And the Universe showers her love on me...

Today was one of those days where I am gently reminded that passion is a magical thing... and I am full of magic.

We had FP last night (for those that don't know, I am involved in a Medieval club where we delve as deeply as we can into all things Medieval, including fighting... and sausages! We hold a weekly fighter practice at our home which has turned into a bit of a house party every Wed night) and I still managed to go to bed pretty early. We got up this morning and Stein met us at the house for our foray into the Weaver roasting facility in San Rafael.

We got there a little early and Michael (a business partner) was not quite there yet, so we chatted with John Weaver, who was the Master Roaster for Pete's coffee for many years before leaving to do his own thing at Wild Card. I'd brought in some of my salumi for them to try... it is pretty cool to see someone like John Weaver light up at the prospect of trying someone ELSE's hand crafted stuff.

We got to see how he roasts stuff and some of the antique equipment he has on hand... god the place smalls like heaven (if you like coffee)! Of course we spent a good hour there and talked for maybe 10 minutes about business (I am a sure thing, we want the coffee). The rest of the time we geeked out about food and coffee. They tried my salumi and... there is this thing people do when they are surprised by food. They want to be looking at you when they talk to you, but they can't stop looking at the salumi. When that happens... you have new true believers. For a master at his craft to like my stuff... well that was extremely cool.

Also, they are practically neighbors and really cool people I can totally see BBQing with. The hour went too quickly... I swear we could have stayed all day.

But we needed to go to the city to try and pick up my deep fryer. Brion cannot do the fire supression stuff without the exact specs for the hot equipment. So we headed into the Mission, stopping at at a Chicken and Waffles place near Japan Town that had a cheap and EXCELLENT buffet. They brought Sammy a cup of hot chocolate mounded high with whipped cream that was the size of his head!

I found a very nice deep fryer for $750.00, plus a K-class fire extinguisher. We hit the airport for Stein's very awsome wife on the way home and then grabbed Sparky's Burgers (the only ones I really like) and now I am home and a bit stressing out.

I am meeting Stan (my landlord), Dave (my contractor), the guys from the building Dept plus the engineer at the facility tomorrow to try and get things squared away. The Buidling Dept has been so arbitrary and difficult that I am really nervous about how it will go. I have everything they have requested from me, and I will submit it tomorrow. I also have everything for the Sanitation dept as well. I will pick up my divorce decree while I am down there meeting the guys so I can submit the rest of the stuff to ABC next week. I will drop off the stuff to Sanitation in the morning, them meet with the guys and drop all the stuff off to the Building Dept tomorrow.

Then I am out of town for the weekend! Next week, Stein and I are making sausages and salumi all week to prep for the cafe opening (all of the six week cure stuff), plus making the hot smoked stuff for T-Rex. I am also teaching the sausage class on Tuesday night at DVC (it is a part of the Garde Manger course)... which is also my birthday!!!! I may have a freind who is a chef coming by to help (he wants to learn about the process).

Oh crap, that means I need to put together my product list so I can order the stuff tomorrow. I better get on it!