'In my heart'

...don't give me that f'ing crap about Trevor and my relationship not being 'real'. Vote No on 8(hate). In my heart...

via Digby

Permission

h/t Marti Phillips

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Short post just to say that this was an excellent book and I highly recommend it. Every year I peruse the Man Booker Prize longlist and select a few books that I think I would like to read. I chose three this year (the White Tiger, The Secret Scripture, and The Case of the Exploding Mangoes). I read the first, am nearly done the second, and will start the third a bit later. However, the Man Booker announced the winner of the prize yesterday. Aravind Adiga highly deserves the prize for such a great novel.

The 2008 Man Booker Prize

New colors!!

Before we left for our Maine trip the building our apartment is in was white. Voila, we've got new colors. Although we squabble that these may not be the exact colors we would have chosen, we like the change a lot.and we (Maria, Trevor, Scott, and I) planted a new Queen palm today in the front planter box. The wider one we've named Larry and the thinner one was named Trevor.

As the season starts anew...

The boys (Thor and Smokey) in Clingy Cloe's house.
Poor girl, our boys annexed her house as we watched her while her dads were traveling.

2008 year-to-date (as of October 11, 2008):
4,371.74 miles,
29 spin classes,
7 flat tires (tubes),
2 ruined tires,
replaced 2 wheels,
one broken frame, and one stolen bike.

It will not be long now before I start training for AIDS Lifecycle 8 and start begging and pleading for donations to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation seeing that this is a charity ride and I need to raise a minimum of $3000.00 to participate. Of course it will be awesome if I can raise $5000.00. This will be my second AIDS Lifecycle ride. Lots of training, not lots of weight loss; lots of 'community', lots of dedication and training, but only some pain.

PS. I promised my friend Wayne that I would take a picture of my choice for Prez when my ballot arrived in the mail. I find Obama way to moderate for my likings, thinking we need a much more progressive president than I fear Obama will turn out to be. However, it is just plain lunacy to vote otherwise this year and being lukewarm tepid is better than being outright disgusted.

PSS. Trevor and I will be holidaying in Paris (Dec. 25th - Jan. 2nd). It'll be our first time and a long, long, long, overdue vacation together with nothing but touring and relaxing to do.

Dan and Jen Jafarzadeh-L'Italien Wedding; September 20, 2008 Mosquito Head Martinsville Maine

I'm a bit biased but this wedding was absolutely stunning and near perfect. The idea of having a small wedding on the coast of Maine at first didn't strike me as one that I definitely would have chosen, but consider me converted. My brother Dan and his new wife Jen, rented this old farmhouse near the mouth of Penobscot Bay in Martinsville Maine (FYI: I had never explored the Maine mid-coast region between Bath and Belfast before). The wedding was small, immediate family and friends; a larger wedding just would not have been possible at this location.

The pic below is from behind the old barn looking out towards to shore. That is the longest walk down a wedding aisle I've ever seen by far, it's a wonder Jen wasn't in hiking boots and sweats rather than a wedding gown. Come to think of it, I never did notice what was on her feet (I'm not observant that way). The view north from the shore.

Weddings are supposed to be happy occasions, and this one was definitely that, but I managed to nearly cry me a river. This wedding was an extremely emotional one for me that happened to cap an extremely emotional week. The week prior, at my cousin Molly's wedding and visiting with my Aunt Kathy, who is struggling with Stage IV esophageal cancer, began to make my emotions raw. The memories of our mom, who had also struggled with cancer and passed away in '94 at the age way too young age of 53, came rushing to the surface. It isn't that the pain of her loss has never gone away, it hasn't; it's just that when I think of the loss the pain is just as deep.

Dan and Jen wrote their own vows. So I ended up crying when Dan read his vows (FYI Dan, the 'weary soul' part nearly started me bawling ;-)). I ended up crying again when Jen read her vows (damn you two). Finally, I completely lost it when I was trying to relay a story as I was giving a toast a bit later. That be the last time they ask me to give a toast anywhere.

My sister Cathy, Dan, and myself

When I was just a wee boy of yea height, I asked my parents 'where do babies come from' (stop rolling your eyes!). Instead of an abbreviated G-rated birds and the bees lesson, my mom replied that if a person wants to have a baby they must pray to God, and if God deems it so, then that person is blessed with a baby. I remember praying and praying and praying some more for my mom to have a baby. I had been praying for so long that when our parents sat us down to say that my mom was pregnant and that we were going to be welcoming a baby to the family that I ran the entire Hazel Street neighborhood knocking on doors, interrupting peoples suppers, letting them know that my mom was going to be having a baby. Yes, I was that excited and filled with this happy joy that my prayers were finally being answered. I was yelling it from the top of my lungs to the world. Once that prayer was answered I then started praying that I would have a baby brother rather than a baby sister. I already knew what having a sister was. Having two big prayers answered is quite the accomplishment let me tell you. Now my parents often joked that my brother Dan was a surprise baby. Not to me, I had been praying, but to them. You see, we've been told that my mom wanted to have a large family but she wasn't able to have children without taking a fertility drug which she took to have my sister and me. Dan showing up without having taken any fertility drugs was truly a surprise. An act of God?

In a nutshell, that was the story I was trying to relay as way of expressing that our Mom would have been just as excited and filled with joy in welcoming Jen as I was on that evening I ran the neighborhood. I also asked that as we were giving toasts to raise the glasses just a bit higher for those that weren't able to be present.

Of course my emotions got to me about halfway through as my thoughts went over that painful spot in my heart for the loss of our mom.

Jen's family

John, Erin, and Dan

Boogie in the barn

This wedding was absolutely beautiful, right down to the bald eagles fishing just off the shore as they were exchanging vows. Love to the both of them.

Dan and Jen's Lobster Feed at Camp, Friday 9-19-2008

The week between the weddings

Trevor and I spent the majority of the week in between my cousin Molly's and my brother Dan's weddings visiting with Trevor's family in the foothills of Maine in Carrabassett Valley (i.e. Sugarloaf). Let's see, Carrabassett is not the city. No it is not that. Other than the awesome time visiting with his parents we did the following: 1. went to the Farmington Fair (on old folks day apparently), 2. gave Mandy a flea bath, 3. fished stones out of the Carrabassett river for Jen to potentially use, 4. house hunt on Ira's Mountain (for when we win the lotto and go nuts for wanting to live in the sticks; although it is closer to Montreal than to Boston), 5. visit Small's Falls and Rangeley (which actually has a nice little wine shop), 6. watch Price is Right, 7. attempt to shave Mandy girl, and 8. go looking for Moose.

Above: Russ, Connie, and Trevor at the Farmington Fair. That's me below with the monkeys.

Trevor wadding into the Carrabassett river for some rocks, brrrrrrr.

Molly and Erik's wedding; Newcastle Maine 9/13/2008

Below: Aunt Kathy (my mother's sister) and Angus.

Above: Trevor and I with Molly (and yes we were horrible and wore jeans to a wedding. In our defense let me state three things: 1. this is Maine, 2. we were wearing sports coats, it was just too hot in the sun at the time, and finally 3. the jeans were more expensive than the snazzy dress pants I recently bought).

Below: Uncle Zoie dancing up a storm.

Visiting with the Inglins

Kevin, Kellum, Shae, and Keifer

Trevor and I were extremely fortunate to have our Maine trip overlap with Trevor's sister Shae and her family (Kevin, Kellum, and Keifer). It has been literally years since we've seen them last and it was our first time getting to meet Keifer. Here were all hanging at the farm. We'll have to plan a Germany trip late next year for another visit. Now if we can only bump into Trevor's brother, Sean, on our next trip back.

Just look at these ears!!!