Happy 6th birthday to my beautiful and smart little girl!!

We have been so so busy, and now I need another vacation to recover from the one I just had.

White water rafting, Lake Tahoe the next day, then Six Flags in Vallejo, one day to relax and then off to San Francisco. No, we are not usually this active, but we have had Icelanders visiting us. Thorunn's incredibly gorgeous cousin Einar and his GF Unnur, and her school friend Drifa, and they have all been just a ton of fun to have around. Rhi was just enamored of Unnur, a sweet and pretty blonde who heard a ton of "Sit by me! Hold my hand!" Thankfully she was a good sport about it.

Some highlights:

~Rafting was a blast, even if I was sore for a week.
~Six Flags with both of my kids in tow. The best part of that was watching the dolphin in his tank (at one point I erroneously called it a fish tank, and Rhi was quick to point out that there were no fish in there, duh mom). He would swim right up to the window and get eye to eye with the spectators. I was just sitting there with my forehead pressed up against the glass and he was right there inches from my face making total eye contact. Pretty amazing even though its a little hard to get past the whole captivity thing.
~Leslie and Von's wedding in SF. Perfect and gorgeous. After a freezing Friday, Saturday turned out just beautiful. It was so nice to see the mamas and meet new friends.

Now I am back to work and it is slow and I just want/need to go home and sleep. Thorunn leaves for Iceland tomorrow but she is only staying through the end of the month. Her mom does not want her to stop school right now. I feel a bit of relief not worrying about us being apart for months and months, but of course I am still incredibly worried about her mom.

We moved Rhi's party to this coming Sunday since no one could really make it yesterday. Same time, same place.

Oh, in even more total stomach upsetting news, our asshole governor has decreed that all state employees (except for the critical ones like cops and emergency workers) now make minimum wage. That would be federal, which at $6.55 per hour is even less than the California minimum. When we first heard about it everyone said that it would never happen and the state controller said that he would not comply and would be paying us our full salary. Well, he has been told that he cannot legally do that, and the order has been signed. So my next paycheck will be about $800 after taxes and deductions. My rent is more than that. I am just holding onto hope that something will happen to change this. I am ROYALLY screwed if this happens, and I wont be the only one. State credit unions are offering 0% interest loans to cover until this is fixed, but you had to have been a member by July 30, and I am not. They have said that once the state budget is passed (and they arent even close), we will get our full pay, but will my bills wait that long? My landlord is a company, not an individual who might possibly be a bit more understanding. What will this do to the economy?

Sigh.

Anyway, I will post some pics later...

Local friends,

We will be having a birthday party for Miss Rhi on Sunday Aug 10th, from 1:00 to 3:30. It will be at our apartment's pool. I'll send an evite..
We hope you can make it!

I hate summer colds. Cough. Sniffle...bleah.

Thorunn's friend Drifa arrived from Iceland last night. I went to bed at almost 3 am, and then when I got up to call in sick to work at 6 ish, they were still up talking! Sleeping now, at 1:30 pm, and outside the leaf blowers are going nuts. Pretty much right outside Rhi's window where Drifa is sleeping. I hope she is able to sleep, anyway.

We have more guests arriving next week, Thorunn's cousin and his GF. I had taken the week of Aug 3rd off from work, since we were going to do all kinds of fun things (white water rafting with Jackie, camping at Tahoe, taking the kids to six flags (this was gonna be Rhi's bday present), and then a couple days in SF.

Emmy starts chemo on Monday, and Hallur (T's brother) told Thorunn that she should probably come home sooner rather than later. They will be discussing it when he gets home from London on Tues. She may have to leave before her guests do, so now I'm not sure about that week. Jackie, don't cancel rafting or anything, I doubt she will leave THAT quickly, but if she does we will let you know ASAP.

Friends, we need all of your positive energy and vibes sent north to Iceland. Thorunn's mother, Emmy has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We do not know any details yet, other than that it is inoperable. Thorunn will be returning home at some point, probably soon, in order to be with her and help.

Of course we are very worried and shocked about this horrible news. Also feeling quite stricken over the fact that our little family is going to be broken up for an indefinite time.

Please, just send vibes for the best possible outcome.

It is horrible but strangely helpful that I know exactly how she feels right now.

Ok, so about that VIP party that we had to leave early...one of the women we were walking with was also on the Pride board, and she gave out invitations to everyone in our group. It was inside the civic center, there was free food and BATHROOMS, and supposedly it was where all the celebrity grand marshalls were going. You had to have an invite and show ID, so we had to hike back to our car since I had not wanted to bring my purse on the march. There was a long long line to get in, and by the time we did we only had about 10 minutes. Things were just getting started when we left and it looked like it could have been a lot of fun.

There was barely any traffic on the way to Berkeley. We got there a little early and went to will call to pick up our tickets and they had not even been delivered yet. We had bought them from a charity auction and they included a M&G. They were unable to give us exact seat locations, but said they were guaranteed to be near the front of the theater. So the tickets finally get there, only there is just one ticket and one pass. The seat is super far from the stage too. The box office guy has no idea about any of it, and gives us one more ticket and tells us to go inside and find someone to help us. Uh, WTF...not OK. So I called the guy from the tour who was in charge of the charity auctions (thank god I had his number) and he agreed that this was not acceptable and came out front to help us. He got us another backstage pass, and changed the crappy seats for pretty good ones. Thank you, Gregory.

The concert was excellent. Carson Kressley (from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) was hosting, and he was quite funny. Andy Bell came out and did some Erasure songs solo, with just a backing track. He was good, but not nearly as good as he was last year. Then it was time for the M&G and we got in the long line. We knew that this would not be any huge deal and would be rushed, and that is exactly what it was. Hello Cyndi, have a pic, see ya later. She spoke to us for a minute, just a bit about voting and stuff. She asked Thorunn (who she remembered of course) if she was a citizen. That was pretty much it. She looked INCREDIBLE, like seriously...breathtaking.




We missed most of Wanda Sykes for the M&G, but from what we saw she was funny. She's a lesbian, I guess? Didn't know that before now. Cyndi came out and gave a really moving speech on voting and fighting for your rights, and then introduced the B52's. Check out the last part of Cyndi's speech here:




The B52's were great, of course. Tons of fun and nice to see all of them on stage together. Then Cyndi! She is always amazing. Not much more I can say about it.

After, there was a party being given for Cyndi by PFLAG at a club on Telegraph. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but I was picturing a big gay club and Cyndi coming in to wave to the crowd and then leave or something. As we were walking up, outside was standing Andy Bell and Carson Kressley having a smoke. Hi Boys! Looks like this could be interesting! The club was actually a not very large bar, in a basement. Reminded me so much of the clubs of my youth, helped by the fact that the DJ was playing all 80's new wave. (Oh my god, did I really ever think Sex Dwarf was a good song???) There are some people there, but it is not packed or anything. So we just hang out and dance for a bit, and then all of a sudden the b52s and Cyndi's band are all there, dancing and mingling. Haven't seen Cyndi yet, but now on stage a man from PFLAG is there, talking about Cyndi and all she does for the community, and how completely genuine and real she is in all of it. Then Cyn comes out and accepts some kind of award. She spoke for a minute. When that was done, people went back to dancing. There was a VIP area (just a section with a metal barricade to keep us peasants out) and we walked over to see if she was over there. Stood for a second, didn't see her. Turned around to go find Thorunn and BAM! Smacked right into the back of a little blond...oh my god I just ran into Cyndi. Haha. Then most of the bands went into the VIP area, and everyone was just kind of standing around watching them, like it was a famous people zoo or something. I took a few pics, but it felt weird to be photographing people while they were just sitting at a bar talking and drinking, so we just hung out a while and tried not to stare at her. Everyone but Cyndi and Wanda was over talking to the peasants. Fred from the B52s was really funny and ON THE PROWL! Lol. Was totally hitting on the cute young thing standing next to me. Poor guy was scared! Here are a few pics...






I swear I didn't mean to take a pic of Cyndi's boobs:


Getting the award:

What a weekend...
Sat morning we started with a drive to Berkeley and lunch with the lovely miss Mara. I'm really glad we were able to make it work this time, as it had been too long.
We got to SF and checked into the hotel, which was not as bad as we had feared. We were gonna go over to Dolores Park right away, but got kinda lazy and ended up hanging out in our room for a bit until Collie and Bret got there. We made it to the park just shortly before the Dyke march started. OK, next year we are going earlier because that place is CRAZY and so much fun. We got on the march and made it about a block and a half before we found Portia at a house party. We stopped to say hi and ended up staying there most of the night. That was a lot of fun since Portia is probably one of the funniest humans I know. I love hanging out with him. His friends were all a lot of fun and there was a lot of pretty impressive karaoke going on.

Eventually we convinced Portia to come out to the pink party with us. He almost made it, but decided to go back before we braved the crowd. We finally found Bret and Collie, and by that time it was almost time to catch the last train back to our hotel. Imagine a subway car packed to about 3 times capacity...yeah, not fun but at least we made it back.

So the next morning we get up and hurry to where we are meeting our group for the parade, feeling pretty excited because we think we will be seeing Cyndi who is supposed to be close to us in the parade. We get there, find her car only to see that she has been moved and in her place now is Leslie Jordan. Now he IS fabulous, but we were a bit bummed. Well, I did not want to let that ruin our day, and the energy was so great and there was just so much excitement that it was hard to be too down. Walking in the parade goes way quicker than I thought it would. Sometimes you have to really hustle to keep up, but it was really a lot of fun.






After the parade we went to this VIP party at the civic center, but could only stay a few minutes...just long enough to pick up a swag bag and use the bathroom. We had no idea what traffic would be like and since we had to be in Berkeley by 5, we needed to go.

to be cont...

Is the weekend over already? Sigh. We had a nice time yesterday over at ephemeralnoir's place. She has an Icelandic friend who was over with her daughter, who is the same age as Rhiannon and Sophia. My my my, girls at that age are such DRAMA QUEENS. They are so funny. For the most part, they all had fun, and I think Thorunn really enjoyed having someone from home to talk to. Saturday we went to Sacramento Pride, which was nice but way too hot. We didn't last too long before it was time to come home and sit by the pool. No luck on finding a good immigration attorney. There was one legal booth there, and she did not handle immigration. The gay phone book we got did not have any either. I know we will find someone next week at SF Pride, but I really would like to find someone closer.

Speaking of SF pride, Thorunn and I will be walking in the parade this year. :) It's pretty exciting...not only will we be a part of the parade, but our group (Out4Immigration) is really close to Cyndi in the line up, so of course we are even more excited than normal. So if you are watching and looking for us, we will be about halfway through, shortly after Cyndi. She is #101 and we are #108...so....be sure and yell at us! Oh yeah, Margaret Cho is also gonna be at the parade, way up front though. LOVE HER and we are really hoping for a surprise appearance at the concert later that night.

Well, I have yet to see heterosexual families crumbling around us....

Guess the world is safe.

T and I watched Cloverfield last night. We both HATED it! Wow, what a horrible movie. I totally do not understand why it got good reviews. Bad acting, stupid plot, and it gave me a headache. Worst of all, NOT SCARY! Amazing that there was actually a major studio and money behind it. The only good thing about it was that all those dumb asses got killed. Ugh. What a waste of 5 dollars!

Has anyone ever heard of 2 fixed cats mating with each other? Luna and Foxie have been going at it for 2 nights in a row. She is acting like she is in heat, no howling or anything, but when he tries to get on her she raises her butt and kneads her back legs. WTF? He has been fixed for 12 years! Why does he care?


This is driving me nuts and I am getting no sleep.

Her new cd is out today!

Cyndi! Gay Pride!

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2979

AAAAAAH!!

Thorunn and I are so there!

I noticed on the pics that that scam guy had in his ad that there was SNOW on the ground outside the window. I just had to email him back and ask about that...snow in Sacramento...yeah, good one Buddy.

Yeah, dumbass. I sent the ad to Craigslist abuse...

There was an ad for a house on Craigslist that sounded promising, so I emailed them and asked for the address. The pics were nice and it is a 3 bedroom for $950. Great deal, right? Well the owner responded and guess what? He is currently on an assignment in Africa! In his broken english he explained that he would love to have me, an honest and responsible person renting his house! Oh really? Wire you a money order? My sister got a few of these people when she was looking for a roomate. Now they are actually posting ads. With all the "rent to own a foreclosure WITH NO MONEY DOWN!!" ads, it is hard to find something that is an actual real rental. Sigh.

Thorunn and I were greeted this morning by a "pyramid of 8 songs", enthusiastically performed by Miss Rhi. Now we are up and getting ready to go pick up Ryan and head to the Whole Earth Festival. Yesterday when I told Rhi where we were going, she got excited and asked if there would be Chinese people there. Confused, I told her that most likely there would be. Then she asked if there would be Japanese people there. Even more confused I responded that there would likely be all kinds of people there. Her eyes got big and she asked "Really?? The WHOLE EARTH?" I laughed and explained to her that it was a celebration in keeping the earth whole, safe and respected. She seemed a bit less impressed.

She was just full of funny comments yesterday. We were watching the news, Hillary was on and Rhiannon remarked that she really liked the way Hillary talked, and that she bet she could probably sing good, and if Hillary was a mom then she would call her "Mrs. Hillary Clinton". I told her that she was in fact, a mother and Rhi got super excited and told me that she hoped that Hillary could be my girlfriend, and "Steppy's" girlfriend, so then she would have even another mom and a big sister and then just MAYBE we could move to the White House with her.

Quite a plan, eh? Had to dash her dreams by telling her that Mrs. Hillary Clinton was already married...not that Thorunn and I are looking for a new GF, haha. (and it certainly would not be Hillary!)

Not confirmed yet, but Amy Winehouse is scheduled to play the Greek in Berkeley August 1st. Be sure that wherever you buy tickets will offer a refund in the likely event she cancels. Ticketmaster had the listing up yesterday. It is not there at the moment, but it said that tix go on sale this weekend.

OK, we got the yearly "We are going to jack up your rent unless you sign another lease" letter. This time they want to raise it to $1025. Over $100! Uh, no thank you. For this place? Its not a total dump, but it is nothing special at all. So the hunt is on. What we want: Downtown/midotwn area, 2 bedroom at least, AIR CONDITIONING, at least a shared laundry, takes cats...and under $1000. We are willing to live in a complex, but prefer not to. I don't think that is unreasonable, but it will take some looking. I have already seen a few on craigslist that would be good, but they are available NOW, and we cant move til June. So if anyone knows of anything, please let us know.

I am really trying not to play the game of "If I get that job, I can afford..." So many of the places I like say no to pets. Can we shave and diaper the cats and just pretend like we have a ton of kids?