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I received a very unexpected gift yesterday. I was sort of waiting on a CD I had ordered. So when [personal profile] loracs told me I had a package, I assumed that that was it. The box was overkill for a CD, but Amazon can be odd in their ideas of appropriate packaging. On opening it I found *bacon*! (is that a heavenly choir I hear?) Three packages of bacon in different flavors. One is hickory, another is called butter (I’ll have to try that one first). The third flavor I don’t remember, but it has the essential ingredient: Bacon! It took me a while to figure out where it came from, although I had my suspicions. Somehow we misplaced the sender’s name, but we eventually found it. My sweetie, [personal profile] serene sent me the food of the gods.

Years ago [personal profile] serene bought me a bacon-of-the-month-club membership as a present. I think I got more enjoyment out of my then vegetarian girlfriend sending me animal products than I enjoyed the actual meat. The idea tickled me greatly. Anyway thank you so much Buttercup. What a very special gift. I Love you.
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Hello Buttercup,
Happy birthday Sweetness. I hope you can do something fun. Though we live far away from each other knowing you is a goodness. Congratulations on another trip around the sun. Love you lots! *Smooches & cuddles*
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I've been having a rough time lately, but managed to get out of my house yesterday to see my therapist (the first time in weeks and weeks). I've been feeling a little weak, so instead of schlepping from Telegraph all the way to Tuk-Tuk Thai Cafe on Shattuck (as is our custom). I decided to try this new place on Telegraph near my therapist Rangoon Superstars. [personal profile] loracs and I over ordered as we tend to do at a new restaurant.

We both just loved the place. I can't remember what soup we had, but it had like a potato dumpling in it. On the spicy side for me, but I'm a wimp and I still liked it. We had salt and pepper calamari which was amazingly tender. [personal profile] loracs loved the jalapenos that went with it. I was able to eat around the jalapenos and enjoyed the appetizer quite a bit. I had some garlic noodles with duck. She had a shrimp dish. I discovered a new favorite drink: Burmese Milk Tea.

I was happy to run into [personal profile] serene as she walked home from work. Lots of vegetarian options probably several vegan ones as well.
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Today is the beautiful Buttercup's (otherwise known as [personal profile] serene) birthday. I love you so much sweetheart. Have a magnificent day. *smooooooches*
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Went to Berkeley yesterday to hang out with [personal profile] serene. We haven't been seeing a lot of each other lately for various reasons on both ends. We had huge Pete's caramel lattes, then to the burger joint that used to be called Mel's but is some other a name that I can't seem to remember. I was in comfort food mode. So, for me it was bacon cheeseburger with their homemade chips (restaurant made? They aren't prepackaged chips) and a glass of milk. caught a movie for the first time in forever. We had planned to see The Adjustment Bureau but all the accessible seating was gone. Changed our tickets, and ended up seeing Joueuse The English title was Queen to Play with Kevin Kline and a French actor Sandrine Bonnaire. Jennifer Beals had a very small part as L'Américaine. It is in French with English subtitles. A fun, sweet little movie. Nothing earth shattering, hardly any sex or violence. Not one car chase! What a bore! :-) It's about a woman who cleans a local mom-and-pop hotel and picks up a little extra cash cleaning some people's homes. For some reason she becomes fascinated with chess and eventually enters a local chess tournament. I was amused at some of the sports movie clichés popping up in this film. Worth a look if you like that sort of thing. After the movie I was getting a little cold, so I headed home. A really nice day.
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My sweetie, [personal profile] serene has started a really cool blog project called, The Mom Food Project. Lots of folks seem to be very enthusiastic about it already and I think it will be worth following. You can see it here.
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Have you noticed how wonderful today is? Happy Dance!
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Last Wednesday night I went to see Girlfriend at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre with [personal profile] serene. I like Matthew Sweet's music, so I was pretty sure I would enjoy the show and I was right. It was a wonderful evening. The Berkeley Rep did two musicals based on popular music this season. American Idiot by Green Day and Girlfriend. Although, American Idiot was more successful as a musical, I'm not entirely convinced that current music lends itself to dramatization. My working theory which is very preliminary is that back in my youth there were such things as concept albums. Where the music was actually intended to tell some kind of story. We don't seem to do that much anymore (although American Idiot appeared to be conceived as a musical and Green Day was much more involved in its show then Matthew Sweet was in Girlfriend.) So the musicals have much more of a concert feel to me. This isn't a criticism, I enjoyed both shows very much. it's just that after both shows I didn't feel like I'd gone to the theater. Of the two "musicals" I've seen at the Berkeley Rep, Girlfriend was less successful in my mind as a musical.

[personal profile] serene looked beautiful in her sparkly black dress. After the show we got sushi where I was introduced to butterfish sashimi which was very tasty and I ate usual tonkatsu (I'm almost sure I misspelled that, but I'm too lazy to go look right now.) I really enjoyed myself. Thank you so much [personal profile] loracs for the transportation assistance. The evening was much more enjoyable being dry. You wouldn't know it from what I write here, but I have a really good life. Much better than I ever expected.
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My house has a pretty large backyard, especially by SF Bay Area standards. We were also bequeathed lots of trees back there. Most of which we ended up getting rid of, but we did keep several fruit trees. Our plum tree has been going crazy this year. [personal profile] loracs brought in several plums to show off and [personal profile] serene lit up with the idea of canning some. So it was off to Longs for canning stuff. We didn't find all we needed at Longs, but eventually we got it all. For awhile our kitchen was transformed into a canning factory extraordinaire with all four of our stove burners going. I think we bit off a little more than we could chew, but [personal profile] serene did manage to fill 23 half pint jars of golden yellow plum preserves.

I didn't do any of the heavy lifting, but I am a fine cheerleader and fire watcher (got to make sure all the flammable items are far away from the burners don't you know). I'm indecently pleased at eating things that have grown from my own backyard. Even though I did nothing to deserve it. I managed to grab my new favorite Jamba juice drink; a chocolate, peanut butter and banana concoction that I can't seem to get enough of lately, while out buying equipment. If that wasn't enough, [personal profile] serene also made some kind of Spanish fretata (sp?) thing (or perhaps you would call it a potato eggs and cheese omelette) that I got to have for dinner. I really liked it. I started the day with bacon and coffee made by [personal profile] loracs. Watched plum preserves being made from my very own tree. Watched a little Battlestar Galactica and Buffy on DVD. Slipped in and a little long-overdue TMI. It is good to be me today.
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My sweetie, [personal profile] serenejournal sent me a cheesy postcard! :-)
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Do my sweeties know me or what? In the last couple of days I received these two links: from [personal profile] loracs Bacon Camp and just now from [personal profile] serenejournal Bacon Flowchart
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Six years! Six years ago today I met [personal profile] serenejournal face to face at the San Leandro BART. We knocked around Berkeley most of the day. It was wet and cold and I didn't care. I'm a lucky, lucky man (even concidering the last two years and all the health crap). I love you so very much. Thank you for the gift that is you, Buttercup.
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I came down with cellulitis yesterday (actually Sunday evening). I'm on antibiotics already, thank you on-call doctor, 24-hour pharmacy and especially my sweet, sweet [personal profile] loracs. I was disappointed because I had been feeling so physically strong earlier that week. Anyway, as often happens in my life along with the truly sucky stuff, there is a little good. I had managed to horn in on [personal profile] serenejournal and [profile] leback's lunch date yesterday. We were originally going to go out to eat, but as is often the case with cellulitis and antibiotics for me, the first few days make me very weak. So I wasn't up for going out to eat. I tried to "un-horn in" on the lunch, but they both decided to come over to my place. [personal profile] serenejournal made what I was told was a very tasty polenta. I tend to shut down when I'm sick and only really felt like drinking coffee and having a peanut butter and butter sandwich. We spent a truly lovely afternoon together. [profile] leback even brought me some peanut brittle (a favorite of mine). My joke for the afternoon was, "boy do I know how to show a woman a good time". Since the last time I saw [profile] leback she visited me in the hospital during my attack of pneumonia. The next time she sees me I'm down with cellulitis. I am a party animal!
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Snagged from [profile] black_pearl_10

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal (if you want to).
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Tomorrow will be my 50th birthday. It's kind of a startling statement to me. 50. I keep getting hit with the realization that I've been on this planet a pretty long time. Things that seem really recent like the 80s are a really long time ago for some folk. It is a really long time, and I'm not supposed to remember long ago. I'm the youngest in the room. I'm the one that doesn't get references to The Shadow or Fibber Magee's closet. Nowadays, I'm often the oldest in the room. I saw Star Trek when it first appeared on television. I remember the lunar landing. I remember so many assassinations; John, Robert, Martin and Malcolm.

When I was 3 I had no right to an education. Disabled women were regularly sterilized in ignorance and for their "own good". Nobody heard of a curb cut. Later, doctors told me not to count on a long life. My parents, never expected me to go to high school or college. They thought I would stay with them until they died and then perhaps live out the rest of my life in a nursing home. After all, that's where many people with disabilities ended up, they still do because of the lack of community-based attendant care. Yet I got through high school and even through college. I never managed a full-time job, but I'd like to think that my volunteer work has made the world a little better.

This year has been a rough one for me and for mine. Sickness has left me feeling fragile. I'm closer to the end of my life than the beginning and I'm hating it. I try to concentrate on the good stuff. All the people who love me and take care of me. All and wonderful people who make me a little part of their life as I make them part of mine. I never expected to make 50. I thought I'd made peace with that long ago. I was wrong.

I hope I find someway to cope with what's coming. I'd like to think that I have a little of that stubbornness I'm so proud of left to deal. I've said this many times in the last several months. This has been one of the hardest years of my life, but it is also the year that I realized how well loved I am. [personal profile] loracs, we've been together for longer than we've been with anyone. Thank you for this life we've made. [personal profile] serenejournal thank you for this life we've made. And to the rest of you, my chosen family, my blood family and to all my friends: Thank you for the life we've made.
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Happy anniversary, [personal profile] serenejournal and [personal profile] someotherguy I'm so glad you found each other! Enjoy many, many more years of being good to and for each other.
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Five years ago today, [personal profile] serenejournal and I had our first in person date. I met her at the Bayfair BART station on a Sunday. I was uncharacteristically bold (blame it on pent-up anticipation) and finagled a kiss right away. After a ride on BART, we wandered Shattuck Avenue and a little of University in Berkeley. Ate freshly made potato chips and leek soup at Mel's (which is now some unnamed restaurant, I think they are calling it Mike's?). We managed to visit The Other Change of Hobbit (my favorite genre bookstore) and ended up at a coffee shop on University (whose name I know but will not attempt spell). It was much too short a date. I love you Buttercup. Thank you so much for the last five years.
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For those who don't already know. [personal profile] serenejournal went into surgery about 9:30 this morning Pacific Time. She got out of recovery at about 2:30pm. Her surgeon said that the surgery was very successful. The tumor was large, but upon visual inspection everything looked fine. It will be a couple of days before we're absolutely certain but things look good. By the time I left the hospital at 5. She was mostly recovered from the anesthesia. Her voice sounds completely normal although it's difficult for her to speak. She was drinking water, eating some sherbet like frozen desert, and replying to a bunch of text messages. They're keeping her in the hospital tonight, but she is expected to be home tomorrow. By then I'm sure she will be replying to all your good wishes on her own. It's been a long day. Thank you all.
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For those who don't already know, [personal profile] loracs gave birth to a bouncing baby gall bladder yesterday (or was it the day before yesterday?). I think she's in a little bit more pain than yesterday, but she's home. Thanks to [personal profile] serenejournal we have both eaten well, slept and it almost feels like we're back to normal.
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If [personal profile] serenejournal ever offers you some of her mothers' knaedlach (matzoh ball) soup, say yes! I am not much of a soup person but Oh My God!

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