Cool Gig!

One of Atlanta's finest hotels has a problem. They had to shut down their kitchen for a remodeling job. One of the attractions to the hotel is that they serve a free breakfast to their guest each morning. Without a kitchen, they can't cook breakfast. That's where I come in! They called me last week and I asked if I could take on the job of feeding their guests every day for a month or so, while they are going through the remodeling process. Well, I had to think about it for a little less than 1 second, but I accepted the task! The only downside is that the hotel starts serving their guests at 6am, so I' have to get up around 3am each day in order to pull it off. We've been doing it for a week now and so far so good.

So far, I've been able to double last year's sales every week in 2008. This is just icing on the proverbial cake!

Brush with Danger

It was a typical Sunday morning at the Biscuit. I was the first to arrive at 4:30am. I was unlocking the walk-in coolers and turning on the lights in the building. When I got to the dining room, I saw where someone had broken into the restaurant during the night. The thief entered the restaurant from the patio door. Actually, he made a ladder out of a storage cabinet and chair, broke out the window above the door, crawled through the broken window and got free access to the building. He didn't take much-- mostly wine. He got into the wine cooler and emptied it out, before exiting through the patio door. I'm still curious of why the guy felt he needed to make a ladder to get into the top window over the door... why not just break out the glass in the door and reach in and unlock the door? Why would anyone want to climb up into a top window, break through glass that's a lot thicker, and then have to hop down 10'?

We have video monitors throughout the building, and we actually got some pretty good shots of the guy. The scary part was that the break-in occurred at 4:18am. On the video, you can see the guy leaving out the backdoor about two minutes before you see me entering through the front door. He had a laundry bag full of wine in one hand, and a knife in the other hand. I'm just glad that I didn't arrive a few minutes earlier. I hate to think what would've happened if I'd caught the guy in the act.

I'm taking many sighs of relief, and saying a few prayers of thanks today! (Sorry the pictures aren't better-- I was using my cell phone camera, and it isn't the greatest quality.)

To Mic

Say you love me...

... You know I do.

Congrats to William!

My cousin Mary's son, William, graduated from Oregon State University this week and we had a big family get together at Mary's house last night to celebrate. I don't remember what Will's exact major is called (something like Food & Beverage Science with a minor in Fermentation) but it's basically a degree in beer brewing! I never knew you could major in beer! Lord knows I did my share of beer research in my college days-- if I'd only known I could have been receiving credit for all of the time that I spent at O'Malleys back in the 80's!

At the beginning of the party, Michael went to the bar to make my mother a drink. When he opened the tonic water, the bottle exploded and drenched him head to foot! Mary happened to be standing by at the time and yelled for me to get a towel. We dried him off as best as we could. Well, this experience bonded Mary to Michael and they suddenly became the best of friends. I'm sure the "tonic water incident" will be brought up every time that we get together from now on!

When it came time to open presents, Will sat at the table and was presented with a stack of envelopes and 3 wrapped presents. I thought it looked like a pretty sad display. I remember when I graduated (from high school, anyway), the room was full of gifts. In those days, a dictionary was thought of as the perfect graduation gift for some reason. I remember making several trips back to the store to return the extras. Anyway, William opened the 3 gifts and they were all books: "Beer Bible", "Beer Recipes" and ""Women Like Wine- Men Like Beer". After that was the opening of the cards. Every card contained a check or a gift card of some sort. That kid racked up! One of the checks I saw was for $5000! He received enough money to put a down payment on a house, or maybe even enough to start his own brewery!

P.S. I guess I should mention that William is the great great grandson of former US President William Henry Harrison-- in fact he was named after the President (he is William Henry Harrison IV, I think). He prefers to go by Will, though.

Easter Recap

They finally opened the downtown Atlanta streets and MARTA stations (following last weekend's tornado), so Michael was able to finally return to work today! We didn't get to spend Easter together. :(

I did go to church today and Mom & Martha joined me. The church was beautifully filled with Easter Lillies. Afterwards, we had an awesome lunch at the Academy Grille with Rob & Anna.

Afterwards, I stopped by the Tavern to see Beverly, Bruce and Lynn for a few minutes and then headed home with the best of intentions.

I really wanted to clean the house- top to bottom! I wanted to do laundry, cut the grass in the backyard, bathe the dogs, mop the floors-- the works. I thought it'd be a cool surprise for Michael when he got home from working a double. But-- it didn't happen. I sat on the sofa to watch a little TV before I started my chores. The next thing I knew, it was 3 hours later and I was waking up from a great nap- still wearing my suit. I needed the sleep, though. I've been burning the candle at both ends for so long. I'm learning to take any opportunity I can to sleep. God, I'm getting old I guess!

When I did finally wake up, I got to work. I cleaned the bathroom, washed the sheets, polished some furniture, cleaned the kitchen and even did a little work on the pond before the sun went down. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but it's looking a little better. I thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest!

Happy Easter!

Happy Spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's a Twister, Auntie Em!

Who would ever believe that a tornado would rip through the heart of downtown Atlanta? For those that haven't heard, that's exactly what happened this morning. I had three early morning catering jobs today and two of them were downtown. I stumbled across the storm damage within a couple of hours of it happening. I later saw the footage on the news, but it failed in comparison to the first hand account that I

witnessed. Saddest of all was the destruction of my former apartment complex. The Cotton Mill Lofts lost a couple of floors-- when I drove by I saw an empty gap where a few apartments use to be. Debris from the building and the apartments littered the roads. Down the street a couple of blocks, I saw a bicycle wrapped around the top of a telephone pole. I also saw buildings that had collapsed, burying the nearby cars in bricks. I couldn't drive a block without saying "Oh my God!" at least ten times.

The top three pictures will be of the Cotton Mill, and the following pictures will be of other damage a mile away in downtown Atlanta.

Public Appearences Galore!

Last week, Delia and I spent 2 days cooking and sampling sausage at the Sysco Food Show in College Park. I brought the camera, but was only able to grab one shot of us.

Last night, we did the "Best of Atlanta" show at the Cobb Galleria. I think I've said this several times over the years, but this event is on the "must do" list. I don't know what the admission price is, but it's worth every cent! The event consists of the 100 best restaurants in Atlanta (as voted for in the "Best of Atlanta" edition of Atlanta Magazine). Each restaurant hosts a booth and gives free samples of their menus. There are even beer, wine and liqour distributors giving out free drinks (and not just "tastes" but full drinks). We had a great time, and the highlight of our night had to have been having our pictures taken with Stephanie, the Jose Cuervo model!

Party Recap

All of my cousins were able to make it to Mom's birthday party, and I got the picture that I was hoping for! (Left to right: Jeff, Tommy, Mary, Bill, Brian, Jim, Tracy & Joel).

Some of the cousins brought their kids and we were able to get a shot of the next generation of dysfunctional cousins! (Left to right: Stephen, Jeff, Jamie, Ashley & Jaime).

In an Academy Award worthy performance, I even hugged my Uncle Larry as he was leaving. (Thanks to Michael for capturing this once in a lifetime picture).

Another surprise on the guest list was my former neighbors, Cenie & Robin Gillespie. I grew up next door to the Gillepsies, and later went to work as the office manager of their family's dental lab. I had no idea that they were coming, but it was so nice to see them.

Family shot:

Once again, our family doesn't follow the rules:

My Phrase

I coined a phrase a few months ago! I was talking to Michael about someone that I had encountered. I don't remember who it was, or what the situation was, but I do remember that this person was CRAZY! In an effort to explain just how insane this person was, I blurted out that she was crazy as a "3-eyed lion"! I don't know where I grabbed that from-- as far as I know I made it up. But it stuck! It is now part of our everyday vocabulary. Living in East Point, we come across 3-eyed lions just about every day. Our dogs are sometimes referred to as lions. A man in the barbershop this afternoon fit the description to a T. He walked in ranting and raving that the government was targeting black people by putting poisonous Chinese drugs in their dialysis treatments. Conspiracy theory, perhaps? Or just the ramblings of another of our local 3-eyed lions? You decide!

Hatfields vs. McCoys

Tomorrow should be a hoot. My brothers and I are hosting a birthday party for our Mother in Clarkston. We invited ALL of our family members, and received about 70 RSVPs. Everyone that I am related to will be at this event tomorrow. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst! To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here is a partial guest list:

• Uncle Larry will be attending. No one in my family has spoken to Uncle Larry in over 10 years. Because of his actions, my brothers and I lost 100% of the inheritance that was coming to us from our grandparents estate in the early 1990's. We did see him a couple of times since then-- at his wife's funeral, and later at his 60th birthday party, where we met his new wife.


• Larry's kids are also coming. I haven't seen, or talked to them since the birthday party. No bad blood there-- just lost touch I guess, due to the feud with their father.


• Another cousin, Bill, is coming with his wife Jill. Also on the guest list is Bill's first wife. She accepted the invitation, but Bill got wind of it and his sister did some behind the scenes work to uninvite the first wife. I haven't heard if she understood the message-- maybe she's staying home-- or maybe she's enroute from NC as I type this.


• Of course my brother Jim and his kids are coming from Memphis. Also coming from Memphis will be Jim's former wife and her boyfriend. They all get along, strangely, so I don't forsee any fireworks there.


• Michael is coming to the party with me and meeting the insanity that I call a family for the first time. Of course he's already met Mom, Joel and Martha-- now he'll get to meet the rest of the 3-eyed lions!

I know I'm making too much of this. Everything will be fine. It will be cool to get some family pictures while we're all together. I can't remember being in the same room with all of my cousins since my childhood birthday parties. The pictures of me with my cousins will be something I cherish-- hopefully it gets taken (and it comes out good!). It's really special that so many of our relatives are driving in from other states to participate in Mom's birthday-- cool that we're all willing to overlook our differences for a couple of hours in Mom's honor. I know that Mom is loking forward to it, too.

I'll be back with updates (and hopefully pictures) tomorrow!

"America's Favorite Stain" Contest- PLEASE VOTE!

Tide detergent is teaming up with Citysearch to determine "America's Favorite Stains". You can vote The Flying Biscuit's tomato salsa from the "Meggxican Wrap" as your favorite stain in Atlanta! We're currently in 2nd place. Please click on the link below, then choose Atlanta from the map, and cast your vote.

http://www.tide.com/2xultratide/fun/index.jsp?sub=favstain

The Weekend Recap

Michael doesn't like when I write about things that we do together on my Blog. So if you're reading this Michael, I apologize! I think of my Blog as a diary-- I like to write about what I'm doing. It's fun to go back and read my old stuff and see where my head was! Just think how much fun it'll be in a few years to be able to go back and read about our first dates, etc!

So, with more apologies to Michael, I'll fill you in on what we did last weekend. The highlight was Mom's birthday dinner at Daily's. I've only been to Daily's once in my life prior to this weekend. It was about 4 years ago. Dolly was in town shopping for furniture and decorations for her new home. She rented a couple of rooms at the Ritz. Beverly and Dolly shared a room, and I had a room to myself down the hall. We had a great dinner in the hotel and then stayed up late drinking and talking in their room. In the morning, we got up early and went to the Merchandise Mart in hopes of watching Dolly shop. Unfortunately, we were there during the off season, and most of the stores were closed. Dolly contimplated buying an artistic pair of brass scales with cut glass diamonds in the trays. She "weighed" her decision, and decided not to buy the scales, or anything else that we looked at. Instead of marathon shopping spree, we left empty-handed and went out in search of food. We ended up at Daily's Cigar & Martini Bar. As far as I remember, we had sandwiches and basic bar food, and of course a few drinks!

Fast forward a few years and Michael and I started dating. It turns out that he works at Daily's. In my mind, I always pictured Daily's as a bar-- it turns out that there is an upstairs restaurant that I never knew about-- fine dining at it's finest! So, when Joel called and suggested taking Mom out to dinner for her birthday, I suggested Daily's. I wanted Michael to be with us, and he was scheduled to work. At least this way, we could all be together and Michael could sort of be with us, and he could finally meet Joel (and his boyfriend- also named Michael!).

Everything was incredible, and I can't think of anything that I would change about the night (besides having Michael be able to sit with us and enjoy a great dinner!). Mom was very happy with everything as well, especially the dessert plate that Michael brought out after supper. He even had "Happy 70th Birthday Harriet" written out in chocolate on her plate! (pictured posted below in a previous entry)

Sunday was meant to be a day of rest, so we didn't do too much! I went to the gym early in the morning. Then I picked up Michael and we went to my church. Afterwards we had a nice birthday brunch with our friends Rob and Anna at the Brake Pad (happy belated birthday, Rob!). Then we did a shopping spree at Camp Creek Marketplace-- we hit Old Navy, Famous Footwear, PetSmart, Publix, Lowe's, DSW, Carinos and Lenscrafters. We didn't buy much-- just a hanging basket, some groceries, shoes and chicken parmigiana! I had a good time shopping- it turns out that Michael is NOT a shopper and despises any time spent in stores. I guess I might be shopping alone in the future! I can't imagine being near Target or Old Navy and not going inside to check the clearance racks! He was a trooper though and put up with my every "let's go in here"! I did save him the ultimate shopping experience-- Pier One! I'll save that one for later!

All in all, it was a great weekend-- especially the relaxing night we had watching TV (have y'all seen that show "Moment of Truth"?), having deep talks over Italian cuisine in bed, falling asleep early in the arms of my boyfriend and saying several prayers of thanks for the life that I'm living. I never imagined that life could ever be this good.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Moms

Michael and I went to his church last Sunday. He belongs to a Baptist Church in Lithonia. I grew up in a Baptist church, but I probably haven't been to one of their services since I was a kid. I won't say that it was shocking-- it actually felt very familiar in a strange way. It was nice that we got to see Michael's Mom there and visit with her a little. It was also nice that the Pastor called me that night and thanked me for coming, and followed up with a letter later in the week. It was a very nice experience. I'm glad I went, and I'm sure that I'll visit again soon!

After church, Michael and I bought some BBQ sandwiches from Maddy's and took them over to my mother's house for lunch. This was the first time that Mom and Michael met, and it felt very natural and we had fun, although Mom was still recovering from her surgery. I'm sure she was putting on a brave face throughout the visit because she was in a lot of pain, but she was a trooper.

The pictures posted here are from the first time I met Michael's mother (repeat), and the first time that he met mine (new)!