Adventures in Gastronomy

It’s a lazy, cloudy day so I’m doing a lazy blog: one of those “tell me about yourself” things. Here goes:

Were you named after somebody? Yes, my first and middle name come from two uncles. However, my uncle is Carl so they changed the spelling of mine to be Karl so that people could tell the difference. Yeah, cuz when you’re at Thanksgiving dinner and somebody says “Hey, Carl, can you pass the gravy?” I can tell whether they meant me or my uncle. Otherwise, they say “Karl with a K”…which is just too many syllables and makes things even less convenient.

When was the last time you cried? Probably when my 3 year old niece died…September 2005.

Do you like your handwriting? Handwriting? No. Signature, yes.

What is your favorite lunch meat? I’m not a big sandwich fan…but for traditional sandwiches, I’d have to say ham.

Do you have kids? HELL NO

If you were another person, would you be friends with you? Best friends – we’d have so much in common! And he’s got such a great sense of humor!

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Oh no, never.

Do you still have your tonsils? Yep.

Would you bungee jump? If you asked me in my early 20’s, yes. Now, probably not.

What is your favorite cereal? I like Smart Start Healthy Heart. I also enjoy the taste of Kashi Go Lean Crunch…but as I mentioned last week, they have an unfortunate side-effect.

Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Yes.

Do you think you are strong? Physically? No way.

What is your favorite ice cream? I’m so boring: probably chocolate chip cookie dough.

What is the first thing you notice about people? Depends. If seeing them from behind, their ass. If from the front, the part of their chest exposed above the top few buttons (preferably with hair…if it’s a man). If by voice only (phone call, etc…) or witing (online profile, letter), a sense of sarcasm/humor mixed with intelligence.

Red or pink? Blood red. The darker the better.

What is the least favorite thing about yourself? Despite my low self-esteem, I really don’t detest one particular feature. But forced to respond, I’d say I live in fear too much. I don’t take enough chances.

Who do you miss the most? HMMMM – I honestly don’t know. I miss people who have died (Regina, Aunt Lorraine, etc…) but I also miss friends who I’m not in contact with regularly any more as a result of geography or relationship (Jeff, Pete).

What color pants and shoes are you wearing. Ugh – I should have dressed differently today because this isn’t goign to sound good: grey Sketchers and a pair of sage green/grey Calvin Klein cords. It looks better than it sounds.

What was the last thing you ate? Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal with soy milk (do i sound like a hippie?)

What are you listening to right now? My office’s air-conditioning fan blowing and a siren running down Mass Ave toward Harvard Square.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Are you serious? Um, white?

Favorite smells? Cut grass, skunk, brownies or cookies baking, Tommy (cologne), melon.

Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Probably my boss…yesterday.

Do you like the person who sent this to you? No, not really. But I love him (it was Randy). Cue the collective “awwwwwww”.

Favorite sport to watch? You’re funny. But if I had to…probably diving so I can see the speedos.

Hair color? What’s left is light brown with some grey thrown in.

Eye color? Blue.

Do you wear contacts? Occasionally.

Favorite Food? Um, I like simple stuff, unseasoned: chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, asparagus. I’m a huge fan of sweets, too (Gummi bears, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, yellow cake).

What color shirt are you wearing? Here we go again…this isn’t going to sound like a nice outfit, but it’s a white Zara dress shirt with various pencil-thin green strips (of varying shades of green). It goes well with the sage green/grey pants, I swear! Even Randy said I looked good on my way out the door this morning!

Winter or summer? I seem to be transitioning. It used to be winter, but I’ve been enjoying summer more and more.

Favorite dessert? Any confection that doesn’t include fruit or nuts in it (though a fresh bowl of fruit with cream is lovely).

Hugs or kisses? They go best together.

What book are you reading now? Time Out guide to Buenos Aires.

What is on your mouse pad? Harvard law School’s crest (it’s actually shaped like the crest, too)

What did you watch on TV last night? Randy and I caught up on recorded shows: Biggest Loser, Reaper and Pushing Daisies.

Favorite Sound? I like white noise.

Rolling Stones or Beatles. OOH, that’s tough. The Beatles are better singers/songwriters, but I also like the roughness of the Stones. My favorite song from either artist would be a Stones song (Sympathy for the Devil). I guess that means Stones.

What is the furthest you’ve been from home? Osaka, Japan.

Do you have a special talent? Wouldn’t you like to know!?!?

Where were you born? Cape Cod Hospital, Massachusetts.

YAY – I’m done. Now if your’e so inclined, feel free to copy/paste into an email and send me an email with YOUR answers ( snarl71 at yahoo.com).

October 25th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: Comments Off on Cheating

UGH.

Randy is interested in signing on to my dental benefits because it provides double the coverage he could get from his plan at work. To do so, Harvard wants us to go to city hall and complete paperwork declaring us domestic partners.

As I began looking into this, I noticed Harvard’s specific requirements. Apparently, if you filled out the domestic partnership registration forms for a previous relationship, you have to go to city hall and have that union terminated “legally” before you can enter into a new one.

And I was in a relationship with Matt for nearly 10 years…and we were registered in the city of Boston (this was years before anybody could have fathomed that same-sex couples could actually get married some day).

So, yesterday I went to Boston City Hall to terminate my domestic partnership (a partnership that ended over three years ago). I should also mention that Randy has been telling me I should do this for the past year – but it’s just so inconvenient since city hall is only open while I’m at work. Anyway, I filled out the “domestic partnership termination form” and headed to city hall to drop it off.

When Matt and I registered as domestic partners it cost us $25.00. To terminate this document cost me $62.00!

SIXTY-TWO DOLLARS!

I spent $62.00 to terminate a document that essentially provided me nothing but eligibility to add somebody to my medical/dental benefits (not necessarily a benefit for me personally since I get taxed up the ass for this “benefit”) and hospital visitation rights within the city.

Considering Matt and I broke up with him owing me $5,000.00…and considering we’ve been broken up for over three years already and he’s living 3,000 miles away (where I couldn’t visit him in a hospital), I just wasted $62.00 on nothing.

What pisses me off even more is that a marriage license only costs $50.00 in the city of Boston. It costs more to register as (or terminate from) being domestic partners than it does to be married…which provides countless more benefits. What’s up with that?

*photo found on Joe Dunckley’s flickr gallery.

October 24th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 2 Comments

I did it. I joined a gym. After 13 months of Randy saying “you should really come to the gym with me, you should really come to the gym with me, you should really come to the gym with me, you should really come to the gym with me, you should really come to the gym with me, you should…”

You get the picture. It’s not pleasant.

So Saturday morning I caved in and went using a one day visitor pass…and I didn’t totally hate it. By no means did I enjoy it – not even slightly (even the eye candy was pitiful) – but I saw, I concquered, and even more surprising, I returned!

Yes, I went back on Sunday morning, too. Except on Sunday, I actually signed up as a member. To be honest, I think I was more willing to sign up because of the deep discount they offered than for any physical benefits a gym membership might offer me. The special I got was a result of joining at 50% off as a “friend and family” (that would be Randy). So, my monthly cost is $17.13. If I last for three years, that will reduce to $12/month for life. And since I’m eligible for a $150/year reimbursement from my medical insurance plan for any health club memberships, that means I’m only paying $55.56/year (or $4.63/month).

It’s a steal! And it’s worth it alone for the photo ID I got!

October 22nd, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 3 Comments

I’ve had a problem this week. I recently changed cereals from my beloved Smart Start to Kashi Go Lean Fart. I really do enjoy the stuff…it reminds me of an adult version of Sugar Smacks. There’s a similar taste and consistency, except it’s slightly less sweet and there are no fun cartoon characters on the box.

However, this new cereal has substantially more fiber than my old Smart Start and I think it’s beginning to kick in.

In a bad way.

Lord, my belly feels like a balloon about to pop all day, every day. I guess it’s the sacrifice I have to make for good health.

And speaking of good health, Randy returned from his trip to San Antonio last night and tried to get me to join him at the gym (he has a one day visitor pass). I declined last night’s visit (after about 20 minutes of arguing) but I agreed I’d give it a shot this weekend.

Yes, yours truly will be visiting a gym. Trust me, it shocks me more than it shocks you. Hell, it scares me, too. Especially now that I’m reading about this MRSI (the deadly staph infection) that is being found in hospitals and gyms. Knowing my luck I’ll start getting healthy physically, then get a fatal staph infection as a result.

Again, the sacrifices we make to stay healthy.

Finally, in honor of the Red Sox doing something right last night, my photo today is of me as a child…in a Red Sox uniform. It definitely wasn’t mine, that’s for sure. And my mother must have been drunk when she took the photo because I don’t think it could possibly be any more blurry. Maybe she was getting too much fiber, too?

October 19th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 5 Comments

I got together with some friends in Southie for dinner last night. They prepared these delicious turkey cutlets in a lemon/wine sauce with veggies and potatoes. YUM. I got home a little after 10PM and basically zonked out for the night.

Randy is still on his business trip. He is scheduled to return this afternoon (though previous return flights from Dallas have caused him to be hours late so I won’t hold my breathe that his arrival will be on-time). He’s also got a few more trips planned for the next few months. Aside from our trip to Buenos Aires in two weeks, he’ll be going to Idaho or Montana between now and then, and then he’ll go to Virginia the week of Thanksgiving (mix of family and business) and then Japan a week later. He offered to have me come along again (how sweet), but since last January I’ll have taken nearly 6 weeks of vacation time already this year and I just don’t want to push it with my boss.

Anyway, he may also have a trip to California by the end of the year, too.

The more I think about it, there are some great benefits to this travel schedule. For one thing, all of his flying has helped him reach “Executive Platinum” status with American Airlines again. This means he gets double miles when he travels (so with a 12,500 mile trip he’ll actually earn 25,000 miles…which is a free domestic ticket). It also means that he gets automatic first class upgrades on domestic travel (when available) plus a certain number of international upgrades.

But more selfishly, I think this has helped me acclimate to living with somebody again. For three years I’ve lived on my own and have grown accustomed to have my own space. If I moved in and he was around 24/7, I think the transition would have taken more adjusting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to be living with him. And I’m positive we could have handled living together 24/7 from day one. But this transitional period of living together while he’s been doing a bit of travel has probably helped ease both of us into cohabitation a bit more swiftly!

HMM – I wonder if he planned these frequent/longer trips for that reason?

October 18th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: Comments Off on A Good Transition

Has anybody seen the new ad campaign for the fragrance designed by Tom Ford (you know, the hot former-Gucci guy with the perfect stubble and hairy chest)? It’s prettery provocative!

It shows a nude female’s mid section…completely shaved and glistening with oil….with a bottle of the perfume squeezed between her thighs (covering up her hoo-ha). I have to say – it’s hot. I mean, it’s incredibly sensual, incredibly erotic. Very well done! If an ad campaign like this can grab the attention of a gay man, then they must be doing something right!

Anyway, that’s not what I’m blogging about today. Today is all about Scrabble. I got together with Deano again last night for pizza and Scrabble. After my winning all of our previous matches, he was up for two games last night.

I managed to win both games – but the margin between our scores has decreased each game and it’s only a matter of time before he ends up victorious. However, there was a wee complication with last night’s game that I want to discuss here (comments welcome…hell, they’re encouraged).

Here’s the scenario: We finished the first game before the pizza arrived so we decided to start the second game and then take a break once the pizza arrived.

After a few rounds in the second game it was my turn. I was playing around with my letters and putting them on the board while I thought it through. My first attempt was “l-a-t-e”. Then I discovered I could do “d-a-t-e-d”. Within seconds I layed my tiles out to spell “d-i-l-a-t-e-d”. At that point the door bell rang because the pizza had arrived. I went to the door, paid the woman, returned to the table and noticed that I could actually spell “a-d-u-l-a-t-e-d” using ALL of my letters.

However, Deano said that it was too late…and that I had settled with “dilated” (which is just where I left off when getting the pizza). What’s your take on this? In the end, he agreed to let me use “adulated.” And part way through the game I offered to give up the 50-point bonus for using all of my letters but he said to keep it. Apparently, that 50-point bonus made all the difference because we were only separated by 21 points in the final score.

Still, we had fun and plan on doing it again – hopefully next week (this could become a regular Tuesday thing at this rate).

October 17th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: Comments Off on Playing Gaymes

Too late. I’ve already been shot: I got my annual flu shot at work yesterday. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to get it until next month because Harvard set aside October for only high-risk people (elderly, pregnant, or people with compromised immune systems). Despite feeling old (and acting MUCH older than my 36 years), I technically didn’t qualify for any of those things.

But I’ll be in Buenos Aires when they start giving them to “healthy” folks so I wouldn’t be able to get my shot until Thanksgiving..or later. Besides, I didn’t want to spend 16.5 hours on a plane…each way…without being immunized from something that could potentially ruin my trip. Airplane cabins are breeding grounds for viruses!

So, my arm hurts, but I should be healthy (knock on wood) when we fly away in 2.5 weeks.

October 16th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: Comments Off on Oh, Just Shoot Me

The honeymoon is over. I can tell. Just one week after moving in with Randy and I can sense the change. Prior to moving in, Randy cooked me some nice meals. Nothing gourmet, mind you, but tasty, well-seasoned foods prepared on the grille, fresh veggies, yummy sauces. You get the idea. In exchange, I would usually do the dishes and laundry.

Last night I got frozen chicken nuggets, frozen cauliflower, leftover bread (toasted and then sprayed with fake butter from a bottle), and a few slices of chedder cheese left-over from our trip to Provincetown…two weeks ago.

The entire plate was yellow/white.

I guess now that he knows I’m settled into the place and that I’m in it for the long haul, he sees no reason to woo me anymore.

October 15th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 7 Comments

Of course there is the obvious: being gay means your’e attracted to somebody of the same sex (or simply that you’re happy, depending on your generation).

However, there are other things that happen when your’e gay (the modern definition, not your grandfather’s definition). For example:

Last night Randy and I got together for dinner with a friend of his that he meant on-line (prior to meeting me). They’d gone on a few dates, participated in some kissing, but then decided to be friends. Since I’ve known Randy, they’ve only gotten together one other time (without me). And that’s fine.

And that’s also how I think gay couples differ from straight couples. It’s not uncommon to remain friends – even close friends – with your exes. And that’s usually okay with the new partners. I mean, Randy is still best friends with his ex. In fact, I met his ex only a week after meeting Randy and we have hung out with him nearly every weekend since then. Hell, I got together with Randy’s ex last Thanksgiving while Randy was in Virginia with his family.

Randy has also met some of my exes. In fact, when we met, he had just ended stopped dating a guy I was friends with (yet I didn’t know Randy was my friend’s ex until after we were dating for a week or two). Anyway, my friend was even encouraging me to date Randy since he was such a nice guy (my friend’s loss was my gain).

It all just seems so simple and so uncomplicated. It’s not an issue. Yet most straight guys I know get jealous when they’re girlfriends are still in contact with their exes. And most straight female friends I have get jealous of their boyfriends remaining friends with an ex girlfriend (though, it also seems very rare that many straight men remain friends with ex girlfriends in the first place).

But in the gay world, it seems that nearly every guy I know is still close with an ex or two (or more). Of course, that’s not always the case (I can provide one or two examples from my own past). I don’t know, maybe I’m just talking out of my ass (verbal farting?) but that’s my observation and I’m sticking to it.

What do you think?

October 12th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 6 Comments

This morning I did a terrible thing.

I walked into the Harvard Square Bank of America and opened a checking account. Ugh! I’ve always hated the idea of these big entities swallowing up the little ones. But as they say, they gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse:

For opening up a checking account, they gave me $100.

How could I turn that down? Besides, instead of having to write a check to Randy each month for “rent” and utilities, I figured I could just direct deposit a portion of my check into this account each month. Then, technically, Randy can do with it as he pleases (he already has a Bank of America account and this apparently will make it easy to transfer from my account to his account within seconds – versus having to wait 3-7 days for a transfer from my existing bank).

Yeah, it’s all kinda’ convoluted. In the end, I really only did it for the $100. It saddens me, though, that I am now one of the masses. For the past decade and a half I’ve prided myself on only having accounts with smaller institutions (currently a credit union). Yep, that’s me – rooting for the underdog. Holding out for the return of the milkman and the doctor making house calls.

Oh well, the times…they are a changin’.

On the plus side, the customer service representative revealed that my credit score is 800 (out of a possible 850). She said that in 18 years of banking she’s only seen 2 scores that high before. She said she’ll occasionally see scores in the 700’s, but most are in the 600’s or lower. That made me feel slightly better for selling out.

(Photo found on Flickr, from sandcastlematt’s gallery. Ironically, this photo was taken in Harvard Square).

October 11th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 3 Comments