Entries tagged with mark

Current Music: The Thrill is Gone

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So Excited! (Plus, So Unexcited)

Yesterday, Liz and I booked a trip to New Orleans. I've wanted to go for so long, so this is a dream come true. Even though I'm totally dating JP and loving it, we're jokingly referring to this as our single ladies retreat. "We're going to get in to so much trouble," she said.

Later that day, Mark (See? We still hang out.) and I went to see BB King for the fourth time. What can I say? He's old, and he totally phoned this one in. The first half of his show was just the backup band vamping while he talked about viagra and "all women are beautiful". Meh. There were a couple good guitar solos at one point. So there's that.

So anyway, New Orleans, ZOMG!

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bears,
mark

Disneyland Bear Bomb

At one point, some friends of mine were talking about going to Disneyland at the end of January. I figured 9, 10 people. With just a sprinkle of advertising by Mr

sluggobear, "Day at Disneyland" turned in to a full-on bear bomb.

What was extra great was a bunch of LA/Long Beach guys I never get to hang out with showed up. My favorite was

xxtapemakerxx. What a fun guy. Later,

e_ticket showed up. He's a treat to hang out with as well. I asked both guys if they were friends, then they posed like this.

I also got a chance to talk to my buddy Reid about the breakup. He was a great listener and I appreciated that a lot. It's still weird, but we're working through it. I was a little bit blue yesterday in the morning, especially since Disneyland is one of Mark and my favorite places. But we'll go together again, as friends, I'm sure.

Good times!

Current Mood: optimistic

Entry tags:

mark

I'm single.

Hey everyone,

Last night Mark and I broke up. We've been together for over 15 years, but I definitely felt that I'm ready for something else. I think he needs a kick in the pants, too.

Luckily we were able to discuss it like adults, and we both made it clear that we very much want to stay friends. It's going to be a big adjustment, but I will say that I'm very excited about what the future holds.

I want to sincerely thank the handful of friends that have listened to me think out loud about this over the past week. Your support means the world to me.

So yeah, SINGLE.

Current Music: Believe in the Magic

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It's beginning to look a lot like...

Yesterday, I went to Disneyland with

pinner123 and my dear, sweet hus-cougar Mark. We almost didn't go, because the weather forecasts kept telling us it would rain. Miraculously, it didn't rain at all. Yesss!

It was super fun and sassy, and it definitely kicked the holiday season in to high gear for us.

I almost never hang out with Dave and Mark at the same time, so it was a fun treat. We tried to rotate the odd man out on the rides, and we all "fit" in the teacup ride...

And then, of course, the fireworks show at the end of the night did not disappoint. It was both crazeballs and amazeballs.

The best part, of course, was the fake snow after the fireworks. Per tradition, Mark cried and I laughed.

Current Location: Downtown San Diego

Entry tags:

mark

Dream Date with Hus-Cougar

Yesterday was a particularly slow day at work, so I randomly texted my Mark

"Is it 4:30 yet?"

He replied with, "Wanna get lunch at RedZone? I'll buy."

"Yes."

Even though Mark and I have worked a block away from each other for years, we've only done work-lunch twice. We're just really busy and have different schedules. So, it was fun to actually go on a little date.

I had the Jalepeno Burger with a veggie patty. Mark had the special burger. $6.

Of course, since we had just seen each other 4 hours before and were going to see each other again in 4 hours, we didn't have much to talk about. We texted and checked our email a lot. Wheee.

Current Music: Michael Buble - Haven't Met You Yet

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Good, cleanish fun

Last night was an event at The Hole called Team Trivia Night. What a fun and random way to spend a Friday night.

You needed teams to 2-5 to compete, so I figured it would probably be Mark and me, and maybe one other guy. Mark is awesome at trivia, so I knew we had a chance.

Out of nowhere, I saw a post by

bobaloo saying he would be in town for the weekend. Next thing you know, we've got a team of three!

We got third place. Our prize was a $20 bar coupon. It reminded me of family game night growing up. At the end of the night, my face hurt from laughing and smiling so much.

I was stoked to finally meet Bob in person. Turns out he's super cool and fun. I'm pretty sure he's a Kiss fan...

This is what happens when Bobaloo is around

Current Location: Long Beach, Ensenada

Entry tags:

family,
mark

So, we went on a cruise... (plus, sassy hair)

Prologue

Several years ago, I visited my friends in Spain and Austria. That trip was so awesome that it changed my life. While I was there, my dear friend Matt warned me that as incredible and eye-opening as the trip was to me, no one back home will want to hear more than a few bullet points about it.

He was totally right.

Carnival Cruise 2010 - No Interwebs for 3 days?!

( Click here for highlights )

Current Location: US, California, San Diego, San Diego, A St, 923

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World of Color! (plus a 90's icon gets dark)

Feeling like I needed my gay batteries charged, I took Thursday off to go to Disneyland. I'm pretty sold on going during the week these days, by the way. It's much more fun.

The main excuse we had for going was World of Color, which is California Adventure's new $75,000,000 water/light/fire/laser show.

Here's how it worked.

- Show up at 10am and get a pass for the night's show. You get a spot in a reserved, colored section. Our was Red.

- Show up in the staging area by 7:45pm and wait...

- Show's at 8:15pm and quite spectacular. From where we were, some of the projections were impossible to make out, but we got the general idea. There was a lot to see. The ferris wheel across the lake is actually used as part of the show. Very cool. Plus, there were lasers, which always win me over.

- After the show, all of Anaheim is slowly coralled out of the park. I became very claustrophobic, fast. How this isn't a major fire hazard is beyond me. I suspect inspector pay-offs.

World of Color is not exactly what I expected, but I think the Imagineers did a great job with what they had to work with. Afterall, if they can get my Mark to hang out at California Adventure for more than 20 minutes, they've really accomplished something!

Epilogue

I got really excited earlier that day.
Little Mermaid ride: Under Construction!

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Current Location: Shelter Island
Current Music: Reelin in the Years - Steely Dan

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Corporate Casuals! plus cheese

My dear, sweet hus-cougar Mark and I love a local band called The Steely Damned. As the name implies, they are a Steely Dan cover band. When Mark found out they were doing a rare show at Humphrey's, he bought tickets immediately.

Fast forward to last night, show's at 6. We figured, "What kind of show starts at 6? We'll get there a little late." On the way from my truck to the show, we heard them playing Reelin' in the Years. Fuck, we're late.

As we walked in, we realized we were very out of place. We both had on t-shirts and Mark was wearing shorts and flip-flops. Everyone else was wearing corporate casual.

Lucky us, with admission, we each got one free drink coupon and free food. Featuring Cheese!

Mark: Yay!
Mike: I'm so cheating on my diet tonight!

The show was fun, we gained weight. Good times.

Current Music: Paul and Gene - Shannon Grady

Entry tags:

mark

Grape Jelly Bloodbath

Overheard at The Old Mill this morning.

Mike: Grape jelly? Not a fan.

Mark: You don't like it?

Mike: Reminds me of when I was a kid and went to Lutheran church. We drank out of the chalice, you know, Jesus's blood. Grape juice. This jelly tastes like that.

Mark: (chuckles) So grape jelly tastes like Jesus's blood. What does strawberry jelly taste like?

Mike: Strawberry Shortcake's blood!!!

Happy weekend, guys!

Current Music: freeway noise that I can hear from my house

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Labor Daze

I went to bed super early yesterday. It's been quite a weekend!

Friday night was a really long and semi-wild pub crawl for a friend's birthday and Sunday was the most epic pool party ever (Hi, guys!). I told my dear, sweet hus-cougar Mark that Monday was all about him.

We started the day by having breakfast at the San Diego Zoo.

I didn't even know you could do that. It's great! We ate with the flamingos.

After brekkie, we walked around and looked at animals for 2 hours. I'm more of a 15-minutes-at-the-zoo guy, but it was Mark's big day. I took a lot of pictures. Mark was getting annoyed. :)

After the zoo, we went to Casa de Pico. Now, if you're local, you may recall Casa de Pico used to be a fantastic Mexican restaurant in Old Town. At one point, it was replaced by a less cool, generic Mexican restaurant. But, a few weeks ago, we found out it has relocated to La Mesa. Game ON. Flautas, tortilla soup and margaritas, baby! Woo.

After all that, we had a little time to unwind in the backyard. Mark randomly asked me if I'll always have a beard. "There's a cute guy underneath all that." My response: "The beard stays."

Current Location: US, California, San Diego, San Diego, 7th Ave, 1241

Entry tags:

mark,
via ljapp

The Loveliest 15-hour Stay-cation Ever

Just after work, I got a text from Mark.

Mark: I just booked us a hotel room.
Mike: For when?
Mark: Tonight! AC and a pool.

It has warmed up here in Sunny San Diego. And I haven't had a good night of sleep in days. So, out of sheer spontaneity, Mark booked us a room a few miles from our house.

"Hey Baby, wanna spend the night?"

It was excellent, because it really felt like we were on vacation. After checking in, we headed straight for the pool.

The pool was lovely. I think that was the first time I'd been swimming all summer. If Dave gets the place he's looking at, which has a pool, Mark and I are totally moving in.

A bit later...
To continue our stay-cation, we went to a steakhouse that we had never been to. It added to the illusion that we were out of town.

Hunter Steakhouse was delicious. A four-course Prime Rib dinner for $20. FTW. I took pictures, but they came out way too dark. (I need an iPhone 4.)

After dinner, we soaked in the hot tub a bit and eventually cooled off in our nice, little air-conditioned room.

This morning, I was off to work. Mark got to sleep in a little. Actually, he may still be there (jealous). I told him to go for a morning swim.

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Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: US, California, San Diego, San Diego, B St, 650

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Music Meme - Day 23

Day 23. A song that you want to play at your wedding

If you ask Mark this question, I'm 98% sure he will say Indigo Girls - Power of Two. It's a pretty song and it's very romantic.

However, there's a 2% chance he would say this one, and I think I would too.

Matthew Sweet - We're the Same

When Mark and I first met, we worked together at Toys R Us. I was always trying to talk to him and make him laugh, but usually I was more of a pest. (For the record, I was the worst employee ever.) But, at some point, that changed. I had finally made it on to his radar.

He had heard me talk about Matthew Sweet, who I was really in to at the time. As a gesture, he bought me his current album, 100% Fun. I already owned it, so I told him to keep it and listen to it himself. We both totally got in to it. In a way, that album is sort of the soundtrack to our courtship. Gross, did I just say "courtship"?!

I would love to hear this at our wedding.

I don’t have to speak, and you know what I’m thinking
You don’t need to hear what I say,
I don’t have to ask, ’cause you’ll guess what I’m seeking
You don’t need to hide what you know

Very close runner up:
Imperial Teen - Butch
It's really stupid and fun. It ends with the whole band yelling "I Like You!" over and over again.

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Current Location: Normal Heights - San Diego, CA
Current Music: Devil's Song - Shinyribs

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Lego Failure

Mark had a coupon for a new aquarium called Sea Life, located in beautiful Carlsbad, CA. He's really in to nature things. Me, not so much; I like computers a lot.

What we didn't know, is that Sea Life is part of the Legoland "Resort" up there. In other words: $12 parking, lots and lots of kids, and the aquarium was Lego themed.

The first thing I noticed, once we were in, was a slide.

And random nonsense like this.

It was definitely a failure, but it was great people watching and made for a few good laughs at Lego's expense. Afterward, we had beers a Karl Strauss Brewery and that rounded out the edges nicely.

Later that day, it was back to iPad development!