- Randy, the husband, also known as Spinnerdude, is celebrating his fiftieth birthday today.

- I found out last night that I won an Honorable Mention ribbon at the San Diego County Fair for a photo I took back in February 2009 of a Cal Poly SLO – Navy Academy rugby match down at the Del Mar Polo Grounds.

-  Today is Friday.

Spinner and I spent last night in the VIP seats at La Reve at the Wynn here in Vegas. It was over the top when Katherine showed us to out seats and served us our chocolate-dipped strawberries. It was overrer the top when she kept topping off our flutes of Perrier Jouet as we watched the cast prepping back stage on our monitor.

Then we just abandoned the top for an hour and twenty minutes of sensory overstimulation. Like a Cirque de Soleil production, this is theater in the round. There was dancing and diving; acrobatics in the air on the ground and in the water. Four incredible Cupids bringing in the comic relief and the emergency first aid for a stricken show dove. Amazing eroticism, homo and otherwise (it is the story of a romance between a man and a woman). Timing and engineering feats that had divers leaving stage areas then immediately diving back into the pools that replaced them and dance platforms rising and sinking in the pool as needed.

And the performers? OMG the abs, they went forever. Impossibly fit bodies as far as the eye could see and costuming that made certain you knew just how hard those bodies were working while still helping to tell the story.

Two parts of the show in particular did it for me. There was an early scene with divers, some synchronized and some solo, performed beautiful and fun dives off an ever rising series of platforms, with the final dive coming from the rafters at least 20 yards above the pool that had been a stage moments before. Later was an amazing scene with two men performing a modern dance/gymnastics routine that ended with one man balancing the other on his back, neck to neck vertically, before diving into the pool. Not sure words can ever do that one justice.

The ghost of Christmas Present has me in my comfy robe blogging while the husband makes himself more presentable.  The ghost of  Christmas Future has us going out to fawn over decorations and finish up the shopping.  The ghost of Christmas Past has me feeling like an unrepentent glutton about to burst at the seams.  And now Tiny Diego’s going to find a big bag of treats in his stocking Thursday morning.

The official t-shirts of the 2008 Slackathalon came in today. This ended up being a fine Slackathalon season, possibly the best yet.

Obviously, the wedding almost resulted in disqualifications of all participants, but the sheer lack of planning involved in the event resulted in a waiver by the Slackathlon’s presiding official, Party D.  The fact that the finish line photos were taken while your blogger was flat on his back watching Voyager reruns on a weekday afternoon showed a dedication to slacking that far supersedes any momentary rush of emotion, adrenaline and hormones.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this season such a blast and provided the distractions that kept so much meaningful work from getting done.  You’re enablers, each and every one of you, and we’re proud to have you in our lives.  I’m sure Spinner will have some thoughts of his own posted eventually.

Yes, Spinner and I were married on Wednesday.  He proposed to me minutes after the Supreme Court decision was announced last month, and once I got over being proposed to via text message, I said yes.  After two and one-half years together there was never really any consideration of any other answer. 

We spent a lot of time exploring options, and in the end decided we wanted a simple and intimate ceremony for the marriage itself, to be followed by a reception/blow-out to beat all blow-outs for all the family and friends.  That second event is tentatively scheduled for October 4.

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- Last day of vacation.  First day I can say I just went surfing with my husband.

- The current translation of blushing June bride is sunburned June Party B.

- By some coincidental timing, some thoughts on marriage equality over at KPBS.

Blogosphere, meet Diego.

Diego, meet the blogosphere.

Diego was adopted today from the San Diego Humane Society, and will be splitting his online residences between the Howling Point and Spinnerdude. He weighs 18 pounds and is a mix between a Maltese and godonlyknowswhat, aka, a purebred Mutt (to use the AKC designation).