on vacation. going to new york tomorrow and then the jersey shore for labor day weekend. can't wait to get the fuck out of here. totally over madison.

totally.

it's sunny, 69-degree days like these that make me love madison!

woke up at 10 (!!), made huevos rancheros and some delicious bolivian coffee for breakfast, then spent 3 hours soaking up the sun in my old backyard (with sunscreen = no burn & and very nice tan).

met friends at the weary for a late lunch, which involved the walleye sandwich, lemongrass kombucha + vodka and finally coconut flan (with more coffee).

i've been cleaning my apartment ever since. i'm about to devour this asian slaw i threw together, and then i'll finally crash. hard.

it was a fantastic day.

this capture from facebook pretty much sums up my life.

go to muzzleofbees immediately and download the whitest boy alive's new single, island, shared legally from their upcoming sophomore album. it's EVERYTHING dreams wasn't and then some. i recommend it for walking to school, work or for fun. and just hold onto your pants ~min. 5. seriously.

can't wait for the rest!

trader joe's chimichurri rice is fucking delicious! get it!

be sure to continue to part 2!

hot new spring jacket. holy fuck.

i had a couple of favorite parts, like when aretha gave that... performance... after the disgusting pastor warren speech. she a tranny.

also, how 'bout dick bein' wheeled around in his rickety little wheelchair. so fitting.

and then obama. from him walking in to him taking the oath fucked up by the chief justice. and michelle's gold ensemble. and michelle's gaaaay brother. and sasha and malia.

then there was al roker making gay jokes about obama kissing him during the parade.

but seriously, i could've done with much less fucking religion. it made me sick. wish it could be done a little more privately.

'tis a happy day, nonetheless. :)

it's colder in dallas and atlanta now than in wasilla. how 'bout them apples? it's god hugging alaska closer. golly gosh gee whiz darn media, you betcha.

it's gonna be much more tolerable for a few days, starting this weekend, but there's plenty more where this came from later next week. by the end of the month and into at least part of february, it looks like we'll get back into the sort of weather pattern that produced our snowiest december ever. yeah.

while i was prematurely celebrating christmas with my family, my mom decided it'd be a good idea to play old home videos that most of us tried to forget existed. it must've been right after we got our first video camera, because we were filming the dumbest shit. one was from a spring break trip to the carolinas - charlotte and charleston to be exact. my uncle john lived in charlotte with his girlfriend after graduating from purdue (he's gay and lives in san francisco now). it was a horrifying experience to see my pimply, awkward, gay as fuck 13-year-old self with a chili bowl haircut. i don't know how i didn't come out when i was like 7, because i was actually sorta obviously gay. admittedly, i never realized this until just now. i mean, there were a few telling pics, memories and clues that have popped up since i actually came out, but this was the most glaring. andrew perry snyder was born a gay. no questions asked.

my great grandma had me pegged from the time i was 2 years old. my uncle phil told me this after i came out (she told him when i was 2, way before he came out).

it was also interesting to see how much my siblings and i looked like our younger cousins do now. i think my mom wins the prize for most improvement - she most certainly has gotten foxier in her 40s/early 50s. i suspect getting rid of the perm and poorly died hair did wonders.

i had a very lax but equally enjoyable time at home. perhaps the best present i received was a ginormous fatty joint from my brother, home-grown and all. shh, don't tell. i apparently bring cold weather wherever i go - it was 69 in louisville the day before i got there and nearly 60 the day after i left. ugh. per usual, i feel much healthier after having been in the company of my family. i'd say most of it has to do with how our lives are centered around food and drink. we love to cook, we love to eat and we love to drink. all in moderation (mostly), of course.

sometimes i wonder why i live 8 hours from home, but every time i'm there i'm quietly reminded of why it wouldn't be a good idea. still, i have to wonder if i wouldn't jump at the opportunity to forecast for UPS if i got the chance. i just don't think i'd be able to live the kinda life i want in kentucky. maybe someday, though.

the 2nd best present i got was a target e-giftcard. i've already wiped it out and can't wait to redo my bathroom and freshen up the rest of my place.

i just discovered new webisodes of battlestar galactica on sci-fi.com, so i'm hoping watching them will tide me over until the new season starts in a few weeks. can't wait. good times.

btw, this is now madison's snowiest december on record (just over 3 feet so far), and after this weekend, it'll be the snowiest month ever. also, 2008 is the snowiest year in madison's recorded history (over a century of data), by nearly 2 feet. the pattern we've been in is easing, but that won't necessarily mean it won't be cold and/or snowy in the coming weeks. most likely just not as cold/snowy as it's been in december. i've seen some interesting things that show winter may come to an abrupt end in mid- to late january - let's keep our fingers crossed. all of us.

northwest airlines allows you to reschedule flights if they've declared a weather emergency in your departure/arrival city. tomorrow, they've rightly declared them from the corn belt, through the great lakes and into most of the northeast. the unfortunate thing is that there are limited options for someone trying to fly from dinky madison to dinky louisville. so instead of spending an entire day at the airport tomorrow, i changed my flight home to 6 a.m. saturday, when the weather will (briefly) be much calmer nationwide. i'm super relieved to not have to deal with the hassle tomorrow, even though i know there'll be an angry, backed up holiday crowd this weekend. 4 days at home, out of madison, will be magical. 5 would be better, but 4 will be fine. if everything goes right, i'll get stuck an extra day in louisville when snow returns next tuesday. :)

my sister isn't due for another 2 months, but she's having early contractions and i guess her belly has dropped just a bit. mom says she's really big, but no bigger than she was 2 months before she had me. i was just over 9 pounds. i suspect my new niece/nephew will also be a big baby. i tear up every time i think about it. also makes me a little envious - 10 years ago i assumed i'd be partnered with a kid or two by 28. i'm in no hurry, though.

i'm kinda fascinated with pregnancy since my sis got pregnant. a few months ago, i spent hours watching birthing vids online. i cried. i know that's super weird, but i'm ok with it. are there any other guys out there who wish they could have a baby? it's not that i wish i were a woman, but having a baby seems pretty cool.

ok, i've had too many ambergeddons (mmmm) and i'm too giddy over tonight's storm. ciao, bitches.

p.s. it's such a relief to not have as much travel/holiday stress now. i'm sure it'll come rushing back tomorrow night/saturday morning, but that's a'ight. at least i won't have weather-related travel delays to worry about.

you know, i've tried to limit my posts regarding weather in the last few months, but it's too hard to resist this time. i'm pretty sure i've made enemies of half my facebook friends by posting snow/cold predictions there.

this is going to pretty much be the week from hell, as if you couldn't tell that when you stepped outside into the arctic tundra this morning. if you're looking for warmth, head to the southeast, where it'll be in the 70s and 80s through christmastime. meanwhile, back here, there are at least 3 major winter storms in the cards over the coming week, and it doesn't look like the active pattern will let up before christmas. it's really no different from what we saw last year, although it does appear to be colder. in about a week, or perhaps by next weekend, an even colder shot of air than what we're experiencing now will surge into most of the country.

we've seen a foot of snow so far this december, and i wouldn't be at all surprised to see that total double or even triple before christmas. looks like we'll see 4-6, maybe 7" of fluff tomorrow night, with a bigger storm in the cards on thursday night. could be some ice with that one. over the weekend, there's a potential for a blizzard similar to what occurred to our northwest yesterday, though it would likely be further south into the midwest this time.

my general mental health is sort of failing because of all this - i can't break myself away from checking out every impending storm, and sometimes the anxiety is overwhelming. at least last year i had ben to distract me. the winter blues have set in and i have no desire to set foot outside unless it's absolutely necessary. at least i have the gym to keep me physically fit. still gotta work on the sane part, though.

i'm happy to report that my new shampoo that i posted about long ago is working wonderfully. no dry scalp anymore, at all!

i guess the only other thing to talk about is my decision to stop eating meat. again. there were a number of things that inspired it, but i still don't really give a fuck about the soul of a cow or a chicken. it's all about what farming animals does to the environment and our growing concerns for having too little land to sustain the world's increasing need for food. anyway, i'm done eating meat again for a long while, or at least until i can afford locally raised, grass-fed, organic bougie ass meat. ass meat. mmm.

god, do i need to get laid.

i'm not the least bit pleased with how our weather is looking over the next couple of weeks. there seems to be very little difference from how last winter started, and it's coming right on time. if you blocked it from memory - last december we saw light snows every few days, with a couple of bigger storms thrown in, and before we knew it, it was the 2nd snowiest december on record.

so, to make it just a little more tolerable, at least for a couple of days, i'm going to buy new boots. my old columbia hikers just aren't cutting it on sooo many levels. hopefully, zappos has something functional and halfway fashionable that they'll deliver to me tomorrow, so i can deal with our next snowfall. wednesday.

if this winter does end up being like last, i'm moving to either miami or the west coast.

this pretty much sums up next week perfectly. for once, they quoted me perfectly. :)

good luck with all that.

i just got an IM from an AIMbot named "brokenupwithcoho" that said, "Which are more gay; pirates or ninjas? Pirates, because you've never had anyone call you a "butt ninja".

i kid you not. every month or two (sometimes longer) i get a random IM from a presumed bot with a screenname involving salmon, usually coho, but not always. it's random shit like that, but not always a joke. it's been going on for years. it used to freak me out, but then it just got funny.

of course i've messaged back with a "who is this?", and the reply is always some version of "who is THIS? you messaged me first".

i didn't even try this time. didn't wanna ruin such a good joke. :)

btw, did i ever tell you my life feels like the twilight zone sometimes?

so, apparently i'm turnin' into one of those pretty pretty princess gays who orders fancy organic hair products online. trader joe's tea tree shitpoo just doesn't cut it. it's 6 dollars for a reason. check out john master's website. i happened upon the ad by accident and was intrigued.

i'm more embarrassed for being so bougie about shampoo, though. this shit is really expensive, but i just couldn't resist. i got the zinc & sage shampoo because i have a terribly arid scalp in the winter (it has a thick, luscious lather), the citrus & neroli conditioner because i thought it'd smell good (it does), and most embarrassingly, the sea mist spray with lavender. who doesn't enjoy that fresh beach stiffness? i'm 100% serious - my hair does great things after a day at the beach. this just so happens to smell like heaven. i'm kind of a lavender freak. like real dirty intense lavender, not that fake shit people try to pass off.

i'll let you know if the shampoo saves my dry scalp. that's what i'm most hopeful for.

i have that extra i-have-new-hair-products-because-i-needed-to-mix-my-shit-up kick in my step tonight. good tiiiiiimes.

best. scene. ever.

bess, taylour and liz joined me for dinner, drinks and apples to apples at the weary tonight. it was fucking lovely. haven't been in months, since ben left, actually. you'd think someone who lived a block from their favorite restaurant ever would go a little more often.

i had 3 two hearted ales, and i'm pretty much wasted.

just wanted to share. that's the extent of my excitement these days. well, that and 57 new crushes. if i actually talked to any of these people, i guarantee it'd be over.

apparently, facebook is the new blog. oops.

also, my life is pretty boring lately. perhaps i'll have something interesting to report after the ensuing big gay weekend. iQ friday night. big gay TPS dance at the orpheum saturday, but i may do the (big gay) hot party instead. i also have to work, and it's going to be cold. going out in wintertime is such a fucking chore. too many goddamn layers to potentially be stolen/lost/forgotten. this is why i go out in a hoodie and t-shirt, even when it's -37.

none of this actually sounds all that fun at the moment, but the only other option is sitting on my ass at home. i'm getting lonely (read: horny), so going to bed at 9:30 on a friday night isn't going to cut it this weekend. not that i ever meet anyone interesting at any of these things.

this andy is no longer cynical. now i'm just realistic, but happy. :)