We're sad to see him go...

Don Callender, the innovative powerhouse behind Marie Callender's restaurants, died this week. He was a ball of fire, and will be missed by those men and women who were trained by him to run some of the finest restaurants around. Did you know Claim Jumper, Mimi's and several others were started by people who learned the business from Don? And when we go to the yearly managers' conferences, there is always a group of GMs who get together to reminese about him. Most of them, like my husband, have worked for the company for close to 40 years, so they are full of crazy stories about this energetic, creative man.

I wonder what this year's conference will be like.

Here's an article about Don, from the OC Register.

Thanksgiving at Marie's

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of my last few days.

Shortening, pumpkin dry mix, pumpkin wet mix and stuffing mix. This stack is about 10 feet high. Eventually, the pumpkin mix will become 1500 pumpkin pies.

Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar.

Our wonderful cooks are geared up and ready to go. By the end of the evening, they would create & plate 102 ham dinners and 561 turkey dinners. They also prepared over 80 Feasts (complete dinners for 6-8 all packaged up and ready for the customer to reheat and serve). By the end of the night, they were pretty worn out, but they never ever stopped smiling. What a great crew!

This is a shot of the main server station, with the wait staff getting salads, cornbread and pie slices ready to serve, and the greet staff is putting together a few take-out dinners. And there's a busser running through with a tray of dirty plates. That room can get really small really fast with that many people millling around. I should stay out of there, but that's were all the fun is. I like the fun.

Our dine-in guests had to choose between pumpkin and apple pie. Meanwhile, the customers who came in to purchase whole pies had the entire pie menu from which to choose...35 varieties including 4 kinds of apple, 3 kinds of lemon, 4 different chocolates, and 6 cheesecakes. And banana. Oh my, yes.

Tina is carrying 4 slices of pie on her arm. How do they DO that?

Angel and Matt were still in the back of the house making more stuff. And smiling. Have I mentioned how great our staff is? I just love these guys!


A few extra pumpkin and apple pies for our dine-in guests. No one will leave hungry!

We don't use the salad bar on Thanksgiving, so I decorate it with lots of fall-ish things. So pretty. See the rooster in the front? He was a hit!

Here's Kevin running the dishwasher. He wore a smile all day. Except when he dropped an entire bus tray and busted a dozen plates. Right in front of the Big Boss. Yikes!

The salad station after about 20 minutes. Be very glad I didn't post a picture of the FLOOR!

I forgot to take a picture of the stack of $20 bills I got to take to the bank yesterday. It was purdy.


So that was my Thanksgiving. How about yours?

Guess who I ran into the other day...

Yeah, it was a brand-new Mercury Grand Marquis with less than 5,000 miles on it, driven by a 80 year-old-lady. Boy, did she yell at me...




...because obviously I did it on purpose.

It only makes sense...

Even the rich folks who ride around in limos enjoy a chili dog now and then...

Just in case

I heard you couldn't see the poster. Sorry.

As fair warning, the movie was Quarantine. Keep your $8.50.

Only twice in my life....

...have I walked out of a movie. This made the third time.

So awful I cannot think of enough adjectives.

I'm bad, I'm bad, you know it...

For the past month, I have been getting these phone calls from some 800 number. The read-out says unavailable, and as a policy, I don't answer phone calls that don't have any identification. That's the reason they invented the answering machine. So I hadn't been answering. But they call at least 5-7 times a day, at various times throughout the day and late into the evening. And even if the phone goes to voicemail, they don't leave a message. When I finally decided to answer so I could tell whoever it was to stop the stinkin' phone calls, they hung up as soon as I said hello. This has happened like 10 times. Anyway, they called again this morning at 8-are-you-kidding-me-AM, and per usual, hung up when I answered. Enough. So I called them back, and kept pressing zero until I got to an actual human. By then, I was so angry I had to do breathing exercises to keep from ripping into the poor guy. (inhale) He's just trying to earn a living. (exhale) It's not his fault his stupid company is harassing me. (Deep breath in...hold it....slowly out. OK.) Now...who are you? Why is your company calling me 5 times a day, not leaving a message or responding when I answer, and in the name of all that is holy, make it stop.

Turns out, one of my beloved brood is late on her department store bill, and would I, please-oh-please-oh-pretty-please go to my local store and pay them $30 before the 10th?

I told him I'd pass the information on to the kid, but that she is an adult, didn't live with me, recently moved and no, I do not have her new address or her work phone number. (I do, but heck if I was going to give it to him; I was still mad in spite of my excellent breathing) And I added that the phone calls were rude, intrusive and have become harassing. The calls would stop NOW. I took his name and operator number, and assured him if I got another call from them I would take action.

Between you and me, that action would probably be to disconnect the phone altogether and drive over it repeatedly with my car.

But don't tell him, OK? I think I've got him scared.

And I kind of like that.