Ten Good Things

It’s almost midnight on Friday night, and I have to be at work at 8:00 Saturday morning. But, by god, I’m going to sit here and write until I come up with Ten Good Things from the past week.

1. The crappy, icy, frosty weather broke, and we had some nice days. Nice enough for folks to sit out on the front sidewalk of the café eating ice cream. (You have to realize, though, that Oregonians break out the shorts and flip-flops whenever the sun comes out, actual air temperature notwithstanding. It got up to maybe 50 degrees—ice cream weather for any card-carrying Oregonian…)
2. Lovely weather precipitated lovely walk with dog out on the dike on Sunday. During which we had our first "Sam" sighting of 2007. ("Sam" is our resident eagle who calls our little stretch of Multnomah Channel "home.")
3. I ordered and received, within the space of less than a week, a new desk/hutch unit for my bedroom. The better to contain some of the nightmarish paper clutter that has taken over my life since we bought the café (which seems to manifest itself most outlandishly in the bedroom—the room in which I now spend at least 80% of the time I am at home.) It’s a neat unit, and I am pleased with it. All I have to do now is transfer the paper anarchy from the floor of the bedroom to some organized spaces in this desk-thingy…
4. Wi-fi was successfully re-installed at the café this afternoon. At least, I think it was. My recalcitrant beast of a laptop refuses to properly recognize the connection, but customers don’t seem to be similarly inhibited. So, that’s a good thing…isn’t it?
5. Ascertained that the sucky business at the café this week was traceable to the opening of a new (much anticipated) restaurant about 8 miles up the road. This happens every time a new eating establishment opens anywhere in the county. New place enjoys rip-roaring business while everybody and their pup goes out to see what it’s all about. And the rest of us feel the squeeze… Then, in a couple of weeks, things settle back into their  normal routine and the faithful come trooping back to their old haunts. Of which we (I hope) are one. At any rate, it was a relief to figure out that this was the reason for our recent lax sales. I had been trying to figure out if we had poisoned someone or something…
6. Crappy business at the café also afforded the opportunity to get a lot of extra cleaning done. The place is finally starting to look like something I can be proud to call mine…
7. I found my kitchen countertop! (at home…) It had been covered by five or six months’ worth of mail and "Papers That Need Attention." Now, it’s just…clean. I could actually cook in my kitchen., if I had the time or the inclination. Which I don’t. I have an entire restaurant in which to cook. And I make it a policy not to bring my work home with me…
8. Found a couple of dynamite sandwich recipes on the internet that I’m dying to try as specials at the café. And then there is the lemon sour cream cake…
9. Got caught up on ALL the bills today. Both the business and the personal. Of course, our bank balances are going to be a bit anemic in the next few weeks. But, hey…there will be a few nickels left rattling around in the bottom f the change jar…
10. MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER WEEK! A real ball-buster. (If I had balls. Or even estrogen…)

Funny story—I just woke up. Apparently, I felt the need to catch a few z’s between things eight and nine of my "Ten Good Things."