Sunny days

Hello all!

"The sun is shining, it's a lovely day...."  and here I am - at work. 

I'm not complaining though....I managed to get outside and take a lovely little walk around the neighborhood at lunch time.  It is SO nice out, I was thrilled to get outside. 

The weekend was a blast - and in spite of the crappy weather (rain!!) we managed to enjoy ourselves.

Here are a couple of pictures from the Pride Parade (thanks to Barrie - naturally)

I LOVE this picture....

Another great picture.

Even though {b} looks sad, he really had a blast.  :-)

Awwww!!!  Me likey.

So, we had a good time at the parade, until the rains came.  It was sprinkling and hardly noticeable at first, but then it started POURING.  Not cool.

K, B, and {b} decided to take off, Jim and I 'braved the storm', waited in line, and finally got into Fritz.

We stayed inside for a while, then once it stopped raining we went outside and hung out at the block party.  After a few (several) drinks, we were chatting with a very nice couple for a while until they realized we weren't going to sleep with them.  Suddenly they lost interest in chatting any further.  How nice.

Anyway, Jim and I eventually left the block party, went to dinner, and then headed over to a teammate's house for a BBQ.  We had just eaten dinner, so we didn't eat.  We stayed there for a while, which was quite fun, and eventually headed home. 

Sunday morning we slept in, did some work around the house & yard, and then I went into Boston for a reading of a new musical.  The show wasn't all that great, but I LOVED the performers.  SUCH a great and talented group of people. 

Immediately following the reading, I FLEW to our friend Julie's house for a Tony Award viewing party.  I'm not going to go into great detail about my opinions on the Tony broadcast or the winners that evening,  I will however say that it was great watching it with so many fun people, it was a blast celebrating K's birthday, and as always, I was THRILLED to have the opportunity to see  little bit of Broadway on TV each year. 

And yes, I was totally giddy seeing my peeps on TV....SO cool.

For those of you who missed it on FB - I'm now clean shaven. 

I hope that doesn't cause me to lose any readers. 

Have no fear - I have a feeling that the beard will be back in the fall...

                                             

The 'new' me.

Here are the fancy-pants theatre folks who were in the reading on Sunday:

Zachary Prince (National Tour of 'Jersey Boys')

Clarke Thorell (Orig. Corny Collins in 'Hairspray' on B-way)

Spencer Moses (most recent 'Guys and Dolls' B-way revival)

Heidi Blickenstaff (Heidi in [title of show], Ursula in 'The Little Mermaid')

Jennifer Simard (Original cast of 'I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change' - Shrek; The Musical)

Erica Spyres (local Boston gal - Clara in SpeakEasy's 'The Light in the Piazza', 'Pirates' at the Huntington Theatre)

A Weekend of Pride and the Tony Awards

Well, it’s Friday afternoon and I’ve pretty much checked out for the weekend already.

I’ve had a busy day so far consisting of meetings and helping others get through their testing, so I’m TOTALLY fine with taking it easy for the rest of the day.

Jim and I are going to a Lion’s Club event tonight.

That’s not ‘gay code’ for something fun and racy; it’s really just an event for the local philanthropic organization.

Our brother-in-law is receiving an award, so we’re all going. I’m sure it’ll be fun.
I’m looking forward to a laid-back, night on the town where we’ll have decent food and REALLY cheap drinks.
Love that.

Tomorrow we’re meeting up with K, B, & {b} to watch the Pride Parade and then I’m not sure what the plan is. We may all head over to Boston Common and check that out (all the vendors, entertainers, organizations, etc..etc..) or thy may do that and I’ll visit some friends at the Block Party….it’s all very up in the air and there’s no pressure to do anything. We’ll just see how we feel.

Jim and I have been invited to a Post-Block-Party Rooftop BBQ later on Saturday night, which should be fun, assuming the weather cooperates.
If not, I’m sure it’ll be just as fun inside, sans rooftop.

Sunday is fairly open, but I’m attending a reading of a new musical in the evening, followed by a TONY Awards party at a friend’s house. Normally, I usually watch the TONY Awards at home, so that I can concentrate on every single detail, without interruption. Thanks to our DVR, that is no longer a concern.

I can now record the entire broadcast and go back to re-watch anything I may have missed due to some ‘party chatter’.
I’m VERY excited (as always) to see this year’s show, but especially excited because my friend Brad is going to be performing!!! He’s in the ensemble of ‘Memphis’ which is up for several awards, so they’ll be doing a number from the show.
I know he’s beyond thrilled to be performing, and I can’t wait to see it! ‘Memphis’ also happens to be the only Best Musical nominee that I’ve seen. Boo!
I also know a couple of folks in ‘American Idiot’ – who are also performing on the broadcast – so I have a lot of watching to do!!!!

Even though it’s been a fairly ‘thin’ year for Broadway – I’m very excited to watch the show, and I know I’ll love it.
As much as I love the Broadway….I never get there often enough to see everything I want to, especially before awards time, so the Tony broadcast allows me to at least get a glimpse in the Broadway season. :-)

OK my friends….I have Monday off so don’t hold your breath for a post.
I’ll be back in the full swing of things on Tuesday morning, bright and early!!!

Have a great weekend…….xoxo

Brad in 'Memphis'

 

 

Mary in 'American Idiot'

Miguel in 'American Idiot'

(clearly, hard at work)

Just Stuff

I'm on a conference call right now and CLEARLY not paying attention.  Granted, I'm not directly involved in what's being discussed so it's really OK.  It's a daily call I have (each morning at 8:30) with our off-shore testers in India and the other full-time folks in Princeton, NJ.
Yup...it's a nice mix.  :-)

Anyway....the weather here is pretty darn miserable.  It's chilly (high 50's??) and rainy - which is not my favorite weather.  If I were sitting on the couch watching TV or reading, I could certainly deal with it.
But since I have to go to work each day, I'm going to complain about it.

This week PRIDE week in Boston, and the Gay Pride Parade is on Saturday afternoon.  Originally, the weather was supposed to be nice on Saturday, but according to this morning's forecast that may have changed.  I'm hoping that they're wrong.  I LOVE going to the parade each year and was really looking forward to attending, but if it's raining out - I will NOT be sitting in the rain. 
After the parade is the block party, which I usually also love attending, but again - if it rains - I will not be going.  We'll see what happens.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate, all will go as planned, and we'll all enjoy a WONDERFUL Pride weekend.  We shall see.

I hope you all have a great day...happy PRIDE week!!!

P.S. I sent out an 'instructional' email a little while ago to my group and told them how "To ass a new user...." as opposed to "To add a new user..."

Nice.

Adoption Update #324

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything adoption related, so I figured I’d give y’all a quick update.

Unfortunately, there’s not much to say.
Boo!!!

When we were away this weekend, we were constantly telling our ‘story’ to all the guys who were interested. Thanks to Facebook and other means of ‘electronic communication’, most of the guys I’m closest to are at least aware of the fact that Jim and I are in the process of adopting. None of them knew the specifics of the process or what it all really means, so as a result, they were all asking a ton of questions. Unfortunately, due to the ‘nature’ of the weekend (people bouncing around from group to group), we’d be in the middle of a conversation with one person, someone new would join that conversation, and they’d start asking questions which would already have been answered. We got to the point where we kind of felt like we were talking non-stop, yet saying the same thing over and over again. At one point, Jim and I were both talking to different groups of people, but I could hear that we were saying pretty much the exact same thing at the same time. It was very funny.
What we should have done was gather everyone together, and sit them down as a group for a question and answer period.  :-)

Don’t get me wrong, we're SO grateful for the fact that we have so many people who care about what we’re doing and they’re all incredibly supportive, but like anything, telling the same story over and over again gets exhausting….especially since it’s a constant reminder of the fact that we’re STILL waiting.

(I suppose I should get used to it though….my high school reunion is next month, so I’m sure I’ll be experiencing more of the same ‘catch-up’ talk!!!!)

So…….we’re still waiting….and waiting, with nothing new to report.

We found out at the end of April that our case worker was taking a leave of absence (we assume it was for personal reasons, as it was quite sudden) and because of that, someone else would be taking over our case. While we were initially disappointed with that news, we were quite relieved when we found out that her boss was taking over our case. Her boss knows us quite well (she was the co-teacher for our ‘training’ classes) so we were glad we didn’t have to start all over again with someone who didn’t know us at all.
Once she took over, she told us that she wanted to make some changes to the homestudy write-up and then it would be sent off for ‘final’ approval. Well, that was news to us – we thought it was already on its way to being approved. Oh well. We talked to her about the changes she wanted to make (it was nothing too drastic), we approved the changes, and the last we heard (about a week and a half ago) it was on the desk of the person who gives it the FINAL stamp of approval. We’re expecting to receive notification any day now that it’s been approved once and for all.
When that’s done, we just sit back and wait…..what else is new??

Jim was chatting with one of our neighbors on Monday afternoon who went through the same process we’re going through and she was telling him that this is BY FAR the worst part. Their family was matched with a child (newborn) just over two years ago and they just got word that the final adoption hearing/trial is set for August. Even though that was a tough time (waiting for the adoption to be finalized) she said that waiting to be ‘matched’ was a lot more difficult to get through.

Yes, it’s BEYOND irritating, but we know it’s going to happen eventually.

Until then, we remain grateful for all the encouragement and support we’re getting from our friends and family…..but unfortunately, that doesn’t make the waiting any easier.

The time has come...

I'm heading back to the gym.

It's really been a long time coming, but I no longer have any excuses.  Not only do I have my high school reunion rapidly approaching next month, but I'm pretty much done with feeling like a fatty.  :-)

I'll be sure and keep you posted. Assuming I can still type.

I'm back to work and trying to get caught up.  The weekend was as much fun as I thought it would be.  We had a great time and it was SO much fun catching up with old friends and meeting the new members of the group.  I can't write much because I've got SOOOOO much to do, but I'll post a few pictures from the weekend. 

They were taken on my iPhone so they're a tad blurry.  Yup, that's the reason.....the fact that I'd had a 'few' drinks before taking them had nothing to do with it.....xoxo

JP (old guy) and Justin (new guy)

Tim, Jamie, and Dan

Brian, Jason, and Shawn

Scooter.....ready for the pool

Things that go bump in the night...

Well, it's been a while since we've had any sort of 'ghost story' to share - so it's about time something happened.  :-)

Yes, that's right.  Apparently......"They're Baaaaaaaaaack!!!!"

The other night (Tuesday) I was down in the bathroom, brushing my teeth before bed, and I heard Jim calling my name from the top of the stairs.  It was his very serious, calm, 'something weird just happened' tone of voice.  As soon as I heard it, I knew something was up.  I answered back "I'll be right up.", finished getting ready for bed and then headed up stairs.
When I got up there, Jim was coming out of the 'soon-to-be nursery' and closing the closet door in that room.  The door to our bedroom was open, as was the closet door at the top of the hall, and Scooter was standing (very alert) on the bed. 

Apparently, Jim was in bed (our bedroom door was shut because the a/c was on) but still awake, with the lights on, 'chatting' with Scooter, and suddenly there was a bang on the door to our bedroom.  At the same time, the door opened up, scaring the hell out of both Jim and Scooter.  (According to Jim, Scooter did one of those straight up in the air 'terrified, cat jumps' that we love to watch on America's Funniest Home Videos).  Naturally, Jim thought it was me playing a trick on them, but at that point I was still downstairs in the bathroom....not upstairs opening the bedroom door.  Jim got up, walked into the hall and saw that both the closet door in the 's-t-b nursery' and the closet door at the top of the stairs were both open as well.  There were no windows open in the house (the windows in our house are so old that the only way they stay open is to prop them open with custom-cut dowels, so at night and when we're not home, the windows are all shut and locked) and all three doors have some sort of latch that keep them closed, yet all three were open and 'un-latched'.  The biggest mystery to me is the bedroom door, because the hardware that keeps the door shut is quite solid, and not likely to just open on its own.  Even if it wasn't latched all the way (which he said it was) it wouldn't cause the door to swing open as much as it did.  Believe me, I tried to 're-create' several scenarios of latched, vs. half-latched, vs. not latched, etc...etc... and I couldn't get it to happen again. 

Both of the closet doors have latches that keep them closed as well, and even if they weren't completely latched, they wouldn't have been opened up as wide as they were.
After a brief discussion and several attempts at re-creating the situation,  we chalked it up as just another visit from our friendly 'ghost'.  "Que sera, sera!!!"

This is going to be my last post for a few days since we're going away for the weekend.  :-)

I'm sure I'll have lots to talk about when I return, and maybe (if you're lucky) I'll have some fantastic pictures to share as well.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!!
xoxo

This is the type of latch we have on our bedroom door....which was completely closed and latched:

Short week....

Praise be to Jesus, I'm lucky enough to only have to endure a three-day work week this week!

Jim and I both have Friday and Monday off, and we're going away to NH for the weekend.  We're going away for 'GENTS Weekend' which is something we do every year.  I sang with the 'New Hampshire Gentlemen' (an all male a Capella group) back when I was at UNH and every year the group's alumni, their wives, husbands, families, etc. along with the current group all go away for the weekend to a 'resort' in NH.  It's SOOO much fun, I can't even wait.  Of course, I have a TON of work to do before then, but 'm not worrying about that right now.  :-)

This past weekend was GREAT.  Jim and I got SO much done around the house, and we managed to squeeze in a lot of fun as well.  We saw a lot of friends, had time to relax, but also managed to complete the ENTIRE 'to do' list as well.
The pool is now totally ready to swim in, the back yard and all the gardens are looking good, the entire pool area is all cleaned up, and I managed to put together a gas patio heater, and a new gas grill without blowing myself up.  Of course, I haven't tried to use the heater yet, but the grill is up and running just fine - so I'm totally confident that the heater operation will be just as successful.

I've GOT to grab some coffee and shake off this morning's commute which was ATROCIOUS, so I'm taking off. 

Have a great day!!!  :-)

The new patio heater

Scooter, relaxing, while I assemble the grill.....

The new grill

Jim, and a yummy dessert the he made....