End of the year meme

Happily stolen from Urspo and Erik!

2010 Accomplishment:
In September I finally made the step to start seeing a therapist again! I suffered a lot this year with depression. I needed to face some issues I've been dealing with and it has really helped!

2010 Discovery:
My new DOC (Drink Of Choice): Lambic. OMG, if you haven't tried it yet, go get some now! The Framboise (raspberry) is wonderful!!

Favorite 2010 Vacation/Holiday:
A vacation in Chicago with my great friend Jay! It was bitter cold but I love the city and can't wait to go back (when it's warmer). I loved the Institute of Art and mostly spending time with my friend.

Best dining in 2010:
I took Urspo up on a recommendation to eat at El Siboney in Key West! It was really great food!

2010 Regret:
That I didn't always take the high road in everything I did. I chose to not be my best and that lead to some ugly situations. Hence, my New Year's Resolutions is: Take The High Road.

Magic Moment in 2010:
Falling in love. I never expected it to happen. And even though the relationship didn't turn out as planned I have no regrets. I had kind of given up hope that I ever would love someone and have them love me in return. It's nice to know that I felt that... and want to feel it again when the time is right.

What states did you visit in 2010?
Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

The 2010 Surprise:
There weren't that many surprises for me this year. I guess I was surprised that I dropped as much weight as I did in a short amount of time; in August I was around 190 lbs. By the end of October I was 165. I'm now staying at about 170 and that's a good weight for me. I would not recommend anyone go with this weight-loss plan. It involved too much stress and illness. Not fun... but I look fabulous now! *cheeky grin*

Three 2011 Goals:
1. Keep eating healthy
2. Keep active and on an exercise plan
3. Always be my best!


Happy New Year Everyone!!

Happy Boxing Day and Happy Kwanzaa

I really like diversity!

I like that this time of year is truly the Holiday Season and not just the one Christian holiday!

This reminds me of my first Holiday Season away from my family. I was a young 19 year old missionary in New Zealand. This was the first time I had ever heard of Boxing Day. New Zealanders celebrate it with the rest of the Commonwealth countries. I loved learning about this new holiday(well, new to me). It really expanded my understanding and horizons to include new and different things.

Our mission President was an older gentleman from Provo, Utah. He coordinated where each missionary served and with what companion. His wife was cold and did not like the culture of New Zealand. I remember her looking at disgust at everything that wasn't like her old life in Provo, Utah. I actually felt sorry for her; here she was in a beautiful country full of diversity and interesting people. I loved the native Maori people, but she just couldn't accept any differences.

Diversity and variety is the spice of life!

I hope y'all have a great holiday season!

Holidays

Merry Christmas to all my readers and friends who celebrate this holiday!

Thank you to all of you who wished me a Merry Yule! I appreciate that you respected my beliefs and the holiday that I celebrate. Not everyone in my life respects the fact that I don't celebrate Christmas, my family included. In fact I had a coworker be very disrespectful in telling me that Pagans are evil. I laughed it off, but it made me think that so many 'religious' people are still so judgemental. Another coworker made up for it though; in an email to the whole group he made a point of wishing everyone a Merry Christmas except me; he added "Merry Yule Jim".

However you chose to celebrate, however you chose to believe and to live, I wish you all my warmest wishes!



It rained all day yesterday so the I won't be out on the bike today. But... I will go hiking the trail with my gloves and a trash bag. Every day I'm out on the trail it annoys me that I see plastic bottles and trash that people just toss away. As a good Pagan and environmentalist I will do a good deed and help keep the earth clean.

Have a great day y'all!
XOXOXO

*UPDATE* 6:35PM

I had a nice walk, but I was sad that people just don't care.

A new favorite song

I have started listening to a new station; KXT91.7. I love it! The music they play is very "indy" sounding.

I often use my Shazam iPhone application while listening and I have tagged this song a couple of times. So of course I had to go out and buy the album.

It has a catchy tune that makes me want to dance!

Another great song on the CD is Tightrope!

Merry Yule

Today is the holiday I celebrate. I'll refer you to last year's post to see how I celebrate.

This year the weather is very unseasonal. The temps in Dallas will be 80 today! I still will burn a Yule log this evening.

I like the tradition of writing all the bad things from last year; the mistakes I made, the wrongs against me that were done, the things I wished I would have done differently and the sadness I felt this last year, and I'll burn them with the Yule log. It helps me let go of those things so I can move on. Then I can sit back and enjoy the good things from the last year with no regrets.


I'll have a good meal with friends and have some Lambic.



Merry Yule my friends, and Blessed be!

Set your alarm, you gotta see this...

Now here’s something you don’t see every day, every year or even every century. North America gets to view a total lunar eclipse and a full moon on the Winter Solstice.

This cosmic triple play of a full moon at total eclipse during the winter solstice has not occurred in nearly 400 years. "Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 Dec. 21," says Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory who inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years. The next one happens near the end of this century in 2094.

To read more about it go here.

This year's event will take 3 hours and 38 minutes. The eclipse begins on Tuesday at 1:33 a.m. ET, when the Earth's dark-red shadow will turn up on the edge of the moon, according to NASA. It will take about an hour for the shadow to cover the entire moon. Totality begins at 2:41 a.m. and lasts for 72 minutes.

If you only have time for a quick look, NASA recommends that you take a peek 3:17 a.m. ET. That's when the moon will be fully covered in an amber light.

Awesome, isn't it?

Stumped

My therapist is encouraging me to get out to meet more people. He suggested I join a gay sports or social club. Dallas has a gay softball league, volleyball league, bowling league, a gay runners group, classic car collectors group, a group that meets monthly that goes by the name of "High Tech Happy Hour" for the business professionals and just about any other group that you can think of. Except a mountain/off road biking group. And you may have noticed, I love to be out biking.

I have played volleyball but I didn't like the drama and the weekly commitment. I'm not good at bowling, softball is only a warm weather sport. So what do I do?

Well, I decided I will start a group of gay and gay friendly mountain/off-road bikers! All I have to do is set up either a Facebook page or blog page; advertise it, and then coordinate the day, place and time that people can meet.

But I need a catchy name. This has me stumped! A friend suggested HOBO; Homos On Bikes Off-road. But I'm not 100% sold on that.

I thought "Top Gears" would be catchy, but it would imply something else; I would want it to be an all inclusive group. (I also thought "Bottom Gears" for those who want to ride without a seat. heehee)

Does anyone else have an idea? I would love more suggestions!

PLEASE HELP...!
I know I have some creative readers/blogger friends.

My new type

I have become aware that I am finding a certain type of guy more attractive lately.

Usually I like the lumberjack or muscle-bear type. But my focus has shifted somewhat. Although facial hair will always get my attention and a furry chest will make me drool, I have discovered a new creature out there; the elusive "hawt geek" or as I call them now, geek chic.

Here is a perfect example: Brad Goreski.

Or this guy from, um.... an iPhone app I have:


At first they are difficult to spot. Sometimes they blend into the crowd. Sometimes they are seen in flocks, riding skateboards around. Or some just tag along behind another creature. It's rare when one stands out and gets some attention.

Let's look again at this Brad fellow:


See! This got my attention!

Let me know if anyone else sees another of these rare creatures. Approach them carefully, and then ask them if they're single.

And then ask them if they want a daddy in Dallas!
Ggggrrrr...
LOL

Reversed

While a few of my friends up north are dealing with snow and freezing weather this weekend I was out on my mountain bike! I love the mild winters here in Texas.

I got a coworker to rise with me on Saturday afternoon. He has never ridden before, I think he liked it, except for the handle bars nuts and bolts being loose. I went around again after he left and rode for another few hours. It was getting windy by the time I finished, but it was a great ride. I hadn't been out on the bike in over 2 weeks!

Sunday a cold front came in; the temp was only in the 30s in the morning. I did a few chores around the house and finally got back out on the trail that is close to my house.

When I got there I noticed a sign. The trails were reversed! Instead of going around in a counter-clockwise loop, it went clock-wise. It made it feel like a whole new trail! The hills I had a tough time climbing were now much easier to take going down. But there were some rocky hills that I simply stopped and walked my bike up!

I kept thinking during the whole ride that while it was a little chilly, at least I wasn't dealing with snow!

Hope y'all had a great weekend!

Smells

I think I've mentioned before that because of my allergies to all weeds, trees, grasses, dust and animals I don't have a very good sense of smell. Except in the shower, I like good smelling soaps, body washes and shampoos.

I recently ran out of shampoo and I bought some new shampoo "for men". Eeeewww, it smelled like plastic!


I went out shopping again and found a new one quite by accident. It was a closeout and was a two for one special.


It smells like chocolate and mint! I feel like I'm showering with a junior mint!


Am I the only one with this thing about a good smelling shampoo? Does this matter to anyone else?

Aaawwwww.....

I have finally warmed up from my weekend trip. They have descended...

Did I mention how cold it was in Chicago last weekend? LOL

Have a great weekend y'all!

Weekend Adventures

I had a great time in Chicago! It was great to spend time with my friend.

Here are some pictures of the adventures:

This is the forecast as we were driving into Chicago from Minneapolis:
Snow! [insert my scrunched-up face here] Eewww...


It was a Winter Wonderland


Yes... I froze my tiny little ass off (thanks for the Stormy Kromer Jay)


Jay and I contributed to this guy's little snowmen project


The Art Institute was fantastic. We posed with the lions


The view from the John Hancock Tower was awesome


And the menz were certainly friendly
!

I'm off to see the... Windy City

Someone tell me why I agreed to go to the frozen tundra; way up in the Arctic Circle in December? I don't know what I did or what possessed me to go into Yankeeland in a ber month? (Decembbrrrrr)

I've already lost a lot of body-fat! A few weeks ago I when I was at the gym I asked a trainer if they had one of those "electrode-magnetico" body-fat thingies; the one where all you have to do is put in your height, weight, age, etc. into this hand held device and it sends a current through your body to tell you how much body-fat you have. The "thing-a-ma-bob" told me I'm at 14.4%. I asked the trainer if that was good and he made a face at me... said that none of the trainers there were that low! It was really good! WOW! But, little help that does me now as I head out to the great frozen north! (I've been in Dallas almost 15 years now! I love warm weather!)

Oh! And now my friend there tells me that a snowstorm is coming in! 5 or 6 inches he tells me! I'm packing my long-johns!

Y'all have a great weekend and if you see this ice cube walking around Chicago, it'll be me!

(BTW, Thank you Jay!! I'm really am looking forward to the trip)
LOL

December Tarot Card

It looks like it should be an interesting month with this card as a guide:

The meeting of wild and civilized selfs. This means learning to trust in life, learning to have compassion for others and ourselves instead of our lives being ruled by instincts, lusts or passions.

The title of this card is often misleading because most people tend to think of strength as a property of the physical body. But this is not a card of brute force, but of ideas, feeling and beliefs. Strength is not always measured in terms of how much you can lift or how fast you can run. True Strength is fortitude of character, and the ability to not only control the emotions, but to rise above them, and triumph over all out lower impulses and desires.

I need to conquer my fears, control my impulses, and never lose patience with myself or what I'm doing.

Bring it on...

(I like that both she and I are wearing red for World AIDS Day)