Tag: vicky

Yanks are winning, so off to bed

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I watched the Yankee game through 4-1/2 innings and now that they are winning 6-2, I think it’s safe for me to head off to bed. I have to be up at 4:30 AM for a 6 AM session with Bernard so I need to get some sleep tonight. Hopefully the Yanks can maintain their lead.

I spoke with vickyandnorm and found out that they set a date for their wedding (a location, too) and I am looking forward to it this coming spring. They have got a lot going on in this next half year, but they are also about to head off to Italy for a vacation. Have you guys brushed up on your Roman history?

I’ve got a softball game after work tomorrow and that means tomorrow is going to be a long day. I’m still not convinced I’ve got my revised eating habits down yet. I’m supposed to be eating 5-6 meals a day, but I find that I’m not hungry 5-6 times a day. I’ll talk to Bernard about that tomorrow. In addition, I’ve got a fair amount of programming to do, I need to find time to cut the grass, clean the house, get a haircut and do some grocery shopping. I wouldn’t mind sneaking off to Italy right about now.

Congratulations Norm and Vicky!

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Just a word of congratulations to Norm and Vicky (a.k.a. vickyandnorm)on their very recent engagement this past weekend. Norm proposed to Vicky at the end of the grand finale of a fireworks display they’d gone to watch in Connecticut. Talk about seeing stars! I talked to both of them shortly thereafter and they both sounded very excited and very happy. A more perfectly suited couple I’m not sure I’ve ever met.

So, guys, this is great news! I’m thrilled to hear it. Congratulations! We need to celebrate!

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).

To New York this weekend!

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I am heading up to New York this weekend to spend the weekend with Norm and Vicky, who apparently have all sorts of exciting things planned (pizza at Martios, some kind of concert on Saturday night, some geocaching, etc.) Even though it’s only Wednesday, I’m already getting antsy about the week being over and I am very much looking forward to driving up to Nanuet Friday afternoon.

At Day At Shea

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For the first time in more than 20 years, I went to a ball game at Shea Stadium, courtesy of Norm and Vicky, where were given three tickets to the game. We had great seats in the Mezzanine Box (section 2, box 504C, seats 4-6) right behind home plate and had a great view of the game. I kept score the whole game, and did a pretty good job at it (my totals matches those published online, so I was doing something right).

Norm and Vicky arrived shortly into the top of the 1st inning and we had a great time, eating, watching the game and commenting on various players names and fans with annoying-sounding voices.

The Mets were losing most of the game, tied it up in the late innings, and even managed to win with a walkoff sac-fly in the bottom of the 9th, so Vicky got to experience those rare Mets victories at home.

I had a really fun time and once again, I had Norm and Vicky to thank for it.

In an interesting post script, today was supposed to be the first of my Oriole’s games for my season tickets this year, but because I was in NY, I couldn’t go and gave the tickets to Kevin, who is a Red Sox fan and probably enjoyed the game more than I would have. And as it turned out, I got to see a ball game after all!)

The Rainbow Room

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Well, the Rainbow Room Grill was spectacular.

We met Norm and Vicky and TGI Friday’s on 5th between 48th and 49th at about 6:30 PM and spent about and hour and half there, having drinks before we headed up to the Rainbow Room. Once we headed up, we were seated at a table with an excellent view of the city. In fact, we had a wonderful dinner. I had the salmon filet. Jen and Norm had the beef medalions. Vicky had the lamb and Jason had spinach and cheese pasta. I also had some jumbo (huge!) shrimp cocktail for an appetizer. And I discovered a new variant of a mai tai that I loved. Jen, Jason and Norm shared a bottle of wine, and we all had dessert. We were at the restauarant for over three hours and had a wonderful time. (And my apple pie came with a candle in celebration of my birthday.)

Norm and Vicky got my a present: a handheld Garman GPS unit–very useful for geocaching. It was extremely generous of them. They also gave me a ticket to the Mets/Florida game tomorrow at 1 PM, so I am going to meet them at Shea stadium. The first time I’ve been to Shea in twenty years.

This has been a really great evening and I’m really glad that Jen, Jason, Norm and Vicky were able to come.