20 January, and my dearling Rachelle turns a million today.
Well not a million, just 40. Ok, not 40…she’s less than 40, but not by much.

Anyway…

Here is a photo montage covering the last 12 years of my life with Rachelle…give or take a few years. She’ll hate this I’m sure, but she never reads my blog anymore so…

Let’s start with the oldest picture of us that I could find…from 1999. Gosh I was so much thinner then…but don’t we look all cute at work.

Next up…2000 and Halloween. Don’t we look goth? Did I mention that I was also going to be in some of these pictures?

Next up…2001 and Rachelle has braces and bleached hair.

In 2002 we were completely washed out at Buca de Beppo.

2003 and she had a grand time playing dress-up for Halloween…

In 2004 we took one of my favourite pictures of the two of us.

2005 and 2006 and 2007 were a blur…

And here’s hoping for many more years of this wild and crazy woman…Love me some Rachelle…

Well, ok, not everyone, but the cool people at least :-).

Show your support for our troops with this GLBT themed shirt.


What’s better than a “Yeah, Right” mug for those early mornings of bitter coffee? Go ahead…sit at the kitchen table with your house pants / night gown on and just stare out the front window with your cigarette in one hand and this delicious coffee mug in the other. Share your bitterness with the world.


Everyone does it…

Say it loud and clear that you love yourself, because if you don’t, no one else will.

You have one. Everyone knows it. That’s why they don’t talk to you, because they know you’re going to blog about it as soon as you have connectivity.


Halloween is year-round fun.
Check out the full suite of Hellaween Products.


For all you gossip girls out there - just make sure you stop talking when they get close.


Let’s just admit it…because the rest of the world already knows.

Ok - who is visiting from Witeck Combs? Is it Wes ?

For those of you who are not familiar with that company, they are a public relations and marketing company that is INCREDIBLY supportive of the GLBT community. Much of their focus is on diversity and its importance.

I have seen both of the company leaders at the Out and Equal conference, and have been very privileged to hear them speak in workshops as well. These guys know what it means to use diversity as a competitive advantage for your company.

Anyway - I noticed someone visited from there today, so I thought I would give them a shout-out. Welcome!

Wow.

NEW YORK - Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall. [Link]

Although it would have certainly been interesting had the world of Harry Potter had a gay student…I was never expecting this.

Is this good? Bad? Indifferent?

By popular demand, here are 10 posts you have likely not seen, especially if you’re a new subscriber to this blog. When syndicating, I think my setup is configured only to go back 10 posts…so if you’re subscribing from fresh, you’re missing out on a veritable cornucopia of interesting topics from the last 2+ years…

So here are a few things you might want to read and catch up on…

1. Homeless Recycling, Parts 1 & 2
2. Weddings
3. The Gay Agenda
4. Crazy Pills (and dreams about Britney Spears)
5. Migraines
6. Just My 2 Cents
7. Personality Disorders
8. Music Makes a People Come Together
9. Paula Poundstone and Christmas Ham
10. Luxury SUV’s

Enjoy…perhaps you’ll learn a little something interesting about Heath that you never knew you wanted to know before :-).

Today was the final day of the conference. After a mostly enjoyable evening at the Gala Awards Dinner, we awoke refreshed and ready for the last round of workshops and the final plenary.

Unfortunately, that refreshing feeling did not last long.

The conference rooms were incredibly cramped, and before long, I was getting so hot that I felt nauseous. I had to keep going back to the hotel room in preparation for losing my morning coffee. Thankfully, I was able to maintain my composure long enough to get through the morning.

The lunch plenary, which ends the conference, featured a guest presentation from Brian Graden, President of Entertainment at MTV and President of the Logo channel. His presentation was very entertaining, and included clips from many shows he helped create, GLBT target advertisements he championed, and important takeaways about following your dreams.

Oh, before I forget, again the hotel served chicken for the meal.

Finally, they announced the location for the 2008 Summit - Austin, TX. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Austin, but I do not love Texas. It’s a ridiculously RED state, with a tiny sea of blue around the Austin area. I have been there many times on college recruiting trips and I really do like the city - but I really don’t see how a GLBT person could stand to live in that state.

The passing of the torch, or in this case some kind of fairy wand, happened, and the chairpersons for the 2008 Summit did a little song and dance presentation about their wonderful city.

The 2007 Summit wrapped up with the entire O&E staff coming up on stage and singing some song I’d never heard before that was apparently inspirational.

All-in-all, I’m not sure if this summit was better than 2006 in Chicago. Some parts were very interesting, some workshops were very good, but it feels like the event is getting so big that it’s not able to accommodate real learning. I really hope next year’s event gets back to workshops that are insightful and inspiring, and give tangible action plans we can use at our places of work.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we fly back to Sacramento.

Oh, and it’s my birthday today.

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On the evening of Day 3 of our trip (Day 2 of the conference itself), is the Gala Awards Dinner. This event celebrates accomplishments from employee groups, straight allies, and leaders in the area of diversity.

The evening started with a mediocre fancy dinner, some wine, some entertainment, then the awards ceremony. There was also a live auction, where one could bid on things like an RSVP cruise, an HP laptop/printer/camera package, and this year, a signed script from the hit TV show Ugly Betty (a hit show that I’ve never seen).

Dinner was adequate. Unfortunately they seemed very unprepared for vegetarian dishes. Once again, the meat eaters around me had chicken. It seemed like the hotel could only serve chicken for their meals. I waited, and waited, and waiting, until eventually they brought me a plate of steamed vegetables and some mashed potato. I seriously think I need to go back to eating meat.

Kate Clinton was once again the MC for the evening, and as always, she did an excellent job of entertaining the crowd. She’s hilarious, topical, and a sassy broad. Love a bunch of her.

The Outie Awards, presented by Out and Equal were really not much of a surprise. You can pretty much tell which company is going to win, and USUALLY, the companies that have been nominated are very close in terms of the good things they have done to get the nomination in the first place. Except for the last one. That was the workplace excellence award. Frankly, I don’t know how on earth we were nominated for that award. We don’t deserve it, especially compared to the winner, Wells Fargo.

I can’t even relay the types of support that Wells Fargo provides to its GLBT employees at a group and a personal level. It astounds me. The person who accepted the award spoke of going to her second line manager, telling him that she was going to have to quit to move to another state because her partner got a new job. The manager told her they would create a position for her wherever she needed to move. That would never happen here. So long - farewell - auf wiedersehen - goodbye - we’ll just eliminate your position and find someone else to do it because we don’t value GLBT employees like our peers do.

Anyway - one highlight of the evening was Barney Frank presenting the Trailblazer Award to a real pioneer for GLBT rights, Frank Kameny.

I know absolutely nothing about this dear old man except he’s a wonderful speaker, a very genuine person, and he deeply cares about equality for ALL people. You can find out more information about him here.

The evening ended with drinks and dancing, and me going back to the room because I was feeling sick.

Tomorrow - Day 4, the final day of the conference.