Our Batdoc...Barbara French |
Barbara emailed me the other day. You know Barbara, my nutty friend who does bat re-hab. Bat Hospital
She wrote to tell me she has stopped eating “bad” food like cheese, breads, and myriad of other fatty cancer causing items. She ate some BAD stuff too!
Barbara also informed me that she was off the plethora of prescription drugs she would take daily and now that her mind and body were free and pure, she now thinks that she has been genetically altered into a psychic being. She wrote to tell me that she had a psychic vision of me and my future.
Barbara wrote that I should be on the lookout for a man in a beret..you know the funny little French hats?
This of course intrigued me, so I gave her a call right away. I caught her as she was just driving home from work. Barbara started going on and on about her new mystical powers, and how it had helped her in her everyday life.
A few minutes in to the conversation I hear a major ruckus going on in the background at her location. Sounds similar to her phone being consumed by large animals. Barbara is yelling. “Get back you mangy beast. No! Get off. No! You can’t..No! Get down! Monkey, Get ur face…ack.”
Finally I imagine her standing up and brushing herself off as she gives a deep sigh of relief.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Oh that? The dogs were all licking my face at once.” She sheepishly admitted.
Barbara has two very old stray dogs, as well as a new 8 month old lab “puppy” named “Monkey” that also became part of her extensive collection of abandoned animals.
“Uh, how did they all get up to your face? It sounded like they tackled you!” I said.
“Well, uh. It’s easy to explain. Last month I lost the keys to my house, so I have been crawling in and out through the dog door to get in my house. The dogs always attack me when I go in.”
I started giggling at the thought of this 60-year-old-ish lady having to use the dog door to get in to her own house.
“So, you’ve lost your house keys? Last month?!” I asked incredulous.
“Oh yeah. It's not bad. I lock the door on my way out, and only have to come back in the house via the dog door.”
I flashed back to the time she had accidently locked herself in the trunk of her car. Barbara and locks don't seem to mix.
We ended our conversation soon after, and as I hung up I realized that had Barbara truly been psychic, you’d think she would be able to divine the location of her house keys.
But I’m looking out for beret wearin’ hotties just in case.
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Did you know Barbara has her own Blog?! Here is a blurb from a recent entry!
"In an effort to keep my wayward dogs from escaping under various parts of the fence that surround the house and bat hospital, I finally decided to put up an electric fence. It took me forever. Somehow I tangled up 150 feet of wire and had to untie knot after knot. I installed the box the wire attaches to inside the old chicken coop by the bat barn and then stood up and pushed my head right into a nest of yellow jackets! I jumped up, screaming my head off and of course, fell into the electric fence. The 3 dogs were very excited by the whole episode and chased along behind me, wagging their tails as I ran around the yard, slapping at the hornets in my hair and electrifying myself. I finally whacked the last hornet off my head and yelled at the dogs to wipe the amused look off their faces."
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House hunting
I spent most of the last couple weeks trying to get the house thing settled. I still don't know what I am going to do with the house in Austin. Sell it or rent it out. It's a toss up. Kind of depends on what my buddy Bill wants to do. Stay and manage the house or sell it and come here and live.
He is coming out next week to check things out- see if this is a place he could live.
The house hunting was tough. Everything close in to the Hillcrest area was way overpriced and very very small. I don't have this need to be close to the hub of gay life in San Diego. I bring gay everywhere I go ya know.
The only advantage would be restaurants. I do like partaking in the fun eateries around that area, but otherwise it is noisy and congested.
That's one thing I think most people here don't realize. There is the constant hum of noise here. I think it is mostly all the freeways. I can hear it inside my apartment even.
Basically, I looked out west in an area called San Carlos. It's about 14 miles from my office and a 22 minute commute. The homes are bigger for the money, but of course still overpriced, but the neighborhoods are quieter. The homes won't appreciate as fast, so it's riskier paying so much, but the market seems to be crazy here and no slowing down.
I found a great house. It's tiny compared to my house in Austin. 1,300 square feet compared to the 3,200 I have in Austin. And is about twice as expensive.
But it has been gutted inside and out. New roof, new kitchen, hardwood floors, carpets in the bedroom, new bathrooms. Four bedrooms actually, but the largest one is 12x12foot.
What I like best about this house is that it sits right below Mission Trails! There is a mountain in my front yard! Ok, so it's more hill than mountain, but the trails back right up to the house.
It's so quiet out there, and the dog has a place to hike, and weeeeee…Mountain biking trails right out my back door! Road biking is even better. Lots of bike lanes and big open spaces for me to go out and explore. Lots of great hills too.
Quite a tradeoff. Make the commute everyday, or enjoy a little country life. I'm going for country life. I'm not a city boy. Ok, more like suburban boy rather than a country boy. With this location, I get the best of both worlds.
One snag in all this. They wanted to close on the house by the 31st of December. Which means major scrambling. I had to have all my mortgage stuff done by the end of one working day. So it could all fall apart quickly.
Fortunately I had Bill there in Austin to find my tax returns. He acted super fast. With online resources, I could get copies of assets and bank statements pretty easy. Technology to the rescue!
We will see if we can get all this done, but MAYBE by the first of the year I will be in a new place and out of this apartment. Kitty! will be so relieved! hehe
Life of Birds
From the creators of the Blue Planet comes the Life of Birds, narrated by David Attenborough. Blue Planet is one of my all time favorite nature shows, well, along with Walking with Dinosaurs too.
I'm not particularly fascinated with birds, but I love the cinematography and the narration is perfect for relaxing to at night. I am constantly on the lookout for nature type DVDs that I can play when I crawl into bed. Gotten in the habit of watching these things…they put me to sleep without infomercials or commercials subliminally attacking my brain as I fall asleep. I wake up in the morning with an aching need to buy egg peelers and ab equipment.
Anyway, there are 10 episodes (it was kind of expensive) but well worth it. If you are fascinated by geeky nature shows, you gotta add this to your collection.
Photoshoots and Cards-n-Calendars
I had two photoshoots recently. One was with another trainer from the gym. Rocky is his name. He was another a non-nude shoot for the calendar/card series that Village Lighthouse is doing.
Rocky was a trooper. We tried going out to the waterfall again, but it had rained the night before, and the water was really ferocious. It turns out my little waterfall is also a crossing spot to get over to another part of the park, and there were about 30 people crossing throughout the shoot. Strange cuz it was so private previous times.
The indoor stuff went well, but I can't wait to setup a studio again and space my lights at the proper distance.
Last weekend Hunter came in from Connecticut. He flew in on Saturday morning and we did the shoot that afternoon. That evening we went to dinner and went to go see the Incredibles. Yes that was my third time to see this movie. I can't seem to help myself.
Hunter stayed over at icky hotel cause I just don't have the room here. I SWEAR I tried finding him a nice hotel, but they were all full! I felt pretty guilty about that. I picked him up Sunday morning, and we had a breakfast followed by a trip back to the airport.
As for the Cards and Calendar project, things are all finalized. I'm not sure if they will do a calendar, or if they will just license the images for cards. I get the sinking feeling they won't do one, but I know some greeting cards will be coming out in January and February.
I will let ya know when they come available. They sent me three samples for me to look at, and they are cheesy in the way I think most greeting cards are. Its cool to have something so quickly that I can show off to friends and family. “Look! My own greeting cards!”
Skinning Skin Site
I also worked on the shopping cart skin for the company that is doing the payment gateway for the videos. They are still hoping things will come online by the first of the year.
I met with the guys from Boysinc one evening and started some sketches for the website. Still waiting on feedback, and hopefully it won't be a lengthy thang.
I am still also hoping to have some a big debut in January. Hopefully I can pull that off.
Weekend Kickoff
The staff at my new job likes to go out on Friday nights and let loose. I've been skipping these little events, but I decided I had better not pass up too many of these fun bonding opportunities.
We met at 6pm at the Top of the Park at the Park Manor hotel. The crowd was quite a bit older and apparently the drinks were weak, so we ended up exploring the back stairwells and created are own party.
Everyone got the giggles and we terrorized the poor guests on several floors.
We went back to the top floor bar and everyone ordered a couple more drinks. Needless to say they were getting pretty lit. I don't drink of course, so it was like having my very own tv show to sit and watch.
By 9pm everyone was pretty tipsy and they were thinking it would be best to get some dinner in their systems. We walked down to the Hash House for some grub.
I guess I didn't realize how upscale this restaurant was. We were a little rambunctious for this place. Sitting to my left is Christopher, who is also from Austin! He used to do the Rainbow Skate night.
My other office mate, Chris…you know..the one with the "Good to the Last Drop" coffee mug we did, is sitting across from us and is cracking us up. He is SO funny!
The camera ended up across the table and here I am doing my best “deer in a headlights”.
They become obsessed with taking closeup shots of everyone's noses and eyes (which I won't share now, you might be eating) but this one wasn't too close up and I don't look too fat. These shots are in here cuz you keep asking for shots of little 'ole me.
When our food came, they arrived in these GINORMOUS bowls and plates. We all felt like we had fallen down the looking glass, and we giggled even harder as we ate from the enormous bowls. The meals were heavily garnished, and some of the plates looked like a tribute to the plains of U.S. Midwest. I see the forests, the amber waves of grain, and look, there is lake!
Strange silly night!
What's coming up
Well, I have Bill visiting next weekend. And the following weekend is Christmas in Colorado. Just going from the 23rd to the 27th. And then the following week moving to a new home! ~keep fingers crossed~
In January, I am hoping to go back to Austin to get a plan going. Maybe pack some stuff up and have move it over to San Diego.
Lots coming up, and hopefully, more photo opportunities.
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