Week. End.

It was a nice long holiday weekend here in Smallville, and it was fun and relaxing and stressful and someone got yelled at, although someone else will not admit to being the yeller.

Saturday was SC Pride, in Finley Park in Columbia, so Carlos and I made the trek from the country to the, ahem, city.. But it was a gorgeous day and thankfully not as hot as we'd been experiencing.

We circled the park and checked in with various vendors and picked up flyers and baseball caps--Rainbow Kitties!--talked with an old friend, Mattushka, who works with the South Carolina LGBT Business Guild and is the unofficial queen of all things gay in Columbia.

We also talked with our Green Party candidate for Senate, Tom Clements, who listened to Carlos rant about both the federal and state funds for ADAP [AIDS Dug Assistance Program] being cut. Clements told Carlos there wasn't much he could do at the state level, but he'd be willing to work for additional funds for South Carolina at the federal level.

I don't think Clements has much of a shot at winning--Jim DeMint, Resident Redneck has his ample ass glued to the seat--but I admire Clements because he was the only politician of any party at Pride.

Several people Carlos has met through his job were there and we stopped in to say Hello, and then I spotted a pair of Lesbians--Go figures, lesbians at Pride!--that I'd seen around Smallville, and went to say Hi y'all! One of the women, Candace Chellew-Hodge, is an ordained United Church of Christ minister, and has started her own church, Jubilee! Circle. We had a lovely chat with Candace and her partner Wanda, about religion and politics and being gay in South Carolina of all places! Carlos jokingly said that we should have a Smallville Pride Parade and both Candace and I said we were shocked--pleasantly shocked--at the number of gay people in Smallville.

Maybe one day: Pride Smallville!

We were going to chat more, but then I heard some bits and pieces of an announcement coming over the loudspeaker:

Drag Race.......RuPaul.......LOGO TV's Drag U......Funny Lady.........Pandora......

Boxx! I grabbed Carlos' arm.

What?

Pandora Boxx!

Who?

Pandora! Boxx?!?

I dragged him to the main stage in time to see her.

Fab.U.Lous.

What a great fun, funny show she put on, and what a way to get the crowd moving. Even Carlos was dancing, and not his usual showgirls at the Riviera in Vegas kind of dancing but the kind of dancing that didn't make me hope that no one was looking at him.

Love him. He's no dancer.

We stayed and danced and sang with Pandora until it was time to leave, and then we made the journey back home, with a Domestic Goddess type of stop at Kroger along the way. Later, we ate dinner at one of our local Smallville hotspots with one of my favorite Fag Hag bartenders--though she slept through Pride and I had to pull some strings with Homo HQ to let her keep her Hag Card.

Sunday was a CostCo day, and lists were made and the car was filled with gas. We joined CostCo about five months ago, and make the trip up to Charlotte--the closest CostCo--about once a month. That would be, let's one...two...three...FIVE trips.

Five trips and Carlos still does not remember how to get there.

Five trips and I have to point out where to turn and which roads to get on.

Five trips where I get to drive home and he falls asleep before we're out of the parking lot.

This time I suggested he drive home, and do so without my GPS-capabilities. We got to the end of the parking lot before he asked, Which way?

Right.

We drove about a block before he asked, Which way?

Left. And, um, sweetie pie? That's the last direction I'm giving.

Well, he made it to the freeway, because a big sign that said "Columbia" appeared before him, but on the freeway I saw the sign for our exit "2 Miles" and then the next sign "1/2 Mile," followed by one last sign "521 South."

Carlos whizzed right by. I said nothing.

Then we got to another major highway and Carlos finally said, Where's the road, I don't want to take this way, it's too far out.

I said, Our turn off was back there, before the traffic jam.

YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME!!!

Yup, Sweetie Pie yelled.

I closed my eyes, reclined the seat back, and said, Wake me when.....or if......we get home.

In case he's reading this: You did SO yell!

Monday was gutter day, after all it was Labor Day.

Our house is surrounded by trees. Dogwoods and Crepe Myrtles and Crab Apple and Eucalyptus and Pine Trees. So our gutters are always full of leaves and needles and twigs. Well, we bought this spongy stuff, that you set inside the gutters and it keeps the leaves and needles out of them. Monday was the day we decided to try it out. We'd bought enough for a small run of gutter, and we cleaned out the leaves and the downspouts and then wrestled the spongy stuff into them.

Now, we wait for rain.

Until then, we went back into Columbia for some antiquing. We're looking for something to either set the TV on, or something to set it in, and to also hold all the equipment that you need these days. Whatever happened to just having a TV? Now there are DVRs and DVDs and Receivers and Surround Sounds. It's madness, and it needs a special place.

We found this old Deco-looking armoirs that we both liked, and it's strong enough--no particle board here--for shelves to be added to hold all the equipment. At one point, the doors were replaced so the wood doesn't match, and it's pretty banged up, so if we get it, we may have to strip and sand it and stain match the whole thing, or perhaps just find a funky color to paint the whole thing.

Then the bad news.

It was sold.

Then the not-so-bad news.

The buyer had left it there for over a month and hasn't been seen or heard from since. So, we'll make phone calls to the seller, and work with the antique shop, and see it we can get it.

We also found another antique shop that has some architectural salvages pieces. Victorian brackets and stained glass from churches. Old rusted sculptures for the yard. I saw a five-foot tall iron statue of the Hartford Elk or Moose, or, maybe Reindeer? I instantly saw it spray painted bright yellow and nestled among the trees in our garden.

There will have to be some bartering, though, before that happens.

Fingers are crossed.

How was your Labor Day?

Weekend Of Mo's: Mo Friends, Mo Music, Mo Food, Mo Drinks, Mo Shopping

It was a homo-licious, homo-filled, homo-stravagnza weekend in Smallville.

Saturday was our pilgrimage to Kroger for a week's worth of groceries, and an afternoon spent trolling antique stores in town, Carlos had seen an old clock he wanted for the mantle, but alas it was either sold, or moved; we looked all over the store to no avail. But that didn't stop us from hitting other stores and seeing their goods, or their crap as Carlos called one store.
We returned home empty-handed, but with an idea for a couple of things we might like. Carlos napped; I made myself a little lunch, and then it was time to head out again.

That night, our friend, Round The Way Gay, Neal, gave a little concert at the local Fine Arts Center. Neal is a fantastic singer and wowed the crowds--mostly the normal geriatric Smallvillians [I think that's what you call them] and quite a smattering of the out and proud homosexual of the gay and lesbian persuasion. Neal sang opera and show tunes and a couple of very funny numbers, including one about Two Old Crows--I thought for a moment he glanced at Carlos and me when he sang that one.
But he was looking at John. ;)
Neal was joined onstage by a trio of friends, including his partner, Round The Way Gay, David. It's one of those rare times when you know your friend has an amazing gift, but to be in a room and see the faces of other people around you as they realize how talented he is, that makes for a truly wonderful evening.

The gaggle of gays that gets together whenever possible was in attendance, drinking and laughing and joking, and afterwards we all sashayed over to Neal and David's for an after show cocktail party. It was a fun-filled evening, with jokes both good and bad, delicious food, and a fabulous--if I do say so myself--Grey Goose martini nightcap!

The next morning, we went back to Neal and David's for a Sunday brunch. All evidence of cocktails and appetizers from the night before--hell, from just a few hours before--was gone, replaced by champagne, with pear-and-orange juice, and all kinds of breakfast casseroles and pastries and a beautiful birthday cake for David and his twin sister Barbara.
The crowd was smaller, but no less fun, and there were good laughs again about the show and how most of us think it should be an annual Smallville event--it raised money for our Fine Arts Center--and I, personally, thought Neal should do a show every week. This was not met kindly by Neal, so, sad to say, unless Neal gets more friends to help entertain, well, it might have been One Night Only.

After that, Carlos and I were off to Homo Goods, er, Home Goods, in Charlotte. The spring-like weather of Saturday had disappeared and we were cold and drizzly--as well as Carlos' nose being drizzly with a cold. But, we suffered through--he with the cold and me listening to the cold--and hit the Homo Goods and found a new rug for the entry hall, a couple of new lamps, and a few little tchochkes for the house.
It was a big day for us as we actually agreed on the lamps; a minor miracle if you will. While I favor something a little streamlined and contemporary, Carlos leans more towards lamps with, well, monkeys on them. Thank goddess, the Homo Goods store had better sense than that.
The rug was different than I has wanted and has caused me to rethink the drastic secretary paint, which may go olive green and gold rather than lime green and red. Stay tuned, because that could change at any moment.

Once home, we settled into jammies, and Carlos grilled some veggies and marinated pork chops for dinner, and then we nestled into the couch and :::whoosh::: relaxed. Where the hell did the weekend go? Between good friends, good food, good music, good drinks, and good sales, it had disappeared almost as soon as it started.
It was early to bed, because the new week was starting sooner than we wanted.