Hello Kiddies,

No messages or jingoistic jargon today. We'll save that for another time. ;)

I'd just like to wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July weekend! May you spend it in pursuit of whatever happiness you desire! (I'll be pursuing mine at TES Fest, or is that the other way around?)





Enjoy yourselves, be safe, be thankful, and don't for get to pursue your right to..................

Rock & Roll All Night and Party Every Day!!!!

So it's three days after camp and I think I'm pretty recuperarated. Of course I just slept 13 hours and another two this afternoon (missing most of "Ocean's 13" on HBO) so I think I'm ready and rested for TESFest.

My body does this when it finally needs enough sleep it finds a way to knock me out and get it.

Looking forward to the weekend, seeing all of our friends and hopefully getting to play some. If anyone else is going to TF via NJ Transit we are probably aiming for the 11:14am train from New York's Penn Station.

Safe travels to everyone coming to TESFest and hope we have a great weekend

P

Another installment of LR memories.

I thought it would be hot to put my boy up for sale in the slave auction. Going through my head were images of him standing on the auction block while bidders dug deep into their pockets and battled it out with thousands and thousands of dollars in fake money. I didn't give much thought to what would happen next but I was excited to see the boy bought and played with by someone other than me. I do it all the time after all, so getting to watch would be a hot change of pace. But my plans began falling through almost immediately. I should have taken it as a cosmic warning sign when the auction organizers couldn't locate the application I'd emailed. Nope, he wasn't on their list, despite my having sent back the slave auction form within a day of receiving it. So I filled out a new one by hand, once again circling every option to indicate I didn't give a fuck who bought the boy. I should have gone with "female" - it would have been much safer.

Then I found out that he was assigned to the silent auction and not the live one. Another bummer. So much less excitement. Now he just got to stand around for nearly an hour waiting on people to enter secret bids. I didn't want to hover too close and scare off potential bidders but I did check up on him every so often. He mentioned this one man in particular seemed interested and pointed him out to me. The guy looked alright. I mean, he wasn't creepy looking in the "I live in mom's basement and collect comic books and am still a virgin" kind of way. He definitely had a strong presence though.

Fast forward through the boring part, and it turns out the man in question had bought my boy after all. I was already at his side when the man came over to touch base. It was stated that all play had to be negotiated through me, so he'd come over to see what the deal was. I was hoping that he wouldn't want to claim his scene that night since we wanted to go to the genderqueer party and as it turned out he was already busy and holding a beer, so politely told us that play was out for the night.

So this man, let's call him AJ, complimented my boy and said that he found him very attractive - all well and good. But it was his final remark as he turned to leave us for the night that really disturbed me, left a bad taste in my mouth, and set the rest of the next 24 hours' events into motion. "And tomorrow, you're going to cry on my shoulder" He said to my boy. My NEW boy, who up to that point hadn't cried for me despite knowing what an incredible turn on it is. Yeah, I've done my fair share of beating him in a variety of ways but he'd always kept it together - even after I was finished breaking skin and drawing blood on his ass for the first time AND putting my collar around his neck, which he'd been practically begging for...no tears. So I'd been planning a few incredibly intense activities with the goal of making him let loose and break down but it was not in my plans to have him crying on someone else, some stranger with the balls to tell my boy what he'd be doing just cause he won him in some fake money auction.

Well, it didn't take long before people started telling me to be a tad bit careful with this AJ fellow and to negotiate very carefully for my puppy's scene. Of course I wanted to tell them to save it for when we were alone - and I should have - because within minutes my boy was working himself into a panic over what this man would be doing to him the next night. Some time passed, he kept spiraling into a worse and worse headspace, and finally I took him outside and told him that I was canceling the auction scene. At that moment I fully believed I would. I would just tell AJ that we had been overzealous and gotten in too deep for the boy's first time out in public. I thought about offering a rain check and then decided against it. No excuses needed, we just weren't going to go through with it.

As soon as I told my boy of my decision he was immediately relieved. His demeanor returned to normal and he seemed carefree once again. But in my mind, thoughts were brewing. See, I love fear. I really get off on it. If I could only make people afraid of me more often. But the problem is, as sadistic as I can be, those who've played with me know I'm about as scary as a kitten. No one has ever been afraid that I'll get out of control or go to far (well, no one other than me at least, since those have been some of my own fears.) So seeing a person scared shitless of what might happen to them...well, it became very difficult to let go of that feeling.

So I began to formulate a plan. What if I could use the fear to everyone's advantage? I figured that AJ would like to know that my boy was shaking in his boots (metaphorical boots, since he hasn't earned a pair yet) and I would enjoy watching him scared out of his mind, and in the end the fear could be the scene with no real harm coming his way. We had talked about mindfucks before and he always told me that he was fine with me messing with his head, still just to feel him out, I brought up the idea. What if the whole auction and getting bought by scary dude, and all the people who tried to give me warnings about scary dude were all just an elaborate set up? He laughed at the idea and thought it would have been great. And it would have been - if I'd ever thought of it! But now that we were in this situation there was no way I could let AJ not be used to further my ends.

I decided to talk to him privately when I saw him at midnight snack. We went to a secluded area of the dining hall and I explained the situation to him. I told him my boy was scared to death and I wanted to use that for the scene rather than heavy beating or anything. AJ seemed to like this idea a lot and we agreed on a plan. In order for it to work however, I knew I couldn't tell my boy anything until the absolute last minute. Otherwise he'd turn into a neurotic, sulking, scared puppy for the next day and really be no good for me in that state. I was right about that, as I would find out later, and it's a good thing I went back to our midnight snack table and told him it was all settled, the scene was called off.

I think this is the first time I've ever lied to him and considering it was for the purpose of a hot scene and all would later be revealed, I didn't feel too bad. But at the same time I felt terrible. I knew without a doubt that he would do whatever I said, even if I told him to go play with a sadistic ogre, but I knew the whole thing was going to be really rough on him and I was afraid, more than anything, that he would hate me and the whole mindfuck would go too far and end badly.

I managed to contain my emotions and act normal, only getting weird as the time drew extremely near. I sent R back to our cabin and told him to chill for a bit while I finished dinner. In fact, I was touching base with AJ one final time. When I got back to the cabin I was probably giving away my nervousness and he picked up on it. I very systematically had him kneel in front of me and put on leather wrist cuffs, finally telling him, as he looked up into my eyes, what his fate for the evening would be. The worst part, of course, was that I would be handing him over to the near-stranger and would not be there to watch over his scene. We had 10 minutes till he was supposed to be in front of AJ's cabin and he sank into my lap in what I can only guess was despair. I had a raging hard on.

He sulked for a few minutes and I kept telling him to trust me and everything would be alright. He was not convinced but to his credit he stoically left our cabin and met AJ next door. I watched from the window nervously. I think my stomach was as jittery as his must have been, if not more. I watched as AJ directed him though I couldn't hear the words. They began walking up the hill towards the dungeon and I, still not trusting AJ one bit, followed a few hundred feet behind. I was not going to let them get out of sight.

Following them up the hill was difficult. I was carrying my own large toy bag and trying to stay as hidden as possible in case they turned around for any reason. I don't know how but I managed to make it all the way without a single person yelling my name or giving a clue to the boy that I was nearby (though I passed several friends.) Luck was on my side I guess. When I finally made it into the dungeon a moment after they had arrived, I peeked at my boy from behind a black curtain. He was restrained to a cross and AJ was talking to him, asking him questions. He was replying as curtly as possible. "Yes sir" and "No sir" were all I heard. It was very obvious that he didn't want to be there. At all. It's still odd to hear him call other people "sir" but I have to remind myself it's out of respect and not anywhere close to the "Sir" he refers to me as - which is loaded with so much more emotion and meaning to both of us.

By this point, AJ had begun to hit my boy. I approached and watched at a very close distance, literally ready to pounce on AJ the moment he acted out of line. He remained within the boundaries of what I considered acceptable though, so I just let him keep going. Every so often he'd offer me the chance to throw a few blows. I always did and he continued to talk so the boy wouldn't know it wasn't him holding the whip.

This went on for a little while. My boy rarely reacted and AJ kept spouting out bullshit about how I was too busy to come or this wasn't important enough; my boy wasn't important enough. Finally I said we needed to tell him. I imagined he would be able to withstand more pain once he knew I was there and AJ had already begun going harder than I felt necessary.

As soon as he saw me, he started crying. I was, of course, extremely touched and extremely hard. He was so grateful to see me that I know he would have dropped to the ground and kissed my boots if he hadn't been tied to the cross. He made love to me with his eyes though, telling me how relieved he was and how thankful that I'd been there the whole time and hadn't really left him in the hands of this weird stranger.

Then, this is where it gets even weirder. I had told AJ specifically, no singletails. The whip, among other things, is something I love to play with and want to be my boy's only when it comes to that. AJ directed me to stand behind the cross, facing my boy, which I did because I wanted to be all up in his face. However, I did not imagine he'd pull out his whip and start going at it. I signaled at him to take it down a notch but he obviously thought I meant to hit the boy lower on the body. Oy. After a couple of minutes I told him it was enough.

Now, I admit that the scene had gone pretty well up to this point, but completely disregarding what I'd told him about the singltail was a big no-no. I kindly withdrew myself and my boy from the situation and got him untied as quickly as possible so he could collapse. His back was decorated in purple slashes from my quirt which had been used harder than I'd ever done - but it was his emotions I was more worried about. While still up on the cross he had incurred a small breakdown based on his fears surrounding something AJ had said to him earlier. He kept asking me if "it was true" and I had no idea what he was talking about. Seems AJ hit a hot spot when practicing some of the verbal abuse I told him was ok to use. I of course had no idea what he was referring to but at one moment in particular when he was having a hard time getting the question or statement out, I felt like screaming, "Whatever it is, it's not true, you idiot, he was just making shit up!" Didn't say that though. I just kindly reassured him that whatever was said was all part of the scene. Not too long after, my boy was back in fine condition and good spirits, having survived what I think must have been some of the scariest moments of his life so far.

I found the whole thing VERY hot but I do think sometimes about ways it could have gone wrong. I'm very fortunate that it all went well. Now my hands are about to fall off from typing so I will let this be it for the evening.

I took this (obviously staged) picture a couple of weekends ago. It was just too cute. He does actually clean but he'd long since been finished for the day when I found this harness, purchased for no good reason at NYC's LPN 2006, and we started playing dress-up. This thing had never fit anyone I'd played with in the past but lo and behold! it looked perfect on him! Can't pass up a good photo op.

Taken by the talented Rain, we really like this picture.

Ace Frehley joins Pearl Jam at MSG for 'Black Diamond!'



While I was never a big fan of theirs, I gotta give props to the Seattle boys on this one.

Hello Kiddies,

Here's a random factoid. Today I marked 18 years at my job. I started working at Empire Merchants (then Peerless Importers) on July 2, 1990, just 2 weeks after I graduated high school and a month before my 18th birthday. I was a very green & naive kid that barely weighed 100 pounds and this job sure made a man out of me! My 18 years of service has earned me 5 weeks vacation and have about a dozen more years before I can retire on full pension if I choose. :)
I'll admit that working as a truck driver & delivering liquor wasn't my first choice of career paths, but I'm not sorry I ended up here. I love my job, do it well, and it affords me the time and resources to do the things I want in life. Not to mention the charming bonus making a damn fine living. Times like these I realize how lucky I really am.

Keep drinkin' folks, and I'll keep bringin' it! Cheers!

Well here it is and it's NOT safe for work even though it's just words don't get mad at me if you're extremely turned on while reading.  I still have images floating around in my head!  Also, I've left it public so comments are screened unless I dictate otherwise.  If you want your comment to remain screened just let me know.
 

Geek Observation:
Getting a large IPv6 allocation means fun with subnets.

Being a professional means not allocating subnet :dead: to the medical school.
....or subnet :beef: to the vet school...
....or subnet :cafe: to dining services...

I got back from LR yesterday and went straight to work. I think my coworkers were wondering what I'd been up to when I waltzed in at noon because they've probably never seen me so...glowy. They all remarked it must have been a NICE vacation. Well it was, though much different from my experience at camp last year. I don't know how to describe it but last year was somewhat magical - being my first camp and all - and this year felt more like other, more normal events, just with added heat and more naked people. But I'm not dissing camp, it was great.

So I got home from work today in a really crappy mood (at 9:30pm no less) and I've decided to try recounting some camp memories to make me feel better. Sorry that I don't know how to "clip" the journal entry like I've seen some people do. So it'll probably be a long one.

The puppy will be providing blow by blow details for those of you who care to read (he's tattooed_puppy in case you're wondering - and a couple of my friends have told me they have been enjoying his entries) but I want to write in order to process things for myself. His writing style is different from mine and while I enjoy reading his extremely detailed accounts of nearly everything we do, I prefer to focus on the more significant parts for myself. I don't need to talk about how we ate dinner or anything ;) but hey, more power to him for his attention to detail and nearly photographic memory.

So, in no particular order...

Our first public scene (and second and third)

It's sometimes easy to forget that my boy has only been "in the scene" for several months because he really seems to "get it" as if he were born to do this kind of stuff. He's usually pretty comfortable and happy no matter what kind of situation I'm putting him in, so I tend to not keep his newness in the forefront of my mind. So when I led him into the dungeon Thursday night, I completely failed to remember that this was his first time playing in public and first time seeing others play period. It was also only his second time being with me in a kinky setting other than my house, which doesn't really count. He wasn't freaked out at all though, not by the people or surroundings at least. Then I got into conversations and began ignoring him. I learned something that night that I didn't know about myself and that is that I really enjoy ignoring him. Maybe "ignore" isn't the right word because it's not that I am doing anything intentionally, it's just his ability to blend into my background and not occupy my thoughts while I'm engaged with others.

I found myself in many conversations with friends I hadn't seen in forever and it made me happy to have him standing behind me: quiet and unintrusive. I knew that if I needed anything he'd be there for me but otherwise he was just eye candy for passerbyes and, above all, my possession. Thinking back on it now, I get hot remembering all the times this weekend that he stood by my side without saying a word, a very admirable quality in my opinion (me, being someone who cannot shut up.) Maybe this is objectification? If it is, I like it. But anyway, back to the moment. We were in the dungeon and I had been talking to various people quite enthusiastically, never telling him he couldn't join in the conversation but then again he'd never attempted to so I thought nothing of it. At one point Steve asked if he was ok and I brushed off his concern before taking a better look at the boy.

He was sweating buckets and shivering at the same time and the look on his face made me think he was either going to throw up or pass out. I asked him what was wrong and, knowing him, it probably took several rounds before he told me anything *was* wrong. Then he admitted he felt like he was being ignored and felt neglected or something along those lines. I should mention that we had been planning to do a needle scene on him later and were waiting near where my friends who are needleplay experts were finishing up a scene with someone else (who just so happened to be dripping in blood by this point.) My boy thought that they might finish up at any moment and then it would be his turn, which freaked him out, given that he really hadn't gotten much attention from me up until that point. I'll give him that, it probably was freaky. Of course, *I* knew this wasn't how things were going to play out be he didn't.

So I look at him and he's covered in this layer of cold sweat and his normally relaxed demeanor was nowhere to be found. I calmed him down and we cuddled on the floor for a few minutes before I gagged him, put him up on a cross, and used my singletail on him for a bit. I think I hit him relatively hard but I don't really remember. It was fun and relaxed, nothing too serious. The good thing about my boy is that he's happy no matter what kind of attention I'm paying him and he honest-to-gods loves to be beat. No complaints from me. In the meantime a very bloody scene was occurring just in front of him and I kept telling him we weren't going anywhere close to that in our needle adventure but nonetheless I thought it better to keep his gaze averted from scene in front of us.

Finally they were finished and it was our turn for needles. I've done needleplay just a couple of times before and never had any issues but also never felt like I knew what I was doing. My play partner at the time, an older submissive gentleman whom some know as Johnjon taught me as he bottomed. And no, I never killed him, but I always felt like I needed more explicit instructions for this type of play. So under Sluttress and Zeb's watch, I eventually put 7 needles (all but one of them 22 gauge) into my boy's upper arm. It was fun but I didn't get the same sadistic boner I get from most other types of pain play. I guess I was too intent on doing it right and properly to let myself feel it. It paid off though and I got compliments on the accuracy and straightness of my 7 little needles. Yay. And the boy survived, no worse for the wear. Note to self - keep extra water and candy nearby in the future. And buy stock in latex gloves.

I think, to preserve my sanity, and just in case the computer crashes, I will end this here. More posts to come.

Hi Everyone,

So June went bye with 2 small goLeather meetings, neither of which were very official or accomplished much, but we did have quite a turn out at Leather Retreat, so yay us. Now it's time to get back on track and start planning for July.

I propose we do the July meeting on Sunday the 20th at 4pm, at My/Steve's place. Please chime in and say if this is good for you. If earlier in the day is better we could do that but it seems like a big night Saturday at the Crucible and I want people to go do that and not have to wake up early.

At the meeting I will be collecting money for patches from those who want one. The price is estimated at $10-12 per patch and I will have a better quote in the near future.

So what can we do at the meeting? Bootblacking has been a hot topic for some of our members lately and it might be something worth doing/discussing. We could have a Leather-care tutorial-slash-clinic so all can bring their items and work on them while brushing up on technique. We are lucky enough to have at least a couple of members who enjoy and are great at this so I think it'd be a good idea for an afternoon. As always, open to other ideas for the meeting.

I will be reposting this ad nauseam between now and July 20th.

PLEASE RSVP to me so we can go forward as planned.

Happy July everybody!

Brooklyn NY specifically my neighborhood of Sunset Park. I live on a high hill a quarter mile above the 4th Avenue train station, in a co-op building built in 1913. This is the same building I grew up in when I was a little kid--I live here until 1985 and then we moved to Bay Ridge. I moved back here in 2000. Emily moved in in 2005. We share a 5 room apartment on the ground floor with 9 and a half foot ceilings, columns in athe living room, and an excess of well-meant clutter.

Well, for all my sentiments about proper word usage, I didn't do *that* well on this little test. I really expected to score 100% all around. Interested to see what I missed.

-------------

Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test...

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 87% Expert!

Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy

Hello Kiddies,

Just a random update of varying consequence. I'm down in the MD/VA/DC area for the second week in a row. Having a good time, and enjoying myself. A vast improvement over the week that led up to it which was filled with stress and strife. Spent some time with friends and celebrated pyrategrrl's birthday before a lovely date with my new paramour. We had hibachi and went to see Indiana Jones (yes, finally!) It was fun, and lived up to the franchise well even if it did have the 'Phantom Menace Syndrome.'

Today was nice too, with a nice family brunch and quiet time. Making a pit stop at the menagerie tent before going over to a buddy's house to watch wrestling. Hope all of you are having fun at the various Pride events. Crack one for me guys! :)