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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 3rd partner is a realestate agent/developer

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

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

Little Sins II-- Garbage.

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

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

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

Am I desperate for excitment, or what?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bruce and C3 are getting married this Thursday!

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

Comments are back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm back.

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

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

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