My last few days have been wonderful. First I should mention something I forgot to post about last time: I got in a nice long phone call with sionnagh on her birthday (July 8, or Double Independence Day as she calls it). Aside from Hamlet, the best dog in the world (see userpic), having a problem with a cut on his paw that won’t heal, it sounds like she’s doing really well. The fact that she had a birthday party the previous night, on the 7th, and it was still very much in evidence in the background of the phone call, speaks well. :-)

I already posted about last Tuesday at Walden Pond with surrealestate, which was delightful.

I had been planning on making a brief day-trip up to BiCamp on Sunday morning, so that I wouldn’t completely miss BiCamp this year, but surrealestate offered me the use of her tent Friday night, so instead I went up Friday night and came back Saturday afternoon. I am so glad I did that, and so grateful to surrealestate for her hospitality. I got to see all sorts of wonderful people from out of town, such as onemintjulep (and I got to meet his sister, the_elle_word), K. and her sweetie A., and a couple people from New Hampshire who don’t use LiveJournal. Also got some hugs in with lilbjorn and docorion, of course.

Swimming on Saturday at the swimming hole was excellent and delightful. (Crossing the rocky, slippery riverbed twice with no shoes I could get wet was somewhat less delightful. I’m very glad that my cellphone was in one of the two pockets (of six) that didn’t get utterly, utterly soaked when I fell. But swimming was totally worth it.)

And oh, my, the stars! If I believed in a Creator I would thank it profusely for the gift of small bladders forcing me to go outside in the middle of the night. Wow.

Then I came back on Saturday to a truly spectacular evening with my gorgeous girlfriend plumtreeblossom. You will forgive me if I don’t go into too much detail. Oh, and there was also good conversation!

Then we had a yummy and relaxing breakfast at The Broken Yolk (a little diner very near plumtreeblossom’s house, and the only place in the Boston area that I’ve found that has biscuits and gravy) before she went to Theatre@First for a work day or a rehearsal (I forget which). She’s a delight and I love her. (By the way, if I can let you in on a little secret, we’re dating.)

For the rest of the day, I got a little stuff done around the house — not nearly as much as I had planned, but given that I now have clean clothes to wear, I can’t complain too much.

Then yesterday (Monday) morning, I popped some corned beef and veggies in the crockpot, and last night cathijosephine came over for that and a beer. Had a great time with her, and I felt good about cooking, because I haven’t been doing nearly as much of that as I want to lately; it had been quite a while since I had the crockpot out. And it came out very good! I mentioned that I felt silly wasting all the broth but didn’t know what to do with it, and she had the awesome idea to cook pasta in it! So that’s what I did, and I just had some for lunch, and oh, my is it yumminess! That cathijosephine is smart! Walked her home (which was nice, because it was a gorgeous night and the first exercise I’d gotten all day), so I got to stop in and cuddle Chickenfinger a bit. Then I came home and puttered around on the computer for far too long and got to bed late, but I slept in a bit (I don’t have work today) and I feel really good today. The plan for the afternoon is scheduling logistics and house cleaning and organization before Diesel.

Massachusetts is not going to have a popular vote to deprive same-sex couples of equal rights under the law! I was first alerted to this news by qwrrty, who I gather was there. The line “The narrow 45-151 vote means Massachusetts remains the only state in the nation to allow same-sex couples to marry” in that article seems odd to me — yes, 45 votes is close to the 50-vote minority required for a petition-initiated constitutional amendment to be defeated in Massachusetts, but still, a 45-151 vote is not “narrow”. I guess you could say the measure was narrowly defeated, but calling it a “narrow vote” strikes me as odd.

In 25 years or so, people are going to look back on this vote with shock that almost a quarter of Massachusetts legislators thought it was a good idea to deprive same-sex couples of the right to marry, but from this vantage point, I am so proud that more than three quarters of my state legislators believe in equal rights for same-sex couples under the law.

I need a “proud of Massachusetts” userpic. [EDIT: Thanks to qwrrty, I have one.]

I had a great time with plumtreeblossom over the weekend. The bit I can talk about here involved a great bi brunch at Doyle’s in JP, one of my favourite brunch places. Since we got there very early, I took her to see an old house I used to live in (Treehouse, on Biltmore St., for those of you who have been there). The bit I can’t talk about here was sufficiently vigorous as to result in me getting accidentally injured and not noticing until later. Go us!

We made a wonderful discovery on Saturday night: Even with the CPAP mask on me, it still works fine for me to be on the outside when we spoon. Yay! That’s one of my favourite sleeping positions, and I’d been afraid I’d have to give it up.

Last night I had dinner at cathijosephine’s and got to see her friend C. from college, who was in town visiting for the weekend. A bit later on, docorion stopped by there after picking some stuff up from my house (formerly his house, and still home to many of his boxes). So it was an awesome evening.

Then today I again went over to cathijosephine’s for dinner, this time with darxus. She made marinated turkey tenderloin and potatoes in the crock pot, and some rice to go along with it, and it came out really, really well. She put the tenderloin and potatoes in with some soy sauce, apple juice, and garlic, and it came out really really well. (cathijosephine, how long did you cook it for, and on high or low?) It was sort of a communal dinner, since many of the ingredients had come from my kitchen. And afterwards, cathijosephine baked muffins! And they were bran muffins, so they were healthy! Honest!

I’m still limping (although my hip is doing a lot better than it was Saturday night), but I have to say, gin and tonic is a very tasty anaesthetic.

So I just got back from meeting cathijosephine and darxus at the Quincy ER. (I think it was just two weeks ago that I went there.) They think she has a viral infection. She sure wasn’t feeling too good.

Given my desire to sleep all day tomorrow (which I really had already before getting the call), I am not going to make it to BiCamp. I'd been thinking of just doing a day trip tomorrow, but since I want to sleep till noon or 2pm, that's not likely to happen. (Also, I want to be around in case there’s anything else I can do for cathijosephine; I know she’s in good hands with darxus, but I like being available to run errands or bring them food anyway.)

I will be very sad to miss K., and to break my otherwise perfect BiCamp attendance streak. But as wiped out as I’ve been the last couple of days, I think it’s kinder on myself.

Might make it to the pool party tomorrow for a bit, and/or to a birthday gathering. Or I might sleep all day. That would be spectacularly lovely. :-)

ragingamazon points out that GLBT Pride parades have had worse problems than the weather. I highly recommend reading that short post.

D.C. Simpson, author of Ozy and Millie has some thoughts on the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi at the site of his political cartoon, I Drew This. (Scroll past the cartoon, and be aware that that post will be replaced in a few days; there’s a link to archives, but no permanent link to the current post.) Simpson links to this much more in-depth article by journalist Nir Rosen. Coincidentally, I heard an interview with Rosen on the radio today, which was interesting and depressing. I want to buy Rosen’s book on Iraq.

Just spent a while on the phone with eeblet being interviewed for this project, which I really enjoyed. I’m mostly posting this to encourage y’all, those of y’all who are currently in relationships of some stripe, to read that post and maybe do an interview with her.

(She’s pseudonymizing everything, so this is neither your ticket to fame and fortune nor your ticket to an tearful 3AM phone call from your parents.)

I’m having a fabulous BiCamp — too fabulous, really, to be sitting at a keyboard typing, but since I can, thanks to Kala’s phone and laptop, I decided the gratuitious geekery was worth it. The drive up here with Kala and cathijosephine was smooth, and the weather has been utterly perfect. Went swimming yesterday; today Kala and I are about to go walk to the river and dunk our feet. I’ve done lots of napping. cathijosephine is a fabulous camp cook. I'm so glad that xmelancholia and treasonx were able to come. I’m also especially glad to get to see onemintjulep. It’s a fabulous time, and just what I needed!

“The application Xjournal has unexpectedly quit.” That’s what I got two-thirds of the way through composing my report on the weekend, and I’m just about out of steam, so this version is going to be much shorter.

(Bummer; Xjournal makes lots of LJ-specific HTML a lot easier.)

Friday:

Date with cathijosephine that snowballed into a yummy dinner with docorion, mud_puppy, xmelancholia, and zzbottom. Chicken and veggie kebabs — I always love cathijosephine’s culinary experiments!

Saturday:

Got up insanely early (5:15 — Don, try not to laugh too hard) to go set up the Poly Boston table at the Pride rally. docorion made coffee and cathijosephine made croissants and they are both saints. Oh, and zzbottom came after work (he works nights) to help us set up the canopy before going home; he’s a saint too. Got fitted for a Utilikilt, which I’ve wanted for a while. Went to brunch. Marched and had a lovely time despite the insane, brass-melting, tar-boiling heat. Hung out afterwards. Went home and pretty much collapsed. Oh, props to ghoti72, who played bass in a band at the rally. I didn’t get to see her (even on the big monitor; the crowds were too dense), but I heard her. Yay!

Sunday:

Sunday was mostly about recovering and trying not to bake. In pursuit thereof, docorion and I got air conditioners. Mine is in the guest room now, where it serves Kala (who’s renting from us for a month) and my office (which is adjacent). I figure I don’t really need one in my bedroom, since when I’m there I’m pretty much always in bed, and if you turn it down the waterbed keeps me cool as well as it keeps me warm in winter. But I spend a lot of time in the office.

(And Monday was a highly productive day for docorion, involving lawn mowing, legal hazardous-waste disposal, and all sorts of other energetic things.)

Now I am a moſt ſleepy wabbit, and it is time for bed. Yes, I know it’s three hours before my normal bedtime, but this weather takes a lot out of one.

Just Fy’all’sI, I’m planning on going to tomorrow’s Bi Brunch at Doyle’s.

(Contrary to conventional wisdom, there actually is a measurable correlation between me planning on doing something and actually doing it, and that correlation is even positive.)

This is a Poly Boston event, but those of you who are not on the Poly Boston list are welcome too: