A great birthday

I've been out at the house for a while, all thru Thanksgiving, but I wanted to go into the city for a little reconnaissance. I sold the apartment (!) and part of the deal was that all the furniture went with it. But after some thought I got seller's remorse for a few pieces that I've grown fond of, namely two wooden spool lamps that I bought on Ebay years ago and my Knoll desk chair. That chair retails currently for over $1600 a piece, I wasn't about to give it away. But what to do? Then I got a brainstorm: why not substitute my sister's desk chair for the Knoll one and buy some look-a-like lamps to replace the ones I want to keep? I checked with my realtor, David. He gave it the all-clear. He said the contract states "furnished" it doesn't say with what furniture. And just to cover ourselves we agreed that the party line was that when I accepted the first offer (ultimately it went to some higher bidders) I started getting rid of stuff because that deal didn't include the furniture. So I decided I'd better replace the items with substitutes to honer the contract.
I decided to drive the new Jeep into the city with the furniture but I was worried the the buyers' realtor who lives in my building would see me making the switch out. The best time would be under cover of night...I wanted to get it over with soon, what if the buyers came to town and wanted to see the apartment? Time was of the essence. Since my birthday was coming up on a Tuesday I drove in on that Monday night before. The switch was a lot easier than I had anticipated. Two chairs, two lamps, and even the big plaster bust I found on 57th Street. I had wisely packed some bubble wrap to keep it safe. The doormen had the hotel cart ready and it all fit great. I had the lamp shades in a big plastic bag. The switch out lamps were a steal, only $40 apiece at the HomeSense store in Riverhead. I unloaded, parked the car around the corner, brought the good stuff back down, loaded up the Jeep again and parked it two blocks away in a garage. It was pricey, forty bucks a night, but it was worth it, all in all.
The next, my birthday, was cold and rainy. I took the subway downtown to have lunch with Jan at a nice little Italian place near her office. She gave me a new Stephen King book and I gave her some of my Christmas cookies.
On the way home I stopped at the Gap and bought myself a navy thermal shirt (40% off!)

and then stopped at the Good Will just for kicks. Lo and behold, I found two great hoodies, only 8 buck each.

I had a turkey dinner from the grocery store. Later that night I had made a date to see my friend Scott who lives only a few blocks away on 53rd street. By coincidence the same building as my other friend Dean! Scott had his tree up from a tree-trimming party that weekend prior...

Scott's tree

he said it had 1600 lights on it! We had fun, he showed me this new leather top he had recently gotten, ha! I didn't leave til after midnight...it was a really good day :)
The next morning I went to the bagel place and had breakfast and high-tailed it back out to the house. I stopped at the IKEA in Hicksville (I love that place) and bought tons of tea lights and some new rugs for the dining room and living room, the old ones were beat. The car was packed, the storage in the back is not as big as my old Xterra.