Long time, no see

Sorry about the long lapse in the blog. It has slipped away the past few days.

Things are slowly but surely starting to fall into place. We are definitely in the "spending" mode.

New kitchen equipment...check
Flooring...check (more on that fiasco shortly)
Chairs....check
Tile for tables....sort of a check (finally found the right tiles!)
ServSafe class....registered and paid
Nick-nack decor....check, check and check

What does all that mean:
Ordered the range and charbroiler for the kitchen. It still baffles my mind that you could have a kitchen without a range. How did they saute, make soups, bake, etc, etc, etc????

New dining room chairs are in the queue. I was hoping to get them next week but it may not be until the 21st. Any shipping delays to the warehouse could affect the opening.

We found some nice "nero" slate-like porcelain tiles. Mom and Roger are coming up next week to help build the tabletops.

Getting your restaurant manager certification from the state requires completing a food safety class. As much as I hate taking the day away from our much needed construction time, it's a necessary evil.

And then there's the "nick-nacks". Not all if it is what I'd consider "nick-nacks". Just a few splashes of color. But found Lisa's much sought after bench for the foyer area. And of course, a foyer wouldn't be complete without a mirror and a picture. We also bought some artwork for the restrooms. That's one area that Lisa had stamped as "DONE".

Remember the flooring that I mentioned....to make a very long (and hot, it was about 90 that day) story short, the banding straps on the pallet are not very strong. You would think that if they put it into a semi truck and ship it half-way across the country with those straps, I should at least be able to make it 25 miles home. Well....you'd be wrong. Not only didn't I make it all the way home, I didn't make it 2 miles. Boxes of flooring all over the round-about in west DePere. In all, 20 boxes fell out of the trailer. And 11 of them had some form of damage to the tiles. They are replacing the damaged boxes!

We took a day off for the 4th of July. It was a much needed step away from the restaurant (except for the 45 minutes that I ran up there to sell the soft serve ice cream machine!!)