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"When I taught my kids to take in strays I didn't mean humans." - Kat regarding the dating choice of one of her kids.

Tuesday, 1-31-23: Bye, January.
January, 2023 is over in less than three hours, and I gotta admit it wasn't a bad month. I got caught up on some things, the restaurant did better than expected (but we still spent more than we made), and the weather wasn't horrible. What can I expect for February? Guess we can start to find out tomorrow!

First of all, the first few days of next month will be tough. I have a few tax clients on the books, we have to go to Lewiston for an important appointment, I have a pretty full day tomorrow, and worst of all is the bootleg forecast for Friday into Saturday:

We're gonna fuckin' FREEZE! Bangor, located a mere mile from us, is expecting this:

^OMG WORST WIND CHILL IN 25 YEARS?! WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

It sucks when it gets that cold. Actual air temp Friday night: -20. We haven't had anything like that at all this winter so it will suck that much more. Saturday high temp: ZERO. If I were better at drawing middle fingers I'd make another one, but as you can see from the image above my work... leaves a lot to be desired. What a bunch of crap!

My skills as an artist failed. I come from a family of artists, too. Dad was always a great artist, and Papa (my grandfather on my Dad's side RIP Papa) was a phenomenal artist who made a career out of being awesome at everything. Where is my Gold Eagle that he made? Guy looks...

^Yeah, my awesome grandfather made that. I painted it gold, and I still have it in my office. It's priceless. I miss Papa he was fucking awesome. WWII veteran, all the talent in the world, and just a totally cool guy. I miss Grammy, too. All four of my grandparents have long-since passed away, and all four of them were great.

^Papa and I from maybe 1994? I was just a kid, and he must have been in his 70s, maybe 80s? I can't do the math on that right now; Papa lived to ne 93 and when he was getting ready to check out I could tell it was his time and he was smart enough to know it as well. I once said to him "You'll live to be 100" and he hilariously replied "Why would I want to do that? No booze, no hookers..." He was happily married to my grandmother for 60 years at that point so it was just a joke, but it was awesome.

Then he died in Boothbay Harbor so fuck that town up its ass.

He lived to be 93, and that is amazing. I'm not living that long!

^Married 60+ years OMG. That's one of, if not the best, photo I have in my entire collection. It's from 2003 in Osterville, MA, on Cape Cod. I took that with my digital camera when I was leaving to drive back to Maine after a visit.

Grammy lived into her 90s as well, but after Papa died a lot of her died as well and that still is a hard thing to mentall process, even after all these years since she passed away. They met in WWII how fuckin' awesome is that?!

Mom had a hip replacement surgery yesterday, and she's home recovering now. Thankfully Dad is able to help her get around until she can recover more. Dad is 73, Mom is 66, and it's hard to see them slowly age out of being able to keep the house. I'm not saying they need to move into a retirement home yet, but how much longer can they stay where they are at? Jason is nearby to help them, but he can only do so much. The retirement home in Boothbay was NOT the right place for Papa, but it was their decision it's not like anyone else in the family forced them to go there. I can't even picture Dad in an old-folks' home, and I hope I never have to see it.

Thankfully the wicked-cold at the end of the week is only expected to last a couple days, and we get back into the 30s next week. Tonight's gonna be below zero, too. Not as cold as what is pitcured above, but pretty rough for what we've seen so far this winter. Business is slow today in part because of the cold and in part because Tuesdays just roll like that. We never do great business on a Tuesday and then we get so busy on the weekend we have a hard time keeping up. What a bunch of crap!

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Friday, 1-27-23: Am I caught up?
It's been over two years since I felt like I was caught up on all my projects. What a bunch of crap! Now I finally feel like I am caught up, at least as much as what I used to call "normal" before we started the restaurant 2.5 years ago. It's been a relatively easy week, and I've gotten a bunch of smaller things taken care of. The only real turd in the time punch-bowl has been the two big winter storms we've had. Fuckin' winter!

^Life is the red punch and fruit in the bowl. Winter is that giant grinning clay turd. What a bunch of crap! I love that photo hehehe.

The forecast for Sunday night into Monday wa 6-8' of snow until it wasn't. The snow started Sunday evening just as we were closing the restaurant for the night so that's perfect. Snow Monday is okay, too. Restaurant closed Mondays (thank the gods who do not exist for that decision we made at this time last year.) so no lost sales. Unfortunately it kept snowing and snowing and snowing all damn day before ending Monday night. Final snow total: 13 inches. Even worse, the snowblower is not working because it needs a new auger cable. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

So I had to shovel a lot. I did have a plow guy come help us out for some quick cash so that saved what would have really been a challenge to shovel. There was a pile of snow around the restaurant entrance and on the roof above the entrance so I had to shovel a lot of that away, too. It was like using the gym both Monday and Tuesday. Then, Wed evening and into yesterday AM, we got another storm. This time 3" of snow before turing to rain. All the snow from the roof above the entrance at the restaurant fell down into slushy, heavy piles so I had to do more shovelling yesterday. Oh, the roof also has more leaks so I tried go get up there on the flat section to clear that out. I spent about five minutes up there before I quit because it's just too much. Thankfully the leak is in the hall area and not over the pool table like it was last fall. Another one of these would emotionally end our business right now:

^We almost quit for good after that one. What a bunch of crap! It was only 3 months ago, wow. Seems like it was a long time ago.

Feeling caught up is great. I haven't been stressed out at all this week. Sales for the month are already better than they were for all of January last year, and that's amazing considering we are now closed Mondays whereas at this time last year we were open 7 days a week. Plus we shit-canned lunches on Tues, Wed, and Thurs so that helps. We did add three hours to our Saturday with brunch, but that was a good call because the breakfast on Saturdays has been going well lately.

We're making more money and we're spending less, but we're not profitable yet. Hopefully we can break even by this spring or else that's probably the end of the place. Can't keep it open forever if it keeps sucking up precious... precious money that we soon won't have. I think we're on the right track and I'm not worried about it.

I can tell I'm not stressed out lately because I've been sleeping better, I've gotten more exercise, and doing some challenging little things don't piss me off like they would have a couple months ago (essentially for all of 2022!) I didn't get pissed off and curse winter 1000 times when we got all the snow, and that's a big change from recent years. Also, I had to replace an exxhaust fan in the event room men's room yesterday and I got through that without mentally checking out. Replacing that old fan sucked. A LOT. The old housing unit wouldn't come out, I could barely work with the BX wiring because it was a tight space, and I swore at it about 100 times during the process. What a bunch of crap! I told myself not to rush, to take my time and stop if needed, and I got through it eventually without wanting to burn the entire place down. I should have done that fan two years ago, but I knew it would suck and needed to be in a good place mentally to start it. Sounds stupid, but it's true.

The exhaust fan isn't required by code (I don't think?), but it's smart to have. Now that we have the Sunday Country Jam there are a lot of old guys going into that head and stinking it up. Old people, do they piss themselves a lot? After every event full of old men the event room shitter stinks for a long time after. What a bunch of crap!

It's early afternoon, and I'm caught up. I worked on some tax stuff and organized my desk some this morning, I got a good lift downstairs in my bootleg gym and jogged a mile on the treadmill, I replied to some emails and texts regarding taxes, and I still have about four free hours before I go to work. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Sales weren't so good yesterday so I think it will be another really busy weekend. Lately our weekends have been insanely busy. Tomorrow I'll work 12 hours, maybe 14, and Sunday will be a full 8. Today I have a lot of hours left to work as well so I'll be beat by Sunday night, and so will my awesome wife.

So in conclusion January hasn't been terrible so far. I can't say it's been fantastic because it's winter, but temps haven't been ridiculously low and we only recently got a lot of snow and ice. Hopefully the last few days of the month aren't terrible. Feb, March, and into the first half of April are going to be BUSY. I think sales will increase more at the restaurant, and even as I write this bootleg update that almost no one will ever read I'm getting texts from tax clients. W2s are coming in, and people are getting ready to file. The extra $$$$ from doing the taxes sure will help us keep the restaurant open and our own bills paid until the spring...

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Thursday, 1-19-23: Ugliest baby of all-time!
I've been picking away at this old Acer laptop computer, trying to make the transition into whatever new computer I own now. I didn't pick it out, my awesome wife did it for me, and I haven't used it much. I put a bunch of stuff on it already, and now all that is left is to go through old photos on this bootleg computer and save them all onto a thumb-drive. I've deleted some photos that are totally useless, and I just opened a folder of photos that I somehow acquired at some point in the past. Probably from Mom? I found the ugliest baby photo of all-time, and it's a glorious bunch of crap! Check out this pathetic excuse for a human being:

^OMG THAT BABY IS 100% UGLY! THAT IS THE WORST BABY PHOTO OF ALL-TIME! WHO PRODUCED THAT ALIEN-LOOKING PERSON?!

The date that photo was taken: April 30, 1976. My own birthday: November 28, 1975. Gee, I wonder who that is?

THAT DOWN-SYNDROME-LOOKING BABY IS ME!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

OMG I WAS SO UGLY I PROBABLY BROKE THE UGLY-SCALE. I think all babies are pretty ugly and weird-looking with their huge heads, but this is next-level busted. All I wanna know is why? Why did someone think that was a good photo opportunity? Hahahahahaha!

All I wanna know is why? Why have I not seen this photo before? I don't think I've ever looked at it or else it would have gone on to this bootleg site that no one ever reads almost immediately. I'm getting older and forgetful, at times disturbingly so, did I see it in the past and post it on here? I don't think I did. It's the best/worst photo of all-time HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Some of the photos from my past are total gems, and they make me really appreciate what I had when I was growing up. My parents absolutely 100% lived paycheck to paycheck, but they made it work. We (Jason, Doug, and I) lived here for most of our childhood:

^A very basic home in Warren, but a perfect spot for us. Not a big house at all, and that's A-ok. At least we had a home. How many people would almost kill for something like that? My parents bought that place for a really low price in 1982 (or 1983, I can't remember) and have been there ever sincce. A 40-year run at the same address?! How fucking awesome is that? We had lots of woods, a pond, fields, etc. We had the perfect spot for any seasonal outdoor adventure in Maine.

Sadly my parents are getting older now and they can't stay there for many more years. I'm incredibly sad about that, but at the same time I'm very happy because I'll never have a 40-year run at the same address. It is impossible, and I don't even think I want to. My awesome wife and I have been here for over 8 years so that's only 20% of the time my parents planted their flag. We're both 47 years old so it we do that math on that it gets ridiculous. In 32 years we'll both be dead, or we'll be heads in a jar like on the awesome show Futurama. What the hell is 47 + 32? Are we really going to be 79 years old and still living here? I don't see myself living to be 79. I've already used up the best parts of my life so the rest is just a bonus.

There are lots of other really cool photos from my past tucked away on this old computer that is scheduled for retirement soon. I'm not posting them all tonight, F that, but maybe a couple more will appear at some point in the near future. All depends on how busy I get between now and then.

I'm about to get VERY busy. I've had a couple tax clients so far, and w2s for the restaurant came in yesterday so I'm about to have a lot more. I do taxes for half the employees for our restaurant, and I'm happy to help them all. I don't charge them much at all. We also have lots of events on the calendar, and I'm booking events into April already. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Tonight isn't busy, but it looks like another decent weekend is coming. The weather has really helped us so far this winter. No huge storms on our busy days. We had a big sleet storm Monday, but we're closed Mondays so fuck it. Snow starts tonight around 0100, but we will be closed so who cares? 4" coming, maybe 6, ending tomorrow midday. Weekend weather looks good, and that is incredibly important. Last year we lost an entire Saturday due to a blizzard, and that was a bunch of crap!

I just watched the Celtics win a really great overtime game in Boston against the Golden State Warriors. Boston was losing for a lot of the game, but they rallied to tie it up late and eventually win. They are something like 33-12 and in first place. Oh Jesus, hell ya! The Patroits ended their season at 8-9 and missed the playoffs. They need a new QB because Mac Jones kinda sucks. I don't watch all the games anymore, but here and there it is nice to catch at least some of them.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I'm gonna go down to the bar and see if my help is needed. We had a bartender leave because she wasn't feeling well, but how convenient it wasn't busy when she left? Thankfully Katherine is taking care of it all like a boss so I can probably just drink.

Oh speaking of the bar, I gotta tell this crap-story before I go because it's hilarious. Today the bar phone rings around noon, and it's a voice I sorta recognize but not really. He's telling me a guy is there with a knife, and he seems pretty shook up. Turns up it's a guy who has helped us some recently, but who is not officially on the staff. He decided sticking his dick into our soon-to-be-leaving server would be a great idea. He (probably) pokerized the shit out of her, he spent the night at her place, and this chick has a crazy stalker-guy so that is a terrible life-decision on his part. It's the same guy I got into a fist-fight with just three weeks ago and who has a criminal trespass ban now at our bar...

So this guy apparently walks into her apartment, he's in bed with her, and the guy says "Get out or I will kill you." Trust me, you gotta believe when this guy says it he means it. This is the guy:

^Slight exaggeration because the guy isn't as cut, and he looks like Porky the Pig in the face. However, the guy is BIG and very strong. This poor kid bails out of that aparment ASAP and calls the bar. I was in total shock and didn't even understand WTF at all. it made no sense at all. I told him to get off the phone with me and call 911, and it was a total shit-show. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

When you dip your noodle in the wrong sauce that is what you get.

I heard the restaurant business is notorious for its drama, and that is a HUGE understatement!

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Tuesday, 1-17-23: Beyond Thunderdome.
Tuesday night karaoke has been back at our bar/restaurant for the past three weeks. We used to have it from 1900-2300 on Tuesdays, but then it kinda sucked so it disappeared. Now it's back, but this time from 2000-2300. So far it hasn't been that busy for Tuesday karaoke, but tonight isn't too shabby. At first sales weren't so good, but they picked up. I went down there for a bit to grab some food and to hear my awesome wife (She's the DJ tonight) sing the first song and then I headed back to the house.

Before I came home she asked what I'd like to hear her sing. She's an AMAZING singer who can make anything she does sound great. I like a lot of her choices, but when I get input I always go for something from the 80s because that's how I roll. My choice tonight was one of my favorites that she does, Tina Turner's We Don't Need Another Hero. Great song from a great movie!

^If you don't like this song then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

It's hilarious that YouTube remembers the stuff I've looked at on there in the past. I don't even have an account with them. I see some Pet Shop Boys there, and I see Joe Walsh Analog Man. HAHAHAHAHA! I haven't even looked up that song in years, or so it seems. Interweb tracking what I do? What a bunch of crap!

This song is from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. If you don't love that movie then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more...

In the awesome 80s movie Tina Turner is the boss of a post-apocalyptic "Bartertown" and Mel Gibson is Mad Max. WHO RUNS BARTERTOWN?! Guy looks for memes of it...

^HAHAHAHAHA! I'm guessing that was posted around the beginning of Covid?

Who runs Bartertown? MASTER BLASTER! Pig shit really fuels that town hehehehe.

I had my first tax client today, one of what will be a lot more over the course of the next three months. The IRS doesn't start accepting tax returns until the 23rd, but I can still get them ready to go. I feel ready, and I'm looking forward to the season. However, if the restaurant stays really busy it will be a struggle to keep up with it all. So far the firsst couple weeks for us at the restaurant have been much busier than I would have anticipated. We got crushed again last weekend, and at a couple times we almost had no empty tables. Friday night dinner filled up to the point we didn't have any room for a group of 7 who wanted to come in around 1930. OMG. Sunday brunch was almost full at 1100, and there were other times we were really busy. The lack of horrible winter weather during our peak times has helped. A lot. Will that keep up? Still a lot of winter left to go...

We got terrible weather Sunday night lasting well into last night. Thankfully we're closed Mondays so it didn't matter much as far as sales. We had some freezing rain Sunday night that turned into a heavy sleet all day Monday before it ended as a little snow last night. SHovelling the stuff was like shovelling concrete. What a bunch of crap! It was a lot of work, and thankfully the snowblower didn't fall apart and I was able to remove it all from the driveway. I did some last night and another round this morning. Probably spent a total of 1.5 hours both snowblowing and shovelling. It was our first big winter storm this season so I'm not upset about it. Today was 37, tomorrow 40, not bad for mid-January. Winter so far has been easy. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

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Thursday, 1-12-23: The parts of 2022 that didn't suck.
I wrote a lot in 2022 about how I couldn't wait for the year to end because it was a total piece of shit. I still think 2022 was the worst year of my life, but it's a toss-up because 2021 was a shit-show, too. The last two years = what a bunch of crap! That fuckin' restaurant. It's either going to be the best thing I ever did or the worst thing I ever did. Too soon to tell, but either way it taught me a lot. A LOT. There's a 50% chance we don't even make it until the end of this year. What a bunch of crap! So far things are going well, though. Not having a real winter helps. It hasn't been terribly cold, and we haven't had any big snow storms. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

I mostly hated 2022, but a few things weren't all-bad. My tax business had a pretty good year. I picked up a bunch of new clients, so many that I don't even want any more new ones. I will get some new clients this year because I can't say NO to everyone. However, I might lose a few as well so we'll see. It's way too early to know how things will go. I've only made a couple appointments so far, and that is the norm for this early in the year.

So what other things didn't totally suck in 2022? I did get done being a landlord, and I don't miss that at all. I had a great 18-year run; not owning Allen Rd is still a little weird to me at times, especially when I pick Gavin up to play racquetball, but it's nothing I actively miss doing. (Gavin lives across the street from my old apartment buildings.) I had some great memories there, memories to last a lifetime, and I was actually just looking through old photos from way back in the day there when I was cleaning up my old computer yesterday morning. I found gems like this one:

^My two brothers and I way back in January, 2006. Wow, 16 years ago!

I moved my gym into the cellar here at the house, and then I rarely used it. What a bunch of crap! However, it is nice having the gym here and I will use it more often now that I don't have to commute over to Allen Rd to get to it. The gym at Allen Rd was fucking awesome and twice the size, but I had to go to it and sometimes I'd get distracted by tenants and other obligations. I hope to use my smaller home gym more in 2023, but not that much more because I don't need to. I can do yoga, jog, play racquetball, and working a weekend at the restaurant is a couple miles of walking and a fair amount of exercise, or so it seems.

Also in 2022 my awesome wife and I got to watch some really good TV and streaming series. The best of them all, and probably the best one of all-time, was Stranger Things season 5. That season was immaculate, and 10/10, and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

We also watched some other good series like House of the Dragon (Game of Thrones prequel), Cobra Kai season 5, and we discovered Yellowstone. OMG Yellowstone is FUCKIN-A. It's quickly become one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life, ever. We watched seasons 1-4, and then season 5 came out recently and is at its midpoint. I can't say enough good things about Yellowstone. If you haven't seen it you really need to give it a chance. We also reently watched Tulsa King with Stallone. (Paramount streaming show.) Season 1 just ended a week or so ago, but it started in 2022 and is really good. Stallone is AWESOME!

There were other good shows and stuff we saw, but I can't remember them all. I don't think we went to the movie theater at all in 2022. I dunno for sure, though. I'm getting old and forgetful. What a bunch of crap! Theaters seems less and less necessary when things on TV are at the same film-quality and with just as big of actors. They got Kevin Costner to be in Yellowstone OMG! Plus the video quality and special effects on a lot of these shows rival that of any movie.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I am going to the bar. I had to serve tables earlier and I made about $40 so I am going to blow it all on booze at my own restaurant! Kat wasn't supposed to work, but the DJ who was scheduled swapped with her so she's on duty down there. It works for me because, after being a server for 3 hours for a really busy dinner-rush meeting in our banquet room, I need booze. I drank some already, but I need more.

Goonies never say die!

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Tuesday, 1-10-23: Slow time of year? So far NOT.
Last year in January our business sales were looking like this:

The restaurant/bar had a TERRIBLE month. Like, almost close the doors forever terrible. We had a COVID shutown, we had bad winter weather, and even on good weather days sales were just not so good (with rare exception.) What a bunch of crap!

The first week of January a year ago was exceptionally bad. This year? First three days weren't great (Tues, Wed, Thurs) and then things went into "OMG" mode. Friday was pretty good with a really busy dinner, and the weekend was totally nuts. We had a Saturday that was almost as busy as our New Year's eve Saturday the week before. Seriously. I still can't fuckin' believe how busy it was. We did have an event in the banquet room that brought in a good chunk of revenue, but even without that event we would have had an awesome day. Sunday? Even crazier, at least for the part where we had 120 old people in the banquet room at one point. OMG!

We started renting the event space for a Sunday "Country Jam", and the first one happened two days ago. We didn't know what to expect from it, and we got quickly overwhelmed. I thought maybe 60-70 people tops would show up, and by the time it started we had 100+ people in there with more coming. It was a sea of ancient people! We ran out of room so I had to shut down admittance. People were tring to sit in places that didn't even make sense at all. A few people tried putting a chair right in the only remaining aisle, and I didn't even understand how someone can be that fucking stupid.

HEY OLD FUCKER DO NOT BLOCK THE ONLY AISLE TO AND FROM THE WAY IN AND OUT! WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

I was not scheduled to work, but I just had to be there and so did my awesome wife. It was the right thing to do. We ended up working a shitload of hours over the weekend. Like, A LOT. There were times over the weekend when the kitchen had a stretch of a few consecutive hours of just totally getting annihilated with food orders. Epecially Sunday when the old people at the jam wanted food and we also had restaurant patrons ordering food. It was unbelievebly busy, and we struggled to keep up. By the end of the weekend we were both exhausted and should have slept 12 hours. Sadly I slept about 2-3 hours and then I was awake in the night for a while. What a bunch of crap!

I'm glad our restaurant did so well over the weekend. We really need to have a good 2023 or else we are going to close forever. We lost a TON of money last year. Like, an embarassing amount of money. The only reason we had any precious... precious money at all was because I hauled on Allen Rd. That was my last rental property, and I sold it in April last year. It's been 9 months, and I don't miss being a landlord at all. It's time for new adventures, so-to-speak.

Tonight was decent as well. Not crazy-busy, but to the point where I worked for a while. We had a big group on the calendar so I wanted to make sure they were all set since we don't staff up too much for a Tuesday. I had to serve a couple tables, but I'm not complaining because it's good I do that every one in a while so I don't forget how to do it. The basic concept is not that difficult, but the menu changes from time to time so serving tables helps me remember those changes. I actually worked a lot of hours today in a "sneaky" way. I didn't feel like an epic work day, but I probably put in 10 hours. I did a few carpentry things, we received some orders, I had to be a salesman regarding the event room and pricing, etc. It was a lot of little things, but it never felt overwhelming at any one point.

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Friday, 1-06-23: New computer needs setup still.
Both my awesome wife and I got new laptop computers last month because ours are old and will be useless at some point soon. Her computer screen barely stays on, and mine is many years old with Winders 7. I love this computer that I'm on now (Acer) and I wish it would last another 20 years. However, computers just don't do that. I can tell this thing is going to be ready for the scrap-heap soon. I can't even go to weather.com without it freezing up on me half the time. I guess the ads bog it down too much? What a bunch of crap!

I don't know what brand my new computer is because I didn't pick it out. Kat did the shopping, and that suits me just fine. It's smaller in overall size, but with the same size screen that I have now (15"?) It has Winders 10 and probably a lot of Gigabytes and Milligrams. I don't need a fancy, fast computer when all I'm doing is updating some spreadsheets, checking email, surfing the web, and writing on this bootleg site that almost no one ever reads. I hope the new computer will accept the Office 2007 that I use. My tax-office computer has Winders 10 and that accepts Office 7 so I'm a tad hopeful. I use Excel and Word quite often, especially Excel. I track business income and expenses with it, and I keep track of a bunch of other stuff. Yoga for 20 minutes? Going on the spreadsheet!

I'm trying to finish up and take care of some things before my tax business really gets busy. So far I've only booked one appointment for this month, but a lot more will come. The IRS hasn't even announced a start date yet for accepting e-files; normally the first date they accept tax returns is around the end of January or early February. I can prepare tax returns before then, but I can't actually file them. I just set my software up yesterday, I have a bunch of office supplies, and yesterday I picked up a big planner/calendar to write appointments on. I've done a bunch of training so I feel ready to go.

I work tonight at the restaurant for the usual weekend closing shift. We're not off to a busy start so far this year, but that's expected for the first week of January. We do have a lot of events on the calendar for weekends this month and next so that's a huge plus. Last year at this time we only had one big event booked for January and it never happened when we had a huge blizzard that shut us down. We lost an entire Saturday from that one. What a bunch of crap! January last year was TERRIBLE and almost put us out of business. Hopefully this January is better. We did have a little crap weather that hurt us yesterday. A bit of light freezing drizzle that lasted all day and into the night. No big storms expected for at least a week, and no ridiculous cold in the forecast either. If true harsh winter does hit us it won't be until the last part of this month at the soonest, and I'm more than okay with that. I hope winter stays mild all the way through.

Winter 2015 was a little bit like this one, though. I remember the first part of January wasn't bad and then the end of January, February, and early March were totally fucked. Record cold, mountains of snow, etc.

^From 2015. NONE OF THAT THIS YEAR PLEASE. A mild winter vs a severe winter could be the difference-maker in whether or not our restaurant even survives until spring...

I need to get our year-end data compiled and over to our tax guy ASAP, hopefully within a month, so I have an idea what the restaurant's taxes will look like. (I don't do our own restaurant taxes; I farm it out to someone who has more knowledge and experience in that area.) I know it will be a loss, but how much of a loss has huge impacts on our own taxes. After those losses flow through to our own 1040 I'll know whether we're gonna owe $20k or $70k to the IRS and state for income taxes. Selling Allen Rd put us in a higher bracket so I need a lot of losses to offset that. I'm hoping we don't owe much because if we do that will suck. A lot. When I sold Allen Rd I was thinking we might owe $90k in taxes, but I didn't anticipate how pwned Mad Kat would be for the rest of 2022. Sales were nowhere near what we expected them to be, and operating expenses were too high. What a bunch of crap! It's actually amazing to me that we're still in business with all the setbacks we've had.

2023 will be the year we finally get things where they need to be with the restaurant. I was planning to step away to do other work, but I'm not leaving anytime soon. We finally started to get some rythm with the place over the past couple months. Changing the hours helped a lot. We reduced payroll and other expenses, and we don't have to be there as often. We're still there a lot, but now we don't have the worry about needing to get so much done before a noon opening Tues, Wed, and Thurs. We open at 1600 on those days so we have most of the day to take care of everything.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site of mine, I need to keep putting stuff on my thumb drive so I can transfer it over to my new computer. Will this be my last update on this Acer computer? Probably not because I'm not in a hurry to get the new computer 100% going.

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Tuesday, 1-03-23: Transgender McPussy.
It's 2300, and I think it's going to be bedtime soon. Maybe? Hopefully! I'm waiting for my awesome wife to get home from work, and I think that will happen any minute. She was the DJ for karaoke tonight, the first time we've had Tuesday night karaoke at the restaurant in roughly a couple months. We stopped doing it for a while because it wasn't a huge draw and because we had a lot of other things going on. Tuesday is never going to compare to a weekend day, and that's okay. We don't have to staff up as much for it. Without karaoke Tuesdays were not going so great so why not try it again and see what happens?

A local bar called the Maine Tavern just closed for good. I feel badly for them, but I guess the owners are older and looking to retire so if what I heard is actually true then I'm happy for them. The Tavern is downtown Bangor, less than a couple miles from us, and they had karaoke 6 nights a week so maybe we can get some of their customers. Another restaurant located just a mile down the road from us is closed for this entire month so who knows, that might help us as well? So far today hasn't been too great, but it's actually been better than I expected it to be. The first week of January can be brutal for a bar because everyone gets tanked-out from New Year's eve partying. Plus the resulutions to quit drinking that only last a week or two...

Our New Year's eve was wicked busy. It was hard to keep up at times, and it ended up being our second-best revenue day of all-time. Only St. Patrick's Day last March topped what we did Saturday and into Saturday night. It was a very long stretch of work, but we had a fantastic three-days that really helped us possibly stay in business. The work shift was a total ass-kicker, and I was feeling beat both Sunday and yesterday. Getting into a fist fight with a guy twice my size last Wedneday didn't help either. I was sore from that for a couple days. What a bunch of crap! All things considered I'm not doing as badly as I should have been from that one, though. I probably should be half-dead from that shit-show!

The worst thing that happened Saturday night was some fucking loser getting pushed by a girl and calling the cops on her. This asshole, drunk nincompoop got himself banned by pulling that crap. I saw him earlier in the night and knew he needed to be watched. We shut him off and got him outside, and next thing I know I'm getting called out there because he fell down. Turns out he got in some chick's face so she pushed him away and his drunk-ass fell right onto the pavement. That's what you get, fucker! I decided he didn't need an ambulance so I went back inside to the sea of mostly-behaving people to help in dish. Not two minutes later I was getting pulled back outside to deal with the guy again.

He was on the phone with the cops so I told him and the older chick he was with that if he had the cops come he was never welcome back in our bar again, ever. It's New Year's eve the cops have better things to do than deal with some pussy guy who got pushed by a girl. Too bad the cops came and I had to deal with that stupid shit. Thankfully some of our regulars saw what happened and stood up for the chick. A cop came in and asked if I wanted to let the guy back in or send him home so my answer was obvious. DISAPPEAR, SCUMBAG!

I made sure he had a ride because no one wants a person to drive drunk, ever. His mom was coming to get him AHAHAHAHAA!

I went outside and verbally laid into this drunk asshole. I told him he's never welcome back in my bar, ever, because he called the cops when he got pushed by a girl. I told him the cops have more important things to do and it's a total waste of public resoures and tax dollars. I think the cops were trying not to laugh at the guy as I gave my verbal beatdown, but after a couple minutes they sent me back inside. That's when I heard he was threatening to sue me because, get this, he's a transgender something and identifies as a woman and I was insulting him by saying he got pushed by a girl. OMG

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

FUCK THIS PUSSY SOCIETY WE LIVE IN.

Three days have gone by and I'm not worried about actually getting sued over that stupid crap, but who knows? He was so trashed he probably doesn't even remember it.

^Awarded to Trans-Mc-Pussy for making our society weaker. I don't care if you want to be a girl when you have (or once had) a penis, but man up at least a little please. This same useless pile of civilian shit was getting on my nerves before any of that even happened. He came up to me at 11:59:50, seriously 10 seconds before the countdown to the new year, and was trying to complain about someone pushing him. However, it was so loud from the people doing the countdown that I couldn't even hear his dumb ass. I had to take him into the entry area so I could hear his useless complaints about stuff that never even happened. He couldn't even point out to me who had pushed him. What a bunch of crap! Not long after that is when he ended up in the smoking area getting pushed by that chick.