Moving Day

Today is moving day, so before going over to meet the movers at our new place we visited Morning Star Cafe on 2nd Avenue to make sure we have enough energy to last through all the stress of moving. We have been to several of these diner-type places since moving here, and this one is fairly typical, with a wide-ranging menu of diverse options that make it hard to believe that a single kitchen can possibly turn out an edible version of all the various choices. Breakfast is pretty straightforward, though, and that's when we usually end up at this kind of establishment.

One thing that impressed me here was the quality of the fruit salad they offer for breakfast. Usually what I get is a fairly unremarkable medley of melon (cantaloupe + honeydew), a couple of grapes, perhaps some pineapple, and then possibly a small quantity of more "premium" items like berries of some kind. I get the feeling that a large container of this preparation is made up and the beginning of the week from which individual portions are doled out (no pun intended) in ever lessening condition of quality until the beginning of the week rolls around again.

At Morning Star, though, the fruit salad seemed freshly made, at the very least this morning. And far from the usually heavy reliance on melon, this one was largely composed of nectarine and kiwi. There were also the usual suspects melon, pineapple, and grapes but combination and ratio was distinctive enough that I will remember it and return just on that basis. Little J rated their Belgian waffle with a thumbs up, and that will be the key recommendation allowing us to return as a family.

Woolworth Center

This afternoon was the long-awaited closing on our midtown condo purchase, which took place at our attorney's office in the Woolworth Center. The experience of purchasing real estate in New York has made similar transactions in Seattle and elsewhere seem like they have all the formality and structure of buying a set of hubcaps at a roadside flea market.

The experience we are used to is that the closing is a non-event. Usually we would go to the closing ourselves and meet with a bank representative whose only responsibility is to make sure that we sign all the documents in the right places.

Not so here. At this closing, all parties were actually present in the same room, including attorney and broker for both buyer and seller, as well as the bank representatives. As is apparently the custom, we all sat around a large table in a configuration that had us and our attorney on one side, the seller and their attorney (our "adversaries") on the opposite, and the neutral bank and real estate transfer representatives on either end. Makes sense for an important witness deposition in a product liability case, but it's the first time we have experienced it when purchasing a home.

Even more significant was the fact that they all seemed actually to be working out the final details of the agreement and monetary transfers, as opposed to witnessing a mere formality. Of course there was the usual marathon signing of documents, but at the same time that was going on there was simultaneous negotiation of important final terms and resolution of loose ends. I definitely had a stronger feeling than ever before that everyone was earning their respective commissions and fees.

Certainly the fact that the process here relies heavily on attorneys rather than solely on real estate brokers as is mostly the case elsewhere seems to make a difference. The lawyers add a dose of gravity and attention to detail combined with a deliberate approach that must be related to the fact that they don't receive a percentage-based commission (sorry, real estate brokers, you know it's true) that change the character of the whole operation.

In any case, after a long afternoon of alternating furious activity and waiting for reports of wire transfers, we were at last successful in getting the keys to our new place.

CPK Redux

This evening we found out that there was a hiccup in our pending real estate purchase, and so we had to pick a quick place to meet and talk. Since I was coming from work, for the sake of expediency we found ourselves at California Pizza Kitchen for the second night in a row. Tonight it served as our informal war room, from which my wife was placing and receiving calls furiously throughout dinner. I believe we all enjoyed the same entrees we had the night before, so truly it was an opportunity to compare and contrast service and food preparation on a very detailed level. All things considered, I would rate Tuesday night CPK better than Monday night CPK. The food preparation was nearly indistinguishable between the two, but the service was definitely better during the Tuesday version. Almost certainly this was due to Monday's inexperienced waiter as opposed to Tuesday's veteran.

Grand Central

After finishing our pizza we decided to walk the 20 or so blocks home rather than take the subway. On the way we stopped at Grand Central Station to see if there were any stores still open at 8:15. Banana Republic is our CPK of clothing, so for the moment it is still hard to resist the temptation to go in whenever we pass by one, which in Manhattan seems to be about every six blocks.

The Usual Pizza

We met after work at the California Pizza Kitchen near my office. This is nothing remarkable; in fact I have a feeling tha this pattern will be repeated many times over the coming months and years. Despite the fact that CPK was such a staple of our diet in Seattle, even after finding that there were locations close to both my new office and home I figured that New York has so many great pizza options that we would never want to go there. Alas, the tastes of a five-year-old are not easily changed, and the allure of the Hawaiian pizza too powerful.

On a follow-up note from a previous post, tonight when we ordered the waiter asked explicitly whether we wanted Canadian bacon or pepperoni on the Hawaiian pizza. The waiter was obviously new, so I have to assume that the difficulty we experienced last week was enough to motivate a change in policy and training.