Okay, 15 hours till my flight leaves for Dulles.

I hope I don't forget anything. I was going through my wallet, taking stuff out that I don't need, worrying about pickpockets, and then I was like, I live in the capital of the world. I'm not some bumpkin who's going to the city for the first time.

Got all my flight info, ordered a low-fat meal, asked for a emergency exit row, got my train schedule from Heathrow to Central London, got my guidebooks, got my passport.

I don't know why I panic so much, but I do. I may have time to find a cybercafe. If so, I'll post from the road...otherwise, I'm off til Tuesday!

Interesting difference between rugby teams heading to London. One team lists all the socials for the week. Our team lists the State department and US consulate in London.

It finally hit me at the end of last week that I'm going to London for the gay rugby tourney.

I started to realize that I should figure out where my hotel is, how to get to Dulles, how to get from Heathrow to my hotel, etc.

Did laundry yesterday and read a few guidebooks on London and England while waiting...still don't know the right answer to any of these questions. Either way, it will be expensive.

Saw Troy Saturday night. It was actually pretty good. I wasn't expecting much, and it was better than I expected. And I've like Eric Bana since Chopper and Black Hawk Down, so seeing him without his shirt on was a treat. Brad Pitt wasn't as bad as I had heard. He gave a convincing performance of a warrior who isn't thrilled by his destiny, but resigned to it.

Had a good last practice/scrimmage before London on Saturday. I figure it we can do well in 98 degree weather (yes, it was 98 in DC on Saturday), then 68 degree weather in London will be a breeze...

Had a major dilemma later Saturday afternoon though. Two of my favorites were on opposite each other: WNBA debut with Diana Taurasi, and the Home Depot track meet with Marion Jones. I ended up flipping back and forth between the two. Luckily, Bob was sound asleep on my chest, because he hates it when I do the channel surf.

He told me a sad story as we were walking by some basketball courts over the weekend. He said he never played basketball because he didn't know how, and when he was a teen, all his friends would spend the weekend playing hoops (in Brooklyn) and he was embarrassed that he didn't know how to play, so he stayed home. Sad.

I guess I was lucky that I was a jock when I was a kid, and that I had 5 older brothers to teach me stuff like that. I actually liked gym class, except dodgeball, of course, and wrestling. I was big for my age, and I always ended up having to wrestle the really fat kids, who were usually about 50-100 pounds heavier than me. I spent a lot of time in the nurses office faking illness during the weeks we did wrestling. But all the other sports we did, I liked. We had a strange PE program: we had 3 weeks of marching, and 3 weeks of square dancing, too. Square dancing was fun in high school, but in 8 grade, it was a nightmare because, well, let's face it, 8 grade boys are kinda smelly, and 8 grade girls are pretty much at their meanest.

Washingtonienne

Those of you who read Wonkette may be aware of the hill staffer fired because of her blog, archived here. The story made Roll Call and the Post today. Turns out, it was a staffer in Mike DeWine's office. Well, good friend at work is a former senior DeWine staffer, so she's tracking down the dirt for me.

Hey, I'm not that stupid after all

Borrowing (not stealing) this from Crash, who got it from Kris
Below is the college board list of books that kids should have read by the time they go to college (or something to that effect). What I've read is in bold, although I can't guarantee I remember much of any them. I'm suprisingly well-read, considering that I am loathe to pick up a book these days. I'd much rather watch tv or read Entertainment Weekly. Somewhere along the line my thirst for knowledge dried up. One of my favorite characters in cinema is a guy from Whit Stillman's Metropolitan. Basically, he says that he doesn't read books, but he reads literary criticism and book reviews so he can be conversant. That's me.

And back in the day, reading lists were much more about dead white men, so many of the books weren't even on the radar screen when I was in school.


Beowulf

Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart

Agee, James - A Death in the Family

Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice

Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain

Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot

Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March

Brontë, Charlotte - Jane Eyre

Brontë, Emily - Wuthering Heights

Camus, Albert - The Stranger - no, but I did read The Plague, and I actually liked it

Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop

Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales

Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard

Chopin, Kate - The Awakening

Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness - my brother did this for his senior thesis, and I read it too

Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans - do the Classics Illustrated count?

Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage

Dante - Inferno

de Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote

Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe

Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment

Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - I think so, but it may have been a biography, not an autobiography

Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy

Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers

Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss

Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man - I thought this was the H.G. Wells book...kept waiting for him to take the magic invisibility potion.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays - some of them, but not all of them

Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying

Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury

Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones

Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby

Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary - read this for pleasure...what was I thinking?

Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust

Golding, William - Lord of the Flies

Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles - loved this...but the movie? yikes...bad

Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter

Heller, Joseph - Catch 22

Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms

Homer - The Iliad

Homer - The Odyssey

Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God

Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World

Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House

James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady

James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw

Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - did my hs senior thesis on this...27 pages on character development and change...

Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis

Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior

Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird

Lewis, Sinclair - Babbitt

London, Jack - The Call of the Wild

Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain

Marquez, Gabriel García - One Hundred Years of Solitude

Melville, Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener

Melville, Herman - Moby Dick

Miller, Arthur - The Crucible

Morrison, Toni - Beloved - impossible

O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find

O'Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey into Night

Orwell, George - Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago

Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar

Poe, Edgar Allan - Selected Tales - again, some of them

Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way

Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49

Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front

Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac

Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep

Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye

Shakespeare, William - Hamlet

Shakespeare, William - Macbeth

Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet

Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion

Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein

Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Sophocles - Antigone

Sophocles - Oedipus Rex

Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath - very sad, especially growing up poor on a farm

Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island

Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin

Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels

Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair - long-ass book...but pretty good. Movie this summer will probably be horrible.

Thoreau, Henry David - Walden

Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace

Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons

Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Voltaire - Candide

Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five

Walker, Alice - The Color Purple

Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth

Welty, Eudora - Collected Stories

Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass

Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray

Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie

Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse

Wright, Richard - Native Sons

Colonial House

Loving Colonial House on PBS. While not as good as Frontier House or Manor House, it's still an interesting watch, especially as many other shows are in re-runs.

Interesting how advance perceptions change after watching the show. Before watching, I was all ready to hate the Baptist minister/governor, and ready to love the liberal theologian/lay minister from Cal State-Chico. But turns out, the governor is a pretty stand up guy trying to do his best, while the lay minister has turned out to be a bit of a self-centered ass.

The thing I don't quite get is the resistance to Sabbath services. Don't get me wrong, I'm not that religious, I don't go to mass, but I think that if I signed up for this project, I would realize that long services on Sunday would be part of the deal, just as long days in the fields and a step back for women's equality. It does seem that this group of people seem the least willing to stay in character and follow the rules of the project. From refusing to attend sabbath or leaving the grounds to head into town, there doesn't seem much commitment to authenticity.

Kudos to the gay guy for coming out, although he seems a little tormented by the whole thing. I guess I'm so far past that I don't see how I would be able to not mention it for two months, but that's just me and my experience. The Baptist minister took a few steps back in my eyes after talking about repenting and "confessing one's sins," but I couldn't tell if he was talking as a 1628 Governor or a 2004 Baptist. Either way, he didn't punish the kid, which was fair, since he didn't punish any of the other colonists for what they are in 2004.

There's another gay guy on the show, but I'm not sure he's arrived yet. Either he's arrived, and hasn't been shown/profiled yet, or there is yet another shipment of settlers to arrive on next week's episodes.

From the small world department, this other gay guy, Craig Tuminaro, dated Bob for a bit while in Charlottesville. We were watching last night, and in between episodes, they had a local station break with an interview with Craig, because he lives in the DC area. Bob popped up...and was like, hey, I know him from UVA!!! So this is my 2nd reality tv 2nd degree of separation. Scary looking Matt from Survivor Amazon was my best friend from the rugby team's mentor at Cornell.

My butt hurts, and not in a good way.

I'm not sure if its from the rugby match on Saturday, or if its from sleeping wrong on my brother's futon, but my left cheeks is totally bruised and sore.

Had a good weekend of rugby and family. Went up to Philly on Friday afternoon, although we got a late start, so while I was hoping to get there by 8 - 8:30, a late start and a detour ended up getting us out of DC around 7:30, and we didn't get into Center City until about 10 or so. Made a brief appearance at the Westbury for the pre-match social, where I ran into a few teammates and Princess Hibiscus. Met a few more Philly players, including Crazy and 'Risha, and saw a lot of other hunky guys, who may or may not have been with the team, including the two bartenders. Woof. I really like Philadelphia. I need to visit more often.

Ran and took the 10:45 train out to the suburbs and finally reached my brother's place around midnight, which made for a very long day. Luckily, I didn't have to drive, so it's not like I had to pay attention a whole lot.

Got to the pitch in SW Philly around 11:15, where I ran into most of my team, and not much else. We all thought we were at the wrong place. No lines on the field, no goal posts, no nothing. Eventually some of the host team showed up and started to line the field and we realized it was time to warm up.

On the plus side, I didn't start, so I didn't have that pressure on me, but on the downside, it was about 90 degrees, and the longer I waited to go in, the more sapped I was going to be. And that's pretty much how it turned out.

It was a good match. They have improved a lot, but so have we, so it was a good battle. I can't tell if we finally started doing stuff right in the 2nd half, or if they just broke down in the 2nd half, but we started to play like our normal selves and ended up winning 30 - 0. They tackled hard, and scummed well, but it took us a while to figure out how to play to our strengths and exploit their weaknesses. I played the last 20 minutes of the first half and the first 20 minutes of the second half. I did okay. Did well on some scrums, not too well on others. I made all my tackles, and had a few runs, but forgot to get low on my runs, so got pushed back a bit when mauled. Live and learn. Right now I'm just trying to play my best in the hopes of making the A side in London.

Oh, and strangest moment of the afternoon: one of the Gryphons called a fair catch on a kick. Twice. For those who don't know, and to paraphrase one of my favorite lines, from A League of Their Own, "There's no fair catch in rugby!" The first time we didn't know what to do...we thought maybe he was in the try zone or something. The second time we just ran up to him and took the ball away and I think we scored a try after that, I'm not sure.

It was also nice to play in front of my brother, who had never seen a rugby match in person before, but lived in Wales for a few years in the military, so he knew the sport a bit. I was able to answer his questions, which is always a surprise...being able to explain the sport to someone. Sometimes is feels like I have no clue what I'm doing out there, but when you talk to someone who knows even less, you feel like a genius.

We left right after the A side match, wishing well to the B siders who were about to take the field. My brother and I had to rush home to see my nephew off to the prom. He attends a school which was voted "Best Prom" by Reader's Digest. There's a book about it, and supposedly a documentary in the works, too...although that may just be some MTV special episode of Diary or something.

So the big thing about this prom is that all the kids try to out do each other in their entrances. The school has set up a large parade route for the kids to line up in, and the whole community lines up to watch the spectacle. Apparently it's been going on for 30 years or so. So we arrived at the parade route about 5.

My nephew arrived in a Winnebago, with about 20 other friends, pulling a trailer with a rock band, sounding a little like Good Charlotte or Sum 41. Other interesting modes of transport were the Checker cab, horse drawn buggy, a couple fire engines, several types of boats, jet skis, a Trolley car, several large limo vans, the usual limosines, the SUV limosines, a Good Humor truck, several police cars, an ambulance, Hell's Angels motorcades (including one who did a wheelie gone bad and proceeded to throw the young woman in her gown several yards down the red carpet), scooters, a bathtub, go carts, a doubledecker bus, and several trailers with various themes, such as a living room set, a hot tub, Christmas in July, complete with Santa Claus in shorts.

But the top 5, in my view were:

5. The couple escorted by entire contingent of a Mummer's string band.
4. The mafia scene, where the boy was locked in the trunk, the father played the mobster, and the girl played a moll.
3. An actual Gondola from Venice.
2. A full black marching band and step troupe escorting one couple.
1. In what I thought at first was a Trojan Horse, which was brilliant, considering the release of Troy this weekend. But it turned out to be a Trojan Rabbit, surrounded by the members of Monty Python searching for the Holy Grail. Brilliant.

Very imaginitive kids, all of them. And the girls were so amazingly pretty, almost all of them. Some of the boys were hot, too, but the girls were just beautiful. The suprising thing: how many of them smoked, and openly. I thought kids didn't smoke as much as they used to, but almost all of these kids were smoking. I guess it's Phillip Morris' dream campaign: "No, kids, don't smoke. Really. I beg you. Smoking is not for you." I wonder if the "The Truth" and the Legacy Foundation have any clue how little affect they are having?

Spent entirely too long at the parade, considering I had played a match earlier, hadn't eaten anything all day, and hadn't brought any water, so by 9pm, I was so ready to go home. So of course we walked down the street to the my niece's friends house for a picnic. I didn't know anyone there, but I felt at home at the buffet. My brother was talking to all the mom's there, and my niece ran into some girlfriends from high school. My brother's divorced, so I think all the soccer moms (although in this case, they're cheerleader moms) have a little crush on him. He's the cool dad, which is good, on one level, but kinda strange, considering he lets his kids drink and smoke and smoke, albeit the smoking has to be outside. I'm like, I would NEVER let my kids to that, but its easy to judge the parenting of others.

My niece and nephew have had it rough. Their parents separated about 10 years ago and finally divorced about 6 years ago. My ex-sister-in-law proceeded to get married to her NEW boyfriend about a week after that, and had a baby about three weeks later. Last year, she took off and moved back to Iowa. Left the new husband and the baby. Left both my niece and nephew. My niece was at college, so she wasn't living at home, and my nephew saw the light years ago and moved in with my brother. So now my niece is also living with my brother, and the baby is now six, living with his own Dad, and none have had any contact with their mother since she abandoned them. Damn, makes my life look like the normal one. Why aren't the defenders of marriage going after these people, instead of gay people in Massachusetts.

After the parade, after the picnic, we stopped by Rita's for some water ice. Which, apparently, is a huge delicacy in the Philly area, but is just redundant to me. It's basically a really good slurpee, but served from an old fashioned ice cream stand. They had custard, gelati and some sort of shake called a misto, but I opted for the water ice, since that's what it was famous for. The rest of the kids looked at me incredulously when I said I had never heard of water ice. But then again, they've never seena movie in a stand alone movie theater, either, so I guess all our experiences have some value.

Took entirely too long to get home on Greyhound yesterday. Whoever thought that we needed to stop in Aberdeen, MD, the Baltimore travel plaza AND the downtown Baltimore as well as in New Carrollton is on crack. And trust me, that could have been any number of people on my bus or at any of said bus stops.

Things are kinda back to normal today, although Bob is still up in NYC, having been there since Friday for a mini-Yale reunion. So I'm probably just going to go home and watch Colonial House on PBS and fall asleep early. I loved 1900 House, Frontier House, Victorian House and that one about the people living in Druid times, so I think I'll like this. Supposedly some non-authentic drama when the gay people come out of the closet and some freak Baptist minister refuses to speak to them the rest of the show.

Fox does it again

I can't believe how stupid these guys are. Fox is promoting a new reality show, "Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay" and showed just how backward they are. Props to Lisa Moraes with the Washington Post for calling them out on their shit.

The show itself isn't that egregious, no more than The Swan, Who Wants to Marry My Dad? or The Worlds Smallest Bachelor, but some of the stuff in the press release was just so wrong. Such as describing the notion of a straight man "turning gay overnight" as "a heterosexual male's worst nightmare." And "After the two guys are done trying to "pass for gay," they will be put to a "jury of their queers." I love Moraes comments about setting them up in Laramie, WY and seeing how much fun acting gay would be in THAT city.

Here's Moraes' whole column:

Fox Puts Foot in Its Mouth, Kicks Self

By Lisa de Moraes
Friday, May 14, 2004; Page C01


There are a lot of things you can say about the folks at the Fox network. You can call them hypocritical for airing racy stuff designed to attract young viewers and then giving Bill O'Reilly an hour of prime time to rant about the entertainment industry on a special called "The Corruption of the American Child." You might say they're cruel to animals in airing their "When Animals Attack" specials. You might argue they're misogynistic because they air a weekly slice-and-dice-a-chick reality show, "The Swan." But you cannot call them homophobic.

Oh, wait; yes, you can.

Fox issued a stunning news release yesterday for a two-hour reality special to air in June called "Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay" in which, the network said, two heterosexual men will try to convince various people that they are gay. In the news release, Fox described the notion of a straight man "turning gay overnight" as "a heterosexual male's worst nightmare."

For one week, the two straight guys will "immerse themselves in 'the gay lifestyle,' " the network said.

Is that something like "the Hispanic lifestyle" or "the black lifestyle" or the "single mom lifestyle"? See, already we can't wait for this show.

It appears that Fox thinks it means moving into an apartment in West Hollywood with actual gay roommates "to experience what it's like to live life as a gay man."

Each day, the guys will complete a challenge "to test their ability to pass for gay." They will come out of the closet to their best friends, Fox said. They will "mix, mingle and dance in gay nightclubs and they'll even go on a romantic blind date with another man."

If Fox wanted to do a really interesting reality series in which two heterosexual men experience what it is like to be a gay man in America, they ought to also send them someplace like Laramie, Wyo. Of course, that would not be the "outrageously satirical" and "hilarious reality special" that Fox has promised this one will be.

After the two guys are done trying to "pass for gay," they will be put to a "jury of their queers," Fox said. Really, they said that.

The jury, made up of gay men "from all walks of life," will declare which of the two they believe actually is gay.

That lucky guy will win $50,000.

Faster than you can say "what the hell were they thinking?" about 200 times -- which was how a number of The Reporters Who Cover Television spent yesterday morning, via e-mails and phone calls to one another -- the network sent out a second news release with an abject apology.

"Our failed attempt at humor was ill-chosen and inappropriate," the network said.

"We sincerely regret its distribution and have attached an edited version," it added.

The edited version lacks all references to a heterosexual male's worst nightmare and that "jury of their queers." The "gay lifestyle" remains, however, still in quote marks.

Contacted for comment, a Fox rep told The TV Column, "We made an error; we moved to correct it as soon as we could and we're deeply sorry."

Before receiving Fox's revised and apologetic news release, we'd called the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to talk to them about it.

"The press release speaks to a very backward stereotype that raises red flags for GLAAD," said Steve Macias, the organization's entertainment media director. The show itself, he speculated, probably will be either "flattering" or "tiresome in its premise of yet another straight man pretending to be a gay man.

"This is an old premise -- look at 'Three's Company,' for example -- show after show of straight men pretending to be gay men so that they can find something for themselves."

Macias said GLAAD has asked Fox to send a tape of the special and expects it in a day or two.

DC Schools

Oh, the irony of two articles in the Washington Post today, regarding the DC School system, literally one right over the other.

Next Head Of Schools May Get $600,000

Strapped, City Cutting 285 Teachers

This city is seriously fucked up. I know that the $600,000 won't even come close to covering the salaries of 20 teachers, much less 285, but it shows where the priorities are all wrong. Basically, that the city is willing to go to bat for an administrator, but not for those on the frontline. And I've lived here for 10 years, and we've never had a good superintendent. I just don't think its possible. I'm like, why bother. Why not just hire who you can get for $120K, you're going to get the same results anyway.

Personally, I have a radical proposal for DC schools anyway. Get rid of them completely, over time. Give people like 10 years to get out of the system, either by getting vouchers, or in to private school or by moving out of the District. This will save the city about a billion dollars. Oh, and what of the Constitutional mandate to provide an education? Well, the Constitution says a lot of things that apply to states and not the District, so why not one more?

Radical I know, but I can dream.

Does anyone else think that guy in the "Seduction" commercial for Sprint PCS is really hot? Or at least sexy?

Getting ready to go to London on Wednesday the 26th for the gay rugby world cup. Don't get me started on its official name. But let me just say this:

He didn't invent gay rugby.
He didn't start any gay teams.
Gay people were playing rugby long before he came along.
He wasn't even that supportive of a gay team at first.
There were international tournaments and gatherings before the one named after him.
The first gay rugby team was founded in 1995...six years before that fateful day.
Ian Roberts was out and proud long before then, too.
Learn your history, people.

But London should be fun. The socials should be fun, but I'm more looking forward to playing the games. We should do well, but we'll see.

Still recovering from the weekend. As I get older, I have more and more trouble dealing with heat and the sun. Growing up, I was always outside, either playing as a kid, or working in the grapes as an adult, or playing baseball or whatever. But ever since I was 30 or so, the sun just saps me. In 1999, Bob and I were at Fire Island, and while I put on lots of sunscreen and stayed under an umbrella, I guess I got too much sun. I was fine leaving the beach, but as we headed back into the city, I started to get more and more out of it. At the change in Jamaica, I was starting to wobble a bit. By the time we reached Penn Station, I was completely disoriented. I was wandering around and couldn't make a decision about anything, which train to catch, what to eat, where to go, etc. Bob got really worried and took me to the hospital. Of course, this was after calling my gay brother, who lived in NYC, and he said that he couldn't do much about it. Yeah, he's on our permanent shit list for that still. Anyway, we ended up going to Mother Cabrini hospital where I stayed overnight from heat stroke. They put like 4 units of saline in me before I even remotely had to think about going to the bathroom. I wasn't sunburned, just tired and dehydratred. Luckily, I had the sense to call my insurance company from the ER and got the whole thing approved.

So anyway, this past weekend. We had a match out near the Pax River Naval Base. Beautiful area down there, right on the water, but waayyy farther (further?) than I was expecting it to be. It would cloudy, cool and overcast here in DC, but full on sunny down there. So on a day I expected to do well, I yet again had to deal with sun and heat. On the ride down, I found out I was starting, which was fine, because had I found out on Thursday at practice, I would have worried about it for two days.

I didn't think I played well, but coach and everybody said I did a good job. I felt like I was always just out of the action, but apparently I made a lot of tackles and had some good defensive stops. Coach kept me in at halftime, and I was actually feeling ok. But about 15 minutes in to the second half, I just hit a wall and couldn't go any further, so I came out and had Stefan go in for me.

We ended up losing, and gave up a few breakaways, which we haven't done all year, but that was mostly because we were starting some new people. Our veterans will be back for the next few matches. It was weird, it was like everyone decided that last weekend was the weekend to take off: weddings, family reunions, work travel, conferences, etc.

Had a nice social with the guys from their team. They have this one guy, Lurch, who loves us. I don't know why, but we always get along with them really well.

Came home, took a little nap and then went out to a rooftop party of one of the teammates. A straight guy with the most amazing hairy chest. It was pretty low key. I was expecting more people, since they (he and his wife) both went to Maryland, and I thought they'd had a lot of friend still in town, but it was about half rugby team and half people I didn't know. So after drinking with these people for the 2nd time that day, I headed home around 1.

Slept most of Sunday. Like I said, the heat really takes it out of me. Woke up to watch bits and pieces of one of the Star Trek movies..the one with Kirstie Alley. I always remembered her as the bald chick, but I guess that was someone else. Kim Catrall maybe? Cleaned house a bit, too, before getting ready to watch Harry Potter.

I had only seen that movie once, at the Uptown, and it was so cool to see it again. It was definitely as good as I remembered it. It was strange, however, flipping back and forth between Hagrid in Harry Potter and Rupert on Survivor. Amazing how much they look alike. One of the interesting things about seeing the Harry Potter movie again was noticing what a great performance Alan Rickman gave. At first, you think he's a villain, but then you realized he's a good guy.

Survivor. Whatever. I haven't really watched much all season, ever since I heard way back in week four or so that Rob and Amber go to the final two. I hated Rob, the homophobic, ignorant, redneck, I couldn't stand to watch. So they won. And now America gets to vote on who ELSE deserves a million dollar prized. I voted for Kathy, but I could deal with Rudy or Ethan, just cause I like them. There are people over on the Television without Pity Board who want people to vote for Rob, because he played the best and got robbed at tribal council. I don't care. I don't like the guy, and I won't vote for him. There's also a movement over there to make it anyone but Rupert, since they hate him so much. I hated him during Survivor Pearl Islands, but I don't think he was as bad this time around.

Let's see, what else. Track season is starting up. Big meets in Japan, Jamaica and California this past weekend. Americans seem to be getting into good shape for this Olympic year, so hopefully we'll live up to our potential and win lots of medals. Surprise of the weekend was hottie pole vaulter Tommy Skipper (who I think I've blogged about) winning the PAC10 decathlon champs in his first ever attempt in the event. Hopefully we'll see more of him this year.

Watched A Wrinkle in Time on TV last night. Strange. I remember it being one of my favorite books growing up, but I don't really remember much about it. I remember reading it in sixth grade, which was the first year (in preparation for high school) that classes for the whole grade like reading, science, social studies and math were split up by skill level, and we had to move from room to room. Up until that point, all the smart kids had to wait for the dumb kids to catch up.

So I remember reading it, but I don't remember it. About the only thing I remember is the parents being scientists, and having this image that the scientists in the book looked like Dave Neveu's parents, both of whom were professors at SUNY Fredonia. His dad was a chemistry professor, I think, and looked like Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. His mom was a biology professor, I think, and looked like Ruth Buzzi's old lady character from Laugh In. So needless to say, I was suprised when the parents in the movie last night were played by hunky Chris Potter (Michael's ex from Queer as Folk) and some soccer mom type. I truly don't remember the plot from the book, but was suprised at the amount of anti-communist symbolism there was in the movie. Talk about a period piece. It was straight out of a Cold War propoganda manual. "Like is not the same as equal." I don't remember getting that from the book when I was 12, but I guess how could I miss it?

This week, the team goes up to Philadelphia to play the Gryphons up there in a rematch. We won 60-0 the first time, but I think this time around it will be much closer. I'm staying with my brother up there, and will be heading off right after the A side match to see his two kids off to the prom. Apparently, the prom is a huge deal up there, with a huge parade, and people don't arrive in limos, but in the most outlanding vehicles they can think off, classic cars, fire engines, animatronic dinosaurs. Should be fun.

Heard from an old friend in Buffalo yesterday. There was much drama way back when I was living there in 1993-94, because his boyfriend was spending a LOT of time with the boyfriend of a female we knew. A lot. Like, going out to dinner and movies and stuff. I didn't really know what to make of it. Part of me was like, they're just friends. Another part of me was like, they could be fooling around. Well the girl and guy got married a few years later. My friend broke up with his boyfriend, for any number of reasons, not the least of which was that the boyfriend was dump as a post. Well, my friend called me to say that he was the "husband" out at the gay bar last weekend. Still don't know what it means, but most straight guys don't just hang out at gay bars, do they? Oh, and he saw this other guy, Joe Kissel, that I used to have a crush on Saturday, too. He had moved to San Diego or LA I think, but apparently he moved back to Buffalo. Guy was amazingly hot, and supposedly had a huge cock, too. I think he sent his boyfriend to the ER once because of it. Now THAT's a big dick. Joe, if you google yourself...call me!

I still don't know what happened with the hives. I saw the doctor on Friday, and bascially he said, 80% of the time, we can't tell what triggers it, but we can treat it pretty well. So he gave me a big bag of Allega to take in the morning and Zyrtec to take at night. It's working, because I didn't get hives this weekend, but it still worries me that it even happened in the first place. It's just as well, too, because the pollen is really bad right now in DC, and while I don't have HORRIBLE allergies, the Allegra certainly helps.

Going to the doctor about my hives. It's very mysterious. After my attack on Sunday, they pretty much went away, except for a few wheels. But they came back in full force last night...all over my legs and arms. Who knows. The strange thing is that I've never had hives in my life. I supposed it's allergies, but who knows to what. Food, exercise. I have a bad feeling it might be grass. Which is not good for a rugby player who gets thrown to the ground on grass on a regular basis three days a week.

Not that it will change anything, and not that it won't mean that Bush might put someone even worse in there, but I think Rumsfield should be fired. Of course, I think he should have been fired a long time ago, so that's nothing new. Take a look at the Rummy-Meter on the chances of all this.

The whole Iraqi prisoner thing is just so sad. It just goes to show you that in times of war, people do things they wouldn't normally do. But Rush Limbaush is a complete idiot if he really thinks that they were just stressed and this was a normal way to relieve steam. What an asshole.

Okay, I don't feel like posting much today, I think the blog world is burnt out this week. So I'm stealing from him, who, in turn, stole it from someone else.

1. What is the “theme” on your calendar this year?
The England rugby team. Johnny Wilko, Ben Cohen, Larry Dallagio, mmm.

2. Do you read the newspaper every day?
Post, NY Times, Wall Street Journal...for work. I do a clipping service.

3. What kind of shoes are you wearing right now?
I don't know, some brown ones from Costco? I am such a bad fag.

4. What magazines do you subscribe to?
None right now, but in the past: New Yorker, Newsweek, Track and Field News, Advocate, Out, Genre, Advocate Men, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Mag, New York.

5. What is your favorite condiment?
Kosciusko mustard or A.1. sauce.

6. What was the first occupation you remember wanting to have?
Either a bus driver or a barber. Aiming high, I know.

7. Are you a green thumb?
Nope. Grew on a farm. Mowed acres and acres of lawn. Never want to touch a plant again.

8. Did you have an imaginary friend when you were little?
I don't think so.

9. Do you floss regularly?
Only sometimes, but totally improving on the brushing part.

10. If you could still hang posters of celebrities on your walls and get away with it like when you were 12, who would be on your walls right now?
Matt Dillon, Jason Kidd, Henry Rollins, John Cena.

11. Do you keep shoe boxes or throw them away?
Only until I'm sure I'm not going to return them.

12. Would you be embarassed if someone looked under your bed?
It would be very, very scary.

13. If you could be one character in book, who would you be?
Sometimes, like Esther Greenwood, from the Bell Jar. As in, the world around me is going mad and I am losing it!

14. What do you sleep in?
T-shirt and briefs.

15. What is your favorite word?
Purview.

Tired and sore today. Lost a tough match to James River on Saturday, 22-6, which wasn't bad considering we were missing I think 5 starters. I started and played the whole first half, but my legs were dead after about 30 minutes. Great picture from the day here. Little Sam, a cutie, too, but the photo is great for the composition.

Worked Cherry 9 on Saturday night, and boy was I tired. I ended up on crack patrol, or more properly tina or K patrol, wander the club making sure nobody had passed out or needed medical attention. It was fun, and beat standing at the front door in the same position all night, but I imaginge there was an advantage to meeting and greeting every single person who came in the door as well.

Yesterday was a very scary day. I started scratching my leg in the mid-afternoon, thinking it was just sore from Saturday's match. By 6pm, my entire was body was covered in welts. I assumed I had caught poison ivy or poison oak from the field, but never having had them before, I wasn't sure. I went out to buy some Ivy Dry, and when I got home, Bob was home and I showed my rash to him. He said it didn't look like poison ivy. I put some medicine on it anyway, and he gave me some benadryl, just to be safe. Two hours later, the rash, which looked like hives at this point, was still there, from my lower legs, to my inner thighs, to my whole stomach. Bob thought it may have been some sort of allergic reaction, maybe to something I ate. But all I had to eat was a sesame bagel and a grilled cheese sandwich, both of which I made myself. It may have been the sesame, but I'm not sure. Fast forward to this morning, and the rash is pretty much all gone. I still don't know what it was, but it looked horrible. I think I'll stay away from sesame for a while, just to be safe.

Is anyone else getting all these annoying "remove me" emails from the Don't Amend email list? I'm like, obviously something happened on the list, and there's a virus going on, but people? Sending an email complaining about all the emails only adds to the volume of emails. Just delete and move on. And all the messages are different, so it's not like its one virus sending the same message. People are writing, "Oh, I'm tired of getting all these emails." Well, so am I bitch, including yours!

I feel bad, because it is an important cause, but they're going to lose many supporters because of this email glitch.

Got a haircut today. Haircuts aren't supposed to hurt, but this one did. My position in rugby (lock) is notorious for causing havoc on the ears, because the sides of my head get knocked around a bit. It's normally not a problem for me, but lately...They have these special hats you can wear, and I've never wanted to wear one because it cuts down on your hearing and peripheral vision, but damn, if this keeps up, I may have to. Taping your ears are an option, too, but sometimes the tape comes off, which is no help either. I just wonder why this is becoming a problem only now, after a few years. So anyway, the barber was just doing his job, cutting my head, but I was in serious pain as he grabbed my ears to buzz around them. And of course, I felt too foolish to say, "Careful, my ears hurt" to him, so I just grimaced and dealth with it.

Rugby match tomorrow. I'm starting, kinda by default since our starting locks are either injured, out of town or filling in elsewhere, but that's ok. I'm finally starting to be in shape, thanks to losing weight, making practices regularly, and quitting smoking (again). I should be in good shape tomorrow, as long as I stretch ok and get to rest before the match. I've been having trouble sleeping lately, so hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep, too.

Cherry 9 is tomorrow, too. After the match, we'll all be running home to get in our disco naps so that we can go back and provide security for the event starting around midnight. We usually get a little tax-deductible kickback from them, since that means they don't have to pay for real security, so it all works out. Should be fun watching all the queens tweaked out and falling into K-holes. I'm so glad I'm not into that scene. It makes it all so more enjoyable the once a year I become a voyeur and watch with mild amusement.