Black Friday

I have been in and around retail for most of my professional life and have always wondered why it was called that... Yesterday morning on the Today show it was explained that the Friday after Thanksgiving is when most retailers' ledgers/books go from the red into the black. It's kind of like that day of the year when your salary starts being yours, you know, the day where up to that point all you have earned is enough to pay all the taxes you will owe by the end of the year and all you want to do is go to Banana Republic or Target and celebrate!!

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Jim got up early (6ish) and started baking. By the time I woke up the house smelled wonderful. He made pumpkin rolls, buck-eyes, and devil-dogs for the Thanksgiving deserts... We watched the Macy's parade in HiDef and then headed over to our friends home for a scrumptious meal. I made spinach and artichoke dip and the green bean casserole. This was only the second year in the past 20 or so that I wasn't cooking "the bird". It was very nice, thanks Leah and Patrick, for including Jim and me.

Today I work 8:00am to 9:00pm, tomorrow 9:00am to 9:00pm, Sunday 11:00am to 6:00pm, and Monday 10:00am to 3:00pm. I hope the projections our store management have been ranting about do come true, even though the commissions for them won't be paid to me until January '07, I can use a good month or two, to get myself into the "black".

I hope everyone reading this had a terrific Turkey Day... Now get your butts out there and spend some money at your favorite retailer (or furniture store)...

Over and "Out" from Toano, Virginia

Thanksgiving Eve Day

I have been remiss in my timely posts...

My life has been a little stressful these days, trying to sell enough to make ends meet when business has been really slow... Having to deal with my pending hearing (divorce) in December... Trying to find a new job... And dealing with family...

Yet I am very grateful for my family, friends (bloggers and real life), and my Love. I have so much to be thankful for, on this Thanksgiving Eve...

I was reminded the other day, by my friend Philip, of the first Thanksgiving in "My New Life", last year. I was renting a room from another good friend (Lee) and he decided to have Thanksgiving dinner at the house. He invited me, which he did not have to do, and about eight other men (all "family"). We had a wonderful time, we ate well, we drank well, and we had some great conversations and some marvelous stories were told by all. We remembered our Sky Diving adventure and watched the video that Lee had purchased of his jump. Four gay men jumping from a perfectly good airplane? What a blast that was... Thank you all.

Life in Toano has been good. I can't believe it's been three months since my exodus from city life in Richmond. The bar and club scene, the traffic, the men... I am so content here (personally) and Jim is the best thing to happen to me in years. He makes all the stress, pain, and remnants of my old life seem less hurtful... He does so much for me, I only wish I had the means to do for him, what he does for me... Thank you Baby... I can't imagine life without you.

My children, two in Miami (28 and 26) and two in Richmond (20 and 18), are my legacy. They are each challenging in their own way. Some talk to me regularly, some don't. I am thankful that they are mine, and hope that they all know how much I love them...

My Mother and two brothers (and their respective families) who I don't speak to enough, are always in my thoughts. My Mom has been through alot this year after she lost her husband, but she is my inspiration and more than likely is where I got my optimism from. Thanks Mom, I love you! Thank you Skip and Pat, I know you have had to deal with alot from your older brother this past year, I love you guys, your wives, and my nieces and nephew...

To my blogging friends: You all have made my journey this past year so enlightening. It is so nice to know that complete strangers can connect and impact the lives of each other in such a positive way sometimes... What a lucky man I am to know all of you! Thank you for your input, your comments and your support of "My New Life" and me personally...

There are many others in my life that have supported me and continued to care for me through all my ups and downs. To all of you: Thank You!

I will be thinking and thanking everyone for a wonderful year and life, as Jim and I spend our first (of many) Thanksgiving together...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Over and "Out" from Toano, Virginia, USA

Who thinks of this stuff?

Ramblings

Well, it took about three days to re-adjust to the east coast time zone... We got back Tuesday night, I worked a 12 hour shift Wednesday, then was off Thursday and Friday... Thank God!!!

I didn't realize until Friday morning that I was still somewhat sleep deprived. I usually get up with Jim around 5am and spend time with him before he heads out to work. I couldn't get my lazy ass out of bed on Friday, and ended up sleeping until about 8.30... Never even heard him leave... What a sloth I am.

Yesterday I was supposed to work an 8 hour stint, but went in for the full 12... I was astonished to see and hear that Christmas was installed while I was gone. I forget sometimes that I work retail and that "the season" accounts for so much of most retailers profits. With the Veterans Day holiday mixed in, we were pretty busy, which is also a good thing...

I know I promised some Vegas stories, and I will deliver them, I swear! But for now I am going to just get something on here, as many of you must think I went AWOL after my return...

I did follow the election results, and like most of you am pleased to see that Congress will be shifting aisles... I was thrilled for those in AZ that managed to defeat a proposal to amend their constitution defining marriage, while we here in VA just reinforced our already provincial ways by adding one to our constitution (written originally by Thomas Jefferson). That's in case we didn't already know it was against the law for same sex couples to marry. In doing so, we have also created a legal mine field of new questions for the straight couples of our commonwealth that prefer not to marry, for what ever reason. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few years.

Otherwise life is good in Toano. While I have not been posting all that much, I have been reading my favorite blogs. Keep up the posts guys and gals!!

Over and "Out" from Toano, Virginia

What Happens in Vegas...

All I can say is WOW!!!

It had been almost 18 years since I had been to Las Vegas. While a few things there were the same, there were many things that have changed dramatically. Here are a couple of photos for now, I will post some Vegas stories after my body gets used to Eastern Standard Time again:

^^^

This is the Stratosphere Hotel, Casino and Tower

where I had to try the 3 Thrill Rides

at the top!

^^^

This is where we stayed, the MGM Grand.

The picture was taken from New York, New York

right across the street.

^^^

Finally, for today...

Jim and I in front of the pirate ship

at Treasure Island.

Over and "Out" (for now) from Toano, VA...

100th Post TGIF!

It's Friday, and this is my 100th post! I can't believe I have that much to say...

Tomorrow morning we (Jim, his business partner, her husband, and I) get up and out at "O:dark:30" and head up to RIC for our flight through Dallas to Las Vegas!

What a surprise...

I am looking forward to the time away from Virginia (and yes we have already mailed our absentee ballots), work, and everything. We have tickets to see a few shows while we are there including Celine (yahoooo)!

I will update upon return...

Over and "Out" from Toano

Autumn in Toano

Ok... Ok... We'll get to the answer in a minute (some people are so damned impatient)...

Just a word or two on my favorite season though, this is what I see right now from the deck as I type this entry:

My Weatherbug says it's 65 degrees, the sky has a few poofy clouds in it and the fall sun is brightly warming the air around me. I sit here with a cup of coffee, in my bare feet, wearing a pair of jeans and a tee shirt... Those of you in colder/warmer climates... Eat your hearts out!

LIFE IS GOOD, today in Toano Virginia!

Now on to the revealing of the frightening sight we witnessed on the Ghost Tour Saturday night.

As I remember, I mentioned I had seen a blue glow coming from a window on the side of one of the "most haunted" houses in Colonial Williamsburg. After Jim and I fell back from the crowd to investigate, we could see as we got closer that the light was pulsing. The old structures are raised up quite a bit from street level (I suppose to avoid flood damage in the low lying area), so it was difficult to determine at first where this mysterious light was emanating from... As we got closer and closer, the glow got brighter and brighter. Just as we got to a small rise in the landscape we witnessed the most ghastly, horrifying spectacle...

A clip of G.W. BUSH making some type of speech, on a wide screen TV inside this 18th century home!!! HOW FRIGHTENING IS THAT?

That's all there is for now kiddies!!

Over and "Out" from Toano, VA!