I just got home this afternoon, official concluding my Gay Days weekend. I went over to Chris' house on Friday night so that he would not have to pick me up to go to Disney the next day. I talked to Ernie that night about getting together, but as the night quickly grew into morning, I decided just to stay in and get some rest for the day ahead.

Disney was a lot of fun, much more than I had imagined it would be. Chris and I arrived just a bit behind schedule and met up with a few friends of his with whom we spent a better part of the day together. It was a great time walking around, checking everyone out and of course, riding the rides. It had been a few years since I was at the Magic Kingdom. Somehow with the who-knows-how-many visitors, I managed to run into a whole bunch of people I know from around town (maybe ten or fifteen people) and even Ernie and the gang. With the exception of a few downpours, the rain was relatively mild and knowing our wonderful summer weather here, could have been much worse. It was great watching some more femme guys running for cover in the rain. Hell, one was even skipping through the rain, gay as could be (pun intentional). The Thunder Mountain Railroad ride had been closed when we all originally went to ride it, but after Chris' friends left we rode a quite a bit of rides just the two of us, that one included. I was wearing the requisite red garb, in my case a tank top I would have never even thought about wearing fifteen pounds ago. I even managed to get just a bit of sun, too, but not too much.

I ended up getting to ride just about everything I wanted before Chris and I decided to head back to his place in order to grab some food, get all pretty and head out to the Parliament House to check the scene out there and watch Cyndi Lauper perform. The length of the show itself was rather disappointing (only thirty or so minutes) and the drink ticket bullshit he mentions should never be repeated again. We milled about and checked things out before and after the concert prior to just deciding to get on our way (last call was past and we were out of cash). We spent Sunday together just hanging out and watching marathon Star Trek: The Next Generation (hold your comments: it is the only television show I really enjoy). And well, I guess that is about it.

Speaking of that troublemaker Ernie, after I submit this I am going to be heading back down to their hotel to have dinner and hang out again before him, Mike and Don all fly back to the city by the bay. Oh, and I got the pictures back from the other night so I will be going through those soon and putting them in my Gallery. Their pictures will be coming soon too, as soon as they get back and have a chance to e-mail them to me. Well, with that I am off…

My favourite beer is now available as an ice cream!

Although the ice cream is made using the ale, under licence from brewers Scottish and Newcastle, the cooking process means it contains less than 1% alcohol. Jackie Maxwell, director of Doddington Dairy said: "We were looking for an ice cream flavour that was distinctive, and had a strong identity with the region.

"Newcastle Brown Ale has all of that. It has been a fantastic challenge working on a product like this, with one of the world's most famous brands. Every part of the process has been great for us – from the design of the cartons, through to testing the ale syrup for just the right flavour. The ice cream highlights Newcastle Brown's unique flavour characteristics."

It does appear that it will not be exported from the UK, so I doubt I will have the chance to try it. Anyone over that way want to ship me a carton?

Well, almost. Chris came by this afternoon and picked me up so that I could go to my insurance company office (all the way in Ocoee, of all places) to sign the power of attorney/title transfer and get my check. It turns out I owed a bit less on my bank loan than I expected so my total payout came to $4205.66, which should be enough to set myself up with something decent.

After taking care of that business and doing a courier run (Chris' job), we stopped and ate at The Olive Garden before heading over Firestone for the free concert night I mentioned before. It was not packed busy, but a good crowd turned out for a series of really great performances by Widelife ("I Don't Want You"), Tamia ("Officially Missing You"), Abigail ("Set Me Free") and Thunderpuss' DJ Barry Harris ("Dive In The Pool").

The crowd was very much more a local gathering than the previous night's experience at Southern, where I barely recognised anyone there. I imagine this was a result of the Firestone event being advertised only on our local "party" radio station and not at all in any of the Gay Days official publications. It was a great time and am glad Chris told me I was going. Damn, though, my ears are still ringing. But it was well worth it!

Friday I will be doing normal boring things around the house earlier on, but the evening remains open. Ernie and crowd said they would likely be doing an amusement park during the day, but I may join them in the evening. And then, of course, Saturday is the Magic Kingdom day, which I am now officially excited about attending.

I just spent one hell of a night with Ernie (the self-proclaimed "short, insecure, apathetic Chinese guy that has a web page with a catchy domain name"), his boyfriend Mike and their friend Don. They are here for a week for a little vacation and to visit Orlando for Gay Days. I took them downtown to show them the ten seconds there is too see there and ate at Geno's Pizza on Orange Avenue before driving over to Southern where I got us all in for free and then drank for free until midnight. It was a great time drinking, chatting and even dancing a bit before heading back to their hotel room where we took a bunch of silly pictures (coming soon) before I headed back home.

It is now pretty late and I am quite tired myself so witty blogalisms will just have to wait. I am planning on getting together with them again before they leave, hopefully on Friday night and of course, the obligatory meeting during the Saturday Magic Kingdom run.

Well that is about it for now. Boy I could go for an In-n-Out with Fries run about now.

From David Well's horoscopes, this week's entry for Virgo:

If you are a single then it's about time you got out there and took advantage of Uranus, he is asking you to create a little magic in your love life — snap to it!

With Gay Days here in Orlando this week, it is too bad I am an Aquarius! Speaking of Gay Days, I will be doing my first Disney Magic Kingdom visit during this time as a result of my friend Chris having an extra ticket. I had thought I might get to go to the Parliament House Saturday night party as well, but that is looking ever more unlikely. I am also going to go with Chris Thursday night to a free show at Firestone which sounds to be pretty badass. Finally, I am going to try to get together tonight to meet one of my favourite bloggers over dinner and drinks.

While talking to someone online tonight, I directed him to the Gallery to check out some of the pictures I have taken. Since he particularly enjoyed the one I took of my reflection at The Waverly, I pointed out the shadow picture I took in Jacksonville. While in that album, he writes back to me.

Chad: i swear, i think i've seen some of those pics before
David: Which ones? MY pictures?
Chad: yeah
David: Odd
Chad: i think it was from a paranormal site
David: I find it highly unlikely they were my pictures then. Can you find the site?
Chad: no, it was a while ago
Chad: i think they thought your smoke pics were something else
Chad: cause those were the exact pics

Next began my Google Image search. The first search I tried yielded a very interesting result.

David: Well I will be god damned!
David: I found that site…
David: But it is no longer online, it would appear.
David: Google Image Search
David: Hold on…
David: I found the new site where they are at here.
David: Well I can see why they look similar.
David: They are in fact different photographs, but it looks like they tried to make something supernatural out of nothing.

If you go to that second link, the new location of the photographs, you will find that the pictures are broken images. Well, when they changed from the original site to the new one, they linked the pictures with capital extensions even though they are lower-case. Look at them here and here.

So instead of having to draw up some cease and desist e-mail's, I got a good laugh out of the deal. Apparently, people try to take pictures of "dust plasma," a remnant effect from the presence of a supernatural being. I would say the photographs from the cemetery above were probably taken in the same fashion as I: snapping a flash picture into exhaled cigarette smoke.