So if you have ever been to our house you have heard stories of Bad Neighbor Kitty. We aren’t quite sure where he lives. He torments our cats by hanging out outside the windows. He torments us by peeing in our yard and knocking stuff over. He torments the neighborhood by sitting in the road and yowling for no reason. It’s a hoot. In that really annoying way. Anyhoo, the other day he caught a bird. One of the birds that lived in our backyard all spring. He saw me pull up and darted into the bushes. The bird just seemed to have bent feathers. I figured he’d be okay, not realizing that it couldn’t fly well, since it managed to fly into our backyard. Well apparently he has been grounded since. Because Richard was out with our cat Coco, who found the bird in the bushes and tried to bring it in the house. Yes, I said he tried to bring it into the house. Ew. So it turns out that Bad Neighbor Kitty has been toying with the mangled bird for the last 2 days because I have heard him yowling in the backyard in the night, and the little bird was clearly much worse off and bleeding.

What do we do? Clearly it’s nature (kinda) taking course. The little bird is at this point in the neighbor’s yard (Richard tried to move him and he managed to fly that far). I don’t think he’s long for this world, and I can hear Bad Neighbor Kitty close by… Yowling.

tagged: richard neighbors cat cats night house backyard birds coco bad neighbor kitty

daniel · early evening · say it · ping it

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!

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

daniel · early evening · 2 comments · ping it

Easter Brunch is at my place this year. It has been hinted that the house should be “decorated for Easter”. Decorated for Easter? What? Huh?

Is there such a thing?

So today we ventured into the local Michael’s to look around. It turns out I was right. Not a lot of Easter decor. A lot of little things like for a table… So I am actually at a loss. What the hell do I do? I bought some fake red daisies for the table since I loved the real ones, but I can’t just keep buying fresh flowers. The cats might eat ‘em, plus maintaining them can get expensive. Those are kinda just for everyday tho. I also got some fake tulips. The tulips really say “spring” and they had red, so they totally match my decor. I put those into a glass pitcher on top of the bar. Now for the actual brunch I bought three traditional Easter baskets. I figure it’d be cute to do breakfast pastries and muffins in those.. The last thing I figured I’d get, and I don’t even know if it exists, is a large paper mache or plaster type rabbit. Something at least knee high for next to the fireplace. I think that will be impossible. But plan B would be fresh Easter lilies by the fireplace. We were going to get some anyways, it’d just be one or two more. We’d just have to put them outside right afterwards… I also think we should have hard boiled eggs on-hand and we could dye them, but that might be too over the top. No one in attendance is going to be age six. In fact, yeah, bad idea.

Anyhoo. I’ll have to remember to photograph the whole affair. If I pull off “decorated for Easter” I will want to record it for the internets..

UPDATE: Easter / SPRING decor attempts on Flickr.

tagged: internets breakfast easter house spring brunch decor

daniel · evening · 2 comments · ping it

It’s a heavy-blog day. Like a heavy-flow day, only for bloggers. Srsly. I have posted 3 times already. I have! What? You don’t see them? Heh. Right… It’s because they are not on my blog. In fact they are all over town. There’s one at Yoshi’s, one at Katie’s, and one at Pandora’s. It’s like the old days. You know, back when I’d post my link all over the internet for free. Heh. Oh, I still tend to do that when I get the chance. Right. I would have done more since it is that FFAF thing where folk’s open there blogs, but I was busy f*cking Matt Damon. (That NEVER gets old…)

So what haven’t I covered elsewhere? I had an OCD fit today and began cleaning house the minute I walked in the door. This caused a bit of a spat between me and my man… Right. Other than that it’s been low key and tidy around here. And I got a big head start on the laundry… Woo!

tagged: blog ocd internet cleaning laundry house bloggers post blogs ffaf   Madonna - Don't Cry For Me Argentina    

daniel · late at night · 1 comment · ping it

There is no toilet running!

We have been living with a spontaneously running toilet in the downstairs bathroom for like the longest time. And it gets worse. The toilet upstairs would not stop running after you flush, so we’d have to wait around till the tank filled and reach in to shut the water off every time. Since forever! We put up with it for a few reasons… Plumbing and toilet parts are intimidating, and plumbers are sooo expensive. I even tried to fix it, but got scared at the last minute. Heh. With the water and the tank and the pipes and junk? It was too much. I can re-grout the shower, wash my own windows, things like that but no plumbing talent whatsoever. Richard is just as bad. So we lived with it. But today was the day we had had enough. A professional was called. It was, as expected, a bazillion dollars. (Sometimes I miss the apartment living with the in house maintenance guy…) And we found out that we have the super cheap-o toilets brand toilets.

Nice. With all the upgraded fixtures and materials the previous owners had put in, they sported the sub-par thrones at 89.99 a piece.

Oh, and today is the Super Tuesday as well as Mardi Gras? Crazy. I had no idea. Well I knew about the voting, but I voted absentee like a week ago, so I forgot..

tagged: richard house water windows running fix toilet super tuesday fat tuesday plumbing

daniel · evening · say it · ping it

OMG. Where have I been? Where have YOU been? I swear, this poor blog is NE. Glec. Ted. I don’t even know what that means. Srsly, tho. I wanted to check in. Our big post-holiday Holiday Party is tomorrow. I am kinda excited, but more stressed. Also, I am totally sick. I hope it’s a cold and/or flu. So far that’s what it looks like, but I am prone to the Bronchitis. I swear I catch it if it is mentioned around me! But I am not trying to jinx anything. I have what I have. *cough*

I do hope I am not gonna still be sick for the party tho. We have some amazing people on the guest list. It would suck to be off at a friends house on the sick couch, missing the whole event. Most of the heavy work preparing was today. Tomorrow all I have to do is rest. I intend to rest. A book, a movie, whatever. You won’t pry me from the couch till it’s time to put on my face. Heh. And possibly an attitude. In fact my whole persona might just likely be totally fake. But I’ll look good. And I will be on cold meds. But I will be there. At my party. Propped up in a corner. Oblivious.

Or at my friend’s house, the one I cannot name. Propped up on his couch. With his dog. Trying to get well, but knowing it is best my germs stay with me… While everyone is at my house partying. Sad.

tagged: work blog holiday party sick time omg list house you

daniel · the wee hours · 4 comments · ping it

One Christmas a long time ago Santa Claus had problems. Four of his elves were sick so Santa got behind schedule. Then Mrs Claus told Santa that her Mum was coming to visit; this stressed Santa even more. He went to see his reindeer and found that three of them were about to give birth. More stress. Then when he began to load the sleigh he dropped the toy bag and scattered the toys.

Santa went into the house for a shot of whisky but the elves had drunk him dry. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa cussed on his way to the door. There was a little angel with a big Christmas tree. “Merry Christmas Santa”, said the angel, “Isn’t it a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?”

Thus began the tradition of the angel on top of the Christmas tree.

via Popbitch.

tagged: christmas stress sick house drunk santa tradition angel tree top

daniel · early afternoon · say it · ping it

I slept until one in the afternoon today. I felt kinda bad about it. Well, at least till I remembered that I was at work until one in the morning, and thus up until 3:30. Still a lot more sleep time than I actually need, but December does tend to catch up with ya. Heh. I can’t believe we are two days away from the halfway mark. Time goes crazy fast! Amazing.

I am pretty caught up this year too. work is going 10 times smoother than last year. I feel like we are on top of it.  Sure I am doing 6 days, but the hours are not too crazy. In fact, this is my only ‘closing’ weekend. I am almost through it! I feel a bit more balanced and caught up at home too. My holiday cards are sent. We are going to have a post-holiday party, and the planning is done for that. The invites are out. As soon as we get some RSVP’s we can move on food and stuff. The house is clean. We really just need to maintain and we will be guest-ready. Heck, I even got my 20,000 mile tune-up done! So the car drama the other day was not so bad… Right? All I have left to squeeze into the month is a DMV visit (appointment Tuesday) and a haircut. No problem!

So yeah. Today I am calm. Maybe by next week I’ll be a frazzled mess like usual. But so far so good as of today.

tagged: work holiday party time house hours mess cards december haircut   deceptively calm

daniel · mid-afternoon · 1 comment · ping it

I put my handful of crazy fall decor photos in the gallery. I figured the ‘random’ category worked well. heh. Take a peek if you are curious.

tagged: gay pictures house fall decor

daniel · lunch time · say it · ping it