RO and I are back from camping. It was a great break. The weather was sunny and warm every day.

We camped at Camp TRC in the Robe Valley. We hiked. We lay by the river. We ate and we drank.

It's amazing how much doing nothing tires you out.

The river was glacier fed-- very very cold. We did swim in it, but no one lasted more than two seconds.

So RO and I are going to a gay camp ground. We talked about going to a state camp ground, but with it being a holiday week, those camps will be full of partiers and children. Camp TRC should be much more quiet. We won't show up till Sunday afternoon, so that should make it extra quiet.

This is the first vacation RO and I have had sinde the store opened. I told RO that on Monday all I am going to do is listen to the babbling river.

Next week RO and I are going camping. This means I get to plan the trip.

I don't know why, but I like planing and preparing for camping. Actual camping is OK. Playing with camping gear and planning the trip-- that's my money shot.

Where should we camp? What can we do while we are there? I can spend hours researching camp grounds and going over maps.

And the gear. There is something comforting and fun about camping gear. Thanks to camping gear, I know that if worse comes to worse, if my home burns down and I loose my job, then all I need is a tent, a sleeping bag, a cooler of food and my crate of camping gear.

Even more comforting-- if worse comes to worse, if my home burns down and I loose my job, if I had the above plus an inflatable mattress, a rubber dinghy and great hiking boots, then I could camp in luxury, sleep great and have adventures!

We've also watch Heatstroke by the same director that made the Working Man Trilogy. The tape was a copy of a copy taped over something else. Every now and then the programs originally on the tape would break through the porn and make the situation surreal and silly.

Half of the final orgy scene was taped over by some drama that took place in a Church.

Right in the middle of an cum scene, a chewing gum comercial appeared. A happy women announced "Long Lasting Flavor!" and then the video cut back to the porn.

I've been reading more about 70's gay movies, both porn and non. The Boys in the Band for example. Going over cast lists, I see that the majority of the actors died of AIDS related complications. A few died of suicide, others of drug overdoses. One, Divine, died of a sleep apnea induced heart attack. It sounds like being gay in the 70s was a very hard and fast life. Depressing.

The appearance of AIDS in the 80s has greatly shaped gay culture-- for the better I think. AIDS has given gays a good short term reason to stay in a relationship. All relationships go through good times and bad times. In the 70's if your relationship was going through a bad time, it was easier to play around and find someone new. After AIDS, that someone new brought the risk of troubling disease and large health care costs.

AIDS indirectly encourages you to stay with your boyfriend for a little longer. And maybe that "little longer" is all you need to get back to the good times.

Our neighbors loaned us "The Working Man Trilogy" a set of three porno's from the 70's. "Kansas City Trucking Co." "El Paso Wrecking Co." and "LA Tool and Die." All three center on a man named Hank who moves from job to job and has lots of sex.

Our neighbor insist that these porono's are generation defining works of art. They were all made pre-HIV. He also says they were the first gay porn's that depicted gay men as men and not as effeminate.

The Trilogy is well filmed and directed-- which in many ways works against it. The mark of a good porno is that you pay attention to the sex. When I watched the trilogy, I kept looking at the director's style-- his use of low key lighting, fondness for saturated monotone colors his love of a JO crotch shot.

The director also extensivly shot on location and in the outdoors. There are many extras in the film which makes me wonder how many of them knew they were going to be in porn, and how many were filmed on the sly.

There are also women in the trilogy. Not for sex, but for ambiance. I think the directory was trying to create the impression that this porn was for straight men who played around on the side.

The trilogy contains much plot, at least for porno. For all the wrong reasons I will remember the plot more than the sex. The acting is bad. The actors speak unconvincing lines that serve no purpose than setting up the sex scenes. On top of that, the non-sex scenes are not small. It's not five seconds of chit-chat and then sex. Minutes will go by with dialog and establishing shots.

The sex scenes are homogeneous enough that they form a blurry back ground. Similar to an action flick that has too much action. To some extent, that's expected because, hey, it's porn and porn is full of sex. But, the non-sex scenes and dialog stick out relative to the sex, which is not a good thing for porno.

For example, what do I recall about these films? I remember the girl friend nagging her boy friend "Come on Joe! You'll be late for work Joe!" I don't fully remember who Joe was or how he was showing off his naked body at the time. I remember the music. It's fairly good. Some original tunes and much country. Very different from modern "Bad Porno Music" I remember Hank saying "Let's Eat." in an overly masculine tone. I don't remember the sex Hank had before or after he went to the restaurant. If parrot the line "Let's Eat." to RO. He breaks out gigling.

If you like gay porn, these films are worth watching. Even if you like old art-house film, they may be worth a peek. These aren't great, but they are fun to watch. They are pre-bad-porno-music, pre-video and pre-HIV. Seeing the differences between then and now is interesting. Gay culture has changed a lot since the 70's. The working man trilogy show cases the difference.

This morning I played UNO on Xbox live. UNO is a 'camera-enabled' game so you can see the other players.

One of the other players was a teenage girl who kept shaking her ass and breasts in front of the camera. I cheared her on. Then she looked at my camera. She asked "How old are you? Is that a cat in your lap? You're a slob!"

I felt bitter. Now I'm the old slob who plans with cats and watches girls on XBox live.

Our online store got it's first order today. It was made in Louisiana. When I heard the state, I expected the customer to be Tommy Boy. RO checked and it wasn't!

It feels good knowing that an actual customer is buying from us. Not that I would mind if Tommy used our store. It's just that we need more customers than our friends.

Last night before dinner RO said he was hungry-- to hungry to wait. He wanted to have a junk food snack. I told him "No. Have a banana instead." I gave him a banana. He threw it back at me and said he wanted junk food. I was firm, said "No." and went back to cooking

A few minutes later RO walked behind me and got a glass of water. When he walked out of the kitchen he had a big grin on his face. When he grins like that, I know something's up, so I kept watching him. He looked back at me and his grin got bigger and bigger.

Then he caved. He showed me that he smugged a box of crackers out of the kitchen while he got his water. He said that once he started grinning, he couldn't stop and he couldn't control it. I took the crackers away.

They have installed security cameras in the halls at work. They appeared very quietly

When they installed the wireless access points there were days of wiring and construction. You knew where the wireless access points were because contractors would spend hours outside of your office installing the cables and mounting the antenna.

The cameras are different. When you arrive in the morning there is a new camera on the ceiling. The next day-- another new camera in a different location. If you don't notice, you won't know.

In some ways I understand the need of the cameras. Our offices contain valuable computers and software that are occasionally stolen. When that happens security will have little evidence to go on and we bitch them out because they aren't doing their job.

At the same time, this feels like big brother.

I am reading "Mountains Beyound Mountains" It's the true story of Dr. Paul Farmer, a brilliant man who has dedicated his live to improving the conditions of the poor in Haiti.

It some way's it's inspiring-- here is a man who really is making a difference to the lives of thousands of people.

In some way's it's depressing-- much of what Dr. Farmer has accomplished has only happened because Dr. Farmer made it happen. When he dies, some one just as pasionate, caring and brilliant as he will need to take over. If that doesn't happen much of what Dr. Farmer has accomplished could come undone.

In all fairness Dr. Farmer is taking steps to make his projects sustainable.

I'm less than half way through the book, but I still recomend it.

A commentor wrote...

I'm eating oatmeal with fruit and coffee for breakfas, coffee. Lunch - a
deck of cards sized chicken breast, a measuring cup of vegatables and potatoes
with water Dinner- salmon salad and rice. For dessert, 1 slice of whole wheat
bread with a sliced strawberry and half a bannana, coffee. Total calories for
the day is 1600. Walk 4 miles every day. Bike ride 3 times a day. Weight lift 3
times a day.

WTF! Where do you find the time? You sound like a professional athelete. I need a program that fits with my career. Not a fitness program that the rest of my life revolves around.

Althought I admit that I could eat less.

A for effort though.

Our new roommate is a mixed blessing. She is a good and caring person. She is also a food broker who who brings home lots of food. Yes, I appreciate free food. But, it's mostly processed and prepared food, sauces and desserts. So, that's the mixed blessing.

To maintain weight, RO and I always try to eat lean. Our meals are cooked from ingredients and not pulled out of a box. It tastes better and makes it easy to eat more vegetables and to control the portions, fats and sugars.

Last night we ate pate, cheese, crackers, tuna salad and chocolate cheese cake. Very tasty. But...

I feel like I am slowly going crazy. Without planning it, or perhaps because I didn't, I somehow ended up with two stressful careers. By day I am a middle manager at a large software company. By night I own, with RO, my partner, a furniture, design and home decor store. I try to keep the store's paperwork and finances straight, but I don't always do a good job. When the money is tight I tend to close my eyes. The ostrich method of stress management, so to speak.

I've noticed that I have so many things to do, that I have no time to reward myself. This has put me in a bad situation where goofing off is my reward. I think RO is the same. We've taken on so much that the only way to relax is to ignore the store.

That's not sustainble. It burns you out. It makes you look at your responsiblities as the cause of your problems and not the source of future happiness.

I've got to turn that around-- for our own sanity.

RO and I have a new roommate. She is a 60yo food broker. It's a little bit strange living with a 60yo woman. It feels a bit like my mom moved in with me. At the same time, she is very plesent.

It was a busy weekend. Saturday evening we went to a fundraiser for our bowling league. We donated some gift cards from the store to the league for the raffel.

All in all, it was fun, but RO and I ate too much cheese, wine and crackers.

Sunday we headed out to Mt. Reiner for a house warming part. Or rather, an estate warming party. A good friend of RO's bought 200 acres of view property with a large house. Mind you, it is two hours away from Seattle, but it is a beautiful setting. We ate more cheese, wine and crackers.

Monday we hung out at our place. Worked on the lawn, played video games, and sat in the sun. In the evening, we drove down to the lake front and watched the sun set. A good relaxing day.

The weather is beautiful out and I need a vacation. RO and I have both been burning the candle at both ends for too long. A week off would do us good. At the same time, so many things need to be done.

The 10 year party was fun. It was also big. There were hundreds of people.

Ten years ago, I worked for a company that was bought out and moved to Seattle by my current employer. It was my first real job after I finished school. I ran into most of my co-workers from then. We've aged.

Tonight is my 10th years party for my day job. Well, it's not just me. The company is big enough that many people have been here for 10 years. So, they rent a large space and through us all a party at once.

It feels weird to be a middle manager at a large company that I have been working at for a decade. I remember when I was going to be a beach bumm in Australia. I have become the man that youth rebels against.

Some kind of ass-kicking cold has been going around. You never feel very sick, but you have a runny nose, scratchy throat and are tired all the time. RO and I have had it for about a week. Several of my co-workers and friends are also sick with it.

RO hired someone to re-do our front lawn. He came and gave us an estimate. Then, a day later he called back and said his estimate was a thosand dollars more. RO agreed with the new estimate and paid him half down.

He did a day's work. The next day he called again and said his estimate was still to low. We canceled the contract. We have not got our money back.

Last weekend I got rid of my front lawn. I roto tilled it under. The grass was half dead. Large parts of the front lawn had no top soil under neath the turf. Plus, the firs that surround the lawn shead too my needles which make the spoil too acidic.

We are going to put in some kind of low maintenace garden. RO knows what he wants.

Last weekend I roto-tilled the lawn under. The lawn was half dead. Large parts of hit had no topsoil under the grass. Plus, the big fir trees all around it shead too many needles and make the soil too acid.

We are going to put in a low maintenance garden. I'm not sure of all the details, but RO knows what he wants.

Uusally I eat my lunch in the cafeteria with same group of co-workers. Today brough my lunch in from home and ate it in my office.

I didn't realize it, but there is a bring-your-lunch-from-home clique. Mostly they are frugle people-- those trying to save every last sent to retire early or put the kids the college. When one of them saw me reheating my lunch at the microwave he said, half joking, "So you decided you needed more money in your 401K?"

After lunch one of my cafeteria-clique co-workers walked by my office. She saw the empty plastic container and asked me if I was going to abandon my cafeteria friends.

Ah, the strange politics of work.

I am not improving at bowling. This is frustrating. I have my own custom fitted ball now and my last game was my worst. Oh well.

Last night RO and I went to Sandy's "Mankind Project New Warrior Training Adventure "welcome home" celebration" Basically last weekend Sandy went camping with twenty initiates and fourty councelors. They went through some kind of proprietary secret retual were they all achieved a personal transormation. The following Friday, yesterday, they had a graduation ceremony and now Sandy is a full member of that community.

They really like to talk about their feelings, never anything substatnive They talked about their feelings for hours. Dozens of people took the talking stick and gabbed about their feelings.

And hugged.

That also laughed at anything that was vaguley funny.

It was very very strange. RO whispered to me that he wanted to grab the talking stick and run.

I have problems with these new-age self help kind of things. They are so damn selfish. They don't help you grow up and be a better persion. They help you feel like you are a better person through mantra's and rituals where you say over and over again how much of a better person you are.

As RO said. "If you want to be a better person, go volunteer for something. Feed the homeless. Spend time with the elderly. Be a big brother. Don't spend your time stairing at your navel and telling others you won't understand unless you spend the bucks and attend your own New Warior weekend."

Loves Landing.

Loves Landing is a neighborhood bar off Airport way in Renton. Mark says the crowd is like a high school crowd that forgot they had grown up.

Loves Landing has two claims to fame. First claim are their burgers. They are excellent. Big, tasty and on a fine and fresh bun.

Second claim is that they have kareoke every night. Some of the singers are not that bad.

I recommend it.

Grilled Asparagus and Chicken Salad for two.

Wash and oil about 8 stocks of asparagus. Cut to get rid of the woody parts. Wash and oil a shitaki mushroom. Cut into eights.

Wash and oil and season four chicken thighs.

Warm up the grill. Set it to indirect heat.

Start grilling the chicken and asparagus. Close the cover.

Three minutes later flip the chicken and asparagus. Add the mushrooms to the grill. Close the cover.

Three minutes later flip the chicken, asparagus and mushrooms. Close the cover.

Three minutes later, check that the chicken has hit 160F.

Slice the chicken.

Arrange the chicken, mushrooms and asparagus on two plates of mixed greens. Add a few orange slices. Dress with a good dressing.

For the past two days I've been on a leadership course for work. It's ok-- a bit stressfull. I'm not used to being in work mode from dawn to dusk.

We got to hear a few interesting speakers, learnt about some of the 'visionary' aspects of our company and how our business actually earns money. It was fun.

Sunday evening RO and I went to his sisters for Easter dinner. We played pictionary. That family, RO in particular, loves to argue.

At one point we spent a good twenty minutes arguing over the exact protocol that the teams would use to prove they guesed the correct mystery word and not some phrase that contained that word.

At my day job we are planning and scheduling. I don't enjoy this part of my job. The slightest unknown can through all my plans out the window.

Plus, it's very boring to spec out, cost and prioritize dozens of little features.

Spring has hit Seattle. The weather is beautiful out and I am feeling, well, "All work and no play..." Being a middle manager at work and then having to help out with RO and the store, it sucks up so much of my time and energy.

It's hard finding a balance. I'd like to do less at the store, but RO needs someone to prioritize and coach him. He gets so caught up in the day to day work at the store, that he sometimes neglects important things like paying bills.

My day job is going well. I have large amounts of freedom. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. If I do something wrong, work on the wrong things for example, no one will notice for months, maybe even longer. If it was just me, then I would be fine with that. But, people report to me and look to me for guidance. I could tank their careers.

I guess this is just whining. Once I remember hearing "No matter how great your triumphs or how deep your sorrows, approximately five billion people have never heard of you and don't give a shit. So get over yourself." My life is good, and I have no one to blame but myself for taking on so much responsibity.

It's still sunny out. I think I will go for a walk.

Years ago, C3 brought two east coast friends of his to Friday night dinner at Siam's. The friends were thinking about moving to Seattle. The dinner was nice, but I didn't keep in touch with the couple.

Skip forward six years. RO and I are in a bowling league, but we need two more players for our team. RO sent out many messages to locals on Bear 411. On Sunday, we met a couple who were interested in bowling.. They thought I looked familiar but couldn't place where they had seen me. Then Monday, before bowling, they remembered where we met-- dinner at Siam's many years ago. RO was a little disappointed. He was hoping we met at an orgy or a bath house.

RO and I attended a suprize wedding reception. One of the girls who works for the store, very quietly got married. Her boy friend is in the military and is heading back to Iraq in a few months. They got married at a court house. No fanfair, no reception, no gifts.

When our design manager found out, she decided to throw them a small party. Everyone brought a small gift.

RO has been sick with a cold for the past few days. The cold has been going around. I feel very lucky that I haven't caught it. I'm usually the one that catches every flue and cold while he stays healthy.

We both been away from the store for the past few days. I like it. It was the first weekend I've had off in a long time.

Last night was our second evening of League Bowling. RO is still a decent bowler. I am still mediorcre.

Having said that, I did better last night than a week ago.

Yesterday I took a big trip to Good-Will and the dump get rid of Earin's stuff. I wanted to bring all of it to the dump. RO stopped me and picked out the valuables.

We kept some of the stuff for us. Four big boxes went to Good Will. The rest went to the dump.

One of the fun things about listening to all my music on my Zune, is discovering albums and songs that I didn't know I had.

I have a medium sized jazz collection that I knew nothing about. Looking back, I vaguely remember receiving a few Jazz box sets for gifts. Although I never listened to them I apparently ripped them into the computer. Jazz regularly pops up on random play.

I have a fair number of songs from obscure bands that posted free songs on the internet.

I have much more Eurythimcs and Corey Hart than I would have thought. Until today, its been at least five years since I listed to either. They both give me flash backs to high school.

I've had a Zune mp3 player for a while now. All my music is on it. It's been ages since I've listened to any of my older music. In fact, I don't musch like my older music. It's unsettling being irritated by songs I know I used to love.

I know my tastes have changed, matured, in many ways. In depth news magazines used to bore me to death, now I skim through them every day. I used to listen to retro 80's and Art Bell style talk radio. Now I listen to NPR and some college music radio.

Sigh. And I'm only 36. It makes me wonder what I'll be like when I'm 46.

Earin couldn't make it on Saturday. She text messaged us that the plans had changed, she would now show up on Sunday.

On Sunday, Earn showed up with a mini-van and 3 guys. She loaded up about a 3rd of her stuff and left. She said she would be back in about 30 minutes. That didn't happen. RO and I messaged her, but she didn't respond to the messages.

RO went through her remaining stuff. He said most of it was garbage. The valuables were things that she had bought through RO, or RO had given her as a gift. After RO pointed that out, we figured she is never comming back for the rest.

I'm going to do a dump run tonight. We may try and sell the valuble furniture, or we may keep it.

I got a text message from Earin

"Will be there on sat @ 11 am to pick up stuff plz dont b there"

What the hell? How do I react to that. I can't wait to tell RO.

More news about Earin. Much of Earnins stuff is still at our place-- a bed and dresser, desk, table, boxes, tv, armour. RO called Earin's sister to try and figure out what to do with all of it.

Earin's sister was not aware that Earin had just abandoned us. She also said that Earin lost her job. During the first week of training, Earin was fired.

From what we understand she already as anew job and has moved in with her girl friend. But, the two of them have a very rocky relationship.

I hope Earin will be ok.

Ryan is in a new band. They are an Irish Drinking & Pirate songs band. Last night was their first gig. RO and I went. It was fun, if a little weird. I've had "Kiss me I'm Shit Faced" running through my head all morning.

Ryan is in a new band. They are an Irish Drinking & Pirate songs band. Last night was their first gig. RO and I went. It was fun, if a little weird. I've had "Kiss me I'm Shit Faced" running through my head all morning.

Last Saturday was the store's one year anniversary. We had a martini party to celebrate. It was fun. Many people showed up.

Next Saturday is our big sale. It will be interesting to see how much we've grown since last year.

Over lunch we were discussing Alaska, and how many who move to Alaska only do so because they need to escape something in the lower 48. One co-worker said that it's not uncommon for bars to post signs like "No photographs allowed." because their patrons do not want to be known.

The lead to... "What happens outside of Alaska stays outside of Alaska." It's the anti-Las Vegas.

They caught my gas thief!

He is in his early 20's. His parents kicked him out of their house because he was constantly stealing things. Rather than completely lose control of him, they let him live in a shack in their back yard.

He has promised to make resitution, but the police doubt anything will come of that. He has no job and no real means of supporting himself.

I also heard some of the neighborhood gossip from the cop. The neighbor who noticed the gas thief has been trying to clean up our street. Not that our street is high crime. Basically he's been calling the police when a house has too many cars parked in front of it. He also wants to have street lights installed.

And now you know the rest of the story.

We changed the keys to the house yesterday. Between the gas theft and Eavin, RO and I have been thinking about security. Many people have had a set of our home keys-- three contrators, old house cleaners, old room mates, the previous owners-- so we felt it was time to change the locks.

After we changed the locks, RO went out and had duplicates made. Of course they don't work.

I told my neighbour about the gas theft. He told me he was very glad to know that-- for weeks now he's suspected that someone has been siphoning gas from his truck.

On Saturday, while RO and I were at the store, Earin took much of her stuff. Only the big pieces of her furninture are left. RO and I have decided to change the locks. At this point too many people have or have had keys.

Gas Theft.

This morning around 5:30am, I heard a loud banging at the front door. It was a neighbor. He told me that someone tried to steal gas from my truck! The neighbor said he scared them off.

I went outside and took a look at my truck. Gas was dripping out of it and into a gas can underneath. I thanked the neighbor. We chatted a bit and he drove off.

I called 911 and reported the incident. While I was on the phone, the neighbor drove back and said he spotted the theives and got the license plate number! I relayed the info to the police.

After a while, the police showed up and took my information. We looked around the tank and couldn't see any obvious damage. I poured some of the gas from the can into the truck. It poured out of a few very well drilled holes in the truck's tank-- damage spotted.

The officer told me these thieves were not that bright. The proper way to steal gas is to put a tray or can under the vehicle, punch a hole and then leave. After ten or fifteen minutes you return to collect the gas. That way no one sees a stranger hanging around a neighbor's vehicle.

Around 7:30am I called to have my truck towed to the service center. The towing company told me to call back after 8:00am. Rather than wait I decided to risk the drive. The service center was only five miles away. Worst-case, I'd run out of gas and need a tow.

I actually enjoyed the ride. I kept telling my truck "Come on baby, you can make it. I love you. I know you can do it." The truck drove smoothly despite the empty tank. We made it without hitch.

As it turns out, I was the second gas-tank-puncture the service center had that morning.

I got a small loaner car and headed home. On my way back I retraced the route to the service center. You could see the trail of dripping gas left by the truck. Bigger at stop signs. Smaller when going fast.

It's the end of Jan now. RO is down in Las Vegas for the week. He's at the World Furniture Market buying for the store. Part of me wishes I was there. The other half of me is very happy being up in Seattle. I don't enjoy buying at all. On top of that, the time off is kind of nice. I forgot how much I like puttering around, doing my own thing.

January has hit the store hard. Sales this year are less than half of what they were last year-- and we just opened up last year!

Fortunatly we have some money left over from Christmas, so if this keeps up, we will be ok for a couple of months.

So Earin just left for her new job without saying good bye. She get's every 2nd weekend off, so hopefully we will get to see her then.

I'm tempted to move her stuff into the garage and find a paying room mate right away.

Earin has started receiving mail from Check-Masters and other fast-cash places. I hope she's not in too much trouble.

We've had another storm. Last night it took me three and a half hours to get home. I kept getting stuck half way up the hill behind cars that couldn't make it all the way, or were abandoned. It was very frustrating after the fourth hill.

Many drivers were frustrated. I overheard a couple of shouting matches between stuck and unstuck drivers.

Right now I am very happy that I sprung for 4x4. I had few problems dealing with the hills.

Earin isn't a great a room mate as we had hoped. She has only paid one month of rent since mid October-- she's had a number of ligitamite finiancial problems since she moved in, but I am still disappointed.

She's starting a new job next week and will be traveling a lot. The new job pays well, so hopefully she can catch up.

I'm officially a middle manager at my day job. It's affecting the way that I work. I'm trying harder to look like a good roll model-- though blogging at work obviously doesn't fit in that category.

The weather forcast says another bad storm hits tonight. This winter has had three bad storms so far. We are starting to label our past project deadlines by the related storm-- we worked on that during the flood. Jesse and I completed that during the snow storm. That was due during the windstorm, but we had to punt it to the new year.

Conversations I want to remember...

"I hate this Seattle weather"

"Then move to California. They have nice weather."

"Oh dear Lord no! My sister lives there. and that state is not big enough for the two of us."

I'm back. It was a good trip, but I'm glad it's over. I spent too much time with too many kids. They are very nice kids, but after you spend time with 12 or 13 of them, it get's old.

The friday after Christmas was my mom's family Christmas get together. In any year only about a 3rd of the cousins make it. Still, I talked to many people that I hadn't seen in over ten years.

On New Years Eve I drove back to Toronto to see my old friends. They are almost all married and with children.

Pancakes-- New Years Eve morning I had pancakes and sausage for breakfast. That evening I drove up to G&J's for dinner. There kids were sick, and not eating anything so they served them comfort food, pancakes and sausage, to encourage them to eat. So, I had my 2nd meal of pancakes and sausage in a row.

New Years day I drove over to J&J's, for brunch. Wouldn't you know it, but J&J made pancakes and sausage. I felt gross after my third straight meal of them.

Other than that, the kids are growing big. I only get to see them once a year, so I really notice the difference.

Toronto-- It's still growing. A huge number of hi-rise condo's have sprung up in the ten years since I left-- many along the Young Street subway. It's feels weird to see the miles and miles of new hi-rise buildings.

Christmas day was uneventful. RO and I went to his family.

They are very competative. At least three times over Christmas, we all put money in a pot and bet on a competion... 1st when his oldest sister would arrive. She is always late. 2nd, we played musical chairs for money. 3rd was the outcome of a football game.

It's very different than my family. My family never gambles. When we play games, it's only for fun.

On the 26th we opened the store and put on a big sale. So far it seems to be working. I always get nervous about sales. It costs a couple thousand dollars to promote a sale, so it would hurt if the sale wasn't successfull.

On the 27th I flew back to Ontario to spend a week with my family and old friends. It was the first time I've flown first class. I liked it-- short lines and big chairs.

I spend the first night at Liam's. We had a great dinner together and went out for a couple of drinks. Liam is doing well despite his responsibilites. His sister had a child. then started using drugs and got caught. Child Services took the boy away from her. Rather than let his seven year old nephew be left to Child Services or adopted by a stranger (Not many good parents want seven year old boys) Liam adopted his nephew. It's been a lot of work and money and Liam has given up much to raise his nephew well. I'm proud of him for it. He's got guts.

I'm at my parents now. It's very different here. Very quiet. Peaceful. But, I know I will get bored in a day or so.

Thankfully my parents have Internet and Satelite TV.

It's Christmas Eve at the store. We've had a good December. Not as great as we had hoped, but more than enough to keep us out of trouble.

It's actually quiet today. For some reasons weekends at the store have been more quiet than week days. Maybe it's because we are not in a mall.

RO and I have been working hard. I'm looking forward to a day off.

We have power again. Finally. That cat's were a bit weirded out and much of the food in the fridge has gone bad. But, other than that nothing is wrong that a good cleaning won't take care of.

Some of the old buildings in downtown Kent have gone up in flames. Rumor has it that the roof was being re-tarred, something caught on fire.

Four days and still no power!

At first living in a log cabin without power was kind of charming. But it's starting to get old. We can't cook. We have to hang out at friends or go to restaurants.

It's cold. Last night two of the cats snuggled up with us in bed. One has learnt to crawl under the sheets for more heat.

I still don't have power, but the storm only did minor damage. Everyone is ok.

Wind gusts were up to 80 miles per hour. A few trees fell around our house, but they missed the homes. I feel like I've dodged a bullet. Some of the braches that fell were big but nothing big fell on the house or our vehicles.

As I said, we still don't have power. We do have hot water though. At least we can take warm showers.

RO and I just got back from a couple of days on Orcas Island. We stayed at a nice resort that was felt like it was run by enviromentalists, aging hippies and lesbians.

Monday night was open mic night. The restaurant chef got up and did a "Tofu Rap." He rapped about the joys of tofu and the evils of eating meat.

We also soked in the hot tubs and lounged around the sauna.

For the first time in a long time, the store's finances don't scare me. Christmas sales are going good. They are not as great as we had hoped, but they are still strong enough that we can pay our bills and have some money left over for a few special projects.

Another plus is that the store has been open for a year. We can now look back a year to see how much we've grown and estimate how much we will sell in a given month-- it makes budgeting much easier.

Last night we saw "V for Vendetta" It's a good movie about a man, known only as V, who attacks future totalitarian England. It's marred by a few inconcistencies-- V can do a little too much for a man on the lam, but other than that it's a fun couple of hours.

Another ThanksGiving has come and gone. RO and I had dinner at Matt and Sandy's.

On Sunday I made split pea soup with the ham left over from Thanks giving. We didn't do much on Sunday. It felt good to rest.

And Dolly the cat is back again.

Yesterday was RO's birthday. He basically had two birthday parties. One at the Store on Saturday, and a smaller party last night at our place. Both were fun. Though he drank more at the Saturday party and was very hung over on Sunday.

We all so started a batch of beer on Sunday. We haven't made beer in a long time. I'm looking forward to it.

Dolly the cat has left us again. Hopefully she will come back.

Last weekend the store had a big sale. It went very well which is a big relief for RO and I. Money has been tight and we had to spend a couple thousand to advertise. Things would have been bad if no one showed up.

But, they are not bad. They are very good. We had our 2nd best day ever.

Last night RO and I went to see the Pet Shop Boys. It was an unexpected gift from Matt and Sandy. They had four tickets, two of them were free because a friend of Sandy can sometimes gives him free tickets.

We had a lot of fun. It was the first time we really went out in a long time. RO drank too much, so he's a bit hung over this morning.

That cat came back...

Dolly returned home. Earin said Dolly wasn't fixed, so there is a possibility that Dolly is pregnant. I hope not.

I lost Earin's cat. I feel a little bad. Earin doesn't hold it against me-- she wasn't that attached to the cat.

The cat, Dolly, was very skittish. I rarely saw her. Occasionally she would race out to the middle of the room, look around, and then run away.

Friday evening while I was cooking, I left the back door open. Dolly saw me and then fled through the open door. We haven't seen her since.

Earin wasn't very attached to Dolly. She never intended to get her in the first place. Earin was at a pet store, a mother and daughter where also there, trying to sell their kittens. The store didn't want them because the kittens were too young. One of the kittens, Dolly, escaped. Earin helped recapture Dolly, but when she turned around the mother and daughter were gone. And thus Dolly moved in with Earin.

At my day job, I have just become a middle manager. It's a different challege. The people who report to me are good, smart and hard working, so the change shouldn't bee to difficult.

At the store RO is stressing out. Christmas is arriving. We put up much money for Christmas, so that's kind of stressfull.

C2 is back from Iraq for a week. Things seem to be going well for him. He's trying to get a job in Baghdad-- more money.

Things appear to be going well for him.

We are having dinner tonight.

C2 mentioned that almost nothing has changed in Seattle. I wonder what he was expecting?

Eavan is good for RO and I. She's forcing us to clean and organize. She said the house doesn't feel like a home and she's going to change that.

Sunday afternoon we cleaned out the bar (Yes, the house has a bar room) We moved the crap out, dusted everything, turned on the neon and celebrated with bloody mary's

After that, RO and went out and bought house plants.

Side trip... on the way back from Home Depot, we drove past a new winery-- Castle Bridge. It was a nice little winery. Very small. I hope they make it. They have their work cut out for them.

Earin has moved in. It's kind of nice. I think she's more clean than RO or I, so she should be a good influence on us.

My blog is six years old. Happy Birthday Blog!

Over the weekend, RO and I cleaned. For the first time in months the house smells fresh. Every surface in the house used to be covered with a layer of brick-a-brack and dust. We now have space.

Earin is moving in this week. We still have to clean her rooms.

Last night RO and I had dinner with T, who is an old friend of RO's. T is dating Portelo, who, years ago, I used to have lunch with. It was weird seeing Portelo again. I didn't recognize him at first.

I got tested for HIV today-- it came back negative.

The test only takes 20 minutes. That suprized me. Five years ago it took a week. I had mentally prepared myself for getting tested, then waiting a week and then hearing the results. So when the counselor said "This will only take 20 minutes" my heart skipped a beat. It was good that I would know so soon, but I just wasn't prepared to know then. I know RO and I have been good, but I haven't been tested in a long time and I just couldn't remove those small doubts.

Last night the Seattle Times took RO and I on a dinner cruise around Seattle. They do this to thank their advertisers.

I kind of like be schmoozed by a large company. The dinner was ok. A very corny magician was the entertrainment. He had a few great tricks, but his stage talk was tire some.

Every day RO checks for a reply from his daughter. MySpace says she has read his letter. She still hasn't replied.

Sunday night RO and I went to a March Of Dimes fund raiser. It was a silent auction plus a dinner.

I've been to these sort of events before. The food is always good, and no one checks for tickets at the door. I've got this eurge to look up another such event and go to it without paying, just to see what happens.

RO found his daughter on MySpace.

RO is divorced and has two children. The divorce was very ugly. The end result was that he hasn't been able to talk to his kids in years. His wife has completly cut off contact between RO and the children.

Last Sunday he googled the names of his daughter and son and he stumbled upon his daugther's MySpace site.

He sent her an email message. No word back yet.

RO and I worked all weekend-- our two best employees both had Sunday off and we always work Saturdays since that's the busiest day.

At the end of Sunday RO remarked that he was tired. We have both grown fond of taking Sundays off.

We had a relaxing weekend.

Friday night was a party at Matt & Sandy's. I think RO had a bit much to drink-- he was very chatty the whole night.

Saturday night Matt, RO and I watched Posidon at our place. I don't really recommend the new Posidon. It had good special effects, but I just didn't care. You could just tell that characters were going to die, or live, according to what the writer wanted to make you feel. So the whole movie felt forced.

Sunday night we watch Night Watch. A weird horror/action flick from Russia. I didn't really enjoy it either. I will say the cinematography was great. However it tried to do to much and ended up not excelling at anything.

I've been under the weather this week-- bloated, nausia and tired. So, I haven't got as much done this week as I wanted. I hate that.

RO and I got XBox Live. So, most every night we've been playing Halo against people from around the world. We've learnt that we suck. I mentioned that to a co-worker who plays lots of Halo. He said that Halo 2 has been out for a year and a half, so most everyone on XBox live is very experienced.

Oh well. I should be doing something more productive anyways.

August is a tight month for the store. Sales are way down-- about half of what they need to be. I'm not too woried yet. I know many people are away on vacation. On top of that, the Christmas season starts soon.

But, the store doesn't have a lot of cash at exactly the time when we need cash. Christmas Merchandise starts arriving in late september, and we wonn't get it unless we pay for it.

At work (my day job, not the store) we have free coffee, milk, chocolate milk, juice and pop. We also have access to a refrigerator and a microwave. This has prompted us to invent free, office-gourmet beverages.

First the basics...

Office-Gourmet Espresso: Brew one cup of triple strenght coffee.

Office-Gourmet Steamed Milk: Microwave a cup of milk for one or two minutes, depending on how crappy your office microwave is.

Now we can combine the basics to create a variety of wonderful free beverages...

Office-Gourmet Latte: Combine three quarters of a cup of steamed milk with one quarter cup of espresso.

Office-Gourmet Mocha: Same as a Latte, but substitute chocolate milk for regular milk.

Office-Gourmet Iced Latte: Make a cup of Office-Gourmet Espresso and put it in the freezer for an hour. Make sure you put lots of napikns under the cup because people tend to rummage around the freezer and knock things over. Pour over ice with regular milk.

Over the weekend, RO and I shopped for the store. I don't enjoy buying. RO is good at it.

Buying is a lot of work. We spent two days walking up and down the isles. We had sore feet and backs at the end of both days.

I'm a little worried-- several vendors mentioned that the show was much more quiet than usual. It's possible the economy is softening. It's also possible that the Seattle show is dieing and the vendors are putting more effort into the Las Vegas show.

We had a "Gays-of-Renton" progressive potluck. Drinks and appatizers at the guys next door, salad and main course at our place, desserts and liquors at the guys on the top of the hill.

It was very fun, though having to move from house to house made the evening a bit more structured that I'd like.

The other problem was that we had a drink or two at everyone's house. Normally I limit my self to one or two, total, a night. Everyone was tipsy by the end of the night. I had a hangover the next day.

So, Boone is moving out. There were some tensions between RO and he. Quite frankly they spend too much time together and the transition from RO as boss at the store to RO as friend at home didn't always work well.

My agreement with Boone was that he would pay rent, or do a lot of cleaning. Well, mostly he didn't pay rent and only did a half assed job at cleaning. Well, yesterday I came home and the house was clean! Very clean! Boone did a great job of cleaning!

I have mixed feelings about this. I am very happy that Boone cleaned the house. I am also annoyed at him for doing so many half assed cleaning jobs over the past year.

At lease my home is clean.

Eavan, an old friend of RO's is moving in. I'm looking forward to it. She will provide a nice balance to our house.

I've had an ear infection all week. I probably got it from swimming last weekend. It's getting better, but I'm tired of aching.

bleah.

For the first time in weeks, RO and I took Sunday off to just veg.

In the morning we had breakfast with Mac and Joe. It was good to see them.

Lincon Park was nearby, so RO and I went there after breakfast.

We layed in the grass and walked along the water front. Matt and Sandy joined us later on. It was just what the doctor ordered. We chatted, drank, ate and walked around the park.

Matt and Sandy have two very cute toy dogs. They attracted lots of attention.

Lincon Park has a heated salt water pool-- they take in salt water from the Sound, filter, clorinate and then heat it. Next time I go to Lincon park, I'm going to swim.

At work we are near the end of a 3 year project. Hopefully we will be done by November. I remember two and a half year ago when I was in one of the first planning meetings. A sister team to mine was in the same meeting. They had detailed plans with specific schedules, performances and tolerances. It went on for pages. The had put a lot of thought into their plans and had very lofty goals and a very concrete schedule.

My goals and schedule were fluffy and filled about half a page. When I compared the two plans I felt ill. If the sister team could fufill half of of their goals, then they would be way ahead. I thought I'd have to work my ass off just to not fail by comparison.

Of course, three years later my project is almost done. Their project has serious problems and I'm helping out.

Mailing money to Iraq.

Every now and then C2 will mail me a check for a couple thousand dollars along with instructions-- cash the check into $100.00 bills. Not $20.00's. They have to be $100.00 bills. Then I'm to take the money, place it in the pages of a magazine and mail the magazine to him via regular mail.

I'm not sure of the legality of this. I don't think anything is wrong, but at the same time it feels weird. He uses the cash to buy things in Iraq saying that Iraqis don't take cheque or credit card and that the dinar is so untrusted that you can get much better deals using $100.00 bills.

Usually it only takes a week for my magazine to get to Iraq.

This last time, I mailed the magazine at the end of June. By mid July the magainze still hadn't arrived. We were both feeling nervous. Did someone steal it? Was C2 out two thousand dollars? Did I write the wrong address on the envelope? It makes you feel ill. Our emails began with "Did you get it yet?" or "It's not here yet. Are you sure it was mailed correctly?" Unintentionally we emailing each other less often.

Today, thankfully, more than a month later, the magazine arrived. I'm not sure I'll do this for him again.

C2 is fond of discussing hypothetical how-much-of-a-friend-are-you questions. Things like "Would you give me a kidney if I needed it?" or "If my car broke down 100 miles away, would you pick me up? How about 500 or 1000 miles?" I think he has a new question... "What would you do if you mailed me some cash and the envelope never arrived?" What if it was $20.00? Or $100.00? Or $1000.00?

RO and I bought some board games so that we have something to do in the evening other than watching TV.

The Chinese Checkers board is terrible. The colours are wrong. The pieces are two shades of red, two shades of green and two shades of blue. Under medium light it's hard to tell which house a piece belongs to. Was that a dark red piece? Or a light red piece with some shadow on it?

On top of that, the house colours, yellow, purple, red, green, blue and white, don't match the colours of the pieces.

RO and I were frustrated before the game even started. So we put the game away and watched TV.

Last night RO and I went over to Matt and Sandy's for dinner and a movie. We watched Virus. What a bad movie. It wasn't even fun-bad.

RO and I went on a wine tour of Eastern WA. It was a bus tour with 40 others, including Matt.

We did stop at one great winery-- Apex Cellars. The others were nice, but not exceptional.

My parents left this morning. They have a wedding in Winnipeg this Saturday so they are off RVing across half the continent.

I actually enjoyed their visit. I wish I could have spent more time with them, but that didn't work out. Oh well. I'll see them at Christmas.

My parents really like the store.

Over the weekend it was Kent Cornucopia Days-- a large street fair. The fair ran right past our store. It created a lot of traffic for us. We doubled our usual weekend sales.

There were some problems though. The midway attracted lots off teenagers till late in the night. Saturday night a bunch of teenagers were walking behind our store when two of them started fighting. RO and I were just pulling in and saw it all happen. RO started honking his horn and I got out and shouted at them. They quickly disbursted. One of them grabbed a fountain pump that was laying behind the store. I shouted for him to drop it. He did and walked off.

We went out of dinner. When we came back more teenagers were hanging out behind the store. They weren't doing anything wrong, but we got them to leave. I don't want dozens of people hanging out behind the store. There is no reason to be there.

RO and I spent Saturday night at the store. Nothing happened during the night.