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

Good Morning, Kittens. Is it snowing with you? Talk to me. Talk to me. I can't remember who sent me this link, but you should check it out (especially if you have a kitteh or two): How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You I would like to add another warning sign to the list: Looks all cute, 'til you realize she was searching for recipes ! Not much else has happened in my life. My week is getting busier though. I need to go to the post office today, but the snow is a bit off-putting. Other than that, my plans for today include ... applying for a job or two, going to the grocery store, and working on the Never-Ending Cardigan of Doom (Take 2). Have a great day! *smooches* PS. Don't forget about the 10% Refund Challenge ! Visit the Facebook Event Page here .

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 Sunday Afternoon, Kittens. Here is a conversation between myself and SCGB last night: SCGB : Are you going to watch the game tomorrow? V : What game? Apparently, there is some moderately important football game happening today. Who knew? BUT, I have Bigger and More Important Things to Discuss, because today is the launch of the 2nd Annual 10% Refund Challenge! Last year, my wonderful readers and friends donated over $1000 to various charities. My goal this year is for Even More People to donate Even More Money to Even More Charities! The rules are simple. Pledge to donate 10% of your tax refund to the charity (or charities) of your choice. By doing so, you will be entered into a random drawing to Win Fabulous (tbd) Prizes! Like pottery! Or infused vodka! But, wait, there's more! To double your chances of winning, donate to one (or all) of the following organizations: Food and Friends Medical Students for Choice Theater for a New Audience Washington Animal Rescue League Hm? ...

Good Morning, Kittens. My lunch date was so much fun. We went to Proof, and it "proof"-ed to be delicious! *groan* I ordered a glass of yummy prosseco. And the wild mushroom quiche with a mixed greens salad (which tasted like it was tossed with sesame oil). Then, I had another glass of yummy prosseco, because it was yummy. Then, we ordered dessert: Honeyed Goat('s milk) Cheesecake [pictured]. The sauce was made from passion fruit, and -while delicious- it was a bit too tangy for me. The cheesecake, itself, however, was marvelous. Super creamy cheesy goodness. Then, I walked Mark back to his office building and headed home ... ... stopping at the bank, likker store, and Whole Foods on the way home. I bought kumquats. Completely forgetting that I don't really like kumquats. For some reason, I think that if I keep trying them, I will learn to like them. Hasn't happened (and, for the record, it hasn't happened with beets either). Once home, I did a little prep wor...

Good Morning, Kittens! I have to leave the house in about an hour for a lunch date with Mark. We're going to Proof . I'll update when I get home. Until then, enjoy the soup. *smooches*

Good Morning, Kittens! We have snow! We have ice! The soup I made last night was Delicious! I'll share the recipe later, but first ... Here's what my eye looked like last night: And here it is this morning: WTF? Gross. And, VUBOQ really needs to wash his hair. In other "good" news, at our annual stockholders meeting, I was re-elected to the Board. Hurrah. And here's the soup recipe: Adapted from [a cookbook, the name/author of which I have forgotten] ... Southwestern Corn and Cheese Chowder Ingredients: 2 extra large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes 6 cups homemade vegetable broth 1 bottle of Mexican beer 2 tsps ground cumin 1 bay leaf 1 large onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced A Little Pat of Butter 1 can (16 oz) creamed corn 1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies 2 tsps chili powder 2 cups milk 1/2 cup heavy cream 1 lb Monterey Jack cheese Salt to taste 1. Place the sweet potatoes, 3 cups of broth, the beer, cumin, and bay leaf in a medium saucep...

Good Morning, Kittens! Here is a photo of the broth I made last night for the Mexican Corn Chowder I'm going to make this evening: Why is this Poor Man's Broth? And why should BOSSY's Poverty Party minions pay careful attention? Because this broth is made (almost) entirely of vegetable scraps! I must credit SCGB for the idea. We were talking about making broth one day, and he said, "I've started throwing all my veggie scraps into a container in the freezer to make broth." If you've read Mark Bittman's cookbooks, he's all about throwing the entire plant into the pot for broth. But, why buy and then boil perfectly good veggies (that could be used for other things ... like eating), when you can use the scraps you would normally throw away (or, hopefully, compost) for "free"? So that's what I've done for this broth. There are some zucchini bits and mushroom stems. Onion peelings. And Bok Choy ends. I had been saving them in a containe...

Good morning, Kittens! Since you've already heard (and seen) the Big News , here's the Story of the Rest of My Weekend. The house warming party on Saturday night was fun. Sarah and Mario's new house is gorgeous! And most of their friends are really nice; however, SCGB and I got trapped in the kitchen with this Crazy Older Guy, who is the husband of one of Sarah's co-workers. Awkward. Uncomfortable! Oh, look at the time! We have to go. So we came home, drank limoncello, and watched Brideshead Revisited . The new movie? Not so good. The boys were cute, but that's about it. Read the book. Watch the 80s mini-series. Skip the movie. Srsly. Sunday, I worked on my taxes for a bit ... which reminds me! It's almost time for the 2nd Annual 10% Refund Challenge ! Pledge to donate 10% of your tax refund to charity and Win! Fabulous! Prizes! More on this later this week. I realized halfway through doing my taxes that I still don't have all my information ...

Good Morning, Kittens. I promise not to turn this into a Gay Uncle Blog, but -if you're dying to see photos of the Cutest! Baby! Ever!*- you can click here . The hospital was good. I was surprised by the lack of security. Yes, we had to be buzzed in to the maternity ward, but there was no sign in, no ID check, no nothing. Of course, the nurse did check our bags when we left to make sure we had no babies stuffed in them. Having grown accustomed to Post-9/11 OverSecurityItis, it was a weird feeling to -almost- be trusted. The Baby Daddy was out running errands, but his mother was there, as -of course- was Tomokito, looking radiant (I promised I wouldn't put up any pix of her though). Mike and I took some photos and chatted. Later, Atul and my Ex-BFF came in. Apparently, Tomoko and the Ex-BFF had lunch plans, but she stood him up. I'm actually a little surprised that he still talked to her. I mean, being stood up for lunch is a much more grievous offense than being igno...

NOT QUITE BREAKING NEWS ANY MORE: It's a Girl! Tomokito and Baby are happy and healthy! Ok. It's not a stupid t-shirt. But, after watching way too many Anti-Choicers walk by, I felt I deserved a little something special. And, Good Morning, Kittens! My Abortion Afternoon was certainly an adventure! I left the house at 1:15 and walked to the Metro station. Upon arriving at said station, I realized I had forgotten my wallet and had to walk back home. Gah. I took the bus back to the station. And, look!, I sat in the Rosa Parks Memorial Seat: Btw, it wasn't in the back. La la la. Metro. Union Station. Crazy Crowds. Busy busy. Totally bad light for taking pictures. If this is a photo of a typical abortion, you can cut off my head with this knife and serve me for dinner. More White People in One Place than I've seen in a long, long time. Lots of SuperCute Priests (They are all gay, right? B/C ... YUM!). Lots of kids. More White People. My camera batteries died right when Tea...

Good Afternoon, Kittens! I'm off observing all the Anti-Abortion Roe v. Wade Protesters march to the Supreme Court and burn Abortion Providers in effigy*. But, you can still experience the Joy That Is Reading a VUBOQ Post, because I decided to finally write a short little review of the phone I test-drove awhile back, the Nokia 6650. You can follow the Nokia Chronicles here (I'm Chapter 2). And, my Nokia-related blogposts are tagged nokia6650chronicles . So, here are my thoughts on the phone ... The Nokia 6650 is pretty, all brushed metal and shiny. It looks good, and it's not too heavy. I totally *heart* clamshell phones, because, when I use them, I feel like I'm actually using a phone and not some tiny little non-phone like thingy that is miles away from my mouth, "Can you hear me now? huh?" That was not a problem with the 6650. It had some SuperFun and Totally Useful features, like the 2.0 MegaPixel Camera and a Yellow Pages thingy and a GPS thingy....

Good Morning, Kittens. Apologies for the dearth of postings recently. Blogging is difficult when one is not able to write about the only good thing going on in his life right now. So, here's a picture of the Loudest Clock Ever: I bought it at the Philadelphia Art Museum several years ago. Yesterday, I applied for a job. I went to the Whole Foods. And I deposited my Unemployment Check. So. Exciting. Today, I am blobbing on the sofa, and I am thinking about going to the Anti-Abortion March this afternoon. Anyone want to come watch the Crazies with me? I'd wear my Bedazzled Uterus shirt (Hurray for Medical Students for Choice ! Why don't you send them a nice check ?), but it's too cold out for a t-shirt. Srsly. Perhaps I'll post photos later. *smooches*

8 Degree Wind Chill. And, that would be why, Dear Kittens, yours truly did not venture forth unto the Mall to Witness History. Instead, I watched it all in TechniColor with SCGB, and I did celebrate President Obama's Inauguration in the my own special way ... Apparently, "Yes We Can" tastes like crappy dry sugar cookies covered in barfy white chocolate. Have a Great Day! *smooches*

Good Morning, Kittens. Happy MLK, Jr. Day! I had a very good weekend, despite the frigid weather. Friday, SCGB and I hung out. We were supposed to meet Mike at a bar around 10, but decided it was too cold to leave the building. Instead, we ended up having dinner and playing Apples to Apples with the neighbors. Saturday, I slept in and, later, had dinner with Mark. It went well. Thank you for asking. Mark mentioned that being blogged about in detail makes him uncomfortable (which, I suppose, is understandable) and requested that I not include him in these little updates. I agreed to that request. So, there you have it. Sunday, I went to a birthday brunch at another neighbor's ... and ended up staying 'til nearly 5. We started watching football. I know! What up with that? Then, I had a light dinner of leftovers with SCGB, came home, and watched Mamma Mia! And, OMG, my Ears Are Bleeding. Pierce Brosnan? So. Very. Bad. It was painful. Simply painful. Meryl was, o...

... and the Inauguration (wait? There's an Inauguration?), I present to you the poster to your left. Gay Bears 4 Hope! You can make your own poster here .* Have at it, Kittens. And, Good Morning! Speaking of the Upcoming Inaugural Festivities, I am -more than likely- not going to attend any. And here are my reasons: 1. It's too cold. 2. Large crowds give me the willies. 3. My GodDamn Fairy Godmother is late in helping me get ready for the Ball. 4. It's Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend (and the Gay Bears want to go). 5. Did I mention that it will be cold and the crowd thing? Btw, in the last post, I showed a picture of Mike. For clarification, Mike is not with whom I am currently "in like." Yes, he is cute. That would be why I had a Mad Mad Almost Entirely Sexual 3 Month Fling with Him after I broke up with the Cheating Cheater who Cheated Cheatfully. Mike is my personal Birthday Cake Baker/Decorator. Very good to have around. And a super nice guy. And did I mention h...

Good Early Evening, Kittens. Did I mention that I have a New Phone? Well, I do. And it's camera has a Sepia function (as well as black and white, blue, green, full color, antique, negative, cool, warm, and something referred to as "sketch"). I believe that everyone looks better in Sepia. I *heart* Sepia ... ever since I was a young biology student at Elon University (then, College) and had to single-handedly sort and sex fruit flies with sepia-colored eyes. Then, I had to smash them onto some special paper and run some sort of chemical chromatograph. I'm not sure what the point was exactly, but after staying up 'til 3AM to insure that the newly hatched fruit flies remained virgins (I know!), smashing them with a pencil eraser was oddly therapeutic. So, at lunch, between the salad course and the entree (green curry tofu - YUM!), I took a sepia picture of Mike: And, here's a fun sepia picture of the PsychoKitty. With flash (which explains -I hope- the cree...

Good Morning, Kittens! Yes, you read correctly, my back hurts. Unfortunately, it's not for any of the "fun reasons." I think I twisted it somehow during my Day of Sofa Surfing yesterday. Bah. Anyway, the Date was fun (*wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*). I am beginning to Very Like him. I'm going to his house for dinner on Saturday. Yay. I lovelovelovelovelovelovelove my New Phone. Full QWERTY keyboard Rocks My World. As does unlimited texting. Stay tuned for Even More Twitter/Plurk/Facebook updates now. Now, I must away. I'm meeting Mike for lunch at 1230, and I just got up a few minutes ago (Don't judge. It's COLD and the bed was SO WARM!). More later. Promise! *smooches*

Good Morning, Kittens. Are you ready to take a trip? Because I'm about to take you on one, a trip into the past ... the Once Upon a Time and the Long, Long Ago ... back when VUBOQ was just a wee lad (or a college Freshman) and looked like this: (and please, everyone give a big hand to my college friend, Ginger -beautiful Mother of 3-, who uploaded these photos to Facebook last night and inspired this post. *APPLAUSE*) Some of you may know that I attended college on a (somewhat) prestigious fellowship, the North Carolina Teaching Fellowship, which is awarded to 400 NC Seniors per year [at least it *was* ... I don't know if it still is]. I was in the first class of NCTF recipients to attend Elon College (now university). Elon, in order to woo the program to their hallowed campus, set up all sorts of wonderful (and free!) programs for NC Teaching Fellows. One of these Fabulous Programs was a three week stint in Washington, DC, in January 1989. We attended lectures. Toured embassie...

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 Evening, Kittens. Here's my 12 of 12. Enjoy! Dana and I are on the way to an all-day symposium at the Natural History Museum on tropical extinction. Hello, Cute Boy Sitting Across the Way . This would be part of the ceiling of the Baird Auditorium in the NHM. This would be us. Waiting for the presentations to begin. This would be one of the presenters. I'm not quite sure how I made him glow. I was fucking with my camera settings. This would not be one of the presenters. It's the Beetles! Help! I'm being attacked! Not by a coelacanth though! Nemo? Dory? How'd you get in there? Oh, fishy, fishy, fishy, fish . Obam-a-johns are Everywhere on the Mall! Back in Silver Spring. We made a pitstop at McGinty's. Boddington's. Mmmmmm... I have owned this camera for nearly 5 years, and guess what I just discovered? Sepia Setting! Suh-WEET! Thanks to a HotTip from the gorgeous Clio Bluestocking , I now have my own OBAMA COOKIES. $4.99 at Safeway. The re...