tonight the power went out at our house. i kept yelling “blackout – california style!”
i busted out the kerosene lanterns and me and the lady decided to play scrabble. scrabble is a big deal in my family. i grew up on the game, deluxe edition. about 15 years ago i crafted my own board, complete with homemade letters and letter bag, fold up board, and most recently added… “the challenge ant” if you want to challenge someone, you get the ant, place it on the word in question, and say in a low slow voice…” chaaalllleeeennngggeee!”
about halfway through the game the power came back on. we left the lights off and kept the lanterns on but i kept jumping over to the computer to try and upload my first video on youtube of my son rambling on about things. once i figure out how to link to it i will.
i just got a call, a guy wanting a deep dish ready at 10:30 tomorrow morning which i said we would do.
the restaurant was on a long wait tonight but running smoothly. i was there before the scrabble game. at one point in the scrabble game i was in bad shape. caroline used all 7 letters in the word “rusting” and used the “s” to pluralize “dud.” she got 77 points on that turn. i had no vowels and had letters like v and z and x but a guy needs vowels. anyway, she had doubled my score at one point, it was something like 96 to 188 and i had all but given up. then something happened. i used a high point letter here and there. i challenged her several times and won. she challenged my “miter” and lost. i used a couple triple words and BAM, i’m back in the game. then i was on a roll. i ended up with 357 points. pretty good. i even got my first video uploaded to youtube during the game . here’s the board:

check my “raw” “am” and “we” in the lower right corner… that’s my “teeth” late in the game… i pluralized dick with pest and that’s my vex on a triple word…
too much information, i know.
keep looking out for the youtube video. my tags are “satchel’s pizza inventor silas smart kid simple” but for some reason i can’t get it to come up yet. maybe it takes a day. it’s new to me.

good ol’ gail. tonight i was at work, trying to help bus tables and check everything out, and i was making gail nervous. but then things calmed down a bit and gail tells me that she reads my blog… i was wondering who was readng it, turns out it is gail. gail and my mother. but then in the next breath she tells me it’s such a time waster… wait a minute! reading my blog is a time waster?? actually i think she was referring to the computer as a whole. i know i sit down in front of this screen many times a day. and my computer isn’t grounded so i get a mild buzz of electricity through me when i write or touch the computer. i need to get it fixed i guess, along with 15 other things.
as we approach spring graduation at UF, our business just builds and builds. tonight was a wednesday and the wait got up to an hour. of course there was the whole eastside high school french club there, celebrating winning something… i wish i remember what they won… and there was a 20 top coming at 9pm, (20 top is restaurant jargon for table of 20). i left before that happened because it seemed that things were under control and i figured i’d get home and hang out with my wife who i didn’t see much of today… turns out she was watching a movie which was too far along for me to join in on and so i went out to the studio to paint and feel guilty for not just staying at work longer. i did finish another painting, which i will photograph soon. and i finished framing the last one too. so, i am actually in a really good mood because when i am making progress in my studio i tend to be very happy. 2 new paintings in about a week is good for me, especially since work is so busy nowadays.
i should plug the upcoming reggae show here, because it is happening in a few days, finally happening. last year was a really fun time for all. this one should even be better. as don pablo keeps telling me, “we’re going to be cork’n it.” must be some jamaican thiing, or something he made up, i don’t know.

i know that sunday i’ll be tired after that party, and i’m supposed to go to jewza paluza at my sons pre-k school and help run the minature golf game. he goes to a jewish school and they call their spring carnival / festival, jewza paluza. (although i’m not sure of the spelling.) don’t you just love that? we’re not jewish actually but the teacher of the class is ms. pedie and everyone knows how great ms. pedie is, even protestants like me heard about her. my son can now sing songs in hebrew and knows more about jewish culture than i ever did.
that’s enough info for one night. gail now knows more than i could ever tell her while at work… and so do you, gentle reader of the satchblog.

alright, so it’s been a while since i’ve posted a picture of one of my beautiful children, it might have been even 2 weeks. i just can’t take it anymore. i have to show this one. can you believe this girl? isn’t she the best?
for 3 days she was stuck wearing her brothers peter pan costume. now she is stuck on spiderman. back when this picture was taken it was her favorite dress that she wouldn’t quit wearing.
i’ve got some pretty good video of my boy, talking up a storm like he does. i’m going to try and figure out how to get it onto youtube in the next week. i’ll have a link here so check back if you want to see an amazing kid.
he says now that he’s going to be an inventor and a famous writer. what about being a famous pizza maker???
it’s so nice to have a couple days off. this weekend was out bi-annual cleaning party. all the day crew came in and deep cleaned everything they could find. should be pretty crispy in there come tuesday. the concrete slab out front and on the screen porch got painted this weekend too. it was green and now it is dark grey. the paint is called skid-not and should help keep anyone from slipping when it’s wet. i haven’t even seen it yet. the painter said it went on like molasses. i’m real interested to see how the color looks. my choices were dark grey or light grey. i hope i made the right choice.
what else? i had a great weekend. got a lot of projects done around my house and helped my mom pack up her house a bit for a move to g’ville. tomorrow i have to be at p.k. younge at 8:15 for career day. i’ve got to first go by satchel’s and pick up some dough balls and props for my talk. we’ve got a great band tuesday night,boilin’ oil (bluegrass.) and i think on wednesday we may get a trio of ukelele players to show off some of the ukeleles in our newest guest collection at lightnin’ salvage. thursday is dj nora. friday is andy steinberg and saturday is a blow out of a day with a pinewood derby clinic saturday morning at 10, noah shitama saturday night from 6 – 9, and then the reggae explosion at 10pm. see you later.

a great night. pies were looking stellar, and the times were mostly good although at one point we hit 45 minutes, a bit too long but it was a tough order with lots of calzones.
the biggest news of the night is that 4 people didn’t pick up their to-go food. this is unusual. get this: one lady calls in a pizza. the wait is one hour. after 50 minutes she calls to cancel. her pie is then in the oven of course. when asked why she was cancelling she said because an hour is just too long to wait for a pizza. she tells us this after waiting 50 minutes. all the other people who didn’t pick up their food didn’t answer when called back. 4 pizzas sitting there at the end of the night… what a bummer. i really wish we had a computer system at times like these so we could flag those numbers. i’d love to have the blacklist of customers… “oh, too bad for you. you can’t order from us anymore because you failed to pick up your pie last time.” boy, would that be sweet revenge. because you know they all gotta get a satchel’s pie eventually.

i’d tell you more stories, about how we all have new names, about how joey kept messing up all night, about the band at LSE, but it’s late and i’m too tired. i’ll catch you up later.

here’s a photo of my studio taken late last night. i built it with the help of a couple friends on an old slab out back. you can see the sweet canoe my wife made there hanging. that baby is light and fast, a double paddle canoe. she’s quite the handy woman. i wish we took the thing out more but with 2 little kids it’s tough.
i got to the studio for about 20 minutes tonight. i had to give it up for sleep. last night i stayed out there until almost 1 am. my boy was up at 5:55am. crazy kid. he got up early because my mom was over for the night and he loves to get up early when she’s here to play cards or games. she will always indulge him, although i think she made him go back to bed until 6:15. whoa, big difference…
i can’t stop thinking about how amazing that movie was. there are so many funny scenes that keep coming back to mind.
tonight dj nora was kicking down some sweet tunes at the lightnin’ salvage. my wife and kids even came out to listen.
good night. don’t forget to support your local pizza shop.

here is the picture of the painting i promised. i do not need to describe it because you can obviously see how i feel.

the wife and i were on a date night tonight, thanks to grandmother. we went to see the movie, blades of glory. it was amazing.
i don’t know how else to say it. i am so glad people make movies like that.
i forgot that i had booked a band, bluesbenders, at lightnin’ salvage. pam called at one point (during the movie) to tell me how they were tearing it up back there. i was prety mad at myself for forgetting about checking them out. a 4 piece blues band on a wednesday night sounds like a good time to me. and there i was with grandmother watching the kids. we could have spent our whole date at LSE.

what else? i ate some pizza hut pizza today. i’m a pizza addict i know. you see, i grew up on pizza hut and about twice a year i still crave it. my mouth loved the taste but my stomach hasn’t loved the digestion. my wife thinks it’s about the stupidest thing i could ever do, eat at pizza hut. if i didn’t feel so guilty about it, i’d probably eat bad pizza more often. if nothing else it makes me love mine all the more.

live music at LSE is happening more and more. we’ve got a band from san francisco coming (illgato may 16th), hot pickle jam (may 1st), pears (may 15th) and ekendra dasa (may 2nd), and those are just a few of the tuesday and wednesday night shows… so, make wednesday night pizza night and come on out… and on tuesday make it a get a drink and see a band night at lightnin’ salvage. and don’t forget thursday night is dance night with dj nora…

P.S. the painting isn’t quite finished yet. i’m calling it “large pie” because it looks like a pizza to me.

in a way, i try and isolate myself from the bad in the world. i don’t have a tv so i don’t have to watch all the terrible images of war and destruction in the world. i do follow the news sometimes though. i am connected to the world by the radio and the internet. i listen to npr now and then when i’m in my truck and it is a news hour, and i check cnn.com just about every day and read a few headlines, only occasionally reading an actual article. sometimes i take a “news fast” for a few weeks or more and don’t listen to npr or check cnn.com, because i get too sick with all the bad news out there. now is one of those times when i’m going to tune it all out for a while. i want to carry a positive outlook and have faith in the good things of life and as i was taught growing up in church, “garbage in…garbage out.” what good does it do me to fill my head with all the horrible things going on?

obviously, the va.tech story has been saturating the airwaves. but you know, suicide bombers are blowing themselves up in the streets in iraq every day, taking innocent lives down with them. usually those stories are but a sentence in the news. i mean, i guess i can understand that because this happened in america, because americans died, because the motive is so elusive, we hunger for news about it as a society. it seems that there cannot be enough details to describe it. well, those folks dying in iraq are human if not american. it really shouldn’t make so much of a difference if people are dying on the other side of the country, or the other side of the world. we’re living in hard times. we’re in a pressure cooker and the pressure is blowing the lid off.

i find solace in painting. before i opened a restaurant i used to paint a lot. actually, the days before i opened satchel’s i was building a studio to paint in. then i was swallowed by the beast that is satchel’s and my painting fell by the wayside. now and then i get back to it, but i haven’t yet found the rythm i once had where one painting would lead to another and another and before i knew it i had a series of 20 paintings expressing my moods and my days. the last couple nights i’ve been painting and it has been food for my soul. i was eager to get back to my painting tonight, like a good book where you are looking forward to the time to read some more chapters. and out there in the quiet of the studio i can hear the crickets and sometimes even a nearby owl. it’s heaven. all those struggles and anxieties and obstacles of my day get cleared out and paved over. and then after a couple hours there is an image in front of me that somehow says more about how i feel than words. it’s a great feeling.

i worked this morning form about 9am – 1pm, then went back to work from 4 – 8:30. it was on the slow side for us, and i so i rushed home to catch up with c and paint. coming in from the studio i had to echo what was going on in my mind out there… thinking some about the news, how it can consume me, and so much of society. and about painting and how it can calm me and give me joy and remind me that there is hope. i think if it weren’t for the news we’d all be better off. i think people would be generally more cheerful and friendly if they didn’t have to always know that somewhere, people are being blown to bits by bombers or shot by gunmen or raped or molested or whatever… i may be wrong in doing so, but i like to focus on the good things happening in my little world, enjoy the laughter and friendship of my friends and family, and try to combat the horrors of the world by simply staying optimistic…(and trying to create my own world full of good food and music and fun and art and flair..)

i’m sorry to get into all this. i know i’ve probably said too much. i just needed the extra expression of words tonight to add with the expression of paint. i tell you what, i will take a photo of the painting i’m working on and include it here in the next week sometime. then i’m sure it will all make perfect sense. ha

no pictures this weekend, just words.
tonight was ok. i am tired as a dog. 3 nights in a row on the ovens wears me out. the heat alone from those ovens sucks the life out of me. but my bones and joints are stiff too. amazing to me how the body changes so rapidly.
we had one mistake where mark and i made the same pie and we were supposed to make different ones. it was my fault i guess but there was a communication breakdown. but other than that the pies were looking perfect tonight. i’d say 99% were perfection. we were slammed too.
i heard a rumor last night that tony and pat’s is moving to the ruscito’s building down the street. now, i don’t care but it sure seems crazy to me that a pizza place/ italian eatery would open right down the street from us and across the street from i heart NY pizza. why is 23rd avenue filling up with pizza places all of a sudden? of course, it could be just a rumor.
the night manager was out tonight as well as the other top pizza maker, but the day manager stayed on. i worked until past midnight and i’d sure like to sleep in tomorrow…
by the way, we are currently desperate for a couple employees at satchel’s. we need bussers and cashiers. we needed them yesterday. anyone out there can help us out?

i wish i could take a shower while i sleep.

so, if i leave out interesting photos does this turn much more boring? like i said previously, 99% of the pictures on my computer are of my kids… i don’t want to just keep showing pictures of them. i mean, i do, but it seems strange too since i don’t even know the people who read this.
anyway, i’ll get back to the photos soon enough. tonight was busy as any friday night but we changed things a bit behind the scenes. we added another person in the front of house and we focused a couple of the jobs. now there are 2 people to ring you up and answer the phones and 2 people to help get you seated quickly. i can;t believe it took this long to get with the program, i mean, i guess i am in the kitchen too much to realize how badly we need more staff out front. the important thing here is that service should be improving all around these days. the pies are coming out quicker, the tables are getting bussed faster and the there is more efficiency all around.
things went pretty darn well tonight. there was a handicapped woman who asked if our bathrooms are handicap accessible which i don’t think they are. the building is over 50 years old and my guess would be that to re-do our bathrooms and bring them up to code for handicap accessibility and meet all the requirements of the city building department, that it would cost about $25,000. that’s a lot of pizza. i’m not saying we won’t ever do it, just that it is not like buying a new ice machine or something. it is a big deal. why, even getting a computer system for orders would only cost $18,000. handicapped people need to get into the bathrooms, i agree. i wish the problem wasn’t so difficult to solve.
i thought the pies looked top notch tonight. i don’t remember any mistakes. i had deep dish pizza for lunch, and what a good combination: bacon pineapple, carrots, and zucchini. it was taaaaasty.
new gator “i bling orange and blue” t-shirts are in with ganesh on the front. get one while you can. they are limited editions.

it’s 1am friday morning. i should be sleeping but i had to write a newsletter for the staff. there is always so much information to get accross and how could we all meet all the time?
tonight was busy, we were on a wait until 10pm. dj nora debuted in lightnin’ salvage and she was killing it. thursday nights is going to be the night to go hang at LSE. dj nora is it, baby.
the pies came out looking tight tonight. i don’t think i messed up a one. we even took 20 large pies to the uf philosophy department for the 4th year in a row. i hope they liked those soggy dogs. there’s really no way to get 20 crispy pies into boxes and across town. shoot, they go softy after about 5 minutes in that cardboard. it kills me to lose the quality but what am i gonna do?
long day for me. my son was quite obstinate this morning. we had an argument that left me in a sour mood from the start. if he would just listen to me… i wish i could remember what it was like to be 5.

the mac and cheese was out of this world… there were greens and peas, cornbread and ham… i love a big dinner. and the company was good too. some of the relatives haven’t been over in years…

i just found out that the originator i-power sound system for the reggae night is going to be bigger and better than expected. folks better be prepared for april 28th. you may here the bass from your dukpond home…

it was a cold and wet monday. i took the kids to the bakery and to the museum. we tried to rent a movie from video rodeo at 1 pm, but they don’t open until 2 which seems totally insane to me. so we went to blockbuster instead.
the kids watched some japanimation while i fell asleep on the couch.

i’m ready to get back to work, ready to eat some more pizza, ready for it to warm up again. see you at satchel’s…

we’ve got 20 people for easter dinner tomorrow. some of both c and my family will be in attendance. the plan is to picnic in the yard, look for photos in a couple days. tonight business was slow but time went quickly. dino lorenzo band at lightnin’ salvage. they fit nicely back there. dino is a good guy for sure.

the crawdads in LSE got canned… the tank was getting pretty algae-fied and no one around to take on maintenaince of crawdads and minnows. riley and fam were in today to pick up things. pam took the tank and one crawdad home as a souvenir.
pam also worked a double.

everyone except one was in a good mood tonight. there is always that one person who cannot seem to be happy about life.

tonight there were 2 jeff’s. both jeff’s ordered food around the same time. one jeff ordered a large major and a medium half cheese half pepperoni pie and a large salad. the other jeff ordered a large spinach sausage and feta pie, a medium cheese, and a large salad. jeff #1 comes in. the cashier reads to him his order after ringing him up… jeff: large spinach sausage feta , medium cheese, large salad. jeff agrees and takes off. jeff #2 comes in. his food just left with jeff #1. so we make jeff #2’s order again as jeff #2 waits patiently, and meanwhile jeff #1 must be eating the wrong thing. we never did hear back from jeff #1. t sums it up after close, “what’s he gonna do, call up and say, ‘remember when i agreed to taking the wrong food?’

as we mess with the speed of cooking, we are learning how the oven can cook pizzas in record time. but it also can make the bottom “look” burned. looking burned and actually tasting burned are two different things entirely. i’ve seen many a burnt looking pie that made someone’s night from perfection. but then i’ve sent out burnt pies and not spoke up out of pure embarrasment. customers please consider what i once heard on tv… the word pizza is derived from another word which means “black bottom.” i cannot verify that statement but i think it is a good description of the food. when i bake on friday nights, my main focus of the pie readiness is derived from mainly one observation… the cook on the bottom of the pie. black is definitely ready. but i should not be giving away all my secrets here.

i’ve met a man who says he is going to make my booths comfortable again. he is going to reupholster them correctly, and fix the broken springs. the process will start with the seats at table 10 next week. if things go well there, the rest of the seats will follow in the coming weeks. i am amazed that i would have to reupholster my booths twice and i’ve only been open 4 years… in my book, it says something about the first guy that did them. time will tell if my hunch is correct…

speaking of faulty workmanship, my honda has now been recalled twice for some malfunctioning part. my 2006 honda. it’s a real pain to take my truck in for a repair, even if it’s free… the whole reason i bought a new car is so i wasn’t having to take it to the shop every other month. i don’t want the fuel pump to malfunction after the warranty, so i go back in and have them do the free repair… the honda ridgeline has it’s problems. i would like to give honda a list of the design flaws i have found from day one… in some ways the truck is a dream and in others it could be so much more. i should be designing vehicles…

honey baked ham, a cornicopia of pot lucked dishes, homemade desserts to make your mouth water… i could boast and brag about the easter celebration that will happen around my place tomorrow…
we’ve been selling lots of jesus stuff at LSE since God is coming up on a holiday… why, i know one woman who spent almost $90 on jesus stuff today at lightnin’ salvage. easter is the celebration of jesus rising from the dead. now, that’s heavy.

thank you lord for pizza

well. tonight had it’s ups and downs. i learned a lot about cooking and i learned some things about my kitchen.
the woman who is dangerously allergic to nuts found an almond in her salad tonight. i really need to inform the staff that people allergic to nuts should not order our salad.
somehow, a pizza for table Paris got put in a box and sat there for 30 minutes before someone realized the people at Paris need to eat.
Joey was again at peak performance. and only 2 people in the kitchen lost their cool and freaked out.

lauren was cool as the cucumber while m. tried to figure out if it was worth the hassle to work so hard. i’ve been there, done that, and am trying to make a t-shirt about it. you see, working in a restaurant is hard work. the crew that works at satchel’s is like the basketball team at the college… figuring out how to take care of business.

we made pies until 10:30, big deal. i’d make pies all night if we could all get along. jus’ makin’ sum money havin fun.

go gators. #1 in the nation.

i found this photo on my wifes computer. if i had to guess i would say it is my sons attempt at making a doll like the one on the left. he loves to make things and i had not seen this picture or homemade doll before. pretty creative. this morning he was using a potato peeler to peel tiny strips of carrots and trying to squeeze the strips to make carrot juice. when i told him that carrot juice was hard to make and required a juicer which was a big motor that grinded the carrots into juice, he proceeded to make a juicer from a cardboard box, a funnel and some other odds and ends. his “juice” turned out to be water with some carrot shavings floating around in it. he told me i had to hold it in my mouth for a while to get the carrot flavor.
well, the eastside gainesville t-shirts we got in were printed wrong. they printed the front image on the back and the back image on the front. this kind of thing makes me crazy. this is the second time it has happened. how do we not cover this important information when we are setting up the order? when i saw this it about ruined my night. that’s how much of a freak i am.
i spent over 30 minutes tonight at work trying to get lights working or replacing burnt out lights. if you ever notice we have about 20 strings of christmas lights and lightbulbs everywhere. i think i would like to hire someone part time to replace lightbulbs every night. i know we need to hire someone to help the cashier on busy nights.
i had deep dish pizza for lunch: pepperoni, beef, broccoli, and carrots. it was rocking my little world. i had a cheese slice for dinner. it had too much cheese on it but i ate it all anyway.

99% of the photos on my computer are of my kids.

see you at satchel’s….

that’s the catch phrase on the back of the upcoming satchel’s t-shirt that commemorates the big win monday night. my wife came up with the idea for the drawing on the front which is too cool, just like last year when there was a gator spinning a pizza on one finger and a basketball on the other. those shirts sold out quick. these are even better. coming soon to a satchel’s near you. (i came up with the catch phrase on the back. i’m sure it’ll get stolen by somebody else though. you saw it here first.)
speaking of t-shirts, there are new lightnin’ salvage shirts that if you buy one, will quickly turn into your favorite shirt. simple LSE logo on the front. there are new eastside gainesville t-shirts, back by popular demand, but this is absolutely the last printing so if you miss it this time, forget about it. and lots of the satchels for pirates shirts are already sold out, none on the horizon, and there are keep it simple shirts in nice colors. i’m crazy about t-shirts.

the photo is my girl. i took this at mantanzas beach last sunday. we took a nice trip out there. i love having a 4 wheel drive so i can get out there to the good part with all the other rednecks. my girl, cada, got her first haircut today. my wife did it. it’s also my 9 year anniversary to sweet caroline.