Makin' Groceries

Robert at Sav-a-Center with a big MG mask


Robert and I went to da parish today to make groceries. We live in Orleans Parish (called counties every where else) and went to a store in St. Bernard Parish which people in Orleans Parish refer to as "da parish". The phrase "makin' groceries" comes from a direct translation of the French, (to do shopping) like many of our odd localisms. I've mentioned how people decorate for MG and the grocery stores are no exception. We found this huge mask balloon and it was photo time. I did major shopping and probably saved about 45 bucks over the store two blocks from my house.

And speaking of decorations, when we got back, Nina had finished putting up the last of the stuff on the house, (unless we get more, hehe).

da house


Last I heard, we're expecting about a half a dozen guests for the five days of Mardi Gras. But there's still room for more!


Todays Super Bowl Trivia

The average person has a very small chance of attending the Super Bowl these days and very few of them get to pay the $400 ticket price (1000 people are selected by an NFL lottery each year. The winners get to buy a ticket for $400.) Tickets are split up among the NFL teams and big sponsors who most often trade them off to other companies for goods and services. Those companies offer the tickets to brokers, who then sell them for anywhere from $1500 to $6000 a seat. One local company did a deal with the Saints; for $800,000 they got some promotional tie ins, a bunch of Saints tickets and season passes and 250 Super Bowl tickets, which they promptly turned over to a broker. They may recoup nearly all the money they put up for the deal just on the Super Bowl tickets.

Now get this. The NFL officially prohibits "scalping" of tickets and promises to invalidate those tickets and prosecute the seller. But they almost never catch anyone, (three in the last ten years...) even though the scalped tiks are advertised on web sites and freely sold and traded by brokers all over the country. Why can't they catch anyone? Well, it's very lucrative for all concerned; the sponsors, the teams and the NFL and it's just part of the way things are done.

Were you thinking this was all about a football game?

Decorative Afternoon



We spent the afternoon decorating the front of the house for Mardi Gras. I'll put a full picture up once it's finished; we're not sure it's enough yet. People decorate in New Orleans for Mardi Gras; the Christmas stuff comes down and the MG stuff starts going up. It's a little hard to be tasteful about it; it's a celebration of excess after all, and the MG colors are purple, green and gold! There are all kinds of stories about how those came to be the colors of MG and what they stand for, but I read once that those were the three colors that they could get enough of one year, and it stuck. Whatever the true story is, it makes for a glitzy holiday!


Super Bowl Security

The Super Bowl is a National Special Security Event this year, which puts it on the level of a presidential inauguration or a full meeting of the United Nations with regards to security. The Secret Service is overseeing everything and the FBI and local officials are also involved; millions are being spent. The closest any vehicles will get to the Dome on Sunday, is two blocks; everyone, including the commisioner of the NFL will walk at least that distance through all the security checks. (All though something tells me there will be a VIP line somewhere...) The Mississippi River will be patrolled on Sunday by the Coast Guard, and there is a "no fly zone" in the area of the Super Dome. In fact, today while we were working on the front of the house, fighter jets flew over several times, as well as a number of Coast Guard helicopters, apparently in rehearsal for Sunday. I find this all rather...amazing.



Trashy News

Noelle Bush


Jeb Bush's daughter Noelle was arrested for prescription fraud, in case you hadn't heard. Her mug shot was plastered all over the news, but this one, from CNN's web site has to be the worst looking version of that mug shot! Poor thing...

Two Cams Now Working

Cam One


Cam Two


Why two cams? Because I wanted to learn how to do it, (it's not like anyone requested it, hehe). It took me a lot of time to figure out, I'm ashamed to say... Just couldn't figure out java pop up windows. So far it's working. Now that I've got the elements working, I can redesign the look of the page. I've also been working on an intro page for the Mardi Gras pics from this year; I'm going to try to get them on line each day as they are taken.


Latest Super Bowl News

One of the big topics is what's not happenening! Looks like there are a lot less big corporate parties happening this time around; catering businesses are reporting much less action than they had expected, limo companies are fighting over decreased business, etc. Reasons given: less corporate spending in general and competition with the Winter Olympics. Still, the 33,000 hotel rooms are mostly full and there are rumors of last minute bookings for parties. (Doubt Enron, Global Crossing or K-Mart will be throwing any last minute bashes!)

In addition to the long list of entertainers so far, (U2, Paul McCartney, the Boston Pops, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Bilge, Marc Anthony, with Sting and No Doubt at the Friday night show), I noticed today that The BareNaked Ladies will also be performing.

The Super Dome has been surrounded by an enormous chain link fence that includes a several block wide perimeter area and security is supposed to be very tight. It's rumored that some of the Bush family will be in town, but that's unconfirmed and no one's talking.


Down Under

My friend from Australia, Dave has started posting on the message board. I made the mistake of accusing him of photoshopping one of his pics that he posted, totally forgetting about the fact that this man has more dirt on me than just about anyone...and the pictures to prove it! I better be real nice to him for a while, hehe.

ABBA

I love the ABBA greatest hits CD. It's amazing how many songs on that CD that I know! It's not like I ever used to really follow the group, it's just that the songs ended up sinking into my brain. I can't believe how many words I know for the songs.... well, they were a Pop group, the songs were very popular in their time.

The songs remind me of a very wonderful time in my life...

durlx in the middle, hehe...


On my right was crazy Sophie, and on the left, my wonderful and almost enchanted friend, Danny Jones, Ms. Danny Jones in the phone book... We had sooo much fun! (That particular day, as we walked around the Quarter, a tourista asked Danny why he was dressed up like that and he calmly told the woman that the city paid us $200 a piece to entertain the visitors, but that we would also accept tips. The woman and her Iowa girlfriends took us to the nearest gay bar and bought us many rounds of drinks. At one point, one of the women said, "You guys are so much fun! We don't have anything like this back in Iowa! All we have is CORN!"

A hush fell over the bar and one of the queens swirled around on her barstool, fixed the woman with her well made up eye and said, "We call it maize!"

Everyone fell out, that's when that Maizola Margarine "indian girl" commercial was on national TV. Everyone laughed so hard!.

I have no way of knowing where these Iowa housewives are today, but I bet at least one of these women remembers this. Lying next to her husband... laughing to herself..."damn, those boys were so funny!"

Funny? We were brilliant, hysterical, fabulous!

A day without pictures is like...

..this journal entry!

I spent most of the day working on an a page that will introduce the Mardi Gras pics that I'm going to take this year. However they turn out, there's going to be a fabulous opening page for them! It was fun to do a little graphic design and I'm just learning the new stuff from a recent update, so it's been most interesting. I found some new fonts today as well.

I'm also working on a lil birthday animation for a certain British Subject who turns 29 tommorrow. It will be posted in a bit.

I did stop in at the Phoenix, but the early evening group, (one couldn't call it a crowd) did not hold my interest. meow hehe.

I think I'll go back later, though.

There's an odd looking vehicle parked in front of the house.



Which can only mean one thing... Nina's here!

Nina and Robert waving hi!


Nina comes to visit every year for Mardi Gras and spends a couple of weeks. She originally came to visit the guys next door, but over the years, she's become friends with everybody in the neighborhood. She's certainly become part of my group of Mardi Gras friends. After living in New Orleans for a while, you acquire a group of MG friends; the people that you do Mardi Gras with. The group will generally include some long term local friends, some people who show up from out of town every year and a few new people you just pick up along the way. We usually have about 20 or 30 people at the breakfast we do on Fat Tuesday Morning. It's the group that makes Mardi Gras fun.

Nina looking funny.


Nina actually drives here in that thing from St Louis and stays in it while she's here. She had a few breakdowns this trip, but she made it thanks to some guys along the way who helped her replace the starter. (One of them was real cute, she says, and she tried to convince him to come along. That Nina, she's always thinking of us. hehe.) She travels with her dogs, three of them!

The dogs, whose names I can never remember.


Now that she's here, I think it's time for a Mardi Gras Martini!

They're serving this martini at Galatoire's this year, but if you can't make to New Orleans, don't worry, I've got the recipe!

2 onces vodka (very good vodka, please)
1 ounce Triple Sec
1/4 ounce creme de menthe dark

Combine ingredients with ice and shake vigorously until well chilled. Strain into chilled martini glass rimmed with purple sugar (red and blue food coloring does the trick) and garnish with a lemon twist.

You got yer Mardi Gras colors; purple, green and gold and yer ready to party!

Winter?

It was hot today! I think we broke the previous record for the day of 80 degrees. (It's still 82 in the house at 6:30 PM). This winter had been mostly mild with no real hard freezes and quite a few unusually warm days.

I spent most of the day plugging away at the computer, working on the opening page with the flash sunrise. It takes a long time to load and wasn't very friendly to those with slower connections, so I added a menu at the bottom which shows up immediatly for those who don't want to or can't wait for the page to load. This all takes me far longer than it should, since almost everytime I do something new I have to learn how first, but each time it gets easier. The website is doing a good job of making me learn things.




Fosse: From Broadway



Great Performances on PBS tonight features a show devoted to Bob Fosse! I first became aware of who Bob Fosse was with Caberet. He definitely changed the way people dance and he's certainly one of the great choreographers. This should be a really fabu show!


Went over to the side of the house where my friend Margaret lived; only been there a few times since she passed about a year ago. Robert's done a lot of work over there and it doesn't really look like her place anymore. We sorted through some things and I hauled back a box of silverware and some kitchen stuff. For years, we did holidays over there and I always ended up leaving things after a big dinner. Now I have serving spoons again...

Is that all there is?

Peggy Lee


Peggy Lee passed away last night at the age of 81. I think my favorite song of hers will always be "Is That All There Is?" for which she won a Grammy. I remember thinking, the first time that I heard it, that I'd never heard another song even remotely like it. The recording shows off her interpretive skills at their highest peak taking a highly unusual song and turning it into a classic. She had an incredible career with many hits, many memorable performances. You can read more about her at her official web site. Peggy Lee

That's all there is.










How did I forget this?

Alex and friends



I was going through the pics from Vegas to send a few to someone and I came across this photo of Alex at the MGM Grand at the Wizard of Oz store. I know that I had intended to post it... At any rate, here it is!



No news yet on the job. But I've got some people making calls for me...

Monday and MLK Day

I woke up late today and in poor condition; indigestion and just a generally rotten physical feeling. So I didn't make it to the Martin Luther King day parade that passes three blocks from my house, but I could hear the marching bands as the parade passed. MLK day is a big deal in New Orleans; a day for all the politicians to get out and make speeches and ride in the parades, and a big day for partying. Remember this is a town where people have jazz processions at funerals!

Saturday night/Sunday morning, I finished the first installment of the Words/Stories of Love section. It's a memorial to Bill and our relationship. The anniversary of his death is coming up soon and after seeing someone that looked shockingly like him in the airport on my way back from Vegas, I felt like it was time to do something to document the memories. Stories of Love.

I watched most of the Golden Globes Awards last night. It was good to see Six Feet Under get some recognition; it's simply one of the best television show ever made!

More Carnival

The Queen Of Barkus 2002


There are over 100 Mardi Gras organizations in New Orleans, but the Krewe of Barkus is devoted entirely to dogs! They have a canine King and Queen, a canine court and a parade (with costumed dogs) through the French Quarter. The event was started years ago by the owner of several of our most successful gay bars and has grown to include a party and a ball. It's a big event with national and local sponsors and it gets a lot of media coverage. For a couple of years, Delta Burke marched with the parade. Many of the former canine kings and queens of the krewe were adopted by their owners from the Louisiana SPCA, which receives the proceeds from registration and membership.


Tomorrow morning I'm going to interview for a position at a new hotel that's opening up. I'm well qualified for the job so I am hopeful. Wish me luck!

The Amon Ra Ball

Before the ball


Well, it was fabulous! The theme for Amon Ra's 37th ball was "The History Of The World According To Amon Ra". As usual, it was a unique presentation of the sublime and the bizarre! Unfortunately, I can't provide any pictures of the actual ball, that's not allowed. The official photos and videos come out later....

I did get a chance to talk to a lot of very amusing people and during the intermission, I had a chance to pee next to Nelson Savoie, who's running for City Council, District "C". I've met him before, I like him, (he's a person who get's things done...) and I hate one of the people he's running against. They'll be bringing some signs over to put in front of the house...

Later, after the ball, we ran into Nelson again on stage after the ball, as we were talking to Pat, the President of Amon Ra this year. He was also the narrator for this years ball.

Patrick was God


Pat narrates most of the gay Mardi Gras Balls and has done so for many years: an incredibly witty and intelligent man!

We sat at the table of a former Queen of Amon Ra, Peaches...

Peaches, as Queen Of Amon Ra


Peaches, this evening, and Joel


And, of course, I was there with Robert, ("Robea" on the msg boards), my next door neighbor and friend, the man whom I've spent many Mardi Gras seasons with...

Robert and Darryl


Thank you, my dear friend!

After the ball...


A good time was had by all.

Mardi Gras Kick-Off


One of the first Mardi Gras parades is tonight. The Krewe du Vieux is a smaller marching krewe with hand pulled or mule drawn floats and a very satirical bent, very true to the tradition of Mardi Gras. The themes are always of a political and sexual nature; a few years ago, one of the sub-krewes had a hundred marching penis heads in honor of one of our local bright lights whom they felt deserved the title "dickhead". Last year the theme had something to do with outer space...

This sub krewe "Probes Uranus"


Parade marchers


This year the theme is "Depraved New World" and you can read all about it here. Unfortunately, we have a little logistics problem tonight; the parade starts at 7 PM and we need to be at the Amon Ra Ball by 7:30 PM. The parade passes two blocks from my house, but the ball is a 20 minute drive away...

Ayers Rock ?


Actually, it's not! It's a gas station in the way to Sydney from my friends house in Australia! Everybody stops there to take a picture. I had a long talk on the phone with my Oz friends David and Glennie early Friday morning; they are such wonderful guys and we always laugh a lot on the phone. I wish I could visit them more often, but it's a bit of a hike, a fifteen hour flight from LAS! There aren't many places on the planet farther away from New Orleans... sigh. Love you, guys! mwah!

There was an article in the paper today about the house that Lillian Hellman was born in and lived in until she was five. It's being designated a National Literary Landmark. I've been in the house, but prior to it's current renovation. It was a lovely old place, but odd here and there; you had to walk through the bathroom to get to the kitchen! I remember it primarily for the party given there many years ago by the deckhands from the Steamboat Natchez who lived there at the time. What a deriously hot bunch of boys! Ah, memories...

Today just seemed to blow by. Got up, did the usual morning things, (checked to see how I looked in the webcam... bwahahaha!). Had a pleasant chat with the neighbors, Robert and Raymond... all our backyards abut; we just walk into the yard, through a gate and there we are. There were a bunch of e-mails; I had promised a batch of airport pics to my friend Davo, in Australia. (He loves air travel and I often take pics while I am traveling of the airports and planes to send to him.) Dave is also the consumate journalist. I have asked him to let me post just a bit of his daily memoir so you can see what a really well written journal looks like.

I've been working on the site; added a java script to the cam site. I couldn't write a java script to save my life, but I am finally learning a bit of how they work and how to use them. The images now fade from one to the next and I have my lil logo at the bottom of the frame. Not dramatic I guess, but I like learning this stuff and every little bit interests me.

Finally got out of the house and on the way to the corner drug store I ran across this oddity:

Oddity


You have to realize that people decorate their houses in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Often the red and green come off, and the purple, green and gold go on over the same lights. This lil plastic baby was odd, it was just on the rail all by itself. It had been there for a few days, but today I noticed that someone had decorated it a bit.

I have mentioned the neighborhood store on the message board a few times. Here's a picture of it.

It's pronounced "Row-Bears", French, you know.


Found my tuxedo shirt... It was looking very dingy... Found some miracle stain remover stuff and then ran it through the wash. It'll pass; a few extra Mardi Gras beads and no one will think to check the neckline. Have you ever ironed a pleated front tux shirt? It's not too hard after the first 20 or 30 tries; I hardly have to think about it while I'm doing it now.

Not exactly a major day, but there's always something...

After a grey blah day yesterday, today was gorgeous! Robert and I took a trip to Chalmette to do some errands and some totally un-glamorous shopping. We went to the 99 Cent store, "where everything is always under a dollar!". Robert got some very strange iridescent pictures of the Virgin Mary, (he collects tacky religious icons). The rest of the stuff was all household items, mostly off brand stuff. We had lunch at a BBQ place, (Thanks Robert!), did a grocery run and then headed home. After putting away the stuff I got, I decided to walk over to the house where the film "Sonny" is being shot.

There were a lot of trucks parked every where and as usual, there was no parking for blocks around.


It's a huge old house!


Not much was going on out front but the security guy didn't want me any closer with the camera.


I hung out on the corner for a while, took a few more shots. Nothing happened. (I don't know if you've ever been on a movie set, but most of what happens is very boring to watch, and all the action was taking place inside anyway). And not a glimpse of anybody with star power, let alone James Franco. I decided not to hang around.

On the way home, I stopped for a minute and considered getting another tattoo.


I didn't. But I do seem to keep thinking about it.

Took a walk through the park instead.


Robert reminded me today that the first gay Carnival Ball is this Saturday! I've got to get my tux out and make sure it's ready. We will be sitting at the table of this lovely creature.

Former Queen of the Krewe of Amon Ra, Peaches.


The balls are always hysterical fun; everyone is dressed in formal attire, the costumes are amazing and the group of people that I usually sit with are very amusing. I love going to these balls; they are part of gay history in New Orleans and have been so for forty years. The people that belong to these Krewes and put on the balls are so dedicated to it and they always put on a good show.

It's going to be a fun night!

Well, back to normal sort of. Mardi Gras Parades start in a week, there's a Gay Carnival ball, then the Super Bowl and then more parades and a few more Carnival balls and then Mardi Gras Day.

Bush, (the prez) was in town today to give a speech and he did not stay at my house, so I don't care. He apparently got through dinner last night and breakfast this ayem without incident.

There was an article in the paper that Nicholas Cage is in town with a production crew to film the Indie film "Sonny". Cage is directing and is not acting in the film. Those with roles in the film include Brenda Blethyn, Mena Suvari, Harry Dean Stanton, Seymour Cassel and this hotty James Franco!



They are doing a lot of shooting in the $1.45 mil mansion that Cage bought last November, which is about six blocks from my house. I think I'll go for a walk with my camera tomorrow.

Cage has been seen all around town (and apparently in my neighborhood as well) the last few days with current love interest Lisa Marie Preseley and his uncle Francis Ford Coppola. Uncle owns a home here as well.

(How's that for a tinsel town report?)

I've added a Mardi Gras gallery and slide show in the Images section of the site and added some new listings in my links page. And, today I found a post on the message board from my friend and next door neighbor, Robert! We both find it very funny that he looks at my cam to see if I'm at my desk and that we e-mail each other; his desk is about 10 feet away across the alley. He doesn't have a cam, so I have to look out the window to see if he's there. ~grin~

The Vegas Wrap Up

Las Vegas is such a trip! The people who design these hotels must be on fabulous drugs! In an earlier journal entry, I said that it was the most improbable collection of architectual folly...the kind of thing they used to do on the grand English estates; build a little building that had no purpose other than to amuse the eye. In Las Vegas, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent to amuse and attract the visitor.

Two of the theme hotels.
Alex stayed at the Luxor


NY, NY was across the strip.


The big luxury players...

The Bellagio, where Alex and I had a brilliant and pricey lunch.


The Venetian, my favorite. The lobby.


The Venetian, the mall



The Venetian could have been tacky, but they did everything perfectly. It's amazing! They got away with a copy of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel because it's pretty well done! (I got a laugh out of Bryan when I told him Bob Smith's line about Michealangelo, "Only a gay man could spend three years painting a room!") The public areas of the hotel are stunning. When you walk into the shopping area, you actually feel like you are outside, the "ceiling" is the sky...the light is right and the shadows from the sun are true. It's an amazing piece of set design.

All the hotel wonders aside, remove all the exotic charms of the strip, and the real thing behind this trip to Vegas starts to show.

This was a lot of fun mostly because of the guys I got to meet. When you get to meet people "in the flesh" that you already know from the internet, well, it's pretty interesting. The feeling is something between meeting a friend and meeting someone new; both exciting and familiar. On meeting, there was a smile of recognition, a laugh and then you started talking. Never seemed to be an awkward moment... no introductions necessary... it was so cool.

So anyways, I'd like to thank everyone... all the camguys...

GC from GayCams for setting this up! And the Cam guys for showing up.... Mikey from FunkcamLive (a sweetheart), Dazed of DazedCam a hot lil guy who's not such a bad driver, really!, zillafag (wish he could have stayed longer), Naked Steve from Naked Tony and last but not least, Bryan from ChaosInAustin!

I'd like to thank Alex Gildzen for being such a hoot and walking the path to friendship with me.

And, I'd like to thank the people that sponsored the fabulous parties we went to: all the guys at Gipsy, the people from Cybersocket Magazine and Chi Chi LaRue and the other sponsors: Bedfellow, Python Video, Internet Fulfillment, CCBill, Chi Chi Chicks, Men on the Net, Bad Puppy, Ounique, Specialty Publications, Celebrity Cash, Deviant Cash, Naked Sword GayMegaSites, MenofSteel.com, and GayVN for the first two parties at Gipsy and especially MenOnTheNet and Bill Rivers and Lisa from BadPuppy for the Gay WebMasters Crystal Ball!

It was soooo much fun! I'm glad I went!

I bet by now, you wish you did too!

More Vegas! The CES Show and...

Tuesday morning Alex and I went to the Consumer Electronics Show. Registration was all screwed up and took quite a bit of time and walking, but we finally finished with that and got into the show. It's huge! We walked around looking at this and that and then we ran into Patrick Norton from Screen Savers on the TechTV Network. I rather impulsively yelled out "Patrick!" and went over and shook his hand and told him how much I loved the show. I think I startled him a bit, hehe; good thing I didn't mention his kilt!

We met up with Bryan about 1 PM after an amusing game of cell phone hide and seek. We had arranged to meet next to this big cube thing that was broadcasting music, but we couldn't find each other. We connected by cell phone again and were trying to figure out where each other was when we saw each other about thirty feet away. We had been standing on opposite sides of this thing! We met another guy, Patrick and then went into the show.

There was this cute little car.


And a tech fashion show


There was sooo much there! Definitely a tech geek's wet dream! It would take days to see it all.

OK, OK! What you really want to hear about is...

The BadPuppy/MenOnTheNet party, The Gay Webmasters Crystal Ball!

This was a great party and I think everybody had a good time. By now everyone had had some time to get aquainted and everything seemed to click. There were VIP badges, food, bags full of goodies and prizes galore...

Bryan and Naked Steve in Dueling sideburns. hehe.


Bill Rivers, owner of BadPuppy, with Dazed



Then the entertainment portion of the evening began which included stripper boys and some suprised and startled members of the audience, some who are familiar to you. The set up was that people could nominate someone from the audience to be selected to be on stage. Then bills of various denominations were tucked here and there in the clothing of the individuals and the strippers had to find the money in the most embarrasing way possible.

Of the first three up on stage, one of them was Bryan...



Kind of looks like the beginning of the Dating Game, doesn't it? And then the action began! This guy seemed to be giving Bry quite a lot of attention!



But it doesn't look like he minded it too much!



Then Alex was called up to the stage! Of all the scandalous shots I took, this was the only one I could publish!



The rest of the evening featured fabulous prize drawings, more dancing boys and fun! Thanks go out to BadPuppy and MenOnTheNet for a great party and a good time!


Next journal entry, Vegas Wrap Up!

This trip continues to be the most fun!

Monday Alex and I met for breakfast at the Luxor where he's staying, after that we went down the strip to the Venetian to see the Guggenhiem collection; a fairly impressive collection of great pictures, many of them from the Hermitage in Russia. It was mid afternoon by then and time for a break.

After a little rest, GC, funkymunc, Alex and I went down to the bridge at the Venetian where we met Bryan and Dazed.

Alex, Mikey and GC on the bridge


Alex and Mikey


GC and Bryan


Then, Bryan, Alex, Dazed and I went to dinner at the WB Stage 16 restaurant in the Venetian and had a very good meal. Next, we walked through the shopping area at the Venetian. It's an indoor mall that looks like it's outdoors. It's really rather incredible!

Bryan, Dazed and Alex


Then it was time to go to the Gipsy for yet another party, where we met up with GC, Mickey, Naked Steve and Vegas Boy. There were a lot of Chi Chi LaRue's boys there also...



Alex and Dazed


It was a fun group, a good crowd and a great time. The next pic is of Alex stacking ten dimes on Bryan's forehead in the parking lot of Gipsy. It's part of Alex's dime project and, well he will have to explain it to you...



Today, we are going out to the Consumer Electronics Show (shiny sparkly new toys!) and this evening to the Bad Puppy/MenOnTheNet party at the Gipsy.

The flight to Vegas went smoothly with really great veiws of the canyons and Hoover Dam. It's been a long time since I've been west of the Mississippi; I had forgotten how amazing the scenery was! I got to my room about noon.



Got in touch with Alex and we met for lunch at Olives in the Bellagio and then walked around a bit. Took a short break in the afternoon and then Alex came over to my room where we met up with GC, funkymunc and Zillafag. We all walked to the Venetian and met Bryan from ChaosInAustin. After talking for a while and stopping to get something to eat, we went to the CyberSocket party at Gipsy hosted by the incredibly beautiful Chi Chi LaRue! rEx of RexWorld won Best Personal Web Site!



Alex, Bryan and I headed back to our respective hotels fairly early. I had like three hours of sleep before I left NO and with the time change it's starting to push 24 hours....

This city is such a candy land! It's the most improbable collection of architectual folly...




I took a bunch of pictures of the guys here, but they turned out so awful that I'm not going to post them. (People would actually pay me not to; they are that bad!) I'll take some more tomorrow.

But now it's time for bed. How am I going to sleep in this room?! I got the slut suite!



Mirrors everywhere! I'll need to sleep with a blindfold!

So far kiddies, it's fun!

More tomorrow!

It's been coooold here the last few days! Just about freezing at night and low forties in the daytime with sunny skies. Today it's 60 and ready to rain. Two days from now it will be close to freezing again. Winter is like that here.

My friend Robert from next door and I got together to exchange some X-mas gifts Thursday. One of my gifts was some cologne, a kind of joke present, called Bod Man.



There were three kinds! They are named "X", Fresh Blue Musk and Really Ripped Abs! Hilarious! I tried some of the Really Ripped Abs and suddenly felt myself bursting with teen-tosterone! hehe

I've got to pack today for Vegas, (which involves cameras, batteries, cords, etc. in addition to the more regular stuff). I spent an hour and a half on the phone with tech support because my laptop was behaving stupidly. Finally got it fixed although for a while I thought I was going to have to send it in. So I should be able to do updates from Vegas. I just hope the Tropicana doesn't charge for local calls. I've got a really early flight tomorrow; should get to the airport around five, even though I know I'll spend an hour just sitting around after I get there. You just never know when something stupid will happen and screw the whole situation up!

I've had a funny hat episode; sometimes I just can't resist the urge to wear some odd piece of headgear! Pics are on the message board.

And I've been listening to Shimmerplanet a lot! I admit that I was worried that I wouldn't like it and have to think of something nice to say about it, but that's not the case. I really love it! I'd recommend it to anybody.

Next report from Las Vegas!

We took the "T' into Boston with Emma, Chris and Kris on the afternoon of the 31st.


We went to this great place in the North End, they had the biggest meatballs!


Afterwords, the North End looked pretty. Very kind of old world.


Then, we walked over to the Boston Common to see the fireworks. We saw the early fireworks, held at seven PM, which was the same time as midnight GMT, so I might have been yelling Happy New Year the same time as Ford! We also saw some extraordinary ice sculptures. It was, btw. freezing cold; I had forgotten how that felt! The fire works were very good though.



Today, I flew back home to New Orleans and the sky on the flight from Chicago to New Orleans was brilliant and unearthly...




Home now in New Orleans, the weather is horrible; close to freezing and wet! But Puddin' is sooo happy to see me after ten days!

Now I have to get ready for Vegas!