this is the kind of scene you might find some random night at lightnin’ salvage… pictured here is bridgett kelly and guest taking the stage on a wednesday night, with a chorus of kids invited for this song. i can assure you, i wasn’t the only one photographing this…
yes, live music 5 nights a week almost every week. next tuesday there is a gentleman who may attempt to play our new old piano for the first time. the guy who tuned it said the piano probably comes from the late 1800′s. that’s pretty amazing it’s still around. in july mike amish and friends will be on deck every tueday night to entertain the locals for our summer showcase.
the summer showcase features the following bands/ musicians once a month, or once a week in some cases:
blitzbergen, joel pickering, john rogers, sweet harmony, frank whitenack, the bluesbenders, dino lorenzo trio, the klezmer kats, dj nora, and mike amish, among others… the place should be a magnet for all sorts of locals and families looking for a fun place for the kids where the grown-ups can relax for a change.

speaking of dj nora: if you know her you love her. she spends her thursday nights playing some of the smoothest tunes in alachua county right at lightnin’ salvage. you know i feel kind of proud having such a great dj on board. she is the backbone of the vibe.

but i cannot tarry here. i have some night time security issues to attend to. and that word “tarry” reminds me of a word i mis-spelled yesterday, “quandary” not quandry. interestingly enough, i stumbled across that word today in a book and realized if it was spelled right in the book, then i spelled it wrong yesterday. i like to look up words in my dictionary.

it’s supposed to be happy here. funny. i’m supposed to talk about this and that, light stuff. but once in a while i get sad about something.

tonight it is this dilemna i’m having that has me sad and up too late writing. i don’t like war, i don’t want to be in a fued. i want to feel safe and cozy in my home like anyone else. but there is a neighbor lady who tries my patience. i won’t get into the story of why she dislikes me because it would be one sided. she cannot blog here and tell all the reasons i am bad. but suffice it to say that she trespasses on my property and vandalizes my things. she throws my belongings in the lake, she rips my umbrella, she steals the knobs from my washer and dryer. she calls codes enforcement on me, she makes my life hell and gets pleasure from that. i would love to tell her name to the world, to write a letter to the neighborhood about her. but it’s not fair to slander someone that way. and so it makes me think about jesus and war. jesus said to love our neighbor and i have a neighbor woman that makes this oh so close to impossible. but if i choose to war with her, to fued, then the rest of my days will be spent this way, in war. what kind of way is that to spend a life? somehow it seems my only choice is to love her. but i don’t know how to start that. it may sound strange but ultimately loving my neighbor seems like the only way to find peace for myself. otherwise i am just burning up inside trying to think up the best way to get her back, to get the last word, the upper hand. i know what that burning sensation feels like and it is not pretty. i have also known peace and the feeling of peace in my life and it is good.

and this brings me to security. i must beef up my security. alarms, motion detectors and lights, better fences, better gates, better locks. i would be an idiot to let someone trespass and vandalize my things without taking proper steps to better security, with the intent of catching the neighbor on my property and sending her to jail. (you can only imagine how fun it is for me to spend my days creating elaborate security systems instead of time with my family or at work…)

and this all leads me to think about the other war, the one our country is neck deep in. i don’t have even the slightest answers to the mounting issues. but when i think about this neighbor who hates me, i can’t help but think about war in general, how it starts, what it consists of, how it escalates… (someone once said to me…”there’s nothing quite as bad as a bad neighbor”)
i do know that I do not want to be eaten up with anger and revenge. those 2 things can ruin even the best of men. but finding that love that jesus spoke of has got to be one of the biggest challenges of our day. when someone keeps choosing to violate the right that is your personal property, to walk from their yard and into mine with bad intentions… how the hell am i supposed to love them? that is the challenge before me tonight… the puzzle… the quandry… the dilemna…
what would jesus do? there must be a better solution than war. i spend so much of my time and life problem solving and i know instinctively that i must choose love over war. but war is so much easier than love. but also so destructive to our soul.
w.w.j.d?

my two pizza men tonight had both wore the same satchel’s shirt with this guy drawn on the front. it’s a classic shirt which i should get reprinted. but i need to reprint the pirate shirts, some new colors on the lennie kesl shirts and maybe some keep it simple shirts too… and i’ve got a few new ones in mind i want to draw… so many shirts to draw, so little time.
tonight parker brought the staff from steamers in for a little employee appreciation dinner. that was cool to see. they make some great grub at steamers and i hope parker can pull off a second location on main street like he’s trying.
the owner of cafe gardens was in tonight too, and the sandy of sandy’s place, so i was told. i’ve never eaten at sandy’s place but now my interest is aroused… i also heard about a new place called the red onion i’d like to try and i must get out to trombone charlie’s in high springs cause i hear it is a great place.
tonight was smooth, steady and cool. i forgot ricotta on one pesto pie but that was about the only mistake i remember. and of all the toppings to forget, that is about the easiest one to remedy because it melts quickly on there and we just put it on and cook it another minute.
i took a quick break from the action tonight to pick out a birthday gift for a friend’s kid turning 5 tomorrow, back at lightnin’ salvage. i ran onto one of the employees, who wasn’t working, but buying a gift for a kid’s birthday party too… we ended up getting the same thing, the stacking robots which are very cool, especially since grown ups can enjoy them as much as kids…
velveeta underground was playing LSE and doing a mighty good job at it too. they are going to be a regular band around there. they fit the place nicely, and most importantly are really nice people. i got to hear the last song of the evening, an elvis costello tune, watching the detectives, played really well on a homemade upright bass and guitar… that homemade instrument was something to see. next time i’ll get a picture of it for the blog, it’s that good.

two days off makes life worth living, even if you love your job as much as i do…me and c are off to hot-lanta for a couple days to visit some old friends and check out ikea… and my mom is watching the kids – how sweet is that? there’s nothing quite as nice as grandmothers when you’re a kid, and again when you’ve got kids of your own…

love to all you cool people out in Pizza Eating Blog Reading land…

BEFORE THE ABDOMINATOR CONTEST:

AFTER THE CONTEST:

pictured here is the winner of the abdominator contest we had at work. i should not mention the winners name here because i did not get written consent. but as you can see, home boy got game. he stopped eating pizza and did sit ups every day… he won $70. i don’t think there’s any amount of money that could get me to stop eating pizza and do sit ups every day for 3 months. sounds like pure torture. but that’s why i lost.

as for the pizzas, they’ve been looking good. i did overcook a deep dish tonight. i forgot about it and the poor people who waited, they waited 55 minutes for an overcooked pie… almost burnt. we gave it to them of course. but the worst part was they had an infant child with them. oh, it broke my heart, and two of them were having the deep dish for the first time. luckily, they were super cool people and not mad but understanding. but i still felt pretty awful about screwing up their dinner…
i was late getting some slices out to one table, they dragged behind the pizza, which is just bad oven management, and there was an issue with a medium pepperoni, but it’s too complicated to try and explain here. one pizza had such a hole in it that an entire slice had to get cut out because it was basically mush. we made a make up slice. basically, it went smoothly, but those few glitches were a bummer, especially when i was ready to have the perfect night.

the band tonight was an hour late, thinking i told them 7 -10 when i said 6 -9. that always bums me out. i try and run a tight ship and not try out new bands on a friday night, but that is another long story not worth getting into. they are all nice people and didn’t mean to be late… so i forgave them. i was too busy cooking to even get a listen to them. this booking music thing is a lot of work. i get cd’s every week. there’s just not enough nights in a week for all the bands and musicians that want to play.

joey was up to his usual tricks, joking around, making people laugh, wearing goofy bandanas, and being a model employee.
he has man-crushes on a couple guys, but i won’t mention any names since i don’t have signed permission…and hopefully his girlfriend won’t read this. he’s one of a few people who reads my blog so i have to talk about him, embarrass him as much as possible…

what else? oh, 2 things and i have to hit the hay… 1. i tried the gluten free pizza tonight for the first time and it was really good! celiacs should be knocking down our doors… and 2. tony and pat’s IS moving down the street. it was mentioned in the paper today. can you believe this? now there will be THREE pizza places within a one mile stretch of 23rd ave northeast… you couldn’t find a pizza place anywhere around these parts five years ago, and now they are popping up like popcorn. i guess they figure they can make a good business just off the folks we turn away from the long wait… or maybe since we are so busy, they figure east gainesville needs more pizza places… hmmm. i wonder. how will we ever stay afloat?

my favorite thing to do is go to itchetucknee, period.
before we had kids, c and i went almost every week in the summer. we’d be hangin’ out and it’d be hot, and we worked nights, so we’d say, “hey, let’s go to itchetucknee…” and we did. we had our own tubes of course. i’d boil peanuts and bring along a huge sweet tea, and with no doors on the ford falcon van, we’d drive on up. the lady at the gate knew us, we’d give her some of the last peanuts… it was like being on permanent vacation, going to itchetucknee every week.

then we had kid #1. we still went the first year, once; silas was about 8 months old, and sat in the boat with caroline and screamed because he didn’t want to wear a life jacket… and then we went one more time when he was 2, and it was a little easier. and then kid #2 came, and we went one time last year and she screamed and c and cada only went down 30 minutes of the river before getting out and waiting for us at the parking lot…

and i have been just dying to go, just dying to… because when i go it feels like a revival to me. somehow that cold water and that peaceful float make me whole again. it doesn’t matter if there are 50 people around me or not, i just love it more than anything, and no other spring can give me the same renewal.
i went today. c couldn’t face taking cada. cada is 2 but would probably not like the cold water, or wearing her floaty swim suit in the boat for over an hour… so i took silas. it was the perfect time to go because the trams aren’t running yet which means 2 great things; 1. no crowds and 2. getting to walk back to the parking lot.
silas was pretty excited to go and when we got down to the river, i threw in the tubes and he jumped right on in like it was his job or something. it was amazing. we saw 2 snakes, over 20 turtles and lots of fish. one log had 10 turtles on it. and we didn’t have anyone around us at all so it was like it was our river.
everywhere we ever go, silas wants to walk to the next place. but you know how it is in life, it’s hard to walk from lowe’s to sweet dreams… but after that float we just walked on back, holding hands and he was rambling on about the turtle he saw under water with his goggles, and asking why i wasn’t looking when the turtle swam by on the river floor, and he was as excited as a 5 year old could be…

i had such a good time i would go back tomorrow if i could.

the weekend had it’s ups and downs, mostly ups. all i can say is it is hard to be the guy running the show sometimes…
i’m mentally exhausted.

i’m so glad it rained today. i’m sure lots of folks are happy to see that. it sure makes for a nice cool evening and my plants might make it another couple weeks. i wonder about those fires… since i don’t have a tv, i don’t know their status. it hasn’t been too smokey but they could still be burning…
what i have been doing is painting. before i became a restaurant maniac, i lived a much simpler existence, kept mostly to myself, and spent lots of time painting and watering plants in my greenhouse. it’s been over 4 years since satchel’s pizza began and i’ve painted some but nothing seems to be flowing like it once did…until now. a few weeks back i pictured the first painting in a series that now consists of 4 framed pieces. tonight i started a fifth and so this new found inspiration has me pleased. i love to be in the studio. i could easily stay up until 3 or 4 am painting, but i make myself break away before midnight. the paintings reflect my composure and responsibility, as they are tight, orderly, and somewhat tame. one day i will show you more photos of them.
i keep meaning to tell about our abdominator contest and show you the winning abs, but then i write about something else and get tired. i’ll get to it, i promise. i know people are dying to know who won and see a good ab photo.

for me to take time off from work is difficult. even if i succeed in not going in to work, i usually think about work, call work, and wind up working somehow, whether it be responding to work emails, buying work related things on the internet, or sometimes researching pizza online, its history and attributes. hard as i try i cannot get away from work but since i love what i do it doesn’t feel like work. however, some parts of it are more work like than others. for instance, standing at the ovens cooking is pleasure, worrying about how someone else cooks my pies is work. drawing a new t-shirt is fun, driving to the screen printer for the fifteenth time is work.
i always imagined i would simply cook every pizza that was ordered at satchel’s and after several months of being open, had to come to terms with the fact that i would have to train others to cook and make pies. there have been pizza makers who over cheese a pie, therby making it heavy and sit like a brick in one’s stomach. there have been pizza makers who stretch some pies too thin, making them floppy and soggy. there have been pizza makers who have a tendency to undercook pies and a couple who tend to overcook pies… and as much as i can try to teach how i believe a pie should be cooked, every person will bring something of their own personality and ability to the job.
nowadays i am trying desperately to learn to let my machine work… i have built something interesting and good and i want to try and stand back and watch it a little, enjoy it more and quit picking it back up and tinkering with it again. like one of the wind up robots in lightnin’ salvage, you wind it up and then set it down and see what it does… i could keep picking it up and winding it more, or adjusting the arms and legs, or shining the metal… or just set the damn thing down for a minute and see what happens. it is difficult for me to sit back and watch.
i am hoping that part of being a good boss is trusting the people i have working. i am hoping that when i take entire days off (so to speak) that the place still functions above average. i hope that all the cooks learn to cook the pies like i would… not golden brown, not black, but dark brown on the bottom, crispy, but with a fluffy flaky outer crust and slight carmelization of the cheese (but not too much cheese.)
i tried to take the day off today. i went all day without going in, until now when the call comes in that an employee is locked out with his keys locked in… oh well, it’s not really like work just to go unlock the place….
now back home, almost 1 am…my mailbox was full, one of the sinks was running a bit, 10 of the 14 holes in the dish machine’s washer arms were clogged, there was an area not cleaned sufficiently, and 3 employees messed up in clocking in and/or out. besides that, it looked okay up there.

i started off mothers day good making a full menu breakfast complete with home fries, biscuits, bacon, eggs and grits. but then i got side-tracked trying to install a truck bed cover on my honda. this task i assured c would take 30 minutes. she was certain it would take 3 hours and a trip to the store. well… it took probably more than 3 hours and a trip to the store but it should have taken 30 minutes. but i ran into a few snags along the way… anyway, i admitted she was right, and then i picked up liquid ginger take-out for dinner, which was good as usual. but there is no dessert in the house and i wanted to end mother’s day with a treat and make some dessert but time was short and butter was scarce. “what kind if decent dessert can you make without butter anyway?” i wondered out loud… then i asked ,” do we have the stuff to make fudge?” c laughed and said we needed a lot of butter… “well, i just want to make you something baby,” was my response. she laughed again, because she doesn’t even care about fudge… “allright, make tapioca,” she said, knowing that i really just wanted to make myself a dessert. then she got on the phone and was walking outside. i was jonesin’ for chocolate and searching the back off the pantry for jello pudding or something! what do i see, but a half used box of tapioca. i followed the instructions on the box, figuring that if my wife liked it – it must be good. then, i noticed that it was something you put in fruit pies as a thickener, and saw a photo of a parfait on the front of the box. i found a bag of frozen mixed berries, heated them up quickly, and layered berries and tapioca and a touch of honey in her stemmed glass and canned whipped cream, berries and tapioca in mine. she shared with cada and me with silas. that tapioca and fruit was the bomb i tell you. warm tapioca pearls with blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries… we were pounding it. i never would have guessed tapioca would have been such a good dessert choice. but you know what they say about what is behind every good man….

well, i took my first friday night off in a looooong time. my neice was the lead in her school play, cinderella. months and months of work for one magical night. she was awesome, of course. she acted well and sang beautifully. she is 12.

so we had about 20 family members there for that last night, with a dessert reception afterwards at my sister’s. it was a good time. my sisters husband is in the military and so they move a lot. in a few weeks they are moving to colorado… this play was in orange park. my brother-in-law made lots of the sets for the play, and an amazing horse drawn pumpkin carraige, and then was called away by the navy the day before the play for a special assignment… i am amazed at the level of commitment, loyalty, and integrity required by the military.

then we went to stay at some friends house in jax. actually very close friends that we don’t see often enough. Brent and Jennifer are great hosts with an immaculate house. brent is the co-president of lightnin’ salvage, and the guy who creates both the satchel’s and LSE websites. besides his regular job and his side job of web design for us, he also finds time to be a great painter and carpenter. we walked in and were amazed by the simplicity and beauty of his latest painting of a stretch of cumberland island. before we left he was offering me the painting. i refused and refused until finally i accepted. we’ve had the same tired old artwork over our couch for over 6 years i think, and hanging this new painting was the first thing i did when i got home. the photo won’t do it justice but i’ll show you anyway…

i’d guess it’s about 30 x 36 inches. what a beauty.

back to work tonight, saturday, and business was slowish and good. mistakes were minimum, although spinach was forgotten on a large white to go pie and so it was sauteed and added after the fact. it looked like it would be delicious, i hope they didn’t mind. i meant to go out and say something but we were busy and it slipped out without my noticing it. now i’ve got to quick like figure out how to deal with mother’s day, what to do for my wife. my mom is in jax and we just saw her last night, and she’ll be with my sister there tomorrow and back over here monday. i just don’t have it in me for another trip over there for some long wait at a restaurant. and with my sister moving soon, i’ll let her take this holiday…

easter to mother’s day… i’ve been on a no alcohol, no caffeine fast. although brent did make me the most incredible latte this morning, but that’s the only time i cheated. i must admit it has been an enlightening experience. although, i don’t drink as much beer as some, i’m sure i drink my fair share. after 5 weeks without it, i feel quite refreshed, clear, and different. i’m glad i did it. the more distance i get from those 2 drugs, the more i can see how strong they are and what a addictive quality they can have. the first couple weeks were hard, after that it has been delightful.

anyway, that’s my story. monday morning i’ll wake up and make a budweiser mixed with coke… just kidding.

i got a new book in the mail, dishwaher by pete jordan. i mostly read kid’s books to my kids and occasionally i’ll read an article in a magazine that’s around, or while i wait in the dentist office. pete jordan had the brilliant idea to travel all 50 states and wash dishes. i wish i would have thought of that. it’s a good book, especially for me because i’m crazy for washing dishes. when i used to wash dishes i took so much pride in it, i was so good at it, and i was certain that i would be washing dishes my whole life and not ashamed of that. when you do a job for a long time, you learn all the details and tricks of that profession. reading pete’s book, i am reminded of all the things i loved about washing dishes and all the details that could be lost on the average, non-dishwashing, reader… like how i took pains to clean my machine with sheila shine, or clean the wash arms of lemon seeds, or keep the chemicals flowing, or keep the sink water hot and full. being a good dishwasher is much harder than people would imagine. well, that’s probably true of anything. being good at anything is challenging.
anyway, i’ve been wanting to take my son to see the new 3-d disney movie but haven’t had the time for weeks. today the occasion finally came. i thought it would be smoky from the fires, or might even rain and so a 5 pm movie would be good, and since it was smoky or might rain and is wednesday, i knew we would be slow at work and i could take the night off. when we went in the movie it was crystal clear blue sky gorgeous, and i thought maybe i should have just stayed home and played in the yard. but when we got out it was smokey as a pit bar-b-q. i thought about the 13 piece klezmer band that was supposed to be playing at lightnin’ salvage, and how sad the scene must be there, them playing to an empty smokey lounge. we decided to go pick up a pizza and give a little listen to the klezmer kats.
well, the closer we got to satchel’s the smokier it got. and when i could finally make out the parking lot, i was amazed to see cars lined up like a dealership running a saturday special. when i finally got back to lightnin’ salvage, there were people everywhere and the klezmer band going at it like it was a 3 ring circus. i fought through a crowd to get to the hostess and found there was an hour wait… so much for my peaceful night off…
i guess those klezmer kats really bring in the people. or the pizza, or the smoke, or something… i still can;t figure out that place, how it can be so busy, how it can be so fun despite the madness, and how the music seems to give that final push over the edge that completes the sculpture of it all. music, community, food, art, family, play, color… even when i feel burnt out, i’m still a little amazed by the place.

man, am i glad this strange day is over.
i went in at 10 am and just got home, past 11 pm. our soda machine was not really fixed but not completely broken either. the compressor is not running properly and was very hot. when they overheat they usually stop working and then we’d have no sodas, so we took the cover off the pepsi machine, and put bagged ice on the compressor all day, trying to get it to last another day. we had to change out that bag of ice many times, as you might imagine.
the ATM stopped working early on. here it is graduation, all these people from out of town that don’t know we’re cash only, and the ATM stops working. the guy who owns the machine is out of town and he tries to help me get it working over the phone. i spent at least 45 minutes in front of that thing, to no avail. an hour later, someone showed up and got it working, seems the phone jack was just loose.
the cuisinart that we mince garlic in decided to shoot out sparks and blow a fuse. luckily, i had bought another cuisinart, a back-up, at a thrift store months ago and was able to pull that on out and use it.
during what should have been the busiest part of our day, around 6:30 pm, it started raining pretty hard. i think this deterred folks because of our long waits and outside tables, so we ended up being quite slow, which wouldn’t have bothered me one bit if it weren’t for the fact that i had hired an excellent out of town musician, ronny elliot, to drive up from tampa to play for the masses. well, there weren’t any masses. i think 30 minutes was the most the wait was tonight. tuesday night was busier with an hour wait. murphy’s law i guess.
but as for the pizzas, they all were pretty perfect. we did have a calzone go to the wrong table AGAIN, the third or fourth time this week. very depressing. and one lady told our hostess she wanted 3 deep dishes and and the hostess forgot to tell us in the kitchen, so when the party came back to eat 3 hours later there were none to be had and we looked pretty stupid. but i forgave the hostess about 5 minutes ago because i am so glad to be home and done with that craziness.
my favorite part of the day was when i just stopped everything else i was doing and washed dishes like a madman for about 45 minutes. it reminded me of the years i washed dishes and how satisfying it is to me to have so much to do and the challenge to catch up and have my area clean and perfect. i was reminded of how much i love washing dishes in a busy restaurant.
i’d tell you more, like about the abdominator, the daquiris g was making, or about how playing house music in the kitchen is a zen experience, but i’m too wiped out. i’ll save all that for another day.

well, i worked pretty much all day and feel pretty good about how it went. i should be feeling a lot better but there’s little things that bring me down… like the hair that someone found on their pizza which was blonde and didn’t look anything like any of our hairs but they wanted a new pie nonetheless..which is fine but i just get bummed by stuff like that. another guy called and said there was glass in his to go salad which was really strange… don’t know how that could’ve happened. and there was the phone call at 10:20 that i picked up just in time to hear the cashier say we weren’t taking any more orders, but we still had 2 tables that hadn’t ordered yet and could’ve easily made their food and had it ready in 20 minutes…but most of all i was bummed that this weekend our pepsi machine decided to take a dive and our soda is flat and pepsi can’t fix it until next week… “oh, satch, great pie, crispy, maybe the best i ever had, but the soda was flat…” who wants a killer pizza with a flat soda? nobody. that’s who. i made a call to the biggest dog i know at pepsi to see if he can make something happen for me early tomorrow. they have an awesome service team, but our machines problems may need parts that have to get shipped in.

now as for the pizzas i cooked, they were looking incredible. i had them all super crispy and looking like they belonged in the MOMA, and we had practically no mistakes. we did have a few pies that took too long. the folks who ordered at 6pm got the worst of it, a 40 minute pie, a 50 minute pie, and a one hour deep dish… that was as bad as it got and i was feeling pretty bummed about that when it happened, but the rest of the night we did great and most pies were 30 minutes.

anyway, tomorrow i’ll be there all day again. i’ve worked every day and night this week except for wedensday day i took a break. i’m fatigued. i should not be worried about any little thing, i should be thanking my lucky stars that my business is so good and my employees so loyal and hard working. i should be pleased with my accomplishments. i should be sleeping.

it’s hard. my wife says i have OCD but actually i probably don’t actually have the disorder but am just an obsessive type person, a perfectionist in many ways, and anxious… i think the next lesson i need to learn is how to let the creation become it’s own thing, not stress about every person’s lunch or dinner or problem or whatever, and just let the beast be a beast some. i’m going to take a vacation to the beach soon for a week and i’m going to work on that… not being stressed about my restaurant being perfect every second of every minute of every day. it’s just pizza, right?

this is the busiest week of the year. we knew that going into it, but i did not know how hard it would be for me, or how stressful. it has been 3 of 5 days and i have watched the kitchen flounder under the stress of business. there have been many mistakes, avoidable mistakes, and it is hard for me to watch and not be in there helping out. i could have sent someone home and taken over in there, but i also know that experience is the best teacher and i have to let go sometimes. i’ve been trying to help out front, i have been struggling to figure out where to seat these big parties. i have lost my cool a few times and my cage has been sufficiently rattled. i even got an email about a not so good deep dish. if it is a battle between me and a beast, the beast is winning. with all my mighty will, i cannot make the place run smoother or the pies come out better or the mistakes not happen. calzones to the wrong table several times in two days… undercooked pies going out, burnt calzones going out with no mention of sorry, or let me make it over, or no charge for that… the beast has gotten so big and out of control that i no longer hold the reigns it seems. the reigns have me and i’m getting slung around like a rodeo clown. i was unloading to my wife today in the five minutes that i saw her and saying, “if i just didn’t care so much then it wouldn’t bother me so bad…” and ultimately i guess that is the blessing and the curse… to care that the food is not always perfect, to want badly for it to be right. we’re doing more than we can handle this week i think. next year i’ll schedule myself in the kitchen five nights and add more staff out front, and at least then i will have control over the one thing that i care the most about, the quality of the pie.
i’m going to nail it tomorrow and saturday. i know it. i’m all jacked up and ready to be in the ring with that beast. i’m gonna throw him around like a rodeo clown for the next couple days… if the people decide to wait the hour or two for the table, i’ll be back there making damn sure they get a good pie. and if for some reason i screw up, i’ll make sure i make it up to them.

well, it took me a couple days to get back on my feet, and get photos onto the computer, but now i’m back… the reggae night was, well, how do you say… incredible. it was like being in jamaica in gainesville. lots of jamaicans came out… all the big supers were there… there was some curry and brown stew that should have sold out 10 minutes after they started selling it. it was that good. there was a big crowd and a sweaty dance floor. i think everyone had a pretty good time, especially my wife who hardly ever gets out. actually, this may be the one night of the year that she’ll be out past 9. she was in full effect too, let me tell you. she was having a good time. here, let me show you: