Diary of a Lesbian Housewyfe

This spring I got a letter from our local arts council asking us for a donation for Cabaret, a performance which skewers the political figures here in our little Steamboat town. Within the text was hidden the line, “…we expect this year to be a complete sellout.”

Yeah, I know.

After laughing out loud and repeating the phrase all over town, I quieted down and wrote the check.

Now, it’s my turn. Our lovely little ISP is now about to go to someone else and I’m going to be free! The change will be good for our current and new clients as this new company will be able to grow SpringSips. My sweet little honey bunny and I know how to start a business, but after a few years boredom sets in and we’re ready to move on. So, good for starting, not so good at maintaining.

My parents sent us a bouquet of flowers which brighten up our office just in time for the clouds to move back in.

They are the best!!!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Fort Collins, Colorado to sign the papers.

I really feel like everything is working out well, and I’m glad to be finishing this project after eleven years.

Woo-hoo!

Just so you know what I was craving last week:

Baby!

The sun finally came out on Saturday and has not fled again. The trade-off here is that we have big flood warnings going on as the sun melts the 500″ of snow that we got during the winter and spring. I don’t even care. My sun is back and I am doing the dance of joy which, I can only assume from the past weekend’s behavior, means dog walks.

The dog is happy.

I am happy.

The sun is shining.

So yesterday, I tried this new wine: Mas de la Dame Rose. Oh. My. God. I cannot do it justice. Layers of flavor with a dry finish, but fruity enough that your friends who only like sweet wine will still like it. Yeah. And so reasonably priced, French and organic (or biologique as they say in France). Plus, it’s pink.

I have this thing for pink drinks. There’s nothing like a pink drink to make you feel decadent and special and girly. I love Kir Royales especially. Sparkling wine does the same thing for me as pink drinks except I also feel sophisticated, so you can imagine my affinity for the Kir Royale. I make mine with Chambord sometimes too, which is actually a Kir Imperial. Yummy either way.

Anyway, pink drink season starts again soon. I’ve been fighting off the snow golems with generous amounts of the Shingleback Grenache Rose that I took home earlier this week. I also found a new absolutely yummy and easy cocktail called a Paloma which really does only take about a moment to make and makes me feel like summer is just around the corner. I use Izze grapefruit soda, because that is what is in the liquor store downstairs, but I stuck with the Reposado Tequila (I used Milagro) and substitutes are now not welcome.

Actually, I think that I’ve started the pink drink season early. Woo-hoo!

Me consternation?

Can you see it? The snow? I just took this picture, and the snow has only gotten harder since that time.

I love the snow, don’t get me wrong. I moved here knowing that we’d measure our snow in feet instead of inches and that entire days might be devoted to shovelling the stuff.

Our first year in Steamboat (and my last year gardening in an actual plot), I lost my green beans to snow on the Fourth of July. July! When I checked the frost dates for fall, I found that the first frost date was listed as August 16th. The last frost date of the previous season? August 17th.

Well. What can you do about that? No more fresh tomatoes for me without tons of fancy footwork. Dang.

And here’s my However. I want my sun back! Good ol’ Mother Nature has been teasing me with a beautiful day here and there interspersed with days of this crapatoopie weather! Rain, sleet, grapple, snow. Snow, grapple, sleet, rain.

I know that tornadoes, volcanoes, earthquakes and cyclones are destroying the world. I think I might be able to take that knowledge if I could just feel like I was going to have more sun than clouds.

Arrgh.

PS. The baby shower I was dreading? Totally rocked. We walked in to meet one of the liquor reps who immediately hooked us up with a kick-ass sangria which knocked me on my patootie after only half a glass. No games, no cheesy decorations, and no children! An entire room of fabulous conversation with adult women who wanted to talk about things other than their children as well. You just can’t beat that!

Okay. Despite the fact that I love knitting and crocheting and cross-stitching my way through the baby stuff, I dislike the baby shower process. (Also the baby-having and the baby-holding process, but that’s another story for another day.)

Inevitably someone thinks that “fun” will be had if we are all forced to race-diaper baby dolls or guess how much baby products cost. Luckily, my sweet honey-bunny and I can attend together (because that’s yet another perk of the lesbian lifestyle! No boys allowed? No problem here!) so we can share those “ohmygodtheyjustcomparedbreastpumps” moments.

Don’t get me wrong. I smile and race-diaper the baby while making fun of the whole thing out loud so that my head doesn’t explode. I try to enjoy the moment with a post-feminist irony. However, I challenge you to fully revel in any sort of irony when surrounded by pastels. Irony just works better in grey and black.

Anyway, while I am unsuccessfully avoiding saying the word “baby” so that my bead necklace doesn’t get stolen, my sweet honey-bunny stealthily plans our escape. Our countdown begins when the presents start to open. As soon as everyone has ooohed and aaaahed over my hours and hours of hard work and fiber choice, we are out of there. Suddenly, it’s “Hey, we’re going to be late for the other, you know.” And “I’m so sorry, but we got double-booked.”

Double-booked with the shower and watching tv at home.

We slip out as quietly as possible and take off for the house.

I love baby knitting, but save me from the showers!

I have another stop on the Baby Express! Right now, I’m working on the Sunny-Side-Up Hoodie in a cute little lavendar color and it’s just making me so happy. I always resist using the same yarn as called for in the pattern (I think I’m just twisted that way) but I am using the Cupcake because I wanted to see how it works up. While not that pleasant to work with, I do think that it’s going to make up into a really cute little sweater. Plus, since the fiber is acrylic, the sweater will be bullet-proof for mama. The pattern is really simple, which works both ways for me. I’m trying to finish for a baby shower on Friday which means a bit of a slog through several inches of garter stitch. On the other hand, the stitching will go quickly, and that means I’ll have the full trousseau finished in time for the shower.

The full trousseau?

LA’s famous Baby Afghan

Bunny Ear Baby Hat

Yet Another Pair of Better-Than-Booties Baby Socks

And the not finished Sunny-Side-Up Baby Hoodie.

All cute. All the time.

I’m continuing to play with the new phone. I’ve almost got all my systems down with it, and I’ve set up my wallpaper on the front:

and on the interior flip:

Did I mention that I have a flip? That’s because I’ve finally broken down and adopted a phone which opens up to a keyboard. Pretty darn cool. Yesterday I went shopping and was able to read my shopping list on the front screen of the phone instead of hauling a crumpled up index card with the list through the store.

The entire time all I could think was, “How cool am I? I feel really cool. ”

Then, I attempted to listen to the music I’d loaded *from my computer* to the phone. Phooey on them and their VCast extortion, I thought to myself.

I also have very strong views on ringback tones, but I’ll leave that for another day.

So, phooey on them. I scrolled to the album and hit play.

Nothing.

Play, play, play.

Nothing.

Be patient. See if something happens because it does take a moment to get this player to start up.

Nothing.

I scrolled into the album.

No songs. While I’d uploaded the fact of the artist and the album, no songs had been loaded to play.

Arrgh. I am an idiot!

I finished my shopping and returned to the office to delete this mess. Success was discovered this morning, and I now have music and pictures and sudoku on my phone.

Utter techie happiness. I haven’t experienced this for a long time.

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As a final P.S. to my last post, I just wanted to note that I’ve decided to give a donation to charity in the name of my acquaintance. I haven’t decided upon the exact charity, but I’m looking for something local and alcohol-related since he represented a selection of fine wines, beers and liquors.