I know it's Friday. I am posting my weekly Wednesday round-up a day late. It's been a little busy around here for the past two days, mostly because of problems of my own creation.
It all started on Wednesday with Kevin's new mobile device. He wanted a notebook, so that he could work at the desk at the same time I was, on his own computer. We did a little research and found something that would work for him. Of course, we never thought about how, exactly, he would get online. It turns out we need a wireless connection. A trip Thursday morning to RadioShack produces an acceptable router and soon, with a little help from Myles, we are up and connected. Except that for some unknown reason, Digital Dining, our software that runs the restaurant, crashed in the office and would not come back online. After rebooting and restarting time and again, I finally made the call to the DD tech. I was on the phone for quite some time, and for quite some more time he was remotely examining our computers. He couldn't figure it out. He knew what the problem was, but from his viewpoint, he couldn't understand what was causing it.
Meanwhile, of course, it's lunch time and we have no internet connection in the dining room to run credit cards through. Out comes the knuckle buster - thank goodness we have one!
Finally the DD guy gives up - it's about 4:00 - and I make a call to the IT guy that we use here at the Radcliffe Mill. Their work day has come to an end, and so I make an appointment for this morning.
Meanwhile, of course, it's Thursday night. Burger mania is about to set in and we will have to do credit cards manually, and then I will have to close them manually on the House Account until I can get online to close them manually via the credit card processor.
And it truly is burger mania last night. Just a little busier than last Thursday, but not nearly as smooth. It was a bit rough. Things went wrong, burgers got overcooked, food took too long. It was not pleasant - although I only got one outright complaint, which was surprising. I am sure there were more unhappy guests than that. We were just too busy, and the added time it took to do those credit cards were minutes that we really couldn't spare. If this craziness keeps up after Labor Day, I'm putting a third server on the floor!
So, the IT tech comes this morning and after poking around, puzzled for awhile, he actually solves the problem! Turns out, when I hooked up the wireless router, and then unhooked it since it had been the cause of the Network issue that was diagnosed by the DD guy, and re-hooked up the regular router, well, I'd put some plugs into the wrong outlets. HA! who knew that certain plugs have to go in certain outlets!?!
Finally, about 10:30 this morning, we are back up and running. It takes just under an hour for me to run all 75 or so credit card slips through the system - manually, of course, for which Merchant Services adds an extra charge.
I sure hope Kevin uses that damn notebook.
Anyway, on to the Wednesday night menu. We started with a take on the antipasti plate we had on Monday night at the Commerce Street Grill in Centreville. Kevin marinated some eggplant slices and served them with his mozzarella.
This was followed by a plate of Jay and Kevin's hand-cut fettuccine with shrimp and sausage in a slightly spicy tomato sauce.
Dessert was a slice of Swedish Apple Cake - my sister Marty's recipe - garnished with whipped cream and caramel sauce.
The unofficial end of summer is days away. It is always so hard to believe that summer is over, once again. I did finally manage to have a soft-crab sandwich - at J&J Seafood in Rock Hall on Monday. It was quite good too; you need to get yourself in there if you want one before the season ends. Cooked perfectly. Plenty of mayo. About as good as it gets. And their cream of crab soup is one of the best I've had.
Anyway, this weekend is all about the grill. And putting all the white clothes back in the winter closet. Have fun, whatever you do!
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