Deliciously Yours, Courtesy of Raunche
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Mocha Rum Chocolate Cake Layered with Rum Chocolate Creme and White Chocolate Raspberry Creme, covered in Dark Chocolate Ganache, garnished with fresh raspberry.
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Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Pecan Caramel Sauce and Topping
I Heart New York
last weekend i made a short visit to new york city. it was pretty last minute but as i didn't see much in the future in terms of a "real" reason to go to the city, i figured i just go completely for "pleasure". and i am glad i did. new york is seriously a different world from houston, and not for better or worse... just different. people ask... so what did you do in nyc, as if going to nyc neccessitated something out of the ordinary. well, to be honest, i didn't do anything in new york that i would haven't had been able to do in houston .. in concept that is ... but the thing is ... well, i got to do those things in new york. the city itself is the experience.
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i think nothing makes this clearer than sunday afternoon, spending time just window shopping with ira after a delightful brunch in the financial district with robert and ira. something about the chilly november air of new york, the sound of car horns, and flash of metropolitan glitter. the feel of stylishly layered coast, scarves, sweaters ... the ritual of taking off them in too warm boutiques to putting them back on before stepping into the nippy outsides. there's something about going "in a direction" ... some destination in mind, but no certain route planned. academically we call this the "flaneur" .. a haughty french term that means .... city walking... just walking. that's what i did in new york city.
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you don't get that often in houston, land of the single family home on a quarter acre, miles and miles of concrete (horizontal and vertical), and the automobile, the automobile, the automobile.
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anyways, i started my little vacation actually with a littel event on friday evening, going out bowling with my gay bois but also meeting up with mei's friends a little bit... in order to share the cake that i baked for her... a gastronmical beauty of a rum-chocolate cake with a rum chocolate creme and a white chocolate raspberry creme. YUM! bowling was fun and i came in respectfully second to last haha. after that had a little bite to eat with the bois and then retired, well not really. messed around online since i figured i had six hours of flying ahead of me.
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those six hours of flying and sleeping obviously were not quality lets just say. i trudged finally into robert's place around 5 saturday afternoon and first thing i wante dto do was take a nap. of course, i wasn't so lucky as we immediately freshened up, went to get something to eat, saw a cute littel gay play, and then headed out to the bars and clubs. we eventually landed in this bar called the Ritz (being inspired by the play we saw that evening by the same name). now, not to say i've been to all the gay bars in nyc... but the ritz really was something out of the ordinary. a very cosmopolitan bar, even for nyc ... i felt for a moment i was in barcelona or something ... haha. anyways, it was a really fun place until it got more crowded than Times Square in rush hour. seriously! there comes a point where there really can be too many people.
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eventually left the Ritz while my impression of it wasn't completely sullied by the massive crowds... haha, and for a moment, i thought this might be a little known gem in Midtown ... nothing good in NYC is little known for long i guess. oh btw, i also should mentione we hung out with hunter, a "skethcy old man" to be... haha. no, i think hunter is fine and all, but he does have some sketch habits, which after the ritz, robert needed a therapy session over. all i can say robert ... not your business. ;-)
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sunday we woke up at a decent brunch hour, made our way via taxi to the financial district, got to the brunch place disasterously early so we hunkered down in starbucks and just chatted. after a goregfest at "ulysses", robert had to leave early so me and ira kept eatinga nd chatting. it was so nice to catch up with ira, probably a real high-light of my GSD career ... that seems like such a lifetime away now. after we finsihed brunch, we walked soho and saw shops that we had all seen before and put some perspective back into my life by looking at $6000 dresses and a $250 jacket is just loved but would probably have occasion to wear once or twice a year in houston (but i so loved it!). after a few hours of "flaneur" we parted ways and i headed back to the UES.
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a small accidental detour to the bronx delayed me somewhat but eventually got back to robert's place and took a nap before heading out for a simple dinner and then watching a movie. how "regular" is that? but nothing is so in nyc is it? my one and half days really of being in NYC were thoroughly enjoyable.
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i just wish the trip back home could have been as enjoyable. monday around noon i set out to JFK, then supposedly to Ohare and then back to IAH. everything in my own control was tip top shape but of course, my JFK flight got so delayed that my ohare flight would have been missed, stranding me in chicago ... fuck that. i headed back to new york, this time to brooklyn, for a surprise visit with yvonne who i wasn't able to hang out with originally as planned ... but hey, nothing is plannable in this city! but anyways, the trip back to brooklyn wasn't bad and before you know it i was hanging with my cornell peeps ... yvonen and rafa , still as fucked up as ever! it was nice to see them though.
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ok, tuesday's flights were really no better but somehow... 13 hours later, i got home to houston. i love being home! haha.
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Dallitude
this past weekend, i invited hector, andy, and kahl to dallas with me to spend the weekend exploring the city and staying at my parents' house while they were away. it was overall a pretty fun, despite brief trip. we started easily enough friday after work and left right on time. unfortunately despite utilizing the HOV and saving some time with traffic, there apparently was still traffic beyond the HOV lane, almost 30 miles outside of Houston... i guess a lot of people were going out of town for the weekend. anyways, we decided to just have dinner as oppose to sit in traffic.
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although not as raucous as the prior weekend's PF Chang's dinner, we still managed to have lots of fun over a Chili's dinner. after eating we then started the rest of the three hour drive, or more precisely, i started the rest of the three hour drive. i mean, i'm sure they would not have minded driving, but i figured i'd do it, being my car and all. we finally got into princeton, tx around 1 AM, milled about and slept about 2 AM.
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the next day i had an early meeting with a guy trying to do some business with my folks, so i met with him, listened to his shpill and also went to look at some property... fun fun fun. the boys meanwhile, had breakfast and milled about best buy. when i was done, we drove into dallas and had our first stop in town, that is the JFK assasination museum. it was interesting indeed and seeing the site of such a pivotal moment in american history was sort of eerie as well. after the museum we headed to what is known as oaklawn.. or the gayborhood. we browsed some "gayish" stores, soaked in the gay "dallitude" and had a late lunch at "hunky's"... the gayest burger joint you've ever been to... haha. because of the little sleep from the night before, i for one was conking out so we drove back home (decided to ditch a plan to go to a drive in theatre) and took a nap.
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a few hours later we gussied ourselves up and drove back to oaklawn to go experience the dallas version or JR's and funny enough... Mining Company as well... an exact pairing as in Houston.. must be indeed a franchise. JRs was good for some drinks and just general people-watcing... saw lots of cuties funn enough and had some heart to heart with Andy about my ex Ron.. nothing too heavy, just some girl talk. after JRs then we mozied to Mining Company which actually was decorated in the theme of a mine... it was cute. it was a psuedo dance club and after a drink, me and andy went to shake our asses while the more butchy ones, hector and kahl, stood around and looked tough... haha. after enough dancing, we hung out on an outdoor balcony, which we soon realized was like the runway for the night's "sidewalk sale". of late, i've been attracting some seriously fugly people and i'm really begginning to wonder if i'm giving us a "come fuck me, i'm super easy and un-discerning" vibe or what... because i swear... not that i'm anywhere a hot guy.. but still... some seriously old or seriously un-attractive people have been coming up to me of late when i go out. now don't get me wrong, its really not that they are just ugly... its that they are SKETCHY too... i mean, they are either like 60 or they are unattractive and they use the nasty stare you down or come and try to surreptitiously brush up against you tactic... it's superbly disturbing.
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god, i am not being too demanding am i? why can't an average looking guy come up to me and just say hello or some scantily disguised version of a pick-up line? seriously.
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after our gay night out, we bid our farewells to Oaklawn, and went back to mckinney making a 3 AM stop at our favorite restaurant apparently... whataburger. haha, an hour and 1000 calories later, we left and drove on home. i eventually got to sleep around 5:30 that morning since i made the stupid choice of calling mom, which of late has entailed every time a litany of things she needs me to do for her while she is gone. oh..... oh well.
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sunday wasn't much but a brunch at IHOP where we learned that andy and kahl are entertaining moving to canada and building their home.... it would be sad to see them go but oh well... such is life. after brunch, adding gas, and checking the tire pressure (i do know somethings about a car haha), i drove back home... kept awake by various conversations from mostly kahl and hector... andy just slepted haha. the evening ended relatievely uneventful, watching a DVD and tidying up odds and ends.
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looking forward to next weekend and my NYC trip. big apple here i come.
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3 Years Ripe for the Picking
Happy 3 years to "Secret Life of Bananas"!
Life Not So Fabulous
i was looking over my recent blogs and was wondering if my life of late has “appeared” to be a string of drag soirees and cake-baking contests. in order to alleviate that potential predicament however, i felt it would be useful to quickly note some of the “other” things that have been going on in the past month or so, maybe forgotten amongst the excitement of beautiful pastry and gay gay gay celebrations.
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work has been just “work” to be honest. there’s a bit of the typical frustration with any job that sort of is in a ‘comfort zone’ of sorts. although being in general interested in the project that i am working on, i have been particularly turned off of late by the way my principal handles it. he’s a talented designer no doubt, but in terms of “people-managing” skills … there is still room for improvement lets just say. the core of my frustration i think stems from a feeling of “inconsequential-ness” of what i am doing at work. there is a lot of working and re-working, and re-working even though you know what you are re-working is causing more re-working … all in all, you can see how it can feel like a dog trying to bite its own tail. unfortunately, my usual response in a situation like this, has been to grow disinterested in the job. ironically enough though, less because of the disinterest and maybe more because of the ramifications of all this redundant work… coming in on the weekends is pretty common-place for me now .. at least for an afternoon one of the days. for a while a few weeks ago, there was a point where it felt like storms were colliding and i was a lost ship in the middle of that storming ocean. other than my “job” job, there was about a month’s time that i was also loaded by a personal side-project … my largest commission to date … that involved a multi-phase project of re-working some condo floor plans. it was an attractive project in the sense that it was easy and straight-forward work … but of course it was difficult because of the… timing timing timing… that is what kills you. so in addition to my “job” job and my personal side job, there was also the other side job of handling some business for my parents. they were currently undergoing two sale transactions for properties they own, one being a particularly difficult one legalistically and financial structurally… and they conveniently weren’t going to be in the country as well during the process. it was a crazy few weeks of secretly (ultimately not so secretly) calling and emailing lawyers, title officials, lawyers, realtors, and more lawyers mostly at work, missing my own work time to do closings (one lasted four freaking hours)… and at very end, communicating all across the country, as i was in San Francisco, “my” lawyer was in Houston, the buyers were in New York, the loan people were in North Carolina, and the buyer’s lawyers were in Florida… fucking eh! some how… i still didn’t have overages on my cell minutes that month??? go figure.. all in all i think i have about a thousand emails documenting the process… and at that time, i was seriously considering getting a crackberry. i’m not going to bore my dear readers with the specifics, but take it from me… it was a learning experience, one that i probably will not want to repeat if i can help it.
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so anyways, in short… i have been busy with “work”. i sort of mentioned this, but i actually went to San Francisco for a weekend funny enough because of work. SWA was having there 50th anniversary, and they thought it would be nice to fly the entire firm (about 200 or so) to the San Francisco for the weekend, for a firm wide community service project (which was actually kind of cool once the day was over) and a an academic symposium (overall it was boring but got to hear Shigeru Ban and Thom Mayne and walked away with the itch to become more eco-friendly … since then, i have really pushed biking to work, started recycling, investigated how to harvest rain water, and trying to start a “less waste” initiative at work). the rest of the time was pretty much “free-time” which i used to explore the city a bit, saw the Herzog and de Meuron museum, experienced the San Francisco mass transit system and also met up with Sam (who now lives in SF) and hung out in the famous “Castro”. it was a very fun weekend all in all… lots of drinking, and just good fun all around. a massive hangover on the day we flew back, but other than that…. pretty good fun. would have loved to meet up with that guy i met a few months ago from San Francisco but he blew me off… oh well. i said he was imperfect, haha.
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anyways, other than the San Francisco event, the company has also hosted their annual “Open House’… which had a middle eastern theme this year… filled with lamb kebabs and belly dancers and a hookah lounge… it was a amusing time. beyond those ‘work” related thing, not much else really has been happening. at home, i have been trying to continue on the bathroom renovation project, the first week, i got good steam and finished re-texturing the ceiling but then i sort of petered out after that. i still have to re-plaster the walls, paint the walls, install molding, faux marble, and redo the floors. the original goal was using October for the bathroom and then September for the kitchen so by beginning of December i could have all of it done (for my one year house ownership anniversary) but now i think if i get my bathroom done before December, i’d be happy. i will have to boast though, that i FINALLY got the garage cleaned out… haha the task i literally have been meaning to do since the beginning of the summer? anyways, it was surprising how quick it took, no more than an hour (although it did occur on a day i took off of work as more of “mental health” day). i’ve also “winterized” the landscaping, finally moving those ailing begonias in the main front beds, to just the small beds around the trees, and just leaving the main beds barren… resting time i guess for the winter. some where in December before Christmas i guess i should power-wash the driveway again as well. oh… decorating for Christmas… yippee! i didn’t really decorate for Halloween but i did FINALLY make that dried rose wreath i’ve been collecting and drying all my roses for… obviously, it looks fabulous! that’s pretty much it in regards to the home front i think. the “boys” have been over quite a number of times, from large get-togethers like the dessert course of the “progressive” dinner to small snack and movie offerings and this home has been warm with good friends.
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speaking of good friends, i’ve already written that i am one good friend short now but many more good friends “more”. me and esau have not spoken to each other in maybe not two months and at least from my perspective, i don’t mind. to be honest, his absence from my life has improved my overall social situation i think… i have met more people and have had i feel more positively good times not hindered by cattiness. and to think that with even more gay men, it would even more catty… but somehow, my boys are allright. last saturday, nine of us went PF Chang’s for dinner, were sat at the “chef’s table” and had an absolutely raucous, hilarious time! kahl, bless his heart, has the most impeccable timing when saying inappropriate things. he made me the statement, i hope un-intentionally, of saying to the effect that it was obvious that the waiter knew the table was gay because once the topic of pussy surfaced, everyone sort of grimaced … but while the waiter came back to deliver the dessert. it was just too much for me! haha… that was really enjoyable dinner… good food, good drink, good friends. so yes, in general, i feel my social circle has flourished since leaving esau’s “fold” … and i sincerely hope he has also found new friends and is passing his free time with friends as well.
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last night i had dinner with an old friend that i haven’t seen in a very long time, dr. bea (who i had met through esau… but who last night told me that she was hesitant to call me to hang out because it might involve esau coming!). it was a pleasure to see her again… well, sort of… she still wants to talk at length about her lesbian dating strategies and woes or what have you….ewww, you know you’re gay when you can’t even fathom girls getting it on with each other… haha! anyways, i had a good time with her and brought her up to speed on the whole rift with esau and she seemed happy with that. also had a small revelation that she helped with in terms of exactly what is behind the reason for me not calling the guys that i have numbers to. there are two numbers i have, one guy who i doubt really is all that interested, but another which i really think is, and seems really nice. despite my wanting to date, i wonder if the reason i don’t call these guys is simply because i’m scared of really jumping into to “dating” with the goal of getting into a relationship? i guess my little bout with dating in the summer was just sort of really only for fun… but i dunno… of late i’ve really been wondering if its “time” to get hitched again. over dinner, i told bea about the whoel ron and the note in the statue thing and waxed nostalgic about love in general. i dunno… maybe i really should call this guy.. what harm would it do… except for him to tell me i waited to long and he’s already dating someone else. would be my luck of course…
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anyways, there are a few things to look forward to in the ensuing weeks… actually TONS of things… as this is the holiday season and everyone is celebrating and weekend times seems to be a premium these days. this weekend, i am going to dallas with hector, andy, and kahl. next weekend i’m seeing robert back in NYC, the weekend after that is Thanksgiving, which is always an affair (I think). there is an intermittent weekend that is still free between thanksgiving and my proposed anniversary party/ winter soiree (which i think occurs with the company party as well). then it’s a dual surprise party for andy and kahl’s birthdays, and then its basically Christmas, and new year, etc etc etc. again… life will be busy. even with out any dates, there is no lack of company. i guess life is not so bad after all.
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