Missing Dixie

The Dixie Chicks are one of my all-time favorite musicians.  One of my most prized wedding gifts is a personalized autograph Dixie Chicks poster.  It was a gift from our wedding photographer Kim Maguire.  As a super fan it's a challenge when your favorite group takes a long break.  You have to read this Texas Monthly article: Chicks in the Wilderness.

I'm hopeful the Chicks will make more music.  If you have a talent (they have enormous talent) and do not use your talent, then it's like the talent doesn't exist at all.  Natalie, Martie, Emily: if you don't make music again, then you're just like me (your tone deaf super fan)!  It's a lesson for all of us: you have to use your talents!  Don't stop the music.

I will continue to listen to my Dixie Chicks playlist while I'm waiting for new music and hoping the Chicks are alright.

Money Money Money

I'm glad my husband and I have good jobs.  This week my computer died, which in 2013 a computer is a necessity.  We are in the process of replacing it.  Also this week our garage door springs broke.  (I had no idea a garage door had springs; my husband thought it was funny that I thought the garage-door-opener opened the garage without help.)  It wasn't cheap to replace the garage door springs!  We've had an expensive week.  Again, I'm glad we have good jobs, but I was thinking: what do people do that live paycheck to paycheck?

We have two thousand less dollars to go into the baby fund this week.

Babies!

Yesterday my husband and I finally met Adam and Eddie's twin sons.  They are almost three months old and they are perfect!  I held one of the babies at all times.  It was wonderful.  We took dinner to the loving fathers, and we talked about the surrogacy process.

When we got home my husband ran the numbers to figure out when we'd have enough cash for babies.

I'm ready.

The Future

Burrrr.  A rainy cold snap hit Dallas yesterday.  When I got home from work the house was chilly, and I could not figure out how to switch the thermostat from AC to Heat.  I called my husband who's in Manhattan on business.  He adjusted our Dallas, Texas thermostat remotely from NYC.  I still do not know how to adjust the thermostat, but the house warmed up within minutes, and as long as my husband is a phone call away he can handle it.

Just to recap my life: we have the ability to control the house thermostat anywhere in the world from an iPad, but we don't have the ability to marry the person we love.  

Why is my thermostat in my house more sophisticated than our society?  I need society to catch up.

A Little Too Jolly

I'm a financial consultant.  I make my clients' problems go away.  My clients are always in a disaster situation before they engage my firm.  As a result, one of the key items I'm always pushing is for my clients to hire new talent.   Since we're not a long-term solution, it's important that my clients hire the right people to take over before our job is done.   Everyone at my firm knows I'm a happily married gay man.  My clients rarely know that I'm a happily married gay man- I don't chit-chat with my clients.

Last week the Director of Financial reporting interviewed several professionals, and he made a comment to me: "I like the last guy, but he's a little too jolly for me.  I don't know if I can work with that every day."

Did you catch that?  "A little too jolly" is code for "gay."  I was paralyzed by that statement.   I didn't know what to say, because I was so caught off guard.  I never know how to handle these situations.  I could disempower my client with a few statements, but is that what's best for the situation?  Again, I didn't know what to do...and I don't have a wise gay mentor to consult.  

I just moved the conversation on.

Love and Marriage

These last few weeks marriage equality has been in our daily narrative.  What if in June the SCOTUS strikes down DOMA?  What if I finally have the right to marry the person I love?  It's a thrilling time in the gayborhood.

My marriage doesn't have to look like your marriage.  My marriage is MY marriage.  In the end the only thing that matters are the relationships you have with the ones you love.  Nothing else matters.  If we focus on love, compassion, kindness, and equality, then I think it's easy to see the silliness of DOMA.

And for those who don't want to repeal DOMA: remind me how my marriage affects your marriage?

Easter 2013

We had a lovely few hours with our family and friends at Easter lunch on Sunday.  Thanks to help from the parents it was successful event.  Our kitchen is the smallest room in our house (hooray for 1980's design) but we create big meals from our small kitchen.  The only casualty was the mac and cheese - I burned it on the sides!

Easter 2013 Menu

• Beef tenderloin (grilled to perfection by my husband and his father)
• BBQ chicken (for those of us who like chicken best!)
• Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes
• Mushrooms cooked in red wine, soy sauce, and butter
• Roasted butternut squash
• Tomatoes, mozzarella, basil leaves, with pesto and balsamic
• Broccoli Crunch
• Curried noodle salad
• Hatch chile corn pudding
• cornbread
• Mac & cheese (very well done!)
• Strawberry pretzel salad (my mom)
• Watermelon blueberry salad (my mom)
• Cornbread salad (husband's mom)
• Cheese cake (husband's mom)
• Strawberry cake (my mom)
• Peanut butter pie (my mom)