Blog Master G

Twenty-seven years ago today I was in a hospital in Sacramento, eagerly waiting to meet my new baby brother. Even though I was only three, I remember the day — I stood excitedly in the hallway outside the delivery room with Nana. I had no doubt that the 10-pound, 11-ounce baby being born would be my new best friend. And sure enough, he was. He’s also turned out to be an incredibly thoughtful, caring, and all-around great man.

Growing up, Peter and I were buds and always had each other’s backs. Even though we now live on opposite coasts, we always will. We used to wrestle a lot as kids, and being the big brother, I would usually win those battles. And even though Pete’s now bigger than I am (and does amazing feats like run marathons), he likes to say that psychologically, I could still take him in a wrestling match.

Peter and I don’t see each other nearly enough these days, but when we do — most recently in Vegas and before that for the best Christmas ever — we have a kick-ass time. Every time, it’s as if we haven’t missed a single day spending time together.

Pete Dog and I have an unspoken understanding of, respect for, and appreciation of one another — it must be that brotherly love. I feel lucky to have such an awesome little bro, and hope that one day we can live in the same city again.

The below is one of several haiku Pete wrote for me to be included in the amazing scrapbook that Jen and team put together for my awesome 30th birthday party. Reading it was one of the many moments that brought me to tears the first time I looked through my scrapbook.

Thirty years of Gabe
and to this day, a better
bro has not been made.

Right back at you, bro bro. Happy birthday! I love you, man.

Here are the two “for pete’s sake” pages from my scrapbook since well, they pretty much sum it up:

I ordered new glasses today (I resisted the urge to buy an iPhone) — for the first time since before Jen and I got married in 2003 (here’s what I wrote about my current glasses then). The motivation? Jen left her job, so our vision coverage expires today.

It was a good kick in the pants to upgrade the 4-year-old glasses. Is 4 years a long time to have glasses? I don’t know. I’ve only been wearing glasses full-time for about 7 years (I think). So the pair I ordered today will only be my third pair. Here’s my first pair.

And here are my new glasses – Nike Flexon #4062:

As you can see, they’re slightly more square (less rounded) than my current and previous pairs of glasses. But that’s OK. I like ’em. And Jen really does, too. She helped me pick them out. The Flexon should be cool, too, since they’re super-flexible and aren’t prone to breakage. They’re also really light, which will be nice, since after a long day with my current “metal cages,” as I call them, there’s some great nose indentation going on.

The prescription in my new glasses will be slightly stronger, which is a bummer, but hey, maybe it will help me to see better.

Happy 4th of July weekend! I’m sure it will be all the better now that you know more than you ever wanted to know about my new glasses, which I should have in about 2 weeks.

My uncle Joe, a lifelong firefighter in South Lake Tahoe, and his family live directly across from the area impacted by the tremendous wildfire that’s been raging since Monday. They’ve been in my thoughts and I’m hoping for the best in terms of their health, safety, and property.

The last update I heard from my other uncle, Michael, was this, two days ago:

As long as the winds blow north or northeast, their home is safe. They are putting up friends who have lost their homes. If the wind switches direction, they will have to evacuate. They don’t know whether Joanie’s apartment is safe or not. All members of the family are safe. Joe, Luke, and Ben (Stacie‘s boyfriend) are all on the fire lines. Luke lost his new truck to the fire. The fire is headed toward the lake, Tahoe City, Emerald Bay.

Although there’s not a whole lot I can do from 3,000 miles away, I would if I could. With an intense fire like this comes such a feeling of powerlessness. I have the utmost respect for my uncle and his colleagues who so courageously put their lives on the line to save so many others.

Who knew grocery shopping at midnight on a Sunday night following 3 days of partying could be so much fun? The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

View set in Flickr

Though I wasn’t able to spend Father’s Day this past Sunday with my Dad — Happy Father’s Day, Dad! — I did get to enjoy a delicious meal with my father-in-law, mother-in-law, Jen, and Kat at Gotchya’s. This was following a long couple days of partying at Dan & Shira’s wedding, which was followed by a party we had at our place Friday night.

Good times and good food!

View set on Flickr

Big congrats to my lovely and brave wife, who’s decided to dive head-first into her new passion in life! Today is the last day of her job in the publishing industry before she embarks full-time on her new path to being a librarian!

Jen’s been working in publishing for nearly the past 10 years and has, for the most part, loved it. Last fall she started a master’s program in library science (actually called MSIS — or Master’s of Science in Information Science — these days) and quickly loved it. Working full-time at a super-intense job and going to school part-time proved to be a bit too much stress. That, combined with a number of other factors, led to her decision to immerse herself in the library program.

And she’s wasting no time. With the GRE behind her, she finishes work today and next week begins a summer class and an internship working on an archives project in Schenectady.

I think Jen will be an amazing librarian. Her brilliance and passion for literature and information organization, combined with her undying curiosity about the world and her fierce dedication to helping people learn and teaching others to ask questions that go beyond the surface of how they may appear make Jen a natural fit for her new career.

I’ve learned so much from her in the 10 years that I’ve been lucky enough to call her my best friend, and I’m delighted that now others will benefit from that same commitment to making people smarter and, ultimately, the world a better place.

We’re both really excited for this significant life change, and I have no doubt it’s going to lead to amazing things. Congrats, Jenner! I’m really proud of you!

Big congrats to our friends Dan and Shira, who were married right here in Saratoga Springs on Sunday! The wedding service itself was beautiful, and it’s safe to say that Jen and I came to tears at least once (though Jen more so than me). Dan and Shira were clearly one very happy couple, and we were glad to be part of the celebration.

Another benefit of the occasion was getting to reconnect with old friends, including Kat and Jess, in town from Bogotá and San Francisco, respectively. We also got the chance to hang out with lots of other fun, fellow Vassar alums, including another Jess, another Jen, and Liza. (A visual aid: 2 Jesses and 2 Jens.)

All that and it was two full days of celebrating — there was a Saturday night reception at the beautiful Mansion Inn, followed by the Sunday afternoon wedding at the exquisite Canfield Casino in Congress Park.

Enjoy our photos (reception & after-party at our house | wedding & reception)! I’m sure Niki and Seth’s photos will be even more incredible, as always.

Again, big congrats to Dan and Shira! We’re all very happy for you.

(There was more partying on our part following the wedding — Father’s Day dinner at Gotchya’s, drinks at 9 Maple, and dessert shopping at Hannaford (yes, much more fun than it sounds) — but I’ll save those photos for other posts.)

This past weekend we partied for three days straight. Our friends Dan and Shira got married Sunday morning, and had a Saturday evening reception. Our friend Kat was here from Bogotá for the occasion and stayed with us. It was an all-around awesome weekend. We got the party started Friday night when we hosted the local crew — Justin, Sarah, Eric, Brian, Cati, Anne, Tom, Patricia, Hugh, and Jami — and were delighted for them to meet Kat and vice-versa. We’re lucky to have such great friends. We ate, we drank, we sang the night away.

View set on Flickr

The ever-poignant and hilarious Mark Morford has a column today that really hits home for this San Francisco ex-pat. Morford writes about the common plight of pretty much everyone who loves and lives in San Francisco: The inability to buy one’s own real estate. This was one of the many reasons that prompted our move here to the East Coast.

I Do Not Have $1 Million | Ergo, I cannot buy a delicious home in San Francisco. Ergo, I am screwed forever:

It is a common refrain indeed: You love the city? You don’t come from money and you don’t have a giant trust fund and you totally forgot to sell your soul to the devil/Rupert Murdoch in exchange for a Stanford MBA and a deeply unsatisfying but incredibly lucrative gig working 14-hour days in the Financial District and getting drunk the rest of the time out on the huge deck of your really, really nice split-level Edwardian remodel in Noe Valley?

It’s so nice to live in a place where you can buy your own home — with more than 1 bedroom and your own yard and garage and not in a giant building in an inconvenient location — for much less than a million dollars.

Stella knows lots of tricks. This dog, Sammy, looks a lot like Stella, but he has one cool trick in his book that Stella hasn’t yet mastered: Painting.

And Sammy paints for a great cause:

Shore Service Dogs | Providing custom trained Service Dogs that help return mobility and independence to people’s lives