the latin heartthrob has finally publicly come out of the closet. he announced on his website that he is a “fortunate homosexual man.” ricky, we welcome you with open arms.

my crush on ricky martin goes back to my freshman year of college. he was a new american sensation, many years after his menudo days. truth be told, i was in love with him. aside from his striking looks, i loved his music. i even mumbled and faked my way through his spanish albums. for my 20th birthday, my mom bought ricky martin concert tickets for me and three of my friends. we made the trek to cincinnati to see him in all his tight-leather-panted glory.

while it later became obvious that ricky was living his life behind closed closet doors, i still respected him for wanting to maintain a personal life. i remember one particular interview with barbara walters, when she did everything BUT ask him if he was gay. he answered in a very honest way, at the time. he never lied, he just wasn’t ready to open up his personal life to the world.

he’s now the father to two adorable boys. from articles i’ve read and pictures i’ve seen, these two little ones are his life. what more could anyone ask for other than to be happy. in his own words:

What will happen from now on? It doesn’t matter. I can only focus on what’s happening to me in this moment. The word “happiness” takes on a new meaning for me as of today. It has been a very intense process. Every word that I write in this letter is born out of love, acceptance, detachment and real contentment. Writing this is a solid step towards my inner peace and vital part of my evolution.

I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.

we had approximately 20 people come see our new home. it was a great time with friends. and our wonderful guests brought us some very nice things! top shelf liquor, nice bottles of wine, complete ingredients to the perfect margarita, and other must-haves for any bar. most importantly, the company that we shared that evening was fantastic.

we provided hors d’oeuvres and i must share one recipe from the evening. it’s a recipe that i got from a friend, and it’s delicious.

baked caprese salad
it can also be found here.

Ingredients

* 1 loaf baguette, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices (about 30 to 36 slices)
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 5 Roma tomatoes, sliced
* 1 1/4 pounds fresh mozzarella, sliced
* 1 bunch fresh basil leaves, stemmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Arrange the sliced baguette bread on a baking sheet. Brush with some of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake until the bread is pale golden and crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven. Top each slice of bread with a slice of tomato and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top each slice of tomato with a slice of mozzarella and sprinkle with salt. Return the baking sheet to the oven until the cheese and tomato are warmed, about 5 minutes.

Arrange the toasts on a serving platter. Top each toast with a basil leaf. Using the brush, drizzle the remaining olive oil over the basil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve.

so we’ve been shopping around for quite a while trying to find the “perfect” lamp. i had a picture in my mind of what it was supposed to look like. unfortunately i couldn’t find this lamp in any of the stores or catalogs i was looking at.

finally it was the lamp shade that we fell in love with. a nice, mica shade from pottery barn. we found a lamp to go with it and placed the order. a week later, we still had heard nothing. when i called the store to find out what was going on, i was told that the lamp was out of stock and wouldn’t be available until mid-april. really?! i was so irritated that i canceled the order. thankfully we already had the shade that we loved!

the search continued. while we were in indiana visiting family last weekend, we were at the mall. we looked in various stores but still were unable to find what we were looking for. we had pretty much given up the search for the weekend. i made my way to a store that had many home goods in it, looking for things to decorate the house. walk in and what do i see, but two lamps that i fall in love with and were what i had envisioned. since g wasn’t with me, i quickly sent him photos of the two lamps and asked him his opinion (i do at least ask his opinion on the area of decorating, but we all know that the final decision lies with me). we agreed on the same lamp and voila. the search was over.

while this may be a long story over a “stupid lamp” it was a long thought-over process. …and people say that we make hasty decisions!

now, if this were a vacation, g would have booked it months ago! ha ha!

as the president signed his name, he used a different pen after what seemed like every letter of his name. why?!

i quickly did my research and the answer is somewhat obvious. the pens that are used to sign such an important bill are given to those who helped make the law possible. in addition, other pens may be given to certain museums or libraries to mark the significance of the president signing a bill into law.

so there’s your historical fact of the day.

the one thing that can always be said about miranda is that she is a caring, compassionate individual. she loves everyone. sure she has her moods, but she truly cares for everyone.

i can honestly say that i cannot imagine what i would be like today if she wasn’t in my life. i do know that i would be a completely different person. having miranda in my life has taught me many things. a great deal of my sensitivity to others’ feelings comes directly from her. my knowledge of people’s differences in abilities comes from her. it is because of her that i hold a minor in special education. but the most important thing i have gained from miranda is strength. she’s been a fighter since day one and she has taught me what i am capable of.

so i thank miranda for being such an important and inspirational part of my life.

love you, ditty b!

happy anniversary louvra!

ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.

yesterday i went shopping with my friend tucker. knowing it was just going to be “window” shopping, it made it a bit more fun and stress-free. unfortunately he lacks the gay interior design gene. he wants to spice up his place and make it “tom ford glamorous” (if you’ve seen a single man, you’ll understand). so we went on a design mission to find the perfect furniture pieces that would fit this description. it’s fun to help create a space for someone with things that will look perfect, even if it’s not the style that you yourself cannot pull off. i’m also a big fan of shopping on someone else’s dime!

after visiting a few home stores, we made our way to filene’s basement. while i enjoy what can be found here, i don’t enjoy digging through everything to find the buried treasures. thankfully that’s where tucker’s gay gene comes alive. he’s very fashion forward and can sniff out the perfect item. the goal at filene’s was to find me a pair of jeans that fit. i recently bought a new pair of jeans, but they’re too big and aren’t the most flattering on me. i need something that looks good and is still comfortable. and while i didn’t find the perfect pair of denim, i’m proud to say that i went down another jean size! yay!!

now if i can hold onto some motivation, i’ll be able to reach my hot & healthy goals! and i think i’m going to start charging for my design consults.

i’m addicted to our company intranet site that allows us to trade our trips.

even before i started this job, g showed me how to use the site and often had me adjust his screen (part of the lingo) for better trips. it is always changing. other people are taking this trip, dropping (more lingo) their previous trip in making it available to you. then you can trade your 3 day trip down to a 2 day trip, etc. it’s almost like gambling because you have to get to it before someone else does. and you never know what’s going to be there, perhaps something better will drop in!

this is my screen. it shows the trips i’ve worked and those i’m scheduled to work.

so when i say i’m addicted, it’s bad. whenever i get home i log onto the site almost immediately. i have sat with my computer on my lap for an entire evening, clicking away to find something “better”. and even when i know i’m not going to trade my trip, i still like to look to see what’s there.

this is where it all happens. this is where i click for hours a day!

it’s definitely paid off though! last month i was able to work fewer days for the same pay. it’s all about working smart. and with that comes time on the computer. sometimes too much. thankfully g understands my addiction (he may have a slight addiction as well). perhaps we enable each other a tiny bit, too! but, aside from time, i’m not really losing anything, right?!

and you know what i’m about to do….yes, see what trips are in there!

i know that it’s important for many reasons, but it seems like a waste of paper. how accurate is it really? i can see many people just throwing them in the trash. and i love how last week i received a letter stating that i should expect my census in the mail the following week. do i really need a letter to tell me that it’s on its way?!

oh well, i guess i did my part, right?

make sure you’re counted! complete your census 2010 today!

it truly is the little things.