Home Work
Entry 112: August 22, 2000- August 28, 2000
 Gads! Not more bat pics! |
The weeks just keep flying by.
Still got a heavy load, but I think in a month or so things should slow down a bit. ~crossing fingers~ ~ouch~
I decided that I am feeling the crunch so much more these days because I seem to be spending much more time in traffic. ~bleh~
Not only do I have a killer intersection to get through every day (adding about 10-15 minutes per trip to my house) But I also have to book all the way over to the gym. I'm getting more and more tempted to further the credit debt and get some equipment in the house. Forget the guest bedroom- they can sleep on the couch (Which my dad informed me is made out of barbed wire- an odd choice of building materials, don't you think?)
Of course I can't look at all the cute boys at the gym, but I figure they deflate my ego more than they inflate my libido.
Traffic has been the subject for a lot of people round the office. It's just plain awful right now. Maybe since school has started up again it is worse...I dunno. I think Austin is booming and our infrastructure just can't handle the growth. Road Rage can't be too far behind.
Looks like that's not all that is being effected. Our 20 year water supply (Lake Travis) is now down to half and it can't be all my fault! I swear I have been watering ever so diligently on only my mandatory 'every fifth day'. At this rate, yard watering is gonna be banned. Hey, at least my neighbor's yards will start looking more like mine!
Dining out is impossible too. I have heard that Austin has one of the highest ratios of restaurants to populations in the U.S., but I don't think that can be true anymore. Eating at non-peak hours is a must or you have to wait at least an hour. Vic and I tried to go eat at The Hula Hut, only to find out there was a three-hour wait..THREE HOURS? Who waits that long to eat???
This is all my fault! For years I have been touting how awesome Austin is and now it's come back to bite me in the ass.
So I am doing a total reversal right here and now. Go Away! ~hehe~ It sucks here! It's expensive! It's too dang hot! Fire Ants and Killer Bees everywhere! Traffic! There's no music, gay life, or outdoors activities here at all.
Go on..move along now!
Ahhh...That's better!
Vic Moves In "officially"
I guess it is official. Vic's lease is up on his apartment, and we can no longer pretend that he is just "staying over" a LOT. ~g~
I guess we've been staying together most every night since we first started dating..geez..about 5 months ago! Wow..time flies! So this really isn't much of a transition. In fact, since we moved his living room stuff, and his bed to the guest room, for all intents and purposes, he has been moved in long ago.
But there was lots of odds and ends still at his place. Vic had only just moved into his place after we had met, and since he was spending most of his time at my place, not a whole lot ever got un-packed.
Vic's not a huge "let's get organized and pack pack pack kinda guy" (not many people are really) So this whole process was not met with a lot of enthusism. Can't you tell he is thrilled!?
We went over Wednesday night to make sure everything was boxed up and ready to be moved on Saturday, where we would once again hit our friends up to help us move. This time though, it would be just one load, and really only about 3 car/small truckloads. Not bad at all.
| That Evil Pipe |
After packing up all of Vic's stuff, we couldn't just drive back home without at least filling up the truck. It was pretty dark and the apartment complex Vic lived in is not known for it's superior care and upkeep. My truck was parked in the parking garage which is in sad disrepair. The kighting conditions were terrible as well.
On about the second or third load, I was carrying a pretty heavy box, and jammed my hand pretty hard into this lovely protruding pipe. ~can you say lawsuit?~
OUCH! I didn't drop the box, but I could tell I had done some pretty serious damage. I had to lay down in the back of the truck a few minutes and make sure I didn't faint. It took what seemed ages for the adreneline to shoot some pain killers to my hand which I couldn't move for about 10 minutes. I was pretty worried I had busted it. But the endorphins or whatever kicked in, and I could move it around, and it really didn't bleed a whole bunch. Just took some skin off.
Vic was pretty worried, and I felt bad for him. Not much he could do while I waited for the pain to subside.
We went back upstairs to get a couple more loads, but I was pretty much handicapped. Vic's entuhsiasm further waned, and he just said we should call it quits. I agreed. All I wanted was some ice and a Tylenol. So we went home and I layed on the floor watching my NEW FAVORITIST SHOW IN THE WORLD. John Edward's Crossing Over (on the SciFi Channel)
It's on most evenings, and it totally freaks me out! I love it! Watchit it you can! I love this show! Can my addiction to the Psychic Friends Network be far behind?
Anyway, we moved the rest of Vic's stuff on Saturday (Thanks David, Jason and Kevin!), and by then my hand was close to normal. Just throbbed every now and then. I did bow out of moving some of the heavier stuff- declaring that I was just too crippled. ~g~ I think they all even bought that!
The picture above was taken on Sunday-startin to turn green. I used my gorgeous new gate as a lovely backdrop. A little bruising occured but it's much more noticeable in this picture (I swear no enhancements!) Plus I had been planting shrubbery so its a lil irritated.. I may get a nice scar out of it too. I guess my career as a hand model is over.
The whole time I was nursing my hand I kept thinking "Oh mannnn..how am I gonna type!!!??" But never fear, I was back to my rapid but oh-so inaccurate typing speed a day later.
| Yard Update |
Thanks to GregT and Barry for the Homo Dept gift cards (NO I am not encouraging people to send me STUFF)
They both helped out, and I kinda matched what they sent, so I cold make a dent in the yard project.
Two trips to the Homo Depot, and we have practically all we need for the front yard (The back yard is just gonna have to wait..it needs loads more work)
We planted basic drought tolerant and extra hardy Texas standards. Nothing creative here. Yellow lantana, Mexican Heather, and Dwarf Yaupons. We also picked up two reallllly cheap Oleanders, thanks to Rodney, a long time reader and Field Trip participant who happend to be at the Homo Depot checking out with his own bargain basement Oleanders.
So, slowly but surely, the yard is taking shape.
| That Lil' Fridge |
At first I thought I would keep the 'lil fridge in the garage for exta storage of ice and drinks during entertaining bouts, but there just is no room in the garage for it.
Our office has more than 30 people sharing one fridge, so I thought I would just bring it down there. I am part of the "downstairs crowd" There are 6 of us ont he first floor, the rest of the staff is upstairs and they have a full blown kitchen. Our goal was to make the 'lil fridge a "downstairs people only"
We toyed with several locations, and decided my office had the most moveable shelves. Now I have the fridge in my office! It's getting crowded, but everyone is enjoying having plenty of space too keep their lunches and cold drinks.
Now...to just keep those evil bitches upstairs from stealing our valuable fridge real estate. Maybe I will put my Unzipped article on the fridge door...that will scare 'em away!
| Bracken Cave Trip |
I know you must be asking yourself "Oh god..not another series of bat pics" Well deal with it! It could be MORE skating or Aly night photos!
Stephen, an ultra cool and fun friend of Josh's wanted to do the Bracken cave trip earlier this Summer, but both he and Josh went to Europe instead. Stephen is center, wearing the gray shirt. On his left, is I believe Jill. Not sure about who is what, but I think Jill runs the design company Stephen works for.
I promised them I would take them down later in the Summer if they wanted. Stephen seemed pretty keen on the idea, and really showed a lot of enthusiasm for doing the trip. So we worked out a night when we could down to the cave. He and Josh both invited friends and people from their offices. We all met at 6:00 pm-ish at our designated location on Friday evening.
"Yes, there are 20-40 million bats living inside Bracken cave Now, let's get on with the emergence."
I am always surprised at how popular this kinda thing is. It IS perhaps a once in a lifetime event, and I guess the excitement is well deserved, but I never think people want to drive out in the middle of no where to see this. But Stephen's office mates of course wanted to bring their spouses and the numbers of attendees started to double. Between Josh's small group and Stephen's, we had over 30 people I think.
This was of course no issue at all. I didn't have to organize a thing..cake and pie...Stephen and Josh got everyone where they needed to be. I just hadn't "interpreted" for that many people, so I quickly brushed up on all my Mexican Freetail facts, and it's a good thing too...LOTS of great questions!
Everyone was totally polite and well behaved..and wow! Totally enthusiastic and thankful. I really felt like they had a great time and appreciated the whole event. It kinda gave me some much needed enthusiasm for the work I do. After 12 years, ya need a little kick in the butt to remind you that what your doing means sumfin.
Pretty effective signage. I oh so wanted to tack a "and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" sign to the bottom of this.
Wonder how long it would stay up?
A couple weeks ago I went mountain bikin with Josh and his friends, Dep and Chris. They are switching career gears and getting into videography and documentaries. They rented a really nice digital camcorder, and will hopefully get better footage than what I have. Can't wait to see the footage! I promise I will have some cool Quicktime and Real Video files soon!
Josh got an excellent "action" shot of Deb and Chris.
Josh in his +H20 shirt! ~tease~ The bats started emerging but after 10 minutes a cloud burst suddenly let loose. We were all quickly soaked and the bats did an about face. It was crazy watching the bats dive bomb back into the cave mouth. Bats in the back were 'pushing' their way out while the lead bats were trying to go back in.
The instant deluge ended quickly, and it took them about 10 minutes to get streaming out again. And once they did they were amazing! On the right is Stephen's friend, John. ~faint~ cute as a button!
Another John pic. Can you say Bio4m?!?! Oi!
See, that wasn't TOO many bat pics! ~g~
We left Bracken Cave around 8:30 and we were supposed to have Jason and Ty over for a movie at 9:30. They shut down I-35 so we got delayed pretty bad. Both Jason and Ty were so patient, and we arrived at home about 10:15 for "Movie Night"
Loving Erin Brockovich..or as Vic says "Erin GoBraLess". We all pretty much snoozed through parts of the movie, but we did manage to stay awake to see her "stick to the man" at the end.
Very enjoyable movie. Julia Roberts at here best. Get it on DVD today! ~smirk~
Finished the last Harry Potter book. Phew! What a roller coaster ride that was! Craigger was right..I laughed, I cried! I know there is tons of media hype about these books, but boy, is it worth it!
For my birfaday, Vic got me two books by former Austinite, Christian McLaughlin. I quickly gobbled up Glamourpus earlier this summer, but had a tough time getting into Sex Toys of The Gods I even managed to lose it at the gym (of all places!).
Vic found his copy when we moved him, and I picked it up where I left off. Vic swore it would get better. And it IS getting pretty good right now. Craigger..if ur reading this..you oughta read these books next!
After the yummy dinner, we watched a good portion of Priscella Queen of The Desert (a movie I have only seen once long long long ago-didn't remember much)
We left early...so I could put the finishing touches on this very journal entry.
It's time for the annual Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (AGLIFF)!
I met Peter Dean earlier this year, and didn't realize just how big this film festival was getting. This year I am bound and determine to go see some of the movies. It started on Thursday, and I have already missed three movies. I guess lots of the movies are playing at the Arboretum theater so I have no excuse to not see some.
And what great t-shirts they have this year..in ORANGE! Loving these super-action hero type guys. I gotta go to at least one so I can pick up a shirt.
The festival runs from August 25th to September 7, so if you are nearby, check out their website for more info http://www.agliff.org/
Coming September 1, Check out David D. as September's Bio4ms! And don't forget to see more in the Gallery Member's Area!
Chaos and Helvetica Ts ON SALE ALSO!
Erin GoBraLess
Sex Toys of the Gods
Lasagna at David's 
The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival
David D- September Bio4ms! 
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