Sunday Nattering

1) I wasn't happy on the scale today. I was 196, the same as I was the first morning I was home from vacation. I was hoping for 195 or even 194. I better see some results this coming week.

2) I did something. Something that is very, very out of character for me. I did something spontaneous. (Well, spontaneous for me.) You see, Ken's been on my back for the last few weeks about getting rid of my cell phone. I have a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go plan and I've been very happy with it. I only have to add $20 every three months to it to keep the service going (more if I use the time up before the three months.) Lately, I've been going through a lot more than that. I think I went through $60 or $70 last month alone. How I don't know. I generally don't speak on the phone if I can help it. But I've been racking up the bills. And Ken keeps giving me his opinion. Anyway, last week while on vacation, I got to spend the day with Michael & Kevin. We went to lunch and they had an errand to run, so we went along. Kevin was getting a new iPhone. I got to play with the demo model and I liked it. Less than 12 hours after getting home from Florida, we were at the Apple store and I bought myself a shiny new toy. Like I said, this is very out of character for me. Something like this I need to desire secretly for months before I mention it to Ken. Then he gets all gung-ho and says we need to go get one and I say "no" repeatedly. Then another month or two goes buy and I decide it's okay to do it. I'm a thinker. I need to think, think and then think some more until it's been so overthunk that it's crazy. But not this time. As soon as my transaction was finished, I made Ken walk me out into the mall to find a seat because I was having a reaction to my purchase.

So far I love it. I can't get my regular email to work through it yet, for some reason, but a quick trip to the Apple Store should fix that problem.

What applications do I need to have? I've downloaded a bunch of them already, but I know I'm missing tons.

3) I spent today getting all caught up on tv I missed while on vacation. I have to say that I really like the revamped Top Design. I wasn't going to watch, but I dvr'd it anyway. I got the first two episodes and was pleasantly surprised. I panicked when I saw the dvr didn't record I Love Money from last week, but then I found out that it wasn't on. And I remembered to watch the sneak peek of it this afternoon. I'm all caught up on that. And while looking through my Entertainment Weekly yesterday, I saw a review of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Wha...? I had no idea there was a new one already. I love MTV because they repeat it four hundred and nine times during the week. So I taped that and loved it. New format this year should prove interesting. I deleted all the Big Brothers I recorded. I kept up on what was going on in the house via the internet. No need to watch those now. I set the dvr for Fattest Loser, which starts on Tuesday. The only way to watch that show is at fast forward. I can't sit through two hours of it each week, when there is only about 20 minutes of content worth watching.

4) I added a "Following" thingie to the sidebar on this page. If you feel so inclined, add yourself to it. It's fun.

Cheese For A Sunday Morning

I Love Food

Another Disney vacation related post with pictures. This post is about food. Food food food. I let myself go a little bit this past week and ate like I wanted to, not like I should. I tried to take pictures of most of my meals, but I didn't get them all. Here are some highlights, though.

This is the Ploughman's Lunch served at the Rose & Crown in EPCOT.

Ploughman's Lunch - sliced beef, thick slives of ham and turkey, English and Irish cheeses, marinated vegetables over mixed greens and your choice of Stilton Cheese dressing or Mustard Vinaigrette

The Chocolate Scotch Cake from the Rose & Crown.

A chocolate cupcake from my hotel's food court. The cupcake was just okay, but the frosting was TERRIBLE. Needless to say this was the only cupcake I had all week.

My very delicious dinner from Chefs de France in EPCOT.

Demi poulet fermier roti, pommes puree au basilic et tomate braisee - Half of an all natural roasted chicken, basil mashed potatoes and braised tomato

Do you see a theme forming here with desserts?

Tarte au chocolat, banane et noix de coco, sauce pralinee - Chocolate tart with banana and coconut, praline sauce with chocolate ice cream.

This was lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe at MGM (I know it's no longer MGM, but I'm still calling it that, dammit.) It was the Caesar Salad with Salmon. It was pretty crappy.

The hot fudge sundae for dessert wasn't much better.

This is the Wienerschnitzel from the Wolfgang Puck's Cafe at Downtown Disney. This was delicious.

For dessert I had the Chocolate Mud Pie. This is quite possibly the tastiest thing I ate all week.

Chocolate Mousse from the bakery in France at EPCOT. Mmmmmmm...

I don't know what it is about these chocolate muffins, but they were so damn good. Nearly orgasmic, that's how good they were. I'm jonesing for one right now.

Ken started trying to get reservations at Le Cellier in the Canadian pavilion at EPCOT months ago. They were all booked up. He tried almost daily to get in. No luck. Until the last night we were there. A single reservation opened up and we grabbed it. This steak looks tiny, but it was fantastic.

The last day at Disney we realized we still had a bunch of lunch credits left we didn't use. So we walked around EPCOT eating. This is a chicken platter from Morocco. So good.

And it's a bad picture, but this is the fish & chips in England.

Ryan Star Jones sharing his lunch.

Enjoying a beverage.

Eating Chocolate Cake.

That was a chocolate covered, Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream on a stick.

Gaining weight was a major concern of mine while I was on vacation. I didn't want to gain, but I didn't want to eat like I normally do. Vacation calories don't count, right? The morning we flew to Disney, I weighed 191.5 lbs. I made a prediction as to what I'd weigh when we got home and wrote it down on the weight loss log hanging in the bathroom. I wrote down that I was allowed to weight 196.8 lbs. Since only morning weigh ins count, I was very happy to find that I was at 196.6 lbs when I stepped on the scale. This is good because the night before, I stepped on the scale at bedtime. I was 200.2 and that made me very sad. Seeing 200 hurt my feelings. It also drove home the point that I can occasionally indulge, but a solid week of indulging isn't something I'm allowed to do anymore. I'm anxious to see where I'm at tomorrow morning for my official weigh in. I'll be well above where I should be, but those extra pounds should hopefully drop off quickly. Hopefully by next Sunday I'll be back in the low 190's where I want to be.

Everyone In Dallas Loves Me

I'm back from my vacation in the Orlandos. I had the best time I've ever had there, even though it was also the most exhausting. Here are some pictures from the vacation. This set features the group of lovely people that I had the privilege to hang out with.

Me & Ryan hanging out at the Mexican Pavilion at EPCOT.

The Superbee and his new toy. (More on that in another blog post.)

At lunch with the fabulous Michael & Kevin.

Thursday night at Sleuth's with the cast and the gang.

Me with Ryan & Scott

Ryan & I at the Moroccan Pavilion.

Me, Nick Carter and Ryan

Mexico

Ryan, Me & a Great Big Ball

I think Taylor has a little bit of peanut butter on his ear.

Babaloo, Taylor & I.

Ricky & Me

Me, Michael, Comic Boy, Eric & Kevin on the Monorail

Me, Eric, Michael & Kevin

I'm enjoying a snack

Boys walking.

The Superbee didn't want to get his new perm wet

Jason, Ryan, Kevin, Me & Taylor

Me, Taylor (with another peanut butter covered ear) & Eric

Eric, Comic Boy & I on the Monorail

Pooped

Just got back to the room. It's a little quiet down time before part two of the day begins. Part one was a dozen faggots all gathering together at Magic Kingdom. There was Ken, Eric & Comic Boy, Taylor & Babaloo, Michael & Kevin, Ryan & Scott, Jason, Kevin and I. We met at 11 at the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey in front of the castle and did a tour of the park, hitting as many rides as possible. If I wasn't so damn tired, I would probably post some details. In about 90 minutes, Ken & I and Eric & Comic Boy are heading over to Chez Star Jones for a touch of the Hep C's and a big party. There will be a few more faces there than were at the Magic Kingdom.

Sorry for this post (which I hope is in English) being so short. I need to lay down for a little bit before the party.

Stolen Shamelessly From My New Husband

Last Chance Post

It's 6am. I've been up for an hour now. I've been out of bed for a half hour. I don't know why. The alarm is set for 7am. I got up extra early yesterday and I should be tired enough to still be asleep. But I'm not. So instead I'm surfing the internet and listening to podcasts. I'm on my third one already, with three more to go. I'm probably going to be done with them by the time I get to work.

Vacation starts officially today at 12:01pm. I was supposed to work the full day today, but with the hurricane situation currently going on down south, we had to reschedule our flight to Florida. I'm very excited to get away. But you want to hear something odd? This vacation seems very last minute/spur of the moment, even though it was planned months ago. I figured out why. Last weekend was my trip to NYC, meeting a bunch of people. I put all my socially awkward attention on that trip and refused to think of Florida until after NYC passed. And now that NYC is over, my attention is on this vacation and it's like it's brand new. I've been running around nutso trying to get ready to go. And my nerves are back on again. I'm going to be meeting a bunch of people I already know, at least through the internet. I'm going to be seeing Michael again, whom I met in person last year. Even though I knew him online for the better part of a decade (if not longer), I was a wreck meeting him. Honestly, my social awkwardness came out stronger meeting him than with just about anyone. I should be better around him now. I'll be meeting Kevin, Ryan, Ricky, Taylor, Jason, Sean and their respective partners for the first time. I seem to do better in bigger groups than I do one on one, though And I'll be seeing Eric and his boy again, too. This will be fun, once I allow the nerves to go.

I don't know how active the blog is going to be while on vacation. We'll have the laptop, but I don't know if I'm going to be using it much.

Fat

Just posting some more fatty pics of myself to remind me I never want to be there again.

When Sunday is Saturday

I love a three day weekend. LOVE! It's like a two day weekend, but with more laying around and crabbing.

Let's get the weight out of the way first. Last weekend I was up to 193. I'm happy to report I was back down to 190 today. That NYC weight is gone. And pretty darn quickly. Just in time for me to put on the Orlando weight. I'll have a full week to abuse my body, unlike the day and a half I had for NYC. I better be careful because I went out this morning and bought four pairs of new pants. I don't have any in my current size (34) and as the weather starts changing, I'm not going to want to wear shorts to work anymore. The office is fucking cold enough as it is.

Ken decided to work both days of the weekend. He never seems to be able to get ahead, so the weekends are the best time for him to get work done. All the insanity is missing and he can dive head first into what needs to be done. When he got home last night, I told him the least he could do was take me out to dinner. I was hungry and spent the whole day cleaning the house. I needed to get out, even if it was just to eat. Neither of us could figure out where to go. Ken suggested this new Japanese steakhouse that just opened up. I surprised him by agreeing. You need to know, I don't like new things. I like tried and true things. Any time he brings up a new place, I'm very quick to poo-poo it. But not this time for some odd reason. It's not because I love a Japanese steakhouse. In fact, I've never been to one. So we went. And Ken freaked out. Everything about it was confusing to him. He couldn't figure out the food, he was completely distracted by everything. He freaked out. And that's what makes the story even funnier, if you knew either of us. It's my job to feel very out of place and his to embrace the new experience. I ordered something that I don't remember exactly what it was (some sushi thingie), but it was fucking delicious. We didn't sit at one of the tables where the chef comes out and cooks in front of you, but maybe we'll do that next time.

Wait. I went to the website and looked up what it was I had. It was called Dynamite
(spicy tuna, yellowtail, avocado and cream cheese lightly fried w. baked scallop and crabmeat on top)

I'm starting to feel a bit sore right now. I picked today to really start organizing my office. And organizing includes filing away the last 20 months worth of comics. It's been almost two years since I did this last. This involves digging all the long boxes of comics out of my office closet, the guest room closet and the bedroom closet. And then I need to alphabetically file 2 1/2 long boxes of comics in the existing boxes. What sucks is there isn't enough room to do this without shifting books out of box A into box B, etc etc etc. And if you aren't familiar with a long box of comics, those bitches are heavy. And they keep getting heavier as comics are printed on heavier paper now than they used to be. Just so you know, I've complete unpacking, shifting and repacking 31 long boxes of books. I'm glad that task is over for the foreseeable future.

You know, this was an extremely long week for me. I'm not really ready to talk about it, but I've had so much on my mind and it's been very hard for me. I never realized exactly how much time I have to get lost in my brain at work until this week. This is why my posts this week have been mostly on the poopy side. I've been so worked up and I really don't know why. I know how it happened, I just don't understand why it happened. Okay, that's enough of that. For someone who isn't ready to talk about it.....

P.S.

I just noticed if you watch the video directly at YouTube, you can watch it in better quality. So do that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1rmj_LzKmY