Dear lurker,

You’ve seen me. I know you have, the Web traffic results don’t lie. Yet you’ve never pressed that little comment button to say, “hello.” Please don’t be afraid to come out of the “I read your blog” closet.

After all, if you’re going to harass us about not updating lately, then what’s the big deal about the positive reinforcement when we do?

But don’t worry, Curtis. If you’re not into it, that’s ok. We’ll let you keep lurking around in the safety of anonomity.

… Oh, and in the spirit of a little NYC news, the boxes are all empty. We had our first out-of-town guest this weekend (yay Mike!) and are hoping to deck our first full-size, live Christmas tree this week. I’ve started stringing the mice food already (I mean the popcorn).

Dave .. you asked for pics, as soon as I can figure out how to embed a video, I’ll add, but in person visits are so much better!!

The bells are singing!

What *is* that sound? Radio wasn’t on. We don’t have cable. … So up to the window, he made a mad dash. Looked around and threw up the sash.

When what to our wondering ears did resound, but the tintinnabulation of bells making the most beautiful sounds.

It turns out that St Martin’s church, the church on our corner, has a carillon bell tower containing over 40 bells that can (and are) played by a carillonneur.

Thanks to blogger Sense and the City, we now know a little more about this piece of our new neighborhood.

Looking forward to learning more. If we can record the chorus of the bells and post it, we surely will!

Last but not least ..

We owe you a much more detailed update of all that’s transpired – and photos of the journey – but as I wipe the sleep from my eyes this morning, I thought I would share the great news – at 12:15 am this Thursday morning (Wednesday night), Conrad and I unpacked our LAST box.

Movers coming back today to pick up the boxes (and giving us a $50 credit for getting them back, good work Conrad); Osmon ‘rents arrive closely thereafter for their first inspection of our new digs.

Progress. It’s slow-going and hard-earned, but feels to great seeing it around the bend.

Moving, part 2. AKA: packing

Packing lasted late into the night / early morning. Around 2a.m. we hit box number 60 .. why stop there? The stress of the 8:30am arrival of our movers, not shakers was mounting … so we persevered till about 4am before clearing the boxes off the bed and crawling under the covers for a “nap.”

Conrad’s take 2 at the floors worked MUCH better. The first floor sander he tried was WEAK. Not good. So day 2 was spent with the gouge-the-floor-out barrel sander. And it went WELL. Apparently, now we have nice looking naked floors. Unfortunately, the super came a-knocking at 5:45 “reminding” Conrad that “work” ends at 5:30. So around he sat until 10 for the rental guys to pick up the sander, all while staring at the 6 inches of flooring around all the edges that the sander COULDN’T reach. And the realization that he’d have to rent yet another tool to get the edges sank in.

So we were up at 6am today so Conrad could be at Home Depot at 7 (note: he was actually there at 7:01am – I think we’ll call that on time) and be back before the movers arrived around 8:30. He did. They did. They packed. They helped break down some of our wall units & entertained us with the sound effects of shrink wrap … heck, they even shrink wrapped our mattress!

Now the apartment-on-a-truck is bound for the Brooklyn warehouse. Conrad’s up doing the edging. I’m about to present at a conference. Tonight we crash. Tomorrow we clean. Friday we return the keys for our apartment and begin to make Harlem our official home.

Will we make it? Are we doing the right thing? Are we happy? … As my magic 8 ball says, All signs point to Yes.

Moving.!?*()…

I have no idea how to close that sentence .. it’s a flurry of emotions. Here’s a short recap:

Wednesday afternoon, Day 1

- pre-Closing: Visit bank, withdraw more money than we knew we could; depressed it isn’t more as we’re in the middle of a market collapse and the stocks we cashed in were at an all time low when we cashed them last week, but continue to drop lower .. does that make it a good loss then?

- Closing: Everyone in the same, warm room. Seller’s lawyer is a jerk. Wish we had him instead. Somewhere in the world, a forest is crying. Keep signing. Keep signing. Keep signing. Keys? Ok.

- Arrival: No furniture. No chaperones. Champagne. Dreams of tomorrow. Literally, tomorrow .. since we closed 3 weeks later than we hoped.

… also, my mom has major back surgery.

Thursday – Day 2: Planning the move. And the utilities. And the movers. And picking paint colors. And sending a plea out to NYC friends to help paint on Sat!! 8:55pm – get kicked out of Home Depot; in search of dinner; talk to mom, she’s wigggling toes! 10:30pm Try paint picks on the walls. 11:30pm – Uh oh, we don’t like 2 out of 3, that’s $40 of “test” paint down the drain (not literally of course).

Friday – Day 3: Noon – Open house in our current apartment – kicked out to Starbucks. Find a paint store with pre-mixed mini’s of Benjamin Moore. 6pm – Paint take 2. Love it. Yes!! Now we need paint. And supplies. Drive to Home Depot. By car. To the Bronx. Traffic. Store closes at 10. Lots to buy. Their color matcher is out of order. Stress mounts. Head to another HD. Success! Push OVERFLOWING trolley and arm loads of stuff to register 10 minutes after store closing. Check-out clerk hates us, nicely. Proudly present 10% off coupon. $80 off. Sweet! Find a diner. Conrad eats possibly the worst fish & chips ever cooked. Awesome. Drive home. Because that’s what it is now: our home. <Euphoric moment> Shoot. It’s late. Tired. Unload mini. Impress neighbors with just how much you can cram into a mini. Survey our new palace. And all the goods. Dred mounts. Need sleep.

Day 4 (Saturday): Head to Harlem. Wash walls in prep for painting. Turns out there are a lot of walls. Lay out drop cloths & supplies. Find Jimbo’s – get great breakfast sammiches and coffee. Hope they’ll learn to know us there – odds are good. Tape off molding & ceilings. One ladder. Shoot, sharing makes job go slow. 2 helpers arrive – Joe & Marty. Rock on. First coat of paint takes a long time. Pizza helps. Marty puts in overtime. Conrad and B finish 2 coats, remove masking. LOVE the colors. Even the veuve-inspired orange bathroom. Tired. LONG day. Tomorrow: pack.

Day 5 (Sunday): Plan to head to Camp Osmon to visit mom. Pack overnight & off-to-MA stuff. Start to pack. Shoot… no packing paper. C goes in hunt. Takes a LONG time. Frustrating. Comes home like a sherpa with about 50 pounds of paper strapped to his back. Pictures will follow. ‘Rents call & ask we come later. Frustrated: if I was a boy, driving alone would be a non-issue, but not worth stressing them out – so agree. Argggg. Stubborn. Head up to Harlem for delivery of floor sander. Mask shoe-molding. Drape kitchen in plastic to protect from mountains of sawdust. Remove doors to rooms. Shoot – tired again!

Day 6 (Monday): SANDING day — yay! And packing day — boo. C takes Monday off from work & sands floors. B works from home. Really works. No time for packing. Movers coming on Wednesday and so far only 6 boxes packed. Stressed. C calls – floor sanding worked, sorta. B goes to condo to check out the work. Darn. Sander gets up finish but not evenly. Much of the stain is still down. Much deliberating. Choices: Pay professionals; Attempt a dark stain & hope it doesn’t look awful; Rent a more aggressive drum sander; call it rustic, put down clear coat – live with it and get lots of area rugs. Decide to rent the crazy-intense drum sander and try again tomorrow. Return home. Pack. A lot. On a roll now. Sorta. 25 boxes and only most of living room done. Need to be up by 6 to get to HD by 7 to rent sander — call it a night ~ midnight. Stress mounts .. clock ticks.

Day 7 – Tuesday: Early. Rain. Move car. Find out alternate side parking was suspended. C goes to HD for new rental. Delivery arrives in Harlem around 10:30, by noon-thirty, at least one room is down to raw wood floors. YAY! Now we’re on a roll with the floors. Hopefully we don’t screw them up too badly. 2pm. Kitchen almost packed .. boxes piling up around us.

… So that’s where we are now. Hope we make the 8:30am deadline on Wednesday, as that’s when the movers arrive!

Send poems, prayers and promises

The day it all began! Ironically, also one of my fav rents pics.

My mom went under the knife today for back surgery. Thanks to everyone who’s sent prayers and positive thoughts for phase 1 (evaluation) and phase 2 (operation). We’re now heading boldly into uncharted waters … recoveryation … or in other words, “Mom, sit STILL.” It’s my father who will need the prayers for that one (though I’ve recommended hard restraints as a more effective measure).

Seriously though. If you want to send a card, she’d love to hear from you — email if you don’t have their address & I’ll set you up. Alternatively, e-hugs delivered via comment to this blog post can be shared as well… so positive thoughts in any form are greatly appreciated.

Haarlem living

Congratulations to our friend Kyra who just bought a condo in Haarlem, of the Netherlands.

… We just bought a condo in Harlem, of Manhattan!

We are now proud owners of 1,165 square feet … our own tiny piece of the rock. More soon – but we have the keys and the title to prove it!

Economic advice in tough times

I recently received the following e-mail forward from a friend. I haven’t checked the math, but the concept made me shaky… enough to share.

If you purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago you would have $49.00 left.

With Enron, you would have had $16.00 left of the original $1,000.00.

With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND …

Living like a local and taking wrong turns

We had a great weekend in the city. Crisp, autumn air has rolled in, and we’re feeling fall.

On Friday, we called around to get a quote for some movers. Conrad found one that is more green than others (bio-diesel trucks and loaned plastic packing bins instead of carboard boxes). That means the boxes I stole borrowed from the office are laying around still unpacked as the guy from “Movers not Shakers” is coming on Monday to give a real quote and he needs to assess our goods. Soooo … that meant the weekend we had allocated for packing was now free. We watched our budgets, but we also watched the city … this moments are the ones that make us remember how much we love living here. Here’s some of the flavour, and links if you want to dig deeper yourselves..

But more than this, it was a reminder that sometimes it’s just best to get lost. Because though we planned a few stops on our visits, it was the surprise turns that really enriched our adventures. So next time you’re out and about, don’t be afraid to get lost, you never know what you’ll find.

Friday night:

• Game night! With friends out of town and others doing chores, we decided to save money and stay in. We ate left overs, and played games that ended in O .. Rummy-O and UnO.

Saturday:

• Lunch in the West Village - a quick Google search of good eats yielded a place we would have walked right by and barely blinked: WestVil. I got a plate full of veggies, and Conrad, hot dogs and sweet potato fries!
• Banksy - infamous British graffiti artist – hits NYC. We made the trip down to the West Village to see his installment … a first in anamatronics / no graffiti … called “The Village Pet Shop and Charcoal Grill” … pictures don’t describe, you’ll have to watch on You Tube. This was a strange site. About 20 people gathered on the street gave it away as something awry, but really, there were no signs that clued in passerby’s, so it was hard to be in the know unless you knew in advance, you know.
• Three lefts and a right. The rest of the day was spent ’splorin. It’s our favorite NYC activity. We just meander around and wander into new neighborhoods to see what we see. We are also addicted to the NYC street fair. So we found two of ‘em and walked through. Got some baked goods, tried a new coffee shop (where they transformed the cream atop of Conrad’s coffee cup into a spider web!!) and found a church bizarre with some fun wool hats .. 2 for $5! (Not to mention an awesome wooden console table for $30 .. unfortunately, already sold.)
• BIRTHDAYS! I love em!! So happy birthday Natasha, thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate!! Oh, and to play with a Wii Fit. Love that too! When Conrad and I give up Cable TV, I think this may be something we put the savings towards acquiring

Sunday: A sleep-in, lazy kind of day

• Lower East Side Apple Day & Go Green festival on … of course .. Orchard street! The theme was green, so many vendors were hawking enviro-friendly wares, or telling you how to compost from within the cramped confines of a NYC apartment, and the like. We bought pork and pickles. Mmmm. Still full.
• And I forgot to mention, we walked the wrong way out of the subway. That was awesome … we found two great things …
  1. China town borders a lighting and light-bulb district! Who knew?? (Many restaurants in the city have really neat old-style light bulbs we’ve been envying for a while, now we know where to find them)
  2. Polo on a bike! … or what I’ve now learned from wikipedia is called Urban Cycle Polo. Yeah … someone chasing a ball, towards me, with a stick, and of course, no helmets to be found. It was VERY fun to watch (but not something I’m going to rush to sign Conrad up for anytime soon! :0)
• Lower East Side BBQ dunch (we were aiming for brunch, but we ate so late I can’t imagine eating again!)
• Tour of the neighborhood. We felt like we were in a foreign world. This little pocket of Orchard Street on a Sunday was very slim on tourists, high on 08’s version of beatniks, and many cafe windows surrendering the warm interiors and secret dens of the dinners within, tempting us to join them. Alas, we declined. After exploring a few more blocks, we called it a day and retreated to our own nest for a hot cup of tea and to recharge our batteries in preparation for the week ahead.

Preview of the week ahead. If .. if .. things go right .. this week will hold a walk through of a new home, a closing, and a new set of keys for our key ring. Cross fingers & stay tuned!

Inspiring acts of simplicity

Our friend Barry bought a building. Yay Barry! It is one of the few remaining old buildings in downtown Durham. Downtown Durham is still kinda scuzzy. But not to Barry. Barry sees it as the wonderful Oz; yes, maybe a little abandoned, maybe the munchkins look a little rough around the edges, maybe some weeds are peeking up in between the road … But Barry has a vision. Barry is buying a little piece of the magic, weeding the road to unveil the shinny, golden, yellow brick road.

Barry, we are drooling over your feverish, fearless (reckless?) pursuit of your dreams.

But it’s more than that. You see, Barry is one of those dreamers who, wants to make a profit on his saavy investment, sure, but he really wants to clean up those Munchkins and make Oz a happy place for everyone once again. And that is what makes Barry and his dreams so inspiring. Barry will invite you in, give you a tour, help you weed the garden and then send you home with a bushel of mint and an invite to come back anytime and take what you need.

In true Barry spirit, he and his friends decided to paint the ugly boarded up front of his new building. (Remember, Barry’s bought a dump and is painfully … I mean painstakingly restoring and reglamorizing it into a mixed commercial-residential main street kinda place.) Anyway, they didn’t just decide to paint it. They decided to let the community paint it. So they gathered spray paint and ladders and offered them both to random passers-by. The result? Believers. People who want to join you in the exitement to make it better. Make it lively. Make the changes we all want to see in the world.

So this one’s for you Barry. For bringing sparkle to the dinge. Laughter to the children. Inspiration to the work-weary.

Oh, and if you want to follow his adventures, and I encourage you do, read on at www.308westmain.com (also linked permanently from the right side).