Parmesan Cheese, Weber Baby BBQs, and Madonna Redux

Such a busy weekend! It started when we arrived home Friday to find Loyda cleaning the house. She had brought her two daughters who were both hot and hungry-- I don't know why, but Loyda thinks we'll get mad if she opens the windows . So Steve and I opened up the house and then made the girls (9 and 5, respectively) pasta for dinner. I whipped up a quick meat sauce with some fresh onion and garlic tossed in, and they were quite impressed; Loyda doesn't cook. We used extra-lean turkey meat and low-carb pasta-- you gotta use what you got on hand-- and they were very excited.

Then I asked if they wanted Parmesan cheese on top. They had never heard of it. This was shocking to me, an Italian. So I told the older one, Kimberly, that she could spoon a little on and if she liked it she could take more. So then Steve and I sat them outside on the picnic table and the next thing you know they're diving into the parm like it was the greatest discovery on Earth. Loyda sat out with them while they ate-- she said she wasn't hungry even though we had plenty-- and then Steve and I made our own vainly boring dinner of chicken breasts and veggies.

With no plans for our Friday night, we discussed our larger goal of getting a barbecue for the yard, but since the new space is so cool we didn't want to get something that was enormous and would make our yard look awful. Fortunately, we found this Weber Baby-Q on sale at Linens N Things (God we're such homo-owners). It's small enough to be carried onto our table, used, and then placed in a hidden location so as to not spoil the natural beauty of our new HGTV backyard.

So on Friday we rushed out, bought it, went to the nearby Lowes and purchased the small propane tanks, and then Steve watched So You Think You Can Dance while I assembled everything.

The next day at lunch we had a feast!
Well, okay, we had burgers and dogs, but the burgers had thick slices of tomato, avocado, and melted Gruyere cheese with a Dijon-Mayo sauce on top. Served alongside a lovely salad with mixed greens lightly tossed in a Parmesan vinaigrette and it felt fancy. Besides, gay pride is only a week away and we have to look fierce even as we dine well.

I would only look more butch if I had a beer in my hand, huh?

And here is Steve about to enjoy the meal.

Saturday night we had dinner at Benihana with our friends Brian Daily (who supplied yesterday's Word of the Week) and Carey. We intended on only having the meal and a couple drinks, but the next thing you know we're out on the town... yeah, so much for a mellow weekend.

As I was in line for the restroom at Fiesta Cantina-- a taco joint with a great rooftop bar and mediocre food but two-for-one drinks at various times-- these cute girls got in line. Having three sisters, I let them cut in front of us to they could pee; very Christian of me, I know. They explained how they were at the Madonna concert. We gushed. Afterwards, they met Steve and we told them the story of how Madonna saved his life on September 11th (a story that can be found in my book, Mondo Homo).

The women were so excited that they gave us their backstage passes.