Here are the photos.

C2 and took the pictures from our weekend trip, and put them on the web. We're trying to goad other people into doing things with us. Hopefully the pictures will help.

I worked late last night. I'm working on a Help Wizard for the next version of our product. It's really boring and I'm having motivation problems.

Last night at the Cuff I ran into Brian, my ex.

His life is still as complicated as ever-- he's involved with two or three lawsuits and is still unemployed.

He said on a typical day he get's up at about 10am and goes to the gym for a couple of hours. By the time he returns, he has several messages from different lawyers or arbitration judges asking him questions and wanting him to call back. Then he spends the afternoon returning the calls.

He just beat another charge. A few months ago, at 6am, after an all night party, he dropped a friend off in a bus zone because the friend needed to use the bus. A police officer pulled Brian over and tried to get him to take a field sobriety test and a breathalyzer. Brian refused.

They tried to put Brian in jail, but they couldn't because he hadn't done anything wrong.

At the trial, since Brian wasn't pulled over with probable cause, he was found not guilty. Brian said the prosecutor was livid. When the judge threw out the bulk of the evidence, the prosecutor threw his papers up in the air and shouted "Why don't we give Mr Brian everything he wants."

I am so over Brian. He's still cute, and I feel an attraction when I first see him. But after talking to him, it always goes away. I want to live a nice quiet life.

I had a busy weekend. Saturday C2 and I went camping.

First we drove to Ross lake and hiked around the Ross lake dam.

Next we drove to the memorial for the 30 mile fire. Last year there was a large forest fire by Winthrope. 4 people died in it. We went to their memorial. It's a very sad story. The people were only a few hundred feet from a river, but couldn't get to it because of the smoke and fire.

We spent the night at Lake Alta State Park

Sunday we drove around Lake Chelan. There is another forest fire near Chelan-- The deer plains fire. We tried to get to it, but couln't. We could see the smoke over the mountains, but all routes to it are blocked off.

We stopped off at the Chelan Falls Park. There was no one there, so I went skinny dipping. It was fun. The water was beautiful. I couldn't convice C2 to get in.

We drove back to Seattle in early afternoon. Where it was sunny and warm around Lake Chelan, it was cool and raining in Seattle.

Our team at work saw "Austin Powers in Goldmember" on Friday. I have mixed feelings about this movie. Some parts of it were very very funny. Some parts of it were very very stale. I give it 6 out of 10. Worth a manitee-- just to see the subtitles joke and the peeing statue joke.

Oh yeah, we finally get to see the "sharks with frik'n laser beams."

Had dinner with C2, J, Mathew and Mathew's ex. It was good. Judging from the way Mathew and his ex were talking, I don't think they will be getting back together.

We went to the cuff afterwards. Two guys from Dallas wanted to have a threesome with me. I said no.

Afterwards I went to the Eagle. They've remodeled. I'm not sure I like it better.

On the way home the moon was bright. I stopped off at Lake Samamish to take pictures of the moon reflecting on the lake. I think I got a few good ones.

I Thursday I had lunch with Bruce and C2. C2 and I have decided to see the lake Chilan Fires this weekend.

Thursday afternoon I had a meeting with the Korea.com people. It was weird, the Korea.com people don't speak English so all the conversation had to go through a translator. One of the Koreans had this bad habit of saying "Yes" every time an English speaker paused. It made it look like he understood what we were saying, but he didn't.

Thursday night Cor and I watched Black Hawk Down on DVD. It's a good war movie.

Cor is away for a couple of weeks. He's going to Miami for work, and to close his house.

Played hockey last night. We list 8 to 4. Oddly enough it was the best game we played all summer.

The team is offically falling apart. At least 3 guys have said they won't be returning in the fall. Most of the rest are non-commital.

Last night I had dinner with Mathew. Went to the Foghorn. Good food.

Afterwards we took a walk along the Lk Washington waterfront. The weather was beautiful and warm Some people were swimming. Two women, fully clothed, jumped into the lake.

Next week, Mat and I are going to have dinner along Lk Washington again. We are going to bring our swimming trunks, so we can go swimming afterwards.

Things are going ok with Mathew-- just the usual amount of drama. He's decided to quit his job. He's moving out of his parents house. His reconciliation with his BF is going a bit bumpy. Right now the BF wants to be able to see other men. Mat is almost willing to concede him that only because he knows that the BF will never sleep around.

Sigh. I have crabs. Well, hopefully that's now past tense.

I noticed that I was itching. I looked around my body and found a few of the beasts. I ran out to the drugstore and bought a bottle of Rid. That's embarrassing.

To try and hide my purpose, to dilute the embarrassment, I also bought about a dozen other things-- recordable CD's toilet cleaner, batteries and scrub pads. I was trying to send out the signal "I need many things. Oh, a bottle of Rid would be good to have on hand. For an emergency. Not that I need it now"

Why do all the anti-crab/lice medications have "Lice" printed on them in large words. It just makes it worse.

At the checkout, the clerk fumbled with the bottle of Rid for a few seconds . I made sure I didn't touch him when I picked up my bag. Not that crabs are transmitted that way. I didn't want to worry him.

Afterwards I covered myself head to toe with Rid and did lots of laundry. I'm glad that Cor is away on business.

I get to do it all again in seven days.

I wonder who gave these to me? Allan is the obvious culprit. But, I'm a fairly hairy man. I could have picked them up from a public toilet. In which case, I may have given them to Allan. Hmmm. Do I call him and tell him?

Sigh.

Sunday, C2 and I went to "Wild Waves" a water and amusent park south of Seatte. We had a lot of fun. Some of the lineups were long, I think we went on as many waterslides after 5pm as before 5pm, thanks to the shortened lines.

We also went on a roller coaster. The over-the-shoulder-safety-bar was an inch to low for me, so I was very uncomfortable. The actual ride was fun.

After the Wilde Waves, C2 and I had dinner at Siams and then read "Savage Love" This weeks column was about sex and siblings-- incest, dating the sister of a good friend, catching your brother beating off. I'm sure Dan Savage makes Ann Lander's roll in her grave...

Allan came over Friday night. The three of us (Cor, Allan and I) went to see Eight Legged Freaks a good monster movie.

Allan spent the night. It was nice.

I think Cor went out. Allan and I wolk up the next morning at 8am. Cor was gone.

At lunch, Allan went to a rugby pratice at a park near here. I worked out, and then watched the last half of the pratice. Rugby looks fun.

One sour note. Something happened during the scrimage at the end of the practice. The coach and Allan got into an argument. After the scimage we were supposed to go to a BBQ with the rest of the rugby team, but Allan said he was in a bad mood, and wanted to be alone for a while. So, I said goodbye.

Later on, I got an email from him apologizing for mood.

In the evening, I went over to Bruce's and watched Amélie with him. This is the 3rd time I've seen Amélie and I still like it. Bruce and I talked about the rugby BBQ. Bruce has signed up for the rubgy team, so he went to the BBQ for a while. He said that there were naked men in the hot tub and he asked me why I didn't go.

I don't know what I'm going to do with Allan. I'll take it slow and see what happens. Already I'm in a "Whatever" sort of mood with him.

Had dinner with Mathew. We went to the Captial Club. Great food, a bit overpriced.

Afterwards we went up the Cuff. It was the birthday of a friend of Mathew. The lolipop guild was there (4 bears who are all 5'6'') Behind their backs, Mathew started making pigmy jokes... "I keep expecting one of them to haul out a blow-dart, and shoot me!" Mathew can be very mean. He's not like that when he's alone with me, but when he get's going with his friends-- watch out. I wonder what he says about me behind my back.

Played hockey tonight. We lost 5-3. The team is starting to fall apart. At the end of the game, one of our players got in a fight with the ref and earned a game suspension. Later on he resigned from the team. Another player bitched the first out for not controlling his temper. It's one thing to be angry. It's another to whup-ass on the refs.

Allan watched the hockey game. He said he enjoyed it. Afterwards we had dinner at Rock Bottom and talked about hockey and rugby. He plays rugby, and wants me to join the team. It's a big commitment. Games or practices are every Saturday plus one weeknight. On top of that many of the regular games are in Oregon or Idaho-- this makes it a weekend commitment just to play a game of rugby.

There is some kind of commotion outside my house. There is a large water-shed just to the south. About 10 cop cars have surrounded the water-shed, and a helicoptor with a spotlight is above. I don't see anything in the news. I'll look again tomorrow.

"Dates"

I had lunch with C5 today. I have a bit of a crush on C5 but he's seeing someone. I try to play it cool. But still, I approach it like a date. I make sure I dress attractive, I find a cool restaurant to go to and I spend a few minutes before hand recalling interesting stories to talk about.

I got this back from him...

> Barry,
> Thanks for a great break from work today. I always enjoy talking to you. Let's try to make our lunch "dates" more often.
> Later,
> C

The down side of having a crush on someone is that I can't take what they say at face value. I have to analyze it and pick at the words. Why did he put "dates" in quotes? Did he want to make sure I interpreted "lunch dates" as "lunch friendship-dates" by stressing the "dates" part, or did he want me to interpret "lunch dates" as "lunch romantic-dates" by stressing the "dates" part. Or am I being obsessive, and he being coy?

Sunday morning I had breakfast with C2 at Glo's in Seattle. We talked about money he felt me out about how much I had. He's been playing the stock market. A few weeks ago he was up tens of thousands of dollars. Now he's lost it all.

I didn't do much Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening I had a date with Allan. It went ok. Allan is an attractive, fairly interesting man. He's an muscian, opera singer and music teacher. Right now he doesn't have a full time job. He said he's got enough money to last till February.

He lives in a small studio aparment with a room mate. My bedroom is larger than their whole aparment. I didn't tell him that.

I spent Friday night and most of Saturday in Olympia at a work-friends place. He and his brother inherited a large house on Ward Lake. His brother is a parapelgic so my friend goes to Olympia every weekend to spend time with him. It's a quiet life. He really appreciates the company.

Satruday evening I went to B&M's for a BBQ and Badmonton tournament. The badminton tournament is the only time of the year they can shout "cock" jokes. B&M actually managed to get pink shuttlecocks with white heads.

"That little cock goes far!" "It's all in how you use it."
"The cock is in the bush."
"Why are you taking so long? Let me play with the cock too."
"Barry's a cock hog."
"You know... cock jokes never get tired."

Cor didn't come home last night.

Played hockey tonight. We lost 6-3.

Afterwards the team Captain, Colin, and I had a few beers. Colin was in a chatty mood. He told me that he's HIV+. He also told me that we have the same taste in men. Colin and I have dated a few of the same guys. He said he had a date with John the fireman, whom I dated last October. He also said spent an evening with Master Mark. Mark told Colin that Mark and I went to a football game together. I wonder how much else he told Colin.

After I came home, I chatted with Cor for a while. When Cor headed off for bead I said "Goodnight."

Cor turned to me and said, "You know, you don't have to say goodnight to me. We can sleep together. That would be nice."

I told him no, and we joked about the offer for a bit. Then he told me it was ok, that he had sex earlier that night.

Don't I feel special.

After 34 years of living on the farm, my parents have moved. My mother just emailed me the new phone # and address. This is weird. The old phone number, the old home, the river that ran through the farm, my bedroom; these were things that were always there for me, that always felt like they were mine and would always be there.

Now they are just a memory.

I had dinner with Mathew tonight. Right now his life has a lot of drama in it He's not overly happy with that, but he's rolling with it.

We joked a bit about the lollypop guild. Mathew and I know a group of guys who are all 5'6'' and under. These guys jokingly call themselves the Lollypop Guild. Now, Mathew is 6'4''. I'm 6'6''. When we stand around the guild, we feel weird, like we're around small children.

It turns out that Mathew and George did have sex with each other. George has a partner and is in an open relationship. But, George didn't follow the rules with Mathew. So when the George's partner found out, (not sure how) it hurt the partner's feelings. Now George and Mathew can't spend time with each other. Mathew says he feels a bit like a home wrecker. He didn't mean to hurt the partner. He also put some of the blame on George. After all George is in an open relationship. He should have followed their rules, whatever they may be.

I'll never get involved with an open relationship. Too complicated.

Mathew also talked about getting back together with his ex. Blah Blah Blah, his ex is very cute. blah blah blah during the time they've spent apart, they've both learnt and grown.

I think that Mathew should get back together with his ex. Even if they don't work out, at least it will clear up Mat's feelings for his ex. The promise of love is hard to ignore.

Word Games and Stupid Gay Drama.

When I write here, I change the names to protect privacy. Well, I have to use a real name for this story, because it revolves around word play with his first name.

My friend's real name is Hunter. Hunter's ex's new boyfriend has a personal web site called Zesty On the front page of Zesty, you'll find two lists called "Sneers and "Cheers" Last week Hunter appeared under the "Sneers" list. Hunter was a bit pissed at that, so he called Zesty up, and got him to remove his name.

Well Zesty removed Hunter's name and replaced it with "la busco" At the time Hunter was satisifed. Then Cor translated. "la busco" means "one who searches or hunts for something feminine" (Because 'la' is feminine) or "A hunter of the feminine.". It also loosly mean "Mother Fucker" Hunter is of course very pissed off at Zesty.

This is so dumb. Why can't my stories be about me and my friends achieving great goals? How did I get involved with petty drama? Party of me wants to make new friends. But, mostly I like Hunter. For the most part he's a good constructive man. He's changing lately; becomming more bitter. I'll have to ask him about that.

A few days back I met a guy on the internet. Monday night I had drinks with him. He's a nice guy, but it's not going anywhere.