Dinner @ The Black Sheep tonight with one out-of-town and other in-town friends. I had never been. I liked the place -- the "Ara Burger" (I think that's what they called it) -- lentil based -- good, except I didn't like the horseradishy/pickly stuff they put on it. The hard cider was good.

Oddly enough, in the bathroom, there was this little mirror at waist-level. So, I got a good view, of well, me, lol! I decided that the mirror may have been there so that women could check out their makeup whilst sitting...otherwise, I got no idea...

Funny...while we were eating, a cute guy came in, and our eyes locked -- for a good, long while, right? -- pleasant enough when that happens, but one of the friends sitting next to me at the table asked if I wanted her to just get up, so the guy could sit down with me -- evidently, she thought he was cute too, but had noticed that he was staring at me, and me at him, lol!

There was a male-female couple who also came in while we were there. I watched them for a long while. She was considerably older than he. I found myself wondering if it was mother-son or May-December.

Seasonal Activities

Yesterday was a cold rainy day, so I spent time addressing Christmas cards and doing laundry.

Then, last evening, I went over to help a friend get his tree out of the basement (and "fluff" it), so I turned on my iPhone for music -- I don't usually work in silence.

So, the friend suggested that he turn on his stereo instead and picked a pop station. Eventually, he said he couldn't stand that any longer and said he was going to turn on some "real queer music." I was like, "Madonna?" But he turned on the il re pastore aria, lol!


The same friend is coming over soon to help me get my tree today...I've got all the stuff -- gloves, bow-saw, tape measure, tree stand, etc. -- ready to go. We always just walk down to the Jaycees lot on the corner and carry the tree back here. The hardest part is getting it to stand stably in the stand.

I'm not having my tree trimming party this year. This year has been so transitional for me -- I don't know how to explain where I am right now personally, except to say that I'm keeping a low profile...I do intend to have friends over at some point during the season...I think for pie, lol! Just not the full tree trimming party -- it's just not the right year for me to do the full party!

Dating Activities

Even though our date the night before was cancelled, C and I saw each other later this week and spent a lot of pillow talk time -- he's finally letting down some of his barriers -- which is really important to me. I have to have personal details about a person or I lose interest fast.

Other Stuff

My boss told me about a funny situation from where she used to work -- evidently, there was a guy who was very frank and said what he thought...and if he got an ugly e-mail (the way we all do sometimes), he sometimes would send this response: "Fuck you. Strong e-mail to follow...." LOL! Now, I have trouble believing that he really sent such e-mails -- exaggeration adds spice to a story, right?

What brought this up was that I got a snitty little e-mail from one of my customers, addressed to me. Now, I like to be as polite as I can at work, but I figure, if you can't say something with everyone in the room, then you can't say shit directly to me like that...

So I answered his actual question in the e-mail very professionally, while copying my boss and his boss...

Tweeting

The editor of the blog, Jane Austen's World tweeted a link that I found interesting --> http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/what-would-jane-austen-have-tw.html. Evidently, mail arrived several times each day in London during Jane Austen's time. So, technically, with all the (snail)mail she generated, she was basically tweeting her ass off, lol!

This article led me to another article about how a school TWEETED the Battle of Gettysburg over a two month period! http://www.twhistory.com/

Friend and I went to Lewis Ginter tonight to see the lights. Remember how I helped hang some of the lights, so I figured I should go! And it was a member night, so we got in for free.

They moved some of the butterflies that we got up on the ladder to hang!

My hands were totally weak from lifting the lemon tree earlier, so I got precious few clear shots! I guess I just couldn't hold the camera steady enough for night shots!

But here are a few of them --













The new bridge, just recently opened --


The friend I went with --

Lemon Tree

It's supposed to get well below freezing here this week for the first time this season, so I had to get my Grandmother's lemon tree into the house. The tree always gets too big for the house, so I lop it off every year before I bring it in.

But I waited too late to chop it this year, so it has only had time to put out some small leaves on top instead of the fully formed leaves that it usually would have.

Damn if it wasn't HEAVY THIS YEAR! We just got a lot of rain yesterday. I can already tell that my back muscles will be a bit sore tomorrow! At least I didn't get any thorn cuts this year -- I felt one thorn hit my cheek, but it didn't draw any blood.

Batting Zero My Hero

I am batting ZERO this week! My date last night was cancelled due to a family emergency. C did exactly what he was supposed to do -- called to cancel, explained, apologized, asked for raincheck, sent a text message after the fact to apologize again -- so he did what he was supposed to. But I was still disappointed. I had been looking forward to pleasant company (and truth be told, I was really looking forward to afterwards! Stop judging me, lol!)...

Tonight, I was supposed to go to a play, but the performance was cancelled due to injury! So, that friend is coming over so that we can pop a bottle of sparkling, while we plan which performance we will go to.

I've already posted this on Facebook, but here it is for K-D.

My second great-nephew was born today. Here's a pic, fresh outta the oven --


Some pictures I took when I went over to the hospital tonight --

Ride Today

I went on a bike ride with the local bike association today. It was just shy of 36 miles, which is the longest ride I have done. It was in the East End -- mostly flat, although there were some hills in the last part of the ride, and it was windy.

I rode the "B pace" ride, which at first was PERFECT for me -- exactly the speed I wanted to ride. B rides are supposed to be 14 - 16 mph, although I think that we were going faster than that at first.

After 20 miles, we stopped at a store for bathroom break, water, etc. Then, we got back on the ride -- and someone quickened the pace! Lawd, I think they were going the B+ pace -- which was totally not what I wanted at that point in the ride! At one point, we were going up hill and I looked at my speedometer -- just to keep up, I was going 18 mph -- which is fast for me going up hill! Down the other side of the hill, I hit 25 mph -- again, I was just keeping up!

So, another guy and I paired up and finished the race together, leaving the "A-wannabees" to fly away by their damned selves, lol!

Christmas Lights

I got the lights on the hedges yesterday. I tried a new color this year -- purple. But when I lit them, they sort of looked fuchsia. I was afraid that it would look a bit "ghetto," but I think the fuchsia, white and blue do pretty well together!

Garnett's Again

A couple friends and I went to Garnett's again for dinner last night. This time, instead of the "WBLT" (white bean lettuce and tomato), I had a grilled cheese with hot mustard and red onions on rye. It was pretty tasty!

Afterwards, we watched a movie. It was a totally forgettable movie -- I don't even remember the name. It had Ben Affleck in it, but um, I was bored and was texting C during the movie to see if we were still going on our date today...which we did not. He asked to postpone it until later this week, since he is just getting over a bad head cold that he's had for like 10 days now!

New Theme

As you can see, I've changed the theme here at Chez Dragonfly...I was tired of the blue. It's a bit of work to change the theme, because I always overwrite some of the CSS, so that it suits me. And I have to figure out what the class and ID names are in the new theme in order to overwrite. I've been in an orange, red and gray mood for a while, so I think this theme will be around for a few months at least!

Hail

So, I was waiting around for a bike ride today to see if it would warm up any...and it started getting colder...and then the hail storm made my decision about whether I was going biking!

Carrots

I had totally forgotten sowing some carrot seeds earlier this year. I remembered today, and so I got my harvest (after the hail stopped, lol!) --

Friends' Get-Togethers

Tonight, Deege and I went to two different parties -- the first by a male couple in my neighborhood -- they've been in their house for 22 years! The other guests were mostly from my neighborhood as well, so it was nice to meet other gay men in the area! And their house is of about the same time period as mine, so the furnishings & colors were to my taste.

We were probably only there an hour and 1/2 or so before we left to go to the party in the Fan. Enjoyed the second one very much too -- different crowd, but very enjoyable. I'm totally going to be dry tomorrow when I wake up. I have to be sure to drink a lot of water before hitting the sack tonight.

Trojans, Viruses

On a different note -- I was in Facebook tonight, and without clicking anything, the browser URL was suddenly transferred to a different site.

The new site promptly told me how many trojans and viruses were on my system. (I can guarantee you that I have ZERO of those on the Mac...) I was rolling my eyes...

Funny thing was that the site was using a bunch of Windows terminology to warn me -- showing me "My Documents" for example, when there is no such thing on the Mac...or popping up a fake dialog box about Windows alerts...Helllooo -- I'm on a Mac here -- no Windows!







I hate sites like that!

Yesterday, I got a brief bike ride on the commuter bike during the morning (with only a minor turnover on some wet leaves at the park).

And then had a very nice time visiting with my sisters. We don't get as much time as I'd like for just the three of us to be together as adults chatting. Both of them have already commented on how much they enjoyed just sitting around and talking yesterday, and opening birthday gifts, and eating pie (my sweet potato pie and one sister's pumpkin pie).

I took the road bike into Performance today because the chain was dragging against the front derailleur at higher gears. The chain cackled -- the higher the gear, the louder it cackled. I wasn't going to go riding today because the weather is sort of cool, but now that the road bike is in working order again, I'm thinking seriously about getting out. I can tell that I'm going to freeze my tits off again -- I bought a thicker jersey at Performance today, so maybe that will help.

Tonight, heading out with a friend to a couple of parties, and definitely looking forward to getting out!

***
I forgot that this is Friday...so here's an update with some eye candy...

Counting down the days until the long holiday! It will be nice to be off! I am still not sure what I'll be doing on Thanksgiving. The standoff between my Mom and me is creating emotional stress fractures in the family.

The middle sister has been on again, off again about having a dinner on Thanksgiving evening. Even if she doesn't have a dinner, I was thinking of driving to visit the sisters, so that we can trade birthday gifts. It's our tradition that we call each other and send cards on our birthdays, but that we hold the presents until we see each other later in the year.

***
My nephew's wife sort of went into labor last night. She was having contractions and dilated to 2.5cm...but didn't go much past that...so I went over to the hospital and visited for a while, then got word this morning that they were sent home. So, I might have a Thanksgiving great-nephew after all!

***
I had lunch today with a friend of a friend who looks to be in his early 50s (I don't know his exact age)...he is just now coming out as a gay man! Wow, it seems hard to come out after you've been married and had kids...but I'm glad he finally did it! I was telling him that I came out 17 years ago...hard to believe that it has been that long!

***
I've been testing a new (to me) browser called Camino. Evidently, Camino was around on the Mac before Firefox was written for the Mac. It's built on the same rendering agent as Firefox, so it functions similarly. I'm writing this post using Camino.


The reason I have been using Camino is because Facebook and Safari do not work well together. And the friends list has not been working well for me in Firefox -- ever since I downloaded a beta version of Flash -- not sure if that is what caused my issues or not.

Camino feels more "Mac-like" than Firefox...I'm tempted to switch!

Network performance has been pretty crappy for me lately anyway -- I've noticed that my cable modem is blinking its ass off, even when I'm not using it. Console is filling up with firewall messages that there are stealth connection attempts -- some from IP addresses outside my network. So, I'm not sure what's going on right now!

***
Going on the first official date with "neighborhood guy" this coming weekend. I'm looking forward to it -- I had gotten tired of the sex romp thing and was pleased when he asked about having an "official date." And we finally have gotten our schedules together, so Sunday it is!

Had a good time last night.

I did a quick run to the wine store to pick up a couple of bottles of a favorite Nebbiolo to take with me to a couple of "day after Thanksgiving" parties that I've been invited to (no, alas, the cutie that works at the wine store was not working last night).

Deege and I went to Garnett's on Park for dinner. Not a bad place. I went there once when it was Table 7, but I like the food better now. It's owned by the same folks as Ipanema, although this place is not strictly vegetarian. As a matter of fact, there were only a few options for veggie folks, but what I had was good - a "WBLT" -- a white bean lettuce and tomato. The white bean and garlic spread they used on it was very tasty.

Then, we went to hear Pennyshaker at Bogart's. The lead singer had a good voice, and the musicians did a great job as well. They were giving away one of their CDs, so I picked one up. Ripped it to iTunes this morning, so I can give the original CD to Deege later.

Right now, I'm doing some laundry while I wait for it to warm up enough for a bike ride.

Today was the first sunny day in a week! So, I got my butt out on a bike ride.

It was a good bike ride, but there were several hills that were hard -- the worst was the hill from the Huguenot bridge up River Rd to Cary St. I took a small detour there, thinking I might find an alternative to River Rd -- and the blue arrow shows the only place on the ride that I actually dismounted and walked the bike -- I was just too used up at that point to make it up the hill on Huntley!


http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3322627

Couple of pics from the ride...all the rain and then the wind lately caused some trees to fall. This one was across the road near the Pumphouse at Byrd Park.


View of the river from Riverside Drive --


***
Afterwards, I went to the Byrd to see a "Zen Horror" flick, lol! It was called Mantra. It was odd, no doubt. Very gory. But not scary in the typical horror flick fashion -- more like watching a nightmare. It was set as a bunch of campers attending a new age retreat -- all of them bringing some major personal demons afflicting them (like the wife of one had recently died, and another had attempted suicide several times). Throughout the film, this blue demon figure kept going around and making sure to tempt people with their desires -- sex, food, regret, etc.

I can't say that I could make heads or tails of it, except that people really are caught in their own desires like that...and they don't even know it. So, I'll leave this with a couple of verses from the Dhammapada that seem pertinent to this movie...

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it. (1:1)

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves. (1:2)
...
By oneself is evil done; by oneself one is injured. Do not do evil, and suffering will not come. Everyone has the choice to be pure or impure. No one can purify another. (12:65)

***
Tonight, I rounded up a couple of friends to walk over to Bev's in Carytown for ice cream. It was my reward for a hard bike ride!

I have today off. It's been 20 years since I have worked at a place that had Veteran's Day off. It's an odd holiday because it has never been moved to Monday -- so this year, it falls smack dab on hump day.

It's been rainy and cool, but I got out early to get some blood drawn for my annual checkup...The damned place now requires a credit card in addition to your insurance information -- just in case the insurance doesn't pay everything. That just pisses me off.

So, the damned teabaggers (don't they research names before they use them?? -- it amuses me that they chose the nickname for a sexual activity) are anti national health care? I'm glad they like the crappy insurance situation we have now in the US. They are such tools.

Anyways, afterwards I went to Carytown with the laptop for coffee and quiche and to surf the web a while.

Then, ran some errands and have been doing some online Christmas shopping.

Tonight, I'm looking forward to dinner with a friend.

Update: this post was so effing whiney that the next day, even I didn't like reading it, lol! So I hid it...but I've decided that, given all the other crap I've let hang out there on this journal, why should I be concerned about airing this, right? So, here it is again...

A friend hurt my little feelings lately, lol! (God, I'm so sappy.) My first instinct was to back off for a while, which I did...but then I got to thinking --

1) I don't know him all that well, in the grand scheme of things, but I can't believe he would intentionally hurt me. I can't be that poor a judge of character -- he has a good soul.
2) Although his action/lack of action made me feel a little like day old bread, I know for a fact that I'm piping hot from the oven (!)...so I will only feel like day old bread if I allow it! I choose not.
3) He may be going through some stuff that I don't know about, so why would I add to that?

I guess I chose a more positive course of re-action.

Anyways, I'm making comfort food tonight -- mashed potatoes and baby peas -- total insulin attack, right? At least I did get a short walk in tonight!

I've been kinda doing my own thing lately...not really posting on here or Facebook very much.

I went to First Fridays -- I liked the black and white silent movie that was projected on the building on Jefferson St. -- I had not seen that before. And I was glad to go into Gallery5 when it wasn't full of costumed people.

The weather was nice enough yesterday that I got a bike ride in yesterday -- about 20 miles. Route is below.

There was a game at the UofR stadium, which I didn't expect, so the traffic was backed up. I actually dismounted and walked the bike past the parking lot because it was too hard to deal with the stop and go traffic. Today is supposed to be gorgeous (for November), so I plan to get out on the bike again!


http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3308338


I had a date last night, which was nice. That particular situation seems to be changing unexpectedly -- what started out as just a sexual romp is starting to lean more towards conversation. He's a nice guy, and I enjoyed talking last night. (of course, I enjoyed the non-conversational part too...) He speaks French, how bad could he be, right? He was last in Paris 7 years ago, so he and I are both due a visit.


Other than that, I got nothing...so here's a Rick and Steve clip.

As usual, friends and I walked over to Hanover Avenue for Halloween. It's always very crowded and fun to look at the lights. This year, I missed the guy who usually is in the noose!

Here are pics --


I liked the mask I was wearing this year - although it was a bit scary to other people since it looks pretty fierce with no smile or anything. I was chatting with a girl in the tarot line, wondering if people could see the smile in my eyes. She was like, no, the shadow from the mask hides my eyes. So, the mask is a true mask -- you don't know what's behind it!





















Afterwards, we ate dinner, then my friends and I parted ways, and I went solo and headed off to Gallery5, like I had planned.

The Gallery5 carnival was essentially a big Halloween party...so probably 99% of everyone was dressed up. I think I had expected fire -- since it was called the "Carnival of 5 Fires," lol, but alas, there were no fires! There were bands playing. It was pretty crowded. There was a long beer line.

I stood in line to get my tarot reading done.

Reader: Do you live with someone?
Me: No.
Reader: All alone?
Me: Yes.
Reader: Take this for what it is. There's a man in your house. (I'm thinking, if only!)

She asked if someone near me was pregnant. I told her that my nephew's wife was. But she didn't seem to think that was it, so she changed it to say that I was changing into something new, like giving birth to a new me. I basically agreed, and told her that I keep telling my friends that I am in transition.

She says that a lot of opportunities seem to be offered to me.

She kept saying that whatever happens, whether in a relationship or in a business relationship, that I should be sure that it is equal -- that I'm not the only one giving. She repeated that like 3 times. Good advice, considering my last relationship.

Reader: Did you live a guarded childhood?
Me: Umm...maybe. (I'm thinking, yes, but don't want to admit that to her.)
Reader: You are now in the process of dropping your guard, and trying to figure out how to find balance in your life.


While I was at Gallery5, I briefly saw a friend of Deege's. I was like, hey...and she just looked at me...then I realized I had the mask on, lol! So, I took off the mask, so she could recognize me.

I was a little disappointed last night that I didn't make it out of the house. Earlier in the day, I did not have plans, but then a Facebook friend popped up with the idea of going to the Camel to hear a jazz band. I have been meaning to get to the Camel (I hear good vegetarian options), so I was excited to go.

Unfortunately, his daughter has the H1N1 flu, and started having more nausea, etc. than expected last night. So, they took her to the ER to have it checked. So, he couldn't make it.

C'est la vie, of course, so I just got some stuff done around the house.


Heading out tonight to celebrate All Hallow's Eve with friends. One thing I would like to do is to head over to Gallery5 for their Carnival of 5 Fires...the vibe of it resonates with me.

I never really get a costume...I always just buy a mask and wear it. I have this attraction/thing for faces, and I guess the mask plays on that attraction. If you walk around my house, you'll see that a lot my decoration involves faces hanging on the wall.


I've been listening to The Dandy Warhols lately -- I downloaded "Welcome to the Monkey House" from Amazon last night.

Had a good weekend. Couple of bike rides, and last night saw some friends who are back in town as they try to figure out what to do with their house -- it's not selling, even though it's in a great neighborhood, and they have lowered the price. So, they are thinking of renting it. No pictures from the get-together -- the pictures I took just didn't come out well.

Here's a pic from the bike ride yesterday. I do like Libby Hill Park --



***
On a different topic, like the writer of the article below, I too have been wondering when we'll get around to having more touch interfaces for computers.

The article is dead on about the mouse -- it mentions "touch mouse" which is somewhat similar to the "Magic Mouse" that Apple just released.

While it may be hard to imagine right now, eventually there will not be physical keyboards. Apple’s tablet may well be the first product that will get users accustomed to this idea. And yes, as I said, plenty will bitch. But eventually, technology will improve, and virtual tacile feedback will improve, and there will be no need to take up so much surface area on any device with physical keys that really serve no purpose.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/29/touching-all-rumors-point-to-the-end-of-keysbuttons/

Evidently, Apple is working on a tablet. Here are some ideas of how it might look --
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-will-the-apple-tablet-look-like-2009-10#perhaps-the-best-weve-seen-1

I haven't had a technology post lately, so here ya go...

For (almost) the first time since I bought my iMac in 2007, I have a case of consumer lust...new iMacs are out. There have been updates since I bought mine, but this is the first time that I wish I were made of money :)

There are a couple of things I like about the new ones --

1. The base model (which is what I have) has a slightly larger screen now (21.5" diagonal instead of 20").
   
2. 4 USB ports instead of the 3 that I have now. (I got around this limitation on my current machine by making sure that the external drive I use for backup is also a USB hub, so I can plug things into the external drive.)
   
3. There is now an SD slot -- although I'm not sure I really would use this. I tend to hook my camera up via USB. Taking the card out of the camera to hook it up to the computer seems like a lot of trouble.
   
4. Of course, the processors are better -- faster than mine, and a choice of either a quad core or dual core, depending on the model.
   
5. The model that I would order (if I was in a shopping mood) would have a minimum of 1 TERRABYTE of disk space. Not that I'm out of disk space or anything...but that's a lot more space than I currently have!
   
6. Up to 16Gb of RAM. I think my current iMac is maxed out at the 4Gb I have installed.
   
7. Thank goodness that the wireless Mighty Mouse has been retired! The small scroll wheel on the Might Mouse collected dirt or lotion or jelly or whatever happened to be on my fingers at the time.
   

   
   I have had to clean mine like once a month! I have been too cheap to buy a new Bluetooth mouse as long as the one I have works, lol!
   

   
   The new "Magic Mouse" (who comes up with these names???) doesn't have any seams at all on top! So, no more places for dirt to collect!
   

****
Anyways, I see that ole' Walt Mossberg likes Windows 7! I think he still gives the edge to Mac OS, but in years past, he really hasn't been fond of Windows.

So, that means Win 7 must be quite an improvement!

I don't think my old Dell laptop will be up to Win 7. I could conceivably upgrade to Win 7 for my virtual (VMWare Fusion) Windows installation on the Mac, but I think there's no reason to -- I only use Windows XP to run Quicken right now, and that's all I use Windows for at home.

So, I don't think I can justify the expense, just to play with a new toy!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459293141191728.html

Since we probably won't get Windows 7 at work until the year 2020, I will be relegated to testing it out at Best Buy on the floor models, lol!

***
It has been hard to get back into working this week! I came back to this mass of e-mails and decisions that happened last week that threaten to derail the project. How can so little work get done in a week, yet so many decisions get made that endanger the project? I mean, damn.

I miss traveling, and I also miss hanging out with my friend in Asheville. You know, I had forgotten that when he moved from RVA to Asheville five years ago, I was sad for a few days (I had also forgotten how very tall he is! He was like, "I haven't grown any." lol).

When I came back to RVA this time, I also felt a little sad to have left him. I'm not sure exactly why. It's not a romantic situation (well, maybe just an itty bit), but it seems that my heart resonates in a certain way with him. There's no way that we would be compatible long term partners, but I was still a little sad after I left.

***
It was nice to get a bike ride in tonight. I hadn't been on a bike in a week and 1/2. It was a short 12 miler, but it felt good -- took the road bike out since the last few rides had been on the commuter bike.