Friday, August 08, 2014

Where's August?

Hello August, I want my heat back.  I realize that we are saving on AC bills and what not, but I like summer to be hot, the way it is supposed to be.  It's only for a month or two; the rest of the year can be temperate or even cold.  I suffered through the chill, so I don't think a few weeks of nice hot weather is too much to ask.  But it doesn't look like it's going to get above the mid-80's for the foreseeable future, and if you ask me, that is not August.  That's a very pleasant September.

It hasn't stopped the corn from growing though, has it?

We are between Bar Tenders at the BT this week, so that duty has fallen upon me.  It means scheduling a host to cover my shifts on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  On Wednesday night that was Mallory's job, which also meant she covered the photography for the Wednesday Menu report.  Here's her results.

Starter was a smoked fish cake:

Or, I guess, a faux crab cake...

Entree - not a very popular menu BTW - was St.Brigid's Farm calves liver with sauteed onions and a honey balsamic reduction.  Calves liver is not everyone's first choice for dinner.  Many of our Wednesday regulars opted out this week, it is true.   

They missed the brownie sundae dessert:

Mallory took a nice shot of Kevin's roasted plum tomatoes, which were what garnished the fish cake at lunch on Thursday.  (If you want a really great snack, take one of those roasted romas, lay a slice of fresh mozzarella on top and drizzle with a little balsamic vinaigrette.  Snackers paradise.)



And she got a great shot of the sausage platter:

But when I downloaded the pictures, there were 20 photographs on there.  I was going, what? 20 pictures?  What the heck is on here??  I should have figured - selfies!

Here's the crazy girl crew, with Mallory at the front, her broad smile shining brightly:





My girls, having fun with the camera on Wednesday night - Jenn, Leah, Ashley, Kaitlyn and of course Mallory.  They sure look like they are having a grand time!  Hey girls, who's left out in the dining room taking care of the customers???

Here is what you want for lunch today - the BT BLT which = Bacon, Lettuce and some of those roasted plum Tomatoes plus a few slices of mozzarella.  Take a bite of goodness!

Most of yesterday - at least until about 1:00 - was taken up by QuickBooks.  Or rather, taken up by trying to get QuickBooks to come to work.  With the help of Maureen from next door I was able to reach out to a QuickBooks tech, who, with the help of a $250 annual membership in their "Quix" support system, was able to repair the damage that supposedly a virus had done to shut down our check writing software.  But that is not the interesting part.  In paying online for the tech support, I inadvertently entered the wrong expiration date for the business credit card I was using, which denied the funds.  After correcting my mistake, the order went through fine and the tech remotely worked on our computer until the repair was completed.  Soon after he got off line, I checked our email.  There was one from our business banking account regarding a questionable charge made on our card, so I checked our account, wondering if it was that mess up with Quix.  Nothing there except for those recent transactions which I expected to see.  Thinking perhaps that the email itself was fraudulent, I called Chase.  Yes, there had been a bad charge, which they had denied.   They had recognized it as a fraudulent charge because the expiration date was incorrect.  And the incorrect date was the same one I had used at my first attempt to pay for my Quix account.  In that flash of time, someone had breached someone's security and gotten our correct credit card number, along with the incorrect expiration date and made a charge.  Wow.  I called the Quix tech line to tell them that perhaps the weak link was on their end, but who knows.  It is a crazy Internet world out there.  Everyday you hear stories of peoples cards being stolen.  I read somewhere that part of the problem with the security issues on the web is that the Internet was initially built for sharing, not for privacy, with patches being applied later to try to keep the fox out of the hen house.  Maybe a little too late.

We would have been home in a relatively timely fashion last night, after another very busy burger night, except for a major catastrophe that occurred in the mop closet at the end of the night.  One of the two dishwashers - who shall remain nameless at this point - somehow managed to knock over the 5 gallon bucket of Dawn dish detergent.  This wouldn't have been a problem if the top had been securely in place.  It wasn't.  And even this wouldn't have been so bad - a big mess of Dawn to scoop up - if he hadn't then proceeded to knock over the full mop bucket in his haste to try to correct the fallen Dawn.  Oh. My. God.   What a frigging mess.  It took a solid 45 minutes for Kevin and the DW to get the floor cleaned up and dry. 

And here is where we have fun with boxes.  I am now the queen of the box tower, since there has never been one to stand taller or last longer.  All the way to the ceiling!  Unfortunately my competitor Tiffany is out today, so she has not been witness to my success.

Our condolences to Frank Mattes and his family at Mattes Seafood.  Their eldest son died on Wednesday from complications after surgery.  We know they are thoroughly broken by this tragic event and our hearts go out to them.  There's no better guy than Frank Sr.  

Peace out!  Enjoy the great weather ahead for Pirates Weekend in Rock Hall and don't forget to support the local restaurant scene while you are at it!

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