NY Vacation - Day 4

Day 4 was another busy day and another late night.
We had some family come over for brunch, then at night we had a wedding to go to.
It was great to see my family and spend time with my niece and nephew. Next time we go to NY I'll have another niece and Ben will have another cousin. He had a great time playing with his current cousins.

and Aunt
and Grandma
and Papa

Looking forward to the next visit. Probably around Christmas time.

After brunch, we got ready for the wedding. I don't have any pictures, so you'll have to take my word that we looked good. We left Ben with Grandma and Papa to feed, change and put to bed. We weren't worried and everything Ben got to bed without a hitch.

The wedding was at FlowerField in St. James. If you know me, you know I like to eat. Well I must admit that I met my match. I ate so much food that I had to stop eating. If you are ever invited to a wedding there, go! According to the sister of the bride, the bride and groom love to eat too.

The bride and groom are friends I met while working at Babies R Us. It was a Puerto Rican Wedding. There was a lot of Latin food & music. Here's a helpful hint for you. If you ever go to a Puerto Rican /Latin wedding, take dance lessons. I've never felt whiter or felt that I had less rhythm than I did at this wedding. Add to the fact that I wasn't drinking, and that's a lot of still moves. I looked like Frankenstein out there.

The people at our table were commenting on how good the DJ was. We agreed, then told them about our wedding, how we flew the DJ into Disney from NY. Come to find out our DJ was doing this wedding! There was an MC, so we didn't notice him until late in the night.

When I say late in the night, I mean late in the night. It was about 11:45PM when we noticed him. We stayed until about 12:30 - 12:40, but then we had to go. They were still going strong.

If you don't know, I can't tell you whose wedding it was, but I can tell you to check out the music of Bridgette Angelique. She put on an excellent performance at the wedding of My Whole Life Has Changed - w/Genuwine





http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bridgetteangelique

NY Vacation - Day 3

So day 3, it's Saturday. Ben woke up again at 5:20 and stayed up for another hour. I hope he doesn't keep this habit up when we go home (FYI: he stopped doing this when we got home.)

Saturday morning, at mom's house. Perfect for watching cartoons on the couch and flashbacks of screaming real loud whenever anyone says the secret word, right? Well it is perfect for that, but I had to go to work.

I drove to the new Garden City office. I was almost to the office after a fun drive on the Southern State listening to Z100 morning show re-runs, when I realized I forgot to bring a screwdriver. Off to Wal-Mart at 8:AM to buy one. The Wal-Mart in Garden City wasn't ghetto, or maybe Ghetto doesn't wake up at 8:AM. either way. In and out, unscathed. Got to work. 15 minutes, done. A fun drive home.

I got to relax for 15 - 20 minutes then we left to meet up with Allison's friend Jessica out east. I think I've only met her at her wedding, but she seemed nice. Her husband sang a song to her at the wedding. It was pretty cool. I don't remember the song, just that it was a country song about a cowboy. Anyway, we got all the way out east and pull up to the house. There is a big truck with a car seat in the driveway. Oh good, they're home. We get out, ring the bell and wait. Knock on the door and wait some more. Ring the bell again and wait some more. Now I'm getting cold and pissed. I tell Allison to call her friend. She does, no answer. So I take Ben and say I'm waiting in the car. I forgot to mention it was cold as hell. It was high 30s or low 40s.

Allison walks to meet me in the car and notices the front license plate has an Islanders frame around it. She says "That's not their car, they hate the Islanders. We're at the wrong house!" SERENITY NOW!!!!!

We get to the right house and bada-bing, they open the door right away. It was fun hanging out with Josh and Jessica. Lots of conversations about babies, making friends with other parents and sports. Jessica's niece was watching the original Alice in Wonderland. What a strange movie that is. We had pizza for lunch, then it was time to go to the next stop.

Not too much further to Rene's house. Rene is a former co-worker of ours. I started working with her at Maharam while she was pregnant. We went for pizza and Italian ices at least twice a week and I put on a good 10 pounds. It was awesome.

Her kids are beautiful and Ben had a great time playing with them once he took a nap. One of the best moments of the trip was when Rene served us dessert. Chocolate chip cookies and brownies! Yeah baby. I hadn't had chocolate in over a month. So the 2 cookies and 1 brownie I had was like swirling a little bit of heaven around in my mouth. Her oldest daughter is really quite funny. I helped her rearrange her stuffed animals based on weather the Easter Bunny would like them or not. Then I helped her draw a picture of the Easter Bunny. Allison commented on what a good picture it was. She replied "What are you kidding me? His egg looks like a toaster oven!" LOL that's hilarious.

We left there after what seemed like 15 minutes, but it was closer to 3 hours and headed straight back to Islip to meet Linda and Ryan at Maxwell's. I remember this place as Hutley's and I remember it being dark and dreary. I was pleasantly surprised to see it nicely redone. (or maybe I just remembered it wrong) Either way, it was good to see them. They are expecting their first child and it was fun talking pregnancy stuff with them. They aren't going to find out the sex of the baby, so we had to get them a unisex gift. A stuffed Baby Pluto was the gift. I hope the baby likes it. I think they are going to have a boy. The old wive's tale says if your body and face changes, it's a girl, because girls are a real pain in the tuckus (hey, I didn't make up the wive's tale) and she looked exactly the same as I remember her. If you saw her sitting at a table, and her tummy was hidden, you would never know.

Ben had missed bedtime again, but he took a nap at the restaurant. We got him home, fed and in bed by a little after 9. He's a little trooper.

You think the night is over right? It's after 9, it's time for bed. Well not tonight. At dinner Friday night, Vinny invited us over to watch the UFC fight. I think it was UFC 2185, something like that. We left the house around 9:40 PM. No, that is not a typo, we actually went out after 9:30 for a fight that started at 10!

The fights were good, but I enjoyed the company more. Tim's new GF came with him. When I say Tim's new GF, I mean Tim's old GF. Not old as in a cougar, I mean old as in they dated back in 1997. WOW! Is my rental car Jetta a time machine? I didn't hit 88 MPH. HMMMM. It was cool to see them together again. I always liked her. She used to give me excellent advice about girls that I would always ignore. They look good together. I wish them luck.

The fights are very addicting. There is another fight this month. I probably wont buy it from PPV, but if anyone else gets the fight and wants company watching it...give me a call.

Day 4 coming up tomorrow. Danny & Bridgette's wedding.

NY Vacation - Day 1 - Ben's First Flight

We took Ben on his first plane trip today. It was pretty cool. He had his own boarding pass and everything. We started him out right with the most important rule in traveling: Check in early to make sure you are in Group A!

The excitement of his first flight proved to be too much. He fell asleep before takeoff. He was well behaved on the flight. He woke up, but he was happy. He fussed a little bit, but it was pretty close to lunch time. Luckily thee were no diaper incidents. He fell asleep just as we started our descent into Islip. Allison reminded me of the Jerry Seinfeld skit where he talks about pilots talking over the intercom. "just fly the plane!" and right on cue, the pilot gave us a play-by-play of the landing.
Every time we go back to NY, my NY comes back to the surface. My accent comes back. I am a little more defensive and aggressive at the same time (if that makes any sense to you.) I'll list fun facts and other bits of info during our vacation.

Ben met one set of his Aunts & Uncles today and he also met 2 of his cousins. He had a great time playing with them. They are 4.5 yrs and 1 yr old. They didn't have an epic game of Hungry Hungry Hippos, but they had fun. It's gonna be a busy week filled with friends, family, a wedding, food and possibly snow. Cmon man! Channel 7 (ABC) said possible snow flurries tomorrow night. I'm getting too old for this...

Fun Facts:

1. We ran into an old co-worker from Maharam on the flight. Good to see you Joyce
2. First dirty look I gave: At the baggage claim to an old lady in a wheelchair: I took my bag off the carousel and she started getting up in arms that I took her bag. I shot her a look and said "This is not your bag, this is my bag." I then turned my back on her. I know she was in a wheelchair and she was old, but I do not discriminate. I am an equal opportunity offender.
3. First car horn I heard: 15.2 miles into the trip on Carleton Ave. I have not blown the horn yet or given anyone the finger, but I have shouted a few expletives at people.
   
4. I still remember the phone number for my favorite Chinese take-out. Yan Min Kitchen 631.277.5666
5. My mouth is already watering for either a fresh bagel from Bagel Boss or a buttered roll from the deli. Both will be had this week.
6. I forgot to pack pajamas.