very simple

The cable guy finally showed up yesterday, after I had been without service for a week and a half (no such luck having my service mysteriously pop back on this time without intervention).  He ran some tests though, and discovered that it wasn’t that I got no signal, but that the signal was coming through at way too high a frequency (one which was OK for the TV/cable service, but not for internet).  So began the process of checking every connection all the way back to the junction box in the stairwell.

Which he opened up, took a deep breath, and noted that the connections in there looked like they hadn’t been updated in over 20 years.  I laughed and pointed out that I knew the previous tenant in my apartment (being that she’s my stepmom), and she moved in in 1978.  So she probably had cable installed around the same time that cable was installed in the building.  So he replaced all of the connections, and now I have shiny shiny internet again, and it’s actually much faster than it was before.  Like, near-instantaneous.  So I highly recommend that if you live in a really old building, you find out the last time your trunk line was updated, and if it’s before the internet existed, maybe see about getting that fixed!

Also, I didn’t even realize that there was a problem before, but when we put the TV back on to test it out with some high-def olympic coverage, I could swear that my picture was clearer than it had been in the morning.  I could just be imagining things, but I was actually taken aback (I think the non-word “whoa” might have been uttered).  

The third thing I have, of course, is a neckache, because I had to put all of the furniture back after the cable guy left and something went wonky in the middle of that process.  

Still managed to get a bike ride with my brother in afterwards. Although “with” is somewhat misleading as a significant portion of our ride involved me watching his red backpack get smaller and smaller, and him having to periodically stop and wait for me.  The best part about the ride?  The realization that I’m not actually that slow.  I’m only the slowest cyclist on the road at 6:30 in the morning.  At 5 in the afternoon on a Saturday, there are plenty of people who are more than willing to suck and get in my way while I quietly seethe about how slow they all are.

in going through my sitemeter referral logs, I noticed that there were quite a few people looking for things on this site who didn’t appear to be finding them, thanks to the move from iblog to wordpress.  While I’ve changed all of my internal links, I can’t change old references on other people’s websites, so here’s a short list of the most common things people appear to have been looking for and not finding.

If you’re looking for info on hardwood floors, tiny kitchens, or anything else apartment related, check out the home improvement or real estate categories, where I blogged my whole apartment buying and renovating experience.

If you’re looking for stuff on Italy, check out the milan category – I lived there for six months.  There are probably also a few posts on Rome, where I spent some time, in the more general travel category.  Also, pictures from Rome can be found here.

Pictures are sometimes inside blog posts, but are more often contained in my photo albums, listed on the photo album page, or here.  If you’re looking for pictures of the Dakota, check out the album titled NYC snow day 2006.

And don’t forget that if you’re looking for something in the blog, there’s a search box at the top of the page.

Man o man. Things have been a little bit crazy around here. Got home all of two and a half weeks ago, suffered jetlag to the extreme (kept waking up at 4 in the morning), and then got dragged into a crazy urgent work situation that involved staying until 2 or 3 in the morning almost every night last week (from Sunday to Sunday, I billed 101 hours!).

Needless to say, blogging (yet again) has been pretty near the bottom of my list of things to do. I haven’t even gotten around to downloading the last photos I took in Milan (one of my colleagues and I took a long lunch my last day there and climbed (Ok, took the elevator) to the top of the Duomo).

Other annoying things since I got home? I ordered some cabinets from Ikea to fit in a space that was exactly 26 inches wide. The website and my receipt both say that they’re 26 inches wide. Then the boxes came, and the labels said they were 26 and a half inches wide. Argh. Now I’m trying to figure out how to return them, because the only room that they even matched was the bathroom, and the only open space was the one I had ordered them for. So that was annoying. Not just because of the hassle, but because I really wanted some cabinets in that space.

Hmm. what else. Oh, my dad and my stepmom both got some flu/virus bug going around, so I’ve seen them all of once since I’ve been home, and that was the day I got home.

In better news though, I’m going to see Lucinda Williams at Radio City tomorrow night, so that’ll be fun (and convenient, as I work all of a block from RCMH). And I actually have plans on Saturday with friends. And I just got a save the date for a friend who is getting married in the Canary Islands. So that’s a good excuse for a trip (and here I thought the wedding I was going to in Florida next month was going to be the most exotic one this year!).

It’s too damn hot outside. It finally seemed to cool off a bit last night after a freak thunderstorm that came through the region (on the radio at about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, we had a "wind and hail" warning. Hail! in July!), and went down to the 70s. But today, it was in the 90s again. Which is nothing compared, to say, the southwest right now, but it still makes it really difficult to get anything done.

I’ve finished my first week of Italian classes, and I’m certainly starting to get the hang of it. I certainly won’t be fluent by the end, but I think that after four more weeks, I’ll definitely be functional. Now I just need to square away the rest of the aspects of this trip (there’s nothing quite like the bureaucratic black hole that is non-attorney staff at a law firm). I still don’t have a departure date, a visa, a place to live…you know, the essentials. But I can’t stress about it, because it’s not like I can go apartment hunting in Milan.

I should, however, start making a list of all of the stuff that I’m going to need to bring, arrange, etc. I’ll definitely need to forward my mail, stop my paper, turn off the cable, and do a whole bunch of other stuff that I haven’t even thought of yet. Oh, and clearly I need to go shopping (not that I ever need an excuse for that!).

I think my anxiety about this trip is manifesting itself in other ways though. For instance, today, I rearranged my hall closet so that it was roomier and more organized. Last weekend I replaced the toilet seat and handle on my toilet (they had previously been completely functional but boring white plastic), with a retro black seat to match the bathroom and a shiny chrome handle that (sort of) matches the rest of my bathroom fixtures. Oh, and I also spend last Saturday trying to figure out a better spot for my bicycle. After I took it out for a ride, I realized that the spot that I had it in made it really inconvenient to use frequently. Particularly since the prior setup required taking the front tire off so that it didn’t block a doorway. It’s basically in the same spot, but turned around and it seems to work. This was after significant trial and error, and the realization that the only way the bike was ever going to fit in the foyer would be if I mounted it on the ceiling. Damn you, doors that allow me to move from room to room.

Oh, and I finally called the reupholster to come and pick up my ottoman and chair. I only bought the fabric about 8 months ago!! It had become so bad that every time I saw my dad and stepmom, they’d harangue me incessantly about it. My dad would call me randomly just to ask if I had called the guy. I should point out that the ottoman was stained and the cushion had actually split on the chair, so this wasn’t just a cosmetic, oh, I’ll get to it sometime thing. It’s been needing to get done pretty much since I moved in. My apartment does feel mighty empty though.

I’m off to go do some italian homework. while sitting directly in front of my air conditioner.

Ciao!!

(and yesterday). My apartment is very drafty. The bedroom is the worst, thanks in large part to the air conditioning unit that is sitting in one of my windows – So much air was getting through, even with the cover that I put on, that my shades were actually fluttering (fluttering!) this morning. Not much I can do except put plastic window seals on all the windows. Unfortunately, when it gets a little warmer out, I have the reverse problem…

One of the quirks of living on the second floor of an 80-year old, 18-story building. Steam heat. They need to push enough heat through from the basement to keep the top floor heated to at least the minimum legal levels – Which means that when it’s not absolutely frigid out (like it’s been for the past few days), it can be a furnace in here. So the draft becomes a plus. Heck, I’ve been tempted to turn on the A/C.

Really, though – having to walk around my apartment wrapped in a blanket isn’t that big a deal. And I’m generally a naturally cold person too (so this may be partially in my head). But hey! I took some pictures of the apartment last weekend before I ventured out into the snow. I’m almost done furnishing (ordered a headboard and some more rugs from pottery barn today), but otherwise, I think I’m just about done. Here you go – they’re pretty self-explanatory (ignore the socks I forgot to pick up before taking the pictures!):

Now I just have to get around to hiring someone to reupholster the chair and the ottoman, and then I can decide that I hate everything and want to redecorate!

Ok. Not so much a week, but more like some random stuff that has gone on since the last time I posted.

I got a really unpleasant bacterial infection and now I’m on Cipro. Yum. You know it’s good when they’re giving you the stuff that they give to Anthrax victims.

In the span of two weeks, they’ve filmed not one, but two John Lennon-related movies on my street. There’s the one that I think is this one, but only because I thought I saw a number of folks lip syncing. They were set up for three days straight, in their hippie-60s gear. Before I started rooting around the internet, I thought it was some weird Hair remake. Then there was the one that Yoko Ono tried to prevent from filming, because, you know, they’re doing a location shoot recreation of her husband’s murder right in front of the apartment where she still lives. Freaks. Plus, Jared Leto is way too cute to have gained a whole bunch of weight to play Chapman. That was yesterday. I suppose this is what I get for living near the Dakota.

Oh, and I have to go to Mexico tomorrow (today?). For work. Just for a few days. I keep telling myself that, and I’ve truly only packed for travel through wednesday, but with the sickness, and the tiredness, and the cipro dizziness, I’m not exactly psyched in any event. Even though it does mean warm weather. Mmmm. Warm weather when I’m taking crazy antibiotics that require me to stay out of the sun. But hey, while I’m gone, my dad’s going to hang the shelves that I finally ordered for above my desk. Thanks Dad!! So that’s exciting.

We got our first measurable snowfall today, and within about 20 minutes it had turned into slush in my neighborhood, throwing off my somewhat ambitious morning when I walked outside and managed to step ankle-deep in one of those “invisible” puddles that always seem to form at NYC curbs. Oh well. Spending the weekend vegging in my apartment was just as nice.

Just the fact that I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything (OK, fine, I did do laundry this morning), or have to pack for another trip, was the nicest little break I could have gotten. Sure I still have some work to do (but I can probably get away with doing it tomorrow in the office).

I actually cleaned my apartment this week…well, “clean” is probably too strong a word – I tidied things up. Threw out boxes, hung real window shades on Wednesday night (meaning that my neighbor can no longer see directly into my living room), and packed up all the “contractor” stuff that needs to go to my parents’ barn in the country (I just don’t have room for paint cans, milk crates, plaster, etc.) I still have some recycling to throw out, but I’m thinking that the magazines may go in a box to my brother. I think he’d enjoy several months of New Yorkers and Entertainment Weeklys.

Anyway, I swear I’m going to start blogging more regularly now that I’m home. I promise. really.

Had the day off today for Yom Kippur. Of course, I’m still in Rome, so I didn’t get to go to temple, but I did fast (and just finished dinner). While I was reading the Times online today, I did my periodic perusal of the real estate listings to see if there had been any new apartments in my building put on the market.

There’s one which has an identical layout to my place, but has the crappiest furniture I’ve ever seen (and yes, I realize that this is just "stuff" from the realtors so that people can gauge what furniture will look like, but you’d think they’d pick something not, so, fugly, or lay it out in a way that didn’t cut off half of the living room).

And then I saw one thatt’s new to the market, and I’m pretty sure the building was still renovating it before I left (it’s a flip to market – the sponsor renovated it themselves to sell it for the first time). And instead of the standard kitchen renovation that the building has done to all vacated apartments to date, which involves standard sized (and ugly) white appliances and weird sink that is only two inches deep and sits on top of the dishwasher, I notice that they’ve got my stove! and the special extra-small dishwasher (of course they didn’t splurge for the one that actually matches the rest of the appliances, but still!)…the fridge has a similar look too, but it’s not the same (it can’t be, since my model was discontinued about 30 seconds after I bought mine). It’s a different layout generally, because it’s a 2-bedroom apartment, but it made me laugh.

I did notice when I was in the stairwell before I left that there was a box for the same stove that I had bought – now I know where it went!

I suppose enough building handymen (not to mention the super) saw what I did in my kitchen in all of their trips in and out to approve things and got inspired to do something a little bit nicer than what had been done to date.

heh. what’s funny is that I spent months obsessing over how to do the kitchen so that it wasn’t as space-wasting, inefficient, and ugly as the ones the building had done themselves. I guess they agreed with me.

I cooked dinner in my new apartment for the first time this week, thanks to the installation of kitchen plumbing and my stove. I’m still waiting for the electrician to come back and hook up the electrical part of the dishwasher, but other than that, and a few touch ups to the paint job here and there, it’s about done.

Just as a reminder, this entry has all the photos of what the apartment looked like before my dad and stepmom moved out…

Like I said, it’s almost there. It’s certainly "home" now, and I’m getting used to the new neighborhood. I did have to go back to the old ‘hood this morning for a haircut (I’m certainly not changing hairdressers for a 3-mile move), and it was kind of weird. Particularly to walk past my old building and realize that I had no reason to walk in…

This is the first day in quite some time where I actually refuse to do anything apartment-related (OK, fine, I’m doing laundry at the moment, but that’s something I’d need to do whether I was moving or not).

I got my new mattress yesterday, and then proceeded to go a little nuts at Bed Bath and Beyond…Just because all I needed were some new sheets, didn’t mean that I shouldn’t buy a new comforter, isotonic pillows, regular pillows (for the decorative shams), an anti-allergen mattress cover, and a whole bunch of other stuff that required me to have everything delivered. So, there was that. And I bought knobs for my cabinets, got my intermittently crashing cable box replaced, and received a fresh direct delivery with many cases of water and diet coke.

My countertop is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, which means that I should have a fully-functioning kitchen by the end of this week. So now, I finally downloaded all of those pictures that I took during the move and the immediate aftermath. Click on the image in order to see a larger version…

Here’s what my old apartment looked like before I moved out (with the lamp that the movers "lost" featured prominently amidst my stuff…

Then, once most of my stuff got moved out…

Oh, and here are some final photos of the construction next door – The additional four floors are nearly complete…

The kitchen, finally getting put into place…

The evolution of the bathroom…

I’d show you photos of the rest of the place, but the only ones I have are just pictures of boxes stacked up against the walls. The next installment will be what the apartment actually looks like now that I’ve unpacked (and put away) almost everything.