Guest lodgings and 30,000 miles

Put away a few things in the guest room this morning (and took down the broken Jesus picture,) and here's how it looked with sunlight streaming in today..







The boy from Abilene was heard from last night. I'm publishing the details in the private blog - if you're not a reader and you want to be, just ask me (and, depending on our relationship, I may let you.) I was quite harsh. Bram hooted with laughter.

Scarlett is in the shop today and tomorrow for the 30,000 mile service, repairing the foglamps and their associated wiring harness, the sunroof (again,) and the stereo speakers which are buzzing. I think she'll be ready near the end of the day tomorrow.

Riding the bus home today for the FIRST time!

Humor for this Wednesday morning that feels like Tuesday:

A very gentle Texas lady was driving across a high
bridge in Texas one day. As she neared the top of the
bridge, she noticed a young man fixin' to jump.

She stopped her car, rolled down the window and
said, "Please don't jump, think of your dear mother
and father."

He replied, "Mom and Dad are both dead; I'm going to
jump".

She said, "Well, think of your wife and children."

He replied, "I'm not married and I don't have any
kids"

She said, "Well, think of the Alamo ."

He replied, "What's the Alamo ?"

She replied, "Well, bless your heart, just go ahead
and jump, you dumb assed Yankee."

I'm cleaning up my "to do" list today, and going home to pull weeds and trans-plants that can be put into pots and successfully populate the courtyard. Bram's on the ambulance tonight, which means that I can look forward to a peaceful evening of that, taking out the trash, and watching my newly arrived disc of "25 - Season Three."

Talked to my dad last night for a good long time, he actually seemed to be interested in what's going on with the church. And, I had several calls last night from the Phoenix minister who I have already written to tell "only with a mediator, please."

Okay, time to line out the tasks to be accomplished and off we go!!

Funny how tired I'm feeling today. Bleh. We're waiting for more rain.

O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

Mark Twain

Sometimes it's just the little things....

Here are some pictures of Matticia magic:

First is a picture of the amazo-cool shoe holders from IKEA at $2.99 each:



Then, two pictures of the picture lamps that Matticia hung for me in the bedroom - the flash kind of destroys how cool it looks in there. The indirect light and shadows are AMAZING. Now, I have to pick out DIFFERENT colors for in here... but it makes me very happy.





Then, three pictures of the kitchen post-hockey puck lamps. First, the before picture of the crappy five buck over sink fixture...



Then, two pictures - one over the sink showing the lamps (hidden above) with the hanging bread board, and the other of the coffee cannister which is in the "before" picture.





My new bedroom ceiling fan makes all of the difference in how well I sleep, it seems. It's silent, it moves more air than a Category II hurricane, and I sleep very soundly with it running. The packaging for the various things that I have had to save are all neatly organized in the attic. The Christmas stuff, same story. My bedroom closet is MUCHO organized, with the shoes in these very cool IKEA hanging things, all of the stuff to be eBayed organized in one area, the stuff to be scanned and scrapbooked in another, all of the clothing in another ..

The train curio is now lighted, with more and cooler stuff displayed therein, my bedroom artwork is lighted, the deco bar is re-lighted, and the kitchen - oh, my goodness - just a hundred dollars and some Matticiamatic talent and it's transformed. There are now six hockey puck lamps illuminating the sink and the counter area, which a.) look WAY cool, b.) provide twenty times the illumination, and c.) make the whole counter area look awesome. With the vent hood lamp on, the kitchen has more than enough light, and it's so amazing. The dishwasher no longer leaks waste water into the under counter area (total cost - $6.00.) The water coming out of the faucet is clean, fresh and filtered to 2 microns. The water coming out of the refrigerator - the same. The cool bread board that came from my mom is hanging over the sink, out of the way and balancing a picture on the other side.

Wow. All that, a trip to the office to fire off some missives at the ministers who vex me, two big naps, a huge load of trash to the trash, and all these new tschotkes in the living room. Wow. Oh, and the lovely lace curtain over the guest room window, the new bedding therein, lamps (if we can crack the non-standard socket code issue,) and pictures on the walls in there.

Simply amazing. And, the pool party last night was a whole lot of fun. David always has outstanding music mixes, and Bram, Matticia and I basically sat in the kitchen chowing down, sucking down cocktails, yapping about all kinds of stuff and listening to the music.

Tonight's movie selection - the original "Fun With Dick and Jane," in honor of Jane Fonda being so fabulous still at 70 or thereabouts, and in honor of time gone by with the passing of Charles Nelson Riley.

Guest lecturer

So, I met up with a client today, delivered some tax returns and had a very nice lunch. Then, to Nicole's grandmother's house, where we loaded up her old TV (that I bought from her) and checked out the myriad cool kitschy things that are there - lamps, tables, desks, bars, etc. Fun stuff. I want to haul most of it over here, clean it up, photograph it and sell it on eBay/CL.

Today, while finishing those tax returns, I had the most amusing call from the head of the ministerial college in Dallas. Well, she asked how things were going, and how the church was going, and what's changed - so I told her. It was fabulous - she said she was going to make some calls. I told her that I was unwilling to have another confrontational discussion with the minister from Phoenix, and that I was only open to communication with him if it was faciliated.

GUESS who started calling me only two hours later? Yep. Rev. Phoenix. Called four times today. VERY upset, and sounding like he was ready to jump into my shit with both feet again. The first time he called, I was in traffic on the west loop - saw that the phone was ringing, and was GOING to answer it but it went to voice mail before I had a chance to mentally process what the number may have meant. Then, while I was unloading the car with Bram and cleaning up the upstairs (we moved the furniture in the guest room all around, and the furniture in HIS room all around) Rev. P called again. Well, hell, the phone was downstairs in the charger at that point, and I was either moving a bed with Bram or vacuuming or something. He called twice after 6:00 p.m., at which point the "I don't answer the phone after 6:00 p.m." rule kicks in, and .. sorry, Charlie.

Nicole's got a FABULOUS iron outside round table and four matching chairs that can come live on my courtyard on Monday - she also had a really cool Edwardian goddess bird bath that's about four feet high that's now occupying space in the courtyard corner. Pictures tomorrow.

I put the luggage, the foldaway cot and some other stuff in another closet from my bedroom closet - gradually creating some room there. This weekend, Matticia has promised to help me eBayize the closet.

It's just so quiet in here right now - the birds and the traffic, and my great-grand uncle's 1920s clock ticking on the mantle. Lovely stuff.

The neighbor lady (who's at least a hundred and ten) truly no longer greets me. The only thing that has happened is that her daughter (my next door neighbor) caught on that I'm no fan of Geo. W and Dick. So, I guess that makes me a non-person here in the neighborhood.

I think it's time to throw a big gay party, with male strippers as cocktail waiters and valet attendants!!

Maybe the two smoking hot 30 year olds who live eight doors down will wander down to check out what's going on.

These are pretty clever Try to resist moving quickly. Look at each picture, try to determine what it represents, and then look at the answer below the picture.

We'll go easy on you for the first one:



Get it? Light beer?

Here's the next one - still not too hard -



Of course, they're DANDY lions!

Now, the next one -



Oh no! The poor guy! He's an assaulted peanut!

Now, one that's dead easy



Of course, it's an EGG plant

The next one is a very famous public servant:



It's DOCTOR Pepper!

Next, it's what every straight boy wants in his home ...



A pool table, of course!

Check out these hot babes!



They're TAP dancers, yep!

So, if you've been feeling challenged up until now, this one will make you feel smarter -



Card shark. What else could it be?

Next, it's one of Michael Jackson's nome de plume:



He's the KING of pop!

You may find this next one at the Apple store ..



They're eye pods!!

This next guy is a public hero -



He's a gator aide! He'll be busy this Memorial Day weekend.

Next to last, it's what we hope we avoid when sleeping -



A Knight Mare.

And, we wrap up with:



Hole milk! Perfectly appropriate for my holy cow remarks from earlier today.

How many did you get right?

I suppose I could be more



I mean, after all, I have a stack of stuff to be filed, I have a box of stuff to take home and put away, and I have a short stack of things to review and print out tomorrow, and then deliver, BUT -

I'm



I'm all



caught up!

I'm to a point where it's time to start working on marketing for myself, working on creative projects like the courses I've already got pre-sold, the outline for the book I've got pre-bought for publication, and the drop ship internet business.

Holy crap!

By tomorrow at this time, the files will all be organized, the stuff in the mail or delivered, and ..



I don't know how to feel - I mean, I feel elated!

Insurance against disaster

I spent some time today working on the plan for the weekend. Matticia wants to build a courtyard roof, and I'm like "I don't want to work that hard this weekend."



Time to work some more...

When you are caught red-handed in



and



Don't ever again be surprised when I call you out on it right on the spot and am a total

So, a "friend" whom I have coached through setting up his small business, have provided hour upon hour of consultation to, who came to me for a home loan and promptly went out and tried to buy nearly 200% of what I told him he could afford, then he dragged through completing the loan, because he'd been told by another loan officer that she could do the deal better, cheaper, and faster - so, he ditched me, leaving me holding the bag on almost $500 in third-party charges sends me an IM today telling me he still wants to be friends.

Here's my reply:

drdivo: I just last night learned that one of my "good friends" who has called on me repeatedly over the years for free legal advice and assistance gave his loan to a fucking male stripper that's never done a loan. Ever in his life. And, the stripper is straight. So, no, today is not a good day for someone who professed to be my friend, who was perfectly willing to suck all the knowledge out of my head for years, and then decides to run off to another loan officer because his sister said he should to contact me saying "I want to be friends." Friends how, exactly? Friends so that you can ask me whatever question you have and then tell me you're too busy to get together, or it's too far to drive, or that you've found yet another person to take your business too?

Automotive Refinancing

Search Public Records for .

So, I did the presentation. Interesting who didn't show up. One could almost have predicted it. It's like Sunday presentations - the ones who would most benefit are the ones I can almost predict won't show up.

Well, focus on the ones who are interested, I guess.

Assembling some research and resources to develop some better online marketing. This means, I suppose, that I should get my own website content fixed up. Bleh.

in·san·i·ty Pronunciation: in-'sa-n&-tE noun
Current mood: aggravated
Category: Life

1 : a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia)
2 : such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility
3 a : extreme folly or unreasonableness b : something utterly foolish or unreasonable

Of late, a colloquial definition of insanity has been going around - "doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result."

I'd say that new phrase neatly fits the dictionary definition, especially as espoused in part 3a and 3b.

I was listening to XM 154 this morning, which is an all Canadian stand up comedy channel. There was a guy carrying on about dating women, which he compared to laying down on the railroad tracks before an oncoming train - his friends all try to persuade him to get off the tracks, and he swears "I KNOW THIS TRAIN IS DIFFERENT."

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

Howdy, all - it's a suit and tie for non-stop party and stress over how the hell I'm going to get everything done day.

And "will Jackie pee on the front rug" day.

I'm trying to re-create the fundamental messages of the book "Your Marketing Sucks" for tomorrow's presentation, but since I only have four people coming anyway - why worry about it, I guess?

Went to the Legacy Community Health annual luncheon today - John and Jeffrey are table sponsors. I felt like a fish contemplating a bicycle. Who knew that there were all these wealthy fags who knew each other that I had never seen? Where have I been? North Dakota?

Or in insular seculsion at home with my cable modem? Hm.

In a few hours, we have our company's 13th anniversary party. The president of the Texas Assoc of Mortgage Brokers has flown in to attend. Our employees? Uninterested, unengaged, many not attending.

Okay, I'm working on this power point to deliver to the four employees who signed up for the free lunch tomorrow.

So, we started today with church. Programmed my OnStar voice tags (finally.) Well, some of them, anyway. Today, I was speaking of the Science of Mind as it appears in the bible - so, I walked up the aisle carrying .. a bible. Never have done that before, it was kind of weird.

Went to this Diana party last night, and Tom went with me - he's so much fun to spend time with. It was fun to be out and social; I have spent years NOT doing that, and it's really fun to feel like I'm starting to get back there.

My bedroom is SO cool now that it's all re-arranged. I am now unsure how I should paint it, or if.

I am l-o-v-i-n-g my new punch bowl. How about a picture? Bram says it's the gayest thing he's ever seen.





So, I got more of what I set out to accomplish did -

I went out to pick up the stuffs at the store, and shortly after my return, Bram got up out of bed (after working all night it's no surprise he needed to sleep in,) and helped me move the furniture around in my bedroom, hang the drapery rod, put said drapes upon it, and take the grill out to the trash along with .. well, the trash.

Here we have a few pictures of the results...













And, since I don't think that my new man friend will be heard from today, I'll just show you my new favorite picture of David Boreanaz: