Happy New Year!

Have a Happy and Safe New Year everyone...

And try not to party too hard!

Grandpa's Moonshine...

That was the password to get in the door at the Roaring 20's party. It was absolutely beautiful. Jesse and Ildiko don't do anything small. When they plan a party, they plan everything, down to the last detail. If they say it's going to be a 1920's party, you better dress and act the part, because when you walk in, you will BE in the 1920's.

I can't even accurately describe it. There were white helium balloons on the celing that had little lights in them, candles and feathers everywhere, 20's postcards on the wall, jazz music playing throughout the apartment, and everything was bathed in a blue light hue. Jesse is going to school in NY for lighting, and it was obvious. It's amazing how lighting can set the whole mood. He's definately good at it. They even rented a table made of wine casks for the bar to set up on.

Everyone looked great.

The guys looked so hansome in their suits and fedoras,

and the girls looked sexy in their flapper type gowns.

We had a fantastic meal, (as usual when you go to Jesse and Ildiko's, another thing they do well is cook.) It came in several courses, a salad, a ham, twice baked potatos, bacon peas, garlic cheese rolls (I ate WAY too many of those!) and complete with a ridiculously good cheesecake drizzled in caramel. I don't even like cheesecake (a sin, I know) and I liked it, a lot.

Warren, as always was resident bartender.

Which means we all got a little silly after dinner....

Warren showed us Jesse's signiture "fairy dance"...

and we saw Brie and Ildi's underpants!

I bit a couple ties....

and we all grabbed Eldon's fly!

A fantastic time was had by all.

True Love... at the porn store

I'm going to a "Roaring 20's" party tomorrow night, and I needed a few things to complete my costume.

So I went down to Cathie's on 82nd & Powell in Portland, (a porn shop/stripper clothing/adult toy store) tonight after I got off work. Where else was I going to find gold gloves and fishnet stockings at 10pm on a Thursday? It was great, I got exactly what I needed, and the staff there was unbelievably helpful and as their slogan states, fun.

While I was there though, there was a young couple in their mid 20's also shopping, and the girl was looking at this really cute pink garterbelt and bra combo. She really wanted it, but they were already getting some other stuff and it would have been too much money. (It's amazing how much they charge for so little material!)

The manager, seeing the couple talking, starts laughing, and says to the boyfriend, "If you try it on and let us take a picture of you in it, she can have it for free!" Even I thought this was funny. The boyfriend turns to his girlfriend and says, "honey, how much do you want this?" She starts laughing too and says, "I wasn't sure about it, but I definately want it now!"


<---- It looked just like this, complete with bra and thong panties. So he takes the pink bra, thong and garterbelt combo and heads off to the dressing room and his final words of masculinity he says, "You're coming with me, I have no idea how this even goes on!" I was almost ready to leave, but I had to stay for this. Both employees in the store, (manger and cashier, both women) start cackling gleefully and the manager starts running around with the Polaroid giggling. I stood near the dressing room and listened in.


Guy: "Ow! How do you girls wear this stuff!"
Girl: hysterical laughter
Guy: "This is hard to get on."
Girl: more laughter
Guy: "Um, should I tuck it?"
Girl: laughing so hard it sounds like she's hyperventalating.

Then the girlfriend comes out and tells the employees that he's ready for his photo shoot. They run back to the dressing room with the Polaroid, and I peek in to see also. It was really funny. Think Rocky Horror in pink without the makeup. He even did some model poses and the girlfriend squealed she needed a copy of the picture for herself., which of course they gave her one.

She did end up getting the set for free, and the guy got lots of props from his girlfriend, the employees and even me, for being comfortable enough to do such a thing, and now he's #1 on Cathie's Hall of Fame (pictures behind the register where only the employees can see.) The last thing I heard before I left the store smiling was the girlfriend say, "I love you baby."

Guess you had to be there.

No phone, No phone....

I now have that Cake song running through my head, as it's probably the only sound I'll be hearing for the next few days. I mentioned a few days ago that my cell phone was on it's last legs, and today it finally kicked the bucket. I can't make or recieve calls on it, but for some reason the text messages still work.

Every time I try to call out or get a call, I get a constant loud tone in my ear that doesn't stop... at all. It's exactly the sound of an ear exam test. Highly obnoxious, and I can't hear the caller and I have no idea if they can hear me. I don't own a home phone, so...


Until further notice, if you want to get ahold of me, either text message me or email me. :(

Myspace psychos...

Ok, I know I too should probably go to Myspace Annonymous for the amount of postings, messages and because almost everyone I've met in the last 6 months I met through myspace or friends of someone I met on myspace... but...

I recieved this message out of the blue.... This is the first message I've ever recieved from this person:

well i know its probly no and i hate to ask but dont know what ells to do i have to be out of my place tomarrow i need a place to stay for a lil while i go to school in jan 3 for fitness traner and im working concret slabs all tell u all the info u need to know im not a weredo it may seem like it bye doing this but its my last option im a good hard working man with a lil bad luck please dont get mad at me for asking u not trying to seem despret eather but this is all i have left no help from parents or anybudy please dont thank less of me im 21 22in feb just tring to beter my life have a great night


I'm a pretty nice person, and I'll do whatever I can for a friend. A friend can call me up in the middle of the night and say, "I'm stranded in BFE and I need some help." and I'll do whatever I can to help them, and I do love animals and will take in strays if needed until I can find them a good home, but I don't take in stray people. That's a little out of my safety zone. Am I completely off base by being slightly confused and irritated about this? Or am I right in thinking this guy needs professional help if he's asking random girls on myspace to let him stay at their house?
Incidentally, if you like the chalkboard guy, you should check out the other postings on the sketch psycho ward at the
Chalkboard Manifesto
It's quite a funny site.

Hazel Dell Brew Pub

I finally got the chance to hang out with my friend Geoff again. I was looking for excuese to shrik my responsibilies of cleaning my house, (although I did manage to get some cleaning done.) Ironically, I had vacuumed my house using Eldon's borrowed vacuum cleaner yesterday before going to my mom's and unwrapping my own!

Geoff is a microbrew whore. So I asked him if he'd ever had anything from the Hazel Dell Brew Pub here in Vancouver. While I waited for him to show up, which unfortunately took a lot longer than either of us anticipated due to some unruly traffic and a combination of my bad directions and the fact that neither of us was born with an internal compass, it did allow me some time to clean my apartment.




He hadn't been to the pub in question, so it was a good excuse for him to come up and have some. He said the brews were good-alright, but the food was fantastic, which was my assumption all along. We chatted about some of his faux pas dating experiences of late and Christmas etc, and then enjoyed our lunch/dinner.

Geoff really loves him some microbrew samplers!

Christmas at Moms...

Since my mother was out of town for Christmas, we decided to do the whole Christmas thing tonight after I got off work. Eldon and I met up at my place and we went over to my mom's house for dinner.




My brother Brian and his girlfriend Lisa arrived at the same time and we had dinner, some strange mediterranian inspired vegetarian dish and as always LOTS of wine. I somehow managed to drop the salt shaker and it bounced off my wine glass AND my water glass, breaking both of them and spilling both the contents all over the table and my dinner... go me!




My mom and her husband were in rare form that night, making some jokes that were shockingly funny and we really had a good time! I think we're actually starting to get more comfortable with each other, considering it's been 5 years since we actually spent any real time together.

They even had a present for Eldon, although my mother spelled his name wrong and we had a lot of fun teasing her about it, especially Ron. It was perfect for him too. It's exactly the shirt I was trying to get him to buy when we went shopping for his new work clothes. A microfiber (aka pettable) shirt in blue, which looks fantastic on him. When we went shopping he ended up getting the same shirt in black. They did great picking that out, even the size was right and they didn't ask me about that. I'm really impressed.


I got a few sweaters, and some pajamas (a mom tradition), a gift certificate for the spaghetti factory and some free movie passes, but wow... I got two things I absolutely needed....










I got a vacuum cleaner! I know that doesn't sound exciting, but trust me, with two dogs in your house, a vacuum is a MUST, and I needed one desperately.

Reasons why I need a vacuum cleaner:

1) Wesley likes to TP my living room for fun.

2) Rikka likes to eat her food ALL OVER my carpet.

In addition, I got a TV! WOO HOO!!!!

I've had the same TV since I was 16 years old. It has more miles on it than most cars. Recently it started to black out to the point where you have to beat it on the side to get the picture to come back on, and the red was bleeding onto the screen. I was really getting annoyed with it. I was totally not expecting to get a TV for Christmas. Although I don't watch much TV, when I do, it annoys me because everyone on the screen has insanely red lips that go outside the lines, and half the time I had to play the bongos on it. New TV make me very happy!

My brother didn't do so bad either... He got a laptop!

Now all I need is a new cell phone, (mine is dying and it's my only phone), a dresser (I left my old one in NY, so all my clothes that don't hang are on my bedroom floor for lack of a better place to put them) to spay my dog, and to get my 30,000 mile inspection done on my car, and I'm exactly happy with where I want to be.

There's always debt I have to take care of, but everyone has that. I can live with my debt. It's the little things that make life easier that I lack right now. I had a really great Christmas this year though, no complaints.

Christmas!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I did. It was pretty quiet and relaxing, which is someting I don't usually have. Being that my mother was out of town, and my brother was spending Christmas with his father (he's my half brother) and my dad lives in Arizona, I was sans family anyway. So I spent the day with Eldon. We were going to go down to the coast to see his family, but since I have to work in the morning, it would have been a whole lot of driving for a little bit of visit.




Eldon and I exchanged gifts, and I can't wait till I can use his gift. This gift is one that he gets the benefit of also... It was a couple's package at Aequis a spa in Portland. I'm so excited! This is total spoilage! I used to have a regular massage therapist I went to in NY, but I've never been to a day spa where they treat you like a queen. This is going to be so awesome!



After that, we went to go see Fun with Dick and Jane. Both Eldon and I love Jim Carrey, so it was a no brainer that we'd go to see it. It's really amazing how many people actually went to see a movie on Christmas. The first theatre we went to was completely packed, and everything at the timeslot we were at was sold out! We went to another theatre that wasn't quite as comfy, but it also wasn't packed. The movie was just what it said it would be... Fun. If you like traditional Jim Carrey, (like Liar Liar / Bruce Almighty, not his dramatic Eternal Sunshine / Man on the Moon) you'll like it. Tea Leoni was a lot of fun in it too.

Merry Christmas!!