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last updated 01/31/2003

I set my alarm for 5am so that I could get up and submit some jobs for work and work from home today. I've been trying to log in for over an hour, but cannot connect. Very frustrating. If I don't connect soon, I'm going to end up going into the office. Maybe I'll go to the office, submit the jobs, then come back home. I was SO looking forward to skipping the office today!

01/30/03: Thursday, 10am - Yesterday I stayed pretty busy with work and some IBR items. I did go to the Castro for an hour to do some BITC stuff. I'll be SO glad when that is done. I think we're almost there. Had a glitch in arranging a park ranger tour guide for Alcatraz, but I think we'll be ok. Gotta talk to him today and nail it down. Got an email from Mark letting me know to do a coupon for bingo. I hadn't thought about that task. Got it done pretty quickly this morning, however.

Had our group meeting at 2pm yesterday. Bala and Milind did some presentation that lasted about 40 minutes. We only had time to go over 4 of the "teammate interviews." My interviewee had been Bala, so I volunteered to do mine. At least I got that over with. It'll be interesting to see how Rajit talks about me whenever he does his.

After yesterday's meeting, I took the 'N' to Caltrain Station. I got my ticket and ran to the door. I was the last one to board the 3:30pm train. Steve picked me up at Belmont. We got to Steve's and tried to take a short nap. We didn't sleep, but just rested and talked. He was infatuated with a guy he IM'd the previous night named Christopher. I have an acquaintance named Christopher whom I had seen twice earlier in the day in the Castro. I had not seen him for months, but at least I remembered his name and said hello. Steve showed me the pic of his Christopher. Turns out to be the same guy. Coincidence? Waking Dream? He's cute. Let 'em shag. :-)

After dinner, we went down to Palo Alto for the ECR square dance class night. The class is a month or so ahead of us, so I was there to just watch. They have a great group and some cuties. Their class is so much better than ours. No whining, and they quickly learned new things. Matt, the "archangel" for our group was there. He was one of the worst dancers there. Kinda sets the precedent for my class. Oh well, I'll get done with my class then move on to another club.

Got up at 6am, showered, dressed, and in the car by 6:15am. Steve dropped me off to catch the 6:30am train. Even though it was an "express," I got into work at 7:45am. I hate that extra hour commute, and would not be happy living outside of the City. No news there, just some reinforcement that the City is for me.

01/29/03: Wednesday, 9am - I bothered to take a look at my site statistics yesterday. Adding this Blog has really increased traffic. In December I had 2498 hits. In January, it's more than doubled to over 5200 hits so far. Thanks for taking the time to visit! Are you really that bored?

I spoke with Mike from Judge Judy in the morning. He explained how the process works. I can either file a small claims case now against Dennis, or have them contact him first before I submit the claim. I opted to have them contact him. If he agrees, then they'll fly us down to L.A., pay for the hotel, food, and give us $100 appearance fee. Additionally, they pay for any settlement. I emailed Dennis to tip him off that they'd be contacting him. He may as well let them pay for it, right? Pretty stupid not to do that. But then again, it's Dennis.

Busy again with work yesterday. This project made it easy to be brief during my much-dreaded bi-weekly meeting with my boss. "All other projects are on hold." Simple! Did stay busy with the project for most of the day.

Woofy Larry from Boston clued me in that my homepage was not viewable using a Mozilla browser. I downloaded Mozilla at work to try to determine the problem. No luck here. I did the same at home and wound up finding a really stupid error in basic tag. Got it fixed. Thanks, Larry, for clueing me in! (Well at least about this. I still can be quite clueless otherwise.) I apologize to any Mozilla users who had problems with my site. I think the error probably started occuring at the beginning of January. At least now I know to test my stuff on Mozilla in addition to IE and Netscape.

I took a walk at lunch yesterday up through Yerba Buena Gardens and back. I noticed that the Rigo mural of "Sky" has been partially covered with paint (or something). Grrrrrr. The new building next to it will cover it anyhow, but it would've been interested if the new building comes down in a century to find the old mural there.

On my way home yesterday, a disabled woman in her 30's with a cane tripped and fell really hard right in front of me at the corner of Main & Mission. I stopped to help her, but was pretty much at a loss for words. She was just moaning a bit, and she had a speech impediment to boot. I just held her for a bit, and thankfully another woman stopped to help. A third stopped, and the fallen woman decided she could get up. We tried pulling her up, but no luck. She wanted pushed from the back. She was just dead weight. I finally got her up and propped up on her cane. I was pretty much jolted. On my way to the Muni some man thanked me for helping that woman and commented on how heavy dead weight is. No kidding. I noticed neuropathy pains in my hands immediately afterwards. The neuropathy had been better all week. I was hoping it had subsided. I still need to go get the splints the doctor prescribed.

Didn't do much last night. Debugged my page for Mozilla as mentioned and played the piano for a bit. Chatted with Steve on the phone prior to the President's speech. I avoided watching it. He really bothers me.

I got up around 5am this morning. I signed into work and kicked off a few of the jobs for the new project, just to see if they'd run. Eric had told me that wouldn't run until 7am at the earliest. Well, they did run, so I was able to get the first set of jobs executed rather early. I'm still waiting on one job that Eric needs to submit. He had problems with getting it started this morning, so I'll just have to wait.

I'm gonna run some BITC errands later this morning and then back to work for that damned 2pm group meeting. It should be ok, I just don't like any meetings involving my current boss.

01/28/03: Tuesday, 8am - Monday was busy with work. It was actually kinda nice for a change. I even worked through lunch. I wasn't even hungry. God, I need several more days of non-hunger. (Ok, weeks. Alright, months, dammit.)

After work I met Bill at Peet's at 4:30pm. He was interesting to chat with, although I lagged on the conversation at the end. I took him back to the mansion "for a tour." Wow. Lots of fun. Quite the kisser. He definitely knows what to do with that mouth. Having a nice, thick moustache helped, too. ;-)

During Bill's "tour," I got a phone call from one of the producers at Judge Judy. I guess they are still interested in my case. I told him I'd give him a call today. Hopefully I can get this taken care of soon!

Skipped dinner (unless you count Bill) and went to square dance class. The review was pretty good, going over most calls up until about 3-4 weeks ago. We reviewed lots of calls throughout the evening. We learned Zoom, Double Pass Through, Flutterwheel, and Sweep a Quarter. At one point, I screwed up and did a "patner trade" instead of a "couples trade," and Mario yelled over "Gary, don't let go of that hand" quite loudly. Well, that worked for me, and surely I'll remember that call better in the future. Mario is a doll. He seemed a bit short with some of the bad dancers. He apologized later for "yelling" at me, which had been no problem. He just saw a poorer dancer was following my lead. Joseph was messing up last night, and Merle was a REAL problem. I guess that he had started another class, quit, then joined up with our class about a few weeks ago. Dumb John didn't show up. Maybe he's quit. That would be too sweet. Last week was a holiday, so I'm sure he won't remember anything if he returns. Grrrrr. He was probably just sick, since this seems to be the time. Regular angels, Joe (woof), Rick, and Steve and some others weren't there either. Most of the night we didn't have enough people for two squares. We kept having to "tag in." The lesbian couple was there, but Alana seemed frustrated as usual. She never seems to be having fun. They left early. Maybe they'll quit! I'm certainly not fond of this club! I'll be happy to graduate and move on to another club. I'm going down to watch Steve dance with the ECR club on Wednesday night. I'll be joining the club sometime before the July convention. May as well make my face visible.

Got an email overnight from Larry in Boston. I met him last year at the IBR Online Party. Then he sat with us during Bingo. I managed to hook up with him on that last Monday night. I think he's adorable, with that salt/pepper hair and twinkly eyes. :-) He's looking to "bump" into me again at IBR. Yeah, buddy! Hopefully my extra pounds this year won't be a problem for him. He was very cuddly. He was the next-to-last guy to top me. The most recent experience was during the summer with Dr. Dan from Chicago, and that wasn't a good time. (Although previous encounters with him had been fine.)

I got up early and submitted some job for work. I got into work shortly after 7am. This new project has me energized.

01/27/03: Monday, 11am - I was still feeling really fatigued yesterday morning. I even skipped church. I did venture out to Starbucks and saw DAYvid and Rick Perna. Rick mentioned that I looked like shit. Pretty much how I felt.

I made it to the Lone Star right before 4pm. It was already packed with guys watching the Super Bowl. I ventured out to the patio, where there was breathing room. About 4:15, Darwin had me start doing raffle sales. I did that for nearly an hour. On my way back in to turn in the tickets and money, I ran into Steve. I made out with him for a bit. It's great to have a lover who still "does" that to you. I sold him some tickets, then turned in my sales. The girl at the table grabbed some of the money to "unfold" (it had all been wadded up in my pocket), and I unfolded the rest. The amount I counted was $130, and I'm not sure how much she had. Pretty damned good sales, if I do say so myself!

After that hour, I finally got a drink. I was thirsty! I met some guys who knew Steve, and they told him how nice it is to live in the City. He'll be convinced one day. ;-)

I ended up drinking a few beers too many. Plus, Mark bought me a shot, so I was feeling no pain. Twice I intended to get club soda but wound up with a beer in my hand. Whoops. I met my hot Pottery Barn neighbor. His name is Frank. I mentioned about our innocent "stalking" him last week, which he apparently had off. I don't remember much about that conversation except that he does have a bf. Sorry, Dave, he's taken! Hope I wasn't too obnoxious.

We got home and Steve wanted to go out to Escape from NY for pizza. I grabbed a handy buy-a-slice-get-one-free coupon, and we headed there. It ended up giving Steve bad acid reflux. He was awake at 5am, coughing and moaning from the pain. Poor guy. Nothing I can do for him. We decided that we need to start eating breakfast before church on Sunday and then eat lunch/dinner right before going to beerbust. That'll be better for Steve's reflux and my weight.

Eric surprised me by being at work today. He was going to telecommute, but was told he needed to be here for a meeting today. Grrrrr. I worked with him to copy over all his jobs to execute the daily reports for my new project. We submitted a couple SAR report requests, which was new to me. So far, working with Eric has been good, and I'm already learning some stuff.

I'm supposed to have a "coffee date" this afternoon with someone who is in town from Oregon. He has a partner, and they've just recently decided to have an open relationship. He seemed a bit nervous about it. Guess we'll see if he shows up today or not. ** WOW ** He just called at this moment to confirm. Great!

I have square dance class tonight. We skipped last week due to the holiday. I'm guessing that several of my classmates have forgotten EVERYTHING they've learned up until now. Grrrrrr. Oh well, the class is good for developing my patience. Other than a few frustrating classmates (and angels), the hardest thing about class is figuring out which t-shirt to wear. They all expect something new and funny each week. My memory is bad, so it's hard to remember what I've already worn! I've been wanting to get a specific shirt for square dancing, but I can't find it. It's mentioned in Tales of the City, but maybe no one makes them any more. It's "Dance 10 Looks 3." (The song from A Chorus Line.) Oh well, I only have 100+ other t-shirts to choose from.

01/26/03: Sunday - ** NO ENTRY FOR SUNDAY **

01/25/03: Saturday, 7:30pm - Man, felt like crap today. Just stayed in all day except to go get a lottery ticket. I'll win tonight, right?

My dental cleaning went well yesterday afternoon. My gums only bled in one area, so that was good news. I've got one area up front that may need some work, but all else was good. The hygienist was really good and used newer equipment for cleaning than I've had previously. I really like this dental office. It's Dr. Michael Perona, in case you're in need of a good dentist.

Got home and felt worn out. I went out to The Edge for about 45 minutes and drank one beer. It was good to see the guys, but I was beat. Came home and watched TV.

Today it was mostly just TV. I saw the 2nd half of Beaches and I watched The Wedding Singer. I had never seen the Wedding Singer, as I generally dislike anything with Adam Sandler. I do like Drew Barrymore, though, and I enjoyed the movie. Mostly because it had tons of 80's music. I've got to get the soundtrack on CD.

Just staying in tonight. Steve's away, but I'm just not feeling well. I'll just save it for tomorrow's beer bust.

01/24/03: Friday, 12:30pm - My visit to the oral surgeon yesterday was uneventful. I took the Schwuttle over to 101 Montgomery and then walked up to Post & Mason. I got there about 30 minutes early, so I stopped at Cafe Metro nextdoor. I got a latte and sat at a table on the sidewalk and watched folks go by...

I got home and there was a message from someone from the Judge Joe Brown show. They are interested in doing my case. Haven't heard any more from the folks at Judge Judy. I'll follow up with both shows on Monday.

Steve arrived shortly after I got home. We played Scrabble then went to Don Ramon's for dinner. That was my first time there. Very loud, but the food was good. I got some info on reserving it for BOSF dinner night in March. Very bizarre the way they do it. Groups of more than 20 people have a set menu of a choice of 3 items. They need an exact headcount and charge $15 for anyone who doesn't show up. Not sure to proceed with that, make reservations for two groups of 20, or what. I'll discuss with Drew and Mark for their input.

After dinner we went to the Lone Star for the IBR planning meeting. It was very hot upstairs, and I was getting cranky. I disagreed with the concept of allowing videotaping during the contest. Scott (Tish) pointed out that the "allow for photography" section of the contestant application includes videotaping. Last year they didn't allow "tripod" videotaping because one contestant objected. I have a very firm opinion that if you're going to be in the contest, then you have no right to object to having the contest videotaped. We have enough willing contestants who are turned away. There is no place for some closet case to compete to represent the bear community. You can stay in the damned closet if you want, but don't you dare claim to represent me.

We stuck around for one beer after the meeting. I was tired, hot, and I wanted to go home. Steve wanted to mingle, which is fine. I spoke with Ken for awhile. I had asked him about the sexy guy he was chatting with on Sunday. Turns out to be his best friend Robert. I couldn't recall from where I knew him. We figured out that he and Rhoda had dated briefly, and that I had met him at a Karaoke night at The Mint about a year ago. He is quite the hotty. Black hair. Go figure!

Got home around 10pm. Played one game of Scrabble, watched Seinfeld, then answered some email from Mark clarifying some items for Alcatraz. I think I've got this event fairly well nailed, and it's been frustrating when I haven't been able to convey that so clearly. Darwin came up with some good ideas for the bus and audio tour thing tonight, so that I certainly appreciated that input. Still, this can be damned frustrating. IBR is going to be a make or break whether I'll decide to run again for the BOSF board. I don't mind the work, but the frustration factor sucks.

Dawdled at home before getting to work this morning. Had to say goodbye to Double-O-Steven. He was leaving for Shell Beach this morning for a weekend Eckenkar retreat. Yesterday was the first day to see him since Monday. I won't see him again until Sunday evening. Time apart can be a good thing, but I still miss my daddyboy when he's not around.

I sat with Eric this morning to review the project he's turning over to me. It's quite involved. He mostly has it done, but a few more things need to be nailed down. Fortunately, it's mostly written in Easytrieve, which is my best skill. (At work, anyhow. Off work, be sure to ask me to present an "oral report.")

I've got a dentist appointment at 2pm today. Not sure what I'm doing tonight. I don't think I'm up for happy hour. I've gotta do lots of BITC stuff on Saturday. GOT TO. A MUST. On Sunday, I was toying with the idea of skipping church and going to Alcatraz by myself and do the audio tour to get an idea of the timing for IBR. In the afternoon, I've agreed to help Darwin with his beerbust.

01/23/03: Thursday, 2pm - So much for getting into work around 7am again. More of a 9:30am thing today. Variety is the spice of life...

Yesterday before lunch I took a great walk. I went over to the ugly arrow (featured in Zippy yesterday!) and then up through Justin Herman Plaza. I continued past the plaza to Washington Street, and then up to Battery. I had never walked that stretch of Washington before. Always fun to see new things.

In the afternoon, I left shortly after 1pm to head to the Chronicle at 5th & Mission to have my pic taken at 2pm. I arrived well before the 2pm time, so I continue on Mission Street to 6th Street to walk around the block. I forgot how nasty 6th Street can be. Lots of SRO hotels and homeless. Still, it was nice to get in all the walking, even amid the rain.

After having my pic taken, I figured it was closer to walk to the Lone Star than back to work, so I headed there. I ventured along some side streets which were new to me. Another "I love my City" moment. ;-) It was Wednesday, so Danny was showing movies. I caught the last 30 minutes or so of "The Bourne Identity." Seemed interesting, but didn't make much sense not seeing the first part. After that, he showed episode 1 of the second season of "Oz." I had never seen any episodes from that show. Very interesting. A bit violent for my taste, but interesting enough for me to watch more episodes. Seasons 1 & 2 are out on DVD, so I may have to get them once I have my funds under control.

Mostly regulars at the Lone Star and mostly playing pool....Finton, Ray, Kevin, Chris, Timber, etc. It always makes my day to catch site of Finton. ** sigh ** I ended up having a great time. Not sure if I've ever spent much time talking to Chris before. I always see him playing on the pool league, so it was good to chat some. Greg & Jeff showed up in time to watch South Park. I left after that. Over 5 hours at the LS on a Wednesday. Egad. I was feeling good, but not sloshed. I tried to pace myself. Took muni home and watched "American Idol" for the 2nd day in a row. C'mon, Simon, I'm still waiting for your email and self-pix!

Today I had lunch with David. I had wanted to introduce him to my cute neighbor who works at Pottery Barn, but that guy wasn't working today. We ended up eating at some crepe place at Embarcadero 4. Both of our crepes were very bland. I'll skip that place in the future. I walked David back up to his office, which is across from the Transamerica Pyramid. The #1 bus stops right there, so I just caught that for a ride all the way back to my office at Howard & Main.

I got back to work and there was a message from my manager. I'm taking over some project from a co-worker who needs to work on a more urgent issue. This new project has an upcoming deadline, so it might be nice to work under pressure for a bit. It's also nice to be told to put my other projects on hold. :-) These excuses really fall into place well! Eric will review the project with me tomorrow, so we'll see how involved it is. Hopefully something that can give me look good for a change.

I worked on some Alcatraz/Pier 39 logistics this morning. I had received what I thought was a backhanded email about it. Tactful, not snippy, but it still got under my skin. It got me to nail down some items, so I think that is on track just fine.

Got a follow-up visit with my oral surgeon later today. Hopefully that will be a quick one. Steve is coming up this afternoon. We've got a damned IBR meeting tonight. Hopefully it'll go well. Still behind on BITC. Remind me not to work on that next year!

01/22/03: Wednesday, 9:30am - I stayed at work to nearly 4pm yesterday. Wow, I haven't done that in awhile. New work ethic? Naw, just busy working on assembling the sing-a-long notebooks. I had purchased 4 notebooks and 200 3-holed sheet holders. I used up all 200 sheets by the end of the day, and I probably didn't even finish up with half of the music. On top of that, I went home and found about a dozen more books from which to copy some songs. At least my work hours will be kept busy!

I neglected to mention that I almost cried yesterday when I read in the paper about the tax breaks Bush is giving for businesses to own huge SUV's and Hummers. This planet is never gonna survive.

Didn't do much again last night. I won an ebay auction for a Lone Star Steak House sweatshirt. With shipping, the total price was $8.51. Can't beat that! I can't wear t-shirts to work, but sweatshirts are allowed. Sure beats dressing up.

I walked to the Castro to get some cough drops and some groceries. Bumped into Daniel the Eckist, aka Big Dan. Out of work and broke. Times are rough. Makes me more grateful for what I have. Stopped at Cala on the way back and bought a lot of frozen dinners that were on sale. If I'm gonna binge, at least it's less guilty when it's a Weight Watchers meal. :-)

Got home and played on the computer and watched TV. American Idol debuted and really has me hooked again. I just KNOW that Simon wants to be my love slave. I don't why he never writes me. Simon, I know you're reading this, so just email me already! Black hair and a furry chest and arms. ** sigh **

Got up again at 6am and into work just after 7am. This is getting scary! Of course, I'm gonna get out of here around 1:30pm today, so I guess that cancels it out. I've had my share of 16-hour days in the past, believe me. I'm just stuck in a non-motivating job that allows plenty of time for being a slackard. May as well take advantage of it for now.

Coming in early has its advantages. Dawn is my favorite time to be out and about, as long as I'm not driving. I came up the Muni escalator to be greeted by the lit up Clock Tower of the Ferry Building. Quite a site in the mid-darkness. I love my City.

Sunday was quite brisk outside, in the mid-40's. I rarely complain about the cold, but I did on Sunday. My father emailed me this morning letting me know it's been around zero degrees all week at his place in Upstate New York. Sure puts perspective on things.

01/21/03: Tuesday, noon - Yesterday afternoon/evening I just ended up staying inside and watching TV and resting. Nothing exciting at all.

I got up at 6am this morning and got into work just after 7am. Back to my "usual" early start. The cold is slowly going away, although some deep coughs and sinus headache and sniffles remain. The contact seems to help.

Got to work and photocopied some more songs for my sing-a-longs. It's going to be great to have copies of the music so that everyone doesn't have to bend over my shoulder to see. Assembling the notebooks of music is going to be quite the chore, but it'll be worth it. And I saw some notebooks at Staples that just happen to match my microwave....

I left for the doctor around 9am. It turns out that I hadn't been to the doctor since July. I hadn't realized it had been so long! Whoops! He quickly pointed out that I gained 30 pounds since then. Duh. We reviewed my bloodwork from January 9th. My viral load was still very low at 2800. Last time it was 1700 (which was the first time it had been detectable.) My cd4 count dropped from 638 last time (an all-time high) to 316. He thinks I may need to go back on meds. I'd like to do bloodwork again in a couple months before deciding. Being off meds has been great.

My cholesterol was 183. I couldn't believe it. Getting so fat, I'd thought that would really be elevated. The "bad" cholesterol was 99. Over 130 is bad, so I'm doing ok there. The Glucose showed 96. Not sure exactly what is "good," but the doctor said that pretty much showed that I did NOT have diabetes. He thinks the tingling in my hands is carpel tunnel or else neuropathy from HIV disease. Neuropathy is usually associated with the toxins from HIV meds, but the doctor said the disease itself can bring it on. He gave me a prescription for wrist splints, and he ordered a bunch more tests. I did the bloodwork immediately after (well, after waiting more than 30 minutes at the lab...GRRRR). I go back to the doctor in 2 weeks to go over the results. Again, wait and see.

My boss is out of work all week. Woohoo!

01/20/03: Monday, 1:30pm - Still recovering from a cold today, but it seems to be getting better.

I had a major coughing fit during church yesterday. At least I timed it to coincide during some congregational song. Barry was sitting next to me, and I felt bad about holding his hand during prayer. Hopefully I didn't pass along the germs to him.

After church, we went to Cala and picked up some sandwiches for lunch. We played Scrabble and ate. Then Steve napped and I went ahead to the Lone Star to help set up for beer bust. Because I was sick, the other board members weren't really expecting me to show up, but were grateful. I didn't do much, though. Sat at the table for maybe 30 minutes and brought some newsletters and IBR posters.

The beer bust was a really good one. The first hour is generally slow, but it was a pretty good pace, with an exceptionally high percentage of cute men. I just mostly drank and watched. I talked with Billy, who had moved here a couple months ago from Kansas City. He had emailed previously, thinking we had met. His email mentioned something about him pissing into my mouth in the bathroom. Obviously it was the wrong guy, since I'm not into that. Turns out it was leatherdaddy Tony. Somehow a drunk Billy had thought that Tony was Mr. Lone Star. Whatever. Glad to clear that up.

Steve won a raffle prize of some Fran Frisch work, which he gave to me since I have another one.

Got home and played Scrabble. After the beer bust, keeping score was difficult. Double-O-Steven had to do it. I still kicked his butt.

Slept pretty well. Woke up around 4am and chatted with Steve for awhile before dozing off again. Having a partner can be nice. :-)

Just doing some laundry today. Cable has been out most of the day. Played some Scrabble with Steve. He just left for his house and won't be back up until Thursdsay night. Not sure what I'll be doing tonight since there is no square dance class due to the holiday. Probably just rest up and take my fluids.

Tomorrow is my doctor appointment, so hopefully he'll be able to determine if my neuropathy is from type 2 diabetes or if it's HIV-related.

01/19/03: Sunday, 7am - The cold did not improve too much yesterday. Steve's got worse. For lunch, we went to The Cove and I had grilled cheese with chicken noodle soup. We got done with lunch right before 2pm.

After lunch, we walked over to the Castro Theatre and got tickets to the 2pm showing of "Woman on the Run." The movie is from 1950 and has not been aired on TV or anywhere for at least 40 years. It is part of the "Noir City" films being shown this week. Lots of great old pics of Market Street, the Bay Bridge, the Ferry Building Clocktower, and even "Laughing Sal" shown at the now-gone Playland. I love seeing sites around my City, and it's even better when it's from 50 years ago. The "Curb Your Dog" sign at the beginning of the movie got the chuckles going.

I had coughed and sniffled through the movie as discreetly as possible, but I was too congested to stay for the 2nd movie of the double feature, "The Lady from Shanghai." That Orson Welles movies is on video anyhow. We just went home, stopping on the way to pick up pot pies for dinner and a lotto ticket.

We watched some TV and played some Scrabble. Saturday night TV still sucks. I checked the TV listings, and the highlight of 9pm TV seemed to be "Top 10 Bathrooms in Vegas." Grrrrrr.

I slept ok until around 4:30am. Then just tossed and turned. The old movie from yesterday prompted a dream where I was running around an old, black & white San Francisco with a 20-ish Judy Garland. We were crossing Market Street, and I was impressed that they had old "Walk/Don't Walk" signals that also included an older version of the newer "countdown" signals that I adore. At least that dream was ok. I can't imagine what I was thinking in another dream where I was in some big house with horny young men who were after some "hot blonde" girl in pigtails. The girl was also being chased by some old women and men who wanted to discuss the Strom Thurmond book she was reading. Of course, I wasn't in either group pursuing her. Sometimes my subconscious is too bizarre, even for me.

I still have the congestion and cough this morning. I'll probably make a decision before church whether or not to go to the beer bust, as I'll need to notify the other BOSF board members if I can't make it. With tomorrow being a holiday, the beer bust should be a good one. Next year I should try to remember to do the Zinc and/or Echinacea thing in the weeks leading up to the MLK weekend. Weird how I always get sick at this time.

01/18/03: Saturday, 8:15am - Yesterday morning I was quite bitchy to Steve. I was feeling out-of-sorts and very hyper/tense. It was a very physical thing, so I'm guessing it may have been some effects of the Loritab. Usually drugs don't bother me much, but I decided to skip taking them yesterday. The Ibuprofen is working for the pain anyhow, so I may as well save the Loritab for when I have othe pain.

"Kramer" called Steve around 11:45am to ask him out for lunch and a movie. Steve had told me that they were just going to have a dinner date, so this was a surprise. To me, anyway. But since I was so crabby, it worked out well to be apart from Double-O-Steven for awhile.

I headed down to Starbucks around 1pm. I ran into Bill M. He had planned to come to my last sing-a-long, but had sprained his ankle and couldn't make it. Grrrrr. He still has yet to stop by my place. I can think of other things besides doing a sing-a-long with him. Meanwhile, I'll content myself with just shamelessly flirting with him. That can be fun, too.

I had full intentions of doing BITC stuff. I did stop at DYMK to pick up their item, but the clerk didn't know anything about it and asked me to come by Saturday morning. This new clerk is really woofy. I had seen him out with Rich Dupler and "the Australians" that everyone seemed so hot about a few weeks ago. I thought this guy was the hot one. Looks like I'm going to need to be doing some more greeting card shopping this next week. ;-)

I came home and realized that my crabbiness had left (definitely staying off the Loritab), but that my cold was getting much worse. I picked up a bit around the house, and then took a nap. I got up around 4pm and walked to Cliff's to look for some baskets/containers. I ran into Michael my barber and then into David W. I love living in a village! Cliff's had some baskets that were translucent blue, matching my microwave perfectly. I got one of each of the three sizes and headed home. The walk home really wore me out. This cold is really messing with my sinuses. Except for last year, it seems I've gotten sick over MLK, Jr. weekend for the past 10 years. Usually I get strep, so I'm happy it's just a cold.

Steve got home around 9:30pm or so from his date. Sounds like they had a nice time, although Steve whined about having a cold. At least his cold doesn't seem to be very bad. Apparently it was bad enough for him to call Ann to bag on going to the Peace March today. That's too bad. Today's march is supposed to be one of the biggest peace marches ever.

I slept ok last night, but my cold has lingered. I've got severe congestion and a very deep cough. I may have to notify the BOSF board that I can't help with Sunday's beer bust. We'll see how I feel this afternoon. :-(

01/17/03: Friday, 7:15am - Yesterday was a good recovery day from my surgery. I felt fine most of the day, although I'm congested and coughing from a cold. In the afternoon, we went to see the movie Chicago. Just us and a bunch of seniors. I love it when the theatre is nearly empty. I really liked the movie. I think Chicago and Sound of Music are the only musicals I like better on screen than on stage. But unlike Sound of Music, Chicago had a VERY stage-like presence in that it seemed like applauding was appropriate after each number. Some people even did clap.

After the movie, Steve made some yummy carrot soup for dinner. Steve is such a good cook. I've been on a "soft-food" diet due to the surgery, so Steve has been very good to see to my needs. He did a great job on Wednesdsay of making sure I got all the meds I needed at the appropriate time, which was pretty tricky.

Steve went to an Eck meeting around 6:30pm. I tried forever to upload yesterday's blog entry. Steve's dial-up modem is very frustrating. It probably took 45 minutes before I could get through to do it. I guess I could avoid that by using a blog service, but that wouldn't allow me the flexibility I have in displaying mine as uniquely as I'd prefer. Why be like everyone else. I really should dig in and set it up with a php form interface, but I'll save that for a slow day at work. LOL. Aren't they all?

I am working from home today. Due to the swelling and funny-looking face (ok, more so than usual), I didn't want to allow for "awkward comments." At least, that's what I told my boss. Best to avoid the place altogether. And Monday is a holiday. Woohoo!

Roy sent me a big package yesterday of some bear beanie babies and some cross-stitch books. I forgot about some of the cross-stitch stuff. He included some very good ones that I'm glad he saved. I was ready for him to toss out everything. (The bear beanie babies can be used as raffle prizes.) I was going through the package last night while Steve was watching "Friends." Steve got upset that I was disturbing him by going through the box. I got mad and left for a walk. I needed to stop by the bank anyhow. Walking is always good. I ran into DAYvid, and he let me bend his ear for a bit at The Edge.

I came home, and said it would be better when we had a bigger place so that my activities wouldn't disturb his TV-watching. Steve said that he already has a bigger place. Yes, his house is gorgeous with gorgeous views. But it's also 30 miles away and impossible for me to commute without a car. I DON'T WANT TO COMMUTE WITH A CAR. That's the primary reason I moved here. I'm afraid that Steve is holding out for someone who wants to move into his house and doesn't care about polluting the environment with another car on the road. Meanwhile, I'm certainly not pressuring Steve to move up here to the City. I really would love to live together, but it's gotta be a good compromise. I can compromise on lots of things (heck, I lived with Dennis and his Barbie collection), but my work commute and living in a "village" is not something I can readily dismiss. Just something for us to work out.

Besides work today, I need to get some BITC stuff done. REALLY done. I hate this follow-up stuff, especially since someone else volunteered my name for this damned duty. Jeff Stiarwalt already volunteered for it, so I'm not sure why someone had to add me while I was out of the room. Grrrrrr.

01/16/03: Thursday, 1pm - Surgery was ok on Wednesday. I took 2 Loritab (double-strength Vicodin) on Tuesday around 7pm. Had 4-5 beers at game night. Took two Valium around 11pm. I woke up on Wednesday very groggy and a bit congested. I took 2 more Valium at 9:10am as prescribed by the dentist. We found parking at the garage around 10am, with plenty of time to make my 10:10am appointment. I was pretty groggy when I got to the dental chair. The assistant prepped me with some laughing gas. The dentist came in, shook my hand, then he rolled up my sleeve to give me the IV drugs. As he did, he remarked, "cute tattoo." The next thing I knew, Steve came in to get me. I don't remember any of the dental work.

We got to Steve's, and I rested most of the afternoon. Took pain meds and antibiotics and changed packing as instructed. I was surprised to get a phone call around 10pm from the dentist. He was just checking on me. How nice! I'm really happy to have found such a friendly one!

I woke up this morning around 3:30am. I couldn't get back to sleep, probably because of all the rest I had on Wednesday. I tossed and turned before getting up at 5:45am. I made coffee, read the newspaper, then I did the crossword puzzles from the last 4-5 days of papers.

Feeling pretty decent today. We're going to go see the movie Chicago this afternoon. Due to the surgery, we're gonna skip tonight's IBR meeting. Steve is going to some Eckenkar meeting tonight, and then we'll head up to my place. Most likely working from home on Friday. We'll probably work on some BITC stuff for IBR.

Tuesday, 11:30pm - I got out of work kinda early to "pick up the valium" from my dentist. I just took the two of them at 11pm. We'll see if they kick in. I'm supposed to take the other two in the morning, one hour before my operation. I think it's just so that I won't be nervous about the operation. I've had teeth pulled before, so it's not bothering me.

Game night was tonight at Drew's place. I played Uno for most of the evening with Bruce, Ken and Jeff Stiarwalt. I even won! That's not too usual. At the end, we played Taboo. I kicked ass. I gave up no points and got more points than anyone else did. And my team even won. Woohoo! I'm not so much for winning as having a good time. And looking good in playing well. ;-) There were some cute guys there, too. Always good!

Steve played Scrabble at game night. He won the first game. I caught him using "EE." No one even challenged him. He really needs to memorize the valid two-letter words. We came home from game night and played a game between us. Steve won. I usually win, but it's more of a biggie for Steve when he wins. We're pretty evenly matched, although it takes him 3-4 times as long to play.

Well, off to bed. I get to do that lovely surgery in the morning. It'll probably be Friday before I write again.

I phoned Roy yesterday just to see how things are going for his move to Tampa. I still am surprised that he's going. He's complained about Kansas City for years, so hopefully this will be a good move for him. He's said he put the TV channel on alligator shows on the Animal Planet to prepare Heathrow for the move. That silly dog is sure to be alligator chow soon enough!

Square Dancing was ok. Abbi showed up after being gone for 3 or 4 classes. She seemed to pick it up just fine. We did a lot of review, but we did learn a few new things. We learned the styling "clap" of Pass the Ocean. Big woo. We learned "extend," which hopefully we'll review next week. We learned Wheel and Deal from lines of 4 facing out. We still need to learn it from the position of lines of 4 facing in. We also learned Boys/Girls/Centers/Ends/Couples Trade. There were enough angels there last night for 3 squares at times. No class next Monday due to the holiday. Club night is Wednesday, but I'll be recovering from my surgery.

Got home and saw that someone from Judge Judy had responded to me. I'll email them back today with more details about the case. Hopefully I can make it sound interesting enough for them to use!

Got off the Muni today and as I was going up the escalator to the street, there was a smell that reminded me of walking past the lunchroom in elementary school. Some indescribable tomato sauce smell mixed with a hint of bleach. Who knows.

FYI - With surgery on Wednesday morning, I'll probably skip a blog entry or two....

01/13/03: Monday, 10am - As planned, I went to the 9am service yesterday and then we drove down to Burlingame for Steve's 11am Eckenkar service. Both were fine. Nothing too exceptional. The only noteworthy thing was that during the Hu Song, which is an Eck meditiation thing, someone's cell phone went off. Pretty stupid.

Steve made a great hamburger for lunch. To the ground beef, he adds Lawry's seasoned salt, garlic salt, onion flakes, and Worcestershire sauce. YUM!

We headed up to the Lone Star around 6pm. Mark notified me about the snafu with the BOSF email. Grrrrrrrrrr. No emails sent out since October? Unbelievable. Another black eye for the board. I'm embarassed enough about having a late newsletter sent out. Guess that is nothing compared to the email problem.

Double-O-Steven wanted pizza, so we stopped in the Castro on the way home for a slice from Escape from New York. Got home and played a game of Scrabble. Also talked briefly with Tony from Kansas City. He's working at Oakland Airport for a few days. The connection was bad, so maybe he'll call back tonight.

01/12/03: Sunday 8:45am - Steve came over last night and we played a game of Scrabble before going out to dinner. We walked to that newer restaurant, Catch. There was a 30-minute wait, so we decided to go there another night. The menu seemed decent, and they had a piano player playing. We'll try again, probaby during the week. We ended up going to La Mediteranee. Steve got his usual filo variety platter, and I got stuffed pork loin over couscous. It was decent and nice change of pace.

Got up this morning and since it's an even numbered day, I checked out the new bear411 ads. A minister I know posted his pic today. He's got a nice pic, so I'm sure he'll get some good response. I love my City.

Steve needs to go down and make lunch for Peter, so I'm going to the 9am church service. We'll head down after that, have lunch, enjoy the afternoon, then come back up here for beerbust.

01/11/03: Saturday 6pm - On Friday I got my haircut in the morning, then went to catch the Muni. The subway was down again with masses of people waiting for a streetcar at Church & Market. I decided to walk down to Folsom and catch the number 12 bus. No big woo.

I went out to lunch with David, so that got me out and about again. Saw DAYvid was we were leaving. I love that my City is so small.

On my way home from work, my legs started to ache. By the time I got home, I was seeing stars. Had some water and felt a bit better. Steve was at his home to take care of Peter, who just had hernia surgery. I went out to The Edge for happy hour. John had been giving me grief for not showing up for HH recently. I was very religious about going, but I can be a bit self-conscious about all the weight I've gained. It was good to visit with John, et al, for awhile. I was burning up, so I left after one beer to pick up my prescriptions and head home.

Got home and just watched some TV and did 4 loads of laundry.

The layout for the newsletter was updated this morning, so I gave Jeff some corrections so that he could get it printed before the folding party at Drew's house. Jeff offered to do the copying, which was great. I've been doing it, which is fine when I have the time. I got to Drew's a bit after 2pm and helped fold newsletters. They were still stuffing envelopes for other stuff, but I left after about half an hour. The newsletters needed to be sealed and stamped, so I just took them home to take care of that.

Steve is coming over in a bit. We'll go out to dinner and then who knows.

01/10/03: Friday 8am - Thursday was quite rainy at times. I like the rain. I even heard some thunder, although that might have been Steve. ;-) Thunder is rare here. I do miss the storms in Kansas City, watching the sky turn dark green and then light up with impressive lightning, hoping to see an elusive tornado at a distance.

Steve and I both got bloodwork done yesterday morning. No, no wedding vows yet. I think his was to monitor his iron-poor blood. Mine was regular HIV counts, plus a cholesterol check. I go to the doctor in two weeks for results. I'm more worried about the neuropathy in my hands. Typing is difficult. Writing is more so. I'm pretty sure it's diabetes, but we'll see what the doctor and tests say.

In the afternoon I went to the oral surgeon for a consultation. His building was at Post and Mason. I just took the #1 bus from in front of my office up to Sacramento and Mason, atop Nob Hill. I love it up there. During some of my first business trips to SF I stayed at the Mark Hopkins. I walked down the STEEP five blocks and got there right on time. The office was stunning. Mahogany on the wall, copper on the ceiling, big cigar room chairs. Very nice. I knew to expect a hefty bill afterwards.

The oral surgeon, David Haines, was even more adorable than my new dentist. Pretty sure he's gay, too. I usually don't like blondes, but he was cutie. The way he probed in my mouth was SO erotic. I had to really try hard to not suck on his finger. Steve told me that he's done that before. Maybe I'll do that when they put me on drugs for the surgery, which will be next Wednesday. He gave me some Valium to take the night before the surgery and one hour before surgery. I've never used it. Looking forward to it. ;-) For after the surgery, he prescribed Loritab, which is like double-strength Vicodin. We'll see. Vicodin doesn't do much for me.

I finally leave 1.5 hours after arriving. They showed me how much this was gonna cost and what my insurance would probably pay. I really need to win the lottery soon! On my way out of the office, I got to hold the door open for Vivian and Marian Brown. They are elderly twins who dress alike and to the nines. Easily recognized anywhere. I think this is the second time I've seen them in person. They even said hello. The first time I saw them was when I was here looking for work and had no idea who they were. I ended up seeing them on TV later that week. Now I usually just see them on banking adverts at bus stops.

The IBR meeting last night lasted right up until 9:30. Mark did allow for a break in the middle. It seemed to be pretty productive. We stayed around beer bust for awhile. Steve "visited" more with Paul (shown here). Steve was Paul's first encounter when he got to town a couple weeks ago. He seems to be trying for LOTS of encounters during his trip, naturally. I believe he's going back to upstate NY on Saturday.

01/09/03: Thursday, 8am - Looks like I mistakenly deleted Tuesday's blog entry. Oops. Not sure if I'll be able to recover it. Grrrrrrrrr.

I got home and did a pretty damned good job of getting ready for the sing-a-long. Moving the kitchen table to the living room to hold the food worked out great. I'll have to remember that in the future. It made more room and kept most of the non-singing interruptions removed from the singing. Bill called and couldn't make it due to his sprained ankle. Everyone else showed up, and Leslie brought her friend Max. Besides them and Steve and I, it was Dennis, Jim, Jeff, and Tom who showed up.

About 8:30pm, my army buddy, Mike, showed up. He is in town this week for work. He worked out in Lathrop yesterday, but drove the 75 miles back over here for a visit. (His hotel is near Oakland airport.) It was great to see him. We hadn't seen each other in 15 years. We only started emailing each other a couple months ago after finding each other on classmates.com. It was fun to talk about "those days" in the army. Some of the things I haven't thought about in years. I'm someone who believes on "moving on," but it was still fun to get together. Mike was one of the nicest guys I knew in the army, and the gay thing didn't phase him a bit. Quite something for over 15 years ago in the army.

01/08/03: Wednesday noon - Warning, another long entry today. Yesterday's entry mentioned a "stir" I created by requesting that my stepmother shoot off an email to us kids if my father is admitted to the hospital. Such a simple request has spawned some of the ugliest emails I've seen in a long time.

Because we had the nerve to ask for an email, my stepsister's bastard son shot off a couple of really wicked emails. (I may end up publishing them on my site sometime.) This kid is 21 and lives with my father and stepmother. Guess his own mother can't even be bothered with him. His emails just rant and rant. His bitchiness reminds me so much of his mother and grandmother. Anyhow, his emails have caused great stress on my ill father and among my siblings. The lazy bastard has even hacked into my father and stepmother's email accounts. Got to give him credit for knowing how to do something. He's too stupid to know how to spell my father's name, even though that lazy bastard has lived with my Dad longer than any of my father's own kids.

Enough venting. He's not worth the bandwidth. My stepsister was too ignorant to deal with the unwanted pregancy intelligently, so let the Karma fall upon her.

My dental appointment went fine. Got a composite filling for ol' tooth number 12. I think this is my first "composite" filling. All others have been ugly amalgams. It hurt just a bit, and I continue to think highly of my new dentist.

I went ahead an booked a hotel room for Steve and me at the Ramada for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during IBR. It'll be just that much more convenient.

I was able to book the Alcatraz tour for the IBR group. One less thing to worry about! I think it's going to work out really well this year. Bud from KQED has lined us up with our own personal National Park Ranger to give us a "private" tour. I'm looking forward to it!

My computer monitor at home died yesterday. It kept going "fuzzy" on me. Usually "fuzzy on me" is a welcome phrase, but not this time. I took the 33 bus to Folsom Street and then walked to Best Buy. I got a 17" flat panel monitor. It's "wall-mountable." Just like me! I think I'll just keep it on its stand for now. I certainly didn't need that extra expense. Grrrrrrrr.

Got to the Lone Star around 6:45pm for my BOSF board meeting. Walter had my Bud Light all ready for me by the time I walked the distance to that end of the bar. I love good service. The meeting was fine and not too long. I finally got to see a copy of the newsletter layout. I'm so embarassed that it's the 8th, and the newsletter hasn't gone out yet. I reviewed it and submitted edits this morning. Hopefully I'll get a finished version later today and I can get it printed and copied tomorrow. I'd love it if I could have copies made in time to take to the IBR meeting for folding there.

Traded some more emails with my sisters last night and this morning. I even got to chat with my father online to make sure he knows what's going on with his bastard "grandson." This whole episode has left me cold on family matters. Oops. Ranting again! I'm glad that I've already got a "family" of choice here. Besides having Steve, I've got some pretty great friends.

Tonight is my first sing-a-long in several months. I'm expecting 8 people to show up, which is a LOT for a sing-a-long. One person who's coming is an old army buddy whom I haven't seen since 1987. We re-connected via classmates.com. He's in town on business, so he's stopping by for awhile. Hopefully I'll have some pics to post tomorrow.

I have an all hands meeting at 3pm today. Then it's off to home for some last minute cleaning before the sing-a-long at 7pm. Hopefully I'll have time to get a bouquet of flowers to brighten things up.

01/06/03: Monday morning, 10am - Just got back from the dentist. The office was modern, and the dentist young and friendly. He had hairier forearms than me. Woof! They took a set of digital xrays. First time I had those done. It was not very comfortable, but at least the results are immediate, and it only uses 10% of the radiation regular xrays use. I see the dentist again tomorrow morning for a filling and possible root canal. I get my teeth cleaned on the 24th. I need to go see an oral surgeon to have one tooth extracted and for a consultation on getting implants for some of my missing teeth. So far, I'm liking my dentist 10 times better than the last one, and he's only a block away.

Sunday was pretty much usual routine. Penny was gone, so Terri preached at church. Lots of garden metaphors. The Lone Star beer bust was decent. Lots of cute acquaintances. I got good and tipsy but not too much. We got home and watched some TV movie about Enron.

01/05/03: Sunday morning, 8:00am - Saturday was nice outside, but I spent most of the day indoors. I finally cleaned out boxes and files from behind my sofa. I then moved off the furniture and rotated the carpet and carpet pad. I moved it a few inches further from the door so that the door doesn't hit it every time now. I should have done that months ago!

Steve came over around 2pm. We played a couple games of Scrabble, then he dropped me off at the Lone Star before he went to pick up Cosmo for dinner and Hedwig. Not too busy at the Lone Star. Danny did inform me that on New Year's Day they had 37 people buy into the beer bust, so my "41" on Thursday night was really good. Nothing exciting to report from the LS. Rhoda gave me a ride home and I was feeling no pain. I went to Cala for a few things before going to bed. Steve came home. He had the opportunity to go home with Cosmo, but came home to me. Sweet, but I chewed him out anyway, LOL. Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor!

No big plans for today. Church. Lunch. Scrabble. Sex? Beer bust.

01/04/03: Saturday morning, 9:30am - (WARNING: Long entry!) Friday was a really "up" day. I had taken Vicodin a couple times for my toothache, so I'm not sure if that helped to boost my mood. Usually Vicodin doesn't have much effect on me except to take the edge off of the pain. I'm finally getting in to see the new dentist on Monday morning. I sure hope he's better than the last guy. Dr. Auger was too scary. His glasses had miscroscope-like lenses. He must have been blind. When one of the lenses popped out during my visit, I knew I wouldn't be back. Eek!

Since it was Friday, I just grabbed some clam chowder from the cafeteria. Mmmmm. Later, I went out to get a latte and check my post office box. No mail, as usual. I've received one letter there during the past 11 months. Oh well! Small price to pay for having an address posted in American Bear. (Meanwhile, emails continue to come in each week.) It was sunny out and feeling warmer than its 50-degree temperatures. I walked around downtown for about 45 minutes. It was SO nice outside. Another "I love my City" days. (Which is every day!) I walked around several blocks between Front & Battery Streets, an area I've never explored. Lots of restaurants I want to check out. So THAT'S where Aqua is! I found a Staples store and browsed for awhile. I've had a love for stationery supplies since I was 4 years old. Don't know why, but it takes a lot of effort to walk through the office supply aisle of a store without at least buying a pen. I ended up buying two pens and a clipboard. I don't need a clipboard, but it matched my microwave oven, so I had to have it!

I got back to the office to see that Roy had emailed me some pics, including this picture of me in the snow, geting the newspaper from the driveway in KC. I had been enjoying the "warm" winter day in SF, so the reminder of the the snow elsewhere made me appreciate SF even more (if that's possible). After work, I made it over to the YMCA and went on the treadmill for 30 minutes. First time in several months. My feet are bothering me, so I didn't run, but at least I got in the walking. I came home and just stayed in last night. I started laundry at around 10pm. Five loads, so I was pretty much up most of the night moving laundry from washer to dryer, etc. No real plans for today. Steve has a date tonight with Cosmo to see Hedwig, so I'll probably just go to the LS beer bust this afternoon. Hopefully I'll get a lot of apartment cleaning done this morning!

01/03/03: 08:22am - Last night's beer bust seemed to go well. 41 guys bought into the beer bust, so our take from that was $82. There was another $137 in raffle sales, making a total of $219 raised for the Metropolitan Community Foundation. Lots of hot guys showed up. BruSSSe was working, and he thanked me for the high caliber clients, LOL. He is the one who counted out the money at the end with me, so we got to chat a bit privately in the office. He's a doll. I was really tired last night, so I was quite happy to have Double-O-Steven, biff, Darwin, and Jim help me out during the evening.

Steve made out with cute Christopher for awhile, then Christopher moved on to Rhoda, then someone else. I guess Steve had played with him at Lazy Bear a couple years ago. Steve sure gets some cute guys! I love that he gets so much attention.

Satan showed up, and gave both Rhoda and I a peck. I shoved Listerine tabs into both our mouths within 30 seconds afterwards, so I think we should be ok. Ugh!

I guess I should get ready for work since I'm already couple hours late!

01/02/03: We slept in on New Year's Day, which was welcomed. Played some Scrabble, then went out to Pasta Pomodoro for lunch. Then to Starbears, which was busy out front. It was SLOW inside, however. Only 2 people working, and one was new and kept screwing up the orders. It took 25 minutes to get a latte. Grrrrrrr. Came home and worked on updated my website while Double-O-Steven took a nap. We went to dinner with David and Rhoda at Alice's, which is around 29th & Sanchez. The place was small and cramped, but the food and conversation was good.

Haven't written down resolutions this year. Obviously, the weight needs to drop. The scales said 228 at the YMCA on Tuesday. The neuropathy in my hands is getting worse, nearly interfering with my quest toward blindness this morning.

I was able to debug the javascript errors on my page and get the new layout updated. I'll need to upload the revised bearpage from home after work. Then I need to get the rest of my stuff ready to take to the Lone Star. It'll be my first time to host a beerbust as Mr. Lone Star 2003. I'm hoping it goes well with a good turnout. I'm guessing most people may have "bar overload" due to New Year's this week.

01/01/03: Had a fun New Year's Eve last night at Jeff & John's white trash party. They had lots of handsome men attending, and the trashy decor was done well, especially the Xmas tree thrown down the stairwell. I wore my shirt with the velcro letters which spelled out "THE OTHER WHITE TRASH." Someone kept removing the last "T," turning "TRASH" into "RASH." Whoops! Double-O-Steven and I left the party around 11pm to head to the Lone Star. No cabs available, we took Muni to Van Ness and walked from there. The bar wasn't near as crowded as last year, but it was a very good crowd. We had a good time, and Rhoda gave us a ride home. Woohoo!