Tuesday, January 3rd

Yesterday was Tim’s birthday, and I am here to tell you that he ate well! We all went to Satchel’s for lunch (getting there before him to get a table and place an order for our “invisible friend”) and although Tim had to rush back to work, the rest of us walked through Lighting Salvage after eating. There’s always something new to see there!

For dinner we went to Leonardo’s 706 (where the locally-sourced shiitake mushroom appetizer is so delicious that I swear each time that I’m going to order about three of them as a meal) and although they seemed reluctant to leave the butter out of Antony’s dish in order to make it vegan, the food was passable (quote of the night, “but it won’t be the same dish” — seriously, the waitress really wanted to argue this point. Antony had to go to the counter to ask someone to ask the chef, because she said she knew he wouldn’t do it and wasn’t even going to bring it up, as “it wouldn’t be the same dish”). Not to keep kicking a dead horse, but … why was that even an issue? What is this, a cooking competition where the chef has to make everything the same way every time, or risk getting booted out of the kitchen? It’s not like it’s a big box place, with sauce shipped in frozen in a bucket. It’s a locally owned restaurant, one that prides itself on sourcing good food locally, nowhere on the menu did it say “no substitutions” or “dietary restrictions will be mocked,” and for fuck’s sake, at the prices they charge they can leave off the damn butter. GAH. Whatever. They’re off the list of places we’ll go next time. So thanks, Leonardo’s 706, for the chance to eat at The Jones instead! Appreciate it!

Anyway, other than that (oh, and other than his building having no power when he got to work) I think Tim had a good birthday. He was surrounded by people who love him and who get (and encourage, sigh) his puns, and he got some lovely cards and useful gifts. Happy birthday, honey!

Today I am back to work — not that it seems like this vacation has really been a VACATION. I’ve still been working my butt off, even though we’ve had holidays and company and a death in the family. I have so much stuff to list and promote that I actually drew up a calender for January marking when I was going to list certain things; otherwise I would try to list 76 new things today and have nothing else new to show for two months. I also tried to block out more of a work schedule, making certain days of the week soap-making days, or yarn-dying days, or firing-the-kiln days. I am determined to stick to it through January, but we’ll see how it goes. I just feel like lately I’ve been running around in a full-on Kermit the Frog muppet-arm-flail, putting out fires and struggling to remake sold out items, and over the holidays came to the conclusion that “never being sold out of something” is less important than “having a structured work week.” If I’m sold out of something, it’s OK to not have it back in until next week. So I sell out of Rosemary Mint soap on Friday, and soap-making day is Monday, meaning I won’t have it listed until Thursday. That is allllll right. The universe will not end, the sun will rise and set, and the rest of my planned schedule won’t be thrown off balance. In theory.

So.

Off to refill, or just nuke, this coffee cup. It’s cold as fuck inside the house (I’m wearing three pairs of socks, fingerless gloves, a thermal shirt, another shirt, and a sweatshirt, and a hat) and my coffee is cold almost as soon as I carry it from the kitchen to the office. Winter has arrived. Tim’s going to cover the windows with plastic this weekend. Ahhhh, older houses with your silly jalousie windows.