migration assistant stumbling between two mavericks machines

Trying to migrate to a newer MBP. Both have Mavericks. When I enter the Migration Assistant on the both machines the new machine sees the old one, but the old one never shows the confirmation code and just hangs for a long time. Connected by firewire.

When I get this to work I can't remember if I'll be able to select the apps I'm bringing over or not. I've got some things on the new one that I also have on the old one and don't want to mess things up. Any ideas/tips?

Garrett