9-04 10-04 11-04 12-04 1-05 2-05 3-05 4-05 5-05 6-05 7-05 8-05 9-05 10-05 11-05 12-05 1-06 2-06 3-06
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"Drama is a choice." - Mike (bartender at work to the younger servers who were upset with each other.))

Wednesday, 2-28-24: Easiest winter ever?
This winter has been a joke. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I don't want to live through another harsh winter in my life, but I'm sure I will because this is home for quite a while to come. Forever? Hard to say, but I could see us living in a warmer climate when we're really old and crusty. Living in a Democratic state sucks a bit, too.

We have had some snow and some cold, but it never seems to last. Yesterday was 50 degrees so I went for my first outdoor jog of the season. I only went a mile, I walked some, but it's a start. I only used the treadmill this year for a few miles total. What a bunch of crap! I should work towards better cardio this year, but I work too friggin' much and I'm old now. I do play racquetball regularly lately so that helps. I lost today in cutthroat games against Mike and Gavin, but I usually lose. Gods damn it! I'm fine with losing as long as I get a great workout, but today was just mediocre. I felt a little off, probably because I work too friggin' much.

The National Weather Service posts some "Winter Severity Index" chart, and it looked like this recently:

^NEAR RECORD WEAK-ASS WINTER HELLZ YEAH!

February is almost over, and in 3 out of 4 years it would be over. However, this is a leap-year so we get a "bonus" day of the year. Tomorrow is Feb 29, and March 1 is Friday. It's been a fantastic month as far as restaurant sales, and our sales per day might be the best of all-time. We've had a couple better months, but those ones had 31 days with something like 5 Fridays and/or 5 Saturdays. That matters a lot since we do most of our business on the weekends. A LOT. We already set our all-time food sales record for any month so that's a HUGE win. I think next month we'll have our best month of all-time since we have 31 days in March including 5 Fridays and 5 Saturdays. There are 5 Sundays, but Sunday the 31st is Easter and we won't be open for that one. At least I hope not!

Our sales are up 20% year-over-year. HOLY CRAP! It is a huge increase, and we're not losing money. We're not making money yet, but that will come hopefully as soon as next month. It's hard to turn a profit in winter with higher heat and electric bills. Plus some of our licenses renew and we tend to lose business when the weather is garbage.

The weather was garbage today, but it was "hot garbage" at about 50 degrees with rain. There is a high wind warning posted tonight so that's a bunch of crap! Hopefully no winds over 60MPH. 50-55 is top-end and that usually doesn't destroy our entire area. We actually got approval for federal disaster status in the aftermath of what were massive December storms so that pushed the tax deadline back to June 17 for our county and 9 others in the state.

I thought the trash-weather would slow down business, but lately Wednesdays have been off the scale busy for our trivia. I would have stayed home, but it got busy so I went down to help after I lost at racquetball. My awesome wife stayed home, texted me goodnight when I was about to get back to the house, so fuck that. HEY CHICK I WENT DOWN TO HELP AT THE PLACE YOU OWN SO HOW ABOUT YOU STAY AWAKE FOR 5 MORE MINUTES TO SAY A PROPER GOODNIGHT?! WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

She was sick today so I'll let it go. I would have stayed up gods damn it.

I got home, made a drink (I didn't drink much at all tonight), and watched some news. Trump got booted off the Illinois primary ballot, same thing that happened to him in Colorado and here in Maine, and that's FUCKING STOOPID. He's not even a convicted criminal! A lot of people hate his ass, and I think he's a piece of shit, but I'm voting for him without question later this year because Biden is a friggin' embarassment to our once-great nation. I guess Trump got booted for "insurrection" even though he's not officially busted for anything. What a bunch of crap! Maine can go fuck itself for that one as can Colorado and Illinios, and it's sad since I'm a Maine resident and have been one since about 1982 when I was too young to know the difference or even what USA was. There definitely is no "United" in USA anymore. What a bunch of crap!

So I guess my tax season is about half over. I've done roughly 75 tax returns, but I have a dozen in a holding-pattern awaiting patment and/or signatures. I'll do 150-ish this year, maybe less, and I have a few more months until the deadline. Most of my clients don't know the deadline is pushed to June so I just get them done and check them off the list. Our own taxes as well as the restaurant taxes won't get done for quite some time since I'm always so busy.

An increase of 20% for the restaurant is great, but holy Jebus it uses up a lot of my precious... precious time. I'm really stretched to the maximum I can handle doing 10-15 tax returns a week plus the restaurant. Weekends are BUSY more often than not, and we have more events than ever. Saturdays we really get hit hard not only at night but also during the day. Our weekends brunches are really big right now as well. Brunch sales, event room rentals, and overall food sales are up the most year-over-year.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site of mine, I'm gonna finish listening to Irene Cara's Flashdance and rack out with my crack out. This is a great song and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anway, but I'll hate you a little more.

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Wednesday, 2-21-24: Got crushed at work... again.
It was "total annihilation" at work again today for a couple hours during the evening dinner-rush. We don't usually get crushed so hard on a Wednesday, but sometimes the place cranks. Today was epic busy, though. I had a fairly easy day working on taxes, and I even had a break late morning/midday to use my bootleg cellar gym, get a good pump, and shovel in some food before heading back to work on tax returns and meet with tax clients. I had three drop-off tax returns and one come in the mail yesterday so I had plenty to do. Not an overwhelming amount, but enough to not have any down-time. I didn't get through all my paperwork, but I got far enough along to at least not be stressed out about it.

I came home for a half-hour to shovel in supper and see my awesome wife, I checked the cameras, and I saw how busy it was so back to work I went. We had two cooks call out today. What a bunch of crap! One cook called out again for the second time in as many weeks, and she's also left early and texted drug prices to the boss (by mistake of course) so she's going to be taking the train really soon. She's only worked for us for a month so the red flags are everywhere.

YYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRREEEEEEEEEE FFFFFFFFFFFFFIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!

When you call out once a week, show up late, and are bad at your job the only option is the one above.

^When you can't come to work on time, when you call out too much, and when you are supposed to be working and accidentally text your boss the prices of mushrooms and grams of various drugs you have failed and get my crap-toilet-trophy!

Firing people sucks, but I do it several times a year. I did it once last month, and I was going to do it again last week until the person quit and saved me the hassle. Thankfully we are working towards a solid core of people whom we can count on, and we are slowly heading in the right direction. We hired a few good ones recently. Kat did get the shifts covered today, but I still had to go cook for an hour on the fry station because it was so busy. Then I spent a little time behind the bar making a few drinks (basic ones because my ass is far from being a qualified bartender.) before I came home to watch a little news, surf the web, have a couple drinks, eat a snack, and now update this bootleg site that almost no one ever reads.

I was gonna call Mom to see how she's doing, but she didn't text me back so oh well. Maybe she fell asleep or is watching Fox News with Dad? Her and I have at least texted some here and there so I know they're doing okay. Mom had a second knee replacement a few weeks ago and is recovering from that still. I talked to Jason earlier and he was considreing coming up tomorrow with Hawke, but F that I have way too much to do. They can drive all this way so I can see them for an hour... maybe.

I'm only on the work schedule for a couple shifts a week, but I always work more because people call out, fail, or both. Plus sales are up something like 20% so far this year as compared to the first 7 weeks of 2023. OMG EPIC. It might not seem like much, but trust me it is. There are times we struggle to keep up and even turn people away or ask them to wait for a spot to open up. The event room really rips these days as well so I spend a lot of precious... precious time booking and coordinating that side of things.

I think winter is ending soon. Maybe? Hopefully! It was 3 degrees last night, but tomorrow will be 38, Friday 40, and all next week in the 40s with a possible 50. Oh Jesus, hell ya! This winter has been very easy overall, and each day gets longer now with the average temp increasing as well. We might get a slushy inch of snow Friday morning before it turns to some rain and no big storms are expected for a while. Big storms in March do happen, but the snow from them never lasts too long in March. The sun it too strong and the average temp is above freezing during the day.

We have a lot of plans to keep improving the restaurant this year. We need a better sign because right now we have this on the north-facing side of the street:

^WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! The Nothing came and took it like it took the beautiful lake from the Rock Biters in the North in The Neverending Story. Fortunately a lot of people know where we are as a local spot, but we could get even more customers with the right signs at the street. Those stupid fucking storms in December really did some damage including taking down those signs. Oh well, at least the IRS gave us disaster status and now we have until June 17 to finish our taxes. Is that a blessing or a curse? Too soon to know, but I think it's a win for us. Maybe? Hopefully!

Most of my tax clients will finish with me before the usual mid-April deadline. I've already gotten 44 paid tax returns done with another 18 in the pipeline either 100% done and awaiting payment or mostly done. I think by this time next week I'll be at about 50% done for the season. Oh Jesus, hell ya! If I do 150 this year and get 75 of them done or mostly done that's half. It's not really half when I still have to get signatures and final reviews, but it's close enough gods damn it.

I haven't even come close to getting our own taxes ready to file. I need to get the restaurant taxes done first so we can get our K-1s for our own taxes. Those K-1s will have another big negative number on them. What a bunch of crap! I've paid to have them done each of the past two years, the only two years we actually needed them done (3-year anniversary coming next month!), but this year I might do them myself. I have until June 17 so that's plenty of time. Right? Not really hehehe. Paying to have them done costs $900 so I don't think I want to pay that when I can do it myself. The guy who does them doesn't really have to do much work since I give him all the info anyway, but I know he has costs as do I as a tax preparer. Nevertheless $900 is too expensive!

Our own taxes will be a bunch of crap this year. We'll have a negative number on the tax return AHAHAHAHA. It sucks to be poor. It sucks to be poor on taxes as well because if you want a loan the bank will laugh you out the door. We have great credit but no money. We have just enough to get by, but I think by spring we'll be in better shape thanks to the tax business and a loan that gets paid off next month. That loan was almost like a deal with the devil, but it saved our restaurant from bankruptcy so I don't regret it.

I am looking forward to spring and the end of my busy tax season. The restaurant needs me. A lot. It has grown so much, and we have things I want to do for upgrades. The list grows daily to include things like new table-tops, painting, flooring, the handicap bathroom remodel, etc. We can't afford all of that at once, and we don't have the precious... precious time, but later this year we will. Plus I enjoy doing things like that.

I was just looking at sales for Feb, 2023 as compared to Feb this year and wow, the difference is HUGE. I think we'll be up $18-20k year-over-year. Of course that's not all profit because we have bigtime expenses, but with sales up that much we will be close to break-even. March looks to be a VERY busy month as well. The first two days of March this year are a Friday and Saturday, and we have four events in those two days. We have a lot of events on the March calendar, and mid-March will be both St. Patrick's Day and our 3-year anniversary so that weekend will be epic. March has the potential to be the best month we've ever had. Maybe? Hopefully!

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Monday, 2-19-24: I should go back to bed.
My loser-ass woke up at 0315, and I've been up ever since. It's closing in on 0500 so I got up and ate some food not long ago. I need more sleep gods damn it! All I wanna know is why? Why couldn't I sleep more? I bivouaced around 2200 so I did get a tad over 5 hours of sleep, but 7 would have been a lot better. Maybe I can go back to sleep after I write this bootleg update that almost no one will ever read.

Usually I rack out hard on Sunday nights because we get demolished over the weekend, and this past weekend was no different. Sales at the restaurant were quite lackluster Tuesday through Thursday last week before the faucet turned on, the place filled up, and we did huge business from Friday through yesterday. At times we got CRUSHED, and on Saturday we had a dishwasher quit two hours into her shift so I was pwned after that.

This dishwasher is a 17-year old high school girl, and we've had some issues with her attendance and she was on the verge of getting fired anyway. Hell, we already hired her replacement! She can do good work when she is motivated, but that seems to only be about half the time... at best. She came to be at 1800 Saturday, just as we were getting really busy with a big metal show out in the event room setting up and the dining room 3/4 full for a dinner rush. She asked to talk in the office, sure thing no problem, and she announced she hates working with our other dishwasher, our shift lead and full-time guy who does a great job. She didn't give me a good reason at all why she doesn't want to work with him so I gave her a choice. She could walk out the door, quit, and never ever work for us again or she could stay, finish her last 5 hours, and we'd see about moving her to different shifts.

That bitch chose option one so she quit. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

^When you quit in the beginning of what is going to be a busy shift because you're a stupid fucking kid you get the fail-trophy!

Even worse, her older sister works for us and was on the same shift. Noooooooooooooooooooooo! Thankfully her older sister seems to mostly have her shit together and is one of our best workers. In fact, we were totally screwed at the end of the night with dishes everywhere all piled up and the event room needing a cleaning so she clocked out and stayed to help us. How cool is that?! I think she felt guilty that her FFI sister quit, but I told her not to feel badly and it wasn't her fault.

I do know all too well how much it sucks to ge your younger sibling a job only to have that sibling wash out faster than a turd down a toilet because that happened to me forever ago at FedEx. That was a bunch of crap when he only lasted two days!

I spent a lot of time washing dishes this weekend. A LOT. We were down a dishwasher yesterday morning as well so back to work it was for my ass. Thankfully that was only 3 hours of work not 10 like it was Saturday night. I was pretty beat, but I manned up and played racquetball against Gavin. We had fantastic games, and I also had great games Friday before work against Mike so I'm pretty beat up right now. Not too sore, but definitely in no condition to do much for exercise today.

My awseome wife got up at 0500 and just left for work. I took a little break from this turd-heap to hang out with her for a little bit before she left. She always gets an early start Mondays to do inventory and piece the restaurant back together. We ride that place hard on weekends when we do 3/4 (or more) of our sales for the entire week in a 56-hour span of time. I'll help some, but I focus more on the admin side most Mondays. Gotta pay some bills, do the banking, get payroll ready, etc. Usually I also have some event room stuff to quote as well, and that's the case this morning. No banking today due to President's Day, though.

It doesn't feel like a holiday today. President's Day is a useless piece of crap holiday. We should collectively figure out how to make the Monday after the Superbowl a holiday instead. Maybe move President's Day a week earlier? I don't really give a crap either way. I always work on President's Day doing something, or so it seems. The next holiday we will actually have off should be Easter Sunday in about 6 or 7 weeks. We won't even open the restaurant that day, at least I don't think we will. Last year we didn't, and when we did open the year before we did jack friggin' shit for business.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I'm gonna go see if I can fall back to sleep. If not I'll go to work and clean the fryers and do my paperwork before I have an afternoon tax client. I also have to go look at one or two houses with Dan and Emily midday. They're preapproved for a loan and have been working hard to find a house together. Sadly for them the market is ten pounds of shit stuffed into a five pound bag right now. Options are limited and prices are too high. What a bunch of crap!

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Wednesday, 2-14-24: Valentine's Day, another work day.
I'm glad my awesome wife doesn't really give a crap about Valentine's Day. It's a stupid "holiday" that uses up my precious... precious time. However, she did give me a card and I haven't given her a card yet. It's 2045 and she's at work for a couple more hours so I better get on it. Not doing anything at all = what a bunch of crap! I do have a card here so all I have to do is write something meaningful on it. Nothing too long or sappy or else it will be lame, though.

We are planning to go out for a nice lunch tomorrow with Damon, our 2-year old grandkiddo. Hopefully we can even spend the afternoon together if people don't call out from work and if I don't have anything else urgent come up. I do have one tax client at 1000 and that's it for the day. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Today I had a couple clients as well as things to work on. The IRS extended the tax deadline in our area from April 17 to June 17 so that's a HUGE win for my loser-ass. Four years ago, give or take, the deadline was extended to July 15 due to Covid and that was a bunch of crap! Back then it really sucked because I had apartment buildings to manage, carpentry jobs to do, and it was awful having to go over to the tax office for clients in between all of that in the spring and into summer.

Now that my office is in the restaurant it's a piece of cake, and in theory each week I won't be quite as busy doing taxes with the extended deadline. Hell, I've already done close to 1/3 of my clients for the year! However, that number is skewed some since a lot of my early ones are on the easier side. Not all, but most. The ones that use up the most precious... precious time aren't even on my radar yet. I might "fire" a couple of my really complex ones, but I haven't decided yet. The complex ones make me more money, but the time investment is costly when I have so much other stuff I can be doing at the restaurant.

Overall it's been a pretty good week. I haven't felt totally overwhelmed with work, I've been able to use the gym and I feel pretty good, and that is really rare. Incredibly rare for all of that to happen. Of course the week is only half over so who knows, maybe things will go to shit at some point. I have plenty to do, but I've whittled down the pile a bit. Sales at the restaurant have been great for five consecutive weeks as well, the last 5 of the 6 full weeks of the year, so that helps. A lot. Our labor cost was a tad high last week due to training two new people, but we need new people since we've grown so much.

Oh, get this, we had a member of the staff accidentally text Kat recently something like this "It's $10 a shroom and $25 a gram."

OMG WHO FUCKING DOES THAT?! EVEN WORSE THIS PERSON WAS ON THE CLOCK WHEN WE WERE GETTING FAIRLY BUSY. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

It was an accidenatal text meant for someone else, but holy crap that's a really bad one. I don't do drugs so I don't know how bad mushrooms are (the drug ones, not the ones we put on pizza hehehe.) but what the actual fuck, over?! I think we still need to hire because this person needs to take the train.

^When you accidentally text your boss drug-deal prices while you are at work you really have epic failed!

Our frigging lives... OMG.

I was watching the Celtics vs. the Nets, but I came here to write my useless thoughts to all two of you because the score was 60-29 Celtics so the game is a joke. I'm glad the Celtics are crushing it, and they have been all season. 42-12, best record in the NBA, about to be the all-star break for the NBA. Oh, the Chiefs won the Superbowl Sunday night vs. the 49ers. I didn't really care that much who won, but I was hoping for San Fransisco (49ers) because I'm sick of seeing Taylor Swift in the box seats cheering on her fuck-buddy, Travis Kelce of the Chiefs. I don't have a problem with T-Swizzle, some of her songs are good, but it's just too much gods damn it.

HAHAHAHA. I flipped over to Hannity on Fox News and he's saying Biden isn't mentally fit to be president and not even suited to be a WalMart greeter. HAHAHAHA. Hannity is kind-of a pompous ass, but he does have a good point and I'm okay with him taking a verbal dump on our epic-failer president. I'll channel-surf back to the 80s channel soon with a quick stop to see the Celtics score...

Oh wow, it's the end of the 3rd quarter 101-55 Boston. Oh Jesus, hell ya! THIS GAME IS OVER! Time to put in the B-squad and just roll along through the final 12 game-minnutes. I put it back onto channel 1928, and it's time for Bon Jovi Bad Medicine. Great song! If you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more. What album was this from? Slippery When Wet or New Jersey? One was 1986, one was 1988, at least as I recall. I believe Jason owned this, or both, on cassette around then. I had Def Leppard Hysteria and he had Bon Jovi. I don't know why I remembered this, but it was a fantastic time to be alive. The best, ever really. (It was 1988, New Jersey album.) owning a cassette tape back then was a big thing and now they collect dust in people's attics and cellars. I have some cassettes down in the basement somewhere. I'm guessing none of them work. What a bunch of crap!

MP3 technology definitely pwns cassettes. I do love cassettes for the nostalgia, but that's about it. Overall a lot of things are better now than they were back then, but a lot of things are worse. People suck more, but some of the technology advances are killer. I can go online right now and find any song I want on YouTube and play it. How cool is that?! TV shows are better than ever these days. Okay, maybe not network TV (Fuck off NBC for that piece of shit show La Brea) but streaming services like Netflix kill it with a lot of their stuff and HBO did great with Game of Thrones. Yellowstone? A fucking MASTER CLASS on how to make TV infintely watchable.

We really don't get to watch too much TV most weeks, but we did watch some of Shadow and Bone season 2 on Netflix yesterday and Monday. The film quality is great! Story isn't too bad, it pulls you in, but it sucks it was over two friggin' years since we saw season 1 so I can't remember a lot of it. Some magical evil wall thing happened and there is good guys and bad guys. Oh well it keeps us entertained enough and hopefully we can see the last episodes tomorrow if we don't get called into work. Maybe? Hopefully!

Hey cool Billy Ocean sings Caribbean Queen. Do I know what the song means? NOPE! Do I care? NOPE! It's a great song and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I'm going down to the bar for a beer before I help with the close. Or I'll just have two beers and watch the staff do all the work since that's what we pay them to do! Hehehehe.

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Wednesday, 2-07-24: Broken toe? An icon dies.
The 1980s channel 1928 plays Def Leppard's Hysteria, the title song from the best album of all-time. Same album as Pour Some Sugar on Me, my favorite song for about an entire year in 1988. Listening to the album on cassette like a 12/13-year old boss hehehe. Back then I wasn't the boss of jack shit, and the 80s were the best. Mom and Dad paid all the bills and I played Pole Position, Pac-Man, and Moon Patrol on an old-ass hand-me-down Texas Instruments Computer hehehe.

Hysteria is not only a fantastic song but it's also a fantastic album. If I ever were to be buried after I check out I'd want Hysteria with me, The Goonies, and Teddy Grahams. Just look at the title image of this bootleg site atop the page and throw everything else on there in as well. However, I don't think I'll be buried when I croak because F that no sense taking up a plot of usable land with my rotting, dead-ass corpse. Might as well throw me in the furnace and/or turn me into Soylent Green so I can fuel a new generation of some form of life.

^If you don't own this album I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more. It's a perfect 10/10, and no other album compares, ever. Pink Floyd The Wall? NOPE. Fleetwood Mac Rumours? NOPE! The Beatles? HAHAHA THEY FUCKIN' SUCK. Ratt Out of the Cellar and Invasion of your Privacy come close as does Poison's Open up and Say Ahhhh. Def Leppard's Pyromania and Adrenalize are also totally kick-ass. I could name more, but I need to post a gross photo of my busted-fail toe now.

WARNING: THE PHOTO BELOW IS A LITTLE GROSS FOR TWO REASONS. FIRST, FEET ARE FUCKING UGLY. SECOND, MY FEET ARE EVEN MORE UGLY AND LOOKING AT THEM SUCKS. A LOT.

All I wanna know is why? Why did I allow that to happen? I SUCK. It was a really dumb incident, too. I came home to shovel in a little food, shower, and change before tax appointments yesterday. I was feeling a time-crunch because I had just enough time to clean the fryers at the restaurant, receive the food and liquor deliveries, and get my arse in gear before afternoon tax clients. Katherine had the baby-gate up because 2-year old Damon was coming over so she could watch him while Dillon went to school, and that's a norm around here 2-3 times a week when Damon is here. I've stepped over that gate countless times without blowing out a toe, but I was in a hurry so I caught that left toe on it and just about landed on my ass. I thought I just stubbed the toe, but later that day and today I noticed it looks broken. The bruise is all-bad.

OMG I COULD NOT EVEN STEP OVER A BABY GATE WITHOUT FAILING WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

The fuckin' thing hurts, too. It's not stopping my ass from doing stuff, but it's a burden. I was awake a lot in the night last night, but that wasn't just because of the foot that's also because I have a lot to think about between tax clients, the restaurant, and the restaurant event-room bookings. Finally I got up, surfed the web for a bit, ate a little piece of an edible, and I slept some.

I played racquetball today because I don't give a shit. The toe didn't really affect my game too much, but I still lost. What a bunch of crap! Ah well, I usually lose. It was rare my getting to play at 1600 on a Wednesday because usually I'm at work. However, with tax season in full-swing I'm on MOD (Manager on duty) shifts less and less for now. I still went to work after racquetball because the dishwasher was 3 hours late, though. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, I would have gone anyway because it's trivia night and it gets busy for a couple hours from roughly 1800-2000 on Wednesdays.

After trivia ended I was able to scoot home to watch the second half of the Celtics vs. the Atlanta Hawks NBA game. The Celtics won. Awesome! I also had a chance to talk to Mom for a half-hour. She had a knee replacement again Monday, her second knee replacement in 5 months. Her first one was September last year, and I'm a lame-ass son so I have no idea whether or not it was the right or left leg this time around. I think left was first and right was this time, but flip a coin on that one. I know my awesome wife needs a new right knee so hopefully that can happen this year. Mom will be down for the count for a few weeks, but she's off work this time of year and closing in on full retirement anyway. The toy store where she works always closes in the winter because they don't do enough business to justify being open.

James Brown is on the 1980s channel singing Living in America. Great song, Rocky IV like a boss. Sadly that song played just before Apollo Creed got killed by Drago. That sucked! It was a sad bunch of crap! Even more sad is the fact that Carl Weathers, actor who played Apollo Creed, died at age 76 a few days ago. That man was awesome and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

Carl Weathers is a national treasure. He was PERFECT as Apollo Creed, but he was also great in many other roles including Happy Gilmore, The Mandolorian, and of course in the manliest handshake scene of all-time in the classic 80s flick Predator.

^An icon from my childhood checks out, and it's sad to know it won't be the last. Mad respect for such a fantastic career Mr. Weathers! RIP.

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Saturday, 2-03-24: Restaurant total annihilation, tax business busy, bring it on.
Our restaurant isn't really a secret around town anymore. Every day we're getting busier and busier, and at times the term "total annihilation" seems to best fit. We get PACKED full for hours on end every weekend, and sometimes we get hit hard during the week as well. Wednesday trivia was a maximum for amount of teams our host could handle, and tonight's schedule for karaoke looks stuffed as well. Every weekend we have parties out back, large table reservations, and usually both. Tonight we have four big reservations and we should be able to use the event space for restaurant overflow.

Sales were up just over $10,000 year-over-year comparing January, 2023 to this past January. OMG THAT'S AWESOME! I expected January to be slow, but the actual result was the total opposite. This month should be busy as well, and March will probably be our all-time best. Maybe? Hopefully! However, with the rapid growth comes challenges with keeping the place staffed. We need to hire a server/bartender, a cook, and a dishwasher for 2-3 days a week each. Plus some of our current staff have wanted extra hours and at this point that's a definite to happen.

Last night we were packed for many hours on end, and we were down a bartender and a host. What a bunch of crap! What happens when we're short-staffed? We get busy. BUSY. Sales have been great so that's a huge win. I'm putting in as many hours as I can at the restaurant, but I also have a lot of tax clients including half the restaurant staff. I've finished 12 paid tax returns and I have another 10 almost done just waiting for people to sign, review, etc. I'll probably do around 140-150 paid tax returns again this season so I need precious... precious time for that. Hiring extra help for the restaurant is a top priority right now based on our growth and current sales trends.

Dillon put in his 2-week notice and will be getting done to pursue a career in HVAC. He's been nearing the end of school for HVAC, something he started last summer, so we knew this was coming. Dillon works 3 days a week including two incredibly important and usually busy day shifts on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday day shift used to kind-of be a joke, but lately they've been busy. Brunch this morning was so busy my ass rolled out of the rack with a request to get my loser-ass down there ASAP to help.

The increase in sales is exactly what we need to keep the doors open and to maybe even start paying down some debt. If things keep up at their current pace we can start dropping off at least a little debt by early spring, and that would be perfect as tax season comes to an end and I lose that extra precious... precious money. Last year I did some carpentry jobs and blueberry raking to make us money for our own bills, but this year there isn't blueberry raking (there is, but not for Cliff) and I don't want to do carpentry for anyone else except maybe Gavin. The owner of this place texted me a couple days ago asking if I could do more work, and there is no chance at all of that until *maybe spring, and only then if sales drop at the restaurant and we need the money:

^I had to build out for that, frame it up last fall, and there was other related trim and finish work. It took quite a while, and I don't have time for stuff like that right now.

We really do work too much, and by a lot. I'd say "What a bunch of crap" to that, but at least we're working to build something epic that will *hopefully* be around for a long time to come. I can't say sales will be up by 12% all year, but if they are that more than exceeds my expectations. We are increasing some menu prices as well starting next week so that will help. The changes were going to take effect earlier this week, but we were just too busy to finalize it all. What a bunch of crap! We look at what other places are charging as well as our own procuct costs to firm up the pricing decisions. We don't want to be the cheapest, but we don't want to be too expensive because we're not fine 5-star dining.

Fountain soda and bottled soda prices will jump. Right now we sell a fountain soda for $2.75 whereas most other restaurants are in the range of $3-3.50. Same for the 20oz bottled sodas, coffee, and tea. Some food items will increase, but most if not all alcohol prices will stay the same for now. We sell lots of pizzas and wings, but we offer a lot more than just that. Our food sales are really increasing fast, and the quality and consistency have improved by a lot as well. I don't make the kitchen decisions because I'm too focused on the accounting, repairs/maintenance, managing a few shifts, payroll, hiring, firing, receiving the truck, booking and turning over the event room, etc. The list is endless really.