Thank you! One step forward with civil unions

I wanted to jump, scream and shout all at once.

But I couldn't. No one could. To the legislators voting for or against a step towards equality it was business. There was another bill to vote on right after. So the Speaker of the House politely asked everyone in the chamber to be quiet.

All of the emotion hit me as I walked back to work. This is not marriage. It was still a step for us, a pretty big step. And walking out of a building where one year ago I cried as bigotry won out once again, I cried as I thought of the love of my life and the fact that a civil union would do just fine for now. For now.

And bigotry lost today. It lost big time. I don't think for a second that there are not still bigots out there. I just think that the tide is turning.

The purpose of this blog post is to thank all of you who voiced your opinion during this many year process. Thank you for taking the time to speak out for Mike and I and the thousands of other gay and lesbian couples in Colorado. Thanks for the call and thanks for the email. Thanks for proving my point that in the end, love will always prevail over hate.

I have heard a lot of bs over the years in regards to anything around equality for gay people. This year during the debate for civil unions was not different. It's hard to take anyone seriously, let alone religious extremists, who slam a bill for not having religious exemptions when the same bill they slammed last year did have exemptions. Blows my mind. And they have the frickin' nerve to talk about freedom!

If you have read my blog or know anything about me you know that for me this is just a step. I want nothing short of full marriage equality. I'm not going to stop until that day. I hope all of you will continue this journey with Mike and I, as your support means so much.

We are so incredibly grateful for all of you. We totally are.

The Governor will sign this bill later in the week. On May 1st civil unions will begin. The day before that is our 8th wedding anniversary so it looks like that weekend will be busy for us!

Sending love to all of you.

Thank you for reading!

Running for a cause

I'm not a runner.

I haven't run any kind of distance distance since 2000 and that was a 5K, I think.

I love riding my bike and swimming, and working out.

Not running.

So when co-workers of mine began to talk about running all or a portion of the Colfax Marathon coming up in Denver on May 19th, I kept thing "well good for you".

The fundraiser in me thought that this would be a good chance to tell all of my friends about my new agency, new job, and the mission I now fundraise for: youth experiencing homelessness.

I signed up to run the half marathon.

I know! It's crazy!

What we do for our causes: for the animals, for human rights, for those who suffer.

So on May 19th at 7am MST I will begin the longest run of my life. I am doing it because no matter how tough it is for me, it doesn't even come close to what young people have to go through just to get to our agency. Not even close.

Here's me after my first training run explaining a little more. Warning, I'm not looking pretty!

http://youtu.be/19MNwhRWagA

This is a chance for me to raise money, to show what a 47 year old vegan can do physically and to work on a goal with my husband. Yep, Mike is doing it too.

I am super excited and a little scared. I am powered by love from friends and family, by the mission of the agency I am fundraising for (Urban Peak) and by a good amount of vegan friends who have become athletes for a cause.

If you'd like to support my fundraising efforts and youth experiencing homelessness, you can donate here: https://www.coloradogives.org/danrunsforurbanpeak

As of the writing of this blog I am at 33% of my running goal and 17% of my fundraising goal.

Imagine what we can all do for our causes!!!

Thank you for reading. I will keep you posted!

Dan

PS...Mike just reminded me that he is part of this blog too and therefore I should publish his fundraising page! Here it is: https://www.coloradogives.org/stringmanmike

Tell them what you think!

Our first ever giveaway is going well, with many of our readers and new readers finding out who represents them in their state legislature/house so they can enter our contest. That's all we have asked to enter: tell us who your state representative is. Or in Canada, who represents you in your providence's capitol.

It is easy to find out who this person. The reality though is that I would say 95% of the population does not know who represents them at the state level.

That number has decreased  a little since our giveaway began thank goodness.

Our state representatives hold  a lot of power. They need to hear from us. Seriously. As we read comments, posts and emails from people entering our giveaway, it is clear that when people find out who their state rep is not all of them are happy. We have gotten a lot of "ughs", "oh no's" and "I don't like this guy/gal".

As I have written many times, we have power. We are the voice for the voiceless. In some way I feel it is our duty to let our state representatives know what we think.

An example of this is the recent civil unions debate here in Colorado. This is not the first time our state house and state senate have debated civil unions. It will hopefully be the last as the votes are there in the state house to pass it this year. During a committee debate, a woman who represents a district just south of us gave the same bs statement that we have heard so many times as to why civil unions should not be passed.

Who elected this woman? Do people who live in her district even have any idea who she is?

The sad answer is no.

We are hoping to change this.

Tell your state representative what you think. It takes a minute or two just to send an email. Or a quick call. "Sir, I believe in felony animal cruelty laws". "Ma'am, I believe in equal rights for gay and lesbian people". 

I will continue writing about this as long as I have a blog. It is that important to me.

Thank you for being a voice for the voiceless. Thank you for supporting our blog. And thank you for entering our giveaway!

PS... If you have not entered the giveaway you can do so until noon MST on March 15th!

Our first giveaway! Make soymilk (nutmilk) and tofu at home!

Back in November I was at the Southern Plains Land Trust annual fundraiser emceeing the event and had time to do some shopping at their silent auction (a little too much shopping some might say). I kept bidding on the Soyajoy G3 Soymilk Maker and by the end of the night it was mine. The folks who make it had generously donated it to SPLT for the auction and I thought it would make a great Christmas gift for Mike.

Score! Mike loves it. And we soon purchased the tofu maker so that we (Mike) can now make fresh soymilk AND fresh tofu at any time. We can also make hemp milk, almond milk, macadamia nut milk, etc. You get the idea. I wanted to bring that up for those of you who do not consume soy. The maker is versatile and has totally changed our lives. Fresh, home made tofu tastes so much better and we keep thinking of all of the packaging from tofu and soymilk containers that we no longer use!

If, like me (Dan) you might be thinking that you would not be able to make your own soymilk or tofu even with this machine, don't worry at all! It is super easy and you will love it!

Because of how much we LOVE this product, and because we have never done a giveaway on our blog, we thought this would be the perfect fit.

The better news is now there is a Soyajoy G4 Soymilk Maker and this is what the winner will receive.  And don't worry, we wouldn't give away a soymilk maker without giving you something to use it with. So we asked our friends at Laura Soy Beans to offer a 20-pound bag of non-GMO soy beans and they immediately said yes! The folks at Laura Soy Beans have been amazingly friendly and kind to us as we began the adventure of making our own soy milk. http://laurasoybeans.com/

The giveaway also includes the added tofu maker, which we love.

No need to go to any website or sign up anywhere. To be included in the drawing all we ask is that you send us the name of your state representative. That is the person who represents you in the state capitol where you live. This will not surprise our regular readers as we write often about engaging these very same people. If you do not know who represents you in your state capitol please click here and you can find out: http://votesmart.org/ Depending on where you live, you might need to enter your nine-digit zip code to get the list of who represents you. We ask for the name of this person not so we can contact them but so you will know who they are! NOTE: In Canada it would be your MLA, Member of the Legislative Assembly.

Remember, it's your state representative we're looking for. We will check the names we draw to make sure the person you sent us is correct. And of course if you need help searching we will help.

We are also giving away four copies of the cookbook that changed my feelings on baking and one I use all the time, "The Joy of Vegan Baking" by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.

Are you ready? Please send the name of your state representative via Twitter, our Facebook page, as a comment here or emailed to vegandude@msn.com

We will take entries trough Friday, March 15th at noon Mountain Standard Time.

Thanks for reading!