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

Hi, Kittens! It's the New Year!  2014!  How the fuck did that happen?  And where did all these eye wrinklez and gray hairz come from? ANYWAYz, it is the time when one makes resolutions for the New Year (2014!*).  And, here are my New Year's (2014!) Resolutions (in no particular order): 1.  Last year, I read 10 new books (I re-read a lot of other books, but only 10 new ones).  In this New Year (2014!), I resolve to read *at least* TWELVE NEW BOOKS!  I have already started with "Ender's Game," which a couple of my co-workers will not. shut. up. about.  So far, it is not too bad.  Yay!  2.  Last year, I ran 97 times for a total of 431 miles.  This year (2014!), I will run 500 miles and I will run 500 more.  Just to be the man to run 1000 miles to your door.  A-hahahaha.  I kid.  I resolve to run 100 TIMES!  And, if those 100 times total to 500 miles?  BONUS!!! 3.  Last year, I blogged 3...

Hello, Dear Kittens! As you may have heard, the Federal Government has been shutdown since October 1st.  What you may not know is that this affects VUBOQ most negatively.  I have been out of work since that time.  My company was able to carry me on overhead last week; however, starting on Monday, I will either have to use up my leave time (which is not very much) or go unpaid. I would like to take a few moments to clear up a few common misconceptions.  Congress is working very hard (LOL!) to make sure that furloughed Federal employees will receive backpay.  However,  furloughed government contractors are not the same as furloughed Federal employees.  We will not receive backpay.  Additionally, Maryland and Virginia have made it Very Easy for furloughed Federal employees to apply for unemployment benefits.  Furloughed government contractors have to wade through the usual bureaucratic unemployment redtape. I will be calling my company's...

Good Evening, Kittens. Well, we are on Day 3 of my 4-day weekend (*w00t*), so I thought I would bring you up-to-date on all the excitement in my life. So, on Friday, I mostly ran errands.  I also ran a few miles.  I went to the Giant and bought some necessary supplies, like kitty litter and paper towels.  Then, I did a little grocery shopping at the Whole Foods.  And, I may (or may not) have had a slightly boozy lunch at Adega. Once home, I took a long nap.  Then, I cleaned the bathroom. Yay clean bathroom!  As I was doing all this housework, I was reminded that my iron had died.  I also remembered that I had a Target giftcard.  SO, I went to target.com and did a little shopping.  I bought a new iron (yay!), a new rug for the bathroom, a shoe rack, and some Halloween novelty lights. YAY! And I spent the rest of the evening watching Downton Abbey, Season 2.  LOVE! On Saturday, I journeyed out to Wheaton to talk to the p...

Good Evening, Kittens! First of all, click on over to Polt's Purple Palace for a sort of guest post by moi .  It's chock full of rollicking hilarity.  For some reason, the photo I sent him isn't showing up.  Maybe it's my computer ... But, too bad if you can't see it, because I am COMPLETELY NEKKID in it. Srsly. So, anyway, I have a little filing to do this evening ... There was this guy, D.  From a few months ago.  Remember him?  The one out of the 20-year relationship, who went all Bat. Shit. Crazy on his ex and reported his car as stolen and his ex's new boyfriend's boyfriend was driving it?  Yeah.  Him? Well, he texted me.  and he was all like "I want to see you." And, I was thinking all "why?" but I said "ok." And he was all, "When?" So I was all, "I'm free on Thursday." And he was all, "All day?" And I was thinking all, "Are you a total dumbass?  I do have a job, y'kn...

Good Morning, Kittens! Why don't you click on over to Cooper's Corner today? The Best Kitteh EVER is being featured as one of Cooper's Compadres. Have a wonderful day! *smooches*

Good Evening, Kittens! I hope your weekend has been chock full of fun and excitement. This is my first two-day weekend in, like, MONTHS. It's crazy! How do you people do it? How do you get everything done, whilst still maximizing your sofa blobbing time? ANYWAY, so Friday, after work, I met my friend, Eric (not from Baltimore) for happy hour. We ended up having several boozy beverages at Capital City Brewery. Huzzah. Then, I went home. I texted a "friend" ... and he just so happened to be "chillaxin'" ... So, I invited him over to watch movies. We watched most of "The Sound of Music" ... Then, the "watching movies" part took over. Good times ;-) Saturday, I went for an 8 mile run. I think I may have died. Later, I resurrected. And ventured into DC to meet my friend, R, for dinner at Thai Tanic. OMG. Their food is sooooo good. Then, I came home and watched "One Day." I read the book and (mostly) enjoyed it. The m...

Good Morning, Kittens! So, yeah, BOSSY ? She's in Casa de VUBOQ right. this. minute. Asleep. Like a little angel (I assume, because the door to BOSSY's Guest Room is closed). BOSSY's No Book Tour DC Meet-up was so much fun. Shallowgal was there (and she really did go to Nicaragua for Spring Break. I saw photos!)! And Lumpyhead's Mom ! and some other bloggers whose links I haven't found yet ... like, Mary and Laura and Jill and Deeeeeeeeeee-ohn and Lauren (who drove all the way from Annapolis, yo!) and did I leave anyone out? Hmm .... I don't think so. And, guess who did not take a single picture? Yeah. That would be me. Oops. My bad. But everyone else did. Go to their blogs (which I haven't linked to, so good luck!) and look at all the fun times which were had! Srsly. Fun times! It totally made me forget my craptastic day of clusterfuckery at work. Yayz. Grrlpower and beer (and fried pickles), that's all you need to forget your woes....

Good Morning, Kittens. Of all the exciting events, yesterday. This was the Excitingest: I had happy hour with Lumpyheadsmom and Friends! *w00t!* See, what happened was ... A couple of days ago, she blogged that she was meeting friends for happy hour and that everyone should come. I commented that I would LUV to come, BUT I had a hot date. Ha ha! I had a date! Yay! *Had* a date. Yesterday afternoon, the Date called. He had to work late ... in Baltimore. We rescheduled the date for Sunday. I tweeted that my date was off and that I was going to drown myself in a vat of ice cream. THEN, Lumpyheadsmom (luv her!) replied, reminding me of happy hour. So I went. It was fun. We had margaritas (with no salt). And a yummy little pizza (with spinach, black olives, and goat cheese). And many, many laughs. Once home, I watched the Lifetime biopic, Coco Chanel (starring Shirley MacLaine). Enjoyable. Meanwhile, I am still waiting for two important calls. Gah. Will the phone to ri...

Good Morning, Kittens! Guess who is guest posting over at Puntabulous today? Yep. Me! Go have a look-see-read . Or, click on over to flickr to check out photos from my Day with David . Or, you can do both. I won't complain. Have a great day! *smooches*

Good Afternoon, Kittens! Several nights ago, I had a nightmare in which I was being strangled from behind (hm, sounds slightly familiar , no?). In my dream, I turned my head to the left and bit the attacker. In my reality, I awoke with an "Ow!" Yes, in my sleep, I bit my arm near my shoulder. It hurt, and I remember thinking to myself, "That's going to leave a mark" before I fell back asleep. When I awoke the next morning, I forgot to check. A few days later in the shower, I noticed a mystery bruise on my left arm. I thought for a minute and it all came flooding back. With a bruise to prove it. *sheesh* Now, you should all scurry over to Puntabulous (if you haven't already) to read his latest Funtabulous post . See if you can spot VUBOQ! *smooches*

Good Morning, Kittens! How was the weekend? Did you have Big Big Fun Fun? I'm sure you did, because Kittens always do! Puntabulous (via Chris via Java via the World ). Brown and Pink is So Hot (Right, Goblinbox ?)! I guess you are wondering about my weekend, eh? Well ... my Friday dinner date went v. well, and -now that it's over- I can share the menu. We started with a ThrowBack to the 90s Salad: Mixed greens, blue cheese, pears, and pecans with a simple vinaigrette. Then, we had butternut squash ravioli (which I did *not* make from scratch) with a pecan cream sauce (which I did (and I actually followed a recipe (from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian ))). The sauce was Delicious. Like OMG Yum. Mmmm... For dessert, we had a Kumquat-Infused Vodka Cordial. It was a very filling meal. Saturday, I had a lovely lunch with Ms. Eight Lives Left . We went to El Golfo. I had spinach enchiladas and many many margaritas (ok. two margaritas. whatevs). After lunch, I...

What? Me procrastinate? Never ... I recently noticed that my list of LinkyLuv does not include many of the blogs I read using Google Reader and includes several blogs which are no longer updated regularly. Thus, I did a little tidying up. [Please sing "The Happy Working Song" now. Thx.] I have added the following blogs to my LinkyLuv Listing: Another Tequila Sunrise (Fascinating Fact: Dr. Liz and I were in high school together and recently reconnected via Facebook. She was NOT the sender of the previously mentioned email.) Country Mouse Comes Unhinged DC Movie Girl (I met DC Movie Girl last summer at a baseball game. She totally ROCKS!) Gaganymede (was one of BOSSY's Featured Gays and is totally cute! And, he's, like, nominated me for His GAGA Blog of the Year ! Go Me! *happy dance*) Lumpyhead Strickerin The Launching Pad The Misadventures of Nanny Garcia (is in serious competition to replace ShallowGal as my current BlogCrush) Whine and Cheese ... and might I j...

Ok, kittens, how did it get to be afternoon already? I spent the morning emailing my StickSteven 2008 Year in Review. Did you get yours? If so, YAY! If not, it's probably because I don't have your email address. And I can't access Facebook for some reason, which is what I was going to use to find email addresses that I don't have already. Also, as I was moving down my blogroll, I noticed that it needs to be tidied up a bit. And updated. There are several blogs I read regularly that aren't on there. And, some blogs that have been abandoned (apparently). So, please do me a favor. If you read this blog and you aren't a recipient of LinkyLuv, let me know. Have a great weekend. *smooches*

Harold, the cat's out of the bag ... Awhile back, I was asked to test-drive a phone for Nokia. They've put up a website, Nokia 6650 Chronicles . Go there, click on "Chapter 2" and you'll see some pix taken by lil ol' me. Click on any of the pix I took and you'll be taken to "my" page and you can see EVEN more pix. Assuming that the kind Nokia Powers-That-Be refill my go phone in the next few days, I'll be posting even more pix (and maybe some *bow-chikka-bow-bow* video) to that site, as well as to my Twitter , Plurk , and Facebook pages (via ping ) and Flickr, like this one: and this one: At the end of the week, I'll be posting a no-holds-barred review of the Nokia 6650. Stay tuned, kittens. Now, I'm off to dig my Xmas decorations out of storage. Joy! Rapture! *smooches*

Good Green Tea Morning, Kittens! First a little blog-pimping, ShallowGal [love her!] is having a little contest. Go here, tell her your favorite charity, and she *might* give them $100. [Extra bonus *smooches* to anyone who says VUBOQ is your favorite charity!] Meanwhile, pottery studio was very successful yesterday. There was trimming! There was handle-pulling! There was the throwing of a large urn-like thing! Fun times. So much fun, in fact, that I will be going back today. Huzzah. Once home, I knitted. I'm making a Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban scarf for a friend. It was actually supposed to be a birthday present for him last year (then a Christmas present, then a birthday present again). Now, maybe it will be a Thanksgiving present? Then, I watched the first episode of the mini-series, Brideshead Revisited . Young Jeremy Irons. Total teh Yumminess. And, that's about it. No real plans for the weekend yet ... even though I've been trying to schedule thing...

Good afternoon, kittens. My SuperFantastic Cuzin is currently working on a dig in Israel. And am I jealous? Of course I'm not jealous. Ok. Maybe I'm a little jealous, but only because she said she might be going to Petra during her break. And I would love to go to Petra. And maybe find the Holy Grail ! If any of you are interested in what goes on at a dig (and not just the steamy hanky-panky and imbibing of copious amounts of alcomahol ... oh, wait, that's what goes on at my house), you can check out the blog she and the other conservator have started: Kelsey Museum Dig Diary Enjoy!

Good morning, kittens. Just a quick note to say "hi." We'll be reporting on the weekend tomorrow. I hope you will be able to survive until then without me. To help tide you over, the Straight Guy has made a Very Special Memorial Day post . Enjoy. *smooches*

Secretworm T-shirts (from the Sean Show ). I haz them. Don't be jealous. You can haz them too ! [Just remember I haz'd them first!]

First off, apologies to everyone (except, apparently, Mel , who enjoys these types of things) for the pictures of rat guts yesterday. I was feeling punchy. To make up for it, here's a cute rat pic : All together now, "Awwwwwwww." Feel better, Bala Wala Shi ? Good ... Second, this is what happens when a SuperDuperPowerBlogger shows you some linkyluv : Boi-oi-oi-oi-oiiiiing. Even more hits than the day I blogged about discovering the Cheating Cheater who Cheated Cheatfully had cheated on me with a skinny twentysomething with long hair and bad skin. Who knew you could get lots of hits from something other than personal tragedy? Live and learn. Live. And learn. Lessee ... I'm a bit overhung this morning. Y came over for Spicy Chinese Rat Intestine Noodle Soup , and, to celebrate the Lunar New Year, I popped open the bottle of champagne leftover from my New Year's Eve Champagne Tasting. I got a little durnk. *oog* Using the Japanese Udon Noodles instead of the Cellop...

Before I regale you with stories of my exciting life, go vote for my latest blogcrush, Puntabulous , in the GayBloggies . OK. Now that that's out of the way ... Yesterday, after work, I ... (wait for it) ... finished my Xmas Cards!!! YAY! Well, except for my brother's. I don't have his new address. I need to call him, not only to get his new address, but also to coordinate one leg of my Pre-Xmas VayKay Tour of North Carolina, which will -hopefully- include us visiting our NC-based SuperFuntastic Cuzin, his wife, and SuperCute New Baby First Cousin Once Removed. So ... after finishing my cards (have I mentioned that my Xmas Cards are FINISHED? YAY!), I went to DUN's apartment for a holiday Craft Night! YAY! My first beverage of the evening was a Gin Alexander (like a Brandy Alexander, but with gin). It was surprisingly delicious - 1.5 oz gin, 3/4 oz cream, and 3/4 oz creme de cacao. I thought it might be icky, what with the juniper/cream combo. But, no! 'Twas yummy! ...