Sewers Flushed To Remove Rats

Can you just imagine your suprise?

FRONT ROYAL, Va. -- Two residents in Front Royal discovered dead rats in their toilets, and town officials say a nest in the sewer line could be the problem.

On Monday, Lyndon Flood found a dead rat that was "half the size of a cat" in her toilet.

"I went in there to use the toilet. ... I can hardly talk about it," she said. "Could you imagine having a rat in your toilet while you're getting ready to go to the bathroom?"

Betty Lamb said her daughter-in-law found a dead rat in the toilet last Wednesday. "She thought it was a joke we pulled on her," she said.

George Shadman, Front Royal's director of public works, said sewer rats appear occasionally in the system.

However, two complaints from people living in the same neighborhood within a week made Shadman realize that there might be a nest. The town was planning to have the sewer line flushed with water on Tuesday, using a high-pressure machine, he said.

Quote of the Day

I've seen parking garages that require less validation.

The lovely Miss Alli's summation of Rupert at the Survivor reunion show in her recap for Television without Pity. She rocks.

Music Mode

I don't normally post about music that much, but they've been playing some of my favorite songs of all time on Spinner lately. Right now: Cuts you Up by Peter Murphy; earlier: November Spawned a Monster by Morrisey and Finest Worksong by REM. Yesterday, they played the Communard's remake of Don't Leave Me This Way. When I was in college, I had this fantasy of going back to my high school all county music festival and having all the groups (chorus, band, orchestra) collaborate with a soloist to perform this. The extended remix of the song has a gospel choir, piano, strings, trumpets....all good stuff. All County was held at the Chautauqua Institute, which is an amazing place. I wish I had the money to just spend a summer there, taking in all the classes, concerts and lectures. The Institute is related to the Chautauqua Movement from the late 1800's.

Almanac warning

So the FBI has issued a warning to police to be on the look out for those carrying almanacs, as they may be using them for terrorist activities.

They better not be checking my bathroom reading material.

As Bob and I walked around the neighborhood over the holidays, we noticed how few homes and apartments were decorated. It seemed kinda sad. Sure, some lights weren't on because the occupants went home for the holidays, but we're talking 90% dark in most buildings.

We were walking home from the ballet on Friday night, and someone had already thrown away their tree and put all their boxes out for trash. Very sad.

Of course, Bob is also the type who has to decorate the back of the tree because he doesn't want the back branches to feel neglected.

Returns

Okay, so I have been reasonably chastised and will exchange the wrong size gifts. Of course, this means I will have to go back to all those stores I complained about in a previous post.

Heading off to a rugby new year's eve party on Wednesday. Old school rugby, mostly the guys from the first few years. The team's history can pretty much divided into Coach Gus and Coach John. There are very few of us left who have been active with both. Gus has his loyal followers, but mostly it's just about staying friends with people who you were friends with before, not a matter of choosing sides.

My best friend from college will be coming down for the weekend as well. Yay queen! He just broke up with his boyfriend, so a little R&R may be just what the doctor ordered. He met some of the rugby guys when he was down in October, and knows others from college (turns out, 4 of us from Cornell ended up on the team, plus the spouse of one of the players).

Finally saw LOTR: Return of the King. It was pretty much as everyone said: epic, wonderful, too long, and with too many endings. Question though, what are people's thoughts on the ending with the ship going off into the sunset? I have my ideas, but wonder what the book says. Like the Norse into Valhalla? or just off to discover new lands?

Went to see it at the Bethesda United Artists. Never again. First of all, we decided to go to the suburban multiplex because while we LOVE the Uptown, waiting outside in line for an hour to get a seat in 40 degree weather was not in the plans. So we decided on a suburban multiplex, which you would figure have a large indoor waiting area. Wrong. We also bought our tickets on Fandango, so we wouldn't have to wait in line, either. Wrong again. Unlike the Georgetown Leows, they don't have any of those ATMS where you just put in your credit card and out spouts your tickets. You have to wait in line just like everyone else. And of course, you have to wait in line outside. And there's only two ticket booths for 10 theaters. And it's Bethesda, so every other person is a 14 year old teenage girl from Holton Arms.

Waiting in line reminded me of the comic strip Fox Trot, where the 10 year old geeky character was lining up for LOTR for the geek quotient, while is 15 year old sister couldn't wait for the movie because of her crush on Orlando Bloom, much to the chagrin of the geeky purist. Reminds me of quite of few of my fellow bloggers.

Well, in any case, if the Uptown is ground zero for the geeks, Bethesda is ground zero for the Orlando lovers. Ish.

Afterward, we Metro'ed down to the Eagle, ground zero for a whole different scene, which turned out to be cigars last night. A cigar is hot and sexy. Dozens of men smoking cigars is suffocating and headache inducing. And this is from someone who smokes, although we decided to quit. I have had a bad cough since Thanksgiving, and smoking is just not letting my throat, lungs, etc. heal at all.

Friday night we went to see the Nutcracker at the Warner Theatre. Kinda ironic that there were 5 of us, and the 4 Christians had never seen it, and the Jew among us goes to it every year. The performance was wonderful, especially the Candy Cane (hot) and the little kid (maybe 4 years old) playing the cook's helper.

The one thing which struck me was how much of the score I knew. So much of our classical holiday music comes from the show, especially the section known as the Nutcracker Suite. Although there was a section (the Japanese tea section in the second act) which I could have sworn was from Rodeo by Aaron Copland. You know, the "Beef, it's what's for dinner" ad...Maybe I'm getting the two pieces confused.

Well, our company quickly disappeared after the show. Our one friend had to catch a train back to New York, so he hailed a cab over to Union Station. And as we turned back to our other friends after seeing Howard off in his cab, they were gone. So much for a post-ballet bite to eat or drink.

Christmas was nice. Quiet, but nice. We stayed here in DC. My parents have moved from Buffalo down to rural Southeastern VA (Tidewater), but we don't have a car, and there's no train or bus that goes near them, so we opted to stay put, as we have for the past few years or so.

I got out at noon on the day before Xmas, and had to finish up a few shopping items, so headed down to Metro Center to Hechts and some of the other stores down there. Men's department at Hechts: oh, so gay. And not in a good way. Lots of skinny, snooty retail queens. I really hate shopping. It's been a long time since I've done a lot of shopping, and I am reminded why. People don't know how to move in crowds, things are way too expensive, "sales" are just artificial ways to get you buy something which was overprices to begin with, and service is horrible.

I actually went to that shopping center across from Pentagon City on Tuesday, the one with the Marshalls and Best Buy and the Costco around back. It was kind of strange. I don't venture much from NW very much, but it was strange. At one point I looked around Costco and I was the only caucasian I could see. And while this isn't that abnormal here in Chocolate City, it wasn't the traditional white/black dichotomy. It was a range of people, Ethiopians, Indians, Asians, latinos, West Africans. It was very much a melting pot. That still didn't change the fact that Costco, while good for some things, is not a great place to go Xmas shopping. They have a few items, but other than that, not much. And since I wasn't in the market for a 30 inch tv, or a digital camera, I was out of there pretty quickly. Marshall's was even worse. Lots of pushing, messy displays, no selection. Ugh.

I really don't like shopping, and I like Christmas shopping even less so.

So after I finished shopping at Metro Center on Wednesday, I had to head back to the office and pick up the rest of the packages which had been delivered to the office over the past few weeks, presents from my parents, co-workers and siblings. Took a taxicab home, and then had to turn around and head back out to buy groceries for Christmas dinner. Bob makes a mean turkey and great stuffing, but since he was going to make it, I had to head out with the grocery list and pick up the stuff at the store. Unfortunately, it was a mix of basics (which I can buy at Safeway) and exotic stuff (which I have to buy at Fresh Fields), so I had to hit two separate stores, which is a pain, because its not like I can just store the stuff in my car in between trips. It's times like this that I wish we had a car.


We had a nice, if late, Christmas eve dinner. Bob had to work Christmas eve, and didn't get home until around 8, so we had dinner around nine. A nice lobster tail with risotto and spinach. Bob boils his lobster tail, while I broil mine with butter and old bay, so maybe next year we'll have it my way. Either way is delicious.

Christmas morning, we got up late (9:30 or so) and I put on a pot of coffee made some cinnamon rolls. Then we opened our presents in the McStebbins family traditions. You have to alternate opening presents, one at a time, and you have to wear a santa hat while picking the present out for the other person. It's a lot more elaborate when you have 8 (my family) then just 2, but you get the point.

Santa was very good to me this year. I got a complete outfit, from shoes and socks, to wool slacks, DKNY shirt, nice tie, wool blazer, and new t-shirts and underweary. I was like, yay, now I don't have to do laundry for six more days. But more importantly, the dress clothes will help me go out to interviews, as I have pretty gotten too fat for any of my old blazers and suits.

I fucked up, however, and pretty much got every thing the wrong size for Bob. Last year, I got everything too big, so this year I make sure I got everything medium. Well, last year apparently I bough XL, and I need to buy L, whereas this year I bought M instead of L. Next year I'll get it right. Which brings us to the question of the day. If things are the wrong size, whose responsibility is it to exchange. I say it's the recipient, Bob says its the giver. I know I made the mistake, but it's now his, so I think he should change it if he wants something else. Comments?

The Stryker Files

Happy Holidays from Jeff Stryker. Not office friendly. And just wrong, for that matter.

Okay, I had a dream last night where I had to save Frenchie from international assassins last night. I think it's a bad idea to watch Threat Matrix and flip to Fox during commercials and see American Idols ads.

Listening to: Ministry's Work for Love. Great, great song...even if it is some of the work that Ministry disavows.

Oh, and I also went through all our CDs and put the loose CDs back in their cases, and then cleaned and organized them. We now have separate CD holders for Classical (Mozart, Brahms, etc.), Choral Music (Gregorian Chants, Medival Music), Opera/Opera Singers (Pavorotti, Callas, Die Fliedermous), Singers and Standards (Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mercer), International (Clannad, Songs from Israel, Ghanian music), Dance (disco compilations, a remix from Kostas, Robin S.), Pop (Sade, Elton John, Madonna) New Wave (The Cure, The Smiths, New Order), Hard Rock (Bon Jovi, Ozzy, Moody Blues), Alternative Rock (Nirvana, Tool, Nine Inch Nails), and Holiday Music (Handel's the Messiah, Christmas collections, A Very Special Christmas). I think that's it...oh, yeah, and one for Soundtracks and Broadway (Jesus Christ Superstar, Wigstock soundtrack, Best of Broadway). Yep, I am so gay.

Worked on the house this weekend. We went out and bought a tree on Friday afternoon, and after waiting forever to get a cab, finally were able to get it home to the house.

Woke up early to clean up the living room, where we put the tree. We pretty much moved all the furniture around, swept into every corner of the house and put up the tree. After holding the tree while Bob adjusted the tree stand for about an hour, I now know that I am allergic to Norweigian pine.

I was itchy a bit later on in the day, and then really itchy in the evening. I just kinda wrote it off to lots of dust and dirt from cleaning. Taking a shower would make it all better.

Not. After a shower, I took a closer look at my arms, and they were covered in hives and red splotches. I wasn't sure what was splotches and what was freckles, so I asked Bob to look at it...he came in and looked at my arms under the light, and was shocked. He just looked at me, and said, "Well, I guess you ARE allergic."

We had another rugby Christmas party to go to, and I was itchy and scratchy all night long. Hopefully nobody noticed. Saw Slothel there, the first time I've seen him since he left for his band tour back in October. It was good to see him there. Bob had never met him before, so we had fun hanging out with him. Hopefully he'll be back playing rugby in the spring. The party was a lot of fun. It was the Coach's wife's family's party, so it was a fun mix of gay rugby players, Kiwis and Irish Catholics from Gonzaga.

Spent most of Sunday working with the new team Secretary on the ins and outs of running the 5 listservs and the various paperwork and recordkeeping. Luckily, he knows yahoo and yahoogroups already, so it's not like the concept is foreign to him.

Watched part of the Forsyte Saga on PBS last night before I went to sleep. We love the redhead on this show...he was also in Band of Brothers (which I always confusingly call Boys in the Band). It's a good show, but I wasn't feeling well, and crashed early (9:45ish). I still have remnants of the cold I caught at Thanksgiving.

This AM: listening to Verdi Cries by 10,000 Maniacs. Totally reminds me of my first years at William and Mary and all the heartache and emotion surrounding the freshman year of college. Lots of changes, coming out, exploring my own emotions, getting involved with screwed up people, sleeping with a bisexual, the boyfriend of my best female friend...oh, and trying to hide all this from Army ROTC.

My boss told me to kill the "rectal story" in today's clips service. I was like, what rectal story? Very sad that a Senior Vice President at a scientific organization does not know the difference between rectal and renal (kidneys).

Have I mentioned that I want a new job?

Clueless

Okay, so we at work just got this email from one of our members:

"I like what XXXX does and think that, overall, it is a good organization. However, I find myself, once again, much offended by the "Happy Holiday" card that came to me in the mail. O Holy Night is my favorite Christmas carol/song. You do a horrendous thing, changing the words to this beatuiful hymn and cheapening it this way. Last year, you did this to another carol. Maybe you are all secular folks and don't like to think what Christmas really means but we aren't all that way. After ruining this beautiful song, you then say Happy Holidays. If you are going to say Happy Holiday, please say Happy Holy Days, as this is what it really means. Secondly, if you can't say Merry Christmas, please don't say anything at all. This is Christmas and if you can't say it, don't say anything at all. I do not keep cards that don't acknowledge what this day is really about so please do not send me any of your "Happy Holiday" cards in the future! I don't want them, they just make me mad!"

Is she insane? Does she not get that in a multicultural country, we can't say Merry Christmas? Is she so self-centered that she doesn't get that there are non-Christians in this world? What are we supposed to do, make a note in our database on our members religions, and how devout they are? Nothing says Happy Holidays like a religion-based threat!

Gay Republicans

Both the Bush support of a new amendment to the Constitution and watching Angels in America make me thing about the lies that gay republicans tell themselves:

1. The republican party is better for me because I'm rich and they support the wealthy.
2. I don't want to pay more taxes, like the democrats would have me do.
3. True republicans (nee conservatives) want smaller government, which I support.
4. It's better to work for change from the inside.
5. I'm against racial quotas for hiring, so therefore I can't support the Democrats.
6. Republicans don't care about my sexuality, they just don't want me to force it down their throats.
7. My sexuality is such a small part of who I am.
8. If I work with the republicans, then maybe I won't feel so horrible about myself.
9. The democrats are bunch of lefty commies who want to make this country into a socialist state.
10. We need a strong military and foreign policy, and only the republicans can provide that.

This would be a pretty good list, if it weren't all lies and distortions. None of these are true, but gay republicans have to grasp on to anything they can hold on to.

Oh, and on a side note, were people surprised that Bush would support a man/woman = marriage amendment, "should it be necessary" The reality is that it is incredibly difficult to pass a Constitutional amendment. For those who don't remember ERA, trust me, it's hard. Not that we shouldn't vote Bush out, but let's not get too panicked about it.

And watching Angels in America reminded me of how horrible Roy Cohn was, and how delusional young gay white male republicans are (ie, the Joe Pitt character) They have this idea that if they just follow their idols, then they will be accepted. Wrong!

It was hard to watch the show. This may be heresy, but I like the stage play better. I saw it at the Kennedy Center back in 1995, and there is something about the stage play which forces the imagination to visualize the scenery and to really listen to the words, whereas the movie kinda force feeds you everything. And the star power notwithstanding, I thought the acting was better in the stage play. Every seemed much more urgent in the play, which, I think was Kushner's point. This is an epidemic; it IS urgent.

National Homeless Memorial Day

I know this is a serious issue and everything, but why are my first thoughts, "Yeah, I'll remember the homless guy that was pissing on my yard a while ago, and I remember the homeless man I had to step over walk to down the street, and I remember the homeless guy who was raking in big bucks at the Farragut North metro, who had a room in a hotel in Arlington, but it was easier for him to beg on the street than get a job (according to a profile in the City Paper)." Not saying that the homeless choose it or deserve, but there are TONS of servces out there for them. I used to work in the social services sector, and there are literally dozens of large homeless shelters out there.


NATIONAL HOMELESS PERSON'S MEMORIAL DAY
DC Observance: Vigil on Friday, Dec. 19 11:00 AM
McPherson Park, 15th & Vermont NW
--------------------------------------------------

There have been two deaths of individuals who were homeless
(John Maher and Andre Blair) reported within the past week
in DC. This Friday at 11 AM at McPherson Park, there will be
a vigil to honor all District residents who died while
homeless over the past year, including these men.

You Are Invited to Remember:

National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day
Friday, December 19th 2003: 11:00 am
McPherson Park, 15th and Vermont Avenue, NW

Join us for a vigil to honor those who died homeless in
2003: Juan Pastor, Robin Sanders, Moses Thomas, Jordan
Haydon Hamilton, George Wilkins, John Maher, Andre Blair
(list not finalized).

Cosponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless, the
Coalition of Housing & Homeless Organizations (COHHO),
C.A.R.E., Charlie's Place at St. Margaret's Church, and the
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

Just for the record, I have never been to a party where all people talk about are cars and real estate. Maybe I'm missing all the "important" parties or maybe I'm just outside having a smoke when they're talking about it, or maybe I just leave when the subject is broached and I miss it, but I haven't had this misfortune. That would kinda be hell for me, along with discussing politics in an extremely diverse polical environment. It's like, you, Mr. Liberal, are not going to change the mind of you, Mr. Conservative, so just shut up, the both of you.

I do, however, have one friend who talks about this sort of stuff whenever I see him. It's annoying, and it's pretentious, but that's his thing. He's dependable that way. I don't mind friends like that when I know what to expect. I know he'll rant about his house, or investments or whatever, and then we're done. Every single time.

I guess I've accepted his role in my life: boring real estate guy. I don't think I would put up with it from anyone else, but I know I can always count on him for this conversation. I just smile obliquely, and nod, knowing that he'll be off in a few minutes, before the conversation would ever get around to me. Perhaps I can deal with this because I know his sugar daddy real estate boyfriend dumped him last year because he was cheating on said daddy and got anal warts. Perhaps.

Didn't do much this weekend. Spent a lot of money Christmas shopping on Friday, which didn't leave a whole lot of money to do much of anything else over the weekend. Went to the gym on Saturday, and then bagged a rugby party that I was supposed to go to. I just didn't feel like heading out in the freezing rain. Oh well.

Cleaned up the house yesterday, and put up the Christmas decorations, less the Xmas tree itself. It kinda defeats the purpose to vacuum and sweep before we bring a tree into the house, but I did it anyway. I just felt like I had to do something.

Watched Survivor last night. Glad Sandra won, glad Lill lost, glad Jon didn't make the finals. Reunion show kinda sucked...too much time talking to Rupert and Andrew and Jon, not enought talking to Sandra and Darrah and other Survivors. Jon is such an ass, and the more people talk to him, the bigger his head gets. Ignore him, and his antics will cease to exist. I can't believe his grandmother approved of his trick, although this is what America is becoming I guess.

chatted with one of my bloglinks for the first time ever today. it was nice to finally say hi to him. maybe we'll actually meet in person some day, too...

that makes only two people on my links list that I haven't met in person, although there's a third whom I met, but didn't know it at the time...

ya, big woo...they caught Hussein. Why isn't anyone asking the important questions such as, Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Oh, there weren't any? You mean Bush was lying about it the whole time? I don't understand why Clinton can have an impeachment trial over lying about a blow job, and Bush gets a free ride while lying about international policy issues.

Oh, the real big question: Why isn't anyone saying, big deal, Saddam was not the one who bombed the WTC. We still don't have bin Laden. We still don't have al Queda. The media and about 50% of the American public are so gullible.

It's Cho's world...we just live in it

Margaret Cho has a great blog entry about her visit to Cornell, including a visit to the sexuality archives. I had a roommate who worked in the archives. He said all he did all day was archive 70s gay porn.

strange dreams

I had a strange dream last night and the theme was French or French-Canadian. We were over in Paris, mostly around the Montmatre neighborhood, with the funky art deco Metro station. There were lots of pre-teen girls around, something about it being the in thing for 10 year olds to fall in love with Paris and spend a semester there. Kinda like National Velvet, but with Paris, not horses.

And he was in the dream, too...but that's a whole 'nother story.

So I've been sick for over a week now. I've had a bad cold since a week ago Saturday. I was so sick I called in sick on Monday and Wednesday of last week, but probably should have stayed home all week. It started off mostly as a hacking cough, which doesn't sound that bad, but when you're literally up all night coughing, it's hard to get up in the morning to go to work. I skipped Ester's last show on Thursday, in the hope of getting better, but I'm still sick. Now the cold is in my head, and I have a pounding sinus headache. Of course, all the drugs I bought last week were for cough and chest colds, so I'm going to go have to buy more drugs to take care of the sinus problem.

Bob and I went to the Renegades holiday party on Saturday night. It was nice, if a bit tame. Maybe it's us, maybe its DC, but most every holiday party I ever go to it pretty calm. There were a bunch of people there I didn't recognize, but everyone seemed to have a good time. Spent most of the time chainsmoking with little golda, and some of the boys from the new Raleigh gay rugby team. Accidentally abandoned Bob for a bit at the beginning, when I got cornered by Coach, but he seemed to take of himself by the end of the party.

Had team elections yesterday. I have been the team secretary for the past year, and decided to step down. I had had enough. I just want to be able to show up to practice and not have to worry that everyone's paperwork is in order and run after new recruits to make sure we have their email address so we can add them to our recruits listserve.

It should be a good group of guys running the team next year. We have a straight guy on the board, like we did in 2001, which will hopefully keep the drama quotient at a minimum. My personal choice for the board did not make it, but therein lies the perils of proxies. One person can create their own little fiefdom if they get enough proxies. It doesn't make that much difference I suppose, but we'll see how it goes.

Friday night we saw The Last Samurai at the Georgetown Googolplex. A few tense moments when we got there only 15 minutes before the movie started and we had to squeeze next to a group of women whom, how shall I say, were likely to talk back to the movie screen. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…IN YOUR OWN HOME. They also had a big pile of onion rings and greasy French fries, which made Bob and I both nauseous, so we found some other seats, which were actually closer and more centered anyway, so it all worked out anyway.

I didn’t want to see the movie at all, for any number of reasons: Tom Cruise, whom I don’t like, and never have; the whole white man-saving-the-savage theme; Japanese culture, which I don’t really have an interest in (sorry, Dax); the whole war motif…I’m not a big fan of war movies; and the whole politically correctness of it all. But, I liked it. Sure, the last scene was a little drawn out, and the battle scene should have been the ending, but overall, it was better than I expected. I stopped rolling my eyes at everything Tom Cruise say about 15 minutes in, and got engrossed after that. Best part of the movie was the Japanese lead, Ken Watanabe. And Tony Goldwyn, who hasn’t done much since Ghost. Gay-blacklisted, maybe? I don’t know.

After the movie we went to Thai Chef on Connecticut for sushi, in keeping with the theme of the evening. We had Thai appetizers and Japanese entrees. Well, next time we’ll stick with the Thai food there.

Got up early on Saturday morning and headed over to Snead’s barber shop on Capitol Hill, across from the Marine Barracks at 8th and I. You’d think that it would be filled with hot young marines getting their heads buzzed, but it’s mostly 30 and 40 something gay white men getting their hair cut while hoping to see hot young marines getting their heads buzzed. In the “It’s a small world” department, one week after discovering and blog rolling Rungu, I saw him at the barber shop. Bob and I walked and I thought to myself, “That looks just like that other gay Irish redhead from Buffalo here in DC.” I was about to ask him his name, when he says to me, “Hey, aren’t you Seamus the Paperboy?” LOL. Nice to meet you, Jim.

After the haircut, we walked around Capitol Hill for a while. A lot of the storefronts have changed since I lived there almost 10 years ago when I first moved to DC. Even the McDonald’s I used to go to all the time has closed. Since when does a McDonald’s close? But, a lot of new things are going in…it’s getting pretty yuppified, which is okay by me if the alternative is people selling black velvet Jesus artwork and license plates on the sidewalk. The Payless is now a Starbucks, which was pretty inevitable I guess, but I doubt if Star Jones will even notice.

We headed over to Jimmy T’s for breakfast. Jimmy T’s is a classic dive, with like 8 tables, counter service, and lots of attitude. They used to have one sassy gay waiter and one sassy waitress. Now they have two gay waiters. Normally it’s a lot of fun: they dish with the customers, smoke in between taking orders, take forever getting your chipped beef on toast. But there’s a fine line between being a sassy smoking sissy server, and just not being a good waiter. We could not for the life of us get a refill on coffee, and the food was cold, which it never was in the past. We saw another diner on the Hill, near the Supreme Court, so maybe we’ll go there next time.

After that we walked back over to Eastern Market, and stopped in a restaurant where a teammate works. He just moved here from LA. Straight, but played for the gay team out there, and lived in West Hollywood, so he figured he may as well play for us. As he said, the straight teams are a bunch of pricks sometimes, so why not just play somewhere where things run smoothly. He was in the kitchen cooking, but he came out to say hi, and he was as adorable as ever. Some of the team didn’t know he was straight when he first came to practice, but you figure that out after a while.

I was ready to head home at this point, but Bob wanted to walk around some more, so we went to the National Botanic Garden (not to be confused with the National Arboretum). It was quite lovely there, as always. We spent most of the time there in the “Suddenly Last Summer” room, doing our best Liz, Monty and Kate imitations.

Phew, work, the movies, dinner, party, meeting…no wonder I’m still sick. I haven’t been able rest at all.

Know the difference between reply and forward

I have to laugh, because I've done similar things myself, although not quite as offensive as the one here.

Background: Ester Goldberg is a female impersonator who the rugby team loves. We go for her Feygele Feud every Thursday after practice. She's been very good to us, and we've been good to her. She's moving back to LA to try to make it out there. I understand she has some good contacts and good leads. I wish her the best. So anyway, last week, when she sent out her weekly email announcing her last DC performance, the editor of MetroWeekly (local DC bar rag, think H/X, without the quality) sent back this response, with a snippet of Ester's original email after.

OOPS


-----Original Message-----

From: Sean Bugg [mailto:sbugg@metroweekly.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 8:58 PM
To: Ester Goldberg
Subject: Re: Ester Goldberg to be honored by the Nations Capital

Scroll to the bottom of this fucking bitch’s message.

God, I can’t wait until this backstabbing pus bag’s out of town.


They never helped my career, nor have they written the correct information on just about anything they wrote about me. So..As today's BLADE quotes "I'm leaving temporarily and referred to me as a Drag Queen , ( remember, these are the same folks who for two years have printed I'm still doing a Saturday night BIG show at Titans every week! Oy vey!) I've made a permanent move to Los Angeles folks and Ester's a Character NOT a Drag Queen.Those that came last night saw that. I will be back for visits But I'm moving back to LA.

I never hurt these folks or did anything to ever warrant such feelings. But God Bless em anyway!! But that answers the question as to where they have been for years

New Blogs

Added two new blogs to the blogroll today. Dan, who used to be on my rugby team (gratuitous hot pic here) and Rungu, who, like me, is a gay, Irish, former Buffalonian. Dan writes about politics and the gym, while Rungu writes about politics and culture. Both very good additions, if you ask me.

Almost deleted some, since they haven't posted anything in a while, but just as I was going to do so, one of them posted (in English, no less), so I decided to give them a reprieve.