I’ve been on pins and needles a bit this week because of the hurricane. First, is it my best friend’s birthday (Thomas Roche). He is far away and I’m terribly lonely at work without him to talk to. Foremost, his girlfriend (Ponygirl) lives in New Orleans, and it’s been seriously touch-and-go about her situation. I finally heard it took her ten hours to get out of NO, and Thomas was freaking out because they were saying that anyone stuck on the highways might be killed, and she was having an extra difficult time getting out because she has many pets, and a cat that just had kittens. Where’s Hellboy when you need him?

Monday night is whiskey night with SRL friends; this Monday we merged slightly with my SFSI friends and joked about pooling our funds to get Thomas a horse trailer that floats. (One whiskey night a few weeks back I spent substantial drinking time with a man who had defected from the human genome project. He has been working with a team of researchers to build genes. They’ve gotten further than anyone, but the HGP snubs them for taking a rather punk approach — rather than fighting the fight against patenting genes, this guy and his researchers want to "open source" genes, the Linux approach. Interestingly, we had a lot to talk about. Even though I’m in the sex info biz, I get a surprising amount of criticism and shit for my all-orientations approach. Him and I decided to call it, "open source sex ed.")

Thomas wrote me just now to say that Ponygirl made it to dry ground, which is much better for her hooves.

Links for fun: Finally, thanks to my SRL pals — I know who I’m voting for in the election (work safe). And: dear Jesus in a sparkly rubber thong you have to see these huge silicone butt toys (not work safe). Puppy Tail video. Click "group" (frames, scroll down) to see how they compare to beer bottles! Let’s hope that it’s the idea of Big Bill, more than an actual spleen massage, that gets folks off, shall we?