On Sunday morning, I managed to get in a run despite the heavy rain. I'm having to take running more seriously now if I want to keep my weight down, since I'm eating more now, and with a heavier percentage of carbohydrates too. And it's getting harder for me to get enough exercise from my usual runs since my former rate of running isn't really adequate to keep my heart beating at the right pace, which means I have to find longer distances to run over. Inevitably, however, the new diet and exercise regime is going to make it almost impossible to keep a perfectly flat stomach.

On Sunday evening, I had my third date with the guy I met recently. We met at Mecca, a sheeshy bar where they apparently have a drag show on Sunday evenings. I'm not ordinarily much of a fan of drag. For one thing, I don't particularly like show music. And I find that drag performances lack the true drama of someone putting their whole body into the song. But tonight, two drag queens did this jazzed up performance of one of my favorite songs - "America" from "West Side Story". and I was enthralled by it.

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject. My date and I had drinks for a couple of hours, and chatted. Again, like on our other two meetings, we didn't exactly reveal any interest in each other beyond friendship. We're both, obviously, as cautious as each other. But again, I was struck by the very attractive mix of intelligence, self-confidence and vulnerability. Finally, I just had to ask him if he found me attractive and see if we could move things on a little further. Well, it worked :) To cut a long story short, we had a great night together!

Yesterday, then, as I continued to "work at home", I found myself frequently thinking of him in a fond way. Jeez, how long is it that I've had that pure, unalloyed feeling! I was very tired though, and cannot honestly say that I put in a productive day of work :)

The afternoon was, in any case, somewhat cut short by other obligations. I had my hair cut by Terry at 4.30, and we had a good old natter about manners in the days of the Internet. It's a subject I frequently think about. I get so much email, and I'm always amazed at how some people think it's perfectly fine to dash off an email with no greeting, and no sign-off. Manners just seem to be going out of the window, or at least out of the chat and email windows.

When I got to the gym after that, Cecilia did a double take, since Terry had obviously put a little too much goop in my hair in his enthusiasm at the subject matter, for my hair was rather spikey! It was a chest day, and although I've recently been lifting much heavier weights much more easily than I'd have thought possible even a few weeks ago, there is still no sign of chest development. Sigh. As Cecilia tells me, I have long, spread-out muscles, not the kind that jump out and stick you in the face, so to speak.

After the gym, I met my old friend Steven at 2223 for a great meal. I've known Steve for about five years now. We met through a classifieds ad. No, not a relationship ad - he was looking for a bridge partner, as was I. I used to play contract bridge regularly at clubs and tournaments and after I moved to San Francisco, I needed to find a regular partner. Steven and I became good friends, but after about three years, we had to stop playing together as partners. He was becoming too good for me, and was taking it way more seriously than I was ready to, and, as a consequence, he would get annoyed at my silly mistakes. So we agreed that our friendship would get along better if we stopped playing bridge together. He's a lovely chap (apart from his tendency to bark at the bridge table!), and I always love sharing a meal with him and talking about dates (or the lack of them), politics and social mores. By the way, he doesn't know that I'm writing this, but he's in the market for a goodlooking, intelligent, cultured, preferably Jewish man of around his own age, so if you're interested, write me :) He's a real mensch.

My friend Steve, at dinner