Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't beleive that Christmas has come and gone. For some crazy reason it seems like the older I get the faster Christmas comes and goes. I remember as a kid it took FOREVER for Christmas to get here. Terry and I really had a wonderful holiday season here in Dallas. I definitely love decorating for Christmas (as you can tell by all the pictures.) It is the only time I decorate the house all year. This year we also were having 10 people over for dinner on Christmas day so I really went all out with decorations, and did 2 table centerpieces as well (of course I will need more storage boxes to put all this crap in once the holidays are over). It just looked so darn festive and brought back warm memories of Christmas as a child. I remember we always had such a brightly lit tree that seemed magical. I remember the blinking christmas lights in the window that dad would put up. I also remember the wonderful christmas music my dad had recorded on his reel to reel tapes that he would play. I remember my grandparents and all my aunts houses all decorated so beautifully. It just made me want to do the same to my own home, and make it warm and inviting for the holidays. I was so excited when it all was done and Christmas was here.


Christmas eve we went to our friends Todd and Bill's house and had pizza and then went driving around looking at Christmas lights (another tradition I loved as a child.) We exchanged gifts with them, and had so much fun. We are so lucky to have such fun wonderful friends like them here in Dallas, and we love them like family.


Christmas day we got up and exchanged gifts (we slept in of course, and I NEVER did that as a child). We both bought each other way too much stuff. Actually our main christmas present, a gas log fireplace, was installed 3 weeks earlier. I know your thinking who needs a fireplace in Texas? Well we have our few days of cold weather and it's been fun to be able to have a fire then. Of course we couldn't lay around too much. We cleaned the crap out of the house. Terry made homeade apple pie, and rolls for dinner. I finished the decorating touches and set the table with our new china (another christmas present, thanks JCPenney closeout sale!!) Around 5:00 pm all of our guests arrived. We all got drinks and sat around the family room and had shrimp cocktail, and duck pate. Then we all sat down had a christmas toast and ate ham, funeral potatoes, beans, and homeade rolls. It was so good and we had the best time getting to know the new friends in our home and catching up with old friends too. Then it was back to the family room for more drinks and homemade apple pie and vanilla ice cream. I just am so happy to have made some good friends here in Dallas. The only thing missing was snow and a white Christmas. It was so crazy but it was 70 degrees and sunny on Christmas, and the next day we hit 83. Terry and I just laughed as we sat on our porch in short sleeve shirts. We definitely are not in Utah anymore!!

Well anyhow there goes another year. I can't beleive how fast life seems to pass by sometimes. I'm ready for another year though, bring on New Years!!!!! And now for the endless pictures!!! Here is our pretty fake tree we decorated all up. We sure love it, and it looked great!

Here is one of 3 big poinsettia plants. This one is in the entryway!

Here is our new gas log fireplace, stockings, and fun bubble lights on the Mantle in the family room

I decorated the dining room sideboard with martini glasses and a crystal vase filled with ornaments and lit with white lights. It was so pretty at night!

Here is our festive table for Christmas dinner

Another shot of the table. I did red and white candles and red and white roses.

Here is a side view of one of the center pieces (one with red roses, one with white roses)

Here is a long view of the 2 tables set up between the dinig and living rooms. It was such a cute Christmas table!!

Terry and I in the dining room.

Finally here is our group of friends who were nice enough to share a Christmas meal with us. Thanks so much Jerry, Mike, Leo, Todd, Bill, Ryan, and Bill. We love you guys!!! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Thanksgiving

Well here I am writing about Thanksgiving a week late, but I suppose it's better late then never.
Terry and I had a nice long weekend, and we had lots of fun. Thursday we met at our friends Todd and Bills house for thanksgiving dinner. There was a good crowd of friends that showed up. Todd even got a suprise visit from his mother from Utah (Bill was so sweet to arrange that.) I made 2 pumpkin pies that turned out really good (don't tell anyone that I actually baked.) Terry spent hours making ribbon jello. It's so funny how people outside of Utah have no clue about jello. Our friends from Texas just looked at us funny and laughed, but they all ate it anyways. It just wouldn't be a proper thanksgiving without ribbon jello!!! It was so much fun hanging out with friends and stuffing our faces with WAY too much food. We spent the rest of the weekend doing some shopping, putting up christmas decorations, watching movies, and being lazy bums. It was wonderful. Here is a few pictures from the weekend:

Ryan, Mike, and Terry Throwing around the football.

Ryan and Terry doing more football throwing

Here is me trying to throw the football

Todd and Bill and the wonderful turkey!!!

Todd's mom Helen, Bill, Todd, and his son Ryan hangin' out in our living room.

Terry taking a suprise picture of me having fun putting up the fake tree.

More pictures of christmas decorations coming soon......

Friends, Lights and Craft Fun!!

Well here's what's been going on in the last couple of weeks here in Dallas:

Our wonderful friend Bob, from Salt Lake City, paid us a visit again this year. Unfortunately he keeps coming when the weather is too cold to swim, but we still had a great time. We ended up doing the grand tour of downtown Dallas. This time we did it a little differently, and rode the DART light rail train downtown. Bob, Terry and I all had a real exciting ride on Dallas public transportation trains. Let's just say we saw some pretty interesting characters on the train. We just laughed and Terry and Bob had a slightly crazy woman all over them. (I think they have a new girlfriend, ha ha!). We walked all over, saw the historical sights, and this time walked down to the original Neiman Marcus. Of course the sales people followed us around the store like we were going to steal something (heck I would too with 2000 dollar Dolce & Gabana jackets, and 500 dollar shirts laying around.) We spent the rest of the the weekend playing cards (I finally beat Bob at a cardgame!!!), and going out and having a great time. We always have such a great time with Bob, and cherish him as a friend. It's always a treat having him visit.

Bob and I at the "Grassy Knoll" at the Kennedy area

Terry and Bob hangin' out on the street in downtown Dallas!!

Well this weekend Terry and I decided to get brave and put up the Christmas lights on the house. We got up in the attic and dragged all of the Christmas crap down. (I swear the christmas boxes multiply each year!!). Of course it all couldn't go up as smoothly as planned. We put the wrong lights on the house. Terry had them all up, and then had to take them down and switch them to different ones (I think I heard him say that maybe we should just burn all the stupid lights this year!). Sometimes I wonder why we go through this every year! We only had one string go bad on us, and had to make that fabulous fun trip to Walmart for more lights. Of course it was a freakin' zoo, and everyone else in Dallas was at our Walmart buying christmas crap too. It took all of our strength to remain calm and collected and get our lights and get home. Well we finally got them all up without any broken limbs from falling off the ladders. They looks so darn cute, and of course we'll have the best house lights on the block.

Here's me trying not to fall off the ladder putting lights in our oak tree in the front yard. (don't you love the beautiful red color it turns in the fall!!)

Here's Terry bravely putting lights on the house. He was a trooper putting them all up on the high parts of the roof !

Micheals and Hobby Lobby this weekend were having this huge sale on craft stuff as well. I somehow was posessed by Martha Stewart, and whipped up a fabulous christmas wreath to put on the door for under 20 bucks. We did laugh as the store was full of housewives and gay men roaming the isles for the cheap deals (oh yes and a couple horrified husbands that looked like they would rather die than be in a craft store sale!). After much searching I found the perfect silk red amarylis, white roses, cranberry garland, and holly leaves to put on my grapevine wreath. I know the sales lady loved me as I had to point out that she was showing me "Lilys" and I wanted "Amarylis". Craft store sales people should know better than to mess with gay men. We are picky and know exactly what we want and that we don't wanna pay full price for it. Now for the christmas table centerpieces.....

Playing Catch-Up

Well I can't beleive it's already November. Time flies by so fast, and I forget about my blog. Well here's the latest update for Terry and I.

Let's start with Halloween. It was interesting that it fell on a Friday this year. Being that we live in Dallas and there isn't really any kids in our neighborhood we figured that we would get no trick-or-treaters. So when it got dark we turned off all of our lights and watched scary movies in the family room. I couldn't beleive that we actually had 3 groups of kids ring our bell. Our street is pretty dark, and as a kid I would NEVER go up to a dark house here in Dallas. Well they must have been brave. Unfortunately we didn't have any candy to hand out so we just ignored them. I felt bad but oh well. Of course after all the kids have gone home and gone to bed all the adults go out for their Halloween fun. So Terry and I went downtown to a club to a Halloween party there. It was so funny driving around downtown and there is just crazy costumed people driving around. What other day can you be at the stoplight sitting next to a zombie and a gorilla in a car and think nothing of it? We had a great time at the club, and there were all sorts of outrageous costumes. I swear you give gay guys a chance to go wild with costumes and dress up, and it gets crazy!! The hit this year seemed to be King Tut (as there is currently a huge King Tut exhibit here in Dallas.) I think we counted 6 or 8 of them there all at one time. There were way too many Cowboys (heck that's a normal look here in Dallas.) Then the usual construction workers, and auto mechanics, and army guys. Let's not forget the creepy 7 foot tall monster (seriously huge, not sure who that could have been.) WAY too many drag queens with hair so tall it got caught in the lights on the ceiling. The bartender also was a way cute Orange Jell-O Fairy. And let's not forget the really drunk cow that kept bumping into us. It was madness and mayhem but we sure had a fun Halloween.

Now on to November. Terry and I voted here in Texas for the first time. I was proud to cast my ballot and it was fun to do it on a presidential election year. All I can say is thank goodness for early voting here in Texas. Terry and I were able to get in and out with no lines. I am so glad the elections are over with. I was so tired of the endless campaign crap. I will say I was pleased with the outcome of the election, and I think as a nation we are heading in a better direction. People always fear diversity at first, but it's amazing how it can make you a better person in the end.

Terry also won some radio show tickets to the local wine festival here in Addison (the city next to us here in north Dallas.) So 5 of us went to the convention center to the festival. We really didn't know what to expect as we have never been to a wine festival. Well much to our suprise it was really fun. A whole bunch of restaurants and wineries all have tables where you can sample as much food and wine as you want. The tickets were like 40 bucks a piece so Terry won some pretty valuable tickets. Of course all the fine upper-crust ladies of north Dallas were there in their cocktail dresses. The great thing about Dallas is that they wear jeans everywhere here so we didn't have to dress up all that much. There was a silent auction as well (of course there wasn't much in our budget.) The food was amazing and the wine was VERY good. We just had so much fun stuffing our faces and having fun mingling with the rich people. Of course when I tasted the wine I'd do all the swishing around in the glass and pretend to notice the "lovely finish, and smoky undertones." (which of course I know nothing about.) Oh well, we all pulled it off just fine and fit right it. A good night was had by all.

This weekend we also did something interesting. There is a sweet dear lady that we know here in Dallas (from Craigslist) that we have bought furniture from. She has top end furniture that she is always selling for great deals. So we've ended up buying 2 couches and a console table from her. Well she let us and our friends Todd and Bill know that she had a friend that lived up the street from her that also might have some furniture we might like. Well let me tell you about this neighborhood. To get into it you have to go through a guard gate and have to be on a list to even get through the gate. It is VERY exclusive and the homes are million dollar homes. So we pull up and meet our friend and go up the street to this enormous house. The lady there was so sweet and she had hors-d'ourves, little pastries, and wine all set out. It was the fanciest garage sell I've ever seen (actually they called it a "Private Showing"). They had all their spare furniture laid out in the garage. Well between all of us we ended up with a couch, 2 chairs, a dresser, and a coffee table. They sold us the stuff for next to nothing. I really don't think they need the money, but that they just want to get rid of stuff and buy new stuff. Honestly they couldn't have been nicer people. They gave us a tour of their home which was amazing. There was a private putting green in the back yard, and a pool and spa and outdoor fireplace/patio that looked like it belonged in a luxury hotel .

Here is a Google Maps satellite image of the House (it's on the right with the pool in the courtyard)

I can't imagine living a lifestyle like that. But those rich ladies just love us 4 gay guys for some reason, and we're happy to buy all their fine furniture for cheap. Slowly but surely we are furnishing this house. I swear though I can't move again because I'm gonna need 4 trucks to haul all this crap outta here. It's amazing how much stuff you end up with. Well that's the lates goings on here in Dallas. Sorry I haven't had my camera with me and I don't have pictures to share this time. Well now it's on to Thanksgiving.......

Utah Visitors

This week Terry and I had some visitors from our old stomping grounds in Utah. Terry's cousin Sam, and also a good friend of ours Adrian came and visited us here in Dallas. As always it is so good to see old friends again, and catch up on everything. It also was nice that the weather cooperated, and we had some beautiful fall days in the 80's and 70's (except for the last day of rain.) We were also sad that the pool temperature had gotten too cold to be able to swim, (at least that is what Terry and I thought.) Suprisingly they jumped right in the pool the first day, and swam the whole week. I guess Terry and I have gotten used to the mild southern weather because I wouldn't get in that cold pool for nothing. I'm glad they were brave and had fun swimming. We did the usual tour of Dallas, and saw downtown and all of that. We also had fun kicking up our heels at the clubs in Oaklawn, and had alot of laughs. We also spent hours just chatting on the back porch, sipping drinks, and enjoying the cool fall mornings, and warm fall days. It's funny but I just so much enjoy being here in Dallas, and there isn't much I miss about my old job or house in Salt Lake. The one thing I do miss is all the wonderful friends and family we left behind in Utah. It's just always a treat to have them come and visit us, and to reconnect. We sure had fun, and thanks again Sam and Adrian for spending time with us in Dallas.


Here is Adrian and Sam having laughs with us in the Kitchen. We had so much fun that I only got one picture taken the whole time!!!

Dallas Pride Weekend

Terry and I had a fun weekend. It was gay pride weekend here in Dallas. Let me give you some insight on one of the gay communities biggest celebrations. The history of gay pride celebrations comes from the Stonewall Inn riot on June 27th, 1969 in Greenwich Village, New York City. Police raided the gay bar and for the first time gay people fought back at the police and a small riot ensued. It marked a beginning of gay people standing up for themselves and being proud of who they were. Most large cities hold a "Gay Pride" celebration on June 27th on the anniversary of Stonewall. It just so happens that Dallas moved theirs later in September, and thank goodness, because June would be blistering hot here for a parade. For gay people "Gay Pride" always has been a special day. It's the one day a year that you can be completely open and free about being gay, and expressing yourself however you see fit. It's the one day during the year I can walk down the street and hold Terry's hand and not worry about getting beat up, or have people make fun of you. This year they estimated that 40,000 gay people attended the gay pride parade. It was so cool to be around so many people just like you. The parade is always fun but the people watching can be even more fun. One thing about the gay community is that the freedom to be yourself and express yourself is always encouraged. It's amazing just how people do that and the crazy fun stuff you see. If you ever want to see the most diverse crowd you've ever seen go to a gay pride parade. You just have to have an open mind and have fun. Well here are some pictures from the parade.

Here is the beginning banner and the Gay Rodeo Posse holding the flags.

Me Todd and Bill staking out our place at the parade

Our Gay Rugby Team the Dallas Diablos

Terry and a VERY tall Wonerwoman Drag Queen

It wouldn't be Dallas without gay cowboys, WOW

Of course the parade wouldn't be the same without big butch lesbians called "Dykes on Bikes"b

Here is the locay gay bears, with a construction themed float

Gay sailor boys

Here we have the latino drag queens performing (crazy wigs!!)n

The gay latino organization float

The ultra masculine local gay leathermen in biker chaps and harnesses

Another tough looking leatherman with orange wings?? or something like that

Here we have a huge heart shaped wig made out of flowers



Girl you better not fall off those shoes or your gonna get road rash

Proud guy with gay pride flag and matching pride pants
Me and Terry at the parade just trying to cool of in the 90 degree heat and humidity

We also caught a ton of beads from floats

Catching Up

Okay I'm back and blogging again. It's been over a month, and I just haven't had the time to update the blog. I apologize for the LONG blog but it's catching up time, and here we go!!

Around the first part of August Terry and I went to Austin over a weekend with some friends. A good friend of ours invited us to stay at her sisters house on a lake in Austin. I think we just assumed that it was a little cabin by a lake outside of Austin, nothing too crazy. So we loaded up 2 vehicles, and 3 fun ladies, and 4 crazy guys (That's me and Terry and Todd and Bill) headed down south to the capital of Texas. Well much to our amazement this is her sisters house!

Turns out it's a multi-million dollar house on a cliff overlooking Lake Austin, and a view of downtown.
We were so excited when we saw the back deck and pool that are on a cliff with million dollar views.

Of course we wasted no time in jumping in the pool, and just enjoying living it up in style for a few days. We had so many laughs, even though it rained a little bit.

Here is all of our group waiting for breakfast at a fun restaurant, the Magnolia Cafe in Austin. It's funny but Austin is exactly opposite of Dallas. It is a college town (The University of Texas, the longhorns) and it just has this really laid back, live and let live, quirky vibe to it. I was impressed, and it's really a beautiful city in the Texas hill country.

Here is another fun feature of the house we stayed at. It also had an electric lift that took you from the house at the top of the cliff to the lake below, and a nice grass area and boathouse on the lake. Man you get in this thing and it felt like and amusement park ride as you went down these tracks down the face of the cliff. It sure beats stairs!!!

Here is Todd and Terry standing at the lake house. We didn't take the boat out but had fun hanging out by the lake.

Saturday night we all decided to go have ribs. Well off we went to some restaurant about 30 miles south of Austin called Salt Lick in the town of Driftwood Texas. It was a big place and FULL of people. It was just a bunch of picnic tables in 2 Huge log-cabinlike buildings. They are in a dry county there too, but they let people bring their own drinks, so naturally everyone drags big ol coleman coolers there full of drinks. What was even funnier is that the local sherrifs were there directing traffic and makin' sure it didn't get too out of hand. They didn't seem to care one bit about all the coolers and everything. They had a southern blues band playing in the waiting area and people were just drinkin' and havin fun Texas style!! I tell you what though it was some DARN good ribs. They are smoked and cooked in a huge pit right there. We ate way too much. I can see why people are overweight in this state. Man the food is just SOOO good, but so bad for you. A great time was certainly had by all.

It's a vegetarians worst nightmare!!! Yummy ribs and sausages cooking and smoking on the pit.

At the restaurant, with all the people and their coolers (it was as redneck as it looks.)

Anyhow Austin was a blast, we lived it up in Style and were sad that we had to come back home to the daily grind. I hope we get invited back to Austin.

Terry and I also did something fun in August. We went and test drove a Smart car. We saw them in Europe and thought they were so cool. They are tiny little 2 seater cars made in Europe by Smart (Which is owned and built by Mercedes Benz). They actually have a great crash test rating, which is amazing for such a tiny car. They get 40 miles to the gallon, cost 13,000$ and really are for city driving (Perfect for driving around Dallas and going to work.) Astonishingly enough Terry, 6'2" and all, fit just fine with room to spare. It was crazy driving around in this little car that takes up 1/2 of a parking space (you can park 2 back to back in a single parking space. ) I tell you what we got looks the whole time we were test driving the car. If you ever see one you can't help but stare, and smile. They drove great and we just loved them. Now that gas prices are so crazy the demand for these little cars is out of this world. In fact they have no inventory on the car lot, just test drive cars. The waiting list is now and amazing 18 months long because of the sheer demand. We put our names on the list and maybe in a couple years we might have a blue one in our garage!!

I know this blog is long but I just had one final note:

This month also was a hard one. One of my cousins on my mom's side committed suicide. I will admit that I am alot older than he was so I only knew him when he was a little kid and didn't know a whole lot about him. I just felt so bad for my Aunt and their family. What a horrible thing for them to have to bury one of their kids. I do not have children, but I can imagine that would be one of the hardest things you ever would have to do. When things like this happen it always makes you think about your own life. If there is one thing I've learned is that every family has issues. Every family is going to go through alot of crap in their lives. You just hope that you and your family can just make it to happier times. I'm sure my aunt and her family will eventually find those good times again. It just helps me to remember to cherish the good times you have, the friends you rely on, and the family you love, whatever that "family" you have is.

Brian in Ft. Collins Colorado

This week has sure been a busy one for me. My company here in Dallas sent me off for some software training in Ft. Collins Colorado for a week. So I flew off to Denver and then rented a car and drove an hour north to Ft. Collins. Well to my suprise Ft. Collins was a very pretty city. Lots of trees and pretty streets. It is a college town (Colorado State) so there was a really cool vibrant downtown. There were lots of people there at night strolling the streets and fun restaurants and clubs. I didn't get to do too much hanging out though. I was in training most of the time. I have decided that 3 days is plenty of training, but 5 days and your brain is in overload!! I just was so over it all by Friday, and I couldn't wait to get home. But I'm glad my company sent me, and I got the class and certification. It will be a big asset on my resume. I did notice some things about the people in Colorado. They all are riding bikes, running, hiking, etc.. There are very few overweight people there (completely opposite Texas!!!). I felt like a big ol slug, driving my rented subaru everywhere and watching them all on their bikes. (I did work out twice in the week so I wasn't too lazy.) Also it hit 90 Degrees and everyone was just dying from the heat there. I laughed as it was hot, but no humidity, and it cools down wonderfully at night. (it's 100 degrees with 70% humidity in Dallas right now.) In fact at night I had my jeans on cause it felt cold (I must be getting used to the heat of the south). A couple of people I was talking too just couldn't beleive I wasn't just dying in jeans from heat. Anyhow I had a good time, and a nice trip to Colorado. It was a very pretty place, and a great college town.


Just some countryside outside of town with the mountains in the distance.

More countryside out of town.

A picture up the downtown area. Lots of trees and old buildings and fun places to eat and have fun. A really cool and big old downtown area.

Woo Hoo the offices of Telvent Miner & Miner. The company I was doing my training with. It was a thrill a minute!!