Which Top Can Dipstick Pull Off?

Okay, Girls Dipstick needs your opinion. As you know, I'm getting ready to head to Cancun with the wonderful ladies of Olivia in just a few week. I'm still working on that bathing suit body, but what about the suit?

I've got plenty of board shorts, but what to wear on top? Can a handsome butch like Dipstick pull off a girly bathing suit top like the one on the left? Or should I stick to my standard sports bra type attire, like the one on the right?

Give your opinion in the comments section and add if you're butch, femme or neither. Thanks for helping me out!

Dipstick on The Olivia Cruise

Back in October, I got to go on an Olivia Cruise. Here's a little video of my experience.

Lipstick & Dipstick on Olivia
by CurveMagazine

Dipstick's Dipsomania

My GF subscribes to a "Word of the Day" feature on her Google homepage. She had to share today's word with me because it I seem to be struck with this condition lately:

Dipsomania: an insatiable periodic craving for alcohol
But I know I'm not the only one with cravings. I thought I'd make up a few words of my own:

Lipsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to go shopping

Tripsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to go on a a lesbian cruise

Slipsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to dress in lingerie

Ripsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to workout your abs

Hipsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to belly dance.

Happy Holidays Everyone from Lipstick & Dipstick

Dipstick Setting Sail

You might not be hearing from me for a while. That's because I'm about to get on a ship with 1,200 other lesbians and sail into the warm Caribbean. With sunny skies, warm beaches and tan lesbians, I don't think I'm going to want to log onto my computer.

This is my first Cruise ever and my first trip with Olivia, the lesbian vacation company that has been bringing women together for 20 years. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and blog about the trip when I get home.

Happy sailing!

Dipstick and Her Rugby Days

My friend Polly just posted this photo on Facebook (She's the gorgeous one at the top right.) and did it bring back memories! This is my old college rugby team.

I wasn't a great player. As a matter of fact, I broke my nose in my very first rugby game. I ran into a player from my own team. In my defense, though, I showed up for one practice and they put me in the game the very next day. I had no idea what I was doing!

As the years went on, I got better. Especially after they took me out of the scrum. What the hell was I doing in the scrum? Look at me, I must have been all of 120 pounds then! I did score once or twice, on the field. I think I even scored a time or two off.

One thing we always said about our team, "We may not win the game, but we always win the party." If you've ever been to a rugby party, then you know what I'm talking about.

Harvest Time Lessons

It's the end of summer and that means harvesting a lot of what we planted in the Spring.

I'm kind of a new gardner. I've had a lot of success with tomatoes, blue and raspberries, greens, squash and cucumbers. I was excited one day last Spring when my neighbor came over with some potato starts.

Since I had a lot of my garden planted already, I was trying to figure out where to put the potatoes. I had a good spot, with great, rich soil, but it was in the shade.

"Potatoes will grow in the shade. Don't worry about it!" My neighbor insisted. Since she grew up on a farm on the Idaho border, I believed her. I plopped them in the ground. Watered diligently, followed her very specific directions about "hilling" the potatoes.

As you can see, potatoes do "grow" in the shade, but they sure don't thrive there. My spuds were about the size of beans. Oh well, there's always next year...

Don't I Know You From Somewhere?

Well, Lipstick might be seeing celebrities all over Vancouver, but me, I'm being recognized as a celebrity.

It's been kind of a joke for me lately, that I've been recognized more and more as I travel in public. On my trip to Manchester, I was recognized twice. The first was when I boarded the plane in Portland. A very sweet girl from Salem asked me, "Don't you write for Curve magazine?" She was on her way to a domestic violence conference in the mid-west.

The second person was in Manchester at Pride. She kept looking at me and asking me if we knew each other. I had a suspicion that she probably recognized me from Curve, but I didn't let on at first. I let her ask me all the usual questions: "Where do you live?" "Have you ever worked for Delta?" (She was a flight attendant from Delta, hanging out at Pride on her layover.) Finally I asked her if she ever read Curve magazine. I told her I write for Curve and then it all clicked for her. We hung out the rest of the night drinking and checking out girls.

It's still fun and a novelty for me to get recognized in public. If you introduce yourself to me and ask to take a picture, I would gladly oblige. Once I was at a concert and saw someone secretly taking my picture with her cell phone. That creeped me out a little. Not sure if Ms. Beals felt the same way. Since I know how it feels --- obviously not on the same level -- I would always ask before taking someone's picture.

Please Do Not...

Tiger and I were on a camping trip last week. When you're camping and you have to go, you either do it in the woods or in a pit toilet. You get used to it.

Pit toilets are pretty nasty and they stink. Which is why I just can't understand why someone would spend the time to carve in one. What is even more baffling is that people carve out love messages. Really, is this the place you want your love memorialized? Crazy!

Dipstick's Day Off

I hope you all had an amazing 4th of July weekend. Here in Oregon it was hot and dry. Perfect weather for finding a cool swimming hole. This is how I spent my Sunday:

Kissing Tree

When I was in Syracuse last week, my sister and drove around town reminiscing about our days growing up. We went up to the university and found that the bar we used to hang out at is now a Thai restaurant, the ice cream place is now a bank but there's still three pizza places on the one block.

One place I really wanted to go, though, was up behind a dorm where I used to live. See, it's behind this dorm, under a tree, where I first kissed a girl. Lori was her name. She was a feminist, musician, activist who drove a motorcycle. I thought she was pretty darn cool. She had just returned from a month in the Soviet Union, where she was working on a documentary film. She's smuggled in a few bottles of vodka and we were celebrating her return with a bunch of friends.

Lori and I slipped away from the party made out until her roommate came looking for her. She wouldn't believe me when I said it was my first time kissing a girl. I guess I was a natural.

Anyway, all the dorms up there look alike, so I can't be sure, but I think this is the tree where I had my very first girl kiss.

Dipstick Hits the Slopes

Yesterday I went skiing for the first time since high school. Lipstick quipped yesterday about me being in urgent care and I have to admit, the thought did cross my mind a few times, especially walking around Whistler Village and seeing people hobbling along on crutches or with their arms in slings. It HAD been a long time since I strapped on skis.

But with only a tiny bit of trepidation, I met up with Ken, my ski instructor for the day. He came highly recommended, and so I knew I was in good hands. After a quick review of the snow plow and a few turning tips on turning, we were off! I was amazed at how quickly it all came back to me. And at how much fun it was. To be out on the mountain, on a beautiful day, zipping down the slopes. Okay, maybe zipping is a bit of an exaggeration, but I was pretty pleased that I didn't fall once.

That is until the end of the day, on my last run, where I fell twice. Either I got too cocky, or I was just tired. Either way, I didn't end up in urgent care and the whole day was a blast. Especially riding up to the top of the mountain and seeing where the Olympic runs will happen in 2010.

Today Lipstick and I are going to cram into the new Peak to Peak gondola with a bunch of drag queens and Mr. Gay World contestants. That should be a lot of fun! And later, I understand there's a lesbian couple who needs some relationship advice from Lipstick & Dipstick. Stay tuned....

In Case You Missed It: Dipstick & Lipstick on the Air

Lipstick and I were recently on our favorite public radio station KBOO in Portland. We spent about ten minutes talking on the Out Loud show with host Carla. Lipstick was out of town, so had to phone in, while Carla kept distracting me by taking my photo with her phone while interviewing me. In case you missed the show, you can listen here.

Also, Dipstick was recently a guest on Sisters Talk Internet Radio. Dipstick hung out for about 45 minutes with the charming host Genia Stevens. We chatted about all kinds of things: politics, Obama, lesbian sex, diversity in the LGBT community, and my work on About.com.

Lipstick & Dipstick on the Air

Lipstick & Dipstick return to the airwaves and will appear again on the Out Loud show on KBOO in Portland on Tuesday January 13th.  If you live in Portland, tune into FM 90.7 from 6-7pm. We'll be talking about our upcoming gig hosting The L Word 6th Season Premier at the Bagdad Theatre. If you don't live in Portland, don't worry, the show will be available to download. 

Also, this Sunday 1/11/09 Dipstick will appear on Sisters Talk radio. You can listen in live on your computer at 3pm (PST)  and even call in to talk to me. Come hang out! It will be a blast. 

Christmas with the Dipsticks

Well, I didn't make a fancy video, but the Dipstick clan had an amazing Christmas too. My twin sister Mary and her girlfriend Meg came into town on Christmas Eve in what Tiger calls "The Christmas Miracle" because the weather was so bad and the airport was closed for days.We had a great dinner with Tiger's brother and sister-in-law and then opened presents from her Mom, which was the Tiger family tradition.

Christmas day we relaxed, spent hours on the phone with family and far away friends and then had 17 lesbians, two gay men and one bisexual for the annual Dipstick & Tiger Christmas dinner/white elephant gift exchange.  

We had to borrow tables, chairs and plates from neighbors to fit everyone around the table. The ham was good,  and we also had Christmas crackers, but the highlight was the yankee swap gift exchange. 

If you don't know what a yankee swap is, it's where people go through their closets and find the craziest, crappiest stuff that they can't stand to look at, wrap it all nice and then you and your friends fight over it.

The hit of yankee swap this year was the "Rejuvenique" mask, which is supposed to make you look 20 again. I tried to win it, but of course the fags won out. To console myself, I found this video on youtube.

Hanging Christmas Lights

The sun was out on Saturday, so Tiger and I decided to hang up our Christmas lights. After pulling all the lights out of the basement I discovered that almost every string was bad. So, it was off to Fred Meyer to buy new lights. 

We borrowed the tall ladder from the neighbor and Tiger climbed up on the roof...

What's that? Tiger on the roof? Shouldn't that be your job, Dipstick? Isn't the butch supposed to be the one climbing up on things and wielding the staple gun? 

How sexist of you to think such a thing! Besides, the one year Tiger let me up on the roof to hang the lights, well, let's just say, they didn't turn out exactly straight. Or even. White strings didn't end at exactly the end of the rafters. Blue strings didn't quite make it all the way around the window. Extension cords dangled in the wind. 

Quite frankly it looked shabby. And the neighbors still remind us of the year Dipstick hung the Christmas lights. Or as they like to say, "It looked like a drunken, color-blind five-year-old climbed up there, and then got lost."

So, now, every December, I lovingly hold the bottom of the ladder while Tiger climbs on the roof and painstakingly lines our home with white and blue lights. 

Because, as you can see, I can't even take a straight photo.

Mi clase de español

I've been taking a Spanish Class, sort of a review of everything I learned in high school and college. Last night we learned how to say Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year. Of course, most of us already knew how to say this from the song of the same name.

Our teacher wanted to record us to show how natural we all sound. Coincidentally, I had my camera in my bag.

Silly Video of My Dog

It's Sunday, so I thought I'd post a silly video of my dog Rocky. We got sick of feeding him, so we taught him to forage for his own food.

More Fun with Alison Bechdel

After meeting Alison Bechdel on Saturday, my friend Elizabeth thought it would be fun to do a little interview us on Sunday. Here she is asking us "What inspires you?"

Wordstock is Wonderful!

I met my friend Elizabeth down at Portland’s homage to books known as Wordstock. It’s a huge two day affair at the convention center. We were all excited to see Alison Bechdel --the most amazing creator of Dykes to Watch Out For and author of the exquisite graphic memoir Fun Home. She was speaking on a panel about comics and politics.

I’ve been a huge fan of Alison’s since I was a baby dyke in college.

Alison was great on the panel, when she could get a word in. The two men on stage with her kind of took over. After it was over Elizabeth wanted to go up and say hello. “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m not good at these things.”

Just then Alison walked by us and Elizabeth stuck out her hand and started to tell her how much she enjoyed her work. Alison said thanks, then looked at me and said, “Don’t I know you?” I stuck my hand out, “Kathy Belge,” I said. “Dipstick!” she exclaimed. “I love your column.”

Can a cooler thing than that happen to me, ever? I don’t think so.

This is what 50 looks like

I’m back from my trip to Massachusetts. The highlight of the trip was surprising my brother by showing up at his 50th birthday party.

I’ve always been close to my brother and now, more than ever he’s an inspiration to me. As I get closer to 50 myself, through him I see the possibilities. The guy has run nine marathons, the last one just a few weeks ago. He’s starting a new job and coaching his daughter’s soccer team.

And he still has his handsome good looks. Every time I’m out with him, gay men try to pick him up. It’s quite amusing because he doesn’t seem to notice. I hope lesbians are still hitting on me when I’m 50. Or even gay men. That would really be good for my ego.