Accent

So we have noticed a small problem with our daughter's name...many people in Albany say "Aubrie" like Long Islanders...Auwwwwbrie. Think annoying LI girls from college...it just grates on you after a while.

Santa

What a difference a year makes. Aubrie is no longer afraid of Santa. She still won't look at him when she talks, but at least she will sit on his lap and tell him what she wants for Christmas...Dora and Princesses of course!

GoodNews, Bad News

The Good News: Yay...we have internet at home!

The Bad News: We don't have heat at home!


Updates to follow (when I don't have to type with gloves on)

Strange Albany

So, we have been here for about a week (not counting our trip back 'home') and we are starting to find our way around. A few things are very strange though.

I have mentioned before that the grocery shopping situation is awful...no Wegmans or Tops. So far we have tried Price Chopper (really expensive) and Hannafords (really small). The one thing that they had in common, was that they expect you to bag your own groceries. All the cashier does is scan them and send them down the belt to the back counter area so you can bag them yourself.

Another really strange thing here is the garbage. We knew coming in that we would have to arrange our own garbage service, as not many places have government pick-up like Buffalo. What we did not realize is how expensive it is. The alternative, mentioned by the people we bought our house from, is to take the garbage to the dump yourself. This is what they did and said most of our neighbors do. It costs $1 a can to dump off regular trash. So on Saturday we loaded up the SUV and drove to the dump. For a total of $2 we got rid of three cans and all of our packaging boxes from the move. Very strange and inconvenient but cheaper in the long run.