And the Hints Continue...

Yet another stop, in conjunction with the previous two:




Any guesses? Or is it that easy?


Over and "Out" from Portsmouth!

Another planned Stop

This is another of the planned stops on the upcoming adventure:

Over and "Out" from Porstmouth, VA

The next Excellent Adventure

We have planned a bit of a vacation in July...

One of the destinations:

More to come... Over and "Out" from Portsmouth, VA

Weekend in DC

Michael and I had a great time this past weekend in Washington DC. I didn't want to post anything about our plans in advance, because my niece reads my blog periodically and the reason for the trip was to attend her graduation from Georgetown University, my attendance was to be a surprise.

We drove up Friday afternoon/evening and checked into the Marriott Key Bridge, in Arlington right across the bridge from Georgetown. There were all sorts of events planned for the graduation, including a Ball at Union Station on Friday night. We passed on that and just spent time settling in and finding the bar...

The School of Foreign Service (the degree she attained) was the first to have their ceremony at 9:00am. As the last graduates name was called, the rain started falling in earnest. The rest of the speakers were abbreviated and the proceedings ended rather abruptly.

Saturday afternoon we spent some time exploring and then headed to Remingtons for an evening of Country Music... Michael is quite good at dancing and even slapped leather (slapped the soles of his shoes while line dancing). It was great seeing 15-20 guys up on the dance floor all line dancing (Yes, Remingtons is a gay country bar)...

. . . . . . . .

I started this post yesterday on my day off but never got around to finishing it. Last night Michael and I ventured out to see Star Trek at the Commodore Theater in downtown Portsmouth. The movie was awesome and the theater was beautiful... When it was refurbished in the late '80's, it re-opened as the first theater in the US to offer a full service dinner menu and beer and wine service as well.

If any of you are Trek fans, be prepared for some changes in the "message". This movie is action packed and while Kirk plays a pivotal role in saving the day, the rest of the characters are not overshadowed by him (as they were in the original series). The casting was very well done and believable. Plenty of room to continue "the voyages" too...

Live long and prosper from Portsmouth, VA

Mothers Day Weekend

I don't post too often about my Mom... She is one of the most amazing people I know, and I'm not just saying that because she's MY Mom (well maybe I am a little biased)...

There are a few things (besides my extreme good looks) that I inherited from her that I cherish every day. Her optimism, her young soul, her honesty, and her open mindedness, to name a few. I was so worried what she would think when I came out to her several years ago. She couldn't have cared less about me being gay, so long as I was happy. I was 50 years old and worried still, what my "Mommy" thought of me...

I see so many moms that continue to mother their children after their parenting job is done. While it may seem a little weird, my Mom has never done that... I have also adopted that philosophy. Once we became somewhat self reliant, Mom stepped out of the picture unless we asked her for advice or guidance. Don't get me wrong here, she has always been involved in things; Grandchildren, weddings, funerals, etc... but she never meddled.

I think she and I may both have the same thoughts about this. We spent the first half of our lives being kids, making our mark, and "doing" for our children. The second half is for ourselves, for experiencing the things we either chose not to, or couldn't earlier in our lives.

I am a much stronger person thanks to her... I love you Mom!

Over and "Out" from the 2nd half of my life in Portsmouth, VA

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Portsmouth Ramblings:

It's so hard to believe that it is already May... This year seems to be flying by.

This past weekend was grand. Michael's son came down Saturday and we took the ferry from downtown Portsmouth over to downtown Norfolk. One of the Royal Caribbean cruise ships was in port at the new cruise terminal, so we had lunch at Joe's, walked along the water, and over to Nauticus (a naval/marine based museum with the USS Wisconsin as a centerpiece)...

Sunday we hung around in the morning then headed over to the Children's Museum of VA, in "olde town" Portsmouth. It's been years since I have been to a children's museum. There were all sorts of things to play with (even for us grown ups).

I bought a new digital camera last week and will try to figure it out so that I can post a few more pictures in here. Maybe even sometime this year...

Otherwise things are great here in the Commonwealth. I am happy to see the tree pollen go away and equally as happy to have leaves on all the trees again. Michael has planted a garden in the back yard with tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, and the like. My herb garden is flourishing and Michael has fallen in love with my parsley potatoes made with fresh parsley.

Over and "Out" on the fifth of May, from Portsmouth, VA

Stern: "Gays are the Bastards of the World"

Used without permission from gay.com Hot Topics:

"Howard Stern Defends Gays. Again."

"If you're a regular reader of this site, you've probably read the various opinion pieces I've written on why I think Howard Stern is one of the most openly pro-gay media figures on the planet."

"In my continued quest to convince Stern's non-listeners of this, I wanted to share a snippet from this morning's broadcast. It was one of those many moments on the show where Howard inserts an insightful, positive opinion on gays -- completely out of nowhere."

"He was reading his fan feedback email on the air and then went off topic, talking about how someone had just complained to him that the show had become "too gay." Here's the exchange between Howard and his co-hosts Robin Quivers and Artie Lange:

Howard: I was talking to someone recently and they said, 'Oh you have so many gay guests lately, the show is getting too gay.'

OK -- first of all, we don't have that many gay guests. And my feeling about gay people is that we have a responsibility not only to make gay marriage acceptable and to make gays feel as accepted as heterosexuals, but that we have to hold gay people above all others.

Robin: What the hell does that mean?

Howard: In other words, gay people are downtrodden. They're beaten and abused for their sexuality. And it goes across race – it's in the white community and the black community. Gay people are the bastards of the world. And in order for things to change – because anyone of you could have gay children, gay relatives or gay friends –

Robin: And in some countries, you can be put to death for being gay.

Howard: Yes. You know, it reminds [me] almost of the Jews in Europe. In Poland, Warsaw was one of the great cities of Europe. They had Jews and the Jews were very important to the culture of Poland, and elevated the society. And then when the Nazis came and cleaned them out, Poland became what is today – nothing. It's really…not much.

Now, gay people in our society are responsible for some of the most creative arts, and creative science – and not just the Arts, because I don't want this to sound like a cliché. What I'm saying is that they're contributors, they are people who want to thrive and they're artistic and they're free thinkers.

So I think we have a responsibility to make [gays] acceptable. We have to get past all this bullshit, so that some gay kid going to high school doesn’t get the shit beat out of him just because he's gay. And like, what is this hang up with gay marriage, you know? Who cares?!

I mean, we aired a clip yesterday where this guy was carrying on – he's petitioning, and he's devoting his whole life to making sure that gay marriage doesn't happen in his state. And I'm thinking, 'Geez, this man must have the most empty fucking life.' It's just such bullshit.

If you want to believe in God, that's great. But don’t buy into these religions that were created by man that have all these cockamamie rules that were created by some uptight douche bag.

Artie Lange: And God created gay people, so I don’t know what these religious nuts are even talking about. Look, you can become a Nazi and you could be mad at them for doing that. But you're not born a Nazi. Every type of person was created by God, so you love them and accept them. Some people think it’s a choice, being gay, but I really don’t think so. I mean, why would you choose to be downtrodden?

Robin: Why would you choose to get the shit kicked out of you?

Howard: Right.

That was it, and the dialogue was over. And that's the beauty of the Howard Stern show -- that he seamlessly inserted this progressive opinion on gay acceptance in between ridiculing Paris Hilton's self-indulgent Twitter posts and berating a show employee for eating a dead cockroach for $5.00. True, it's a strange setting to place these pearls of wisdom, but, oddly enough, that only makes the message that much more striking."

. . . . .

Now, personally I find Howard Stern repulsive and disgusting, but that is my opinion... I also believe he has every right to say what he wants. Thank goodness he makes sense sometimes.

Over and "Out" from the gayborhood in Portsmouth, VA