2008 has been a fantastic year for me and I am sad to see it pass. This past year I have acquired a weekly SF residency at Social Club, been traveling all over the country working for Falcon doing make-up, celebrated my 30th birthday (which included a surprise trip to Bora Bora) and have puppies on the way in less than  2 weeks. Hopefully 2009 will be just as exciting and crazy.

Christmas was fairly quiet at Villa Mariposa. We had a few guest over on Christmas Eve and played liars dice, drank ‘Dirty Lady Hampers’ (recipe to come) and watched ‘Wall.E’. We even had a visit from ‘Ferril Fawceps’ and she hasn’t been out for a while. 

Then Christmas morning I went over to Tony’s sister and husband’s house, (Jena & Simmie), to participate in our gift exchange, have a mimosa and see their two boys open their presents and have a visit from Santa. Tony has been feeling really ill, sinus infection and headaches and he stayed home, so I came back around noon and it was time for the household to swap gifts. I got some great cooking pieces for the kitchen, including a book called ‘Meat’ from Michele, it’s a cook book of course. Plus I got some totally cute and fabulous Ginch Gonch undies and a hot t-shirt from Daniella. All in all Christmas was fabulous, but New Year will be killer.

Santa, Miles, Ezra and Auntie Pakka

I am playing at The Lookout New Year’s Eve till 2 am so that should be a blast. I intend to play the best songs from 2008, (Checkout my Charts page for my top 20 each month) and have everyone at The Lookout bouncing around the floor. Then I will be attending Mass on New Year’s Day with DJ Phil B spinning to what is guaranteed to be a packed crowd. Will give you all the details (and pictures) later.

‘Dirty Lady hamper’

Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 oz cherry vodka ( I used Three Olives)
2. 1 oz Kahlúa (Rachel Siress’ Homemade Kahlúa worked great)
3. 1 oz cream liqueur (I used Cask & Cream)
4. 1/2 oz white chocolate liqueur (I used Godiva)
5. 1/2 oz maraschino cherry syrup
6. Bar of milk chocolate to coat glass rim
7. Fresh mint leaves for decoration

Break up the chocolate  and put into a bowl. Melt the pieces either in the microwave or over the stove depending on the bowl you use. Once melted coat the rim of the martini glasses you will use. Press a mint leaf into the chocolate as it sets so that bottom will be in the drink and the top over the edge of the glass. Allow chocolate to set, this can be done quickly in the freezer.

In a cocktail shaker add ice, cherry vodka, Kahlúa and cream liqueur and shake to mix. Strain into one of the martini glasses. Use the back of a spoon to carefully add the white chocolate liqueur, this should make it move through the mixture and settle at the bottom of the glass in a white layer. Then do the same with the maraschino cherry syrup. The drink should be layered now red, white and creamy brown. 

Enjoy!!

This past weekend Tony and I, along with our friends Ross & Kim, made our annual trip to Plumpjacks in North Lake Tahoe. We usually like to ride the mountain on our boards (or Skis, boo!!), but before we left we knew that even if it snowed there wouldn’t be enough. Well snow it did. We arrived around 4pm on the Friday and already a light snow was falling. It continued and increased throughout the weekend and we actually had to head out earlier than usual on Sunday to beat the traffic and the incoming storm. 

Since we weren’t going to board Tony and I decided to bring along the Wii and XBox and pass the evening hours with mad gaming. 4 Player Mariokart and Wii Tennis are so much fun and Kim and I beat Ross and Tony in our Tennis Doubles match!

With plenty of food and wine it really was a nice way to spend the weekend, and Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. There is nothing quite like seeing a beautiful landscape being blanketed with heaps of soft, fluffy, white snow while you blast the hell out of enemies in Call of Duty World at War.

For David’s birthday dinner we decided to go to Pampa’s, a fairly new Brazilian BBQ in Palo Alto. Tony had stopped in there for lunch one afternoon and highly recommended it.

We pretty much all opted for the unlimited side bar and meat and we were not disappointed. The food was pretty amazing, especially the different choices at the side bar. Some of my favourite items included the spicy pork loin, the bacon wrapped turkey and the banana vinaigrette which was over the top. I didn’t try any of the deserts but we got three for the table and everyone else tried them and said they were awesome too.

Dinner at Pampa's for David's 40th birthday.

Miles’ birthday at The Little Gym was a blast. Lots of kids of all ages, jumping, screeching, playing with a huge parachute and lots more. After the games we all had a bite to eat, including some amazing banana cupcakes. All the kids got a party bag, and I happened to be the only adult that got one too. All due to my love of Hello Kitty I am sure!!

Today I have been working at home listening to recordings of Social Club sets from the last few weeks or so. The one I liked the most has some great tracks and remixes, including Moto Blanco’s remix of ‘See You Again’ by Miley Cyrus, which I absolutely love. If you download it please let me know what you think.

I also went out and got a Christmas tree since it looks like we will be home for Christmas after all. Haven’t put it up yet as we have dinner plans tonight and I need to get ready. Another birthday celebration. this time Tony’s brother David.

Check out my download page for my latest set ‘Solstice‘.

Well 2008 is coming to a close very soon and I have been away from blogging for over a year. I thought it time to come back and let you all know what is happening with me musically and just in general in the mayhem that is my life.

Last night I took to the decks at Social Club once again. The past two weeks Lee Decker has been away and I have played all night, however, both weeks I was not 100% happy with my mixing. Last night, since Lee was back, I played the opening set from 9pm till midnight and I feel I played much better than the previous weeks.

The space was fairly quiet for the first hour, and it looked like it might remain that way throughout the night. With two other big events happening in the city, I was greatly surprized when at 10:30 the crowd suddenly swelled and Social Club once again became the place to be that Saturday night. Nothing gets me going behind the decks than a packed room and last night was no exception. I have been downloading and searching for music like crazy and so mixed some old classics with some great new tunes, including one of my current favourites ‘ Magic Touch’ by featuring the delectable Mary J Blige and ‘Up’ by The Saturdays (also see discussion board at DJ Luke Fry’s Facebook Page for more about this track).

The bar was jam packed and stayed that way all night. Lee came and took over at midnight and continued to pump the music into the space with some great music and mixing. Including the great classic Everyday by Kim English, bringing back great memories of Dan Murphy’s dance routine, especially no need to look behind me, (replace need with knee and the rest is obvious!)

Before Social Club I had attended Jason G and Ivan Cano’s holiday party at their apartment and around 11:30 some of the revelers from there came by, so when I finished we got to catch up about what had happened at the party after I had left. All in all it was a fabulous and fun evening and Social Club has really blossomed from it’s start in April this year and holds it’s own against other gay Saturday night events in San Francisco.

Today I am resting up, waiting for Tony to return from KFC, yum, and then this afternoon we are going to Tony’s nephew’s 2nd birthday party. Will have more on that later…

Today, Plus44Productions has set up a new blog to match the current site. By utilizing the WordPress platform, I will be able to communicate directly to the blog easily from anywhere using my Apple iPhone! Stay tuned for upcoming updates as we work through getting the rest of the site up and functioning!