A friend of a friend emailed me and asked me out for a date. He's a nice guy, but I don't want to date him. What's the proper way to say this? Be blunt? Don't reply to the email?

Last night I planed the back deck some more and went hot tub shopping on line. I can buy a good hot tub from Home Depot or Costco for about $3,000.00 less than Jacuzi or Olympic. Jacuzi may have some special features, but it won't make me $3,000 happier than the Home Depot special.

I went hot tub shopping on Sunday. They are a bit more than I had thought.

Sunday evening I had dinner with Steven. When I told him about the price of the hot tubs, said I may have gone to the top-of-the-line stores. I should look at HomeDepot or Costco and save myself a few thousand dollars.

A friend of Steven's joined us for dinner. During the evening she made hald a dozen jokes about Steven or I marrying her, or donating sperm to her. It was creapy after a while. Her biological clock is ticking very loudly.

After dinner I went to the Cuff and the Eagle for beer. It was quiet at both. I ran into my contractor. He said work starts on my place a week from today.

Friday night C2 and I watched movies. Adaptation, The Matrix and Three Kings

Saturday morning, we did some planning for my back yard. I want to build a deck and a hot tub.

Saturday afternoon, Reed called me up. We hung out for a while.

Saturday evening, C2 and I went to see TheatreSports. Theatre Sports is competition improv comedy. I enjoyed myself.

John is really starting to hype to PB's. He's even started their own group. He also wants to open a web site to sell PB merchandise.

We had survivor potluck last night. It was really just a pretense to get together to celebrate C2's birthday. Last year when his birthday came up, he vanished. So, we couldn't hold a party for him. This year he didn't know it was comming.

Maintenance day on Sunday. I did some planning for a deck and a hot tub. C2 wants to help me build it.

Also, I fixed the water supply going to the fridge. One of the first things I did when I moved into the new house was to break the fridge's water filter. The filter was in a tight space and I didn't have the right tools. I broke it when I replaced it. I tried to fix it, but ended up cursing the previous owner for putting the filter in such an awfull location. After that I ignored the filter for two and a half months.

Sunday I went to Ace Hardware and bought the right tools. A couple hours later the filter was working. I have ice again.

Saturday I helped move a co-worker. I kind of like her friends. If I wasn't out at work before, I am now. One of the co-workers friends was nicked named "Lesbian Galor" In front of everyone, in a loud voice, Lesbian asked me to start comming to our company's GLBT social nights.

I agreed.

Afterwards Matt, Sandy, C2 and I had a crab boil. I bought 3 live crabs. We cooked and cleaned them at Matt and Sandy's. Matt couldn't eat them. He made himself some chicken. Sandy was a bit squimish when he saw the crabs wiggling their legs. C2 and I didn't have problems

The crab was tasty. The big problem with crab is that it's hard to get the meat out of the shell. You do a lot fo work for a small bite

For Thursday Potluck, we watched the 1st episode of "Survivor: Pear Islands." I'm not a big Survivor Fan, but Sandy and John are.

Before dinner, John and C2 carved me a jack o'lantern. C2 brought a pumpkin as a gift. He cleaned it out. Then John carved the face. They did a good job. To bad the jack o' lantern won't last till Halloween

Ahhh! My parents want to celebrate Christmas at my place. The whole family will be here.-- my parents, my big sized brother, my medium sized brother, his wife and their kid.

Spent most of Sunday with Reed. I hope Steven doesn't read this post. I told him I didn't see Reed last weekend.

Saturday was a maintenance day. I sprayed the roof off and cleaned the gutters out. They were full of conifer flowers. I hope I didn't clean the gutters too early. I only have one fir trees around me so I should be good.

In the afternoon, C2 and I went to Fry's They opened a new store just south of me. There is a lot of stuff there. Most of it is well priced. They have everything you need to build your own PC. But, I don't think you'd save much. Also, it would be very frustrating.

Went to a dental surgon today. I had an abcess/infection in my cheek. He cleaned up up.

Tonight I had dinner with C2, Cor and Cor's new boyfriend. I know this will appear as I'm a cyncial bitch, but I don't think they will last more than six months. They are both big players who don't hesitate to jerk the men they love around.

On the other hand, that may be why the work out.

I'll be happy for them in six months.

Poor Bouncing Bear-- http://www.komotv.com/stories/27113.htm

Last night, for the first time in weeks, I worked out. I couldn't work out becaue of the surgery, but I think the cut has healed enough that I'm fine.

C2 is back from NY. He flew their for the week to visit and old friend, and to sort of date a man he met a few weeks ago at NX4. When I asked him if he was in love, he said "Yeah right!"

I'm trying to write a book about being a bear in the Pacific Northwest. I've started jotting down a few funny anicodtes but that's not enough. I need a good story to tell-- I haven't found that yet. So far it's about guys who drink and talk and eat together-- just like my life..

Hmmm

"That was fast!"?!? I haven't really dated anyone in over a year and you say It was over fast?

;-)

There are a lot of complications that I didn't mention. Reed isn't a nice man. He drinks a lot and is a bit of an asshole. He shaved off my beard and likes to tell me how to dress. He has some bizarre fetishes like this barber/dental thing. He liked like me to lie back in his barber's chair so he could shave me or brush me.

I know there are more fethishes that he hasn't told me about. I was looking through his lap top and found a folder of pictures of women in diapers.

He says he's mostly straight, so he doesn't know if his feelings for me will carry on. He is very sure he will never be able to come out to his friends or family.

As Steven said, "Run Away!"

With my beard shaved off everone is talking. Some of the more hard-core-facial-hair guys feel I have sold my soul.

Spent the weekend with Reed. It was a fun weekend. But, it's over between us. No broken hearts. Just an agreement.

It's raining today. This is the first time in months that it's rained. I guess the summer is over.

Today I had lunch with C5. Things are doing well with him. He said that Harry is dating someone. I didn't really feel bad when he told me. Guess I'm over Harry.

Things are going well with C5. He and his partner are going back to Lake Ozette next weekend. He asked me if I wanted to come along. I might.

I've been talking a lot with the guy I met last weekend-- Reed. Reed is away on business till Friday, but we call each other several times a day-- hurray for free long distance cell phones. We'll see if I go over my 1500 minutes a month.

Reed gets back Friday night. We're meeting up then.

Tonight I had dinner with Steven. It was good to see him. He's been traveling a lot.

We talked about lots of things. But, since his partners friends read this journal, I can't say what. ;-)

I had a fun long weekend. I met someone. I'm pretty sure he's not "The One" But, he's fun and we're spending a lot of time together. For now I'm just going to relax and see what happens.

He's not out of the closet and not comfortable with the whole gay thing. When we see a friend of his, he fibs and makes sure the friend things we're together for 'straight' reasons. It get's tired after a while.