there was a car show at the fairgrounds today. we had some of the sweetest rides come through this weekend.
for some reason that i cannot seem to figure out, i come up with more work for myself every week and get further behind on accomplishing it all each week. i keep thinking i will finish and the list just gets longer. i bought a small pad of paper to keep in my back pocket to write things down as i come up with them, and it’s nearly half full and it’ll take me half an hour to transfer all of this to larger paper and organize all the ideas. anyway, we’ve been busy, i’ve been busy, and tonight i ate a big dinner right before work. my wife made “white chili” which i had never heard of but it was delicious. i wasn’t at work 30 minutes and i was craving pizza. all night i was craving it and then i made the pizza that looked the best to me, a medium with pepperoni, meatballs, green peppers and onions. so, that’s the slice i made myself at the end of my shift. it just looked so incredibly delicious i took a picture.
oh man was it good.
so, i’ve not been inspired to video anything lately, maybe next week. i’ve got a weekend of activity and work planned, so let me get some rest.
i thought equanimity meant the sharing of something equally or dividing something up accordingly or something like that. i was way off. it means an even temper under stress, which is something that we definitely need every day at satchel’s. i need it in the kitchen, and the host and hostess need it for sure on the weekends. it’s quite important.
so, i had just finished writing that i had no pictures when i remembered this paper from last night, one of those big parties i spoke about. hopefully you can see this enough to check out how detailed they were breaking down what each person owed on the bill. we don’t split the check for parties over 8 and sometimes people feel inclined to really get down to business, as is evident here. i love this. i think it’s pretty amazing that someone was organized and clever enough to get it broken down so precisely.
no pictures, no video, just words words words.
i haven’t taken pictures in a long time, and when i do they usually are not uploaded to this computer anyway. so, no pictures until i plan ahead for that.
i have been very super busy but mostly “in my mind.” i think it was yesterday that my head was hurting from thinking so much and so hard about the schedule and ways to improve and change it. and although there have been plenty of things i probably should have been filming, i let it rest.
that’s the thing about things, you can’t do the same things forever. i’m sure to pick the camera back up again soon, but i doubt i will be doing as many short videos as i was doing in january.
danny’s got some good ideas for more planned short films so we’ll get to working on that fairly soon, and those will be more about quality and less about quantity.
lots happening at work, of course, all the time, every day. a new full time dishwasher since windsong is going to take his moustache on world tour. the new guy seems awesome. smiling, working hard, staying on top of the game. i’m very happy with that.
we’re cutting back the kitchen staff at night. seems that we’re still very busy on the weekends but not as much on weeknights. of course last night we had two 20 tops, two 15 tops and a few 12 and 10′s. so, that was a surprise. but in general, the trend seems to be more people coming on the weekends. but since our schedules are usually set for a while, big changes take lots of brainpower to try and keep everyone happy.
the peahen is getting more and more used to people and almost walked in the restaurant today. i turned a corner by our shed and there she was at my feet, scared me even. i had never seen her on that side of the parking lot, much less within a foot of me. sally, i guess that’s her name. maybe danny came up with it?
anyway, just wanted to quickly post and i’ll do my best to bring you some amazing photos or video soon.
well. i wish i could turn off my mind from work. even though i had 2 days off i responded to a customer complaint and emailed managers and corresponded with the web guy and texted a couple people about work stuff. the worst part is that even though all that stuff combined only adds up to about an hour or two, it’s my mind that won’t stop looking for answers to problems, it won’t stop thinking about how to fix everything. of course, nothing is all that broken, it’s just my mind is not used to resting.
the customer was upset because they came in friday night and waited longer than the time they were quoted and sat at a table they didn’t like and felt one of our employees was not sympathetic to their needs. the weekend was insanely busy and at one point saturday night i saw a line like i’ve never seen before at the register. i was making pies and from where i stand i can see the front door and the line got so long that they were literally out the door. i saw one tall guy waiting in line and i swear 5 minutes later he had moved up about 2 feet. another 5 minutes and he was about 4 or 5 people from the register. those sort of situations stress me out like you can’t believe. i can’t go out there and tell these people to come back on a weekday when we’re dead. last tuesday night was one of the slowest nights in years. then on friday night they are waiting an hour and 20 minutes?? what am i supposed to do?
i’m not mad. honestly i just want people to have a good time.
i stopped in at super wal-mart today for some poster board and a couple grocery items. they had ONE line open and i was about the 8th person in line behind people with FULL carts. there were quickly 4 lined up behind me. i went over and found someone to complain to… “i just won’t come here again. this is ridiculous.” and the lady opened up a line for me right away… i know i should not have gone to super wal-mart. i know that. i should have gone to central florida office supply for my poster board and then to publix for my groceries. next time i know what to do.
anyway, i get stressed when i see a place run so badly like super wal-mart and there are not enough people to handle the business, so i can certainly understand how customers can get frustrated with us. one big difference is that we have about as many people on staff as we can possibly fit in the space. we are honestly trying everything to get the customer seated, or to get the line of customers taken care of. sometimes it’s just that everyone comes at once.
our full time night dishwasher is leaving this week. he is young and needs to travel and see the world and find himself. i remember those days… boy, how carefree it was…
what got me into making all these videos anyway? well, years ago i was excited for my employees who were buying houses and so i started filming them soon after the closing happened. years later i went back and filmed them again once they were settled in. in between times i occasionally shot some footage at work. then, i decided i wanted to put all my video clips together in a “movie.” it was grueling. i bought a special book to learn the editing software. i spent many many hours editing and trying to make a story that made sense. i showed my wife and she got dizzy and said that it was not watchable, the camera was shaking too much. i went back and tried to re-edit with color coded scenes that maybe could break up the story and ‘segment” the story into parts. once my computer crashed and threw all my work in the trash. i had to re-build the pieces i had spent months putting together. i hated making the movie. it consumed me though and became something i had to complete no matter what. i rented a projector and screen and showed the movie at my house on the lawn. employees came. it was anti-climactic to say the least, but i was glad it was over. i could move on in my life and forget about the blasted movie. another year went by and i didn’t do any filming at all. then i got interested in filming things again when i got the flip video with credit card points and since i had the knowledge of editing down so good, i could put together 2 minute “shorts” in 15 minutes or less. making the short movies became another obsession, as anyone following this blog has noticed. i love that i am doing all these things in my daily life and i can record them for my kids to enjoy one day. in addition to the movies i show here, i’ve also been making some short home movies with the kids and stuff. all of it seems sort of pointless and silly now but like photographs or good wine, these things will get better over time. if i only was making movies when i was building LSE, or the fountain-o-junk… how much i would like to watch those agin now, or have them around for posterity.
anyway, i tell you all of this to tell you this: i’ve finally figured out how i can upload my movie to vimeo, and thus to this blog. it will be in 3 parts. the entire movie is 1 hour and 32 minutes so each part is about 30 minutes. i don’t recommend that you watch it. why? well, it’s just too long and is mostly only interesting to the employees who are in it and even they might yawn and fall asleep about halfway through. i am putting it online because i trust that vimeo will archive it better than i can. i thought that it only existed on disc and i only have a couple of those left. so, imagine my surprise when i found it in my movies file. i haven’t watched it to see if it is the latest and finished movie that is on dvd, but i assume it is at least close. if my computer crashes tomorrow i might lose the original i have and then i’d be left with all that work for a couple dvd’s that are in a cabinet someplace. this way, i can store it on a shelf in cyberspace, and maybe a few folks will stumble along who enjoy it.
there are some funny parts. danny really saved me in the end when he started making little “episodes” with a doll in lightnin’ salvage after work. he and sue really made some funny scenes that are the most memorable scenes in the whole thing. so, i’ll post all 3 parts in the next few days as i have time. each part will take me a few hours to upload.
it was a fairly good day. all except for debbie, who brought in her own bowl for us to fill with salad and was sent out with no dressing. she was too far to come back and get it. this bums me out of course. if i had gotten the call i would have driven it to her, but i found out hours later. sorry to debbie, and the folks all at the party. we can give her a free pizza or apologize, but it doesn’t really make it better. anyway, just a mistake.
and today, i worked on some projects. a bit of cleaning the shed, working on the parking still, and general organizing. watch:
i had to give a talk today at UF to a group of students. this made me very nervous. i guess it obviously takes practice to be a good speaker. i can’t help but think about all the times i got off track and also about all the things i might have said better. whatever. i don’t mind talking. i can talk all day about nothing. that’s the problem i guess. it’s hard to know what information i need to get across. anyway, fortunately i don’t have to do that very often.
had i filmed even a bit of my talk it would have made for a better video, but i was so nervous i forgot. oh well, this is what i shot today:
my son took all of his bionicle parts and arranged them on the rug like this.
i worked straight through my 2 days off, scraping and caulking and painting…
we have a new menu. the prices are the same but we added a couple things like that we cook our pies crispy and dark brown on the bottom, and about the 18% gratuity added to parties of 8 or more…. i guess it was too late when i proofed it because after getting them from the printer i noticed a terrible grammatical error. under pizza it says: “Our pies are cooked crispy and dark brown on the bottom. If you like it otherwise. Please request light cook.” how did i miss that? we only added 2 sentences and i miss that? anyway, i was upset because i don’t like these sort of stupid mistakes and i had just printed eighty 2 sided color copies with 10 mil laminate. so, i’ve sent it to my mother to edit and she’s found, literally, about 20 other mistakes. wow. every time she reads it she finds a few more. so i’m going to re-print it in a week or so when we’re sure we’re done. i don’t foresee any price changes for a while and unless we decide to drop pepsi products we should have the same menu for a year at least.
we had a good weekend. it was miserable rain and cold yesterday (friday) but we were still on a wait until closing. tonight was cold too and we were on a wait until closing. things went well, no mistakes. nice and smooth. i’m happy.
so, i just threw together all the miscellaneous clips i had into a short video. why? well, why not? i figured it was better to make this than just throw them all away.
also, tonight a couple told me about the foreign exchange students they had living with them from germany. they brought them to satchel’s and the girl was amazed to see a coaster from her small town in germany at lightnin’ salvage, in one of our guest collections. see the photos of some of our guest collections here.
i wrote a whole post but lost it somehow. i’m too wiped out to re-write it. suffice it to say i am suffering from allergies bad. i even saw my first bright pink azalea blooming today, more proof that i am not the only one noticing spring is springing.
i should have been in bed all day but i worked my butt off because i had to get the lot tightened up…
i would tell you a bunch of stuff it it weren’t almost 1 am. i should be a-sleepin’ but well, i’m not.
fresh from the oven you can watch parking lot footage. not very exciting really, but i can’t help but record some of this. somehow, i think in 5 years, it will all seem like a dream…
the first paragraph of this post is for any pizza operators out there who
1. use deck ovens and 2. slide pies from the peel right on the stone.
that’s what i believe is the best way to cook pies and that’s what we do. anyway, i have found, through trial and error, that flipping the oven stones is a good idea to keep the stones new and clean. the bottom side burns off any char from use, and the stones are like new after a flip. i did this today and made an instructional video for other operators who may not know about this important maintenance. after searching “flip oven stones” on youtube and finding nothing, i decided i might as well be the first. for blog readers out there who are not pizza shop owners, this video would bore you to death and i don’t want your death on my head. that’s why i’m not posting the video here. it’s 10 minutes long and very boring, BUT informative for those who answer yes to #’s 1 and 2 above. go to youtube and search “flip the oven stones” for my first instructional 10 minute long boring video for pizza operators only.
great superbowl. i enjoyed it.
and for the rest of you: i often make blueberry scones on saturday or sunday morning. we have a family re-union coming up this summer and someone is putting together a family cookbook. i sent in my scone recipe and needed a photo to send along too. so i made the scones and sat the family down on the couch for a self-timed photo. we set the camera up on the cat’s scratching post, but the cat would climb up the post just about the time we sat down and we would jump up to save the camera from dropping to the concrete floor. then, once we had the cat’s under control, my daughter would jump up and decide to dance in front of the camera. then, the timer wouldn’t work or my daughter would move too much. we almost gave up but finally got this shot. i have some pretty old beat up cookie sheets in my house, as you can see. i am halfway embarrassed about the cookie sheet, and halfway not. we’re not fancy people. we live in the country.
anyone who knows anything about gator sports has heard of Mick Hubert and his famous “Oh my!” when something good happens on the feild or the court. Mick is mostly a radio announcer as far as i know, and i should know because i listen to a lot of games on the radio. mick was in tonight for pizza and was nice enough to let me film him.
i’m really excited about this:
well, as for the videos i lost, i was laying in bed when i remembered trashing a lot of clips and realizing they were in there. i was missing some other clips too from last week but i found them all. not sure what i’ll do with all the lost and miscellaneous clips… i might make something with the scraps…
but here’s the video i promised yesterday. it makes me hungry. music by our friends the weary boys.
update: i did add a few clips and change the music to the video below (coasters plus). the music fits the video MUCH better, and pretty much expresses how i feel about just about all the time. if you are a super fan then you have already watched it. if you are a major super fan extreme, then you will re-watch it with the added clips and new music.
something happened. i either thought i filmed a bunch of stuff that i didn’t film, my camera is not working properly, or i accidentally erased some stuff that i filmed…. i can think of at least 4 or 5 shots that are missing but it’s probably for the better, keeps the video shorter, even if it makes less sense. believe me when i tell you that the shots i took made sense as you saw the before and after shots of the cases and more in progress shots, but time does not stand still and so tomorrow i will find new things to film. on the side i am working on another video of shots of pies coming out of the oven. maybe after tomorrow night i’ll have that one finished.
i need to find some employees willing to talk to the camera, share some stories or insights. i’m running out of material…
i’ve always had really bad seasonal allergies. when i was a kid my eyes would swell shut in school and i would go home early sometimes. i even got taken out of my elementary school with no A/C and moved to another school. i suffered a lot i my adult life as well, and it was really after i got married, at 30, that my wife made me go to the doctor and get meds for it. it’s not nearly as bad now, but in the last few days i have been slammed with symptoms. my eyes are itching like never before. seems like spring is in the air around here…
anyway, i worked some today but not much. i had a persistent headache possibly from the allergies and my in-laws watched the kids so me and my lady could go out. i called to check on the place and danny said it was the biggest turnout for open-mic night ever. he said the lounge was packed all night. i always feel a bit guilty when i hear it was busy and i wasn’t there…”man, i should’ve been there tonight!” but i also know that taking some time off helps me stay sane too. i do trust the staff. they all work hard and care about the place too.
here’s another picture of me as a kid. my eyes aren’t swollen shut so that’s good.
we have a peahen that’s been living in and around our parking lot for a few months. a peacock has the huge plume but the female is just a big bird like this. i spent the other evening making a bunch of short home movies and i got burnt out on making videos so i was taking the day off but then john chided me for working with no documentation and so i got a couple minutes worth.
all the videos can be seen on the vimeo satchel’s pizza channel here.
some videos by danny and some by me. you should subscribe to our channel. i gotta admit, i don’t post ALL the videos here.
