i really hope i never walk into office depot again. every time i go i tell myself i won’t go back, and then i find myself there again, having a bad time, and wondering why i am there. every time i go there is a long line that takes a looonnng time to get through. the last 3 times, the cashiers have had troubles with the cash registers/ computers. there always seem to be 15 people working there but no one that can help. (one time there was a guy who was helpful and freindly). i could list 15 reasons why i hate that place but i’ll spare you. central florida office supply, or OP, as it is now called, is the place to go. now that’s a place i love going to.
the weekend was good i guess. friday seemed slow in the kitchen, saturday too because of the rain. we had two mistakes i can remember, but they weren’t all that bad. the worst of it was just waiting for the tickets to come in. they seemed to drizzle in like the rain tonight. speaking of the rain, after spending over $4000 on drainage problems, LSE flooded again tonight when it rained. now we have some more work to do on the drainage it seems. the next step is to get the water routed out to 23rd ave. just what i need, another project.
i had a guy re-do the floors under the sink where the tiles were coming up. i gave him $80 more than he asked for because it was a hard job. the floors lasted one day before peeling up. i spent 2 hours trying to fix the floors but what i did didn’t work at all. the floors under the sink are now much worse than they were before i hired the guy to re-do them. my wife says i should call the guy up and have him come back. i know that the only way to really get the floors done properly is to take out the dishwasher and the sink, and taking them out and putting them back is a 2 day job in itself, so how could we do that AND the floor in the 2 days we’re closed. hmmmmm. this whole floor under the sink is a tough problem to solve. as is the drainage. lord, why can’t i just make pizzas? i only started this business so i could get a decent pizza in ganesville, not to give myself anxiety attacks daily.
this next wednesday, if things go according to plan, we’ll have a special vegetarian pie for folks. i’m thinking, portobellas, tofu, sauteed onion, maybe asparagus or eggplant even… if things go like i hope, we’ll do a special pie every wednesday. you might call and ask if we have it.
i’m going to make a long last effort to find my work shoes before i give up and buy another pair. how could they be gone?
i’m gettting closer to solving my computer problems. closer every day. i may even be ready to download photos again next week.
thanks to all the good people who come in and wait for a table and for pizza. even in the rain. we love ya

well… my computers hard drive is full and i’ve been trying for a week to do something about that but the 3 external hard drives i bought have not worked… weird.
anyway, i took some photos tonight of the music academy variety show at lightnin’ salvage but i don’t think my computer can handle one more photo so i’ll wait until i can fix it to show you good people a photo.
business is booming at satchel’s and LSE. there is only one problem. it is a little bit too busy for the kitchen to handle it seems. well, that’s not entirely true. they handle it great most of the time, but when it gets really slammed, pies just simply take too long to come out. this puts my in a spot. on the one hand i want to schedule myself every night in the kitchen and ensure the pies come out 10 minutes faster during those mad rushes. on the other hand, i want to let the guys handle it and get better from the practice and experience. these two hands are at war right now, trying to decide what is my best move. i guess i have to keep my eye on the situation and see if it gets better or worse. tonight there was food taking 50 minutes for a short spell. sorry, but that is too long. believe me, i am trying to figure out how to solve this. if we could fit another pizza maker or another oven in the kitchen we would. the kitchen is maxed out with people and ovens. now we just need the state’s best and fastest pizza makers, and by golly, i think they are already there, and just need to get better.
i lost my work shoes. and i only wear them to work and home but they have been missing now for 3 weeks. i’ve looked everywhere. how can this happen? how can i lose a big pair of flour covered shoes? it makes me a little crazy. i think yvan took them to canada probably.
i hope everyone in greater alachua county comes out tomorrow night for pizza. i’m going to rock those ovens like a south bound train.

tuesday night.
wow. when tuesday night starts looking like a friday night, i wonder what is going on? how do they all find us? how are we supposed to hire enough people to keep up? we definitely need someone bussing on tuesdays now. it was a madhouse up there, but folks seemed to be having fun. maybe i was the only one stressed out.

we’re going to start a vegetarian specialty pie next week. i’ll give more updates later, but it should be interesting. just what i need is another new project to take on.

you should see our garden. Jenny, the gardener has it going on. she is the best there is people. you go check that garden and tell me we shouldn’t be charging admission to eat there. lots of new flowers. oh my it looks nice.

i’m too tired to go on. i got a call from the restaurant this morning at 6:30. bummer.

i hear all the time from people how much they love the place. some people are gushing with compliments. that is one of the best parts of the job. but then there are complaints too. and of course the complaints stand out more than the compliments and i tend to dwell on them and wrestle in my mind ways to fix the problems. i cannot fix all the problems, there will always be good and bad days for everyone, customers and employees. but i do try and learn from mistakes and make the place better. lately i’ve had to deal with a couple complaints and that is the worst part of the job. but, every job has it’s good and bad side i suppose.
satchel’s was busy this week. tuesday wasn’t real busy but wednesday and thursday sure were. tonight, friday, seemed quite slow for a friday night but there was an hour wait most of the night so i’m not sure why we didn’t ever get slammed in the kitchen. things went pretty good. there was one calzone that didn’t get made but i caught it early enough to make it and the customer had to only wait an extra 15 minutes. i had a good time in there tonight. the pies were looking real good.
if there’s one thing i love as much as pizza it is orange juice. lots of nights i’ll be craving that glass all the way home. tonight i think i’ll have 2 glasses. oh man, do i love some 100% pure florida orange juice. when i used to live on a tangerine grove, i would juice fresh tangerine juice and sometimes drink a gallon a day. oh man, you just don’t know how good that stuff was. i could go on about it all night. but i’ll spare you.
things are happening on the LSE site. if you look on the five and dime page you will notice that you can view pictures of some of the novelties/gifts, and florida souviners. there is a contact page now, and a live music link and we have music through august listed currently. keep checking back for more updates. soon there will be a slide show on the home page showing you some old snapshots of the place as we renovated it. when you go, check to see what number visitor you are to the site. that way, in a few years when there’s over a million on the counter you can say i remember when i was visitor 2000 to this site…
good night to all, thanks for eating our pizzas.

i know i know, it’s not a very good picture. i tried to photograph this group but there’s so many of them and there’s so many spectators everywhere. i swear, to come to LSE when they play, you’d think they were our city’s most popular group ever. the place is packed. the klezmer kats, the second wednesday of each month. you should see it.
the weekend… it was busy, as always. saturday night we did not make a single mistake. man, was that awesome. friday night was good, i can’t remember now but if we made a mistake it was a small one. anyway, saturday night was flawless but then i got the email on sunday from the guy who had a bad time on saturday at lunch. this guy had problems from start to finish. the host gave a bad time, the salad had no dressing, the food took too long, the slices had skimpy toppings… what a bummer!
i mean, we need to know these things but it sure ruined my peace of mind this weekend. i try and pay a good wage and have bonuses and benefits of the job and then a guy has a terrible time and i just wonder how i’ve failed so miserably. i mean if a football team loses who will they blame? the coach.
anyway, we’ll be working on these issues this week. i think we will learn from this and be even better.
i probably worked 6 hours sunday on projects at work, tightening up the cash station, so that it is more efficient and aesthetic. i probably worked a few hours or more today(monday), sending info to the new web guy who is blasting through my to do list. i also went up to finish a few things at the restaurant. it’s really quite nice to be up there when it’s closed. the phone still rings a lot, but the whole place is at rest. it’s amazing to see and feel. i could stay up there forever tweaking things and poking around. but i always hurry up to get back home to the family. my wife says i’m a workaholic.
i am very excited about the tightened up cash station, the handicap bathroom coming soon, and a new storage space we are remodeling. these behind the scenes things keep me brimming with excitement. i think it must be the peak of the summmer that has me so jacked up. the storms, the long days… today we even went to itchetuckneee on a whim at 1 pm. my 2 year old “swam” in her floaty suit with me 4 or 5 times down river. my son actually looked like a fish swimming around with his goggles on. there’s nothiing i love as much as itchetucknee.
i’d tell you a thousand more things but there’s no time. i plan to head to my studio and paint.

if you could fathom how many people we try and feed up there at satchel’s, in that tiny kitchen with two ovens… you should see how packed our walk in cooler is, and how jammed up the office is with stock. it is actually a miracle that anyone still comes as long as it takes to get a table and get your food. if you only knew what it took to keep it going, you would smile. honestly… it ain’t easy being cheesy.

one more thing, the LSE website is getting tweaked as we speak. it’s been under construction for a year and now we might actually get all of the buttons working soon. the LSE co-founder Brent got it all up and running and the new guy, Cory, is taking it to the next level for us. keep checking it out, look for new pictures, check out our live music schedule, and we’ll even have you signing up for our email newsletter before you know it. at the sound of that big thunder and the lightnin’ flash from my window, i know it’s time to go paint. SEE LIGHTNIN’ SALVAGE.

i forgot the camera again. but today we got a new backup beer cooler in LSE. last night we were running out of cold coke and water and it’s too hot to be doing that. one thing about the bottle cooler in LSE is that the drinks are COLD, ice cold. so when we start selling lukewarm water or semi-cold cokes, you know something is bad wrong. i rushed out and bought us a brand new true, 45 cubic feet of chillin’ beverage. it’s a beautiful thing. did i tell you i love the summer? i work 12 hours without even breaking a sweat. well…

what did they do? they brought out half of gainesville is what. lightnin’ salvage was packed all night. everyone loves that music. people were dancing and really having fun. meanwhile, i was stressing over the fact that we were not prepared. we didn’t have enough cold soda or water. we ran out of sam smith organic beer. we need more trash cans. i should have added to the table cards that folks need to clean up after themselves. the place was a mess, maybe because we need more trash cans for all those pizza boxes.
anyway, tomorrow i’ve got my hands full trying to remodel the office to make room for a bigger beer cooler and organize all the junk in there. as the shop gets busier, we need more room for stock. if we can be that busy on a wednesday night in the summer, just think what is to come.
i worked about 12 hours today, maybe more as it’s 11:30 and i’m still working. i can’t stop. it that OCD i suppose.
i forgot to bring the camera home. i’ll post a picture next time.

well, work life is busy and home life too. last weekend was real busy and i felt as if i struggled a bit to keep up. i’ve been wearing myself thin, working on a lot of projects. the drainage project is coming along with a few details left. plans are being made for the bocce ball court and some landscaping. we are going to make the lightnin’ salvage bathroom into a handicap accessible bathroom. there’s a few other projects on deck too but i’ll keep those a secret for now…
on the home front, we had a birthday party for our daughter yesterday. it was such a good time, with some great people over, but i’ve been wiped out all day just recovering from the event. i did manage to spread a whole load of GRU “mulch”, frame a new painting, and make dinner, but my eyes are tired for sure. i started reading the first harry potter book to my son, so maybe i can get a little caught up with the world soon.
we made some mistakes last weekend, but nothing too major. i forgot a couple slices that were supposed to go with pies, so the slices were 5 – 10 minutes late, which always bums me out, especially because i know to look for slices on the ticket, and i know exactly when to put them in so it all comes out together. it amazes me that i’ve done this so much and so long and i still mess up. i know that one day i’ll be practically mistake free. someone said their pie was burnt saturday night which i know couldn’t have been true because i cooked every pizza and didn’t burn any (except i did slightly overcook a large pepperonni but got no complaint about that one.) but the people who did complain supposedly ate the pizza so there was no evidence. they just chose to complain but when asked if they wanted another one they supposedly claimed, “i’m over it.” which i guess means they ate the thing even though it was terrible, and were over it and didn’t want anyone to bring it up anymore. i don’t know. the server was scared to talk to them again and i was way too busy cooking to leave my post and find out what was up. you know what they say… “you can please some of the people some of the time, and you can please some of the people all of the time, you can even please all of the people some of the time…” but obviously we can’t please all the people all the time, and you know what? i’m okay with that. i mean, it’s not easy to be okay with that, but i realize that we just make too many pizzas for them all to be perfect and even when they are perfect, some people don’t appreciate perfection. there was a pizza last week that was on the money perfect but the couple said it was overcooked. we made it over again but the server said they didn’t seem happy about that one either…. anyway, we do our best. you must know that.
enough rambling, i’ve got to get the boy to bed…. let me just say this, i love the summmertime! most of all i love the sound of the cicadas and the long days….

happy birthday america. today was the first american birthday we were ever open. wasn’t so busy, next year we’ll probably close.
i played bocce ball for the first time and lost 3 games in a row. it was the best time i had in a while… bocce baby…. coming soon to make your little world bigger.
mike amish played with friends last night and blew the roof off. every week he’ll be boggling the mind at LSE. tuesday nights are the new Friday… the bocce ball will be here so soon you won’t believe you lived without it.
Don’t say i didn’t warn you how cool it will be… you won’t be able to stay away from lightnin’ salvage