Weird nature moment... This morning while I was standing and peeing off the edge of the back deck a humming bird flew up to, well, my penis, and watched me pee. It felt weird to be stared down by a humming bird. Any other body part and that would have been a beautiful nature moment. After a few second the bird flew off.

Well, she quit. Or we helped her quit. Or something like that. On Saturday I met with her. She brought along a list of things that would allow her to continue working at the store. We talked for a while more and agreed to meet again on Sunday.

I took the list back to RO. The list was not outlandish, but not pratical either. We are a small company with a small budget. We can't bend over backwards to accomodate a part time employee. At the end of the day RO is the store. He is the best designer. He is the boss. He can be a hard-ass, but that's because he's the one responsible for the sucess of the store.

RO and I decide we could not give her that much flexibility. We also heard that she told some other employees that she was going to quit.

On Sunday I met with her again. I told her our decision and that I heard she was considering quiting. I said I supported that decision.

She asked for a letter of reference. I will give her one.

The other day I helped a guy who ran out of gas. A run down Bronko was stalled on the off ramp by my place.

I pulled over and asked the guy if he needed help. The driver was a big black guy. Yes, "Am I going to get mugged" thoughts ran through my brain. He told me he ran out of gas. I offered to drive him to the closest gas station.

The trip was uneventful. His name was Zak. He's a student from western washington. He thanked me a lot and then we parted ways.

We are having our first HR issues at the store. One of the employees is very senstative and takes everything personally. RO on the other hand, needs to get things done and he can't always handle the employees with kid gloves.

This is frustrating for RO and I. We both like her. But, we can't always and constatnly praise and reaffirm her. Sometimes we need the employees to do their job, and to not break out in tears if we try to correct a mistakes. (A $500.00 check wasn't signed. Candles which leave oil and fragrance were set on and stained an expensive wool rug. Medium sized vase left in the middle of walk way, where RO tripped on it.) I think we are dealing with her professionally, but I don't know how soft we need to go.

It's getting to the point where RO is uncomfortable around her, beause he's afraid that he's going to say something that will set her off.

May is turning into a tight month for the store. We half expected that-- tax returns are just starting to get back to people.

There has also been some construction outside the store. They blocked the street off on Saturday. Fortunatly the construction company was nice enough to put up a large reader lighted sign saying we were open.

It was a mixed weekend at the store.

The Good... On Saturday our employees showed us that they know the store better than we do... I was trying to find the price for some untagged merchandise. I asked SB if she know the price. She said "No, but we could look it up in the computer." When I went over to one of the computers SB said "Race Ya!" Within two seconds she found the price. I was still looking for the "Find Product" button.

The Good II. During the week, LP set aside some jewlery for a customer. LP had Saturday off. On Saturday, RO and Boone we trying to find the merchandise and couldn't. The followed LP's directions, but couldn't find the bag. RO and Boone started arguing with each other over who had misplaced the jewlery. SB got tired of their bickering so she took LP's directions and found the jewlery no problem. She opened up the cabinet and pulled a bag. She turned to RO and said "Is this it?" RO said no, but it was similar to that. SB turned back to the cabinet and pulled out another bag. "Is this it?" This time it was.

The Bad. On Sunday the closed the street in front of the store for repaving. It killed the day. You could only get to the store by parking far away and then walking. So, we closed early.

b-anne came over for dinner last night. A couple weeks ago she visited India for a vacation. She brought photos of the trip.

The thing that struck me the most is how colourful India is-- People dress in bright saturated colours every day.

Recently Bush has called himself "the Decider" I find it kind of funny that "A Decider" is "a machine that always halts"

Tommy Boy came is in Seattle for work. Friday night and Saturday night RO and I had dinner with him. We had a great time. We spent way too much on food, but we still had a great time.

I'm going to write more about dinners and the small fortune we paid for them. That will be posted on Eats

It was interesting and awkward explaining Tommy to RO. I've known Tommy for years and have met him in person once. So, when I told RO about Tommy, his guard went up. RO wasn't sure he could trust me, or what my intentions were. Was I lying? Was I being honest? Fortunatly things worked out well. Tommy and RO hit it off. Now we are planning to spend next Mardi Gras in Louisiana with Tommy and M.

Last night we went to the Muckelshoot Casino. S goes there every year to comemorate her dad's death. Her dad used to gamble a lot at the Muckelshoot.

We had a good dinner. Afterwards RO played some blackjack and S played the slots. I guess S's dad was with us in spirit because they both won about $30.00

Last night we went to the Muckelshoot Casino. S goes there every year to comemorate her dad's death. Her dad used to gamble a lot at the Muckelshoot.

We had a good dinner. Afterwards RO played some blackjack and S played the slots. I guess S's dad was with us in spirit because they both won about $30.00

Last night we went to the Muckelshoot Casino. S goes there every year to comemorate her dad's death. Her dad used to gamble a lot at the Muckelshoot.

We had a good dinner. Afterwards RO played some blackjack and S played the slots. I guess S's dad was with us in spirit because they both won about $30.00

Last night we went to the Muckelshoot Casino. S goes there every year to comemorate her dad's death. Her dad used to gamble a lot at the Muckelshoot.

We had a good dinner. Afterwards RO played some blackjack and S played the slots. I guess S's dad was with us in spirit because they both won about $30.00

It's not that I want to remain anonymous. I know I don't have that. Google Analytics tells me where my visitors come from, down to about the zip code. From what I see, many of my friends drop in from time to time.

My problem is that search engines work. If say "Luscious Breasts", for the next week or so my hit count will double thanks to all the people looking for said body part.

One third of the people who find the store's website get their by searching for it. If I mention the store directly on this blog, then a good portion of those people will stumble upon this blog. And I'm not sure I want my customers reading my blog.

> It would be good to know about ths shop in case I'd ever stop off in Canada on my
> way to .... the North Pole.

Lol. The store is South of Seattle. There is a link to off to the right, under the Links section. I don't like calling it out to much from this blog since people googling for the store would end up here.

I talked to Ryan today. He's burnt out of his job making video games. He's quit and is going to do some soul searching. He's thought about becomming a bartender, a mechanic, contractor and many other things.

We took out an ad in a big local newspaper. We mulled over it for a long time. The annual contract with the newspaper is big bucks-- as big as a new car. Black and white ads once a month are like Kia's. Color ads every week are BMW's.

Well, the ad works. It came out today and today is very busy. We know it's working because several of the customers have mentioned it.

We still need more people. We have one new guy helping in the back room. For the most part he's working out well. With one catch-- he sometimes smells. RO is going to have a chat with him.

I've been catching up on the books. We have an automated payroll system that automatically writes cheques out to the employees. It adds a copy of my signature to each cheque. It's weird seeing my signature on dozens of cheques that I never wrote. If I died or went away, I would live on in computers.

Today is the first day in the past two weeks that I don't feel bloated. Yeah!

Spring has hit Seattle. The birds are birds everywhere. Every morning RO and I have breakfast outside. In the past few days the number of birds is noticably greater.

All week RO and I have been a bit under the weather. We feel bloated and gassy. Bleah.

RO and I spent a long weekend at the Chrysalis Inn & Spa. It was our first time off since New Years day.

It was very relaxing. We ate a lot, hiked the around the hills, ate some more, got massaged, drank and slept. An almost perfect weekend.

Almost perfect because Monday evening, we ate some bad raw oysters. Today RO and I are a bit under the weather. I just need to drink lots of water to flush it out of the system.