Good lord, sleep is nice. We didn�t have any pressing business, so we slept in until noon (the latest on the trip, though nowhere near our usual waking hour of dinner time). Before we actually did anything we spent about two hours watching The Makeover Story and The Dating Story on The �Learning� Channel. The funny thing about The Makeover Story was that the makeovers were almost universally bad � most of the girls were already cute to begin with, and the whole process basically boiled down to coloring their hair green and giving them an airbag to wear. Though it�s possible that, being guys, we had no concept of beauty or fashion. Come to think of it, it was pretty odd that a bunch of us guys were sitting around critiquing female makeovers anyway (�I can�t believe you boys are watching this,� Cait�s mom said repeatedly).

We decided to get out and do something, so we went to some pharmacy place to meet Another of Cait�s friends, Katie, who was also working. We also met up with the other girls and took off for the beach, or Fire Island more specifically. And of course it started raining as soon as we got there, but we soldiered through it, an idea which was valiant but I�m sure did wonders for my cold. After a morning-long sneezing fit I realized that I was allergic to the east coast, or at least Long Island. Ah, well. We saw a couple of does out walking around � some of them even came right up to us � and of course Jon Akers had to try to mount them (unsuccessfully). While we frolicked with the does, I�m sure the bucks were back in the parking lot breaking into our cars and siphoning off our gas (hey, it was New York). The rain got worse, though luckily we soon found refuge from the evil freezing rain in a lighthouse. The old man there was pretty happy to see us, though I think he misinterpreted our intentions a little as he launched into an hour-long history lesson on the Fire Island lighthouse and light refraction. Did you know that when boats are coming into port, the light house shoots an odd phallic object at the ship in order to guide it correctly? Well, I guess they do. And that�s what I learned today. On the way back to the car Jon decided that, even though it was rainy and freezing, he wanted to take a dip in the ocean. I�ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Now, you can�t take Bob and Jon anywhere. I have far too many reasons for this (Jon prides himself on getting kicked out of all-you-can-eat buffets), one of them being their intense observance of the shotgun constitution. This means that they will not follow anyone else�s rules for calling shotgun besides their own, regardless of where they are or whose car they�re in. So, on the way home somehow both Bob and Jess decided they were going to ride shotgun (don�t ask me for details here, I only have so much bandwidth available). Jess was already in the car, but underestimated Bob�s resilience � he jumped right in, lying across her and over into the driver�s side, and refused to budge for the rest of the ride. So, violating at least four different New York traffic laws, we took off for home once again.

We�d rented the movie 15 Minutes from Blockbuster the night before, so we figured we�d better go ahead and watch it. If you haven�t seen it before, the film involves a lot of swearing, violence, some nudity and a lot of grisly murder sequences. Now for us guys, that makes a perfect movie, but we made something of a mistake watching it next to the kitchen while Cait�s parents prepared dinner. I guess they weren�t used to her watching such fare because they complained a few times (her mom called it a �sick movie�), though they didn�t throw us out of the house when the hooker got knifed to death in a bathtub, so they couldn�t have been that offended.

Another one of Cait�s friends, Laura, came over for dinner. She�s planning to come visit KU for Spring Break, which automatically makes her pretty cool. Also about the same time we were sitting down to dinner (meatballs!) Vic�s friend from school, Gil, randomly showed up at our door. I can�t remember the exact city that he�s from, but he said it was just north of Yonkers, which by name alone should be the coolest place in New York. Well, he�d driven about an hour and a half through deadly New York traffic, at any rate, so I have mad respect for him. After a while, though, Vic asked us if it would be cool if he went and stayed at Gil�s house that night and met up with us back in Easton the next day. This struck me as a bad idea for several reasons, not the least of which being that when you get separated from Victor, you tend to never see him again, especially if you�re talking about meeting him in another state. But Bob was going to accompany him, and if anyone can keep Vic on a tight schedule, it�s Bob, so I grudgingly accepted (while imagining every possible scenario in which things could go wrong. One involved Jon and I returning to Easton only to find the car gone, replaced with a note from Vic that simply said �Esh!�). They said they�d stick around long enough to go bowling with us, though.

Ah yes, bowling. I�m a big fan, though I thoroughly suck at it (breaking 100 is a good day for me), so I�m used to getting 3rd or 4th place normally, or better if girls are playing. Not that I�m sexist, I�ve just noticed that girls are generally not as good at bowling as guys. Maybe because guys have nothing better to do than sit around in bowling alleys all day, I�m not really sure. But today, the fairer sex destroyed the men at the Babylon Bowl-a-Rama. Jon is still trying to come to terms with this. Most of the girls were actually on their high school bowling team, though, and you�d think we would�ve noticed when they brought out their own bowling shoes and personalized balls. Though they all kicked our asses thoroughly, Caitlin was easily the Queen of Punishment as she surpassed 150 every game. Meanwhile, Jon and I were in hot competition for last place with 70 points each. Bob didn�t even play (that would have cost a whole three dollars), but I bet if he did I�d have something funny to say about it. So after a few games and an hour spent trying to gather money to pay the alley, we moved on.

Bob, Vic and Gil were supposed to leave at this point but couldn�t find their way out of Long Island, so they followed us to the diner instead. Eventually they got better directions and left again (we�d said goodbye to them three times now), though we expected they�d be back any minute, and when they never returned, we figured they�d gone off a bridge somewhere (Vic was navigating, after all). It was pretty late by this point, so I wondered if Vic and Bob would even have anything to do by the time they finished the hour and a half drive to Gil�s house (apparently they did � but that�s another story). Meanwhile Jon and I were noticing the strange, strange superstitions that girls have. For one thing, Kris told us that if you can bend a cherry�s stem into a knot, then you�re a good kisser. I figure that if you could do that, you�re not just a good kisser, you should be in the freaking Olympics. A knot! With your tongue! Another good one is that if you tie an empty straw wrapper into a knot, keep pulling until it breaks and wind up with no knot left, then somebody is thinking abut you. (or is that the other way around?) Now, if people are watching you do this and are not in a coma, doesn�t that mean they�re thinking about you? And is �thinking about someone� necessarily a good thing? Lee Harvey Oswald had to think about JFK at one point in his life, I�m sure. Also I think there was something about blowing an eyelash off of your finger and making a wish, though I�m not entirely sure. After a while we bid a fond farewell to Cait�s friends and retired for the night.

Meanwhile, Vic, Bob and Gil had reached wherever it was that they were going. They got in about 12:30, and the neighborhood was already pretty dead being a Tuesday night. They headed over to a club and got in pretty easily (they were carded by a big bouncer guy who asked for their IDs, looked at them, handed them back & said �have a good time, gentlemen�). It was a night of drinking, slot machines, and �loud dudes totally drunk off their ass, rapping to Jay-Z and everything�. Vic bought Bob some Southern Comfort (Bob�s favorite drink ever, just ask him), though Gil couldn�t drink due to some silly New York designated driver laws. At the end of the night people were beginning to leave when the bartender picked up a bottle & smashed it against the wall. He kept doing it, so Vic chucked one against the wall as well. Then Bob smashed one, and Vic tossed another one. At this point some guy across the bar decided to join in, and smashed a bottle on the wall. Suddenly the bouncer picked him up, slammed him against the wall and threw him out of the bar, yelling �Get the hell out of my club, don�t be throwing bottles in my club!� While he was busy with this outside, Bob broke another bottle. The Bouncer came back in a minute later and told everyone not to break any bottles or they�d get thrown out as well; Bob said, �yeah, don�t do that!� This is why I�m glad I didn�t go with them; had I been there, I probably would�ve been that guy that got beaten up. So, things work out.