I’m back home in Jersey after my weekend trip home to Virginia. My mom and I went to see Margaret Cho on Friday and she was hilarious as usual. Her show seemed a litter shorter to me though. She had two back to backs that night, maybe that is why. I’m not sure. Hopefully she’ll put it out on DVD like her other tours so I can see. I’m sure the BF will want to see it too as he loves her also.

On Saturday I met up with Keith and we played with his new puggle puppy, browsed cruises for ideas for next year and then went to dinner at Mimi’s Cafe. It was very good, but very rich. I got to try fried pickles for the first, and possibly last time. Not that they weren’t good, anything fried usually is. But after awhile they sit in you like a log.

Now we come to Sunday, today, I’m home in Jersey and that’s that. Back to work and the normal routines.

So recently I had made the small complaint, which for me is a big one, about people who recline their seats all the way back on airplanes. For some reason it never fails that I always end up sitting behind one of these people. Now I realize flying, especially long flights, can be uncomfortable and airlines are sacrificing our comfort and leg room simply to squeeze in more seats so they get more money. However it’s just common courtesy that if you are going to send your seat flying back as far as you can, you ask if it’s okay or at least fricken make sure the person behind you doesn’t have their tray down with a laptop on it or food. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the tray jammed into my ribs this way, let alone my laptop smacked or had a drink tipped. Grrrr! For the record, I only put my seat back a smidge because I don’t want to do to others what is always done to me.

Well let me tell reclining seats while travelling is an epidemic. Tonight while driving home the car in front of me was swerving all over the place and driving at the speed of slow on the freeway. I couldn’t even see a driver, wondering if it was a short person or some old lady. Then I figured it out and switching lanes to pass them I confirmed it. Yup, an asshat with his driver’s seat reclined all the way back so he could lay back and look “cool” while trying to drive and barely see over the dashboard. I see people cruisin’ Philly doing this, but on the freeway where people are driving at insane speeds? I hope a cop pulled his ass over and gave him a ticket.

This video was on the front page of YouTube last night, and probably still is today. I’m not sure what to think of it honestly. Are these girls serious, or is this a joke? First I’ll give them props for the video. While it’s crude, it is something I couldn’t do without setting a whole lot of time aside to do. The singing? Well they had the guts to do it and put it on the net.

What makes me ask if this is a joke is simple. I know women love this song, but guess what? So does every gay man in America. This one of the top, if not the top, gayest song ever. So to use it to make a campaign video supporting McCain, a republican who has flip-flopped on gay issues to suit whatever way his political wind is blowing (to be politically fair though, they all do), is somewhat hilarious.

Sorry, didn’t mean to get so political, but this video and everything about it I find hilarious. Oh they have another video too, “Here Comes McCain Again” to the tune of gender-bending Annie Lenox/The Eurythmic’s song “Here Comes The Rain Again.” Please tell me this is a joke? Please?

Post-Post Note: It seems “Here Come’s McCain Again” has been removed. I wonder if Annie Lenox threatened to sue? It was working and up last night and their new video, now it’s gone.

PPP Note: This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by The MCPS - PRS Alliance Ltd.

This is a multi-functional update post with no one topic

With a week to spare I finally got my taxes done. For once I’m actually getting money back and a lot too! However before you curse me, it’s my money, I just paid more in estimated taxes than I needed to. I’d prefer the government give me a lot more back than they are, but something tells me they need it to spend on pointless crap like vibrating chairs for the Senate and GT Xpresses and Magic Bullets for the oval office.

I’m currently busy throwing together and editing chapters for the dissertation, trying to get as much done as I can. I have about a month to pull a whole lot together. Of course a the trip to Vegas is also coming up, grrrr, not the best timing. I expected to be done by then (actually I expected to be done by last fall), but it won’t happen. Shhhhh, don’t tell Emily but school is coming to Vegas! I’ll be editing on the long ass plane ride (as much as I can on the plane before I get fed up with the person in front of me deciding to recline their chair into my lap, which ALWAYS happens to me), when she’s passed out drunk, when she’s getting her massages and facials and basically anytime she’s doing something that I don’t have to be present for. She doesn’t know, it’s a secret. Let’s not tell her okay?

I’m headed home this weekend as I have tickets to see the one and only Margaret Cho in concert. I can’t wait as I love the Cho! I’m taking my mommy to see her with me. Then I have to pay Keith a visit to see his new apartment and his new puppy.

Finally I’ve been trying to turn my web cam on a lot more recently. I try and put it on in the afternoon when I’m working and often have had it on at night. I used to have a link to a bigger version of what’s in the side bar, but that’s getting reworked at the moment. I hope to have it up again soon, for those who get their kicks watching me sit at my PC I plan to take the cam to Vegas, so maybe you’ll get to see the inside of our hotel room! Yeah, I know you just can’t wait for that. I could be sneaky and leave it on and let you watch the maid clean, or I could point it out the window should we actually get lucky enough to have a room with a view.

So last night was supposed to be our infomercial movie night. However we got such a late start that we didn’t make all that much. Plus because my old house is devoid of any overhead lighting, it makes a not very optimal setting for filming with my digital camera. We did end up making lava cake though and took pictures.

The GT Xpress 101! The best and last cooking device you’ll ever need! (Unless you don’t like half-moon shaped food)

We decided to use it to make dessert, chocolate lava cake! I had made this before in cupcake form, so I knew it was good. However I had always used the Duncan Hines version, which is a very large package. If we used it we probably would have ended up with 6-8 half moon chocolate cakes, and I didn’t want that much chocolate cake sitting around because I would feel the need to eat it. So I found some unknown brand (Dr. Oeteker) at the supermarket that I knew was the right size for 2 half-moon cakes. So we used it.

Emily makes and pours the batter

The problem of course turned out to be that I had NOT tried out this brand of lava cake. It turned out okay bake-wise. It had the gooey center, but only in the middle. I think the half moon shaped wells cooked it too well near the ends. The real problem though was the taste. It wasn’t that good at all. It wasn’t a very rich chocolate, it was very sweet and dare I say they may have even used chocolate flavoring rather than real chocolate? I haven’t looked at the box, but that is how it tasted.

Emily shows off the baked cakes on my brand new Tar-Jay plates

Today on my own I decided to make some cornbread with the thing. This time I went with name brand!

Jiffy brand! It kinda looked like someone vomited in the GT Xpress 101

They came out okay, aside from the fact that I let them cook a little too long and the tops burned a tad. Also one it seems got an air bubble in it and this made the inside hollow and a little moist . . . ie it didn’t seem to cook all the way. Other than that, they were good.

Cornbread goodness!

So does the GT Xpress 101 work? Yes it seems to. But the quality of food you put into it matters, and I think there is a bit of a learning curve with it. It makes great omelets, that much I can attest to. I’ll probably use it for breakfast mostly

I learned a new saying recently, CRE which stands for “Church Ruins Everything.” This morning Emily and I went out to IHOP for breakfast. Down the road from where we live is a baptist church as well as an affiliated school, K-12. Like many churches they put “witty” sayings out on their little whiteboard signs. However today’s saying really pissed me off. I sat there stewing over it, but by time we got to IHOP and had breakfast, I was more focused on the absolutely disgusting looking “Horton Hears A Who” pancakes the kids at the table next to us were eating.

From IHOP.com

Now they could be really yummy, but I wasn’t about to try them. Furthermore the kids at the table next to use were playing with them as much as they were eating them. I’m getting off track though. On the way back home we passed the church again and I got angry all over again. So much so that I walked down to take a photo and blog about it. Here is the photo, with the offending church’s name spray-painted out. If I wasn’t such a good person I would have actually spray-painted the sign then taken the photo.

Normally if someone said this to me, I would take it as a joke and that they literally meant it’s easier to walk downhill than up. But given it’s on this church’s sign, I don’t think that’s what they mean at all. I read this as saying “Life sucks and is hard, if yours is going good than you are probably going to hell.”

I should point out while there are many types of baptist churches, this is the kind from the movie “Footloose.” No, I’m serious. They don’t have proms because dancing is wicked or what not. Instead they have senior banquets where they bring their dates to eat food and do who knows what else. I think when you are dancing it means you are in good spirits and happy, therefore that makes God and Jesus happy. Maybe if these people danced a little more their life wouldn’t be so hard and suck so much?

To quote Men Without Hats “We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind. Cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance, well they’re no friends of mine!”

Even though mother nature still can’t decide if she wants it to be rainy, cold or spring-like; one thing is for sure, it’s allergy season! The flowers are blooming, the crops are coming in and I’ve been really stuffed up. I vacuumed the house today to try and get up all the dust, changed all my air filters and bought me some Zyrtec-D! I think the later will do me the most good

Of course the fact that certain little cats attempt to, and sometimes are successful at, breaking into the bedroom doesn’t help. The door is kept closed because they like to sleep on the bed and their dander just kills me at night. One little stinker sits outside the door in the morning howling his little head off to get in.

That would be the culprit right there, Grim! He’s not about 6 months old and it’s time for him to go to the vet for the chop-chop!

Okay so since I’ve got a lot of incoming links to the blog because of the soap site stuff, I figured I’d use this post to talk about myself. It will let people who might be new to the blog get to know a little about the guy who ran that page, but they may not have really known aside from his name and that he watched soaps.

First off, let’s just talk about the elephant in the room shall we? I am a 32 year old man who for 14-some years ran a website dedicated to soap operas. In case you never figured it out, yes I’m gay. It wasn’t something never outright addressed by me on the soap page, but if someone really wanted to know the answer they could have easily found out with some exploring. I tried to, but a few times failed, to keep anything political in nature off the page and keep it a neutral place, with only soaps being the issue.

So yes, I’m gay. Now contrary to what some might believe, I’m not here to molest your kids, statistically your straight relatives are more likely to do that. I’m not here to ruin your holy sanctity of marriage, statistically you along with Britney Spears are doing a damn good job of that on your own. I was not molested, I was not abused, I did not chose to be this way anymore than you chose to be straight. If you want to argue whether or not it’s a choice, please go down to your local zoo and argue with the animals there, as some of them seem to make the choices too.

If your still with me, I’ve been in a monogamous relationship with my boyfriend for over 6 years now. We live in New Jersey and in our very own haunted house! Yup, I’ve made several postings about it, you can read about it on the blog in the paranormal section. I’ve seen, heard, felt and yes been touched by the ghosts. I’ve always loved ghosts and the learning about views of and beliefs in the afterlife. I never expected to actually end up living in my very own haunted house. Growing up I always wanted to be either a parapsychologist or an archaeologist, because I also enjoyed learning about how different people buried their dead, which by the way IS what I’m studying now. Seeing a theme here?

We share our house with two dogs and five, yes five cats. I know, it’s a virtual zoo here. The dogs are my terriers Princess Bumbles and Nikko. Princess is a westie and I got the Bumbles part from “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” Nikko is a cairn and is named after the captain of the flying monkeys from “The Wizard of Oz.” The cats are Lance(alot), Galahad, Moo Kitty (real name Gawain), Percy (Percival, also called Orange Kitty) and Grim (short for Pilgrim, finally breaking away from frickin Arthurian names!).

Many people might who might have read my pages always noticed I went on my vacations in January. Yes an odd month to go. That is because it’s when my boyfriend was off work. He works on a farm, yes a farm. It’s a family business, so they are closed in the winter months and it’s his only chance to get away. So for the past six years we had our vacations then, which were always cruises. Oh and yes, I kept running the page as much as I could while I was on a cruise ship. Talk about obsession!

Seriously though, I made some amazing friends through the page, people I know I’ll be friends for with life. One of my oldest internet friends Ive probably known for ten plus years and we till try to see each other at least once a year when her job brings her anywhere nearby. Other friends are a few years old, but they are whom I would take weekends to see in New Orleans or what not the past few years. Two also just came to stay with me, they are who I went to New York back in February with. We all talk almost every night online.

A little other fun facts about me. I love horror films, I have since I was a kid and rented out the local video store’s selection the summer between 4th and 5th grade. I’m more into the old school slashers and anything supernatural. The new horror flicks I find to either be really bad remakes of 80s stuff, Japanese movies or basically just a guts and gore fest that is too much for me to take. Growing old, and advances in film make-up, has made me a bit squeamish.

I also love videogames and have since a little kid. The first videogame system I ever had was the Intellivsion, followed by various Sega systems. Once upon a time I used to run a fairly popular Sega fan page, but gave it up a long time ago. I still love videogames and have pretty much every system out there. I’m just now finding the extra time to start playing games again regularly. I have been trying to stay away from on-line gaming until school is done, that’s just another distraction for me!

I also love Broadway shows, something I really didn’t get into until more recently and thanks to various friends. The odd thing is, growing up I was in the band and orchestra and we always, I mean always, did an Andrew Lloyd Weber show at least once a year. Well we played a medley of the music from one show. So I don’t know why I didn’t get into them earlier. I’ve seen Mamma Mia, Phantom, Hairspray, Xanadu, Wicked, Evita, Scrooge, La Cage, Aida and . . . umm . . . I think that may be it? I am sure I’m missing some.

I guess that is enough for now. I was going to try and link to various posts in the blog that I’ve done over the years, but I never got around to searching and choosing the ones I liked. I guess if any fun fact here sparked your interest you can peruse the various categories on the side bar or the linked ones in this post for more info.

-Dustin

Okay this is a quick followup post to some of my more recent posts.

First, the GT Xpress arrived today. Woot! The first thing I made was an omelette, cause it’s the only thing I had ingredients to make when it showed. It turned out light and fluffy, very good. Not really what I’d call an omelette, more like a fluffy stuffed, but not folded, egg. Still, very good. After a trip to the store I got a few more ingredients to play with. The next thing I tried to make was a pizza pie, which I tried to modify after a recipe my mom used to make as a kid, but also using a recipe in the little included book for the “pie batter.” Let’s just say that woman Cathy Mitchell can shove her bull$h!t “pie batter” up her @$$. It came out all wrong looking like pizza vomit! Later I attempted to modify the batter recipe and basically ended up with some not so terrible turkey, ham and cheese hot pockets, but homemade. The batter recipe needs more tweaking. This weekend Emily and I will be doing stuffed soup (barf!), cornbread/dogs and chocolate cake. I’ll be filming as best as I can with my digital camera and will try and edit it into a youtube infomercial at some point

Remember that Playboy surprise birthday party I posted about last weekend? Well turns out everyone had a fabulous time at it! The rumor, well more like speculation, is that some might have even had a “swinging” good time at it. Yeah, it’s starting to make sense now!

On Saturday Emily and I hit the mall to go clothes shopping for . . . . . Las Vegas! We have a trip coming up in the near future, since she’s always bugging me about going somewhere with her So it seems for the third year in a row I’m going to Las Vegas for a fun weekend, though this one is more of an extended weekend. Twill be fun, especially since I’ll have someone to go dancing with. Maybe this year I’ll finally be able to get on the coaster at New York New York too! Plus it will be my first vacation in too many years to count where I don’t have to run back to the hotel room at 1pm to watch 2 hours of soaps. Nor will I have to utter the words “Before dinner let me just make a few page updates.” That’s going to be very odd let me tell you!

We are also probably going to do infomercial movie night. What’s that? It’s where we watch movie and cook food with my infomercial products! Drinks from the Magic Bullet™ and possibly also a cheesecake for dessert from it, but more than likely not. We’ll probably be going to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch as is. One of these days though I will attempt to bake my own cheesecake. Strawberry season at the farm is next month, maybe I’ll make one then. Oh also some kind of snacks complements of the GT Xpress™! Oh yes, I got one . . . you knew I would though right? Mmmm, corn dogs, pizza pouches and whatever else we can invent!

But it gets better! First we’ll probably be on web cam making a mess in the kitchen if you all want to watch, but we are also going to try and make our own infomercial of our using the products. A few months ago I wanted to get into doing a video blog every now and then, but it never happened because as usual, I didn’t have the time and had too many other things on my plate. Now I think I might be able to do it, but need to get the software as my trial period ended long ago. So I’m going to do that and who knows, maybe I can make a short infomercial of our fun night out of it.

Oh yeah the movie part of the night. Um, I don’t know what we’ll watch. We keep saying we need to have a Patrick Swayze movie night, maybe we’ll just do that.