pi-nipples! get your fresh pi-nipples right here!

yes, folks, there is a story behind the title. specifically, this story is one about pride...gay pride that is. and it shall unfold in pictures as well as words. so hold onto your pi-nipples and enjoy...

as we prepared ourselves for a full day of frolicking amongst the homosexuals this past sunday, i thought it a smart idea to bring our own beverages; because damnit!, the drinks are expensive at the street kiosks and we have a high tolerance against the ice-filled, watered-down dixie cups of alcohol-tainted drinks that they sell for around $10 each. not financially feasible for a group of nine healthy drinkers during a six hour period. so i filled every starbucks commuter thermos we owned, and i mean the tall venti-capacitied thermoses, with either cranberry juice and gin or straight rum; there were eight in total. you can't just walk the streets drinking out of liquor bottles wrapped in brown paper bags, right? it must be done in style. and what's not stylish about a stainless steel starbucks thermos?

but wait, there's more...stephanie and candace were supplying the vodka and seven up. the only thing missing was the coke to mix with the rum. that issue would quickly be addressed with a trip through the mcdonald's drive through; four large cokes, please!

okay for the next part of this story, i must pre-face with this advisory: do not attempt to replicate our actions. the following which i am about to recount should be performed only by experienced professionals.

as we made our way to the freeway, we chugged down, er, i mean we quickly imbibed large amounts of coca cola to make room for the rum. as soon as we could, we emptied two rum-filled thermoses into a new inconspicuous plastic-cupped cuba libre incarnation. somewhere along the way as we performed quality control over the flavor of our freshly mixed rum and cokes, we agreed that we had done a piss poor job of finding the right balance between the captain and the coke. way too much captain, even for our low standards, where too much alcohol is more the norm than it is the exception. the other thing working against the captain was that we also had a great mix of coconut-flavored malibu and coke already. so as we complained of the captain's obnoxious spiciness, anthony said something to the effect that pineapple juice would have made for a nice flavor addition, but as it seems to happen whenever we are on quality control duties, and because we do take our quality control duties quite seriously, we were too concentrated on fixing the flavor that what we heard became something about pi-nipples making for a nice flavor mix. and being that we were on our way to celebrate pride in san francisco, it made perfect sense to us that we needed pi-nipple juice. therefore, once we were on the streets of san francisco and within proximity of passers-by on the sidewalks, offers of and solicitations for pi-nipples were yelled from the car windows, much like you would hear from the food vendors at any self-respecting sporting event.
as you can see from the picture, stephanie, candace and i were quite pleased with our efforts although we were unsuccessful at acquiring any fresh pi-nipples. unfortunately we don't have any pictures of anthony's embarrassment; we were way too busy laughing at ourselves. but not to worry folks, there are definitely embarrassing pictures to be shared. luckily, we're not too proud to share.

anyway, by the end of the after parade street party this is what we looked like...
eeewww, these pi-nipples have over-ripened!

hm, before anyone should get the wrong idea that our exuberance for the drink is par for the course, there are some valid reasons for our over-indulgent behavior at this year's parade festivities:

1) this was going to be andrew's first time to experience pride first-hand
2) anthony and i haven't participated in pride festivities for the past four years
3) this was going to be san francisco's send off for stephanie and candace since the next day we would be helping them pack up the moving truck that would whisk them away to las vegas this morning.
4) that's just the way we roll, peeps!

to highlight the craziness of the day, i have chosen a few choice pictures...

trish, a random fairy godmother, andrew and stephanie

pepe, jeff, tia, anthony, candace, stephanie, trish and me

me and the girls

party-foul recompense: spilt alcohol had to be licked off the offended body part

for some reason, there was a lot of tongue action happening all day

...and then some!

anthony's face being violated

me, candace and stephanie shakin' it all the way down to the street

if you can't tell from the pictures, let me just reassure you that we had a blast. we also even ventured over to the eagle for a beer with pepe and jeff, which we never get to do. and because the world really is that small, i ran into an old college friend whom i haven't seen in over a decade. (hey robert ayala, if you google yourself and come across this picture, e-mail me. we didn't get to exchange numbers)
that was a pleasant surprise even though it was tempered with a tears when candace and stephanie said their goodbyes to pepe and jeff; but there were promises made to visit the girls soon once they get themselves settled in.

then we headed to our fave caribe/cuban restaurant cha-cha-cha's in the haight for some deliciously spicy dinner fare. hm, poor stephanie! she doesn't even remember eating a fallen piece of bread off the floor. eeewww!good thing she didn't partake of the sangria!


oops! i just realized that there was a friendly offer of pi-nipple juice from a stranger while we were at the eagle. gosh, those leather-loving guys are so generous!

but before you leave, let me remind you...

“Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.”

-unknown

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