Rensselaer, New York.

Earl and I are stationed in lovely Rensselaer for the evening. It’s the bi-monthly bear night in Albany and we are looking forward to meeting up with friends. We were lucky to snag the last room here at the “official” motel which is an Econo Lodge. Getting the last room means we are in the honeymoon suite, which happens to have a red, heart-shaped jacuzzi with red spot lights shining on it from several directions.

Yes, it’s tacky.

There are several buildings on the grounds of this Econo Lodge and the bears originally had one building for themselves. The quite chatty woman at the front desk referred to said building as the “whore house”. I guess it’s appropriate, being in the “Capital District” and all.

We made our obligatory stop at the Apple store for a sip of kool-aid. I’ve officially picked out my next computer and I showed Earl what I want when the funds are available. I’m opting to add a black Macbook to the collection. My PowerBook is going on four years old and while it won’t be retired (I love it too much), it will be relegated to DJ gigs exclusively. I also picked up Logic Express to replace ProTools in the mixing studio. I’ve never been a huge fan of ProTools and I want to give Logic Express a go for the original music mixes I’ve been making.

So tonight it is “Kegs ‘n Kilts” night at bear night. I’m wearing my obligatory Guinness gear for the party. I don’t feel that formal kilt attire would be appropriate, so I’ll go with jeans and the red hair/beard to maintain me Irish heritage.