An Extra Shot.

Over the past weekend, Jeanne and I found ourselves at PJP Buttonwood at 3 am on both Saturday AND Sunday.  And by the time we straggled into the Starbucks yesterday morning all covered in corn syrup and flour and 2/3 of the way finished on a large wedding order, we looked as sufficiently tired and overwhelmed as we actually felt.  Upon seeing us, the kind staff at the Nifong Starbucks pulled out the cups for the trenta iced coffee without even asking and even threw in an extra shot for free to help power us through the last 1/3 of the baking schedule.  I actually cried at the kind gesture of an extra shot of caffeine...being overly tired makes for a roller coaster of emotions, no?

I received quite a few emails yesterday wishing Jeanne and I a Happy Mother's Day and asking us what we did to celebrate.  And basically, we celebrated by making 500 tarts together...the majority before the sun even rose yesterday morning.  But she is at the top of my list to share a 3 am baking session with, Mother's Day or not, so we were more fazed by doing back-to-back 3 am start times than it actually falling on a holiday.  Nothing about our journey together is terribly common, so it actually fitted us perfectly that we weren't having a champagne brunch together and instead were actually trying to bake, box, and deliver 500 tarts by noon.  (We did go home and shower after we delivered them and then reconvened with our families for a lovely late lunch that included a margarita the size of my head, lest you started to feel sorry for us.  We rallied, no worries.  AS WE ALWAYS DO.)

This morning we met up at PJP Buttonwood to clean the remnants of a busy day of Saturday sales, an afternoon baking party, and a marathon tart baking session.  Not long after we finished cleaning and sat down for our standing Monday meeting, the city health inspector showed up randomly for our health inspection.  Because Jeanne holds a PhD in commercial sink cleaning and floor scraping techniques, I would wager that we have one of the cleanest kitchens  (if not the most cleanest commercial kitchen) in Columbia.  And all that said, when I see the health inspector pull in the parking lot, I freeze up and begin a mild panic based solely on my worries that the city has implemented new regulations requiring two-ply paper towels on dispensers every four feet in the baking area and that the dispensers must dispense the towels from the top down or they don't count as being valid.  And that I never received the memo on that new regulation and therefore, we are given 9 critical demerits.  Anything is possible, really.

But as it turned out, we passed with zero issues as usual.  And then we had our regular Monday morning meeting to work on some big plans like we were some legit business professionals.  If legit business professionals were powered by extra shots in their coffee, that is...