happy birthday Titties Verde

Last weekend, Titties Verde turned 30, and invited us to a cookout at her and her husbands new home in Vallejo on/near Mare Island. Shilpa and I drove up for the evening and had a lovely time. Ever since TV and Ing moved out of Club Jackson and out of the City, we don't see them much any more and I really had missed their company. They are total characters (as am I, I suppose) and their crazy personalities bring a lot of color to my life.

So just a few notes from the night:

From Verde's photo set, this is my favorite:

She calls this one "I am drunk, and I want to show you my bling."

The new house is beautiful, and Ing gave us a tour with an album of "before" photos in hand. Ing is an art/collection auction house guy, and has an amazing collection of what I am sure has a very impressive description but what I just call "jungle stuff." Carvings, shields, that kind of stuff. Oh yeah, and lots and lots of weapons.

Many of these weapons are displayed in the stairwell, which, you know, living on a fault line, really creeped me out. One does not tend to linger on the staircase. I was assured that all items were carefully wired to the wall.

Looking up from the stairs.

Looking down from the landing.

Regardless, I have Christened it "The Stairway of Damocles."

They turned an upstairs room into a library, and custom built wrap around bookshelves so that every wall was lined floor to ceiling.

Verde expressly requested no gifts (unwrapping a present would be too much like unpacking, and they are still doing some of that). But knowing how they must be in big gay happening withdrawal having left Club Jackson and the City, I gave her a bag of Big Mo's. I really wanted to frame my favorite photo of Tittles Verde (taken here) for their home, but but knew they did not want any more "stuff" and that any gift would have to be consumable (food, wine, or in my case Big Mo's).

So how much did I love it that predominately displayed in their library, they had printed the same photo from Flickr and framed it themselves!

Loves me my Titties Verde. (If you didn't click through earlier, you can guess which photo is my favorite.)

They have turned the outspan building into Ing's studio, and he's got some creepy stuff. Which, of course, I love. Random things like antique ether anesthesia pumps. Of which he has two. (Way too much time on eBay).

And then creepy collections like this:

Dunno.

Then there was this clock he also found on eBay that was a different sort of creepy.

Ing explained that it's "the Japanese Bart Simpson."

I warmed up to it when he explained "when the alarm goes off, his tiny penis lights up."


Flickr set.