Friends

I need a Skinny Girl Margarita chick for Lady Avon.

Can someone help me??

http://www.houseandhome.com/files/SGM_Logo.jpg

ASAP?!?!

As my journal title says, DON’T PANIC!!! I am alive and doing well and missing you and maybe I will start posting journal entries again on a regular basis but don’t hold your breath… Please don’t hold your breath, I wouldn’t want the deaths of any friends on my conscience.
As i said i am doing well and still very much in love with a very wonderful woman, demonrapunzel with whom I am co-habitating and spending as much time with as possible… along with our four cats… yes, I said four cats (maybe there will be more on them later… if [when] I post again. You aren’t holding your breath are you?)
Love ya!
Bull

Jesse L. Martin is, without a doubt, my biggest celebrity crush. I think he's gorgeous, he's incredibly talented (his voice? oy!), he's got an amazing smile, I've never read a negative word about him and every quote I see from him in a magazine or on the Internet makes me smile.

He'd signed for Project Teddy Bear before (back when the RENT movie was coming out and Anthony Rapp got the whole cast to sign when they appeared on the Today Show) and signed a glove with Milena Govich at the Broadway Flea Market. I even got a quick picture of him when he and Tracie Thoms and Chris Columbus showed up to the after party for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. But I never got to talk to him.

So when I saw that he was going to be a guest bartender for a Stockings With Care fundraiser last night, I decided to go.

I was worried about missing him, so my friend Amy and I got there pretty soon after the event started, and sure enough, he was in the first group of bartenders and was already behind the bar when we got there. It wasn't too crowded, so we were able to get up to the bar where he was and order drinks.

After he brought our drinks, I pulled out my bear and tags and camera and gave him my spiel about the Walk and told him I'd tip him an extra $10 (all tips went to the charity) if he'd sign a bear for me again. When he saw the bear, he remembered doing it before and said of course he'd do it again.

After he signed and took the picture, I told him how much I'd raised and many times I'd walked and that in 2005, the year before they did the 10th anniversary performance of RENT, I'd walked in all 8 Walks around the country. When I found out about the 10th anniversary show (and its $1,000 charity tickets!), I told myself that if my tax return for 2005 (after all the deductions for traveling for the Walks and stuff) covered the price of the ticket, I'd go as a treat to myself after my year of walking. It did and I did... and it was my favorite night of theater *ever*.

After I told him that, he thanked me, a couple of times!, for telling him and said that was "so fucking cool." He shook my hand and thanked me again and Amy and I moved away to make room for other people.

We were sitting on stools by the door when he left and when he walked by, I smiled at him, but wasn't going to say anything again... but he thanked me again for telling him that and shook my hand again and then left. I'm not sure how long it took for me to stop smiling about that. ;)

Other fun stuff from the night (though nothing topped that first 20 minutes):

Michael Urie (Marc on Ugly Betty) high fiving me when I thanked him for signing before and tweeting about the auction and telling him that his bear had, indeed, raised more money than Joan Rivers'. When he signed again, he took a picture holding a beer bottle up to the bear's mouth.

Grant Bowler (Connor on Ugly Betty) refusing to sign with a red sharpie and explaining (in his dreamy accent) that signing with a red pen is bad luck, going back to Faust signing his deal with the devil in blood. I said the sharpie was hot pink, but, he said (correctly ;)) that it was red and signed with a regular pen instead.

Daniel Eric Gold (Matt on Ugly Betty) seeming embarassed when I said I'd tip $10 if he signed a bear and then offering to sign a few tags instead of just one.

Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock, Phineas and Ferb, Weeds) seeming really really convinced that he knew me from somewhere.

Getting Vanessa Williams to sign a bear even though she wasn't listed as appearing at the event and wasn't guest bartending! When my friend Amy left, I went to the bar to get another beer and when I looked down at my phone, she had just texted me telling me Vanessa Williams had just walked in! I turned away from the bar and there she was! She was incredibly patient while I got all my stuff out and tried to explain what I was doing. :) So beautiful in person, too!

Hi all,

I plan to make grasshopper pie from scratch for a friend's bday. For the crust, instead of using the chocolate wafers, can I use chocolate graham crackers(which I already have) adding extra cocoa powder(which I already have) or something else to it? I'd rather use the chocolate grahams instead of buying chocolate wafers if I can do so without compromising the taste and texture.

What do you think?

Also, I've never made grasshopper pie before. I'm assuming it's pretty straight forward, but if there is anything I should know about (including, for example, the world's best recipe for it) please share your wisdom. :-)

Wow... what a nice weekend.

Friday, I had no plans. Then I saw that Old Navy was having a 50% off sale on winter coats... I knew exactly which coats I wanted, and would have ordered online, but, one of the coats I wanted was mysteriously missing from the website, so... PLANS! Unfortunately, work got a little bit in the way and I ended up not leaving my office until about 8:30, which meant I got to Old Navy at 9:00, with them closing in 30 minutes.

I quickly found the two coats I wanted and figured I'd do a little more shopping, so I got a cart, as the coats were heavy and bulky. BAD MOVE. Suddenly, I was in what can only be described as a frenzy! Rushing, throwing items in the cart... not trying stuff on, not thinking stuff through... Three big shopping bags later.... ;) ;)

Saturday I went to my fave class at the gym -- rebounding. I love it for the exercise, but, also because my friends Chris and Katherine are usually there. Which they were. :) After the class, Katherine went for yoga, instead of our regular smoothie break, so Chris and I cleaned up and headed out for brunch. It was a *gorgeous* day, so we headed over to the river to the piers to check out the new USS New York. There were an *awful* lot of navy folks in uniform milling about, so we thought we actually wandered over right after its christening... turns out it was actually its commissioning. Pretty cool.

Because it was so beautiful out, I decided to go ahead and walk home... which was awesome. Made a stop at the Chelsea Market on the way and picked up some fruits and veggies.

Then I promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours, blowing plans to do some stuff I needed to do, but waking up in time for Adam's birthday party out in Brooklyn. Hung out there for a couple hours (even had a delicious drink!) and then headed in for Sandra's birthday party at The Pyramid Club. Hadn't been dancing in SOOOO long... very fun.

Sunday, I slept *way* in and totally blew off the gym. But I was up in time for a "play date" with my friends Melissa and Alison and their sons... Nate, 5 weeks old, and Jack, 8 weeks old. A little early to tell if the boys are destined to be friends. ;) Another gorgeous day, so it was perfect that we had planned to meet in Central Park!

Walked around, sat and talked, squished the babies. It was fun. :)

Headed home and actually did some stuff I had to do, though I blew off the gym *again." Then rallied to head back out to see "Love Loss and What I Wore," an off-Broadway show by Nora and Delia Ephron based on a book written by Ilene Beckerman. It was funny and bittersweet... but not really my favorite kind of show -- 5 actresses sitting on chairs reading/telling stories and interacting with each others' characters a teensy bit.

I had gone, mostly, because this round of the rotating cast included Jane Lynch, who I love. And who I really wanted to get to sign a bear. :) She did, and she was incredibly nice (especially when I was dropping my pen and dropping the tag for her to sign and she was like, "would someone help this woman?!" Heh.) She had even done one of the 3-day breast cancer walks once!! Very cool. :)

After the show, I headed to another birthday, Lisa P's, just 2 blocks away. Saw some people I don't see often enough, which was great. And even got a ride home in a real car... woo!

Is it really Monday already??

I've been trying to bake as much as possible recently, despite not having any time. I've also been trying out new recipes rather than the usual ones I know taste nice. In the last week I've made vegan biscotti and rosemary and orange biscuits. These are two things I wouldn't normally make unless I felt like doing something slightly different. Biscotti is mostly eggs in my mind and rosemary belongs with potatoes. Despite this, they both turned out rather nice. The biscotti isn't anything like biscotti made with eggs but that's too be expected and the rosemary and orange biscuits a somewhat unexpected combination (at least for me!) They're still nice though!

( vegan biscotti and buttery rosemary biscuits! )

Testing out one of the Presidential Cookies on my blog HERE
Made with oats, chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut.

9" Chocolate Vanilla Checkerboard Cake, with vanilla syrup, strawberry preserves, Lindt milk chocolate frosting and milk chocolate caramel sauce between each layer.  Covered with Lindt milk chocolate frosting, dark chocolate shavings and milk chocolate caramel sauce.

This might lose me some friends and that would make me sad, but, I'm also incredibly angry right now and part of me doesn't care who I offend.

I've said this before and I'll say it again... I'm thrilled that I have friends who don't always agree with me politically or ethically or religiously or whatever. I try very hard to be open-minded and accepting of other people's beliefs... but there are a few beliefs that I think are wrong and I have no patience for.

One of those is related to gay marriage. I'm not even saying it *is* gay marriage... because, to a certain extent, I don't care what you personally think about gay marriage.

You can think homosexuality is wrong. You can decide that you don't want to be friends with gay people. You can decide you won't vote for people who are gay or buy things from people who are gay, or watch movies starring people who are gay. I won't agree with you and I won't understand why you think that way and I won't like it, but it won't INFURIATE me like the vote yesterday in Maine did.

Because no matter what you think about homosexuality or marriage (gay or otherwise), how can you possibly think it's okay for a majority to vote away the civil rights of a minority?

If it's because you think that somehow allowing gay people to get married will threaten your marriage or your family, maybe you should take a harder look at your own marriage and determine why it's so weak and at risk.

If it's because you think that somehow allowing gay people to get married will threaten the sanctity of marriage in general, maybe you should focus on outlawing divorce. Or you could try to explain to me why a couple of gay people who have been together for years wanting to get married are a "threat" while Britney Spears getting married for less than three days is A-OK. (Even while people rolled their eyes and joked about it and mocked her, nobody *ever* talked about taking away her right to get married.... again.)

I'm a little torn on the whole issue of marriage vs. civil unions. I realize that the whole thing would be a lot more "palatable" to a lot of people if Marriage as a religious construct were taken out of it... and honestly, my ideal situation would be for civil unions to be controlled by the government and to afford governmental benefits and to be available to both heterosexual and homosexual couples; and for marriage to be left up to the priests and rabbis and other religious leaders and for its benefits to be only religious ones. If your religion doesn't accept you, you have the choice to put up with it or find another religion... it's a lot harder to just up and find another country.

But, let's be real.. that's not going to happen. Which means that civil unions are not good enough... at least not until there is a check box on government forms for "partnered" right next to "single" and "married" and checking that box affords people the EXACT same rights as checking the box next to marriage.

Because no person should be unable to visit their loved one in the hospital because they can't be declared their legal family.

Because no parent should have to worry about losing their child because they can't be declared their legal guardian.

Because our government has ascribed certain financial benefits to being married and nobody should be excluded from that because of their sexual orientation. (It's funny, in a way that it's not, that for all the talk of love and devotion and the sanctity of marriage, as a single female woman, I could choose to take advantage of those benefits simply by arranging with a male friend for us to get married to mutual benefit... if I actually fell in love with a woman and we embodied all those ideals of a "real" marriage, I couldn't do a thing about it.)