Okay, so it was Sunday morning. I had been out a bit to late, but was up early and feeling pretty good. I was opening at work and was due in by 6. I got myself showered, fed, dressed, and smelling good all with a minimal of fuss. I even made a lunch! Richard was ready earlier and headed out the door, even tho we were both due at our respective jobs at the same time. It wasn’t a carpool day, so I was lagging about 5 minutes behind him. I finally made it down stairs and was at the door balancing my man-bag, waters, lunch, and phone all at once. I opened the door to the garage to put on my shoes that are always sitting just outside that door. As I slipped on the second shoe I lost my balance.

Time stopped.

It was in slow motion that I caught myself and heard the door click shut.

Shut.

And locked.

“This can’t be happening” I thought. I blinked. I tried the door. Locked. I shook my head and tried it again. Harder. Locked.

I was in my garage with my man-bag, waters, lunch, and my phone. I had no keys. My car was locked. I was locked out out of the house. My keys were just inside. I panicked.

tagged: work richard morning emergency embarrassed event locked out

We finally got WiFi in the house. No there’s still no laptop. It’s for the phones. Heh. Erm, yeah. 2 iPhones suddenly justified WiFi. In the form of a Time Capsule. Because that also offers 500 GB of storage. 2 birds one stone and all that. (Can I justify spending or what?)

Anyhoo, it makes me laugh how now there is always one of us at the desktop and another surfing on the phone… Instead of you know, being impatient. LOL. After 12 years together it is clearly the little things that give us joy. 

tagged: richard blogging online wifi

Okay. No it didn’t. Well it kinda did.

You see, our good friend Fred was going to skip pride and drive down to LA for an event. After much debate and confusion Richard and I ended up tagging along. The itinerary was this: Leave San Diego by noon, drive to LA, check into hotel, go eat, go back to hotel to get pretty, go to Outfest movie premier, and hit after party at a club. After that there was no set plan other than an eventual return to SD on Saturday no later than 5:00 PM.

Well kids, it was exactly as planned. The drive to LA is about 2.5 hours. Thankfully Richard and I had our iPhones. More thankfully than that, Fred’s car has multiple power outlets. Heh. So the drive up passed pretty quick. We checked into a surprisingly nicer than expected Days Inn. It wasn’t great, but not horrible either. It was right next to an In-N-Out Burger, which became the immediate solution to our second task upon getting to town. I refused. I was trying to be as flexible and non-bitchy as possible. I know I don’t travel well, so I tried to be nice about it. It was a fine choice for them, but I’d still need to eat soon too, and I won’t eat burger. Luckily, after I carefully got that out on the table, Fred’s innate Cruise Director Instincts took over. He suggested a trip to The Grove. Brilliant. Many food choices for everyone. We hit the road. Of course as soon as he pointed it out, we had decided on The Whisper Lounge. It is pure glamour. An open-air establishment with drapery and pretty people and.. I can’t describe it really. It’s just fabulous. So we went in and proceeded to order up snacks and cocktails. I don’t remember when he noticed, but Fred made us aware that Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott were behind us with their family (we assume). OMGOMGOMG!!! As soon as he said it I could HEAR HER. I mean, she has a distinctive voice. OMG. We tried not to make a scene. I *really* wanted to get a photo, or talk to her… Something. Fred wisely reminded me that I need to “act normal” and treat her like anyone else. “We don’t want to ruin her time, right?” He’s good like that since he knows people. I took his advice and refrained. Richard staged a bathroom trip so he could ogle them. I sat and listened in. We stayed a long time… Tori and crew had several bottles of champagne. Well, at least 2. LOL. Finally our time was up and we had to go get pretty. Richard insists that Tori smiled at him as we left… OMG!

So getting ready for the Premier was pretty stressful since I had forgotten a belt. My outfit NEEDED a belt. I tried to con my man out of his, but he was having none of it. So we went out on the town with me already feeling kinda insecure. I mean really. LA? Without a belt? As soon as we arrived at the Ford Amphitheater I forgot all about it. Not only is the venue gorgeous, but there were soooo many pretty people. Pretty boys… I mean it *was* Outfest, right? So anyway, the theater is backed up to a hill, and the natural landscape is the main feature of the place. It’s really awesome, actually. We headed up to the top, where they was a concession stand, as well as the entrance for the celebs… Red carpet people! Wich in this case was a red mat taped to the sidewalk with an “Outfest” logo’d backdrop. Hrm. Fanceh. But whatever. We hung out, sipping our drinks. Fred found a photographer friend of his that chatted with us a bit and snapped our picture. Woo!

So the movie was Mulligans. It was actually really good. I liked it, tho the story was painful. But a movie that makes you feel anything has done it’s job. Plus the actors were a pretty bunch. Heh.

After the movie we headed over to Eleven for the VIP after party. Fred was on The List. Richard and I hadn’t been to a nightclub like that in years. It was a big time. Especially the part were we got to go upstairs to the VIP area and hang out with the cast of the film. Again, Fred was on The List. It was awesome… I got to meet Reichen Lehmkuhl who was also at the after party. Let me just pause a moment to let that sink in…

OMG!OMG!OMG! REICHEN!!! OMG!OMG!OMG!

Okay. So after we got tired of the madness of the club we headed to some sidewalk bar/restaurant for a bit. That was a great time as we got to watch the crazies of WeHo pass by as we ate and enjoyed a few more cocktails. We made it back to the hotel by like 2:30ish. LOL

The next day (Saturday) we didn’t want to rush right out. Obviously a bit of sleeping in and hydrating were in order, plus the traffic going down to San Diego (Pride morning) could be icky… So we left the hotel at checkout time and had an amazing brunch-ish meal at Hugo’s followed by a trip to the old Xanadu site and another trip to The Grove, for shopping. A perfect morning. My friend Fred really is an excellent Cruise Director. Plus he knows his way around. AND he drove. Really, really awesome. As we cruised slowly to the freeway Fred spotted a familiar face. As he pointed out Ms. Doris Roberts, she bent over right on the side of the road to pick up… A COUPON! LOL! Classic! Once on the freeway, on the way home, we sang songs from the Xanadu soundtrack with the windows down in traffic. Just in case people weren’t already aware that the car was full of ‘mos. LOL

Fred pulled up to our house to drop us off at like 4:57 PM. Three minutes to spare. Talk about sticking to the itinerary! 

‹ wish i hadn't asked!

tagged: richard shopping people party photo omg house boys fabulous pretty

For the first time since we have lived in San Diego, Richard and I are off for Pride Weekend. So what do we do?

tagged: richard party weekend pride saturday

As you can tell, the San Diego TweetUp was a huge hit. The Meet up, coordinated by the Jennifer Van Grove, took place at The Lafayette here in San Diego. There were tons of local tweets and twitter friendly folk. We gathered poolside, enjoyed an open bar, and mingled.. I love these events because it is always such a diverse crowd. You got your web professionals of course, then there are military people, teachers, and retail folk, to name a few. I think Richard and I made up the retail portion. LOL. Anyhoo, there is a lot of networking which is awesome because it is social networking as well as business because these are “Twitter people” after all.

So if you are local, and on Twitter you really should check it out.. Oh, and if you are a local straight man (I won’t name names, you know who you are): dude, there are hawt chicks there!

tagged: richard san diego people twitter tweets networking tweetup #sdtweetup

I did in fact get my new iPhone. I guess I left the blog kinda hanging on that…

Let me just say, What a debacle! Getting a new phone should not be so hard! Seriously. That said I am so glad I went thru it. I like being one of the idiots out there “first”. LOL. So after my 3 hour wait the SECOND day I was finally next. I was so sure my activation would be fast. I knew which phone I wanted (8G, I have a brand new iPod Classic that is huge so no need for 16G), I knew I qualified for the upgrade, should be smooth. After another 20 minutes (I know, right?) a “specialist” approached me. We got to work. He fetched the phone, took my info, and entered it into the activation handheld thing. We waited. The result came back fast: “Error. Account does not qualify”

WHAT!?!

tagged: work richard iphone apple time new upgrade wait

Look at my new Apple product! I call it iGotnothing.

Well kids. I am a little down today. I showed up at my Apple Store bright and early, like a good little Mac-boy. I was expecting the line, since I opted for sleep last night. 8:00 was when I stepped into place. In fact, it all started out really hopeful! The plan, according to the Apple associates was this: 40 people let in at a time, 10-15 minutes each. I was about number 300, but I do exaggerate. Could have been a lot less in front of me. Still, at 15 minutes each group I figured about 2 hours. Seems logical, right? We have been through the lines with Apple before. They usually don’t screw up too bad.

After about 2 hours I really was getting discouraged. I had definitely moved up, but not much. And we had been at a standstill for a really long time. Twitter kept me appraised of the issues as we went. Servers down! Servers up! Servers DOWN! Richard came over with a snack. I finally got to go look at the entire line. Wow. He waited with me for 30 minutes. When it finally looked like I was moving again he took off to get ready for work. I waited, chatted with the gal next to me, and questioned the Apple folk. They were saying all systems were a go! Twitter linked me to more stories that it was bad. iTunes servers were the issue, and folks have been having trouble with iPhone 2.0 updates as well as the Apple Store activation parade…

It was when I was reading about how folks were sent home with NO WORKING phones (after Apple DE-activated old iPhone, but could NOT activate the new one) that a woman came past the line with her 2 new phones and a warning. “Don’t let them activate you here! I have been inside since 8:15 trying to get activated!” I decided screw it. I, like so many before me, left the line. After 3 hours.

I figured dude. 3 hours and I am not even halfway… Plus my current iPhone is working fine. Rocking iPhone 2.0 too! So I can wait. I waited this long… Right?

tagged: work richard iphone apple twitter time itunes issues warning

We went to SeaWorld! Wooo!

Okay, no. I am calm now. Really. I just feel I have to make a big deal out of it since so many local San Diegans are opposed to it. I have heard everything from “too commercial” to “waste of time”. And then there’s this. I mean, dudes. Relax. It’s an amusement park. They are all commercial! Have you not been to Disneyland? It’s one big commercial! Just because SeaWorld is brought to us by the Anheuser Busch Company doesn’t make it worse. In fact I find it hilarious! What better place to bring the brats than an Amusement Park that encourages you to get tanked? In fact, I Yelped about the whole thing… No need to type it all out again here, right?

So the thing I need to get across is my experience at ANY amusement park with my Richard. He loves them more than I do, especially if there are any type of animals involved. (Look at that GRIN!) When we arrived we were barely through the gates when he started. “We have to see the Polar Bears!” “Which way?” “Come on!! This way!!” We were apparently spending the day in high gear instead of relaxing. But I followed along, camera and map in tow as he rushed me from attraction to attraction. And that was the easy part. The hard part for me is the length of time he will spend staring at each thing. After like 5 minutes of penguins I am pretty much ready to move on. Not my Richard. Bless his heart. He has to “observe” the penguins for a while… From different vantage points even. Oh. My. Gawd. My iPhone sure came in handy! Don’t get me wrong, I know what I am getting into with these outings. The Zoo is much worse… We both managed to have fun.

Then aside from the park, there is the people watching. Seriously. The added element of all the Budweiser products kinda changes things. People are louder. Like that family behind us at Shamu “Believe”. First of all only Gramma was in a wheel chair, so I don’t think all 12 of them should have been taking up disabled seats. Aside from that, the drunken domestic going on was unreal. At least once the beer spilt, no one was industrious enough to go buy more. And dude, can we discuss the fashion choices that were witnessed? My eyes! Yes I realize there are water rides, but your swimsuit does not match everything. Sheesh!

Speaking of shows, we hung out after Cirque De La Mer to meet the performers. That was a pretty sophisticated show for SeaWorld, and we wanted to give them props. Turns out we got a photo with the boys too! Actually it was funny. One of the Mer Girls was available too, but no one wanted a photo with her. The guys on the other hand had a pretty big line-up of fans!

Anyhoo. It was fun.

‹ wish i hadn't asked!

tagged: richard iphone photo pretty water animals seaworld

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

OMG. It’s anniversary day! As is my tradition, seen here, I did nothing. I knew it was coming, just like last year. I still work *at* the mall so shopping or a card would be easy enough. I just can’t get it together… After reading last years post I am a bit jumpy, worried some box or something is gonna pop out of somewhere leaving me to feel like a total heel. I thought we agreed tho. We get another iPhone. That is the gift, so we each end u with killer phones! Yay!

We are spending the day at a friend’s house for a BBQ and hopefully fireworks. She lives on Coronado Island, so we should be able to see the show without too much effort! There is champagne chilling in the fridge for later tonight. And we have a week off. I think that is a pretty good start on Anniversary festivities!

Anyhoo. Happy Anniversary Richard! Thank you for keeping me company all these years…

tagged: richard iphone tradition gift coronado anniversary fireworks