What do you get for the man with everything? What do you get for the man with everything packed in boxes who is fleeing Phoenix and schlepping his life to Seattle? Therein lay my challenge this week.

Dear friend Aaron is abandoning us here in the desert, trading his sandals for flannels and sunglasses for galoshes. Yet another Arizonan giving up the desert. Was it something we said?

I'll miss his good advice, his fondness for brunch, and his infectious laugh. Seattle never had it so good. Good luck, my friend.

So Gay Pride in Phoenix came and went. I left feeling very unproud. Has the notion of Gay Pride finally run out of steam? Or is Phoenix just so lackluster that it might just be easier to abandon the whole notion altogether?

Certainly, you are free to wear lycra short-shorts, mardi gras beads, and glitter anytime you'd like. (No offense to those who can pull it off fabulously.) But spare me the expense of a $10 ticket to watch you walk around gulping from a plastic cup of beer, leering at any half-attractive boy. You are also free to stand onstage dressed in a pink mumu, belting out an acrobatic, soulful lipsync version of Aretha's Respect, but the same $10 ticket isn't enough to make me watch.

And yes, I'm quite happy with the internal inconsistencies in my life, thanks.

Nevertheless, the day ended up being sorta fun, but for a completely unrelated reason.

Back from the White Party in mostly one piece (I think). The weekend was outstanding, better than I anticipated. I started out the weekend fairly ambivalent about the whole trip—the price tag gave me second thoughts. But by the end of last night, I left the party exhilerated, and pleasantly exhausted.

The parties were, as usual, over the top. I didn't really partake of the pool party Saturday, preferring to watch from the balcony of our room. The DJ that day was excellent. The White Party itself was good, but really only slightly better than last year. I appreciated the change of DJ, however Manny Lehman's set was still a tad circuity for me. I was all keyed up to go to the afterhours as well. When we got there, though, the place was mobbed, and the heat inside was way too much. I dropped out about an hour later, and return to the room for a snack, some coffee, and the Sunday paper on the balcony.

The Sunday parties were by far the best. The Sunset Tea Dance in the "park" next to the Marquis Resort is an outstanding afternoon. DJ Phil B. was back, and played the best set of the party. After sunset, the Special Guest Performer was introduced. The MC gave her away during the intro.... but Jason wasn't paying attention. He was completely surprised when the MC shouted out "Columbia recording artist Kristine W!" That was the highlight of the weekend for me.

The closing party (crazy, aren't I?) was inside and outside at the Wyndham. The hotel was overrun and the music was cranked, so we couldn't sleep even if we wanted to. We danced again.... I managed to keep going until about 1am, then I finally hit a wall. Jason came back to the room sometime after that—I was dead asleep and didn't hear him.

Overall, very impressed with the weekend. It's a really overpriced, rather excessive way to spend Easter weekend, but that didn't stop us from having a fantastic time.

Off for a day or two in Palm Springs. A quiet, calm little party with, oh, 20,000 of our closest friends. Pray to the circuit goddess for me.... I think I'm getting too old for this.

So now that our names are officially on the mortgage, we must have been added to every possible marketing list for water filtration and security systems in Phoenix. I was home sick today and at least 10 companies called to pitch me something. Thank god for caller ID.

I'm starting to hate most of the normal aspects of my job. I hate testing, I hate developing test plans, I hate the "implementation" phase of a project where we dash willy-nilly around the room wondering why this or that feature doesn't work exactly as we had planned.

I hate my new office, the one where I sit with my back to the door and am utterly distracted by the constant sound of....care to guess? the flushing toilet in the men's bathroom. Someone (probably me) neglected to realize that the space under consideration for my office shared a common wall with the privy. Yuck.

I love the few web-related things I get to do at work. Can't I just do fun things all day?

Bought a new PC for home yesterday. It's distractingly fast. Wheeee.

New desk today at work, one with very bad feng shui (or fung shooey, as Edina says). Will have to do something about that....

I think a new computer for home will be forthcoming. Hmmmmm.

Hockey game tonight... the first we've attended in the CPG suite. A far nicer experience than previous games. Instead of being confined to your seat, there is room to move around, a stocked kitchen, and a posh full service bar just steps away. Sweet.