Welcome to December! Time to blog about Thanksgiving 2007. Hey, so I’m a slacker, but it’s important to give thanks.
With Jen’s delicious homemade pumpkin pies and pumpkin spiced cookies in hand, we joined Jen’s extended family at Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Ron’s place near Poughkeepsie (in Hyde Park) for Thanksgiving (November 22) this year (we hosted last year).
As has always been tradition in my family, I’m pleased to say that finally this year, I think I inspired the round of giving thanks at the table in Jen’s family, too. Everyone but me gave thanks for a single thing (family, friends, turkey, and the like). I declared proudly that I was (and still am) thankful for all off the following:
My wife
My family
My friends
My good health
My good job
You see, a few years ago at Thanksgiving, I made all Jen’s cousins look bad when her aunts heard me lean over to Jen and tell her I was thankful for her. All her cousins gave me a hard time then, and it continues to this day. This year they said, “Come on, Gabe! You’ve been married what? 4 years now? You don’t have to kiss ass anymore! You’re one of us now.” Little do they know that Blog Master G Oozes Positivity.
Thanksgiving night and back at home, Justin joined us for an impromptu game night. Justin smoked us in Scrabble (“squeaker” gave him two triple words plus a 50-point bonus); Jen destroyed us in the visual matching game Set; and Jen showed her capitalist side cleaning house in Monopoly. I don’t like losing. Next time, I’m going for blood, people.
Happy Thanksgiving, one and all! I am truly fortunate to have all of you in my life. I missed my family at Thanksgiving, as I do each day, but I know we were all partying together in spirit.
We’re on a dog roll here, people, so here we go. Yesterday morning we awoke to several inches of new snow (woohoo!). It wasn’t the soft, fluffy stuff that I love so much — more of a crunchy, icy mix — but hey, Stella and I will take what we can get.
So here’s what happens when Stella sees snow (this is pretty much how I respond, too):
I woke up this morning, strolled across the hall to get ready to do some push-ups and crunches, looked out the window and what did I see? Oh yes, my favorite thing: Snow! As many of you know, I Heart Snow.
It’s more of a wintry mix — snow and ice — but I saw giant flakes coming down this morning. So that works for me. Plus, it’s sticking, so Stella and I aren’t complaining. We love the snow. Jen and Happy… not so much. I’m sure it won’t stick around, but I love it, and it’s a special treat this early in the season (though it’s no White Thanksgiving 2005).
Friday night between dinner at the Principessa Elena Society with Justin and his parents and a stop at Ken’s place before drinks at The Local, where we met up with Sarah and Eric, I did enjoy some flakes falling from the sky, but they weren’t ready to stick then (like how I worked in a quick recap of what I did Friday night into that sentence?).
Bloomers rules. As of last night, it is one of our top two favorite restaurants in Saratoga Springs, along with Beekman Street Bistro. Coincidentally (or not?), both are bistros. The Bloomers subtitle is “An American Bistro.”
Housed in a beautifully remodeled old diner on Route 9 (technically in Ballston Spa, not Saratoga, but close enough), the Bloomers ambiance is top notch. The lighting is perfect. The Bob Dylan tunes were a great touch. And the service. Oh, the service.
From the moment we walked in and our coats were taken after we were given a table sans reservation (it really filed up later and everyone who came in had a reservation, from what we overheard) to our exit when our waiter shook our hands and another man (the owner or manager?) held open the front doors for us on our way out, the service was excellent. We couldn’t have asked for better service, better food, or an all-around pleasant dining experience.
Ironically, the building is the former home of the place with the worst service, Chez Sophie. Albeit we didn’t order wine at Bloomers — so we couldn’t explicitly compare the wine service experience — but given that there was superb service for the Saratoga sparkling water (it even got its own ice bucket), I have no doubt the wine service would have blown away that of Chez Sophie. Still, my Kettel One and tonic was silky smooth and arrived in timely fashion, as did my Stella Artois.
The food was fantastic and everything — from the hot bread with spread to the dark chocolate mints that came with the bill — was homemade. Jen enjoyed roasted beet and orange salad with walnut vinaigrette to start, followed by an out of this world shitake mushroom and spinach ravioli (she was kind enough to share two ravs with me). I started with the crab bisque — featuring chunks of fresh Alaskan crab leg — followed by the bulgur wheat and black bean vegetarian meatloaf entree. We really appreciated that the place had multiple dedicated vegetarian entrees.
That certainly won’t be our last time at Bloomers (2853 Route 9 in Ballston Spa, NY — just off the Northway Exit 13 South).
Thanks to Matt for the well-deserved glowing recommendation.
Thursday night Sarah and Eric hosted Wine Club #4 at their awesome new house, right here in Saratoga Springs. The theme: “Bring Out the Animal in You.”
From Brian’s Goats do Roam to the boxed people’s choice, Thirsty Lizard (which didn’t quite fit in my pocket), to mine and Jen’s Sarah’s Blend (featuring the so not mythical Roogle — half bald eagle, half kangaroo creature — I saw one the other day), to Anne and Tom’s winning wine of the evening, Fat Cat, the animal was definitely in the house and helped to unleash a rockin’ good time with delicious food, including Eric’s pumpkin pie. Jen even brought the alcohol-removed Fre merlot, which was oddly a big hit that evening, too. And Bodie kept an eye on the snacks for us.
We welcomed a new wine club member, Annette, from Albany (ahem, Alex and Cati… she even lives near you… what’s your excuse now? 🙂 ).
Oh, and Steve- your royalty check’s in the mail for this photo.
Thanks to Sarah and Eric for hosting a great Wine Club event!
I realized that I haven’t shared any pictures of Stella and Happy on my blog in a long time (has it really been more than a year??). I know there are many of you Stella and Happy fans out there, so I figured it was about time. First, some sunbathing dogs:
Lately, Stella has really taken advantage of being an older, dignified lady (she’s 8 now). As older people tend to do, Stella does whatever she wants, including making herself at home on the couch lately (sans invitation). She’s old and it seems that her joints are starting to ache, so we let the old girl get away with it.
Last night I came home from happy hour to find Jen working on a paper for school with her study buddies:
Oh, what spoiled dogs we have. Do they know how lucky they are?
One numbers-crunching scientist calculates that if all Americans between 10 and 74 walked just half an hour a day instead of driving, they would cut the annual U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, by 64 million tons.
About 6.5 billion gallons of gasoline would be saved. And Americans would also shed more than 3 billion pounds overall, according to these calculations.
Of course, we Americans have a love affair with our cars, so the odds of that ever happening with all Americans are slim to none. But some of us are better than none of us, so I, for one, certainly try to do my part in walking and biking as much as possible.
The article continues from exercise to diet:
But it’s not just getting out of the car that’s needed, said Dr. Robert Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. A diet shift away from heavy meat consumption would also go far, he said, because it takes much more energy and land to produce meat than fruits, vegetables and grains.
Recent studies support that argument. Last year the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that the meat sector of the global economy is responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Much of that is indirect, including the fertilizer needed to grow massive amounts of feed for livestock, energy use in the whole growing process, methane released from fertilizer and animal manure, and transportation of the cattle and meat products.
Jen and I learned that 18% fact at the recent Vegetarian Expo we attended. That’s a higher percentage that contributes to global warming than emissions from all forms of transportation, according to the study from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (page xxi):
The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transport.
Given that the “average American man eats 1.6 times as much meat as the government recommends,” cutting back on meat consumption even a little — perhaps to the recommended amount — could have profound effects.
Saturday, November 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Alex’s Surprise Birthday Party
Alex was a key member of Jen’s team of masterminds who pulled off My Awesome 30th Birthday Party. He also directed and produced the hilarious and most excellent video that was one of the highlights of my party (what’s that? you still haven’t seen it? let me know if you want to!).
Last night in Albany, the tables were turned and I was part of the team behind Alex’s own surprise birthday party. He had told Cati once that she should never bother trying to surprise him since he’d know. He was surprised and had no idea. Alex thought he and Cati were heading to a potluck, but little did he know that another potluck was coming to him.
Here’s a video I captured shortly after we all arrived at Alex and Cati’s place (where he confesses that just minutes prior he had been cooking in his underwear):
Here’s the look on Alex’s face when we all showed up at his door:
With two near kitchen fires, delicious food, and a game of Boys vs. Girls Trivial Pursuit (the Girls won … barely), it was a rockin’ evening and tons of fun celebrating Alex’s birthday (turns out we weren’t dissing him all week after all — as he thought we were).
As usual — Wine Club #2 being the exception — Jen and I did not win. Annie and Andrew brought the winning Riesling, and Sarah and Eric took one for the team, bringing up the rear — though I think there may have been some fuzzy math since they really just wanted the last place prize of Cheez Wiz and a 40. First Justin and then Sarah tried to turn the evening into a Coors Light tasting, then Sarah busted out some Cheez Wiz h’orderves full of the letter “A” for Alexis (though Annie might argue what the “A” really stood for).
By the end of the evening, the wine tasting had somehow turned into a dance party with Reddi Whip battles between Annie and yours truly. I think the next tasting party we throw should be a Cheez Wiz-Reddi Whip showdown.
Enjoy a couple videos from the country dance portion of the evening (note my infamous and patented Jazz Hands — made public with the screening of “Behind the Music: The Gabe A_nderson Story,” originally screened at My Awesome 30th Birthday Party — in the second video):
Comments Off on Alexis’ Wine Tasting BirthdayTags:photos 2007
I’ve come to an important realization: I’m a morning blogger. The earlier I wake up, the more likely I am to blog. If I don’t wake up early enough, I always have good intentions to blog at the end of the day after work, but by then, my eyes are usually pretty sore after being in front of the computer all day, so I’m less likely to blog. So here I am — awake at 6:30am and blogging (Jen hops the bus to work in Albany twice a week at this hour these days, so I figured if she’s up, I may as well be, too!).
Two weeks ago today (has it already been that long?), Jen and I returned to my beautiful home state of California for an awesome, action-packed long weekend of family, friends, and fun. The excuse for the trip was to celebrate my Dad’s 60th birthday — and to carry out a surprise family reunion that had been in the works for months. Only on rare occasion does my Dad’s side of the family get together in full, so his birthday seemed as good a reason as any to bring the 30 or so of us together for the first time in at least a decade. The family photo I used in this post is the last time before this year I can remember all of us having such a photo.
The surprise went off excellently — my Dad was both surprised and incredibly moved. Spending that Saturday afternoon with my extended family was a memorable occasion that none of us will soon forget. It was so great being together again that my cousin Val and her husband Rik, who graciously hosted the event, offered to make the reunion an annual event. I think that’s just fantastic.
We stayed three of the four nights in California in Sacramento with my Mom and brother, Pete, and got to enjoy some chill time around the house with them, occasionally getting the Scrabble smack-down from Pete, who’s become The Fucking Scrabble Champ (my Mom tried to steal his belt at one point). He clobbered me and Jen two games in a row.
Before and after the surprise party, we managed to pack in as much friend time as possible, as well as a Thursday afternoon visit with Jen’s aunt Liz, who also happens to live in Sacramento (where we spent most of the 4-day visit).
There’s no place like San Francisco. It’s such a gorgeous, breathtaking city with so much natural beauty. I love the ocean air, which we got to enjoy that Friday night staying with Enoch in our old hood, Treasure Island. We got to see a number of other friends at the Thirsty Bear that night — including Megan, Ben, Tiff, Miguel, and Andrea — for an extended happy hour, and capped it off with delicious midnight burritos at Pancho Villa. Jen, Pete, and I were up and at ’em early the next day, cruising back to Sacramento to hit the Nugget Market to pick up the bounty for the surprise family reunion.
Following the surprise party Saturday and despite our exhaustion at the end of an already long day that Saturday, we pulled ourselves together and, along with Pete and his girlfriend, Ashleigh, cruised to James and Melissa’s place in Elk Grove for a great evening of chillin’ with the homies. There we hung out with the likes of Enoch and Val (his girlfriend, not to be confused with my aforementioned cousin), Shannon and Mike (with whom we had also enjoyed a delicious breakfast the previous day), and a friend of Enoch’s who dropped by.
Being back in California the once or twice a year I usually get there is like I never left. I always feel so at home, the sun feels so warm, and friends and family always greet us with smiles and hugs as though we never left. I feel so fortunate to have such great friends and family on both coasts. I only wish there weren’t an entire country between us and that I could get back more often.
And, of course, what trip to California would be complete without enjoying an It’s It?
