Solar PV Electrical & Pool Heating

We finally found a good deal on Solar PV Electrical and Solar Pool Heating systems for the house, so we've started installing them this past week, May 2011.

The roof on the back of our house faces due South, which is perfect for catching as many solar rays as possible with the sunny weather here in San Diego.  :- )

It'll pay for itself in around 7 years and should last 25-30 years.  18 to 23 years of FREE electricity?  Hell yeah!

Here are some pictures:

Recipe: Chicken Pot Pies with Puff Pastry

Chicken Pot Pies with Puff Pastry


Ingredients:

• 1/2 C. unsalted butter
• 4 C. chicken broth
• 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 C. dried onion flakes
• 1 dash hot pepper sauce
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (8 ounce) can carrots, drained
• 1 (8 ounce) can white potatoes
• 2 C. diced cooked chicken
• 2 sheet Hilshire Farm frozen puff pastry, each cut into four squares
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 T. water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray 4 small, oven-proof bowls with cooking spray.

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in 2 C. chicken broth and whisk in all of the flour, gradually adding the remaining chicken broth until you have a smooth, slightly thick base.  Mix in onion flakes, hot pepper sauce, pepper, thyme, bay leaf and carrots.  Cook about 5 minutes. Stir in potatoes and chicken and cook for another 5 minutes.

3. In the bottom of each bowl, line with a sheet of puff pastry on the bottom.  Divide chicken mixture equally into the four bowls.  Place a puff pastry square over the top of each bowl, pressing lightly around the rim. Brush the pastry with the egg and water mixture.  Place the four bowls on a baking sheet.

4. Bake for about 25 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden brown.  Let rest at least 5 minutes before serving.

Updated House Pictures 2010-07-14

The appraiser came today and took these photos around the house for our refinance.  Some of them turned out pretty good, but they should because we've busted our asses for the past few weeks painting anything that wouldn't move out of our way and fixing a lot of small things here and there.  :-)

Swimming Pool (facing East)

Swimming Pool (facing West)

Front of the House with our New Roof

West Side of the House

Garage with our New Roof

Back Patio Area

Living Room

Living Room

Kitchen (facing West)

Kitchen (facing East)

Kitchen (facing East)

Microwave & Vegetable Sink Area

Eat-In Kitchen's Breakfast Nook

Downdraft Exhaust & Gas Range

Dining Room

RECIPE: Fuzio's Firecracker Pork Fusilli

Okay guys, when I made this, it turned out 98% exactly like how we'd get it at Fuzio, except you can actually get more than 4 or 5 pieces of meat.  hehe

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Firecracker Pork Fusilli (Fuzio)


Ingredients :

• 2 lb pork tenderloin, sliced into ½" thick medallions

For marinade :

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 green onion, puréed

• 1 medium brown onion, puréed

• 1 ½ cups tightly packed fresh cilantro

• 2 ½ tbsp freshly grated ginger

• 2 cups pineapple juice

• 1 cup soy sauce

To serve :

• 1 lb cellentani pasta

• 1 cup sour cream

• fresh cilantro, to garnish, optional

Preparation and Cooking Instructions :

1. For marinade : Purée green and brown onions and garlic in food processor until mushy. Slowly add the cilantro leaves until blended in.

2. Combine pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, and purée in a container large enough to fit pork fillets. Add pork fillets, covering them. Marinate pork tenderloin for 24 hours.

3. After marinating, separate the pork and marinade ( reserve the marinade).

4. Sear the pork fillets in a thin layer bubbly hot cooking oil until brown on both sides ( about 30 seconds per side)

5. Return the reserved marinade back to the pan. Cover and stew for 2 hours.

6. In the meantime prepare the Habanero pesto below.

7. After 2 hours of stewing the pork fillets, separate stew liquid and pork. Reserve the stewing liquid.

8. Separate the pork tenderloin fillets into chunky strands and set aside.

9. Strain the stew liquid then let settle in a tall container. Remove as much of the separated fat with a spoon as possible.

10. Boil the strained liquid in a lidless saucepan at a low boil to reduce in quantity for 15 minutes. Add a little cornstarch if you want to thicken it further .

11. Meanwhile, cook the cellentani pasta according to package directions.

Habanero Pesto

Ingredients :

• 1 tightly packed cup cilantro leaves

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 habañero chili, seeded, minced

• up to ¼ cup olive oil

Preparation and Cooking Instructions :

1. Combine the garlic and chilies in the bowl of a food processor and blend into a smooth paste.

2. Add and blend in cilantro leaves in small batches.

3. As mixture becomes very thick, add olive oil until desired consistency is reached. Set aside.

True Story: "Another Beautiful Day"

"Another Beautiful Day"



True Story:

As I first watched the video above, I vividly remembered a story that a close friend told me before I had come out back in my very small hometown in Tennessee in the mid 90's.

His story had a lot to do with why I decided that Tennessee would never by my true home -- a place where I could feel safe and accepted, while simply trying to be happy and live my life as a "normal," intelligent, well-adjusted member of the God-fearing community.

The story is that of two highly-respected teachers at my old middle school; a slightly effeminate husband and his not overly-femenine wife. They were in a tragic auto accident, in which the wife was killed, leaving the husband to raise their two teenage daughters. A few years after this life changing event, the husband began *discretely* dating again. However, his very secret new love interest happened to be another man.

If you've ever lived in a small devoutly-Christian town, you know that no secret remains secret for very long. Through the usual channels of snooping and being overly observant as to the comings and goings of others, the husband's homosexual activities quickly became the latest fodder for the gossip mill.

The friend who told me the story was around a group of the "men folk" in our small town one evening and the testosterone began to take over, with talk quickly turning to the husband's tendency toward homosexuality. As they became more and more infuriated by this deviant behavior happening in their town, they began to speak of a plan.

I'm not sure if this was all testosterone talk or if it was ever to be acted upon, but the plan was to wait until a night where both teenage daughters were gone, then burn down their home. My friend was shocked as he heard their plans, but made no arguments against what they were saying, I suppose out of fear of their mob mentality. One must fit in at all costs, never be different from the flock.

I never heard that the men followed through on their plan, but just knowing that such a level of hatred for those different than themselves ran so rampant in the very people I had known all of my life was more than I could take. With another close friend being job-transferred to California, after some amount of thought, I knew that I really needed to get out. To make a life for myself. To find a lasting love. To be happy. To be ME.

Fourteen years after my move from the South, I realize that I made the right choice and have the life that I always wanted and the love that I dreamed of to prove it. I sleep soundly in my bed at night with my loving partner of 12 years, Eric, never having to fear that we might have been targeted for being different. To me, it feels like I am finally free.

I hope those who happen to be straight reading this will think twice or maybe even speak out should they find themselves witnessing such conversations. And those of you who are less than 100% straight realize that small-minded mentalities can seriously jeopardize your safety very quickly, so please be careful. Always.

The song is from a TRULY AMAZING movie, Latter Days. If you haven't seen the movie, it's an amazing story of social & religious expectations, intolerance and coming to terms with who you are. And most importantly love.

Lyrics: "Another Beautiful Day"

When you were just a child of eight

You were taught you were not to deviate

Only one way to heaven, but half a million ways to fall.

Well we can alienate the strange and the odd

As long as we're "One Nation Under God"

He might love me, but you're his favorite of all.

And it's another beautiful day

It's another beautiful day

It's another beautiful day

In the land of the free

We can hate the Jews, and the blacks, and the fags

As long as we pray and salute the flag

And fall on our knees to a Jesus who looks just like you

And it's another beautiful day

It's another beautiful day

It's another beautiful day

In the land of the free

They blessed your soul and told you to travel

Dressed in polyester for a God made of gravel

You're a man on a mission, I wish you could save yourself

And it's another beautiful day

It's another beautiful day

It's another beautiful day

In the land of the free

It's another beautiful day

It's another beautiful day

It's another beautiful day

In the land of the free

Smaller-Scale Remodeling

I've been trying to finish up our office. It had carpeting, which I ripped out, sanded the hardwood, then refinished it. Then I was under the house running cable and Internet from our make-shift server closet to the other side of the office. After that, I was replacing a ton of the old 2-prong receptacles and old light switches with the new modular square-looking ones.

Amazing how much more *remodeled* a house looks with the newer outlets and switches. I only have a few left to do, then I will have swapped them all throughout the entire house. I also painted the room a nice Ralph Lauren Polo "suede" textured paint in Sandoval, which is a medium tan, plus all of the trim in a bright white. It's looking really sharp with the glossy hardwood floors.

All I really need to do for the office now is to put our two desks back together, but I'm going to drill 2" holes in the top of the desks first so we can run cables through new plastic-covered holes in the desk, instead of running cables all over the damn place behind and around stuff. It should look a lot nicer cord-wise.

How things change in 2 1/2 Months...

Well, shortly after I posted my last stuff on here, Eric & I started looking for a house in San Diego. When we walked into the 3rd house on our search, we pretty much fell in love with the house that we ended up buying then and there. As soon as we saw the big rooms, and hardwood floors, not to mention the view of the pool, we were hooked.

A short 6 weeks and $675,000 later, we had the keys to our 4 bedroom / 3 bathroom home in hand and were officially homeowners. It's scary how expensive houses are here, but since we're not moving back to the South and the pay is so much better out here, there isn't much choice. Plus $675K in San Francisco would have gotten us crap in the City. And then who wants to be eternally COLD? Pass...

The rest of the pics are at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22329266@N02/sets/72157608646338529

And the pics of our proposed kitchen remodel are at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22329266@N02/sets/72157610959201140

With the nice climate and sunny disposition of the San Diego residents, not to mention our 3 spare bedrooms, let's just say we expect a lot of friends and family to come visit. And really look forward to it. Bring on the sun!

Sadly M.I.A. (aka, work in SF calling again)

So Eric has been in SF working since last Thursday and I'm feeling pretty lonely without him to snuggle with for the past week. I was streaming some Yahoo Music and this song came on and really hit me as to how I was feeling right then and there, so I thought I'd save it away.

Avril Lavigne - "When You're Gone"

I can't wait until he's back on Friday, as co-dependent as that sounds. After 11 years together, you get like that. :-)

100 years ago, on our first anniversary...

Ok, Beautiful Thing is our very favorite movie of ALL TIME. So much so that I took Eric to see the play in SF on our one year anniversary. The play was amazing, just like the movie, so if you get a chance, see it with the one you want to be with for the rest of your life.

Here is a compilcation of some scenes that I particularly liked. The Celine Dion song (I know, I know, but in this case, whatever bitches) playing in the background was very beautiful and appropriate for the clip. So here you go, enjoy!



Beautiful Thing - Gay boys falling in love

"Stand By Your Side"

I cry and you comfort me

I'm lost and you hear my scream

So it's hard to watch you falling

When you run so deep in me

You live in me

Gonna stand by your side now

Let me kiss all your tears away

You can stay in my arms now

And I know I can make you believe again

I walk but you can run through fire

I search for reasons and baby you inspire

But I know somebody hurt you

And I know you really need a friend

Well you can take my hand

Gonna stand by your side now

Let me kiss all your tears away

You can stay in my arms now

And I know I can make you believe again

So when you're feeling like you can't go on

Don't you know

You never walk alone no

And you live in me

Gonna stand by your side now

Let me kiss all your tears away

You can stay in my arms now

And I know I can make you believe again
I'm gonna stand, stand by your side

Kiss all your tears away tonight

I'm gonna stand, stand by your side

Make you believe again
I wanna look in your eyes now and see you smiling again

VGL Gay Boys on Gay Marriage

VGL Gay Boys on Gay Marriage

Gay Zombies

Gay Zombies

Gay Axe Commercial

Gay Axe Commercial. This shit is just too funny.

Todd & Eric Pics

Here are a couple of pics of Todd & Eric.