2nd Annual Cookie Night

Tonight Thomas and I had Diane, John and Chris over for dinner and Cookie Night. Cookie Night started with Chris wanting to make cookies last Christmas - just for the fun of it. Well it turned out to be a lot of fun. Very messy, but a lot of fun. A sugar high, but a lot of fun. Some strange cookies, but a lot of fun. So Chris and Diane talked and decided they wanted to do it again this year. So tonight was the night. Thomas cooked us a great dinner. He made chicken breast stuffed with broccoli and cheese, spinach and strawberry salad, roasted green beans and bread. For dessert (I know we were making cookies but we decided we wanted something else for dessert) he made a cheesecake with raspberry topping. It was a fantastic dinner.

Once everyone was done eating we began work on the cookies. Diane brought the cookie dough mixed and ready for rolling out and cutting. Chris brought all the ingredients for the icing as well as a large assortment of cookie cutters and things to decorate the cookies with (such as colored sprinkles, little snowflake candies, red hots, colored sugar, etc.). They also brought extra cookie sheets and other things to help with the cookie making process. As Chris put it - "I brought my whole kitchen". So while Chris mixed up the icing, John and Diane started rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies. After cutting as many cookies as we could from the rolled out dough we put them on cookie sheets and then picked up the extra dough, re-formed it into a ball and put it back into the refrigerator to chill. We took some other dough that had already been chilled and rolled it out and cut more cookies. This continued with John, Diane and I rotating through the process. At the same time Chris, Diane and John took turns watching the cookies in the oven. We continued with this until all the cookie dough had been rolled out and cut or it was eaten ( I won't mention names but you know who you are) and all the cookies had been cooked. At this point most of the kitchen was covered in cookie dough or flour and the table was covered in boring cookies and cups of different colored icing and other things to decorate the cookies with.

Now it was time to decorate the cookies. Diane, John, Chris and I sat at the table and started decorating. We passed icing back and forth, tried to do our artistic best to create stunning Christmas Cookies and in the end actually made some neat cookies and a big mess. There were snowflakes, angels, christmas trees, reindeer, stars, and other shapes we couldn't identify. It was loads of fun. And in case you haven't noticed but I haven't mentioned Thomas' name in the cookie making process. He managed to not get involved with any of the cookie stuff but he did clean up our big mess - thankfully. By the time we finished there was icing all over the table and sprinkles everywhere but who cares when you are having fun.

When we were planning the night Diane wanted to know how many cookies we made last year and how much dough to bring. I couldn't remember how many we made (I estimated about 4 dozen) or how many the recipe yielded so Diane decided to just double the recipe and we thought that would be fine. After we talked I went back and looked at pictures from last year (go to 1st Annual Cookie Night to see pictures from last year) and it looked like we made quite a few more that 4 dozen. I didn't get an exact count tonight but I am estimating that we made between 80 and 100 cookies. Thankfully we can give most of them away - can you imagine us having to eat all of them - not a pretty picture. But here some pretty pictures of tonight's fun.

We Would Like You To Meet Daisy

Well, as of tonight we have a new dog. Thomas talked to someone at work about a week ago and they mentioned they had some puppies that were 11 weeks old. The puppies are a cross between a Blue Heeler (the mom) and a Red Heeler (the dad). We drove out to Romeroville this afternoon and met the guy and all the puppies. The one we chose was very friendly and playful. It also seems to have more characteristics of the blue heeler - mainly the coloration. She was just adorable and kept nipping at my pants. After playing with all the puppies for a little while we decided that we liked her personality the best and just like that we had a new dog.

So we headed home with our new puppy. She did well in the car - she sat in my lap for part of the trip and then on the floor for the rest. She did wimper and whine a little - I guess she was missing her mom and siblings. So we got her home and let her play in the yard. I got her some water and just watched her explore her new home. Thomas went to get some dog food and a dog house. He has been wanting an outside dog for a while now and this one will work out well. So we set her up with food, water and blankets in a kennel. She did some more whining for about 30 minutes but she seems to have settled in just fine. Now she is sleeping in her new bed and seems content.

Oh, and the entire way home I kept telling Thomas he had to pick a name and he didn't know what he wanted to call her. Then while he was out getting food I came up with the name Daisy - it seems to fit her nicely. I hope she likes it.

SkyWatch Friday #22

This was taken a few weeks ago. I woke up to the morning sun shining in my bedroom window. I hurriedly dressed and caught this lovely radiating sun.

To see more sky photos visit SkyWatch Friday.

Hate Will NOT Win!

I came across this the other day while surfing the net. It really touched me and got me to thinking. It seems as though our country wants to move forward but then we turn around take two steps backwards. The reality of Proposition 8 in California and all the constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage in quite a few states scream that we are not moving forwards but indeed backwards. I am not sure what it all means and where it will take us - and I don't consider myself an activist, but being in a 19 year relationship has to mean something. And not just to Thomas and I but to even the Christians. They can't deny that two people in a loving relationship that has lasted as long as ours is just as worthy of marriage as any heterosexual couple - especially when you look at the divorce rate. It doesn't seem right that after 19 years I have to call Thomas my boyfriend, partner or significant other - our relationship demands more respect - he is my husband. Wording is the problem here - the Christians take the word marriage in a religious connotation - and that is fine. But since I pay taxes and participate as a citizen I should have the same governmental rights as everyone else - and that means the right to marry - but not in the religious sense, in the civil rights sense. Instead of using the word marriage in the government sense maybe we should use civil unions for anyone forming a union with the government - gays and straights - and leave the word marriage for the religious ceremonies. Anyway, I will get off my soap box.

Hate Will NOT Win!
I am not AFRAID . . .

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.
I am the prostitute working the streets because no one will hire a transsexual woman.
I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful tear-filled nights.
We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.
I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.
I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.
I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.
I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.
We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.
I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.
I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.
I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.
I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.
I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.
I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better persone if I didn't have to always deal with society hating me.
I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight me wanted to "teach me a lesson".
I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.
I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the guy who came out to the entire school in his senior speech and got a standing ovation for his courage.
I am the girl who kisses her girlfriend on the sidewalk and laughs at those who glare.
We are the couple who planned and studied and got a damn good lawyer and BEAT the state that wanted to take our child away.
We are the ones who took martial arts classes and carry pepper spray and are just too dangerous to gay bash.
I am the transgendered person who use the bathroom that suits me, and demands that any complaining staff explain their complaint to my face in front of the entire restaurant - and shares with my other transgendered friends which restaurants /don't/ raise a stink.
I am the mother who told her lesbian daughter to invite her girlfriend over for dinner.
I am the father who punished his son for calling you a fag.
I am the preacher who told my congregation that love, not hate, is the definition of a true follower of God.
I am making a difference. Hate will NOT win!
Anonymous

From queermarriage.com
Giggles and Musings
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Posted by writer girl

It's Christmas Time

Well I finally got the house all decorated for Christmas and all the boxes back into storage. I gave the house a good cleaning and then decided I wanted to take some pictures. I have a lot of decorations and I didn't even put everything out. I also have a lot of ornaments - I collect Radko and Hallmark Ornaments. This year I decided to only take out what I needed to decorate the trees and leave the extras in storage. Just because I have all of these decorations doesn't mean I have to use all of them each year. I decided I could change things a little each year and it would be something new without buying new stuff. Anyway, I digress, here are some pictures of some of the decorations.

Detached Retina (Update #8)

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay,
My, oh, my, what a wonderful day.

I had a follow-up with Dr. Wyant today and what a great follow-up it was.

My eye still is a little sore and itches every now and then but it is definitely getting better. Also, light really bothers me - I was putting Atropine drops in my eye four times a day to keep it dilated - so anytime the light or sun was too bright I would get a lot of discomfort. Hopefully that will end soon because I no longer have to use those drops. The only drops I need now are the Pred Forte (three times a day for inflammation) - WooHoo!

Dr. Wyant was happy to see that the retina is still attached and looks good. The lens is in place and healing well. And the overall look of the eye is better. On my own I don't see much difference in my vision but the doctor tested it and there was improvement since my last visit two weeks ago. He is letting me slowly go back to normal activity over the next week and by December 18th I am released back to work and all restrictions are lifted.

He does want to see me in three weeks (December 29th) for another check up - and I hope that will be the last - but we will have to see. Anyway, it is all good news and I couldn't be happier.

Detached Retina (Update #9)

Blast From The Past

This weekend I decorated the house for Christmas. I had to do the decorating over several days because my eye would start bothering me if I did too much in one long stretch. But anyways, I finished today and all the ornaments I have bring up a lot of old memories. Thomas and I tend to buy pairs of ornaments when we travel or for special occasions - so when I take these out to hang on the tree it always takes us back through our relationship (it will be 19 years on December 30). So we had a good talk and laughed a lot remembering all of the good times. We both feel really lucky to have found each other and to have made it work for this long. It just makes you wonder why there are still a lot of people who don't want gays to marry - to me love is love - and this relationship has out lasted quite a few heterosexual marriages (the divorce rate in the US is close to 50%). Okay, I am getting off my soap box - I was talking about memories. So not only is the house decorated for Christmas, it is also filled with 19 years of great memories for Thomas and I.

1990 -and fast forward to - 2008

All the memory stuff brought up other things as well. For Christmas 1993 I made a video (very amateurish) for a group of friends from college (Arista, Paul, Tammy, Regina, Ceci and myself). The video included individual pictures of all of us with our names and birthdates, it also had video clips of us together at different times during the college years and visits after college. But the main part of the video was a silly video clip that Paul introduced to us - every time we watched it we laughed until we were crying. So I took out the video and enjoyed another little walk down memory lane. So I thought I would post the video clip here and hopefully bring some laughter to a few people. I hope you enjoy!

Sorority Girls From Hell

Some of my favorite lines from the video are . . .

She was really smart, she could see around corners and stuff.

She wore her nylons backwards, which is real tough to do.

It's pouring rain, but the rain is stopping right here, because it is scared of her too.

Her glasses are cracked on one side, so you know she is going to go nuts real soon.

Because that's how you walk when you are going to kill somebody.