The Art of Racing in the Rain

I’ve never read a book written by a dog. Obviously, they can’t write.

They don’t have thumbs.

A friend brought me a copy of the book: The Art of Racing in the Rain.

We share a love of dogs. All breeds, all kinds, all canines may apply for a space in our heart. He, in fact, is The Dog Artist. Whimsical, bold, dogs painted on canvas that portray their personality in detail. Even a quick sketch captures the love factor of your best friend.

And so back to this book.

The author composes the chapters as if the main character, a dog named Enzo, is telling the story. And Enzo does a great job of it.

I fell in love with not only the storyteller (Enzo), but his master and family as well. In typical review cliche, I can honestly say “I laughed, I cried, I wanted to know more” about this story.

It was a quick read for me; about two days of spare time from start to finish, and it was worth every minute.

—————————————————-

New Guy / New School

New guy in the kitchen (he’s been with us for 6 months now, but until we hire someone else he’s still “new guy”) has a strange way of tossing dough.

He slaps it side to side, and it trips me out.

It gets the job done, by all means, but it’s still strange.

Gorgeous.

I make terrible pizza

I make awful, disgusting pizza.

But only if you ask me to.

And only if you pay a lot of money for it.

Now that’s a terrible pizza.

Bloody Mary Pizza

New Year’s eve found us asleep at 9 o’clock (and awakened by stupid fireworks at midnight), so we were refreshed and up early on New Year’s Day.

In an unusual move, we decided to go out, together, IN PUBLIC, and have breakfast.

The Main Event (a local, nearby sports bar / restaurant) was open, and empty of customers.

The bloody mary was delicious. Tons of flavor, and just the right amount of horseradish for a little kick.

I used it as my inspiration for a Bloody Mary pizza later that week.

Marinara sauce seasoned with bloody mary mix, Worcestershire, topped with mozzarella, diced tomatoes, green onions, pickled asparagus, grilled trip-tip steak and chopped celery leaves…

The result was a beautiful pie. Blog worthy, even.

 

Paizano’s Party

We had our annual company party recently. We closed the restaurant, and decorated it for a feast.

I didn’t take many photos. That’s probably a good thing.

After gorging ourselves on king crab (our traditional meal) and good beer, we polished off some tiramisu and did the white elephant gift exchange. A quick clean of the tables and the karaoke mics were pulled out.

That’s about the time that Whitey heads home. I think he’s allergic to karaoke.

The other boys sure aren’t.

The night ended when some of the guys donned their new Paizano’s robes while serenading the ladies.

Everyone was sent home with left over crab legs and gifts, and probably a few photos on their cell phones that need to be deleted.

Wino no no

It only took one special bottle of wine to disappear from my cellar at home while I was at work one night.

Whitey claimed he didn’t know it was a “good” bottle before he had opened it, and then told me how delicious it was.

Not even a drop left.

So I found a sharpie and staked my claim, old school style.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs. Yet, now there’s no way he can polish off my Silver Oak without a fight.

 

History repeats itself, sometimes

We keep a diary at the restaurant that we jot notes in regarding any significant activities that may sway sales one way or the other. It could be the weather, or a party, or a local sports game.

We refer to the past 3 years of diaries to come up with a guess as to how busy we may be for the current work schedule.

And sometimes, history repeats itself.

And other times, it’s exactly the opposite.

That’s a lot of words to explain that we have no idea how busy we’ll be, but we do our best to forecast our foot traffic.

Typically, December is straight-up average, except for the last week before Christmas. We’ll get a few large family groups, and a lot of college kids coming home for the holiday.

Yesterday was slowwwwww, except we sold more in gift certificates than we normally sell in actual menu items on an average day. That was a first. A large company in town bought 45 gift certificates to give as a Christmas bonus to their employees, so we were frantically printing, cutting and documenting them for over an hour.

This December so far has been down in sales, and I attribute that to the lack of snow. Bright blue sunny skies and temperatures in the low 20′s are not enticing to the usual tourists we’d see visiting our local ski hill or riding snowmobiles in Sumpter. We need snow, desperately. Although, it will probably show up in January, which is notorious for being our slowest month of the year.

I do my best to allow our crew to have their normal hours, even during the slow times. They have bills to pay, too. It does get frustrating, though, when we have more staff than stuff to do. I tell them to find projects — to keep busy — if you have time to lean, you have time to clean!

In the past two months we’ve had every ceiling tile in the kitchen pulled down and bleached, all of the walls re-painted, every dry rack has been emptied, scrubbed, and put back together, and the motors on all of our equipment blown out and cleaned. Our kitchen is so clean, the health inspector could eat off the floor. We’re running out of projects.

 

 

Baker City Oregon webcams

There’s a webcam at the Baker City Airport that I check to see the local weather when I’m out of town.

And just recently I discovered another that points towards the park, facing away from the library.

Are there any others that I don’t know about? I’m thinking of installing one at the restaurant, pointing it outside towards our patio.

 

 

Brain Overload

I was certain I’d be asleep by now. The lunar eclipse early this morning completely ruined my daily routine by robbing half of my normal hours of slumber.

I stole another couple of hours sleep before showing up late for work, yet still didn’t get much done at (or for) work today. Blame it on the moon.

Had a troublesome day; not necessarily because of laborious tasks, moreso of Can’tPleaseAllOfThePeopleAllOfTheTime.

And here’s what’s ironic: The issue that should be stressing me out isn’t. It’s as if I’m taking the trashy problems and making them rot, only to dispose of them in the future when they are finally a big deal.

Barf. I hate euphemisms.

Did I mention that I’m working on opening a 2nd restaurant?

I need to go to sleep. That, or pop a shitton (my word, but please use an accent when saying it out loud) of Prozac.

Back to the numbers. At least I have a book light strapped to my head to illuminate a calculator so that I don’t wake my husband.

 

 

My Boys

12-steps down to our basement.

The Man Cave.

A big-screen TV, a separate room with a full fridge of liquids, and another door leads to a full pantry of snacks. We recently moved the furniture so that the two La-Z-Boy recliners are next to each other (so that Whitey and I are seated next to each other, just like old folks!), and the sofa is pushed up against a corner where the boys can have at it.

At one time, it was a decent place to have guests sit. Now, it’s a full-length bed made of fur.

At this point it would be not only impossible, but would be cruel to tell the boys that they aren’t allowed on the sofa. They prefer it to their own dog beds, and I imagine that they love the cave-like atmosphere that the basement allows.

Plus, there’s just enough room for me to pull off a full cuddle puddle where I smother the rottweiler in a full-nelson and the brindle jumps down from his post to lick my face until I give up.

I don’t know if Cesar Millan will feature them again in his next book with these antics.

 

Dress Code

The night crew showed up, and I realized that I was the only one not holy…

errrrr…

hole-y.

I swear. I pay them enough to buy all of the fabric. Maybe they’re just taking their jeans to asphalt and rubbing them raw with a rock. Would you wear Dockers or slacks with these types of holes?

Fashion. I don’t get it.

Champagne Tastes on a Beer Budget

I read this blog last week and found it interesting that a few of the most shoplifted items are:

Filet Mingon
————————————————————————————-

Jameson Whiskey
———————————————————————

iPhone 4
————————————————————————-
Nike Shoes
—————————————————————–

Chanel No.5 Perfume

——————————————————————-

Each of these items are at the top of their respective categories in terms of quality. The best of the best, and with a price tag to match. People are willing to pay top dollar for top products, and yet others are also willing to steal the same items.

Would you assume that a thief in a lower income-bracket would be the perpetrators of high-ticket crime? I wouldn’t.

Even the fictional characters of books and movies who are diamond theives, or those who heist fine art, are described as debonair, living a life of wealth and hob-nobbing with tuxedo-clad gentlemen and nip n’ tucked socialites.

In contrast, we view those who rob liquor stores at gunpoint and burglars in black ski masks who climb into windows at night as dummies. They’re after a couple of hundred dollars in cash, or a cool TV and maybe a new Playstation. Not very bright folks when it comes to committing a crime, or cashing in on it.

—————————————————————-

More on this later. It just got me to thinking…

 

 

 

Anthony Lakes Logo

It’s voting time! Which of these logos do you prefer? And please leave a comment as to why…

I did not design either of these logos, and have no say whatsoever in any of the ski hill’s marketing. I’m just curious as to what popular opinion is.

THANKS!

 

Logo #1

Logo #2

 

Pickle Juice

I had never heard of people drinking pickle juice to relieve cramping.

This article claims that NFL football players do exactly that.

There’s even someone who bottles the stuff and can’t make enough to expand his business – his sales are up over 54% in the last year!

A study done at BYU says “Subjects exercised to the point of mild dehydration and had cramps induced. Those who drank pickle juice felt relief within 85 seconds, almost twice as fast as water or other sports drinks.“

So the next time you have a charlie horse in your leg, put your lips on a dill pickle jar and chug!

 

Festival of Trees, 2011

For the past four years, Paizano’s has decorated a tree for a local charity function. The first year, it was a mini tree done in true Disco fashion with spinning disco balls and brightly colored stars. Our second year, my mom was in town and we spent hours with a glue gun and glitter from the Martha Stewart collection. The tree was amazing, and was bought for more than some of it’s larger neighbors.

Last year, Kristen and I did a tree that was titled “Nature’s Small Miracles”, and we were very proud of it. The tree sold for top dollar, and so the bar was raised.

And so this year my mom again agreed to help us with our concept of doing a tree titled “Ocean Treasures”, and I must say, I love it.

Seashells, octopus, turtles, starfish and lots of glitter. Under the tree we’ll have a pearl necklace and earrings, two big lounge chairs, fuzzy robes, a bottle of wine and a trip for two to the Oregon Coast.

I might just have to bid on this tree myself.

 

 

Make a (very) small fortune!

Bi-Mart has a promotion called “Lucky Number Tuesday”, wherein you show up on Tuesday and look for your member card number on the board. There’s one winner of a grand prize, usually a high-ticket item like a TV or appliance, and numerous other prizes of descending value. There’s a 1-in-10 chance of winning even a minor token prize if your last number matches.

I’ve won dry-cleaning sheets, a can of nuts, an energy bar, and once a package of batteries.

So recently, I noticed a gaggle of people surrounding the Lucky Number Tuesday board at our local Bi-Mart store, and came upon a great idea for making a few dollars each month.

 

Here’s my plan.

 

You pay me 25-cents each week, only one dollar a month, and give me your Bi-Mart card number. I go to Bi-Mart and check the board each week, and if your number is listed, I’ll call and let you know.

Or, you have the option of not giving me your number and I’ll send you a photo of the board to check your own  number.

$12 a year.

Instead of wasting gas, time, personal energy and then having to find parking, show your card, and then wander to the back of the store to see the numbers, you give ME twelve bucks a year and I’ll do it for you.

With 10,000 people within the shopping radius of Bi-Mart here in Baker City, I could probably rally between 200 and 400 people to give me a quarter a week, or even $10 a year (with a pre-pay discount) for a better chance to win prizes each week.

I’d make $2000 to $4000 a year by just checking the lucky numbers each week!

Genius.

 

Stomping on a little girl’s dream

This little girl better get over it, otherwise she’ll be crying a lot in the future.

They suck.

 

Price is Right

I recently watched Slumdog Millionaire and MAN that was a good movie. Many parts of the movie made me laugh, and then moments later sob, and then during the slower parts, think about the consequences of technology.

I often wonder the effect technology has on different generations.

Such as, I didn’t have a cell phone while attending school — how easy would it be to Google something on your phone now to figure out an answer to a test you’re taking? I used to just write it down on my upper thigh and wear a skirt on test days.

Or book reports… do kids these days even have to do book reports? How easy would it be to Google your entire paper the night before it’s due?

* Do kids know how the Dewey Decimal System works?

* If a house was on fire and the only phone available was a rotary dial, would they know how to call 9-1-1?

* Points off of an essay for spelling errors don’t count anymore considering that you type out your paper on a computer that has spell check capabilities.

* A photo can be taken on a phone and uploaded to the WORLD wide web within seconds. Ms. Monroe and President Kennedy would have been found out in an instant!

Even the Price is Right game show is rigged now. Your friend in the audience can look up the price of that can of tuna and throw you a sign, baseball style, to let you know if the price is higher or lower.

Hence Slumdog Millionaire.

Great movie. I recommend watching it if you haven’t already.

“Free” Lemonade

It’s a small thing, but it irks me to no end.

“Would you like anything to drink?” we ask.

“Just water with lemon…. extra lemon,” is the reply.

One time, a woman asked for a bowl of lemons on the side after she had sat down.

The condiment rack is raided for multiple packets of sugar, Splenda or honey packets and

VOILA! Lemonade!

 

<grrrrrrrrr>

Crew Retreat to Cabo, Sept. 2011

Our Paizano’s vacation to Mexico was awesome.

Eight of us flew from Boise to Cabo, and spent a week living together in an enormous home overlooking the Sea of Cortez. We ate big family meals outside in the palapa, drank too much, lounged in the pool for hours on end, went on a private charter to go snorkeling by the famous arch, went clubbing downtown…

The front gals went para-sailing and a couple of people took jet skis to open water. A group went deep sea fishing and brought back some of the tastiest Mahi Mahi I’d ever eaten. We bought touristy items, a few pieces of jewelry, and engaged in more than a few “come in come in, two fer one, come in” cries from bartenders.

Everyone came home uber tan and exhausted.

Slideshow #1 Here

Slideshow #2 Here