A Good Way To End It

I woke up this morning sick. It never fails, I am either sick at Christmas or New Years. One or the other as long as I can remember. I recall on Christmas when I was sick with the mumps. I was about 12 and it was a horrible Christmas. All day long I have spent running back to the bathroom. I have to work as this is the busiest time of the month for us, not to mention the end of the year. So I am at work currently waiting for the clock to wind up at 5:00 so that I can go home and climb into the bed under the warm blankets. A great way to end the year.

Twenty Years? Where did it go?

Today is my daughter's 20th birthday.
Twenty years ago today, in similar weather conditions, my ex wife and I were shopping in the local K-mart when her water broke and she went into labor. (My God how middle America does that sound?) We rushed to the hospital and within 15 minutes of our arrival at the hospital the Princess was born. From day one she brought us joy and excitement, and she continues to bring us that joy, and sometimes unwanted excitement. We love you Princess and Happy Birthday.

Christmas was delightful! We had a wonderful holiday, at both set of parents. My mother invited DJ to her home Christmas Day for dinner and even my brother gave him a warm welcome. Does wonders ever cease? Christmas at DJ's was great. All of his family was there, and as always they treated me as one of the family. We invited his sister and her husband over for New Years Eve.

Most of you are aware of the major winter storm that hit our area before the holidays. Yesterday was the first day I went into work since the 21st. After 8 inches of snow the first night, and another 7 to 8 inches the following night it crippled us for a few hours. The weather report is calling for a warm trend to come through tomorrow so we are hoping it will be warm enough to melt all of this, then of course we will probably have flash floods due to the major amount of water. It's always something.

So the holidays are behind us, and soon this year will be behind us. So off to the new year and another twenty years ahead. uh....let's not think about that....

And Baby Makes Four

It looks as though come after the New Year, we will have another new addition to our growing family. DJ and I have fallen in love with a new baby kitten that was born to DJ's, uncle's cat. It is a Russian Blue, which are very short haired cats, with small ears and blue eyes. The one we have fallen for is a gray-charcoal mix. Not sure what sex it is as it is too young at this point to tell, but we are hoping for a boy. DJ already has a name for it if it is male. To keep with the "Buffy" theme it will be named "Giles". (We currently have Willow and Xander) Of course if it is a girl, it will be "Cordy" named after Cordelia, also from the Buffy / Angel TV Series. So it looks as though if we ever move it will definitely be in our own home, as rent anywhere with three cats will be exhuberant. I will post a picture of the new baby as soon as it's home.

Christmas is right around the corner, and we finally did some Christmas shopping. Last night we purchased DJ's mom's gift and tonight I am meeting up with my brother to get our parent's gift. Their TV is about to go out, so my youngest brother and I are splitting the purchase of a new HDTV for them. Tomorrow night I pick up my boys, who will be here until Christmas Eve night. Then it's off to the festivities for the Holidays, so this will probably be it until after the Christmas Season.

Best of 2004

I love lists. I love going over the past year and review what I've liked and not liked. As a kid I would spend New Years Day sitting in my room with the radio on and four empty cassette tapes and record the top 100 songs of the year. I did that every year up until I was married. I would love to know where those tapes went, They'd be worth a fortune of good "oldies!" So before 2004 is gone and I forget, here is my...

BEST (and some of the worst) OF 2004



Best Movies I've Seen This Year-
Shrek 2
Stepford Wives
Kill Bill 2
Sideways
Spiderman 2
The Butterfly Effect
A Home at the End of the World
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Best Worst Film-
The Grudge


Best Commercial- Brylcreem (British TV)
Best Reality Show- Amazing Race 5
Best TV Show- CSI / Trading Spaces
Best TV Show Finale- The Final Friends
Best TV Show Finale that Frustrated Me- Angel
Best TV News Over Exposure- Scott Peterson Trial / Michael Jackson
Best New TV Show- Desperate Housewives
Most Over Rated Entertainer of the Year- Britney Spears
Most Annoying TV Anchor- Dan Rather
Best Retirement Announcement- Dan Rather
Cutest TV Anchor- CNN's Bill Hemmer
Most Anticipated Movie That Didn't Own Up- Alexander
Biggest Homophobes- Eminem /George Bush/ Hollywood for cutting scenes in Brokeback Mountain, A Home at the End of the World and Alexander.
Best Reprehensible Use of a Political Tool - Dick Cheney using his daughters sexuality to garner votes.

Most Annoying People of 2004; Anna Nicole Smith, William Chung; Dan Rather & Britney Spears
Greatest Losses of 2004- Christopher Reeve, Janet Leigh, Marlon Brando, Ray Charles & 831 soldiers in Iraq making a total of 1,293
Best Baby Names - Roman / Makena
Worst Baby Names - Phinneus / Apple


Biggest Disappointment- The Presidential Election
Biggest Break Up - Barbie & Ken
Biggest Suprise of '04 - Boston Red Sox
Best Gay Quote- "I am a Gay American" former Gov. Jim McGreevey
Best Books I've Read-
A Home At The End of The World
Dry
Shameless

My Most Read Blogs-
towleroad
A Slice of Life
Oh La La Paris
Wonderboy

Cutest Bloggers-(besides myself of course!)
Shane @ Happily Stuck in Ithaca
Graham @ grahams crackers (yeah I know he is my cousin)



I will add more to the list as the year winds down, so come back often!!

Hometown Girl Making It

Yesterday I mentioned the fact that the Golden Globe Nominations were released and didn't mention a connection. A very vague one, but a connection nontheless. It seems as though director, Alexander Payne's new movie, SIDEWAYS leads the list of nominations. I have been hearing about this movie for about a year now. The reason being that a friend of mine is in the movie. When I heard back then that she got the part we all were estatic. She has had some TV spots (Ally McBeal, Law & Order; Criminal Intent) and has been working hard at making a name for herself in the movie biz. Not to mention that she is one hell of a good actress. And an even greater person. Now it seems that with the sucsess of Sideways, she may become a little more high profile. We hope so. Hats off to Alexander Payne in directing Sideways, to the stars and crew and to our very own star, Missy...WAY TO GO GIRL!!

By the way, now that she has a major motion picture under her belt, she made IMDB!! WE LOVE YOU MISSY, don't forget us little people!!

I changed the layout, brightened it up a little. Maybe it will brighten my mood as well.

So, What's Up With You?

It is almost 3:00 a.m. and I am still awake. It may be from the fact that I didn't get up today until about 12:30 in the afternoon, but I do not sleep in that often. It may be from the fact that my chest is hurting, (no not a heart attack, at least I don't think so, it's that damn acid reflux and it feels like it is coming up through my chest.) No it's neither of those things that has me wide awake when most people are fast asleep, such as DJ.

My insomnia can be blamed on my oldest son. I refer to him as J1, but his name is Joe and he called me today(well yesterday now), the conversation went something like this...

"Hey dad, what's up with you?"
"Not alot, eating lunch, you?"
"Not too much. I need some help."
"What's wrong?"
"well nothing really, we've just overspent, you know car payments, rent, electric bills, insurance..."
"Yeah we had all come due this past week too. I can't help today, but I can tomorrow after I get paid."
"Not alot, I mean with Christmas and all. If you could just give me an early Christmas present."
"Sure, not a problem, want to meet up after work tomorrow?"
"Sounds good. Oh, by the way. Mandy has to go to the doctor that's why I need some extra cash."
"She okay?"
"Well yeah, but she may be pregnant..."

There was silence on the line while I gained my composure, and then I told him I'd see them tomorrow. I'm not too worked up over it,as I went through this with my daughter a year or so ago, and it was a false alarm. Then i was not ready for grandparenting, but now? Well yeah, I think I am ready. I think. I'm just not sure that DJ is...

It Couldn't Have Happened at a Worse Time

Tonight DJ and I were invited to our first Christmas Party of the season. We were all set to go a partying with my friend Kare Bear and her husband. But when we arrived home from work today we found our adorable little boy Xander under the weather.
This was him back in August.
Xander is our short-hair cat (still a kitten actually as he is only 7mos. old now) He was neutered 11 days ago and he had been doing fine (as fine as one can do without their testicles) Today he just was totally despondant. He hadn't eaten all day and he had vomited, several times. So we made a trip to the 24 hour Emergency Animal Hospital. We left here around 5:30 and returned home at around 9:oo. They gave him a shot for the vomiting, and then an IV as he was dehydrating and sent us home with bubble gum flavored antibiotics. The vet said it could be a number of things; a viral or bacterial infection; Something he may have eaten that he should not have; or feline AIDS or Leukemia. They did blood tests and ruled out the AIDS and Leukemia, but nothing jumped out at them. So we brought him and are to feed the the bubble gum flavored meds every 12 hours, and watch him. If he contiues to remain lethargic we should call our vet on Monday. It sounded SO much like a trip to the Human Emergency Room!! They even had little waiting rooms for us and TV's to make our waiting more tolerable. What was not tolerable was the bill. $254.00 (yeah, right here two weeks before Christmas and we are shelling out money to the vet) and we STILL don't really know what is wrong with him. Poor baby boy.... Poor Daddy's wallets.
So sorry Kare Bear. But what's a dad gonna do? Maybe we can get together before the holidays are over...

SSDD

Do you know what I mean by SSDD? Same Shit Different Day. That is more than just the truth for me. I am a person that likes my routine. I used to not be that way, but over the past two years things have changed and I stick to my routine. Sometimes I stray from it somewhat, but 95% of the time I stay on track. So much so that I can give you my routine without thinking about it. It starts with the alarm going off at 8:00 a.m. every morning...

8:00 am - Hit snooze for 15 minutes
8:15 am - Hit snooze for 15 minutes
8:30 am - Hit snooze for 15 minutes, continue this until 9:15
9:15 am - Get out of bed, stumble to the shower, fight with the hot water to regulate
9:30 am - Get dressed, grab wallet, keys, watch, cigarettes and head to the garage.
9:45 am - Arrive at work start the day...(I will not bore you with the details while at work, but it is pretty much the same every day, including trying to leave early as many days as possible)
5:00 pm - Leave work, light a cigarette and head home.
5:15 pm - Feed the cats, go to the computer where I remain until I decide to go to bed. Which is around 1:00 am - 2:30 am.

The question I have is how does DJ put up with me? The man is wonderful. He has to be. I couldn't live with me! Well I say all this to let you know that last night I broke my routine!!
I still played with the snooze button as always, and I begged to leave work early, which was granted. Instead of going home and getting on the computer, I put up the Christmas Tree and decorations. It looks fab..I will post pictures later. Then DJ and I went out for Chinese for dinner. We arrived home around 6:45 and THEN I sat down on the computer. Some things just don't change.

Some of my blog brothers and sisters out there have a 100 things list on their blog. I wanted to do something a little different, so in a few weeks you will see my list... 100 Things About the One I Love.

MAN OF THE WEEK

Have you watched LOST yet? Well let's just say you should. Not only does it have one of THE most hottest men on the show, Ian Sommerholder, it has a whole host of other hott hotties! But leading the way is this weeks MAN OF THE WEEK...Matthew Fox.

Check it out, great show, great guys.

What IS This?

Last night I thought I'd be domesticated. (this at the insistence of DJ as he almost always does the cooking) So I prepared dinner. Silver Fox was coming over as well to give him a birthday dinner and to hang out and get a haircut (Yes I am a Jack of All Trades). I worked diligently to make dinner just so. I made meatloaf, new potatoes, whole kernal corn and rolls. Everything was perfect.

Silver, being our guest dug into the meatloaf first. That's when everything fell apart. I heard...

"What is this?"

As Silver was pulling the spatula from the meatloaf, a large piece of paper came with the chunk of meat. It seems I forgot to remove the paper from the bottom of the ground beef package...

Oh well a little pulp never hurt anyone.

Birthdays, Holidays & the Blues

One of my best friends will celebrate a birthday tomorrow. Birthdays are inevitable, well unless you have died already. But my problem is this,

1) What do you get someone who has almost everything?
2) What kind of gift really tells someone just how much you care about them?
3) How can any gift truly mean what you want it to?

This friend has been there for me many times over and it's hard to find something approriate. I was shopping last night and nothing I looked at seemed like it would be or mean what I wanted it to. I suppose one day a year is not going to show or tell someone just how much you do care and love them. We should do it every day of the year. The problem with that is, that I've failed there too.

Then that brings up Christmas. Gift giving. Again I know one day a year is not going to make up for all the times in the past year that I failed, but what is the right gift? DJ is the hardest to buy for as we buy for one another all year long. So what can I get him that is special? Then there is my kids. I know that a monetary gift would be something they would want, but how much feeling is put into giving money? Again, doing all year long would be more beneficial. And again I fail so much at that.

Which bring me to even more of the state of mind that I've been in for the past two months or more. I don't want to do anything but come home, watch TV or play on the computer. I don't want to talk to anyone or go anywhere. I think it's time to get to the doctor, as this is becoming more than just a phase. I really think it may be a chemical imbalance or maybe a hormone deficency (do only women suffer from that?) All I know if this has got to stop! Maybe I can start the new year with a new outlook and the once vivid, active, life of the party guy can reappear, with a little help from some meds.

Is It Time to Have Fun Yet?

Boring Week + Boring life = No entries. Yeah, it's been boring here since Thanksgiving. Hanging out with my brother and family last Friday was great. Since then not a whole hell of a lot has been going on, work, sleep, work, sleep, sex, work, sleep. We did take Xander to the vet on Tuesday to be neutered and de-clawed. He is still sore and grouchy but on his way to his wild animal self. DJ has been on vacation, and with no extra money and me having no time off we have not really been able to do anything exciting, or even somewhat entertaining.

I did hear an entertaining story yesterday from Veruca. He and Jewels bought a new condo back a few months ago. Over the past eight days, our weather has turned into winter and cold air is coming through. He and jewels found out that their furnace was not working. So they did everything they could think of to get it to work to no avail. Finally they called the Furnace Man (that's not the real name) to come and evaluate the problem. The problem? Well to use the Furnace Man's phrase..."It would work if the power was turned on." yeah they had not turned on the main power switch. Another reason why gay men should not be homeowners.

Well that's it for today, I know I forgot last weeks Man of the Week, but I promise to have one tomorrow, until then stay bored...