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We’re off to New York for the weekend! I may post while we’re up there, we’ll see.

Bon week-end, mes amis!

Yay, today’s my Friday, since I have tomorrow off. More on that in a moment. Lately I’ve been more busy and tired than usual at work, basically just the stress of trying to meet deadlines during an–oh, how to put this diplomatically?–interesting transitional period in the office. My mantra the whole time was “I’m no superman,” you know, like in the Scrubs theme (by Lazlo Bane). I’m not allowing myself to slack–believe me, I know how to do that all too well–but it’s (a) a reminder that I can and should ask others for help (in fact the lyric before that is “I can’t do this all on my own”), and (b) an acceptance that my sanity is worth more than any of the stupid little job stresses.

Anyway, on to much more pleasant thoughts. Thom’s and my trip to New York is nearly upon us, our first big trip together. I can hardly wait. This is exactly what I need right now. On my way home I realized that with Rufus’ concert this Friday night–tomorrow night!–I will have seen him play New York three years running. (The first was at Town Hall on Valentine’s Day 2002, and the second was the Tibet House benefit at Carnegie Hall.) Cool. We’ll be seeing a couple of musicals too, and I’m putting together a working shortlist of other things to do and see: museums, shopping, restaurants, etc. At Lambda Rising we found a fun guidebook called Betty & Pansy’s Severe Queer Review of New York, and when I get my hands on Time Out New York, we’ll browse through that, too.

Last night Thom asked, “So, do you have our entire itinerary planned out? ‘At 2:17, we…'”

“No,” I pshawed. A beat, then: “Not yet.”

Wednesday was dancing queens’ night out. Before heading to National Theater for Mamma Mia!, Thom and I had a lovely dinner at Les Halles downtown. They have a three-course pre-theater menu for only $17.89. Quite a deal. I had the soup of the day (potato leek), a tasty salmon entrée, and for dessert a fruit tart. Yum.

Mamma Mia!, the musical based on the songs of ABBA, is such a fun show. A guilty pleasure. I’d seen it once before–I took my parents to see it in San Francisco a few years ago–but I’d forgotten just how wacky and exuberant it is. We scored front-row seats, giving us, as Thom says, a great view of all the eye candy: guys cavorting in wetsuits or less. (In certain scenes I found it hard to concentrate, distracted by all the packages paraded before me. Ahem.) But yeah, some of the costumes are fabulous (I totally want the Ascot-like spring dresses and hats that the women guests wear in the wedding scene), and the music and dancing is fun (we were on our feet and boogying by the end). For the past few days, I’ve been singing ABBA to myself… and out loud.

“Dancing Queen.” “Take a Chance on Me.” “The Winner Takes It All.” And the list goes on. It’s all there in the show. You’d think stringing together disparate songs (twenty-two of them!) from a single group like this might result in more or less a staged concert, but here for the most part the plot succeeds in holding them together. That’s one of the amusing things about this show: you wonder which instantly recognizable song the story will produce next, and when you hear the strains of each first line, you smile and think, “ah, yes, of course,” prompting me to comment to Thom, “There really is an ABBA song for every occasion!”

Whew. Last night I thought my notebook had completely died. (It’s a Gateway Solo 5300 CX, which I bought a little over three years ago.) It froze, so I powered down manually, and then when I tried to turn it back on, nothing happened. Nothing. I thought, oh great. This is the last thing I need right now.

This morning I used Thom’s computer to do some Googling, and I found a tech support board where someone described the same problem I was having. The moderator suggested taking out the battery and powering up just on AC. I tried that and lo and behold, it worked! Gotta love the internet.

Yesterday I received a piece of spam from a “Saruman 1726.” The subject line is “HGH – Stop the aging process!” Hmm. He’s not exactly a vision of youth and vitality, but I suppose he does look good for someone who’s, what, a few thousand years old?

Yikes. There’s been a Pottery Barn at Market and Castro for the past few years, and I’m just now finding out about it? Where have I been? Oh yeah, on the other side of the country. As much as I love Pottery Barn, having it right there reminds me of the Gap (another store I’ll admit to patronizing) located at the very corner of Haight-Ashbury: there’s just something not right about it. Or maybe I’m nostalgic for a Tales of the City-like San Francisco that I was born too late for? Armistead Maupin himself says to go with the flow. From an interview given in Oct. 2001: “A lot of folks are upset that the Pottery Barn has come to the Castro… I have to explain to them patiently that in most American cities, the Pottery Barn is the gayest place in town.”

A couple of PBS program notes:

The follow-up series to last season’s The Forsyte Saga on Masterpiece Theatre starts this Sunday, Feb. 8, and airs in three episodes. The first series was quite good. It has all the ingredients of a period drama: stately manors, lavish costumes, and requisite trips to the country; inevitable questions of love and money, marriage and inheritance; and necessary to populate such a grand setting, of course, a bazillion characters. Thankfully the website has a family tree. I was starting to get them mixed up with the characters from The Way We Live Now.

In the tradition of the immersion series on different historical “houses,” of which Manor House I found really interesting and enjoyable (The 1900 House was all right, and I never did get around to watching Frontier House), the newest is Colonial House, which transports a small community back to 17th-century New England. The eight-part series airs Monday and Tuesday nights, May 17-18 and 24-25. (Thanks to Gene for the scoop.)

Quick notes: we got around to watching the pilot of The L Word on Showtime. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but I’m happy to say it’s actually pretty good.

Has Blind Date ever covered a gay couple before last night? I was channel surfing and when I saw two guys (Veni and Keith) in the ol’ Blind Date SUV, I had to stop and check it out. Those two were so sweet and perfect for each other. They seemed to be having such a sincere, romantic time, that I actually felt voyeuristic (instead of just entertained) watching them, you know? Like I didn’t want to intrude on their moment. But of course, I watched the whole thing anyway. Again, very sweet those two.

Bravo is gay, gay, gay tomorrow. They will be running a marathon of old Queer Eye episodes (when are we getting new episodes?!) starting at noon until 8 p.m., at which point they pass the baton to NBC–oh, how they love their cross-promotion–and in the meantime continue with the entire Gay Weddings series. It might be something to flip to occasionally if the Super Bowl isn’t your bag.

This Monday at 10 p.m. be sure to check out Comedy Central’s Out on the Edge, a gay-themed comedy special hosted by Alan Cumming. Sounds great.

[Update (1 Feb 21:34): Right now we’re watching Notorious C.H.O. on Showtime. Oh, my god, that Margaret Cho. So freakin’ hilarious. Seriously. I’m crying. And ooh, they’re showing I’m the One That I Want later on.]