thestagingarea.com

Quick, before I go to bed.

Busy day. Up @ 6 to go, yes, back to Ikea to order the new cabinet for the kitch and pick up some shelves (which look great, pix tomorrow – “sure, I’ve heard that one before” – shut up). Cabinet is coming 9/14 or something like that. Whoo hoo! Another day of multi-boxes from Ikea!

Got back home ’round 1:30. (Had no Swedish Meatballs, didn’t feel like having them stick around all day inside me screaming, “Let me out! Let me OUT!”) Found the blinds had arrived. Put up the shelves on the island, but first had to cut them – very badly, but fixable (bless you Ikea and your idiot-proofness!) – to size. Jamie installed the new upper rod in the closet to double the hanging space – for when I’m ready – no silly, just kidding – so we can move some of the clothes out of the computer closet!

Found it near impossible to install the blinds as there is an existing wooden header/valance which will be lovely at hiding the blinds when they’re in the up position once they’re installed, but makes the installation process difficult. Will be less difficult when I buy a bit extender thingy for our drill.

Found that we hadn’t thought out the solar panel for the living room project very well. The panels run on a track. The track needs to hang, in our case, above the decorative molding framing the window. We chose the 63″ length without accounting for the 6 or so inches extra needed to hang the sucker. So either the panels will be 6 or so inches short of the bottom of the window (don’t think so) or the unit is going back to Jacque Penné and we’ll just get two more blinds which, in the end, will be far less intrusive and the decision we should’ve made from the start.

Jamie hung some of our food/eating pix in the kitchen. The Mets won.

We went to The Riverdale Garden to make a reservation for my birthday dinner on Wednesday (45, how did that happen?!). It’s a great restaurant, really fresh, local ingredients, a fairly inspired chef, and for my b’day dinner, the 15 course tasting menu. So I like good food, so sue me.

Then a stroll to the Johnson Ave. area, the bustling(?) center of our little corner of the world. Stopped in at a great pub, An Beal Bocht Cafe where they’ve got Guiness on tap, a friendly staff, great music and an all-around good feeling. I sense we’ve found our new hangout.

After a couple of Guinesses or Guinei, as Jamie says, we stolled up to Johnson Ave. proper and had an excellent dinner at Salvatore’s of Soho. Jamie had the Penne Puttanesca, which he loved and I had the Italian Sausage and Broccoli Rabe, which was excellent. Definitely a go-back place.

Then we walked home, Jamie to bed and I to the computer. All in all, a brilliant, productive day!

Tomorrow we paint the floorboards. Fun…

Nite,
k.

Tags: Food, Jamie, Life, Riverdale // Add Comment »

Yes, finally. More pix have been added. More crappy phone cam pix. Scroll through to the end of the gallery to the 8-22 section.

Either click on Morgan or follow the Renovations tab at the top of the page to go to the gallery.

Okie doke, more later, now I sleep. Sleep and dream of our curtains arriving tomorrow. Dream on, they just shipped today. Ok, maybe Friday. Anyway, soon. And soon I’ll write about the move and the continuing saga of the kitchen design. Oh, you thought, looking at the pix (well, you will) that it was done? HA ha ha ha ha. No, not yet. There’s more to come. We haven’t yet installed the fountain! The dancing waters! No, just kidding; but there is more to come.

I gotta block Ikea from our computer, Jamie’s a madman.

Nite,
k.

Tags: Life, Moving, Renovations // 2 Comments »

Minutia. That’s what life is about right now. That’s what’s keeping me from writing. That’s what is ruling my life.

Where to hang this picture? How to arrange the drawers in the kitchen. (And I must say that they are arranged beautifully. Having made, just the other night, the soup previously mentioned in these pages, I found everything within easy reach, readily accessible. What a joy!) Where to put the tchotchkes, on a shelf, into storage, in the garbage? Curtains or blinds or shutters. (Solar panels on the main living room window and solar blinds on the rest was the JC Penney answer to that one.) Etc and etc and etc…

It was an eventful, busy day. Our super Super installed the new faucet on our bathroom sink. We were going to tackle it ourselves but found the rusted connections and aged pipes somewhat daunting. Our floor guy came by to install the threshold between the living room and the kitchen. This was a difficult task as the height along the 12 foot run varies between 1″ and a quarter inch less and a quarter inch more. Lots of shims and Liquid Nails and in the end, the thing looks beautiful. And finally, the arrival of the Sears plumber to hook the refrig up to the water so Jamie can finally have his longed for water-and-ice-in-the-door. I have to say, it’s quite lovely and convenient. As much as I bust his ass about it, I’m glad we went that route. And while all that was going on, J was doing laundry and I was installing knobs on the kitchen cabinets. We finished off the day with three margaritas and a really good meal at the local Mexican restaurant. I was pleased to discover that our previous, first, rather disapppointing, visit seems to be the exception; tonight was great.

And the the Mets won.

A very good day all around. Now Jamie’s in bed and I’m soon to follow ’cause:

Tomorrow, it’s again the first bus, for hopefully the last time for a long while, to Ikea to pick up some remaining whoo-ha’s. Ya know, a couple pully-outy things and more handles for the kitchen, some cool lights for the hallway, possibly yet another book case, though none of the ones lining our walls at the moment are Ikea, I do need somewhere better than the lovely milk crate to store my music.

So hopefully soon, I’ll remember to write about the actual move, which was exciting and wacky, as all moves are. And it’s about time I posted some new pics in the Renovations gallery; why, it’s almost a finished product! How’d that happen?

Lotta sweat, lotta bruises, lotta swearing and a whole lotta love. I can’t imagine having done this with anyone other than J.

I love my husband and I love my new home.

Nite,
k.

Tags: Food, Jamie, Life, Moving, Renovations // 4 Comments »

We’re crossing through the dust trail of a meteor. Swift-Tuttle to be exact.

Here’s a nice little piece about it all.

I love looking up into the night sky. I love seeing which stars and planets can shine brightly enough to make it through the city lights. I love the Perseids. I love seeing things that aren’t airplanes shooting through the sky. Ephemeral. Don’t blink, they’ll be missed. Imagining the wonder, and fear, of the pre-scientific age, at witnessing such a display.

In the early mid-90’s, I was working at a Summer Theater in CT. It was a converted barn in a tony, yet rural, locale. And nearby, was a horse farm on a hill.

This is where we used to go watch the Perseids.

Up on the hill, it was dark. No, I mean dark. You needed a flashlight to see the person three feet from you. And the sky was a huge expanse of wonder. Even when there were no meteors crossing it, the sky presented a bountiful feast of stars and planets laid out for your gazing pleasure.

And when the meteors were flying, ahhh, amazing. We’d sit there on the grass by the fence of the horse meadow and oooohh and ahhhhh like it was the most amazing Fourth of July display ever. And it was. Except of course, it wasn’t on the Fourth of July and the fireworks were nothing man could ever have created. We’d sit there watching the fire fly across the sky. Cool. Very cool.

And just as cool, from time to time, you would feel the earth faintly shaking, and then you would hear a rumbling. Then it would grow louder and stronger; freakishly increasing in strengh and volume in this darkest of places until it drowned out any conversation.

And then, at the fence, a mass of horses would appear. Snorting, pawing the ground, and then calm, some coming close, asking for a rub on the forehead. And we would stand there, with the horses and the meteors and the stars and planets, and snorting and other horsey noises. And it was magical.

And then, on some unknown-to-humans cue, the mass of horses would turn and run off to some distant part of the field. The roar of the rumbling hoof-falls deafening, then growing fainter and fainter until, having arrived at their destination, all was silent sky once again.

One of these days I’ll have to rent a car and have a Perseid reunion at that spot. It’s only two hours from where we live. And the view and the magic can’t be beat.

Nite,
k.

Tags: Ephemera, Life // 6 Comments »

I think Boo Radley lives in the next building. Well, not the next, because the building next to ours is the other half of the Co-op clump. It’s 4410 and 4414. Our building, 4410, was built in 1929, 4414 in 1931.

But it’s the single-family dwelling next to 4414 where Boo lives.

Actually, I don’t know who, let alone Boo, lives there. When we first moved into our new home, there was never a light on in the place. The flagstone sidewalk in front of Boo’s place all cracked and shifting, the lawn overgrown, the shades always closed.

Then about a week ago, I noticed, during one of my late-night walks, a light on, on the second story. Just a little glow. As the days have passed, a first floor light will be on, or a different second floor light. Always the blinds down. The other day, I noticed that someone, at some time had cleaned up the front yard a bit. But I don’t know who. Never saw ’em.

It’s odd the things that intrigue us, that catch our notice and fancy. I’m loath to find out who actually lives there; it’s probably someone who’s resident part time, just getting the place back into order. How incredibly mundane.

I like thinking that I live next, or next to next, to Boo. That some night on one of my walks, I’ll run into this person, look into their eyes and know: they’re Boo. “Hey Boo,” I’d say, in my best Scout immitation.

They, of course, would look at me as though I were quite off my rocker and cautiously move on.

Here’s hoping I never meet them. I like the illusion.

And maybe this will explain something, my friend Nath led me to this personality test. It’s pretty interesting; I know, there are thousands of these things on the net, but this one has a nice, different presentation. According to them I am a “Considerate Inventor”. Here’s my PersonalityDNA (their little gimmick).

I’m not going to post the rest of the report, it’s a bit long, but quite accurate.

Go ahead, try it.

Nite,
k.

Tags: Life, Movies, Moving, NYC // 1 Comment »

The night air is redolent of it, them.

Ok, so we’re not in Manhattan anymore.

Sitting here, checking my email before going to bed, the full moon rolling past my window, I became aware of a distinctly suburban, even rural, scent: skunk. It had been mentioned by my neighbor that we had skunks nearby. He was going through a litany of resident wildlife, varieties of insects, snakes and furry creatures. I believed him, but really paid it no mind.

Tonight though, I was transported back to the home were I grew up. We were by no means out in the sticks, but back then, before those cookie-cutter, pre-fab communities started mowing down the corn, there were plenty of fields and forested areas nearby. Our yard was regularly visited by skunks, racoons and pheasants. How cool it was to look out the kitchen window and see a pheasant walking through the yard. Alas, no more. Too much development. Too many ugly houses displacing the fields and forests and the creatures that live therein.

I guess up here, in The Bronx, these creatures have had plenty of time to acclimate to their competition and usurpers. Boldly they go, roaming about by night, mindless or rather, not minding, the nearness of humanity. In fact, as evidenced tonight, thriving on it.

There are some stray cats in the neighborhood. People leave piles of cat food in the street, by the curb, not in the middle, not as some cruel ploy to get the kitties flattened on our lovely dead-end street. Now truthfully, these cats probably would do much better eating the wild game that I’m sure abounds up here; mice, rats, what have you. But humans, in their often misguided desire to be kind, persist in their foolishness. The cats certainly don’t mind.

Nor do, it appears, the racoons.

Tonight, smelling that long forgotten perfume of startled skunk, I decided, perhaps foolishly, to take a brief walk outside and feel out the nabe. It is so quiet up here. It was quiet, relatively speaking for Manhattan, in our old Inwood nabe, but nothing like this. Up here, it’s crickets and night birds and wind. Frighteningly similar in atmosphere to where I grew up.

Having had my fill of the night air, I headed back to the apartment. And there they were.

Two enormous racoons, happily chowing down on the kitties kibble. They were, to say the least, unfazed by my presence. We looked at each other and then, having acknowledged each other, they returned to their dinner and I to my home.

If one is to judge the coming winter by nature’s signs, that these racoons have put on so much body fat by late July should indicate that we’re in for a tough one. More likely though, it bodes nothing; they’re porkers ’cause the food supply is easily come by; an unwitting donation by humans doing “good” deeds.

I think I’m gonna like it here.

Nite,
k.

Tags: Life, NYC // 5 Comments »

As you can see, Jamie set up the computer today. Yes indeedy, I’m sitting in, or rather outside of, in the hallway to be exact, the inside-the-apartment hallway, not the hallway of the apartment building, but anyway, outside of what was formerly a nook, niche, an indent in the hallway turned, through one of the apartment’s past renovations, into a closet. But it is no longer a closet. It is now a closet and a computer room.

Yep, my keyboard which serves as our computer desk and also my midi controller on the rare occasion when I actually have time to make some music, is in the closet with the computer and all the peripherals atop and under. Our wonderful Super fixed the formerly non-grounded but now down to earth, outlet that we found in the closet. It was the original 30’s outlet; like a good roller coaster, cool and scary all at the same time.

I’ll have to get a pic of the set-up tomorrow and post it. Until then, you’ll have to do with the 12 new pics I posted in the Renovations gallery. They start with a view of the newly refinished floor, a thing of beauty.

Some day soon, I’ll write of the adventures of the move. But at the moment, it’s late and I’m still tired from last week. LOL Time to join Jamie in slumber-land.

Nite,
k.

Tags: Jamie, Life, Moving, Renovations // 3 Comments »

One day left.

We’ve taken the rugs up to the apartment. The floors look beautiful.

Jamie is disconnecting the computer so we can take it up to the new place ourselves. He is not going to hook it up again in a timely fashion so I guess I’ll write again on Tuesday with a report of the rigors and horrors encountered on Monday.

Going to pain the baseboards now.
k.

(It’s now Friday. I’ve just re-read this and while I’m sure it did indeed hurt the trees from which the baseboards were made, I had no hand in their mutilation. I did, however, would the above had read, “Going to paint the baseboards now”, make them pretty. k. 7-27)

Tags: Jamie, Life, Moving, NYC, Renovations // 2 Comments »

Two days until the move. Too many boxes. Too stupid.

It’s two days until the move. Tomorrow (Sunday – day 1), our Godson’s family is picking up the steel kitchen baker-type shelves (3) that I hate to give up, have no place for in the new place, and in the end, am happy are going to someone we know.

They have also kindly offered, they have a truck, to cart some stuff up to the new place for us tomorrow, in advance of the move. This is great; we’ll take up the rugs, probably the refrigerated stuff, maybe some other things. Tim, Deana, Olivia, our Godson Zane will get to see the place for the first time. And we’ll all get to see how the refinished floors look.

This is all happening at 8AM. I know, no deliveries on weekends. Technically, I guess that this will be a delivery, but really, it’s more of a drop off. I feel fine with this. I see no possible upset occurring. I could be wrong. Life goes on.

So, boxes, boxes, boxes. I mentioned before that our living room is a maze of boxes. It is now more so. One must weave to get from the kitchen to the bedroom, like wading down a particularly rocky, meandering stream. Now we’ve got to figure out what’s going to the apartment in the moving van, what’s going to the apartment in the truck we’ve rented for Monday, and what’s going to the storage space. That should be fun.

Too stupid. Yes, I did about the dumbest thing I’ve done in ages today. Jamie found our old Palm Pilot and we decided to get rid of it. But what of the data still resident? The CC #’s and personal info? Jamie suggested a hammer, but both of those are up at the new place. I took the case apart and pulled out the board thinking I’d pry the chips off and mash each one with a scissors or something. Then I saw my high-powered creme brulee torch. Oh no I didn’t. Oh yes I did.

I took the torch to the board, frying the chips and couplings and all that lay resident in that particular Palm neighborhood. As Jamie came running into the kitchen yelling, “What the hell are you burning in here?!”, I also realized that I had released a ton of toxicity into our immediate environs. Jamie quickly opened the windows and set up the exhaust fan and we went to the room farthest from the toxic carnage and hid.

We both felt pretty physically crappy after that little scheme of mine. Hopefully, it didn’t take too many years off our lives. We are all entitled to a few incredibly stupid acts in our lives, I think the burning of the motherboard constituted the use of two or three of my gimmies.

So later this evening, not having enough toxicity in my system, I decided to clean the bathroom one last time before the move. Now my lungs are filled with Palm innards and Tilex fumes. I think I’ve done enough damage to myself for one day. Hopefully I’ll wake up tomorrow.

Nite,
k.

Tags: Jamie, Life, Moving, NYC // 2 Comments »

Three days until blast off from Inwood, Monday being day 0, moving day, blast off.

There is still much to do in the new place. This week has been frustrating because, if you’ve been reading you know, the floors are being refinished and we haven’t been able to get into the place to do anything.

I ran up to the new place today to collect the mail (more final season of Deadwood discs from Netflix) and hopefully sneak a peek at the floors. Alas, the floor guys had the door taped shut to keep the fumes from seeping out into the hallway, so no visual updates on the interior of the apartment.

Today is beautiful, coolish with very little humidity, that’s a nice change from the last few extremely humid and rainy days. That should help the floor drying/curing process along nicely.

It’s my Summer Friday off from work (every other Friday, in exchange for working an extra 45 mins the other 4 days of the week) and I should be finishing the packing. So far, I’m not doing that, although I expect to do some packing when I finish writing this so I don’t feel that I’ve been a slug for the entire day. On the other hand, I kind of feel I deserve to give myself a day of sluggishness after the last few weeks. Sometimes you must give yourself the gift (sin) of sloth to stay sane.

The maze of boxes that is our living room is a quietly smirking reminder, though, that indeed, I should be adding to the cardboard confusion. Ok, ok, I’ll finish the kitchen; all the heavy things, the small appliances and such that are the bane of a mover’s life.

Hopefully I’ll have the kitchen packing finished before Jamie gets home. He won’t mind if I haven’t, but I’ll project my guilt at not having done it onto him and we’ll both be cranky. Funny how guilt works. You cast guilt away from yourself, trying to make it someone else’s issue so you can be free of it. “Stop making me feel guilty about…” It’s almost always our own issue, and most of the time, imagined, without cause or need. Although, never feeling guilt would be worse because sometimes it is indeed warrented. Better to find a happy middle guilt ground and try to discern what of it is deserved (and act to resolve/restitute/reconcile) and what is simply ego-driven self-flagellation (and just get over it – there are far better ways to use your mental ectoplasm).

Well, this post has spun off into onion-peeling. And now, I can either finish packing the kitchen of my own, happy volition because I want to get it done, or I can sit on my butt and play happily with the Wii.

And I’m not going to make Jamie make me feel one way or the other about either of my choices.

The countdown is on.
k.

Tags: Jamie, Life, Moving, NYC, Renovations // Add Comment »