Such a Night

This post is going to be a little confusing. Stick with me.

On Monday we ordered a washer and dryer from AJ Madison. Their site allows you to search by dimension -- height, width, depth -- and since our staircase to the basement is a tight squeeze, we needed units that were only 26" deep at the very most. We found them online, and the website reported they would be delivered in 3-4 weeks.

Concurrently, we made plans to go to the Wharf Tavern in Warren, Rhode Island with two couples from Sue's intern cohort. Thursday night was a once-per-year 50s Night. We had reservations for 7:00.

Next thing we know, AJ Madison calls Wednesday night. They tell us, your washer and dryer will be delivered on Thursday night between 4:00 and 8:00. Under other circumstances, that timing would have been great (We'd like to have a functional washer and dryer.), but could we postpone the delivery? No, the units were already on the truck. Craziness and inconvenience.

So we asked our neighbor if she'd be home, in case they didn't show up before we had to leave for dinner. Could she let them in the house? Wow. Great. She could? That'd be very, very cool, since we really wanted to go to the dinner, and she'd be home anyway... wonderful. What a nice neighbor Julie is!

I left work early to get home in case they didn't call ahead. They didn't show up by 6:30, so we chatted with Julie and then jetted off to dinner.




It carried a $20 cover, but then prices on the menu were the same as they were in the 50s. Check it out. Pretty cool. Click the pic to enlarge it.


We got great seats...


...right on the water. They had apparently run out of lobster and dessert, but overall, great meal.

Also, the delivery dudes called to say they were going to be late. Cool! Maybe we'll be home by 9:00 or 9:30 when they are going to show up, and Julie will be off the hook. (We felt badly about asking her to stand in for us.)

The delivery dudes called again as we were leaving dinner; they reported, the dryer fit downstairs but the washer did not. Hmm... they were supposed to be the same size, according to the website. Well, can they wait for us? We're driving home. We're ten minutes away.

We drive in a bit of a hurry to get home. There's a truck out front of our house. Julie is there. What is this cop car flashing its lights for? I'll pull over to let it pass.


We got an $85 ticket for not using a turn signal as we changed lanes on 25mph North Main Street, and the reason we changed lanes was because these two cops were on the shoulder with their lights flashing. Hilarious scene in front of the house. They also wouldn't let us get out of the car. As if we were going to run away from our own house.

I hate it when cops say things like, "I hate to do this to you." Spare me the sob story. It's painful for *you* to give me a ticket?! I know a good career counselor.

In any event, after they left, we had to figure out if and how the washer might fit into the basement. The delivery dudes were totally there with us with respect to the cops and the ticket. Raw deal, they confirmed.


We pried some of the wordwork off the staircase walls...


...and juuuuuuust barely (couldn't take pictures of the squeeze because I was helping) it fit! Such a night.

Time to go to work. Happy Friday!