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"I've got the brains, you've got the looks, let's make lots of money." - Actual song lyrics and title from 1986, Pet Shop Boys, song title Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money.) hahahaha!

Friday, 4-26-24: Recent photos and a "night off."
It's Friday night and I'm not at work. Oh Jesus, hell ya! However, I've been at work the last two nights as closing dish thanks to a call-out. What a bunch of crap! I was at work earlier, but the staff are all in place and we're not packed-full so I took off. I watched some Fox News where they took a verbal crap all over Biden, I watched some sports, and the Red Sox are losing to the Cubs at Fenway. I haven't watched much of the Red Sox this year so it was nice to check in on them for a bit. So far they are 14-12, but soon-to-be 14-13. A lot of injuries so far and not much for expectations in a division where (sadly) the Yankees and Orioles are better. Gods damn it!

I also called Mom and Dad because I'm heading down to the ol' homestead on Monday for a visit and to turkey hunt. I won't get a really early start because I close Sunday night at the restaurant as usual. I haven't renewed my huting license yet, but that's easy. I put out some camo gear earlier so it can air out some, and I'll treat it tomorrow with anti-tick spray. Every time for the past decade Dad says "Don't forget to treat your gear for ticks." HAHAHAHHA! He's right, thought. I used to not care so much, and once I even ate a tick at the dinner-table (Mom was mortified!), but those little skid-stains can wreak havoc. Poor Kat has lyme as does seemingly half the people whom I know from the midcoast and even from around here. I probably have it as well, but I got a test many years ago that came back negative. I don't really believe the test, though. Some days are just really off and I don't have a good reason as to why...

I had some random photos on my phone that I uploaded to my computer. Actually I don't know how to upload them so nevermind. I did accidentally figure out how to email them to myself so I did that! First is this gem from about a week ago before Paradis closed. Paradis is the local grocery store that is located next to our restaurant, and it's been my primary grocery store since 1998. The place is awesome and sometimes ghetto as shown here:

I went in to grab some lunch, and my cheap-ass bought this for 99 cents. Love how it says "MEAT" on the tag hahahahaha! It expired two days prior OMG! I've never bought that kind before, and I have all kinds of regrets. Not because it made me sick, no, but because it's not worth 99 cents even not expired. You get a few shitty little pieces of pepperoni, some failed crackers, and mushy mozz cheese that is supposed to be individually sliced but that seems like one little mini-block. IT SUCKS! I bought two and threw the other one away. I didn't even have it in me to give the other one to the dogs. What a bunch of crap!

Next is this from a couple Mondays ago when we had the electricians over to the restaurant to take care of some things:

^Everything in that panel is old. OLD. There were sparks flying, and it was all-bad. Bye bye several hundred dollars that I won't invoice to the landlord because he'll find some other expenses on his end that he'll try to make us pay. What a bunch of crap! I guess the top part of the panel was really bad so they needed parts and a lot of time to make it right. It's still not even 100% fixed, but it's better. The "Sparkies" are honest people so I believe them, too. I've known their family for a very long time and they're great. We're lucky to have them.

Finally is this funny one of the pets from last week:

^HAHAHAHA! We put that little folding end-table on the couch so the dogs don't get up there and yet Tiger Lily finds a way. She was really squeezed in there, too. All for a view out the window hahahaha! The cats can F off, but in that photo they weren't doing anytime too ridiculous. I still don't like any of them, though.

Rick Astley sings "Never Gonna Give You Up" on channel 1928. I still don't understand how "Rick-Rolled" became a thing. Was it from this song?! It's a perfectly passable 1980s song, but not one of the best 1980s songs.

I got my truck back yesterday morning after not having it for 8 days. Maybe it was 9 days? I dunno because work is so close I can either walk or ride with my awesome wife. Sadly it was cold some of the days so it was a bitter walk. Not unbearable with ice like mid-winter would have been, but a stiff wind and chilly even with full sun. We were down to 23 first thing this morning, a record cold for this date, what a bunch of crap! It was crisp and windy all week so I didn't bother to go for a jog at all. I almost went this afternoon, but I took a nap instead hahahaha. I really need to get the cardio up because it's lacking. I think it's better than it was at this time a year ago, but that's not saying much at all. I might go for a jog tomorrow when we hit a forecassted 63 with sun, but it all depends on work. I work tomorrow 1700-close, and I have things to do during the day including a tax client at 1100 and a graduation party to help set up from 1200-1500. Weekends are usually busy and this coming one is no exception. However, it won't be as busy as the first weekend in May when we have some bigger events coming...

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Thursday, 4-18-24: Expensive repairs, a drag show, tax season.
Normally my tax season would be all but over now, but it forges on since the new deadline for our area is June 17. Most of my clients didn't know the deadline was extended so they are all done, but not all. I have two in the works now, two coming Saturday, and several more left before the end of the year. I haven't even finished out own taxes yet. What a bunch of crap! I really don't mind the deadline getting extended because I can spread out the workload more, but at times it will be a nusiance when I'm trying to focus on other things.

I was at work earlier helping for the drag show that's probably half over by now. We had the thing booked for quite a while, but we only had one reservation for a group of 6 so I didn't think it would be a good turnout. The last show we hosted in the fall, several months ago, was a bust. However, that was only a couple days after the horrible Lewiston shootings that left 18 people dead, and when we had our show the madman shooter hadn't been found yet so people were really nervous. I was watching our door like a hawk in case there was trouble, but things were tame. The cops found the scumbag murder dead the next day. He shot himself in the head, or so I recall.

The drag show now ended up with a decent turnout. Maybe 40-50 people total, and we will hit the minimum sales goal I was hoping to see. We did lose a few people because the show was supposed to start at 2000, but it was an hour late getting started. What a bunch of crap! That makes us look bad, but it's not our fault we provide the venue and it's the performers' job to be on-time. We were actually really busy for an hour or so just before the show started and everyone was rolling in wanting drinks, food, and more drinks. I'll go back and help with the close as the show ends in a bit.

Last night my awesome wife and I hit it hard. We had some drinks as customers at our own bar before we got boozed up and had a great idea to go over to the Penobscot Pour House to check out their karaoke. We close at 2300 and they close at 0100. We know their DJ, but we haven't been to one of his shows in quite some time. Going to the Pour House was not my idea, but I went along because why not? DJ Amanda was sober so she drove Via (one of our servers and Katherine's friend) and us over. I hadn't been to the Pour House in seemingly forever either and I gotta admit the place does look nice. It was quite busy there as well so we know they have Wednesday nights on lockdown. We were packed for dinner and trivia, but as usual most people left and we weren't too busy for our own karaoke.

We used to do karaoke on Tuesday nights, but it sucked so we tried moving it to Wednesdays a few months ago. So far it's proven to not be very popular, but who knows maybe if we give it some time it will pick up. If not we can just stop doing it. Right now our biggest increase has been on the restaurant side of things with food sales way up year-over-year. I'd guess overall we're up 18% from where we were at this time last year (all of 2024 so far compared to 2023 up to this point) so that's AWESOME. Most of that growth has been in food sales. The more we can succeed as an actual restaurant the less we need to rely on the nightlife and karaoke to keep us afloat. In years past the bar and karaoke were the only reasons why we stayed in business so it's nice to see that change. The event room has helped a lot so far this year, too.

My truck has been in the shop for 2.5 days, and I won't have it back until some point next week. I've known it's needed to go for quite some time, but I wanted to save up some precious... precious money so I can afford it. The inspection sticker expired in November last year. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I thought I'd be at $1000+ because it's been running poorly over the last 1.5 weeks, but holy crap I'm going to spend $3500.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

All I wanna know is why? Why did I make such poor decisions in life that I can't afford a newer truck? I guess I could get one, but F that I'd have a $500+ monthly payment. Trucks are EXPENSIVE these days. I paid around $30k for my 'badass' F150 in 2010 and now the same truck would cost $50k+ new. Even used trucks cost too much gods damn it.

I'll have spend $8000 on my truck in the past 6 months when it's all said and done. Why put that much money into a 13.5-year old truck? It only has 103,000 miles on it that's why. Last fall I dumped $4500-4700 on body work since the truck was rusting out around me. Rotting rocker panels, holes in the bed, etc. Now I need all kinds of mechanical shit like new brakes, power steering stuff, a battery, oil change, and some other stuff. When it's all done the truck should *hopefully* run great for a couple years and then I can look at replacing it with something newer.

In a perfect world I'd actually get a newer truck later this year, but the restaurant will have to level-up again for that to happen. Right now the restaurant is in a decent spot, but it's barely getting us by based on current numbers. I'm thinking I'll have to wait until 2025 or 2026 to get something newer. I don't drive the truck that much in a year anyway, certainly well under 10,000 miles. I bet I only drove 5000-6000 miles all of 2023 wow!

Our 9-year wedding annversary is tomorrow and we're going nowhere and doing nothing but working a lot of the day. What a bunch of crap! We did hit it hard last night to celebrate early, and we didn't bivouac until probably 0300. Had to be up by 0830 to get to work for keg-line cleaning and a code walkthrough. We failed the annual inspection because we had some electrical work that needed doing so this week we've dropped over $1000 on electrical upgrades. I planned to spend some precious... precious money on the electrical, but not that much gods damn it. I did take a sweet nap this afternoon so I'm good-to-go now. I was a little hungover, but not horribly-so. I passed out for a bit in booth 2 last night because after the Pour House closed we ended back at our own bar where the girls did some karaoke and I drank a little more. Good thing we live close so we didn't have to drive home!

It was a fun night last night, but we did hit it a little too hard. Oh well, every now and then it's nice to let loose and have a good time. It is sad we can't do anything too epic for our anniversary this year due to work and not having much extra precious... precious money. I thought it would be fun to go to our timeshare in Mexico and I actually looked up flight prices, but then I remembered my passport expired during Covid in 2020 or 2021. OMG I SUCK!

^Awarded to myself for forgetting about my passport that expired 3 or 4 years ago. I don't even know where the frigging thing is anymore. What a bunch of crap! Our timeshare week is April 27-May 2 or something like that, but no way that's happening. It would have been nice to go for 4 days, but it would have been hard to keep the restaurant running the right way and it would have been $1500-2000 and I need to FIX MY FRIGGING TRUCK.

I'd love to go on a vacation later this year, but the restaurant needs to make money. Someone recently asked us if the restarant was worth it and I'm not really sure anymore. At times it's amazing and at other times it threatens to end our marriage...

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Thursday, 4-11-24: Goonies part II?! No fuckin' way!
Is this true?

^Jason e-mailed this to me a couple days ago, and I didn't really believe it. There's been rumors of a Goonies II for many years, but I didn't think it was actually going to happen.

All I wanna know is why? Why does someone think this can work? I'm against it, but I don't actively hate it because sometimes revisiting a classic actually does work. Ghostbusters: Afterlife = great follow-up to an 80s classic. Sadly the same can't be said for both Total Recall and Robocop remakes that happened within the last decade. Those movied SUCKED ASS when compared to the timeless and nearly perfect originals.

^To the people who thought remaking Robocop and Total Recall were good ideas. YOU CANNOT REMAKE A PAUL VEROHEVAN MOVIE GODS DAMN YOUZ. THAT DIRECTOR CRUSHED AND CANNOT BE TOPPED.

The original Goonies movie was on TV Tuesday night. I had to go to work for a bit, but when I came home my awesome wife had it on because she also loves the movie. It's funny how I've seen the movie 1000 times, but every now and then something stands out that I never noticed before. The entire movie is a 1980s masterpiece, and if you really focus on the dialouge that's where it truly shines. All the kids really seem authentic in their actions and lines. Often times they're talking over each other, much like real kids do, and you have to pay attention to catch the background stuff.

Then at the end Chunk tells Sloth "You're gonna come live with me now cause I love ya." and that's a huge win. It's the most 80s of 1980s movies, but it has all kinds of heart and it's a 10/10 and my favorite movie of all-time. Making a sequel seems like a bad idea, but I'll reserve judgement until it actually happens.

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Wednesday, 4-10-24: The great eclipse and the end of tax season.
Most of the daily weather lately has been ten pounds of shit stuffed into a ten-pound bag, and that's often the case for early April in our area. What a bunch of crap! However, Monday and yesterday were fan-friggin-tastic. Monday we hit 66 degrees, not one cloud, and I was able to go for a mid-afternoon slow 2-mile jog/walk (I did better than I thought I would) before I got home just in time for 1420 and the very beginning of the big solar eclipse that people have been talking about for months.

So funny that just four days prior we were waking up to 8" of heavy, wet snow and we didn't even open the restaurant at all last Thursday due to garbage winter-weather. We had a lot of snow (a foot total maybe) so there was no sense. Then by Monday it was mostly all melted and I could sit in the back yard with no shirt on and get a little bit of sun before the eclipse shut down the sun. Northern and western Maine got a total eclipse, but here it was "only" 99%. Still good enough for viewing in the back yard with cheap glasses I got a few days ago. I didn't really even have this eclipse thing on my radar, but we had a customer come in Friday night who was selling them so I bought a bunch and handed them out to staff. I'm glad I did because it was a neat experience and something we won't ever see again in our lifetime. The next solar eclipse in Maine will be 2079 and my loser-ass is NOT going to be alive for that one.

^Bangor area on the outskirts, but close enough to get a good show.

We are really lucky to get a day of unlimited sun since most of the time we get trash weather this time of year. Even better, we are closed on Mondays so we didn't have to worry about work. Oh Jesus, hell ya! It just felt nice to be outside since most of the winter the weather is too cold to enjoy being outdoors. So funny today we're actually back to crap weather with temps in the 40s and rain showers. What a bunch of crap! The gods who do not exist looked out for us here in Maine on Monday...

In other news I was watching some of the Red Sox earlier when I got home from work. They're playing at Fenway Park right now, it was 5-0 Red Sox in the 5th, but I balied and put on channel 1928 for 80s music and now it's 7-5 Baltimore. What a bunch of crap! I had some tax clients this afternoon and then I helped in the kitchen at the restaurant for about an hour before I came home. It was a decent dinner-rush. Not packed-full but not totally dead either. We had a cook call out, but we covered it like a boss. Hopefully this will be the first week for us in three weeks where we can be open for normal business for our entire work-week. Three weeks ago we had a huge Saturday winter storm that really hurt sales. The week after that we were closed for Easter Sunday, and last week we had another snow storm that cost us Thursday. What a bunch of crap!

I've finished around 125 tax returns this season so I "ony" have 20-25 left including our own. A few of those are mostly done as well, just waiting on signatures and/or payment, so I really have 10-15 left to do for the rest of the year. Not bad! As the tax season winds down I can focus on other things and catch my breath some. I have work to do on our house and a list of things at the restaurant. I have plenty I can do to keep me busy enough through the end of May and then early June looks BUSY at the restaurant based on the events we currently have booked. Turns out June will be a decent month for us thanks to high school graduations.

Tax season doesn't really even end for me until June 17. Most of my clients are done, but a few will stagger in. The deadline was exended due to the huge storms we got earlier this year and late last year. It varies by county, but our county and 9 others have the extra precious... precious time. Knox county where I grew up just got pushed to July 17 so I have a couple clients there I won't be finishing until mid-summer. These huge storms are ridiculous and really costly.

We need a generator for the house for when the power goes out for days on end. My friend, Mike, has one for sale and I'm thinking about it. However, I'm not sure it's exactly what I want. Plus I have to pay who knows how much money (probably a lot) next week when I take the truck to the shop. It's running poorly and I only dare drive it around town. What a bunch of crap! The check-engine light is on and I can feel it struggling. In a perfect world I'd get a newer one, but that is too expensive so F that.

I think I'll enjoy more 80s music before I rack out with my crack out. Let's listen to Pet Shop Boys on Youtube again because this song is really catchy and fun and totally 1980s:

^This song is hilarious and it totally rules. If you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more... so funny I never even heard of this song until a couple months ago. Man I love discovering "new" 80s music at this point in my worthless life.

I don't think this song would work as a new song in today's candy-ass world. "I've got the brains, you've got the looks, let's make lots of money." does not seem gender-riffic to me. Fuck 'em!

The video for this song is epic in its cheesiness, and I love it all. Is that guy in the red hat in the Pet Shop Boys band? The guy in the suit makes sense, but who is that stained tee-shirt, sledge-hammer-wielding guy who randomly appears all over the video? I guess it's the lead singer's carpenter? I think they're from Europe so enough said about that one...

Man I miss the 1980s. I was only 5-15 years old in the 1980s and in many ways my life peaked at that point and it's been a slow downhill roll since then. Is that really true? Nope, but in some ways it is. My life sucks now and it my own fault. What a bunch of crap!

Okay, I was going to bivouac but I see my wife doing shots down at the bar so fuck it let's roll on and I just made another drink. The place closed already, but she has her other DJ and traniee DJ there so I guess it's bonus-levels for them. Are there bonus-levels for me? YUP. Everything since about age 38 is bonus for me so there's a "free" ten years. I can't even imagine living to be old, fuck that shit. Some ancient 111-year old who served in WWII was on TV a day or two ago from over in Europe and I just don't get it? He said something about eating lots of fish and chips hahahaha! What about coffee brandy and Teddy Grahams for me?

I'm doomed.

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Wednesday, 4-03-24: Oh great here comes another winter storm... in spring.
According to all official forecasts tomorrow is going to be busted. Snow, wind, fail. Here it is from the National Weather Service:

^8-12 inches of snow in our area, and not too far away from the 12-18" range. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Meteoroligists have been talking about this one for days, and many schools and businesses are already closed tomorrow. We're closed tomorrow gods damn it! Thursdays are our second-slowest day of the week lately so oh well, better than a Friday or a Saturday. We lost most of our busy Saturday 1.5 weeks ago from a huge storm. What a bunch of crap! We made it all winter with no major winter-weather closures and now here they come. Gods damn it!

It was 54 degrees and sunny yesterday and I went for a 1.67-mile jog/walk and tomorrow we get up to a foot of snow and 34 degrees ahahahahaha! Next week back near 60. Welcome, spring.

This will be our third consecutive week of losing substantial revenue due to either winter weather or a holiday. 1.5 weeks ago was that other big storm, Sunday was Easter, and tomorrow will be this soon-to-be snowstorm. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, at least payroll is lower as well as product cost. Good thing it's still tax-season so we still have extra precious... precious money coming in.

I've been frustrated this week, and I hate my life again. What a bunch of crap! I'm sick of not having enough money in the bank and having to deal with the stupid shit from the restaurant. I don't think I can do it much more. I realized I still enjoy doing taxes, and I've learned a lot from this tax season. I learn every season as clients bring me new and unique things to work on, and these past few weeks have been no exception. What do I enjoy doing more, taxes or the restaurant?

I'd enjoy the restaurant more, but managing that place sometimes feels like a losing battle. Especially with these chicks creating drama all the damn time. Last Friday one server almost got into a fist-fight with another server AHAHAHAHA. I was oblivious because I was doing taxes in the office at the time, but my wife got called in to deal with it and last night I had to suspend one of the servers for being... unruly? She legit wanted to get into a fight hahahaha! The other server gets off duty and then drinks too much at our bar hahahaha! Fuck my life.

Oh, I had to review camera footage for an hour with a sheriff because we had a custmer get an OUI after he left Friday night. This was his car around 0200:

FUCK MY LIFE.

We are lucky the guy didn't hurt anyone or himself or else I think that would end our business. We have insurance, but they would drop our worthess asses like a bad habit and getting new insurance would cost too much. Hopefully the homeowner doesn't sue for... wheel ruts in their lawn? The guy told the sheriff he wasn't driving and only had two beers, but his tab certainly shows otherwise. Gods damn it! Plus the footage and other evidence proves he was the guy driving down Route 15 towards Bucksport when he epic failed.

In other news that doesn't make me hate my life as much, the Red Sox are 5-2 after they swept the hapless Oakland A's in California, and the Celtics just clinched the #1 best record in all of the NBA when they beat the OKC Thunder at home tonight. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

I was going to hook up the Nintendo Wii and play Super Mario Wii, but I ended up watching the Celtics and then talking to Mom for an hour so nevermind. I think I need to buy one of those Nintendo Switches because I heard you can download all the old games, but I dunno and I'm bad at video games anyway. However, I hope that, as tax season winds down, I can play some old video games. I'd rather do that than hang out with my own wife. What a bunch of crap!

Oh hey, there's a cat doing stupid shit again. One of the grey ones thinks it's fun to get into the kitchen sink and all I wanna know is why? Why does that happen? THERE IS NOTHING FUN IN THERE JUST A PLATE AND MY BOOZE-GLASS THAT I RINSED OUT YA FUCKIN' DINK. I should put rat poison in there but I'm not quite that cruel so instead I'll just complain on this bootleg site that almost no one ever reads. What a bunch of crap!