Master's Notebook



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Master's Notebook

Since January 2005, Master Taíno is writing a personal "Notebook" where he relates family life and events in which He and/or His Leather family participates. Hope our readers enjoy it as well.

To go the the Notebook of the past four years, click on the buttons at the top of the page.

The following is the Notebook for 2010.

February 25-28 - South Plains Leather Fest / International Master/slave Contest took place in Dallas.

The personal surprise for me was when Mark Frazier announced that I was the winner of the "Jack Stice Memorial Award 2010". Mark substituted for tom stice, who was Jack Stice's slave until he passed more than a decade ago. This Award has a special meaning because it is named after Jack Stice, one of the icons in the Master/slave community and International Master 1995. I attended my very first International M/s contest in 1996 in Atlanta when Jack and tom stepped down from their titles.

Master Obsidian and slave nemaste from the Southwest Region won the International Master/slave title. Our Northeast titleholders, Master Steve and slave tami, did represented us with grace, dignity and dedication.

It was great to see so many friends, particularly, it was important to see Master Jim again after a two-years absence. Four members of the MTTA Board represented our organization at SPLF. Master Larry was one of the emcees and Lady Lynette one of the judges. Slave lara attended with Lord Brick and we had dinner together on Thursday evening. Even Sir Stepehen showed up on Friday as he was working in Dallas at the time.

On Friday night, the delegation from the Northeast went out for dinner becoming one of the highlights of the weekend. On Saturday, Ms Khiki and slave jez attended the Contest and we also have dinner together.

Mark Frazier delivered a very powerful Keynote Speech during the Brunch on Sunday morning.

The dungeon was opened Friday and Saturday evening. A Texan boy saw me flogging slave mark and he requested and got his own flogging on Saturday evening.

On Sunday evening, Lady Lynette and slave llamb and slave matt and I went for a seafood dinner to end the weekend. By far, it was the best food of the whole weekend. Monday we flew back home.

February 23 - slave matt and slave david have been working non-stop in the last few days. The result is that we are pretty much ready to launch by next week the new website for the Conference and the online registration process. While slave matt designed the website, slave david took over the online process. Both have done a great job as we work together for the next event.

Meanwhile, I finished the details of a contract extension with our current hotel and all the contracts where signed today. We will continue at the same hotel until 2012.

February 21 - The whole family went to Baltimore to visit Master David and attend the meeting for MAsT Baltimore. slave david was able to assist Master David with some computers problems. The meeting was great and a very important topic. It was impressive to see many members who already have been at the Academy and a group of girls who will be at the next training next week.

February 19 - Barbary, a participant of the last Master Training, invited us for lunch. We all went to a neighborhood restaurant where they serve Peruvian food that she loves. It was a very nice outing.

February 13 - Enough is enough! We decided to get out of the house even that the neighborhood streets are not fully ready. In the late afternoon, we went to the DC Eagle for the annual Scarlet Bake Sale, one if the main fund-raisers for charity from our community. We were lucky to find a parking just two blocks from the Eagle. Not a huge attendance for obvious reasons, but still the event was a great success.

After that, we decided to go to a Latino restaurant in downtown and again we were lucky to find one empty space in the parking lot. It was a great dinner to celebrate the Valentine and we came home before midnight. Quite an adventure, but we needed to get out.

February 9-10 - Let it snow! A third blizzard this winter and a record snow fall for a full winter in the history of the DC area. And the winter is not over. We had to cancel this weekend's slave Training Weekend for female slaves and reschedule it for Marc 4-7. Meanwhile, the family stayed home hibernating even more.

February 5-6 - The DC area got hit with the second blizzard this winter and all the family is hibernating at home. We have gotten more than two feet of snow and we are literally buried in our home. Still on Saturday afternoon, just before the storm ended, the whole family decided to adventure walking on our snow filled street. slave david decided to join us and with the help of his cane he amazingly did just fine. Just a month after his back surgery, slave david was walking and enjoying two feet of snow on our street.

February 4 - Before the second blizzard of this nasty winter hits the region, slave matt and I decided to go to the DC Eagle for the DC boys of Leather's Night Out. We had a good time sharing time with several of the boys and others friends. We ran into peter, a new boy who spent some time with us during MAL and who wants to attend the next slave Training.

January 28 - Daddy Don stayed overnight on his way to Florida. He and his friend invited the whole family to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. This was the first activity out of the house for slave david after his surgery. he is now pain-free and walking mostly with a cane instead of the walker.

After dinner, I attended the first meting for DC Leather Pride in which MTTA will be producing the educational day again.

January 21-25 - Southwest Leather Conference - This time of the brought us to the annual Southwest Leather Conference in Phoenix. I have been attending this event since its inception in 2003.

To make this trip possible, Lady Lynette moved to our house to take care of slave david. slave nyteMare stayed with him Thursday morning until Lady Lynette arrived. What a community! slave david was sad that his surgery forced him to cancel this trip as he has a sister in Phoenix that he likes to visit while there. I promised him we will use his ticket to go to Phoenix in the spring to visit his sister.

SWLC was another great success in a new venue. Master Skip's slave rick rocked the place with his Keynote Speech on Sunday morning.

slave matt volunteered to help with the Silent Auction and also integrate the choir who sang the National Anthem and during the Tribe Revival.

boy cary, from Reno, Nevada, joined us during the weekend and had an intense learning experience attending BDSM and M/s classes for the first time in his life and having great experiences int he dungeon including his first cathartic flogging. I met boy cary in san Francisco three years ago and have continue in contact with him and getting together every year during Folsom.

We also reconnect with another local boy - david - who joined us on Thursday afternoon and as he did last year, he gave me a great massage who helped my body survived the weekend. slave matt bonded with both cary and david.

We ran into so many dear friends, but just to mentioned a few, it was great to run into Master Michael and slave steve from Seattle, Patrick and patrick from San Francisco, SlaveMaster and his slaves from Vegas, Rick Storer from the Leather Archives who joined us for lunch twice, slave saint from Albuquerque, Steve, who I met and flogged the previous year, Master Z and his family, Major, Master Gallad and slave kelly, and many other friends and alumni from the Academy,

January 15-17 - Time to take a break and thanks to our great community, slave matt and I can do just that. It is Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend, an event I have not missed since 1994 and for slave matt was his first time.

Madam Andrea and her slave ryan volunteered to stay in the house for the weekend to take care of slave david and Lady O came on Sunday afternoon to take over. Thanks to all of you from the bottom of our hearts.

I tried for slave matt to have a good MAL experience and relax from the last couple of weeks which took a toll on him. First he was able to reconnect with some friends from Philadelphia, particularly Gershon and Nick. On Friday, I put slave matt in a straight jacket and leather hood while in the lobby of the hotel. On Saturday, I arranged for Master Tip, my dear friend from New York, to mummify slave matt for the very first time. The slave boy had a blast! he also was able to walk around with some of my iron shackles.

We hosted Ms Khiki and her slave jez from Philly. It was great to have them with us for the weekend. They both had a great time.

It was also the Defenders' (my leather club for 17 years) 18th Anniversary. We hold a reception on Saturday and the Leather Mass on Sunday followed up by dinner.

Gershon, one of slave matt's friends, is a newbie who is so eager to learn. We connected well and he had some new experiences with us. he ended up cuffed with my heavy German shackles, and I played with him on Sunday evening. he look so hot licking my boots! WOOF! he promised to visit us next month.

It was great to see several members of our immediate and extended family including Sir Brad from NYC, boys ken and ricky from NOVA, slave keith from Denver, Sir Paul and boy jose from DC, slave mike from Maryland, and boy rick from Virginia, as well as countless old friends.

January 14- It was been a tough week in our household. slave david's first few days at the house have been tough on him as he experience the pain, discomfort, and other issues associated with a major surgery. But he is healing fine and the prognosis is good.

he has been inundated with e-mails and messages from many friends of our community. That has meant the world to him.

It was been tough for slave matt and myself. slave matt is my hero! he has done an incredible job in taking care of his brother to every little detail. I am so proud of him.

Things got complicated this week when on Monday I began to feel some discomfort and abdominal pain. Yesterday morning I went to the doctor and ended up in the hospital for several hours doing a CT-scan and IV antibiotics. The diagnosis was diverticulitis. The antibiotics did the job and I feel much better today, but have to continue taking antibiotics for ten days.

January 8 - slave david is back home! Close to 4 PM, we arrive to the house. he has been in pain all day as he change pain-killers. But we are delighted to have him at home and help him in his recovery.

Some have asked me what a Master do in this kind of situation. I am experienced in this. My first live-in slave ended up in a hospital for an appendectomy two weeks after relocating. So I learned fast. I also have vast experience with slave tommy who had to be taken to hospitals many times before he finally passed on 2001. In the case of slave david, I told him before his surgery that he now have only one standing order: to take care of himself so he can recover soon. It is always tough for slaves not to be able to serve their Masters as they are used to.

Again, we have been overwhelmed by our Leather family and friends' love and support, including people who we do not know or barely have met in event have taken time to write to use with words of support or advice.

January 7 - slave david continues progressing. he has been walking and beginning to feel like his old self. his main difficulty is in getting in and out of bed. That is a painful task. he is finally free from all the typical hospital attachments to his body and looking forward to come home on Friday.

slave matt has been busy converting the dining room into a temporary bedroom for david so he does not have to do stairs during his first couple of weeks at home. Friends from our great Master/slave community are beginning to commit to assist us in resuming our normal lives and community commitments by helping to take care of slave david.

January 6 - slave david did his first walks and is progressing fast. he has been able to start reading his e-mail with messages from our great community. We are "preparing" the house to make his return more pleasant to to "keep" him in the main floor of the house and minimize his use of stairs for the first few days and/or weeks.

January 5 - slave david's back surgery took place in the early morning and it lasted 3 plus hours. It was very successful and by 1 PM he was out of recovery and in his room. Master David joined slave matt and I in those first hours at the hospital. slave david is in good spirits although dealing with the aftermath of a serious surgery.

Thanks to all our Leather Family and friends who has been supporting us and sending best wishes to slave david and offering to help us during his recovery. What a community!

January 4 - We drove back home early in the morning to get ready for tomorrow when slave david will undergo back surgery in the morning.

January 1 - 3 - Winter Solstice was a great event. We met new friends and our three workshops were well attended and created good discussions. We spend a lot of time with our dear friends Mistress Khiki and slave jez, Master Don and slave orja and Master Steve and slave tami. Both slave david and slave matt did have a great time. Slave david was able to certain degree to enjoy himself and not think too much of the back surgery scheduled Tuesday. he did get a lot of support from our friends and others who have had similar back surgeries.

January 1 - Happy New Year to all our Leather Family and friends!

After the New Year's Eve celebration, the family drove to Piscataway, new Jersey to participate in Winter Solstice, our first event of the year.