Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

roasting beef, baking macadamia biscotti

I’m at the shop (Katie out again WARNING RELATIONSHIP IN PROGRESS) and so far, in the 2 hours I’ve been here I’ve:

  • Run through the morning set up
  • Started baking macadamia nut biscotti (first attempt.  Nut flavour is so mild I added no spices, just vanilla, also thinking of Nora I leave cinnamon out cause she’s allergic to cinnamon).
  • Made myself a chai latte
  • sold muffins and coffee to a couple of people
  • Put beef on to roast
  • Put away a good chunk of the ingredients we got last night at Costco
  • got the bread out of Bertha, which I always forget to do so I’m glad I remembered
  • Taken all the fridge temps (report: we are nominal son)
  • Put my hair back and donned an apron
  • Figured out how to form my lips into a trumpet trill so I can blast through the William Tell Orchestra
  • Blown level 70 in Candy Crush Saga AGAIN.  It is a demonaically hard level.
  • sat up front and watched it droozle out there
  • Thought about awnings for the street fair July 21st.  I want to buy one, mostly because I know that the awning Jeff and I bought four years ago is not going to make it through another year and so when I’m done with it here I’ll just take it home.
  • Thought about the data entry job Tom gave me.  I was supposed to work on it some more last night but the Costco run intervened and then Katie tried to get me to go for a walk, but my sciatica into my right heel is making me limp like hell.
  • Thought about the big pile of cardboard at the back of the shop I need to flatten and recycle.
  • Thought about the very interesting news I got from the landlord’s agent yesterday about what’s going on next door as far as ownership goes.
  • Thought with irritation verging on acting out about the THREE UNLICENSED VEHICLES sitting in the parking lot of OUR CAFE.  The landlord’s agent says I can approach the miscreants responsible and ask them to move the cube van, the stake truck and the not-licensed-since-October-2012 shitbox compact sitting out there.  The Hino is parked crossways, FFS, taking two spots.  What the hell is wrong with these people?  It’s not the antechamber to a scrapyard.  Dayyum.
  • Thought with love and deep sympathy about my dear one Tammy who is burying her father today and will have to deal with that hard on the heels of breaking up with a man she has been trying to partner up with for 3 years.  It was his idea and he won’t stop calling her.  I know he’s not a complete asshole but sheeshkabobbers, folks, take a hint. And her complete and total born bad asshole of an adoptive brother is going to be at the funeral, and I tried to bet with her that he would show up at mom’s drunk, raring to steal money and valuables, but she wouldn’t take the bet.  He’s already been banished but you know how sociopaths press once they perceive an advantage.  Tammy and her mother took the high road and at least let the brother know his dad was gone.

various

Katie came in late to the shop this morning, having spent the night away from home (with notice, all cool) and here I was bouncing around in the shop listening to Gangstagrass (their slide player is a fiercely chopladen woman, w00T!) and attempting my first dough batch of macadamia nut biscotti (adds about five bucks to the cost…. schmurr….) and I got to pull a mocha for a regular. Hopefully I did okay.  This particular regular LOVES OUR MUFFINS. loves loves.

Anyway, here’s something musical, techy, old fashioned and new fashioned for pOp.

Got our facebook page back out of limbo.  Very relieved.  We tweet under KittyKatesCafe and Facebook is Kitty Kate’s Cafe.

Waiting for corrections on signage and then we’ll have the building sides labelled with guidance for drivers as to where to park, which is always useful.  We’ll be putting it up ourselves, with permission from the very cooperative landlord.

Today inventory, menu update, and print out some more business cards.

Bro and I are rewatching Bones from the beginning.  Also Saving Grace.  I LOVE THE RELATIONSHIPS between the female characters in Saving Grace.  Retta and Grace are two of the best best friends evar.

We’re gonna have a street fair on July 21!  They are closing the street.  That will be after we extend our hours.  Katie and I are going to be splitting it down the middle, she gets MTW and I get TFS and we both get Sunday off.

Heard back from the gal who wants to rent. She is going ahead, I’m so happy!!! We may end up making bagels.  Fingers crossed. That dough mixer may come in handy yet.  Which reminds me I need to find a fixer dude.

oh my learning curve

Right now the shop smells like a combination latrine and abattoir (oh, THAT’S attRACtive) because I, like the fool I am, scheduled the grease trap cleaning during hours of operation.  Katie took off to render care for her bff and I am here in a stench that usually precedes the advent of a horde of orcs, or perhaps several large trolls. Or I could say that it smells like what happens when Jeff leaps to his feet and says “Mr Toilet you’ve been very bad.”…. but that would just be wrong, because on the worst day he ever had he never smelled anything like this.

Ha ha, I asked Jeff to forward the instructions so mOm and pOp can watch us on the security cams.  Isn’t that hilarious?  At least we don’t have smellovision yet, because pOp would be bolting for the nearest door, eyes out on stalks, if he came anywhere near this unusual odour.  peeeeeyou.

NEVER BOOK A GREASE TRAP CLEANING DURING OFFICE HOURS.  HOLY F***STICKS.  I’m as far as I can get from it, but I must needs be here until the bitter end because I must needs pay the man.  All this to prevent the City of Burnaby from fining my ass for putting more than a certain ppm of fat down the drain.

further edges around Justified

Mercy me.  Moonshine is one of the background characters in Justified, and now it appears that artisanal ‘shine is making the big distillers lick their chops.

Downstairs toilet at home went kablooie.  Hope Jeff is coping with it okay.

Timothy Olyphant being adorbz on Ellen.

Timothy Olyphant demonstrating that nasty rotten lousy miserable trick men have of getting MUCH HOTTER as they get older.

Ok, gotta go pay some bills now.

 

 

Justified

Despite Jeff and I jumping on this show with enthusiasm, I still managed to get in a brief shop, hang around the shop for 4 hours while the temp sensor solution got put in for Bertha, launder many clodes and rugs and fold towels, clean the hell hole under the kitchen sink after scrubbing down the tub and the kitchen cupboards, which looked yucky, and sweep the kitchen floor and cook a tasty dinner (chicken thighs, noodles and fresh green beans).  But I have to say I love love love the character of Raylan Givens, and Boyd Crowder isn’t far behind.  It’s interesting that while the show is violent (the body count is what it is) there’s virtually no swearing and the nudity is in my view not gratuitous.  Although Mr. Olyphant can take his clodes off annnnnytime.

It’s 1:30 in the morning and I am up because of heartburn.  I should probably attempt to go back to sleep.

 

More yumminess

Katie made super fantastic amazing huzzah muffins yesterday, mostly by accidentally putting in too much margarine and not enough milk and oh my gosh they were so amazing.  (Chocochunk Cherry).  Today I am making multiflavours of biscotti for a pick up order tomorrow. Split pea with ham soup for lunch.  Keith and Paul came by for a snack and Keith also dropped by in the evening to catch up on Game of Thrones.  Katie bailed on the shop today so I’m by myself (she’s helping Jessica) but that’s okay, it’s relatively quiet. And I brought Otto in, so I’m working on my Tyrion song (it’s him spouting off about his siblings, his dad, his effed up life….)

Continued yumminess in the form of a show called Justified. I simply didn’t get enough Seth Bullock from Deadwood, so I was thrilled that Graham Yost (Elwy’s offspring) put together Justified, which is based on an Elmore Leonard short story and novels, and is basically Seth Bullock dressed up in modern clo’es and hewing the lawman’s line in Lexington KY.  It is with great joy that I have learned that the two seasons on Netflix are not the only two seasons – it’s actually filming the fifth season this year.  The first four episodes have been amazing.  The music is stellar and Jeff and I just love the song that plays over the credits, which is rap vocals over bluegrass instrumentation (ya don’t knock what works).  At the line “That would be refreshingly linear” I sank back into my seat and smiled with glee.

 

Okay, biscotti are calling for me to attend to them.

 

 

Dribs and drabs

Went to a party last night.  I don’t mind meeting new people.  Every man I spoke with wanted to have about 90% of the air time.  Or wore so much scent that I thought, “A nice guy but you could float an anvil on the lake of his cologne”.  I guess I am just too effin picky, but at least I made the effort, and it was Garlen’s 50th.

Katie is dating again.  When she went for a walk with her new beau, great blue herons were following her around and glaring at her.  She found it amusing that my totem animal was following her around.  She’s gone off to New West now to be with her bestie for a while.

2020 says CONSULTING ANIMAL YOU FOOL

I am waiting for it to dry enough that I can cut the grass.  Other than that I have a pretty lazy weekend planned, except for taking down the wasp nest at the shop (it’s over the back door, a truly lousy place for it, and continuing to much out my room.  Maybe I’ll even write some songs down.