OTHER MONTHS BELOW

Tune in Monday to find out about the millions I'll have won over the weekend, LOL!

02/27/03: Thursday, 10:30am - My report fix was approved by the client yesterday. I *need* to get everything else all set TODAY!

At lunchtime yesterday I went to Costco to pick up Steve's car. It hadn't been towed, and no threatening note this time. Whew. I brought it down to the parking lot near my office until the end of work. After work, I drove to Steve's, but got messed up in town. I've never had to get on 101 South from downtown. I thought there was an entrance down here, but got mixed up finding it. I couldn't merge into the correct lane for Howard Street, so I ended up on Mission. Whoops. No left turns until Van Ness. Then I was in the wrong lane for the freeway entrance. What a dope. I ended up going through the Mission to get onto 280 South. At least I was in no rush. I love 280 and hate 101 anyhow. What a difference.

I got to Steve's, and we played a game of Scrabble. Then we went to Max's in Belmont for dinner. I had their Reuben. It was not good. I've eaten at Max's around town about half a dozen times. I've yet to have a good meal there. Maybe I just order the wrong thing. I'll stick to getting a Reuben at The Cove.

Got home to Steve's and watched TV. To my surprise, PBS was showing the stage version of "Kiss Me Kate." I love that show. We watched that, and at 9pm, Steve taped West Wing so we could finish watching KMK. I've seen much better tapings of stage shows. Some of the sound quality was faulty. Not sure if that was a recording issue or a broadcast issue. Some of the editing seemed odd as well. They didn't even break for intermission. I expected some "behind the scenes" chat during the intermission like lots of other taped stage versions, but there was none. I had seen the show on Broadway with Brian Stokes Mitchell and Rachel York. (She was the understudy when I saw it.) Brent Barrett was not nearly as good as Mitchell, but at least I got to see Rachel York again. I would have loved to have seen Marin Mazzie perform (the original other lead who performed with Mitchell). After that we watched West Wing.

Steve is still sick, but seems much better than he had been last weekend. He's definitely planning to go on the train to Reno tomorrow evening. I'm really happy being with Steve. We can have intelligent discussions about newspaper articles, then a few minutes later be making silly faces at each other. We definitely make each other laugh.

Got up at 6am this morning and Steve took me down to catch the 6:30am train. One nice thing about the long train ride is that I have time to finish reading the paper during the commute. I still would absolutely hate doing that commute every day. I prefer the 25-minute door-to-desk commute I have living in the City. Did I mention that I love my City??? ;-)

02/26/03: Wednesday, 10:30am - Got some work done yesterday. Eric found a problem in a change he made to a report when I was gone. Looks like I've fixed it, but still waiting for client review. Had my weekly meeting with my boss. Nice and short. I dread those.

Peggy from work stopped by my desk yesterday and said she wanted to tag along to square dance class with me. Grrrrr. That meant that I had to "entertain" between work and class. My apartment was a disaster, so I went home at lunchtime and did a rush clean up job. She had driven her car to work, so we took her car to check on Steve's car at Costco. She doesn't like to drive in the City, so she had me drive. There was a note on Steve's car "If you're staying, you need to be paying." I removed the note and moved his car to a different space. (I'll pick up the car today and bring it to a parking lot near work before driving to Steve's after work.) I then drove back to my place. I gave her a tour of the mansion. Then we went to eat at Firewood Cafe. Back to my place for a bit, then off to square dancing. Peggy talks non-stop. I'm not sure I can deal with it every week if she decides to take class. Grrrrrrr.

The class was really good. It was "hard Mainstream," but Neil did a good job of walking everyone through it. We had enough for three squares most of the night. I did really good for most of it. I faltered some in my first square, but ended the evening really confident. Lots of people from ECR showed up, and I had a lot of fun. Steve from church was still pretty onery, but not so combative as last week. Foggy City has a club night on Thursday, so I'll probably go to that.

Double-0-Steven went out with Ann yesterday. She told him he probably had bronchitis. They went to the emergency room, and yep, it's bronchitis. They gave him some Zithromax and told him he should be feeling better within a couple of days. Whew! It's really good to pinpoint the diagnosis. I had no idea what it could be. Apparently Steve has had bronchitis in the past. D'oh! I've never had it, so I'm not too familiar with the symptoms. Looks like we'll be going to Reno after all. Woohoo!

I got up at 5am to run my reports today. I fell back asleep, then ran the rest of the reports around 8am. Got into work a bit after 9am. I stopped at Starbucks, and someone jostled me from behind and I bumped into the woman in front of me. It was my boss. D'oh! At least I can say I'd been working from home. I stepped in and did a favor for her by contacting the tech guy for our presentation next week. She was supposed to do it. When I asked about it yesterday, she had completely forgotten. I guess I'm good for something.

Ask me what else I'm good at.....

02/25/03: Tuesday, 7am - Wasn't too productive with my project yesterday. I did figure out a solution to an install issue that I had been pondering. I also had a meeting with Debra and Michael about our NFL presentation next week. Michael admitted that he did not like the movie Chicago. Sheesh, what kind of fag is that? LOL. I think he's the first person I know who said they didn't like it.

I walked down Castro Street on the way home from work. Someone on the street who was on a cell phone stopped me. I didn't recognize him right away, but he verified my identity with whomever was on the phone. He gave the phone to me. It turns out it was Jeff C. Oh, yeah, this was Jay. I had only met him once. Glad he recognized me and where we met. I felt better that he didn't remember my name either, LOL. I'm SO bad at remembering names and faces. I think I did pretty good during IBR weekend, but usually I meet 'em and my memory fades almost as quickly.

Went to square dancing and had a good time. The lesbian couple was still absent, but rumors abound that they will be returning. Impossible, I say, but since our class has been dragged out longer than needed, it doesn't matter that we'll be slowed down. Carlos and Joseph were also absent. Ron had some weird teaching techniques last night. He tried to teach "Pass to the Center" by saying it's exactly like "Dive Thru" without the arch. The call consists of two parts, neither of which is like "Dive Thru." You DO end up in the same final position, but he made it confusing. He also gave an odd definition for "Cast Off Three Quarters." Well, he omitted the part that in some positions, the END is the pivot point. He did a very good job at teaching "Turn Thru." He taught it from both ocean wave and facing partner positions. The Japanese animation site only shows facing partners, and Rich at ECR only showed it from ocean waves. Ron also taught "Spin the Top." I'm not sure why this is considered a "hard" call, but I've seen this break down many an angel tip. We FINALLY learned the gay styling for DoSaDo and for returning home from Promenade. I had been having problems mixing up "Wheel and Deal" and "Ferris Wheel," but I had no problems last night. I seemed to get my "swing" back, as for some reason I was having problems with it last week. Tonight will be the test when I go to do "Hard Mainstream" at Foggy City. Joe is also going. He's such a good angel to my class. Always there with hugs and encouragement.

I got home to find an email in my inbox that had me ROFL. In my "cryingbears" exposing fashion, I had pointed out something on the BML about a poster named "BearZeus." Here's my posting:

>>BearZeus wrote:

"I have never been to IBR, have always wanted to attend, but my desire has diminished year after year due to what I've heard, which is there is a strong element of elitism and superiority" and "Olympics is defeating the purpose of the event....It just makes us all look ugly."

With a name like "BearZeus," I just had to laugh. The Olympics were a place for athletes to come and celebrate and worship their king of gods Zeus. But I'm sure no elitism or superiority was meant with the choice of the name "BearZeus."

As far as looking ugly, I haven't met a Zeus yet who wasn't attractive, but to be fair, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.<<
-----
Here's the email he sent to me. Please note that the subject line was "Being Zues." Gotta love someone who misspells there own handle!

>>Gary, you've always been a twit.

The only reason why Tim put your ugly pock-faced mug on the cover of his magazine was because you made the other models look that much better.

Moving to SF was just another desperate attempt at getting dick when you couldn't find it in Kansas City, so spare me the smug retorts. Not enough booze could make you look that good honey.

Zeus.<<

For those with AOL, check out his online profile. Too funny. Again, that was from BearZeus@aol.com. I'm not sure if the email was supposed to make me laugh like it did, but I sure got a kick out of it. It always amazes me when people actually take the time to read through the many pages of website. Even more baffling is that YOU are reading this right now. ;-)

I spoke to Steve on the phone before going to bed. He is still very sick. And he is NOT good at being sick. I made him promise to call the doctor today. For the chills, nausea, and headache that he's had, it should not last more than a couple days, but he's been pretty sick since at least Friday. If he doesn't improve, we're going to have to cancel our trip this weekend on the Reno Fun Train. I'd love to go by myself, but Steve is wanting me to stay with him. GRRRRRRR. If he is still sick on Friday, there's gotta be something majorly wrong with him. NOW he's telling me that he thinks some guy we tricked with at IBR looked jaundiced. Honey, if they look jaundiced, skip 'em, silly! I only had noticed the guy's bad teeth. I didn't get sick, but I don't think I kissed him much. Yep, kiss the boys and make 'em cry...

02/24/03: Monday, 10:30am - Had a busy weekend. Took the train to Steve's on Friday night. I had printed out some JCL and PROCS from my project to review, so I worked on some of that over the weekend. Steve wasn't feeling too good. We watched some TV and went to bed around 10pm. Steve was not feeling well at all on Saturday. He stayed in bed most of the day, while I prepared for "his" soireé. Steve managed to get up in town for the event, and it went pretty well. There were a total of 19 people. It was potluck, and they brought some good food this time. Last time the food selection was dismal. There was plenty this time, and lots left behind. Eric's guitar performance was awesome. I've never seen anyone in person play that way. Very fast fingering. Just amazing. I met some nice guys at the party. Stephan Kozmo showed up, so I got to meet him. I had briefly met him at a holiday party, but I hadn't associated the name and the face. Kozmo is really hot. Heck, all of Steve's "men" are hot. Steve didn't last all evening and had to go lie down towards the end. I sent up Kozmo to say goodbye. Ditto for Rich. I figured Steve would like that. ;-)

Peter helped put the food away and clean up after the party. We finished in the morning. Steve was still sick on Sunday morning. He got up to make lunch (he microwaved some leftover lasagna), but he was too sick to go that morning to the SBB breakfast or evening to take me home. With no trains running on the weekend, I borrowed Steve's second car and drove myself home. I dropped off my stuff, then I drove to the Costco parking lot to leave the car there until Wednesday. Naturally I then went to the LS beerbust. Dennis showed up in his nylon sweatsuit again. That's what he had on last week. Not too appealling. I was standing against the wall by the pool table. He had to pass me to get to the men's room, but he ignored me, just like last week. He immediately left after that pit stop. My opinion of him sinks lower and lower. What was I thinking? Live and learn. I had fun at the beerbust, but a little too much fun. I took a cab home. Looks like I called Steve and then crashed. Quite the hangover this morning! Grrrrrrr.

I got an email overnight from Bill in Oregon. We were going to connect in March when he was down here, but now he has to cancel on me. He'll be back down in April, so I'm looking forward to more of his moustache tricks then.

I've got a meeting this morning about doing another NFL presentation. Then I need to finish up some admin stuff for my project. Hopefully I can wrap that up soon!

02/21/03: Friday, 6:30am - I worked hard on my project yesterday and made lots of headway, but it looks like there is a lot left to do. Mostly just fixing the JCL that was haphazardly thrown together by Eric. That's gonna take most of today. I got up at 5am to submit the jobs, and I've stayed up since. I needed to pack to go to Steve's tonight.

I worked until 5pm yesterday, which is unheard for me. I was worn out. I got home and did three loads of laundry. Then I just played on the computer and watched TV until I fell asleep. I finally got through to Jeff C's blog last night. I had been having problems connecting to it. The little fucker listed my blog as one he visits, LOL. Hey there, Jeff. :-P

I got an email from Dan B. who had been to IBR and out to Alcatraz. He was just thanking me and BOSF for a great IBR. People can be so nice! Plus, he sent a woofy pic of himself. Gotta love that.

I went to Starbucks at Spear and Main two days ago. I go there nearly every work day for my second cup of the day, a grande non-fat latte. Well, two days ago, the guy asked my name. He apparently mis-heard "Harry," as that was what was written on the cup. I said nothing and laughed to myself. Sometimes at the Castro Starbucks I tell them that my name is "Harry." I just loved being called hairy. ;-) Anyhow, I went to the Spear & Main Starbucks yesterday, and without asking my name, I get the latte with "Harry" written on the cup. LOL. Well, I guess that's better than the "Mary" I get from lots of my friends.

Gonna be a busy day. I'm away to Steve's this weekend, so problem no blog until Monday.

02/20/03: Thursday, 9am - On Wednesday I was able to fix the report at work, making for a more elegant solution than Eric had proposed. Yeah me. I did ask Eric later about the logistics of going with a Monday install date. No way, he said. There's still a matter of a 10-day lead time for one of the approvals. Shit. I fucked up. I went home pretty distressed. I waited until I knew the business partner had left, and then left him an apologetic phonemail. I followed it up with an email to him and my boss this morning at 5:30am. That seemed to do the trick to appease them. He joked to my boss that I should be put on "bread and water." It could have been much worse. Now I just need to make sure I complete everything today or by the latest tomorrow. That should be doable.

My apartment is such a wreck. (as is my mental state this week.) Tonight will be my first free night at home in ages. I still need to unpack from IBR, do laundry, etc. Not sure when things will finally settle down!

I went to the Western Star club night last night. They provided potluck as a "welcome" to the people in my class. Most members of the class showed up. Carlos, Alana & Pat were missing. Not sure if anyone else didn't show. Ron mentioned that he had spoken with Alana & Pat, and that they were definitely coming back. Grrrrrr. They've been gone a month. No way will they remember anything! Oh well, I'm set for now, so they aren't holding me back. I let Ron know that I had danced Mainstream at ECR last week and FCD on Tuesday. He seemed ok with it, although it was a bit more "I guess you don't need me" kind of attitude. The extra dancing in his class is good practice. There were mostly class members last night, so we danced at class level. I got lots of compliments about "knowing my stuff." The confidence I'm gaining helps me to lead some classmates who may be weaker. I no longer get upset about having to dance with John. As long as I can guide him some, he seems to do ok. It certainly helps me when I have a good dancer to guide me.

Joe was there last night. I hadn't seen him for a couple weeks. I always miss him when he's gone. He's so friendly and very encouraging to me and to some of my other classmates. He'll be taking the Plus class with me at FCD, so that should be fun. I had previously given him my card so he'd email me. He told me that he checked out my website and said it was "fun." He also informed me that there are nekkid pics of me. Um, I know. Thanks, Joe! ;-)

Another guy from class I think is hot was there. He let me know that he's into WS and that he recently took a load at Most Holy Redeemer during some other club meeting, and he was surprised by someone putting a camera over the stall and taking a picture. Not my thing, but sounded pretty hot. Can't wait for the pic to show up on the web. ;-)

The convention dance and event schedule were posted to the web yesterday. Looks like a lot of fun. I wasn't sure what kind of things they did to differentiate the dances. I was pleased to see that there will be a bear tip and a leather tip. Those should be fun. I'm already looking forward to the Moonshine tip! The flyer for the Palm Springs Peel-Off in May said that rooms are available for our group through March, so we still have time to sign up. That would be fun. I always have a good time at CCBC! :-P

Flights to San Diego for July are now available on Southwest. Looks like we can go for around $100 or as little as $78. Not bad! I'll talk to double-0-Steven and try to book today. Now back to work!!!

02/19/03: Wednesday, 6am - Yesterday was busy at work. Of course, typing yesterday's blog recap for the past week probably took over an hour. Grrrr. Hope it didn't bore you too much! I still didn't get everything done at work that I needed to do, but at least I got into the office to do some of it instead of taking vacation as planned. I *MUST* complete the pre-work today!

Last night I went to Foggy City Dancers for their Mainstream workshop. It didn't go as smoothly as at ECR last week, but at least I got some floor time. Neil was calling, and he did it at a really quick pace. Steve from church was there, and he apparently was in a very bad mood. He was rough and argumentative. Just plain ornery. He broke down the square pretty often. The class members from Foggy City who just graduated from MS last week seemed nice and did pretty well. There were 5 of the 8 of them there last night. I assume that they will all continue on with the Plus class in March. Woofy Rod from the ECR class was there. He's fun to dance with.

This week is a busy one. I updated my calendar last night and realize that Thursday night will be my only free night, and that will be done unpacking from IBR and doing laundry. I'll be away most of this weekend and the following weekend. I missed church the past two weeks do to IBR stuff, and I'll be missing the next two weeks as well. Grrrrrr.

02/18/03: Tuesday, 10:30am - IBR 2003 is over! Now back to daily blogging...

IBR seemed to be quite a success. I was extremely busy with coordinating some of my tasks, but I managed to have a good time. I'll try to recap some things since my last blog by day of the week (warning LONG week's worth of entries:

Wednesday (2/12) - I didn't finish everything on my work assignment, but left work anyhow. I had to catch the train down to Steve's. We ate in Mountain View at a very deserted Chinese restaurant. Then we went to ECR for square dancing. I was just going to see about watching that night and maybe participating in the review session from 7pm-7:30pm. I did participate in that, and I did great! Steve joined me for the review, and he was impressed. After that, I watched them get into four squares. They were short one person for the fourth square, so I joined that square after some prodding. Everyone clapped, LOL. I was able to do pretty well! Most of the MS calls that I hadn't done yet in my Western Star class had been reviewed during the class review, except for Slide Thru, Cloverleaf, and Turn Thru.. Although it seemed easy on paper, I screwed up Slide Thru for the first couple of times before figuring it out. Cloverleaf was a no-brainer. I had some problems with Turn Thru. They were doing it from the Ocean Wave position, and the Japanese animation I had studied doesn't show that. I managed to work through Spin the Top most of the time, although I was in a different position than the animation website. I'll need to work on that one. The ECR dancers are very supportive and great to work with. I gained LOTS of confidence that night. I'm sure I'll have no problem joining the Plus class with Foggy City in March. Tonight I'm going to their MS workshop.

Thursday - I had spent the night at Steve's. I had packed my stuff for IBR a couple nights before and put them in Steve's car, but I forgot several items. Too much on the mind! We stopped at my place before heading to the Ramada. I went ahead at that time and delivered the extra BITC stickers to the merchants in the Castro. That worked out well. Steve waited at Starbucks where he ran into hunky Bob Singer. After that, we went to the Ramada to check in. Our room wasn't ready. I waited in the lobby while Steve worked in the Coit Tower room on his dinner seating reservations. We finally checked in, then Steve went to go pick up Darwin and Gene. Steve and I then walked up to Hayes Valley for dinner at Flippers. It was a nice little gourmet hamburger place. Very good hamburger with good steak fries. It was right next door to Marlena's, a drag bar which we had never visited. We stopped there after dinner for a beer. They had pics on the wall of all the SF "emperors and empresses." One of the former emperors from YEARS ago, Steve, was in the bar. I happened to see him again this morning at Starbucks! We went to BOSF member registration, and then to the Lone Star for the Welcome Party. I had a good time and got fairly plastered. It was TOO crowded at one point, but then it died down to a reasonable-sized crowd. I counted kegs with Steve, since that was my "duty" for the night. We went through four, so that's probably a reasonable expense for the club. (We provided free draft beer, the LS paid for the food.)

Friday - Got up early for Pier 39/Alcatraz. Check-in for the first bus went well. It was a 57-seat bus, and I only had 3 empty seats. Very good! Darwin had the two 11am busses, but only ended up using one of them. It's very hard to plan bus capacity for this. After early-bear registration ended at the beginning of January, 65 people had signed up for Alcatraz. I went ahead and ordered 80 tickets. We ended up with around 83 people signing up. There were several no-shows, but we had some people who went standby. I only had two unused tickets left, as opposed to 30 unused tickets last year. Very good! The extra "park ranger" tour that Bud helped me to arrange didn't turn out to be very exciting for the guys, but they went with the flow. Most also went on the audio tour. I was busy buying audio tours for the guys for most of the trip, so I once again didn't see much of Alcatraz. The place where the magazine cover pic was taken was currently off-limits, so I was unable to get my pic taken there with the magazine in hand. Grrrrr. I'll have to try again and actually do a "real" tour Alcatraz. Guys seemed to enjoy the trip. My 3pm return bus had about 30 guys aboard. Darwin's 5pm bus only had 4 people, which really sucked since he had two busses show up. We took over 100 people, so apparently the majority of them took the F-line streetcar back to the hotel. At least we gave them instructions and a map for that. Registration at the hotel went ok. I worked with Todd on the D-J line, which ended up with the most names, so the longest line. It seemed to go fine. After that I went to the Bearhug party. I mostly chatted with guys I knew. Nathan was good at enthusiastically encouraging me about square dancing. He's been doing it 9 years and is still enthused with it. I went downstairs but didn't see much that I was interested in. I stopped and watched some guys, then Jim from Santa Cruz came in and said "Fuzzygruf?" I've had my eye on him for a couple of years. We've chatted briefly online previously, and even more briefly at the LS. We finally got to connect and I got to see how talented his ass really is. :-) Later in the evening I went down and watched this guy do a great job of topping a few guys. He then approached me for a go. It ended up being a no-go. Just too tight. Maybe again one day.

Saturday - I didn't have any real "duties" until bingo. I ran into Dan J. at the Thursday welcome party. He and I had connected last year at one of the IBR Bearhugs. Dan was giving a reading from his book during "Paws for Words," so I ended up going to see him a few others do readings. The room was too warm and very uncomfortable, so I left after Dan's reading. It turns out that Dan was staying just across the hall from me, but we never got a chance to hook up. I was BUSY this weekend! I ran into Larry from Boston several times during the weekend. He's got the best eyes, and I'm so comfortable being around him. Again, no time to hook up with him except for chatting, hugs, and a few kisses. Damn. He's just so cuddly! In the afternoon, we went to Thirsty Bear for the "offline" party. Lots more people showed up than last year, but the venue turned out to be a good one again. We ordered off of a special menu, which was good since it included calamari, my favorite from there. Last year, food was provided, but I wasn't too thrilled. I'd rather pay. I met lots of guys there, including woofy Steve C. whom I had noticed during registration. Apparently Double-O-Steven was attracted to him as well and signalled me over to meet him. We went downstairs just after 3pm when the party ended. Turns out that the last bus left the restaurant at 3pm on the dot. About 70 guys were stranded in front of the restaurant. I was able to call Mark and have more busses sent out and let the guys know it would be about 25 minutes. Lots of groans. Most of the crowd found their own way back to the hotel instead of waiting for the bus. Steve and I caught a cab with a couple other guys. Steve then went to the Eagle beer bust while I went to take a short nap before bingo. I got up and was able to get all the bingo supplies moved to the ballroom in plenty of time. I had some volunteers show up and help set out the daubers on the tables. Ross showed up early and helped do that. :-) The line for bingo got really long. I was getting worried about the Sisters showing up. They were supposed to be there by 7:30pm. They did arrive a couple minutes before that. The doors for bingo were supposed to open at 7:30pm, but Betty wanted them shut while they rehearsed the opening number. Another 10 minutes with a crowd getting impatient. It takes 45 minutes each month for the Sisters to admit 200 people to bingo. We had more than that in line. I was nervous. Our system worked well, and once the doors opened, we got through the line within 15 minutes. Others straggled in after that. I had some good volunteers, especially Simon. Jim G. was supposed to be in charge of the volunteers, but he spent most of the time walking the crowd. I've learned not to count on him. Another reason that I don't respect the man. He'll definitely not be on my bingo volunteer list for next year! After bingo, I helped clean up. I got to the room and Steve was there. He was waiting for Steve C. from Thirsty Bear to show up, which he had told me. Well, he did show up, and we all had a good time. Nice!

Sunday - I got up early and then went to see Todd at the LS. He opened at 9am, but I was his first customer. I left an hour later, and his customer attendance had swelled to three. LOL. I then went to Dim Sum at 11am. That was ok. We sat with mostly locals, but some I hadn't spoken with much before. Most of the conversation was with Reverend Mike from Richmond. He wore his clerical attire (he had given an MCC service earlier in the Affinity room), and he was heading to the Peace March after Dim Sum. We got the bus back to the hotel and wandered around the tables for "Club Day." I picked up my SBB id tag. I like being known as their "newest member"! ;-) Steve and I then went to Civic Center Plaza for the Peace Rally. That was interesting, and I got some good pics that I'll try to post soon. We got back to the hotel and decided to hit the Lone Star for a bit before it got too crowded. It was quiet for awhile, but picked up nicely by 4pm. We got back to the hotel and Steve checked on dinner seating. I went to the room, showered and got ready for dinner. My room window looked out at the Holiday Inn. Lots of people were lined up on their balconies there taking pictures of something on Market Street. More peace march stuff I assumed. I got downstairs and found out that some splinter group of about 200 people had worked its way down to the intersection of Market and 8th. Cops were out in force in riot gear. Lots of rioting for a few hours. Very exciting to watch, and very nearby. Too close really. Some rioter "hid" behind a group of 4 of us before 2 cops came chasing after him. Whoops. We had no idea. A total of 46 people were arrested. Quite the "street theatre" that we provided for the IBR crowd! ;-) Dinner was ok. Fewer tables laid out this year, but still crowded. Thanks to Steve, we had great seats. The entertainment was pretty good. The contest was ok, although a bit long. They really did a bad job of eliminating the first round of contestants. They called their names to step forward, then let them know that they were out of the running. Very uncomfortable for the audience, so I can't imagine how those contestants felt. Things were pressed for time, so I think Lurch was just trying to rush some stuff and this particularly thing came off poorly. Other than that, Lurch did great. The rest of the contest was ok. The audience seemed to really like the judges choices for the winners. Especially, Klaus Regel, the new Mr. International Bear. Klaus was adorable. He had gone on my Alcatraz tour. A very friendly guy, and he'll be a great as Mr. Intl Bear. Steve and I went to the hospitality suite. He was really working the crowd, like a kid in a candy store. Darwin wanted to get away from the hotel after all the contest stuff, so I took a cab with him to the Lone Star. It was pretty busy, but lots of people had already gone over to Planet Big, so the crowd was not too bad. I stayed there for awhile then caught a cab back to the hotel with Darwin. Steve was no longer in the hospitality suite, so I went up to our room. He was in bed, waiting for a visitor. Apparently, he had already been to that guy's room, but the regular-sized condom was uncomfortable, and the guy needed a break. Steve said he'd be coming up to the room to try a female condom. I prepped Steve, then got in my own bed while Steve waited. Colin showed up and gave it to him good. Very nice to witness. :-P

Monday - We got up and went to the continental breakfast. Due to major storms on the east coast, several flights had been cancelled. Several guys had to stay in SF one more day. Lots seemed happy about that! During the auction, Steve and I packed up and took the stuff to my apartment. He was going to give Darwin and Gene a ride home later, but that didn't happen for some reason. I think they took a cab. We then went to the Lone Star for the farewell party. Steve was all over most of the contest winners. He was in his element. Klaus kept buying him drinks. I spoke with Klaus for awhile. VERY friendly fellow. Klaus was "letting" people kiss him often. Donovan was swooning over him, LOL. Steve was excited to kiss him. We were getting ready to leave, and Steve came to get me since Klaus "wanted" to kiss me. Ok. No problemo there! We liplocked for a good 30 seconds or more. Mmmmm. We got home and Steve was pretty tipsy. We went to Escape From NY for a slice. We then went to Daddy's for a beer. Jimmy was working, so Steve was quite a happy camper. Then we went to Starbucks to see if Steve's redhead Craig was there. Nope. We came home and waited for Craig's call, but nada. Steve had fallen asleep anyhow. I just stayed up and watched Joe Millionaire. ** YAWN **

Well, back to the work grind today. This huge blog entry has consumed much more time than I expected. Must do work!

Happy IBR to all! Below is my latest post from Wednesday morning. NOTE: I probably won't have a chance to make any additional posts until after IBR on Tuesday, 2/18.

02/11/03: Wednesday, 6:30am - Tuesday was indeed busy. I didn't get as much done at work as I wanted. Grrrr. I've got to try to be especially efficient today. I've still got lots of last-minute IBR stuff to do.

I left the office for a couple hours yesterday to check the logistics for Alcatraz. I found where to pick the tickets on Friday, so that's simple enough. The audio tour is gonna be a real hassle. They've moved the headsets all the way to the top of the hill. I spoke to Darwin, and we came up with a less-than-ideal solution. Once we get there, tell the people who want the audio tour to meet at the Cell House at a certain time. We'll see how that goes. Waiting for the boat back, I heard the park ranger talk about how Alcatraz means "pelican." He said that there were lots of birds on Alcatraz, but no pelicans. I had to laugh. There, in one of the window sills about one flight up from where the ranger was talking, sat perched a pelican.

My bi-weekly one-on-one with my boss went ok. I got my annual review. No surprises. Not good, not bad. I got a whopping 2% raise. No real surprise there either. At least it pushed me over the salary threshold so that now if I'm laid off, I get one additional month of severance pay.

Got home, and Steve showed up shortly thereafter. We went to Mike Ward's Cocktail Club get-together at Puccini Panetti, down by Union Square. I didn't know anyone besides Steve and Mike, but I had a good time talking with a couple who used to be his neighbors. We stayed for about 90 minutes then went to Tad's Steakhouse for dinner. We got home around 9:30pm. I did a couple loads of laundry and packed for IBR. After leaving today, I'm not sure when I'll be back. I'm taking the train down to Steve's tonight. Tomorrow we'll just go from his house to check into the Ramada.

Happy IBR to all!

02/11/03: Tuesday, 9am - I lost my id badge for work on the way home yesterday. The clip was still on my pocket, but the card had broken off the twine somehow. Grrrrr. Had to get a temporary replacement this morning.

Got home and Steve called. He almost caused an international incident yesterday. That man! His Pakistani-delegate-trick-guy was flying out yesterday after a trip down to Palo Alto for something. Steve gave him a ride down from the City, stopping at Steve's house for one last "send off." Right as they were starting to fuck, the guy has something similar to a heart attack. Apparently he had the same thing a couple years ago. Steve took him to the hospital, where they gave him the medicine he needed. Good thing the guy was ok. I can see the headline now, "Pakistani delegate to the U.S. dies while fucking gay American Jew." LOL.

I stopped on the way home and got some treats for square dance class. Easy this week....lots of Valentine candy, cookies, etc. I got to square dance class, and it seems that last week WAS my week after all. So I brought treats twice in a row. There were lots left over, so I brought them in to the office this morning.

Square dance class was fine. It was almost all review. He had forgotten to teach us Backtrack and Chain Down the Line, so we learned those. Everything else was easy review. Oh, we also learned to do the "clap" styling of Ladies Promenade. Big woo. He didn't even really know what it was. That's probably why he didn't teach it. Although I'm comfortable being one of the best in my class, I'm getting nervous on skipping ahead to the Plus class. I've learned the remaining MS calls on paper, but putting them into practice is another thing. And, I haven't found the "gay stylings" written down anywhere. I'll just try the Plus class, and if it's too hard, I'll drop it. Being as competitive as I am, I doubt that will be the case. I want to dance Plus level at the July convention! The lesbian couple was missing again. I don't think there is any way they can catch up. They'll just slow down the whole class. Someone had called them yesterday, and they said they were just "under the weather."

I LOVE my City. Have I told you that? What, a thousand times now? It's true. I was getting my coffee at Starbucks this morning, and some woman came up to me and said "We're both on the bandwagon now, eh?" I looked at her and politely smiled and said hello. It turns out it was a woman who worked at the Tully's coffee place I used to go to OVER A YEAR AGO. They were SO friendly there. Unfortunately, there are no Tully's anywhere nearby my office. I've got THREE Starbucks within one block. Within two blocks, there are at least SEVEN.

I discovered a great trick for printing black & white labels and trick cards. At home, the ink can be uneven, as well as the spacing. Not to mention printer jams. At work, the printer is clear across the floor, so putting in special paper stock isn't easy, trying to print before anyone else does. Now I just print one copy on regular paper. I then take that to the photocopier and copy it onto the special stock. Voila! Quicker, easier, and no more damned paper jams!

I need to get busy wrapping up my project today. I'm off work from Thursday until next Wednesday, so I need to have things nearly finished by tomorrow. I also need to work out logistics for the audio tour tickets for Alcatraz. Gonna be another busy one!

02/10/03: Monday, 11am - I packed up the car on Sunday morning with all the bingo supplies for IBR. I didn't realize how much stuff that was. And heavy! We got to the Ramada at 11am, one hour before the "stuffing party." We ate lunch at the restaurant. Great burger and fries there.

After we ate, we saw that lots of guys had showed up and were bringing in boxes from their cars. We did the same, but I had sense to use a luggage cart from the hotel. The stuffing party started out very chaotic, but we eventually got into a good routine. Tempers were a bit short, but everyone tried to keep arguments to a minimum. I just tried to keep fairly quiet and out of the way. I love assembly line work. I work across the table from Rob Pettipas. He was fun to work with. Darwin volunteered to give up his parking pass. Woohoo! Steve really needed one. In exchange, we offered to pick up Darwin and his luggage on Thursday. Victor was there and told me how "quiet" bingo was on Thursday without me there. No one yelling "Big Daddy," etc. My mischieviousness was missed. ;-) Everyone else finished and left the "party" around 2:30pm or 3pm. We were the only ones remaining while Steve finished up his dinner seating stuff. We got out of there around 3:30pm.

We then went to the Lone Star. Steve didn't even stay for one beer before heading to The Eagle. I stayed behind, since I never have a good time at The Eagle. I sat at the end of the bar, and met a cute guy named Alex. He mentioned something about my magazine pictures. I'm always flattered that anyone would even recognize me. It turns out that he knows Al Baum, the guy who owns the Caselli (Clarke) Mansion, where I live. I make my rent checks out toAl each month, but I've never met him. Small world. Alex had just had some photos taken last week, so I made him promise to email them to me. :-)

The beerbust was pretty decent, and I had a good time, not drinking as much as on Saturday. Steve's date from Friday was there and so was his trick from last Sunday. All three were chatting. That man just lines 'em up!

We left around 8pm and went to the german restaurant because Steve was "starving." We both had my favorite, jaegerschnitzel. I had an urge to order Spezi to drink, even though it wasn't on the menu. Spezi is basically a mix of Coke and orange soda. Coca-cola bottles it like that in Germany. They knew what it was and made it, no problem.

I didn't sleep too well. Got up and read emails. Alex followed through and sent me his pics. WOOF.

Got lots to do this week at work. I need to finish up this project, plus I have last minute IBR things to do. I printed the Alcatraz video coupons today as well as the $3 refund coupons for those who overpaid. I forgot my IBR "to do" list at home. I think I accomplished today's tasks. Not much prep work left for me.

02/09/03: Sunday, 8:30am - I ended up staying in on Friday night. I worked on some procedures for certain IBR tasks, artwork for coupons, etc.

Steve called me around midnight to let me know he'd be staying overnight with his date. I was asleep anyhow, so no biggie. Saturday morning I went out to Starbucks. I saw Bill & Andy there, and they actually talked to me for a bit. We usually only do the nod or "hi" thing. Since they are making some big donations for IBR bingo, I guess we have that in common now. They are very generous guys.

Got home to find Steve in the shower. We then "caught up" on the past couple of days and played a game of Scrabble. Steve napped, then we headed to the Lone Star, stopping first a Vees for dinner.

The beer bust was fun. I chatted with lots of guys, and got pretty trashed. I talked with Harry Lit for a few minutes. We had only briefly met once previously. He was able to clarify for me that Lazy Bear had 4500-5000 guys last year who showed up. That had been a point of discussion for some emails I'd had yesterday, so it was timely! He agreed to do an interview for the 3rd quarter BOSF newsletter, so that's another to-do task accomplished. Lynn Ludwig has agreed to do the 2nd quarter interview. Be sure to look for it in April!

I met Steve's Friday-night-date. He was really nice. I was expecting an accent, but not a British one. VERY nice.

Gotta miss church this morning in order to take all the bingo stuff to the Ramada for the IBR registration stuffing "party." That'll be a lot of work. Once we get past this, things should be mostly done for people until Thursday.

Also on Saturday, I was able to extend our hotel stay at IBR to include Thursday night. That'll make things much easier on Friday morning for the Alcatraz tour, since I have to be at the Lone Star until past midnight on Thursday for the Welcome Party. I was able to get the same VIP room upgrade as the rest of my weekend. Not sure what this "upgrade" involves, but we're looking forward to checking it out!

02/07/03: Friday, 5:30pm - After work yesterday, Steve came up. We went to Osaka for dinner, then headed to the Lone Star for the IBR meeting. The meeting was long, but we got a lot accomplished. Afterwards, we stayed until around 11:30pm. Drank a lot.

Got up this morning at 5am to submit the jobs for work. No problem there. I went back to bed for awhile, although I didn't sleep.

I "worked from home" today. Got stuff done between 7-9am. I went out at 10am to get my haircut. Steve went home then. He met some guy last night, and they have a date tonight. Steve probably will take him to his boat and then come back to my place late tonight.

After my haircut, I distributed materials for BITC to several places. Got home and realized that I couldn't download my work items, so I went into the office around noon to do that. Got the Alcatraz confirm email sent. Tried to send the Pier 39 email, but Yahoo thought I was trying to spam by sending out so many emails per hour. I'll have to send that out tonight.

I went to my doctor for a follow up visit. I weighed 226.5, which is down 6 pounds from 2 weeks ago. :-) My bloodwork looked good. Last time, the t-cell count had dropped from 600+ to 319. This time it was back up to 516, so I won't have to go back on meds. At least not for now. My viral load was 1969.

After the doctor, I distributed the remaining BITC sheets. I even made it down to Eros. First time in there. It was just after 4pm, so it had just opened. Two "customers" arrived while I was there. I'll have to do business there sometime. :-) I'm really bushed. Not sure if I'll go out tonight. Not going to happy hour, at least. I did get a shirt at one of the BITC merchants today with their store name: "Best in Show." Thought that might be a good addition to my t-shirt collection. I'll either wear it later tonight or tomorrow for beer bust.

02/06/03: Thursday, 7am - You can definitely tell IBR is coming up. So much to do all at once. It is pretty exhausting! John White agreed to get the BITC artwork copied. Yeah! One less thing for me. Steve is busy with his dinner seating reservations task. He's not fond of accepting suggestions, and it's frustrating. We spent nearly two hours at Jeff Glover's last night for them to work on some stuff. Once I figured out what they were doing, I realized I could have done it myself more cheaply and in a shorter period of time. Cheap & easy. That's me! We went to Office Max for some IBR Bingo stuff and to get name badges for Jeff. That was disappointing. I'll compare prices at Staples today. Some things are just too damned expensive!

Had lunch with David yesterday. We stopped at Pottery Barn and stalked Frank. Woofs.

Did research on Bush's State of the Union comment about AIDS drugs costing less than $300 per year. He was quite misleading. Turns out that Cipla, and Indian generic drug maker, has indeed offered to have the AIDS cocktail available for $350 per year. (According to the UNDP.) This compares to the $10,000-$12,000 paid annually by U.S. citizens. Since the pharmaceutical lobbies have so much influence, the government will keep the high prices here. More profits, less compassion. Bastards.

Boss was out sick yesterday. Nice! My timesheet was automatically approved since she didn't manually do it earlier in the week. Not that there were any discrepancies.... ;-)

Turns out that I screwed up some dates on my jobs at work for the past few days. Luckily it was only a small job, and I was able to replicate the data quickly. After the business partner reported a discrepancy, Eric found my problem. Whoops. Embarrassing, but fixable.

Today is going to be another busy one. Steve is going to stay at my place and wait for the bingo supplies delivery. I'm going to go price stuff at Staples during work, and work is going to be busy as well. Lots of IBR stuff today, then the IBR meeting tonight. After all this work, I'd better have a damned good time at IBR! :-) Wanna help?

02/05/03: Wednesday, 11am - My boss left work sick yesterday morning, so I just finished up my daily reports, clarified some project stuff, then headed home. I spent several hours working on the BITC card artwork. Got it done finally. Now it's just a matter of getting it copied. I emailed the artwork to John White, so we'll see if he can take care of getting it copied, or if I need to do it. Hopefully he'll do it!!

Got to the LS about 6:30pm...an hour before my meeting. I haven't been early on a Tuesday lately. Walter was working and still knew to get me a Bud Light without asking. These guys have good memories. Or I drink too much Bud Light. Or both!

The board meeting went quickly. Less than 30 minutes...a new record! Everyone is just focused on IBR. John Forrett arrived after the meeting ended. I talked with him for a bit. Mostly about driving, parking tickets, etc. Turns out he has a partner. He's kept it quiet for several months. They'll be moving in together soon. Good for him! I also found out that my vehicle is a BMW. That's Bart, Muni and Walking. :-)

Took Muni back to Castro and stopped at Daddy's to pee. I hadn't been there in awhile. They had a sign listing drink specials on Wednesdays for bare chests. Cool. I then stopped by Daddy's. I drank a beer before I heard Jeff Glover's voice from the other side of the bar. I chatted with him for a bit. Rhoda showed up as I was getting ready to go. I told him about running into someone he knows, to which he replied "Man-tits!" Oh yeah. I forgot that nickname. Eek.

Got home, called Steve, then fell asleep for a couple hours with my contacts still in. Ouch! I hate when that happens!

Working on some IBR procedures today. Going to lunch with David and hopefully run into Frank. Steve's coming up this afternoon, then we're going to Glover's for Steve to do some stuff for IBR dinner seating. Nothing else planned right now.

02/04/03: Tuesday, 7am - Yesterday afternoon I had a great conversation at Mike from bearfilms.com to arrange for their models at bingo. I love friendly people! It'll be good to meet him in person. I checked out their website later and saw that they had lots of IBR info. I knew they were going to do the "Naughty Screening Room," but I had no idea that they'd be doing a "Live Show" at midnight. I'll have to check that out!

Rhoda emailed to say that the folks from Judge Judy did call Dennis. Apparently Dennis is refusing to go on the show. I went ahead and sent off for forms to sue Dennis here in SF. He'll have no choice then and need to come up with the money. What an idiot. I think it's just that he can be so closeted at times. The closet is a LIE. I hate dishonesty. It was too late before I figured out that it's one of the traits that Dennis embodies.

Yesterday afternoon I remembered that it was my turn to bring snacky treats to square dancing. I got there and found out that my turn is NEXT Monday. Whoops. Oh well. Extra treats for all. At least next week will be easy to bring "Valentine" cookies, etc.

Square Dancing was pretty fun. The lesbian couple did NOT show up. I mentioned last week how they left before the end of class. Maybe they DID quit. Guess we'll see next week if they show. VP Steve had put out a sheet from Foggy City announcing their Plus class. Ron made a point to say that any class members should not even THINK about going to that class. Steve came up to me afterwards and said to ignore Ron and go anyhow. Several other angels thought I should go ahead. I spoke to Ron afterwards to let him know I still planned to go, so that I could be done with Plus prior to convention. I asked him for a list of remaining calls we'd learn up through March 10th, but he wouldn't tell me. That pissed me off. He probably just didn't know, since he doesn't seem to be prepared ahead of time. He probably just has a general idea of what to teach when, and then he figures out the day of class what he's going to teach. That's understandable, but Andy Shore PUBLISHES his teaching list order for his classes. Far be it from Western Star to publish ANYTHING. I'm so looking forward to joining the other clubs! Oh well, I'm going to study extra hard to learn the rest of the calls so that I do well in the Plus clas, even if it's just to spite Ron! Of course, I find it fun and I'd love to be able to dance Plus level at the July convention.

Got up at 5am and submitted the jobs for work. Now that the project has been delayed, it's a great burden lifted. I still have lots of work to do on it. Today one of my main focuses will be the artwork for the BITC passport.

02/03/03: Monday, 12:30pm - Got to church to find it all decorated for Chinese New Year. Very nice! Penny's sermon was very good and thought provoking. One thing she said was that since the FBI is profiling every mosque in the country, maybe we should register MCC-SF as a mosque. She was kidding, but it was an interesting notion. The Bush administration is just damned scary. She also mentioned something from the President's State of the Union address that I had missed. He said, "there is power, wonder-working power." The phrase "wonder-working power" comes from the chorus of the fundamentalist baptist hymn, "There Is Power in the Blood." Unless you're familiar with the hymn, you wouldn't recognize that "wonder-working" phrase. Using codewords to placate the religious right. Hmmmm.... Damned scary.

Dennis was at church. I couldn't really see him from where I was, but when he took communion he took up some guy with him. From behind, it looked like the guy might be decent looking. Turns out he was a butterface. You know, "decent body, but her face!" Egads. Whatever makes 'em happy. They took communion together, so that was interesting. When two people do that, the person administering communion usually prays "and bless their love for each other," or something like that. Guess maybe they're serious.

After church, Steve called and arranged to meet Christopher at Starbucks at 1:30. I made Steve some soup for lunch, then we played Scrabble before his date. Steve took a Viagra before leaving. ;-) The guy apparently wasn't interested. Steve called around 2:45pm to tell me the guy was a jerk and left. He patted Steve on the back. Steve hung out at Starbucks with Jeff & John, then stopped for a slice of pizza before coming home to get me to go to the beerbust.

South Bay Bears were doing the beer bust, which is always good. I gave them my application to join. They seem like a great group. Maybe belonging to that group will help with ideas for BOSF. Lee sold me raffle tickets. Mmmm. He said we missed a really good "Barely Social" party the last time. Glad he noticed my (our) absence! Steve spent some quality time with him last time. :-P

Dennis was there with the guy from church. They were all over each other. Raf & Dom were cute on Saturday, but this was more like "get a room." At least that's a comment I heard from someone who didn't know Dennis. Whatever. I'm all for public displays of affection.

Ken showed up with Robert. I tried to hang out with them, but Robert was too quiet and seemed to avoid looking at me. Ken was pissed that I didn't remain hanging out with them. It just didn't seem like good chemistry. I pointed out some hot pocket bear to Glover. Jeff stalked him in the trough and then into the main bar. Jeff introduced himself and me. His name is Mark and a cute lil daddy.

Steve met some cute redhead. I'm not a big fan of most redheads, but I thought this one was cute. They hit it off, so that made up for Christopher. He was cuter than Christopher anyhow. Steve ended up taking him home with him to San Carlos. Sounds like they had a good time. ;-) That's my daddyboy!

I got a cab shortly after 8pm and just came home. Nothing special.

Got up and submitted jobs from home for my project. Got into work around 9:15am. I did a bunch, and then the business partner requested an additional report be added. I used that to leverage the install date from 2/11 to 2/24. Woohoo! Now I won't be under so much pressure. Guess that means I can do a bit of IBR work during the day now! And the presentation we were to give tomorrow has been moved to next month. Yeah!

Looking forward to square dance class tonight. I mentioned to some ECR guys yesterday my plans to take the Plus class with Foggy City Dancers starting in March. They all thought it was a good idea. This should work out well. I'll have to remember to ask Ron tonight how far along we'll be. Today I reviewed the definitions for the remaining Mainstream calls we've yet to learn. I don't think it'll be any problem joining the Plus class.

Another gorgeous day today. Currently 57 degrees. Not bad for February! I had soup & salad from the cafeteria. Guess I should get out now and walk to take advantage of the good weather.

02/02/03: Sunday, 8:30am - Happy Groundhog's Day! Steve tells me if I see my shadow, it's 6 more weeks of sex. It looks sunny out. Woohoo!

Yesterday we went to lunch at the Cove. Saw Jim Graham and Drewby there. Again, I love living in a village! Went to Starbucks, but it wasn't too hopping. Raf was there with Dom, and they were kissing like school kids. It was cute. Jim & Terry informed me that evening that R & D have been going out for about 5 months now. Today's was my first time to see Dom. Ultra woofy.

Christopher never returned Steve's messages, so we went out together to the beer bust around 5pm. "Charlie" showed up. Guess I'm gonna have to use a pseudonym for this one. He is a piece of work. Lots of fun, a decent friend, but very high maintenance. Steve made the comment that next time he needs to bring two-by-fours in order to prop up this guy's ego. Charlie's got an overly-high opinion of himself, yet at the same time has very low self-esteem. He pissed me off a bit yesterday. I had mentioned something to him earlier, but asked him specifically not to mention it to this other person. Well, he did. I should have learned my lesson long ago with this guy. It's about the third time he's done that.

Some latino guy was hitting on Steve. Steve introduced me, then I wandered off to give 'em space. Steve told me later that this guy said to him that Steve could do much better than me. I'm not sure why guys say that. It was a turn-off to Steve. Who wants to hear that? If I'm interested in a guy who has a bf-not-to-my-tastes, I actually make GOOD comments about the bf. Obviously the bf has traits that this guy likes. If he's complaining about the bf, that's a different issue. Whatever. I love that Steve is open and told about that. We've got great communication going. (Ok, and fornication, too.)

Tom showed up, so I got to visit with him 2 days in a row. He then found someone there who was hunky, so that put him a good mood. :-)

We grabbed a coupon at the bar for Leticia's and went there for dinner. Crab enchilladas. Interesting. Not sure I'd get them again. But the $9-off coupon was a good thing. After dinner, we walked back to the LS since it was on the way to the car. We had one beer and then headed out.

Yesterday I got an email from a hot guy I had met in December. He's a friend of Irish Ed. That reminded me that I hadn't seen Ed in awhile, so I dashed off a quick email to him. As we were leaving the LS last night, Ed walks in. Got a good kiss from him. That's the 2nd time in a couple weeks where I've emailed someone I hadn't seen in awhile and then saw them out and about that same day. Maybe I should email Jack Radcliffe...

Got home, played Scrabble.then watched some TV. Steve got reflux really bad, so he couldn't go to sleep. I napped on the floor for a bit. Very uncomfortable. I really need a recliner or something, but that doesn't make sense if Steve and I move in together in 4-5 months.

Didn't sleep too well. Got up early and submitted some of the daily jobs for work in order to save time on Monday. This is going to be a busy week! Today I need to go to Starbucks before church to pick up the BITC paperwork from Ron. Then church, then lunch. South Bay Bears are hosting the beerbust today, so we'll be there. Ken's hot friend Robert is supposed to be showing up today. Apparently Ken told Robert what I said about him being sexy. Hmmmmmm.... Tune in tomorrow, I guess! ;-)

02/01/03: Saturday, 1pm - Well, it's been one month since I've been writing Blog entries. Already guys are mentioning things in it to me. That's pretty cool. Thanks for wasting your time on my site. :-)

I could not access work from home yesterday, so I had to go into the office. Grrrr. I had planned to work from home. Being hungover didn't help! It wasn't a very productive day. I got the daily reports completed, but not much else. Looks like I have to give an NFL (numeric field length) presentation next Tuesday. I had to move my doctor appointment to Friday afternoon.

Went to Bear Lunch with Steve. There was no place to sit. We had to grab 3 seats, then 3 more, then move a table for 2 over. 12:30pm is just a bad time for a big group to find someplace to sit. Chris said he might move it to 1pm during the winter months when we're inside. Steve and I got back to his car, and he had just gotten a parking ticket. We couldn't have been more than 2 minutes late. Grrrrr. I had stayed and chatted longer than I should have, so I'll give him the $35 for the ticket. An expensive lunch.

On the way home from work, I stopped at In-jean-ious and bought 5 t-shirts. They had a bunch I hadn't seen before. One was even on sale for $7.

I stopped at Cala and got stuff to make hamburgers. I forgot the Worcestshire sauce, though. Not the same without it.

I got to the Lone Star around 7:15pm for the 7:30pm mini pub crawl. No one else was there that was going. Most of them showed up exactly at 7:30pm. It was Mark & Steve, John, Jeff, Darwin, Donovan, and Chris. We went to Power House, My Place, Hole in the Wall, The Eagle, and back to the Lone Star. We had a beer at each place, and a shot at a couple. I held up pretty well, though. Double-O-Steven showed up around 11:45pm, and I wasn't shit-faced, so he was happy. Rhoda showed up, too, so we chatted for awhile. It was a fun night out.

Going out to lunch, then who knows. Steve might go out with Christopher, so I'll probably just go to the beer bust.