Happy New Year!

We both wish everyone a Happy New Year!

From Matty: Well, if you read the post about my Christmas Day accident, you'll know why I'm thinking about the need to be extra careful this weekend and the coming year. If drinking is part of your New Year celebration, please don't drive. If you're traveling, please don't text and drive at the same time. If you're woodcarving, please remember to wear those Kevlar gloves!! If you're reading this and thinking, "This nineteen-year old kid sounds just like my parents," well, what can I say? It's all still good advice! ;)

From Brad: Remember to thank all the people who have been important to you this year. And be sure to tell them why they've been important to you, too. Hold close and cherish those you love and who love you. And pay close attention (without being a nag or a hovering "mommie") to those who handle sharp knives when they're learning all about woodcarving. And keep their painkillers hidden! ;)

Happy, Happy New Year!

We look forward to seeing

YOU

just around the corner

in 2012.

Love you all,

Matty and Bradley

Christmas in the E.R.

I know the title of this post sounds like something you'd see on television, but believe me it really happened. I'm okay but it was a little scary when it happened.

This may be one of the shortest things I've ever written because I have limited use of my left hand, so I'm gonna be running spell check and grammar check and Brad says I probably need to run some kind of sanity check, too! Always the comedian, ha ha!

First the good news. Brad put in a good word for me to Santa and I got a really nice woodcarving kit! You may remember me writing before Thanksgiving that our next door neighbor was teaching me about woodcarving. And if you've been following the blog for a while, you know I love stuff like this. Before I started college, I was working with this construction company in their home refurbishing section. I've learned a lot about building cabinets, bookshelves, tables, room molding, outdoor decks, etc.

But woodcarving is a lot more complicated, at least to me at this stage. You have these really small, but extremely sharp and pointed knives and the wood you're working with is a lot smaller than I'm use to.

Well, after a really wonderful day of celebrating Christmas with both our families, we returned home for our own little celebration, our first Christmas together since moving into our own place.

Brad got me this really nice woodcarving kit, and not one of those little beginner's sets. This one came with all kinds of speciality knives in addition to this special Kevlar glove you wear on the hand that's holding the wood in case the knife slips.

Well. After we opened our presents to each other and had some egg nog (not spiked, mind you, so I was in my right mind!), I had the box the knives call home balancing on my lap. I was just taking one knife out at a time, looking at how they were all different from each other. Just being curious. I was not carving. Somehow the box slipped out of my lap and went crashing to the floor and I guess I had this automatic reaction where I was trying to catch the box with one hand while holding one of the carving knives with the other hand. Well, guess what happened? I accidentally stabbed the knife into my left hand between my thumb and index finger.

Before I knew what was happening, Brad saw the blood before I did. It actually took a few seconds before I even felt any pain. So Brad grabs my hand and tells me to cover the wound while he runs to get a clean towel so we can press it and try to stop the bleeding. At this point I'm feeling extreme pain and neither of us can tell how serious the wound is because of the bleeding.

Before I know what's happening, Brad's leading me out to the car and we're off to the emergency room. Once we get there, they see the blood-soaked towel and get us in pretty quickly. They get the story of what happened from Brad and start cleaning my hand and then determine it needs to be sutured. Thank God I didn't do any serious damage to any of the muscles or tendons and the doctor said the knife didn't go in all that deep. They sewed three stitches (or sutures) to close the cut and I was given some antibiotics and some pain pills.

Well, I was given first-class care by my purtty live-in nurse! The next morning purtty Nurse Bradley had to go to the drugstore to get some more gauze and tape and other stuff, and before he left he made sure I had taken one of my pain pills. Man-oh-man do those things take care of the pain. I felt like I was in some kind of paradise and was floating all around the room, not a care in the world. The pill Nurse Bradley gave me eventually made me extremely groggy and I drifted away from Paradise and took a short nap. I must have moved my hand a certain way because I jolted awake from this sharp pain and called out to the Nurse. Well, the Nurse was making a mercy run to the drug store and I looked over and saw the prescription bottle of pain pills. Since I was so groggy, I had no memory that I had already taken one, so I popped another one.

When the Nurse returned, he shook me awake and I must have been as loopy as hell because I could see this worried look on his face, but I felt like I was returning to Paradise with a vengeance. He asked about the pain and I giggled and said I just took a pill so there was nothing to worry about. Then I started drifting back to sleep.

The Nurse called the doctor to see if it was dangerous that I'd taken two pills so close together and was assured that it was okay but to stay close by and watch me and call if I seemed to be hallucinating or wouldn't wake up. Well, with such a prutty nurse holding my hand and never leaving my side, I just drifted in and out of sleep and was told later I said some really funny things, a few of which were X-rated! One of my requests seemed to be something about massaging my penis and getting in bed with me to keep me company. The prutty Nurse said he was not allowed to get in bed with the patient due to something about professional standards, which I must have thought was the funniest thing I ever heard! Then I drifted off to sleep again.

Needless to say, I got off those loopy pain pills as quickly as I could and started on just regular tylenol. I've been fine ever since.

I had a followup appointment with the doctor to check on the wound and was told it looked fine. Why do doctors talk that way? I mean, after stabbing my hand, all the bleeding involved, three sutures, going all loopy on those pills, the doctor looked at it and said, "Okay. It looks fine." Guess they see worse things every day, but he explained that there appeared to be no signs of infection and he felt he wouldn't have to schedule an amputation. Ha ha!

I tried to get my prutty live-in Nurse to take dictation so I could send some emails out to some friends, but he said that wasn't in his Nursing job description! I swear you can't get good hired help today! LOL. He did, however, eventually bend his "professional" standards and took some short dictation for those emails and I noticed I didn't have to even ask him to join the poor patient in bed. Before I got off the loopy pills, I think the Nurse may have taken advantage of the patient because the patient went back to Paradise, but this time that Paradise was called an orgasm. I wonder if I should report the Nurse for unprofessional conduct? Nah, I think he knew it would help in his patient's recovery. And that it did.

Oh, one last thing. I think I may have to report the nurse for hiding my woodcarving kit somewhere. He absolutely refuses to tell me where it's hidden. I think I have to be wearing that special glove, one on each hand, along with goggles and a Kevlar jump suit before I can handle it again. And the Nurse said he has to be present when I get it back. Well, I agreed to most of those things since the Nurse asking me has my best interests at heart and is so damn purtty!

It's Past Time

Thanks to Amanda for sending this to us. I think it's been making the rounds in cyberspace but this is the first time we've seen it. The title is "It's Time" but I'm adding the word "Past." Hope you enjoy it.

A Day of Peace

Brad and I want to extend our holiday greetings to everyone. Whether you're celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, another holiday from your own religious background, or one you've created on your own, Best Wishes on this day and the coming year.

May it truly be a day and year of Peace.

"Santa Baby, Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight!"

This video was posted on a friend's blog and I fell in love with it. Hope you enjoy!

You Asked for Recipes!

Right before Thanksgiving I was writing a lot about all the baking I was doing and many of you left comments asking if I would post some of my favorite recipes. I'm still planning to do that but I'll have to wait until after the new year since there's so much going on right now with all our Christmas plans.

But wait! I've been spending some time over at a new blog some of you might really enjoy. If you've ever read anything by the author M.J. O'Shea (my personal favorite so far is Unintended), I think she does a really good job of writing about young m/m first love. She's has an author's page over at Goodreads with all her other other books, and I encourage you to check it out.

Also, she and Piper Vaughn have their own blog at Babes in Boyland and that's another site I'd recommend.

And now M.J. has started a new cooking blog and regardless of whether you're a "professional" cook or just somebody like me who's trying to learn the ropes of how to be a better cook, I think you'll love what she's doing over at The Salad Gourmet. She's posting recipes for meat courses, veggies, salads and all kinds of deserts and baked goods.

In addition to the scrumptious dishes she highlights, I really like the conversational tone of how she explains each step of preparation. It's more than just a list of ingredients and cooking instructions, she actually goes step-by-step and explains how she does things and gives you ideas of how you might modify the recipies.

The site is also really well-designed and the pictures of the dishes will literally make your mouth water. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to The Salad Gourmet and check it out!

Kissing His Balls

Oh wait! I think I got the title wrong. The sign says, "Kissing Balls." Sometimes I tend to read more into things! Oh well. Maybe Brad and I can find some of these "balls" for the house! We can add them to our "Adara Ornament Collection." (See the post for on December 13 for this to make any sense.)

Thanks to Carnell for sending this to us.

2 'College' Boys in Love

Hi everybody! I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd put up something about these 2 guys I know who are both going to be full-time college students next month!

One of those guys is already a full-time student, and the other  is starting his college career next month. Oh, and did I mention, these 2 guys are in love, like in the title of this blog.

Yep, Matty has written about about how he just finished his first semester, and he's reassuring me that he'll show me all the ropes to make my first semester a "piece of cake" (his words, since he knows I like baking cakes!). His dad told him how proud he was that he made it through in "blazing glory." You should have seen Matty's face when his dad said that. He acted all shy but his face actually turned a few shades of red.

Everybody knows how much I love cooking, especially baking, so Matty tells me before long I'm going to be a "well seasoned" student. And I kinda like that. It's sorta like I'm going to throw some tasty ingredients into this bowl, like a dash of "confidence," a pinch of "determination," a spoonful of "discipline," a cup of "hope," a gallon of "blood, sweat and tears," and a  bushel of "hugs and reassurances" from someone experienced in these things, like Matty.

One of the things I'm totally psyched about is we managed to schedule one class together!   At the college where we're going, you have to take a history class in your freshman year, and we both managed to get into this American History course.

We're both looking forward to it but I know Matty's especially excited because he's really fascinated by the Civil War years in American history. He had this high school history teacher who was a Civil War buff and his enthusiasm really rubbed off on Matty. Matty's actually read about 5 biographies of Abraham Lincoln, owns and has seen the whole Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War about 10 times, and can talk about some of the military campaigns that I've never heard of. I love listening to "General Matthew" when he assumes command of some battle like at Vicksburg or Gettysburg or Antietam (I had to google how to spell that last one!).

But, enough about Matty! (LOL, just kidding sweetie!)  All I'm excited about now is knowing we'll be sitting together in the same classroom and can do homework and papers together. He's a little worried that he'll be too distracted by me sitting right next to him, but I've told him he has to keep his hands to himself and face the professor! At all times! Either that or I'm moving to another place in the classroom, probably behind him so he can't steal these looks at me! LOL.

We'll also be able to meet for lunch every day and then his hands can go roaming wherever they like (within common decency!) I just hope he remembers to use those hands to stuff his lunch in his mouth so he won't starve! LOL.

We'll also have some "down time" together during the day so we can meet at the library to (try and) study. Plus, there's some really nice parts of the campus where we can hold hands and go walking.

In the meantime, I need some help stocking up on all the school supplies I'll need. My backpack from high school is so ratty people would probably think I was a refugee from some zombie-land! Now that I have somebody experienced to show me the ropes, I'm gonna have to drag him to go shopping with me. Somehow I think he just might enjoy this kind of shopping!

Does That Make Us a Little Bit Gay?

Hehehe! Thank you, Carnell, for sending us this. This is a short sketch from MADtv and if you want to laugh like you've never laughed, watch this.

Candy Canes and Blow Jobs

One of the things both of us love about doing this blog is reading the comments people leave.

Sometimes we've written about some painful things in our past (Brad's relationship with his dad and his dad's problems with drinking, my getting ganged up on by some guys at school and being kicked and called horrible names about being gay) and sometimes we've written about celebrations (finishing the semester at school or moving in together).

No matter what we write about, we can always count on people to make really supportive and heartfelt comments when we write about difficult things, or laugh with us about funny things that happen (like that Spotted Dick in a can!). 

Those comments everybody left about me successfully finishing the first semester at college mean more to me than you'll ever know. I've been going back to reread those and always feel proud of myself for that accomplishment. 

You guys also bear with me when I'm rambling or when my writing is all over the place. I'm getting better at not being so hard on myself because of how accepting you are of me.

Sometimes the comments take twists and turns away from what the original post was about. For example, I'll jump in sometimes and share a little more about what's happening in the moment, or Brad will add his thoughts. It's almost like having a live conversation sometimes and we thoroughly enjoy that.

This is sorta what happened in that post last week about me finishing my first semester at school (College Boy Survives!). Brad and I jumped in the comment section the next day and talked some about what happened at the restaurant the night before. We also jumped in and talked about how we were decorating the house with our very first Christmas tree and putting up mistletoe, which was slowing down everything with all the smooching going on under all those sprigs!

So we got up this morning and got an email notification that a few more comments had been left under that post. We wanted to put the comment left by Adara here since most people may have missed it. It's actually given us some ideas that relate to the title of this post. Well, here's what Adara said:

 Adara said...
You should hang things besides mistletoe up around the house and make a different 'action' for each one. Much more interesting that way.
You know: pass a santa, get a blowjob.
Or: If it's holly instead of mistletoe, you 69.
;)

Well, in addition to thanking you for the idea, Adara, we've decided to play around with the whole thing and make it one of our new Christmas traditions!

Since decorating is one of Brad's specialties, he's deciding what kind of things to put up around the house. We're really having a lot of fun with this, and here's what we've come up with so far:

He found some artificial candy canes like this and has them hanging at various places around the house. Well, what do those "erect" things remind you of, huh? So, when one of us passes by one of those "stiff" things, that person gets a blowjob! Brad says the only problem with this plan is that he won't be able to get anything done around the house, like his baking or other things. He says I won't be getting my things done either, since he has this funny notion that I'll just be making the rounds all day from one candy cane to the other. Geez, does he really think I don't take my responsibilities around the house seriously? Or that I have sex on my mind all the time? Oh wait, don't answer that question! ;)

We're still trying to decide what standing under the mistletoe might lead to or what we might put up that would mean it's time for a little frisky play in the bedroom or some other room in the house.

I personally think there should be something that means one of us wants to top or one of us wants to bottom. And, of course, there should be something to mean we do this standing up, bending over, on our back or on our stomach!

Then there can be something that means we do it in the bedroom, on the kitchen counter, in the shower, by the fireplace, under the dining room table.... well, you get the picture!

Somehow I think this is one tradition we may have to make year round! After the decorations come down after the holidays, there's always what should happen when one of us passes by a lamp, the coffee table, a chair, the dishwasher. Oh wait, hmmmmmm. I think we already have something like that going on already. We just didn't call it a tradition! LOL!

Anyway, thanks Adara, for the idea. I'll never look at a candy cane the same way again!

Santa and His Sexy Reindeer

Gives new meaning to that song, "On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, on Blitzen...!"

College Boy Survives!

Whew!! I just finished my first semester in college! Can we have a huge round of applause out there??!!

If you remember, I had been worried I might have all kinds of trouble getting back into the swing of things since I had taken a year off between high school and college. Even though the issues with my ADHD have gotten better over the years, that demon is still there.

Anytime I change a major routine in my life, my brain has a hard time getting use to a new way of doing things. Minor, everyday routines are never a big problem. It's just those major changes I have a problem with. If I don't find ways to keep myself centered (as one of my high school counselors called it) my brain can start going haywire. But once I settle into the flow of things, and remember to take the meds, I look back and think what all the fuss was about.

I wrote a post at the beginning of this semester about how overwhelmed I felt that first day, and really that first week. Brad deserves a lot of the credit for being so patient with me while I was freaking out. I was having all kind of thoughts about how I would never be able to concentrate and focus enough to be a success.

I actually did pretty good academically, which I'm proud of. I had heard horror stories about how different high school was from college, and there is definitely a huge difference in many ways. But it didn't end up involving horror or catastrophe.

Some of the professors really seemed to enjoy teaching, and this helped me settle in. I also had a few professors who really need to think seriously about retiring soon. One actually just came to class every time and read his lecture to us. No discussion. No questions. No interaction. He should have just passed out copies of his lecture and gone home (and let us go home)!

Oh, Brad has some plans for tonight to celebrate. He's invited some friends of ours over and then we're all going out for dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant.

Then he has something planned for tonight... at home... just the two of us... not involving friends... just us. I can't imagine what that might be about! It's something I'm sure I'll enjoy because when I bug him about giving me some hints, he just gives me that sweet grin he has. Then when I press him more, he puts on that wicked look he has, like I've seen so many nights when he's being frisky! So, we'll see! (YIPPIE, I'm so excited!!)

Brad starts his first semester in January and, poor thing, I can tell he's a little worried. I'm trying to reassure him it's no big deal, but you know how those beginning Freshmen get sometimes! {Ouch!!! He just punched me!} I'm telling him he'll have a Man of Experience to help him get through that first week! So he can just chill! LOL! {Ouch!}

Anyway, I made it. I frickin made it!

Cooking, My Mom, and My Future

Matty mentioned yesterday that Christmas is his favorite holiday whereas Thanksgiving is my favorite. Well, I think we're having a big influence on each other when it comes to the holidays. He really got into the Thanksgiving spirit this year and now I'm finding myself getting into the Christmas spirit.

I've always like Thanksgiving best because of all the cooking involved, at least that's how it's been with my family. I know, I know, lots of people don't like to cook, but it's one of the things I really enjoy.

My mom's about the best cook I know and when I was growing up I use to love spending time with her in the kitchen, especially during the Fall and Winter.

She's one of those cooks who can start with an idea about something she wants to make and then she starts adding things or changing things from a recipe she might be following. I always loved watching her cook. It was one of those times she reminded me of a little girl.

When she was in the kitchen, she was in some kind of Happy Land. I remember her saying things like, "Hmmmm, let's see what we can do with beef stew." Then you could almost see her ideas spinning around inside her brain as she would go to the cabinet and pick out three or four different spices she thought might be friends. It really was like she was doing some kind of matchmaking with those spices!

And believe me, the kitchen was her domain. That may be part of the reason I'm so protective of our kitchen now, in addition to trying to keep Matty from burning the house  down! Like I've said  before, he's only allowed to push the buttons on the microwave and get stuff out of the fridge, and I have to be in the kitchen or close by when he does those things! LOL. I'm really just exaggerating when I say that, but not by much! 

Being in the kitchen with my mom was also a time when we would open up to each other about things on our mind. While I was busy stirring things in a bowl and she was busy chopping celery or peppers, I could talk to her about personal things that were going on in my life. I would tell her about what was happening in school, how I was getting along with certain friends, stuff I was worried about, movies I liked, things like that. Not really earth-shattering topics but things that were on my mind.

She would tell me things about how she got along with her parents or stories about how she dealt with things when she was my age. Then, sometimes right in the middle of throwing some ingredients together in a bowl, she would stop, look at me, and say something like, "Did I ever tell you about when I skipped school in the seventh grade?"

Those were the moments I always waited for. I knew she was about to either tell some secret, or something about her past I had never heard before. And it always ended up being something either funny or mildly shocking, not bad shocking, but just something kinda surprising I never knew about her before.

We also use to tell each other jokes while we were cooking. And we had this one game we played where we would sorta invent a new joke. One of us would start things off with the first sentence of a joke and neither of us would have any idea how the joke might end up. We would go back and forth, each just adding one sentence, until it was pretty clear what the punch line might be. If we got stuck, we'd agree to revise some sentence in the joke, like add another character or change the situation they were in, and the story would take off with a life of its own.

I have no doubt that's where I got my love of cooking. Making up recipes, talking to my mom when we were both the most relaxed of all, and then eating and enjoying all those dishes we came up with together.

I've been thinking for a long time about "what I want to be when I grow up." My dad's a lawyer so naturally I've thought about that. But I honestly don't think I'd be any good at it. I know there's a lot of creativity involved in being a lawyer, like how to take some situation a person's in, think about what all the different laws have to say about it, then think about how you're going to put a case together and hopefully help the person. But it just seems to require a certain way of thinking that makes my head hurt when I think about doing it myself. 

I guess it's no surprise that I'm about 90% sure I want to be a cook or a chef or do something connected to cooking. I want to finish college first and get that basic degree, but I'm seriously thinking about going to a school where I can learn about culinary art. Nothing is written in stone, of course, so I might end up doing something else. One thing I know for sure is that I like to read a lot and cook, especially baking. Those are two strong passions I have. Maybe I'll end up being a chef and writing cook books, who know? That way I can combine both things. Or maybe I'll eventually own a restaurant. When I think about all this, I get really excited, so I guess that means something, right?

Anyway, I have some time to think this all the way through. In the meantime, I'm getting ready to do some more cooking for the upcoming holidays. Maybe I can now add Christmas cooking to all the Thanksgiving cooking I love to do.

Matty's getting excited about what kind of gifts he wants to buy our families and our friends, so while he's out shopping, maybe I'll have time to think about making up some new recipes. I also like it when he sits in the kitchen with me while I'm baking. We've had some really fun conversations and, of course, he's always staring at that icing in the bowl, waiting to lick the spoon. I'm starting to really get into the holiday spirit now.

A Love Letter to Some Friends

I tried to think of a good title to this post and started out with the one you see above. Then I thought it probably sounded a little corny or sentimental or shallow or something like that. So I set out to improve it and come up with something that was better.

I tried about 10 different titles and every time I came up with something, it got really corny and shallow. So, I'm right back where I started. I'm trying to learn about how to let well enough alone and keep things simple instead of coming up with something that's perfect.

So here goes. This is a love letter to four really good friends. The only person I'm going to name is Brad because in addition to everything else he means to me, he's really my best friend in the world. The other three know who they are.

A few weeks ago Brad and I were writing about Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays. Brad's always considered Thanksgiving as his favorite holiday and I've always considered Christmas my favorite. This year, though, I got into the Thanksgiving spirit more than I usually do, and I think that was because Brad's enthusiasm rubbed off on me. We did a lot of talking about how thankful we were to have each other and then started realizing all the other people in our lives who mean a lot to us.

So I was having this really long talk with these friends last night about something that happened to me a number of weeks ago, something that was really hard and painful for me to go through. I don't really want to go into all that here because every time I talk about it, I end up getting very upset. Besides, what I'm writing about today is a thank you to them for being my friends. That's all this is about. My hope is that maybe this will encourage everyone to think about what friendship is all about and let the ones you love know that.

I remember having an assignment to write an essay in one of my high school English classes. It was one of those assignments where the teacher picked the topic and it was something like, "What Friendship Means to Me." I have no clue or memory of what I wrote and I think the reason it never stayed with me is because I was writing it for a grade. Nothing was happening in my life at the time to make me think about "friendship." It was not coming from my heart.

While talking to my friends last night I started getting more emotional than I normally am. When I first started telling them what was bothering me, I was getting angry and upset just remembering what happened to me. I've talked to Brad about all this before and he's been incredibly helpful and supportive. I don't know how I could have kept my sanity without him.

Just like Brad has always been, the three friends I was talking to last night were genuinely interested in hearing what I had to say and were not judging me in any way. Even though I know people mean well, I've always hated it when people say things like, "Oh, you really shouldn't feel that way," or, "Don't be so upset." Last night my friends were letting me feel whatever I was feeling without trying to make me feel what they thought I should be feeling. I felt completely loved and cared for.

They also gave some examples of similar things they've been through in their own lives. It still amazes me how comforting this feels, probably because I don't feel so alone.

I woke up this morning feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off my back. I'm still thinking about the thing that originally upset me, but it feels like it's starting to fade away in the distance. I can still see it but it's not like it's sitting here inside my head like it's been. I'm feeling very loved and cared for, not only by Brad (as usual), but by these three other friends who took time out of their lives to listen to me, encourage me to say what I was thinking and feeling, and to accept me without any judgment.

I've written here in the blog (back when we first started this thing) about what that word "love" means to me. I was writing about the kind of love I have for Brad and especially about how you know when you truly love someone, like in a romantic sense. Last night I got to see how "love" has many meanings beyond romance.

I think I'm very lucky to have people who genuinely love and care for me. Brad already knows how I feel about him. What I'm writing now is to say how lucky I am to have these three particular friends in my life.

Today I know if I was writing the essay I mentioned above about what friendship means to me, it would come out completely different from what I wrote in high school. That one was a required assignment and I was writing it for a grade. The one I'm writing today is from my heart.

So, yeah, I think I'll stick with the original title for this post because I think it says just want I want it to.

A Little Comic Relief

Sometime I run across something like this and can't help myself in posting it.



Thorny's Not Prickly!

You can only imagine how excited Brad and I were yesterday when we found out our friend (and former fellow blogger), Thorny, rejoined the blogosphere.

We contacted Thorny yesterday and asked his permission to put this up today and he gave the go ahead.

Many of you who follow us here already know Thorny, but we've had some new folks join us and we wanted to pimp his new blog and welcome him back. We started following Thorny's first blog from the beginning and he was a major inspiration for us starting ours. 

We think you'll agree there's never a dull moment with Thorny and we hope you'll check him out!

His blog is at: Thorny, Not Prickly. If, for some reason, that link doesn't work, here's his web address: http://thornynotprickly.wordpress.com/.

19 Year Old Guy With Courage

Zach Wahls is a 19-year-old college student from Iowa. Here's a video of him making a speech before a committee of the Iowa state legislature this past February considering a constitutional amendment to overturn the marriage equality law.

Source: Posted on Advocate.com, December 01, 2011, "Instant Classic: Zach Wahls Speech Goes Viral Again," by Julie Bolcer.

"You Two Are Husbands?"

This is just a very short video Debbie forwarded to us this past summer. Matt thought we had lost it in our email account somewhere, but we found it this morning and can't resist sharing it with all of you. It's just a little over a minute long and I guarantee you'll have a smile on your face after seeing it. Thanks, Debbie, for sending this!