Today Richard went rollerblading with a friend. I opted out. I wasn’t feelin’ it today. Also, I tore up my feet pretty bad last time, and cannot do this workweek with painful feet. No way. But I put the time to good use. I went to the mall. I went to Starbucks. I went to the grocery. Then I came home and baked.

Mmm. Did he say bake??

Yup. I baked. I found this recipe online a week or so ago. I held back on making them, due to my new diet and all. Today I gave in. Now the recipe is called Vampire Cupcakes. They are very cool looking. They even “bleed” when you bite them! But the recipe involved making the cake mix and frosting from scratch. Bleh. I don’t really do scratch these days. I was raised in a Betty Crocker cooking household. Even the Betty Crocker cookbook had recipes that called for canned foods and boxed mixes. Heh. So I substituted the 2 cups cake flour,1 1/3 cups sugar, ect. for a supreme moist deluxe Betty Crocker mix. For the frosting I substituted the 1 1/2 cups sugar, 2 large egg whites, room temperature 1/3 cup water, ect. for a tub of Betty Crocker whipped white frosting. Everything else I followed exactly…

Take a peek:

Ingredients… Mmm! Fancy!

Cupcake innards.

Filled and ready to frost!

Creepy AND tasty!

tagged: richard cupcakes baking lazy betty crocker vampire cupcakes

daniel · mid-afternoon · 3 comments · ping it

...was amazing. Well, maybe not amazing. It was outstandingly good as well as unique. You see, our neighbors (not the well endowed drug dealer or the asian sorority girls, but the ones behind us that are quite a normal couple) had invited us over for dinner last week. Of course after that we didn’t see them at all. When Tuesday finally rolled around I was convinced that they weren’t home. Top it off with the fact that they hadn’t been out with their dog ALL DAY. I was positive that we were stood up. I didn’t even want to go knock on the door! How embarrassing, to be standing on the stoop with a bottle of wine and get no answer… But I was wrong. Not only were they home, they were dressed all cute and stuff. We were in shorts. Mine were cutoffs. AND they had invited their other gay neighbor. He was dressed well too. I could vex about my poor outfit all night. I thought they weren’t home!! Anyway, so there we were: 3 gays and a straight couple. Believe it or not the conversation flowed easily! It turns out that only Richard and I were ‘new additions’. They had been neighbors with the other guy for a while and had socialized pretty regularly. The dinner was a Raclette style. It’s almost like a fondue, but a grill. You cook your meats, veggies, and cheese on it at the table. Too fun.

And they poured a bit of wine too. No glass was ever dry. My neighbors totally got us drunk. LOL! Actually I think everyone was a bit toasty… But no one was driving and the company was great. Good times!

It did leave me and my boo a bit of a wreck today. We were too tired and moody to do the group SYTYCD viewing. I feel bad about that. But yo. I think I had a hangover. I never get hung over. Heh. The funny part is that my message to Fred was that the neighbors had us up late. True, but not the neighbors I am sure he is thinking of…

tagged: neighbors sytycd hangover meat dog outfits raclette

daniel · late at night · 3 comments · ping it

This is a bowl of tuna salad. For those who have been over to dinner you may know that this bowl is quite large. It has approximately 36 ounces of fish, low fat mayo, fat free ranch, mustard, and a variety of tasty seasonings in it. But not salt. Tuna is salty enough on it’s own yo. Did I mention the ½ onion and 3 chopped zesty pickles? We make yummy tuna salad. It will be in our sandwiches that we bring as lunches for about a week, give or take. Sometimes we use it for dinner. A few spoonfuls on a salad and you are good to go. Is it a Gourmet Wednesday™ dish? No. But it’s what we do when we eat healthy. Lots of protein for boys that exercise regularly…

Before we came to San Diego there was always tuna salad in the fridge. Since we got here we did quite a few more freezer snacks, lunches out, as well as the gourmet cooking. Not to mention much less exercise. I think it was a symptom of the mismatched schedules. Since that has been remedied (other than PTO policies) we are back on track.

It seems like a lot of the hawt bloggers and podcasters are on a health kick right now, yeah? Weird.

I think my abs and lats are gonna be sore tomorrow.

tagged: fish exercise big bowl tuna salad dinner sugestion eating well

daniel · early evening · 4 comments · ping it

So tonight was a rather typical Monday. Richard and I both worked late, but now that our schedules are kinda the same it’s okay. With that though, neither one of us felt much like cooking. So our plan was Mexican, as usual, but Chevys this time. We are on this new fitness gig and it’s easier to know/control what you eat there… You know, the fresh in fresh mex. You can get stuff more customized like fajitas with no butter. You do know that the sizzle on the platter when they bring them out is just butter on hot metal right? Anyway… See how I am? Distracted. Where was I? Oh, Chevys. So we pull up and notice the outside lights are off. We couldn’t tell if they were closed, or if that was just like weird or whatever. We park and notice thru the side window that there ARE people inside. It still seemed dim tho. When we get thru the door we ask what’s up with the mood lighting. Apparently they were suffering thru a power outage. Corporate wouldn’t let them close. So with the back up generator and no air conditioning for the kitchen they were making due.

WHAT??

Normally I’d just be like ‘whatever’ but we have become friends with some of the staff. That sucks! We sit down for a cocktail and banter and bitch with the bartender who’s one of our friends there. After about ten minutes the generator died. It was dark in there yo. Dark. As they hurried about with the gathering of flashlights and sterno cans to try and, you know, see, this woman at one of the tables in the bar kinda loudly says ‘hello, i was going to order something else, can i order or what?’ Rude much? Hello yourself, the LIGHTS ARE OFF! We were shocked and laughed off the rudeness somewhat sympathetically with our friend. Richard a bit more loudly for effect. You know how he is…

Now at this point I was confused. In MY line of work there is a clear protocol to follow involving the safe evacuation of the public. Why were they staying open? As more time passed in the dark the skeevy hoor at the table demanded beer. So there was our poor friend behind the bar IN THE DARK WITH GLASSWARE trying to get beer when the keg blew, almost causing her to break the glass. See the danger behind the bar in the DARK?? Finally I had to leave from frustration. The manager clearly had no balls to make a decision. When we walked out he was still trying to get authorization to close while his staff was at risk of injury and the public was (though selfishly blind and demanding and stoopid) at risk. No one even checked the bathrooms! How do you finish a 2 in that situation? how do you find the sink, or the door? I was appalled.

So yeah. We went to Round Table for a veggie/chicken pizza. Take out thanks.

tagged: richard monday power outage dark skeevy hoor chevys take out round table

daniel · late evening · 1 comment · ping it

Tonight Richard is doing up one of his amazing dinners. While checking on his turkey, he commented that we had a ways to go as it wasn’t yet registering on the meat thermometer. I asked him if the oven was working. He laughed, yet said that wasn’t funny. This is an inside little joke of ours that goes way back.

You see, when we first started dating (I use the term dating loosely. We were rarely apart.) Richard had decided to cook for me. He was going to do something fancy. I was to show up after work and do nothing but enjoy the meal. I was excited! I had never had a man cook for me before! Of course, I had never been on a date that involved a meal… Anyhoo. So after work I raced home and changed into the tightest t-shirt I owned and threw on some jeans. I made the 50 minute drive over to his place in a nervous state. I had no idea what to expect, and felt kinda bad that he was cooking and going to so much trouble. When I arrived it was a scene I’ll never ever forget.

I knocked on the door. I heard him tell me to come in so I opened the door and looked around. There was Richard, in a tank top and his underwear.

Wait, it’s not like you think… You are so durteh!

He was actually in the kitchen, squatted in front of the oven, and cursing/praying. He stood up and apologized. Apparently he hadn’t yet used the oven much and didn’t realize that it didn’t quite work. It turned on, but didn’t heat up much past 25 degrees. He was at that moment hoping that the oven would heat up. He hadn’t taken the time to finish getting ready because he was so wrecked over the potentially ruined meal. I assured him it was no big deal. We laughed, kinda.. He was still upset (so cute). He ended up asking to borrow an upstairs neighbors oven. It was crazy, yet one of my fondest memories. Sheesh! Can you believe we are heading for year number ten together? That boggles my mind.

tagged: richard memories turkey oven

daniel · early evening · 4 comments · ping it

Isn’t it funny how you can go though life skipping breakfast almost everyday without a thought, but the one day you have no time for it.. it’s all you can think about. I am sooo hungry!

Bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes, cereal, french toast, syrup, omelets, orange juice…. mmmmm.

tagged: breakfast hungry
  grumpy

daniel · terribly early · say it · ping it