Friday night we headed up to Rochester to go to our friend Tom's dj thing at this bar called Skylark lounge. We met up with Liz and (e:uchina) at her apartment.

The music was pretty good for house music but I think the best part about the bar was meeting and talking to all the Rochester gays. I think most of the bar was gay.




They also had a "Lord of the Rings" pinball machine. Here's Masumi and (e:terry) getting balls right in the flaming eye hole.




The night wrapped up at Tom and Derrick's awesome house a short walk away from (e:uchina)'s aparment. We frolicked around until 6 am with all sorts of drunken craziness.

The next day (e:terry) and I went cross country skiing with (e:holly) and Brian. (e:paul) nursed his broken pinky toe at home (a casualty of the living room UFC tournament).



We went down to Byrnecliff Resort out past Wales. It was Brian's first time so we tried to stick to the easy trails - but at one point, a wrong turn had us going down hairpin curve on the hardest trail, which had little snow. It was fun but even (e:terry) fell the whole way down.

I got my skiing bearings by the end - we finished the afternoon with the a medium trail called Rusty Nail. Too bad we couldn't do the steep downhill path called powerline - but maybe another time when there's more snow. I like the isolation of Alleghany better but this is less than half the distance.

On the way home, we stopped to eat in East Aurora at a sandwich shop, before eating a cupcake next door. The food was good - but something drives me nuts about that town. It's all too quaint and suburban yuppie for me - like if you extracted only the expensive food and knicknacks off of Elmwood and dropped it in a place where everyone must drive.

Later we got home and relaxed a little bit. - then continuing on our consumption binge via another (e:paul) birthday dinner. This time it was with my parents and Mary. Birthdays now extend to three days apparently ;).



They came over after dinner for dessert, and we finally showed them around the upstairs of the house. I

So (e:paul) wanted to have a surprise party. But of course you can't expect that - so we did absolutely nothing on his actual birthday. The next day, we had (e:mike) take him to the mall (it would be suspicious if (e:terry) or I took him, I swear) while we prepared an afternoon surprise party - it started at 3 and went into the next day.

A lot of people showed up and it was a drunky awesome time. (e:libertad) and (e:mike) added to the crunk level with St. Germaine (?) cupcakes, which tasted amazing.






A lot of kitchen cramming. Here's mike and dave taking the gay finger test. Sorry, Mike - Dave is straight.












The microwave has some sass to it




I would say a good hour of the party went from attempted spankings on Paul to a full UFC-style tournament. I pinned Paul, got pulled off by (e:terry), and then had to face (e:yesthatcasey) and Troy to make it ridiculous. I actually like grappling but this was a lot for one party. Look at this beautiful bruise I won as a consolation prize.


Hope you were surprised Paul!

We've celebrated (e:paul)'s 39th trip around the sun today. He worked during the day of course, but we took him to his facorite restaurant Sato for lunch with (e:Heidi) and (e:Dianne). We even drove ?.

Then went to Tony and Maria's shortly after for round two. Cheesy lasagna, artichoke and mushrooms, a million desserts.

I'm so stuffed right now I want to lay down on the floor like (e:Mike) is. Good thing because Paul got an electronic scale with a body fat measurement.

Right now we're all watching cable about a show of people watching other TV shows.

Here's to another year amazing Paul! <3 you

It finally snowed on Sunday. I don't think it ever felt like winter until now. It really all came down in only a few hours - so I took a walk with (e:terry) when he went to go work and got to play in it for a bit.







When I got back, (e:paul) helped me continue stripping the upstairs back hall with the steamer. I worked about 5 hours on one side of the hall with the steamer - what a pain in the ass. If it wasn't for the embodied energy in this plaster I'd say rip it out, replace the electrical and put up dry wall. It would have taken less time, and we wouldn't have a patchy, delaminated plaster wall anymore.

I have seen lots of sites that show fixing delamination and cracks with plaster buttons and adhesive. Then you have to learn how to do a good job mudding it. If I had more time I'd be interested in learning but this has taken two months to get back to to begin with.