OMG another blog entry!

Well here I am again. Mostly because a new chat friend reminded me I have a blog. Well I figured it was time to post something. So for those of you who hang off the mundane epic that is my life, here goes.
On a new shift at work. Getting up at 4AM, to work at 5AM, so far it is going okay. I am getting about as much sleep on this shift as I did on nights which is to say about 5 hours per night. Still don't like my job but not quite hating it. Starbucks helps. Praise the Vanilla Latte. Non-fat of course.
Mexico is 3 weeks away and I still have that bit of pudge around my middle. Could be those aformentioned Lattes. Well some prices I just will not pay. No matter, I am looking forward to Mexico even if I have to suck my gut in the whole time I am there.
Awesome news for Howie and Neil. The house sold. As we were there I realized I was going to miss the place. Had some awesome fun times there. I am sure we will as well at the new pad in Ottawa.
Folks are back. Have only seen them a couple times so far. I will likely stop in on them after work. I think I will be enlisting Dad for some help around the house this summer. Have a few projects that need doing.
I think thats it for now. More to come eventually.

And I titled the last one "It's been a while"

So it has been almost 4 months since I last posted. No excuse really, just lazy I guess. So here I go with a bunch of what has been happening and some upcoming stuff too.

Snow
We have had more snow this year than I have seen in a long time. I have to say I have had just about enough of it. More than enough of it. The amount of times I have had to dig my way in and out of my driveway is really making me consider a 4X4 again. Those were the days for sure. I didn't shovel I just drove back and forth over the snow and packed it down. Anyway I guess by this point the end must be in sight so hopefully it will all be gone soon or at least no more (or not much more) will come.

Budget and Money
So as stupid as it sounds I am oddly very excited to have $100.00 in my savings account. $100.03 to be exact. $0.03 was interest on a portion of that.
I have not allowed myself to have savings for a very long time. I have a fairly high credit card debt right now and have not felt right having money in my account when I owe I somewhere else. I have since put myself on a budget which I oddly don't even find restrictive. Really I have just formalized my payments every month, allocated money for my personal spending and found $50.00 from each pay to transfer into a high interest savings account. I am still going to be in debt for a while but as long as nothing major happens I should be able to feel like I am making progress on reducing that debt and still see some money in my bank account.

Friends
So at this point Howie and Neil have already moved to Ottawa and Gord and Rob will be gone by the end of this month. Yeah I really hate Ottawa but it looks like I will be visiting a bit more often. Meanwhile our social life here has dwindled to just about nothing. Kinda need to find some new fill-in friends I guess. Anyone up for multiple evening, non-sexual coffee dates?
We will be in Ottawa at Howie and Neil's this coming weekend and with them again in Toronto on the third weekend in March. It's not like it's all bad, just some long weeks is all.

Mexico
In 3 months we will be heading to Mexico for a week at a 5-Star resort to attend Dan's cousin's wedding. To say I am excited about this trip iwould be a huge understatement. I am looking forward to it like you could not believe.

I think that's it for now. I am not sure what I am doing today but it had better involve a Vanilla Latte at some point.

Its been a while...

So, it really has been a while since I have written anything and I am sure a lot has happened. I will try and put some of the highlights here.
First off, I have a new shift. I am now working the overnight shift. I like it, Dan doesn't. I like it because of the total lack of pressure. It is much more relaxed on nights. I am still having a bit of trouble with the new sleeping patterns though. I am not getting near as much sleep as I probably need. Mondays are fun as I tend to go to bed at the normal time on Sunday night and get up at the normal time Monday morning. So generally I am up from 7:00 Monday morning till about 8:30 on Tuesday morning. Surprisingly that is not as bad as it sounds. All I need to figure out now is how to sleep more than 5 hours per day.
Now on to the fun stuff. Chicago. We drove to Paris, from there headed to Buffalo then flew into Chicago to visit Dan's sister. We were on the go for the full 3 days we were there. Lots of touristy stuff, shopping, museums/galleries. It was a blast. We are definitely going to go back. Really, a beautiful city. Next time we go clubbing though.
So other than that and all the stuff I have forgotten there was a couple runs to IKEA, a couple visits from Bryan & Ryan, Mark's housewarming party and lots of coffees.
Thats it for now, I will try to keep them coming.

Emergency Clubbing Road Trip

So on my last day shift at work I am sitting there waiting to go home when I get a text message from Neil telling me he is booking a couple rooms for us at the Sheraton in Toronto. Well I actually thought he was asking if we wanted to go but really by the time we decided we were in it was already booked. Well for me I think it turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.
Saturday morning we all piled into the car with our Starbucks beverages and started out on our journey. We got to the hotel and checked in, did some shopping then headed back to settle into the rooms. Somewhere in all that we hooked up with Bry and Ry, did dinner and hit the pool. A bit of the drink up in the rooms then off to Church Street. The original idea was to hit Tango & Crews but the line up was too long so off to Woody's. Well we all know that Saturday night is the Best Legs Contest at Woody's. We know this from an earlier blog you may or may not have read. Well I did manage to NOT drop my pants this time though I was approached by the fabulous Sofonda Cox who again hosted the event.
Sunday was typical of our weekend hotel stays. I was up hours before everyone else so I headed off to Starbucks and hung out in the lobby, checked email and such in the cyber lounge and walked around the Toronto City Hall grounds which was right accross the street from the hotel. Brunch. A bit more shopping. Northbound Leather. A quick stop at Bry and Ry's. Ikea. Then home. Dinner at Silver Wok. All in all an awesome weekend. Thanks to the BFFs.

Ottawa "Pride"

So we went to check out Pride weekend in Ottawa. I figured it would be safest to go in with as low expectations as possible in order to not be dissapointed. Turns out that actually worked. Ottawa Pride was not half bad. Really Pride was just the Sunday. Apparently they still can't afford to do a 2 day event. Okay, to be fair there was stuff going on on Saturday we just were not interested in attending any of it.
We headed out of Kingston In the morning and of course hit the Ikea on the way in. Then to the hotel, rooms were not ready. We split up with Howie & Neil for a bit. Dan and I headed to The National Gallery to see the Renoir Landscapes exhibit. Not my thing at all. After that we hooked back up with Howie & Neil, checked into the rooms. We had adjoining rooms and it really worked out great, it's the way to do it. A bit later Kathy showed up and we headed off for a walkabout. Dinner at Tucker's which is an all-you-can-eat buffet place that used to be called Mother Tucker's but they changed the name because people used to call it Mother Fuckers. Too funny. After dinner back to the hotel for a round of mini-putt and a swim/hot tub. Then we headed out to Centertown Pub for a couple drinks then off to Edge for more. Pretty much just hung out and watched the dance floor at Edge for the couple hours we were there. Watched one boy quite a bit. Made some good eye contact. It was fun. Gord and Rob showed up. Chatted with them for a bit then headed back to the hotel. Had hotel sex.
Sunday morning I was up before everyone else of course. Thankfully the hotel had a Starbucks so I headed down, grabbed a latte and sat in the lobby for an hour before heading back upstairs to shower and pack up. We brunched at Dunn's then headed to watch the parade. The parade was not Toronto but it wasn't that bad. After that it was off to the Pride Party on the front lawn of City Hall. Venders and such there as well as a stage with some drag performances including The B-Girls, which we watched before heading back to the car and then back to Kingston.
We got home, unpacked then hooked back up, Mark included and did the buffet at Panda Gardens. Two buffets in one weekend, I do not recommend this as a habit.
Now back to work tomorrow. Two more weeks of days then I start my new overnight shift. Yeah I haven't blogged about that yet. Well now you know. I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes.
Ciao for now...

Boy gone wild

So it was my birthday weekend. I have learned in the last few years to expect fun and adventure on my birthday. It just seems to work out that way.
Bryan and Ryan came down which is great. Saturday we all got together here and had an awesome breakfast cooked by Dan. We then did a bit of shopping and then went to see the new BOURNE movie. It was awesome. Well I sure liked it. Also there were 5 previews before the movie started and I want to see them all. Its going to be busy.
Saturday night we gathered at Tango. I had a great time. Good drink and good food. And the best friends ever.
Now is where it starts to get crazy. Sunday morning started off innocuously. Sunday brunch same as always, good times. Good turn out. Mark brought the boy he is dating. After his first encounter with us he doesn't like us. We can be opinionated, and we are hard on Mark. Not sure what he thinks after his second encounter. Then off to Howie and Neil's...
Wasn't there 2 minutes before I was doing a B-52 and then I never saw the bottom of my Cosmo after that. Needless to say that after so little food I did get pretty drunk. To the point where I have memory lapses involving falling up some stairs and possibly accosting Mark's boy.
Dinner time came and Silver Wok was the choice. Dan decided we should come home and let the dogs out. Good thing because I went up stairs and had a good session puking up what little I had eaten. Yeah we didn't go out. I parked myself on the couch and didn't move much till I headed to bed.
By morning I was pretty much recovered though there was one quick incident in the middle of the night. I remember waking up at some point and for some reason, as only men would do I reached for my privates and could only locate one testicle. I remember a bit of panic before the other one came out of its hiding spot to assume its correct position. I'm not sure if that story would have been any different had I been sober or not. Good story to tell the grand-kids though. Thank goodness I will never have any grand-kids.
Anyway, Monday, my actual birthday was much more low key. We drove to Whitby to get our passport applications in. Dinner at Cambodiana with Howie & Neil. Thats about it really. Today was back to work, 3 more days to go.

At least I remember most of it...

Great weekend!
Highlights of the weekend include: Kingston's Gay Pride Parade (such as it was), shopping, Pride Party at The Grad Club, Brunch, Coffee with Kim, dinner and Ocean's 13 with Howie and Neil.
The parade was small but at least we have one. The weather was outstanding for it.
Shopping was very good. Tim is my new good luck charm when it comes to shopping since I found 2 camouflage items that I have been looking for for a while now.
The Grad Club was good for a change. Great crowd. Saw a few people I haven't seen in a while. Could have stayed later but what the hell.
Coffee with Kim and the most animated story about Aunt Lee to date. Every family has to have one and Aunt Lee must count for about 10.
Stopped by to see Howie and Neil while we were in the neighbourhood which of course turned into dinner and a movie. Ocean's 13: Not as good as 11 but better than 12.
So funny story about The Grad Club outing. I had my first total did-something-I-don't-remember-doing-even-after-being-told-I-did-it moment. Apparently Tim and I dropped our pants to show off our matching underwear. Yeah, totally have no recollection of that particular event. But it doesn't surprise me.
So it was a totally full and fun weekend. Two more like it to come I think. YAY!