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.......