Today RO is in Dallas shopping. He found a vendor that he really likes, so he's flown to their warehouse in Texas.

One nice benefit of the store is that we are getting thousands of air miles every month since we do most of the store buying with credit cards.

Everyone loves credit cards. They are faster and easier than cheque. Much less paperwork; credit card transactions automatically appear in the accounting software and in our bank account, unlike cash or cheques which require manual entry.

Back to the airmiles-- the store earns about one free roundtrip ticket a month. Right now RO and I aren't taking money out of the store so this is the only benefit that we have.

RO and I are trying to exercise again. We jogged this morning. We made it half as far as we used to before we needed to stop and walk.

I try to do the books for the store. Even though most of it is automated, book keeping is a lot of work. Fortunatly the most important expenses like pay roll and paying sales tax are completly automated.

The bank statments and credit cards are mostly automated. We can download import them into the Accounting Package. The hard part is matching the transactions up to receipts. That's a lot of tedious work.

The book keepers that we talked to wanted to charge us a couple thousand a month to keep our books. Now I understand why.

The robins are back. This morning while RO and I were in the hot tub, a robin was in a nearby tree calling out to others. It would whistle loudly. A few seconds later other nearby robins would whistle back. The calls sound fairly far away. One robin is accross the ravine and another is a few house down.

How do you forget valentines day? Well, his argument is that he had a really elaborite valentines day gift planned. Then he got too busy to follow through.

He knows I don't want to receive flowers at work, so he was either going to have some roses sent to everyone around me, but not me. Then at a particular time, each of my co-workers would give me a rose.

Last night RO and I took Neu to see Dan Savages's Valentines Day Bash. At the Bash, you bring a momento of a failed relationship. Dan calls you up to the stage, you talk about the failed relationship in front of the audience, and then Dan destroys the momento-- burn, blend, smash, rip it up and flush it down a toilet and so on.

It was fun, though we left early. There were too many paper momentos. In past years people have destroyed wedding rings and other valuables. This year it was mostly photos and love letters.

When we got home, RO opened my valentine's day card to him. I opened my valentines day card and... RO didn't send the card to me! One of the store employees sent me the card. RO forgot valentines day! We argued over it for a bit and went to bed in a huff. At about 3am in the morning he apologized. That felt good.

The store's grand opening sale was on Saturday. Even though we've been soft open since mid December, we didn't start advertising till now.

RO created a big event for the sale. We rented hollywood search lights. We catered. We had a stagered sale. 10% off from 10am to 1pm. 20% of from 1pm to 5pm. 30% of from 5pm to 7pm, and 40% off after 7pm.

The customers worked hard to get things at 40% off. Before 7pm, one lady went around the store and hid the items she wanted under scarves.

It was very busy before 7pm. After that it was was a mad house. We were wrapping and ringing non-stop till 10pm. The small stuff was easy. Quickly packing the big stuff, chairs, book shelves, paintings and other art, was back breaking work.

That night I could only dream of bubble wrap and price checking.

It's a big load off my chest that the store will be successful. Still, this isn't easy money We are working hard for our dollars.

So, for four days the kitchen drain was blocked. Every evening RO and I would go to Home Depot and buy another drain clearing tool. We poured chemicals and hot water down it. We plunged it so vigorously that the seals broke and the joints started leaking. We shoved a twenty five foot drain snake down it. We spent hours on it. No luck.

RO finally let me call Roto-Router. At 8:30am the plumber showed up. By 9am he had cleared the clog and rebuilt the plumbing that we had destroyed.

We are having bad drain karma. The kitchen drain has been plugged for the past three days. Every night we buy another drain clearning gadget and spend an hour trying to free things up. If we don't clear it up tonight, then I'm going to call the plumber.

I wanted to call the plumber yesterday. RO is too stubborn. I know he wants to save a some bucks. But there is something to be said about having a working dishwasher and sink.

I just heard from Bib for the first time since he got back from Australia. He said he had a great time down under.

On the way back, the jet tire blew out. He said they heard the bang at the tail end of the take off. So, the pilot didn't abort.

They made an emergency stop in SFO. Fortunatly they landed safely.

Last night, Matt, Sandy, Steven, RO and I had dinner at the Blackbird Bistro. Nice restaurant.

We spent most of the evening mulling over Steven and Vic's situation. They are very much in love (and married) but they live 5 hours apart. It's difficult for Vic to move to the U.S. and Steven would take a big pay cut if he moved to Canada.

Last night RO and I went over to Matt and Sandy's and watched Die Mommei Die! It's a bad movie-- they tried hard to make it bad. Some of the dialog is so awful you know the writers worked hard to go there.

C2 has now spent almost a year in Iraq. I got this note from him...

How are you doing? Things here are fine, but sorta the same-ole-same-sole. I think I've topped out here at Tallil and need to move to Baghdad to find the next round of adventure/change. How do you like doing the work thing and store thing? Is it too much? Have you started paying yourself back yet? Ok, chat you soon.

C2 is in no hurry to come back to Seattle. He has many alergies when he's in Seattle. They clear up in Iraq. In Iraq he has a full time job that he kind of likes and earns him some respect. Back in Seattle he wasn't doing much more than temping.

I'm glad he's found something he likes. It's just too bad that our paths are diverging.

Over the weekend, RO and I went to a trade show, the Seattle Gift Show, to buy for the store. It was a lot of work. There were acres and acres of pottery vendors, art vendors, furniture vendors, jewelry vendors, candle vendors, clothing vendors. It went on and on and on. We spend two days there.

I am not a buyer at heart. My eyes glazed over by the time I saw my one hundredth vase. Thankfully RO knows what he's looking for, so I handled the paper work while he was shopping.

We met a rug importer who later stopped by the store to check us out. This vendor sells $10,000.00 rugs. He was impressed by our store and has offered to sell rugs through us on consignment, which is very nice because we can't afford to keep many $10,000.00 rugs in stock.

RO and Boone are now headed down to Las Vegas for a furniture show. I kind of wish I was there. Although the thought of another two days of buying kind of bores me.

I'll stick with running the store.

The store is next to a tourist area. Near by there are many little boutiques and gifts shops. Our store having an effect on the neighborhood.

The restaurants and the stores with different merchandise like us. We are the biggest and splashiest place on the block so they benefit by the extra foot traffic.

One boutique, unfortunately, carries similar merchandise as our store. They are suffering. The owner hates us-- she said so to some of our vendors. I really don't want to brush it off with "It's just business and in business you compete." But, at the same time there is little else I can do. Our store is probably five times larger than her's, with ten times the selection. She has a narrow alley, while we have a 5000 square foot building.

Last night we had dinner at Sally's.

Sally and her husband built my house back in the 1950's. They lived there for decades. After her husband died, she bought a smaller house 4 lots over.

Well, Sally is 80 now. And she doens't look a day older than 60. She's fit, smart, active and attractive. I hope I'm half as alive as she is when I turn 70.

We try to have dinner with Sally regularly. She loves the company and likes to keep tabs on her old home. Last night she gave us 4 old photos of my place, dating back to the 50's.

I think I'll blow them up, frame them and give Sally a copy.

The sewer at the store is all fixed up.

Saturday night, RO, Steven and I went out for dinner at Blu Sea Sushi. It's a fun conveyer belt sushi restaurant with a nice martini bar.

Steven really liked the bartender. So, RO looked at the bartender and shouted "Hey! Are you straight?" Steven and I broke out laughing. When RO gets tipsy, he gets loud.

After Sushi, we went to C.C.'s for a couple of more drinks. RO got even more obnoxious. I decided to just let him get it out of his system. We've been working so hard, that he needs to blow off some steam.

Next day, no hangovers!

Sunday night we had dinner at Matt and Sandy's. It was a great dinner. It was nice to site down with friends.

The store is doing fine. Over the weekend, we composed our first newspaper ad. We'll see how it looks in print.

It's one of those days. The sewer line at the store is blocked up. The plumber can't find the blockage. Right now they are flushing the sewer line out so they can push a small video camera into it.

Last night RO and I saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's a good movie, though I have some complaints with the story-- too much magic. Magic and the kids are in trouble. Some more magic and the kids are safe. Bad magic and someone dies. Good magic-- he comes back to life. More magic and the day is saved.

The magic feels like C.S. Lewis cheated with the story, which is disappointing because the rest of the movie (and book) are so well put together.

After the movie I got to meet Randy Hansen Randy is a friend of RO's who has had some success as a professional guitarist and a Jimmy Hendrix impersonator.

Last night Steven came over and joined us for our first machine dinner. Between the store and my job, we don't have enough time or energy to make good dinners. So, we got a crock pot and a bread machine. By 7pm both were finished, so all we had to do was sit down and enjoy our meal.

Steven is still overwhelmed with work. What is it about workoholism and my friends? I guess it's better than hanging out with slackers.

The store is going well. January may be a better month than December.

Over the weekend, I spent most of my time in the back room cleaning and organizing. I bought half a dozen rolling racks and we got all the crap off the floor and onto the shelves.

For the first time since we opened, our garbage is under control. I did three garbage runs. Much of the cardboard in our garbage area had started to rot away. I used a fork and shovel to get it into the truck bed.

The thing I miss most of my life before the store is the absence of enough. I used to be able to read, or watch TV, or sit in the hot tub, or hang out with friends until I had enough. There was still time left over for house work. Now my days are full. I still have my old full time job. The store takes up whatever free time is left over.

I think we have enough employees a the store that RO and Boone can start taking days off. In fact, Boone took Sunday off. We are going to try and schedule things so that RO can take Monday or Tuesday off, however I'm not sure he will. He'll probably do the buying or consulting on those days.

Me... Well Between my fulltime job and the store, I'm working seven days a week.

Although, Saturday night RO and I saw Brokeback Mountain with Steven and Vic. Brokemback Mountain is a good movie, but not the great movie I'd heard it was. I enjoyed it, but I'm in no hurry to see it again.

I'm back in Seattle and working hard. Between my day job and the store, I don't get much free time. We need to hire another full time person for the store-- RO is stretched very thin. But, that's a big commitment.

It's 3am in the morning. I am still in Phily. There is no one at the airport but the clean staff and a few straglers like me.

The cleaning staff spends most of their time joy riding the electric cars or sitting around and gabbing.

I want to sleep but can't. The one man who is actually working is running a loud floor buffer near me.

I still haven't found my camera.

The bank of pay phones next to me has started ringing randomly. It's kind of wierd. I picked up one of the ringing phones and no one was there. Then, the phone next to me started ringing.

I am stuck in Philidelphia. I was flying back from Toronto with a connecting flight in Phili. The flight from TO was delayed and I missed the connector. Right now they have me booked on the next flight to Seattle. That's not till the morning.

To make matters worse, while I was rushing around the airport I lost my camera. It had all my XMas pics on it. I feel bad about that.

Right now I'm in Pembroke, my home town. The weather is just below freezing-- very pleasent for late December. When I told RO the temperature, he was shocked at how cold it was and repeatedly told me to stay warm and not get sick. RO was born and raised around Seattle so freezing temperatures are alien to him.

The store is doing well. We earned enough to pay our bills. Not bad for only being open for three weeks.

Christmas, RO and I spend a quiet day together. It was the first time we had a day off since Thanksgiving. We cleaned the house, sat in the hot tub, ate, visited friends and slept.

Today I flew to Toronto. I had a great flight over. As luck would have it, an old friend was the head steward. When he saw me he said "Barry! Long time now see. Let me take care of you. Go sit in 4C. And so I had 1st class service all the way.

Running a store is interesting. It's so different from my day job as an engineer. The two jobs stress my brain in different ways.

The store is developing a routine, though we still have a long way to go. It sounds like I'm the easy boss, and RO is the hard boss. Yesterday, RO needed some supplies for the front desk, but couldn't find them. He asked one of the girls (We employ three highschool girls) to look for it.

We looked together but couldn't find the supplies. I asked her to tell RO. She asked me "Can you do that? He'll yell at me."

We had a small Christmas Party at the store. About thirty people showed up. It was fun.

We had a white elephant gift exchange. It was fairly fun, but went on way too long. RO was a bit drunk and tried to rule the proceedings. But, you really can't get 30 drinking adults all be quiet and act professional.

Boone drank a lot and got sick-- he doesn't usually drink. I could tell he was on the verge of puking when he got into my truck for the ride home. I kept my eye on him all the way. As we pulling along side home, while I was still driving, he opened the door and proceeded to unload.

RO and I have been working almost non-stop. I have my day job, plus the store needs lots of attention.

We haven't caught up with the book keeping yet. I'm trying to do that, but accounting it's a lot of work. The accounting software doesn't let you correct mistakes. You have to enter another transaction to document the correction. Many of my first entries are things like "#4: Transaction #3 should be a debit and not a credit." "#5 Transaction #4 should be $3.00 not $0.03" and so on.

Saturday night we went to an X-Mas party at some neighbors. They had a white elephant gift swap. It worked out well. I ended up getting a great framed photo.

Last night an old friend told me that Tori died. Tori and I went to University together. We weren't close friends, but we did hang with the same crowd. Tori was a very ambitious and intelligent woman. The long story is under Kayak outing in Mexico turns tragic


In short, Tori and 2 friends were in Mexico, Kayaking between two islands in the Sea of Cortez. A suprize wind sqaul hit them, generating nine foot waves. The three tried to stay together, but Tori was ripped away. At 5pm an American yatch picked up the 2 friends. The yatch had radio contact with Tori. She was frustrated trying to give the searchers here location, but couldn't get sightings because the waves were so high. At 8:30 Tori made her last contact, saying she was cold. Her body was recovered Monday Morning.

The policy are running a speed trap outside my window. Every few minutes the sirens go on and they pull over another car.

It's snowing. Nice big flakes.

Where I work, there are two distinct groups of people-- those who grew up with snow and those who didn't. Those who did not grow up with snow are looking out the window, worrying about the drive home and thinking of leaving early. Those who grew up with snow are rolling their eyes and saying "It's just snow."

I grew up in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It really snows there.

I've been working a lot again. I have my day job. Then I drive to the store and help RO set up. He's hired three extra people to help him. On top of that, another three or four of our friends show up to assist. Thanks to everyone!

Last week we worked hard on the store. It's not open yet, but we are close. Most of the inventory is in. The POS (Point of Sale) system is up and running. The display walls are finished. We just need to receive some final inventory,put the trim on the walls, and display everything.

That is still a lot of work.

RO's big day.

Sunday was RO's 41st birthday. On his birthday...

he was outed to my mother. My parents know I am gay, but are in very deep denial about it. I thought they new RO and I were together. Hell.. when my parents spent a week at my house, RO slept every night in my room. Yet my parents didn't realize we were dating. Sunday when I was talking to my mother, I mentioned something, I don't even know what I said, but my mother finally put 2 and 2 together and figured out that I'm really gay, and not pretend-gay-but-someday-I'll-find-the-right-woman. RO was very happy when he heard that.

he accidently put his leg through the ceiling of the store while running cable along it.

he bruise his head in the process

he cursed loudly and non-stop for 15 minutes afterwards.

RO isn't out to his family yet. Sunday His sister showed up at the stare and is now wondering who I am and who his friends are. He does this wonderful song and dance to keep us apart.

We celebrated his birtday at a restaurant nextdoor to us. Some of the gang used their camera phones to send pictures of their genitalia to RO.

It took a long time to get our bill. Because of that RO had words with the manager. The manager kicked him out and told him to never return!

Happy Birthday RO!

This morning at the store, RO was unloading his car and left his jacket and travel mug outside the door. Two kids picked up the jacket, threw the mug, found the keys and stole the car.

Two city workers saw the kids throw the mug and drive off. They ran into the store and told RO what happened. RO immediatly called 911.

The police stopped the car within a mile. No damage. Nothing lost.

Whew.

Later on the city workers said they only knew something was weird because the kids threw the travel mug. The kids would have got away if they were more subdued.

I've got mixed feelings about this. On one hand I love it that the police were so responsive. On the other, I'm worried that the store is not in the best of neighborhoods. The neighborhood is definitly on the upswing. But the less desirable elements are still around.

After RO got the car back, he found a lap top and a cell phone in it. The lap top came from a mortgage broker just down the street. RO thinks the cell phone belongs to one of the theives. As he put it, "The phone is full of Ebonics names."

We are doing so much that everything is starting to blur. For a while on Sunday I completely forgot what I did on Saturday.

The store is comming along, though slowly. We are having a problem getting signs. None of the sign people will give us estimates. On the good side, we found a metal artist who may make us a metal sign for much less than a sign company.

I decided to stick an advert on the side of my blog-- mostly to get stats. Google can tell me a bit about my readers. The ad's are supposed to be related to my blog's content. Right now, since my blog is called "Brain Dump" I'm seeing many ads for dump trucks and heavy equipment.

Sigh.

One of the downsides of running a small business is that I have to sign many things that I don't always understand.

I had to sign at least 6 times to setup payroll and accounting with my Bank. I'm not 100% sure to exactly what I agreed to. It include 6 pages of densly typed text and gave the bank a limited power of attourny so that they can pay taxes and receive IRS info on my behalf.

Sigh.

It's amazing how much effort the new company is talking-- in time and in organizational skills. In the past month I have aquired dozens off vendor accounts, cards and passwords. I have problems remembering them all.

And inventory-- just because you buy furniture that's one piece doesn't mean it's arrived at the store that way. The vendors send you the bulk of the funiture in one shipment, the molding in another (cause it's from a different manufacturer) and the screws in a third. Even with a computer, managing inventory is tricky.

One of the downsides of opening a business together is that RO and I have started arguing more. I'm not always in the right, but two times last weekend, I had "I-was-right-you-we-wrong" moments.

RO and I were hauling some furniture in a trailer behind my truck. He wanted me to move into the HOV lane because our truck had two people. I said trucks with trailers couldn't use the HOV lane. We argued about it. RO called 911 to ask a cop if trucks with trailers could use the HOV lane. Of course the cop said "No."

Saturday night we were making pasta together. Some pasta was coming out blobby and broken. He added more water to the pasta. I said the problem was that the pasta was too wet. RO disagreed and added even more water, insisting the pasta was too dry. Of course the problem got worse. When I added more flour the problem went away.

Now, I recognize that always being right in an argument is not good for our relationship. At the same time, if I know I'm right, it's hard for me to give ground. It just feels spineless to be neutral or to agree with RO just because we live together.

What say yea?

RO, Steven and I had dinner last night at the 611 Supreme.

Steve is under a lot of stress right now. His partner Vic who is in the Navy, is away on tour for at least a month.

Plus, his brother and a close friend are having Meth problems. His brother, who is off meth, is having a crazy spell and accusing Steven of lots of weird shit. Steven is tired of this and is cutting his brother out of his life.

The close friend is still on meth. His health is failing. He had a stroke. He's losing weight. About a week ago Steven was talking to the friend over the phone. The friend just stopped talking.

Steven contacted the friend's family and they are planning an intervention.

Busy weekend. Friday night RO and I celebrated our new company by touring the resaurants of downtown Renton. RO and I have fingured out why downtown Renton has soo many great restaurants. Two men, Gino and Armondo, or opening up different restaurants. The cheap lease rates mean these men can hire better chefs and spend more money on the ingredients and staff.

Saturday we went to see the Tiffany exhibit at the SAM. In the evening we went to a halloween party thrown by one of RO's friends.

Sunday we drove down to Gig Harbor to see Mac and Joe's new home. It's a very nice place. Private-- on 2 acres. I like it.

Sunday evening we went to a co-workers wedding. RO danced with many of the women. He's a charmer.

Last night RO and I went out to Olivers for Martini Monday. Martini Monday is 'tradition' just started by Rebecca since she was dumped by her boyfriend and wanted something fun to do on Monday.

It was fun evening, though I drank too much. Martini's are a drinking man's drink.

Side note-- this blog is now five years old! In Internet years, that's ancient.

Maui pics

We are back from Maui. It was a good trip with a few colourful exceptions.

Matt and Sandy arrived Friday night. RO and I arrived Saturday evening.

First colourful exception... Sandy really wanted pot. He's had bad experiences with buying pot on Maui-- he's ended up with oregano before. To make sure he got some good pot, Sandy scoped out the guys on the beach, and befriended this stoner named Soliel.

Soliel was the hippy child of hippy parents. He was basically homeless, living on the beach and off the kindness of strangers. He was about 30 years old, care free-- a simple happy stoner who didn't know any better.

He was also kind of creepy. When RO first met Soliel, he hid anything valuable. He didn't want to give Soliel any ideas.

Soliel pulled out a nail clipper still in the package. He said he lifted it from the corner store next to us. He was very proud of himself.

Soliel sat next to me on the sofa. He pulled his shorts out and then said "That's not good!" He turned to me and continued "I haven't had a shower in 3 days. The salt and sand are bugging my foreskin."

While we were talking about dinner, Soliel pulled some Bologna and chips out of his nap sack. He got a plate. He carefully fooled the Bologna and and made a nice presentation with the chips. As thoughtful as it was, we didn't eat the chips and Bologna. We didn't know where it came from or how long it was in his knapsack.

The evening went on like that. Soliel never realized how strange he came across as.

Eventually RO, Matt and I wanted dinner, but Sandy still didn't have his pot. Sandy kept asking us to wait a few more minutes. An hour later we left Sandy with Soliel and went to Stela Blues (Great restaurant)

We called Sandy a few times while we were eating. Sandy told us that he had drove Soliel to the dealer's house and gave Soliel some cash to go buy the pot. The only reason he knew that Soliel would come back was that Soliel had left his knap sack in Sandy's car.

And hour later Sandy was still waiting for Soliel.

An hour after that Sandy got his pot.

Sandy said that on the way home, Soliel was acting very weird. He couldn't handle highway speeds and kept yelling at Sandy to slow down. Finally Sandy managed dropped Soliel off where he wanted and gave him some cash.

When we finally met up with Sandy, he was being very self-richous. He kept saying "Do you know all the trouble I had to go through to get us that pot! You should support me!" We didn't really want the pot so we all gave Sandy the finger.

We spent Sunday at little Mecena beach. Very beautiful. Every Sunday at sundown a drum circle forms or little Mecena. It was an great party.

Monday we drove to Hana. The road to Hana is very twisty, with lots of one lane bridges and blind corners. It has some beautiful scenery.

In Hana we hung around Red Sand beach. It's a very pristine and quiet beach.

We spend the rest of the time snorkeling and swimming at the various beaches.

Thursday morning we got up at 3am drove to the top of Haleacala, a dormant volcano. We watched the sun rise.

After that we drove back to red sand beach at Hana. A seal was sunny herself on the beach. RO laid down, about 20 feet away from the seal. Later on he told me that if you sang to the seal, it would close it's eyes and stop being so suspicious of every sound.

Before we left on Saturday, we ran into Soliel again. We gave him some leftover beer and snacks.

The trip home was uneventful. I'll post the pictures soon.

The lease is signed and notarized.

RO & I are about to head off Hawaii for a week. Sandy's dad had a time share in Maui that he couldn't use. i will have fun on vacation knowing that we have a store.

We still haven't signed the lease. We almost did, but our laywer wanted to correct a few incosistancies-- no substantial changes, we just wanted to put the changes we had agreeded to verbally into writing.

When we presented the new lease to the agent, they got very annoyed. I'm not sure why. Maybe they think we don't trust them because we had it reviewed and altered by a good lawyer. Maybe they think we are trying to hide something from them.

The end result is that we still don't have a lease. This is stressfull. A lot of inventory scheduled to arrive and it has no place to go and no store to be sold in.

Over night RO and I talked about a few things we could do to help the process along. He's talking to the agent today. I still have a day job, so I just can't go down there and negotiate.

RO and I just got back from the lawyer-- we are forming a corporation to run the business under. It's a little nerve racking. It's amazing how fast we are going through cash and we haven't even opened. No one expense is unreasonable, but there are dozens of expenses.

Right now RO and I are figuring out how to structure the shares. It's fairly simple if RO and I are (and stay) the only owners. Things get much more complicated if we take on other partners. It hard to figure out what's fair. What happens if RO and I split? Should the investors loan us money? Should we let them buy shares? How do they get their money out? How much control do we retain?

Right now I'm the president. So I get to sign my name "Brain Dump, President of Corporation."

Last night the gays of Newcastle got together for a dinner party. The hosts have a beautiful house on the high on the hill.

In a weird co-incidence, over a year and a half ago, before RO and I were a couple, RO had a threesome with the hosts and left his watch behind. Last night the hosts pulled out the watch and handed it back to RO.

Vic and Steven are back from Bali and Hong Kong. Even though they were close to the bombings, they had a great time.

So RO and I are taking a big step together--we are opening a home design/decore store. It's a big leap of faith. RO knows what he is doing though. He has been a designer for years and has run his own store before. The risk is that my pockets are deeper than RO's. I'll be paying most of the bills until things are up and running. And there are big bills-- rent is $5000.00 a month.

There is a lot of work to do. We want to open by Dec 1 to hit Christmas. RO is on the phone constantly to line up the vendors.

Steven and Vic are in Bali. They were about a block and a half away from the bombings. They are ok, but shaken. I got this email from Steven.

We are fine. I hope you got my other email. We were right where this happened today. Very scary. Just wanted to let you know we are ok. We are a bit a ways from this but like I said we were shopping right there today. We were at Hard Rock for lunch and at pool all afternoon.
Very close call. Makes me sick to my stomach. Villa and hotel is great and we are fine.

Hugs,

Steven and Vic

Steven and Vic are on their way to Bali via Hong Kong. He writes...

Just thought we would reach out. We have some time to burn in Hong Kong while we await the next flight to Bali. We have been in travel now for about 28 hours. WOW! Seems like less since we were able to sleep much of the night. We slepts about 10 hours! We have not stopped eating of course. The business class service. Wow. The little asian ladies I want to bring home. They are not only beautiful but so nice and just treated us so nice. amazing. This airport itself is amazing. Large, spacious and not at all what I would have thought. The walk ways large and spacious and of couse enough Prada and gucci shopping to burn any wallet up! The business class lounge is amazing. Beautiful simple elegance. There is a water feature pond next to where I am now. We have been in the noodle bar and will soon partake in the "long Bar" which spans across the front of the lounge with Views over the airpot and bay of Hong Kong. Amazing. The showers were something out of the W hotel in New York for sure. Huge rain shower heads above and even a little magic wand that makes for a very clean little (YOU KNOW WHAT). HE HE! You know me..gotta give the details.

Vic and I compared notes later and funny...he said the same thing about the magic wand. We both think we might need one. HA! Why is there not one in the steam shower is what I want to know.

Today I drove in with a co-worker. His native language is not English.

He told me that while he was learning English, the first time he saw "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." on a passenger-side mirror he thought it meant "The components used to make this mirror are much more densely packed than you would expect."

Yesterday was William's 45th birthday. Who is William? He's my other roommate. He's very quiet. He doesn't work. He doesn't pay me rent. He helps around the house. He does odd jobs to earn some cash. He plays piano and has performed at weddings and bars.

Other than that, he's just there. He watches TV. He hangs out with friends. He cleans up after himself. He rarely dates. I've never known him to have a boyfriend.

Maybe he's going through a mid life crisis. It's just odd to see a man so free of goals and ambition.

Saturday night RO and I went to a great party. Rebecca, who use to be my boss, invited us to it.

What made the party so great? The hostess was a wild child.

Working backwards... At the end of the night, everyone was dancing samba, salso and tango around the living room. There were a few great dancers there and they gave the rest of us lessons. Rebecca and RO did an agressive tango. They would swing aground and check other dancers onto the couch.

Before that, I noticed that some of the guests were vanishing for long periods of time. When I went looking for them-- they were on the back patio smoking pot.

Before that. This one is the hardest to describe. The hostess would run her teeth over the bone behind your ear. It tickled gave you the shivers. It first happened to RO and T. There were sitting there giggling like they had a secret. They wouldn't tell us what it was. They just said "Go to the back room and find out."

So I did. And it happened. It was so weird having a stranger do that to me.

Later on RO and I sat on either side of the hostess. RO and I started to do the same thing to here that she did to us. She started laving and shaking so much that she broke my wine glass.

It was a great party.

The black berry wine is off to a good start. It's bubbling away in the primary fermenter. It smells good, better than the grape wines.

Tommy Boy is safe and sound. He's been away for a couple of weeks thanks to Hurricane Katrina. I knew he was safe, his friend told me so the couple of times that I called him. But still, I hadn't heard from him.

RO and I went to the Boeing surplus store over the weekend. Boeing surplus is surreal. There are endless bins of oddities that you'd never realize were needed to build jets.

You can buy old laptops computers by the pallet. Bins and bins of drill bits, some of the 2 or 3 inches thick, large aluminum sheets, reemers, sonofiers (what the heck is a sonofier?) casters, instructional videos, hand carts, binders and much much more.

Some of their old desks and drafting tables look like a bureaucracy gone haywire. They had a desk on hydraulics that could turn anyway. Another desk had a precision magnifying glass attached.

I didn't buy anything. But, it is a junk collectors paradise.

Had a maintenance weekend. RO and I did chores around the house. Mowed the lawn, moved furniture, cleaned out gutters.

Saturday night we watched Nine Dead Gay Guys. It's not bad for a corny gay comedy. It's very amorale. I think it tries to mock movies that have a moral-of-the-story. At the end there is a moment where the characters realize that it's possible to have sex because you love someone, not because you are paying them, or you are in a dark room.

Today RO and I started a batch of black berry wine. We'll see how that turns out. We picked all the berries our self. This will be the first wine we did, from start to end, without a kit.

The bugs...

Last weekend when we were driving back from Wenathee we drove through a large cloud of bugs.

At first it was gross-- six or seven bugs quickly splatted on the windshield. Then it was kind of funny and weird-- more bugs kept colliding with the windshield. After a minute of bug death, it stopped being funny and was just creapy. How many bugs where there? How long before they stopped hitting the truck? Has anyone ever had an accident because they couldn't see through bug crud?

It stopped after about 5 minutes. I tried to clean the bugs off with the wipers, but they just smeard the bugs.

Steven has moved out. He's got a great townhouse over in West Seattle. I'll miss him. He was a great room mate and a better friend.

He's already jokingly asked me when I was moving to West Seattle. It would be nice-- West Seattle is a better place to live than where I live, Renton. West Seattle has many great restaurants and stores within walking distance. Renton-- you drive everywhere. West Seattle has Alki Beach

As nice as West Seattle is, you pay for it. My commute would be over an hour one way. Real-estate prices in West Seattle are sky high. And as nice as Alki Beach or the clubs and restaurants are, I wouldn't use them every day. Instead, I can drive to them regularly when I go and visit my best friend at his great now townhouse.

For the weekend, RO, Matt and I headed east to Twisp. I slept over at Matt's family cabin. Saturday night we went to the Okanogan Fair and watched the Rodeo. Matt's cousin was the Fair Queen.

They are different in Okanogan. The normal people are the same as normal people everywhere. It's the fringe people that are different. In Seattle, the fringies are very left wing. Around Okanogan, the fringe people are very right wing.

The announcer at the Okanogan Fair Rodeo told a very ruthless, right wing, poor taste joke, over the P.A system to hundreds of people. It suprized me. Matt's cousin told me to not worry-- the annoucer was a local nut that everyone ingored. His opinions weren't the norm.

C2 in Iraq writes:

It's good to hear from you. Yes, it's fall here too. I think today may have been the first day when the temperature didn't get over 100. Yes, Jack Frost and pumpkins are right around the corner!

Vic was in town. Vic is in the navy and may be redeployed to Louisiana. Steven has mixed feelings about this. Vic could be gone for months. At the same time, Louisiana needs all the help it can get.

Yesterday RO and I hiked up to the bathing rocks by Snoqualmie Pass. Very nice.

I'm starting to get a lot of comment spam. For that reason I've had to turn on the image verification thingy. No big issue since this blog doesn't get many comments, and those that do comment are smart enough to figure it out.

Ro, Mac, Joe, Behr and his BF drove up to Port Ludlow on Saturday. It's a beutiful small town. Really just a marina, many vacation properties and the stores needed to support them. As Seattle gets larger, many of these old lumber towns are converting them selves to weekend vacation destinations. Port Ludlow is one of them and they are doing a good job.

Last night RO baby-sat Steven's brother's kid's-- two of them, aged 8 and 9.

We played Halo 2 for a while. They were very excited-- "I don't think we are allowed to play that! That's for teens! Halo is rated mature! Is Halo ok for me?"

I told them there parents wouldn't know if they didn't tell them.

We played a very safe version of Halo, bascially driving around and ramming into each other; bumper cars.

After that, the 8 yo wanted to see my sword. I have a real sword that I keep as art. I pulled it out so they could touch it. They were delighted and scared at the same time. They ran behind the sofa and didn't want to get near it. Everything they know about swords comes from movies-- if you touch the blade, your finger will get cut off. It was hilarious. I just held it and they were amazed.

Of course, when their parents get back, what do they say? "We played Halo2! I didn't think we could play it because it's rated mature! Bob's parents won't let him play Halo! They have a real sword! I touched it!"

Arghhh!

I'm going to write about the rain in Seattle. I feel kind of whiny doing so, since my friend Tommy has just been through Hurricane Katrina, but what the heck.

The summer droubt is comming to and end. Last night it poured down. As luck would have it, my gutters plugged up over the summer. RO and I stook out in the rain and worked to unblock everything.

After that, we wanted to relax in the hot tub. By then the rain had stopped, but, there was so much rain in the trees, that it sounded like it was raining for at least 30 minutes after. It was weird. Away from the trees-- no rain. Under the trees-- rain.

RO and I went to the Muckleshoot Casino last night. We were in the area and wanted to do something different-- go to a good all you can eat buffet!

While we were in line for the buffet, RO playing black jack. He ended up winning over $100.00. Nice-- that paid for dinner, drinks, and a good cigar.

While I was finishing my cigar RO gambled some more. He ended up loosing more than he won. When he was down to his last $40.00, he gave me a $20.00 ticket. He wanted to play nickel slots with me. I was lucky. I ended up winning $100.00.

At the end of the night we were only down about $100.00. A fair price for dinner, drinks and entertainment.

I'm sure that's what the casino wants us to believe.

I'm also reviving Binge and purge-- where I review restaurants you normally wouldn't eat at.

I can only do this because I have the stomach of steel.

I've started posting pictures at http://rooktook.blogspot.com/

I amazed at the amount of comment spam that I got.

Friday we saw Red Eye. It's a very good, tight little thriller.

Saturday, RO, Matt, Sandy and I went camping on the coast in the Hoh rain forest. Matt and Sandy are still constantly bickering.

Still, the ocean and the rain forest were beautiful.

The Ameriquest Blimp is in town. It's been flying over head about twice a day for a week.

Blimp! 

RO has a cat. The cat has personality and is spoiled. If the cat sees the bottom of hs bowl, he thinks something is wrong, and starts bugging RO.

I've been working a lot. My whole team has. I'm getting email with them from 10pm at night and 7am in the morning.

We have a big deadline this Tuesday.

back to work.

A co-worker emailed the theam that he "Wrote his bike into work" His manager responded

Dear Bike:

I wanted to thank you today for taking me to work. Together we jump up curbs, dodge SUVs, buzz by mothers with baby carriages and frighten elderly pedestrians. I will always cherish our long rides in the sunset and in the morning fog --- and we’ll always have Paris…

But my gratitude and love comes with some concerns as well. As much as I enjoy spending time with you, you frequently leave me sore – especially on my... well, you know…

A softer touch would help us spend many more intimate years together.

Your rider,
XYXYX

C2 is back from Iraq for a couple of weeks. From talking to him, I think he's happy over there. He likes the structure that comes from working under the military.

His alergies went away in Iraq and have returned in Seattle.

He and I are want to go to Turkey in October. The gang is trying to talk us out of it. RO does like the idea of me going to someplace unsafe. I'm going to go though.

Flashback. Two months ago I got T-Boned at an intersection.

Yesterday was her trial. I was called as a witness.

The summons was for 1pm. When I showed up, about 30 people where in the court-- many cases were being heard. I just sat there for the next hour. Every now and then a lawyer would call out someone's name and the two would chat.

Finally at 2pm things got started. It looks like Traffic Court is commodity law. They try to go through as many cases as quickly as possible. The more complex cases were remanded to a later date.

In a few cases the defendant didn't show up. The prosecutor immediatly added a "Charge of inattentiveness with an associated fine of $101.00"

In one case a good traffic lawyer was there. She managed to get a speeding ticket overturned by showing the radar hadn't been properly calibrated in over a year and by pointing out some irregularties in the paper work.

I should get her number.

Finally, the case I was ther for, came up. The prosecutor and the defense talked a bit. Then the judge said "Is a Mr. or Mrs. Cohen here?" I stood up and the judge addressed me. He said "The defendant has accepted a deferred prosecution so we don't need you. Go to the law clerk's office and they will pay you for your time."

I smiled at the prosecutor. He said "It's not much."

He was right. They paid $10.00.

Last night when I got home from work RO kissed me weirdly, like a fish would. I asked him what that was about.

He said "I told Nigel (the fish) I'd kiss you goodbye for him."
"Why is Nigel kissing me goodbye? ... Did he die?"
"Yeah. He's dead."

Nigel had been struggling with the ick for about a week.

We drank a beer in honor of Nigel and talk about our memories of him. Like the time he ate the two guppies we gave him as tank mates.

Or the way he was so picky and prefered to eat meal worms over fish flakes.

Or the time he jumped out of the thank and fell into the sink. He was in the sink so long that he stuck to it. Vic had to pry him off.

Fish have stupid lives.

Our fish, Nigel, is dead. Long live Nigel. 

Friday night, RO and I had dinner with a few of my co-workers. We had a great time. I need to hang out with these people more often.

Saturday and Sunday we had a home-maintenance weekend-- mowed the lawn, planted flowers, stained the deck.

Deck staining tricks. RO and I stopped using paint brushes to stain the deck; too slow. We used sponges to stain the railings.

We used a cheap herbicide sprayer and a wide broom to stain the deck. I'd spray a layer of stain the herbicide sprayer. RO evened it out with the broom.

We had a "Weather Forcast Failure" here in Seattle. The weather reports were all calling for Partly Cloudy, no rain.

It's been raining like cats and dogs.

My parents were in town for a long weekend. They met RO. Things went well. RO can be a charmer.

We did much together. I took them to Teatro ZinZanni. They had a great time.

We also did streat fairs, the Alki Beach and ate lots of good food.

Poppa Neutrio is an adventurer who built a raft made of garbage and floated it accross the Atlantic.

He's built another raft and has just started sailing accross the Pacific.

Poppa Neutrio is 71.

Saturday RO and I finished the electrical work on the deck. For a year now the hot tub's safety cut-off has been dangling by a nail and some wires too close to the hot tub. We moved the cut-off away and put the wires in conduat. Now everything is up to code.

Sunday Matt and Sandy came over. We ate, talked, drank. They ended up spending the night.

Sunday RO and I want to Kirkland Summerfest. It wasn't bad, but at this point I've been to enough summer festivals that I recogize the vendors.

Last night RO and I watched Sideways. It's a film about an alcoholic wine lover and a friend going on a wine tour of California wine country before the friends wedding. It's pretty good. A bit slow to start but becomes very funny half way through.

Vic came down for the weekend. On Friday Vic, Steven, RO and I went and saw War of the Worlds. The movie is well done, the effects are great, but if you think about it the story has many holes as if the whole point of the plot was to set up the next special effect.

But, the special effects are very good.

Late Friday afternoon RO and I left ofr eastern Washington to camp by the Sun Lakes. It was beautiful, sunny and warm. There were no mosquitoes or rain so we could sleep out under the stars.

We went to the Grand Coulee Damm At night they play a laser show against the damm. It's corney but fun.

We swam and sunned all day Saturday.

We drove back Sunday morning and spent the rest of the day with Mac and Joe on their boat. More swimming. More sunning.

Monday we went to a BBQ at a friends house over in Magnolia.

At the BBQ, RO launched a bottle rocket out of his ass. You read the correctly. When I get the pictures, I'll post them. From hear on, RO shall be known as Rocket Man.

We got stuck in traffic after the fireworks. It took about 90 minutes to drive a couple of miles. Very frustrating. To pass the time, Steven and Rocket Man made fart sounds at pedestrians.

Looking over the last few months of my blog, I see that my life is in a cycle. I work a lot during the week (and don't write at all) On weekends I do something interesting and worth writing about.

This weekend was the same.

Saturday night, RO, Matt, Beef and I went to see the Rat City Roller Girls. It was fun. My friend Jen got into a fight while playing. She ended up spraining her leg. She'll be ok though.

Sunday was Pride. It was packed. RO and I decided to skip most of the parade (Gay Pride parades are long and boring) we toured the booths. Mac and Joe were at the gay yatch club booth.

After the festival, RO and I went to C.C.'s for drinks. RO get very drunk. I had fun watching him.

I had a great weekend. On Saturday RO, Matt and I went to the Fremont Fair and Solsitce Parade.

The weather was perfect on Sunday-- sunnay and warm. RO and I went to the Washington Brewfest and sampled much great beer. Afterwards we swam for a while at Newcastle Beach. The water was cold, but the sun quickly warmed you up when you got out of the lake.

What's good is a parade without streakers? 

Robots 

Dancers at the Solstice Day Parade. 

Art Car at the Freemont Solistice Day Parade. The fish and lobster are those novelity singing machines from a few years back. They all sing in unison as well as say things like "Please step away from the car" 

C2 in Iraq writes...

B,
Thank you for the email. I'm glad you got the money. Remember, keep the
25,000 new dinar bills but please, just freely give away the other stuff.
That's about the bes trinket you can get here. Hmm, what have I been up to?
Well, I got accused of harrassment and there's been an investigation and
I've discoved the seedy underbelly of the beast. There the veneer of KBR
corporate where 'everyone is valued' and then there's reallity of
backstabbing, lying and manipulation. The boss's secratery across the
hallway is fucking a couple of subcontractors and there are booze parties on
regular basis. The bitch who accused me of harrassment just got back from a
psych exam she's got a history doing weird stuff. It's a regular Payton
Place!! But let's put things in perspective, Michael Jackson has been
acquited on all charges!!! Yea!!!

So this time next month or so I'll be heading out of here on my break. My
plan is to drag you back along the way where we're going to go someplace and
see part of the world you've never seen. I've got to do some planning but
I'm thinking we'll do the trip in August sometime. How does that sound? All
that you have to do is pay your part of the way, keep up with me and I'll
put everything else together. Have you ever been to:
Berlin?
Istanbul?
Egypt?
Jordan?
and I know you haven't been to Dubai.

Overall, things are going....'fine.'

Last weekend RO and I went to Port Orchard with Mac and Joe for a Yatch club event.

Thursday night RO and Mac left for Port Orchard M&J's boat. Joe and I drove up on Friday evening. It was a fun weekend. The Yatch club people are nice, though there is a bit of a money-show-off thing with them. Mind you, you don't spend $100,000.00 on a boat to tell people to stay away-- being a boater is a social thing.

RO and I talked about buying a boat. We decided not to. I'd rather put the $100,000.00 into a cabin in the mountains or on the ocean.

Not that I have $100,000.00 to spend.

Docks 

Port Orchard 

Last weekend RO and I worked on the house. We did a lot of work-- power washed all the decks, weed whacked the back yard, fixed and filled cracks and crevacies.

I also bought a blower. I really like the blower. In 45 minutes RO blew the crap off the roof, cleaned out the gutters, the walk ways and the deck. That used to be an all day chore.

The power washed deckss look great. Like new.

It was a weird week. On Tuesday I got a very big bonus for a special work project that I volunteered for. On Wednesday management canceled that project. So, I have mixed feelings.. They wanted to make it clear that they appreciated my efforts even though they were no longer needed.