Blog Master G

For the second time in our relationship and the first time since we’ve lived in Saratoga Springs, Jen and I hosted a rockin’ Thanksgiving meal. We’re actually on a roll this year since we hosted Easter and are also hosting Christmas, for which my family is all coming to town. I’m psyched about that.

So Thursday, November 23, 2006 was, of course, Turkey Day this year (see? slowly but surely I’m catching up and will be blogging in a more timely fashion before you know it!). Jen’s parents, grandpa, aunt and uncle, and Hugh and Jami joined us for some delicious grubs, good wine, and great laughs. Jen rocked the delicious turkey, homemade gravy, and more; Jane contributed the fantastic homemade pies; Carolyn brought some side dishes; and Jami surprised us with her noodly family tradition dish.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and I’m incredibly thankful for my amazing wife, our great family, and our kick-ass friends.

View all photos on Flickr

Despite fighting a cold the past few days, the fun never ends.

Thursday night we hit a holiday cocktail party at Alysa and Jay’s.

Friday was lunch at OBI with Sarah and Justin, then dinner at the Italian Men’s Club, followed by a rockin’ night of karaoke at Seth and Niki’s.

Saturday I slept a lot, uploaded a bunch of photos, nearly blogged a couple entries, then we headed to the hilarious ugly sweater party / Yankee gift swap with Sarah, Eric, and Justin at Alex and Cati’s place.

Sunday I slept a lot again trying to fight off this cold before we headed back to Albany for another holiday cocktail party / fundraiser (for Historic Albany Foundation) at Jack and Kim’s, and some more QT with Alex and Cati. We capped off yet another banner weekend last night when Matt and Dana joined us for dinner and some crazy Katamari action.

My family begins to arrive for Christmas starting on Thursday, so I hope for the following by then:

1. To shake this cold.
2. Snow, snow, and more snow!

Thanks to a combination of Gmail, its spam folder, AdWords, and Joti, I can bring you this tasty holiday treat:

Title: FRENCH FRY SPAM CASSEROLE
Categories: Main dish
Yield: 8 servings

1 pk Frozen french fry potatoes,
-thawed (20 oz)
2 c  Shredded Cheddar cheese
2 c  Sour cream
1 cn Condensed cream of chicken
-soup (10 3/4 oz)
1 cn SPAM Luncheon Meat, cubed
-(12 oz)
1/2 c  Chopped red bell pepper
1/2 c  Chopped green onion
1/2 c  Finely crushed corn flakes

Heat oven to 350’F. In large bowl, combine potatoes, cheese, sour
cream, and soup. Stir in SPAM, bell pepper, and green onion. Spoon
into 13×9″ baking dish. Sprinkle with crushed flakes. Bake 30-40
minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Who’s hungry?

Happy birthday (3 days past) to my most wonderful wife. I really am the luckiest guy in the world to be married to such a beautiful, intelligent, caring, and funny woman. Jen is the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I feel lucky every day I’m alive to have her not only as my wife but as my best friend. All that and she’s tons of fun to hang out with, too.

Happy birthday, Jenner! I love you.

[ Birthday Jen 2005 | Birthday Jen 2004 ]

CNET has created a very nice memorial to James Kim, their Senior Editor who sacrificed his own life to save his family after their car got stuck in the snow in the Oregon wilderness. After a 7-day search for Kim, his body was found earlier this week.

I think maybe this story hits close to home for me because he was a tech guy from San Francisco who loved his family and friends, and even drove the Saab version of my car (silver, just like mine), I noticed the other day during CNN footage. It’s just such a sad story, but he gave his own life to save the lives of the people he loved. My heart goes out to Kim’s family and friends.
James Kim–family man, gadget fan:

James Kim was a respected expert on cutting-edge digital devices, an owner of a trendy clothing store and a lover of the futuristic-sounding music known as electronica.

Yet, according to friends, most of Kim’s life revolved around old-fashioned values: sacrifice, friendship and family. Those who knew him say they aren’t surprised that Kim, in the last act of his life, demonstrated the ultimate expression of devotion to his wife and daughters.

I’m finally catching up… or at least it feels like I’m making some progress. This is a post about the events that unfolded on the evening of Saturday, November 18, 2006. Am I the most timely blogger in the world or what?

The events in question were the making and tasting of the most excellent international dishes north of Manhattan, and the festivities that surrounded said tasting — known as the Coalition of the Tasty. Hosted by Alex and Cati in Albany, this was one seriously lip-smackin’ event. Coalition members cooked up grub from all over the world:

• Hugh & Jami – Bulgaria
• Alex – Ecuador
• Gabe & Jen – Hungary
• Farah – India
• Cati- Iran
• Sarah & Eric – Norway
• Esti y Ryan – Korea
• Teresa y Albert – Germany
• Dixie – Dominican Republic

And prizes were awarded to the following:

• Most “interesting” – Sarah & Eric – Norway – fiskesalat med pepperotsaus
• Favorite – Farah – India
• Honorable mention – Esti y Ryan – Korea

Jen and I almost won the honorable mention with our delish Hungarian soup.

View all photos on Flickr

A few weeks ago (November 15 through the 18th, to be precise — I’m quite the timely blogger these days, aren’t I?) Jen went to Virginia and DC for a work-related photo shoot. There’s a rumor that she even showed some skin as a model for one of the shoots, so for the first time in my life I’m actually looking forward to seeing a textbook!

While the Jen was away Gabe did play — every single night. That Wednesday night Justin and I started the evening with some happy hour martinis at 9 Maple before partying more at his house while enjoying the fine Jack Black movie Nacho Libre. The next night was the monthly Chamber mixer at the Hall of Springs (locale of Jen’s annual work prom), which Justin, Sarah, Elizabeth, and I attended. After drinks and appetizers there, we ventured through the pouring rain for a few more rounds of drink at The City Tavern. Finally, that Friday night was another extended happy hour with drinks at 13 and Gaffney’s, where Justin and I ran into Elizabeth and friends.

Slowly but surely I’m getting caught up, see? Before you know it, I’ll be blogging in a timely fashion once again!

This morning I woke up to my favorite thing — a snow-covered ground! Yesterday’s snow didn’t stick, but the thin layer that came overnight most certainly did.

Props to Megan for sending me this image after reading yesterday’s blog entry.

Yesterday I researched and found a new (used) passenger-side fog light for the WRX. I think it was last winter some time (or even the one before?) when Jen was fortunately able to leverage the power of the all-wheel drive to steer out of a slide and into a snow bank, rather than into the rear bumper of the truck ahead of her, stopped at a light. As such, the fog light took the brunt of the damage. And so for the past year or more we’ve had a broken fog light.

We used to drive with fog lights on all the time since it makes visibility so much better. I had forgotten what a difference the fog lights make until Sunday evening when I went to pick up the dogs from their bed & biscuits place, which requires driving on lots of dark country roads to reach. Even the one working driver-side fog light made a huge difference. So I finally decided it would be worth the money to get another one — especially since I found it for only $60, which is more than $100 off the dealer price of $167. I’m psyched to install it.

Four days into December and snow has finally arrived in Saratoga Springs! I’ve been jealous of all the early season snow that’s hit other parts of the country — Buffalo and Colorado in October, Tahoe and the Midwest during the past few weeks — but I’m grinning my snow grin right now as I look out the window and see a decent flurry of the magical white stuff that began to come down while Jen and I were walking the dogs this morning.

We got our first tease of snow yesterday morning in Buffalo as we began our 4.5-hour drive home.

I heart snow.