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1) Get up early to do yoga.
2) Drive to Vermont.
3) Eat at cute restaurant in Manchester, VT.
4) Walk around for 3-4 hours at outlets in Vermont.
5) Drive home.
6) Warm up dinner.
7) Go bowling.

(Look at Ray go!)
(Nice bowling shoes!)
I’m sure you want to know who won. We played three games. Dan won one. Ray won two. Laurie won none. Boo hoo.
Get home at 11:30 and watch tivoed American Idol.
9) Plan to get up tomorrow morning to run 7 miles and then be a REAL lump lump for your last full day in New York.

After an extended morning in our pajamas, Dan, Ray and I decided to get out and headed to downtown Schenectady to see a movie. We saw I Love You, Man, but I did not love it… man. I actually knew I wasn’t going to like it during the previews. They were all trailers for action movies like X-men and some other one where a guy’s heart was stolen and replaced with a fake one and he had to keep it charged by attaching jumper cables to his nipples or rubbing up against old ladies (I’m not kidding and it wasn’t a comedy either, they were serious), and I suddenly realized that I was not exactly the demographic they were shooting for. See, after each trailer, Dan and I always give each one a thumbs up or a thumbs down and we know that if it gets two thumbs up, we might actually end up seeing it. I had a thumbs down for every single trailer this time. Dan… was all thumbs up and Ray… well, he gave some sideways ones. When it was over Ray said, “Now I remember why I don’t go to movies.” Ah, well. Our first mistake was trying to resist being lump lumps. We even thought about going bowling. What a mistake that would have been. We better keep our butts glued to the kitchen chairs.

We did make one more stop on the way home from the movies, to the Price Chopper, which is a grocery store here in the greater Albany region. I don’t usually go around taking pictures of grocery store signs, but if you look closely you will see all the birds hanging out. The funny part, though, is that you’ll also see the three fake owls that were put there to scare away the birds. One of the birds was sitting right next to one of the owls, poking it, like “What is this? Is this supposed to be scary?” I bet they are driving some manager absolutely nuts.

The past two days have been hectic. Yesterday, I left Canton, stopped in Columbus, went to Cincinnati to have dinner with my teacher friends, then came back home to Columbus. This morning, Dan and I left at about 8:30 to head to Schenectady. Here’s a map of my travels.

Now, we are all settled in at Uncle Ray’s. He just got a nice new macbook pro, so Dan is getting to work setting it all up.

Finally, we get to be lump lumps.

On our way home from Schenectady today, this is what we ran into! This was near Buffalo (go figure). I kind of felt like a 6th grader that jumps up to stare out of the window when the first snowflake falls. When we got to Columbus, though, it was about 40 and sunny. No snow days in our future.

After a long day of driving on Friday, we made it to Utica. I actually was able to get a good amount of work done, which was nice. Maybe I should lock myself in the car for 9 hours every weekend. In Utica, we stopped by the calling hours for Uncle Walt and then headed to Schenectady. We were there by about 7:30 and Ray had Highbridge pizza ready for us.

Saturday, we got up very early and, along with Aunt Laurie (the former and original Laurie Angelone), headed back to Utica for the funeral. Funerals are always a little sobering, realizing how short and precious life is, even a long life like Uncle Walt’s. After a luncheon for the family, we went back to Schenectady only to find out later in the evening that Aunt Laurie’s husband, Kevin was being taken to the hospital because his blood sugar was out of control (he’s a diabetic). He was put into the ICU, so it was serious. We went to visit him this morning. His blood sugar was back under control, but the doctor’s suspect something else is going on, so there will be more tests and a longer than expected stay in the hospital.

Tonight, we have plans on going out Canali’s, another New York staple and then head home tomorrow. I wish I had better stories.

Tomorrow, Dan and I are getting up early and heading to upstate New York, Utica, to be exact. Sadly, Dan’s great Uncle Walt passed away after a long illness and Dan’s dad is in charge of giving the eulogy, so we’ll be there for the weekend. We always like to visit New York, we just wish it were under different circumstances.

Uncle Ray is quite a character and I see it fitting to create a list of his “quirks,” we’ll call them, with his blessing of course.

1) Ray and his car-

Ray has a beautiful Acura TL and takes very good care of it. As a result, anytime we go anywhere in it, it is imperative that we park 3 miles away from the nearest car and on a diagonal so that no one can park next to him. Neither snow nor sleet nor rain could make Ray park close to another vehicle.

2) Ray’s food groups-

Ray is very selective about what he puts into his body. He only drinks Diet Pepsi. No water, no milk, just Diet Pepsi, though sometimes he caves at restaurants that only have Diet Coke, but believe me, he doesn’t like it. As for food, the food groups are as follows: Cheezits (“a staple,” he says), cheese and crackers, cheeseburgers, ham and cheese sandwiches, sausage and cheese pizza (are we seeing a pattern?), and baby carrots (that’s right, a curveball!).

3) Ray loves order-

For one thing, he rotates everything, clothes, towels, shoes, so that they evenly wear. Personally, I think that’s a good idea. He also has a strict cleaning schedule on Saturday. He also likes to have all of his pocket change lined up by denomination, his pens lined up straight and his shoes all nice and neat. And lastly, he must eat his sugar free popsicles in a cycle and he must eat at least one cycle at a time (though sometimes he will eat two). The cycle is orange, grape, cherry, always in that order. I’m not kidding.

4) Ray has many pet peeves-

Although Ray has many pet peeves, the one thing that gets him the most riled up is bad driving. “Everyone’s in a big damn hurry” is his favorite saying. He also does not like when people talk on cell phones when they’re driving because as you may know, this is illegal in the state of New York and it’s dangerous. His current pet peeve, due to the season, seems to be aimed at all things Republican. He never could stand W, but now we can add Sarah Palin (“Whose at home with the kids?”) and Cindy McCain (“She looks like an aging Barbie doll! Where does she get those outfits?”) to the list. Also, because there are so many political speeches occurring right now, he also HATES when politicians give the phony thumbs up or points “to some idiot in the crowd.”

5) Ray loves sports-

In particular, Ray loves the Yankees and the Giants. He also loves Nascar. He keeps a printout of all the Yankees games in the kitchen and watches as many as possible. He also checks the score and rank online (oh yes, he is techie) and in the paper. Now that you know this, you may be inclined to get him a baseball cap for his birthday, but please refrain, he has a pile in his kitchen that looks like those stacks of pizza boxes at Papa John’s.

6) Ray loves to shop-

Not that he buys so much, but he loves to go to the mall and the outlets and get good deals. He can’t understand why anyone pays full price for anything. In fact, he recently found a Giants Superbowl shirt at the mall for $6.99 (originally $29.99). Beat that!

7) Ray loves his kitchen table-

While his living room remains very “unlived in”, the kitchen is the bustling hub of activity at 1027 West Claremont. Ray has the best spot at the table with a view of his new and improved kitchen TV. He spends much time there watching his favorite channels: The Weather Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, and ESPN. When asked why the kitchen instead of the living room, he says it’s because he likes to have a place to set things in front of him, like his Newsweek, Time, MacBook, bills, dinner, whatever. The kitchen table is very useful when you think about it, but the chairs aren’t so comfortable.

That’s Ray in a nutshell. We have been fully immersed for about a week and we just can’t get enough! Hopefully we’ll be back again soon! Oh, and I would encourage anyone who knows Ray to add a comment to this blog with any of the quirks that I forgot.

Here I am in Maine, my 44th state. We decided to take a side trip for the night and visit the ocean and some outlet malls. On our way, we drove through 3 states. First… Massachusetts. I’ve already been there, but it’s still a nice drive through the Berkshires. New Hampshire was my 43rd state. Yippee! The sign says their state motto, “Live Free or Die!” Awesome.
This sign was on a bridge going over the Piscataqua River. As soon as we got there, we had to go to a seafood shack, so here it is.
And Dan was a good New Englander and got a big basket of fried clams from a guy that said, “You can’t get they-ah from he-yah.” Well, at least he could have if he wanted to. (Please note Ray’s Giants hat… we were in Patriots country and he got two different rants from two different Patriots fans just ten minutes apart. They’re still mad about the superbowl upset.)Then we went to our first shopping stop. The Kittery Trading Post. Here we are walking in. It was a huge place. After a little shopping and checking into our hotel, we drove around Kittery a little and found a lookout with a historic fort. Here’s the view.
Then, we headed to downtown Portsmouth, NH for dinner. We didn’t know it, but we ended up in the cutest little town. It kind of reminded me of Saratoga Springs but more New England-ish. Here’s the church at the center of town, whose congregation was formed in 1627. Crazy. So, since I have enjoyed Maine so much, I’ve decided to dump Saratoga Springs. Now, we’re going to buy a house on the ocean, get a fishing boat, wear LL Bean all the time and have kids with funny accents. I just need to find a place to work…

Oh, and an update on yesterday’s nomination. I now have opponents. God help us all.

Dan and I went for a run this morning. Okay, it was really around 11am, but we’re on vacation. Here we are in front of the famous 1027 West Claremont.

Later, we decided to go up to Saratoga Springs, home of the famous horse races. Ray said it had a cute little downtown and it really did! It was old, well-maintained, and kind of ritzy. Right away, we ran into this place called Putnam Market. It had salads and sandwiches all made fresh and an awesome looking dessert case. It also had lots of candies and chocolates including these.

Yum! Pony poop! Then, we walked down the street and found this place called the Stadium Cafe. It was a neat place, and had jockey jackets (or jerseys or whatever they’re called) all over the walls. While there, I decided that this would be a cool college town and Ray informed me that there is a college here called Skidmore.

Here are some shots of the town. They have horses painted all of the place (makes sense).

Here’s an old hotel. I think it was called the Adelphi. Very cool.

When we were finished walking around, we decided to go drive by the college. On the way, we ran into a street full of ginormous mansions. Here’s a shot of one of the biggest ones through the window of our car.
I then decided that I liked Saratoga Springs so much that when I graduate from OSU, I will work for Skidmore, live in a house in walking distance to the downtown (probably not one of the mansions), own a horse, and spend the winter skiing in the Adirondacks. Done deal.

We also bought Ray a late birthday present and here he is showing it off. Go Bucks!

We all slept in until 10am today. We must have been tired. Later on, we went to Crossgates Mall, where I bought a bunch of clothes for my new job (or something). We went home for dinner, but out for ice cream, of course. There’s a place down on High Bridge Road and their serving sizes are huge. Ray is holding a small that he had already eaten part of. I should have gotten a shot of Dan’s “medium.” It was hilarious.