No Broken Plates - Yet

First, I need to say thanks to Lisagh for warning me about Monkey - no one really breaks plates anymore - we throw flowers instead, and it's now illegal in Greece to break plates - (though his arrival is more than cause for celebration!) but you never know.

Today he tagged along as my mom and I ran errands today, and got to see a bit of life in Astoria. It was raining on and off this morning, but by the time we left it was quite sunny. I decided to lend him my dad's aviators, and he totally rocked them:
He climbed into my bag, and armed with the "Mamma Mia!" movie soundtrack, we were ready to go.
Our first stop was Staples. My mom needed to send a box to her brother in Florida. Monkey read aloud the address to me, while I entered it into the computer:
After that, he helped my mom and I pick out some new school supplies. I start grad school in the fall in Philadelphia, my sister is in her last year of college in NYC and my mom is going back to school for her bachelor's degree. So picking out the perfect paper clips, highlighters and post-its was the mission of the morning (especially when Staples has such cute paper clips, in an all-you-can-fill tupperware!):

Today's booty: a monthly calendar, highlighters with post-it flags, monogrammed post-its, more sticky flags (so useful with textbooks) and the most amazing preppy plaid 3-subject notebook:
After Staples, we headed over to Titan (pronoucned "Tee-TAHN" as opposed to the regular "tie-tan") Foods, which is a local institution. It is the largest Greek food store in Astoria, and one of the most well known in the Tri-State area. In fact, people from Connecticut charter buses so that they can do their shopping. Monkey was particularly intrigued by the olive bar (about 15-20 different kinds of olives):
And the yogurt display case; when I was a kid, I didn't like Greek Yogurt that much, but now that Fage has started importing to the US with honey and strawberry/cherry jam on the sides, I gobble it all up. Great for breakfast. Mmm...
Before we left, we got a picture together in front of Titan:
Something caught his eye; there was a poster of a person completely covered in face paint. I translated the sign for him:
It asks the viewer, "How Greek are you?" It's an advertisement for satellite television, so that you are still connected to the "patritha" or the "fatherland" as you can get the actual channels from Greece in addition to your local channels.

The next stop was mainly just for me and Monkey, since my mom had to go home: Curves. I joined recently during a fitness study trial with Avon because they had a good deal; I saw very good results, so I decided to stick with it. Boys are NOT allowed, but for today, my local Curves made a gracious exception for Monkey. He decided to try and fill out the measurements worksheet:
He was also able to try out some of the machines:
Monkey and I were both exhausted, so we headed back over to my house. Later in the evening, we and the rest of my family convened at a friend's house for a bbq, where he finally got to try a frappe. I was surprised that he is not bouncing off the walls at this hour (these things are a godsend for college students and workers)!