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.

Their has been fallout from dinner. The revelations upset one of the partners. His partner sent an email to everyone apologizing profusly and promising it would never happen again.

Next time we'll stick to safe conversation. Like abortion, or politics.

I don't have bestiality stories. From feeding caves (They have a very rough tongue) I never wanted them to suck me. From having to clean up from behind them, I never wanted to fuck them. It never occured to me to go after other fauna.

Besides I was having sex with real men by the time I was 14. I never needed animals.

Tonight the movie potluck was... good? odd? different? We learnt way too much about each other.

It started off good. But then halfway through dinner I jokingly said that I should start a betting pool on which of the couples would break up first. The couples twisted my arm and forced me to elaborate on my joke. They both wanted to know what i saw in them that would cause the end of their relationships.

I awkwardly answered their questions. I tried to change the subject often but they wouldn't let me.

After I got through my explanation the stories started to come out. They started to talk about all their dark secrets and bizarre eye openers such as who had sex with animals (When they were young. Not now) and how often and the results. (FYI. Don't fuck cats. They scratch)

We all agreed that tonights conversation should never be mentioned again.

I may have to password protect my Journal for a few days. Matt has gotten wind of this journal. John stumbled on it, but didn't realize it was about his circle of friends. Matt want's the URL. The next time Matt and John talk will be Thursday. If this journal comes up. I'll lock it for a few days to throw Matt off the trail.

I haven't been doing much. I'm not taking the pain killers now. The new found pain has really slowed me down. I think the wound is healing though-- just very slowly.

Friday morning I had my surgery. It went well. I'm on hydrocodon right now. It really makes me feel numb.

Saturday my friends A&N from Toronto were in town. I gave them a tour of Mt Rainier. We went to Sunrise and had a spectacular view

I've spent the past hour removing a phrase from this journal, and replacing it with PB. Some one else close to me stumbled on my journal while looking for that phrase.

Steven was with me when it happened. We both had to control our laughter. The finder didn't realize he was talking to the author.

I can't really say what the new product is. It's nothing mysterious or revolutionary. Mostly it's an old idea done simply.

When I talked to my new manager today, he mentioned that he was given this project on Monday-- he only has one day more of experience than I. Right now we are a little like the blind leading the blind.

Wow. My job just changed. Very fast. This morning my manager walked into my office and said a new product needed help from an experienced developer. My name came up. Hours later I report to someone new.

This Friday I'm having an out patient day surguery. Nothing risky. Kind of gross. This is the email C2 and I had on the subject. It's oversharing. You've been warned.

From: BC
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 10:28 AM
To: C2
Subject: Movie

Hey. Can you make sure your roomate get's the invite to Dinner? I didn't have
his email at home.

What are you doing this Friday? I'm having a day surgery on Friday and
need a ride to and from the Hospital. Arrive time is 7:30am. Not sure when I
get out. If you want, you can spend the night at my place.

The surgury isn't scary. I'll tell you all about it later.

Barry

From: "C2"
To: "BC"
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 10:28 AM
Subject: RE: Movie

Barry
I'll let him know. Thanks. Yes, I can deliver you to and fro the
hospital. Finally going ahead with the sex-change thing huh? So will
it be Brenda or Belinda? (I assume that you'd want to stay with an 'B'
name.)

R/C2

-----Original Message-----
From: BC
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 10:50 AM
To: C2
Subject: Re: Movie

I was thinking about Babette.

While I'm having the sex change, the doctor is also going to poke at a
recurring boil on my rear. The ugly boil just won't look good next to my
shiny new vaginia.

Weird Triva-- don't scrub your crack with soap and a cloth. Keep it
clean with plain water.

Barry

From: "C2"
To: "BC"
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 10:28 AM
Subject: RE: Movie

Uh.... I wish bananas were 29 cents a pound! I haven't been able to
find them for less than 79 cents a pound for some time now.


R/C2

Gotta delete pictures.

The "PB" thing is starting to talk off. What's a PBr? Well, It's just a cute name for our gang. Behr made up a bunch of PB caps-- "PB" caps for those who are under 5'7'', "PB Protector" for those that are 6'2'' and above and "PB Pal" for every one else.

Now, many guys want a pb cap. They think it's a semi-secret club and want to belong. The truth is all you really need to do is convince Behr to make you a cap.

C2 mentioned that we are becoming our own A-Gay crowd.

Welcome back John!

The Factoria Mall is the closest mall to me. But, it's hard to drive to. There is no good way to get there. I tried to use Yahoo Maps and Map Quest to plot a route. Both failed. Yahoo Maps can show me the mall on a map, but can't figure out how to get there. Map Quest does a little better. It gives me directions to the vicinity, but then warns me that it can't guide me for the last 0.25 miles

Sigh.

Very fun weekend.

Saturday we went flafting on the Yakima river. Basically, you fload down the river in a raft. drinking and shooting water pistols at each other, and other flafters.

Saturday evening I went to NX4. Mostly I hung out by a camp fire. They also held a game show. Sort of a gay version of jepordy/weakest link.

One of the categories was "Body Parts." When Body Parts was picked, five men would go up behind a blind and flash a body part-- shoulder chest, belly button. The contestants then had to mach the body part to the body.

Of course for the 8000 point body part, the guys had to flash their dicks. On stage. Two two hundred drunk men.

Three porn stars were there. They had porn star looks. Large muscles. Handsome from a distance. But, as C2 said, they looked like they were ridden hard and put away wet.

I camped over Saturday night.

I had breakfast with the gang Saturday morning. We took down the tents and then left for home. I napped a bit in the afternoon, and went out to the Cuff again in the evening

This weekend is Northern Xposure 4. A sort of camping/party/fund raiser for Lambert House.

We drove up last night and set up the tents.

Some of the guys are very excited by NX4-- Behr, the Tease and Sandy keep talking about how much fun they had last year. Matt and I are more jaded. To me it looks like the Cuff crowd with some cute out of town men. Several times I've heard "It's not a sex party. It's what you make of it." But, it looks like a number of the attendies are making it a cruising/sex fest.

I'm trying to clearly figure out my position here. I'm not against no-commitment sex-- I know I've had lots of that. At the same time I'm not interested in guys who are always and only on the prowl.

Tonight was Matt's birthday. We had dinner and then went bowling. This was the first time I've bowled in over a decade. I suck at bowling. Maybe I'll try again in 10 years.

I spent yesterday with Vic and his kids. Vic got some tickets to a Mariners vs Jays game and he invited me along-- Steven was out of town for work.

It was a good day.

I met up with him and the kids for lunch. We watched Agent Cody Banks; one of those mediocre kids movies where the good guys don't get hurt and the child-star becomes a hero.

We left for the stadium at about 2:30pm. (For a 7pm game) One of Vic's kids has a broken leg, so he wanted to avoid as many people and complications as possible. We killed a few hours hanging out by Safeco Field. I'm still amazed how expensive that area is. Even on the street, pop was $3.50. A fitted cap was $25.00. A hotdog was $4.00.

We watched the warm up. Because one son had a broken leg, the stadium people put us in wheel chair seats-- better seats than the ones Vic bought!

Mariners lost 5-3. Vic's kids are Toronto fans, so they were happy.

While we drove home a Canadian goose decided to walk right in the middle of the off ramp. I ran over it. I felt bad. It was right in the middle of my lane.

I just back from a road trip to eastern washington. We lucked out. It rained in Seattle over the weekend, but was sunny and warm east of the mountains.

Matt, Sandy and C2 came along.

We left Saturday morning. Saw the sights along the Mt Baker Hiway. Went rattle snake hunting in Pipe Stone Canyon (We didn't find any snakes, but we did find several deer skulls) and then crashed at Matt's cabin.

Sunday morning. we said "Hi" to Matt's grandmother and then drove south to Chelan Falls. We skinny dipped in the Chalen river for a few hours. Then we drove to Levenworth, had dinner there, the headed back to Seattle.

All in all, a good road trip.

Last night, Steven, Matt, Sandy, C2, the Woofmyster and I had dinner at Vincino's

The waiter was the wordiest man I have ever met....

"Good evening Gentleman. I would like to present to you the menus so that you may read them and decide what you would like to eat this evening."

"Excuse me Gentleman. I apologize for interupting your conversation. But, if I may, I would like to consult with you on your dinner selections tonight."

Food was good though.

I bought a big television last night. Matt and Sandy were my TV consultants. Afterwards we had dinner. I played with the TV and the stereo till 2am.

There sure is a big rat's nest of cables behind the TV.

Last night, for the first night in weeks, I stayed home. I liked it.

I played hockey last night. It was a very close game. We lost 4-3. It was 3-3 when there were 40 seconds left.

I don't feel too bad becasuse only one goal went in on my shift.

This was the last game of the regular season. Playoffs start next week. I can't wait till the season ends. I'd like to have a month off of hockey.

I just got this email from C2...
It took forever but I got my herpes2 test results back and I'm neg. I just thought I'd share that.

I replied
Thank you for sharing.

C2 is a participant in an STD research project. He's regularly tested for HIV and a wide variety of STDs. The tests stress him. It's odd how being tested for a disease even though you probably don't have it feels worse than not being tested.

I'm back from Oregon. We spent the weekend at a cabin on the coast. It was good. We're going to try and see each other again-- if schedules work out. He's a police officer and works odd hours. Our weekends rarely work out.

Wednesday Night I had dinner with Steven. He's traveling a lot for work so I don't get to see him that often anymore.

This weekend I'm heading down to Portland. A sort of a date. A guy I met in Portland a year ago called me up out of the blue and said he had a cabin on the coast this weekend. So, I said yes. We'll see what happens. Even if it works out, he lives 3 hours away.

I had dinner with my Contractor. I'm having some work done on my house-- turn the carport into a garage and remodel the main bathroom. He convinced me to go with a large sealed shower with a steamer. I wasn't a hard sell.

Afterwards I met with Matt, Sandy, Behr and the Tease at Bear-e-oke.

Last night I had dinner with Brian, my ex. His laptop wasn't working. The problem was simple to fix. Brian just isn't good with computers.

I went though his medicine cabinet (While he was looking over my shoulder) Brian's still on a lot of pain killers. I don't know how much of it is addiction and how much is for his back pain.

We had dinner together afterwards. He's been working hard to stay above water. I'm not sure he's very happy with the guy he's dating. Part of me wants to hold him and help things gets better. But I know better than that. Brian loves chaos. If I tried to work things out with him, he'd just find more ways to get into trouble.

Over the weekend I went camping at Lake Ozette with C5, his partner and their friend. It was a good trip. We hiked along the ocean and to Cape Flattery-- the most north western point of the lower 48 states. I'll post some photos in a few days.

My mother has very low hemoglobin. She's being tested for many things-- bleeding ulcers, internal hemeroids, bleeding polips, cancer. She's nervous. I hope she will be ok. She feels find right now. The doctor caught the low hemoglobin on a regular blood check. So whatever it is, they found it in the early stages.

Rotten.Com has posted the photos of Uday and Qusay Hussein. The photo of Uday looks very much like Behr. When Matt noticed the similarity, he forwarded the photos to C2 and I.

I really didn't want to see a picture of a dead man this morning. I should talk to Matt about that. Mind you, the similarity is uncanny.

How many partners does it take to open a coffee shop? Well, there are 5 of us. One of them (The Queen Bee) is really running the show. She's an ex Microsoft employee who left to raise some children. The children are older now, so she's looking for some work. The Queen Bee's daughter may also be a parnter. The daughter worked for several catering companies and knows the cafe business.

The 3rd partner is a realestate agent/developer

That leaves C2 and I. C2 has a good business sense. I'm mostly along to learn (and invest some money)

There may be a 6th partner. A Tea importer may invest. We suspect he'll want his tea's to be prominatly featured.

Little Sins II-- Garbage.

For some reason, laziness, cheapness, I didn't sign up for garbage service at the new house. This means I have to sneak around by night and dump my garbage into unwatched dumpsters. I haven't done this in a couple of weeks. In that time I bought a new stereo, patio furniture and threw two BBQ parties-- I had a lot of garbage.

I dumped the garbage at a dumpster in an apartment complex near the old townhouse. It filled the dumpster up-- there were other dumpters near by. I kind of feel sorry for the residents who now have to walk an extra minute to the other dumpster.

I get a small adrenaline rush when I dump garbage. I keep the truck running in case I need to speed off.

Am I desperate for excitment, or what?

I have gay neighbors. They recognized me from the Cuff. They live about 3 houses down. I bicycled past their place today, and one of them shouted "Hello." We talked for a while. Nice guys. POR (Partnered, Open Relationship) I was propositioned, but was polite and left.

Tonight John threw a birthday BBQ for Behr and Mac. Behr turned 36 and Mac 35.

Last night I had a house warming party. I think 20 people showed up. It was fun, but not a late night party. The last guests left at around 11:30pm...

So who came... C2, T&J, their friend D who they are trying to hook me up with. Behr, the Tease, Mac and John. Cort, One of the J's, Erik, My realestate agent and her BF, S (the woman who has a crush on me), Steven and Vic, a coworker and his Wife, Matt and Sandy.

The party went well. My realestate agent found two prospective clients from the guests. And I got found prospective roomates-- Cort and the Tease. I think Cort is more serious than the Tease. Even so, the Tease is going to time out his morning commute. I don't know what it will be like to live with men who I find attractive, but who are players. I'll keep some emotional distance from them.

I've heard Cort has posed naked for a gay mag. I can't find the pics though.

Tonight I thoroughly cleaned out the inside of the truck. I found receipts that were 4 years old, dozen’s of street addresses and telephone numbers that I have no memory of, 20 CDs that I thought I’d lost, travel mugs, a soft ball and lots of garbage.

I need to clean more often. I’ve decided that I’m going to stay home 3 nights a week-- to make sure I’ve got time to maintain and enjoy my new home

Last night I had dinner with C2. Afterwards we went to Bear-e-oke at Guppies and met up with Sandy. C2 was much more relaxed than I've scene him in a long time. I'm not sure what set off his bout of fun.

Yesterday Edwin cleaned the new house for the first time. He did a good job. Now that the house is unpacked, setup and clean, it's starting to feel like home.

My old cell phone is dieing, so I bought a new one. I've been tranferring numbers to the new. It's amazing the amount of telephone-numbers that I no longer need-- team mates from way back when, guys I dated two years ago, old fuck buddies. It's like a walk down memory lane.

Bruce and C3 are getting married this Thursday!

At work, as a thank you gift, they gave us all portable DVD players. Nice gift. I'm not sure how often I'll use it though.

Comments are back.

Played hockey tonight. We won 4-1. Colin, a guy that I dated two years ago, was on the other team.

I've been thinking about all the nice guys I've dated but didn't fall in love with. It's frustrating. Colin is in that category. He's fit, attractive. Has an ok job. Is fun to be with. But, I don't have feelings for him at all.

Bleah. i wish I could take a pill that would make me fall for someone.

Other than that, I worked on the house. This house can suck up a lot of time. The townhouse was a care free fling. This place is a high maintenance marriage.

Last night I had a BBQ. Bruce and C3 showed up. They acted like nothing ever happened. Matt, Sandy, Sandy's sister, C2 and Behr also came over. The party gave me a chance to figure out how the house will work for entertaining.

The keg is acting weird. It spits up a lot and then pour slowly. It may be low on CO2. I'm not sure, whas going on.

Afterwards I went to the Cuff. I ran into C6, Silent J and many of the party bears. I closing time, C6 want to keep drinking, so he tried to get me to invite everyone over to my place. He really worked me hard. I almost said yes.

I then end, I said no, and then took off to make sure I didn't change my mind. I really don't want to start inviting half a dozen drunk men over to my place at 2am.

Last night I had dinner with Matt and Sandy. Sandy is toying with the idea of becoming a freelance producer/editor/director. He already does this for a local television station. He wants to eventually quit and work freelance. To do this, he'll need to buy about $10,000.00 in equipment. So, he's doing some soul searching to make sure he really wants this and isn't just rationalizing the purchase of $10,000.00 of toys.

Snub wrote: "Correct me if I'm wrong but was he supposed to ask C2 to marry him?"

Wrong C. Bruce asked C3 to marry him. You're forgiven for not memorizing the weird details of my life.

The Seven Cs. Oddly enough, I know 7 gay men who have the same first name. To preserve the confusion I've numbered them C1 through C7-- the order I met them.

C1 was Bruce's first ex. I haven't talked to him in over a year.
C2 lives in Seattle. Good guy. One of my best friends. Used to be one of Bruce's best friends-- before Bruce got flaky.
C3 is Bruce's partner. He's an artist and sometimes film director. Mostly TV commericals and some rock videos.
C4 is Officer Bob's ex. A truck driver
C5 is Harry's ex, and a co-worker of mine. I have a crush on C5, but he's happily partnered, so I don't go there.
C6 is a muscle bear. We've flirted with each other for years. However C6 is a player-- has posed naked for porn, likes to have 3-somes-- so I stay friends with him, but keep him at arms length.
C7 is another co-worker. Hey says he's straight, but acts effeminate and is very artsy and stylish. I wouldn't be supprized if he came out of the closet.

I'm still at work. I just finished my annual performance review. Bleah. I hate reviews. On top of that, I'm fairly sure that all the numbers, raises and promotions have already been decided, so my personal review is just a formality.

Hey Tommy, got a job for me where I don't have to be so damn introspective and self critical? Just half kidding.

Bruce is in town. He ran into C2 at the grocery store and started chating with him like nothing ever happened. C2 is a bit pissed at Bruce. After all, Bruce left Seattle and said "Don't call me. I'll call you."

I'm back.

The family reunion was good. Much better than I expected. It's odd how different I turned out from the rest of the family. Most of my relatives are very blue collar or farmers. I'm one of the few that escaped. This lead to a few odd conversations.

For example... I had the opportuntity to take over my dad's farm, but passed on it. I few of my cousins grilled me about that. If they had the chance to take over their fathers farm, they would have jumped at it. It was their dream.

Tonight I'm flying to Ottawa for a family re-union. I won't be back till Sunday evening.

My friend Mishelle just had another baby. He was born at 7:35pm last night.

I got this in email...

Mishelle, the ever diligent employee, went to work this morning with some contractions, left at 4 pm because they were getting bad and delivered less than 4 hours later! Her manager should check any code she wrote this morning!

I worked on the house yesterday. weeded a bit, ran some errands.

In the evening I went to Bear-e-oke at Guppy's with Matt, Sandy and Behr. It was a busy night.

What else have I been doing...

Friday I had dinner with Matt, Sandy and C2 at Siam's. We had coffee afterwards, hung out on the Starbuks patio and watched the strange homeless people walk buy.

Saturday, I had lunch with C2 and we watched "Scouting for All" a documentaty being shown as part of the Gay Pride festivities this weekend.

Sunday afternoon C2 and watched part of the Gay Pride parade. We ran into Behr and Officer Bob. As usually the parade was long and boring.

Later in the afternoon, I went TV shopping with Sandy and then had dinner with Sandy and Matt. Matt has injured his foot, so he's sitting around and resting most of the time.

Sunday evening I played hockey. We won 3-0!

Today at work, we are having a shipping party (We've finished and shipped the latest product I've been working on. They've given us this week off of work. Nice.

To end the latest episode of the Harry/Barry story...

Harry and I were supposed to get together on Saturday night. Saturday afternoon hj called and said he couldn't make it. Family birthday he forgot about. Today I got this email...

Hey Barry!

What did you end up doing the rest of the weekend?

yesterday I worked all day on the house. I rebuilt the porch, over in the corner where it was rotten.

I feel bad because I want to get the out side of the house done, and I want the free time to be able to do fun things as well. I wish there was more fricken time in the day and I did not have to go to bed so early for work.. It is really hard when you get off later and we meet up at 7. It only give a couple hours, before it is time for bed for me anyway.

Ya know I guess maybe I am not ready for a relationship , till after the summer when the house is painted. I am kinda on the gun, because of the weather around here. I still want to go out for dinner with you on occasion, but I am stressed out trying to juggle time right now.. Do ya know what I mean...

Anyway.. Enough of that.. Did you go to pride yesterday? Brent and Sean could not believe that I did not want to go to pride.. I am just not into watching all of the queens dance around. And the cuff is way to crouded and I am not paying $10 to get into the place..

Well my lunch is over.. I will call you later on..
Take care Hope you are having a good day.. Harry

So Harry came over last night. Dinner and a movie. He slept over. No sex again.

I'm trying to relax and enjoy it. Every day I expect him to stop calling me and pull another one of his vanishing acts. Although, he didn't call me today.

We agreed to sleep apart tonight. I know I need it. I'm not used to sleeping with someone. I haven't slept with anoyone since... since....? Since c2 had his emergecy last February and that doesn't really count since we weren't dating.

I think Harry and I have started dating.

Last night Behr and I went to Trax in Kent for Taco Tuesday (50 cent tacos, dollar beer pounders) Harry was there. We were friendly and kind of flirty with each other, but not overly so.

At about 10pm I left, by myself. I didn't drive more than 30 seconds when Harry called me. We chatted. He told me that every time he saw me, and he wanted to be with me. Blah blah blah. Mush stuff.

I drove over to Harry's and spent the night. (No sex, just cudling and talking!)

Today he called me back. Tonight he's coming over to my place.

Too much information.

I've got a boil on my ass. At first I thought it was syphilis, so I paniced and ran to the doctor. He pointed out that it was something much more benign, put me on an antibiotic and told me if it doesn't heal in a couple of weeks, I should see him again. He would clean it out. Bleah.

Sunday evening I played hockey. Tied 1-1. I had a good game. My skills are improving. I've gone from being an average middle of the road player, to someone who has a few great plays a game.

When I got home, a deer was walking along my house! I tied to take a few pictures, but it was too dark and the deer wouldn't let me get close enough for the flash to be useful.

Friday night I had dinner with C2, Mac, John and the Tease. Behr couldn't make it-- he had to sleep so he could go and party.

Behr has become a bar fly and player. He goes out drinking most nights and brings men home very often. It's too bad. I'd ask him out if he led a more settled life. We get along well.

C2 brought up his friend-testing questions "Would you take a bullet for me?" "Would you give me a kidney if I needed one?" John said he would take a bullet for anyone, but would only give C2 a third of a kidney.

When C2 asked me if I'd give him a kidney, I hesitated. Everyone interperted that as "No." even when I eventually answered "Yes."

Saturday I mowed the lawn, and organized the house some more. In the evening I had dinner with Mat and Sandy. Sandy has started, uh, consuming Eclipse cigarettes. Eclipse are smokless cigarettes, so if you say he's smoking, he corrects you. Mat doesn't realy like that Sandy has started "smoking" again, but on the flip side, he said that Sandy now sleeps better and is less stressed.

So the new place has been, uh, christened. An old fuck buddy called me up and came over.

Bruce is in town for the weekend. C3 called at about 9:30 and invited me over for an emergecy suprize party. Bruce has a job in Vancouver now-- at an antique shop. Apparently it's a very expensive antique shop. They have silver bread baskets that go for $1600 bucks.

I told Bruce to call C2, that he'd appreciate it. We'll see if he does. Bruce is still off in Bruce land-- he likes being around his friends, but his friends are only those around him. Out of sight out of mind.

Bruce and C3 were planning their wedding. Bruce wants to get married in Kenora Ontario for no better reason than it's close-- if you drive east though Canada, it's the first town you drive through that accepts gay marriages. BC Won't issue marriage licesnes to gay's and lesbians till 2004. Close is a relative term. It will be a two day drive from Vancouver.

Last night I had dinner with Steven. Afterwards we went back to his place and watched "24" Steven has the DVDs of the 1st season.

I've been unpacking. Steven came over last night and helped for a while.

Yesterday the government of Canada said that they would allow same sex marriages. On a related note, I heard from C3. Bruce is living in Vancouver and he's proposed to C3. No word yet on the ceremony or anything like that.

Today I had lunch with Steven. After lunch, we walked into the men's room to pee. Steven in a jokey Mickey Mouse voice said "I'll show your mine if...." At that point there was a noise from the toilet next to us-- someone was in the stall! Steven turned beat red and we both started silently laughing. We finished off quickly and left before the third guy could see who we were.

Played hockey last night. We won 4-0.

Earlier on, I was over at Mat and Steve's for a BBQ. Heard more gossip about Harry and the crack story. Apparently his roommate and his best friends both say that Harry brought a guy home who got him to do some crack. He wigged out and that off his depressive episode.

Oddly enough I just got this from Harry...

So how is the new house.. I almost gave you a call last night. I just needed to get away from my place for a bit... I worked on it all weekend, Scraping,Sanding and Caulking, and Priming.

Anyway I hope all is going well.. Would you be up for dinner sometime soon.. Let me know Take care

I'm out of the townhouse. Redmond is no longer my home. It's taken much longer to move than I planned. That was a lot more garbage than I thought.

The singing lady has walked by the new place a few more times. I mentioned it to the old owner. He laughed and said she lived two houses down and wasn't all there.

I'm almost finished moving. Last night Steven helped me move some sofa's and an entertainment center. Thanks Steven!

I still have much unpackig to do. Bleah.

Last night for the first time, I slept at the cabin. Sometime in the middle of the night someone started singing. As I wolk up I breifly thought that the cabin had a ghost. After a few moments I realized what was going on, so I rolled over and fell asleep again.

Ryan, Jen and I watched the Stanley Cup finals-- New Jersey against Anaheim. It was a bad game. Both teams played equally well, but the Anaheim goalie was off. So, New Jersey won 3-0.

Afterwards I dropped off a load of stuff at the cabin. When I got back to the townhouse I stuffed five big garbage bags full of crud. Then I drove around till I found a dumpster and left the crud behind.

Sunday morning I moved two loads of stuff to the cabin. It's amazing the amount of crap I'm throwing out-- a humidifer I haven't used since I moved to Seattle, spices and kitchen tools I haven't used in years, old paper work, five boxes of baking powder.

In the afternoon I watched Mac play softball. He won both of his games. Behr, the Tease and John also watched the game.

Later on the Tease and I had dinner with Steven. Steven brought a friend of his over. I think Steven was trying to set me up with the friend. I'm not sure how that went. He's a nice guy, but he spent most of his time talking to the Tease. Not a lot of eye contact with me.

After dinner I played hockey. We won 5-1. This season is going well.

On Saturday Sandy got Passes to Wild waves. So C2, Matt, Sandy and I headed down there and had fun.

Late in the afternoon, we left for Matt's parents-- they live about 3 miles from Wild Waves on Lake Geneva. We took a little raft out to the middle of the lake, drank, chatted and sat in the sun.

Weird gossip.

Last week Harry told me he was diagnosed with depression and that he spent two days in a row crying.

The word on the street-- Sean told Behr that Harry did crack and wigged out.

Now, Sean can be mean, but I've never known him to lie. On the flip side, I've never know Harry to do drugs, but he does have a dark side. I'm not sure who is telling the truth. I'll give Harry the benefit of the doubt.

The weather in Seattle has been beautiful-- Sunny, 80's. We haven't had weather like this in years.

Last night I had dinner with C2, G, the Texas Rose, Hellraiser and his boyfriend. We ate on Siam's patio. Usualy Siam's never has tables outside becuase the weather is rarely this good.

Dinner was good. It ended a bit oddly. Usually after dinner, we go and have coffee and chat some more. But, the Texas Rose and Hell Raiser, blutly said no to coffee (they don't like coffee) and said they had to get back to the Cuff. G, C2 and I all thought that was weird.

I was going to finish moving today, but Sandy and C2 worked on me and conviced me to go to Wild Waves with them. Twist my rubber arm

Every day I've been moving a load of stuff from the townhouse to the cabin. Yesterday I reached a cusp. All that's left in the townhouse are the essentials and things too big for me to move by myself. I'll see if I can finished it off this weekend.

After work, C2, Steven and I had dinner at the Elyisian. It was Steven's first time at the Elysian. The Elysian is next to the Cuff, and brews it's own beer-- beer that has one metals from competion around the world. Yet, for some reason very few people know about it or go there.

On the downside, C2's and Steven's meals wern't that good. Mine was fine.


After that, C2 and I met up with Sandy and Mat. We saw Finding Nemo with the movie bears. I liked it C2 hated it. I think he just hates Ellen Degeneres.

Last night Steven and I went shopping. I bought a washer, dryer, lawn mower and weed whacker. Steven did the negotiations for the washer and dryer. He's very good at that.

My weed whacker was 'free'. The clerk scanned it at the checkout but it didn't show up on the bill. Steven and I didn't say a thing when we noticed the error. I guess that's not really ethical. I feel a little bit guilty about it, but not $50.00 guilty.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention this...

When I was removing the old garbage disposer, everytime drain gunk got on my hands, I'd compulsivly rince them. A very bad idea when the sink's drain is disconnected.

It's starting to hit me how much work this move and the house will be. For the past five years I've lived in a townhouse-- care and maintenance free. At the cabin there is a lawn to mow, flower beds to fill, hedges to trim, things to repair and equipment to buy. This made me flash back to my childhood-- getting angry at my parents for forcing me to mow the lawn or weed the garden. I called them up and told them. We had a good laugh.

I'm ready for it. I'll just have to be more disciplined about my time.

Barry vs. the Garbage Disposer

As part of selling the townhouse, I have to replace the in-sink garbage disposer. I thought it would be easy but have never mucked with plumbing before.

As bad luck would have it, the drain for new garbage disposer is one inch higher than the old disposer-- and thus started a two day project, including 3 trips to Home Depot, to match the drain pipe of the disposer to the lower T joint on the main drain.

1st Trip. There is no adapter that lowers a pipe by just one inch. Four or or more inches is fine, but they don't make bending joints small enough to only lower a pipe by one inche. "No problem," the Home Depot main said. "Just raise the T joint on the existing drain." When I returned home there was a problem. The existing T joint was as high up as it could go.

2nd Trip. I bought a variety of adapters and angles to build a slope the would lowever the drain pipe by one inche. This almost worked. Except that to hook everything up, I had to twist the garbage disposer such that the dishwasher drain (Which connects to the disposer) wasn't long enough to join to the disposer. Also, the drain assembly leaked.

3rd trip. I bought longer hose for the dishwasher drain. I ended up buying hose that was 1/8th of an inch too narrow. I cursed a lot and then strectched the hose diameter with neadle nose pliers. This gave me enough wiggle room to re-attached the dishwasher. To seal the drain joints, I lined them bead of plumbers putty.

Water has been running through the disposer for the past 15 minutes. No leaks. I'll do a load of dishes and then pronounce this project complete.

I just read the fine print on the plumbers putty. It says "DO NOT USE ON PLASTIC" Fuck it.

Lesson learned. When you buy a house, don't put a dozen little conditions in the contract. You really won't know if the seller did a good job until it's too late.

The cabin is mine. The old owner is out, I have the keys and can start moving in. This is cool. Maybe I'll sleep there tonight. I have till the 16th to finish moving and be out of the townhouse.

Harry wrote me. He's been diagnosed with depression. He said he's been blubbering for 2 days now and is going to see a councler. He also wrote. "I think Life has just gotten the best of me.. And I can't handle it any anymore.."

I called him up and we talked a while. I told him he should spend more time with his friends.

He emailed me after we called...
"Thank you Barry... And you are right. I need to spend more time with Quality friends like yourself.. Take care and keep in touch.. Harry"

It's a bit odd. There is nothing I can do buy say "Things will be all right" and keep my distance.

Steven, C2 and I went with the Movie Bears to see . Bruce Almighty It's an ok movie; funny at first but becomes too sweet and sappy at the end.

Afterwards we had drinks at CC's. The usual crew was there.

The married guy I saw last week was back in town. We had dinner, drinks and I spent the night. He told me I needed a boyfriend. This is great. Even my fuck buddies tell me I need a boyfriend.

On Saturday I went camping. We (C2, Mac, John, Mat, Sandy and C2's room mate) went to Lake Chelan. Saturday was beautiful, sunny and warm. Saturday evening a loud gang moved next door. They had motorcycles, quads and played loud music. So Sunday afternoon, rather than spending another night, we left for home.

We stopped at Leavenworth. It was John's first time there.

Sunday evening I went to the Cuff and ran into Behr and the Tease. Behr has become a bit of a player. He sleeps around very often and is proud of it. For a while I thought he was on the rebound. But, it's been a year now and he still enjoys the company of strangers. Oh well.

A few days back I gave a co-worker, who lives near me, open access to my wireless internet connection. Last night I was taking a run past his place. He shouted "Hello". I looked back and he had a tin can antenna in his hand!

I walked over to see what he was doing-- pointing the antenna at the different buildings and finding which ones had wireless networks. I had a good laugh at that so I decided to help. I got a tripod from my place. We mounted the tin can antenna on the tripod and continued searching the neighborhood.

I'm surprized how well the antenna works. We picked up half a dozen networks that you couldn't see with the regular antenna. Two of the networks were wide open.

Sigh. The Brunching Shuttlecocks are dead. At it's peak, Brunching was a daily comedy sight that with a lot of good, different humor. The Ratings. Good or Bad. Lore

In the past year the entries have dropped off, from daily, to weekly, to sporadically. Today the site announced it's death.

Oh well. Guess I'll have to find some other way to entertain myself. At least the archives are still online.

Too much information...

Last night at my birthday party, Sandy and Mat gave me a dildo. I've seen dildo's given as birthday gifts before-- as gag gifts. Usually the gift dildo is a huge monstrosity that could never fit up the rectum of anyone sane or well balanced.

Not this one. One time, months ago, I told Sandy that I didn't own a dildo. So Sandy decided to fill in that void. He said he spent hours looking for my perfect dildo, one that I would enjoy for years. Not too big. Not too small. Something that would make me happy.

This is weird. I rarely have anal sex and I've never felt the urge to plug myself while JOing. I'm not sure what to do with the dildo. I hope Sandy won't be disappointed if I don't use it.

Played hockey last night. We won 2-0. The game was at 10:45 at night and were 4 people short, so I was worried that we would get our asses kicked. But, it worked out. The other team was green and couldn't form a breakout.

Steven just told me this over the phone. You could hear the stress in his voice. Steve was in Canada to drop Vic off for the ferry home when his tire blew out. But, the car didn't have a jack. Now in Canada, Monday was a holiday (Victoria Day), so he ended up waiting 5 hours for a tow truck! When the truck arrived, the guy put the jack under the wrong part of Steven's car and bent that corner all to shit.

Eventually Steve got the spare on. Since he was in Canada and 3 hours away from Seattle, he spent the night at a hotel and bought a new tire this morning.

Oh yeah. Today is my birthday. I'm 33.

Things are changing fast. Steven's house has sold (The final paper work hasn't been signed, so that could change) It looks like Steven will be moving out of his house before June 6th. That means he'll be moving into my new house, maybe even before I move in. After we got back from Vegas, Steven, Vic and I drove over to the log cabin-- my new house, so Vic could look at it. There should be plent of space for Steven's and my stuff.

Steven also has a new job. It's similar to his old job, but for a different company.

I'm back.

Vegas was a mediocre vacation. I got a 24 hour flu on Saturday. C2 got big blisters on his feet and had pain walking. Andy was still recovering from the shingles and slept most of the time. So, we were big party poopers.

Sunday night we saw Mystere a great show/circus act.

Vic and Steven had a lot of fun. They saw Ciline Dion on Saturday night and really loved the performance.

We (me and some people I work with) saw The Matrix Reloaded today. It's a good movie. The special effects are perfect. In a way, that takes away from the movie. When you expect anything to happen, you can't be suprized.

C2 just got this from Bruce...

>Hey C2
>I'll be leaving Seattle on Friday for good. Eventually, you can try to reach
>me in Vancouver. I don't think I'll be reachable at the start. Don't bother
>calling me at my US phone numbers or coming by my ex-residence.
>
>As for all of my possessions down here, I am basically moving some clothes
>and a few books. Everything else I will be carting to Goodwill or some other
>NPO for a tax receipt. It's just easy this way. No hassle with Canadian
>taxation doing an itemized list, etc.
>
>Take care of yourself.
>Bruce

I wonder if we'll ever hear from Bruce again.

Steven, Vic, C2, Andy and I are heading down to Las Vegas for the weekend. So, next post will be Monday.

I have a wireless network at home. A cheap co-worker has moved into the neighborhood-- kitty corner from me. He's been trying to get free internet from a local wireless network, but hasn't had much luck. The only open network he can find required him to stand close to a window and hold the antenna a certain way.

Just for shits and grins I opened up my wireless. He's on it right now. We've sent each other a few messages and he's thanked me a lot for giving him free internet. His signal strength isn't that great so he's going to build a Tin Can Antenna. I can't wait to hear how that turns out.

I didn't tell my co-worker this, but I've turned IP logging on in my wirless router. This means I can see what internet sites he's connecting to. So far it's been boring-- work, some goverment sites, his old school.

Nosey me.

Steven has a new job. He called me with the good news. He's got a good signing bonus as well.

Last night I was bad. I met a married guy who was in town on busness. We fooled around. Afterwards we had dinner. On the way to the restaurant he asked "Is this a gay date?" grabbed my hand and started grinning.

No good can come of this.

Sandy has entered MSN's Idea's Happen contest. Right now his entry is in the preliminary stage. Vote for him!

On Saturday, we finalized the inspection for my condo. The buyer wants a new garbage disposal unit, some caulking, and someone to check the gas fireplace. A portable gas leak detector said there was a small leak coming from the gas connection to the fireplace. I agreed to all the fixes.

This basically means my condo has been sold. If the buyer backs out, he'll loose his $5000.00 earnest money.

The owner of my log house has given me its keys. He’s isn’t fully moved out yet, but he said I can drop by any time I want.

Other than that, I spent Sunday afternoon with Mat, Sandy and John. We watched Mac play softball. Then we drove over to the cabin. They like the cabin. Sandy want's to be the hot-tub-consultant. Mat wants to help me with the landscaping.

Yesterday for lunch, Steven and I went to Dixie's BBQ. He's finally met The Man-- a very hot sauce. Steven started sweating after he had some of The Man.

Last night I went over to Mat and Sandy's. They think their aquarium is finally under control. A pet store person gave them bad aquarium advice. Over the months that advice cost them hunderds of dollars in dead fish. They've switched to a different store. The new aquarium specialist set them straight, and the aquarium cleared up.

We also watched American Idol. I don't really like that show, but my tastes in music arn't mainstream.

Last night I saw X2. It's a fun movie.

Still filling out paper work to sell my condo. The inspection was today. My agent said it went well, though they detected a small gass leak in the furnace.

Bah. Work paged me last night. I was on my way to a dinner party held by some guys that I rarely see-- guys who probably think I'm flaky because I keep backing out of their invitiations. I was no more than 5 minutes from their place when the pager went off.

I ended up working till 11pm.

Afterwards I went out to the Cuff. I ran into Behr and the Tease. Had a drink with them, and then went home.

Sandy's birthday had, well, interesting people at it. I'm not sure how Mat and Sandy know them.

One guy gave up drinking a few weeks ago. He did so because he got drunk, did crystal and then wolk up in a hotel room with people he didn't know. He told his girlfriend about this. She dumped him. He also has to get tested for something in the next few weeks. He didn't say what.

The same guy said his 2002 tax return only had $500.00 in income. Steven told him to be careful or he would be audited. The guys replied that he could prove it-- he had no home and was sleeping on the couch of a friend.

Another guy was exceptionally ignorant. He would make an opinion, and and argue it to death, but would also admit that he had no experience with subject. He just knew that he was right.

Had lunch with Steven yesterday. He's started with a personal trainer and is working out often, including cardio twice a day. He's also on a strict diet-- five meals a day, lots of protein, no carbs. Steven starting to look good. Vic (Who's away on work for the next week or so) will be impressed.

Had dinner with Mat and Sandy. It's Sandy's birthday today. Sandy doesn't want to celebreate, but Mat said that Sandy is a bit bummed about his birthday, so Mat is throwing a BBQ for Sandy.

For Sandy's birthday, I bought him "How to Make Your Man Behave in 21 Days or Less Using the Secrets of Professional Dog Trainers"

I've got an offer on my townhouse. They are paying exactly the price my agent thought we would get. The offer is still subject to inspection. Things should be ok-- the townhouse is fairly new and I haven't renovated it.

Today we finalized the deal on my new house. It closes on June 16th (Same as the townhouse) The chimney needs some work. In exchange for me paying that bill, the current owners will move out by May 31 and let me move in starting June 1.

Oh yeah-- more on the parents that are buying their son my townhouse. It turns out the father is a Vice President of Ford. I wonder if me owning an F-150 had anything to do with their easy offer.

Someone is making an offer on my townhouse. I don't know all the details yet-- my agent just called to tell me the good news. The paper work is being filled out as I write.

I know the people that are buying. Their son is going to school here. Rather than renting him a place, the parents decided to buy. Nice parents.