The state of Being...

Things have been crazy hectic here, almost too much so to be able to write much (which kind of sucks for me because it helps me to get focused).

I have not been down to the shop recently because 1. I've been really busy and 2. After my landlady's last melt down I am kind of avoiding them in general.

For the busy... my newest restaurant client needs a bunch of Charcuterie and soon, so today Stein and I are breaking down two pig heads (for Testa) and 60 # (this is pounds in restaurant-speak) for pork and fat for Cappicolla, Finocciona and some other stuff. This is in addition to the much anticipated dinner party for Stephan this weekend. We will likely focus on Stephan's stuff today and hopefully get to the pig fat (so it can get frozen by Sunday)... and then work on the rest of the stuff on Sunday/Monday.

This means I will need to make arrangements for Stein and I to smoke the meats at school (the rental kitchen does not have a smoker) in a couple of weeks. We still have not cold smoked the Nduja we cased last week, plus we have a brisket for pastrami that will need to be hot smoked.

I talked to Stan finally yesterday (the landlady's son, and the property manager for the facility) and I hope that I calmed them down a bit. I had no idea they were so worked up about the build out until I talked to Kevi last week. I know it is really stressful, but Richlen is an excellent construction company and I wish they would give them the benefit of the doubt. OF course it looks chaotic when the walls are all open and the there are holes in the floors. But it will come together in the end.

I am more worried about their ability to get the ADA and earthquake retrofit done. The engineer they hired is a flake. I suspect he might be a scam artist. I feel really bad for Stan and Kevi that they gave this guy money and now he has point blank refused to give them the engineered drawings for the fixes. He's already stalled the project a month by flaking out on the drawings for the side wall... which when we finally got them they were like... hand drawn on a napkin and not even real structural drawings. And now... I suspect once they get the drawings they have at least 6 weeks of work to do, maybe more.

It is frustrating to not be in control of how quickly this stuff gets done. I am getting side business from restaurants and catering, and I think I will be ok through September... but after that I just don't know what I am going to do?