bigbearyfairy

Open Letter to Time-Warner cable...

2009-11-17T14:18:38Z

Preface: We sat down last night to watch some television and found that most of the HD channels and some of the SD digital channels were "Unavailable." If it's not a service not available situation, there's pixelization issue; if not that, OnDemand is unavailable; if not that, the box will just decide to reboot itself in the middle of my channel surfing. We sent a note to their "technical support" team and got a typical (English as a third or forth language) response saying how "Doug" understands my issue (re-state issue here) and that I should try again in 24 hours, since I've already rebooted my cable box.

Dear Doug,

In the interest of good customer service, which I'm sure TWC would like to provide, I believe that you should let me know when the issue is resolved, rather than just telling me to check back again later to see if it's working.

It's frustrating enough that probably 25-30% of the time that I sit down to watch television, there is some issue with cable. Having an outage that you knew about is all the more frustating.

My friends with satellite television tell me they rarely experience the frustration I have experienced with Time-Warner Cable. I trust my bill will be sufficiently adjusted for this current disappointment.

Warmest regards,
Xx Xxxxxxxx

Time for Hope. Time for Change.

2008-11-01T23:13:59Z

Have you voted yet?

That’s the Number One question I encounter these days in North Carolina. As of this afternoon, about 2.5 million North Carolinians have voted for Tuesday’s election.

I have indeed voted, and when I voted, about two weeks ago, there was an excitement and expectant feeling bubbling through the polling location. Folks are ready for real change, and I voted for that change.

For the first time in my voting history, I voted FOR a candidate, not for the lesser of two evils. I’m excited and hopeful that the standing of the United States, damaged beyond recognition through the past eight years, will be restored. I’m hopeful that the economy can get back on track, that we can stop the loss of life on foreign soil, that we can move back to a dignified and respected United States, that we can work to alleviate poverty, and that we can have a government that respects ALL of its citizens.

A few years ago, I had the chance to visit the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC. I had no idea how a monument could be so awe-inspiring. Tears flowed, as I walked and read excerpts of FDR’s speeches. I remarked to my partner Tim and the other friend with us how I longed for a candidate who could give the people of the United States HOPE for the future.

I could go on and on about the reasons not to vote for my candidate’s opponents, largely that he represents a deeper extension of the past terrible eight years, but since I’m voting for, and not against, I’ll just hope you will join me in voting for Barack Obama.

We can have hope.

Peace, Love, and ¡OBAMANOS!
BBF

It Lives...

2008-04-24T02:15:15Z

I'm rather excited.

It's a bit of unexpected excitement actually. Tim and I were pleased to attend a Meet & Greet for Candidate for County Commissioner Josh Parker at my brother's salon. It was a nice evening... some great conversation, a little wine, a little food, and confirmation that Josh is the guy for me to vote for. I have four or five votes, but it appears that the best ploy is to vote just for one. And I'm voting for fresh new blood on the Durham County Commissioners.

The thing that I'm even more excited about, though, is that driving home, deciding between a snack at Chipotle or Cosmic Cantina, we passed the old Bread & Kabob. I've been mourning that establishment's closing for about four or so years now... but tonight, the lights were on, and someone was home!

Could it be? Now called 1013 West Main, the family I grew to love back in the 90's has re-opened their establishment. It just re-opened last night.

I was overwhelmed to see the familiar faces and to experience the personalized service that made the Bread & Kabob one of my all time favorite eateries. Their menu is not at all the same--it's more of a mainstream restaurant, but the friendly touches are still evident. And the food was darn good, too!

Tim and I sampled sever appetizers and found them really tasty. We had their sampler platter, a chicken quesadilla, and their tomato bisque soup. The sampler was tasty, but the quesadilla was fabulous, and the soup was truly inspired. And the margarita was divine!

I can't wait to hit there again... and the promise they'll soon bring back some of the dishes that made the B&K do fabulous... including that incredible cilantro sauce!

It's a good thing.

The Thing About Gift Horses

2008-04-15T15:38:26Z

People so often say, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

I'd have to take issue with that statement.

It would seem it might behoove the recipient of said horse to determine if the giver happens to be a doctor of veterinary dentistry who might stand to gain greatly by offering such a gift to someone else.

OMG! This is gonna be cool!

2007-11-29T20:24:12Z

Checking my email this afternoon, I came acros an email from the Carolina Theatre, advertising their Holiday Bawl: 2 great films for free this coming Sunday afternoon!

THE WAY WE WERE 2:00
STEEL MAGNOLIAS 4:30

How fabulous. Or as Matt might say, Fagtabulous!

Although the tickets are free, you have to drop by the box office to get 'em.

More details here:
http://www.carolinatheatre.org/onscreen/holidaybawl.html

Tim and I are planning to be there. I just have to find a nice Bawl Gown. Tim, of course, is more likely to choose a Bawl Glove... but he can use mine, I suppose.

Hope you can make it. Who you gonna dress as???

Nashville!

2007-11-09T20:47:38Z

Curtimack nudged me again. Not much new to say. Oh, I guess I could write about our trip to Nashville last weekend.

Tim and I went in support of the Carolina Kodiaks against both the Nashville Grizzlies and the Minneapolis Mayhem. We had met some of the Grizzlies this summer at the Southern Fried Sevens tournament, and the Mayhem were our first exposure to gay rugby at the Twin-Cities Pride Parade, back in 2005. (After seeing them, we knew rugby was our kind of thing. <EG>)

We arrived Friday afternoon and arranged to have dinner with my friends John and Fleming and their son Franky. We hadn't seen F&J since they opened for Ben Folds at Nashville's Dancing in the District way back in 2003. Franky was even conceived back then!

We met at their beautiful home (and studio) in East Nashville, and they suggested Marche, a fabulous eatery a few short blocks from their place and across from Gillian Welch's recording studio. Dinner was divine. I opted for the sirloin medallions over garlic mashed potatoes with swiss chard, followed by sweet potato bread pudding... not a low carb evening. We returned to IHOF (International House of Fleming) and chatted over beer for the rest of the evening, leaving to meet the Kodiaks at Tribe.

Too late to catch the Kodiaks at Tribe, we gave the bar a quick once over and headed back to our hotel for the night, ready for the games the next day.

We're happy to report that the Kodiaks won both of their matches. After 6 halves, we had the Third Half, a fabulously hosted affair at the home of one of the Grizzles--a beautiful place, full of art and other pretties (including lots of rugby players), just about two block away from IHOF.

To fulfill our Nashville tradition, we hit SATCO (The San Antonio Taco Company), which appears to have been the early template for the original Armadillo Grill. Their wings were on par with the 'Grill, but their tacos honestly left me wondering if the touch had been lost.

After freshining up and changing costumes, well, I changed costumes, we headed back to Tribe. We were a little early, not quite hopping, but still a cool place to be--no smoking! We also wanted to check out Blue Genes, thinking it would be like Hoedown's or Remingtons, but alas, it was not. So we returned to Tribe and hooked up with several Kodiaks for the evening.

We left fairly early on Sunday, hoping to make the entire drive in daylight, but it wasn't to be. A huge traffic snarl just east of Hickory caused us to leave I-40 and seek out US70 for several miles and slowed us considerably. But we got home fairly early and more impartantly, safe and sound.

Good weekend.

It Happened: The Wheels Thing

2007-10-05T20:07:55Z

The Wheels Reunion came and went without too much of a hitch--and only one cocktail. Of course, within the first half our some woman reminded me of why I quit disc jockeying to begin with--b*tchy comments from skaters/dancers: "Are you going to play anything good? I mean this IS a reunion, so I thought there might be some music from the 80's or something..."

No, my dear, my plan was to find the most god-awful crap I could find and play it really loud! Of course, she'd probably LIKE that.

Kudos to Ric for driving up from Trinity. He's quite the skater, having done his rink time at the legendary SkateTown in Raleigh.

It was good to see my former co-workers and/or their now nearly (or fully) grown offspring.

If you're interested, here are the highlights of my play list for the time I was on (the first hour):

Everybody Have Fun Tonight--Wang Chung
Sunshine--The Partridge Family
Polk Salad Annie--Tony Joe White
Get On Your Feet--Junior Senior
Double Dutch Bus--Frankie Smith
Brandy--Looking Glass
Build Me Up Buttercup--The Foundations
Let's Get It On--Marvin Gaye
Love Shack--The B-52's
Backstrockin'--The Fatback Band
Brick House--The Commodores
Mr. Big Stuff--Jean Knight
Want Ads--The Honeycomb
YMCA--The Village
Fantastic Voyage--Lakeside

To show you how out of touch with the music these kids listen to today, one of the younger DJs asked me about the Junior Senior song. I was surprised they hadn't heard it. I thought it had been a hit. Apparently, I'm just too gay. (As if that were possible!)

Let's all go have cocktails.

Smooches, y'all,
BBF

Durham's "30 Year History of Rollerskating"

2007-10-02T01:43:53Z

Curtis is going to freak. I'm posting twice within a week!

Years ago, longer than that it actually seems, I had a part-time DJ career. Ok. Career is a bit of glamourous term for it. Yeah, I worked at some radio stations... from the good WCHL to the not so good WRTP... some that were good at one time, like WDBS when it was classical all day and jazz all night... and some that were just plain bad at others, like WDBS when it was sleazy listening ALL the time. And then there was a short stint at G-105, but that story didn't end so well.

Anyway, like most other part-time DJs, I also free-lanced and such. One of my and such positions was at Wheels Rollerskating, originally when it was just off 501 North at Latta, then later when it moved to its new facilities off US 70 East.

It's almost ironic that my initial employment there was to create a Christian Music Night. That lasted a while, and I got more involved with the rink. I started an Oldies night and started entertaining the kiddies at birthday parties on the weekends.

Not that any of that is important.

Except that, the folks at Wheels have decided to celebrate the 30 year history of skating in Durham. Now, I'm not sure how they're measuring the 30 years, coz as I recall, Wheels came about in the post disco roller skating mania of 1979-80, or so... you know, around the time of _Xanadu_.

So... this Thursday night, from 7-10, Wheels is celebrating. I'll be DJing the first hour, playing music from the shows I did back then and music I've grown to love since then. If you'd like to show up, I'd love to see some friendly faces.

Admission is five bucks, and they assure me a portion of the proceeds will go to a non-partisan charity.

More details:
http://www.myspace.com/wheelsreunion

Pride Weekend is Here

2007-09-28T18:34:06Z

Curtis seems to think I have much more time than I actually do. So... here
I am, making another entry. :-)

Well, it's Pride weekend. Or at least it will be for me when I leave this
afternoon. And Tim has Monday off, so I do, too. Still up in the air
though is whether Miss Geogia Asphalt will make a Pride appearance in
support of the Kodiaks. Who knows?

What I do know is that I made a quick run to the NC Farmers' Market over
lunch today. I typically prefer to do the market in Durham on Saturdays,
but since I won't be able to make it there tomorrow--and the fact that a
guy's got to have tomatoes--I went today. Besides tomatoes, I picked up
jalepenos, a mum, and a pumpkin. I should have a autumnal lawnscape by this
evening when the tequila starts flowing.

That's pretty much it for now.

How's that, Curtis?

Martinis & Bikinis, Y'all,
BBF

Busted Again

2007-09-21T12:24:18Z

I've been busted by the LJ police for not posting.

So. Here I am. Posting.

Hmmmm.

Bear411 Revisited

2007-06-08T17:03:13Z

I decided to give Bear411 another try.

Perhaps, I was a little too honest. Or perhaps, the name BigBearyFairy wasn't what they considered manly.

Interestingly, when I applied with the word butch in my name and supplied a picture of me in overalls, I got to be one of the chosen throng. I'm excited and feel like Sally Field. Or should I say, John Wayne?

Mary, I just find it interesting.

Catch22 with Bear411

2007-05-29T14:37:49Z

I've heard so many friends talk about Bear411 that I thought I'd give it a try. I headed out to the site and attempted to register. Everything seemed to go fine, and I received a message that said I'd be alerted as to whether or not my registration was successful within 24 hours.

Nearly 24 hours later, I received a response. With no reason or anything, it said my registration had been denied. Very odd, I thought, so I sent a response to find out the reasoning.

The auto-generated response I received said I should go to the site, login, and send an email once I was logged in. Kinda hard to login when you don't have an account.

I certainly understand that the management of the site has the right to approve or deny membership applications, but you'd think they'd offer a reason or something. And limiting questions to their users makes sure there's no appeal or anything.

Oh well, I've made it this long without a membership there; I'm sure I'll survive. Cue Gloria Gaynor.

How (NOT) to sell me a car

2007-01-05T16:08:48Z

My car's getting quite a few miles on it, and for a couple of months now, I've been trying to determine its replacement. Chances are very good that I'll replace the 2001 Taurus with a 2006 Taurus because I can get significantly more car for the money. In fact, for my same car payment, which many consider unheard of, it looks like I'll be able to get a new Taurus with less miles on it with more bells and whistles like leather, sun-roof, wood trim, etc.

Anyway, I've been testing the market a little. With my brother working at a dealership, I haven't actually been out to cold call and test-drive anything in, oh, about 20 years. So far, the Honda and Toyota dealerships have been a pleasure to work with. No high pressure, slick sales-talk. The salesfolk (and their managers) are all confident of their products, but they don't ridicule me for not buying a car immediately. In fact, neither has contacted me, leaving the ball in my court. I seriously appreciate this tactic.

The Hyundai dealership is a different story. I've lost track of the number of times I've been contacted by them, just to see if I've made a decision. They talk the talk of being confident in their products as well, but they back it up with pestering and bullying. I've been through three salesfolk, and I tell each one it would be best for them to contact me via email; so they call me, instead. That's not getting them any brownie points. I just got another call today, asking if I was still in the market for their Hyundai Sonota. I replied no, and the rep feigned astonishment. Had I made a purchase? How could I not want his car? I told him his dealership had hounded me to death, not just him, but two salespeople prior to him as well as their "survey" department, all after telling them the best way to reach me (and not piss me off) is via email. So, as he went into his excuses about email, I just hung up. It makes me think their stuff isn't selling when they have to bug me to buy, and if it's not selling, maybe there's a reason.

And another thing, I've been shopping with my partner, Tim. It's not all that hard to figure out that we're a couple, especially with the rainbow license tag on the front of my current car. While the Hyundai dealership hasn't treated us negatively in anyway becasue we're gay, you'd think they'd send a more aware salesperson, perhaps one who wouldn't make comments about "the ladies" or their time in the service. Perhaps even a nice metrosexual. Is it too much to ask?

Timeshare Touring in Williamsburg

2006-07-20T14:27:52Z

I know, Lug. It's been a while. But life seems to go so fast that I seldom get time to write.

Last week, my company provided three nights accomodation in Williamsburg, and being the frugal guy I am, I set out to find discounted tickets to Colonial Williamsburg. The original plan was to get the group rate and purchase tickets, but our group didn't include enough history buffs to get the discount.

Enter Fairfield Resorts, a "new" concept in timeshare properties. They offered "Four Free 2-day Passes to Colonial Williamsburg" in exchange for 90-120 minutes of my time. When I was in my 20's I was often interested in taking these "tours" in exchange for schtuff, but I never qualified. Now that I'm ancient, apparently, I do.

Anyway, you can't just show up. You have to me "the" owner and get an "invitation." So I made plans for a 12:30 tour, and Tim and I arrived in Williamsburg at a little past 11 and called our contact to get our invite. He would meet us in the parking lot of Chili's after we ate lunch. Super! How accomodating!

He was punctual in meeting us and delivered our invitation stipulating that we were to receive 2 CW tickets and a free getaway to be used in the future. Wait a minute. The website said 4 tickets. Well, since we were just a couple, he couldn't justify 4 2-day passes without a family of 4. To counter our disappointement (cos we figured we'd return sometime during the holiday season), he said he'd throw in a $30 discount on dinner at several participating restaurants.

He led the way to the FairField sales center. It was pretty big and other suckers were everwhere. We went in and saw only straight couples, but some of the sales folk were cute. Here's hoping.

Instead, we got a guy, not all that attactive, who looked like a stereotypical salesman. He could have sold used cars in anytown. If they'd really wanted to sell us on the place, you'd think they'd pick a hot bearish man to wear us down. But instead we got Ricardo Montalban, but no rich Corinthian leather. OK, he wasn't as cute as Mr. Fantasy Island. You'd also think they'd want to get you in and out as fast as possible so they'd have another chance to sell. Ha.

Mr. Roarke, we'll call him, led us to a large open room with tiny tables. Suckers, I mean clients, were seated all facing the same direction, and salesdroids were all facing their prey. He spent forever on chit-chat about his growing up in Puerto Rico, how he had been twice married-twice divorced, how Virginia Beach looked nothing like Puerto Rico, and on and on.

The first thirty minutes or so consisted of him wasting our vacation to tell us how we should take vacations. Every once in a while, we'd get up and go to a largel flat screen monitor to view some Powerpoint type presentation. The demonstrations of their lush paradise resorts tried to fake you into thinking they were actual video by using still shots and digital zoom to move around the snapshots.

Finally came the tour. While the program offers all sizes of units, we are assured they are all luxuriously appointed, from the studio to the 4 bedroom presidential suite. We'll have to take them at their word since we only got to see the presidential suite. It was four bedrooms, the smallest of which had two double beds, its own bathroom with two showerheads in the shower, and a big ol' tv. The remaining 3 bedrooms were bigger with a king size bed in each, along with their own bathrooms and big tvs. The kitchen was a nicely appointed "gourmet" kitchen with two of just about everything. He seemed impressed as he showed us the cookware--a set of which looked like it could be purchased for $20 at K-Mart... and trust me, it wasn't Martha Stweart Everyday.

As he showed the bathrooms he made comments about husbands and wives. Apparently, he didn't learn much about us in his get to know us spiel.

After touring the palacial suite, I asked if we would be seeing any of the smaller units. "Unfortunately," none were currently available.

So we headed for the clubhouse, the family pools (indoor and outdoor), the adult pool, and back the big room with all the wheeling and dealing going on. I braced myself for the inevitable. The hard sell. When I said "no," he feigned disbelief. How could I deny the value? How could I deprive my heirs of this opportunity? How could I say no to vacations? But I held firm.

By this time 120 minutes was long gone, so much for 90! I could be cordial for 2 hours, although hoping for the minimum, but we were headed well into hour 3. Because I declined their offer, our host brought in his manager to try again. She actually tried to guilt me into buying, asking if she should let our salesman come to work the next day, as if no one had ever refused to buy before. Aha! They probably figured they could play the liberal card and make me feel sorry for the immigrant salesman trying to pay all his alimony. Not working. So the manager repeated everything we had already heard in the pitch, how much money we could save today, how many charges would be waived, how we could help our poor salesman if we'd only give up contact information for some of our closest friends. Still, I refused. And I said she wasn't helping her case by saying the tour took 120 minutes max and then stretching it out longer than that. Fine. She would have someone come and ok us for our "prizes."

In came a big guy who looked like he could be their bouncer. I guess they try to use him to intimidate you to buy if the hard sell and guilt tactics don't work. Interestingly, he offered a significantly better deal. But I wasn't interested. And I told him he was wasting my time and his. Finally he relented and gave us a slip of paper with "OK to Gift" written on it. We just had to take it to a kind of cashier, behind a barred window, to claim our "gifts." That was the easiest part with the nicest person we met there.

We used our CW tickets and enjoyed the tours. We also used our $30 dining certificate at a ChopHouse in town; we found the food there to be pleasant, but about $30 over priced, and not as good as the OutBack.

Would we do it again? Perhaps. The tickets themselves were worth a total of $96, and we'll probably take that "free" get away some time in the future. I guess we got our time's worth, plus the story to tell.

Film of the Year?

2006-05-27T15:49:06Z

Bet you thought I was going to say X-Men III.

Of course, if you know me, you know better. While X-3 was fine, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two, but neither of those are among my favorites. Enjoyable? Yes, and with a nice gay allegory... but my current contender for best of 2006 is Friends With Money.

With Joan Cusack, it was a definite must see for me, and it didn't disappoint. A darkly hilarious ensemble film, FWM parodied my life... well, if I were wealthy... I found myself laughing out loud numerous times at the honest reflections of reality.

Cusack and Frances McDormand, as ever fabulous as they are, were only minorly upstaged by Catherine Keener and Jennifer Aniston and their handsome supporting actors: Jason Isaacs, Simon McBurney, and Greg Germann.

Chicks Rock!

2006-05-24T15:38:22Z

As soon as it was available for pre-order on iTunes, I ordered the Dixie Chicks' new record Taking the Long Way. I counted down the days until its release and downloaded and burned it first thing yesterday. Then I checked the local prices and picked up a store version after work.

The Chicks Rock!

Politics aside (of course I bask in their politics), this album plays like albums used to play, back when there were whole records I'd listen to sprawled across my bed in my own little world, reading ever word on the jacket. Now, with CDs and middle-aged eyes, I often have to grab my rhine-stoned reading glasses, and I seldom sprawl across the bed reading the cover, like I did with my Partridge Family and Carpenters records; but the feeling was much the same. OK, so this time, I read the words from my digital booklet downloaded from iTunes, but I did look at the pretty pictures in the car last night while Tim drove and we listened... stopping by the Galaxy Market for 3 pounds for a dollar tomatillos, fat and pretty jalepenos, and lucious white onions. Digression is good.

Anyway, it's not that the record sounds like it came from the 70's; heck no, it sounds up to date, but it just has a good feel to it, like albums used to have. It expresses the group's anger and and astonishment as they watch the current regime (and its supporters). The record is personal and feels cathartic, like a journal of the Chicks' thoughts over the past couple of years.

I'd recommend everyone buying a couple of copies. I found Best Buy and Target have the disc for 9.99, and Circuit City (aka the ghost town) has it for 8.99.

Enjoy! I sure am.

Honeysuckle Sorbet

2006-05-19T13:24:54Z

My friend Ed first mentioned Honeysuckle Sorbet a couple of years or so ago.

The mere mention of the word honeysuckle always conjurs up a fleeting ethereal aroma, the smell of Chapel Hill on a cool summer morning around 6 AM. Actually, it's more specific than that--it brings to mind a specific morning, back when I was still living in my 291 sq ft apartment and working over night at WCHL. There was honeysuckle all around my apartment, and the smell that early in the morning, with the sun not quite yet up, was intoxicating. I never noticed the aroma when I was a kid in Bahama, but I do remember the subtle spark of flavor from sucking on the blossoms.

When Ed first told me about this fleeting treat, I knew I'd have to try it someday. Tuesday afternoon, he reminded me again.

Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill is the only place I know that creates this fleeting late spring concoction, so Tim and I decided to go there for dessert on Tuesday evening. We ended up changing plans and having dinner.

I had the Carolina Sampler-North Carolina hickory smoked, pit cooked, pork barbecue served w/ hoppin’ John, collard greens & black pepper cornbread--and Tim had their Crook's Hamburger with Vermont Cheddar and fries. The barbecue was quite good with a tangy/hot sauce, and the burger was one of the best I've ever tasted. While I'm not a fan of collards, these were among the best I've ever had. I'm a fan of savory white cornbread, but Tim's a fan of yellow and sweet, so he liked the cornbread much better than I did.

Of course the whole point of the trip was dessert. There was no question what I'd have, but Tim chose to be different, having instead the Mount Airy Chocolate Souffle Cake. I found the cake delightfully rich, dark, and chocolately, just what Tim doesn't care for in dessert, but he managed to force himself to finish it. The cake was great, but the Honeysuckle Sorbet, we both agreed, was stupendous. The first taste is everything you could dream a honeysuckle flavored confection would be: delicate, subtle, yet distinctive, sweet with a hint of ginger. Intoxicatingly heady, like that early morning aroma. Our waiter said a little girl had summed it up when she said, "Mister, tell the chef it tastes like magic." I'd have to agree.

Trip to Atlanta

2006-05-17T20:45:53Z

Friday night, we arrived at the Sheraton around 9, made cocktails in the room and headed for Underground and Charlie Brown's Cabaret, where Charlie looked at our table and dismissed us as straight!! However, Lena Lust paid me a little attention, as did a handsome gentleman I assume to be Charlie's partner. Mark, our straight pal from Kansas, not only saw his first drag show, he also tipped his first drag queen. Our waitress, I assume was also a female impersonator, and a really nice one, too. She kept the drinks coming.

Taco Cabana provided after entertainment food. I had a chorizo and egg burrito, which I spiced up with pico de gallo and cilantro. Tim had a burrito supremo or something like that, and Mark had tacos. Still hungry, we all had another round of tacos and decided that their tacos were the way to go.

Saturday we headed to CowTippers for lunch. The idea was to eat on the veranda, but it rained so we had to eat inside. The red queso with blue chips was divine, as expected, although it was gone before our fries arrived. (I like to save some for over the fries. Yum!) I love their burgers; in fact, theirs may very well be my favorite burgers, period, so I had the bacon and cheddar burger (with lettuce, tomato, the thinnest of slices of red onion, and mayo) pure heaven! Mark and Tim were adventurous and had a meatloaf sandwich each--they said they wished they'd had the burger.

After lunch, we headed west to the other side of 85 to IKEA and to Atlantic Station, Atlanta's new shopping/living/working center, kinda like a bigger version of the new North Hills.

Back across 85 to Little 5 Points, we shopped at a bookstore where I picked up a collected stories of Collette for $1.50. I've been wanting to read some of her writing since Rosanne Cash mentioned her in one of her songs... Next was JunkMan's Daughter, where we shopped but did not purchase, though I toyed with the idea of a shoulder length purple wig, a fish for the car that had SCUBA written in it and tanks on the top, and various other trinketty things. Further into L5P we stopped at an Asian furnishings shop filled with incense then to a t-shirt store called BangOn where you pick out your shirt, pick out the design, and they bang it on. Tim saw a design with a Canadian maple leaf with "The Eh Team" printed under it... It's now is favorite t-shirt.

We did Mary Mac's Tea Room for an early dinner, but we should have done it for lunch and eaten at CowTippers for dinner because the afternoon weather was delightful. Mudbugs (fried crawfish) and fried green tomatoes began our meal, and I enjoyed a peach martini. Our waiter kept the bread and butter coming, which was a mistake, especially for those of us who haven't been eating as many carbs. Bloating!! Tim had the turkey dinner. Big surprise. Mark and I had country fried steak, which he kept calling chicken fried--until it came. This was much more like I grew up on--not the stuff you get at Chili's or Cracker Barrel. I thought it was pretty good, but I didn't care as much
for the squash soufflé. Mark chose the healthy route with dumplings and whipped potatoes as his "vegetables" and Tim stuck to tradition with green beans and whipped potatoes. I rounded out my meal with cheese grits.

Back at the hotel, Mark took the idea of a disco nap seriously, and I made cocktails, which Mark said were too strong. As if!

We arrived at Hoe Down's around 8:30, missing the dance lessons. Well, they were still going on, but I didn't want to join late. We became friendly with John our bartender and fed him tips all night. I danced more that night than in many years--not that I danced all that much, but Mark likes to 2-step, and I tried to follow. Then I'd dance with Tim on the slow songs.

Taco Cabana called unto us, and we left for the night, knowing we were meeting Allen, an old friend from high school, for brunch at 10 the next morning.

The plan again was to eat on the patio at Einstein's for brunch on Sunday, but showers were passing through, so we opted for inside. It's the first time I've eaten inside there since the remodling job--and is it ever nice! And the food is still darn tastey! Mark and I split shrimp and grits and their chicken and gouda omelet. Next time, the shrimp and grits are all mine... gooey with just the right amount of cheese, slathered with a spicy sauce with roasted peppers, onion, garlic, and a few flavors I couldn't quite nail. Oh, and shrimp. Incredible! Allen had a scrumptious looking plate of french toast with sauteed bananas, and Tim, always ready to tread new ground had bacon and eggs.

Allen was headed to OutWrite Books, so we walked with him. The walk was a good time to continue to catch up. We mostly chatted through the store, but I did pick up a copy of 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men, which Paul and Ed have mentioned a few times. (Thumbing through it on the drive back, I decided the publishers should have hired me to write the book.)

We said good-bye to Allen and took Mark to the airport and headed back. A good trip.

Adult Disclaimer?

2006-04-29T02:16:23Z

Hey Y'all,

I've noticed some folks put adult disclaimers on their LJ. Should I?

Not much to say

2006-04-25T17:57:55Z

But here I am.

Oh yeah, Tycho_Anomaly wanted to know if there were pictures of me with long hair. Yep:

http://ias.ga.unc.edu/~ecrab/hair1.html

Keep scrolling. It grows. Then gets chopped off. :-)