mira! que bueno!

i want to write about what went down this weekend, but this is about all that's coming to mind at the moment:

holy shit!

we saw five places on friday night with our adorable broker and, as predicted, we both loved the one we'd been obsessing over all week. but it was good to have a few others to compare it to- different neightborhoods, different prices, different quality etc.

needless to say, by far the winner of the emmy for 'most memorable intercultural condo experience' was this beauty:



now i'm sure you're thinking it looks pretty nice- sure, that's what we thought... nice on the outside. and we did nervously joke that there were no interior photos to be found anywhere online, so we affectionatly referred to it as our 'mystery listing' and decided to see it anyways.

so we get there and are on the front porch waiting for the other broker to meet us- that sure would be styrofoam covering the broken window.

wow- look at all that peeling paint.

do you smell bacon?

other real estate agent arrives, swings open the unlocked (also unlockable, i might add) 3,000 year old door that's older than dorchester itself and up we go to the third floor. about half way up 6 or 7 very excited vietnamese kids come tearing down the stairs. we all kinda stop to laugh/say hi to the kids while the other real estate agent trudges on. when we catch up to her she's half way in the door, barking out orders in vietnamese as if she was 10 seconds ahead of an INS raid. People scatter- doors slam and she nervously leads us in as the smoke detector goes off. mama-san was cooking up something resembling what i'd roughly translate as 'viet-spam.' j.mo, myself and our broker are now completely lost in sensory overload as the other agent tries to point out the 'features' of this well appointed abode, currently housing a family of 40. behind door #1 was a crying baby. door #2 there was a vicks vapor rub stench and the outline of a body under the blankets- wonder how long they'd been dead for? bird flu? kitchen, well- very smokey and the lovely aroma of scorched processed meat product. door #4- the bathroom. whoopsies, papa-san was taking care of a little bidness in there. what had to have been 4 or 5 more doors later, we're finally being led down the stairs, through the basement and out to the backyard/garage area:



ok, well maybe that wasn't quite the scene, but i was fully prepared for it just in case.

so that was the big highlight, other than actually seeing the place we thought we'd love and really loving it... not to mention making an offer the next morning and having the 24hr drama of knowing someone else made and offer too and all we could do was sit and wait. luckily we had drinks and dinner with the butter queen, good dr, chix to keep us distracted (tibetan food in central sq- to die for!)

and then finally at 4.15p today we found out our offer was accepted. house inspection wednesday, wrap up the mortgage process this week and close by the end of the month. saddle up the uhaul kids, we're moving again. that makes 11 moves in 10 years for me- that must be guinessbook material? well whatever, this time we're gonna own it and i am not willingly leaving for multiple years. if not longer.

i'm still in awe over the whole thing. well, a little shell-shocked as well because today we dropped of my mistah bodhi (aka my jeep) at the dealership to be sold. you can't have it all right? and at the moment a home of our own is infinitely more important than any jeep could be.

so stay tuned- big happenings. and that means the great escape (completed!) housewarming invites will be coming out in a few short months...

yes, i know...

another now infamous gap between postings...

oh well- i keep telling myself things will settle down eventually and i'll get back to reporting on the ubertrivialities of sparrows that eat KFC etc...

in the meantime, here's a little something from the onion:

as the planets align...

my horoscope today couldn't be more spot on:
>>Monday, February 20Aquarius:Btw: At the moment, your mental energy and concentration are best dedicated to the overview or grand planning portion of the program, such as envisioning the beautiful, completed home as you gaze out upon the lovely (but currently empty)building site, picturing opening night as the various members of the chorus gather for the first day of rehearsal, etc. Today's star rating: ***

could this have anything to do with the fact that yesterday j.mo and i were approved for a mortgage so we can go out and buy our own little corner of the ghetto?? and maybe i was just so excited/anxious yesterday afternoon i couldn't concentrate on schoolcrap and now have a paper due wednesday that i haven't started.

but whatever- this coming weekend phase 3 of the great escape begins and we're going to look at places, ready to make an offer on the right one.

so far this is the top of the list...

i don't know how i'm supposed to focus on work/school this week. i half expect my head to explode with a little puff of smoke and a handful of house shaped confetti.

a canoe trip at 11p... on the open ocean... sounds like a good idea to me

from boston.com

Man missing after canoe accident in Hull
By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff February 17, 2006
One man was rescued and another is missing after a tragic boating trip off Hull early this morning.
The Coast Guard has a rescue boat crew searching the area off Crescent Beach for Steven Coble, 26, of Hull.
The drama began about 2:30 a.m. this morning when the Coast Guard was notified that a man was stuck on the breakwall off of Crescent Beach. Brad Turner, 19, of Rockland was pulled off the wall.
Turner told the Coast Guard he and his cousin, Coble, had been in a 10-foot canoe when the vessel capsized sending both men into the water between 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. Turner said he was able to swim to the breakwater.
When he got to the breakwater, Turner told authorities, "he heard him (Coble) screaming a few times, but that was it," said Coast Guard spokesman Scott Carr. The water temperature is believed to be 39.7 degrees

lost and found

so yesterday i'm sitting on the orange line on my way home from school when i happen to look over at the seat next to me:



anyone lose their pizza dough? at least that's what it appeared to be- i wasn't brave enough to get any closer than required to take a quick photo, just in case it wasn't dough (this is public transport, afterall)

i was thoroughly confused and a little amused at the same time. i've seen all kinds of things on the T, but i've never had a blob of dough ride with me from downtown crossing to forest hills.

i love boston

from boston.com:



When snow makes parking all the more difficult on South Boston streets, residents who shovel employ a variety of techniques to preserve their hard-earned spaces. Among the devices spotted yesterday, two days after the weekend blizzard, were (clockwise, from top left) a propane tank on a ladder, a dining room chair, crates, cones, and a half-keg of beer. (Photos by John Tlumacki/ Globe Staff)

when j.mo and i lived in dorchester we kept a lawn chair in the trunk of his car for this exact reason. sure it's a little ghetto to see all sorts of household items lining the streets, but hey- you shovel for over an hour only to find someone else in your spot when you get home (and even without the snow, parking was already hard enough)...

here's a link to the whole article...

where's the love...?

happy valentine's day peeps... normally a dozen roses at south station goes for $19.95 today they're selling for a whopping $39.95- where's the love?

this would be why our valentine celebrations consist of homecooked vegan dindins and the news at 11pm after school for me and job #2 for j.mo- no flowers (see above), no chocolate since we're both lactards and slutty lingerie is out because we're saving for 'the great escape' (my new name for our upcoming attempt at buying a condo- stay tuned for developments on this front... sunday is mortgage meeting day).

i feel bad that i've been a bad blogger lately, but well- there just aren't enough hours in the day... i'll get it together eventually :)

this is when i miss australia

12-15inches for us:

a good ol' fashion new england snowfest

so it's going to snow tomorrow night into sunday. 8-15 inches (at least that's what they think right now) with blizzard conditions at times. by new england standards that's a pretty significant snowstorm.

so that means the stop & shop in dorchester looked like this:



but we only needed a few things there (thank god) because we had just hit up super88 across the street for only the finest of vegetarian asian provisions...

two gays boys and their princess of a cat and hibernating tortoise simply cannot be stranded indoors with snow up to the windows without fresh lemongrass and baby bok choy to see them through :)

it's a groove thing...

wow- it really has been a while since i did this. jmo's upstairs doing his rainmain-ironing-for- work routine (i don't relate well to people who can iron... and do it well...) and i just finished another round of my part time job, so i figured i should use this time to catch up with y'all.

i was having a little trouble getting into the swing of things the past few weeks, but i think it's just about sorted now. once i'm off and running it's all good- but it takes a few weeks to get there after things get all changed around (again).

the 2 minute recap of happenings:
grad school is going full steam and i'm most content with my decision on schools/programs. it's a perfect fit. a ton of work, but well worth it. it's that one time of year right now when work is actually busy- it goes from 0 to 60 overnight and all of a sudden we're barely able to keep up. then come the end of may it will die again and summer will be bliss. i'm also working saturdays at the moment, which i suspect may have something to do with my lack of blojo (bloggin mojo).

and just when we think we're going to peru this summer... perhaps we will be (gulp) moving again instead. another year, another move. this will potentially be address number 11 in nine years. for a while we actually kept all of our moving boxes folded up under our bed- i think that speaks to the gravity of the whole thing.

but yeah- the 'domestic situation' just isn't really working for us. so it's time to sort it all out and see where we end up. we may be able to buy something (meeting with a mortgage person soon) or we may just be happy renters again. but either way, it'll most likely be a return to dirty dot's lovely melange of vietnamese, island peeps, the potato family (more on them later), the pseudo irish and a couple of gay guys- talk about a motley crew. might as well live in the middle of what i'm going to school for ;)

so that's that.

more soon.

hope all is well with everyone-

biglove,
g

a happy bday shoutout to an oldie (ha!) but goodie

i had to drag myself out from under my postbreakfaststarchcoma (you try and eat a giant belgian waffle covered in syrup and bananas along with a side of homefries, plus all the homefries j.mo left behind and wash it all down with two coffees... this recreational eating thing is hard work. all that heavy lifting and grunting...)


but it's someone's bday today, so duty calls...

my dearest miss mojo, the finest whitechocolatenubianprincess to ever roll through floryduh on 8 wheels is celebrating yet another year of rollerskating, stahtravelle, avocado maki and a long lasting affair with her number one sgb (secret gay boyfriend).

we've known each other for about 6 years now and have had all kinds of fun and adventures- everything from speeding past a slowly sinking cattlebarge on a river in guatemala to slathering each other in purrell hand sanitizer before eating fries in cambodia. nothing like pairing a lactardvegan and an ubersensitive to anything oniony/garlicky, fried, spicy picky vegetarian eater and sending them off into the great nonenglishspeakinggastrointestinalfunfest in the sky. but somehow it works.

she's a babe and i sho do love her... so happy birthday darlin'

beans, beans, beans....

a little august adventure for j.mo and i (and possibly chix too- and anyone else who wants to join in) is in the works... we're gonna cash in some of our mountain'o'miles for free tix-

http://www.gapadventures.com/tour/PIL&itinType=dossier&yr=2006

yay!

sawatdiikhap my little mistah

sawatdiikhap is thai for 'hello.'

meet pawarit (and his grandma, kham):


j.mo managed to take an already fantastic birthday weekend in london and absolutely melt my butter with the gift he gave me. he did the research and found a nonbiblethumpin' charity that allows people to sponsor children in various places all over the world with the simple goal of helping kids and their communities. (they also promise that sally struthers will not be airlifted in to film a 3am join-me-and-jesus-as-we-save-the-children-and-eat-all-their-rice-rations infomercial) planusa.org works in many countries with respect for local religions and cultures- bringing people together for the greater good.

so he signed us up to sponsor little pawarit, his family and his community. i was tearing up as i opened up the info over the weekend and realised what john had done for me. if this doesn't earn him whatever leftover gay oscars remain after brokeback cleans house, i don't know what possibly could. so thoughtful and so touching.

pawarit is two years old and lives in nongdone, thailand- it's in the eastern part of the country, not too far from cambodia. he lives with his grandma since both of his parents left the village to find work in nearby factories. both of his grandparents are peasant farmers and live in a simple cement house with a metal roof. soon we'll start writing to him and his family and getting updates about what he's been up to and how he's doing. planusa has a local coordinator in the village that translates letters between families and sponsors and overseas the project etc. the program encourages sponsors visit in person with the families they help support- i simply cannot wait for our next trip to thailand!

i can't wait to get to know you pawarit- it's going to be so wonderful to watch you grow up.

if this isn't a step in the road to parenthood, i don't know what is. thank you so much pumpkin- this is the best gift ever.

'ello

regular readers of j.flav will already know that we're back home after lovely (impossibly short) long weekend in london. what an excellent trip and wonderful birthday :) i may have to insist on a long weekend away every year for my birthday....

so i turned 28 and no major calamities occured- my hairline is still receeding at the usual rate, so it's business as usual until 29.

i've got some pictures to post- j.mo pretty much covered all of the food-related activities already and since eating is the bulk of what we did i don't really have too much to tell you that you didn't already know. the food was awesome though- lys, i now know why wagamama left you weak in the knees. and our all veg indian dinner kicked ass, along with the two brunches we had. i was a little pained by the fact that a grande chai tea from stahbies costs the equivalent of $7us... that didn't stop me from having a second one though ;) london is just expensive- there's no way around it. everything costs so much money, especially when you show up with american dollars and a big appetite.

but it was worth every penny and it was so lovely to spend time with jon and mags. they're the best-est and i cannot wait for them to be back in boston.

alrighty- phototime...

the view from the top of a doubledeckah bus:


j.mo entering the tate for another yoko inspired close encounter with modern art:

(i was nervously following him around- waiting for him to morph into modernartmonkey and scramble to the top and start tossing plastic boxes around, later to be escorted out and promptly deported)

my bday present from mags and jon was a trip for all of us on the london eye:




naturally the batteries in the digital camera just as we were sealed into our capsule and hoisted oh so high into the london sky, so all i have are a couple of snaps from my phone. my palms are starting to sweat again as i type this- it's really high up and takes about a half hour to go 'round. but the view was awesome, even if it did cause an ulcer.


there were lots of bad boots in london too- clearly this is a global epidemic, tragically overshadowed by the trvialities of bird flu:


i like these two a lot:




and now for the gluttons themselves...




thank you j, mags and jon for such a wonderful weekend and a truly special birthday. i've got another post coming in a day or two re: the incredible birthday present j.mo got me.... so stay tuned.

hope everyone's week is off to a good start :)(:

up up and away...

dearest butter queen,

we'll be seeing you in the morning... i hope you've de-lurgied the futon.

g

ps- and i'll be seeing *you*, dear internets, on monday... i'll be the jet-lagged 28 year old nursing a soylatte with an extra shot- watchyaselves ;)

girliebits

so last night was my big debut as a grad student- first night of classes. and can i just tell you- after schleping it out to bridgewater for school the past 2+ years it was a more than refreshing change of cast & crew & subject matter. no more sitting between 18 year old B(F)FF's (best (fucking) friends forever, for the acronym deficient) as they text message each other about last night's kegstands at mach 5... incessantly... this was during the drool fest that was a human approach to biology. we won't even talk about the crazy 'mature aged student' with really bad dandruff in last semester's economics class that gave us a play-by-play update on her kitchen remodelling in gross detail every week. dusty cranberry, i believe. but they had to use gray primer and on and on and on.

there were less than 15 other students in my class last night- and every single one of them was either a minority or an international student... and/or someone that had worked/lived/studied overseas for an extended period of time. there's a whole lotta women- only three guys, including myself- so really there's only two guys and one gay guy. and those other two are probably in the process of having their gender reassigned anyways so it's a moot point. the professor was really good and avoided passing the talking stick (something i was a little afraid of with this program- in the interview they mentioned a large amount of group work and potential handholding while we cry and look at our girliebits like in that movie... was it fried green tomatoes? anyways, i put on my brave face and zoned out with an episode of abfab during that part of the conversation)

anyways, so far so good- i'm loving being in school for something i'm actually interested in and has some meaning. today i have orientation and class from 4-7p. then it's home to pack for london!!!

hope everyone has a good day.

biglove,
g

exhibit a

here's my ticket to whatever it is that comes next (and at least $20,000 more in student loans). there's no turning back now ;)

from 60 and sunny on saturday

to 30 and snowy on monday.





my toes are wet from the trek from south station to work via the bank and cvs. that's no fun.

something's not right...

it's so not normal to be looking out the window at work seeing people ice skating on the common and it's nearly 60 degrees the third week of january. this just doesn't happen.

so it's saturday and i'm at work . this would be the third one this month. only 9 more to go and my weekends will be mine again. on the train this morning i was flipping through a copy of the most recent boston phoenix and came across this article on the biggest jacakass on television (well, if you care to refer to the fox 'news' network as television- it's more of an obnoxious portal to the ugly red underworld, with bill o'reilly manning the gate so he can cut your mike as you enter, ensuring no one registers any unfair or unbalanced complaints re: constitutional rights)



my only regret while reading the article was that i missed bill's appearance on the david letterman show... letterman scores some serious points in my book for this comment:

“I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap.”

instead of wishing my fellow americans would tune in and pay attention, for once i really wish they would tune out and stop watching fox... and espeically stop watching the o'reilly factor. there's nothing fair and balanced about any of it. and to sell it as such is just plain tragic. c'mon people- we're smarter than this.

misc friday bidness

sorry i had nothing crafty cooking in my blogpot yesterday. mistah trainer wrecked my body in the afternoon (today i woke up feeling like i aged 30 years overnight), but i guess that's why i'm paying him. so all i could think about the rest of the afternoon/evening was homemade mexican (quesadillas/guacamole with lots of fresh cilantro/spanish rice/refried beans), several dos equis with lime, ER, and bed. no bloggin' mojo to be found.

as j.mo mentioned already some sort of mystery aquaSARS (fishflu, perhaps?) tore through town. first victim was hamburgerhelper, our beloved little snail. then over the past two days three of the goldfish have been flushed. the last man standing is our four year old mistah sushi, but he's definitely going down for the count. i know he's only a goldfish, but c'mon- we've been together for 4 years. that means every time we've done our annual move the past 4 years his tank gets drained and he gets packaged up and hauled off into the sunset with us to the next abode. i guess 4 years is probably a good run for a goldfish. he's probably about 107 in human years.

so even though i was accepted to grad school i'm not allowed to register for classes until my final transcript from BSC arrives with grades from the fall semester. of course that would be the way things work. i can't tell you how many times this month i've emailed/called/faxed the stupid request form in to the registrar's office at BSC. finally last week i sent them a letter pleading for a freaking transcript and even included a pre-paid, pre-addressed fedex for them to use. with classes starting next week i was about to give up hope since the admissions office still didn't have it as of yesterday.

but i went online today and checked the tracking number- thank fucking christ/buddha/oprah... it's being delivered today. so as long as someone looks at it today and does whatever it is they need to i can register and start classes next week. this is just the john/lys/g way of how things always happen. it's rarely easy and often gets filed under 'we just can't have nice things.'

blah blah blah. next week is london and right now that's all i'm thinking about. a much needed break for j.mo and i and some time spent feeding with mags and jon will be the perfect way to spend my burfday (go shorty). i've got to start fasting for currybinge06. mags- i hope you have something with an elastic waist ;)