that's all I can say about that.

We are pleased to tell you we did not make any changes to the tax reported on your return.

It's official, Aaron is off to Belgium. Nothing great lasts forever!

Several people have asked so I figured I'd let you all know that I am moving to Antwerp at the end of this month. I took a job at an Advertising Agency there and will try it out for a few years. I plan to take advantage of their socialized way of life like 6 wks vacation and subsidized childcare. I also intend on making my first self produced solo record there. Dear Leader will continue to play the occasional show and make a new record at some point in the future. Thanks to everyone who has supported me throughout the years and obviously this isn't goodbye just see you later.

Aaron

So sad...

If I only needed a car! If it was a 240 I'd totally buy it and store it somewhere :0)

Oh, We are selling our Black 2001 Volvo XC70 wagon fully loaded and 65k miles if anyone is in the market for a car

My old Volv 240 and dream car

This recap is going all the way back to the weekend starting March 28th. I never got to write anything about it because things were so crazy. I had been officially in my new place for about a week, my week at work was very crazy and I was trying to prepare myself to leave for Australia on April 2, plus I had a 20 mile race to conquer.

So Friday night Tara and Jos came over to see my new place and drink some before heading out dancing. So they came over and brought plenty of alcohol (the scene I found the next day)

and we preceded to get a bit tipsy. I was supposed to bring Cleo back to my old apt. so my roomies could watch her while I went out but I was feeling too silly and thought it would be okay to leave her. This would be the first time ever leaving her all alone in this place, and it was kinda late.

Proceeded to go to The Estate and meet up w/ Kinna and her little brother. He didn't really want to go dancing but we convinced him. $20 to get in, geez, I don't even know who was there that night or remember the music. Had plenty more drinks and then remember being in the bathroom upstairs alone puking in the trash can by the sinks out in the open. Good thing no one was in there. Then I went back downstairs and somehow ran into T who was buying me another drink though at the site of it I felt so yucky I just left it there. Next thing I know little brother had me out on the dance floor. Hey, I thought you don't like to dance? I remember, haha I keep saying I remember, he kept asking me when I finish school or something and I kept telling him I was 33 and a doctor but I guess he wasn't getting it, I even showed him my license but he kept asking me that silly question. He was a senior in college and 21. We stayed til close and then all walked back to my place where I found a note from some neighbor that said

"Your dog has been crying since 10:40pm (guess that's when we left :0) Please do not allow this to happen again!!"

and I also had a voicemail from the concierge saying a neighbor complained and to come home and take care of it but since my phone was in Jos' purse all night I didn't get the message until we got home. Oops! Major mistake by me!!!

So eventually Kinna and little brother left and Jos crashed w/ me on my little bed w/ Cleo. Next morning Jos realized she lost all her stuff, luckily I think she had left it at the Estate and got it back later. I took Cleo to old apt. and made it to Cambridgeside for a haircut and lots of shopping for my trip. Must of had a kinda low-key night. Maybe I spent it at old apt, not sure and then had my big race Sunday morning, the Eastern States 20 miler.

Got up early Sunday morning to get ready and get Cleo to old apt. Jake and Tara picked me up there and then off to the race. We had to park at this Casino in NH I think and then take a bus to the start. Our bus driver got lost so the trip took twice as long as should have. Then we waited around at this school for the start and talked lots about our pooping issues for that morning :0) usual runner speak I guess. Finally race started. We had 20 miles and 3 states to get through. I wanted to start out conservatively so let Jake and Tara go ahead. Eventually I picked up my pace and caught up w/ them around mile 17 and then Tara and I kicked it w/ whatever we had left. Finished pretty strong and was happy w/ my race.

403 out of 590 overall
59 out of 90 age group
3:11:49 for 20 miles
9:36 minutes per mile

Was sick the rest of the day and couldn't really keep any food in but I tried. We ate at the postrace party and stopped at a restaurant on the way home. By Monday though I was okay. Ready for Australia on Tuesday!

Today is the first day I left her alone in the new apt. to go to work. I ran her 3 miles before work and gave her what I thought was plenty of drugs. I explained to the concierge that we were new and my dog was scared to be alone in the apt. so here are my numbers for cell and at work to call if there's a complaint. I didn't even get my 2 T stop commute before I had a vm about Cleo's howling. So I crossed the street and went back into the inbound train station to go home. Rose, the concierge said a woman on the 5th floor (I'm on the 6th) thought the dog was hurt because of her howling and Rose went to check on her and thought anytime Cleo heard noise like the elevator she howled. So I went upstairs and didn't hear anything after standing there a bit so left. Ran home (1.65 miles) to check her at 1:30, took her outside and she just wanted to pull me in the direction of our old apt. :0( Brought her inside, hung out a bit and gave her some yummy treats and tried to leave, took the stairs this time but by the time I got to third floor I could hear her howling and it didn't stop when I got to first floor so went back up and hung out more. But I couldn't stay forever so gave more food and left on the elevator. Heard more howling but just ignored it. Haven't gotten a call since. Will try to leave her around 5 and get home to deal w/ her. We'll see how the long weekend goes. I'm on call so I hope I don't get called in and have to leave her too much. I plan to bring her to the trials and the marathon, but I need to do a 20 miler tomorrow so I guess I'll be crazy and run around Boston Common and the Public Garden a million times w/ my cell phone handy to respond to complaints.

Cleo please don't be so crazy scared! You are okay on your own. Trust me!

i'm in sydney waiting to leave for san fran. took a flight from the sunshine coast this morning to sydney. db saw me off. it's nice here that you can actually wait w/ someone at the airport. so many things to find out when i get home: did i win the rice cooker?, what's up w/ the yankees?, did my beaky miss me and how is she on the drugs, will she behave when i leave her home alone for the first time on friday when i go to work?, what's the weather been like?, what are my girls up to? and my boys? and my tv shows, my blog, my apt., my job, my running, etc etc etc. please don't overwhelm me, i could be very fragile, though i feel very dangerous and powerful, haha! be careful!! i bite...HARD and enjoy every bite :0) i know you're all dying to have me back, aren't you?? until then, good day! (mate)

Gotta go home tomorrow. Bullshit! I don't really want to go home, though I miss my Beaky Woo and my friends. In the last few days I've kinda turned into a beach bum. I've always hated the fucking beach w/ the tanning and wearing a suit but I decided to try and not care and deal w/ life in a bikini at the beach w/ a boy no less. I've survived! and could do it everyday now. I'll definitely miss the beach I've been going to the last few days. Also today I went to the Australia Zoo, the one the Irwins run. It was awesome! Very hands on. I hate going to the zoo and not being able to touch anything. Today I had my fill of kangaroos to feed. They were just lounging around and you could just approach them and pet them like lazy dogs. It was the best! I also got to touch a koala, I'd rather cuddle w/ it but I didn't go to the cuddle place, the koala sanctuary, so I just got to touch a couple on the butt. I also got to feed goats and elephants. I do have pictures as proof of this all. I just had a really good 'new to me' candy too. Licorice bullets, chocolate covered black licorice, kinda like good n plenty but w/ chocolate. If I would have discovered them sooner... Maybe I can pick some up tomorrow at the airport. I have a flight in the morning from the Sunshine Coast to Sydney, then Sydney to San Francisco, and San Fran to Boston. I land in Boston Wed. 10:30pm ready for work Thurs. morning, yuck! I'll have so much to catch up on at work it's gonna suck. I have lots more to share but i'll try to do that once I get back to Boston and need to relive the tales so I don't feel so shitty about being back in reality.

Flew to Cairns for a bit and the made it to the rainforest and then flew to Brisbane and on to the Sunshine Coast. gotta get to the beach been online too long checking all the bills and emails. see ya thursday. boo!

just a quick post. it's monday morning here, 5:30am. i couldn't get back to sleep. now i feel tired though. had a crazy fun weekend going out both friday and saturday night. lots of fun people, drinks and music! i still haven't really recovered. not sure what the plan is but i think we're leaving this hotel today. not sure where we're going. haven't had much of a plan but rj has pretty much been in charge. hope he doesn't mind. i have plenty of details but i'm using the hotel computer and someone else needs it.

see ya

rr just moved too so the server was down for a bit while he was moving all the stuff.

i have a good weekend update from last weekend but no time to write it now.

anyway, made it to sydney okay though i almost missed my flight from boston to san francisco because they bumped me up 3 hrs and didn't tell me. the flight there was worse than the flight to sydney for some reason. i took xanax, ambien and vodka but still didn't sleep through. just a little sleep. found rj at the airport and we've managed over 24 hrs together so far. we'll see how long it lasts.

so far so good. we went running at 6am this morning. i never get up that early! now we're just walking around in sweaty running clothes and trying to stay in the sun.

cleo i hope you're being good for janet and annie!!!