Yesterday I had lunch with the work bears. FxBear is doing well. Last fall he had elbow replacement surgery. Afterwards he forwarded me an X-ray of his elbow-- it's mostly metal! It's like he's become the bionic man.

I'm going to build my own Stereo. I was talking to a audiophile co-worker about good stereo's for under $1000. He mentioned I could get something that sounded like a $5000 system for much less if I built my own, . He also pointed me to BottleHead A company that provides do-it-yourself stereo kits. A friend of his has one and likes it very much.

I thought about it for a moment and decided to do it. I want to build my own stereo. I've purchased the Paramour Amp kit and the Foreplay Preamp kit. If I like how they turn out then I'll build my own speekers.

I haven't soldered in years. Fortunatly I work with some engineers who can work me through the rough spots.

I'm back. I loved Puetor Vallarta. Last night i was looking at some of the photos I took and wanted to go back. The city its self isn't that great-- run down, dirty, 3rd world country. But the ocean and the sun make up for it.

I flew down with Mathew, Sandy, Mac and John.

Monday... we flew in. Sat in the sun for a couple of hours. Had dinner at a great restaurant (Pacfica) and hit the sack

Tuesday... We sat in the sun. Swam in the ocean and drank alot. Our bar tab (including food) ran about US$120.00 We met a group that called themselves "The Bitches Of Hamelton." They were from Hot Springs. Arkansas. What an odd crowd. Old, occasional draq queens. Very much into drugs. They had more pot than they could smoke in a week, so they gave Sandy a few joints. They also had a lot of Xanax-- at some pharamcies, you don't need a perscription to buy drugs. Together they were every bad gay stereotype you had ever met. Not a butch bone in their bodies. They gigeled at every lame quip that rolled off their tired lips. Must be all the Xanax.

We tried to keep some distance between them and us. But, we were in the same hotel and on the same schedules.

In the evening we drove to the Poco Hotsprings. The tour was organized by a local gay bar. We spent an hour on the road in a very rickety bus.

The hot springs were good. The dinner was nice. A number of guys got in on and had sex. At one point, an exhibitionist with a boner walked right towards the by me. I joked that I thought my eye was going to be poked out.

Wednesday things went a bit sour. We were on the beach talking about massages. The hotel offered massages. But, a guy on the beach offered erotic massages. We wondered what would you get with an erotic massage? Was a massage and a hand job cheating? That's were things went wrong. John said that a hand job and a massage was just a business transaction and wasn't really cheating. Mac (John's boyfriend) was very uncomfortable with that and said so, For the rest of the day he was very distant from John. They ended up arguing about it on the way to dinner.

Thursday I think things cleared up between Mac and John. At least they were holding hands again. We took a cruise. Saw dolphins, whales. Went snorkeling. Drank a lot. Swam in the ocean. It was a great day.

Thursday evening John got sick. Bleah.

Friday we hung out by the beach. Mathew and I took a walk through more of Vallarta. Very beautiful. Very touristy.

Friday night Mat, Sandy and i had dinner at the Red Cabbage. I thought the food was very good. Mathew on the other hand, got sick. We're not sure if it was the food at the Red Cabbage or something else

Saturday, Mat and Mac rested. John stayed in Vallarta, but Sandy and I went to Poco's Paradise-- a privage gay beach. Very quiet. Very relaxing. It's a nude beach. Sandy and I went nude for a bit, but one of the Bitches of Hamelton kept trying to take our picture. He stoped once we made it very clear to him that we didn't want pictures. But still, just in case, we stayed dressed.

Sunday. Last full day in Puerto Vallarta. We took it easy. Mathew and Mac are still a bit sick. John is stressing out. He doesn't take new situations well and John's being sick has weighed heavilly on him. We hung out at the beach durning the day. Mat and John will only eat American at this point-- Mac Donalds for Lunch. Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Sandy and I are fine.

After the two couples went to bed, I went up the roof top bar and had a few drinks. I chatted with a guy, but he was only interested in Latino's.

Monday we flew back. Sandy took two Xanax to releive his flying anxiety. By the time we got back to Seattle, he was gigly and slightly sluring his words.

Random things I want to remember...

At night the ocean has glowning blue creatures. They're small-- a spec of sand. But they glow a beutiful blue

The waves can be loud. When some of the larger waves crash, my windows rattle

There are very few masculine men in this town. The other guys want to fix me up (I'm the only single guy) but, non-effemantive men are very hard to find. We spotted one, but after talking to him, it turned out he has a boyfriend

Frank from Vancouver is in Seattle. Steven , Vic (Steven's BF), Frank and I met for drinks at the Cuff. Frank and I hung around all evening. Vic and Steve both commented that I should go after Frank. He's a good man with a good job. I said I wanted to but Frank always played it cool-- Frank would be receptive if I touch him, but would never touch me. Frank would let me kiss him, but wouldn't kiss me.

Later on Frank said he was tired and was going back to the hotel. I invited Frank to my place. He agreed. We slept together. Cuddled all night. In the morning I tried to have sex with Frank but he stopped me. He said in December he broke up with a guy from Victoria. The break up was hard on him. So he wasn't in the mood. I left it at that.

Later I found a note on my truck from Steven. It said "Slut! No, i didn't really mean that, I hope you had a nice time."

I had breakfast with Steven and Vic. They gave me atta-boy's for going home with Frank. I told them Frank's story and that we didn't have sex. We analyzied it a bit and figured that Frank is probably still seeing someone.

Oh well.

I'm heading down to Puerto Vallarta on Monday morning. This will be the last post till Jan 28th.

My truck is getting old. It's going through more oil. For the first time in the 5 years that I've owned it, I had to put a quart of oil in the engine inbetween the 5000 mile checkups.

C2 lectured me today. Often when it comes to politics I'd rather not argue about it. I think this comes from my family. My parents would never debate politics. If a disagreement came up, they would change the subject.

C2 has noticed that trait in me as well... avoidance of political argument. But, when the labour camps in North Korea hit the news yesterday, he wanted me to argue about it. He said that some issues were too important to ingore... such as the war on terrorism, Iraq and North Korea. And that I needed to be more comforatble with disagreement between people and to be ready to defend my opinions.

I agreed with him. Just to avoid an arguement.

I had lunch with with the work bears. Bruce showed up. It's the first time he's done so in months.

I tanned again last night. I'm slightly red now, though it's starting to look good. If I take my shirt off you can tell I used a tanning bed. The tane fades very quickly along my sides and is very strong on the parts that were in contact with the bed.

Tonight I had dinner with Steven. He's starting to fill out the paper work he needs to move to Canada. His BF is in Victoria. For other reasons he is going to quit his job this summer. Since it's a natural break from his career, he wants to move closer and build their relationship. I wish him luck.

We had dinner at The Pumphouse. It's a good restaurant. They have 160 different beers on tap.

Unfortunatly, without leaving Seattle, I can't run from Harry. We have many common friends, some of whom are his neighbours.

The Seattle gay scene is very small. Between C6, C2 and I, we know every non-femme gay man in western Washington.

I played hockey last night. We lost 3-1. I actually played a good game. Although, I did get an equal strength roughing penalty.

I'm about to get hurt again. This wound will be self inflicted. I was looking through Yahoo Personals and saw Harry's picture and ad. I sent him an email and asked him out for dinner. No Strings. No Pressure. Part of me wants very badly to date Harry. Another part of me needs to hear him say "No." It would help me move on.

I keep hitting "Send/Receive" in Outlook. Is this the new millennium version of waiting by the phone?

Damn it. I just got another piece of spam. My heart went through a mini-rollarcoster. "I got new email! Oh, it's just spam."

At least I'm heading down to Puerto Vallarta next week. Having a wounded heart on a sunny beach sounds so much better than having a wounded heart in rainy Seattle.

Sunday evening I went and saw Star Trek: Nemesis with two of the pb's. Nemesis is an ok action flick.

I went to the Cuff afterwards. I think the Cuff is dieing off. It's not nearly as popular as it used to be. two or three years ago, the Cuff would be backed for the Sunday night beer bust. Now it's not even a third full.

Interesting trivia that I've been meaning to write down... The Coca Cola Company calls the coke ribbon the "dynamic ribbon device"

I didn't do much on Saturday. I had stomach cramps, so I took it easy. In the evening, I went to a house party at Ryan & Jen's. It was good to see them again.

Sunday morning, I had brunch with Mike, Sandy, Mathew and two of the pb's. We made some of our final plans for Puerto Vallarta. A week from Monday we fly down to Puerto Vallarta. We are staying there for a week.

I hate regret. I wish I didn't have feelings for Harry.

Harry has started seeing one of the pb's. When I heard this, my heart sunk.

Other than that, I went over to Mathew and Sandy's for dinner, a movie (Monsters Inc) and cards.Afterwards, I drove to Mike's and we went to the Cuff. We talked a bit, and I gave him the "Let's just be friends speach"

Had dinner with Steven. It was the first time I've seen him since mid December. Things are going ok with him, though he is stresssed now.

For the past year Steve has been in a long distance relationship with a guy from Victoria. Christmas was good because they got to spend two weeks together. Now that they are apart again, Steve is a bit bummed.

Steve has decided to leave his company. It's merging with another company and they are downsizing the staff. Steve doesn't like the direction the merged company is taking, so he's asked for a package. He's not sure what to do now. Part of him wants to move up to Victora, to be with his BF. But he's not sure how fast he can get a visa. It may take years. It may take days.

Last night, Mike came over for dinner. It was plesant although conversation with him is difficult. There were lots of awkward silences.

We did have sex, though he didn't spend the night. He has a very cute body.

We are supposed to get together again on Saturday evening.

No. I'm not falling for Mike-- bad conversation, plus he lives a very different life then me. I earn a lot more than he does I don't want to be a sugar daddy.

Cor is up to his old tricks. He told me that Mike called and then he fed me a line about how the two of them flirted and how Mike wanted to meet him. I asked Cor when Mike called and Cor laughed. He said mike hadn't really called. He saw Mike's number on a "Cuff" business card and decided to bug me.

C2 has found Norm (See Dec 20th) Norm hasn't been captured by the Brazillian goverment and charged with sedition. Instead he moved to Phoenix. His mother is sick and he's taking care of her. C2 is going to Phoenix to visit Norm. Good vacation and Norm owes him $1400.

Tonight I used a tanning bed for the 1st time. It was just a 10 minute session since I'm prone to burning. I'm going to Peurto Vallarta at the end of January, and I don't want to burn once I get there. I can't say I noticed a colour difference, but it did chap my lips.

Yesterday I had a second date with Mike. We went hiking at Snoqualmie Falls. It was fun. We did have a romp in the bed. He has a hot body. I'm not going to analyze the situation yet. I want to get to know him better before I judge him.

Cor is back. He spent the last 3 weeks touring Asia-- China, Japan, Korea and Tibet. He had a great trip though he's very jet lagged right now.

Played hockey last night. We lost 5-1. It was the first game I played in a few weeks. I missed a game when I traveled. Also, the season suspends over Christmas.

Yesterday I bought a light box Basically it's a very bright light on a stand. You sit next to it for about 30 minutes in the morning.



I've been very groggy this winter.When it's cloudy and rainy during the day, I have problems getting out of bed, I feel tired and have low energy. Once the sun goes down, I wake up.

It has definitely wakes me up in the short term (for a few hours after I use it) We'll see how well it works after in the long term.

Tommy, is it more sunny in LA?

Last night I had dinner with C2, Mathew and Ryan. After dinner, C2 went home. Mat, Ryan and I headed to the Seattle Eagle. It was "Pee Night." Several guys asked us if we were there for the wet party. The Eagle is a very skanky bar. A lot of the patrons don't look healthy.

Had a fun first date on Thursday. We had lunch together. After lunch we went snowboarding. He never snowboarded before, but when I told him I was going, he asked if he could come along. So, I showed him the basics.

He's a cute, nice man. I'm going to get to know him better. We'll see how things go. He words most weekdays during the evenings, so scheduling may keep us apart.

I spent new years eve with Mathew and Sandy. We had dinner at 13 coins. Expensive. Mediocre food.

I also dropped by their new place. They are all unpacked. It looks like a home now.

Weird milestone. My blog has had more than 5000 hits.