2 Weeks to Madonna!

Getting more and more excited every day.

Those gold dollar coins

Is there anything more annoying than being given those gold dollar coins for change from someplace? You really can't complain, because they are real money. And at the same time, if you try to pay for something with them, you feel weird.

I went to buy a beer at the bar tonight with three of the coins and felt like a Pirate, at a tavern using "pieces of eight" to buy my beer. The bartender gave me that odd look, like " f@ck you for passing those damned gold coins off on me". Of course, that was exactly what I was doing.

UGH - KFC Style

I was having a massive craving today for something greasy, fatty and totally wonderful. So I went to KFC in Dorchester.

This particular KFC has a few things you can always count on:

• They always have a tremendous line
• They never open more than one register for orders
• They are always out of at least one key item

Normally, these things would bother me greatly, but when you get the hankering for some original recipe, you cannot ignore it.

So, I wait forever in line and finally I am almost there - just one guy ahead of me. He gets to the register and - get this - asks ,"so what have you got?".

WHAT?! This is KFC, for Christ sake, not the Four Seasons! And we have been in line for like 20 minutes, with a giant menu on the wall, and stand signs urging you to order their new mashed potato bowl. In fact, there was nothing but information blaring at us about what they have.

Couldn't he have been spending his line waiting time a little more effectively? There is no excuse for this particular fool - at first I thought he was trying to flirt with the cashier, but that was clearly not the case when he asked how much "a side of corn" was, when it was clearly on the menu. He was just blindly idiotic.

People, let's get with this very simple program. If you are in line waiting for service at a commercial establishment, there are a few things to be sure to get straight:

• Have your money out and ready for processing
• If placing an order for goods or services, be prepared to place said order quickly and efficiently
  

Consider the memo received.

Happy Pride Boston!

What to do?

Pride is this weekend and it looks like a washout - at least for the parade and the Fritz Block Party. Maybe the afternoon will be salvaged enough for the Block Party but it is unclear.

I want to be a good gay and go to the parade. But you know what else? I have had a long, hard week at work, and if it is really raining hard in the morning, I want to stay in bed. Hey, I have been to enough Pride celebrations to skip one parade, correct? I need to save up my energy so I can drink at the Block Party!

David and I have been to many Pride Celebrations over the years. David has been Bartender at Chaps and Buddies during many of them and "The Mirror" (predecessor of In Newsweekly) published a photo of us on a swing together during our first Pride. So, if we choose to stay in (David is on chemo, I am just totally stressed), I think we can be forgiven.

However, if debauchery is chosen instead, I will report on it appropriately.

Happy Gay Pride everyone.

Brangelina

David and I watched "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" tonight. It was a much better movie than I was expecting.

I have never been much to follow all the gossip stories about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Certainly I know it all, how can you avoid it? Apparently they hooked up while making this movie, he left one of my all time favorite people Jennifer Aniston and the two promptly made a baby. Other people's personal information blazed all over television - blah, blah, blah.

But I realized something watching this movie - these two belong together. They have chemistry and intensity. What made this movie fun to watch was to watch them banter back and forth. It was great. You can see it in their eyes and the tension between them felt very real.

These two had fun making this movie.

Now maybe this was because I know what happened after the fact. But I do not think so. I do not think I would have enjoyed the movie as much if that part of it had not been so much fun.

New Format

Yeah, introducing new templated format. Blah, blah. Needed a change. As you can see, I spent great amounts of energy and money to put it together for your enjoyment. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

The Editors

Well, thank God, right?

It looks like Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie are finally back at it.

Maybe not as the "Best Friends Forever" that we had come to idolize, but at least they have been able to put their differences aside long enough to bring the character building "Simple Life" back to the small screen.

Just in case you have forgotten the immense contributions these two lovely ladies have given to society, you can usually find informative updates at this web site.

Cornish Game Hen

The Partner and I went out to dinner to a favorite local eatery tonight and I decided to tempt fate with the "Cornish Game Hen with Sausage Stuffing".

It was quite good. But I could not help thinking that I was dining on a baby chicken. Now, I know that Game Hens are not little yellow chicks, but it was like an entire mini chicken, roughly the size of a softball. This, was, well, just odd to me. Tasted good though.

When I got home, I promptly told the Bird that I "ate Bird" for dinner.

"The Machinist"

David and I watched "The Machinist" on cable last night. This was a great thriller starring Christian Bale as a machinist who has been suffering from an inability to sleep for over a year, may or may not be hallucinating killer co-workers and has lost like a thousand pounds since his very hot "American Psycho" days.

The movie is good, although patience is required. But the scariest part really is how much weight Bale lost for the movie. He looks horrifying - literally like something out of the holocaust. I remember reading that he actually did crash diet for the role, and then had to put the weight back on for "Batman Begins". Talk about dedication to your work.

Good movie though, highly recommended.

The Bird can whistle the theme song to "Star Trek"

Yes, he really can. And he does it loudly if he wants to get my attention.

Clearly you are a major geek when your bird can whistle "Star Trek" to you. And that he knows it will get your attention.

He is a bird, I told you, right?

Priory of Scion

Let me introduce you to the newest member of my family. He rocks.


My new Scion TC - he rocks

Enough Already!

I never want to hear a news weather person say "we really could use the rain" ever again. Throughout April it was totally dry. Over and over again you would hear it said on the news one way or another:

"We really could use the rain"
"We need some of those April showers"

Well guess what? Careful what you wish for! Any more rain and we will all spontaneously evolve gills I think.

We have enough rain now!

If we were cartoons....

When David and I stopped at Disneyland while visting a friend in LA, he insisted we get a caricature drawn of us. The experience was interesting. We had to sit perfectly still making intense eye contact with a complete stranger while crowds passed by oggling it all and making comments about it (we could not see it until it was done, which took about 30 minutes).



So I guess this is how we would look in a Saturday morning cartoon version of our lives. Of course, the bird is missing, but I am sure that could be easily corrected. David's ears are not really that big either, I swear.

Clinton vs. Bush (2)

As Nelson would say, "Ha Ha!"

This comes as no surprise.

After all, as one particularly intelligent bumper sticker says, "No One Died When Clinton Lied".

Home Alone and Useless

The Partner David has always done the heavy house stuff around here. Not that I cannot do it, but he has always just done it and I have complied. Among these things are the maintenance of the boilers for the heat.

As any of you New Englanders know, we had a beautiful April - warm, sunny and just overall gorgeous. May, so far, has been less than stellar. In fact, this week it has been pretty cold. But David decided to shut off the boilers last weekend. This would not normally be a problem, because if there was a sudden need for heat, he would take care of it.

However, if you see my last entry, David was not around this week. When I got home from the hospital on his first day of chemotherapy (gone at hospital all day), I discovered a very cold home, with a shivering Bird. I realized quickly what was wrong, what I was unsure of how to deal with it.

I went to the basement and sure enough the boilers were not lit. I opened them up (after wrestling with the cover for a bit and losing a screw someplace in the process), and read the instructions. On first pass, they might as well have been in ancient Hebrew. However, on closer examination, I noticed that the main components were numbered. These numbers mapped back to the instructions, very similar to the LCD display on the copy machine at the office telling you where the paper gets jammed. I was hopeful, but when it came time to light the pilot, it would not light. Instead, all I could do was smell gas. Panicked, I decided to abort (and go to bed wearing sweats).

When David was more coherent, he showed me how to light the Pilot. Now, in my defense, the hole to stick in the match is not the same as the one marked in the instructions, and had it been, I would have succeeded.

But it made me realize that I am pretty clueless.

It's theirs to lose...

Let's hope they do not screw this up. Time for us to start getting this country on the right track again and turn around 6 + years of Republican mismanagment, criminal negligence and buffoonery.

The Decider

Excellent email making the rounds (this was forwarded to me by my beloved sister-in-law):

Inspired by the Tuesday 4/18/06 George W Bush quote regarding all of the Rumsfeld noise: I hear the voices and I read the front page and I hear the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what's best..."

"I'm the Decider"
by Roddy McCorley

Well, it took me awhile, but I finally realized what "I'm the decider"
reminds me of. It sounds like something a character in a Dr. Seuss book might say.

So with apologies to the late Mr. Geisel, here is some idle speculation as to what else such a character might say:

THE DECIDER

I'm the decider.
I pick and I choose.
I pick among whats.
And choose among whos.
And as I decide
Each particular day
The things I decide on
All turn out that way.
* I decided on Freedom
For all of Iraq.
And now that we have it,
I'm not looking back.
I decided on tax cuts
That just help the wealthy.
And Medicare changes
That aren't really healthy.
And parklands and wetlands
Who needs all that stuff?
I decided that none
Would be more than enough!
I decided that schools
All in all are the best
The less that they teach
And the more that they test.
I decided those wages
You need to get by
Are much better spent
On some CEO guy.
I decided your Wade
Which was versing your Roe
Is terribly awful
And just has to go.
I decided that levees
Are not really needed.
Now when hurricanes come
They can come unimpeded.
That old Constitution?
Well, I have decided
As"just goddam paper"
It should be derided.
I've decided gay marriage
Is icky and weird.
Above all other things,
It's the one to be feared.
And Cheney and Rummy
And Condi all know
That I'm the Decider -
They tell me it's so.
I'm the Decider
So watch what you say
Or I may decide
To have you whisked away.
Or I'll tap your phones.
Your e-mail I'll read.
`cause I'm the Decider -
Like Jesus decreed.
Yes, I'm the Decider
The finest alive
And I'm nuking Iran.
Now watch this drive!

Now that I think about it, Dr. Seuss anticipated this administration
pretty well when he wrote Yertle the Turtle...

Ha Ha!!

Laughing out load at This Blog. Read it and weep. I love sarcastic wit. Especially combined with "gross reality".

70 Days to Madonna

And counting.....

What a Great Weekend!

Not only was the weather beautiful both days (maybe a tad windy yesterday, but still very nice) - but David and I had a wonderful time with the fabulous Jen and her equally fabulous other half Bill at Bonfire on Saturday night. Bill and David are both celebrating their 45th Birthdays and Jen thought it was a great reason for us to get together and blow a lot of money on fabulous food, wine and cocktails.

And man, was she right. That place never disappoints and the company could not have been better. We were a little annoyed because they just redid the menu and no longer offer an unreal potato dish that we loved. But they did have "luscious" mashed potatoes, which I was told by the server was lavished in extra butter and cream. That sounded good to me so I was quickly reassured.

Somehow they figured out there was a birthday going on because David ordered key lime pie for dessert and they served it with a birthday candle. I was a bit taken aback, I mean, who has ever heard of birthday pie? Jen and I chose liquid desserts, namely a vanilla flavored cognac. You never feel truly sophisticated until you have swished cognac around in a snifter.

Of course, we never really need an excuse for good food, wine and cocktails, but sometimes it helps to justify the cost!