which is just as well considering that it’s meant primarily for his eyes.

(hearts via the ACME Heart Maker)

Update: and if you thought that was too cute for words, please be glad I didn’t find out about cuppycakes gumdrops snookums until today (via BoingBoing).

One day left…

Tuesday, 13 February 2001

Up at 06:30 as we approached Chennai Central. Sat watching until we arrived at 07:30. Anto T*’s driver met me and we left in the autorickshaw. This time, though, I was a tad bored by the ride, thinking about how I’d get the rest of the gifts I’d need instead of my eternal destiny.

Arrived at the ’stead about 08:00 — dropped my stuff in Sanju’s room and took a nice shower. Water ran out partway, so I wound up sorta going Indian-style for the rest of it — filled the jug from the sink tap and rinsed off the soap. Breakfast — “Chocos”, a Western-style cold cereal (”with BeBig Shakti” and a “slurpy new taste”) with hot milk, eggs, rice-flour cakes, and a wonderfully spicy sauce. Wrote and checked mail and watched TV (Airplane! was on — Sanju thought it hilarious) on and off until lunch (rice, chicken, vegetables). Noticed a small split in the skin on my right index finger, which wound up hurting when the hot stuff got in there. Made plans to get the last of the India stuff at 17:00. Wrote; now FINALLY caught up.

<01:24 14/02/2001 Chennai Airport>
Wrote and watched TV until 18:30, when we took off for Spencer Plaza. I got:

• carved wooden elephant (Bob)
• carved wooden Buddha (Ed)
• carved sandalwood elephant and howdah
• cast bronze Shiva head (my desk)
• T-shirt (Dan)
• cardamom and turmeric ($CO-WORKER)
• curry powder and saffron (Dad)
• top-grade Darjeeling (self)
• nice shirt, long sleeve, plaid (duh, me)

From there, to a gift/bookshop — Sanju had to get something for his GF for Valentine’s. I wound up getting another book like this (for the $LOCAL_CLUB) and the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf (to read at airports). All told, I spent about 3000 rupees; not bad… Back at the house, where I “persuaded” all the crap into the big green oppressor and puttered around until 21:30. Sanju, Thomas (his Kairali cousin), and I went to a decent veg A/C place for dinner (masala dosa and a weird onion pancake, with coffee). Back at the house as I finished packing, changed shirts, put on deodorant, and gave a few last goes in the lavvy. (Not a coprophiliac, I am not a coprophiliac…) By this time, it was 23:30. We loaded up the car and took off in classic Formula One fashion. hehe. 110 km/h through crowded Chennai streets… it’s something to be experienced. (Though it could have used a much better soundtrack — Sanju, you’re a great guy, but your taste in music leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. Please, repeat after me: Bryan Adams is not a god, Bryan Adams is not a god…) Arrived, parked. I demonstrated just how strapping I had become by donning my 25kg pack and leaping effortlessly from kerb to kerb. (dear God, they’re affecting my spelling.) Final goodbyes and e-mail addy exchange before I ventured into the semiknown world of Chennai International Departures.

That’s a pretty good stopping point; since I didn’t go to sleep that night, the diary just keeps. on. going. until it stops at O’Hare.

• After dinner that night we stopped for lassi; as we were there getting it, though, there was a power outage. The lassi shop had a generator and only had a moment of darkness, but the rest of the neighborhood was pitch black.
• I almost made the secondary title up there “with BeBig Shakti”. The FDA won out, though.
• Dan, if you’re reading this: T-shirts are not always easy to find in foreign countries.
• That curry powder was goooood stuff.
• The saffron was extra-cheap, something like fifty cents an ounce.

Tomorrow: jeem considers good places to sleep at Heathrow and O’Hare as he makes his way home.

• Best Christmas present I gave this year: a cell phone to my better half, because he really really really needed it.
• He hasn’t posted in ages, but I have empirical evidence that GeekSlut still exists. w00t. It’s good to know these things. Now to see whether or not Worldwide Ryan still exists.
• Best Christmas present I received this year: QAF season four, which I sort of missed while it was on the air.
• My car has nearly 40,000 miles on it. Heavens.
• So, for a Valentine’s Day gift: a TiVo or an iPod? Opinions are welcome from all relevant cultistsdevotees. Decision TBA.
• For Christmas dinner, we roasted a duck. In lieu of traditional stuffing we put sprigs of fresh rosemary and cracked cloves of garlic inside. Just for the record: rosemary-garlic duckfat has the best aroma on earth.
• No, I am not interested in a help-desk position with your company.
• I have not seen any übergay movies in the theaters lately, so don’t expect me to gush about Rent or Brokeback Mountain. Instead, I watched Mommie Dearest last night; it’s the gayest movie EVAR so that must count for something, right?
• On a related note: when truly upset, doesn’t everybody put on a bitchin’ sequinned gown and do frenetic yardwork in the dead of the night? (granted, she had excellent form cutting down that tree.)
• ugh, Sober.x. Go update your anti-virus definitions again, Windows users. Please. For the sake of my mail servers.
• Built Fred’s mother and grandmother a computer from parts for Christmas. After a little discussion, I put Ubuntu on there (it’s beer-free and speech-free and comes with oodles of software). The jury is still out on its effectiveness as distro-for-the-masses, but so far it is doing a bang-up job. (I won’t be ditching Gentoo for it on my own boxen, though.)
• Could Logo please come up with some new programming already? Seriously.
• A quick shout to my friend Robbie, who’s still pretty new to this whole blogging thing, and to All Hooked Up, who isn’t.
• And finally, a documentary to recommend: The Power of Harmony, a celebration of the Turtle Creek Chorale (Dallas’s gay men’s chorus). (link requires Flash)

Happy New Year! Be sure to eat your black-eyed peas, lest my grandmother come after you.

Apparently my co-workers think I need extra sugar. I went in to the office for a little bit tonight, to help the netadmin swap out a part on the UPS, and there was a nice little treasure trove of Valentine’s candy on my desk along with a note saying, in effect, “James, my S.O. gave me this but I don’t want it, can you make sure it doesn’t go to waste?” So yeah, I ate it.
What, and I suppose YOU would turn down free candy like that?

It’s sleeting out. Sleet doesn’t make for good driving conditions, it stings the skin when it hits, and it isn’t at all pretty to watch. Usually, though, around here, sleet tends to make the transition to rain or snow; it should only be a matter of time until it does that.

UPS part replacement took an hour and a half less than we were anticipating. I did manage to cut my hand in the process, though that gave me a great opportunity to prove my first aid prowess with a quick splash of rubbing alcohol and a little piece of duct tape.
So now I’m home waiting on a call or e-mail about potential evening plans; in the meantime, I’ll update my blog and rock out some more to The Donnas.

It’s dreary and overcast outside, and hot and stuffy inside. Yuck. At least I haven’t seen any stupid user tricks lately. In fact, it’s been so quiet that I changed the Webmail system’s login form to give messages in haiku. (example: “A simple request:/Please authenticate with me,/my little flower.”)

Got one Valentine apiece from 2 of my especially perky co-workers. One included some of those chalky-yet-addictive candy hearts. mmm, candy hearts… So now I’m on a caffeine-and-sugar rush, woo-hoo! (Which explains the whole authentication-haiku bit, now that I think about it.)

Snagged 2 castoff hard drives for my jukebox system. Looks like I have a weekend project now.

Also managed to reschedule my semi-date from the other night for tonight. We’ll find out then how sexy kim chee breath is. haha.