Tag: nanuet

Nor’easter

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I was up pretty early this morning. It was Norm and Vicky who managed to sleep in late–until almost 10 AM! I treated them to breakfast at Friendly’s. We all had a craving for pancakes and I ordered their Lumberjack breakfast, worried that three pancakes would not be enough. It turned out that these pancakes were among the thickest, most dense pancakes I have ever seen. It was all I could do to eat half of what I was given.

Back at Norm and Vicky’s we vegged for the remainder of the afternoon. We watched an episode of The Office and I brooded over when the best time to head home would be. I didn’t want to be caught out in the worst of the weather, which was composed of heavy rain and winds. But neither did I want to get home too late. I compromised and decided to head home at 3 PM. Norm, meanwhile, was busy doing his taxes in an effort to make the Tuesday deadline.

I did leave at 3 PM, after a wonderful weekend with Norm and Vicky. It rained hard for the first 100 miles or so and the visibility was such that the few cars on the road were forced to drive at about 50 MPH. Never the less, the rain faded out the farther south I got and in fact, I got home at precisely 7:30 PM. If you count that fact that I didn’t really get on the road until close to 3:30 PM (after gassing up the car and preparing for the drive) it took me about 4 hour and 15 minutes to go the 240.5 miles. Considering the poor conditions, I made excellent time.

At home, Zeke was glad to see me. I had some time to relax, do some laundry, and watch some TV, including The Sopranos and Entourage before heading off to bed.

Norm and Vicky’s second wedding

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I was up at about 7:30 Saturday morning and sat on the couch to read until Norm and Vicky got up. I heard their alarm go off at 8:30 and as soon as it went off, I could hear Vicky in a panic. She later explained that she forgot it was Saturday and thought she was going to be late for work. Norm seemed his usual morning self.

We waited for Norm’s family to come over and then we headed up to Stony Point to walk through the new house, which except for the landscaping and back deck, is essentially finished. Inside the house, I was sure to take plenty of pictures.

After the house visit, we needed to get ready for the wedding, but first, Norm and I had to run some errands. We had to stop at Target for some VHS tape for Vicky’s ancient video camera. We had to stop at Costco for some flowers, and to pick up the wedding cake. While, there, we also stopped to get something to eat: Costco hot dogs and a twisted churro. I was rather amusing to sit there eating our hot dogs, knowing that Norm and Vicky were only a few hours from getting married… again.

We cut it close; Norm and I had about 10 minutes or so to dress, but we made it with time to spare. Vicky was getting dressed at the church so she could dawdle. At the last minute, Norm decided to create some wedding programs and I got to help fold them. And then we were off to Norm and Vicky’s church. We were the first ones there and, after Vicky had gotten dressed, she worried if anyone would show up. I tried to reassure her that they would all show up at once and, in fact, they did. Before things got started, I, acting as Norm’s Best Man, and another one of their friends, acting as Vicky’s Maid of Honor, had to sign some paperwork.

The ceremony started promptly at 1:30 PM and lasted about an hour. There were, perhaps 20 people in attendance and we had the whole place to ourselves. Norm’s mom did all of the readings. Norm and Vicky picked out some wondering cantors for the service and I took some video of their singing at Norm and Vicky’s request. Eventually, I made my way up front to stand up for Norm, and to give him the rings at the appropriate time. They said their vows, which they had rather impressively memorized (I was in the car as they practiced) and then they kissed–rather awkwardly because Vicky didn’t think it was the kiss.

When it was all over, we caravaned over to the Allendale Bar & Grill where we had a whole room to ourselves, where we were served excellent food (the chicken parmasan was delicious) and where we had cake. I even managed to take a few pictures here too.

We relaxed in the evening; in fact, we sat around and were very lazy, but it was nice. Once again, I flooded Norm and Vicky with petty complaints about work and relationships and life in general, and as always, they bore up to it solidly and without complaint. Vicky tried to teach me the secret of life but I wouldn’t listen. Norm spent an hour searching for an SNL video clip of the secret. Eventually, we went to rent a movie and late in the evening we sat around watching The Illusionist pausing it every five minutes so we could try and guess what had happened.

I went to bed trying to ignore the sounds coming from Norm and Vicky’s room, which I later found out were the sounds of Norm being poked (or possibly poking) in an annoying fashion. They found this amusing for some reason. Certainly, it had to be a better wedding night than their last one, which was spent in the emergency room.

Friday the thirtheenth in Nanuet

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Friday the Thirteenth turned out to be a very nice day. I picked up my rental car after work and headed up to Nanuet, New York. I was given a Honda Accord, which was nice, but it took a while to do the paperwork because Hertz’s computer systems were down. Regardless, I made very good time, driving the 240.5 miles in just over 4 hours.

In fact, I got to Norm and Vicky’s before Norm was home from work and so Vicky got to listen to me whine and complain about my work woes. She was a very good sport about it and I should have learned my lesson (I don’t often whine and complain about work) but I didn’t; I whined and complained more when Norm got home. I got to see Norm’s skydiving video which was incredible!

Yes, he went skydiving in New Zeland, a 12,000 foot jump. It decided me. The next time I have the opportunity, I’m going to do it. I mean, after all, if strausmouse can do it and Norm can do it, certainly I can do it!

We headed to the Cheesecake Factory at the Palisades Mall for dinner. Norm’s mom, aunt and uncle met us there for dessert. While there, I got to hear all about Norm and Vicky’s honeymoon in Bora Bora and New Zeland and I set there listening, green with envy. It was at dinner that Norm and I nearly came to blows over the check. I tried to outfox Norm for the check and managed to get my hands on it, after more than the usual effort. And then the villain outfoxed the fox and Norm paid for dinner despite the fact that I had the check. You can’t trust anyone these days.

We all headed back to Norm and Vicky’s place and watched more videos and saw more pictures from their honeymoon. Eventually, it was late enough where sleep was prudent, especially since we had to be up early the next morning.

In the city with friends

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I didn’t go the gym on Saturday, but it wouldn’t have worked out, given the time constraints that I had. Instead, I went out to get some wrapping paper for Norm and Vicky’s gifts and then jen_ashlock was kind enough to help wrap the gifts, as I am a terrible wrapper. Now that Norm and Vicky have their gifts, I can tell you all that one of them was a set of note cards with their names on them, and matching envelopes with their new address. The cards were designed and created by Jen and Jenn and their company, Buttercream Cards and I thought they came out really well.

At noon on Saturday, I headed over to DTUT, which is just around the corner from where Jen and Jason live. That’s where Norm and Vicky’s “Jack and Jill” wedding shower took place. strausmouse and Ryane were already there, as were Norm and Vicky and many of their friends. We had the back room to ourselves and the whole event was really well done. I met Vicky’s mother for the first time. There were some games that were played, food and drinks that were served, and Norm and Vicky opened their gifts. Vicky deputized me as official photographer, apparently unaware of my total lack of talent when it comes to the taking of photos.

When the event wrapped up, we headed downtown. Ryane had a maternity massage treatment that Eric gave her for her birthday, so we dropped her off at the massage place, and then we parked the car and headed to Mickey Mantle’s, where we met Jen and Jason. We spent a few hours at Mickey Mantle’s (where Eric made fun of the guacamole) and where we had a few drinks. Then we went for a walk in the park while we waited for Ryane to finish up. Eric had to browbeat his way into a hotel bathroom, but other than that, it was a fun walk. The weather has been unusually warm, although it has also been overcast.

We picked up Ryane and then drove up to Norm and Vicky’s in Nanuet. We went to Martio’s for dinner. Afterward, we spent the evening playing games. I got my butt kicked in Apples to Apples (where the Albany contingent dominated), but I got my revenge when we played Phase 10. I won by 4 whole phases and more than 100 points less than the second place person. Shortly after that game, we all retired for the evening.

I was up at about 8 AM this morning, Sunday, my “free” day. Norm made us all breakfast: scrambled eggs and bacon. This seemed to mystify Eric because Norm hates eggs and claims to never have tried them in his life, and Eric couldn’t understand how Norm could know the eggs were any good while he was cooking them. But the eggs turned out just fine and I wolfed them down.

Later in the morning, we headed up to Stony Point to walk through Norm and Vicky’s new house, which is getting ever closer to completion. Then we had to go to White Castle so that Eric could get his fix of mini burgers for the next several months. After lunch, Eric and Ryane headed back home, but not before we all got a chance to see Ryane’s new car. Meanwhile, Norm, Vicky and I headed back to their place and they proceeded to bombard me with questions from some trivia game. I actually did pretty well.

Sadly, I left Norm and Vicky’s place at about 3:30 and caught the 3:45 bus back to the city. It was actually an interesting trip because it took backroads through New Jersey. I fell asleep at one point, however, and when I woke up, we were at Port Authority and everyone was already getting off the bus.

I’m now back at Jen and Jason’s. As a thank you for their hospitality in letting me stay at their place this weekend (and three weeks ago), I am taking them to Ruth’s Chris for dinner this evening. We have an 8 PM appointment. Which means I need to get changed as we will have to leave in a little while. More later…

Pictures from this weekend

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Lazy Saturday Afternoon
Originally uploaded by jamietr.

Eric requested that I post some pictures from this weekend, so here are some pictures from this weekend. Most of the pictures are from “game night” Saturday night, but there are a few others. All pictures are courtesy of Norm (of vickyandnorm fame). To be honest, I stole them from his Kodak Gallery. There are some more pictures there if you are really that interested.

Lazy Nanuet Sunday

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I was up at 7 AM and everyone else was up shortly after 8 AM. After various showers, we decided to head over to Friendly’s for breakfast. Eric and Ryane headed home around 11 AM. I debated when I was going to leave and finally decided that I would wait until Vicky got back from her work meeting she had Sunday afternoon. Norm, Vicky and I lazed around until Vicky headed into work, and then Norm and I headed over to Dave and Busters. I’d never been to a Dave and Busters before, and so I really didn’t know what to expect. It is a kind of Chuck-e-Cheese for grown-ups. One of the games I played three times was Sega’s Airline Pilot Simulator, which allowed you to fly an airliner. It was a pretty good simulation. I played all three levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and I managed to successfully takeoff and land the airplane each time. Norm played Police 9-1-1- and was frustrated because the game did not seem properly calibrated.

I had a snack at the mall and then we headed back to Norm and Vicky’s place and waited for Vicky to get home. She got home at about 4 PM and I got on the road at about 4:15 PM.

It was absolutely miserable driving home. It rained most of the way, and at times the visibility was down to almost nothing. I was tired. Also, there was once again about an hour’s worth of traffic in Delaware so that while I left Norm and Vicky’s at 4:15 PM, I didn’t get home until about 9:40 PM. All-in-all, however, it was a fun weekend and as always, I had a really good visit.

I received the December/January 2007 issue of ANALOG in the mail this weekend. It had the conclusion (part 4) of Robert J. Sawyer’s serialized novel, Rollback and I am anxious to read it in the next day or so. Also in the mail was the latest issue of F&SF.

I’m getting ready for bed now. Working from home tomorrow…

Games people play

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I was up at about 7 AM and sat around for about an hour and a half until Norm and Vicky finally got up. Norm made breakfast for all of us, ham, eggs, and toast. The early part of the day was pretty lazy. We did take a ride up to Stony Point to check out the hole in the ground that is Norm and Vicky’s new house. As it turned out, the basement had been poured, something that Norm and Vicky were very excited about. We spend a few minutes wandering around the basement, admiring the handiwork, and taking pictures. It was a little bit muddy, but Norm and Vicky seemed very excited by the whole thing.

Eric and Ryane arrived around 4 PM and a little while later, we all headed out to the Cheesecake Factory at the Palisades Mall for dinner. There, we met some of Norm and Vicky’s friends, Annie and Tom and the seven of us had dinner together. Then it was back to Norm and Vicky’s for game night.

We played three different games at “game night” and Eric bartended (with Norm acting as a backup bartender). First, we played and amusing game called “Apples to Apples”. After several rounds of that game, we played a few hands of “Phase 10”. Finally, after Annie and Tom left, we played “Scattergories”. All three were fun and by the time we were finished playing, both Eric and Norm were pretty drunk. In fact, Norm called Andy and left a hilarious message. He then immediately called Lisa and left a different, but still hilarious, message.

It was after 1 AM when we all finally headed off to bed.

[Posted on 11/13/2006]

To Nanuet

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I ended up leaving for Nanuet at 1:15 PM and I didn’t get to Norm and Vicky’s until 7 PM, almost 6 hours later! I hit about an hours worth of traffic in Delaware, where several lanes were shut down for construction. And I hit about another hour’s worth of traffic in Newark.

But I got here, and shortly after I arrived, Norm, Vicky, and I headed out to get some dinner. On the way, we stopped to do a few errands (an art supply store where Norm bought some carvable pumpkins and a Radio Shack where Vicky got a new Sirius radio to replace one that had broke). We then headed over to Ruby Tuesdays at the Nanuet Mall for dinner.

When we got back to their house, we spent the rest of the evening watching wedding video samples (and making fun of them), and an episode of CSI Miami (making fun of that). Eric and Ryane are coming down tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening is “game night”.

Rockland Reunion

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Once again, the day was supposed to start out with Jason and I running in the Park and once again, we failed miserably. Instead, we went to a corner diner and had breakfast. (I saw someone there reading a copy of the Jeppeson Private Pilot Manual–the same edition I went through back in 1999/2000.)

I had rented a car today because we were going to head up to Nanuet in Rockland County and see Norm and Vicky (vickyandnorm) who had just returned from a 2 week vacation in Italy. Eric and Ryane were going to meet us there later in the day. Jason and I walked over to Hertz and picked up the car, a nice Pontiac of some kind with leather seats and a sun roof, and headed up to Rockland. I had told Norm and Vicky that we’d be there at about noon. We pulled into their place as the clock struck noon, although according to Vicky, it was 3 minutes after by the time we actually walked into their place.

We got to hear all about their trip to Italy, which was fascinating, especially the part about the cat colony. We also go to hear about their baggage woes. It made me decide that I definitely want to arrive in Venice 24 hours before I actually have to be there for the cruise next year. Vicky insists she hates U.S. Airways and I figured I’d include that here as a caution to anyone else considering flying them to Italy.

We also got to hear more about the upcoming wedding.

Jason, Norm, Vicky and I headed to the Palisades Mall for lunch at a place where you design your own stir fry. It was pretty good. Norm, as it his wont, drove around the parking lot for a year or so looking for a close up spot, before deciding to give up and park at the North Pole.

Eric and Ryane arrived a little later in the afternoon and we sat around chatting, and seeing pictures of the spectacular house that Norm and Vicky are having built up in Stony Point. We also got a call from Andy, who had attended the Playboy Mansion party last night. (He was the grand prize winner on a local L.A. ESPN radio contest.) He was deceptively vague in the details he gave over the phone, but I see he’s sent us some pictures today, which I have yet to look at.

Around 4:30, Jason and I headed back into the city, returned the rental car, and then, at my request, stopped at a bookstore. We probably spent an hour browsing around. I had gone there with the intention of getting some light reading, perhaps a Heinlein book that I haven’t yet read. I came away with Norman Mailer’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Executioner’s Song. At 442,900 words, it’s one of the longer books I’ve ever attempted. I started reading it late in the evening and it’s the kind of book you just can’t put down.

We ordered pizza for dinner, watched Vanilla Sky (which Jason had never seen before) and I was finally ready to go to sleep around 11:30 PM/

Nanuet, Day 3, weekend wrapup

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Norm and I had breakfast this morning while Vicky was out bringing home the bacon. In the early afternoon, we decided to head down to Nyack for the street fair they were holding. I’d been to the Nyack street fair at least once before but it had been a really long time ago. Almost immediately, I located the funnel cake (which Vicky found to be very amusing). After the funnel cake, I naturally needed some cotton candy and so I had some of that too.

We wandered down the streets looking here and there, and I went into the Pickwick Bookshop and browsed the books for a few minutes, coming up with one small gem: The Three Investigators: The Mystery of the Green Ghost, a book I remember reading in third grade after purchasing it from The Weekly Reader.

Norm and Vicky did some shopping of their own and to prove it, here is a picture of them waiting in line to purchase some preserved produce:

We left the fair and headed back Norm and Vicky’s as it started to rain, and a short while later, I got in the car for the four hour and thirty minute drive home.

All-in-all, it was a fun weekend, as is usually the case with Norm and Vicky. Below are a few more pictures from our trip, and I apologize in advance for the graininess, but they were taken from my camera phone.


Norm and Vicky at Turtle Lake (where we located the geocache for which we’d been searching)


Norm and Jamie at Turtle Lake (just to prove I was really there)


House-hunting with Norm and Vicky

Nanuet, Day 2: Geocaching and a Concert

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Try as I might to sleep in late this morning, I was up by 8 AM. Norm, Vicky and I spend the morning chatting and making fun of some of the items in the Rockland County Journal News until Vicky had to go off to her tutoring session. Vicky has taken on this second job so that she and Norm avoid impoverishment.

When Vicky got back, feeling quite impoverished, we all headed over to the Rockland Bakery where we got some fresh bagels and other assorted goodies. Vicky nearly got into a fight with the cashier, who was apparently offended that Vicky was telling her what, exactly, it was she wanted to order. But we managed to make it out unscathed and with breakfast in hand.

We headed up toward Bear Mountain in order to do some Geocaching, but took a detour along the way to view some of the houses in which Norm and Vicky have been interested. They were impressive and I took some pictures on my camera phone, but will have to wait until I get home to post them. And the houses were impressive too.

Upon arriving at Bear Mountain, we parked and had our breakfasts, and then headed out on geocaching adventure, getting lost only once, briefly, because we were so ingrossed in conversation that I missed the trail turnoff. Norm, nice guy that he is, made sure this didn’t happen to anyone else who might follow by building a wall of logs across the trail at a point just after the trails intersected. It took only a few hours for him to do this and Vicky and I watched in admiration.

We did end up locating the geocache and took from it a game called “tangle”. In return, we left a toy pickup truck. We then went down to the lakeside where I demonstrated skipping rocks and injured my arm in the process. (Actually, I hurt my arm on a cutoff thrown in the softball game on Tuesday, but re-aggrevated it today when I tried to “skip” a boulder.)

On the way back to Nanuet, we stopped at 7 Lunney Court and Sleepy Hollow Gardens and I walked past Grandma and Grandpa’s old apartment and parking spaces for the first time in nearly 6 years. I took a few pictures there as well.

We got back to Norm and Vicky’s with just enough time to see the Yankees beat the Mets in extra innings, and then headed out to the Dog House–a hot dog place nearby–and I had for the first time in my life, sauerkraut on a hot dog. It was pretty good. We topped that off with Dairy Queen, and then headed to Norm and Vicky’s church to see a concert. (Actually, we headed to the church before Dairy Queen but Vicky realized that the reason no one was there yet was because the concert didn’t start until 7:30 and we were way too early.

The concert was actually really good, although it was a little difficult to hear the singing because we sat right next to the band and the trumpet and sax washed out a lot of the other sounds when they played. The first half of the concert was religious songs and the second half was secular and there were some impressive singers. We gave pseudonyms to some of them based on various characteristics they displayed. Two examples: Ally Sheedy and Jack Black. I think my favorite moment was when a high school junior did a solo version of the jazz standard “Summertime” and was very impressive.

All-in-all, a very fun day. Thanks Norm and Vicky!

In Nanuet

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I arrived in Nanuet half an hour later than predicted, mainly because there was a massive amount of traffic in Newark. The song playing at the time I pulled into Norm & Vicky’s place was #73 “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins.

We went to Martio’s for pizza for dinner and then came back to Norm and Vicky’s and watched the Mets beat the Yanks in the bottom of the 9th with a walk-off hit. Very depressing.

I was then introduced to a new game, called Phase 10. It’s kind of like Uno, in principle, but the rules are different. It was fun to play, and as usual, Vicky won the game. We didn’t finish until after midnight, and I am now getting ready to go to bed. It was a fun evening (except the part about the Mets winning).