Playing Ketchup Catsup Catch Up!

I know I promised that I would be more diligent about updating back in August. And for three days, I was more regular than a poodle packed with oat bran. But then...

What can I say? It's been a wild and crazy couple of months!

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Loooove... Exciting and New...
First off, it's pretty much official. Stephanie and I are a couple™ now. We hold hands and gaze adoringly at each other and smooch in public. She's a relatively private person, and the last thing I want to do is start blabbing about all the intimate details of our relationship, so let me simply say that I am getting laid a lot.

Here is a chart of all the sex I've been having since June.



And, interestingly enough, here is a chart of President Bush's approval rating since June.



I'm not implying anything. I'm just saying...

You Gotta Have a J-O-B...
As those of you who occasionally pay me the heed I deserve might recall, I've been on a sabbatical since October 2002, when I left my job as QA Analyst/Urine-Soaked Chew Toy at Brinker International to pursue my dream of laying around all day and watching TV. Oh, and to maybe do some writing.

Well, the stock options, inheritence, and savings finally ran out and I was forced to sink to the level of the gainfully employed and get a goddamn job.

Actually, as far as jobs goes, this gig isn't half bad. I'm doing tech support for Netherland, Sewell and Associates (a petroleum consulting firm). It's a contract gig (they just extended me to the end of December), so I get to set my own hours. I also get an office, with a door and everything!

Way Way Way WAY Off Broadway...
There's a dinner theater here in Dallas called Pocket Sandwich Theater, mainly because their menu features pocket sandwiches. So it's not just a clever name. They are most famous for putting on melodramas, which are comic spoofs where the audience is encouraged to cheer for the hero, boo and hiss at the villain, and sigh wistfully for the damsel in distress. They sell popcorn for 50 cents a basket, not for eating, but for lobbing at the actors while they perform. All in all, it's good clean goddamn family fun.

Anyway, my friend Sean and I wrote a melodrama on spec for Pocket Sandwich Theater. It's called Escape from Stalag 18, and it's making fun of German POW movies. We cribbed our plot from Stalag 17 and The Great Escape, and we borrowed liberally from Casablanca and Patton.

Basically, it's a comedy set in a German labor camp during World War II. So it's sort of like Hogan's Heroes. Only, you know, funny. We submitted it back in October and are still waiting to hear back from TPTB at PST. (That's "The Powers That Be at Pocket Sandwich Theater" for the acronymically challenged.) They're supposed to let us know by the end of November...

I Wanna Be a Paperback Writer...
Steph and I are participating in National Novel Writing Month (abbreviated NAMBLA NaNoWriMo) because we both thought it would be fun to spend some time doing something together. Besides having all that sex, I mean.

The goal is to crank out 50,000 words by the end of November, but I really haven't made a lot of progress. I was working on this really cool story involving the Knights Templar, a lost gospel, a fucked-up televangelist, and a homeless guy who can heal the sick and keeps coming back from the dead. Unfortunately, that one was requiring way too much research and I wasn't getting much writing done, so I put it on the back burner. Now I'm working on another volume in the Verbal Reynard saga, but I've got a lot of catching up to do.

And In Closing, I'd Like To Add...
Bush sucks.

Peace out, dawgs!