Make My Monday - Summer Means Time Off

I've been chatting with the Gentleman about Pride and my work situation (as well as taking calls from clients and a friend in need). All while sitting on my leather sofa in my summer jammies. She's jealous of my work situation. But here's the key. I have no idea what's going on with the "JOB" and am waiting on a response. I will be approaching the guy I report to for my financial business to ask for a partial transfer, but need to know my "JOB" status before I do that. So, I'm a bit in limbo at the moment and have decided that Summer Means Time Off. Besides, if I do get the "JOB" it starts August 1 for training on district paperwork. If I don't get the job, my summer is over after I get back from visiting my family in mid-July, because I will have to move from part time finance to full time to generate revenues. Therefore, I have a short summer in either case. So for now, you can find me by the pool...cramming in summer playtime. I'll work tomorrow...maybe.

Thought for Thursday - Aerialist Video

As promised, a short clip of the aerialist act from the BAD Women's Pride Party on June 20, 2008. I know it's not much and not super clear, but it is what it is...now just extrapolate. I know I had to, since I missed most of the show by being in the wrong room at the wrong time...sigh. Imagine and enjoy.

Wednesday's Whine - Reading Level Now Only Slightly Improved

What with all the prideful partying, I'm not up to more alcohol this week. I promise to have a wine pick next week in time for 4th of July celebrations! In the meantime, I had my blog's reading level recalculated. I've improved...somewhat:

Movie Reviews

But it's still not college level, dang it!

Tuesday's Time Waster - Jukebox Update

Over at Ladies, Gentlemen, and Undecided, the Gentleman (who is actually female) has upgraded the Jukebox! A couple of you (out of my now growing readership!) checked it out last week and were wondering if it was always going to play the same song first. Well, YES of course it would, that's a function of programing for any type of widget or auditory media that starts playing when you enter a site. However, the Gentleman informed me that any new songs added to the play list, would play first, so hopefully it would be occasionally different when you visit on other days. Of course, with the upgrade, the Gentleman's blog partner, the Lady (who is actually male) wants in on the song picking. So beware. The choices could get real interesting.

Anyway, a quick run down on changing the order of songs. When you first launch the site you'll see the jukebox on the upper right hand side of the page. There are four main buttons. The first one is kind of dark until you click on it. That's the shuffle button and it basically randomizes the order in which the songs play. If you want to skip the first song, you can click on the fourth button which forwards to the next song. If you click the shuffle button and then the fourth button you'll get something other than the second song on the list. Warning, if the last song on the list plays, you will have to manually restart the jukebox. As always, TheWeryd1 finds the bug! Have fun playing DJ!

Make My Monday - Denver's Pride 2008 in photo's

Alrighty now, as promised a recap of Denver's Pride 2008 via photo's. In advance, I'm sorry that they're blurry. I had planned to have a new camera for the event, but only had my Treo 700. The Treo also takes video, but unfortunately it doesn't provide it's own light source (or flash) so the indoor pictures are not great, but will give you an idea. The one video I have of the aerialist is pending my ability to move it off my Treo and uploading it here. I may have to provide it separately at a later time. So here we go with commentary.

The Friday night BAD Women's Pride Party Entertainment:




















This young lady is getting her NAKED breasts painted and glittered. Yes, we the dancing audience did get to watch the whole procedure. And if you happened to be standing in the right place at the right time, as I was with one of the many girls (or as I called them, The Glitter Girls), you could see the BEFORE behind a sheet! Actually, I wasn't really that impressed with the before.





















This is the AFTER. Again, I apologize for the quality of the picture. There are not a lot of options on the Treo, as it is a Smart Phone not a fancy digital camera. However, I think you can get the idea. There were about a half dozen of the Glitter Girls.





















This is a pretty good picture of another Glitter Girl's back. I asked the guy that was doing all the work how I could get into this line of work...heh. He was nice about the question, but I didn't quite catch his response. He did say that he has painted and glittered all of the dancers (The Glitter Girls) for other events. He also let me know that he would be in a booth later providing same service for the public (i.e. the BAD Party goers) for a fee. Gee, I guess you do have to pay for the paint and the glitter, but that guy should consider decorating naked breasts reward in itself!


Here are the Glitter Girls in action:




Sunday Morning - Denver's 2008 Pride Parade:



















Dykes on Bikes lead the big parade...la la la. Over 200,000 attended the 2007 event, but the estimates for this year aren't available yet. I'd say it was about the same.




















Boys (and some Girls) on Toys. This group gets bigger and bigger every year. When the scooter club first joined the parade several years back, they had a dozen gay guys. Now, it's several dozen gay guys and a dozen lesbians. Next year I predict all the fancy convertibles (except maybe the Grand Marshall car that comes after the scooters) will be replaced by two seater scooters.




















PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays). This is the longest most heartfelt part of the parade. Usually I get kinda teary, so I packed a wad of facial tissue in my cargo shorts for the occasion. But this time I was so busy taking pictures for this blog post I forgot to pay attention to the message of love. Sniff...excuse me now while I make up for that. (dab, dab, dab....snort). Okay, I'm good now...please continue.

Main Stage Entertainment (Bands...er Band):




















This is the Melanie Susuras Band playing at Denver Pridefest 2008. She was the first act to play this year! Last year she was the last one because she was invited last minute to fill in for another act. By the time she played last year, there was no crowd left except us MSB fanatics...all two dozen of us and our recruits. Her music is fabulous and I recommend checking her out via the link to the right. As you can see in this picture, it was rather warm in Denver on Sunday, but not as bad as last year!





















This is MSB at the 2007 Denver Pridefest. Just so you know what she kinda looks like (as well as her fabulous drummer David Derby who was blocked in the 2008 picture).


So that's it for my pictorial of the 2008 Denver Pride events. Hope you enjoyed them (and were a little bit jealous). By the way, we did have a celebrity in the parade. I was chatting away with a nice doctor (alas a gay man, not a woman) when I happened to look back at the parade just in time to see Calpernia Addams go by on the back of one of those previously mentioned convertibles. For those of you who don't know, she is a transwoman with a fascinating story and star of a LOGO reality series Transamerican Love Story. She'll be in both the San Fransisco and Atlanta Pride parades as well. Also, as I mentioned on Thursday, the biggest baddest Pride events are next weekend in NYC, SF and Chi town. If you live anywhere near them, get your queer butts to them!

Thought for Thursday - Gay Pride...or Queer Pride

Officially, Gay Pride (or Queer Pride as some call it these days to be more inclusive of all things not included) is celebrated to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Just a quick history lesson. Late June 27, 1969 into the wee hours of June 28, 1969 (I was almost 6 years old and living in the Chicago area at the time, I think) the New York City Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar. They were there supposedly to enforce liquor laws (the Stonewall Inn may have been operating without a license), but that seems to have been an excuse to batter and beat the gays, lesbians and transgendered people that were at the establishment. Ultimately, the people fought back and several accounts say that the riots and demonstrating lasted several days. Although gay rights activism has it's roots in several organizations that were formed many years prior to this, Stonewall is considered a seminal event in gay rights history.

At this point, Pride events go on all over the country and now worldwide. While most of these events occur in late June to coincide with the Stonewall Riot anniversary, some cities have them at different times and in totally different parts of the year. Usually the New York, Chicago and San Francisco ones occur in the same weekend as close as possible to the actual anniversary. As such, all three occur the weekend of June 28th and 29th for the 2008 Pride season. Denver's often falls on the same weekend as those three, but for some reason this year ours is this weekend. We are spreading out events over three days though! For lesbians there are parties both Friday night (see the BAD link to the right for additional information) and Saturday night as well as Pridefest events on Saturday and Sunday during the daytime hours. Of course the big Pride Parade is on Sunday morning.

So what does TheWeryrd1 do to celebrate. I usually go out to at least one party. This year, I'll go to the BAD party on Friday night as it's also one of my best friend's birthday. I don't know if I'll have the energy for the Saturday party as the party seems a bit more for the younger set (those gals under 35) and I may need the recovery time. Sunday morning, very early, I'll do what I do every year. I'll have a couple of bowls of Fruit Loops and a glass of OJ. I may have some coffee. I'll pack up a cooler of water for my trunk and a spare set of clothes (shorts, socks and another t shirt). My umbrella is in the car already. I'll also wear my straw cowboy hat and slather on some sunblock. Then, I'll leave the house between 8:30 and 9:00 unless I'm meeting friends (that hasn't been decided yet). Downtown in Denver I'll find a place to park that's fairly near the Pridefest location and walk to an area where I can perch to watch the parade. I'll cheer for the Dykes on Bikes and the Boys (and girls) on Toys. I'll sniffle a bit when the PFLAG contingent goes by me and hope it's the longest section of the parade. Then I'll wander around all the booths, see my friends, eat some food and watch some bands. After that I may go home or I might get talked into going to an after party. If y'all are lucky I may Make Your Monday with a review of the weekend! Happy Pride!

Wednesday's Wine - Ken Forrester Stellenbosch Petite Chenin, 2005

In my continuing effort to expand my palate in the area of white wines, I once again tried a new white wine. So, we're off to South Africa for this one. Yep, a whole new continent to explore! And yes, I did take notes. First off, a reminder. White wine is best served after being chilled, but not right out of the refrigerator. In other words, remove the bottle of your favorite white wine from the refrigerator 15 to 20 minutes before you plan to serve it to allow it to come up to a drinkable temperature. By that, I mean that if the wine is still very cold when you drink it, you won't notice the various flavors and it may not compliment your meal quite as well. In fact, you probably ought to drink some light beer, a lemonade, or a cold glass of water for all the good you'll get out of an overly cold glass of white wine.

I found this wine, which is a Chenin Blanc, to be crisp and slightly tart. It has a rather clean mouth feel, actually, and a nice but vague grape flavor like white grape juice with out all the sugary sweetness. I had this wine with a chicken and mushroom vegetable soup and found it a nice counter point to the earthy flavors. It also complemented the strawberry and raspberry salad that I had along side. I think it would also go well with salad greens or a Caesar salad (with or without the chicken).

Here's what Ken Forrester Vineyards said about their wine:

Perfect everyday drinking wine. A youthful wine showing fresh ripe melon with a mellow , round, mild and honeysuckle fruit palate and refreshingly long finish. Hand harvested, fermented cool, bottled early to show the freshest fruit flavours. Should last half an hour with the cork out! Serve with all flavoursome, light Al Fresco Summertime meals.

So I guess the vague white grape taste is considered kind of a honeysuckle melon taste. Learn something new everyday! Not sure what they mean by it "should last half an hour with the cork out!" First of all, mine came with a screw cap (which I like because it's easy to open and close, which is important since I rarely drink more than a glass at a time) and secondly, are they suggesting that it should be chugged rather than be uncorked for more than 30 minutes? Well, anyway, at $9.00, I would definitely buy this wine again and would not be embarrassed to serve it to guests (even if they do need to chug it). Enjoy!

Tuesday's Time Waster - The Brain Knows

Well, this appeals to the psychologist in me: the brain knows something about you based on what you Like Better. Let me know what the brain knows about you (be sure to watch for when the brain turns pink so you can find out).

Make My Monday - Red Letter Day

I got a letter from my mom in a RED envelope. Inside was a short note that said it was my red letter day because more land that my grandmother owned was found and sold recently. So my mom enclosed a check for a bit of the money. Personally, I don't think she needed to do that, but since she has, I will keep my mouth shut about having to pay for a rental car when I go to visit. My mom said this is what my grandmother would have wanted. Okay! I do have a pretty dang good family!

Saturday Surf - Redux

Well...I didn't want to wait until Sunday to provide this info as I will be swimming (see first post today). Of course, I've never done two posts in one day. You might want to celebrate. Or you can go watch this. Warning. It's only for those who can appreciate beauty that comes with brains.

Saturday Surf - Good Music to Surf By

So it's hot outside today and I was thinking of going swimming, but then I have to take another shower and do all that stuff. So I thought I'd surf the net. Ya know, get caught up on some blogs I don't always read or maybe chat with some friends. Then I figured I needed some tunes to surf to...and I have to say, The Gentleman (and The Lady) have some GOOD stuff on their cool little jukebox. It's SO good, that I might have to steal the idea (or embed code) and put it here too. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it's been on for a couple of hours with almost no repeats (and actually who cares since it's all so good!?!). They've allowed me to listen to some really good music across several genres and sometimes multiple tracks from the same artist. In fact, now that I've been listening, I think I may have to buy Pink's last CD (which I was considering, but now it's practically a must...or a birthday suggestion for my sister in law and my brother). Anyway, if you go there, they just started blogging in English for those of us that don't read Italian...lol. Enjoy! And by the way, this post was brought to you by my semi-usual Sunday Surf (since I'll be surfing the swimming pool during my regular posting time).

Thought for Thursday - Interview Update

I was supposed to be contacted by yesterday if the school district wanted me to come in for a second interview. Since I didn't get a call or an email, I checked the website's job postings for the contact number and found the position had been "Reposted". So I called to find out what the status was at this point. The person in charge finally called me back late this afternoon to say they only had two people apply for the two positions and they didn't want to hire the other person. And, as they are trying to put together teams, they aren't offering jobs until they can interview some new people. However, if I have another position elsewhere that's been offered to me, then she would understand if I want to take it. Huh? Okay, she says, they want to set up teams by how compatible they think people will be together. In my head I'm still saying, "Huh?" but I say "Okay, I was checking to see if I was still a candidate", after all they said they'd be setting up second interviews by the 11th of June... Very strange. I could take it totally at face value and believe that they don't want to pull the trigger until they've determined who is available and all the teachers they're hiring (since they're hiring at least 4) are selected. Or I could go the negative vibe route and assume that they feel mediocre about me, but I'm all they've got and they don't want to settle too soon. Actually, I kind of understand that thinking only because I really didn't like the way the interview went, even though it wasn't awful. The reposting is for 5 days, so supposedly they'll know what they want to do by the end of next week. Hmmm... Well, I'm not going anywhere, but perhaps I should start making contingency plans.

Wednesday's Wine - Guadagni Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 or maybe it's La Famiglia Guadagni Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

So I mentioned last week that I had a yummy wine on which I forgot to take notes. Well, I bought another bottle ($6.00 at 3 S Liquors) and am drinking it now...as I write. Taking notes right here, right now. I wanted to provide a picture of the label too, but alas I could not find one online...anywhere. Unless you speak some other language and even then I'm not sure those sites would have it since this wine is bottled by Oak Ridge Winery in Lodi, California. So, I'll just cut to the chase on this one. For $6.00, if you can find it, this Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty tasty. It's a bit on the light side for a Cabernet, but not as light as a Merlot. It's a bit woody, like the way you'd imagine that wine with unburned firewood soak in it might taste. It's not fruity like the Shiraz's but definitely has the grape taste that a wine better have...right!?! It does have a bit more noticeable alcohol taste, but that is common with wines at this price point. It tastes good with a steak, and mild Mexican or Italian dishes. For $6.00, I'm good with buying it again.

Tuesday's Time Waster - Spirograph!

Remember playing with Spirographs as a kid? Well now you can play with them online...for hours if you want! No paper, no ink, and no mess! Don't you love "green" toys? Scroll to the bottom of this page to have some fun!

Sunday Surf - Jill Bennett & Bridget McManus at the New, Now, Next Awards

For those of you who don't have LOGO on your TV service (or you're still desperately hanging on to the old rabbit ears and tin foil antenna's) I thought I'd provide a clip of what you missed. Jill was nominated in 3 categories and Bridget in 2 categories, so I know you want to see how they did:



Of course to see more of Jill and Bridget (as well as all the other performers and winners) you need to go to the New, Now, Next website or LOGO Online. UPDATE 6-14-08: The above video has been removed from YouTube. So the pic is all you get...sorry. But you can still go to the links I provided to watch the full show and actually there's a bit more of Jill and Bridget kissing (and shoulder licking if you don't blink) than was in this video anyway.

Friday Fling - First Friday Party Tonight

You all (my faithful 3 readers) have read my observations regarding First Friday the big women's party currently hosted the FIRST FRIDAY of every month by Dede Frain and Babes Around Denver (BAD). I have to say it's getting bigger and better every month. You know how I like my space! Perhaps you'd like to see what the party looks like these days. Here's last month's party at it's current location Tracks (and it's event center space Exdo):



Come join us (about 2000 of us!) tonight if you live in Denver. Or plan on Friday, June 20th at Tracks for the women's Pride Party also hosted by BAD. I hear Dede plans to have all kinds of fun entertainment including aerialists!

Thought for Thursday - Hillary's Campaign

I was a county and congressional district delegate for Hillary Clinton (I decided to pass on campaigning to be a state delegate even though I live in Denver...the parking is going to be a nightmare in August). I have to say the caucus process favors grassroots campaigns such as Obama's started out. And, if anyone even really believes that the caucus turn out is remotely representative of the voting population, they didn't participate in a caucus. The reality is the turnout is 1/10th of what it would be for a primary and the caucus turnouts are skewed to a grassroots campaign that was able to recruit a fair amount of young people who were willing to sit in a meeting for 2 to 4 hours in the evening (and probably also attend caucus training meetings put on by various political groups).

But most people have families and don't have the desire or the time to do this. My caucus had 20 somethings and 50 plus somethings mostly. The 30 to 50 age range was there, just less of them. I suspect that most in that age group would have been for Hillary. The states that had primaries had HUGE turnouts of ACTUAL voters voting. Texas is a great example of the difference between primary and caucus turn out. They had over a million democrats vote in the primary, which Hillary won. Meanwhile, they had a bit over 100,000 attend caucus' which Obama won. Yet, he got almost as many total delegates as Hillary. I do not want to hear how he had the popular vote as well as the delegate vote.

Obama would do well to mend fences with Hillary and ask her to be his running mate. She's in that place right now where she'd do it because that's how badly she wants the democrats in office. Yes, I'll be voting for Obama, but again no one should think that he really had the popular vote of the democrats based on all those caucus states... Obama needs Hillary if he's going to win the presidency for the democrats.

Wednesday's Wine - Crane Lake Cellars Petite Sirah, 2005

So, I had this really lovely red wine last week, but uh, before I knew it, it was gone and I hadn't taken any notes for you. Guess I'll just have to buy another bottle of it and be a bit more diligent in my note taking. Fortunately, I have a small (counter top cellar) collection and I opened a good standby to go with my yummy steak...I mean...to share with you...

My guys, Joe and Bob, at 3 S Liquors bought a HUGE amount of Crane Lakes wine last fall. They're selling it at $4.00 a bottle. It's like Two Buck Chuck with shipping costs. Petite Sirah is a grape generally blended into other wines to add some body and fruit notes, especially when a specific grape had a bad year. But hey, Petite Sirah can stand alone as well. I haven't had a really expensive one, so I'm not sure if Crane Lakes Cellar's version is good or bad or mediocre. However, judging bu the lack of information beyond where to buy it, I'm thinking it's not considered that great. That said, I think it's pretty good as a general red wine. It's not overly dry, it has some nice fruit flavors (kind of a berry flavor, but not tart berries). It went well with my steak. I've bought it several times and had it with Italian food and with pork. I like it best with a juicy steak though (PETA folks don't hate me please...I have food allergies). Besides, even if I wasn't allergic to soy products and beans in general, I don't think this wine would make soy burgers taste good.

So what IS Petite Sirah. Some folks think it's like a small Shiraz. But not really. Here's some information I found at cellartracker.com :

The grape originated as a cross of Syrah pollen germinating a Peloursin plant. On some occasions, Peloursin and Syrah vines may be called Petite Sirah, usually because the varieties are extremely difficult to distinguish in old age. The 'petite' in the name of this grape refers to the size of its berries and not the vine, which is particularly vigorous. The leaves are large with a bright green upper surface and paler green lower surface. The grape forms tightly packed clusters that can be susceptible to rotting in rainy environments. The small berries creates a high skin to juice ratio which can produce very tannic wines if the juice goes through an extended maceration period. In the presence of new oak barrels the wine can develop an aroma of melted chocolate. Petite Sirah produces dark, inky colored wines that are relatively acidic with firm texture and mouth feel. The bouquet has herbal and black pepper overtones, with plum and blackberry flavors on the palate. Compared to Syrah, the wine is noticeably more dark and purplish in color.

Yummy...melted chocolate. No wonder I like this very cheap wine that apparently is a mediocre representation of a Petite Sirah. But for four bucks, I'm okay with that!

Tuesday's Time Waster - Giving Advice

Being a psychologist is somewhat of a passion. As a result, I end up in long winded (and unpaid) advice giving, feedback providing, and rant receiving mode on a semi-regular basis. This is okay with me as long as it doesn't get in the way of my being paid for my actual contracted work. Alright, the truth is, I'm a sucker for helping out my friends.

It all started in 6th grade on Kim H.'s garage rooftop. My 3 or 4 other gal pals were lamenting the state of their love lives and other critical life experiences so important to 12 year olds and, not having a love life, I was in the role of concerned friend and wise objective counsel. And it was AWESOME! I listened, asked thought provoking questions (such as "How did he look at you?" and "Did he really kiss her?") and dispensed life changing advice. This was followed less than a year later by concurrent life changing experiences of discovering among my dad's books "One Little Boy" which was a history of a sex abuse case and determining that, if what you do in lawyering is anything like what you do in Debate Club, I didn't want to be a lawyer anymore.

Now-a-days, I find myself listening to my friends issues and playing counselor all over again. I get paid at least $50 an hour for consultation services for my contracted work, but here I am basically pro-bono for my friends. Of course, being practical (and unpaid) I tend to want to dispense solutions quickly and move on. Also, it gets a bit murky when you end up in the middle between friends or friends and partners. I must say, couples therapists have a hard job to do and I don't want the $150 plus an hour to listen to this stuff, day in and day out! Anyway, a friend is struggling with what looks, to the casual observer, to be a midlife crisis. Without getting into detail, as her girlfriend chewed on my ear over the last couple days, it became obvious that my friend seems to be attempting to function while depressed. My friend's girlfriend is alternating between anger, frustration and concern. Icky mess, now that I have a bigger picture. Extricating myself from this now would be the wise thing. Especially, since said friend's girlfriend feels the need to come over with her Visa Card and swipe it through my butt crack...um...no thanks. But I do take paypal!

Make My Monday - AfterEllen.com's Hot 100 List

Make my Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday too! What are you doing HERE...go THERE. See the List, watch the video's everyday this week through Thursday, and then get back to me on your opinion. Personally, I think we women do a much better job picking hot women...'cause you know we consider brains,talent, and beautification of the world too...really we do!