Cor is up to something. Last night he had me measure his chest, biceps and waist. He also asked me several times if I thought he was fat, or if he was attractive, or if he was sexy.

Frank from Vancouver was in Seattle on business. We had coffee in the afternoon. His schedule was too full to meet in the evening.

Steven asked me if I was intersted in Frank. If Frank put some effort into it, I'd date him, but he's playing it very cool.

I had my annual physical today. It looks good. My blood plateltes used to be low, but they've climbed back to normal.

Steven's boyfriend is sick. Steven is not really sure what's going on. His BF is in the navy, and was sailing down to San Diego. Last night, they air lifted his BF to a hospital. Steven doesn't know the details and is trying out find out more.

Played hockey last night. We won 4-3. I didn't play a great game, all 3 goals against went in while I was on the watch. Our goalie was to blame for 2 of the goals, but still it doesn't feel good.

Afterwards I went over to Ryan and Sandy's. They had a dinner party earlier on that I couldn't go to (cause of hockey) So, I droped by afterwards and had dessert and beer with them. This was the 1st time I've been to their place. Sandy has 4 persian cat's. They are very friendly and cute. But, they get hair everywhere.

Last Wednesday I had dinner with Mathew and Steven. About half way through dinner Mathew said, in his trade-mark, no-holds-barred style, that he doubted I would ever get married. I was too picky. I banged my head against the table. Steven defended me. He said I would get married, but hadn't found the right man yet. We had a good laugh over it.

Thursday C2 and I drove to Olympia and had Thanksgiving dinner with C2's family. He made it sound like his family is psychotic. They're not. The dinner was good. Oddly enough, a trama center nurse and a mortician were at the dinner. They could kill any conversation in two seconds flat.

Thursday evening C2 and I headed up to Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood for snowboarding. Unfortunatly there wasn't a lot of snow. One run was open. I boarded it in the morning. In the afternoon, C2 and I took the lift up, and then hiked down the hill. It was a beautiful sunny day.

We goofed around and read Friday evening. Saturday morning we headed back for home.

Saturday evening I had dinner with Steven and his partner. Afterwards we went to the Cuff.

C6...

Wednesday evening. C6's ex-wife left a weird message for C6, then drove off and abandoned their daughter. The daughter eventually called 911. She's ok but shaken. C6 is very uncertain. He wants to keep his daughter in the same school, but that means he has to work out living arragements for her.

C6 said he wants to talk about his situation, but also he's tired of talking about his situation. He's uncertain of himself. Both of his ex's have gone psycho. That makes it hard for him to trust anyone.

On Sunday C6's ex-wife left a message from him. She's at a hotel in Montana. C6 doesn't want to talk to her.

We had a 10:30 PM hockey game last night. Jen spent the evening at my place before we headed out to the game.

It ended up being a bad game. We lost 5-3. The team started arguing about half way through. Our goalie, who isn't that great, is kind mouthy. When the going got tough, he started swearing at the other players.

Bleah. Last night I chatted on the internet for too many hours. I do that every now and then just to get it out of my system.

Cor and Scott had dinner with Brent and Sean. Cor knows that I like Brent. When he came home, he told me to forget about Brent. Brent is very much in love with Sean.

Social Weekend Friday I had dinner with C2, Steven and G. Steven and G are great talkers, so the conversation was lively. In fact, Steven suggested that we start a gay talk show called "The Gay View"

Saturday morning, I worked with C3 on some large art work he's creating for a laywer. It's going to look good. All that's left to do is color calibrate and print out the work. It's going to be 4'' x 8''

Saturday afternoon, I went to C6's and watched the Apple Cup (College football. UW Huskey's vs WSU Cougers) The Huskies won 29-26 in triple overtime. It was a good game.

After football I went over the Steven's. His new room mate moved in. She's an old friend who has a five month old baby. He doesn't really want to have the baby, but his friend needs a place. She is recently divorced. She wants to move back to Virginia with family, but it's going to take a few months to tie up some loose ends.

Steven and I drove down to the Cuff and chatted with the gang.

Now Cor... Friday night Cor met a guy named Scott. I've known Scott for a couple of years. He's a friend of Harry. Cor ended up spending the night at Scott's (He told me so) Then the next morning, whiel C3 and I were working, he showed up with the guy he dumped last weekend. They went to Cor's bedroom and had sex (The computer room is next to Cor's room) Now last night, Cor slept over at Scott's.

Cor seams to like Scott, but I'm sure he'll find a reason to dump him in a few weeks.

Today my work team went to see Die Another Day. It's very James Bond. Lots of big stunts. Weak Plot. Fun movie.

Today I had lunch with the east side bears-- C2, Steven, Cor, G, T&J, Bruce and C3. It was good. Of couse Bruce and C3 arrived late-- about 40 minutes late.

I'm suprised how perceptive Steven is. He picked up some odd vibes from T about J about their new house. Later on he asked me about it. I told him that J lost his job about a month ago and the two moved into their new house last week. So T is a bit stressed and annoyed that he's the one paying for their house.

Last night I had a bunch of guys over for dinner... Cor, C2, Mathew, Sandy and two of the pb's. It was fun. We planned a trip to Mexico at the for the end of January.

Right now the two pb, Scott and Tom, are dating. I'm not sure how long that's going to last. Tom is clearly very in love with Scott, but he's also very controlling-- that's buging Scott.

In June Tom was in Seattle on vacation. He met Scott and fell for him. Shortly afterwards Tom moved here from Kentucky. Well, he was supposed to movie in with a friend and just date Scott, but the friend flaked out and Tom ended up moving in with Scott. Since then Tom has rented a room at another place, but he doesn't spend much time there.

Every time Tom mentioned that he and Scott here living together, Scott said "No we're not."

Lunch

My work-team go for lunch together almost every day. It's so predictable we don't even say "Would you like to go for lunch?" Instead, at noon someone stops outside your door and says "Blabbabaallal!

That was until today. Today, we switched to telepathy. At noon three of the guys stopped outside my door, said nothing and just staired at me. I got up and joined them. We walked to the last guys office, stood silently outside his door and staired at him. He got up and joined us. Then we went for lunch.

I napped a couple of times on Sunday. In the early evening, I went to a house warming party thrown by my ex manager. Most of the people there were work people.

Later on, I played hockey. We won 5-3. I had an ok game.

Monday was an busy day. After work, I met with a guy named Art. I'm ot sure what to make of Art. He runs this group call BTO that, well, provides an atmosphere for bisexual married men to meet and play with other bisexual married men. I am neither married, nor bisexual, but Art has been trying to get me to join the group for over a year. Today another guy and I met Art for a drink. He gave us the sales pitch for the group. The 3rd Thursday of every month they meet in a hotel. I'm not going to go but it was an interesting chat.

After Art, I had a date with Derik. He's a nice guy, but I'm not really attracted to him. We had dinner at "Bill's off Broadway".

After Derik, C3 came over to my house. A lawyer in NY has commisioned him to do some large images and art work. We played around with the scanner and printer to see what the source material would look like when magnified ten times. We got mixed results. The flat images scanned in very well. But, when we tried to scan in a weave, the scanner couldn't focus properly. The parts of the weave in contact with the glass were fine. The parts off of the glass were blury. C3 is going to try and find a scanner that can handle 3D source material. Either that or he's going to take a macro-shot with a regular camera. Then we can scan in the resulting photo.

Frustrating Saturday night. I went to the Cuff. Harry was there. We hung around and talked, but he ignored me physcally. It was so frustrating. I want to hold him and kiss him so badly.

I met another nice guy at the Cuff. I got his number. I'll give him a call and see what happens.

Friday was quiet. In the evening I had dinner with C2 and Derik.

After that I went to the Cuff for a while and said 'Hi' to the gang. My ex, Brian, was there. He's got a new boyfriend.

This morning I drove C2 to Tacoma to pick up his new car. It's a 1990 'Z' This is a big improvment for C2-- the old car was a 77 'Z' We talked about his wheeling and dealing... much of what C2 spends his money isn't store bought/above-the-table. One of his favorite places to eat has the nickname "The Illegal Taco Stand" It's a truck and trailor that pulls into local parking lots, puts out a sign and sells food. His mechanic operates out of two storage lockers at a U-Store-It. Most of his cloths are promotional items given away by companies to sell their products.

I'd like to learn how C2 gets all of his connections

Cor is stressing out. He called me this morning and told me he was dumping his current boyfriend He said he really wants to meet a good man and settle down. We joked about it for a bit. I told him couldn't really help but mabye C2 could. A while later he sent C2 and I this email...

---------
C2, Barry

HELP

I need a husband who :

1) Is intelligent, a Master degree will help. Foreign languages too.
2) Well traveled (been to at least 30 countries but not on Business trips). Like adventures.
3) Got a good job
4) Very good looking, latin or white
5) Masculine, to the point that I will not see anything gay in him
6) Good in bed (and outside of it too). A good size will help a lot. Has to be very sexual.
7) Live in the Seattle area
8) Able to love, care and move in
9) Good body, muscular and outdoor guy
10) Like to share a life, completely faithful.

I am tired to “break the hearts”. Two in a week is too much. Therefore I need someone close to above description. Enclose is one pic of mine a couple of weeks ago.

Do you know anyone?
---------

C2 and I had lunch together and had a good laugh over Cor's email. C2 and I have been single for years now. We'd be overjoyed if either of us could meet a man with half of Cor's criteria.

I think that Cor is about to learn a painfull lesson about being single. Part of me feels sorry for him. Part of me says "Join the club."

I had hockey practice last night. When I got home Cor had a new guy over. I guess his Las Vegas BF is out.

C2's friend Derik, the guy we had dinner with on Friday is persuing me. He sent C2 an email saying so. Derik and I are having dinner on Monday.

Oh yeah. Cor has dumped his Las Vegas boyfriend and is seeing someone new.

I played hockey last night. We lost 4-0.

Other than that I had a quiet Sunday.

When it rains, it pours...

One of C2's friends, the one C2 and I had dinner with on Friday, asked me out on a date. I haven't replied yet. The friend is a cute and nice guy, but it doesn't sit well with me. I've heard to much gossip about him. I'm trying to forget the gossip and just get to know him better. But, my mind isn't that easy to change.

Also C2 wants to introduce me to another guy-- Big T. Big T is my age and size.

Also, I heard from Harry again. We exchanged short "Hi how are you doing" emails. I really need to forget about Harry. However, he still makes my heart beat fast.

I think I'll say yes to the offer for dinner and then go from there.

Friday Evening I had dinner at Siam's with C2, Cor and two for C2's friends. It was a good dinner. The two friends were very much into the gay scene... trophy fucks... hanging out where the hot men are. After dinner C2 asked me what I thought of the two friends. We simultaniously said "Typical Capitol Hill fags." Capitol Hill is the gay area of Seattle.

I had a beer at the Cuff afterwards. I met a guy and gave him my number.

The guy called me at 3am in the morning.

Next morning, I called the guy and we agreed to get together that afternoon.

We did get together that afternoon, but it didn't go well. He's not good at giving directions and he's a bit dyslexic so it took two phone calls to clear things up. Also, he spent a lot of time talking about how cute I was and how he was so attracted to me, and how I was his perfect type and on and on. It felt uncomfortable.

I left his place around 5pm and went to Bruce and C3's (Yes, we are talking again) We had dinner there and then went to see Bowling For Columbine. It's a good documentary. It tries to answer the question "Why is the gun crime rate in America so much higher than anywhere else?" It comes up with a few possibilites though nothing concuslive. Overall I recommend the Bowling For Columbine. It's has much to think about.

This morning I had breakfast with Steve and his boyfriend. It was good to see them again. Steven mentioned that I'm becomming quite the social butterfly. That a lot of social things happen around me and because me. He also mentioned that there is a fair bit of good gossip about. People think I'm attractive and wonder why I'm still single. A good ego boost.

Had a social day yesterday.

Yesterday, I had lunch with the bears I work with... PG, Steven, C2, Bruce and a few other guys.

Afterwork, C6 and I went to the Snowboard Conneciton to get ready for the year. I bought new bindings and had my boards tuned. Chris bought boots and bindings.

Afterwards, C6, Officer Rob, R and I had dinner at the Six Arms and then went to the Cuff for beer.

The wax they used on my snowboards smells like cherry. My garage and my truck now smell of cherry.

Cor and I had an argument last night. I wasn't in a great mood to begin with. I had low energy from the flu, plus I was tired. Cor walked in on me using the computer and saw me surfing some... ehem... porn. Cor made a mean joke how he was glad it didn't work out between us because I'm nasty (Sexually) and he's a nice man. At that point, I lost control. I vented about the way he treats men, especially thouse who love him. I also snaped at him about the way his jokes are always mean. He insults me and then says "Just kidding."

We stopped talking at that point. Later on I apologized. I told him I didn't really mean it and that I was in a bad mood from the flu.

This morning he called me up and apologized. He said that I was right and that the reason he was mean to me was that he was a bit jealous of me. I was the only man he wanted that turned him down, so now at times he feels jealous and wants to cut me up. He also said I was right about the way he treats men. And he's going to try and change his ways.

We'll see. No harm done. Cor and I are still friends.

I had dinner with Mathew and Sandy tonight. Two of their friends, Shil and Wayne came a long. By the looks of things, I've become Mathew's and Sandy's "token single friend." The two of them have moved on to "Couple Friends" I think this is more of Sandy's doing than Mathew's. I don't hold it against them. I don't think they know they're doing it. But, it's happening.

Dinner was good. A bit pricy though. We ate at Duke's on Lake Union.

I've been back to the doctor. We did a bit more digging. It looks like I have an alergy to the toilet paper I used while I had the flu. Normally the alergy wouldn't matter, but I used so much TP while I had the flu that a nasty butt rash broke out. It's in control now.

I've spent the past two evenings at home, resting.

Cor bought a house. It's about a 10 minute drive from my place. It needs some rennovation, but other than that it's a good place. I don't think he'll move in till January.

My first day back at work. I was had a good day. I didn't goof off, so I ended up being more productive than I had been in weeks.

Well, I'm mostly better. I still get tired easily. I'm not eating like I used to. But, I'm up and around.. walking around the block.

Cor has found a house he really likes and he's going to put an offer in on it. We went to see it today. It's a nice house. With some work it will be a great house.

Afterwards we had lunch together. He told me his woes and worry's. His Los Vegas boyfriend is very bad with credit cards. He has six cards all maxed out-- around $10 000. Cor has told the BF that the BF has to show some progress in paying down the debt before Cor will let the BF move in with him. I half agree with him, half disagree. From a business standpoint it makes sense. But from a romantic, through-better-or-worse standpoint, it's cold and calculating. I hope I never have to make that kind of decision.

I've been flat-on-my-ass sick for the past two and a half days. I feel better now, though I'm still slighly weak and I've lost 10lbs.

Wednesday afternoon, I got chills and felt tired. I drove home and went to bed. For the next 24 hours I did nothing but sleep, run to the bathroom and drink water. Thursday evening Cor gave me some granola, yoghurt and juice. I ate bit of that. Friday at lunch I had a piece of toast on peanut butter. Finally last night I started to feel better. I had two bowls of soup before I went to bed.

I was supposed to go to a Wedding in L.A. Oh well. I'll mail them my present.

I had lunch with C5. He rolled is truck a few weeks ago and just got it back today. He's ok. His truck took $4800 of damage.

I wonder if C5 knows I have a crush on him? I think he noticed me watching his body. He's been dating a guy for about a year so I don't mention it.

I just found out he's 48. I didn't know that. I'm 32.

I played hockey last night. We won 4-2.

Reconciliation (Another lame Drama)

Bruce's birthday is on Halloween and C3 is throwing him a party. Now, Bruce and I haven't talked since the incident back in September. I think they want to invite me to the party, but are unsure how I'll react. C3 emailed me, asked me how things are going and said it would be good to spend time together. Bruce emailed C2 and asked C2 how he should invite me to the party.

C2 called me and asked me how I felt about Bruce. He's going to have coffee with Bruce and talk about friendship etiquette. My opinion is basically “I don’t care, if Bruce wants to be friends, then he can put some effort into it.” C2’s opinion is that even though I was originally in the wrong, Bruce’s reaction was way overblown and now Bruce owes me an apology.

Last night I went to a dinner party thrown by Steven and his boyfriend. Good crowd. One thing was weird Almost all of Steven's straight friends are blond, long-haired women-- there were at least eight.

The party was good. We talked till late.

Friday evening, C2, Cor and I had dinner together. Afterwards we went to R Place. I haven't been there in years. It's changed. It's much more of a mixed crowd. Cor went into full man hunting mode. Which is weird, cosidering that over dinner he was telling us how much he was in love with the guy Vegas.

C2 went home. Cor and I headed to the Cuff. I said 'Hi' to a lot of guys, drank beer and then went home. I don't know what happened to Cor. He didn't get home till 4 in the morning.

Cor's other husband, the guy from Boston, arrived today.

C6 and I spend the day together. He called me up in the morning. He drank more than he expected, so he left his car at the Cuff, and rode home with a friend. I picked him up and we had breakfast together with Officer Rob and R. From the sound of it R and Rob are moving intogether.

After breakfast we went to the snowsports show. C6 and I both bought new snowboards.

After than, the four of us saw Jackass: The Movie Another film that I enjoyed, but wouldn't recommend. It's a lot of extream juvinile humor. In one sequence, one of the guys sticks a toy car up his ass and then goes to his doctor to have it x-rayed. The doctor tries to give him genuine medicle advice unaware of the joke. If you like that sort of humor, you'll love Jackass. If not, avoid it.

Crap. I just heard back from Brent.

"Sean and I patched things up in New Orleans, it is going pretty well so far. Our next trip is to Las Vegas on Nov. 1 for the weekend, can't wait."

So once again, my list of men-I'd-love-to-date is full of unavailable men.

Tonight, Ryan, Jen & I saw Punch-Drunk Love. I'm not sure how to describe it. I enjoyed the movie, but I wouldn't recommend it. Punch-Drunk Love is very original. It's one of the few movies I've ever watched that made go "What the fuck?!?" which is amazing considering that much of it is a simple love story.

I had a hockey pratice last night. Nothing exciting. A good cardio workout. When I got home, Cor thought I had tanned because my face was still slightly red.

So, Cor's husband from Boston is flying into Seattle this weekend. Cor's new boyfriend from LV is also supposed to be in town. Last night Cor was laughing at his husband for trying to rescue their relationship. I tried very hard to not argue with Cor. I really don't want to be involved. At the flip side, Cor pushes my buttons. He brings out the cynic in me. I'm afraid that that I could fall for a guy like Cor who says all the right things, but really doesn't give a shit.

So, Cor is in love. He met a guy from Las Vegas. The guys is moving from LV to Seattle. They are buying a house together and want to adopt children. Cor was gloating when he told me this.

Last night was my first game of hockey for the winter session. We lost 5-1. (I got an assist. My plus minus was +1) This is going to be an interesting year. I’m a tier 3 player. My new team is tier 7. (Tier 1 being the highest skill level) I didn’t know the tiers went down that far. I thought they stopped at 4. Anyways, we still lost. In many ways I like this team better than my old team. There are a lot of new players who don’t take things so seriously.

The thing I don't like about the new team is the number of players-- we had 17. That's more than I'm used to-- three full lines. I can't remember the last time I played with three full lines. I'm used to two lines. My old team would only play 11 or 12 guys.

Last night was B's birthday. B is a straight friend I know through hockey. His girlfriend threw him a party. We had dinner at Typhoon and then went to "Theater Sports" -- improv comedy. It was very good, very funny. I'm going to go again.

Every now and then I'll mention that i have a list of five men that I'd marry in a heart beat. Four of the five are unavailable. One of the five, Brent, became single last August. I've had Brent's email address for a while. He didn't give it to me... a mutual friend once emailed both of us. I didn't really wanted to email him, in case I made me look like a stalker. I talked to Andy about it. He said one email isn't stalking and if I really was interested in him, then I should write.

On Saturday I decided to email Brent. Well, he responded back! He told me how things were going with him and asked me a few questions about my life. This is good. We'll see where it leads.

I hope this isn't another one of those "Barry is all hot to trot for a man at the very beginning, but it doesn't work out" stories.

Yeah John, the bastards at work do have my by the balls. Fortunatly (or unfortunatly) they pay me very very well. Even in this recession, work makes sure my pockets are lined and my bank account is fat. Some friends call it the golden nose ring.

We had a muscle bear dinner tonight at Beppo's. Some of the pb's had never been to Beppos, so I arranged a dinner. Well, the pb's flaked out. But, that didn't mater. Eighteen guys showed up. They had problems seating us.

I only knew about half of the guys. The rest were friends of friends.

There was a fair amount of gossip at the table. A number of the guys had slept with each other and I got to hear some stories.

We walked throught he bar on the way out. Someone at the bar watched us and said "What the fuck? Those are big guys. They going to beat the crap out of us?"

I'm pissed off. Indulge me while I swear a bit.

Fuck. Fuck. Mother Fucker. bastard. Fucker. Fuck.

Fuck.

Three things collided tonight...
1. C6 and I had a date.
2. At work we instituted a new policy where special customers can page us and make us jump through hoops to solve their problems.
3. The people at my work who are supposed to be working nights arn't sure about the policies and how to handle this customer.

C6 and I had just finished dinner and where about to have dessert. That's when I got a call. "Barry, can you help us? We're not sure what to do?"

So. I'm at work now, and C6 is driving home.

Fuck.

C2 and I went and saw The Transporter, a lame movie. The action was ok, but overdone. The plot was contrived and the dialog was laughable. I'm very serious about the laughable dialog. In the last half an hour, whenever a character said something, I would shake my head and laugh, it was dumb.

When the bad guy finaly dies, someone in the front row threw his arms up and cheared. The rest of the audience burst out laughing.

Afterwards we went to the Cuff for beer. Said hi to a few guys, and then headed for home.

My blog is now two years old. First post October 12th, 2000. To celebrate, I'm giving it a new look. It may be buggy for a few days. Apologies.

Tuesday evening I had dinner with Mathew, Sandy and Steven. It was fun. It was the first time that Steven met Mathew and Sandy. The three of them shared their drug stories. I'm kind of suprized at the number of people who do lite drugs like pot. Steven gave Sandy tips on smuggling pot to Hawaii-- Mat and Steven are headed to Mauii on Saturday and they didn't want to buy local.

After dinner I went over to Steven's house for a beer. He's having DSL trouble-- his computer connection is very slow. I tinkered a bit, and the speed improved, but it still isn't zippy. I'll dig some more in the future.

Last night I cleaned. I cleaned Cor's bathroom-- the first time it's been cleaned since he moved in. Bleah.

After I flew back, I spent Sunday evening at the Cuff. The PB's where there. They've all bought baseball caps with a "PB's" logo on it. They're going make me a "PB Protector" cap.

C6 and I are having dinner together, alone, this Thursday. I still don't know if it's a date.

I spent the weekend at Andy's place in WeHo. Andy's new boyfriend has moved in with him. I have reservations about the new BF. He's a recovering drug addict. He lies (Andy knows it) He's manipulative (Andy knows that too) Andy is just soo in love with the BF that he doesn't care. I hope Andy doesn't get hurt.

I'm back.

In Anaheim, I met a professional booth bunny. She calls hereself a professional crowd worker. She earns $700.00 a day plus T&E. In return you get a beautiful woman who learns the basics of your company. She talks about the company and it's products to everyone that walks by. She said that mostly she learns scripts and sales pitches and hands all the hard questions off to the real sales people. I saw her in action. She knows her stuff, she was demoing some tedious managment software, but sure enough about two dozen men were watching the demo. She was very smooth. I couldn't tell that it was all a script.

I'm still in Anaheim. Things are going good-- work in the day, party at night. I'm spending the weekend at Andy's, then I head back to Seattle on Sunday.

There are a good number of cute guys at the conference. It's weird, for the first time in a long time I'm lusting after men.

I'm away for a week-- going to Anaheim, CA for a conference. Back on the 13th.

So, I've had a work emergecy. In some obsure situations, a program that I'm resonsible for crashes. I poked and prodded at it for many hours on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday I spotted something that might have explained the crash. The solution was a long shot, but I couldn't see anything else, so I fixed that. Finally today, other people are saying that the fix worked and the crash has gone away. Whew.

Next week I'm heading out of town on a business trip. I'm glad I got the emergecy out of the way. I would have had to cancel my trip if I didn't solve the problem.

Last night, the dinner party went well. Eight People showed up. Sandy, Mathew, Cor, C6 and the four PB's. It was a bit cramped-- the dining room only seats six. Half of us ate in the living room. The remainder ate in the dining room. The conversation and company were good.

I didn't tell anyone-- I spent $100.00 on food. Most of it steaks. Sigh. One of the reasons I had dinner at my place was that I wanted to have an inexpensive evening. When Mathew, Sandy I go out for dinner, I can easily spend $50.00. Oh Well. Next time I'll make it a pot luck.

On the flip side, every one brought beer and wine. I have enough for the next six months.

The Little Dinner Party the Grew.

Mathew, Sandy and I have dinner together about once a week. This week I suggested we have dinner at my place. Mathew asked if he could invite 2 of the PB's and I said "Yes". The PB's are cute and there are 2 I would date in a minute.

Because I didn't want to snub anyone, I invited C2 and Cor. Then, C6 asked what I was up to this week and... well... a quiet dinner with with Mathew, Sandy and I has balooned into a dinner party for 10. Sigh.

So, why don't I ask the PB's out? Well, some of them are dating and some of them would never date a tall guy. The PB's are shorter than 5'6'' and suffer from little man syndrom. I'm 6'6''.

Last night I went out with the movie bears and saw Sweet Home Alabama. I didn't really like it. It's about a woman who leaves small town Alabama, moves to NY and builds a great new life for herself. Years later she returns to Alabama and remembers how much she loves the old home town.

I was born in small town Ontario (Ottawa Valley). One of the happest days of my life was when I left the Valley for the the big city. I travel back to the Valley about once a year. When I'm there I don't regret leaving. So, when I see a movie about someone returning to a rural town, well, I don't understand. People leave small towns for good reasons-- career, something to do at night other than drink and watch TV, it's easier to make good friends in a large city. Those reasons never go away.

I goofed off last night and watched Lord of the Rings. It's a good movie although I don't think it's the all time classic that people say.

For the past few days I've had a work emergency. I've been under the gun to solve a problem. I think I've got it fixed. We'll see. My solution goes out to a large number of people tomorrow.

I had dinner with Cor last night. He's got 2 boyfriends now and tricked with a 3rd guy over the weekend. He was kind of annoyed that the 3rd guy could pressure him into having sex. I don't understand Cor at all. I just smile and nod.

Wow. My journal is now 2 years old. I think I should give it a new look to celebrate.

At the beginning over every month I go over that month's entries for the previous year. I now have two years of history to read over. It interesting how when I look forward, I think I'm going to be bored and have nothing to do. But when I look back, I've done so much.

I've been busy lately.

Friday night, C2 and I had dinner at Siams.

Saturday, C2, Mathew, Sandy and two of the PB's went camping at at Lake Cushman. It was fun; sunny and warm on Saturday, sunny and cool and Sunday.

Saturday C2 and I hiked around the Stair Case Rapids. The rest of the guys went boating. Originally, C2 and were going to boat with the others, but when C2 saw the "Bridge Out-- Trail Closed" sign for the Stair Case Rapids, it became a challenge. We had do do the trail and cross the rapids, even if there wasn't a bridge.

We managed-- jumping from rocks fallen trees. The river was so low that it wouldn't cause too many problems even if we fell in.

Sunday morning C2 drove back early to spend the day with his parents. The rest of us hiked along Lake Cushman. It was beautful and weird. Lake Cushman is an artifical lake formed in the 1930's. Right now the lake is low enough that you can see the thousands of tree stumps that line the bottom of the lake. The trees were big-- five to ten feet in diameter.

Quiet evening. C6 and I have been emailing each other. This weekend he's heading down to the Folsom Street Fair in S.F.

I'm of two minds when in comes to C6. He's a handsome man and he seams to be attracted to me. At the same time, he's a big partier. He goes to the Folsom Street Fair SF. The White Party in Palm Springs, Southern Decadance in Orleans. I lead a much more quiet life. I do a lot, but I'm not very involved in the gay life.

I'll just take it easy and get to know him better.

Hmmm. They are cleaning out Larry's office.

I worked with Larry for 4 years. About 6 months ago he vanished. About 3 months ago I ran into him on the street. he said that the stress of work was affecting his heatlh, so he took some time off to recuperate. He had a cold for a few months that wouldn't go away. A few weeks later he was back at work. Then a week later he vanished again.

Today an admin is cleaning out his office. She is not even bothering to seperate out his personal stuff. I wonder what happened. He was living a very hard life. I know his girlfriend and he were doing a fair amount of drugs. I hope he's ok

I went up to Vancouver for the weekend to meet a guy, Frank. A while back, Steve introduced Frank and I. We both work for the same company. We had dinner together and I spent the night at his place. We had breakfast with some of his friends and then went rollar blading in the afternoon.

Downtown Vancouver is a beautiful city.

Frank is into cars and motor cycles. He races his Mustang a few times a month. His Mustang has lots of custom modifcations.

We'll see what happens between Frank and I. Vancouver is 3 hours away. I wonder if he will spend a weekend down here.

I helped Steven move into his new town house. He now has a great place about 10 minutes from where I live. This is cool. We'll be able to hang out more often.

I met his real-estate agent. She is a nice woman, but very Bellevue Blond. Bellevue Blonds are beautiful, attractive, career driven women. They may earn six figures, but in Bellevue, every one earns six figures and ordinary town houses start at $250,000.00. So, they still have to work their asses off to keep up.

I also met his neighbor. He's a 24yo party boy. Steve and I suspect his daddy bought him the townhouse. He's 24yo and going to school. There is no way he can affort his townhouse.

Now I look at my place, and I'm kind of jealous of Steve. Steve says all I really need is a boyfriend who can decorate.

Yesterday was a very Mexican food kind of day. I had lunch with C2 and Cor at Azteca. After work I had drinks and finger food with some workmates at Mi Casa. Later I had dinner with Mathew and Sandy at Z'Tajas.

Bleah. I'm eating too much food and not exercising enough. I now have a small pot belly. I have to watch it and not let it get bigger.

Mathew and Sandy are doing ok. Mathew wants to come to Vancouver with Sandy and I, but it looks like there is a money issue. One of his customers hasn't paid him yet so things are tight.

Cor's husband is here from Boston. Cor is also seeing another guy, so he told me that if anyone asks, he's out of town on business. Cor also mentioned that he's taking his husband to some of Seattle's Bars. The bar's he mentioned are the bars he normally stays away from. I guess he doesn't want his husband to find out that everyone at the Cuff knows him.

Things I didn't want to know...

Cor uses my computer-- it has a good monitor and a fast conneciton. I have no issues with him using it. In fact, I gave him his own account so he has a bit of privacy from my prying eyes.

Today, next to the computer, I found an empty packet of lube.

Hmm. I don't know what happened between C6 and I. We had dinner. We went to bearaoke. We flirted a lot. I still don't know if it was a date, or a just friends thing.

Although, he did ask me to email him.

I've been working a lot over the past couple of days.

Out of the blue, C6 called me up and asked me out for dinner. We are meeting at Angelino's and afterwards going to bearaoke at Guppie's. I don't know if this is a date thing or a friend thing

Yesterday was Roger's birthday. Who is Roger? He's a fairly popular bear who lives in Olympia. Although it's not his day job, he's done a few pornos. He has a lot of friends. He throws big parties birthday parties.

Olympia is about 90 minutes from here, so C2 and I made a day trip of it.

We started off by visting the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Nice building. Lame museum. All of the interesting work was outside. We paid to get in and then... There is very little art on the inside. There is a working glass hot-shop.

In the middle of the gallery (There was only one room) a band, or performance art group, or something, was performing. They were pouring and dropping water into various containers. Many people were standing around, listening intently. After about 10 minutes, the band stopped and a lot of people applauded. C2 rolled his eyeballs and said "Dear Lord!"

I guess neither C2 nor I will be paitrons of the arts.

After the Museum of glass, we drove along the South Sound to Olympia. We stopped off at a couple of State Parks and walked around. There are many-many nice houses along the waterfront. Rumor is that Bill Gates has a house along the South Sound. We couldn't figure out which one though.

Had dinner in Olympia-- a seafood feast that came with bibs. We used the bibs. Eating crab is messy.

At about 9pm we reached Roger's. Roger was very glad to see me. We have a fair amount in common-- we both grew up in the middle of no where to very religious parents. We now both work in the high-tech industry. Also, since I won't sleep with him, I might be a bit of a challenge for him. Anyways, it was nice to see Roger again.

There were a lot of guys at the party. I tried chatting up a couple of nice-guys but nothing worked out. One wasn't interested in me. The other started having sex with someone else.

The sex... well... there wasn't a lot of sex. There were a few groups getting it on. Most of the guys were just talking and drinking.

At about midnight, the talking&drinking people were leaving and the sex people were staying, so C2 and I left for home.

Before dinner last night I talked with C2. When I mentioned that Bruce broke off our friendship, C2 was a confused and suprised. I told C2 why Bruce ended the friendship-- because I joke-slapped him. At first C2 didn't remember the slap. When I told him the events leading up to the slap, he said "Oh yeah. I remember that. That was it?" C2 also commented that Bruce keeps cutting himself off from his friends.

So, C2, Cor, Mathew, Sandy and I dinner together. Mathew, Sandy and I decided to go to Vancouver next weekend. C2 may come.

Afterwards we went to the Cuff. Said hello to the crowd. Drank a bit and then went our seperate ways.

Stupid Friendships.

Thursday at noon I dropped by Bruce's office to see if he wanted to have lunch. He was very short with me, said he was busy and couldn't make it to lunch. When I got back, I had this piece of email...

----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce
To: BC

BC,
I am not happy about the events on Tuesday night so I think we have to take a break from each other for awhile.

This kind of confused me. A bit later I got this message from C3...

----- Original Message -----
From: C3
To: BC

Hey BC,
Thank you for taking the time to send me these pictures, they look really great.
It was nice to have you at my party, and to spend some more time with you.
I need to tell you something as a friend, and as Bruce's partner.
You hitting Bruce on the head, was and is, completely inappropriate.
You not only ruined the party for him, you hurt him physically as well.
I don't know what you thought you were doing, but I do know that
an explanation to him and apology is in order.

C3

Did I hit Bruce on the head? Yes, I slapped him. It wasn't very hard, Bruce didn't say 'ow' or stop me or back away. There were no marks. In fact, he laughed.

This is what I wrote Mathew about the incident...

Last Tuesday was C3's birthday. The restaurant that
Bruce brought us to has really great desserts, Even so, Bruce brought a big
birthday cake. Well, during cake Bruce and I were talking and I
mentioned that I would have rather had the Tiramisu (Selfish of me, I know)
Bruce loudly shouted "C3, Barry isn't happy with your party." I
really didn't want everyone to know about my Tiramisu thing, so I jokingly
slapped Bruce. I don't know how hard I really slapped Bruce. In hind-site it
may have been to hard.

The party continued on from there. I though everything went fine. Bruce
and I talked and joked a bit more. At the end of the night I hugged Bruce
and Chris good bye and then went home.

I've send Bruce an apology and an explanation.

Now I'm tired. I really don't care that Bruce isn't talking to me.
I'm annoyed that Bruce couldn't tell me directly how he felt.
I'm also annoyed that he waited two days to get C3 to tell me.

Mathew is surprised that I apologized. Especially since Bruce didn't confront me about it and instead broke off our friendship. If you are annoyed with someone, you say so. You don't harbor a grudge, wait a few days, end the friendship and get your parter to deliver the message.

Tonight I'm having dinner with C2. We'll see what he thinks. He was next to me Tuesday night, saw everything and has good judgement. Mathew and I can sometimes be insenstive. C2 will be blunt and honest.

Last night C2 and I went to a 9-11 memorial service. It was a good service.

Afterwards we had cake at Dilettante's. C2 drove home and I had a beer at the Cuff.

At the Cuff I talked to Officer Robert. Lately I've been thinking about getting a motorcycle. Every time I do this, I hear about a horrible accent and I put the decision off for six months. Well, Officer Rob told me about two accidents. His parnter was driving pursuit-style (Really Really Fast) took a bad corner, skidded out, and will be in the hospital for six weeks.

Rob also told me about an 18yo who on Tuesday night was driving a motorcycle at 140 mph on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. He hit a cement pillar. Rob said most of the body came out through the face mask.

He told me a lot more, but I don't want to remember the details.

Anyways. I'm not going to buy a motorcycle this year.

Sometimes at work I surf the web until I'm bored. So bored that real work is less boring. Only then do I stop surfing the web and become productive.

Last night was C3's birthday. We had dinner at Beppo's.

When I ask C2 "when is your birthday?", he always evades the question. At Beppo's, C2 was short on pocket space. He gave me his wallet and keys so he wouldn't lose them. Of course I opened up his wallet, pulled out his drivers License and read his birth date. He saw me do it. Afterwards he said that was clever and evil.

C3's birthday was fun. Unfortunately, Bruce and C3 brought a birthday cake in from an outside bakery. Normally that wouldn't be bad, but the only reason to go to Beppo's is for the desserts. Beppo's service is slow. The food is mediocre and over priced. But, the desserts are incredible. They have great Tiramisu. So when Bruce brought a birthday cake, it was disappointing

C2 has had a weird sort of internet date. He met the guy on the net. For several days the two were exchanging long and personal emails. Then C2 asked “So, since you only broke up with you ex 3 months ago, are you sure you are over him?”

They guy replied “You know, my ex just called last Saturday. And I do kind of miss him. I guess I should try and work things out with him before I see you. Sorry about that.”

C2 has had a good laugh about that. In the space of a week, he’s gone from a quick email romance, to a fast email dump.

Friday night I had dinner with C3 and to of his friends, J & K. In a weird coincedence, J & K just met the previous week and had a date on Thursday.

After dinner, I went out, and well, I actually went home with a guy. I like him. I'm not sure things will work out, but we have exchange email since then.

Saturday night I went to Ryan and Jen's Alcohol party. That idea was that you had to bring food based on alcohol. I made beer can chicken. You open up a beer can, and stick it in a chicken and then BBQ it that way. As the beer evaporates, it moistens the chicken.

There were a lot of good desserts there-- chocolate rum cake, tiramisu.

Ryan, Kam and I are trying to figure out what to do about hockey. Jen said I could play with her team, but I'd like to stick with Ryan and Kam. They will play more competative. But we need 13 people for a team. Right now we only know of 8 or 9 guys that are vailable.

Sunday night we had a "Three's Company" moment. Cor has a partner nicked-named Possum, who lives in Boston. The two of them were married in Vermont. Because of Cor's not an American (he's here on a work visa and can only work on certain jobs) they haven't been able to live together for the past three years. They still call each other frequently and Cor is planning to one day move back in with Possum

Before we started cooking, Cor talked to Possum on a cell phone. While we were cooking, Cor and I talked about our future plans and about his situation with Possum. Cor said that even though he sleeps around a lot, Possum anchors him. He wants to one day live with Possum.But for now he feels it's all right to sleep around. He doesn't think that Possum has ever slept around.

When we sat down for dinner, Cor looked at his cell phone-- it was connected. He put it up to his ear and said "Hello." Then Cor's eyes started to buldge. The cell phone was still connected to Possum. Possum heard everything Cor and I said while we were in the kitchen.

After a few minutes of awkward conversation, Cor turned his cell phone off. He is shocked that Possum now know everything.

We'll see what happens.

Last night I had drinks with some of the guys from work. One of the upper managers noted that the big feature for our next release wasn't ment to be. We wound up with it through a series of managment mistakes and changing priorities.

We didn't mean to do it. All the features we ment to do were killed and this was the only thing left behind.

I took it easy last night. I watched "Dogma," a comedy about two fallen angels trying to get get back into heaven and the people/angels/muses/profits trying to stop them. It's good movie for anyone who has ever stopped going to church. Dogma is an intelligent silly comedy. There are lot of crude jokes and swearing. But, the attention paid to Catholic Dogma is interesting. The writer obviously knew a lot about the church.

I had dinner with Mathew and Sandy (Mathew's boyfriend) It looks like they've worked out their differences.

Towards the end of the night, we were arguing if Mathew was narcissistic, selfish or merely spoiled. He would agree that he was spoiled and a tad selfish, but he wouldn't agree to narcissitc.

Last night Cor and I watched "Chasing Amy" a good, grown-up, evil, romantic comedy. Lot's of gay jokes. In the the end, boy and the girl don't get together and live happy ever after.

Sunday morning I drove up to Winthrope to spend the night with Mathew and his BF. I used to say "Mathew and his ex" but it looks like they worked things out and are back together.

After a series of miscommunications. (Cell phone service in Winthrope sucks) I mised Mathew. I spent the afternoon swimming by myself at a lake just north of Winthrope.

I finally met up with Mathew and his ex at 8pm. We headed back to the cabin, had a few beers, catted and then went to bed.

We drove back around noon. The weather west of the mountains was Sunny and warm. The weather east of the mountans was cool and rainy. Looks like summer has left Seattle.

Cor is in a bit of a tight spot. A couple months ago he tricked with a guy in Miami. Well, today the guy showed up in Seattle. He's spending the weekend here. Cor said he didn't want to be with the guy; he didn't want him to come here. I sort of lent a sympathetic ear. But, at the end of the day somebody said "Yes" and it wasn't me.

Cor asked me if I though the guy was attractive. He was hoping to pawn the guy off on me. The guy is attractive, but I don't feel like making Cor's life easy.

Tonight C2, Steven, Steven's boyfriend and I went to see Cirque du Soleil: Dralion. Cirque du Soleil is a circus that doesn't use animals-- all acrobats and clowns. Dralion is a good show. C2 and I lucked out and got great seats-- 4 rows from the front.

Last night I had dinner with Mathew and his Ex. We talked about going up to Mathew's cabin this weekend. Right now, I'm going to see Cirque Du Soleil (with Steven and C2) on Saturday. I was planning on going to the ocean on Sunday, but Mathew pointed out that the ocean is always cold. His cabin and lake Chilan will be hot.

We ran into Steven at the restaurant. Steven said he had been to that restaurant 8 times in the past two weeks. We chatted briefly, then Steven had to leave to sit with the rest of his party.

Afterwards I went home and played with the big-mother-printer. I finally got the ink refils for it. I printed out a few large photos and panoramas. Very nice.

Last night I watched two episodes of the new Star Trek, "Star Trek: Enterprise" It's a lame show. They really don't know how to generate excitement. Always putting the lead character in danger-- not exciting. You know he'll be back next week. Slowly reading numbers off the speedometer, "4.7.... 4.8.... 4.9..."-- Not exciting.

Now that I think about it, the show wasn't even science fiction. Nothing happened on either episode that couldn't happen on earth, right now.

I think Cor and his latest boyfriend broke up last night. At around midnight they got out of bed. I heard the boyfriend say "He just controls you." He left shortly afterwards.

I have almost no recollection of what I did on Monday. This is why I keep a journal. I remember grocery shopping and talking with Cor. I may have watched TV, which would explain my memory gap.

Tuesday I went to the annual company meeting. We didn't have a bad year. Profit was up about 9%. Not bad considering we are in a recession. After the meeting, C5 and I toured the product fair together. It was fun talking to him. He wants to set me up with a friend of his. The friend lives in SF but may be moving back to Seattle.

When I got back to work, Steven had emailed me. He said he met a nice man that lives in Vancouver, who would also be great for me. Steven and I ended up having dinner that evening.

I vented to Steven about my dating situation. The guys I want are attached, not interested or on the rebound. They guys I'm being set up with live a long ways away. He offered some sympathy. But, he's in love with a man who lives in Victoria (a $100, 3 hour ferry ride away)

Steven just bought a house close to me. So, we are going to get to be able to see each more often. Right now he has very few friends in Seattle. His boyfriend lives in Victoria and he often travels for work. So making friends in Seattle has been difficult. He's looking forward to going to a movie with a friend on the spur of the moment-- things like that.

Speaking of friends, I haven't talked to Mathew for a few days. Usually we email each other a few times a day. I've emailed him a copule of times on Monday and Tuesday, but haven't heard back from him.

Quiet day yesterday. I cleaned the house a bit. In the afternoon I hung around at Victor's Coffee for and worked.

In the evening, I went to a BBQ at Lisa's. Lisa works with Bruce on a TV show. It's a movie review show. Lisa also manages a Video Rental Store. Most of the people at the BBQ were movie buffs-- most of the conversation revolved around movies. It's a very different crowd that what I'm used to. At one point, one of the movie buffs, who works at the Video Store with Lisa said "I dream of earning $30,000.00 a year" Then there was a short conversation on living with $15,000 to $20,000 a year. I kept my mouth shut the whole time. I earn six figures and I didn't want them to know.

Later on, Bruce, C3, Lisa and I tried to play a game of "Truth, Dare, Kiss, Command or Promise." It ended up being lame. We all picked "Truth" But, we're all fairly mature and honest people (Either that or we are all very good liars) so the truths ended up being boring.

Hmm. Maybe there is 4th man on my "List of men I'd marry in a heart-beat"

Last nights party was the ususal fit bearish crowd. There were also a few people from out of town. Cor mentioned that at least 200 people were invited. There were at least 100 people at the party.

At the party I ran into Brent and Sean. Brent and Sean have been together for years. I've always thought they would be together forever. But, last night they said they just broke up. They are going to try and stay friends.

I've always really liked Brent. Now that he's available I'm going to pay more attention. He'll be on the rebound for a while, so I have to keep some distance. But, in a few months I'll ask him out.

Last night I had dinner with C2 and Cor. C2 and Cor are closer than I realized. They had lunch together on Thursday. C2 knows who Cor is currently dating. I don't

I had breakfast with C2 at Van's. Afterwards he went home to pack. He has to move out by the end of the month. I spent most of the day hanging around with Cor. Cor and I are going to a private party tonight. For the party, Cor had to find the perfect sunglasses to go with his new image (He shaved his head) We drove around Redmond and stopped at about half a dozen different places before he gave up.

He's heading out the door now. I'm going to show up later. Around 10 pm

I had lunch with Ryan today. He gave me the tour of his new company, Cranky Pants Games It sounds like things are going well with them.

I had dinner with Hugh. It was nice. Not great. Not love at first site. But still, Hugh is a nice man.

Hugh and I went to Angelino's for dinner. Mathew was supposed to go to Angelino's also, for dinner with a different friend. He called and said he wouldn't be there. He didn't want Hugh or I to feel like we were being spied on.

Mathew also asked me if I was nervous about my date.

That's weird. Mathew and his Ex really want to hook Hugh and I up. They are quietly pulling strings to get us to like each other. They've been raving about Hugh for over a week now. Acting like he's one of the hottest men around.

I'll just go slow. I don't want to jerk Hugh around. But, I don't want to dissapoint Mat and his Ex.

I bought a printer. Not just any printer. I bought a huge, wide, enormous printer. It's 4 feet tall, 5 feet wide, two feet deep. It can print photo quality images up to 42 inches wide.

I've been looking for a new printer. My old printer prints color weird and can't handle large paper. I was going to buy a normal consumer printer that could handle 13x19. I mentioned my search to C2. He said he delt with several companies that resale hardware from expired leases, belly-up dot com's and the like. He asked what models that I would be intersted in.I told him. He mentioned that it would be easier for him to find the bigger printers. I gave him the go-ahead.

The next day, he got back to me. He could get me a used HP DesignJet 500 (New Retail $2500.00) for $500.00 cash plus I had to get him a copy of the software I work on. We agreed.

Well, the printer showed up today. When C2 told me at arrived, he was laughing. He said it was huge.

"How huge?" I asked.

"Huge. Bigger than a couple of midgets."

Well, it is. It's about the same size as a love seat. Most important, it prints beautiful large pictures. But, I still laugh everytime I look at it.

Lunch with C5 went well. We talked, told a few strories and then went back to work.

Other than that, I've just been working. At the end of every day, I don't want to think-- too much work. Although, my project is getting close to completion.

I exchanged email with Hugh-- the friend of Mathew that I'm having dinner with on Thursday. Sorry John, I'm not going to post pics of him. Not yet atleast.

Tonight I had dinner with Mathew and his ex. Mathew says that he wants to have dinner alone with me, but his ex keeps inviting hiimself along. I'm not sure what's going on. I'll let them work it out.

They are setting me up with a friend of theirs. The friend is supposed to be a very nice guy. They emailed me some photos and the friend is cute, but he's got the goofy gay grin-- a minus for me. Also, I keep getting big sales pitch from them-- the friend is so nice, I'm sure to like him, I'll be suprized by what a great guy he is, everyone thinks he's handsom.

We're having dinner on Thursday.

I hope I'm not too jaded.

I was thinking about this-- there are three men in Seattle, whom, if they asked me to marry them, I'd say yes in a heart beat. Harry is one of them of course. But, Harry doesn't want to have anything to do with me. Then there is C5. I'm having lunch with C5 tomorrow, but it's just lunch. C5 is dating someone. Finally, there is Terry. But, like C5, Terry is has been with someone for the past year. I haven't seen terry since last winter.

I hope I'm not attracted to unavailable men.

I'm tired. C2 and I went for a long bicycle ride this afternoon. It was fun even though Seattle has a lot of big hills. We cycled up to the Tall Ships on lake union. Originally we wanted to go on the Tall Ships, but the lineup was over an hour. So, we took some pictures and then left.

In September C2 is moving in with IR. We had dinner with IR and the current room mate, T. It was a good dinner. IR and T both like formal dining. When I put my bread on my dinner plate, IR corrected me and showed me the bread plate.

C2 isn't big on formatlity I wonder how he and IR will get along.

IR and T warned C2 about all the odd things that happen at IR's house. A 300lbs shut in lives next door. The neighbour across the street often watches IR and T have dinner. Another neighbourhood family are secular Jews who can only talk to Jewish people.

IR and T claim that IR's house has a ghost. They see or hear it about once a month. They wanted to warn C2 in advance. IR didn't warn T about the ghost before T moved in. T ended up being kind of freeked the first time he saw it. But, the ghost is harmless, so T is fine with it now.

I'm not sure that I believe in ghosts.

Some of the photo's from last weekend's road trip at http://home1.gte.net/res0ci8w/index.htm

Not all the photos are there yet. I'm still learning how to get photo shop to make websites.

This building, is the bathroom that cost a million dollars. This is the view from the bathroom

Friday night I went to the Eagle. I ran into Brian. We chatted for a while. Things are going good with him.

Saturday I worked out and Kayaked on Lake Samamaish. In the evening, I had dinner wtih C2 at the Broadway Grill. Afterwards we went to the Cuff.

I ran into Harry at the Cuff. This is the first time I've seen him since he stopped returning my calls. I'm not sure what happened. When he walked in, he pointed me out to someone. I walked by him later on and we said "Hello" but not much else.

I still feel regret when it comes to Harry. I wish things would work between us. But, I don't think it's in the cards.

Last night my brain kind of gave out. It hurt to think or concentrate. I went home at 7:30pm (Only a 10 hour day) ate dinner and then drove to a theater and saw Minority Report It's a good movie.

Today at work, we made tie-died T-Shirts. I guess the whole team is stressing out, and they wanted to do something fun to relax us.

I've been working a lot. I got home after 10pm on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

We have a big deadline a week from today. Crunch time. I hate it when work gets like this. Especially when the weather is as beautiful as it is now.

I got sick yesterday so I went home from work and slept. It was also Mathew's birthday. So in the evening, I had dinner with him.

We've been pooling the photos from our road trip. There are hundreds of them. This has to be the most over photographed road trip I have ever been on.

In addition to the road trip photos, Cor put some other photos on my hard drive that he needs copied to CD. After he did this, he wrote C2 and I, "Between you guys, please do not distribute or make any comments to anyone on the folder “My Art and Furniture”. That can bring problems for me…Thanks,"

Of course C2 and I immediatly made a copy of the folder. I didn't see anything incriminating. Just pictures of art and furniture.

I've had an incredible weekend. I went on a road trip with Mathew, Cor and C3. We left Saturday morning, spent Saturday evening at Mathew's cabin, and came back on Sunday. I'll put some photos up shortly.

So much happened. If I listed everything I did, I would ramble on and on and on-- and then we hiked here, and then we saw this, and then we ate there, and the we saw that, and then we talked about something...

We did a few short hikes on the way up, including a stop off at the $3,000,000.00 dollar rest stop that caused a scandal in WA a few years ago. It was a beautiful rest stop.

Mathew's cabin-- Mathew always let on his cabin was in pretty rough shape. But, it's not. It looks like he just moved in and hasn't unpacked yet-- it's looked like that for the past 2 years. If he unpacked, it would be a good log cabin. It was full of really nice stuff; leather sofas, nice mattresses, expensive stereos, good art, a machine shop, computers. Mathew said it's the leftovers from his past, straight life. He hasn't bothered to sort through it yet.

It didn't matter that the cabin was full of stuff-- we hauled some mattresses outdoors and slept under the stars. The Perseid Meteor Shower is starting. We didn't see many shooting stars though, only about a dozen.

Sunday morning we swam and had a picnic at Chilan Falls. Cor lied on the beach and tanned. C2, Mathew and I swam up river a bit, found a private cove and skinny dipped.

When we drove back we had a late lunch in Leavenworth. Leavenworth is a tourist trap town where every building looks Bavarian. It was Cor's first time though Leavenworth, so he had a good laugh.

I'm just happy now.

Tonight I had dinner with C2, T&J, Mathew and Cor at Siam's. Good conversation. Cor got a call half way through dinner-- some guy called him up to say that he loved Cor. Cor got the guy to repeat it so that I could here it. Whatever.

Today I got an Infrared filter for my camera. I'm going to try taking some infra-red photos this weekend. I'm looking forward to that.

Mathew, C2 and I are going east of the mountains this weekend, We'll spend Saturday night at Mathew's cabin. We are also hoping to see the Perseid Meteor Showers, but it may be too early. It doesn't peak till the 12th.

Tonight I had dinner at the 5 spot with Steven. Things are going well with him. He can't see his BF this weekend, so he my come along with Mat, C2 and I.

This should be a fun weekend.

Today I got my new Canadian passport. I lost my old passport over a year ago. It's kind of wierd. Two weeks ago, before the green card and the passport, if I wanted to quit my job I would have had to leave Seattle and move back to Cananda. Because I didn't have a valid passport, flying around the U.S. was a pain. Traveling to Cananda and then re-entering the U.S. was a no-no

Now that I have both a green card, and a passport, I can travel and work anywhere in Canada and the U.S.

I see doors opening up. Maybe I'll go to Vancouver this weekend.

Wednesday night I played hockey. We lost 5 to 3. We played well. We were down 4-3 with 30 seconds left. We pulled our goalie, but they manged to get the puck around us to score.

Wednesday was the last night of regular season play. Playoffs start next week. Even though we are last place, we play in the playoffs. It's just not likely that we will win.

Mathew is back. Tonight I had dinner with he and his ex.

I've known for a while that Mathew doesn't like his mother. I found out tonight that he never calls her "mom." He only refers to her by her first name.

Over dinner, it became clear that Mathew is keeping many secrets from me. His ex started to tell me a story about a woman friend, but Mathew cut him off, stressing it was personal information and if he wanted me to know, he would tell me. From the sounds of it, before the ex was cut off, Mathew has been married three times. Not just the two times I know of. It sounds like Mathew is still married to his 3rd wife.

I know that everyone has their secrets. But, I don't like proof of it being shoved in my face. Now, when I listen to Mathew, instead of thinking "What is Mathew saying?" I'll think "What does Mathew want me to think? What is he hiding?" I don't like being cynical like that.

Mathew and his ex want to hook me up with a friend of theirs. I briefly met the friend last Friday, but I don't remember what he looks like. Apparently the friend is a really nice guy and has a great body. We'll see.

I worked late tonight, ate left overs, worked out and surfed the web

Two fun places to go... Strong Bad's Email and Shockwave

The spool of floss is dead. Long live the spool. Ten years ago, when I was a student living in Toronto, I bought a very large spool of floss. I have finally used the last piece of the floss. I'm kind of glad. Toward the end, the waxed threat had sort of melted together and you really had to pull at it to get it loose.

Yeah, I'm having one of those days.

I haven't heard from Mathew. I think he's hiding at his cabin up in Winthop. Last week he was stressing out and talking about quiting his job. I'm going to go to his cabin this weekend to see if he wants to chat.

Cor is back. He's spent the past week in Miami, selling his house. He told me about some of his Miami conquests. He also mentioned that he doesn't like Seattle-- not exciting enough for him.

I went out to the Cuff tonight. I ran into C6, and his ex J. At seperate times, both C6 and J asked me out. This puts me in an awkward position. C6 and J had a very bad breakup and they still are not talking to each other. If I went out with one, the other would take it as an insult. This is a shame, because both I like both of them.

Right now I don't think I should go out with either of them. I should wait until things cool. That could be a year or more.

Friday night, C2, Bruce and I had dinner at Siams. Afterwards, I went to the Cuff, and to the Eagle. I ran into very few people that I knew.

Satuday was a do nothing sort of day. I bought groceries, farted around on the computer, worked out and made dinner. C2 came over for diner and we watched "Black Hawk Down"

C2 is going through a lot of stress right now. His life is going ok, but some friends and family are crumbling. His father's marriage is breaking up and his father is broke-- lost a lot of money in the stock market. C2's brother was just commited to a mental institution.

Also, B, a good friend of C2's, has been detained twice in the past week. Last Saturday, B went out drinking. Rather than drive home, B slept in her van. Some police came across her, charged here some sort of drinking charges and brough her to jail. B called C2 at about 6 in the morning and got him to pick her up.

Then last Thursday, B got really drunk (B has a drinking problem) and decided to tell her therapist and another friend that she was going to commit suicide. The therapist called the cops. The cops entered B's house and draged here off to the hospital. C2 said that B had sort of slit her wrists-- it was more like a cat had repeatadly scratched her wrists, than she actually slit them. B called C2 at around midnight and asked him to get her out of the hospital. He tried, but the hospital wouldn't release her till the next morning.

As far as C2 is concerned B has no plans to kill herself. She just wants attention. I think that B needs to stop drinking and start going to A.A.

C2 has decided to not answer the phone after 11pm and before 8am. No good can come of it.

I had lunch with C5 today. He drove. When he dropped me off, I gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Later I got this email from him...

Barry,

Thanks again for a great lunch -- I always enjoy talking to you. If I seemed a little taken back in the car just before you got out, it was because I didn't expect it. I wish I had because I would have reciprocated :-) (remind me next time to lighten up)

Looking forward to our next lunch...

Now C5 is dating someone. I don't know how serious it is. But still, I'm attracted to C5. For now, I'll just put effort into getting to know him better. If things stick between C5 and BF, then I'll have a good friend. If they don't... I cross that bridge when I get there.

Another Candian I work with, who was approved for a green gard 5 months after me, also got his green card yesterday. It's like someone at the INS said "Let's do the state of Washington today."

I got my green card! I'm a Canadian. I've been in the U.S. on a work visa. For the past 5 years have been trying to get my green card.

Today when I checked my mail-- there it was.

Now I can quit my job and I don't have to flee the country. I don't think I'll do that yet, but it's nice to have options.

I'll still can't vote, but hey, there are worse things.

Bleah. Played hockey tonight. We lost. I don't know what the score was. But it wasn't close.

Only half the team showed up. Some friends of a team-mate had their equipment, so we let them play. That gaves us 3 men on the bench. To play a good game you need at least 5 men on the bench. Eight is even better. With only 3 spares you get tired out very quickly.

Then, two of our players got game misconducts and had to leave the ice. That left us with one man on the bench.

We tried to slow the game down whenever possible, but it was just so easy for the other team to skate fast and tire us out.