thanks... given

i had to pack a stuffing and mashed potato sandwich and put on the only pair of pants that still fit and drag myself to the gym today. lordy lordy we are in the midst of a terrible storm of eatin' -- just be glad you couldn't see me sweating gravy on the treadmill earlier today.

our thanksgiving was quite nice this year- good food and good company. after the all day eatfest on thursday we got up to fix brunch for my parents and basically went right back to feeling insanely full. that was solved by two laps at castle island later that day (i can't believe how warm it has been!), but then completely undone when we came home to have 'leftover bowls' followed by a trek to brookline for sushi with the butter queen, her mistah, and friend sondra.

so here are some pics from the past few days... hope everyone's still finding stuffing in the strangest of places ;)

cranberries:


kitchenbitchmixer in mashed potato mode:


c is for cookie:


tweet tweet little birdie:




ground zero:


john, his mum, & phyllis


my mum and her boys:

(how awesome is she looking post cancer???? incredible-!)

big g & lil g:






buddha doing his best to remind us not to forget to munch a little peace somewhere in there with all that starch:


and by far my favorite pic from the day:

last day

ah, the sweet taste of a caffeinated send-off of the stahbies variety on my last day here at work.


it's a half day, right before a massive potato filled holiday- it's the perfect day to be leaving. i think i may have to quit my job every year right around now ;)

hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving. i promise to post again once i've climbed out from under my starch-induced coma.

biglove,
g

just a few days left...

until i put on my mashed potato floaties and do a perfect swandive into a pool of vegan gravy. it's quite the show, i assure you. speaking of all things vegan, how jealous are y'all that you won't be gnawing on one of these faux-meat beauties on thursday?

that's right- it's a quorn roaster. nothing says thanksgiving like a little log of turkey-esque mycoprotein... (whatever that is) didn't i read somewhere that the pilgrims stole quorn from the indians?

i really do get excited about thanksgiving, though. it's so much fun to plan the menu and then spend all that time in the kitchen with j.mo. i also enjoy seeing my barely 5-foot tall mother man-handling a turkey nearly the size of her torso. what could be better than seeing her on a step stool at the sink as she wrestles the thing into submission and then dives into it up to her shoulders as she fishes out the riblets, niblets, giblets and chitlins. that quorn roaster is sounding better and better isn't it?

so our menu this year:
turkey for the carnivores
quorn roasters for the granola munchers
lil g's world famous mashed potatoes
j.mo's world famous stuffing
maple syrup sweet potatoes
roasted butternut squash
green beans'n'carrots
homemade cranberry sludge
cornbread
chocolate chip hazelnut cookie sundaes
brownies
and a complimentary stomach pump on your way out the door

with thanksgiving just around the corner that also means there are just a few days left at work for me. i'll be all done here on wednesday, so i brought an extra large bag with me today so i can start packing. it's amazing how much you can accumulate in a little over two years... of course most of my gear is food-related: i think i have 6 or 7 varieties of tea and enough cutlery and dishes to serve a dinner party of 8.

so that's about all for now. hope everyone had a good weekend and your short week gets off to a quick and easy start.

-g

not nervous...

i'm really not nervous that in class tonight my group has a 75-minute presentation to get through.

really not nervous at all.

did i mentioned i'm not nervous?

everyone knows about the social capital of vietnamese youth in new orleans, right? so what's there left to talk about that isn't old news?

anyways, i'm sure we'll trudge on through just fine. but i wanted to offer up an excuse for not blogging the last day or two. i-heart-groupwork.

well, that and i also wanted to mention that two days ago i had bloodwork done for life insurance (how grown up is that?? life insurance?? but in the unfortunate event i don't survive my next ride on the redline i would never want to leave little johnny on his own with a mortgage and all the other bills. and let's face it, nothing says romance like a life insurance policy). so the whole point of this rambling- is that when i got dressed at o'dark hundred this morning i decided on just a polo shirt since it's 60 something degrees out there- ok whatever. but i didn't notice until i got to work that where the nurse took the blood is black and blue with a nice red dot in the middle.

so now when i get up in front of the class for the presentation they're all going to think i shot up heroin in the bathroom mere moments ago.

'oh man, look at him- he's gotta be high. '
'yeah, i saw him coming outta the mens room a little while ago...'
'and that arm... what a mess.'

oh well- maybe it will help to keep everyone's attention ;)

once... twice...

so we all remember the little post a few days back about mr-throwing-up-into-his-own-sweatpants...?

pass the rubber gloves- because last night it was 'thank you may i have another.'

last night my friend shun and i are on the T, headed back to dorchester. the woman sitting across from us took a drink of water at one point and spit it out on the floor. not exactly the most attractive thing to see- but we're on the T, not the orient express. so i think to myself 'it was only water,' remember that it's a mere $44 a month for my T pass, and look the other way.

until she puts her head down and starts throwing up.

while i'm pretty much ok with everything you see on the T, all the recent throwing up is getting to be a bit much. it would be nice to just be able to get on the train and get off without having to change cars part way home and then not have any appetite the rest of the night.

if you're feeling unwell, perhaps a warm, crowded ride on the T isn't exactly what you need. repeat after me: nausea & public transport do not mix.

jeeps & fries

yesterday was john's high-holy-holiday, the new england international auto show. (thank god the tummy flu that had him on the couch all day today didn't strike yesterday! poor guy- i felt so bad for him when i was finally unshackled from my bottomless groupwork and came home at 6p to find him curled up on the couch with blimpers watching 60mins.)

so after several of these auto shows the past few years, i can finally say that i'm coming to appreciate the whole thing as more than stepping into a giant issue of road & track magazine while keeping a nervous eye on the nearest exit at all times. this year i was extra excited to see the new 4-door wranglers *and* i also got fries. i've definitely decided that anything involving fries and jeeps can't be all that bad :) my dad and our friend jon also came along for the ride... here are a few pics:

here we are in my honda element:


happy john, front seat. happy jon, back seat:


john and big g:


anyone unsure of what to get me for xmas- i'll take this one please:


and by my favorite picture of the day, j.mo's in the zone:

how cute is that pic?

after the show we had a few more people turn up at our place for a hearty dinner of homemade lentil soup and bread and a couple of glasses of wine. but that's about where the enjoyable weekend ended- from there on out the rest of my weekend was a blur of social capital, vietnamese youth, hurrican katrina, powerpoint and papercuts. from 10a-6p i was at school working on a group project to prepare for our 75 minute presentation on thursday night. all was not lost, however- the dining hall where we did all our work today hosts and all you can squeal brunch buffet for $5.25. naturally i ate my weight in homefries and french toast.

so now it's nearly monday (again). my last full week at my current job- next week i'll still be there too, but with the short week because of thanksgiving this week really feels like it's more or less the end. and then.... stay tuned. time for travel job #5 since leaving australia at the end of 1999. it will be nothing but non-stop glitz'n'glam as i return to my roots as supervisor of air operations. but first, i'd rather focus on all the stuffing and mashed potatoes that are just around the corner :)

hope everyone's week gets off to a good start...

biglove,
g

marriage*

i never imagined that in my lifetime i'd be able to get married. well, i did briefly entertain the idea of moving to the netherlands to marry jan voorstoot- but really... all those endless hours in wooden clogs? so for all intents and purposes, i really didn't expect to ever get married.

fast forward to 2006 and here i am in massachusetts, married to john. and regardless of whether or not our marriage is legally sanctioned, i know that the bond we share, the love that fills our daily life- this is what makes us partners & best friends for the long haul. call it a marriage, a domestic partnership, a civil union... or refuse to call it anything at all. at the end of most days, all of these words, political rhetoric and inability to value what we have for what it is- none of this really matters to me.

but when it does start to matter is when i leave work and see all the people in front of the state house- half of them on my side and the other half of them making a scene over something that really has no bearing on their lives. how does my being married to john effect you odd people in any way, shape or form? do i care how you live? would i ever comment on who you decide to spend your life with? no, i don't and would never- it really couldn't matter less to me. and in fact, if i can be all american for a moment or two, isn't that what this place is all about? you do your thing and i do mine- and as long as no one is doing anyone harm then isn't it all good?

so today i felt eternally grateful for the people that were out in front of the state house making sure gay marriage is here to stay. because while i may not have ever made the effort to get out there and ask for it myself, i certainly was happy to start planning my own wedding when it all happened in 2003. and now that i can say i'm married i'm really not all that sure i want someone to mess with my life- withmy feeling of being married just like every other married couple. and i want my kids to know that what their dads share is *nothing less* than what every other married couple shares. for me i think it comes down to an issue of respect. before marriage was an option for me, i didn't feel any overwhelming need to try and identify with it since we simply were not welcome to participate. but now that three years of same-sex marriage have passed in massachusetts, i'm not about to give up what we've gained. we're married- just like thousands of other couples in this state, gay or straight. it really isn't up to our representatives or the people to re-decide what marriage is.

back to utah...

we the fine people of massachusetts finally have ourselves a new governor:



it's about time someone sent mitt back to his native utah, where he can live out the rest of his liquor-free mormon days with a gunrack and his four wives.

a-men & congrats deval patrick... we've been waiting a long time for you :)

sweetjesusgoodlord we've got another meth-head man-whore at the pulpit

so it's all over the news right now that Ted Haggard, some big guy evangelical bible thumper, is in trouble for buying himself a little brokeback preacherman and passing the crackpipe. why is anyone surprised by this type of stuff anymore?


here's a random pic of him from the innernets after he got high and super-glued his hands together. sure does look strung out to me:


apparently he has had a lot to say against gay marriage and he has also been a regular participant in white house conference calls as a part of bush's whole faith-based clusterfuck policy.

luckily he's got a really strong argument in his defense:

from cnn.com
Pastor admits buying meth
A top evangelical leader who is accused of paying a male prostitute for sex admitted today he contacted his accuser "for a massage" and purchased methamphetamine from him. But the Rev. Ted Haggard said he never had sex with Mike Jones and threw away the drugs.

just a massage? uh-huh. and threw away the drugs? riiiiight.

keeping the public in public transportation

last night after class i hopped on the redline at porter square just like the ending to any other evening spent at school. so as my classmate Ny and i sat chatting, at harvard square a rather scruffy looking guy carrying what appeared to be a surfboard wrapped in garbage bags and holding a mangled starbucks cup just barely made it on the train before the doors slammed shut.

ok, whatever- as long as he's not going to try to sit on either of our laps we pretty much ignore him and chat on.

and then i can hear him muttering-

'fuck'

'oh fuck'

and he opens his elastic-waist sweatpants, puts his head down and proceeds to throw up into his own pants.

at which point i turn to Ny (who is mid-sentence) and say 'uh we've got a little situation over there and need to move NOW.' we were down at the other end of the car in no time. and at the next station Ny got off and i switched cars. problem solved.

i'm kinda left wondering if perhaps the T should reconsider their decision to fit some of the cars with new fabric seats. yeah the old black vinyl ones get tore up after a while and are a little uncomfortable in july, but at least they can be hosed down from time to time. lordy knows mister man didn't manage to capture all of his liquidbits in his own pants (although we must give him credit for his valiant effort). it's not like you can febreeze that shit.

i say keep the vinyl seats. please.

anyways- two stops later at charles mgh this well put together but very shitfaced woman gets on the train and comes stomping down the middle of the car with her cellphone extended out at arms-length like she's trying to pick up a signal and/or is reliving a scene from flashdance. cellphone out, arm up she staggers and stomps all the way to the end of the car and proceeds to walk straight into the emergency exit door with a large THUD. she staggered a few steps in reverse and then got a death grip on one of the poles and made kissy/fixing-my-lipstick-faces at her own reflection the rest of the way to south station.

and it wasn't even a full moon last night.