May 8, 2007
May 6, 2008
and May 10th, 2009
Tuesday, July 7
Saturday, July 4
Cousins at Jacob's Pillow
We all headed out to Jacob's Pillow to see what the big kids in the Hip-Hop Class had been getting up to. I think Olivia was especially into it since it was a bit like HighSchool Musical comes alive in the woods. The show was free & outdoors & for families - so we couldn't have planned a better place to go on the 4th really. We brought Grandma Anne's leftovers from Lunch (there was Lots!!) and camped ourselves out. It was pretty awesome. The lil Monkey rocked it when the dancers started jamming to Stevie Wonder Master-Blaster.
Friday, July 3
Fog
So you can't really tell because this is a Phone photo - but the sky is really grey/white & foggy as if I took this picture in SF in the summer & not in Boston-Cambridge. The weather has not warmed up really - or at least not dried off - I think its raining every single day with little breaks on the weekends. It's making it really hard to do stuff outside - I can never tell when we are about to get drenched. At least I can't complain about 90 degree heat & humidity.
Thursday, July 2
Wednesday, July 1
Dance Dance Re-volution
You may wonder how we celebrate Gay/Lesbian/Tg
Pride week when we are so far from home... well its dance party - rave in the kitchen thats how....
Now just put on the 80's disco music & enjoy the photos
Things get even crazier when you turn out the lights and add a glow stick or two...
Pride week when we are so far from home... well its dance party - rave in the kitchen thats how....Now just put on the 80's disco music & enjoy the photos
Things get even crazier when you turn out the lights and add a glow stick or two...
Tuesday, June 23
Children's Museum with Gabe
This was the rainiest JUNE ever!!!! Luckily yesterday Kath took pity on us & we all made a field trip to the Kids Museum. The boys got to run around & build stuff & throw things & run around. I don't know how much longer the rain can last....
Sunday, June 21
Fathers Day Strawberry Shortcake
Hope all the fathers & not-so-fathers and folks with fathers & people who just like Sundays had a wonderfull day. We had a nice morning made better with fresh picked Strawberries from the Farm. Later the boy & Em made some cookies - looking at this photo he says: "I look like Farah and Mommy looks like Dan"
Friday, June 19
Tonight's Dinner
Beer-Braised Sirloin Tips With Mushroom Sauce
Mix the mustard, brown sugar, thyme, ginger, paprika, and 1 tsp. salt in a small bowl until well combined.
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves -- crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika (didn't have)
Coat both sides of the steaks with the spice mix.
sirloin tip steaks -- 3/4 to 1 inch thick I used about a lb.
I let these sit in the rub for a couple of hours.
Prepare Mushrooms -
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, preferably a mix of half shiitakes and half cremin
Remove and discard the stems from the shiitakes, if using, and trim the stem ends from the cremini. Wipe all the mushrooms clean and slice them 1/4 inch thick.
Heat Olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the steaks and sear them until nicely browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove the Steaks.
Reduce the heat to medium, add 1 Tbs. of the butter to the pan, and let it melt.
Add the mushrooms, the scallion whites, and 1/4 tsp. salt and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the mushrooms soften and brown, 4 to 6 minutes.
Pour in about a cup of dark beer (I used amber Clausthaler) and 2 tsp. Worcestershire.
Scrape the bottom of the pan with the spoon, raise the heat to medium high, bring to a boil, and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced by half, about 4 minutes.
Return the steaks and any accumulated juices to the pan, cover tightly with a lid or foil, and reduce the heat to a low simmer.
Braise, turning the steaks after 8 minutes, until tender and just cooked through (they should be easy to slice with a paring knife), about 16 minutes total.
Transfer the steaks to a cutting board and slice them thinly. Cut the remaining 1 Tbs. butter into four pieces and swirl them into the sauce. Stir in the scallion greens and taste for seasoning.
Serve the steak slices topped with the sauce. I served them over noodles.
Endive, Stilton, and Bacon Salad
4 bacon slices
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 endives (1 lb), cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 oz Stilton, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
Cook bacon until crisp and transfer to paper towels to drain. Whisk together oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Add endives, Stilton, and parsley and toss to coat. Crumble bacon over salad.
Mix the mustard, brown sugar, thyme, ginger, paprika, and 1 tsp. salt in a small bowl until well combined.
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves -- crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika (didn't have)
Coat both sides of the steaks with the spice mix.
sirloin tip steaks -- 3/4 to 1 inch thick I used about a lb.
I let these sit in the rub for a couple of hours.
Prepare Mushrooms -
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, preferably a mix of half shiitakes and half cremin
Remove and discard the stems from the shiitakes, if using, and trim the stem ends from the cremini. Wipe all the mushrooms clean and slice them 1/4 inch thick.
Heat Olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the steaks and sear them until nicely browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove the Steaks.
Reduce the heat to medium, add 1 Tbs. of the butter to the pan, and let it melt.
Add the mushrooms, the scallion whites, and 1/4 tsp. salt and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the mushrooms soften and brown, 4 to 6 minutes.
Pour in about a cup of dark beer (I used amber Clausthaler) and 2 tsp. Worcestershire.
Scrape the bottom of the pan with the spoon, raise the heat to medium high, bring to a boil, and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced by half, about 4 minutes.
Return the steaks and any accumulated juices to the pan, cover tightly with a lid or foil, and reduce the heat to a low simmer.
Braise, turning the steaks after 8 minutes, until tender and just cooked through (they should be easy to slice with a paring knife), about 16 minutes total.
Transfer the steaks to a cutting board and slice them thinly. Cut the remaining 1 Tbs. butter into four pieces and swirl them into the sauce. Stir in the scallion greens and taste for seasoning.
Serve the steak slices topped with the sauce. I served them over noodles.
Endive, Stilton, and Bacon Salad
4 bacon slices
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 endives (1 lb), cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 oz Stilton, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
Cook bacon until crisp and transfer to paper towels to drain. Whisk together oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Add endives, Stilton, and parsley and toss to coat. Crumble bacon over salad.
We're Here, We're Queer, We Love Pixar
Two big events in BeanTown this past weekend - actually three, Gay Pride Festivities & Parade; RiverFest in Cambridge and UP showing Downtown. Sadly my only photo from Pride is em & boy waiting to head home with balloons at the Park St T Station. The parade ws fun - but like Mexican Food - You just can't compare it to what you get in San Francisco. I think the whole thing passed in just under 3 hours as opposed to SF's over 5 hour behemouth. We did see Lots of Kids & Lots of Churches, a little bit of Leather & our teacher from the boys upcoming Pre-School. Oh, and we got Donuts - Yumm.
At Riverfest later in the day we played with clay & with lots of cool juggling toys.
Then on SUNDAY - Blasto & Cousin Farah both went to the MOVIES - for the FIRST TIME EVAH!!!
We went downtown to see UP - which was PG & not G & would be scary for a little kid who doesn't have a dog that barks constantly thereby making him somewhat callous to attack dogs. After the movie Em had to celebrate with a little spin on the Carousel.
Happy Pride to all my SF & NYC peeps.
Thursday, June 18
Building a SkyScraper
This is what monito gets up to after repeated viewings of B-O-B the builder. He calls it building a skyscraper - it consists of piling everything up that he can find
-0 Recycling
-0 diaper bag contents
-0 pens, pencils from desk
-0 Various toys
and yes even a pair of his underwear
All of these are stacked up behind my back as I sit at the no longer as comfortable as it once was Aero Type chair.
I guess I should be celebrating his artistic & engineering abilities.
Coming Soon .... Building a foundation...
Tuesday, June 16
Dragon Boats
Sorry -- these photos are a little late - I have been a bit slow to update these days. We are having the weirdest June - a couple of days of beautiful weather (usually the weekends) and then 4 or 5 days of gray and rainy. Its kept me a bit out of sorts. and You all know that I will be bitching about the summer heat in no time at all....
But on a good note the fun events along the Charles have begun full force. We had the River Fest last week - lots of arts but no photos (sorry) and the week prior was the Dragon Boat Fest. Blasto & I went down at the end of the afternoon to check out the food, the taiko drumming & off course the boats
You can't tell from these shots that people were convinced that it was going to start pouring rain any minute.... the clouds were all at my back.
But on a good note the fun events along the Charles have begun full force. We had the River Fest last week - lots of arts but no photos (sorry) and the week prior was the Dragon Boat Fest. Blasto & I went down at the end of the afternoon to check out the food, the taiko drumming & off course the boats
You can't tell from these shots that people were convinced that it was going to start pouring rain any minute.... the clouds were all at my back.
I do dig having a river as my almost back yard.
Friday, June 12
Wednesday, June 10
Weights & Measures
Today we had our annual well-baby (or should I say big boy) visit with the Doctor. The lil' Monkey was generally charming & much relieved to know that there were no shots in store for him - although mama got one (ouch). So he was pronounced to be in perfect health & right where he has been all along on the growth charts...
So without further ado...
Height 38" or about 96 cm putting him around the 55th Percentile
and Weight 13.4 kg or 29.54 pounds --- How can he not be 30 pounds YET???? Putting him at about 25th percentile for weight for his age.
Then we got to have lunch with Mommy & got a sticker book at the used book store - all in all not a bad morning!!
So without further ado...
Height 38" or about 96 cm putting him around the 55th Percentile
and Weight 13.4 kg or 29.54 pounds --- How can he not be 30 pounds YET???? Putting him at about 25th percentile for weight for his age.
Then we got to have lunch with Mommy & got a sticker book at the used book store - all in all not a bad morning!!
Tuesday, June 9
Tuesday, June 2
Wednesday, May 27
Footnote 48 - Happy Anniversary
"We have no occasion in this case to determine whether same-sex couples who were lawfully married in another jurisdiction prior to the adoption of Proposition 8, but whose marriages were not formally recognized in California prior to that date, are entitled to have their marriages recognized in California at this time. None of the petitioners before us in these cases falls within this category, "
Ca Supreme Court 5/26/09
It was May 27 2001 - Eight Years Ago today that Em & I had our "First Marriage" - what I consider to be our "real marriage". Over a hundred guests including her parents, brothers, uncle, grandmother, cousins & their kids & partners; My mom & dad (who are never in the same place!), sisters, friends, cousins, motorcycle club buddies, and even some of our co-workers came together on a beautiful beach and park just North of SF. It was the most wonderful day - amazing weather, a touching ceremony, amazing food, music, friends, family. But of course legally it meant NOTHING.
So we got married again when we moved to MA. this is our "legal wedding" & the sweet part is that em's brother got made an officiant for the day & he "performed" the wedding - this time there were no guests but Monito (he was 4 months old) and Dan's daughter & wife - but this got our little family health coverage (albeit taxable health coverage for me under federal law) and legally recognized in the state we are living in for now. Em still had to adopt our son for him to be "related" to her. And dont even get me started on how we file our taxes.
So last year around this time it became legal for families like ours to get married in California when the Supreme Court there held that family code 308.5 was not compatible with the State Constitution. There was a rush of couples running to the alter between 6/15 and November when prop 8 was going to be on the ballot. Over 18,000 couples - but we weren't one of them - why because we were already married right. As soon as CA recognized same sex marriages as valid my legal MA marriage should make me married in CA too. I mean no one else has to travel the country and get married in every state they may possibly want to spend some time in so we shouldn't have to either - or so I thought.
In fact we were in CA in Oct. for Mel & Veejays lovely wedding in Mendocino & I suppose we could have tried to do some quickie wedding then - but like I said we should have been married by virtue of the fact that we were married - right???
So yesterday the CA Supreme Court published its decision on the legality of Prop 8 - which took the same language that was in the Family Code Section 308.5 - marriage is between one man & one woman... and put it into the State's Constitution. They held that the Prop is valid, that it ammended rather than revised the constitution & the voters of CA can do that by a simple majority vote on a proposition thats placed on the ballot if you get signatures equal to 8% of the number of people who voted in the last Gubernatorial election (???). - But they held that the 18,000 or so folks who did get hitched in CA between June 15 & November ARE STILL LEGALLY MARRIED.
But then there is footnote 48 - and that's us - the lawfully married out of state queers who didn't think we were required to run out to CA and basically perform a sham marriage just to get a legal recognition which automatically attaches to ANY OTHER LEGALLY MARRIED COUPLE --- and now we are basically being invited to sue CA to find out if we are or are not married there.
So on that note I will say Happy Anniversary Emily - on this the date of our true wedding before our families, our community & our god - We have made it to 8 years, through two states, med school and most of residency, we have become homeowners, landlords, parents (to rats, dog & boy) - we have done good & sometimes not so good - but you have remained my partner & co-conspirator & the first memory number on my phone --- I love you.
Ca Supreme Court 5/26/09
It was May 27 2001 - Eight Years Ago today that Em & I had our "First Marriage" - what I consider to be our "real marriage". Over a hundred guests including her parents, brothers, uncle, grandmother, cousins & their kids & partners; My mom & dad (who are never in the same place!), sisters, friends, cousins, motorcycle club buddies, and even some of our co-workers came together on a beautiful beach and park just North of SF. It was the most wonderful day - amazing weather, a touching ceremony, amazing food, music, friends, family. But of course legally it meant NOTHING.
So we got married again when we moved to MA. this is our "legal wedding" & the sweet part is that em's brother got made an officiant for the day & he "performed" the wedding - this time there were no guests but Monito (he was 4 months old) and Dan's daughter & wife - but this got our little family health coverage (albeit taxable health coverage for me under federal law) and legally recognized in the state we are living in for now. Em still had to adopt our son for him to be "related" to her. And dont even get me started on how we file our taxes.
So last year around this time it became legal for families like ours to get married in California when the Supreme Court there held that family code 308.5 was not compatible with the State Constitution. There was a rush of couples running to the alter between 6/15 and November when prop 8 was going to be on the ballot. Over 18,000 couples - but we weren't one of them - why because we were already married right. As soon as CA recognized same sex marriages as valid my legal MA marriage should make me married in CA too. I mean no one else has to travel the country and get married in every state they may possibly want to spend some time in so we shouldn't have to either - or so I thought.
In fact we were in CA in Oct. for Mel & Veejays lovely wedding in Mendocino & I suppose we could have tried to do some quickie wedding then - but like I said we should have been married by virtue of the fact that we were married - right???
So yesterday the CA Supreme Court published its decision on the legality of Prop 8 - which took the same language that was in the Family Code Section 308.5 - marriage is between one man & one woman... and put it into the State's Constitution. They held that the Prop is valid, that it ammended rather than revised the constitution & the voters of CA can do that by a simple majority vote on a proposition thats placed on the ballot if you get signatures equal to 8% of the number of people who voted in the last Gubernatorial election (???). - But they held that the 18,000 or so folks who did get hitched in CA between June 15 & November ARE STILL LEGALLY MARRIED.
But then there is footnote 48 - and that's us - the lawfully married out of state queers who didn't think we were required to run out to CA and basically perform a sham marriage just to get a legal recognition which automatically attaches to ANY OTHER LEGALLY MARRIED COUPLE --- and now we are basically being invited to sue CA to find out if we are or are not married there.
So on that note I will say Happy Anniversary Emily - on this the date of our true wedding before our families, our community & our god - We have made it to 8 years, through two states, med school and most of residency, we have become homeowners, landlords, parents (to rats, dog & boy) - we have done good & sometimes not so good - but you have remained my partner & co-conspirator & the first memory number on my phone --- I love you.
Monday, May 25
Ver-Monsters - 2009
As usual a holiday weekend with the Blue-bramsons involves Ribs, lots of Ribs. Here our lil Firefighter digs into the first batch off the grill. I had already filled him up with 4 kinds of salads, corn & chicken at this point too. The food - oh the food so yummy. We also got to enjoy the special burgers at the Burlington Farmers Market & the Homemade Rootbeer Floats. What a way to welcome the start of summer!!
Monito & his new best bud Sammy share a love of the big yellow diggers. On the way out of shelburne farms we made a pit stop to climb on, dig around and pose with a bunch of idle farm machinery. Awesome
Ila, Vi & Sammy riding on the tractor up to Shelburne Farms
Em & Monito at Shelburne
Friday, May 22
Magnolia
This awesome tortoise statue stands at the opening of the park in the Magnolia neighborhood in Seattle. My aunt Suzan brought Monito & I here to play & pointed out that my dads first house in Seattle was just up the hill before his family moved to Queen Anne (where she lives now) & later into the outlying areas. I forget some times when we are in Seattle that our family is actually from there.
Thursday, May 21
Sunday, May 17
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