I've perhaps bitten off more than I can chew for the next month and a half. I'm signed up for half a dozen scenes for the theater retrospective in a couple of weeks and have a lot of songs and dialogue to learn. In August I've been cast in two short, one act plays for another production.
In the meanwhile, I've got to get something ready to work on at my writing workshop in Canada in a few weeks, and my Spanish discussion group is up and running with its second meeting this afternoon.
Part of my writing difficulty right now is not knowing what to work on. I signed with a new agent last month for a collaboration with a friend of mine but haven't heard back anything more from the agent about what changes, if any, he'd like to see before it goes on submission. Optimistically speaking, the book will sell and I'll work on another science thriller. As the publishing industry works, I'll be writing more of whatever sells first.
If it doesn't sell, however, I've got a historical espionage that I'd like to write, just for variation. I guess I could write a short story for the workshop, but I just can't muster any enthusiasm anymore for short fiction. I used to write a lot of it, but the short fiction markets are almost dead and I wasn't particularly good at short stories anyway.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Servant Class
Crazy Things Guests Say and Do: Part 89 of a 737 part series
Very few people are like this, but there is a certain type of person who treats me like a member of the servant class. It's the tone of voice, the demanding way without any sort of politeness. You know, the kindergarten words they teach you: please, thank you, etc.
I had one of them call me at 7:20 AM from the courtesy phone outside the office door. The office was still closed, but I was working hard to open in time for breakfast.
"What time do you open for breakfast?" he asked. This could have been a polite tone, or even a confused tone, but it wasn't. The tone was rude, almost snarling.
"I'll open for breakfast at 8:00, and--"
"Eight o'clock?! I've NEVER heard of a motel that doesn't open for breakfast until eight!" His tone was almost like I'd told him there would be no hot water, or that he'd have to double bunk with a homeless man I'd found living under the bridge.
"--and I'll open for coffee at 7:45," I continued. I forced my tone to remain calm.
The thing is, I open for breakfast at eight because that's when people start to come in. In the winter, when people are anxious to get up to the mountain for first lifts, I open at 7:30. If there's a special event, I open even earlier. But on a normal day, I can bust my tail to open early, but nobody will come.
And I'd kept the office open until 10:00 the previous night, with people camped out in the front room with their laptops until then. It takes me a good hour to get everything prepped in the morning. When do these people think I sleep?
"Eight o'clock," he repeated with disgust. "Jesus Christ!"
Slam.
Very few people are like this, but there is a certain type of person who treats me like a member of the servant class. It's the tone of voice, the demanding way without any sort of politeness. You know, the kindergarten words they teach you: please, thank you, etc.
I had one of them call me at 7:20 AM from the courtesy phone outside the office door. The office was still closed, but I was working hard to open in time for breakfast.
"What time do you open for breakfast?" he asked. This could have been a polite tone, or even a confused tone, but it wasn't. The tone was rude, almost snarling.
"I'll open for breakfast at 8:00, and--"
"Eight o'clock?! I've NEVER heard of a motel that doesn't open for breakfast until eight!" His tone was almost like I'd told him there would be no hot water, or that he'd have to double bunk with a homeless man I'd found living under the bridge.
"--and I'll open for coffee at 7:45," I continued. I forced my tone to remain calm.
The thing is, I open for breakfast at eight because that's when people start to come in. In the winter, when people are anxious to get up to the mountain for first lifts, I open at 7:30. If there's a special event, I open even earlier. But on a normal day, I can bust my tail to open early, but nobody will come.
And I'd kept the office open until 10:00 the previous night, with people camped out in the front room with their laptops until then. It takes me a good hour to get everything prepped in the morning. When do these people think I sleep?
"Eight o'clock," he repeated with disgust. "Jesus Christ!"
Slam.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Permits
I finally got my septic permit, having spent months of time and about 1,500 bucks to prove that the leach field could hadle the increase flow of the new bathroom, since we'll be, uhm, flushing the toilet more often and taking more showers now that we'll have an extra room to do it in.
It could have been worse, though. The first engineering firm said we'd have to do a whole new perc test, which would have included a backhoe on site and all that entails. They bid $5,600 for the job. Thankfully, the other guy didn't think that would be necessary, and managed to convince the state the same thing.
I'm just waiting on the town for the building permit now, and I've spoken to the zoning guy enough times that I don't think there are any additional hurdles there. He just has to get to it, which he said he'd do within the next few days.
Unfortunately, the delay has sent my contractor on to another project, which is going to take about three more weeks. Assuming it really does, we'll be starting in early July, which is only a month late. I'm hoping that by late fall we'll be able to move into the new addition, which will more than double the square footage of our living space.
It could have been worse, though. The first engineering firm said we'd have to do a whole new perc test, which would have included a backhoe on site and all that entails. They bid $5,600 for the job. Thankfully, the other guy didn't think that would be necessary, and managed to convince the state the same thing.
I'm just waiting on the town for the building permit now, and I've spoken to the zoning guy enough times that I don't think there are any additional hurdles there. He just has to get to it, which he said he'd do within the next few days.
Unfortunately, the delay has sent my contractor on to another project, which is going to take about three more weeks. Assuming it really does, we'll be starting in early July, which is only a month late. I'm hoping that by late fall we'll be able to move into the new addition, which will more than double the square footage of our living space.
Poor Communication
Crazy Things Guests Say and Do: Part 88 of a 737 part series
I just spent a half hour on the phone with a woman who has an existing reservation and wanted to make a reservation on behalf of her sister for the same weekend, when the family has a wedding. I described each and every room, bed combination, and option multiple times. She couldn't understand what that a day bed with trundle meant there were two beds, not one. Finally, I got online with her and stepped her through the web site and this helped some.
And then she gave me her sister's name and I realized her sister had already booked a room. And it took me another ten minutes to get off the phone with this woman, who was embarrassed enough that she felt the need to ask more questions about other rooms, promising that she'd get them booked up for me so that the whole call wouldn't have been in vain. She said something about a bachelor's party for her nephew and his friends.
Not sure about the kids and the bachelor's party. I don't think she was serious about that anyway, just trying to save face for wasting all my time.
I just spent a half hour on the phone with a woman who has an existing reservation and wanted to make a reservation on behalf of her sister for the same weekend, when the family has a wedding. I described each and every room, bed combination, and option multiple times. She couldn't understand what that a day bed with trundle meant there were two beds, not one. Finally, I got online with her and stepped her through the web site and this helped some.
And then she gave me her sister's name and I realized her sister had already booked a room. And it took me another ten minutes to get off the phone with this woman, who was embarrassed enough that she felt the need to ask more questions about other rooms, promising that she'd get them booked up for me so that the whole call wouldn't have been in vain. She said something about a bachelor's party for her nephew and his friends.
Not sure about the kids and the bachelor's party. I don't think she was serious about that anyway, just trying to save face for wasting all my time.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Dessert Experimentation
I've been trying some new desserts lately. We made tarte tartin in my French class (my French teacher is a pastry chef) as well as a couple of different types of mousse.
The tarte tartin is made by putting tart apples with a caramelized sauce on the bottom of a tin, then putting the pastry on top. The whole thing is inverted at the end and has a nice, caramel color.
The chocolate mousse is surprisingly simple to make. My first attempt was not quite sweet enough and I needed to buy a new pastry bag with a better attachment as the first extrusion looked, to be honest, like something squirted out the backside of a dog with diarrhea. But it had a nicely creamy texture, so I tried again. My chocolate the second time was one 3.5 oz dark chocolate bittersweet Lindt bar, one 3.5 oz milk chocolate Lindt bar, and 1.5 oz of baker's chocolate. It was just sweet enough and quite good. M bought me some ramekins for my birthday, which also helped with the presentation.
Monsieur Compere taught me that one key with chocolate mousse is to mix the yolk/chocolate mixture as quickly as possible with whipped cream. If you don't do it quickly, the hot mixture hits the cold whipped cream and starts to clump. Texture = lumpy. I use an oversized whisk and just stir the heck out of it until it's mixed. Refrigerate, put into a pastry bag and then learn how to properly extrude the stuff so it looks as yummy as it tastes. By the third time I had it down.
Finally, I made crème brûlée, using the same ramekins. I used 12 egg yolks, 3 cups of cream, and 12 tbs of sugar for my custard, which baked for an hour with the ramekins half-submerged in water at 275 degrees. I cooled them properly, sprinkled the top with sugar and then used a propane torch to brûlée the top. Turned out perfectly the first time. In spite of the fact that this has a somewhat exotic reputation, it was the easiest of these first three desserts and looked and tasted at least as good as what you'd get in a nice restaurant.
I also made six of them for about what you'd pay for a single dessert in one of those same restaurants.
Finally, I've been making a baked brie. This is heresy to my French teacher, but I think it's fantastic. Even the time when I made it for my parents and sister in Virginia and botched the pastry, due to making it by memory, it was still more than edible. There's something about a hot, melting brie with the taste of confiture aux quatre fruits that is very, very nice.
The tarte tartin is made by putting tart apples with a caramelized sauce on the bottom of a tin, then putting the pastry on top. The whole thing is inverted at the end and has a nice, caramel color.
The chocolate mousse is surprisingly simple to make. My first attempt was not quite sweet enough and I needed to buy a new pastry bag with a better attachment as the first extrusion looked, to be honest, like something squirted out the backside of a dog with diarrhea. But it had a nicely creamy texture, so I tried again. My chocolate the second time was one 3.5 oz dark chocolate bittersweet Lindt bar, one 3.5 oz milk chocolate Lindt bar, and 1.5 oz of baker's chocolate. It was just sweet enough and quite good. M bought me some ramekins for my birthday, which also helped with the presentation.
Monsieur Compere taught me that one key with chocolate mousse is to mix the yolk/chocolate mixture as quickly as possible with whipped cream. If you don't do it quickly, the hot mixture hits the cold whipped cream and starts to clump. Texture = lumpy. I use an oversized whisk and just stir the heck out of it until it's mixed. Refrigerate, put into a pastry bag and then learn how to properly extrude the stuff so it looks as yummy as it tastes. By the third time I had it down.
Finally, I made crème brûlée, using the same ramekins. I used 12 egg yolks, 3 cups of cream, and 12 tbs of sugar for my custard, which baked for an hour with the ramekins half-submerged in water at 275 degrees. I cooled them properly, sprinkled the top with sugar and then used a propane torch to brûlée the top. Turned out perfectly the first time. In spite of the fact that this has a somewhat exotic reputation, it was the easiest of these first three desserts and looked and tasted at least as good as what you'd get in a nice restaurant.
I also made six of them for about what you'd pay for a single dessert in one of those same restaurants.
Finally, I've been making a baked brie. This is heresy to my French teacher, but I think it's fantastic. Even the time when I made it for my parents and sister in Virginia and botched the pastry, due to making it by memory, it was still more than edible. There's something about a hot, melting brie with the taste of confiture aux quatre fruits that is very, very nice.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Lesson Learned
Lesson learned: last year's carrot seeds are no good. Not one has come up and they're about a week late. I turned up a small part of the garden and found no growing sprouts.
The potatoes are doing well, the peas are starting to come up, and the tomato plants are in the ground. I doubt the tomatoes will do super well, given that I have limited sun anywhere on the property, but hopefully they'll be worth the effort, at least.
I might just let the failed carrot plot rest, then transplant some strawberry plants, given that I'll probably lose my strawberry garden when the start the addition.
The potatoes are doing well, the peas are starting to come up, and the tomato plants are in the ground. I doubt the tomatoes will do super well, given that I have limited sun anywhere on the property, but hopefully they'll be worth the effort, at least.
I might just let the failed carrot plot rest, then transplant some strawberry plants, given that I'll probably lose my strawberry garden when the start the addition.
Monday, June 1, 2009
The Famine is Over
So I consider June to be the first month of spring/summer where the business can pay for itself. April is the worst, because all the late winter bills come in--packaged lift tickets, fuel, charges from credits cards, etc.--but there is almost no month. But May is awash in red ink as well.
June? Well, June and even July usually do slightly better than break even. August makes some decent money and September and October make a little, with the exception that our 14,000 property tax bill comes due. Add April through November together and I shoot for a modest loss. Winter, then, is how we pay our bills for the year, pay me any meager salary, and pay for upgrades at the inn.
Having said that, summer can sometimes surprise. Last year we did better than average, in spite of the worsening economy and the high price of gas, which you would have excepted to have kept the tourist numbers low.
In any event, this weekend is our first busy weekend since the end of ski season. I'd rather have had eight or ten rooms last weekend as a warm-up, but we were really slow.
June? Well, June and even July usually do slightly better than break even. August makes some decent money and September and October make a little, with the exception that our 14,000 property tax bill comes due. Add April through November together and I shoot for a modest loss. Winter, then, is how we pay our bills for the year, pay me any meager salary, and pay for upgrades at the inn.
Having said that, summer can sometimes surprise. Last year we did better than average, in spite of the worsening economy and the high price of gas, which you would have excepted to have kept the tourist numbers low.
In any event, this weekend is our first busy weekend since the end of ski season. I'd rather have had eight or ten rooms last weekend as a warm-up, but we were really slow.
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