Vibrant.(Still) Unrepentant. Badass. Old. Queer

Guess who has 4 tickets to see Barry Manilow on February 9th? That's right! ME! Not that they're great seats or anything (I think they are approximately 1.5 miles from the stage) , but they were only $20 each (after fees and taxes) . Still, how many opportunities does one get to see Barry Manilow in concert? I mean, he's, like, 100 years old. I need to find a couple more people who want to go. Tomokito is willing. I haven't asked Y yet. SCGB doesn't like Barry Manilow (* gasp *) . I think my secret love for SCGB died a little (but just a little) when I found out. If I can't find any friends who are interested, I guess I'll have to sell the extra tickets on the Black Market ... or I'll open it up to local blogreaders. *smooches*

And, so, it seems, does the Neighbors Will Hear . He got all the correct answers on the photo quiz yesterday. Congratulations! For the rest of you, here are the answers: 1. Pier 1, 2. Whole Foods (mmm. cheese) , 3. Whole Foods, 4. Borders (although "outhouse" was a good guess Clio Bluestocking ) , 5. Pier 1, and 6. DSW. Now, wasn't that fun? I was chatting with this guy last night, and he suggested that the Rudy Giuliani Countdown to Victory *giggle* calendar is a Collector's Item and that I should run back out there to buy it. What say you, Loyal Blogreaders? Perhaps I could make it a prize in my next Blog Contest? My evening was quite exciting. I surfed the web, watched a movie, and then went up to Tomokito's for margaritas ... which Across the Hall from DUN made. They were ... strong. Such boozy goodness. Mmmm. We watched two hours of PR4 reruns, ate chips and salsa, and drank. YUM. Tonight, I have a lot of paperworky things to do - pay a few bills, enter data ...

4 Stores! 6 Photos! All taken within hip, happenin' downtown Silver Spring. Can you guess which photos were taken where? Have fun! And, yes, the Rudy Giuliani Countdown to Victory Calendar (only $4) completely cracked me up.

VUBOQ is going on a Cell Phone Camera Photo Taking Adventure in 30 minutes. Same VUBOQtime. Same VUBOQspace. Same VUBOQchannel.

It has finally happened. That seasonal misery known as January has seeped into my bones. I thought I could fight it by keeping myself active and entertained. Yet, January emerges victorious with less than a week to go. If only I could go to bed to hibernate until March (the Best Month of the Year). Alas ... In slightly more exciting news, I'm doing laundry tonight. And I think we're gathering at Tomokito's for margaritas. I need to knit more so I can finish the scarf I've been working on for eons. I want to start a project for me this weekend. I also want to make a pair of mittens or two (well, at least start the mittens). We'll see ... AND, I need to step up my job hunting. I hate job hunting.

The soup was all right. Board meeting went well enough. I feel uninspired. *smooches*

This morning, waking up in the not-quite-heated-through apartment and walking to work in the dreary-misty-grayish rain made VUBOQ yearn for the soup, perhaps some sort of curried soup. Thanks to the wonders of epicurious . I have found exactly what I was craving: Curried Potato, Spinach and Garbanzo Bean Soup . YUM. I ventured forth unto the Whole Foods and have purchased every single ingredient I need. Do you know what this means? Can you feel the excitement? The sense of History? Yes, kittens, VUBOQ will, for the first time in ... eons, be following a recipe with no substitutions . I KNOW!!!! Once you have regained your composure, pulled yourself back into your chair, or ... um ... been given smelling salts, please continue on with your bright and cheery day. PS. To my brother/brother's friends, who might stumble across this blog by putting my flickr ID into a search engine (like, i dunno, earthlink ?), welcome ! Word to the wise though, you may want to skip over the parts about ...

As of about 5PM yesterday, we had heat AND hot water. VUBOQ is happier than a pig in mud ... because he knows he can shower afterwards. What? No, that wasn't some sort of crude sexual reference, and you are all Super Pervy Monkeys for thinking so. In other news, I'm going to be putting up some sort of Linky Luv List of people who will be attending the Global Blogger Meet-Up (March 15-18ish). If you are coming (and you know you want to), drop me a comment and/or email so that I can include you on the list. No pressure. I guess that's about it for now. More later, I'm sure ... *smooches* [If you missed it, there's a link to the Surprise Party Pix in the previous entry]

Hard to tell us apart, innit? Update 1: Here are the other photos from the party: Flickr set or slideshow ! Update 2: We have HEAT and HOT WATER!!! w00t!!!

When I got home from work on Friday, I stopped by the boiler room to see how things were going. The heating guys had some good news: One boiler was up and running, which meant heat, but no hot water for the weekend. YAY. Unfortunately, a few hours later, I received a call from another Board member. "I hope you have a stiff drink in your hand," she said. "Of course, I do," I replied. "Don't be ridiculous. What's up?" "There's a foot of sewage back in the boiler room, and the working boiler has stopped." When WSSC started replacing the broken pipe, they used a smaller pipe to bypass the work area. Unfortunately, the smaller pipe could not convey all the waste and it backed up into the boiler room again. *durf* So, after moving Isabella into DUN's apartment (because they have an electric heater), I high-tailed it out of there. I called Y to come pick me up (this was around 9:45PM), so I could have a hot shower at his apartme...

So why did I volunteer to be on the Board? Here's the story: Last night, around 11ish, Tomoko and I smelled something burning. We checked her kitchen. Nothing. Then, I felt her radiators. They were coolish to the touch. "That's weird," I thought. I went down to my apartment to see if anything was wrong there. My radiators were also coolish. Then, Tomoko called to see if I had any hot water. Nope. So, I thought I would check the boiler room beneath my building to see if maybe a circuit breaker had tripped or something. The picture in the previous post was what I saw. And, kittens, that isn't just plain old water. It's sewage. There was poo . And used condom s. I immediately called the other Board Members and we swung into action ... calling every emergency number we had on hand. I turned off the boiler emergency switch (because that seemed like the thing to do, since the boilers were mostly submerged in sewer water). The rest of the timeline invol...

This is what we've been dealing with since about 11PM last night.

Dear Teachers: While I appreciate the fact that you are not only trying to instill a sense of environmental awareness into your young charges, but also teaching them how to write and present an intelligent argument, I wish you would do a little research before providing them with a general address to the Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters in Washington, DC. Why is that? For one thing, the people who work in the EPA mailroom are duuuuuuuuumb ... and lazy. Rather than read your students' letters to determine where they should go, they will send them to me. It doesn't matter if you're writing about water pollution or air quality or dumptrucks from Canada unloading garbage in the state of Michigan (up to 350 per day! Dumptrucks, not letters). We are the catch-all, and I'm tired of catching it all. So, here's a brief tutorial of the EPA website: 1. Go to http://www.epa.gov/ 2. Select your issue (in this example, we'll use "wastes"): 3. Look for ...

My very special after work time started as it normally does. I came home, changed into my pajamas, spent a few minutes doing some light cleaning, and checked my email. Then, since it was laundry day, I sorted my dirty clothes (by color not smell!). I rewarded myself with a negroni (garnished with a slice of blood orange! I *heart* blood oranges), because it is bitter and because it is my heart . My cable-possessing neighbor was at Manolo's annual sale in NYC, so we were unable to watch Project Runway . Instead, I had invited a few neighbors over to chill, drink wine, and knit (and maybe eat popcorn!). At 6:30ish, I trudged over to the laundry room to start a load or two. When I returned thirty minutes later to throw everything into the dryers, the laundry room was dark. *click* *click* *click* I flipped the light switches. Nothing. *click* I flipped them again. Still nothing. Something must be wrong. I propped open the door and checked the washing machine. It was full ...

Update to follow in a minute ... He called around 5:30, and I said he could come over for dinner around 7. He called at 7:15 to say he would be there in 10 minutes. I was on the phone with Mike. "He said he's had a big revelation while in Puerto Rico. I'm hoping we're on the same page and that he has realized we're only using each other as place-holders until someone better comes along." A little after 8, my door buzzer rang. I opened the door and there he was ... with a rose. "I thought there was a flower shop in your neighborhood," he said, as he gave me a kiss. No one's every brought me flower before. "I did a lot of thinking," he said, standing in the kitchen while I stirred the soup. "You're like a boomerang. I keep throwing you away, but you keep coming back." "Um. It's more the other way around I think," I interjected. "Well, I know I have trouble saying this, but ... (pause)(deep breath)...

... If You Want to Date Me (long-term like) 1. When I am angry/upset about something (that is not you), I do not want your advice (no matter how lovingly given). I want sympathetic murmurings until I calm down (usually in 1 to 5 days). After that time (and only after that time) is it OK to offer advice.* 2. When I am angry/upset about something (that is you), I do not want you to defend yourself. I want you to apologize with little or no fuss until I calm down (usually in 7 to 12 days). After that time (and only after that time) is it ok to explain your weird rationale and why, even though you are still wrong, you think you are right. 3. After the first time I invite you to my home, you are no longer a guest. Please do not sit around expecting me to wait on you. You know where the friggin' water is. Get your own glass. And, while we're at it, helping out (like, y'know, cleaning up after yourself or making the bed) is also acceptable, if not highly desirable.** 4....

My office. It has no heat. Here is a dramatic representation of VUBOQ: I'm really quite underwhelmed about life right now. VUBOQ needs a new attitude. And a new job. Does anyone want to hire VUBOQ? Apparently not. VUBOQ bought a plane ticket today (because he is *rolling* in money and is not at all concerned about credit card debt) to go to his brother's surprise birthday party (shh. it's a surprise) this weekend. Fortunately, the parental units will be partially subsidizing the cost of the ticket. *whew* Y wants to get together tonight to talk. He's been in Puerto Rico on holiday. While there, he had time to think. Hm. Wonder what he wants? Should be interesting ... I think I'm going to make soup tonight. Total Randomness brought to you by ... Cheap Office Management Company, the letter K(brr), and the number 12 (degrees).

Happy MLK Day, Kittens! Although it is sunny and blue-skied here in the DC/Metro Area, it is also FORKIN' FREEZING. I don't think I will be venturing forth into the Great Outdoors today ... unless someone can convince me ... or bribe me with booze ... or a delicious combination of the two. Come to think of it, I haven't ventured out of doors much at all this weekend. It's been cold. And the Metro is seriously forked - 30 minute delays on the Red Line because of trackwork at Metro Center. So, Friday, instead of meeting Ray and Joey at teh GayBarz, I played Scrabble and Boggle and drank wine with SCGB. I was also in a bit of a funk for two (three) reasons, which I can't really remember but were very important at the time. Saturday ... hm ... what did I do on Saturday? When one stays inside doing the same things, all the days tend to blend together. Oh! I remember! I dug through the pile of things that needed to be filed (since 2005!) and either filed them or ...

So, it's time to snap a few photos and have a little vote. Which pic should be VUBOQ's new profile photo? One: EEK! Crazy Eyes! Crazy Eyes! Two: I'm eating healthy (note orange peels in the trash) and O!M!G! I need to get my ass to the salon. Three: Note the Blogger Dashboard and current profile pic in background. Four: Who is that mysterious man in black? Five: So bored. So dying. Vote early. Vote often. Leave comments.

I know, I know. I hate reading blog posts about people's dreams, too ... So, if you don't want to read about my dream last night, click away , click away ... I was in a non-descript town with non-descript people on a tour of a rather odd museum. It reminded me of a military museum, because the displays were recreations of various battles, made with tiny plastic army men. There was one odd display of a prison scene, in which the prisoners were represented by thumbs. Slowly, I realized they were the severed thumbs of the actual prisoners. *shudder* As I was leaving the museum, these shiny white structures, most were rectangular cubes, but some were cylinders, began appearing on the streets. As crowds of people gathered around the structures, the tour bus driver and I, sensing something very bad was about to happen, boarded the bus and backed slowly out of the city. The driver dropped me outside of my building and as I walked down the street, columns of Storm Trooper-like a...