Adventures in Gastronomy

Literally…Mike beat me at cards yesterday – but more on that later.

I think I’m getting smart about how to spend my weekends. Lately, I’ve been staying in on Friday night and just resting. My Saturday’s tend to be busy so I think this day of rest is beneficial for me. Of course, I could always follow the traditional route and use Sunday as the day of rest so that I can rest AFTER I’ve been busy. But then again I’ve never been one for logic.

On Saturday, Mike and Fred picked me up to go the Tony’s pre-party (for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Annual Gala and Auction). We played some Ms. Pacman (Tony has an original machine in his photography studio), chatted with some strangers and then pigged out on Chinese food. Following the pre-party, we headed on to the Roxy Ballroom for the main event. The place was packed – you could barely view the items up for auction.

And the drink prices were absurd (Mike’s drink was $9.00). Good thing I’m not a drinker – I managed to get by unscathed aside from the $50 price of my ticket to get in. Anyway, Brini Maxwell was the entertainment and did a mix of cabaret (“she” appears to be fond of “I Am Woman”, by Helen Reddy) and MC’ing.

There was an interesetd (eclectic) mix of people….from drag queens (Verna Turbulance) to a man (Fred’s friend, actually) dressed in leather pants, a black boa, black angel wings and a black cowboy hat. I’m not sure what he was supposed to be…but it worked.

The photo Tony took of me (my “nude”) went for $150. But for most of the evening I couldn’t even walk by the table where it was displayed. Of course, Mike (the jerk) would ask every person he knew “Did you see Karl’s photo?”

Bastard.

After the auction/gala ended, Mike, Fred and I walked over to the Eagle to play some pool. Three (or was it four?) games later, Mike and I were starving (it was around midnight and the last thing we had was Chinese food around 4PM). We walked down to Emilio’s, snarfed down pizza and headed back to the Eagle….where I very nearly fell asleep. We soon hailed a cab and went back to my place and ate even more pizza while looking at photo albums (he wanted to….I swear!).

On Sunday, we went to breakfast with his mother then separated for a while. I headed off to the hospital to visit my sister-in-law, Heidi. She looked MUCH better despite a hellish week. She had her feeding tube surgically replaced on Friday. But despite the neon green armband declaring that she was allergic to latex (along with her charts stating the same AND the conversation she had with the surgeon before being knocked out) the surgeon still implanted a latex feeding tube. Within minute of coming through recovery, Heidi told the doctor her chest hurt and she coudln’t breathe. She looked down and noticed the tube was latex…the nurses RUSHED her back into the operating room where they performed emergency surgery…not even an hour after the first one.

Consequently, she is in lots of pain and has built quite a bit of scar tissue. This could delay her release (which was originally planned for early this week). But she was in much better spirits and in less pain as a result of the disease this time around (now the pain was only associated with the botched surgery).

Later in the afternoon, I met up with Mike and my friend, Marin, to play Porcha (spelling?) – a Spanish card game. Being the amazing host that he is, Marin prepared us a 4 course lunch. Amazing.

And that’s where Mike beat me with a score of 125 to 120 (poor Marin hovered around 45 points).

Now it’s Monday and it’s dawning on me that my classes end in exactly one week and I need to finalize two term papers and a group project.

May 8th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 4 Comments

Now, I must admit that I tend to agree with the political views of the Kennedy’s. For a man in his late 70’s, Ted is surprisingly open-minded with issues such as gay marriage (come to think of it, he’s into equality for everybody). However, despite his uber-liberal leanings, I have to say I’m disappointed in him being against the wind farm off Cape Cod (something that could help the environment and provide a substantial amount of electricity tot he region…two causes he’s normally a proponent of).

But then I thought about it and realized that this wind farm, though far off-shore, would still be in the waters off the Kennedy Compound and the ocean-front mansions of his friends. I can’t see any other reason he would be against it.

And then today we hear about Patrick Kennedy crashing his car under the influence of prescribed sleeping pills. People claimed to have seen him drinking prior to the accident. Yet for some reason, the police on the scene didn’t make him take a breathelizer test. Why is that?

Actually, whether he was drunk on alcohol or not, the fact was that he was driving under the influence of something (sleeping pills)…and under the influence is still under the influence – no matter what the substance.

OK – enough political ranting. I normally don’t do that…and this isn’t a political blog. So I’ll go back to my simple superficiality:

What’s up with the Will & Grace double-feature last night…one being a repeat that aired just weeks ago?

May 5th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 7 Comments

I had originally planned to wear a long-sleeve pullover shirt today…but between last night and this morning the meteorologists changed their predictions: warmer temperatures are due.

This morning I hastily switched my wardrobe options and am now wearing a light oxford over a “Nativity Prep” t-shirt I “borrowed” one night after crashing at Mike’s place.

Yep – the atheist faggot is wearing a Catholic school t-shirt. Good thing I don’t believe in hell or I’d already be on the Acela train heading there.

Speaking of irony, Governor Romney has plead guilty of hiring private lawyers to represent him/the state in a case of potential asbestos particles being present during a Cambridge Courthouse renovation. The ironic part is that he he pushed for a law a few years back that barred the state from using private lawyers (in an effort to save money; he felt is was wasteful to not use state attorneys). And now 2-3 years later he’s guilty of doing exactly what he told everybody else they couldn’t do.

Some boys just can’t play right.

May 4th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 5 Comments

I went to the hospital this morning to visit my sister-in-law so I came in late to work. My brother came into Boston for an overnight stay with her in the hospital (my parents drove out to western Massachusetts to care for their kids) so I was able to see him for the first time in a few months.

I don’t know how they do it. It must be so exhausting. When I got there, a doctor (surgeon?) was in there consulting with them. I stayed in the corridor until the doctor left. Apparently, he was giving them their options – both of which sucked. For some reason, he was encouraging them to chose a route that would leave Heidi without her feeding tube for a month and THEN have surgery. The other option (which was the original option) was to have surgery this Friday.

To the three of us it seemed like a no-brainer: she’s in horrible discomfort so let’s get her treated as soon as possible so she can be released as soon as possible.

We’ll see what happens. Oh, and I got some additional bad news while there. In the past, I knew that it was suspected that my nephew had symptoms of mitochondrial disease but it was not confirmed that he actually had it (you may recall that my niece died from it in September). Well, he officially does have it now.

At 9 years old he’s getting a stroller. Yep, a stroller. This is because he’s too weak to walk long distances. He’s OK for short-term/local activity, but anything longer than that and he practically collapses. This is on top of his gastro-intestinal issues requiring lactose and gluten-free diets, and the neurological issues of Aspergers (spelling?) and Tourette’s.

Knock on wood, my niece remains 100% healthy and active.
Damn – today’s posting was a downer.

May 3rd, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 6 Comments

You may have realized by reading this blog that I am gay. Yep, gay. I guess this technically means I am a minority since less than 10% of the population is gay.

Well, last night in class I was relegated to minority status once again. Before handing back our second graded papers, the professor said that, as a whole, students received higher grades this time around than they did on their first paper. He said only 10% received a grade lower than their first paper.

…and that was me. I went from an A on the first paper to an A-minus on the second. 90% of the class followed the opposite trend. I’m starting to wonder whether I try to be different. It’s funny, I have an aunt and uncle (not blood relatives…just friends of my parents who I’ve always called aunt and uncle) who believe that gay people are gay just for the attention. They think we just want to be different for the sake of being different and to cause a scene.*

I must admit, I like eccentricity and quirkiness in people. And I’d hate to be just like everybody else. But believe me, my sexuality is not what makes me quirky. My sexuality is not what makes me different. In fact, I’m rather boring. I don’t really drink, I don’t smoke, I’ve never done drugs and I’ve never even been drunk.

HHMMMMM – that in itself makes me different (and yet another minority). I guess my aunt and uncle must be right.

*I’ve not had this conversation with them. This is a conversation they had with my brother years ago – before those damn gays made a big fuss about wanting equal marriage rights. Those gay selfish bastards.

May 2nd, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 5 Comments

Sleep deprivation really takes a toll on me. Wisely, I ended up staying home (alone) on Friday night. That’s a good thing because the rest of the weekend ended in a blur of good and bad (starting off with the bad).

I went to visit my sister in law at New England Medical Center Saturday afternoon and it was the second worst hospital visit of my life (the worst being the entire day spent at the hospital when my friend, Regina, died of breast cancer). This time, I arrived at the room and Heidi looked pretty good. She was in the hospital because, once again, her surgically-implanted feeding tubes got disconnected inside her body. She had a new one put in on Tuesday of last week but it got clogged already and needs to be replaced again. Complicating matters, she developed pneumonia.

But within minutes of arriving at the hospital and chatting, her eyes seemed to gloss-over and she got distracted. She asked me to grab a bucket because she felt she was going to vomit. She pressed the nurse button and suddenly her entire body locked into place. She became paralyzed (seizure? another stroke?) – I’m not sure.

All I could do was sit there and watch her crying, stuck in a laying-down position and vomiting neon green fluids (since she hasn’t eaten any food in nearly a year I assume this must be a combination of bile and the IV nutrition that sustains her). The nurse came in, then she called an additional two nurses to help her. They had to give Heidi shots of Ativan (and other things) because she was completely paralyzed. The vomit continued to just roll over her bottom lip, down her chin and into the bucket (which I managed to place there just in time).

I have to admit that I very nearly started crying. I have no tolerance watching people suffer in pain. And, instead of turning to faith as so many people do (and have encouraged me to do), situations like this do the opposite for me. If there was such a thing as a god, how could he allow this type of excessive suffering? It’s not just what she is going through physically, but the suffering the rest of her family has continuously endured (the death of her 3 year old daughter, financial strain because of the medical expenses, pressures on my brother to play nurse to her, father to their two other children, and breadwinner for the whole family).

OK – enough ranting. I was asked to leave the room so the nurses could take care of her. I stood in the hallway for 20-30 minutes until she was ready for visitors again. When I got back to the room we started talking again….but within 10 minutes it started all over again. Nurses were called and I was dismissed. I’m going to try to return on Wednesday (the next….and only…night this week I don’t have class).

The rest of the weekend started getting better after that (for me, at least…not for Heidi, I’m sure). I got together for dinner with Mike around 6:30PM and then we headed over my friend, Marin’s, place to play cards with him and his bofriend, Roger. He taught us a Spanish game…Porcha, I think it’s called. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I was really enjoying it.

After cards, we went out to a bar and got together with other friends (Fred, Bobby) and a bunch of other people that everybody knew. We played pool (in teams) and my team with Roger managed to kick ass (finally…I’ve been on a losing streak).

We ended up closing the place, then Fred, Bobby, Mike and I went back to Mike’s in Dorchester and had a great time hanging out and talking. At one point, Bobby looked out the window and noticed daylight. Yep – we’d all stayed up intil dawn. Fred offered to drive Bobby back to his car and Mike and I tried going to sleep for an hour before his normal Sunday morning brunch with Mom.

I got the brunch, but then headed home while Mike and his Mom went grocery shopping. I returned to Mike’s place last night for dinner and then slept over (I slept like a baby after only having had 2 hours sleep in the past 36 hours). When I woke up this morning, Mike had made me oatmeal! I’m not talking instant Quaker Oatmeal, but the 30 minute Irish oatmeal! What a surprise to wake up to.

He treats me so well.

May 1st, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 4 Comments

That’s the amount of my current electric bill. I really must be a cheap bastard because the last electric bill I received was in February. It was an estimate (around $150) and so I paid it in full. I apparently used much less than what they had assumed because I didn’t even get a bill for the month of March. And now two months later my bill is only a buck.

What a waste to have to pay $1.12…they should have just tacked it on to next month’s bill. At least I do on-line banking – otherwise I would have had to pay around 30% more than the cost of the actual bill in postage alone.

I saw this funny adverstisement for the Verizon yellow pages on the subway yesterday. The catch-phrase was “Sox and Shoes” and the ad was Boston-focused. It showed the legs of a man in a Red Sox uniform and white socks….but he was wearing 6 inch red high-heels. That’s rather bold….I like when advertisers take risks.

…and speaking of risks. I’m considering doing what many other bloggers have done by requiring people to “sign in” to place comments on here. For some reason, now that I’m on this new web-server, the spam comments I’m getting are increasing by the day. I came in this morning to find 51 emails notifying me of comments…every single one of them spam.

The risky part is that I’m not getting as many comments as I used to (whether because people were frustrated with my former S-L-O-W server, or because the blogging fad is coming to an end, or….even worse….my posts are so boring people have ceased to read). Anyway I don’t want to do anything to further discourage readers and commenters.

Thoughts?

April 28th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 6 Comments

I received an email yesterday from ZipCar asking if I would consider being interviewed for a segment on the CBS news about car ownership, gas prices and the alternatives to automobile ownership for city residents. It seemed customized to me (referencing my being a new member and how that’s the type of person they’re seeking to interview), but it still could have been something all Zipcar members received. Who knows.

Either way, I didn’t respond. I think people opting to be interviewed on the news come off as idiots. I mean, they always say the obvious thing (if they did something illegal/wrong they deny it, if somebody else did something illegal/wrong they say how shocked they were to hear that their neighbor/son/best friend/priest did such a thing, if there was a natural disaster they talk about how they never thought such a thing could happen).

Besides, I fell victim to such a thing many years ago. The day of Rose Kennedy’s funeral I was asked to be interviewed for the local news. Stupidly, I agreed. I said something stupid about how sad it was that she passed away and that she was a great woman (as if I knew her). Since that day, I’ve avoided the media like the plague. I think I even mentioned before that I get nervous every time I buy grapes because it seems that a few times each year a local family will buy grapes only to find a black widow spider. For some reason, this is major news and the housewife always explains what happened to the reporter: “I opened the bag and started rinsing the grapes when I saw this little black and red thing with legs. I couldn’t believe what it was.”

ugh. It’s the same interview every time…just with a different talking head.

OK – enough of that.

I was watching a syndicated episode of Good Times last night and it was the one where we first get introduced to Penny (see how this ties in to my blog title today, clever, huh?…you thought it was all about the interview). Anyway, Penny was played by a young Janet Jackson. After the uber-sexy James Evans quit the show (by being killed off), the show kind of lost it’s luster, IMO. It went from being a realistic portrayal of life in the projects to lame slapstick. But then they tried getting real again by incorporated little Penny….a girl abused by her mother.

I remember as a kid being scared to death by this episode…but it seemed much more tame this time around. You may (or may not) recall that in this episode Penny gets in trouble and the mother unplugs an iron and beats/burns her.

I could have sworn that they showed some actual abuse…but that’s not the case now that I’ve seen it again after two decades. The abuse is simply implied, and then you see the bruises and a bandage covering the burn. Interesting. It’s funny how your memories can morph over the years.

I mean, this clearly explains how I used to find shows like Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and Three’s Company so funny…when now they just make me cringe.

April 27th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 2 Comments

Well, I wouldn’t go that far…but on the surface, everything went well during my physical. I came in at 171 pounds with good blood pressure and pulse. I’m still waiting for the blood work to get back (cholesterol, thyroid, testosterone, etc…) but so far it looks good.

And he didn’t yell at me for not exercising. I suppose “yelling” was an exaggeration…it’s more like he tries to guilt me into taking better care of myself. I know it’s for my own good, but I really am a lazy guy.

My friend, Peter, bailed on me for Friday night so now my evening is open. Now I need to decide whether to do something social…or actually stay in and focus on finishing up my class work. I know, and I suspect we all know, what the right answer should be.

But sometimes you just don’t want to do what’s right.

April 26th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 1 Comment

…that I only have about three weeks left of school. In that time, I’ve got a 10-12 page paper due (single-spaced…ugh), a group project due, and a 5-6 page written final exam due. It’s times like these when I regret taking two classes while working full-time.

During my performance review at work, I tried selling myself (as you’re supposed to do) and mentioned how, after I get my degree from Harvard in June (Graducate Certificate in Management….two classes shy of a masters), I may transfer to Suffolk University to get my MBA. My boss ate it up and strongly encouraged me to do so. But I’m just feeling so lazy. I want my life back. I want my weeknights back. I want homework-free weekends. I want to be lazy again.

Oh, and regarding enlarged pictures on my blog…the Harvard people are working on that. They claim that my photos should be appearing full-size and can’t figure out why they aren’t. Once I figure out how to enlarge them, I will re-post.

I’ve got my annual physical exam tomorrow. I’m a bit nervous since I suspect my doctor is going to yell at me (again). You see, he yells at me in a joking way about not exercising. Fortunately, he’s exactly the same age as me so we have a pretty good doctor/patient relationship (but not in a Falcon video sort of way).

Anyway, my “bad” cholesterol is always great but my “good” cholesterol is consistenly borderline…and that’s solely because I don’t exercise. So, for the past few years he has told me I should start exercising. I tell him I will, then a year later we go through the same conversation all over again. I suspect he may be picking up on my little lies, though, and now I fear his response.

But I did see him at North Station over the summer eating an ice cream from McDonald’s. I guess I can throw that back in his face. Remember that anti-drug TV commercial from the 80’s where the father finds pot and accuses his son of using it? When asked where he learned to do drugs, the child responds: “I learned it from you, Dad! I learned it from you!”.

Well, doc – I learned it from you!

April 25th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 2 Comments