Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

And just admit you're drooling just thinking about it. ;-)

Yes, I've cooked this evening. No there is not a tear in the space time continuum. I'm in DC for a whole 2 weeks so I thought I would actually buy groceries and cook! I had the bacon wrapped meatloaf at a restaurant in No-f&ck and thought I would try it out here. I've cooked it once already and it was okay. I made some small changes this time, like pre-cooking the bacon, so we'll see how it works out. That's dinner tomorrow night.

Yep, I've been doing the no/low carb thing and it's working! I've lost over 10 pounds! I'm almost afraid that I'm going to jinx myself, but even with some trips I've managed not to loose the bubble and keep a focus on the diet. But I'm also exercising again. The foot problems are gone and I am now able to work out again.

I love my new gym. I call it my "self esteem crushing gym". Seriously. It's where all of the A list hottie gays are going now. And do I need that? No. At 0530 when I've rolled out of bed and make my way to the gym I do NOT want to see pretty people. It's like punishment. It's just not fair. But I've been going and I'm almost back into my old routine.

And my little home improvement effort is complete. Check out the new and improved living room. Can you say sweet?!?

Good Morning!

So it's 5AM and I'm at the Colorado Springs airport to start the journey back to DC. Yep, 5AM. Ugh! But the COS airport is kind of nice and it has free wireless which rocks! Hint: DCA, ORD!!

So last night I achieved a significant milestone in my life. I beat my Mom at Scrabble!!! Seriously, I think this is the first time I've ever won. My mom's an old english teacher (and if she corrects my grammer one more time I'm going to . . . . ) and a cross word puzzle fiend, so she usually clobbers me. So that was fun.

Coming home isn't that bad. It's all about eating and napping. Two things I enjoy quite a bit. Mind you, it's not necessarily good for your waistline, but I do love a nice post-brunch nap. If I could only figure out a way to nap every day I'd be in heaven. And yes it messes up my sleep pattern but my sleep pattern is messed up anyways.

My dad has a saying, "You can tell a (insert Mom's maiden name), but you can't tell them much." He's says that when Mom is stubborn and doesn't listen to his advice. Umm, hello kettle, meet pot. I tried, several times, to convince him that climbing on top of the deck was not a good idea but he wouldn't listen to me. He's frakken 78! So I held the ladder prepared to catch/break his fall if he fell. He didn't. Then I climbed up. The waterproofing stuff he has is not going to work and I think I've gotten a promise from him that if the skylights continue to leak to get professional help. But we'll see.

Anyways, it's back to DC.

Home for the Holiday!

Yep, I'm in Colorado right now. I have seen the rentals since my touch-and-go at Christmas, so I thought I would come out for a quick visit. Interestingly enough, we were both in Chicago on Thursday but at different terminals. I was on United, they were on American. I landed about 2 hours before them and then took advantage of the free internet at the COS airport to get some work done before they landed.

So far, so good. Yesterday was a nice lazy day. I spent about half the day trying to fix Mom's PC. It's AGONIZINGLY slow. And it's a bit better, but I think she needs to bring in a real IT guy to look at it. And I showed Dad how to download his digital photos to his PC. It's baby steps around here, okay?

Today I'm actually going to be doing some house work. Pulling a dead ivy off the side of the house. And then climbing up on the roof of the deck to cauk the sunlights. My dad doesn't want me to do it, saying he'll do it instead. I'm sorry, but if anyone is going to be climbing on top of the roof, it's going to be me. My insurance is better than yours and my bones will heal quicker! He's just crazy that way.

Amazingly enough I've been having some conversations that border on gay issues, and she seems okay with it all. But we'll see.

She's off to Altar Guild right now at Grace CANA. We were talking around that last night and she said that the altar guild is decimated and she feels like she has to go, regardless of what is happening in the church. And I'm okay with that. We both agreed that there are a lot of people, especially older people like my parents who don't understand what is really happening are just collateral damage in this situation. It really is sad.

I hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Home for a (working) Holiday!

It wasn't supposed to be like this. I wasn't even supposed to go home for the holidays. I had gone to visit my sister in Paris, and I was just going to spend a quiet Christmas in DC, curled up in bed hibernating till the new year. But my sister guilted me to going home for the holidays. "It will be the first time in 42 years that Mom and Dad will be alone," she said. And I'm a good son. Or try to be. So I bought an exhorbitant plane ticket to CO.

Yes, CO. Not Denver, but the flight on Friday was hellish. Only a mere 5 hour delay in Chicago. But I'm not going to bitch. I was lucky. Really lucky. I ran into so many people who had been trying to get somewhere for 2 days. The wait list to COS was over a hundred people long. Just so sad. So while my flight wasn't good, I got home.

And promptly went to work. The big chore was to get rid of the behemoth TV they have in the den. It was hard for Dad and I to get it out and into the Big Wheel (his truck). I can't imagine if he had tried to do it on his own. It would not have been pretty. Then we got the new LCD TV up and installed. It's sweet. I can't wait till I get one. Then it was time for tech support. I cleaned up Mom's PC: de-frag, virus check, spyware check, ad-aware check. Updated her IE. I'm working on Dad's also. He's got an ancient PC that runs Windows 98 SE. I keep telling him that he needs to update, but he won't listen.

It's quiet here. I miss my neice and nephew and my sister of course. But they are all asleep now in Paris. We'll talk with them tomorrow. So that will be good.

Here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a very peaceful holiday.