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We enjoyed our time with my trainer, Rodrigo, and his wife Pam. I had not met her before and they came to the desert to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. I was very happy to be included in the time they spent in Palm Springs.

We had them come by the house for a quick drink, and then wished them off to Tropicale for dinner. It was a slow night there, what with it being Sunday in the summer. For some reason they were out of some of the dinner items that I would have ordered had they been available, but... What we had was delicious by all comments

It was still great and I just love being in that room. Rodrigo and Pam seemed to enjoy their meal and we all left sated. The evening was still warm, as the day topped out at 113 degrees. It felt strangely good to have 95 degrees in the dark of night.

We then headed for DINK'S in North Palm Springs. Rebecca Clark was singing in the Ultra Lounge and she was remarkably good. I had not heard of her before but would go hear her again.

We enjoyed a couple of drinks and left when the music stopped. I think Rodrigo and Pam stopped at the Spa Casino as we headed back home. They are kids and have all that energy and stuff. Good for them.

And thanks for a wonderful evening kids.

As we drove into town last night we commented on how the streets were empty of people. Then we rolled down the windows. Oh.

The heat flowed into the car and we understood. Summer has arrived.

The high yesterday was 110. That, however, was nothing compared with last year where we had 13 days in June with temps over 110, mostly 115 to 117 degrees. This year we had a fabulous June with temps hovering in the high 80's to mid 90's. It's time for the heat to come. It is the desert.

Today we are installing more floating glass shelves in the media room and Steve is putting toether two more cabinets for the guest room storage. Hopefully we will get to go to Bongo's for a bite, or maybe the brunch at Azul for a change.

Then maybe some pool time??

We are going to have some company later today. My trainer Rodrigo and his wife Pam are coming to the desert for their 1st anniversary. We have plans to take them to dinner at Tropicale and then to Dinks for some entertainment.

We'll see how the day goes.

While things are wonderful, there just has been nothing to inspire me to write.

You hear the same old things all the time about going to dinner, but we didn't join friends or seek anyone out this last weekend. If anyone had come into our time I would have written. We had wonderful dinners at Azul, Look and Matchbox, and our usual breakfast on Sunday at Bongo Johnny's.

We worked around the house, unpacking boxes that have been buggin me for two years now. We laid in the pool. Steve put cabinets from IKEA together to store some more boxes that have bugged me. Then we put new glass shelves on the walls in the media room to hold some of our primitive sculptures and pots from Africa, the Solomon Islands, South America and the pueblos of the American southwest.


The time was well spent and relaxing. We watched two movies and did little else.

Nothing to write home about....

It's a repost from Joe.my.god.com on pride parades. Great!

Check it out.

We saw a lot of people this weekend. And of course we ate in a lot of restaurants. People on Facebook are beginning to kid me on how much we eat out. We are just not enjoying cooking right now.

Saturday night we got over to Palm Springs before 7:00 so we went to Azul for a bite. It was a beautiful not too hot, not too cold night in the desert and we felt we should enjoy outside dining as long as we could. The hot weather will be here in no time and that makes al fresco impossible for a couple of months.

We ran into an old friend from San Diego Phil F. and his boyfriend Ross. It was good to see Phil, as we run in different circles these days. Well, really we always did, but they used to overlap at parties and events. Not so much these days.

After dinner we decided to go to Toucan's for a change. It's the dance bar in Palm Springs and always packed and fun. Luckily we got there just ahead of the crowds and found a parking spot and didn't have to wait in line to get in. Yay. At this point in my life I don't do lines for very long.

We made it home at a decent time without too many drinks to make Sunday morning ugh-ly.

We had spoken to Mitch about breakfast/brunch for Sunday so we met him at Bongo Johnny's. (We wanted to go to Dink's, but they open only for dinners now and closed on Mondays for the summer.) We ran into Tom H, my lifelong friend from San Diego, with Freddy G, formerly of San Diego, now from Palm Springs and also a lifelong friend, and a friend of theirs having breakfast. I invited them back to the house afterward and we had a wonderful visit for an hour and they saw the house for the first time.

Steve had purchased the last of the filing cabinets we needed to start assembling our desks in the media room. He got the old makeshift desks out and jerry rigged a desktop out of shelving over the new cabinets. Much better till we get the real desktop. That also freed up the material to configure better bar top and cabinets in the bar.

Sunday night we went over to our friend Ed's house for a drink and to meet his neighbor Natasha. She is a Russian who spent time in German concentration camps as a girl. She is glamourous and decorated with jewerly, mad hair and perfect makeup. She is tragically wonderful.

We all went to a place new to me called Leon's. It is at a country club down South Palm Canyon and the restaurant looks north over a beautiful golf course to the mountains. It is terraced and must seat 250 guests. (They said they served 200 brunches that day.) They have a very good pianist who plays odd things like theme music from TV shows in the 70's (All In The Family, M*A*S*H*), show tunes and old standards.

The food was good, not exceptional, but the ambiance and reasonable pricing should bring a lot of people in once the word gets out. We will go back. We'll try the $15.00 brunch one Sunday.

Monday morning Steve decided to configure the bar using the stack shelving that had been our desks. It gave us a sense of the size we need when we build the permanent bar. He stored all of the liquor on it's sheves and it really looked much better than the old too-big table we were using.

Monday Ed came over to use the pool for excercise as the pool in his complex is under renovation.

As he was leaving we were closing the house and I didn't realize that we had placed the new bar too close to the sliding door. When I slid the door to close it, the door frame hit the new bar structure and a bottle of wine fell to the tile floor and broke.

The tragedy was that it was a highly collectible 1996 Marilyn Merlot. I cleaned it up and looked online to replace it only to find that it's value had increased from the $40 I paid for it way back when to over $200. Well, I replaced it, considered it a lesson, and a further investment. The bottle of 1995 Marilyn Merlot next to it had teetered, but did not fall. I checked on it's value and it was over $500 to replace. The cost to replace the broken bottle may pay off later. I hope.

Then we met Mitchell for lunch at Pinoccio's. This has become a favorite lunch spot and someplace I'd love to try for breakfast. It is mainly outdoor seating, with good service and wonderul food. I had the crab, bacon, avocado, lettuce and tomato sandwich on Wheatberry bread. YUM.

Dinner was at Wang's In The Desert, another of our favorites. Again we ate outside while we still can. It was a beautiful evening and the meal was it's usual delcious.

Today we have to go register the new RV and head back to San Diego. Luckily the work week goes fairly fast so we can get back over here to Palm Springs. The good part is that we get to spend some time with Scott. The bad part is that time is so limited since he is working such wierd hours.

Today Scott's probation period is over. Congratulations Scotty. Maybe things will get easier?

Now to see what the week brings.

I had to share this.

I Do Not Deserve Your Tolerance
by David Badash on January 13, 2009 ·

in Discrimination, Marriage, Politics

I am an American citizen. I pay taxes. I vote. I have a passport. I volunteer my time and voice and donate money to charities or causes I believe in. I have a college degree from a pretty good school. For most of the time since I was fifteen I have worked, often 60 - 80 hours a week. I am in a committed relationship. I try to call my mother a few times a week. I hold the door open for anyone in front of or behind me. I’m generally the last one out of the elevator. I’ve contacted my local government when I believed something needed improvement. I have good, long-term friendships. I’ve given money to friends who needed help. I’ve lent countless items to friends, assuming they will not be returned. I’ve worked to help people I know who were in crisis get through the next day. I’ve sat on the phone for hours with people who were depressed. I have a dog, the second one I’ve rescued from a shelter. I feed and walk him, a lot. I pick up after him, every time. I am called upon to help or give an opinion several times a week. I’ve done jury duty. I have never been arrested. I am financially self-sufficient. I have a few credit cards. I have an apartment. I have homeowners’ insurance. When I needed a car for work I got one, kept it in good shape, kept it insured. I have a home air purifier. I take vitamins. I try to eat well and take care of myself physically and mentally. I have a primary care physician. I always bring a gift to a host or hostess when I am invited into their home. I say “please”, “thank you”, and, too often I’m told, “I’m sorry.” I sometimes send out Christmas cards. I call friends to say “Happy Thanksgiving”. I, not infrequently, get calls from people who used to work for me asking if I would given them a reference. I rarely say “no”. I rarely say “no” when asked to do anything for someone. No one knows this, but I am the only person in my building of over 300 apartments who calls the laundry company when the machines break. I sometimes go into the recycling bins and re-sort them when my neighbors mix paper and plastic. I always leave a good tip, usually more than 20%. I don’t yell at waiters or waitresses, though I have yelled at drivers who run red lights. I keep my TV and music at a reasonable level, especially late at night so I don’t disturb my neighbors. I’ve installed dimmers in my home to conserve electricity. I have a checking and a savings account. I almost always pay my bills on time. I have an excellent credit rating. I tip all the doormen and maintenance people in my building at Christmas. I’ve lived in the same apartment for nine years. I backup my computer. I buy extended warranties on expensive electronics. I try to share information as often as I can. I generally pay more than my share when going out to dinner with friends. I generally return calls within twenty-four hours. I keep my home reasonably clean. I subscribe to a daily newspaper, and try to read it almost every day. I keep abreast of current events. I receive my news from a wide variety of sources. When disagreeing with someone, I try to remain civil and respectful. I take my dog to the dog park several times a week. I know he would like to go more often. I compliment strangers sometimes. I call restaurants to cancel if I can’t keep my reservation. I try to validate my friend’s feelings and listen to their thoughts openly. I rarely boast or brag. I try to patronize local businesses. Although it’s hard for me to say this, I’m pretty certain I will have left somewhat of a positive impact on the world by the time I’m gone. I scattered my father’s ashes where he wanted me too. I flew with my family to attend my grandmother’s funeral. I was captain of the safety patrol in sixth grade. I was president of the theatre society in high school. I wrote to my congressmen to help save the dolphins from tuna fishermen when I was a boy. I want to get married. I can’t, because I’m gay.

I grew up feeling sad and different and sometimes ashamed.

I no longer am sad, I’m glad I’m different, and I’ll be damned if I’ll ever be ashamed of who I am or what I believe. Because what I believe is that we are all the same. We are all equal. We all deserve to love and have our love recognized.

I think I’m a pretty good person. I know I’m as good as anyone else. I have done little enough wrong to deserve your forgiveness. I’ve done nothing that deserves your pity. And I know that I am good enough to not deserve your tolerance.

Tolerance is for someone who doesn’t know better, like my dog who likes to jump on people. Tolerance is for someone whose views negatively impact your life, like people who want to stop me from loving the man I love, with all my heart. I do not want your tolerance. I do not deserve your tolerance. I will not accept your tolerance, any longer. What I will do is my best to ensure that we are all given equality and the legal right to love and marry the person who loves us back. From now on I will tolerate nothing less.

I put a piece on Biblical Marriage on the rants today. It would be funny if it weren't so right on..

Just had to share this piece I just got from a friend. It's beautiful, just like the march itself.
Thanks Christopher!

After a relaxing and warm weekend we came back to San Diego. It's a wonderful sunny day but not nearly as warm as Palm Springs. I know it's considered warm here but we are actually cold.

We had some good, and healthy meals in the desert this week. As I said before we dined at Wangs on Saturday night. Sunday morning was our usual Bongo Johnny's for breakfast and then took off for some errands and chores.

Steve really could not get the Denon amplifier he bought to work. It was just too complex, so he packed it up and we headed for Best Buy in Palm Desert to return it and find one we could use. No such luck. The only one that would work they were out of and it was back ordered. Maybe two weeks. We drove over to Pacific Sales by the Costco, and of course, it was closed. So we went home tuneless.

We had dinner at Look, which is really one of our favorites. The food is alway good and you can sit outside or in, and then headed for Street Bar to see if Mitchell was still there. He wasn't. We saw no need in staying and headed home.

Monday morning our landscape maintenance guy, Simon, and his crew showed up to trim all the hedges and a tree. They do a great job and they always show up. Sometimes late, but they always show up.

Afterward we headed into North Palm Springs to look again at the dimensional laminate for the living room walls and for some tile for the media room fireplace. We think we have made some decisions. Now we have to get our designer to get involved and order the stuff so we can get the fabricators over in Palm Springs to install it and paint it. The tile people who did our floors will do the tile work.

We went over to our friend Ed's house to have a drink and a chat with him and then headed over to Matchbox for dinner. We were out on a balcony overlooking Palm Canyon and it is really a fun spot, as well as showing what a charming town Palm Springs is.

So we had another wonderful weekend with plenty of pool time and warmth, and even a few things accomplished. No amplifier as of yet , but that will happen too.

On another note, as my friend Karen in Montana noticed in the shout outs, the ever evil Dick Cheney was asked over the weekend how he feels about the legality same-sex marriage. On the safe side he said it feels it is a states rights issue and should be legal but on a state by state basis. Of course with 60 percent of the states already passing anti gay legislation regarding same-sex marriage, it makes it an amazingly safe opinion.

And what about DOMA? The heinous Defense Of Marriage Act that the conservatives got passed and Bill Clinton signed? He wasn't asked that question.

It will happen. Hopefully soon.