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6.30.2006

a decade of travelin'

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it's almost a little sad- my passport is about to expire so it's time for a new one. i had to hit up cvs for photos on my way to work and am filling out my application today to have in renewed. after 10 years together i'm feeling rather attached, even if it does have a rather large thanksgiving turkey (read: ever vigilant terrorist-eating eagle) on the cover. i'm sure this all sounds silly, c'mon... nostalgically misty-eyed over a passport? but we've been a lot of places together:

10 years
41 stamps (14 of which are from trips to australia :)
2 visas
14 countries

it's been an awesome decade of people and places and sinking cattle barges in the middle of guatemalan waterways... i wonder which fine country will be the first to ink my new passport's virgin pages?- a cycling trip in laos and a tanzanian adventure to hike up kilimanjaro are on the horizon... up, up and away :)

6.28.2006

enough already!

first the border crap smoke and mirrors routine...

then a whose-dick-is-bigger republicanorgy over a go-nowhere gay marriage amendment. another lovely song and dance distraction.

and how about a flag burning amendment? the die hard conservatives should *love* an attempt at limiting free speech.

well, guess that didn't work either.

at least there's still hope the pimp tax will pass.

i've said it before, i'll say it again... what a mess.

6.25.2006

my big fat gay wedding

thanks so much to the butter queen for all of the photos... :)

6.23.2006

curbside 007, hanoi style

so we live in the kind of place where trash night is sort of an unspoken event of rare neighborhood togetherness. everyone hauls all of their garbage, recycling, dead shrubs and mattresses to the curb and instead of immediately retreating indoors for pulse-or-no-pulse TV or dinner microwaving… or drug dealing if you happen to live one house down from us- people just sort of linger. most of the lingerers are mere onlookers, enjoying the fetid ambiance wafting up from the haphazard mounds of summertimerefuse. but many of the neighborhood’s cast and crew busily get to work:

the perpetually drunk woman from the end of street is the first to start making the rounds, although she doesn’t really do anything- just walks up and down the street. and up and down the street. the crazy irish family across the street all come out on the porch, the mother yells at the 11 year old daughter who’s pushing the 8 year old daughter around (they all look creepily alike) on a way too small baby stroller that lives in the bushes in front of their house when not in use. (everyone should keep a tattered and moldy baby stroller in their bushes, gives the place that nice 'a molester lived here' feel) the irish grandpa is only out in public at this late hour because he’s terrified at the thought of the radio controlled mini-hummer piloted by a couple of the neighborhood kids accidentally bumping into his olde-rose-of-dublin-hyundai-wagon. the rest of the kids are busy playing in a home depot shopping cart. there are at least 5 kids sitting inside of it and two little asian guys pushing it around, everyone screaming as they have a brush with the ER when it careens toward the curb.

the vietnamese guy across from us comes out with rubber gloves on (he’s all business) and makes his way from house to house as he fishes around for urbantreasure. and then there are the battalions of can&bottle collectors. usually the first ones out are an older vietnamese couple- i haven’t figured out where they live yet, but they’re definitely on the earlybirdsenior schedule (with free coffee refills). but last night there was a new crew-two women (maybe sisters) and their kids. when they got to our place there was quite the commotion. last night was my first chance to haul all of the empties off the back deck from sunday’s secretgayweddinghoedown- and let me tell you, there were a ton of empty bottles. so when they arrived and started to fill their plastic bags they quickly realized they had stumbled upon the 5-cent deposit motherload and this was no time for shopping bags. Plan B- it was all very james bond- one quick unzip of the faux gucci handbag and out came the cell phone. within 2 mins a gold camry pulled up and the reinforcements had arrived. while everyone within earshot leaned over their porches and watched, the trunk was filled to overflowing. then the backseat- and off they went.

for next thursday night’s trashfestblockparty i’m thinking we should have some people over and make a true night of it.

i-heart-dorchester :)(:

6.21.2006

don't panic (aka it's good to be in love)

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if you woke up and found foul smelling day old sangria in your kitchen... and scattered champagne flutes on window sills... and beer bottles just about any and everywhere, inlcluding the shower and front lawn- no need to panic. at least i didn't on monday morning when i awoke to pretty much that scene (ok, i exaggerate re: the lawn, but the sangria cesspool is no lie). it was probably just a gay wedding that blew through the neighborhood. and as the pinktingedhangoverfog begins to burn off, you too will clearly remember licking frosting off the two miniature grooms that were on the cake :)

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what a weekend! needless to say, sunday's surprise (to most) wedding was a blast. a big thanks to all of our family and friends for helping make the day everything it was. and another big thanks to the state of massachusetts for understanding that a family is a family is a family. as soon as we get all of the pics from the butter queen, j.mo and i will go to town posting away. until then, all i have to offer up are some plastic groom cake toppers and some triple fermented sangria... it sure is good to be in love- bottoms up :P

6.15.2006

clickity-clickity

last night j.mo and i were riding the redline home when we happened to notice that all-too-unmistakable sound of someone clipping their nails? yup, clipping their nails on public transport:

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i suppose it could have been worse- they could have been cutting their toenails. eeeeeeewwwww. c'mon people. i'm all for dedicated adherence to a thorough personal hygiene routine, but clipping your nails on the T? although now that i think about it- imagine what a time saver it will be when i brush my teeth on the train tomorrow am.

6.09.2006

the great border debacle of 2006

billions of extra $, thousands of troops, and a new and improved fence-o-matic were simply not enough.

from cnn.com:
Web cams could monitor U.S.-Mexican border

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- The governor of Texas wants to turn all the world into a virtual posse.
Rick Perry has announced a $5 million plan to install hundreds of night-vision cameras on private land along the Mexican border and put the live video on the Internet, so that anyone with a computer who spots illegal immigrants trying to slip across can report it on a toll-free hot line.


i wonder what the web address will be? a few suggestions...

www.spot-the-mexicans.com
www.holeinthefence.com
www.redneckborderpatrol.com
www.where-on-the-border-is-carmen-sandiego.com

with one slip of your travel agent's pudgy finger...

you could be landing in Kansas City (MCI) instead of Orlando (MCO). people who travel often, along with those of us 'privileged' enuogh to work in the travel industry all know that every airport gets a three letter code- the whole travelworld runs on this jibberjabber code language, with airport codes being just the beginning. some of them are completely logical and straightforward- boston is BOS. but then there are dozens of others that seem to have no sensible origin- Toronto is YYZ.

yesterday i ran across this article... same kind of idea- manchester, new hampshire (MHT) or manchester, UK (MAN)? this poor guy learned the hard way when he boarded a 50 seat minijet for what should have been a 6 hour trek across the atlantic- an hour later he landed in the granite state and found himself buying a 'live free or die' t-shirt and milking cows with our quirky neighbors to the north.

of course, this all made me think back to the time the butter queen and i worked together at STA... she had a customer that wanted to go to daytona beach, florida (DAB) and got him all set up for a lovely trip to dayton, ohio (DAY) instead. just another adventure in travelgonewrong.

happy friday :)

6.08.2006

dead puppies

from boston.com to you...

Woman attacks dog breeder with Chihuahua
June 8, 2006
ST. PETERS, Mo. --A woman angry that her new puppy had died pushed her way into a dog breeder's home and repeatedly hit her on the head with the dead Chihuahua, authorities said.

6.02.2006

my god this man is a pain in the ass

i have never been so sure i could deal with scandinavian winters.

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from cnn.com:

Bush to promote gay marriage amendment

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush will promote a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on Monday, the eve of a scheduled Senate vote on the cause that is dear to his conservative backers.


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ugh.