Pip and I have been slowly adding on the miles in our training walks. Today we did a 14.7 mile walk from Potrero Hill to Ocean Beach and back. It was a warm and sunny day, so I spent the entire walk in shorts and a T-shirt. We walked through Hayes Valley and the Panhandle and noticed many porta-potties. The city is preparing itself for the influx people who will arrive for Bay to Breakers tomorrow. In the park, they had chain link fences up around certain areas to keep drunk rowdies from falling into the lake or trampling over flowers. I’ve always wanted to do Bay to Breakers but I can never organize myself to actually do it. Today it kind of felt like we did our own quiet version without the crowds

The things you see and hear while exploring the city are often entertaining. In the park, we walked by a band of hippies fawning over the callas lilies. “The flowers,” one woman cooed, “are so sexual.” Umm, okay…

As we walked down 17th Street near The Castro, we spotted a large caucasian man wandering the streets in nothing but a tiny leather thong. Save it for Bay to Breakers, darling!

Marching through The Mission, we witnessed a man casually standing by a car urinating. The attempt to hide himself was feeble at best.

The other thing we saw today is that they’ve closed off the intersection at Castro and 17th. They are trying out the concept of a pedestrian plaza. They had plants sectioning off the area and metal chairs for people to lounge on. I think I like it. People are always walking against the light at that intersection anyway.

We got home happy and exhausted as dusk was settling across the city skyline. We celebrated with some chicken enchiladas with mole sauce that Pip had made at work the day before. Delicious!

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2008 was a good year. Thank you thank you THANK YOU to my husband, family and friends…

For all the miles we walked together in memory of those we’ve lost
For all the music we enjoyed at concerts and on the dancefloor
For all the Sunday dinners, birthday parties and happy hours
For all the smiles and laughter
For all the years together we’ve celebrated

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Pip’s mom makes a killer crab dip. It helps that she comes from Cajun country where the crab is pretty damn good. Pip received a request to share, so I thought I’d blog about it and share it with everyone.

1 eight ounce package of cream cheese
1 stick of butter
2 green onions, thinly sliced
2 shakes of Tabasco
2 shakes of garlic powder
1 pound of crab meat

Melt cream cheese and butter in a double boiler or in a metal bowl over boiling water. Add onions, Tabasco and garlic powder. Mix well. Add crab meat and heat through. Taste for salt and serve. A squeeze of lemon juice can also be added if it is too rich.

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Madonna never fails to put on a proper spectacle. Last night’s show at the Oakland Arena, just one of the stops on her current Sticky and Sweet Tour, included all the things you would expect for her — striking visuals, incredible choreography, several costume changes, a lot of glamour and attitude, and just enough sex and rock-n-roll to keep things spicy. In short, it was a two-hour sensory overload.

I spent this morning surfing online. With the proliferation of digital cameras, it’s easier to find fan videos. I was able to collect a bunch of videos and recreate the playlist from last night. You can find it on YouTube. Some of my favorite moments…

• Madonna rocks out on the guitar to “Human Nature” as video plays behind her. A woman is dark sunglasses is trapped in an elevator. Madonna sings, “I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me.” As the song ends, the woman in the video is revealed. “It’s Britney, bitch!”
• A new version of “Vogue” is performed as a mashup over “4 Minutes”. The choreography is updated to have a more hip-hop feel. Hot!
• “Borderline” gets reinvented into a storming rock number. Working the electric guitar in thigh high socks and skimpy shorts, she’s like a high school gym teacher’s wet dream.
• In the middle of “She’s Not Me”, a track from her current album, four women appear on stage dressed in former Madonna personas — the Marilyn-esque Madonna from “Material Girl”, the “Like a Virgin” bride, the erotic dancer from “Open Your Heart”, and the “Express Yourself” Madonna in lingerie and a business suit. The Madonna of 2008 bitchslaps them all.
• She performs a lovely acoustic version of “You Must Love Me” with Greek musicians.
• For her final number, Madonna performs “Give It 2 Me”. The track sounds like it has more of a club feel, maybe using the recent Eddie Amador remix as a basis. It sounds fantastic live!

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The past few weeks were beautifully warm and sunny, but as we near the end of October, I can feel the end of our indian summer as the temperatures drop and rain begins to fall. The colder mornings and shorter days are making it harder to get out of bed in the morning. At least we took advantage of the warm weather while we could.

On the weekend after we were married, we kept our tradition of hanging out at Folsom Street Fair with Chaz, Rochelle and David. It was a fun day of hanging out with friends, walking amidst the fun freaky nakedness, taking some photos, and enjoying a few cocktails. One of the main highlights was seeing Berlin live. Terri Nunn still sounds great and looks incredible. They performed a lot of the older hits as well as a new song off their soon-to-be-released album.

The following weekend was Lovefest. Market Street was overtaken by floats pounding out dance beats at high decibels with hoards of people following them like mice after the Pied Piper. After the floats parked around Civic Center, we did a lap around to check everyone out. The floats covered the gamut of the dance landscape, both literally and figuratively. Ultra Records had a huge float pumping out a more commercial house sound. Temple Nightclub had a white float that featured David Harness in the afternoon. I stopped by to say hi to David and got to take in the amazing view of the crowd. A lot of the lot of the local party collectives, like Qool and Pink Mammoth had floats. Even my new favorite gay bar, Truck, had a small but fun presence.

In the middle of October we celebrated Kurtis’ birthday at his house with his friend and family. The next day we enjoyed a sunny day in Golden Gate Park at Alice Radio’s Now and Zen Festival. The main reason we wanted to go was to see the headliner, Duffy. Since early this year, we’ve been listening and loving her debut album, Rockferry. I have a weakness for soulful female vocals. She’s only played a handful of dates in the U.S., and Now and Zen was her only date in the Bay Area. Being the total geeky fans we are, we got there early so that we could be right up front to the stage. Our friend Kelly joined us later. Surrounded by mostly frantic teenage girls, we stayed in our spot the entire afternoon and enjoyed all the acts — Lenka, Sara Bareilles, Sugar Ray, and Gavin DeGraw. I thought Duffy’s set was short but awesome.

Last week was insanely busy but fun. I DJ’ed at a LGBT mixer and fundraiser, Out Together. However, what took a good chunk of my free time was Halloween at work. My co-worker Matt masterminded a haunted house for a company event. Being super creative, detail oriented and just a little crazy, he designed a haunted house with eleven distinct sets. This included a graveyard with a real hearse, a mad scientist’s lab with old equipment donated from one of our facilities, a ghost wedding complete with altar and skeleton priest, and a murder scene where the bloody victim would come life. One of my fun tasks was to design the sounds for all the areas. While we didn’t get to use the sounds everywhere, I think it added that extra something where did. After some frantic last-minute preparation, I slipped into my pirate costume and welcomed people as the wandered into our maze.

November quickly approaches. I fight the temptation to hibernate…

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I’ll be DJ’ing here at an after work LGBT mixer at the Symantec campus in Mountain View on October 22. The proceeds will benefit the Billy DeFrank Center and Project Outlet. It’ll be a fun evening. Get your tickets now!

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Sixteen years ago, Pip and I met on March 22. The vernal equinox. The first day of Spring. The mark of a new beginning. Now that we can be legally married, it was only appropriate that we have our civil ceremony on September 22, the autumnal equinox.

We were married on a sunny Monday afternoon at City Hall. Since we have already been together for such a long time, we wanted to keep things small. Also, at City Hall, they limit the amount guests that can attend. Our witnesses included my mom, my brother Eric, and my best friends Kurtis and Michele. Pip’s best friend David, who was our best man at our first commitment ceremony in 1995, was there as well. Another close friend, Rochelle, came with her kids. Rochelle’s husband, Chaz, was there the night I met Pip. Kurtis’ boyfriend, Doug, generously offered to photograph our special day.

A lot of time was spent waiting in lines, applying for the license and waiting our turn to be married. As we waited, we wandered around City Hall with Doug taking photos. At our first ceremony, we didn’t really think about a professional photographer, but we have a lot of photos taken from disposable cameras. We may get those glamour shots this time around!

The ceremony itself was short but really heartfelt. We stood in the main rotunda surrounded by our family and friends. Although it was a standard civil ceremony, I was struck at how beautifully crafted it was.

Rochelle and the kids brought a bag of flower petals. As we left the building, we were showered with them. Afterwards, we took everyone out for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. Again, although it was low-key, all that mattered is that we were surrounded by some of favorite people on our special day.

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Last weekend was the Susan B. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk. Many of our friends from the Warming Hut Hotties were participating, so we decided to go out and be cheerleaders. The Hotties were there to cheer us on at the Avon Walk and it made such a big difference, so we wanted to do the same for them.

We met some of our Hottie friends on on Saturday near the beginning of the Golden Gate Bridge. The walkers camped in Chrissy Field and were going to walk to Mill Valley and back. Our friend Marsha came prepared with tons of stuff to support the walkers during the long trek in the sun. We were happy to be her little elves and help distribute goodies throughout the day. In Sausalito when it was starting to get hot, we had spray bottles to spritz and cool them down. In Mill Valley after the lunch stop, we offered strawberries and mini ice bags to help them cool off in the sun.

On Sunday, we met with our friend MJ and went to Alamo Square to cheer. MJ, who won her fight against breast cancer, wore a sign around her neck: “Thank you for this survivor for walking.” It was incredible to see all the Hotties on the route.

The 2000 walkers and 400 crew members raised $4,729,000 for the cause. This year, the Warming Hut Hotties raised over $400,000 participating in four events. Way to go, everyone!

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What a great day! They had a special event at VISA HQ for Michael Phelps. Pip was able to get me in for the meet and greet. We got our photo taken with him and got his autograph. I was star-struck and we were only with him for a minute, so we didn’t really get a chance to say much to him other than thank you and congratulations. Still, it was a treat to shake the hand of the most successful Olympian ever.

Later, he was on stage for a quick interview. He talked about what he was doing next — working on a foundation for kids and water safety, attending the MTV Video Music Awards, hosting Saturday Night Live, and then going back to Baltimore to see his dog.

I rushed back home to do some work at home in the afternoon. Then, it was off to the theater! We went to see the opening night of Spring Awakening with our friends, Jim and Joe. I didn’t really know anything about the story before seeing it. Pip had seen a version of the original play years ago.

We had great seats — five rows back, stage left. The entire cast is really strong and performed excellently. The music was written by Duncan Sheik who is probably best known in the pop world for his mid-90’s hit, “Barely Breathing”. From what I remember from his first album, you can hear Sheik’s musical and lyrical style throughout the rock and roll score.

Based on a German play by Frank Wedekind from 1891, Spring Awakening is a play about youth, sex and morality. Considering the themes of the play, it’s not surprising that Wedekind’s plays were repeatedly banned and censored during his lifetime.

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