Since moving to San Diego Richard and I have been very lucky to have become part of a circle of friends. We all hang out, separately or all together all the time. We always have fun. Whether it’s our weekly SYTYCD parties, movie nights, BBQ’s, or going out to Hillcrest or Downtown and “painting the town”. I consider these people my San Diego family! But lately we have been noticing that we are a bit of a clique. There aren’t really any new faces (well, since Richard and I). No fresh blood. We just aren’t meeting any new people and that makes it tough for the single kids in the group. Not that we want to be matchmakers. Good gawd no! But when you hang out with new people you meet their people… Maybe one of their people might know another single guy and through just getting together our single kids will be exposed to more quality singles? Cause let’s face it, when you hang out at bars every week to meet people you are going to meet people that like hanging out in bars. And aside from all of that, we are a group that likes to entertain. It’s more fun with more people! Right? We decided that Sheila’s BBQ was our big event. We were all to bring new people.

So for me, I am not surprised by any of this. I have been trying to meet people with interests like mine lately, going to the SD Tweet-ups and Blogger Meet-ups, and actually going out and meeting the people I have been talking to on my various online social networks. My goal has been to get some friends who understand what the hell I am talking about with my SEO, CMS, tweets, plurks, and whatnots. People who understand why I constantly check my phone! In the meantime I have met a fair amount of people that I see or talk to regularly enough. So for this past BBQ I was pretty confident that I could get some new folks to come around. As it turned out, not so much. I do understand tho. One I asked at the last minute, and the others, well I mean given the choice I think I’d pick existing friends over newbies… I guess.

tagged: richard gay sytycd online people bbq friends family meeting networking

Weekend recap! I had a blast every day… Listen as I attempt to recount the fun. Meeting with some local Twitterers included:
@gooster
@tenthmuse
@mikeynerd
@slickdome (not quite local)
@richardallen
@wesstone
@danielphillip (me!)

A few photos on Flickr, as well as here on the blog. Cause I blogged the whole thing too. Heh. Friend me, follow me…

UPDATE: It’ll be 11 years for me and Richard. Not 12. Feels like 12 tho.

tagged: richard podcast daniel twitter bbq the lamplighter gooster joelle mike danielphillip

Where have I been? Well. Lemme see…

Friday I took the day off. Such a good idea! I started at the gym. I really haven’t been as regular about that as I should.. Then I went home and dressed in a new outfit. I’ll just admit it now. I wore manpris. Like capris, but for men? Yeah, those. In white. I looked really good tho. I promise. Anyway, once I was dressed I went to the mall for some shopping. I wasn’t looking for anything really. I just don’t like to sit out in the sun, so I get my outside time in the big outdoor mall. Heh. I did end up finding this really awesome portable bug zapper for the patio at the Restoration Hardware. Only 40 bucks! After shopping, I picked up Richard (who HAD been sitting in the sun all afternoon) and we headed up to The Prado for afternoon cocktails and appetizers. Then we met up with Sheila and proceeded to paint the town. Luckily we only got to part of the town as we had to rush off to meet someone. Someone that ended up not even being there… Anyhoo, it was a fun night regardless.

Saturday morning someone got spoiled rotten… Saturday afternoon we had decided to have a BBQ at our place and spent the morning getting the house and yard pretty for guests. Fred and Sheila came over and we enjoyed Fountain of Youth martinis while Richard manned the grill. Dinner was Bistro Style Turkey Burgers with an array of traditional BBQ sides (read baked beans, ect...) Fun night!

Which brings us to today. So far I have made coffee. Oh, and blogged! See? Still blogging. 

tagged: richard blogging gym shopping bbq night friday pretty today mall

So I promised to make this “member’s only”. The curse of real life being so close I guess… Heh. 

tagged: richard gay party bbq lunch parents member content bff monkeys anti-blog guy fine

Hahah! My dinner was so good! Plus, the clean up was a dream! You may be wondering why. Was it a new cleaning product? No! I wasn’t at home, and so that chore fell upon someone else! But seriously tho. The food was great. We went up the hill to a friends for a BBQ. The Eddie Izzard accompaniment was just a bonus… Oh, and they have this dog that will actually steal your heart when you arrive. It was a fun night. And good eats.

But I have to say… I think the flan stole the show. I was at first totally into the spinach salad, but when the flan arrived I actually had to take a picture. Hats off to the chef… David! He does a mean quesodillia too. I think I might just start showing up around meal times. Do you think they’ll mind? 

tagged: bbq david bitsy eddie izzard flan

Well I have to say, Richard’s birthday week is a smashing success. He has been busy every single day! I’d like take all the credit for that, but I cannot. It has been because of some pretty amazing guys we know too. So after the big bash at the Baja Betty’s and Urban Mo’s I thought Richard might have been down for the count. He was throwing up after all… (Alcohol is a very dangerous drug.) However, he was up before me the next morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed! I think it was a birthday miracle!

As promised, our friend Captain called about the rollerblading plans we were hatching the night before. Wow! I really had thought all of that would have been lost to multiple hangovers in the group. Not so much, it seems. So we got ourselves ready to rollerblade and do lunch in Coronado. What do you wear for that?! Coronado is a place I like to dress a bit nicer. Nicer than I would to rollerblade! So I had to forgo the do-rag. We ended up skating 11 miles in to Coronado, by way of The Silver Strand. We were against the wind and going up a very slight grade. Those Bloody Marys we had at the Hotel Del were well earned I tell you! The way back was tougher, even though it was with a tail wind and down a slight grade. Well, for me anyways. My feet got all tore up again. Something about that Strand, cause our other skating adventures haven’t blistered me like that. So I was injured. And bitchy. Captain bought me bandages for the way back. It was pretty pathetic, but I survived. It was 22 miles round trip. I made it for about 20, and then my speed-skating partners showed up with the car.

From there we went to the Jamba Juice to replenish our fluids for some grocery shopping. We picked up some things for dinner, including Captain’s charming husband and headed back to our place for some bbq and a movie. Death Becomes Her of course. We like to watch it Rocky Horror style at this point, reciting all the lines and shouting at the screen. Good times!

This morning Richard is at a brunch at Lips with his work peeps. I was thinking of going in to work. I don’t want to though. You see, we are getting ready for this “visit”. There is an unspoken pressure for me to go in on my days off. I plan to go in Tuesday. That puts me at 6 days for the week and 8 days in a row. I feel that, plus the longer hours I’ll be doing on Monday, Tuesday, AND Wednesday is enough. And it is. But my shit had better be READY if I don’t stop in today. I hate this shit!!

Either way, I want to something ‘just the two of us’ to wrap up the festivities. Who knows when he’ll be done at lips though…

tagged: richard bbq birthday death becomes her captain alcohol coronado silver strand baja betty's baja betty's

I am soo tired. I think you can hear it in my voice. However, if you make it to the end, there’s a treat! Yum! Otherwise, just checking in yo.

Oh, and Richard locked himself out of the house!!!! LOL!

EDIT: If you like the song at the end there, you’ll love it on the YouTube! Link. 

tagged: podcast dp.com update tired bbq still alive i wanna hurt you

My three day weekend has come to a close. Sigh. I am always so upset when my personal time is over… I think because it’ll be 2 weeks before I get two days off in a row again. Bah. Retail.

Anyhoo, what an action packed three days it was! First, on Saturday was our super glamorous BBQ. That was BLAST! I do however, have one lesson that was re-learned. Alcohol is a very dangerous drug. But I wasn’t driving anywhere, so yeah. The next day, after the big party was when we decided to go and price real patio furniture. We never do things in order around here! It was a fruitless journey. Patio furniture is damn expensive people! I did finally get to see the Westfield Shopping Mall at University Town Center. It’s nice enough. I mean, a mall is a mall and a Westfield Mall is a Westfield Mall. Right?

That brings us to today. It was all about getting into the gym and being active! I was up pretty early and actually saw the inside of my 24 Hour before noon. Everything was pretty much the same, I was just surprised to be there that early. Later I met up with my good friend Fred for some geocaching. I am still at that ‘tag-along’ stage. I need to get past that and get registered at Geocaching.com. At least then I’d get credit for all these caches I help find. I really want a GPS tho… Of my very own.. But not until after I get an iPhone. Heh.

OMG and I also drove by the Q and saw how packed the American Idol auditions were! I can’t even wait till the next season…

tagged: shopping party bbq weekend alcohol geocaching utc