Gar1eth

Just to correct a possible misconception. I've had dates before. They just don't happen very frequently. My last date was in February (I don't consider hook-ups where you just go Over to someone's house to have sex a date) and that was the first in 2 years. My definition of a date in this case is we met and talked about ourselves a bit. We found we were attracted to each other and started making out-in public no less -at a park. Gman

Oh he's quite open about being polyamory. This is early days yet. He seems like a nice guy. What I'm hoping for is a friendship with benefits. And I think that's what he wants too. Thanks. Even if we don't turn out to be compatible sexually. He seems like a nice guy to have as a friend. But again we will have to see. It's currently 5:13 in the morning. Nothing really makes sense right now as I'm exhausted. I have to be at work at 10. So I'll only be getting about 3 hours of sleep. I'm probably going to have return to this on Monday after I've had a full sleep tonight. But I think the wording is confusing even at that best of times. But that may be due to the subject. Keeping my current befuddled state in mind is this restatement accurate 1. Guys struggling with wanting sex with women but emotional relationships with men 2. Guys struggling with wanting sex with men and emotional relationships with woman. But even with this simplification of what you wrote, if I'm even correct, I'm going to have think about when I'm less tired. But it brings to mind what a bisexual friend of mine who just died (I'm writing a long post about this but I haven't finished ) said once Something about how (and I can't remember his exact wording) straight men were screwed -and not in a good way. They had to put up with being around women in order to get sex. My friend was long time married. And he said he was attracted to women. But he also at one point hired. I was never quite sure how far he went with escorts. But he dearly loved erotic massages from muscular men such as Giovani Volta, Derek from Florida, the long retired Gino (if I'm remembering his name correctly. He and Jason Land were in a relationship for a while), and I think he met Allen Silver a few times too. Gman

Aside from something involving vampires or hangmen's nooses is there any other type of necking? And just for the record my canines are of normal length and I don't know that many knots. ? But what are people's experiences with bisexual guys? I'm a blue star (or is it gold star?) gay male. I've never been with a woman and never wanted to be - well I might have intellectually wanted-but never libidinally wanted. Gman

Yes it's true!! I had a date!!! There's been a 3-1/2 month period of getting to know each other by text. But that's normal, right? ?? Actually what happened was the guy contacted me thru one of the hook-up apps, and left his phone number back on February. I contacted him by text. I think it took a day or so for him to respond. Then I responded back -and there was bubkes for a response until the early part of May. I probably did send an interim text in April because I really wanted to meet the guy. But again, he didn't respond until May. And even now he won't always respond to texts for three or more days. So it's frustrating. ?? When he did finally respond a week ago, he said he was under a deadline at work. But when it was finished, he wanted to meet. So we set up a day to meet earlier this week. That day he texts me that he's still too busy. But we managed to meet today for a bit. We went to a reopened coffee shop. We also managed to do a bit of necking in the parking lot. He said he likes me. And he wants to meet again. I am worried about Corona-especially since I'm in a high risk group due to age and medical conditions. But I, as many of you are, am lonely. I don't even have any friends here to talk to. I think even though it scares me I'm going to have to go for it. One thing I'd like to get some viewpoints on from our community here. This guy is bisexual. He says that with woman he has to be attracted to them physically. With men he has to be attracted to more to personality. For those of you who are bisexual or have dated bisexuals, I'm wondering if this is a common preference or idiosyncratic to this guy. Gman

I thought it was the business guys who put the roses in their screen names, not the clients. And I may be wrong, but from the way I read @Ziya's post, he isn't a client. Gman

I had looked at eBay for flour. Ebay keeps a record and emails you from time to time to see if you are still interested. I just received from them a reminder about some flour I had looked at. I also saw they had some King Arthur whole wheat flour on sale. Some idiot is trying to sell a 5 pound bag for $17 when I bought the exact same thing for $4.99 at Kroger. I am certainly in favor of people making a bit of profit. But a 340% profit in a time like this is reprehensible. Gman

???????? Gman

I love their voices, but I'm not really fond of the arrangement. Kearns sang most of it where it should be an equal duet. This on the other hand is much more, if I may use the term, collaborative? (for those not familiar , this is the group Collabro. They won Britain's Got Talent back in 2014 after only being a group together for one month. ) Here are two things that make me happy about them. And their audition. They surprised the judges. Gman

That's cool!! I'd never seen one like that. Thanks. Most of them that I've seen are more square than that. See my picture above. On the cheaper end they all look pretty much like mine. I'm not sure what bread from the really expensive brands like Zojirushi or Breadville look like for sure. But just pictures, their bread pans look a lot like mine. So they may make similar shaped loaves. Gman

I just realized while I've never had any luck with hotel staff-not that I've tried as I can't imagine any would be interested in a "chub" Daddy type-I had an experience that could be considered- well if experiences were people, my experience would be a first cousin once removed from the experience of finding a willing hotel staffer as you will see. This "event" probably happened about 4 to 6 years ago. And I'll have to admit, I knew the guy beforehand. He was an occasional FB of mine -not muscular but in normal good shape (I'm of two minds about posting a headless picture of him. I guess I won't.) Y'all will have to take my word for it that he's quite a cute guy. To get on with the story, he was a night concierge of a downtown apartment in Seattle. I was in the neighborhood once and stopped by to say hello. We talked for a bit. I don't think I asked for anything. But he probably said something like, "Let me show you something." He put the "Be Back At..." sign into the concierge desk and took me to an empty condo in the building. It may have been a fully furnished model or one of those ones that residents could rent for out of town guests. He showed me the condo, we went into the bedroom, laid down on the bed, and he blew me. The unfortunate part of the story is that was our last time together. But it was definitely a nice (and unexpected) occurrence. Gman

Those were for stylistic purposes only. ? Gman

Have we talked about Macaroons and Tomatoes? But speaking of Tomatoes, the recipe book that comes with the machine lists a Bloody Mary Bread. It has Bloody Mary mix in it. It intrigued me. I might make a batch. Gman

Gman

Hmm I am not a big cheese fan. For example I don't like the cheese biscuits at Red Lobster. Come to think of it, I don't like seafood. So I never go to Red Lobster anyway!! But I don't mind a very mild cheese taste. I don't think chunks of cheese are going to work. I guess I'll have to accept a mild background taste. Aside from the cheese my recipe has 1 T Rosemary. 1/4th tsp Italian Seasoning, and 1/4th tsp ground pepper. Gman

I have some dried mince onion I thought about adding. But I forgot. I've tasted this bread. It's ok. It certainly smelled cheesy, but I don't really taste it. I'm wondering if #1 It's just difficult to taste cheese that's added to the flour mixture, #2 maybe it's my tastebuds, or #3 could it be that the Parmesan is just too mild tasting? @RealAvalon, is Asiago a stronger cheese? If it is maybe I should try that. Gman

My latest bread masterpiece just out of the oven-errr bread machine. It's a mixture and modification of two different recipes. Basically I followed one Italian Rosemary bread recipe that used 2-1/2 cups of flour. I added some grated Parmesan cheese from another recipe for Cheese Herb Bread that calls for 3 tablespoons of cheese. Reading thru the comments on the cheese bread, some people said they couldn't taste the cheese. One comment suggested adding 5 tablespoons. So I did that. But that recipe had 3 cups of flour. My recipe only had 2-1/2. While I was watching my dough being mixed thru the window of my bread machine, the dough looked very soupy. I was thinking that maybe the cheese melting had added to much moisture to the 2-1-2 cups of flour. So I started adding additional flour. I added about a 1/4 cup. The dough ball then looked a lot more like what I had seen on my two previous attempts. So I "danced the dance of joy,"or I would have if I had thought about it at the time. (Food Styling by Gman Services) One of my next exciting bread projects will be attempting pumpernickel. What's that I read, Gman? You couldn't possibly have written pumpernickel, thought anonymous Message Center Member out in the ethersphere. Well I have new for you Mr. or Ms. Anonymous. I said (well wrote) PUMPERNICKEL!!!! I've found some bread machine recipes for it. And I've already bought the whole wheat flour (I had ordered some European brand of wheat flour thru Amazon $10.89 for a 3 lb bag = 23 cents an ounce). Then a few hours after I had ordered it, I fortuitously stepped (which believe me is the best way to step if you can manage it) into a Kroger's and found some much cheaper-King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour at $4.99 for a 5 lb bag (= about 6 cents a bag). Thankfully I was still in time to cancel the Amazon order. I've also bought the caraway seeds, the cocoa powder, and molasses the recipe calls for. All I'm waiting for now is the rye flour which I ordered off Amazon, and which is supposed to come next week. And then VOILA-PUMPERNICKEL!! Gman

Might have been a metro area. I know that for example in the Dallas Fort Worth area there are landline numbers -or at least there used to be-where someone from Dallas can call 817-XXX-XXXX without using the "one" even though its a long distance call. Gman

You know, @mike carey, I know you've logically explained the Australian phone situation here . But every time I read it, it goes in one eye and out the other. It's obviously me and not you. But the whole explanation induces white noise inside me every time I read it. Much like the words gym, workout, and boyfriend do. Gman

Until 2017 you could still use 7 digit dialing in Western Washington -although I'm assuming it only worked within area codes. And I'm not sure how it worked for example if a cell phone in Seattle that came (in my case) from Texas and had a Texas number ( ie a Texas area code) was inside the Seattle city limits and dialed a Seattle number. I don't know whether I had to dial the 206 before the number when I was inside Seattle or not. I always did use the area code because I didn't even know that 7 digit dialing might even be possible until it no longer was. And everyone had to use 10 digit dialing. Here's an article discussing the changeover. Gman New area code for Western Washington means mandatory 10-digit dialing Date: Thursday, July 6, 2017 in: News share 0 0 Michael McCormic, Jr. Michael McCormic, Jr. For ClarkCountyToday.com VANCOUVER — Western Washington state is receiving a new area code as numbers beginning in 360 draw closer to depletion. Stretching from the west coast to central Washington, the territory covered by the 360 area code has witnessed both a population increase and an increase in the use of cellular and landline phones. Because of this, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission will be introducing the 564 area code in August to the regions that also use the current 360 code. This change will reduce the current burden on the Western Washington area codes, including 360, which covers most of the western half of the state, 206, the area code for the Seattle area, 425, covering Bellevue, Redmond, and Everett, and 253, which covers Tacoma and the surrounding area. Currently, the 564 area code will only be distributed within the region currently covered by the 360 area code. It is unclear whether or not the other three area codes will follow in suit with similar area code additions. The most widely-felt effect of the new area code will be the change in dialing procedure. While local dialing in Western Washington currently operates sufficiently with seven digits, the addition of the new area code throws a wrench into the gears of our 7-digit dialing. As such, local calls will now require callers to dial the full 10 digits, including area codes. A grace period lasting from January of this year up to July 29 was implemented to give callers a chance to adjust to the new dialing requirements. Once the new 564 numbers begin distribution in August, however, calls dialed with 7 digits will not go through. According to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, the cost of calls will not change because of this adjustment, only the procedure by which calls are made. While for most, this change to 10-digit dialing is simply a nuisance that they will eventually get used to, there are a few major safety concerns that accompany this change. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission states on their website that self-dialing units, such as medical alert devices or home security systems, may need to be reprogrammed to account for the 10-digit dialing change. More recently-produced devices are automatically programmed to 10-digit dialing, but many older units still function using 7-digit dials. Because of this, there are some serious concerns regarding whether or not some of these older systems will be able to adequately function once 10-digit dialing becomes mandatory. Western Washington residents who use such devices are encouraged to contact the manufacturer if they are unsure whether or not their device will function after the transition to 10-digit dialing. Emergency calling will remain 9-1-1 and will not require an area code.

According to an article in the Atlantic, they began the roll out of area codes in 1951. That must be a really old matchbook. On November 10, 1951, the official rollout of area codes took place. With 100 guests watching, Englewood Mayor M. Leslie Denning dialed a number: 415-LA-3-9727. Exactly 17 seconds later, Denning’s call was picked up by Frank Osborn, the mayor of Alameda, California. Bell engineers called the cross-continental and intramayoral conversation a "historic first in communications." And newspapers, for their part, were even more jubilant about the proceedings. As The New York Times put it in an article announcing the Englewood test-call, “the vine-like network of this small community's telephone plant will grow tomorrow like an atomic age descendant of Jack the Giant Killer's beanstalk. Gman

Gman

I didn't have the time. For one thing I couldn't drive because my myasthenia was really bad that point. **Most of the time I couldn't even turn a knob on a washing machine using both hands. I had no grip strength to speak of. I also was having trouble holding my head up.** As if that weren't enough, I was in a rush to get back to Dallas for my Dad's Unveiling. So the matches were not exactly at the top of my list to do anything about Gman **To be fair it was probably due to the prednisone I was on. At least 50% or so of the people taking it for myasthenia develop increased weakness -sometimes severe- in the second week of taking it before it actually begins to help you. They theorize that prednisone has a toxic effect on the muscles before it dials down the immune system (the underlying problem with MG) which is attacking your muscles and making them weak. This Medical Minute was brought to you by... The more you know. G

I collected matchbooks for probably 20 or so years. Remember back in the day when most non-fast food restaurants either had them at the bar, the tables, or at the cashier-usually with the restaurant name and logo. Some had really nice covers on them. Seems to me that you could even find them in hotel rooms once upon a time-along with writing paper and envelopes Sometimes they were a remembrance of a place I'd been. For example if I had a job interview in city I traveled to, I'd pick up a book from the restaurant they took me too. But I'd pick up local ones too.It's not like I really looked them once I collected them although I did like the ones with nice covers. I used to drop them into a pickle jar I had repurposed especially for this. When I moved back to Texas 2 years ago, I came on the plane. You aren't supposed to put flammable things in your luggage. And I knew they wouldn't let me carry my jar on board. So I had to leave them behind. What made me start this thread? 1. I just could have used some matches. It was nothing major. And I made do without. But with the decline in smoking, most restaurants don't give them out now-not to mention that I don't eat out at restaurants very often anymore. 2. I'm waiting for some clothes to dry so I can get dressed and leave for a doctor's appt. It's nothing serious. It's time for my routine PrEP labs. But thank you for your concern. Gman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOWjRVmAdTo Gman

While scores are great for studies and actuarial tables, they provide no comfort when you are the outlier. Gman