October 2012

Anniversary Weekend, Part 2.

So today was the actual anniversary of our wedding. Earl and I celebrated throughout the day after a good night’s sleep here at the Lodge at Turning Stone Casino and Resort.

My first order of business was an 80 minute Arnica Muscle Repair massage at Ska:ná, the spa here at The Lodge. My spa experiences have been limited to the Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa at Disneyworld and today’s experience made the House of the Mouse look rather mediocre. My appointment was for 1:30 p.m., but I was urged to get there early so that I could do the traditional Balancing Waters Ritual. This involved a visit to the steam room, a cool shower, a visit to the sauna, another cool shower, a ride through the whirlpool and then a dip in the mineral springs pool. The mineral springs pool was the only co-ed part of that experience and the only place where a bathing suit was mandatory. For the first time in my very brief spa history, I did the rest in all sorts of nakedness. It was kind of cool.

Katherine was my very capable massage therapist today and she worked magic working the knots out of my muscles in various areas of my body. The Arnica Muscle Repair massage is designed to energize the senses, promote circulation and relieve muscle soreness. It did all that. The lingering pain in my left hip from my cycling fall last week was gone by the end of the 80 minute session. I felt absolutely amazing and the most centered I have felt in a long while. I enjoyed a few more of the spas amenities before heading back to the room, where Earl had ordered a light salad from room service for my lunch.

We then walked around the grounds a bit and relaxed before getting all dressed up and heading to Wildflowers, the five diamond restaurant here at The Lodge.

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At Wildflowers we were taken care of by a very capable staff that included Michael, Alex and Timmy. Everyone wished us a happy anniversary. There were even personalized menus waiting for us on when we arrived at the table!

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The dinner was magnificent. It was kind of cool eating in a restaurant where everyone there was dressed for the occasion. We don’t do that often enough. I told Earl that I was lucky to be a guy that’s comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt or in a suit. He agreed.

Near the end of our meal, Room Service was working behind the scenes to leave a smaller version of our wedding cake in the room so that it was waiting for us.

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It was delicious but we decided we liked the original wedding cake better. We then did some gambling in the casino where I promptly lost some of the money allotted for that sort of thing before I announced I was headed back to the room. Earl gave me the cute bear eyes, asking if I minded if he played some blackjack. Of course I don’t mind at all, so that’s where he is right now. The longer he’s gone, the better chance that daddy is going to get a new pair of shoes. w00t!

13 October 2012 by Fun and Games Dept 4

Anniversary Weekend, Part 1.

Cub has joked that Earl and I tend to celebrate a variety of anniversaries. There’s the anniversary of our first date, the anniversary of when I told Earl I loved him for the first time, the anniversary of when we moved in together and the anniversary of our commitment ceremony at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. This weekend we are celebrating a new anniversary, and that’s the anniversary of our legal marriage. One year ago tomorrow Earl and I exchanged our vows in front of family and friends at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in the lovely hamlet of Verona, New York.

We have returned to the scene of this commitment to spend some time together this weekend.

We are staying at The Lodge. I am told that this is a five-start resort. The folks here are quite friendly and quite good at the whole hospitality thing. The music is playing as I type; the music being part of the turn-down service. Our slippers and bathrobe await. I’m ready to get comfortable.

Earl and I have reservations for our official anniversary dinner tomorrow night; tonight we opted to eat at the steakhouse on the property. The dinner was quite good, though probably too many calories. The conversation with my husband was effortless as it should be and we proudly told our server that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary. She brought us desserts with a candle. I thought that was nice.

Gambling at the casino is not high on the priority list for the weekend, but we are doing a little gambling and I’m currently up about $50 from where I started. I can’t complain about that. Earl has done better and he decided to stay a few moments longer while I type this blog entry. He asked why I cashed out early; I told him that I was adding to the computer fund because I’d like to get a new laptop one of these days. He just smiled knowingly.

I was chatting with my friend Sandy at work today and she couldn’t believe that Earl and I had been together for 16 years. That’s a long time in this day and age! I told her that it feels like forever but it also feels like only yesterday when I first went crazy over this gorgeous redheaded bear. I fell head over heels for him in 1996 and I’ve done it every morning since that life changing day.

My life has never been better. And this is the weekend to celebrate the reason for that.

I think the wine from dinner is making me a little sappy.

12 October 2012 by Gayish. 3

REPOST: Pride In Yourself.

This blog entry is a repost from this day in 2005.

Today is National Coming Out Day, the day in which closeted gay men and lesbians are urged to come out of the closet and announce to the world, “yes, I am gay.” The tradition is led by the Human Rights Campaign, which has designated this day to show others that there is a huge support mechanism for LGBT folks.

National Coming Out Day started in 1988, three years or so after I came out to myself and started peeking out around the closet doors. Who am I kidding. I had always known of my attraction to the same sex. It was late in 1985 that I actively began admitting it to myself. I’m not going to go into my whole coming out story this year. If you’re interested in the sordid details, feel free to read last year’s Coming Out Day entry.

I just know that someone, somewhere is doing a Google search on being gay today. Perhaps he lives in a country where he could be shot for his homosexuality. Perhaps she is being forced to marry a man because that’s how she was brought up, when she’d reallly like to marry her female teacher or pal from high school. You’re afraid. You’re afraid that you’ll be shunned by your friends, disowned by your family and burned at the stake at the next neighborhood barbecue. And I’m sorry you feel that way. The world is a scary place and there’s a lot of ignorance in the world. But know that you’re not alone. Know that while there is a lot of hate and negativity out there, also know that there is even more positive energy, love and acceptance, often in places that you wouldn’t expect to find it. We know that you didn’t *choose* to be gay, regardless of what others may say about that fact, and we know that you don’t have to live a certain lifestyle simply because you’re attracted to the same sex. Do what your heart tells you to do. Do what feels right to you. If you’re not ready to live your life “out loud” and admit to everyone and anyone that you are gay (I can just picture Billy Bob stopping Thelma the hairdresser on some rural street and saying “I like those queer boys!”) then just do one thing today, actually go ahead and do two things. Look at yourself in the mirror and be honest with yourself. Look at yourself long and hard, reach for your true inner feelings, without any masks, without any fear, without any worries of reprisal. Then say it out loud. “Yes, I am gay.” Then follow it up with “And that’s o.k.”. It’s a baby step. But you’ll feel better for being honest with yourself. Allow yourself that dignity today.

11 October 2012 by Gayish. 0

Food.

It was recently announced that we have an Olive Garden and a Moe’s being built not too far from home. I’m excited about the Moe’s; I have been to one only once or twice but I remember being able to eat relatively healthy and the food being good. It’s not Chipotle, but it’s a good substitute.

I’m kind of surprised that Olive Garden is coming to the area. With the very large Italian population in the area, Olive Garden always felt that it would not be worth their while to compete with the locally owned Italian restaurants. They must have changed their minds when they saw the hotels going up in the area and figured that folks would want familiar.

I like Olive Garden once in a while. Many shriek that it’s basically “boil in a bag” food but I’ve had some boil in a bag food in my day and I found it quite good. I’m always chided for the fact that I will eat just about anything that is put in front of me; perhaps this skill works to my advantage at Olive Garden. I do like their wine, though. Now that I think about it, I seem to best recall the beginning halves of an Olive Garden experience.

11 October 2012 by Fun and Games Dept 4

Cookie.

It has been six weeks since the last time I had an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie from Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s been four weeks since I’ve stepped into the Dunkin’ Donuts near work. I wish I could say that I don’t miss the occasional cookie one single bit, but that would be a lie. I do miss the cookie. I just don’t miss the calories (FYI a hamburger from McDs has less calories) associated with eating the cookie. Even though I ride my bike a LOT these days, I still feel like I’m not doing enough exercise. I envy these folks that can afford to spend three, four, five hours in a gym on a daily basis, grunting and making noises as they fling hundreds of pounds of weights around like it’s nobody’s business.

Skipping the cookie and eating healthy in general has been good for me. My body has some sort of threshold at around 194 pounds. Above 194 and my blood pressure gets weird and I occasionally get little rumbles in the chest area that are not scary but just noticeable enough to encourage my head to say “you’re getting at the upper end of the spectrum, bippy.” Below 194 and the blood pressure settles down to a reasonable level, the rumbles are gone and I have more energy. So skipping the cookie has been a good thing.

But I still miss the taste of a cookie.

Some have suggested making similar cookies at home with Splenda. Not a fan of Splenda. At all. Anything related to the chemical wizardry of Sucralose gives me a headache. I’m suspicious of stuff that tries to circumvent the laws of nature by claiming you’re eating no calories. The only thing worse than Sucralose for me is that Olestra stuff; feel free to ask me to point out the tree along the Thruway that was a makeshift porta-john after eating chips with the cleverly marketed “O-lean” the next time you see me in Albany.

I don’t want fake cookies. I want a real cookie. I’m going to need to schedule a couple extra hours of workout time to take care of this craving.

10 October 2012 by Fitness. 4

Plus.

So last week I declared on Twitter that I was giving up on Google+ as one of my social network outlets. I had had enough with trying to make a go of the service and I was going to swear it off completely. It was a declaration worthy of golden gilt.

I lied.

Over the weekend I decided to give Google+ another try. This attempt goes hand in hand with the app.net (or ADN) service, a $36/year service that is aiming to compete with Twitter.

I have to admit that Twitter hasn’t really been blowing my skirt up as much lately. I use it to share random thoughts and to keep up on what other folks are thinking in the world but I don’t really see it as an outlet for one-on-one communication. Google+ lends itself to that a little more than Twitter. Of course, Facebook tries to do it all, and I enjoy reaching out on Facebook, but sometimes I can see only so many of those cleverly* worded e-Cards before I want to throw a lamp or something. Idiocy tends to make me hostile.

So I’ve been trying Google+ again (I think this is the sixth time or so) where I embrace my geekiness and talk about techy stuff. I occasionally talk about other things as well, I’m not all about bits and bytes but since that sort of thing makes up much of a day, it tends to be my focus. Plus, there are a few tech guys that use ONLY Google+ and they share everything they find on there: news bits, tech news, personal adventures, travel photos and the like. I think that’s kind of cool. I kind of get offended when people use these sites as an outlet for hookups; I think the mainstream social networks should be kept to a PG-13 rating at most and honestly, I’m not looking for that sort of thing so don’t even waste my time. A shirtless pic can be enjoyable but don’t show a photo of your dismount off the pile of guys. It’s just my thing. I’m an old fashioned gay, I guess.

9 October 2012 by Geek 0

Rest.

I didn’t work out this morning. The rational side of me knows that every body, no matter how fit or how bionic, needs a break from working out once in a while, but the irrational side of me feels guilty for not working out this morning. So apparently my way to combat this is to drink extra gallons of water so as to flush the guilt away. I’m trotting back and forth to the rest room like crazy today but I don’t see any guilt in the urinal. I bet that’s not a sentence you read very often in a blog.

My hip is pretty sore after that fall I took on my bike on Saturday. I just realized that I didn’t write about that here, I posted about it on Facebook. That’s not a habit I would like to get in; falling nor posting things only to Facebook. The fall was because I maneuvered a railroad track crossing in a bad way and got my tire caught in one of the slots for the rails. My cyclist instincts kicked in though and I was able to twist my feet out of my pedals and kick the bike out of the way on my way down. I landed hard on my left hip though. Three drivers stopped to make sure I was ok and that was very much appreciated. I continued on with the ride afterwards and rode again yesterday, so all is well but I’m still pretty sore today.

I think taking a rest on a Monday might not be the best way to go, because I need something to kick start the whole Monday experience and the past several Mondays have been acceptable after a workout.

Maybe I just need a nap.

8 October 2012 by Fitness. 2

Saturday Night Dance Party.

Here’s a great track that will always amp up your Saturday evening. From 1988, here’s Inner City with “Good Life”.

6 October 2012 by DJ 0

Goals.

So in mid-August I set some health-related goals for myself. Today I conquered the second goal and because of this, I am feeling quite good today.

The first goal was to stick to a plan while not going off on some weird diet tangent that promised to reduce me to the size of Twiggy in a month but then would blow me up to twice the size if I inhaled anywhere near a Pop-Tart.  I believe eating normal, regular food but at reasonably sized portions (I call it “Leave It To Beaver” portions) is the way to go. With the help of MyFitnessPal (as recommended by our friend Jeff), I can say that I have gone for over 25 days of sticking to my plan. Goal ? So far so good.

The second goal was to get my weight to Army standards. Now I know I’m not in the Army nor have I ever been in the Army (back then they would have asked, I would have told…) but I figured that the goal of being within Army regulations was a good milestone along this path I had plotted for myself.  So this morning I felt quite good to see that the scale gave me the number that put me within regulations. I even jumped on the scale three times to make sure that the number was consistent.

I don’t like throwing out numbers, but I’m going to:

29 Aug 12: 209.0 lbs
05 Oct 12: 191.8 lbs

Watching what I eat because I record everything I eat has been a really good first step. Earl and I have been walking after supper at least three times a week for the past several weeks. We recently moved our walk from the nearby high school track to the mall, where there’s more to see, it’s warmer and we can be like old people racing around the perimeter of the mall.

I have also pledged to continue cycling until the snow plows chase me off the road. When that happens I’ll move the road bike into the basement (for days when we can’t see beyond the front porch) and start taking the trail bike out on days when we’re not having a blizzard. If the snow becomes an issue this winter, I’m going to take up snowshoeing. I hear that’s a great cardio workout.

My next goal is known to only Earl and me and I’ll probably peacock (using peacock as a verb sounds a little dirty) when I reach that goal, but for now I’m feeling good and I’m feeling more _balanced_ than I have in a while.

5 October 2012 by Fitness. 4

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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