As promised, there are two new Gallery sections with photographs from Gay Days 2003 online. The first album contains pictures I took, while the other features those taken by Ernie and company.

There are a few more photographs I am still looking to acquire from my day at the Magic Kingdom with Chris and some of his old friends from work. Once I get those, they will be added immediately.

New job? Looks that way.
As a result of last Friday's interview? Nope.
Cryptic on purpose? Of course.

Details to come soon, so keep your panties twist-free.

Yeah, so I went and bought myself a car yesterday! I borrowed my mothers' Impala, picked up Chris and went tooling around looking at different auto dealerships, used car lots and so-called "buy here, pay here" joints. It was rather entertaining trying to be sold on purchasing any variety of the Civics I viewed. One dealership in particular tried to sell me hard, working with my $4000 offer but never really giving me what I wanted. We had been at it for a few hours and were just about to toss in the towel when we made one last stop before heading back to find food.

Only thirty or so minutes after making that last ditch effort, I was driving away in my new car with Chris in the Impala behind me. I got a Black 1994 Honda Civic EX Coupe 5-Speed. There are only a few minor items that could use some attention, but with them I am not concerned. The car drives nicely and seems to have been taken care of over the years. The interior is nearly perfect and the body only has a few minor dings here and there. The windows are tinted, there is a power sunroof (something I have wanted for a while) and a Sony CD player that works, but needs to be rewired (memory is lost when car is off). The only major item that requires attention is the air conditioning, which is not functioning. It could just need a Freon recharge or perhaps the compressor itself is shot. I plan to hit up an air conditioning repair facility that offers free estimates in order to determine what the problem is there. I thought the power door locks were malfunctioning at first, but then I remembered today how Honda configures them to prevent one from locking their keys inside.

The best part about this whole deal is the price. The dealer was asking $6000 for the car. The resold dealer value I found to be approximately $5500, with all the features included. Now consider we arrived at this lot about thirty minutes before they were set to close. Suffice it to say, the staff was helpful, but did recommend perhaps waiting until Monday to think and make a decision. After taking a short test drive down SR 50, I made my offer of $4000 cash inclusive of tax, tag and title and the salesperson, Edwin, took it to his manager. When he came back, I was told that the manager was made aware of my offer and that we would be able to negotiate. The price went back and forth, but in the end my initial offer stood. Their only prerequisite was that I purchased the car right then and with cash.

As I was able to negotiate the price down to $4000, I still have about $200 with which to use on possible repairs or maintenance. Needless to say, I am very excited to be in an automobile of my own again. I was two days shy of one full month of non-mobility since the "white Civic" was in the accident. Moreover, it is paid for and done with: no more car payments!

Since I have been on my work hiatus, it is easy to forget the value that the arrival of Friday has to the standard nine-to-five employee who likely has the following two days off from work. Now that this Friday has come, I find myself in that familiar position: eagerly anticipating the day. But in this case, it is not because of the significance of the non-working days that immediately follow, but in the day itself.

It is only a bit past midnight and I am ready for bed, only waiting to finish writing this and drinking my water before crawling into my cuddly sheets and blankets. I hope I will be able to get to sleep quickly. I had not been nervous about things until now, but as several friends reassured me online earlier tonight, I know I will do fine in my job interview tomorrow morning. So, no pressure; I am going to go into this confident, see what happens and let things fall as they may.

And now for your enjoyment and as a proximate result of my own laziness and desire to get to bed at a decent hour, here are a few bullets:

• So far the vehicle search has turned up nothing solid, but I am awaiting some return telephone calls from some possibilities.
• I have decided to stop syndicating my links on blogrolling.com. It seemed silly to me that every time I added, edited or otherwise modified my links list (which is supported on Mount Sutro using a homegrown script) I had to pop over to another site and make the same changes there. However, please feel free to still use your blogrolling.com account to link to us.
• {insert something witty here}

The highest court in Canada's largest province, Ontario, has ruled that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry there. The ruling upholds a lower court decision and challenges the Canadian Government to change its laws on same-sex marriage. The appeals court ordered that gay couples seeking a legal union should be issued a marriage licence immediately.

The case had been fought by a gay couple, Michael Stark and Michael Leshner, who wasted no time in getting married hours after the ruling. Another couple, Jeff Parker and David Wood, saw the ruling on the internet and immediately went to Toronto City Hall to get their papers ready for an August wedding.

The 61-page ruling says the heterosexual definition of marriage violates gay couples' rights under the country's constitutional document, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ontario is the third Canadian province to strike down the federal heterosexual definition of marriage in court decisions. [ full story ]

Ok, so I lied. My Gay Days is now officially over and I am tired. Ernie, the gang and I ended up going to dinner at the local Jungle Jim's and then to Disney's Pleasure Island where we danced, drank and checked out the scene until the early morning. It would be out last time to hang out together as their flight left in the afternoon yesterday. Last night I was taken out to dinner by my friend Frankie and then the two of us hung out with Travis downtown. We ended up talking and drinking until late until Frankie realised he needed to get home to bed in order to go to work Wednesday.

In other news:

• I really need to purchase a vehicle before this week is over.
• Chris has been helping me locate used vehicles that might just work for me.
• I have a job interview I am excited about on Friday.
• I have said it before, but XM Radio fucking rocks, especially Channel 81, BPM.