Life is such a sweet insanity.

So it's back to work after the magic of Disney. Work is going well today, with a surprisingly minimal amount of catch-up to do. Either I'm not that important or frightfully efficient. Maybe it's a delightful combination of both. Either way, work is going very well and its good to be free of complaints.

Earl is on his way to Cleveland tonight, then on to Baltimore. I think he's going to have an interesting trip with this snowstorm coming up the coast. As I type this entry, I just noticed that he didn't take his iBook with him, so we won't be able to 'cam like I enjoy doing. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to deal.

Now everyone is getting settled in for what is hopefully that last major snowstorm of the season. Wouldn't that be nice. I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

I am so ready for spring.

Here's a picture of the happy travelers. This was taken at the Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, as evidenced by the Tree of Life in the background.

More pictures coming to the .Mac account soon!

Earl and I are back home, our vacation rapidly becoming a fond memory. The smells of Florida air are long gone, replaced by the chill of late February in Upstate New York. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the area, with up to eight inches of snow predicted by this time tomorrow night.

Why do we live here again?

Tom is back home after a week with Gram, who took great delight in doting over her grandcat. I think he's looking forward to visiting again, but not too soon as he doesn't enjoy the ride.

As of last night, I gained just shy of 10 pounds on vacation. I would've thrown out a view expletives here, but in trying to stay Disneylike, I'll just say "Golly gee, I have some work to do in the exercise department!".

After discussion on the plane yesterday, Earl and I jumped onto a technology bandwagon today and are in the process of switching our phone service to Vonage. Let's see, nearly $60.00 a month through Verizon or Sprint or $16.00 a month through Vonage. A no-brainer. Plus, it's embracing the latest rage in telecommunications, VoIP. Mark my words, in ten years, everyone will either be on wireless or VoIP, and the nightmare of the Bell companies will be long gone.

I also picked up a MIDI keyboard for my PowerBook so I can go crazy on Garage Band 2.

I'm leaping into work with both feet tomorrow. It's an on-call week. Plus, the tests for my surgery are on Thursday, with the surgery on the following Friday.

March is going to be an interesting month. But by this time next month, I'll be good as new and feeling golden. So I guess it's worth it. But I wish I could be honest when saying "I'm glad to be home", but I'm really not. Earl is off on business again tomorrow. After being together 24/7 for the past nine days, that sort of sucks. But I guess it's something we have to live with. I've been saying for the past month and a half that I wasn't really feeling the winter/cabin fever blahs.

I think I lied.

I opened up my PowerBook to see if I could find any internet connectivity here at Orlando International Airport. I am sitting on the floor in row "B" at gate 120. When you're a Southwest Airlines passenger, you get used to sitting on the floor to guarantee yourself a good seat on the plane.

I'm not able to connect to the internet here (bad airport, bad airport), however I did connect to the LAN at Mc Donalds.

Would you like fries with that?

As I type this blog entry, Earl is busily packing up our stuff, saying that he'll take care of it because he has better packing abilities than I do. I won't argue with him there. So I'm in charge of the various electronic goodies, which I'm going to pack up as soon as I finish this blog entry.

We just got back from Downtown Disney after a relaxing evening. Cirque de Soleil's La Nouba was out of this world. We bought the soundtrack CD, as the music of the show is absolutely incredible... full of life and energy, melody and harmony, all blending in a unique way. It's the kind of music that I enjoy, and I will be enjoying the tracks on my iPod when we get home.

I'm all psyched up about staying physically fit again, maybe someday I'll be the first old guy working Cirque de Soleil, bouncing around on trampolines or something. I think I'm going to start focusing on my yoga practice again and be all stretchy.

We had supper at "Earl of Sandwich", which seemed appropriate, since Earl makes a pretty great sandwich when we're at home. We wanted to see how this Earl does. :)

So now we're packing up and getting ready for the journey home tomorrow. We've had a wonderful time, and we both feel energized and recharged, ready to take on the world when we're back on our home turf. It's much easier to experience life when you feel a little magic.

Earl and I just returned from our 10:30 appointment this morning with the Disney Vacation Club folks. Well, that's not actually true, we finished our appointment around 2:30 p.m., after that we headed to the Polynesian Resort and then took the monorail to Contemporary, where we had lunch using the Disney tab. That's one of the perks you get for owning a piece of the magic.

That's right, Earl and I now own a fraction of a percent of Unit 44C of Saratoga Springs Spa and Resort here at Walt Disney World. We now have the flexibility to travel the world, Disney or otherwise, for a low monthly mortgage payment for the next 10 years or so.

I'm very excited about the venture and I think Earl is as well, though he's the more sensible one of the family. I'm like a kid, easily dazzled by bright colors, bells and baubles, whilst Earl only sees how many dollar signs.

Now it's off to Cirque de Soleil's La Nouba at Downtown Disney. The skies are cloudy and rainy today, our hearts are full of sunshine.

Today we spent the day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Earlier in the week I had mentioned that I thought Epcot was my favorite theme park here at Walt Disney World. After thinking about it, I've decided that that's not true. I actually enjoy all the parks with their varying offerings, and Animal Kingdom holds a special place in my heart. Because at Animal Kingdom, it's all about respecting our Mother Earth and all the life she holds.

We took the opportunity to see as many of the animals that we could. We stayed away from the few thrill rides at Animal Kingdom and opted for exhibits and such instead. We did go on the safari tour, as it's a great way to see all that "Africa" and "Asia" have to offer. I love animals and I'm like a big kid when it comes to the petting zoo.

We also took a peek at the live bird show where Earl was selected as a volunteer to have an owl fly right up in his face. It was really cool, though he couldn't snap a picture quick enough. It's amazing how these birds are able to fly right over the audience, inches above their heads and not disturb anyone's hair.

We also hung out for the parade and The Lion King show, which serves as the park's finale.

After Animal Kingdom, we headed back to Wilderness Lodge for supper at the Whispering Canyon Café, where's it's loud and rowdy and tons of fun. If you're ever looking for a fun place to eat at Disney (and there's a bunch to choose from), we highly recommend the family fun at Whispering Canyon.

Now Earl is catching up on his work e-mail, something I don't have to do during vacation for the first time in over 10 years. I really haven't thought about work that much during our vacation. It's nice to be able to put those responsibilities out of my mind. I must admit that the geek in me appreciates the fact that Walt Disney World (like the mall-based Disney stores throughout the country) is running a mix of older and state of the art IBM point of sale equipment, apparently using a modified version of General Sales Application in the shops and such. Only a true geek like myself would find that fascinating!

Earl and I are going to relax on the lanai a bit, and then call it an evening. Tomorrow night is potpourri day, starting the day off with our Disney Vacation Club appointment and then checking out the other resorts via monorail afterwards. Tomorrow night it's Cirque de Soleil's La Nouba and shopping adventures at Downtown Disney.

Earl and I spent the day at Disney-MGM Studios. Following the cue of the other parks, we decided to approach the day with a relaxed, casual pace. More importantly, I got to play "ham" in not one, but two shows!

We started off the day at the Indiana Jones Adventure, where there's a huge effects show with 10 or so extras chosen from the audience. I was one of the extras, dressed up in my Middle Eastern outfit and following the directions of the assistant director.

I also got to hit the stage for the back lot tour, where I was one of the four extras that gets to play on a ship that's being bombed by airplanes. I was head to toe in waterproof gear for this one, playing the captain of the ship with three directions - look through the binoculars, spin the wheel and use the telephone. All while the ship is getting bombed and we're getting soaked. It was loads of fun.

We took a little lunch break at the Hollywood Brown Derby and then went to a couple of other attractions, including "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Play It!". Earl and I didn't do well, we didn't make the scoreboard. There were two contestants in the hot seat, a 13-year old girl who made it to 16,000 and a 16-year old boy who made it to 32,000. Both were brilliant!

For supper we headed to Spoodles on Disney's Boardwalk. Spoodles features Mediterranean food and tasty sangrias. After supper, we walked all the way around the Boardwalk and the Beach and Yacht Club resorts.

Another wonderful day at Disney! Tomorrow it's Animal Kingdom.

I'm guilty of something. Earl and I spotted this piece of eye candy at Epcot and couldn't resist taking a picture. I know, it's kind of stalker-like, a little creepy and probably rude.

All I can say is thank god for telephoto lenses.

I've noticed this ever since our first Disney visit back in 1997. People from New Jersey are in a class of their own. I hate to generalize about the population of an entire state, but it can't be helped. From their very distinct accent to their wild fashion sense (nothing says "Pretty" like a leopard skin print on an 80 year old Grandma), these people are out to make their world their way or no way at all.

A woman was screaming, at the top of her lungs in that traditional New Jersey butchering of American English, at a Disney cast member at the Stitch ride at Tomorrowland because it was "exactly" like the Alien Exterrorestrial Adventure. In actuality, it's a redressing of the older ride and has been tamed down considerably to make it more family friendly. Why this upset her enough to make a cast member cower in the corner, I don't know. Perhaps it was the fumes from her Aqua Net.

Then we have Mrs. Fingernails, who loudly demanded (love the accent, hun) a table at one of the fully booked restaurants, because after all, she spent a lot of her hard earned money and she was promised decent service. Apparently she had never heard of a reservation before.

Then we have Mr. Hairpiece who couldn't believe there was no limo available to drive him from the Grand Floridian and why did he have to ride a monorail with everyone else?

I don't mean to degrade an entire state, but I guess it's because these Jersey folks only have Atlantic City as their claim to fame. They're not really New Yorkers (they like to fake it though), they don't really have Philadelphia to their credit (and have you seen Camden before?), so I guess they're apparently going to eek out their own niche in Americana by just being rude.

Next time I'm in Pennsylvania and see that "Next Exit In New Jersey" sign, I'm turning right.

Earl and I spent the day at Epcot. I must not be a Disney traditionalist or something, because I think I enjoy Epcot more than the Magic Kingdom. It's not that I don't enjoy the Magic Kingdom, quite the contrary, but there's just something about Epcot that's special in my heart.

We tried out one of the newest attractions at Epcot, Mission: Space. This little thrill ride provides a near-astronaut like experience as you pilot your spaceship, with three other crew members, to Mars. It naturally takes place in a simulator, though it's quite easy to forget that you're really back on Earth while this is all taking place. I was quite nervous about the experience, having had a Near. Fatal. Date. Experience. back when Earl and I were first dating. I took him to the local field days (read "gala days" or "town fair") and we rode the Paratroopers together. I had ridden the Paratroopers about a million and a half times, so I wasn't worried about my well-being, but I ended up hurling my supper afterwards. Green isn't a good color on me when I'm trying to impress my new beau.

Anyways, back to the present. My stomach held up well for Mission:Space, having followed all the directions given by the crew - face forward, don't close your eyes and don't look left or right, concentrate on what's in front of you. And that I did. If my eyes were lasers, I would have burned a hole through the simulator monitor. But I enjoyed the experience, though vowing that once was enough for me.

As the day wore on, I would think about the ride and start getting sick to my stomach. It was as if my mind and body had been fooled during the experience, and now thinking back on it made it realize that "Hey, we were fooled! We were really spinning around like on the inside of washing machine!" So I'm trying not to look back on the experience. Typing this blog entry is making me queasy. Mind over matter and all that.

So back to Epcot. After Ellen's Energy Adventure (another favorite of mine), along with The Crystals (they can stretch in very unbelievable ways) and other assorted goodies, we headed to the World Showcase, hitting all of the countries represented in the showcase. My favorite has always been Canada, and still is on this trip. I love their Cinema-360 presentation. Beautiful landscapes. Friendly demeanor. A cheerful population. It reminds me of how lucky we are to have such friendly neighbors to our north. Makes me want to drop a couple hundred loonies in their economy this summer.

We enjoyed a wonderful Chinese supper in, well, China, at Nine Dragons. We had an interesting appetizer called "Drunken Chicken", that was very tasty. It was a cold dish in a wine marinade. Very good.

After walking around and enjoying the sights, we found our face on the "Leave A Legacy" display. We had our pictures taken back in 2000, and sure enough, there we were.

All in all, another glorious day at the Wonderful World of Disney. Tomorrow, Disney-MGM Studios.

As I mentioned earlier, Earl and I are enjoying the week at Walt Disney World. It's going splendidly, and I'm writing blog entries on my PowerBook quite often. The problem is, there's no internet access in our room! This is a good thing, as I can spend more time with the Mouse and put my internet dependence behind me.

So on Sunday you'll see a ton of new entries, all dated appropriately.

It'll be fun for all!

Kongaloosh.

Earl and I spent the day at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. It always seems like one has to start their Disney experience at Magic Kingdom, as it's the original theme park here at Walt Disney World. There were many new attractions this year, including Mickey's Philharmagic, which is the most spectacular piece of cinematography I've ever had the pleasure to experience.

We decided to take it at a leisurely pace, enjoying the sites and various attractions. Always on the path of self discovery, I discovered my own little magic today. Earl and I decided to look into the Disney Vacation Club and had a little chat with cast member Ron. When he started filling out the paperwork for our upcoming open house visit, he asked our relationship, in which I replied "Lover" while Earl replied "Partner" in stereo. Ron stammered very briefly before commending us on being so open about our relationship. Come to find out he's gay too. But what he told us was that he basically admired couples like us, because we are an openly gay couple that has nothing to hide, we're just being ourselves, and that is the best way to show the rest of the world the truth about gay relationships. It was a nice pat on the ego. It's funny, because I've always been under the impression that we have to be out campaigning and becoming politically vocal and all that, and while that still rings true when its appropriate, it's also nice to be recognized as a couple of guys that are in love that are just setting an example for mainstream America.

Earl commented later that he was surprised by my use of "lover", as I usually refer to him as my partner. Lately I've been finding partner to be too business-like and in the past I've found lover to be too "in your face". I guess I don't care anymore.

We had a wonderful lunch and dinner throughout the day. We also very much enjoyed the Spectralmagic Parade and the "Wishes" fireworks show.

All in all, a naturally Wonderful Day at the Magic Kingdom.

When I wrote yesterday's blog entry, I mentioned that I was feeling a bit cranky. After getting on the plane yesterday, it all melted away. The crankiness, the negativity I had been feeling the past couple of days.

Usually I don't relish the idea of flying. It's not that I'm afraid of flying, because I'm not. It's just such a hassle. But while we were flying over the Hudson River yesterday, I decided that it's such a waste of energy to buck against flying. So I stopped. Simple as that. I wish I could lose my gut in the same fashion.

Earl and I arrived at Walt Disney World yesterday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. and just relaxed about Wilderness Lodge - enjoying the weather and the sights and the beautiful surroundings.

Last night we ate at Whispering Canyon Café, where its loud and rowdy and crazy. We had a sassy waitress named Half Pint. When we asked for iced tea refills, she brought us liter carafes with a straw.



Afterwards, we watched the parade on the lake and then called it a night. A wonderful way to start our vacation.

This morning we walked on the beach and did some yoga type stretching, took a quick shower now we're on our way to a light breakfast and then off to the Magic Kingdom.

Earl and I are just awaking from our first night at Walt Disney World. He is out on the balcony reading some resort literature and I'm typing away here in the room, enjoying the early morning sun on my face.

I just awoke from the most incredible night's sleep I have had in years. I feel refreshed, alive, awake and ready to enjoy the day. My dreams were of work and old friends, but it was all good. I dreamed of having a computer business again, geared towards 'simplicity'. Don't oversell the customer and be honest to them. If all they do is surf the web and send e-mail, don't sell them the latest computer with all the bells and whistles. Not very 2005-like for the business world but a philosophy I wish was near and dear to my heart.

I think the dream comes from thinking about my Dad's store yesterday. Back in 1990 or '91, I wrote an accounts receivable program tailored specifically to that situation so they could be computerized with their billing. They're still using that program to this day. The program replaced an old NCR posting machine that was a glorified adding machine that could print in columns. The posting machine and my program were both designed to print on specially designed billing statements and ledger cards. That posting machine was the height of my early geekness in all its mechanical wonder, tabulating, printing in columns and popping the ledger card out when it was done printing on it. They'd probably still be using the posting machine if I hadn't insisted on using my computer program.

I've been toying with the idea of writing a new version of the program for them and having them use that. The program I was thinking of was all modern with databases and customer trends and all that. They haven't asked for a new program, but I was ready to introduce bigger and better to them after I sat down and actually wrote the program.

But what they have works. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Maybe that's the key to everything... simplicity is better.

It is wonderful to be on vacation.

Before I start... Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Earl and I are sitting at Albany International Airport awaiting Southwest flight #2975 for Baltimore at 8:25 a.m. From there, we head to Orlando and fun and frivolity and Disney World.

I thought I was going to get beat down to the ground by a very butch woman at the security checkpoint. I understand that these new security procedures are for our own good, but I really do not enjoy it. I didn't hear her tell me to take off my coat, boots and belt, I thought she just had to look at them. So just became a bit hysterical when she thought I ignored her and tried to breeze through security with a belt on. So then I had to take off my belt and boots and jacket and put them through x-ray. Then I made the metal detector beep anyways. Apparently there's a very small piece of metal in my wallet, which then I had to put that through x-ray as well.

I quipped that it would be easier to walk through naked. They didn't appreciate that comment either.

So now we're sitting here awaiting our flight. I was going to surf the internet while waiting, since there is no internet access in our hotel room, but I'm not in the mood to pay $6.95 for the privilege. I believe that technology has advanced enough that someone we need to work out free internet access in public places. Of course, that's not really practical, but I think it's a wonderful idea. Either that or there needs to be a common carrier or something like the way ATM machines work so that you can pay one carrier and get internet access on any network. Or put a cell phone SIM card into your computer and you'll get a bill at the end of the month. But I'm not really crazy about sending my credit card number all over the place to pay for the internet.

Now I'm going to try and relax and enjoy our vacation.

Earl and I are officially on vacation. We are staying at a Hampton Inn near the Albany International Airport, so that we can catch our flight early tomorrow morning. I am more than ready to see sunny skies and feel the warm temperatures of Florida. DisneyWorld, here we come!

I had to kick the day off early this morning by taking Tom to his Gram's. As usual, he complained about the ride the entire time, but once we got to Mom's, he seemed to take to her apartment. I think he's going to enjoy his stay, he has the whole place to himself, no other cats about.

Earl and I made it a diner day again, hitting our local haunt of Betty's Diner for a noon-time breakfast, and then hitting the Circle Diner in suburban Latham for supper tonight.

I was cranky this afternoon but a nap seemed to cure that state of mind. I think I was anxious to get the hell out of Dodge and it just wasn't happening quick enough for me. After I calmed down during my nap, I found myself back at center.

So now we're going to relax in the hotel room for a bit, hit the hey early and then onto our Southwest Airlines flights tomorrow. Hopefully you won't see us on Airline.

I'm not feeling overly inspired to write in my blog today. I'm home for lunch, forging through blowing and drifting snow to do so, and then I get to my PowerBook and BAM! Nothing.

So here I am just babbling on the internet. Earl is en route to his office, having a 7:00 a.m. meeting outside of Albany this morning. It's amazing how much work has affected my typing style. Being a support tech, I type in trouble tickets (logs) all day long and without thinking I originally typed that sentence about Earl like this: Earl enr to off, using the typical geek shorthand that I use. Anyways, I hope his trip is safe since there's apparently whiteout conditions on the Thruway.

There's another shorthand phrase I use at work that hearkens from my programming days... "Cust will call w further tble else close tkt EOB." It's that clever use of ELSE from when I used to program in BASIC. Translated, "the customer won't call if everything is fine, if we don't hear from them, close the trouble ticket at the end of the day."

I know, it's all terribly mundane. But I amuse myself easily.

Tom and I have finally come to an understanding regarding my PowerBook. I have to face the fact that he's just going to walk all over my desk whether I like it or not. However, he's accepted the fact that the PowerBook is off limits and he's content sleeping on the telephone on the other portion of my desk. As long as he's not making any long distance calls, we're fine.

Surprisingly, the day is flying by. I'm leaving work an hour early today (gotta love comp time), so I can get Earl a birthday present. I have no idea what to get him, since he says that the trip to Florida is his present, but I can't let his birthday go by without giving him something else. Maybe I'll surprise him and give whatever I decide to buy to him while we're on the plane. He'll be contently sleeping in the aisle seat, or next to the window, I'll be wedged between him and someone else and I'll throw an elbow into his side and give him a present.

That'll be romantic.

Thinking about that scenario has inspired me with ideas for his present. I guess there was a reason to write in the blog after all.

This week seems to be lasting forever while time is flying by. I don't even know if that's statement makes sense, but that's how I feel. Our vacation officially starts tomorrow evening at 5 p.m. Right now, I feel like I can reach out and almost touch the 5:00 on the clock and know that's it there waiting for us. But at the same time, it feels like my half day on Monday was eons ago. There I go again obsessing about time.

We fly out of Albany on Sunday morning, so we'll have all day Saturday to pack and get ready for the trip. Plus we need to drop Tom off at his Gram's early Saturday morning, a first for him and my Mom. I think he'll do fine, and I think my mom will as well.

In all honesty, we'll probably be all packed in about an hour afterwards and then have nothing to do. Maybe we'll have to make it a play night and head into Syracuse or something for supper and some recreation afterwards. Just sitting around the house will amount to nothing but boredom so we might as well make the most of it.

Tomorrow should pass by quickly, what with having to worry about the foot of snow we should wake up to in the morning and then dealing with all the related trouble calls at work. "My cordless phone isn't working! Is there a power outage? Yes! Well that may have something to do with it." Then we get the calls like "I want to move my phone to the other side of the living room, can you let more cable through the hole?"

I am so looking forward to this vacation. I'm ready for our little adventure. Just get here already!

As Earl and I get ready for our trip to Disney on Sunday, I'm thinking of bringing a book or two along just so I can sit down and read for a bit. Let my mind escape and my imagination wander. Being February, the parks at Disney close early, so I'm sure we'll have plenty of down time.

I usually have two books going at once; a computer science instructional or educational book (I'm currently learning how to program in 'C') and something new-age-ish; the latest book by psychic Sylvia Browne, discussions of various aspects of spirituality, wicca, paganism, etc. I rarely sit down to read and enjoy it, unfortunately, I usually sit down to read and learn. Perhaps I work to hard to at reading.

I think I'm going to dig out my copy of "The Demu Trilogy" by F M Busby. It's my favorite book of all time and I've read it at least 30 times over the past 25 years, but it's been a while since I last took a look. It's funny how my perceptions of the book change as I grow older, but I still find new nuances and passages on every read; things that I had never noticed before.

So as we escape to Disney, I'm looking forward to escaping into setting the computer aside and escaping into a book as well.

I just realized that the Grammy Awards were this past Sunday. Not being in the radio industry anymore, I was delighted to find out that the Grammys had gone by and I wasn't even aware of it.

I'm not a big fan of the award shows. I think they are over-hyped, overrated wastes of time. Maybe I'm bitter because no one has ever offered me an award for doing my job. Well, that's a lie. Back in 1989 I did earn "Employee of the Quarter" when I worked for Digital. That's was an honor that still lives on my resumé to this day.

But I don't get this whole idea of getting dressed up in outrageous outfits, sitting in an audience and hoping someone calls out my name because I did a really goob job at my latest gig. Wouldn't the paycheck, positive reviews and recognition on the street be accolades enough? Apparently not. I think now we're suppose to care about the upcoming Oscars. I heard Leonardo Di Caprio is up for The Aviator, along with a bunch of other awards. It was a great movie, so if there has to be awards given out, I suppose The Aviator is deserving. But do we have to accompany the Academy Awards with these pre-game shows? And then we have Plastica (Joan Rivers) doing a whole fashion run down for weeks afterwards. Who cares! Look in the mirror, you plastic bitch, then we'll talk.

The best award show (if there is such a thing) ever was the Emmys after 9/11. Ellen DeGeneres did a fabulous job hosting, Babs took your breath away with her closing number, but more importantly, attendees were urged to wear business casual attire rather than these outlandish outfits. Everyone looked respectable. Everyone had dignity. Why did it take a national disaster to make an award show tolerable?

I know, I know, I can just change the channel and ignore the whole thing.

Maybe I'll just do that.

I knew this day would come sooner or later. I've been putting it off for a very long time, but it's time to face the music. I had another visit with the urologist today, which involved a fun little procedure called a cystoscopy! For the faint of heart, you may wish to wait until tomorrow's tale of merriment...

I had been advised not to urinate for an hour before my appointment, so I could give a "good, healthy" urine sample. As a precaution, I had an extra glass of water with lunch AND a bottle of water while en route to the doctor's office.

I'm an idiot.

Of course the doctor was running late, and I ended up going in to the exam room about 20 minutes after my reservation. So, while it wasn't showing on the outside, I was certainly doing the "pee-pee" dance on the inside. And just for the record, someone in that office has a sick sense of humor, because they have a waterfall in the waiting room. When I inquired about it, they informed me it was there to encourage patients to urinate! "Ha ha ha, let's watch the urology patients try to hold back their urine! Ha ha!"

So I had to go to the bathroom in this computerized toilet that didn't even have the decency to do a bidet type thing afterwards, then they ran an ultrasound machine over my bladder afterwards to see if I had completely emptied my bladder. I hadn't. This computerized toilet measured how much I went, how fast and for how long. I was waiting for a "TILT" light to come on, but no such thing happened. "I guess you really had to go! The waterfall did it's trick!"

So after the fun of super toilet and the ultrasound, I was informed that I was getting the works, which included the cystoscopy to see what the insides of my dink looked like. So there I was, pants down around my ankles with a crowd looking over my personal parts from the inside out. I hadn't had a crowd look down there since that time in the woods back in 1994! Long story short, I have scar tissue in the urethra (R-E-S-P-E-C-T) again and it has to be removed.

The saga continues in March.

I had the exact surgery 19 years ago, almost to the day, to accomplish the same thing. Apparently the doctor back then didn't do it right, because the scar tissue came back. The sexy part? After this outpatient surgery I get to go home with a catheter for a week. As uncomfortable and inconvenient that that sounds, I guess I'm glad to be finally correcting this problem after living with it for 30 years or so. Damn that summer day back in the mid 1970s when I rode my bike in to the barn wall, smashing my parts against the handlebars! So I'll have the surgery on a Thursday, recover Friday through Sunday and then go to work for three days with a catheter and slosh around the office. I can sit at my desk and pee at the same time! How often can you say that about your work day?

Maybe I should just go the studly route and ask for the newest bionics to be installed on my dink.

Having some comp time in the hopper, I decided to take the afternoon off today in preparation for our night at the local casino. I've busied myself about the house waiting for Earl to get home from work, repairing my weather station so that I can get reliable readings again (weather info coming to the site soon!) and just goofing off on the internet.

One of the things I started looking at while browsing was penmanship styles. I've always been very interested in various penmanship techniques, ever since I was a little kid. I think my various grade school teachers used differing methods of penmanship instruction, because looking at the aforementioned site, I remember being taught all these different styles. No wonder my chicken scratch is somewhat of a mess.

Here's a sample of what my writing looks like today.


Earl has commented in the past that I write like a girl. Now I don't think that's very nice. I've seen gay men write much "prettier" than I do so I guess I'm not insulted by his remark. I guess I should be wondering on why I care about such a trivial thing.

Looking at the various penmanship techniques, I wonder what grandparents will write like 60 years from now. My grandparents all had very similar handwriting. They were all undoubtably trained to write with the "Classic Palmer" technique. Now there's all these different variations of handwriting, plus the encouragement to just do your own thing without regard to the basics. Will today's kids still use hearts over their "i"'s when they're 70?

Anyways, now I'm not going to be able to listen to customers and jot down notes at work anymore with any sense of actually paying attention. I'll be too busy trying to make my handwriting nice.

I don't know what my problem is today. I just don't feel my usually cheery self. I'm trying desperately to get into a good mood, but it's just not happening. The best I can muster is an "eh".

I should be happy - Earl is coming home from his business trip tonight, I'm working only half a day tomorrow and then we're spending the night at the local casino.

This morning at work started a little rough, what with a crazy man walking up the street, purposely blocking my path and taking a swing at me. That was nice. I could hear him babbling as he was walking towards me. I moved left, he moved over into my way as he continued to approached. I moved right, he again moved in front of me, moving closer. I moved left again and he was close enough to yell that he was going to kill me and took a swing. I simply ducked out of the way of his poorly executed haymaker swing and kept walking towards the office. He continued on his way. I love the fact that when they closed the local mental institutions down, they just pushed everybody out on the street. They didn't try to place them anywhere or give them a headstart. The shooed them away like a stray dog or something. It's pretty sad when you think about it. Perhaps I'm thinking about it too much and that's why I'm feeling kind of blah today.

Before the crazy man, I watched a woman who was driving up the main street not move out of the way of the ambulance that was trying to get through. She just kept puttering along, blocking the ambulance's path. Flashing lights, loud sirens, it didn't matter. She was the most important thing on the road, fogged up windows, cigarette in left hand, coffee in right, attitude in check. After the ambulance made a turn (still behind her), she proceeded to run two red lights before making a left turn into her assumed place of employment at the State Office building. I wrote down her license plate number. I'm keeping my eye out for her. There's another driver that I keep my eye out for. She drives a Big Bird Yellow Nissan Xterra. Her license plate says "JANICE". She has big hair and a lousy attitude. She uses the center turn lane as her private passing lane, ignores traffic lights and frequently double parks in front of the local sub shop during lunch hour. I know I sound snotty, but I hate people like that. I think that's one of my pet peeves. People that go through life that have absolutely no idea of their surroundings. If people would just keep in mind everything that's happening outside of their personal space and show a little human decency and respect to others, the world would be a much happier place.

One of my gripes about riding my exercise bike is that I have nothing to do. I look at cinder blocks, cinder blocks and more cinder blocks in the basement, as I sweat away the few calories that manage to fall off my body.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was installing Solaris on an old computer in the basement. I originally intended it to be a file server, to store backups of our files off the notebooks, plus anything we chose to save off of TiVo and maybe some Garage Band stuff.

Well Solaris 10 offers a pretty nifty web browser as well.

While not quite as polished as my PowerBook, I am zipping around the internet while working out at the same time. It gives me something better to do instead of counting cinder blocks. I can even program this puppy to make inspirational bionic noises, instead of making the ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch sound with my mouth as I work off the extra poundage I'm carrying on this body of mine. Hey, whatever it takes to inspire oneself, that's what I say. You should hear me when I'm on a long distance bike ride, doing the Xena battle cry on the hills. I did that when I was riding with the Ride For Missing Children a couple of years ago. Small wonder I ride alone.

Earl is out of town (again), but this time it's by car instead of plane. Last night I surprised him and met him the airport, even though he had driven himself there and even though its about an hour from the house. We grabbed a bite to eat at the diner after surprising him outside the security gate. It's not as fun since the whole airport security thing. You used to be able to sit there at the end of the jetway, tear in your eye, song in your heart, smile on your face. But now your loved one has to make the journey through the gate, up the long hallway and through the security exit before they get their little family reunion. Damn those terrorists for fscking it all up.

I'm finding that I type slower when I ride slower, and I type faster as I increase my cadence. I wonder if I can walk and chew gum at the same time. I don't know that I've ever tried, not being much of a gum chewer.

I've been on the bike for five minutes, and on my blog for four. Time to take a look around the internet and not try to spend money on ebay.

Not until I'm down to my goal weight at least.

I was doing research here at work about a local diner (I'm thinking about supper and I wanted to know how late they were open), when I stumbled across information about one of our favorite places to eat, The Little Gem Diner in Syracuse. As I've mentioned before, my grandmother worked there for 24 years.

It turns out that the couple I knew as "Aunt Haddie and Uncle Hank", dear friends of my grandparents, originally owned The Little Gem Diner!

Now it's really starting to make sense to me why I love The Little Gem so much!

I'm still on my quest to Make This A Better America^TM by supporting local retailers whenever I can. The retail world has become exceedingly bland with the landscape being populated by Wal*Mart (Always White Trash, Always), McDonalds and their imposters. It's disconcerting to walk into one of the four Super Wal*Marts in our area and not know which one you're in. It's a good thing they put "Thanks for shopping at your (insert city name) Wal*Mart" over the door, otherwise I'd be lost when I left the parking lot.

However, I am finding it difficult to stick to my locally owned and operated policy, especially in the department store arena. Unfortunately, the little guys have been wiped out by the big corporations. I liked the regional chains like Hills, Ames and Bradlees back in their day, but no, the big guys had to come in and wipe them out. When I was a kid, I remember buying school clothes at the local clothing store in the village, then walking down to the shoe store, then walking to the pharmacy to pick up school supplies. When I was really small, we had a soda at the soda fountain and the back of the drug store!

At least we still have a good sized locally owned grocery store that we can shop at. It's called Chanatry's and reminds me of grocery stores of about 20 years ago, though it offers the latest and greatest in grocery wares. I'll support Chanatry's until the day the doors close, even though the prices are a little higher and the selection is a little less, simply because they're locally owned and operated.

Ditto with my diner obsession. Granted, we have Denny's Diner offering their stuff 24 hours a day, but I'd rather eat at the local diner down the road or go hungry. Besides the last time I was at Denny's (2 years ago), I asked for a piece of bread to go with my meal, and they said they were out of bread but could offer me a piece of toast instead. I didn't pursue that conversation any further. I was too dumb-founded.

I think my locally owned obsession stems from the fact that my dad's side of the family has owned a lumber yard and hardware store since the early 1950s. I'm worried for the store. I'm worried that a Lowe's or Home Depot is going to open up nearby and put them out of business. I'm worried that some snot-nosed 16 year old without a clue as to what an 8-common nail is is going to be offering home improvement advice, instead of my father having that honor.

We need to get back to our roots. We need to know our neighbors. We need to smile at one another.

Let's get back to the locally owned and operated days.

Tom (our cat) is having a hard time understanding the use of computers in bed. It's not that I'm shunning extracurricular bedroom activities for the computer, that's hardly the case, but when Earl's away on business, I tend to bring my PowerBook to bed and read about the day's happenings, catch up on a few cheesy television shows and write in my blog.

Now if I could only get our son to understand.

He doesn't understand the whole geek in bed thing. He thinks the keyboard of the PowerBook makes a wonderful place to take a nap. He nudges the corner of the screen, making the pixels dance a little bit in the corner. Thankfully, he hasn't taken up to nibbling on it yet, for then he would probably be starring in the "Flying Cat Across The Bedroom" sequel.

Not that I would purposely send him flying or anything.

As I type this blog entry, I think we've worked out a truce. He sleeps next to the left speaker, on the bed, listening to Mac Arthur Park Suite by Donna Summer via iTunes. He occasionally looks up at me, doing the cat I love you with a seductive blink of the eyes. I blink back at him.

Yep, it's a truce.

I'm having this need to express myself musically. I started messing around with Garage Band over the weekend (courtesy of the new iLife '05) and I downloaded some of the free loops you get by subscribing to .Mac.

I now have visions of turning one corner of the basement into a recording studio.

Like many people, I once had dreams of being a famous singer. I don't know if its a reflection of the self confidence I was lacking at the time or what, but I used to always picture myself as a backup or session singer, not a solo act. In college I always sang back up vocals. In fact, I was at one time able to shriek the high part in "Love Is A Battlefield" by Pat Benatar. Can't even come close to it now. I've sang plenty of solos in my time, especially in high school and college, but I've always enjoyed blending with others in a group setting. There's nothing more satisfying to my ears than a well sung, complicated, harmonious sound.

So I'm messing around with Garage Band a little bit, trying out different effects and instruments and such. I need to land my hands on one of those keyboards I saw at the Apple store so I can start putting in my own instrumentation. I lack patience for my art, but I need to slow down and take my time. I want it flashy and I want it now! For some reason, I have this notion that Stars On 45 is ready to make a comeback as "Stars On CD", with some 80s and 90s music strung together in a medley set to a disco beat. It's something that I could easily accomplish on Garage Band. Stars on The Human League, anyone?

There's one song from the 70s that I sing at karaoke that I could record to a more contemporary sound. I don't want to mention the title yet, not until I have a little snippet to share. But I think it'll be cool.

What an odd weekend it has been. Being on call, I've had an electronic leash of sorts, courtesy of my work pager. I've logged quite a few hours of overtime this week. It's a good thing that I enjoy my job, or I'd be really cranky about now. But on-call ends tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., and tomorrow night I'm going to celebrate by getting in the Jeep after work and just driving and hitting a diner for supper.

Not that my cooking has been bad this weekend or anything like that.

Last night I went for a little drive, again in the Jeep, but had to head back home when the pager went off. I fully expected it to happen, so I wasn't surprised or disappointed. I hit a Burger King (since our area has no 24-hour real diners, the bums) and took care of the customer that was having difficulties. I was happy that I could help out.

So now I'm continuing my little project of setting up Solaris on the old computers lying around the house. It's a slow going project, but I'm getting there. A learning experience. I'm setting up file servers so that if we get Mac Mini I'm dreaming about, we'll have a place to store all of our music and video files that we put together. That'll be fun.

I look at the clock and see that it's kickoff time at the Super Bowl. Earl has called a couple of times, last time to let me know that he was leaving his cell phone in the car because security is rather tight at the game and he doesn't want the hassle of dealing with the cell phone. I'm so happy that he's had the opportunity to see this game in person. Go EAGLES!

It was a year ago tonight that the whole blowup started with Boob-gate. It's amazing how much clamping down there has been on America since Janet Jackson flashed us a nip. Now Sir Paul Mc Cartney has to get his songs approved by some tight-assed censorship board and Budweiser is afraid to show a quite hilarious commercial during tonight's game. I wish I could join all those red-state people and thank the government for restricting our liberties and doing our thinking for us. I feel much better knowing I won't have to see a naked breast on television, he says sarcastically.

I personally believe that Republicans weren't breast fed.

I'm also amazed that while our forefathers spent a couple hundred years, with thousands upon thousands of lives lost, to gain the freedom that we so enjoyed, it took three airplanes and 3,000 people to just as easily lose them. Not that I'm faulting those in the 9/11 attacks, they were the victims of a great evil. It's the idiocy that has followed that has me baffled.

Now with that off my chest, I'm going to go watch the Eagles slam the Patriots. And watch for my huzbear in the stands.

Earl is off to Jacksonville, Fla. for the Super Bowl (go Eagles!) and I'm at home working an on-call weekend. It's going to be interesting. This is one of the few occasions that I thank the universe for the cell phone, as Earl and I can easily keep in touch while we're so far apart.

I'm busying myself around the house as super geek, installing Solaris on our old computers in the basement so that we have a place to back up our files. I'm contemplating shaving my beard off, simply because I'm becoming a little bored with it. I might do an all popcorn and iced tea diet for the weekend. I'll exercise a lot. And I'll goof off on the internet half the time.

I don't think I've spent an entire weekend alone since Earl and I started seeing each other. This is kind of weird. Oh well, chalk it up to another experience.

A co-worker is celebrating her birthday today. She is describing today as one of the worst days of her life, simply because it's her birthday. I think she's nervous as she approaches the big 3-0, turning 28 today. It's kind of unfair that she has to work on her birthday (I believe people she get their birthday off), but two others in our five person team had the day off, so she couldn't really take it off as well. She generously offered to take tomorrow off instead. But it still kind of sucks that she has to work on her birthday.

It's funny, but as I look back I don't think I would ever want to relive my 20s. Definitely not my early 20s. I didn't feel like I fit in with the crowd, I didn't really know who I was and I didn't really relate well to others around me. Part of that is still true, I'm the first to admit that I hear a different drum beat than most.

With most gay men, it's about youth, youth, youth. "I need to look young." "I need to feel young." "I need young guys to like me." At 36, I don't really feel that need. I don't think I've ever felt that need, even when I was 22. I've always been young at heart, but I don't feel the need to be perceived as younger than I actually am. I'm always looking for new experiences. That can sometimes be perceived as a 'young' thing, but I just see it as part of life's evolution. In my eyes, when you stop experiencing, you stop living. Then you're coasting, and that's no fun.

I recently saw an early 50s something guy at the mall desperately trying to look younger. He had an open shirt revealing a shaved chest. His hair was dyed various shades of platinum and strategically placed to cover up bald spots. But his eyes didn't lie. His eyes revealed his true age, framed in the wrinkles and such that one earns through the passage of time. There was really nothing wrong with the way he looked, but he gave off the vibe of being afraid of what lies ahead. He didn't carry himself with the confidence one would expect. Like he was playing a character part and he didn't know all the lines.

I wanted to tell him to just celebrate his life. Celebrate all the experiences that have brought him to where he is today. I've recently learned to do that myself... look forward, accept life as it comes at you, make adjustments and changes as necessary and have no regrets.

Even if it's not your birthday, celebrate who you are today. You might like what you see.

After several nights of restlessness, I am pleased to say that I got a wonderful night's sleep last night. For the first time in a couple of days, I feel quite rested. I was a little surprised to wake up this morning after a night of sound sleep for a couple of reasons. I'm on call this week, which sometimes can lead to interruptions from my pager in the middle of night and, Earl's in town and sometimes he's restless which makes me restless. Last night I suffered from neither and today my mood proves that fact.

I realized a little while ago that I've been humming to myself today. Not any specific tune, just a quiet little ditty to myself. "Hum hum hum." When I left for lunch, I was singing, out loud "To lunch, to lunch..." to the tune of "Tonight" from West Side Story. I should have really shocked them and sang "I Feel Pretty", but I didn't want to press my luck.

I don't know if its feeling well rested or watching American Idol that's making me feel so musical today, but I'm not complaining. It's another balmy (32 degrees) February day in Upstate N.Y., full of sunshine. I guess that sparks the song in my heart.

Today was an absolutely glorious day. Work went well, the sun was out bright and human beings seemed to have their shit together. Why is it that when everything is going well, I seemed to get extra pissed at the human condition?

Earl and I watched last night's Airline via TiVo tonight. I like the show. But I find it so damn frustrating. Are people acting the way they're acting simply because there's a camera on them, or do they really act like that in real life? There was a woman who was absolutely put off because her flight to Las Vegas was cancelled and she was bumped to a later flight. She said, not once but twice, that it's a good thing that she's self employed because she doesn't know how the middle class people could travel under such restrictive circumstances, with the meager one week a year of vacation that they get. "Let them eat cake."

"Let her eat my boot." As I began yelling and starting to throw things at our television, Earl had to remind me that it was just a television show. And while I'm on the subject of Airline, please keep in mind that getting sloshed to the gills is not how we fly anymore. No, no, no. The martini days are over, you now have to be sober to board an aircraft.

Driving back to work at lunch earlier today, I was absolutely amazed that people were driving 35 MPH on our local expressway, which has a speed limit of 65 MPH. The sun was out, the sky was clear, the roads were dry and there was light traffic. I know the expressway is new, and it did replace a two-lane road that had the same route number with a lower speed limit. Just because the speed limit on the Old Route 49 was 40 does not mean the speed limit on the New Route 49 is 40.

Then we have this ass who thinks that PBS is trying to make the world gay because the bunny rabbit in a cartoon has two mommies. So what's the natural reaction? Cut all funding to PBS of course! Another asshat in Washington. Yes, Margaret Spellings, its folks like you that get me all fired up about politics. You've got your panties in a knot because there was a cartoon that promoted tolerance to children. Why let them love one another when they need to be brainwashed to dislike anyone that's not of the same color, sexual orientation, religion and/or moral thinking. That idiot in Oklahoma was worried about rampant lesbians, apparently you're worried about rampant lesbians in cartoons. Go find an iceberg to sit on.

And you know what I don't get? These young people smoking. H E L L O. Clue phone. It does not make you attractive. It makes you stink to high heaven and our tax money is going to have to fund your medical bills because you're in the poor house paying for your expensive habit that is killing you. I think that if you were born after 1970 and you smoke, you should be exempt from any medicaid or medicare benefits. Period. You want to kill yourself? Fine. Just don't do it on my dime. "You don't know what it's like to be addicted." You're right, I've never smoked in my life. I'm too smart for that.

I know I sound excessively cranky, but really, I'm not. Not at all. I'm quite happy, calm and serene today. I am just constantly shocked at the unbridled idiocy that has gripped this country.

Ok, I'll get off the soapbox and leave it for the other blog.

As I was walking in the house during lunch, I heard a familiar, comforting sound near the door. It was the sound of water dripping, the unmistakable symptom of melting snow.

Mother Nature is being kind to us this week!

It's the first of February and it's sunny and 35 degrees as I type this entry. I'm sure there's more winter ahead of us, but it's days like this that give me a touch of spring fever. Our trip to Florida in three weeks is going to reinforce that fever even more.

I'm ready to hit the road, top on the Jeep down, sun in my face, wind at our backs.