06+1=07

wow- and then it was new year's eve. the holidays (actually all of 2006) was more or less a blur. since it's been a little while since i posted anything, let's have a little xmas recap. it was really nice of babyjesus to invite us to his birthday party once again- in spite of the whole living in homo-sin/eternal damnation technicality, no one seemed to mind that we were around to munch on festive jesuscookies and drink our fill of jesusjuice.

and nothing says christmas quite like the annualholidaybendah my mum goes on... here's the first clue as to the scale of what i'm talking about:


yeah, i wasn't joking. but you have to admit it does look pretty spectacular at night when it's dark out and the living room is ablaze- next year i'm going to get them a gift card from the electric company to help with the bill. i think it would also be wise if someone bought them a fire extinguisher as well.

there's a christmas tree under there somewhere:


thousands of beady little holiday eyes watching your every move:


and switched on:


lights off:


lights on:


the happy parents:


grandma and her boys:


you'll notice that j.mo and i are down to our t-shirts thanks to all of the heat being given off by xmasgroundzero:


after the weekend in CT, j.mo and i returned home on xmas eve so that we could wake up in our own place, gorge on vegan brunch and open some gifts.



little johnny, in the zone:


me with my new vegan cookbook:


blimpers, official miss massachusetts holidaycat 06:


so christmas was really good and lots of fun. until j.mo and i both got knocked on our asses by various viruses. he has had some pretty hardcore 'tummy troubles' for days now. when i woke up at 4am friday morning to the sound of him throwing up i knew we were in serious trouble. john has titanicguts. this never happens to him. so he's been on the couch for days. every once in a while i drop off a new bottle of gatorade and a car magazine. poor guy. and i got hit with a nasty cold/sinus infection which everyone in CT had. i'd so take my ailments over j.mo's though, so i won't complain.

needless to say, it's shaping up to be a rockstar new year's at our place. pass the kleenex.

before i go (yes i still have more to ramble on about)... 2006 was a pretty crazy year. so much happened in the span of 12 months that it kinda makes my head spin to think back on all of it. we have a new home that i love (and a mortgage that i could do without), we both changed jobs, i started grad school, j.mo's mum had surgery, my mum dealt with a whole summer of chemo and radiation and on and on. it's been quite the ride. there were moments during this past year where i felt completely overwhelmed and wondered what else could possibly happen...? but i would look around and see this amazing love i share with my guy- and i would see all of our family and good friends. and the next day would come and somehow it was all ok.

i'm so thankful for everything we've got, for everyone that's here.

i hope everyone has a happy and safe new year's eve. see you back here next year :)(:

biglove,
g

heatwave

anyone else agree that it's a little strange when it's december 16th and also happens to be 55 degrees out...? we went walking at castle island and didn't have to bundle up- no hats or gloves or even jackets for that matter. just a big blue sky and big blue water and strange spring-like weather. the wickid bizzah part was feeling warm, but seeing the sun so low in the sky.




i slept until the blissful hour of 10am today. can you tell school is over for the next few weeks? last night j.mo and i celebrated the end of the semester in true fatboy style by walking over to our neighborhood indian place and gorging on the yummiest of curries, naans, and fried appetizers. if i can have that every semester i'm never gonna stop going to school :P

tonight i've got a tray of rice krispy treats at the ready and we're going to a holiday party at our friend lynn's in bridgewater (bridgewater was address #3 for us in our quest to live in every nook and cranny of the greater boston area)... and tomorrow is shaping up to be an entire day spent on the couch- football watching and snacking. truth be told what i'm really holding out for is monday... i've got the day off and am finally doing my xmas shopping. now that my brain doesn't hurt from deconstructing the culture concept i can think about more important things like stocking stuffers...

hope everyone is having a good weekend.

biglove,
g

10+ white cosmos = a 2 day hangover

i think our annual holiday party has become my favorite time of the year. here are some pics (finally-!) from this past weekend when we had about 30 people over for tons of drinks, tons more food and a small mountain of xmas cookies.

oh xmas tree oh xmas tree


sprinkles!


i was up until 2am the night before putting all this together


williams holiday craft session... (please go easy on your drunk uncles that made the runny icing for you.)


oh so innocent...


the mums:


big g, working the crowd:












apparently shun didn't get enough to eat, so he started on the tree:








william was in charge of taking pics...


and by far the higlight of the evening... william and the leftover icing, taking care of bidness:

m.i.a.

howdy... it's been a while.

i'd like to blame my lack of posting lately on a combination of way too many leftovers:

ugh, i feel slightly sick just seeing that pic. although you know i'd be first in line if there were still some in the fridge ;)

so yeah- busy eating leftovers and i also started a new job last week. oh and did i mention it's the end of the semester? so those are my excuses- a few more weeks and it should be bidness as usual. in the meantime, how about a few more pics?

yesterday j.mo and i started getting ready for our holiday party next weekend. two trips to target was a bit much for one day. christmas really does bring out the least savory bits of americana- like seeing a mom smacking her unruly kid with a roll of wrapping paper in the middle of the store. ah, holiday bliss. we also got our tree yesterday and went to town decorating...

i'm not exactly sure what is going on here:


and then the annual popcorn-stringing sweatshop opened for business:






blimps, the christmas cat... official supervisor for the evening's activities:


the house is kinda a mess right now, so i'll post a pic of the tree all nice and lit up some other time ;)

last night i also made baklava for the holiday party we're going to today... nothing says holiday cheer like a whole tub of melted soy butter:


and now for a little video that would make paula deen oink with bigbutterladydelight:

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.