In keeping with my new passion for hockey, I went to the Ice Chalet last night. The place was packed with teenagers (it was Julie's 16th birthday, whoever Julie is she sure has some loud-ass friends) and to make matters worse, they turned off the lights and turned on some disco lights.

The weirdest part was that I could skate better than 1/2 the people there. I think they all just sucked but it still freaked me out. Could I actually be learning something athletic??

This is cool: Florida Supreme Court orders recount. I'm not crazy about electing a president in the courts, but electing Monkey Boy George Bush would be worse and throwing away ballots is even way they hell worse.

Pictures of our new home are here, sans formatting or pithy comments.

More real-world reasons to have your pet spayed or neutered. Bottom line: we just don't need any more animals in the world. Every year 5-6 MILLION are killed in shelters because they don't have homes. So snip away kids, and save some lives!

After last week's insanity, work is super-slow this week. Good thing because my brain is still fried from all the drugs I had to do to stay awake last week.

On second thought, tomorrow, I'll just call in drunk.

A co-worker of mine called in sick today. Or rather, he called in insomniac, leaving a 5 am voice mail to prove that he'd been up all night, presumably unable to rest for today's work. Maybe it's fishy, maybe it isn't but I'm still kind of surprised. This job isn't a retail gig or fast food, where your absence means that innocent people are unable to eat fast food or buy products. It's a grown up job, where you call in if you're sick. I guess insomnia seems awfully weak to me, like you should be barfing or something instead.

But hey, I'm kinda tired, maybe tomorrow I'll call in butt tired and see what happens.

Actual spam sent to my work account today:

hussein says:
Hello everybody! If you're away visiting your family, have a good time and say hello for me... but if you're still here like me, here's what's happening at POLANKA this friday.
Since everyone liked MONA, the talented, exotic & beautiful belly dancer, she's back this friday at 8 pm. Do not miss her.
ALSO THIS FRIDAY: * Free buffet at all times * Great music by our favorite DJ Fernando and Big D * No charge at the door (Just make sure you drink like a fish) Just a joke
MORE big highlights for THIS FRIDAY, * 5pm - 7pm 2 for 1 drinks * Ladies, BE there at 7pm, your 2nd drink - ON the house * Bring THREE friends, spend $60... GO home with a FREE bottle of wine.
Stay tuned for more friday features from the place to be:
POLANKA 22 Warren street, 1 blk from City Hall, hello Rudy! New York, NY 10007 212 385-9987
Bring this E-mail printed... get a free shot of rattle snake.
You do not like something? E-mail me lets talk about it.
see you all, happy holidays your host Hussein & Irina & Kasia polanka22@ecxite.com

How fabulous is this? Our soon to be new neighborhood comes complete with a head shop, for all your local doobage needs!

Check out Ellie's new namesake, currently staying with the good people of Arizona Basset Hound Rescue.

My Grandma is astounding. Today, she's eating again and looking for outfits to wear when she finally gets out of bed. I don't know what to think, I'll just be glad that she's feeling better.

It seems that my Grandma is finally losing the fight for her life. She's 95 and until a year ago, was in reasonably good health. The last year has been a huge struggle between the hospital, a nursing home and finally at home the last few months. I know that you can't mess with fate and I acknowledge that her quality of life isn't what any of us would want for her and yet the thought that she's about to exit this world is extremely hard.

She's my best friend, always has been. At times, she was my only friend. She's my unfailing supporter. When the family wasn't thrilled to find out that I'm gay, she was there, telling them to shut up and get over it. Always my pal.

The last couple of years, I've bought a ticket home every time the price got low, even if I didn't have the vacation time. We had some amazing conversations, time together that I cherish now and always will.

People keep asking if I'm scared about buying a house, am I nervous, do I feel like I've just signed my life away, etc. Shit no. After our Evil Landlord raised the rent so much and was nasty on top of it this fall, my main motivation in buying a house is being free from letting someone else have that kind of control over me.

Sure, a mortgage is a shitload of money, but at least there's an end to it. Rent you keep paying forever and what do you have? In our case, shit and a nasty landlord.

Our payment won't go up, we can't get kicked out, we can change things on the inside (which we plan to) and we can have as many pets as we feel comfortable with. Sounds like a pretty fantastic deal to me.

Does this mean I'm a grownup?

The God and Devil Show : Dr. Laura is hilarious. Yes, it takes forever to load but it's so worth it! Thanks Carol

We bought a house!!
Or rather, we're in contract on a house but soon, very soon, this lovely home will be ours!!!

We were watching a hockey game the other night. Every time they showed the Southwest Airlines goalie cam, complete with the closeup of the goalie's butt, I lost it. Hell, I'm losing it now just thinking about it! They should just call it ass-cam.

It's true, I haven't been very blog-ative lately. We're super-ass-busy at work, I'm still exhausted from Thanksgiving and for the most part, I just don't feel like talking.

Life is often hard, right now is no exception for me. I'm not talking about it because I don't want to explain it further right now, nor am I looking for pity.

I'm okay, we're all okay. Just less okay than usual. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming soon enough.

I just had Sanford & Son tourette's, singing the theme song over and over to myself.

In case you were wondering, here are the 4275 most popular women's names according to the US Census.

Is that why I filled out that form?