Let the Weekend Begin!

The Smiths - Doug and Mickey - dined at the kitchen table last night. Mr. Smith was a lot happier than he appears in this not-very-good picture I took of them. There has been a lot of action at the kitchen table this October, what with the weather cooperating so nicely.

We are ready for what we hope is a busy weekend, with the Sultana Downrigging festivities promising to bring in plenty of new, hungry faces. This event offers no additional food venues to the scene, which is very nice for us local, professional restaurateurs. I certainly applaud the charitable groups that sell crab cakes and fried clams at festivals around the county - they work very hard and earn money for excellent causes for our area - but I also appreciate the extra business being thrown our way when there are no street food options for the visiting hordes. We all could use the bump in traffic, I am sure.

That being said, we are keeping our fingers crossed that no one calls out. We already have one potentially vacant spot, and we certainly can't afford any more. We actually had a week two weeks ago where NO ONE CALLED OUT THE ENTIRE WEEK!!!! That was amazing. And while we certainly do not want anyone to come to work when they are feeling ill - especially with the H1N1 swirling in our midst - we also encourage our staff to take good care of themselves. We stress to them the importance of adequate sleep, proper nutrition, blah blah blah. That latter is what they actually hear when we lecture them. We know. We were young once and worked the restaurant treadmill. We are thrilled to still be alive. Now that we are older, with more responsibilities, we generally are more careful. It is pretty incredible though, that in 23 years at this position, Kevin has missed one service and I have missed none, due to illness. (knock knock, knock knock) We try to eat right, get plenty of sleep and we drink as much as we possibly can...ha! Anyway, it's a little stressful, gearing up for the weekend; we can only hope that it pans out.