Vibrant.(Still) Unrepentant. Badass. Old. Queer

 Hello, Beautiful Kittens.  I hope you had a wonderful December.  Apparently, there was a holiday or something recently.  I was in North Carolina for the aforementioned holiday.  My mother forced us all to wear elf hats as we opened presents (on Xmas Eve, because I flew back home on Xmas morning). I had a good Xmas.  I received some very nice gifts.  My parents helped to pay for my new spectacles and for another session of pottery class.  My brother and his GF gifted me with lots of colorful socks and a cookie press.  Plus some other things.  And, once I got back to DC, I had a fantastic XXXmas with M.  In addition to copious amounts of teh hot buttsecks,we watched a lot of streaming movies on the Netflix, including The Hobbit, White Christmas, and Blackfish. Yeah.  It seems like we are in it for the long haul.  He gave me Apples to Apples (which, he reminded me, we played at a game night with Mike (Who Makes Cakes...

Good Evening, Kittens!  And Happy Veterans' Day!  I hope you will all be able to celebrate and honor our veterans tomorrow by not going to work and hitting the mall for Big Big Sales. ANYWAY,  my parents visited this weekend.  They arrived Thursday late afternoon.  That evening, we just blobbed around and ate and talked. On Friday, I had a hair appointment.  While I was away, I tasked my parents with cleaning my place and putting away my Halloween decorations. When I got home, we piled into the car and I drove (eek!) to the Kennedy Center.  We had a tour of the building and, then, had dinner at the KC Cafe.  After dinner, we attended a performance of "Warhorse." It was pretty amazing.  BUT, I would like to say that the people who were all like, "The horses are PUPPETS! and, after awhile, you don't even notice the puppeteers" are either totally craycray or possibly mentally challenged.  Every time the horses appeared on stage, I...

Good Evening, Kittens! What a weekend!  It was definitely too short.  At least this coming week is only a four-day week for me!  and a four-day weekend!  BUT, enough looking ahead.  Let's look back and reflect ... My work week was pretty much the usual exercises in clusterfuckery.  I did have a phone interview.  We'll see how that goes.  I think the job would be interesting.  And I think it will pay more.  Not sure if I impressed them during the interview or not, though.  Oh, well.  We'll see ... I also got the bid for my kitchen remodeling project - $15,000.  Not including appliances.  My parents were supposed to be helping me pay for it.  But, after talking with my mother tonight, I'm not so sure I want their help.  Although I'm also not sure how I will pay for it otherwise.  Ugh.  There was too much "that's too expensive" and "you should find another contractor" and "you should get lower...

Good Morning, Kittens! After several weeks of being anti-social and sofa-ridden, I finally am easing my way back into life.  Yay me! On Friday, my co-worker and I had planned to go to a DC Fringe Festival play, Young Republicans, which starred a friend of my co-worker.  Well, co-worker's boyfriend decided that he wanted to go too.  Gah.  Thus, rather than be a third wheel, I took a date, L (this would be our second date).  We all went to Fado in Gallery Place for beers and snacks and dinner and then headed to the play, which was entertaining, probably could stand some tightening up ... but it's Fringe.  That's what one should expect, I suppose. After the play,we all went our separate ways. On Saturday, I had a mini-English lesson with Tomoko's niece, who is visiting for a couple of weeks.  It went fine.  We talked about fashion and astrology.  And how to use numerology to determine if you and your "crush" are compatible.  Good ...

Good Evening, My Sweet, Sweet, Intoxicated Kittens! Things are bubbling and gurgling here in Vutopia ... Last night, I had a date.  We went to Number 9.  They have a 2-for-1 happy hour.  I may have gotten a little tipsy.  I also may have made out with my date in the bar.  He's cute.  Smart.  Employed. Short.  Old(er ... 52). Divorced. Has 2 grown children.  Seems mostly well-adjusted.  And an OK kisser.  I think I could really be interested in him ... if Mr. Las Vegas (aka M) would ever leave Las Vegas and I could figure out how I feel about him and he feels about me and what exactly is going on there ... *sigh*  This guy (who we shall call L) asked if I was single.  I said I was.  Which is true.  But I also told him I am dating around, which is also true.  And I may have mentioned that there is a complicated situation.  Why is life so hard? In the meantime, we are going out again.  On Friday...

Good Morning, Kittens. Sunday morning, I implemented Stage 1 of my new running plan. The Marine Corps Marathon 10K is rapidly approaching, and I am nowhere near ready. So, I decided that on the weekend, I would run/walk the 6 miles, gradually increasing the distance I was running. This time, I ran maybe 4 or 4.5 miles and walked the rest. It took me about an hour and 15 minutes. And my knees hurt. *ugh* But, enough of that, I know you are dying to read all about my adventures at Opera in the Outfield and the viewing of the simulcast of Verdi's A Masked Ball . Well, it was sunny and warm. But there was a cool breeze. And several of my friends backed out of going. Fortunately, the important people showed up ... After the opera, D and I went to Austin Grill in Penn Quarter for dinner. Then, I came home. So very tired. Sitting out in the sun all day is EXHAUSTING. Have a great day! *smooches*

Good Saturday Afternoon, my sweet, sweet kittens! I should be cleaning right now, but I realized that I haven't blogged about my life. And that is *so* much more important that doing the housecleaning. Right? Work has been a Basket Full of Insanity. I am trying to stay out of the swirling eddies of gossip, misinformation, and distrust. Head down. Eyes open. And get the job done. Which for me, right now, means planning for Energy Awareness Month (October) and gathering data for the end of the fiscal year reports. Fun. Times. Srsly. Next week, I have to be ubermotivated. Fingers crossed that it will happen. I've got a pretty awesome weekend so far underway. Yesterday, after work, I rushed home (if one defines "rush" as "the metro ride takes about an 45 minutes longer than usual because of a train with mechanical problems at Fort Totten Station and having to offload the train I was on at New York Avenue"), changed clothes, got my stuff together, and ...

Good Morning, Kittens. Hope you had a fabulous weekend. I certainly did, because I got to meet Dr. Mel ! Live and in person! And his SuperCute Husband! OMG. How lucky am I? How jealerz are you? HM? ANYWAY, Friday and Saturday I didn't do much. Hung out with Tomokito and SCGB at various points during those days. Saturday evening, I went into DC to chill with some friends, but was tired and came home early. Then, on Sunday, I met up with Dr. Mel, Hubby David, and their friend, Glenn at the National Gallery of Art. Here are a few pix: Blurry Spanish Bears Spicy Chocolate Gelato and Coffee. Nom. Dr. Mel, Glenn, and David on the Moving Sidewalk to the East Wing Three Cute Guys Four Cute Guys I think I may make this my new profile photo The rest of the museum photos are here . We left the NGA and had a light dinner at Teaism. YUMz. Then, I metro'ed home. Fun fun fun. Have a great day! *smooches*

Good Evening, Kittens. Two posts in one day! How lucky are you? So, at the DCist Exposed Photography Exhibit, I took this photo: Does it remind anyone else of the end of The Blair Witch Project ? That is all. *smooches*

Good Morning, Kittens. I awoke this morning to discover that BOSSY (*waves to BOSSY*) has linked to me . Yay! BUT, GAH! VUBOQ wasn't really planning to have new content today. BUT, I would hate to disappoint my regular reader (*waves to Anne-Marie in Philly*) and the one or two people who will click over ... so ... um ... lessee ... The funnest thing that happened this weekend was on Saturday night. I went to the free simulcast of The Barber of Seville at the National Stadium (National's Stadium? Nationals' Stadium? AT&T UPS Pepsi Stadium?). It was totally awesome. And, not only because I got to hang-out with the Most Awesome ShallowGal and her Posse. It's also because every time I hear "Barber of Seville" I think of this . It was good to hear the real thing. The opera was fun. The company was fabulous. Good times, kittens. Good times. Sunday, I did a lot of blobbing and some knitting. After finishing two baby hats, I'm starting a hat for...

Hello, Kittens. It took forever to upload my pix tonight. But, here are my 12 of 12 for September. First. A cute little baby beret modeled by a watermelon. Second. The one eggplant produced by my eggplant plant. Third. A pretty cosmos flower in my garden. Fourth. What's a 12 of 12 without a photo of my pussy? Fifth. Will my (temporary) roommate ever clean out his coffee cup [N.B. he did by the time I got home tonight. *whew*]? Sixth. K-Factor and I metro into DC to watch The Barber of Seville , free simulcast at Nationals Stadium. Seventh. K-Factor had a hot date. I got to hang out with the ShallowPosse ! Eighth. The youngest of the ShallowPosse totes luvs opera (and Miss DC, but that's ShallowGal's story to tell). Ninth. The main event was not this version of opera ... but some people liked it better. Tenth. DCites *heart* free opera. Eleventh. And they lived happily ever after. Twelfth. The metro ride home was crowded. More photos from my day are on flickr . *smoo...

Good Morning, Kittens! Happy Monday! Can I just mention that getting up before sunrise is so. not. right? But more about that in a bit ... First, here's a quick reminder that the 2nd Annual 10% Refund Challenge is in Full Swing! Read about it in my post yesterday (scroll down) or visit its Facebook Event Page . One exciting aspect is that there are *already* more participants than last year! YAY! Unfortunately, it seems a lot of people are getting smaller refunds (me included). So, in order to meet my goal of Even More Money, we'll need to recruit Even More Participants! We Can Do It! So, my weekend ... Friday, I stayed home. Saturday, I stayed home. Then, in the evening, SCGB and I went to dinner at Adega. Afterwards, we drank wine and watched movies at my place. First, we watched Helvetica. It too long and a bit of a waste of time. It could have been about 30 minutes. Srsly. I was like, "I get it. Helvetica was modern and revolutionary and now it is everywhere. Thank y...

Good Morning, Kittens. I'm waiting for FedEx this morning. They are coming to pick up the Nokia 6650, which I test-drove for a few weeks. I will be typing up a little review about my thoughts this week about the phone. Stay tuned. You can, of course, see pictures (I'm Chapter 2!) various bloggers took using the phone here . Yesterday was fun. The symposium on tropical extinction was cool; however, we didn't stay for the reception. After 4 speakers, I was done ... so we left. There were still 2 speakers and a moderated panel discussion left. We probably should have skipped the first speakers by arriving later. That might have been better. On the plus side, there were several cute boys in attendance. On the minus side, why is every man in DC so short? Napolean complex? After leaving the symposium, Dana and I goofed around the Natural History Museum for awhile. We headed back to Silver Spring, picking up some Obama cookies at the Safeway before heading to McGinty's for hap...

Good Morning, Kittens! Yesterday's weather was a veritable Crap-o-Rama; however, my day was So. Much. Friggin'. Fun it was well worth venturing forth into the cold rainy drippy frigid mess ... On my way to downtown DC, I texted a few friends, and -lo and behold- the beautiful M&M, fresh from their 2 year sojourn in Glasgow were possibly available to "hang out later will call soon." Bliss! I Can Haz Planz! While I explored the glories of the Panza exhibit at the Hirshhorn (and, really, kittens, if you are in the DC area - go. It's totally Minimalist Fun!), they toiled in the DC Unemployment Office (and I was so happy to be me!). Here are some fun pix from the Hirshhorn (Panza exhibit + others): I had just finished exploring all the joys of the Hirshhorn, when M&M arrived. We decided to have lunch at Chipotle, and, then, explored the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum. Look, Photos: From the NPG, we went to the National Archives. *The* Constitutio...

Yesterday, J and Heidi and I ventured forth unto the Capital, ending up at the National Gallery of Art. Heidi had fun. J? Not so much an art museum person, methinks. After awhile, I entertained myself by taking photos of paintings of St. Jerome ... while singing " Jesse. Now, Jerome " in my head. You can of course see my fabulous Jerome Series on my flickr page . I felt I was being a little unfaithful to Saint Anthony of Padua (my totally faves saint EVAR ...) but the NGA doesn't seem to have many artworks depicting my little Tony. After departing the NGA, we had an early-ish dinner at Teaism (veggie bento. YUM!). Once home, we had martinis (and I had cheesecake) and watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Bringing Up Baby . Check out Goblinbox's GBM photo set here . Fun times, kittens. Fun times. Let's see what happens today (besides laundry, of course). Oh, and just in time for Easter ... Jesus Forkin' Christ!