Ah, blog beginnings.

Men, chocolate and coffee. These things are best when rich.

It's cold tonight in Houston, Harris County, By God, Texas. (a plug for the local tourism bureau - "you're gonna love this city") I'm not used to near freezing temperatures, even if I still have some winter garments that keep me warm. Made spaghetti tonight (it's easy and you can look like a miracle worker) and about to walk the mutts.

This is the time of year when NO ONE WORKS. In my business, nearly everyone is on straight comission, which means, of course, if you don't produce, you don't eat. However, every year, the elements necessarily to obtain a closing get slower and slower from mid-November onward until about December 10 - everything comes to a dead stop. By January 15, everyone will be whining that things are so slow and that income is cut back, but if they'd just work December like it was any other month, we wouldn't all suffer through this.

But, I digress.

Boi news for today, December 9, 2002 - my sweet friend in Frankfurt is going to be in the Caribbean in mid-January, and asked me to meet him there. What a lovely idea! However, I can't decide which is worse - the fact that the best airfare there is over $700, or the fact that I can't earn OnePass miles doing it.

I step aside from news of bois for a moment to do some serious whining. Last year (2001) I attained Platinum Elite OnePass - which is sort of like the booby prize for flying a whole lot. It doesn't get you much; just near guaranteed first class upgrades, and early boarding. I've been Elite OnePass since 1998; but last year - Platinum - the Holy Grail of traveling. This year (2002) I haven't been on a Continental flight all damned year - so, come midnight December 31st, I convert to a sheep. A cow. A regular passenger with no priviliges and no fancy card to wave or to swipe through the automated check-in machine.

Again with the nested forks.

So, to go meet my wonderful, handsome, charming friend in the Caribbean? Or do I do something more reasonable, like pay off my credit cards, or work on paying off my car?

Boi #2 for the day is my ongoing rehabilitation project PJ. Just before Thanksgiving, he was living with his grandmother up in East Texas, and I helped him out with some money, a bus ticket home, and so on. I had thought that his recent experiences has humbled his party attitude enough that he could be trustworthy. However, the Sunday beforeThanksgiving, I was trolling for a dog sitter ( he had promised to stay at my place and watch the dogs ) at 8:00 at night, as he hadn't called, hadn't contacted me, nothing.

So, two weeks have gone by with me hurling epithets his way whenever he contacted me (which happened as I was sitting on an airplane at the St. Louis airport) Yesterday, he called over and over and over - seems his mother's boyfriend had thrown him out of the house, and he was standing at a pay phone at a Kroger store. After an hour of yelling, recriminations and blistering commentary (all on my part) I relented and picked him up.

So, he's been here since yesterday. He's been very subdued. I'm not sure how long this will last, but it is here for the time being.

Boi #3 today is Jason, who's a traveling "bisexual" "masseur" I've been talking to him on the phone about a week now, and he's just disarmingly charming. Yesterday, he was driving his girlfriend to Nebraska, to deposit her with her mother, and head back here to Bagdad on the Bayou to make some cash. I have offered to (after meeting him and determining whether he was on the up and up or not) to let him stay at the casita de divo for wayward boys a day or so, and today was the highly predictable cash call from Kansas City. He only wanted $80 of so, and promised to pay me back as soon as he returned to Houston.

Of course, there was the highly predictable hint of car trouble, which could delay his return. Why do I even take these phone calls?

Started talking over the weekend to Bart in Portland, who's a smart, pleasant, handsome man - and Calvin in British Columbia, who's a self-described lesbian. Damn, I can understand why he calls himself that - he's so witty, such a good conversationalist, so damned handsome that I have nearly checked out the pricing on a U-haul to north of Vancouver without yet having met him. He's flirtatious as he could be, which just SENDS me. It's not fair.

Only ten more hours before I can brew up some incredible coffee and sit here before the computer thinking about my day. Almost reason enough to go to bed.

Talked to my favorite married guy today - David - he's so sweet, so fun and so handsome - why the heck is he married? It's just not fair. At least we have this great business day friendship that keeps me on my mettle from 9 to 5:30. And, I called the guy I met last Sunday a week - Curtis - he is so butch and manly - plays so hard to get, but tonight he asked me if I could set him up with a number of guys who would meet he and I over at my place to do him.

What is this with these bisexual and "straight" men that they want to be the center of attention for a bunch of stiff meat? It's like they go from first experience to wanting to be tied to the bed in six days - in the first instance, there is NO prize category for my level of achievement (my level is now "Family Value threat") and is it unreasonable to expect a guy like me to be able to make a successful home business of satisfying these "straight" guys' sexual fantasies? Hell, I just watched a program last night on HBO that showed these blond bimbos making $500 to $1000 an hour for doing less! All I need is a steady stream of topmen who are certified clean and sober. Maybe it's something to look into for the new year.

I already am set up to take Visa and MasterCard.