New Leaves

The nightmares have stopped. So I believe. I've had horrible dreams of death in any number of situations as an aftershock to Pheonix. I can only imagine what my brother is going through.

The shop is going well. Well, as well as can be expected.

We have an espresso machine that we bought used and it's been a real pain to hook it up. Under the counter of my coffee kiosk looks like a mad scientist's delight. We had been waiting to have it all hooked up. Now it's all hooked up, but in the process one of the stainless steel european hoses (expensive) has so many kinks in it that it isn't getting water pumped up to the machine. So the water reservoir is not filling.

I suppose that it's fitting that I've named it "Nike" (After the Samothrace complete with full page sticker of Samothrace adhered to her side) because it will be a definate victory of a battle after we finally get to use her.

1st, her basket and filter (where you put the espresso) was not sent with the machine.

2nd, she was filthy

3rd, she was sent with a water softener and a water pump and there were no instructions as to how to assemble and in what order. So I did an in depth search on how to hook everything up, I found some pics on line of someone who showed all their undercounter things and I used that to line things up. I had my brother help me hook it up.

4th
We were short one hose for the water supply.
5th
It wasn't a run of the mill part, a series of strange adaptations had to take place to hook up the espresso machine.

6th
Now the espresso machine hose is so kinked that it won't deliver water the 4 verticle feet to the unit.

7th
We've ordered a new hose

8th
We've asked someone to come in and install it when the hose arrives, and check the machine. This is where it gets funny. The first person was so bent on selling us a new machine, they were like, "I've never heard of a La Pavoni." Blah Blah blah. He was being a general dick. As though his 'not hearing' of a brand name (which is a common Italian Espresso machine brand) makes my machine inferior.

Did you know that heating and refrigeration people charge you to DRIVE to you. Literally. It's a 10 minute maximum trip from the airport to down town, and they will charge you a half hour, then it's 80 bucks an hour.

Even though it's been a hassle, I'm still saving a ton of money. (Provided that nothing else is wrong) And the thing I truly hate the most is that we are having to tell people no. Bleah.

The good news is that we've started averaging (over the last 3 days) just short of what I call the comfortable minimum. To maintain the store, the payments for the loans and the store supplies, we have nearly reached that. It's extremely more promising than I'd thought. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but we are excited that the store is starting to gain some business and popularity.

Tuesday is our city's Independence Day celebration, and Michael and I will be working a cart inside and a side cart outside. We believe we have the potential to do quite well.

I think we are eloping next Friday or Saturday.

fun fun fun.

Posted by hawkie at June 29, 2007 09:10 PM