Bobservations

When I first moved to Miami to start life with Carlos I met many of his friends. Most were genuinely nice, one was, well, let’s say, he was difficult. I’ll call him Maynard because that’s his name.

Every time I was around Maynard in those early days—he and his partner came to our house for dinner, and we went to theirs—Maynard would always tell me he’d forgotten my name.

Bob. It’s Bob. Just the three letters and two of ‘em are the same. And yet, without fail, he’d give me that, “I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten again.”

About eight months after moving, my friend Carissa came from California for as visit, just in time for Carlos’ birthday. We gathered a group of his friends—Maynard and his partner included—and off we went to South Beach for dinner. Carissa met everyone, loved everyone, but paid special attention as Maynard once again asked my name while we had cocktails in the bar, and she does not play.

Over dinner, she looked him dead in the eye as he was talking and asked what his name was because she’d forgotten.

“Maynard.” He said in a huff.

“Mayo?” She asked.

“May.Nard.”

“That doesn’t sound right to me. You should have a simpler name like Tom or Bob. Something no one would ever forget.”

On theway home in the car, Carlos was smiling like mad; when we asked him why, he said he loved to see Maynard squirm. Carissa was, is, and always will be, one of my favorite BFFs.

As you can see, Tuxedo is starting his own war on Christmas, with his own brand of snark, and we’re all fine with that.

As many do these days, Florida ReTHUGlican Congressman Anthony Sabatini used Twitter to reflect upon what he was thankful for on Thanksgiving Day.

I am thankful this dumbass lives in Flori-duh. They deserve him.

Ashley Grames used Tik Tok to brag about not following COVID protocols like wearing a mask, social distancing, gathering in crowds, traveling and allowing her children to have playdates. Her bosses saw her Tik Tok message and put her on administrative leave.

Good, I say; bad, you may say, but … Grames is an oncology nurse at Salem Health. A nurse. Someone who has probably been on the “front lines” of the pandemic and brags about not following protocols, but then going to work with cancer patients, and others with ailments that could be affected by COVID:

“Yesterday, a nurse employed with Salem Health posted a video on social media which displayed cavalier disregard for the seriousness of this pandemic and her indifference towards physical distancing and masking outside of work. … We want to thank those of you who brought this to our attention and assure you that we are taking this very seriously. This individual does not speak for Salem Health and has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.”

Asshat. Leave? Fire her.

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill has asked the Supreme Court to reverse a decision by the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals which upheld another Indiana judge’s ruling that allowed both members of a married same-sex couple to be listed as parents on their child’s birth certificate.

The original case involved Ashlee and Ruby Henderson who challenged Indiana’s birth records law. They sued the state health commissioner and Tippecanoe County officials because county officials would not list both of them as parents on the birth certificate of their son, who Ruby conceived through artificial insemination, and won that case.

Now, Curtis Hill, an asshat, says:

“A birth mother’s wife will never be the biological father of the child, meaning that, whenever a birth-mother’s wife gains presumptive ‘parentage’ status, a biological father’s rights and obligations to the child have necessarily been undermined without proper adjudication.”

Seriously, this tool thinks a birth mother’s wife wants to be the father? She wants to be acknowledged, legally, as the parent of the child, and this homophobic move by Hill screams back to the Dark Ages for LGBTQ+ Americans, and we will not go back.

Trust.

While he continues to pout and lie about the election results, and the number of Americans who voted for Biden, ______ also gets smacked down in another way.

It appears that, since  November 3rd, President-elect Joe Biden’s favorability rating has risen six percentage points to 55% while ______’s favorability has edged down three points to 42%.

He just can’t win. Loser.

Mitch McConnell is back at work in Congress but has no plans for any COVID-19 relief but is fast-tracking more judicial nominees to the courts.

Thanks, people of Kentucky, for voting this traitor back into office. I hope none of you needs any relief during this second, worse, wave, because your boy gives no fucks about you.

Another trans sister has been murdered.

Chae’Meshia Simms, a Black transgender woman, was shot and killed November 23rd in Richmond, Virginia.

First responders were called to the site of a car crash and found Simms’ body in the driver’s seat, killed from an apparent gunshot wound. 

Simms’ death came three days after National Transgender Day of Remembrance, and she is now the 39th violent death of a trans or gender non-conforming person this year, more than any previously recorded year. 

This needs to be stopped. It’s Hate. Stop it.

Sheep. After weeks of listening to him crying fraud and foul play and cheating, all with no proof whatsoever, _____’s sheep have gifted him with $150M. The money is being funneled into a GOP fundraising committee and a _____ PAC established to fuel his post-White House activities.

Like lining his pockets, but the sheep still send their checks.

It’s time for some new hotties on network TV like …clockwise from top left … Gerardo Celasco—who formerly went by his stage name Adrian Bellani—a Salvadoran-American actor on sci-fi show, NEXT,  where he just smolders. On the legal drama, All Rise, this season they have added Shalim

 Ortiz—who’s been here before—and Ian Anthony Dale—who has also appeared here in the past; hotties are always worth a second looks. Lastly we have Sean Boyce Johnson who has joined the cast of For Life. Oy, the smile on that man.

Thank the goddess for a DVR.

Architecture Wednesday: Dreamy Rustic Cabin

I like the rustic; I like the whimsy; I like the fact that, while it’s brand-new, it’s been crafted to look like it’s a much older home;  there’s a sense of mountain cabin mixed with industrial touches in the woods by a lake..

This  cabin sits alongside Ten Mile Lake, in north-central, Minnesota, and is the kind of home where you bring the whole family and friends to spend a week … or a month … at the lake. I love all the wood and the furnishings, and that meandering covered screened-in walkway to a screened porch at the end of the property. And because I do the laundry at Casa Bob y Carlos, I even love that laundry room … conveniently located near the wine room.

The property is surrounded by mature growth trees that give it a feeling of being far away from the world.

We could all use that, and I could use that big wine room!

One Kind Design

A Christmas Tour

Welcome to Casa Bob y Carlos! Feliz Navidad, or, as we like to say, Feliz Navi-dude!

The tree is up, and there were literally hundreds of excess ornaments left over, because I wanted simpler. Though I did decorate the dining room table with some larger ornaments and Christmas accoutrement.

Candles and garland line the mantel—though the candles are battery-operated lights that come on at 5PM and shut off precisely at 10PM. We are punctual, to say the least. Garland and ornaments over the doors to the sunroom, as well as ornaments hanging in the windows.

My mother was a tole painter, and she painted many different Christmas themed pieces, a lot of which my father sent to us after she passed. I like the idea of having her around the house during the holidays.

And so there you have it … a holiday tour of Casa Bob y Carlos. Happy Holidays from our house to yours.

Tuesday Thought #3

Tuesday Thought #2

Tuesday Thought #1

I Do Love A Theme

The Camden Garden Club is having their Winter meeting and I'm trying to figure out what to wear ...

Which one would you wear?

I Went To Walmart ...

The other day, watching a series of cooking shows on PBS, I watched a fella make a Cranberry Candied Ginger Buckle. For those out of the know, as I was, a buckle consists of fruit and cake baked together, with a streusel topping and, as it bakes the fruit and streusel topping make the cake “buckle.”

We had the cranberries because Carlos makes homemade cranberry sauce every Thanksgiving, so I set out for the rest of the ingredients. Two stores in Smallville and when I asked about Candied ginger all I got were confused looks, a check with someone higher up, and a “We don’t have that.”

Back home, I checked the computer for candied, or crystallized, ginger, and found that it was about three miles away at :::gasp::: Walmart, or twenty-five miles away at Kroger. Now, y’all know how I feel about Walmart, but the reasonable side of my brain, which rarely comes into play, thought, check the closest store first before you drive nearly an hour out and back.

So … I.Went.To.Walmart. Thank the goddess for the mask and a baseball cap, as well as the very early morning hour.

I went into the store and checked the “International” foods aisle, which at Walmart in Smallville, South Carolina, is mainly Avocado Mayo and flavored Ketchup; none. I checked in produce where they have the nuts—and no, not just the people shopping there—and found no candied ginger. I even checked the cany aisle because, Walmart. And then I made my way to customer service where the conversation went exactly like this:

“Hi. Do you carry candied ginger?”

“Gingers in the produce aisle.”

“No, not fresh ginger, but candied ginger,”

“Gingers in the spice aisle.”

“No, not powdered ginger, but candied ginger.”

“Check produce or spices.”

“Thank you so much.”

I turned to leave in a huff, and believe me when I say I give good huff, the woman standing behind me said “Excuse me?”

I thought she knew where candied ginger was, so I stopped, and she said:

“Do you always wear your shirt buttoned all the way up like that?”

I was wearing a denim shirt under a sweater, and yes, I did have the denim shirt buttoned all the way to the top because I like it, so I replied:

“Yes, I do.”

And she said:

“Interesting choice.”

I scanned her from her frizzed dyed blond job, down beyond the caked-on mascara, over the Christmas sweater, below the too-tight yoga pants and stopped:

“Thanks for the fashion advice. Nice crocs.”

Twenty-five minutes later I walked into Kroger, stopped the first person I saw who worked there, and asked about candied ginger:

“Check next to produce where we have all the pre-packaged nuts and dried fruits. It’s on the bottom shelf, about halfway down the aisle.”

Twenty-five minutes later I was home, making a Cranberry Candied Ginger Buckle.

Looks dee-lish, doesn’t it?

The Funny Papers

Matt Wuerker, Mike Luckovich, Ed Hall, David Horsey, Michael de Adder, Kevin Siers, Bill Bramhall, Dave Whamond, Jack Ohman, Nate Beeler, Marc Murphy, Nick Anderson, Ted Littleford, Darrin Bell, Clay Bennett