Weekly Roundup

FUNERAL - I opted to not go to my grandfather's funeral, which was today. You'll find that there are more SULU - YAY! He's gay too! SCOOTER'S DEMISE - A few years back, Mark said, "I could never imagine being a Democrat. These people are pathetic and I don't know how anybody could ever vote for them." Well, Lewis "Scooter" Libby resigned today. Then, there was the ill-fated Miers appointment... No wonder why Bush's approval rating is so low. SAFARI - I'm a huge Mac fan. Fewer and fewer websites work with Safari, Apple's default Internet browser. I've found I kinda like Firefox, which is also available for Windoze. NEW CAMERA - I upgraded cameras this evening, to a Sony DSC-H1. You'll be seeing a lot more pics, especially from my upcoming trip to New York City. Why a new camera? The new one has a much higher resolution, image stabilization, better lens, telephoto up to 12x. This will be especially useful for low-light situations (I prefer to take pictures with natural light, so this is cool.)

Les Vant (1911-10/25/2005)

Thank you for all the love you gave. You are the source of intellectual passions in my life; my work ethic. For these things, I will forever be grateful. I look back with fondness and admiration. I love you and miss you, grandpa. Merci pour tout l'amour que tu m'as donné. Tu es la source de mes passions intellectuelles; de mon éthique de travail. Je suis reconnaissant à toi de ces choses-ci. Je vois le passé avec l'affection et l'admiration. Je t'adore; tu me manques énormément, grand-père.

The Visitors

11:17 am. Sunday morning. Panera Bread. I'm hungry. There is a long line. I step behind a group of 3 people who are in their 40s and look to be somewhat of intellectuals. One guy has rimmed glasses and interesting black facial hair. The woman is in a dark dress with matching black hair. The third person is a man with spiked black hair with spiky blond tips. He's wearing nice khakis and a wrinkled, 1-size-too-small pinned striped grey sports jacket. Laying neatly behind, draped from the neck of the formal jacket is a green cotton hood. "Now, did you get up this morning, put this on and say, 'yeah... that's the look I want this morning'?" I want to blurt out. I wondered if they were foreign. They had that I'm-foreign-I'm-not-from-the-Westside "look." In hushed tones, they mention something about New York. Ah. Close enough of a guess. I better watch it! I'll soon enough be in NYC and they'll be smirkin' an' pointin' at me!

Weekly Roundup

CHAVEZ - Oh, Hugo. Stop being such a drama dicator. We're not going to invade you. Chill out. DUNGEON - I really have never taken the time to reorganize the basement after my renovation last January. MOVING KEVIN - Chance, Andrew and I helped Kevin pack up his stuff today. Good thing, too. I've got some toilets that need to be scrubbed. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST – Even Darwin would question the current trend. Driving around the city in the last couple of weeks, there have been 4 instances of people walking in the street. I'm not saying Jaywalking.. In one instance, a teenager was walking down the double yellow line of a major street. WTF? HATRED – There are very few things that I cannot tolerate in life. There are even fewer things that I hate. But one really sticks out: plumbing. I have had so many problems with the plumbing in my upstairs bathroom. Now, I have a blocked sink. I made such a mess attempting to fix it. Bad news.

Today's Listopad

Here's my Listopad of shit I HAVE to get done today: ("Listopad" means "November" in Polish.)

Introducing Union Station Video Café-Cincinnati

Not that I've tried, but I guess I've become a sort of de facto expert on up and coming gay bars/restaurants in Cincinnati, having done brief reviews on "On Broadway" and the recently remodeled "Hamburger Mary's." This week was the opening of a new establishment Union Station Video Café, which has recently taken the place of Carol's On Main, a pretentious-for-no-apparent-reason restaurant/bar that was never my favorite. Now, you might remember we had been to the original USVC, in Columbus, Ohio, in July. The atmosphere there was upbeat, the service witty and the beer cold. Like its sister, the new Cincinnati branch did not disappoint. While the overall area here in Cincinnati is smaller, the hightop tables were very inviting for casual conversation. The bar area was fun and, wall-less but barren and dark. Still, compared to the previous set up it was more open. (I think the designers realized it was a small space and made the best of it.) Chase arrived with his laptop, excited at the free wifi and the opportunity to check his Corporate email. Actually, he wanted to show me some pictures of New York on his laptop over a couple of beers. (Pictures on his iPod Nano probably would have sufficed.) For chow, Chase had a pleasant Cajun fettuccini while I had an Italian sub with a side of rice pilaf. While the menu was not overly original, the food was not overly greasy or overdone. I could deal with this menu more than I could that of Carol's. We chatted in the comfortable space for another beer before I had to rush home to mow the lawn before it got dark.

CampBUCKwood

THURSDAY: GETTING THERE and GETTING DRUNK Glenn and Chase arrived at my place at 4:30 pm on Thursday, just as I was getting off my final phone conference for work. We took two cars and Glenn managed to get 15 miles behind us. We arrived at CampBUCKwood just as the sun fell. Glenn's new tent was unnecessarily complicated to assemble which was aggravated by the fact that the instructions were vague. I'm so glad that they didn't clutter the instructions with diagrams or pictures. After putting the tent up, I needed a drink. Beer is normally my alcohol of choice. I had brought an oversized bottle of Jack Daniels for the weekend, thinking that it would take up less space, etc. The thing is that I don't normally drink bourbon/whiskey and I don't know myself with this substance. I quickly got very intoxicated. We held hands, told stories and sang around the campfire. Afterward, I violently vomited. Chase, grimacing, held my head as puke sprayed the floor of the woods. Some time in the middle of the night, I woke up under the stars, on the patch of ground just outside the tent. Even in my sleeping bag. I was very cold and quickly jumped on Glenn's airmatress, inside the tent. FRIDAY: FROLICKING and MERRIMENT Chase, in his excessive insobriety, had lost one of his contact lenses. He needed a replacement lens and desperately needed to check his Corporate email. So, Glenn suggested that we go to the public library in Nashville, Indiana to get a connection. (Chase was expecting some VERY important messages from New York City. He gets increasingly important each day. At some point, he won't want to in any way associated with us mere mortals.) Nashville, Indiana was a delightfully pretty artists town. The library was newly erected and situated in a way that the let in nature and a lot of natural light. It was very, very nicely done. They had put a lot of tax money into this edifice. It is a pity that these books won't see much use. The town of Nashville was bustling, even on a Friday: Tourists going poking in and out of shops selling tasteful handmade goods. Beautiful buildings with beautiful well-tended gardens. Pleasant restaurants with upscale, homemade food. Who would have ever thought that there'd be something so nice/classy in Indiana? After a nice lunch at Atrists' Colony Inn, we returned to the campground and relaxed by the pool. The mayor of the campsite had organized a "special nature trail" through the woods. The trail was lit with intermittent torches. It had some scary elements along the way, but these had nothing whatsoever to do with the upcoming Halloween holiday. I learned to pace the alcohol flow and thankfully went to bed sans "the breath of vomit." SATURDAY AT THE POOL Saturday had a theme: pool, as we were in the beautiful, heated pool almost the entire day (and into the evening!) We attempted to play gin/rummy, but Glenn struggled and soon bored. He pouted throughout the entire game. For lunch, I served my balls of meat (simmered for 20 minutes in canned spaghetti sauce.) Later in the evening, the proprietors hosted a pig roast, with succulent pork and other items that other campers had brought, in potluck style. There was utmost camaraderie and frolicking. Fortunately-for conversation sake-there were few "native" people from Indiana. (You can only talk about lawn mowers and Dollar General and septic tanks for so long before "Indiana" talk begins to really grate on your nerves.) There was a large contingency from Champlain, Illinois. They were silly. (The Illinois people all had Southern accents. I felt out of place having a "proper" accent in such an informal environment.) Later on in the evening, we threw clothed people in the pool. In retaliation, Glenn sprayed my only sweatshirt with Glade. Fun times. The pool was lit from the deep end. I loved how the steam rolled off the warm 90 degree water. The walk back to the campsite was very frigid, although the effect was lessened by the cloud of insobriety that enveloped most of the campers. The torch-lit night walk in the woods was especially creepy and dark. SUNDAY: LOCAL CULTURE and RETURN We naturally woke up around 9:00 and got dressed and went to a local greasy spoon. (Be it Terre Haute, Connersville or Morgantown... Indiana has no shortage of greasy spoons.) The coffee was especially appreciated. Back at the camp, I showered and passed by the pool for the first time without getting in. We took down the tents and Chase (aka "Chance") bid our farewells.

Weekly Roundup

UROLOGIST APPOINTMENTS - Is it me, or these always a pain in the ass? My appointment was especially bad because the doctor had me wait in the waiting room for 1.5 hours. I should have billed him for the time! Oh, and no kiss! WEATHER - The weather has been gorgeous in the last week. In the 60s and 70s with cloudless blue skies. LIVE-IN MAID - I've got two weeks until my new, live in-maid moves in. I wish he'd move in now. My floors really need to be cleaned and my living room could use a light dusting.

Balls! Meaty Ones!

So, in preparation for the upcoming camping "outing," at campBUCKwood, I made homemade Italian meatballs. I'll let them simmer in spaghetti sauce, serve them with spaghetti, bread and Chianti wine: Ingredients: 1 lb lean ground beef 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 medium onion 3 cloves of garlic salt pepper 1/3 cup water (optional) 1/2 cup mayonnaise Instructions Preheat oven to broil. Mix all the ingredients with your hands. Add the water gradually. Shape into balls. And place on a boiler pan. Cook for 10 minutes. Flip with a fork. Cook another 6 minutes. Oh, don't add the mayonnaise. That would make a nasty freaking mess.

Love that Dirty Water...

Aw, Cincinnati, you're my home.

Two Target Stories

#1: POTTY MOUTH I was strolling down the cleaning isle, contemplating the various antibacterial “orange” multisurface cleaners. I was kind of in my own world, when a young girl's voice floated over the isle. “I gotta go potty. I gottagopotty. Igotttagopotty,” it came, with sing-song quality. They walked down the main isle. “Igotttagopotty. Igotttagopotty,” she repeated. She was about 5, wearing a pretty pink floral dress. The mom shushed her and said casually, “If you say that again, I’m going to take you RIGHT to the car.” This made me smile, as that probably wasn’t the best of ideas for the mom. The emphatic voice of the younger daughter, in braids: “I gotta poop.” “I’m sure you do,” the mom said, matter of factly. I smiled as I headed to the cash registers to check out. #2: SOFIA I put my cleaning supplies and other items on to the conveyer belt, carefully hiding the Magnums under a T-Shirt. The woman was short and needed a facial wax. Her name tag read “Sophia.” With a heavy Eastern Block accent, she asked if I had found everything. I had, in fact. I couldn’t place the accent. I got to wondering where she was from. “Sophia is a pretty name. What is the ethnic origin of it?” I asked. “Guess.” She responded. “Serbo-Croatian.” I said. She smiled and looked around. “Somebody must have told you.” I noticed she had a good start to a dark, wiry unibrow. What a lucky guess! As it turns out she was from Serbia (with a parent from Croatia, if I remember correctly.) I told her about my upcoming vacation to Croatia. She lit up, smiling, directing me to payment via credit card. “You vill have vary nice time. Goodbye,” she snorted, through her ample nose hairs. She handed me my bags and I headed out to the Jeep.

Weekly Roundup

END OF AN ERA - Earlier in the week, I took down the pool, dried it and carefully rolled it. Now there's just a large patch of dirt where it was. Fall is here. The leaves are falling and the temp. has dipped into the 60s. Brrr.. SEASONS OF CHANGE - I've always associated Fall with change. The ending of something. Indeed, there are a lot of changes this Autumn. Two (potentially THREE) close friends are moving away from Cincinnati. You can't lament their leaving, but remember the fun times and move on. I'll still miss 'em, just as I'll miss the long days of bright blue skies and warm sun. GAY ROLE MODELS - I really like to root for talented, attractive people. Even better when these people are smart. built, have incredible endurance and play for the home team! Take fellow blogger, and future lawyer, Dunner. In just over 14 short hours, he finished the Ironman Wisconsin Triatalon. It's a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike race, and a full marathon of 26.2 miles, raced in succession. Yep. And it was a scorcher, by Wisconsin standards. WEBLOGS - Speaking of Blogs, I thought I'd share a couple of blogs that I found pretty cool: "Drunken blog"- Fun, drinks, a bit techie. Mac Geek. Solidarity, brother! "Knit-o-Rama" - Cute Cincinnati guy with his hands on his needles. "Toyo's Way" - Fun guy, old guy in the Philippines (He just turned 30.) INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION - I love to "browse" wiki, the internet's free "open source" encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/ Try watching Will & Grace and try looking up terms from the show! What's interesting is to switch languages. For example, the French article for "Auschwitz" is completely different than the English one. Very cool that key words are underlined. You didn't have that that in the old, dusty, non-multimedia, multivolume set I used when I was a kid.

Contentment

Buy an iPod Nano? You betcha!

“So, are you going to buy the new iPod Nano?” Kevin asked about a two weeks ago. At the time, I said no. Explained that it really didn’t meet my needs… See, I am enough of a digital music enthusiast that I have two iPods: My classical music goes on my 30GB iPod Photo (It’s got such a large capacity that, to date, I’ve only listened to approximately 3,300 of the 5,300 songs.) STORAGE: It’s a repository for me, containing all of my classical music. If I want to listen to Die Fledermaus, it’s there. Mozart. He’s there. Chopin. He’s there, too. My rock/dance/party music goes on my iPod Shuffle. The tiny player is extremely durable and lightweight. It doesn’t scratch easily and nothing would happen if you were to drop it. STORAGE: It’s a temporary space for me, with a few songs for the gym. It chooses what I listen to (based on a list of songs I like.) So, I saw Chase’s iPod Nano and I really, really like it. It’s about as sexy as consumer electronics can be. (Interestingly, quite the opposite of Chase.) I would use it much in the way as the iPod Shuffle, as a temporary area for my rock/dance/party music, but I’d use it for playing audiobooks, while doing stuff around the house. With the Nano, you CAN have multiple playlists; you CAN see where you are in a book. (Both of these are a bit of a pet peeve for me.) The iPod Photo is large and, at $350, I would not want to walk the streets with it. I would, with a featherweight weight, $200 iPod Nano. Yeah. I’ll buy the 2 GB model. (As mentioned, my intention is to refill it regularly; the extra 2 GB won’t buy me much. Even with USB 2.0, filling an iPod takes time. I prefer to sync more often, for smaller amounts of data. But, that’s just me.) Heck, I can write it off in my mind as a requisite for my upcoming trip to Europe.

Nice weekend

SATURDAY I was awoken at 8:00 am by the pleasant sound of loud staple guns pounding into shingles on the neighbors' roof. I was so glad that they motivated me to get out of bed as I really didn't need any sleep. I did some stuff around the house. Chase was up for breakfast. Chris was available, so we met at Panera Bread. In waiting for Kevin, we found that Panera was now serving lunch. Paul showed up and we had a nice visit: We then went to the Kenwood Mall. I got a couple of nice sweaters. Kevin helped me choose an outfit for the party. I took a princess nap, but slept too long. I briskly made the cookies for Blake's party. The cookies cooled and I was out the door by 9:00, about an hour later than I would had planned. Chase left at a similar time and we arrived on the street at the same time. Immediately, as we walked in, there were Blake, looking all dapper, "big Matt" and a couple of other people I knew. It was a friendly party with a nice, mixed crowd. Unfortunately, no pictures! SUNDAY We woke up at 9ish. (snip) I got a quick lunch at Fridays then called the boys over for a pool party/open house. I mowed, cleaned and did everything else conceivable before Andrew, Kevin and Chase arrived. We swam in the frigid 66 degree water: (The roofers next door asked me why I still had the pool up, on October 2.) We hung out: For supper, we had grilled kababs with veggies, rice and beans, macaroni and cheese, etc. We ate: We sat outside, enjoying the weather and the company. We cleaned up the mess and made some cookies. I served them with ice cream and the cappuccino maker from Venezuela. We watched Desperate Housewives before the night ended and we took off.

(PKI/Pride) Bar Outreach Numero Dos

PRIDE NIGHT AT KING'S ISLAND (PKI) "So, tell me: where would you like for me to stick it?" I asked in a loud voice, approaching the small group of 40s something men that had huddled near the Starbuck's. The man that had his back to me turned and, smiling, said "Excuse me?" I showed him the AVOC sticker that I wanted to apply on to him. "Where do you want me to stick it?" I repeated. One guy pointed to his chest and I applied it there. The next one had a cocky grin. I repeated my question. "Anywhere you want." "Anywhere?" I said playfully. "Anywhere," he replied and the group laughed a bit. "Turn around then." I said. He promptly did and I applied the sticker on to the back of his jeans with a SMACK. "These stickers are for AVOC. They do free, confidential testing downtown." I placed another on the shirt of the cute guy with a goatee. "They're nice people. If you have any doubts or questions, give them a call. Have a great night," I said, getting the last guy. All four men were smiling. Thus was what I did from about 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Friday night. In total, Barry and I gave out some 950 stickers! We figure we talked to upwards of a quarter of the people that attended pride night. Both Barry and I had a lot of fun with it. Not only was it a fun, silly thing to do, (ex. Asking lesbian couples where they wanted it made them blush a bit) but I know some people were not too familiar with the organization. Even if we get 50 people into the "get tested twice a year" mentality, it will all have been worth it. Some people wanted to chat, especially some of the guys in their 40s. We talked everything from testing I stuck one guy and I explained who AVOC was and that they did testing. "It's already too late for me." I wasn't completely sure what to say, and I said the first thing that came into my mind. I put my hand on his shoulder and I said, genuinely, "Well, we're trying." SATURDAY BAR OUTREACH We left PKI at 9:15 pm and head downtown to the AVOC offices, where several people (Barry, Alexis, Barbara, Todd and others) met. Soon, we split into three teams to hit all the bars on the Ohio side of the river. My team hit 5 bars total: Jacobs. Had a decent crowd for their drag show. There were a lot of college age students out, many who I presumed to be straight. Regardless of their orientation, all were receptive to the condoms and lube. The Serpent. I went alone as nobody in my group really had any urge. The bar was dark and smoky. A lot of husky men, in black or in harnesses. As I entered I felt like a baby zebra in a field of lions. I paid for my Bacardi and diet Coke and asked the bartender for a permission. An overly clingy guy immediately approached me and offered several compliments. I politely excused myself as I walked the bar. I talked with all of the men in the bar, individually, for about 20 minutes. Most took the packets, but some were more concerned about the lube than the condoms (one person confirmed this.) Some people were really supportive of me, while some were completely indifferent. Bullfishes. The place was packed. There were some mediocre drag queens who sang and strutted around the stage. This required a bit of alcohol for me to endure. I ordered a Bacardi and diet Coke from the rugged looking female bartender. She returned with the drink and laid it beside Barbara'sBacardi and diet Coke. My drink was midnight dark, whereas hers was practically white. I went to the restroom. Barbara had mixed our drinks as hers had too much alcohol and mine (being that I'm a male) was only lightly seasoned with rum. (On a previous occasion, I was refused service at this particular bar.) I talked with several nice female couples. Thankfully, this time we had dental dams. We left soon after all female wrestling in baby oil started. Hamburger Mary's. Again, hopping. I knew the crowd and several people and felt very much at home. I let the others distribute the packets, while I talked. An attractive Latin man who I had "stuck" with a sticker earlier approached me to say hi. I talked briefly with Mark, Michael and others. The Dock. Last stop. The nightclub was in full swing. A younger circuit crowd was there. When everyone from the three AVOC groups arrived, we went through the bar with our kits. By 1:30 am, I was completely exhausted. I bid everyone farewell and left.