JUNE 21, 2010: Been very busy lately on a big move of my offices and warehouse from Elmwood Park to Saddle Brook, New Jersey. Last week I was finally able to get all four of the certificates of occupancy from the town and will be slowly moving everything in the next five weeks. This week’s projects will include building signage, new locks, alarm systems, installation of 128 feet of rack shelving, phones, more shelving, tons of packing and unpacking and of course spending a small fortune in the process.

The new location is much nicer than the current one and is on a main street, across from the police station and lots of restaurants and other businesses.

JUNE 28, 2010: Well, If you remember the list of projects I had scheduled for last week -- they are still on the list for this week. Although tons of items have been packed and unpacked the major jobs with shelving, signage etc… were not done, everyone had a good excuse -- the shelving did not fit on the first truck they sent for the pickup -- hopefully this will be the week that all the major parts of the move get accomplished.

JULY 9, 2010: Well, the moving saga continues. The new pallet racks were finally delivered and installed. They called me last Thursday and told me that the truck and the installation team agreed to be here at 6am! I renegotiated for 8:30am and they were done by 9:35am! This job usually takes several hours but this team put it together at lightning speed -- It turns out that they were in a rush to catch a World Cup game on TV!

Most of the orders are currently being shipped from the new warehouse and I expect the entire retail operation to be moved by the end of next week. Then I will have two weeks to move the wholesale inventory which includes more than 100,000 DVDs and 10,000 books. A side benefit to the move is that all the lifting of boxes I have been doing during this heat wave made me lose some weight and is toning up my muscles.

JULY 26, 2010: This week will be the end of my move to the new warehouse, around 90% of the products are now at the new location. This week we will get the rest of the products and furniture moved and begin a major disposal adventure where I will be throwing away thousands of VHS tapes and more than a quarter of a million VHS boxes! Then I will get part of my life back and work on magic again.

AUGUST 4, 2010: I am now done moving to the new warehouse. Spent last Friday sweeping several thousand square feet at the old warehouse where I discovered some muscles I never knew I had. Unfortunately, unlike the Karate Kid, these new muscles will be useless for card magic.

I also took some photos of both the new and the old buildings so you can see what I have been whining about for the past eight weeks.

The one good thing to come out of all this is that all that work during the heat wave shaved three belt loops off my waist and toned up my arms and chest.