Thursday, July 2, 2009 | by nathan

Garden Update, July 2

Wow, okay, so this was the garden on April 22:

Aaaaand here it is today:

I KNOW, RIGHT??

I’m going away for ten days starting today, so I wanted to get one last look at the whole thing to see how it changes while I’m gone. Today the Beam’s Golden Pear Tomatoes started to ripen:

Don’t those look great? There are about a hundred more of them that are still green and will probably ripen while I’m away. D’oh! But I’m going to try to take a few with me to D.C. so Brian can try them.

Also starting to change colors are the Aurora Peppers:

They started out a deep, deep shade of purple but will turn yellow, then orange and red. I’ve got a ton of these plants, and I think they look so neat:

I’ve also got a whole bunch of rooster spur pepper plants growing in pots.

Some of the rooster spur plants have started to put on fruit, though only just:

Last night my mom came over and we went shopping, but first I gave her a bunch of leaves off my basil plants, which have FINALLY started to really take off:

So in ten days when we get back I imagine that all of this will be taking off and we’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of all this labor. In the meantime, our housesitting friend Casey, my mom, all the neighbors and friends are invited over to pull whatever ripens while we’re away. That’s one of the best parts of having a garden - getting to share the bounty with the people you love. I’m off to D.C. tonight and won’t be posting *as* regularly in the next ten days, though I do plan to try to do Daily Photo posts as regularly as possible. We’ll have two days next week without internet access, and I’m not making any promises, but I’m trying not to go away entirely. Enjoy your Fourth of July!

Thursday, July 2, 2009 | by nathan

Sirloin Stockade

Dude, not only did I score the cover of the Gazette this week, but it’s one of the most hilarious cover images I’ve ever seen them do. It’s kind of an honor, really. Pick it up if you’re in town; if not, read the article here. Also, there’s another one I wrote in there about all the neat geological stuff to do in northwestern Oklahoma.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | by nathan

Just Imagine It In Neal Conan’s Voice

I was driving home from lunch today, listening to Talk of the Nation like I always do in the car at lunchtime. They started talking about President Obama’s recent outreach to the LGBT community and the question was put to the callers as to whether Americans feel that their political leaders’ publicly (and loudly) expressed views really reflect the feelings on the ground about gay marriage. I tried to call and couldn’t get through, and by that time I was back at work anyway, so I ran inside and fired off a quick e-mail. Then I threw in my headphones and had a listen, and sure enough! "Here’s an e-mail from Nathan in Oklahoma City," said Neal Conan, who then read the words I’d punched out literally 60 seconds before:

"I live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and despite my state’s reputation as one of the most conservative areas in America, despite the fact that we are the home of such foaming-at-the-mouth anti-gay characters such as Sally Kern and Anita Bryant, I have to say that my husband and I have had almost no trouble with anti-gay sentiment. Even people who disagree with us on religious grounds are generally friendly - the attitude around here is that it’s no one’s business but our own. I would say that in Oklahoma, our politicians are very out-of-step with the populace. Most of the people I know could care less about anyone’s sexual orientation or whether gay marriage is legal or not.

As to President Obama, while I’ve been disappointed so far in the slow steps the administration has taken, I think we have to remember to keep in mind that only six months have passed since the Inauguration. I think we should remember that there are a lot of things going on right now. Gay people will still be here and ready to marry once we’ve tackled some of these more pressing issues."

I wanted to add in about how Clinton’s failure to pass health care in his first term, and the Republican resurgence of 1994, is occasionally attributed, in part, to the huge amounts of political capital he wasted on both sides of the aisle with the battle that eventually gave us "don’t ask don’t tell." Nothing irritates me more about the gay community than when we start acting like our issues should be at the top of everyone’s agenda, and damn everything else to hell. It doesn’t do anything for our image as a community except makes us look selfish and myopic. While it’s good to remind the President that we’re here, to keep ourselves on his agenda, let’s not pretend like we should be the top priority right now.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | by nathan

Almost Two

This smiling, adorable specimen of Cooperdom will be two years old just five days after Brian and I get back from Ireland. I adore the everlovin’ crud out of this kid, and yesterday I got to have lunch with him and his momma at the Red Cup, where he entertained me by shouting out his impressions of all his favorite animals and repeating all his little antics everytime he got me to laugh. He’s also a natural in front of the camera. He’s going to have a little sister in a couple months, although he has yet to really grasp that concept.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 | by nathan

World Tour

Internet, I’m having one or two minor problems with anxiety in advance of my deeply imminent travels abroad. It’s crazy - I mean, remember that one time when I LIVED IN EUROPE FOR SIX MONTHS? Why am I freaked out about going back? 

Part of it is that Brian isn’t here; he left on Sunday morning, early, to jet out to Washington, D.C. for business. I’m leaving in about 48 hours from now to join him. In the meantime I have to do a whole sh**load of laundry, get my house nice and clean so that my buddy Casey, who is house-and-dogsitting for us, doesn’t have to live in a pig sty.

Last night I stayed up packing - most of my clothes are already crammed tightly into my freshly-Febreezed duffel bag - I REFUSE TO CHECK LUGGAGE. To aid myself while I packed I watched all six episodes of the first series of the BBC black comedy Sensitive Skin, starring the lovely Joanna Lumley (Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous). I only meant to watch one episode. I SWEAR I did but that sh**’s addicting. Careful, though; it’s about the most British thing you’re likely to have seen in awhile.

I’ve got a ton of stuff to do before I leave, including a freelancing deadline for an article I pitched BECAUSE I AM TOTALLY NUTS. In other news, I am the cover author of the local alternative newsweekly - for the second time in a year, holla - so be sure to pick that up if you’re in town.

Maybe it’s the lingering worry of having a largely-uncompleted to-do list hanging over my head, or maybe it’s that I’m always weird when Brian is away, but the past two days my stomach has been fluttering wildly, wobbling so much that I can see it through my shirt. It feels the way that I would imagine a kicking baby does. Also, I’ve become entirely obsessed with my passport, with knowing where it is at all times, to the degree that the first thing I do when I rise and the last thing I do before I go to bed is to check and make sure it’s still in the same place it was. I pick it up, I flip through it a few times, and I set it back down EXACTLY where it was before, but then come the next morning, there I am, rushing to it to make sure it hasn’t been moved, or ran away.

One can only sustain this level of mental illness but for so long; in 48 hours I’ll be in the air and headed east, and when I set down in Washington, D.C. to begin this next adventure I’m sure everything will have come together just as it’s meant to.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 | by nathan

Not Roadkill

I saw this little dude laying under a car on the corner of my street on the way back from work yesterday. At first I really thought some unfeeling or spaced-out motorist had backed over a cat in his own driveway. So, I slowed down to inspect a little more closely and realized that nope, this little dude was just blissfully, stupidly asleep underneath the car in the afternoon heat. I slowed down to take a photo, but honestly I sorta considered - just for a second - crawling under there with him.

Monday, June 29, 2009 | by nathan

The Garden Show

When Brian and I first looked at our house in August of 2005, we knew we wanted to live in it when we came out the back door and saw the sunroom and gorgeously landscaped backyard. What I didn’t imagine is that fewer than four years later, the always-amazing K.C. Clifford would be doing a show in said backyard. Brian and I were honored that she’d do this for us, because we really support what K.C. and David do (and so should you. So should really you.)

What was fun about this show is that we not only got to set up a sound system and hear some excellent music just outside our sunroom on a somewhat-temperate summer night, but that we got to invite our friends, family and neighbors to come hear said music. Most of these people had not heard K.C. and David play before, and were righteously blown away. In fact, all I’ve heard from anyone who was there ever since was how much they enjoyed it.

We left the gate open, and neighbors came and went, and the music went on until almost 10 p.m. I had strung up our shortest tree with lights, and we had the lanterns on in the sun room. We had about 30 people there - maybe more.

The thing about the house concert is that anyone can do it, really. I think you should do it. I do - I think you should mow your grass, plant some great flowers, string up some lights and invite some fantastic musicians to come and play. Or, let’s say you don’t have a backyard. You clear some furniture out of your living room and set up some chairs and invite the artist to come and play there. There’s a great website to tell you how to do it all - ConcertsInYourHome.com. Really, I can’t recommend it highly enough. You get to support some musicians in your area who love to play to people and who could probably use the work and the income. You get to make super nice with your neighbors and friends, and have a really excellent time with it all. Bringing music into people’s homes is what the house concert movement is all about, really, reaching new listeners and fans one by one.

Monday, June 29, 2009 | by nathan

Beauty Queen

Oklahoma City Pride was yesterday, and though Brian had taken off for a week’s business in Washington, D.C., I decided that I’d rather be out doing something - anything - than sitting at home and being sad. And though I did have a great time taking photos and killing a six-pack of Red Stripe while watching the floats go by, it wasn’t the same without my husband there. Still, I got a highly respected local politician to buy me a shot and got to reconnect with someone from high school, all of which was great craic, as they say in Ireland. I don’t go out very often at all anymore, and the majority of my friends are straight married couples, but on days like that I really enjoy being around my gays. See you queens next year!

Monday, June 29, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader - 29 June 2009

Scanwiches
Aren’t sandwiches just the best food ever? That might make Scanwiches the best website ever. People scan their sandwich and share what’s on it. I’ve got at least a dozen recipes I want to try now.

5 Things Hollywood Thinks Computers Can Do
"Has your mom ever called in a panic, saying the computer was displaying a weird error message and that she hurried and unplugged it just to be safe–and then dunked it in the bathtub so it wouldn’t burn the house down? It makes you realize that, to some people, a computer is still a terrifying box of mysteries. Well, we think Hollywood writers have those people in mind when they portray laptop computers doing everything short of blowing up the moon."

Painter of Crap
I once was almost asked to leave a Thomas Kinkade gallery that I’d been dragged in to when I referred to the artist as "The Painter of Crap," so naturally this story made me smile.

Mac Dock Icon Spelling
Yet another reason why Apples rock.

Friday, June 26, 2009 | by nathan

Pure Oklahoma

This is another one I *almost* didn’t have to touch in Photoshop - I did black out some below-horizon details that distracted from the sunset, but the color is all God. This was out at Laurie’s dad’s vineyard near Okemah, Oklahoma.