Blog Master G

Jen and I returned Tuesday night from our first trip back to San Francisco since we moved cross-country at the end of last year. It felt really good to be back in my home away from home to help Jane and Sarah celebrate their wedding, to see all our kick-ass friends, party pretty much every night, hang out with burritos on the beach, spend some time with my parents, and last, but certainly not least, to hit our favorite eateries (Naan ‘n Curry, Juan’s, House of Nanking).

A quick recap of the memories:

Thursday: Thirsty Bear happy hour, Naan ‘n Curry in the ‘loin, Juan’s, crashed at Enoch’s.

Friday: Dad picks up from TI, parked, walked on a Peet’s mission and hung out in the Sprint store to recharge our phones (forgot the charger), new ferry terminal, lunch with Dad at Armenian deli (best turkey sandwich ever), BART to 12th St. Oakland, walked to Best Western @ Jack London Square, took $35 cab ride to Oakland Zoo, rode the little people train at the zoo, partied at the wedding, lots of wine and boogying down to “It’s Raining Men” and the electric slide, rode back to hotel in crowded car (got lost in East Bay Vortex, of course) courtesy of fellow Vassar alum Cathy.

Saturday: Dad picked up in Oakland, two breakfasts at the Emery Bay Cafe (with Dad, then with Tiff and Miguel), 3.5 hour traffic ride to Elk Grove, kick-ass BBQ all day and night at James’ pad (carne, dick chicken, Kat cosmos, mmmm), crashed at James’ pad.

Sunday: Breakfast at Coffee Plantation (EG), Mom picked up, checked out her new place, train to Emeryville, Dad picked up, took Dad’s car to Sports Basement and Safeway, salmon and wine @ Tiff and Miguel’s for dinner party, to Jeanine and Isaiah’s to crash with amazing Twin Peaks view.

Monday: Drove to old hood in Inner Sunset, burritos at Ocean Beach, walked on beach, Bitter End (closed), Green Apple Books, Legion of Honor (closed), Crissy Field for dog watching, meet Dad for House of Nanking (fantastic), fortune cat in Chinatown, make fun of Crepes ‘n Curry, happy hour at One Market (martinis) and Royal Exchange with Tim, Ben, Enoch and posse, BART to Oakland, Scrabble (and pie and champagne) with Dad, sleep at Enoch’s, plane, fly back East.

View SF Trip album

View Thisty Bear album

View Sarah and Jane’s wedding album (my version, of course)

View James’ BBQ photos

In response to Cal Thomas‘ editorial in today’s Saratogian, I just sent the following letter to the editor (unfortunately, I can’t find the original piece online):

To the Editor:

How ironic that Cal Thomas declares the following in his editorial criticizing Kerry (“Where is Kerry’s evidence of trustworthiness?”): “A president must always put America’s interests first.”

What was America’s interest in Iraq before her young soldiers were sent there to die? Iraq presented no imminent danger to America. An unprecedented, preemptive strike against another nation did not have this country’s interests in mind. America’s interests start at home with jobs, healthcare, education, and security. This country is at risk now more than ever — our jobs are moving overseas, 140,000 troops are overextended in Iraq, and we’re at home with a record $445 billion deficit while 49% of our tax dollars are paying for past and current military endeavors (http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm).

Thomas further claims that “To earn trust, one must give evidence of being trustworthy.” Funny he should mention “evidence.” Weren’t we supposed to trust Bush when he claimed he had “evidence” of certain non-existent weapons of mass destruction?

Sincerely,

Gabe
P.O. Box 711
Saratoga Springs, NY

Fundrace.org puts your political contributions into the public domain. It’s really interesting to look at the Money Maps, browse the city donation maps (to see that individuals at 101 California represent the biggest Republican contributors in San Francisco), and even search by name for your friends and family.

I donate often to MoveOn.org and the Kerry-Edwards campaign, and recently gave some money directly to the DNC when some kids from Burlington did some canvassing around here. But I don’t (yet?) see my name listed at Fundrace.org.

Jen and I hung out with Justin last night to help celebrate his birthday. Someone brought up a good point: This country spends ridiculous amounts of money (hundreds of millions of dollars in this presidential election year alone) getting its officials into office. No wonder the rest of the world hates us. Imagine if we put just a portion of that money to funding education or healthcare or feeding the hungry.

But such is the nature of the beast in this great country. So let’s take back the White House. Donate to the MoveOn PAC Leave No Voter Behind Victory Drive.

This post marks a momentous occasion for my blog. It is entry number 1000 in my database. Not all those entries are currently live and shown in my archives (this will be 938 in that list) — a number represent posts that I started to write and never published or entries that I’ve pulled down for one reason or another — but by measure of pure numbers, this is 1000.

It is also my first post with Movable Type 3.01D, to which I just upgraded today. The interface is very cool, as well as the new features that include better management of comment posting (authorization by me of anonymous posts, TypeKey integration, etc.), HTML shortcut tools in Firefox, and other cool things that I’m sure I’ll discover before long.

Today is a chill day so far. Coffee on the porch, some anime on the free Anime Network that James discovered on our cable box, and some blogging.

Last night was another fun party night. We had that free Indian dinner that was the shit (Jen, James, Sarah, Justin, and I), then we went to the Harness Track and Racino to play the ponies and lose some money on the slots (except for Jen, who always manages to win). Then we hit the Wine Bar, DA’s, Gaffney’s, and watched a fight break out in the street. It was funny. This dude was all drunk and started to run away from the cops, but he was swerving from side to side, so it didn’t take the cops long to catch him and throw him against a cop car.

Tonight we’re off to Jen’s 10th high school reunion. My wife rules. She was valedictorian of her class, so we gots to represent.

[ 666 | 777 ]

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is the funniest movie ever. I laughed so hard it hurt. Probably not since Rat Race have I seen a movie that made me laugh as much. I wasn’t expecting much — I was thinking along the lines of American Pie 2 — but it blew me away. The writing was hilarious, the characters were fun, and the appearance by the partying, booty-seeking NPH as himself was brilliant. From mocking the ridiculous real-life anti-marijuana commercials to getting a cheetah stoned to being surrounded by two hotties on the potties to hang-gliding, Harold and Kumar know how to party. This movie is no holds barred, so stay away if you’re easily offended. This will be a future addition to my DVD collection.

This week has zipped by in a hurry. It’s been great fun having James here. We went mini-golfing the other night, have been to the Saratoga Brewery twice (mmm, growlers, hit the Saratoga Auto Museum, drove around the lake, played pool at Bev’s (dive bar at the lake), ate at Houlihan’s, saw that awesome movie last night, partied the night away.

Sometimes it amazes me how I’m able to function on so little sleep. Pretty much every night that James has been here we’ve stayed up till at least 12 or 1, and I’ve woken up by 730 or so for work. Last night set the bar even higher.

After returning home from the movie, we were juiced to party. The closest White Castle is in Yonkers, so we ruled that out. We called Justin and opted to hit the town. We put in quite the circuit of bar-hopping, going from City Tavern to Desperate Annie’s to the Artisan patio to Clancy’s to Tin & Lint. Not a bad showing for a week night. It was nearly 3am by the time we got home and I was up around 8.

Tonight we do it again with a free Indian dinner (I won a contest!) and some more fun on the town.

The one stressful thing we’ve been dealing with this week (which is finally resolved) is a contractor who wouldn’t return our calls or show up when he said he would. He actually stopped answering our calls at one point, so only after calling from my cell phone and telling his wife that we’d cancelled the way-too-big deposit check we had given him did he finally show up. Money talks. Lesson learned.

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” –George Bush, August 5, 2004

Gotta love a prez who compares his administration to the enemies and admits to harming the U.S. Misspoken or Freudian slip that finally reveals the truth?

Local terrorist plot foiled down in Albany.

Lately I’ve not blogged much. In fact, in the history of my blog, it may be the dryest stretch I’ve had without regular posts. I want to be better about that. Things have been so busy lately.

I took off a few days at the end of last week to party first with Megan, who arrived from California on Tuesday, and then with James, who arrived on Thursday and remains for another week. It’s very cool of both those cats to make such a long trip to hang out. You guys are great friends and kick some ass, too. I had (am having) an awesome time with you both.

Quick recap of last week: Futon finally arrived; went to track on opening day with Megan; soaked in the sun at Professor Moriarty’s with Megan; walked around town oohing and awing with Megan at the “summer cottages” of Saratoga; marveled at the daily plant date at Congress Park; sipped wine on the porch; chilled at the Wine Bar; ate at Little India; drove to Syracuse to pick up James; enjoyed Megan’s fine taste of old school rap on the way home; stopped by Betty Beaver’s; ate at the brew pub; partied at Nine Maple and Desperate Annie’s; drove around the lake; had a super-fun housewarming party; saw Napoleon Dynamite.

Jen was a rock star in preparing for the housewarming party. She really did an amazing job of planning, cleaning, hosting. Happy was an excellent doghost, too. Friends and neighbors came from far and wide for the party. Thanks to you all for helping us make our first party in our new home a great success!

View all Megan & James Do Saratoga photos

View all Housewarming 2004 photos

I can hardly believe a year has gone by. Time flies when you’re having fun.

The wedding is a wonderful memory now. I often relive that day in my mind’s eye and crave to go back and experience it again. Standing next to Jen, looking into her glowing eyes, holding her hand, feeling like the luckiest guy alive. The biggest smile on my face. Feeling so nervous before the ceremony began. Hot that day in Poughkeepsie. Seeing so many friends and family coming together to help us celebrate our love. Feeling honored and like a celebrity that so many people cared. Feeling so happy to be committing my whole self to the woman I love, the woman with whom I want to spend the rest of my life. Jen is my best friend, the best thing that’s ever happened to me, my wife now and always. I am lucky to have her in my life and am better for it.

The reception… people are still talking about it. Went by so fast as we made the rounds from table to table. That delicious food. The dancing. The songs. The laughs. Enoch jamming with the band. Johnny singing the Kopa Cabana. Peter telling me, “This is the most fun I’ve had in my life.” The touching speeches from friends and family. The cake.

I love you, my bride! You mean the world to me.

The begnning of what I wrote the day after getting married: “Jen and I are now married. Husband and wife. Mr. and Mrs. Gabe. It’s quite an overwhelmingly exciting feeling and one I’m not quite sure I’m ready to put in words just yet. But I wanted to write something.”

So much has happened in the past year… honeymoon to Hawaii, leaving our old jobs behind, move across the country, new apartment, three new jobs between us, new house, new friends, new town…

Here’s to a new year of many more memories and great times with friends and family! I love you all.

Gabe & Jen cake high-five, July 26, 2003:

Gabe & Jen cake high-five (yes, the same cake), July 26, 2004 (yes, we’re cheesy like that):

An excerpt from an email to a friend tonight: “A big thank you from me and Jen here in Saratoga Springs tonight! We’ve been saving for a special occasion that bottle of Rochioli 1994 Pinot Noir that you brought to Thanksgiving in San Francisco last year. We decided that our 1st anniversary was the occasion to enjoy it. We’re savoring it now. And it’s simply incredible. What a great wine. The bouquet is amazing, the taste alive with flavors of cherry and berry. We thank you. A 10-year-old wine is, indeed, a special treat.”

Heather and Saahil came to town from Hoboken this weekend to hang out and help us break in the new grill. Mission accomplished.

Happy 1st Anniversary to my beautiful wife! Marriage rules.

Jen & Gabe just married, July 26, 2003:

Jen & Gabe celebrating anniversary at Longfellow’s, July 23, 2004:

Don’t you wish that you, too, lived in a county that offered exciting events in its community calendar like this?

THURSDAY
Best Tasting Water Contest
WHERE: Hannaford, Village Plaza, Clifton Park
WHEN: 11:30am to 1:30pm
NOTES: County town will compete for the title of Best Tasting Water.

Word.

People with Heart Failure Are Living Longer… than the rest of us?

We went to the New York City Ballet again on Tuesday night. We got to sit inside this time, instead of on the lawn. I could see much better. It’s really pretty amazing to live just 10 minutes from where the NYC Ballet performs for several weeks every summer. Of course, there’s a big debate now about the future of the ballet in Saratoga Springs being uncertain. I hope that’s resolved and ticket sales go up. I’m learning to appreciate the ballet. I’ve now seen the NYC Ballet twice in the past two weeks. Before that, I had only been to the ballet once before (in San Francisco around 1999 or 2000).

I watched Catch Me if You Can last night. I enjoyed it. We saw Pieces of April a couple nights ago. And 50 First Dates on Sunday night, which was hilarious. And if you haven’t yet seen Dodgeball, do yourself a favor and see it immediately.