in there. I started painting and ran out of paint so I just left it unfinished.

This has been nagging at me for months. Today I decided to finish it. Well, I did more than finish it. I started over. I found a can of paint from a few years back which I'd used to paint the trim in the kitchen. It was about 3/4 full and I knew it would be enough for this task and I wouldn't need to open the new can I bought a few weeks ago in the same color I started painting.

The old can is more creamy white than the stark white I had starting using in the closet. And I actually like it better.

The first order of business was getting everything out of the closet. Shit, we have a lot of clothes. This is ridiculous.

The closet looks enormous once all the shit is out of it. You can clearly see where I started painting and stopped last year.

The other side of the closet...

I started this project about 10:30 this morning and I used a roller on the walls which went pretty quickly. I decided I'd probably be done with this chore by noon-ish. I guess I underestimated the time it would take to do all the trim work, the shelves, the braces which hold the shelves, etc.

But it turned out quite nice.

It's not a perfect job, but it's a friggin' closet! I did put in a lot of attention to details, including painting the underside of the shelves. I like to be good and thorough. No shoddy work here. All the shelves are painted except this lower shelf you see in the photo below. It was never painted when we moved in so I just left it.

I finished about 2:45 and then was wondering what to do for lunch since I hadn't eaten all day. I was going to either run get a Subway sandwich or go to the supermarket for a frozen entree. And I really wasn't gung-ho about either option.

I checked the refrigerator and lo and behold there was actually a meal waiting to happen. Some beans that txrad made a few days ago as well as the remains of his potato salad which I'm surprised was still edible, and I found a cornbread muffin in there along with a thick slice of homegrown tomato.

Damn. Them is good eats.

Let's go shopping!

2008-06-14T20:11:00.009-05:00

Well, what else am I supposed to do while txrad is away and I'm home alone. I get stir crazy and I need to get out and do something. Friday night turned out OK. Sure, I had the scorpion sting and missed Loretta Lynn but I did go to the pool party at Lonnie's house. And apparently it was just what I needed: lounging around in the pool, relaxing, and enjoying the company of friends.

I sometimes forget I even have friends because I'm such a hermit. It's good to get out occasionally.

It got dark much too soon and the camera in my RAZR phone isn't quite up to the task sometimes. This one isn't great but I'll have fond memories of a fun night. Left to right: Thomas, his son Dylan, his wife Betsy, Eric behind Betsy and Lonnie. None of them are looking at me because Carol was taking a picture with a GOOD camera.

I knew Betsy briefly when I first moved here in 1997. We both worked at the same ad agency. Lonnie and Carol are in the next shot. I worked with Lonnie last year although she worked at the same agency as Betsy and I, but a bit earlier. I believe she had left when I came here although I met her on a visit around 1995 or 1996.

Carol and I worked at the same agency in Santa Monica way back around 1991. She moved to Austin before txrad and I did. She's the one responsible for alerting me to the opening in January 1997 at the agency I worked last year, and started at again in May. Carol is my "supervisor!" A night out with "the boss."

Lonnie and Carol are both from the same small town in Iowa where another ad agency happens to be located. Lonnie and I both worked for that one although at different time periods. Besty lived there also.

It's quite odd because I feel like I've known Lonnie most of my life and we really only got to know each other last year. Advertising is a strange profession. But I digress. What was the title of this post???

Oh! Let's go SHOPPING!

I didn't need to last night but today I was going stir-crazy. I went to Kohl's and spotted a white pair of cargo shorts I liked but didn't buy them. I went on to a Goodwill store to check out what they had. Lucky me. I found these two shirts. I love the colors of the one on the left. And the blue one is really nice and 100% linen which is one of my favorite fabrics. The best part is that I got both shirts for $10.80 so feel free to congratulate me on my savvy shopping capabilities.

As for those white cargo shorts, I went back to Kohl's and bought them. I'm not real fond of white clothing but it is summer and they'll be cool. And they make my legs look tan! My legs are only a shade darker than the shorts! I think I'm probably going to dye them at some point -- customized cargo shorts for konagod. A dark plum purple with yellow draw strings sounds about right.

The gift cards I'm carrying around in my wallet have been burning a hole in it. I still had over $160 on the Wal-Mart gift card, and since I really detest going to Wal-Mart I decided this would be a good time to burn it up. Especially since txrad has the only digital camera on his trip to North Dakota.

I picked out this ultra-thin and lightweight camera. It shoots 8.1 megapixels which far exceeds the 3.3 or whatever is on our current camera -- and ours is so large and bulky I really feel self-conscious when I take it in public to shoot pictures. This was $249.84 but I also had a $50 AT&T debit card in my wallet which expires at the end of this month, and I'll be damned if I'm going to give THEM my cell phone rebate money. So in essence, I got this camera for very little.

On my way out, I happened to think about the memory stick. 8.1 megapixels is a lot more than 3.3 and I wasn't even sure if my existing memory stick would work, so I went to check out the selection. As it turns out, there's a new stick since I bought my old camera: the memory stick pro duo which is smaller than my existing stick. I got the 1 GB stick for another $34. They had a 2 GB stick for twice the price, but since this one holds about 300 photos, it should suffice. I don't think I've ever downloaded more than 30 or 40 at a time to my PC.

Won't txrad be surprised when he gets home? Yee haa! I've been having FUN!

Being one who likes to get maximum benefit from his purchases, I fashioned an ankle bracelet from the twine which was used to tie the tag to my cargo shorts. I strung two pieces of hematite to it to ward off the evil scorpions and other demons. Hey, it can't hurt.

txrad's vacation family reunion is coming up

2008-06-10T18:43:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure I can take the bus much longer with gas prices as high as they are. The bus is packed with people and this afternoon it was standing room only and I was standing. Thankfully I was on the early bus so traffic wasn't so heavy and I got to my park & ride location in about 30 minutes.

While I was standing I noticed the only empty seat was next to a black man. Now, with this being Texas, you might think no one wanted to sit next to a black man because... well, we're supposed to be racists, right?

But not in Austin. We do apparently abstain from sitting next to anyone who appears to be crazy, even though we may have "Keep Austin Weird" stickers on our cars. See the guy in the center to the left with the empty seat next to him? I managed to snap the picture at the exact moment when he wasn't flailing his arms around, listening to music on an iPod, grinning like a opossum, and generally making people think he's nuts.

txrad and I have seen him standing along the highway where I get off the bus. He's just standing there listening to music and flailing around, pointing at people, and just generally drawing attention to himself. I call him the "Crazy Negro™." Actually, I'd love to know what's on his iPod. It sure as hell seems to make him happy.

Meanwhile the reason I took the bus today is because txrad wanted the "good car" to go shopping for new shoes. He's about to embark on a trip to this square state for a family reunion.

In reality it looks more like this:

It's really beautiful this time of year and I'm really sorry I cannot go. He goes every 2 years and I always say I'm going with him "next time" and there's always a reason why I don't or can't. This year it's the job and finances.

He finally found a pair of shoes at the 4th or 5th store his visited. They are kind of retro but I like them.

Let's try this again, without the Tot:

I'll be hauling him to the airport about 6:30 Thursday morning. He'll be back at 11:00pm next Tuesday. He'll have the camera so any pictures on my blog during that time will be with the cell phone.

Week #4 Concludes

2008-06-06T17:40:00.002-05:00

Today marks the end of my fourth week of employment at The Agency. Hard to believe. I have not lived up to my promise of taking the bus and there are several reasons for that.

1. As much as I enjoy walking half a mile in afternoon heat to stand in the sun for perhaps another 5-10 minutes waiting for the bus, the car has been more convenient.

2. I've had a couple of long days -- one of which would have caused me to miss the last bus altogether if I hadn't driven. And it's hard to predict in advance when such days will occur.

3. This week I've been making only one cup of coffee at home for myself instead of two which allows me to get ready for work at least 20 minutes earlier. I have now been leaving at 6:30-6:45 and at that hour, the traffic is nothing compared to 7:30-7:45. I can get to work in 18-19 minutes vs. 30-35 in heavier traffic.

Here's a shot I took a couple of weeks ago when I was in the heavier traffic.

Looks like fun doesn't it? And no, this photo involved no risk to anyone's personal safety since none of the vehicles were in motion.

txrad's Texas BBQ Sauce

2008-06-01T17:24:00.003-05:00

txrad just made up a batch of "Texas Bar-B-Q Sauce" which is quite tasty. Here are his ingredients (don't forget the light brown Muscovado sugar perched atop the salt! The measuring cup contains ketchup.

Into a food processor goes onion, red bell pepper, garlic, a jalapeno, and fresh oregano.

When done processing it looks like this.

Then into a sauce pan with the other ingredients to simmer on the stove for 30 minutes after being brought to a boil. When finished it's ready to spice up whatever you need spiced up.

If anyone wants specifics, txrad will address those in comments.

Haircuts all around

2008-05-31T19:43:00.002-05:00

txrad got his hair cut. Here's the before shot.

And the after. Looks nice.

Let there be light

2008-05-26T17:47:00.003-05:00

and heat.

I forgot to put this picture on the earlier post showing the heating element which txrad replaced. It glows BRIGHT orange. It's so nice to be baking again. We're making pizza tonight.

And we tackled another lighting installation in the bathroom today. This old light fixture and the matching towel bar had to go. The light in the middle of the fixture wasn't burned out; I actually removed the bulb awhile back because of a short in the connection which caused it to sizzle and buzz sometimes. It was giving me the heebie jeebies.

txrad did most of the work on this install. I don't think he was happy that I had another project ready to go which required his assistance but he's happy with it now.

Voila! Much better! Light and towel bar look 300% better than the old ones. Because the base of the old fixture was oval and the new one was round, I knew I'd have to paint the area covered by the old fixture before we could put in the new one, but that paint dries fast and we were done rather quickly. And yes, this fixture has 3 of the energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs for those of you wondering about my Green credentials.

Yee haa! Another project completed. Many more left to do. I need to put up the toilet paper holder but the current one is mounted on the side of the vanity and I'm going to repaint that another color besides white first.

kona the electrician

2008-05-24T17:45:00.002-05:00

We tackled a few more minor projects today. The heating element in the oven burned out last weekend which really is a major inconvenience for people who love to spend time in the kitchen and most meals involve baking.

On Monday txrad found a replacement element on the internet and ordered it. It shipped from Oklahoma City on Tuesday and we got it yesterday. He got that installed this afternoon. Less than $34 for a repair. I figured this would cost at least $150 if we paid someone to come do it. $75 for the part and $75 for the labor. And maybe a $25 fuel surcharge just for driving here.

And yes, I know the oven could use some cleaning.

Since we were in a mood to switch off electrical circuits at the box, I decided I would install the new light fixture in the closet to replace this ugly piece of shit. Yes, this was the lighting in the master bedroom walk-in closet. With an exposed light bulb. And I never understood why they left the string attached to it when the light was also wired to a switch on a wall.

txrad has always done any of our electrical work and I functioned as the assistant -- holding the fixtures while he wired them in. This time I wanted to do it and I figured this small fixture would be easy for learning. And yes it was. But txrad had to give me a lot of tips and pointers. I dropped the screws a few times and was soaked from sweating by the time I finished. But I did it and it looks great.

If you are seeing some weird discolorations on the wall, that's because I started painting the closet last summer after I had painted the bedroom, and I never finished. It's on my to-do list. Now that we have the new window and new lighting, I'll get on that soon.

I think we're about done with projects today. Tomorrow we have a heavier light fixture to install in the bathroom. Will I do it or will txrad? You'll find out when we're done.

We're not finished yet

2008-05-24T11:03:00.003-05:00

What a wild month it's been. Things are finally coming to a conclusion with a few exceptions though. This photo summarizes my mental state during all this. And probably txrad's as well since he was at home during all the chaos.

The cats have always loved the window ledges in the house. They can sit up there and gaze out the window. They still can but the new windows are considerably thicker than the old ones. Looks like they lost a couple of inches.

Here's one of the exceptions that prevents this project from being nearly complete. While installing the big window in the master bedroom they broke it. So I'll be living with that for a few days.

The other exception is this. One window was missing in the shipment so we still have an old window in the den, but this gives you a nice side-by-side for comparison. We really like the new windows which don't have those fake panes in them. It's amazing how much those block the view.

The is the back patio which is right outside those windows shown in the above photo. txrad did a great job cleaning and hosing down the patio this morning. And some of you may think we made a rather odd color choice for the exterior doors but we like it. I am thinking of something similar for the interior doors. It goes well with all our interior color schemes.

I'm also not sure I like the trim around the windows being the same color as the house. I was thinking they would do that with the same color as the trim you see in the upper right of the photo. It's OK though I guess. Maybe it would look too busy with the lighter trim color around the windows?

The office is particularly bright now. It makes me wish I worked at home again. There was a large dead cottonwood tree right outside these windows and that was cut down on Friday morning as well.

This is a window from the garage taken from another patio off the kitchen. All the old windows that were mounted in the limestone siding had to be cut out and some masonry work was done after the new windows were installed. Looks nice!

And finally! We got the walls painted in the den. It looks far better than it did and yet this is probably my only disappointment. The room is fairly dark anyway despite those two windows around the fireplace. I knew the colors I chose were going to darken it a bit more but I really was hoping for more contrast between that high wall at the back and the other 3 walls. It's actually painted a darker color and I swear I can't see much difference. And this photo was taken with a flash by the way!

Oh well. I'm not going to dwell on that decision. Today we begin dust clean up around the house. Thank God Monday is a holiday, that's all I can say.

We do windows

2008-05-21T20:23:00.002-05:00

I am at work this week but the windows arrived this morning and txrad was the official photographer for window installation day.

It was a bit of a shock to get home from work (at about 7:15! An 11 hour day from hell!) and see some new windows installed but not finished.

Out with the old:

In with the new:

I'm going to confess. Upon first inspection I thought, "what the hell have we done?" The windows are vinyl and look kind of cheap upon first close inspection.
But I've had a bad day at work and that was probably not the best backdrop from which to encounter these windows.

The fact is, they are a hell of a lot better than the last set. Thicker, more energy efficient, and double hung, meaning they can be opened inward for easy cleaning, and lowered from the top or the bottom. I think once everything is completed and the wood frames have been replaced and painted, it's going to look wonderful.

More tomorrow.....

Saturday painting project

2008-05-17T18:43:00.003-05:00

Now that I'm a working man I no longer have 7 days a week to do home projects. This means I must maximize my weekend time. I didn't exactly maximize anything this morning but this afternoon I spent about 3 hours painting the "short" wall in the den.

I forgot to take a "before" photo but I had this one from last July when the room was water damaged and we had to rip up the carpet.

The painters haven't come back to finish up the odds and ends outside or to paint the taller walls in this room; they are waiting on the replacement windows to arrive and I guess they'll take care of everything all at once.

Meanwhile I took care of the wall which doesn't require their assistance (or the extra tall ladder). Notice the ceiling in the first photo -- far right. The vaulted ceiling at the back of the room tapers down into the threshold area in the kitchen. I thought I'd go ahead and paint that the wall color since it is technically the wall coming to an end. I think it creates an interesting look -- almost an arrow pointing outside.

You'll notice my supervisor in both shots. Also in the above photo the baseboard next to the fireplace on the left had started to rot. I'll have to replace that one I suppose.

This is already a huge improvement and we don't even have flooring in yet. I really have my heart set on wood floors in this room.

Friday, the storm, and the paint job

2008-05-16T20:11:00.003-05:00

The home improvements and painting have basically been on hold for the past week. I think the painters are waiting on the new windows to arrive and be installed before touching up. But meanwhile, I realized I had not share a photo of the garage.

Looks nice! I'll update with the rest when we're all done.

The storm spared us any damage fortunately. The dead tree we're waiting to have cut down did lose some weight. txrad noticed this limb hanging in an adjacent oak tree and got it down.

Today txrad surprised me when I got home with his vegetarian sausages he made today.

YUM! They are tasty, and we're thinking we can now stop buying the prepacked $4 veggie sausages we use on our pizza and use these instead.

After a taste, I vote yes.

It's been a week since I last posted.

2008-05-16T20:04:00.002-05:00

Fuck!

If this week is indicative of my new job, this blog may turn into a weekend project. We shall see.

Painting is almost finished...

2008-05-09T18:35:00.005-05:00

and I'm unbelievably tired and I didn't even do any of the painting today. Plus, it was HOT in Austin, Texas. 95F.

This ladder makes me real nervous. Although I could find it functional.

The after shot. Minus the trim around the windows. They are waiting until the new windows are installed before doing the finale.

This is just a taste of what's going on around here this week. I'll post more photos later.

It was a strange day.

2008-05-08T20:02:00.004-05:00

Frantic, to be precise.

Painters arrived at 9:30, rather unexpectedly, and sent me on errands to get exterior paint. Meanwhile a guy got to working on the skylight tunnel and apparently there was more flaking paint up there than I imagined. So much for my pretty new bathroom.

While that was going on, another guy was out doing some patching and caulking in preparation for painting. Little did I know the painting was already underway.

Just a sampling of things to come in the next day or so. The changes are rather dramatic and I am shocked. txrad thinks everything looks good. He even helped me pick out a color for the doors which I was planning to do myself. But since the painters asked, obviously they will include it in the price, and if I don't like what we selected I can change it myself later.

So Friday morning I'm heading out to Home Depot for more paint. Stay tuned. This will continue into the weekend. I have lots of pictures.

Meanwhile, I got a job offer today.. Robert Johnson's birthday. Imagine that.

It's a lot less than I was making last year but I'm definitely going to take it. The job is with the same agency I worked at last year and it'll be a seamless transition. Only this time I'm not a contract employee; I'm full-time with all benefits and vacation time, which is quite generous.

I can start on Monday if I so desire. I desire.

Finally. A decision.

2008-05-08T13:20:00.003-05:00

It took a hell of a lot of deliberation an a stack of paint samples more than an inch thick and I don't think there's a color I didn't consider, including various hues of purple. In the end, I have decided to keep this room as simple as possible while still providing a nice contrast.

These two are what we selected. I was concerned that since the big wall is so high, anything more vibrant might just be overpowering. These two are in the green family but very subtle and they complement both the yellow color in the kitchen and the brigher limey green in the foyer.

The darker one will be the high wall and the lighter will be on the other three walls and around the stone fireplace which you can see in the next photo. I think it's going to be a relaxing tranquil room when we're done.

Macaroni & Cheese Night Again

2008-05-07T19:20:00.006-05:00

A recipe for Nicole.

Konagod's Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
2 cups pasta
2 cups shredded cheese
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
A pinch of smoked paprika
Salt & pepper
----------------------------------------
Whisk together milk and flour until flour is dissolved. Put on medium-low heat until milk begins to steam, whisking frequently to avoid sticking as it warms up.

Once the milk begins to thicken into a sauce, add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and whisk in. Then remove from heat. And allow to cool a bit while you grate the cheese; otherwise it may not mix well and will separate.

Add in 2 cups of grated cheese. We like to use extra-sharp cheddar but you can do a two- or three-cheese macaroni based on your preferences. Don't assume you have to go for the yellow cheddar either just because the Kraft box mac & cheese is yellow; we're going for superb taste here, not color coordination. (Our cheese we use is white.) Stir cheese into hot milk until saucy. Add the pinch of smoked paprika. This is txrad's addition as it goes well with the extra-sharp cheddar.

For the pasta, we use a variety but the traditional elbow macaroni works best with this recipe -- some of the larger macaroni disrupts the ratio of pasta & cheese and you end up with too much cheese sauce and not enough pasta. You can also use the large macaroni like cavatappi but I would avoid bow-tie pasta. Also not enough squiggly surface area for the cheese sauce to grasp.

Add 2 cups pasta to boiling salted water and cook as directed. Drain when tender. Add pasta into cheese sauce and stir. It helps if your sauce pot is large enough to handle the pasta. Otherwise, put the pasta back into the pot in which it was boiled and pour the cheese sauce over it. Stir well.

Pour mac & cheese into a 1.5L or 6 cup casserole dish and bake at 375F for about 15-20 minutes. Add freshly ground black pepper prior to serving.

We used to do this in a 1-quart casserole dish and there was always a bit too much for the dish. I'd recommend cutting down to 1 3/4 cups of pasta and milk for that size dish.

Enjoy! Bon appetit. Kraft never tasted so good.

Painting decisions are driving me to madness

2008-05-07T18:20:00.004-05:00

And I'm about to choke on so many paint color samples. I went back to Home Depot today because I realized my collection of paint color cards was missing quite a few from the palette of preference.

I have ditched any variation of orange although yellows and greens are in the mix. No reds.

Here's what is currently under consideration for the den.

I'm now factoring in the fact that our kitchen leading into the den is painted a cornsilk yellow and then whatever choice I make for the den has to be acceptable with that "dried palm" in the visible hallway which txrad refers to as a lime green. Lime juice green maybe. He's not real fond of that color I painted back there but I love it and think it adds more character than any other color we have in the house currently.

In this first photo taken from the kitchen you can see a little panel on the left which is the color in the kitchen. You can also see the height of that big wall at the back of the room. I'm thinking I want to do that in the darker of the two colors I select to really accentuate the height. (Or would it be better to do the other 3 walls in the darker color and apply the lighter color to the high wall?)

This is a closer shot of the high wall with the "dried palm" green foyer and hallway in the back. I'm rather leaning to the top two larger paint samples in the first photo because they complement both the kitchen yellow and the foyer green, and they also provide enough contrast between them to call attention to the vaulted ceiling in the den.

I'm thinking my 2nd choice is the first card on the left, but I could easily go any direction at this point. At least I have narrowed it down.

By the way, Seventh Sister suggested No-VOC paints in a comment in the earlier post and I happened to notice on this trip to Home Depot that they do sell it. And while the color choices are more limited, they are all fabulous. Naturally the paint is more expensive -- about $37 a gallon give or take a buck, but wow. Those top two large paint samples are from the No-VOC collection.

Out this afternoon

2008-05-06T11:15:00.002-05:00

I will be leaving the house for a trip downtown today at 1:30. I have an interview for a job at 2:00 at this place:

txrad thoughtfully suggested that I wear pants instead of shorts, and with the zipper pulled up.

Gee. I'm so glad he told me. I guess I should also put on socks.

So I decided to paint a bathroom today

2008-05-04T16:15:00.002-05:00

I just couldn't take it any longer. The tile around the tub/shower combo stops about a foot from the ceiling and that space had been painted. It was growing mold and mildew. I don't know who had the bright idea NOT to tile up to the ceiling. I bleached it and put two coats of primer on it last week. You can see a reflection in the mirror of a bit of the tile around that area in the top photo.

Dull drab bathroom be gone.

This project only required about three hours. There will probably be a couple of touch-ups to do tomorrow. And I will be replacing the hideous brass hardware: that outdated light fixture, the faucet, and towel bar will all be replaced with something in a brushed nickel finish.

And of course I still must paint all the trim. I'm figuring that could be another 2 hours.

Put on your happy face

2008-05-03T19:35:00.002-05:00

txrad is cooking tonight. Question of the day: tell me what he's making here.

On a side note, I had to do another snake rescue this evening. Sweet Pea brought up a snake dangling dead-like in his mouth. I went over and he released it as always but this time he was still eager to play with it.

The snake was a little 6-inch long green snake, harmless as a butterfly, and I caught it in my hand and moved it elsewhere for safety. Sorry, no pictures. Next time I'll try to do better but this was a matter of urgency.

The Coral Surprise

2008-05-01T19:50:00.004-05:00

I suppose it is a coincidence that I was thinking today, with all this activity, shit flying off the roof, people walking around the house, etc., that any snakes near the house would vacate during the roofing installation.

Leave it to a Texas coral snake to prove me wrong.

The roofers left about 7:00 tonight and txrad, true to form, could hardly wait to get up on the roof and inspect things. He grabbed the ladder, I had my camera, and as he was about to open the gate into the back yard I heard him say ***snake. I thought he said garter snake.

I looked at it and thought, "my, that's a pretty colorful garter snake."

I asked him, "WHAT kind of snake?"

He said, "coral."

I looked at it and my brain began processing the old lines about "red on black, won't strike back, red on yellow harms a fellow."

Then I had to look closely.

The nasty fucker just inched along the fence, and I was praying he didn't go under it because once in the back yard, I'd have cat vs. snake to deal with.

I kept an eye on it while txrad was getting on the roof. It eventually moved onto the driveway and I was hoping it was going to the neighbor's house. Nope. He was working his way toward the garage. I wasn't having that so I got it on a different trajectory out into the yard.

He went into some grass and some of the tree cuttings from last week. I'll have to be careful as I'm clearing those out this weekend although I'm sure he'll be well away from that pile by then. I was tempted to kill it but he wasn't being aggressive to me, so I returned the favor. I just hope there's not a lot of relatives hanging around. Sooner or later I'd have to fetch my hoe.

Meanwhile, as I was tracking snake movements, txrad was showing off our new roof. I specifically wanted to get a photo of him up there just to make Nicole nervous.

The lesbians' blue heeler from next door thought txrad was being silly. She's a silly dog and as I approached she barked and ran away.

I think the roofing job is excellent and I am so pleased with the results.

I was really hoping they'd get the skylights replaced but they left and I will have to inquire about why they didn't replace those with the new ones we bought. The supervisor also didn't show up this evening to collect his thou$ands. I'm sure he'll be here tomorrow.

There's one skylight over each bathroom and I waited all day to take a shower because I thought they'd replace those first before they completed the roof. Finally this afternoon I decided I had to take a shower since I needed to go out and purchase the celebratory tequila.

While the skylight isn't directly over the shower or the toilet, I would be visible emerging from either so it was a rather awkward day. To be honest, and I hope this isn't too much information, I decided I needed to move my bowels while the guys on the roof were working directly over the bathroom.

I turned on the ventilation fan out of habit, and realized that might not earn me any brownie points with the guys upstairs so I shut it off. Then I jumped in the shower and began wondering: what if I'm in the shower and they pop off the old skylight and one of the guys accidentally falls into the bathroom, or if they see me getting out of the shower?

That was enough to cause me to cut the shower short, no hair washing, just a quick rinse and out of there.

Ahhh, life at the kona ranch. You'd have to be here to fully understand what it's like.

Roof in progress

2008-05-01T10:35:00.003-05:00

It's a noisy and messy day here at the kona ranch. The blue tarp is meant to catch the old roofing materials and I'd guess it has caught about 15% of what's coming off the house. The patio is covered in bits and pieces of roof, and nails.

The ugly old brown roof will soon be history.

They have already started putting the new shingles over the garage. I am extremely happy with the choice I made. Just don't look at the mold growing on the painted siding down below. I'll take care of that later. Meanwhile this house will look 10 times better when this project is done.

The cats are ready for this to end. So are we.

Getting ready to rip the roof off

2008-04-30T18:18:00.003-05:00

With any luck, this house will look totally different tomorrow from the exterior with a new roof. I'll get plenty of pictures I'm sure.

The guys showed up today with the supplies. It took them awhile to figure out the best place to back the truck close to the house so they could extend this conveyor system from the bed of the truck up to the roof of the house.

It's a pretty cool innovation. It extends out onto the roof, and has little fin-like things on it to hold the cargo while it's being transported. I took this and the above photo from a dirty kitchen window.

I took the boxed-up skylights around for them to load on the conveyor so they could be placed on the roof for the big workday on Thursday. When they were done, I saw one of the guys who had been on the roof riding the conveyor back down to the truck. I wish I had taken a picture of him. It looked like fun.

So now we have a shitload of roofing materials stacked on our roof in anticipation of the big day. And there's more on the portion of the roof you can't see... lots more.

After they left, txrad wanted to get up on the roof and remove the satellite dish so we could relocate it to a fence post beside the house. It looks a bit like a piece of discarded trash here, but no... it's our ticket to paradise.

I was a bit nervous about the installation because one of us had to watch the signal meter on the TV while the other made the slight adjustments to the dish to get a signal. We used our dueling mobile phones to communicate which was a perfect solution. txrad had already mapped out what he thought were the correct angles. I expected we were in for at least 45 minutes of hassles but apparently he did his job quite well.

With minor adjustments I saw pretty good signal strength within a matter of seconds. txrad anchored it down and we have satellite tv again.

Just when we thought it was safe to relax and have a little tequila, txrad checked the weather forecast and they are saying there's a chance of drizzle in the morning. After he removed the satellite dish from the roof, there were a couple of big holes which he wanted to cover just in case we do have rain.

He was dressed appropriately for this manual labor. Yes, the t-shirt is from the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl which we attended in 1995... almost 13 years ago. I have a matching shirt. My, how time flies when you're having fun.

A Texas Chainsaw Massacre

2008-04-29T10:47:00.004-05:00

Nothing makes me feel quite like a macho man as repairing a piece of machinery and then doing some serious work with it.

The chainsaw had been idle in the heavy plastic case for at least 2 or maybe 3 years. When I pulled it out I didn't realize it was sitting in a pool of oil which had leaked out into the bottom of the case, so it was dripping on my shoe.

That cleanup alone took quite a few minutes. I figured out how to tighten the saw, checked the air filter, added fuel, and actually managed to get the saw running. I took care of the oleander stump quite nicely. txrad had already trimmed it down to the stump last week.

I was quite happy to be able to remove this thing finally.

While I was working on the chainsaw and ultimately the oleander, txrad was manually cutting some branches from a large oak limb which was only a few inches over the roof of the house. That needed to come down before the roofers get here on Thursday.

That's quite a bit of trimming. And the oleander branches are in the dumpster. I took the chainsaw and cut down the big limb and then sliced it up into 5 or 6 smaller logs which will be dried and used as firewood this winter perhaps.

A very wet Sunday

2008-04-27T09:32:00.002-05:00

That orange blob you see directly over Cedar Valley is about 4 miles from our house. I suspect it's about to hit us in a few seconds.

No yard work for me today.

Earlier this morning we had a bit of pea-size hail and there was a patch of ice on the ground that didn't melt for 2 hours. I am hoping the tomato plants didn't suffer any damage but I'm not going to to check right now.

Another home improvement project idea

2008-04-25T18:28:00.003-05:00

It's kind of funny. I have more projects on the to-do list than I can handle and yet I can always think of another one to add to the list.

For 10 years I have struggled with what to plant in the area at the front of the house just beneath the windows. The area lies under the eaves so it doesn't really get rain unless the rain blows in at an angle. It also doesn't get much sun. Just a little in the winter and almost none directly on the soil in the summer.

After 10 years, this is how it looks today from the elevated porch.

The area in the lower left near the porch with the rocks piled high was actually an attempt on my part a few years back to create an elevated planting area on 2 different levels, using the rocks to hold in the soil. That area between the porch and the steps is a black hole in which nothing would grow. Elevating it at least provided more light to the plants.

Here's another view of the area from the yard as you would approach the house and the front door.

You can see after two years of neglect, there's not much activity in there, not even weeds. Just a few.

So I have decided to not waste any additional effort or money trying to grow anything in there. Besides, shade-loving plants tend to need lots of water. And the soil in that plot is horrendously bad.

Instead, I have decided to pour concrete in that entire area and turn it into a sitting area. I might even install saltillo tiles over the concrete just to dress it up a bit, and that would give me a little tile laying experience as well.

Just imagine a bench beneath the windows with a small table next to it and anchored by a nice potted plant on either side.

It would really dress up the front entrance to the house and make it appear more inviting. I might even enjoy sitting out there admiring my strawberries!

This brainstorm came to me today while we were shopping for plants at Home Depot and I decided I'm tired of looking for anything that will thrive in what is clearly a dead area.

We did not leave empty-handed though. A lovely orange hibiscus selected txrad to bring it home.

What a way to spend a birthday

2008-04-23T18:31:00.003-05:00

Monday night there were some drinks and music. txrad whipped out the squeeze box.

On Tuesday, my actual birthday I did some weeding and gardening in this area beside the garage entrance. I also had two baby snakes in close proximity while pulling weeds. I know one was a beautiful garter snake; the other was a rather shiny plain brown snake -- very light brown. Not sure what it was.

I got the rest of my zinnias planted and a few more marigolds. The other plants you see were already there from a few years back. Maybe they'll actually grow and put out flowers now that I cleared out the grass and weeds.

Monday afternoon I got a call from the building supply store that our skylights were in so Tuesday afternoon we took the German utility vehicle (remind me to tell you the story about hauling several hundred pounds of manure compost) to pick those up. I really expected them to fit across the back seat but they were a couple of inches too long. We had to put them in the trunk and drive home rather carefully.

Nothing is broken so I have alerted the contractor to move forward on the roofing and window replacement project.

Last night txrad made my birthday dinner: a brown rice and broccoli casserole.

And a rhubarb cake. YUM!

Today I was eager to get out in the yard and do some more work. I got the remaining marigolds into a pot.

And despite the warm temperature and humidity, I got the push mower out and did some trimming around the trees and various other areas that are difficult to mow with the big riding mower.

I even mowed in the ditch along the street which is extremely difficult because it's uneven and sloping which means extra pushing and pulling of the mower. I tried to preserve as many of the wildflowers as I could. It looks better but my body was seriously overheating when I was done. I was sweating for 2 hours -- even after showering.

I also pulled a lot of weeds and grass out of the front patio where I moved the strawberry plants. Grass was starting to pop up again after the rain last week so I needed to get that out. I also swept the walk and hosed it down with water to get it nice and clean.

Just in case you were wondering what I do on and around my birthday...

...nothing out of the ordinary.

Rabbit Parisien

2008-04-21T16:41:00.003-05:00

Today was filled with some unexpected surprises. There was a very heavy box left in our garage by the mail carrier. A friend I've known since high school, Elizabeth in Little Rock (also a cat person; I've used some of her kitties in my Friday Pussy Blog), sent me this. It's called a "Cat Stack" and as you can see, there are indeed three of them.

There was also a smaller and lighter box left in the mail box from John & Jerry, a very artistic couple also from Little Rock. I've known them since the mid-80s. They sent me something which appeared to be personalized. Of course I could tell from the stains on the case this was something quite old. There were two books inside the case.

Both of them are cookbooks and contain quite a few very simple recipes by Winifrede Repp Railey. As you can see, the copyright date is 1935 which makes them 73 years old.

One of the first recipes is for "Blue Berry Muffins" and it's almost identical to the recipe I current use with one notable exception: I use 1/2 cup of sugar and this recipe calls for one TABLESPOON of sugar. I guess they were either health-conscious back in 1935 or sugar was EXPENSIVE!

Quite a few of the recipes are vegetarian and I will have to try a few of them. This one is not:

RABBIT PARISIEN

Disjoint the rabbit and wash. Into a kettle place cubes of salt pork and fry to a golden brown. Brown the rabbit in the grease, then add enough water to stew it. Salt, pepper and cayenne. One half hour before the rabbit is done, add 1/2 pound of fresh mushrooms, peeled and cut in halves. Just before serving add sliced green olives and thicken the gravy a little. Mashed potatoes and buttered Brussels sprouts make this dinner complete.

Gift Card Shopping Spree Part 2

2008-04-19T17:40:00.002-05:00

There's nothing quite like being unemployed for 4 months and being able to go on a big shopping spree. Gift cards make that possible and we know how I love those. Today I used the Home Depot gift card which I got from redeeming American Express Reward Points when I canceled the card a few months back.

This morning I ran out to get some saw horses which every home improver must have. They will come in handy when I start painting doors and for other projects.

Then with some advice from blogger buddy Bob, I decided on a cordless drill and splurged on some quality titanium drill bits and a massive 38-piece driver kit which includes a pivot tool for those hard to reach crevices. Yeah, baby!

Back in September when I was painting the living room I was never able to get the last screw removed from a door hinge. That stubborn little bastard is about to find out who's the boss.

Spring has sprung.

2008-04-16T18:17:00.003-05:00

While I was shopping for young vegetable plants I decided to pick up a few zinnias since they were pretty and cheap. Hopefully they'll fill up this pot from which I removed the dead hydrangea yesterday.

I got several bell peppers and jalapenos planted in the north side of this plot, and four heat tolerant tomatoes in the south side. This is the plot which I cleared this morning shown in the post just below this one.

They'd better be heat tolerant because this area gets full sun exposure almost all day. I'm sure ~~txrad~~ I will have to water frequently. This is MY plot and MY responsibility. Must remember that.

A wee little tomato.

More gardening

2008-04-16T12:23:00.002-05:00

Yesterday txrad got his basil put into pots on the patio.

This morning I decided to finish clearing out the grass from another vegetable plot. In about 90 minutes it went from this:

To this:

And believe me, when I first started cutting the grass on it last week it didn't look anything like the first picture! It's quite a transformation. There's something extremely satisfying about such an accomplishment.

After lunch we're going to select some veggies.

It's a Saturday night party!

2008-04-12T19:36:00.003-05:00

One of our neighbors across the street is having a party! Ironically one of our other neighbors across the street was also having a party this afternoon, so we're seeing LOTS of traffic and cars. I'm glad I mowed the yard yesterday. I sure would hate for our lot to be an eyesore!

I think they even have a band. Thank God they're professionals, unlike the neighbors behind us.

I'm hearing Tejano. My guess is tequila is flowing generously. There and here.

All photography by txrad. I must give credit where credit is due.

Working in the yard again

2008-04-12T10:53:00.004-05:00

After a cool morning in the 40s we're having another lovely sunny day in Austin, Texas. I got the push mower started and mowed in the back.

txrad followed behind with the clippers to handle some of the detail work.

This is the west side of the yard. I could use the riding mower on this but the back yard is entirely fenced in and it's some amount of trouble to get the riding mower back there so I just use the push mower on all of it.

The red yuccas are starting to put out their blossoms. These two appear to be in a love-making mood.

One thing I love about my agaves is how prolifically they reproduce. They are slow growing but they definitely put out lots of babies. Not sure how many you can see in this photo but I need to decide if I want to move some to a different location. There are others in the front yard with babies. Lots of them.

This was one of my slightly raised beds I built with a rock border. As with the rest of the yard, it was neglected for the past two years and it was covered in grass and weeds. I just used the weed eater on it today. It's going to take a bit of work to get the rest of it cleaned and ready for whatever I want to plant there.

Ignoring the yard for two years meant we had an excessive amount of sunflowers. The are beautiful in the autumn but they leave behind dead stalks which really need to be removed by hand. I think this year I'm striving for a smaller grouping of sunflowers and not allow them to spread out so much.

This is where the bulk of our gardening is done. txrad has maintained that while I allowed the rest of the yard to go to hell. He has a few tomatoes planted in there and three basil plants.

This is another plot for gardening which I call the tall man's grave. When it's cleaned up and the soil is ready it looks like a burial site.

This is another raised area surrounded by very large boulders which was here when we moved in but in very poor condition. It was basically a rock pile. I got all the smaller rocks out of the middle and left the larger boulders to frame the area, filled it with good soil and now it's home to our blackberry patch. And I'd like to have a pie for my efforts. With ice cream.

Another shot of the front yard which I mowed yesterday from behind the fence.

There's a small area out by the street next to the driveway which I built a few years back. That was also filled with grass and weeds and wasn't even visible. I got that cleaned out this morning and thankfully all the plants are OK. There's a small purple prickly pear which has a blossom on it, and several red sage plants which should start to grow now and begin flowering.

txrad just told me there's also a mexican oregano in there which he started from a cutting.

I've always said the best test of a person's physical condition is whether they can do yard work like this and not feel any pain the next day. I'm not doing too badly actually. Aside from a muscle in my arm being a bit sore, I'm fine. That's good because I have a LOT more to do.

Shit, I'm tired.

2008-04-11T19:33:00.003-05:00

I was so excited this morning at the prospect of mowing the yard I could hardly sit still. I thought I'd blog all morning and then mow in the afternoon but after a few minutes I couldn't stand another minute.

I went out and did some cleaning and throwing out of crap in the garage, then I trimmed a few low branches on a tree, and then I mowed.

This was the yard before. And none of the shots are from the same angle or direction but still, I think you'll notice the improvement.

And the after shots.

Looks better. I still have a bit of trimming and other detail to do but I'm glad to have that project behind me. Saturday morning I'll get to do the backyard which unfortunately needs to be done with a push mower, but there's not so much of it.

If you think our yard looked bad, and especially if you think it still does, just contrast it with the yard of the neighbor behind us who collects junk and persists in believing he's going to be a world-renown rock & roll drummer. Photos courtesy of Google Street View. A scary concept in and of itself.

Trash. And he can take his drum kit and his Eminem CDs and shove them up his ass. By the way, in the full Google Street View I swear I counted 12 vehicles on his property. Not all of them are operable.

New spoons & new specs

2008-04-09T18:15:00.003-05:00

It was a good afternoon for me. My highly-coveted spoons arrived today.

I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. The spotted spoon is flipped to show off all the spots on the backside since the inner side of the spoon is not spotted. I call it my "speckled spoon." It makes me smile just looking at it.

The tag attached to it read: "Fully functional and delightfully contagious." Absolutely.

After unwrapping the spoons it was time to go pick up my new glasses which arrived today. I really love the blue coloration in the frames. It's definitely interesting and unique. I don't notice it so much indoors but outside and under flash photography it's really obvious.

I tried them on in the store and I was pleasantly surprised. There was not so much of a difference for me looking up and down, but when looking left and right I was sensing the distortion in my periphery vision.

What I didn't do in the store though was get up and walk around. I typically look down a lot when I'm walking. You never know when you'll find money on the ground. When I got home and put them on and started walking around I almost got sick. Because when I'm looking down now it's through the reading portion of the lenses.

Now I'm finally understanding why txrad had such a hard time adjusting to his glasses -- also progressive lenses. I have noticed that images and text on my computer monitor is a lot sharper. We'll see if typos decrease. I'm still going to have several days of adjusting to do. I don't look very convinced, do I?

Lots of things are moving around. But I remember txrad saying the same thing and finally he adjusted to them.

I'm also not used to the heavier acetate frames. I've only worn titanium frames for the past 12 years or so. Ask me again in a week or so.

Working in the yard again

2008-04-07T18:42:00.004-05:00

I love this time of year. (Especially when both lawn mowers work and currently they don't.)

txrad has planted tomatoes and basil and moved a few plants to the back patio. Bougainvillea is one of my favorite plants EVER and I wish our climate allowed us to keep them outside all year. I have to move this one into the garage every year before the first freeze where it resides without complaint for about 3 to 3 1/2 months. It had a flower or two on it when I moved it outside about a week or two ago and look at it now!

My blackberry patch is coming along nicely. They say it takes 2 years before the plants start to produce berries and I can't remember when I planted them but I think it will have been 3 years this fall. Last year I got one or two berries; this year it looks like we could have a much larger harvest. Not sure if I'll get enough for a blackberry pie but I can always hope.

Notice the thorns at the top of the photo.

I should note (lest I catch hell) that both of the above photos were taken by txrad this afternoon.

This is my only contribution to the photos. txrad moved one of my favorite jade plants to the patio table and Sweet Pea obviously likes it.

Slow progress

2008-04-06T17:27:00.004-05:00

Remember that post on March 23 when I cleared out the area to the left of the patio and transplanted strawberries but did nothing to clear the area on the right? I got that cleared out today. It's not 100% finished but it's quite warm and sunny today. Baby steps.

Before:

After:

Yesterday I harvested a very small strawberry. It was packed with flavor despite being the size of a dime. Now I'm wondering what else I can put out here to produce food. This is too much work to provide a space only for ornamental plants.

I think a variety of peppers would do well out there.

The Cat Shrub

2008-04-04T18:11:00.003-05:00

Here at kona ranch, we grow cats in pots.

Sweet Pea is a lovely, decorative and quite hardy Texas native.

The Super Center $200 shopping spree

2008-04-03T17:10:00.005-05:00

Last September one of the good samaritans in my hometown gave my mother a Wal-Mart gift card for her birthday. She has always tried to resist the man's efforts to bring her food (which he does frequently; he checks up on quite a few of those getting up in years and provides them with food or other needs) although she usually takes what is offered. Not true with any other kind of help, especially anything perceived to be financial help.

She returned the gift card and he told her if she didn't keep it he was just going to send it to one of her "boys." I'm not sure she believed him but he kept his word. I received the gift card in the mail at the end of 2007. And I never told my mother I received it.

If you've read my blogs for any length of time you know I am not exactly a fan of Wal-Mart. It's one of the few retail outlets I've successfully boycotted for years, along with Exxon-Mobile.

Somehow I got the idea in my head that the value of the gift card was $200 but I wasn't completely certain. And I almost gave it away to someone more needy than I am on more than one occasion. However, since I was unemployed when I received it, and expected to be unemployed indefinitely, I decided to keep it. You never know when it might come in handy.

As for the boycott, I decided I can do this because technically it's not my money I'm spending. In fact, Wal-Mart already has the money and it's been sitting in their account for almost 7 months. Someone just had to go pick up the goods.

Today we stopped at a Wal-Mart and specifically a "Super Center." I decided if I'm going to do this, I might as well have the biggest possible selection of goods.

I must say, nothing quite takes your mind off your troubles like a shopping spree when everything is free. One item I knew I wanted was a 4GB USB flash drive. I know this isn't a vital necessity but it will come in handy pretty frequently. And I have a couple of old PCs I need to clean up and donate to charity. There are some files on there I'll probably want to keep that I never copied to my new PC and this flash drive will accomplish that task, and then I can get the old PCs out of my house. House cleaning is good for mental health.

These things are amazing! It weighs almost nothing. And all the 3.5" floppies in my desk that hold only 1.44MB are obviously so outdated. Hell, this little thing probably holds more than my earlier hard drives! This $46 purchase I had to make in the electronics area before we proceeded with the rest of our shopping. You know, high security, anti-theft policies and all that stuff.

And then came a surprise. What I thought was a $200 gift card was revealed to have a value of $350! On with the shopping!

The Super Center had quite a large and nice grocery section which included a few frozen vegetarian entrees we've purchased in the past. Prices were noticeably less. That's what we expect from Wal-Mart, right?

But we weren't here to buy groceries. I needed stuff. One of my other rules about this shopping expedition was that I had to keep purchases of goods made in China to a bare minimum, assuming that's even possible at a Wal-Mart. Sheets! Everyone needs new sheets from time to time, and these were made in India. So they met my criteria. And only $35 for a set!

Something else I've wanted for a long time is a set of Pyrex glass containers with plastic lids suitable for storing in the freezer. They aren't that expensive, but if you're buying several it does add up, so I've never bought any. Today I loaded up with six of them which came to around $34 more or less.

Now let me be clear I wasn't leaving out txrad in this process. The USB flash drive was really the only item that was solely for me. The rest of these were mutual decisions we both made. In addition to all these lovely items, we picked up a tube of Tom's of Maine toothpaste (a big surprise at Wal-Mart -- wasn't expecting that one) and I got a pack of razor cartridges. OK, those are solely for me... forgot about that.

txrad picked out some plants for the garden. Several tomatoes and two containers of basil. He's very clever when picking out veggies; he will find containers that have more than one plant in them... sort of a two for one deal. In fact, one of the basil containers had 3 plants in it. A couple of the tomatoes had two in them. So we scored well.

And after all this, the gift card still has over $196 on it, which is $4 short of what I thought the total amount was when we started all this shopping. Tell me this wasn't a good day!

Spring cleaning about to commence

2008-04-01T16:37:00.003-05:00

I need to mow the yard. Before I can do that, this annoying contraption needs some maintenance, as always.

The mowers are notorious for always having flat tires. The seal was broken on one of the rear tires and I managed to get that tire off Saturday morning, took it to a nearby tire shop for repair which took only about 3 minutes, and I'm happy to say all four tires seem ready to go. Not true for the rest of it.

The battery posts were heavily corroded so txrad disconnected the battery and I used a solution of water and baking soda to clean the posts and clamps. Maybe this time the damn thing will actually charge.

I also took out the air filter and cleaned some dirt and grass out of that. Once I get this up and running, I need to do some cleaning on the small push-mower. Hopefully I'll be mowing the yard before the end of the week, weather permitting.

I'd really like to get the yard mowed BEFORE I call to schedule the roofers to come replace the shingles. If they happened to drop something from the roof it would probably never be found if I don't mow.

67 miles later

2008-03-31T14:26:00.003-05:00

I made a decision regarding my spectacles. It's ironic that I went back to the first high-end pair I saw at Bellingrath Optics after thinking they weren't what I wanted. I was so infatuated with the blue frames at Austin Vision Center last Friday. Today, after going back for a 2nd look, I realized they simply are not as distinctive and unique as these frames, and these were a bit less expensive in the end.

Austin Vision Center has another location in northwest Austin. I drove there first but that location is closed on Mondays. What a wasted trip. But txrad and I had a nice road trip -- all 67 miles of it in search of the ideal spectacles and now they have been ordered.

Making a spectacle of myself

2008-03-28T22:05:00.002-05:00

It's rather ironic that while growing up I actually DESPISED having to wear glasses. I was never so happy when I was fitted with contact lenses after several horrendous years in high school wearing big ugly frames with coke bottle lenses. When you grow up in a small town and your parents take you to the local eye doctor, you pretty much take what you can get and you have a choice of maybe five different frames.

Like mother, like son. Also, from 1979:

Once while visiting my grandmother in the D/FW area during the summer, I remember the bright Texas sun was making me squint with my contact lenses and I snapped at my grandma for suggesting that I get some sunglasses. My logic was that I spent money on contacts so I wouldn't have to wear glasses, so why would I wear sunglasses? It made no sense and I was infuriated at her suggestion.

It wasn't until around 1991 when I got a job in Santa Monica in the advertising business that I discovered a world of eyewear I never knew existed. Just down the street from my agency was an optometrist who carried an extraordinary selection of the coolest frames I'd ever seen. I selected a pair of Kata frames.

I'll admit they weren't necessarily the best fit for my face but rounder frames were "in" back then.

This gave birth to an infatuation which lives on to this very day. Some people have a shoe fetish. My fetish is eyewear.

These are the first high-end pair I bought in Santa Monica. I have no idea what I paid for them back then. I figure it was probably in the low $300 range. It seemed like a big splurge back then.

When I moved to Austin I needed new glasses and I found the perfect vendor for high-end frames -- Bellingrath Optics. When I got new glasses I managed to recycle my old ones by having the non-prescription sunglass lenses put in them for when I was wearing contact lenses. Here they are. You probably cannot see the detail in the frames but it was exquisite. Even the frame around the lenses themselves had delicate etching.

When I got to Austin, I fell in love with two pairs of frames at Bellingrath Optics and ended up purchasing both of them. You always need a spare pair, right?

The ones you see me in now are my favorites. They are Okio frames and it was the first time I discovered that a frame more square than round actually suited my face better. At least in my mind. Feel free to disagree. You may have seen this picture here.

At the same time I ordered these frames, my backup 2nd pair was a lovely pair by Sama, and while they had rounder lenses, I hadn't quite grasped at the time that round lenses don't really do it for me. I was pretty much in love with the frames more than the lenses anyway.

Come on! Tell me those aren't hot! They don't look so hot on me, but it was hard not to fall in love with the frames.

Some of my frame fetish has rubbed off on txrad through the years. He never needed glasses until 2001 when he found a pair at the same vendor where I got my recent pair. His were by Beausoleil - Made in France! They looked great on him.

Alas, old age catches up with all of us and when he last got an exam in 2007, he needed bifocals which he got in November. It took him awhile to adjust but damn those frames looked even better on him. What a major load of suckage that we had that unfortunate incident at the beginning of March in which he lost them.

I've been going insane for the past few weeks trying to read the morning paper and any other fine print. I desperately need bifocals and have finally begun searching for new spectacles. I figured I should do this on a budget for a change so I went to Lenscrafters and got an eye exam and checked out a few frames there. I picked out 3 pairs I liked although only two of them was I seriously going to consider since the 3rd pair were made in China. I may be desperate but I'm not THAT desperate.

Before purchasing I decided to pay a visit to Bellingrath Optics again just to see what I was sacrificing. They were phasing out the line of Okio frames. That was sad and I really didn't see any there I liked. In fact, I really only saw one pair of anything I liked and it was a pair by Sama -- big heavy acetate frames, very much unlike what I'm used to, but stylish nonetheless.

The were brownish on the outside with a deep blue tint on the inside of the frames. I really like the daring colors but I didn't feel as if these were 100% me. I decided to think it over. I also wasn't thrilled that the store kept all their frames locked away in display cases and I had to have the clerk unlock anything I wanted to view.

Today I decided to make one last attempt to find a store with something a bit different. We went to Austin Vision Center, located in Tarrytown, just west of downtown Austin in a shopping center owned by a vegan who refuses to rent to tenants who serve any meat products. A branch of my liquor store is located there and I'd heard they were not allowed to sell beef jerky. There was also a very interesting Asian-influenced vegetarian restaurant in the center which we tried once but has since closed down.

As I walked in the door of this place today I really didn't know if this was going to be worth my effort, but immediately I realized I had stumbled upon eyewear heaven. Not only did I see a vast assortment of frames to my liking, I quickly realized they carried a line of Kata frames which I have not seen since I worked in Santa Monica.

The very first pair I tried on really tugged at my heart. They are very similar to what I'm wearing now, but with a twist. Literally.

This is the best picture I could find online and it's not very good. The pair I selected are almost a mocha black.

I also found a pair of frames by Bevel which are similar to the acetate frames by Sama two photos up, but far more suited to my face, in my opinion. The are blue on the outside of the frames with a nice cream color on the outer rim and inside of the frames.

I believe this is the basic shape and look, just not the same color.

I honestly could not decide and as before, I'm tempted to buy two pair. Call me a polygamist. I have two loves. I really wish I had snapped pictures today but if they are open this weekend, I'll go back, get pictures, and add them to this post.

Then, you can vote. But I may have already decided.

I love Austin Vision Center. Unlike Bellingrath Optics, most of their frames were on shelves, not locked behind glass, and the clerk in the store left me alone to try on frames for as long as I wanted and I was there for at least an hour. I was in heaven. I felt like I had the place to myself and I was like a kid in a toy store.

I'll admit, this is a fetish. But damn it's fun.

Getting things done one thing at a time

2008-03-26T13:47:00.007-05:00

It seems like I routinely post on Sunday here and then never get around to posting again until Wednesday. Not sure why because I usually have something to say or something going on -- maybe I just have had too much going on this month.

And with the first 3 weeks of March being an unpleasant blur as a result of the incident on the evening of March 1st, I am determined to exit the month of March with some significant accomplishments under my belt, and feeling pretty good about the future.

My list of projects is long but I'm trying really hard to knock out as many as possible.

The roofing estimates are done. I won't get the 3rd written estimate until tomorrow but they called today and gave me the official figure and it's $6,350. Again, far better than the absurd $11,000 quote from Home Depot, and only about $300 less than the first estimate we received Monday afternoon. Barring some amazing perk from estimator #3, I am inclined to go with #1 for about $6,600. The guy had good vibes, he seemed honest, thorough, professional, and helpful, and his company has been in business here since 1974. I can't ask for much more.

Aside from that, I want to tackle a bunch of nagging little projects. We had a glitch with our unemployment compensation. I tried logging in last week as I'm required to do every 2 weeks to request unemployment payments and I was told it had been more than 3 weeks since my last request and I'd have to call the office to file a "late request."

This presented a problem since I was unable to get through on the phone line for several days. I was getting a message: "due to excessive call volume we are unable to take your call."

I was seriously surprised that my request was 3 weeks (or more) late and since txrad got the same message when he tried to make an online request, we decided they must have had a computer glitch and that's why they had such heavy call volume.

I finally was able to get someone on the phone today and she was giving me the runaround about how I hadn't made a payment request in 4 weeks -- since mid-February and I know damn well that's not the case. Anyway, she reinstated my unemployment claim and I was able to log in and request payment for the past 4 weeks, and on Sunday I can log in again to request for the last 2 weeks of March. Ditto for txrad.
I certainly would have been pissed off if we lost several weeks of compensation right as we're about to have a roof replaced, and maybe windows.

Having got that chore out of the way, I'm moving on to some other ones. My vision has been getting worse and when I'm reading the weather page in the paper or the stock prices, I actually have to take my glasses off and hold the paper close to my eyes. Reading the rest of the paper isn't much better.

I scheduled an eye exam for today at 2:30 and was quite happy to get in the same day I called. txrad rode with me because I knew I'd need to have my eyes dilated since I haven't had an eye exam since 2001. I wanted to ask about bifocal contacts also, and as it turned out, I walked away wearing a temporary pair of bifocal contacts and did not have the pupil dilation procedure since that interferes with the contact lens trial run.

For those of you in the Austin area, I had the exam done by a doctor next door to the LensCrafters store at the Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave. I'm going to be on a budget with glasses this time around and while the exam wasn't cheap ($154 including the fitting for temporary contacts), I will get a 50% discount on lenses for glasses at LensCrafters thanks to a coupon I have. When you are getting bifocals, the lenses seem to be the main cost.

When txrad got his bifocals back in November (which he subsequently lost during his accident) the frames were $189 and the total cost with lenses ended up being over $500. Insurance paid for a bit more than half. We'll be having to order a replacement pair for him and this time he has no vision insurance. Fun!

Anyway, as I walked out of the doctor's office wearing contacts and having my glasses in my pocket, it felt strange. One of the few things I like about contacts is that things around you actually appear to be their normal size. I noticed that Tater Tot seemed extra large when I got home, and of course he is.

But I'm so used to seeing myself in glasses, I'm not sure I like my look without them. This was the better of two pictures I took. The other one made me look 10 years older while this one makes me only look about 50-ish. Maybe it's all in the pose.

I never realized just how much I look like my dad until I saw these pictures of me without glasses.

What's funny is that I went through a phase in my life where I ONLY wanted to wear contacts because I thought they made me look younger and more hip whereas glasses made me look like an uncool nerd. The fact is, I rather like glasses. I'm just not sure I'm going to like or adjust quickly to bifocals so I want to explore all the options. But I will be ordering glasses and I suspect I'll wear them most of the time.

I enjoy contacts on two occasions: when I'm out in drizzly weather (I hate having to wipe my glasses dry while going from the car into a store when it's not raining hard enough to justify toting an umbrella), and when I'm doing work in the yard in the summer months and I'm sweating. Sweat always gets on the lenses of my glasses while I'm wearing gloves and then I have to stop what I'm doing, remove the gloves and the glasses and wipe them off, and then it's still smeared.

So I will enjoy having a pair of contacts around the house. The "real" pair (as opposed to this temporary pair) will address all of my vision issues. These offer me pretty decent distance vision and pretty decent reading vision -- I can actually read the newspaper without having to position my glasses on the tip of my nose.

You may see typos in this post (I just fixed two of them now that I have removed my contacts and am wearing glasses again). I typed this post with my contacts in.

Anyhow, that's one less project on my to-do list. Tomorrow I can start to work on some of the other ones. And there are many. And there are 5 days left in this month. My goal is to get a lot of them done before April 1.

We shall see. No pun intended.

Replanting strawberries

2008-03-23T14:22:00.002-05:00

One of my more annoying hobbies is moving plants from one location to another a year or more after I originally planted them. About the only benefit is that I'm not going out and buying new plants and yet I get the same satisfaction.

These strawberry plants were in a large pot and too crowded. They were trying to spread by sending out runners but they had nowhere to go. Before moving them to a new location in the front patio area, I first had to clear out a lot of dead grass and the awful poison oak that had spread throughout the area. That was also a project on the to-do list so actually I accomplished two projects at once. Yea!

There are six plants in all: the two little ones on the left and the four on the right. In the middle is a yellow lantana which I'll have to keep pruned in the summer or remove altogether. It tends to fill in a large area. In the rear are some salvias which shouldn't be a problem.

To give you an idea of how much clearing I had to do, this is the opposite side of the walk which I obviously haven't cleared yet. Another project. At least that side isn't infested with poison oak.

I'm in the mood to smash something

2008-03-22T19:17:00.001-05:00

Raspberry muffins and the Herschel Rosenthal potlifters

2008-03-21T19:43:00.003-05:00

I was craving something sweet after having exhausted my supply of chocolate truffles and decided to get in the kitchen and bake some muffins.

There were two partial bags of frozen raspberries so I decided to use one bag of those. These are heavy on the raspberries.

I removed them from the oven with my pair of beloved re-elect Herschel Rosenthal as State Senator of California from Los Angeles potlifters. We got those when we lived in Los Angeles. He was endorsed by the Sierra Club. Works for me.

Those were the days.

This didn't turn out quite like I wanted but it's tasty.

2008-03-19T18:34:00.004-05:00

I tried replicating a Snakebite as seen at the Disgruntled Chemist and apparently I am inept or I don't understand the concept of spooning in the Guinness slowly enough. Perhaps my choice of pear cider had something to do with the outcome. Doubtful.

By the time everything settled down it looked exactly like a pint of.... Guinness.

I guess I can cross off Bartender from my list of job qualifications. And probably Photographer as well. Damn those were blurry.

My pottery fetish

2008-03-16T18:37:00.005-05:00

Santa Fe, along with the Southwest in general, is one of my favorite places on earth to visit. Fortunately, I don't go there very often since I have a rather nasty habit of procuring native American pottery.

Back around 2000 I had to spend a week in Santa Fe training for a job. My boss just happened to live there. I splurged on this lovely piece. I can't imagine the amount of meticulous work required to produce something of such beauty.

What's amazing is the level of detail on the inside as well as the outside of the bowl.

Rather than risk damage in my possession while traveling I opted to have it shipped back to Austin. I also grabbed this smaller bowl with a fish motif which I adore.

A year or so before we moved to Austin, txrad and I had a short weekend trip to Santa Fe which was when I decided to start buying pieces I really loved. This one makes me think of a UFO and was done by a student in training. If I recall he was about 17 and lived at the Acoma Pueblo. It has an imperfection or two but I don't mind. Consequently I got it for a fraction of the price of the other two.

As with the other pieces, this one is signed on the bottom and dated '96 which was probably the year we visited.

My absolute favorites are the seed pots with the tiny little holes in the top and unfortunately I haven't yet added one of those to my collection. Here's a sample I just found on the internet. The artist is Debra Duwyenie, and this pot is only 2 1/2" high by 3 1/4" wide and priced at $650. They don't come cheap, but next time I'm in that area, I am definitely going to allow one to find me.

Since I'm posting about pottery, I'll include a couple of others unrelated to the native American pottery. This pitcher has an interesting story behind it. A few years ago txrad and I were drinking tequila and watching QVC -- the shopping channel.

They were running a segment on this fine pottery from Poland -- all hand painted. The stuff was selling fast. I knew my mother would love the pitcher and since blue is her favorite color, I decided to order one for her birthday. Yes, I was just drunk enough to order something from QVC.

When I called they had just sold out of everything but they put me on a list for any possible cancellations. Several months passed and I assumed I was out of luck but one day the package arrived. I was so impressed with it I decided to keep it and all my mother got was a picture of the pitcher. How's that for a son?

On a recent trip back to Arkansas my mother gave me this bowl which I'm pretty sure belonged to her mother so I'm confident it's at least 70 years old. I don't use it but I certainly could. It does have a small chip on the rim (cropped from this shot) and I remember my mother using it to mix biscuit batter and probably a lot of other things when I was a child. I have plenty of mixing bowls and would rather keep this one safe.

It is stamped on the bottom: "National Brotherhood - Operative Potters" and "Universal, Cambridge, O." I did a bit of internet research and the Universal company was started in that Ohio town in 1934 and closed in 1960.

Tis a fine day

2008-03-14T16:40:00.004-05:00

Nearly two weeks after the "incident" I finally took the damaged car to the body shop today for an estimate. Honestly, I was expecting no less than $2,000 and was hoping it would not exceed $3,000. The repair estimate is $1,231.74 assuming there isn't more damage discovered once the front bumper is removed. Obviously I'm hoping there is no additional damage. Our out-of-pocket expenses already far exceed what I needed to pay for a lesson in life. UPDATE! There is an additional $540 in damage behind the bumper. Still coming in under $2k though.

This repair coupled with $2,600 in medical expenses for txrad before insurance kicks in is pushing ~~close to~~ over $4,000. But then, looking at it another way, we're damn lucky to both be alive and healthy so I'm not going to complain about much these days.

The "spare" car looks a bit lonely in the garage while the other car is in the shop for the next week or so. I decided to go wash it since it's a lovely hot afternoon. It looks better although a few areas appear to just have the dirt smeared around. It had been awhile. Nevertheless, it's an improvement.

With so much room in the garage for navigation I decided to move all the delicate plants out of winter storage. The forecast for the next 10 days calls for nice weather and nothing close to freezing. Maybe we're done with that. Maybe.

This is part of my collection of jade and other succulents. Inevitably, a piece of one breaks off during transport from the garage and we end up with yet another plant from that piece, so the collection grows, and grows and grows.

And txrad says it's about time to plant tomatoes. That means I need to harvest the rest of the collard greens soon.

2008-03-13T13:43:00.003-05:00

Yesterday txrad has his first speech therapy appointment at 11:00. The only reason I haven't posted about it until now is because it was pretty uneventful. There were a variety of tests to determine if he could correctly identify pictures, association of words with pictures, writing, memory skills, etc. It seemed the tests were very basic and probably developed for people with severe speech disabilities and memory loss.

I think we were all in agreement that he should not need a 2nd appointment unless something specific comes up or if he doesn't recover 100% and needs specialized treatment down the road.

While it wasn't a wasted trip, at least it's good to know he's improving far beyond what the doctors and speech therapists in the hospital expected just a few days ago.

Basically he needs to practice reading and speaking. I suggested he select a few of his favorite political blogs and read a few of them aloud. He is most challenged by words with multiple syllables and a number of consonants. When he awakens from his nap, I'm going to ask him to read this:

Constantine refounded an existing city. The site had been strategically and commercially important from the earliest times, lying as it does astride both the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black or Euxine Sea to the Mediterranean, and being possessed of an excellent and spacious harbour in the Golden Horn. Thus a city was first founded on the site in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, probably around 671-662 BC.

That should exercise his tongue sufficiently for one afternoon.

A Tuesday Tonic

2008-03-11T17:47:00.002-05:00

Good Lord we are healthy! On Saturday I bought a bag of organic carrots, a bunch of organic beets, and two apples. We haven't used the juicer in awhile and what better time than during a period of recovery when we probably need mega-doses of fresh nutrients.

I used about 6 carrots, half a beet with all the stems and green leaves, and one apple. That yielded more than two full glasses of delicious juice. We drank most of it before I could get the camera ready. Yes, it's that good!

I need to do this more often.

Picking off the scabs

2008-03-11T15:31:00.007-05:00

I am almost as worried about me as I am txrad. He sleeps a bit more than I do and takes longer naps, as he should, but still.... I usually crash for 90 minutes every afternoon and I fall into the deepest sleep.

It's been nine mornings since The Big Nasty and while my lower back pain has definitely improved (I'm prone to bruising that pelvic bone at the base of my spine just north of my butt simply by leaning up against the rock siding on the house too hard, let alone falling on the ground like a sack of wet rags) I still have some stiffness in my neck and upper back. This could easily be stress-related. Lastly I think I absorb from txrad like an empath -- but unlike the good works of Gem the empath from the original Star Trek series, I don't think it's helping txrad very much! I guess I need to work on my technique. But even Gem couldn't do much for Dr. McCoy when she was drained.

On Wednesday at 11:00 I'll be driving him to his first speech therapy session. Whooo hooo!

In the meantime, I keep scraping off any loose scabs I can find on my body with the hope that each one cast away is a better day ahead. I'm happy to say, almost all of them are gone now.

Saturday at the Farmer's Market

2008-03-08T14:51:00.006-06:00

Yesterday txrad received his get-well assortment of truffles from the incomparable Minstrel Boy. txrad has a smile on his face.

I wanted to share a couple with Seventh Sister. She was running a bit low on chocolate. I told her I'd meet her at the Farmer's Market between 10 and 10:30 this morning to conduct the sinister hand-off. txrad suprised me by saying he wanted to take a shower and come along for the ride.

We got there right at 10:30 after I overshot the correct freeway exit and had to loop around for a 2nd try.

I got txrad to pose for a shot so I could email it to his family and they'd know for sure he's alive and well.

~~That picture came out overexposed but it was the better one of the two in my opinion.~~ So much for my opinion; txrad liked the other picture so I have replaced the one originally posted here. We must keep him happy!

In exchange for two truffles, we got two lovely tomatoes from SS which will be put to good use very soon.

txrad's speech is improving each day and he's now completing sentences instead of words, and I can usually understand him which is a vast improvement from just two days ago. And he hasn't even started speech therapy yet. I'm hoping we can get a session scheduled either Monday or Tuesday.

Snakes in the trees

2008-03-07T17:35:00.002-06:00

Minstrel Boy was kind enough to send a special batch of chocolate truffles to help txrad in his recovery. They arrived today and we split one at 3:00 this afternoon. I had the urge to lie down for a little bit and I passed out. I had a most bizarre dream which ended with me trying to wake up while hearing a voice asking, "Hey, do you see that snake up in that tree?"

I suppose this is part of MY recovery process.

When I got up I walked out on the patio and heard someone opening the gate into the backyard which scared the crap out of me. It was a flower delivery for txrad.

The collective consciousness (Borg collective?) seems to be working

2008-03-06T16:01:00.009-06:00

I don't know how to thank all of you enough for your words of support and encouragement.

I knew there was a possibility txrad would be released today but I guess the rational part of my brain didn't want to get overly optimistic, so when I went to the hospital at 2:00 this afternoon it didn't even cross my mind to take him some clothes just in case. I did take him another pair of underwear and socks.

When I walked in the room he was resting on the bed but he perked up immediately and began flapping his chops about something. I pointed at the bag I was holding and acted annoyed. Then I figured out what he was trying to tell me -- he wanted PANTS because they were probably releasing him today.

GREAT NEWS! Despite the fact that the weather is rainy, it's windy as hell and 36° with snarled traffic across the city. I sure wish I'd thought to take some clothes just in case. I came home to get some things together and will hopefully head out shortly to fetch my boy. I just called the nurse and she's actually still waiting on a decision which hopefully will come soon. She will call me as soon as she hears something.

There's more good news. This is the first day I've really heard a significant change in his speaking and ability to get understandable words out. He's turning a corner most definitely and I am now OFFICIALLY optimistic.

And the nurse just called so I am on my way out!

Last update for Wednesday

2008-03-05T20:22:00.003-06:00

I ran out about 5:00 to the hospital for a 2nd visit today. Bad mistake going during rush hour. Won't do that again.

I was pleasantly surprised to walk in on txrad and see that he had MSNBC on the TV (typical) and was up and about, and had taken some notes for my arrival. He wrote down MTI and 30 minutes and something else. I went to talk to the nurse and they were about to do an MRI that was going to last 30 minutes or so, to map txrad's brain so the speech therapists will have a road map of how his brain is currently working.

Interesting. And very interesting that txrad was taking notes. That's a good sign.
Even if he spelled it MTI. Not far off the mark. And he kept peeking out the door at all the activity going on in the room next to him, with some technician sitting at a PC outside the door yelling to a guy on the bed to "be still!"

His sense of humor is definitely alive and well.

While I was just hanging out with him, a nurse brought him his first vegetarian meal (finally) and it looked pretty damn good to me. He kept offering me some but I politely declined.

It looked like rice with a ball of sweet potato and maybe a squash concoction of some sort, a little cucumber, a dinner roll, and a bit of chocolate pudding. He really hasn't changed much. He didn't eat the dinner roll or the butter -- that's the first thing I would have gone for. And he seemed to treat the chocolate pudding as the entree. That's my boy. To be fair he did devote a significant amount of time to the sweet potato dish.

He was motioning outside and I knew he was concerned about the setting sun and my less than ideal sight abilities after dark. And with that, I gave him another nice kiss on the lips and came home to enjoy my evening.

I hope the MRI went well and the speech therapists get exactly what they need. It would mean the world to me if they'd release him tomorrow afternoon although I'm personally expecting it to be mid-day on Friday.

Back from the hospital visitation, and a few other surprises

2008-03-05T14:14:00.006-06:00

I was a little nervous this morning on my way to the hospital -- the day after some additional overnight tests and x-rays were done on txrad. You never know what else might pop up in a facility more specialized in treating his condition.

He seemed happy to see me when I entered the room. He was snacking on the food tray -- picking at what he wanted to eat. They did not bring him a vegetarian tray so he was having to pick and choose what he wanted to eat. Honestly, after glancing at one of the containers of yogurt or a cream custard-type thing, it was just full of garbage -- artificial colors, etc. I may take him some healthy things to snack on when I go back later this afternoon.

He still seemed to be in the same amount of pain while trying to move around and he was trying his best to tell me that when he sleeps on his side it's very painful. I was concerned that he's showing no signs of improvement in that area. I asked a nurse about that and she informed me he also has a few fractured ribs! Surprise! I did not know this.

I'm not even taking this as bad news in the grand scheme of things. That will heal in a few weeks and will be fine.

I watched a couple of speech therapists come in and quiz him as part of the evaluation for his upcoming speech therapy. They asked him his name, and he paused, before trying to say it -- just barely getting an "S" sound uttered. It has crossed my mind more than once, given the wildly varying things he remembers and doesn't remember, if he even knows our relationship. I wasn't going to bring it up with him for a long while -- just to give him time to heal a bit.

As I was leaving the hospital he pulled me near him and I thought he just wanted a hug. After a second I realized he wanted more, and as our faces met, he planted a big wet kiss on my lips -- and not a short one either. I told him to stop it because he was getting me all hot and bothered.

Yee haa! Another question answered! And more good news!

Let's Drink To Sobriety

2008-03-05T00:59:00.006-06:00

This day has marked an official turning point in my life I'm quite sure. I have no idea as I write this how things will turn out, but I have hope. Here's my update on the last post in which I asked for your thoughts and/or prayers.

I want you to read what happened. I'm not posting this because I'm proud of it. Quite the contrary, I wish I could forget. But if by posting this I can make one or two people think about their lives and consider the consequences of their actions, perhaps a similar misfortune can be avoided.

The following text in color was written on Sunday and I will add follow-up comments at the bottom of this post.
-----

I should learn to trust my instincts. Having endured several days of manic depression which reached a peak on Saturday in which I could have cared less whether I lived or died, I knew a party was not what I needed. All I really wanted was to watch the George Carlin special on HBO. I accepted an invitation to that LONG before I accepted the invitation to the party that night.

We were invited over for dinner and drinks at a friend’s house last night at 7:00. I really thought we'd be out of there by 10:00 or 10:30 at the latest. It required a major effort to psyche myself up for it but we went and had a pretty good time. We were the first guests out of a total of eight to arrive. I made a pitcher of margaritas to get us going; they were good and strong. Upon feeling the effects of the margarita I realized I needed to alternate between margaritas and beer -- the beer serving as a down-time of sorts. When I discovered there was no beer I was about to go get some when our host told us that another guest -- also a friend of ours was bringing the beer. Sounded good to me. Most of the other guests were running quite late and eventually arrived around 9:00. And when they arrived, of course they were ready for margaritas and I had another with a beer.

Once the conversations got going time really passed quickly. Suddenly it was 11:00 and most of the other guests had to leave. Txrad and I stayed to continue chatting and had a few more drinks. Dinner was great but light – not the type of meal conducive to soaking up alcohol though.

Around 1:00 our host and her other remaining guest went out to the store for cigarettes. I was clearly in no condition to drive at this point although I do remember making the decision to leave. And I left without txrad although he might have followed me out to the car. I’m not sure about that part. Because there is very little I remember after putting my hand on the door knob. Just exiting the rather large apartment complex proved to be problematic. One of the only other extremely vague recollections I have is the feeling of a retaining rock wall approaching the car, thankfully at a pretty slow speed, but not without impact and some front-end damage to my prized automotive treasure.

What I am absolutely positive about is the fact that I didn’t actually get home until around 6:30, even though the distance was only five miles. I decided to pull over in what seemed to be an immediate dead-end cul de sac – a road to nowhere. I awoke around 6:00 on the rocky ground with dirt and debris in my hair. I think I spent about 15 minutes looking for something – perhaps my car keys and maybe txrad. I recall a feeling of helplessness and despair. I didn't know where I was and I didn't know how I got there.

When I got home I called my friend who hosted this exquisite gathering and told her where I thought I had passed out and asked her if she was in any condition to drive around to find txrad. Unfortunately, she had taken Ambien. Yes, a sleeping pill, in addition to copious amounts of alcohol.

Knowing I was incapable of driving I decided to lie down. I awoke about 10:00 in a somewhat more sober state and realized txrad was not in the house. I began to panic. I took the other car and drove over to the street where I assumed I had passed out. There was no cul de sac in the area, and this street was not a route I would have taken when driving from my friend’s apartment to our house, at least not in a rational state.

I drove back to the apartment, up and down that street and still could not find anything resembling the area where I stopped for my nap.

I came home and I was frantic. I called my friend and she said I might need to report him missing. About that time I heard the back door open and it was txrad. He still seemed intoxicated and was not very responsive to my questions. He was speechless which is understandable.

It was several minutes later when I realized he was literally speechless. He could not utter a word. It was when he tried to write down the words he was trying to say that I realized something was terribly wrong. His written words were incoherent and he was struggling to even write.

The one word he did manage to write which made sense was “stroke.”

My world, which I felt was looking brighter when he came through the door, suddenly darkened and began to spin in a way that made the prior events of the evening pale in comparison.

Keep in mind that I was still not feeling at all stable myself. And having to face this particular reality under the circumstances was unlike anything I have ever experienced. I will not even try to conjure up the words to express my feelings.

We spent some amount of time seated together at the kitchen table without saying a word and with me having a million possible scenarios flashing through my brain. With all the other bad shit that had gone on, how could he have a fucking STROKE?

Later, txrad motioned to his head and I parted his hair to take a look at the spot where he pointed. He had a pretty nasty wound, probably suffered from a fall. I quickly came to the computer to Google the word “concussion” and I felt a sense of relief and hope upon reading that a severe concussion can cause temporary brain malfunction, slurred speech, etc.

I asked txrad if he wanted me to take him to the emergency room and he said no. I quizzed him about his condition, asked him if he could move all his fingers on both hands and he could.

He also managed to relay a bit of interesting information regarding how he got home. He walked home – all five miles of it -- from the apartment complex where he had apparently fallen during his blackout. That would be remarkable with a nasty hangover. The fact that now he could barely move and possibly having a concussion, or worse, made it seem like a miracle. I suspect he had to utilize every bit of adrenalin he could muster, and then walking in the door (after having stooped down to pick up the Sunday paper on his way in), his body just seized up on him.

I have no idea what tomorrow will bring. But I prayed to a God today that I don’t know for certain exists. It couldn’t hurt.

----

Well, let me tell you what "tomorrow" brought. Tomorrow (Monday) brought a bit of false hope. Because I felt better, I think I projected some of that onto txrad. He seemed 10% better, which under the circumstances would be a decent improvement if indeed he had a severe concussion. I really wanted to take him to the ER but because I thought he might well be on the road to recovery, I decided to give it one more day. I'm not sure why I thought his inability to speak a sensible word was encouraging except that maybe he was trying to speak more of them.

One more day didn't do much to alleviate my anxieties. And as I slowly broke the news to one friend at a time, I was hearing the same response: "Take him to the hospital." And because he wasn't any better on Tuesday than he was on Monday, I began to panic again.

He was pretty bruised up with scratches here and there. But then again, so was I. But at least I could speak. Talk about being in denial.

On Monday night we were watching the MSNBC crap about the Texas primary on Tuesday and txrad starting saying something. I didn't know what he was saying so he came in the kitchen and pointed to March 4 on a calendar. I realized he was pointing to the primary day and I asked him, "do you want to vote tomorrow?"

He nodded yes. It didn't happen.

I did go vote while I was out picking up lunch for him. I didn't want to tell him I voted because I didn't want him to feel bad. But he found the folded up page of endorsements from the Austin Chronicle I had taken with me, and he came to me at my desk and pointed to the endorsement of Barack Obama and grunted as if asking me did I vote for him. I said yes. He walked away with a feeling of self-accomplishment on his face.

This ate away at my soul on Tuesday. There's a reason I'm not a parent. I'm 47 and have never had to take care of anything except a cat, and even then I had txrad's help. I want with all my heart to believe everything is going to be OK without help. Sometimes it's not; sometimes we do need help and we often need to give in to the reality of a situation.

However wild your life may be, when your beloved partner of 17+ years walks 5 miles to your house with a hangover and a fractured skull, just a few hours after you have smashed the lips off your BMW and banged yourself up thrashing about in a vacant lot while peeing all over yourself, take note. This is not normal behavior. That is not "dinner and drinks." I don't know what to call it, but I wish to hell we'd stayed home and watched George Carlin. That's the honest-to-God truth.

Yes, you heard me correctly. txrad has a fractured skull but the prognosis is hopefully going to be OK. What finally made me snap and realize I had to get to to the ER was when I went to him this afternoon and I said, "I will be so glad when you can speak again because when you start rambling about UFOs incessantly, I will never tell you to shut up."

He has a knack for that sort of thing and normally he would get the joke. He blushed and looked confused as if he had no idea what I was saying. That was my big clue to get his ass to the ER. After about 3 hours of check-ins, waiting, then seeing a nurse, then a doctor, then going for a CT scan, and then X-rays, they decided to move him to a hospital downtown for an overnight stay, much to his dismay.

But this is a good hospital where they specialize in brain trauma injuries so I'm confident he's in good hands. I followed the ambulance to the hospital and spent some additional time with him before I came home. They said they may keep him a couple of days. Maybe I'll have my boy back in the house on Thursday, or Friday at the latest.

He may need speech therapy. There's a lot we don't know yet. As the doctor told me, when you're dealing with brains, it can be odd, and I know I'm paraphrasing. I can't help it. I'm freaked the fuck out, but I pick up on the things I want to hear, like home in 2 days. Physical therapy, speech therapist, whatever, we'll deal with that. At least all his vital signs were pretty steady during the time he was at home and SHOULD have been in the ER since Sunday.

I'm not here to get on a chair and preach, but please take this story to heart. Lots of people go out and have a good time, drink excessively at parties, and try to drive home. I happen to be one of those people who hates to impose -- I feel like I have to leave because I like the privacy of my own home, and I don't like to infringe on the privacy of others.

If you are like me, here's my advice: Don't go to parties, and if you do, stay away from excessive hard liquor, have a plan in place, arrange for a taxi, or just fucking sleep over! Because you know what? It may sound stupid to suffer the expense and/or inconvenience of a taxi or a sleepover, but when you weigh that against the cost to replace txrad's new $500 pair of bifocals, the $2,000 (if I'm lucky) repair on the car, the prospect of a loved one being disabled for life, or the possibility that both of you could have died, or that I'm surprised I wasn't found by the cops parked in a remote area and passed out for a few hours on the ground, in which case my life would be even worse than it is right now, a sleepover or a taxi sounds pretty fucking cheap.

And wait until we get txrad's medical bills for which I'm not sure the lapsed insurance will cover. That's another story.

Have we learned anything yet?

Closed For Repairs

2008-03-02T19:40:00.004-06:00

Not the blog, but the blogger and his partner.

We are pretty damn lucky to be alive today. And it would probably feel better if we weren't. My level of stupidity astounds me sometimes.

Sorry I can't say more right now. But keep us in your thoughts -- and prayers, for those of you who go that route.

I'll update later.

It's Wine Night...

2008-02-27T18:10:00.004-06:00

Always good to have one of those occasionally.

Although there are plenty of Italian wines I adore, it's hard to go wrong with a decent Spanish Rioja.

I picked this up at Central Market awhile back. I swear I don't think it was more than $8 or $9 and it's solid, with lots of berries.

The Power of a Dollar

2008-02-26T19:10:00.005-06:00

Many people suggest a dollar is worthless. And in a world of $152 BILLION economic stimulus packages and trillion dollar wars, that might seem reasonable.

But in our world, a dollar means a lot.

$1.21 buys us one hell of a lot of flavoring.

Savory leaf, dill weed and Italian seasoning. Screw those glass jars with spices. Go bulk. And fresh. And cheap. Unless of course you enjoy spending an extra $3 or $4 for a glass (or plastic) container.

Tech Porn!!

2008-02-23T09:56:00.003-06:00

Don't we all love to see this sight?

Last Sunday I ordered four 1GB RAM chips to replace my two 512MB chips. They arrived yesterday and I installed them this morning. Since you are reading this post, it was obviously successful but not without a lot of frustration.

txrad vacuumed out the cat hair which was clogging my fan's intake.

These are my four new chips. I haven't noticed much difference yet but I really haven't started multi-tasking yet.

My plans were to take my two old chips and install them in txrad's computer since he had the same setup I did: two 512MB chips.

I got them installed and when I turned on his PC it started whirring like a jet engine. After a message appeared on the monitor indicating that new memory had been installed the screen went black and never recovered.

I rebooted. This time there were a series of strange beeps but the screen stayed black.

I popped open the case and reloaded the chips but in different slots. Again, no success. I rebooted again and got a message in white text on black background -- something along the lines of 128MB BIOS something. Something else I can't remember, and that was it. That just stayed on the screen several minutes.

So I popped open the case yet again, removed two of the chips leaving him with his original 1MB RAM and everything is fine.

The only thing I can figure out is the chips are not compatible even though they are identical as far as I can tell, aside being from different manufacturers.

Has anyone ever opened a desktop case without having some amount of blood spilled?
It's minor -- scraped a tiny bit of skin off my knuckle. It could have been worse.

Maybe I should have waited until my caffeine buzz wore off before starting this project.

The Green Moths of Texas

2008-02-16T18:54:00.005-06:00

We have a lot of moths on our back patio when we turn on the light. I've seen a lot of green moths before, but all are about the color of lime juice which is interesting enough, but a couple of nights ago I saw this critter which is the color of lime skin. Never saw one of those before. Quite lovely. He/She/It was still out there this morning.

What's In A Name

2008-02-16T11:16:00.002-06:00

Tagged by Jacq

1. YOUR REAL NAME:
*Winfred DeWitt Farrell

2. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fave color and fave animal) *Purple Cat

3. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name and the street you live on) *DeWitt Lauralan

4. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name.)
*FarWi

5. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (color of your boxers, or underwear, favorite candy) *White Godiva

6. YOUR JAPANESE NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, last two letters of your first name, then last three letters of your last name.)
*Irdeedell (sounds more Southern than Japanese)

7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (both parents middle name, Father first.. then Mother)
*Winfred Ann

8. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets)
*Black Sissy

There's a reason she calls it Mayhem.

Sweet Truffle Dreams

2008-02-15T09:55:00.006-06:00

Last night txrad and I split a ginger truffle. It was a spiritual experience.

Since I haven't had these chocolate truffles since late in 2006 I completely forgot the dreams they induce.

Dee Dee Ramone and I were trying to have a conversation. But he kept reading my mind and would launch into a song which would incorporate the very words I was about to say into the song before I could utter them. It was very frustrating.

Needless to say, it's very difficult to have a real conversation with someone who continuously annoys the hell out of you with that antic.

Anyhow, this was a much better dream than I had the prior night which involved an alien invasion with flying battleships that were disguised as manacing dark clouds. As they got closer they were somewhat pixelated. They produced a sound like thunder which would rattle tall buildings.

No truffles were involved in that dream. Tonight, I think I'll switch to the Sofia's Mexicali Spice truffle. Stay tuned.

Truffles and Black Soap

2008-02-14T16:57:00.006-06:00

What a glorious Valentine's Day. The care package arrived this afternoon from Minstrel Boy. First of all, I can't even begin to describe the ecstasy I felt when I pulled open the flap on the box and was pounded in the head by the chocolate aromas. That man is talented at many things and he certainly knows how to roll up heaven into a ball of chocolate and ganache.

The hardest decision is picking out the first one to try. Although I'm a raspberry fanatic, I think I have to try a crystallized ginger one first.

That dozen is for txrad and myself. There was another dozen in the box for Seventh Sister, also blogging from right here in Austin.

I rang her up and she was able to meet me just a 10-minute drive from my house so that worked out great. And I do believe she was excited!

Obviously she didn't have time to arrange her batch after a topsy-turvy overnight Fed-Ex flight. You'd think Fed-Ex could be a bit more careful with artwork though!

Also, as a very unexpected surprise, she presented me with some of her homemade soap, and the little container on the right is a bit of some soap being sold as "Black Soap" which she picked up in a nearby shop. Very appropriate and clever!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go prepare to enter into the truffle trance. Best mental therapy on the planet.