We got up early-ish on this Sunday morning and headed out to a cafe on Montague that I forget the name of. It was pretty good, but not the best breakfast ever -- we probably won't go back there...
Once we got back to the apartment, we spent the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon unloading the U-Haul. It wasn't too bad, excpet for the few really big awkward items, like the couch and one of the bureaus. The biggest pain ended up being the box spring, of all things. It's very light, but unlike the mattress, it is entirely inflexible, and for a while we really thought that we weren't going to be able to get it up the last flight of stair at all. Finally, we unscrewed one of the support bracketts for the banisiter, pulled the banister aside and forced the box spring up.
Once we had everything in the apartment, Stew and I took the U-Haul back to the nearest depot while Suzy and Jenn cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, unpacked a few boxes, and went to the enarby Tru Value Hardware to get a new shower curtain rod.
Stew and I managed to get to the U-Haul depot without much trouble, and the truck return went smoothly, except that there turned out to be a parking ticket tucked into the hood that I hadn't noticed. It seems that you aren't supposed to leave a commercial vehicle on our street overnight. Oops. Oh well, it was worth the cost to have it parked across the street from our front door overnight for easy unloading in the morning. (Though you think that cop who moved his car might have mentioned it...)
Stew and I spent a good half-hour walking back to the apartment from the depot, and by the time we got back and got cleaned up, the four of us were running late for the dinner reservation we had made for an early supper before the show we were going to see that night.
Once we got into Manhattan, we went straight to the theatre to pick up the tickets we had ordered online, then went to the restaurant to see if we could still get in and out before the show.
At Ruby Foo's they had no trouble seating us right away, and we ended up having a nice Japanese meal there, including some good sushi. They were very quick for us too, and we had no trouble getting out of there well before showtime.
We walked down to the theatre and got in line for Chicago! Jenn was, understandably, quite excited as we shuffled toward the door. We got inside and the first thing that struck me about the theatre was how small it seemed! I guess I'm actually quite spoiled by the Imperial.
Our seats were good, only a few rows back, off to one side of the right aisle. Once the show began, I was surprised just how close we were -- the vast amounts of skin and toned muscles going back and forth across the stage was somewhat overwhelming at first. Those were some fit and sexy people, and they weren't wearing much...
Anyway, the show was great, all-around and we all really enjoyed ourselves.
Oh, and I should mention that Billy Flynn was played by none other than Luke Duke himself, Tom Wopat. He was quite good -- maybe not the greatest leading man ever in a musical, and perhaps a tad over-the-hill, but he's LUKE DUKE, so it was cool. Also, the guy who played Amos, Kevin Chamberlain (who is one of those "hey, I know that guy" character actors), was really good. His version of Mr. Cellophane was quite good too.
After the show, we met up with Stephen and Sandra, who were in town fort he weekend and at the show aas well, and the six of us went for a drink and abite to eat -- I don't remember the name of the place, but it was only a few blocks away from Broadway and it was a nice place.
After a few drinks and a lot of talking, S&S went back to their hotel, and the rest of us hopped back on the subway to Brooklyn. A long day, but a good one!
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
The Move
We left Saint John at around 7:30am AST, heading for the border at St. Stephen in a packed U-Haul, with two cats in their carriers. When we crossed the border, they x-rayed the truck, then we went into the office and signed a customs declaration form. We showed them our passports and visas, and then off we went, no fuss, no muss! Sweet.
We met Jenn and Stew at the Irving just before the Airliner, handed off the kitties, gassed up, and off we went.
The drive to Stamford CT, where Jenn and Stew were leaving their car, was mostly uneventful. We had a GPS unit I borrowed from Steve, plus Suzy and I had made the drive just a few weeks earlier when we went apartment hunting. The weather stayed mostly clear, and cats stayed quiet (I think their spirits had already been crushed after two days stuck in an unfamiliar laundry room). We made several stops along the way for gas and snacks, but made fairly good time, getting to Stamford at around 6pm EST, if I remember correctly.
Jenn and Stew parked their car in the large garage by Stamford Station, and we left them there to get the train into Grand Central, and Suzy, the kitties, and I reprogrammed the GPS for our new apartment and hit the road again.
It didn't take long for the driving to get pretty busy heading into the city. We weren't going into Manhattan at all, but even so, the traffic was nuts. It was getting dark and raining sporadically, but we were still doing okay until the GPS directed us onto a parkway.
See, parkways are special highways near NYC that are for passenger vehicles only. We didn not know this. We saw a coupe of saign indicating no commercial vehicles, but didn't think our U-Haul qualified. We were wrong apparently. A few minutes onto the parkway, and just after passing under a bridge that had only about five inches higher clearance than the truck, a guy drove alongside us and started honking like mad. He also yelled at us to "Get off the road! Get off!" Honk honk honk. Shout shout shout. So we got off the parkway.
He signalled us to pull over, and then jumped out of his car and ran back to shout some more. He wasn't angry, he was just really worked up. I guess our out-of-town stupidity was too much for him. He shouted that we were nuts, that we were lucky we didn't go under a low bridge and wreck the truck or decapitate ourselves, and that we were really lucky the cops didn't see us and ticket us into the poor house.
Anyway, he directed us to the right highway, at which point the GPS didn't try to kill us again, and we eventually (after more nervewracking driving through a thunderstorm and heavy traffic) made our way to our new neighbourhood. We picked up our keys, found a place to illegally park the truck, and took the cats up to the new apartment.
It was grossly hot and muggy inside, thanks to intense heat and post-thunderstorm moisture outside, but we were happy to be there. Jenn and Stew arrived shortly after us, fresh off the subway from Grand Central. Our first priority was to get the AC units we had into the apartment and turn them on. It improved immesely in there after that.
We lucked out and a police officer who lives nearby moved his car for us so that we could pull the U-Haul in and park it properly. We unloaded a few more things from the truck, but quickly began to flag; it was the end of a long day of driving, and it was so hot and sticky outside, plus the stairway in the building was also very hot.
We took a break and ordered some Chinese take-out froma place called Lichee Nut, thanks to the menu left on the fridge by the previous occupants (that menu, along with the free blinds in the main room, almost cancel out the terribly dirty state they left the place in...). It was absolutely fantastic food, and not just because we were exhausted and hungry.
Fortified by the food, Stew and I hauled the matresses and suitcases upstairs and we called it a night.
We met Jenn and Stew at the Irving just before the Airliner, handed off the kitties, gassed up, and off we went.
The drive to Stamford CT, where Jenn and Stew were leaving their car, was mostly uneventful. We had a GPS unit I borrowed from Steve, plus Suzy and I had made the drive just a few weeks earlier when we went apartment hunting. The weather stayed mostly clear, and cats stayed quiet (I think their spirits had already been crushed after two days stuck in an unfamiliar laundry room). We made several stops along the way for gas and snacks, but made fairly good time, getting to Stamford at around 6pm EST, if I remember correctly.
Jenn and Stew parked their car in the large garage by Stamford Station, and we left them there to get the train into Grand Central, and Suzy, the kitties, and I reprogrammed the GPS for our new apartment and hit the road again.
It didn't take long for the driving to get pretty busy heading into the city. We weren't going into Manhattan at all, but even so, the traffic was nuts. It was getting dark and raining sporadically, but we were still doing okay until the GPS directed us onto a parkway.
See, parkways are special highways near NYC that are for passenger vehicles only. We didn not know this. We saw a coupe of saign indicating no commercial vehicles, but didn't think our U-Haul qualified. We were wrong apparently. A few minutes onto the parkway, and just after passing under a bridge that had only about five inches higher clearance than the truck, a guy drove alongside us and started honking like mad. He also yelled at us to "Get off the road! Get off!" Honk honk honk. Shout shout shout. So we got off the parkway.
He signalled us to pull over, and then jumped out of his car and ran back to shout some more. He wasn't angry, he was just really worked up. I guess our out-of-town stupidity was too much for him. He shouted that we were nuts, that we were lucky we didn't go under a low bridge and wreck the truck or decapitate ourselves, and that we were really lucky the cops didn't see us and ticket us into the poor house.
Anyway, he directed us to the right highway, at which point the GPS didn't try to kill us again, and we eventually (after more nervewracking driving through a thunderstorm and heavy traffic) made our way to our new neighbourhood. We picked up our keys, found a place to illegally park the truck, and took the cats up to the new apartment.
It was grossly hot and muggy inside, thanks to intense heat and post-thunderstorm moisture outside, but we were happy to be there. Jenn and Stew arrived shortly after us, fresh off the subway from Grand Central. Our first priority was to get the AC units we had into the apartment and turn them on. It improved immesely in there after that.
We lucked out and a police officer who lives nearby moved his car for us so that we could pull the U-Haul in and park it properly. We unloaded a few more things from the truck, but quickly began to flag; it was the end of a long day of driving, and it was so hot and sticky outside, plus the stairway in the building was also very hot.
We took a break and ordered some Chinese take-out froma place called Lichee Nut, thanks to the menu left on the fridge by the previous occupants (that menu, along with the free blinds in the main room, almost cancel out the terribly dirty state they left the place in...). It was absolutely fantastic food, and not just because we were exhausted and hungry.
Fortified by the food, Stew and I hauled the matresses and suitcases upstairs and we called it a night.
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