Showing posts with label Nightmare Before Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nightmare Before Christmas. Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2013

New York is home but it ain't mine no more.

The ABF  truck was dropped off at my house in TN last Thursday just a few hours before my Mom and I arrived. Which was perfect timing since it allowed us to start unpacking it as soon as we got settled from the drive. We unpacked the truck for several hours until it was about half empty and then called it a night since we were tired from the drive. The next morning we had some of the NY bagels we brought with us and then started unpacking again. The night before we had taken out the furniture and we were now up to boxes of various wonderful things that I had found in my attics that at this point had survived so long I couldn't see just trashing them or giving them away. I mean all kinds of wonderful collectible things from the 80s and 90s; for example this entire collection of Nightmare Before Christmas action figures (Tim Burton's finest accomplishment).



It was another successful packing job. The only shift involved three boxes at the very back. One box had suffered a partial collapse and the two boxes on top had fallen forward. Luckily my wall of cardboard and bungee cords did their job and prevented any damage. About half way through Friday we finished unloading the truck. I called ABF to let them know we were done and it was ready for pickup. They picked it up sometime around six pm. I have nothing but good things to say about ABF. The drivers were all nice, the truck was dropped off and picked up in a timely manner, and the pricing was very fair. They definitely get a highly recommend from me!

The next step in the moving weekend was to make a few trips to my Mom's condo. We had packed a lot of kitchen items that we aren't using right now and some of my Great Aunt's things which will eventually be in my Mom's condo as well as my Mom's patio furniture. So while we had the time we took what we could over. It resulted in my truck looking like a vehicle you change lanes to get away from quickly!


That was how we spent the rest of Friday driving back and forth between the condo and my house and unpacking what we could in the condo. We stopped at a nice place near where Meghan works called the Brewhouse. It is an open air restaurant and since TN has nice warm weather for most of the year I can see this being a good spot to stop for karaoke and pub trivia!

Saturday we ran a bunch of errands and made some more trips to the condo. We did have time for a little fun. First I got a tablecloth for my dining room table and the room is starting to come together very nicely!


We also built our pumpkin witch. This was something we always did as kids. My Mom got the idea from a vegetable store she remembered as a kid in Brooklyn. Every Halloween the owner would make one and display it as a decoration.



It is a quick and easy decoration and very fun to do with kids, well I had fun as a kid. We used lettuce for her hair, bread and grapes for her eyes, a green pepper for her ears, red pepper for her lips, candy corn for her teeth, a raisin for her nose wart, and an Italian pepper for her nose. Also in between errands we stopped by a party being thrown at one of the empty lots in the development. It was a good chance to meet some of my new neighbors and we discovered that the area gets almost 300 trick or treaters.

Then I had dinner in my house on my birthday which coincidentally was the year anniversary of my being a home owner. By next year I will be permanently living there and not just visiting. That night we went into Nashville (I mean come on it was a vacation we had to have a little fun). First we stopped at The Wheel in downtown for a shot of fireball whiskey, which um...... my Mom did not appreciate. Then we moved up Broadway to The Full Moon Saloon. We liked the second bar (and band) much better and we stayed there for the rest of the night.

Sunday we started back to NY. Unfortunately so did the remnants of tropical storm Karen. As we were driving back the tornado warnings were moving with us. At one point my Mom said "We need to have a plan for if we see a tornado." I answered "I have a plan there is a video camera in my backpack and I can take pictures with my i-phone." Luckily we didn't see any tornados though there were some threatening looking clouds and a lot of drenching rain.

When we got back to NY it seemed to really hit. The house is mostly empty and strangely silent. My real home is in TN. This is just where I live right now.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

ABF Freight U-Pack

So last time we went with Packrat and this time we tried U-Pack. It's a bit different. Whereas Packrat was a small pod container this time we got a 26 foot trailer with a ramp.



It was dropped off around 8 pm on Friday. Saturday I loaded things we already had packed in our garage and our attic. On Sunday I loaded up things from up stairs, the kitchen and our living room. Monday I finished cleaning out the crawl space attic. Tuesday was a quick break from packing and Wednesday my Mom's room and the shed got packed up into the truck. I packed it tight and all that stuff took up 13.5 feet. Now with ABF you pay by the space you use (the rest of the truck is used for commercial shipping). Since we had the space though we decided to use it. I bought two pieces of 4x8 plywood and bungee corded it to the walls to hold the first 13.5 feet of items together. Then I threw in some patio furniture:



Now I was ready for the last few pieces. I put in Meghan's bike, my Mom's bike and my bike. Then added our dining room table. Then I (by "I" I mean a wonderful friend and I) added a giant heavy window seat. Trying to get it downstairs was an adventure and probably something I should not have done alone. When I told my Mom I got it down she was surprised. I asked her how the workmen got it upstairs. She told me they built it up there :-)  Yeesh.

When I finally finished there wasn't an inch to spare.


It was pretty interesting going through my attic and finding things I hadn't seen in years but as soon as I saw them so many memories filled my mind. We had a lot of really great finds over the weekend one was animated Teddy Ruxpin and Grubby. Another was the Nightmare Before Christmas action figure sets. I also got my American girl (Molly) and Meghan's (Kirsten). I found my Mom's old cribbage board and I look forward to playing many games of cribbage (perhaps my favorite card game after hearts). I found some dinosaurs that Meg and I played with for hours upon hours as kids as well as scores of mcdonald's happy meal toys from the mid 80 and on. It is definitely going to be fun to unpack and add these wonderful memories to my collections.